The EV Project has launched.  eTech will be installing 11,000 charging stations in Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington states.  The chargers will work with 4,700 Nissan LEAF vehicles to be sold in the test markets.  In Oregon, the program will be available in cities of Portland, Eugene, Corvalis and Salem (4 of the 11 cities overall).  The EV Project is scheduled to launch in summer 2010.  Find more information about the EV Project here.

If you are interested in applying to participate, you can sign up here.

Nissan Leaf and charging station (image from EV Project website)

I signed both the Cape Town Open Education Declaration and the Budapest Open Access Initiative.  I agree that educational institutions and individuals who are involved with educational institutions should work to make the materials they create as available as possible (and yes, I understand that includes me). I’ve spent the last 10 or so years watching as copyright got more restrictive and digital materials harder to access. I recognize that my position at a university affords me access to materials that many others do not have.  Not only is it crucial that we share our intellectual products (articles/journals/resource) but I  believe that open access educational resources and technologies improve our teaching, pedagogical methods and expand our conversations outside of traditional academia and the K-12 educational setting.

All pretty easy to say. Less easy to do, particularly in a culture that promotes ownership over shared resources.

Hello all and welcome to another episode of this column which has become quite infrequent. This in part due to a new assignment that I took up at work . The work is quite interesting. Will make a post on it quite soon.

One of the many events that happened this month was OReilly ETech conference. I am not a big fan of this event but this year had nice talks that might interest you.

Real hackers program DNA : While you were guessing about the  next avenue for hackers, here is   someone from MIT who is hacking into DNA!  Reshma Shetty has done a PhD on Biological Engineering from MIT and is now part of ginkgobiworks ,a  synthetic biology startup .

She is one of the speakers at the recent ETech conference. One of her interesting works was  tinkering into an E.coli bacteria  with genes from a petunia plant and made E.cloi ‘smell nice’.  For more on this and the field of  synthetic biology have a look at this interview .

New YouTube features: You Tube got an overhaul recently and with some new features to its armor.I could also see a lot of HD videos and it has become quite seamless  in switching to HD vides from the normal ones. The site also integrates Twitter functionality,that allows you to share the video link as a tweet.

Another upgrade is better mobile integration with the company  launching its official YouTube application
for Symbian and Windows Mobile.  I remember of a beast called Android. But I couldn’t find a version of the YouTube app  for this.. Surprising! as YouTube is from the Google stable.

Designing for Gestural UI: The mobile and PC UI design is getting ready for the next disruption – Touch   and Gestural UI. With the huge success of iPhone and its fabled multitouch,

‘Gestures’ have become the new areas of interest in the mobile application world with most users opting for ‘touch based UI’.

If you are into this domain and are working on designing of better usability for Gesture based UI ,then here are some suggestions from the  SXSW2009 interactive conference that happened recently. There was a  session on Gestural UI with examples from some cool apps on the iPhone.

Bruce Eckel on C++ and Java: The C++ 0x standard is coming up with new features (one of them is named as ‘futures and promises’ ) I don’t know where/how these functions might be used and how many are still using this language and these new features on a daily basis.  Here is a short comment by  Bruce Eckel’s on what languages like Java/C++ and brought in to the programming community.

For those who couldn’t/wouldn’t/shouldn’t go to Etech09, the proceedings have started to go online. Check ‘em out:
http://en.oreilly.com/et2009/public/schedule/proceedings

He pasado un par de semanas asistiendo a dos conferencias sobre comunicaciones y tecnologías emergentes que me han proporcionado material para estar publicado durante un buen tiempo sobre lo que allí pude ver y tratar. Fijándose en las principales tendencias, en lo más mencionado, hay un tema que ha aparecido con cierta frecuencia: el arte y el diseño como medio de marcar el camino hacia el desarrollo tecnológico.

La verdad es que no es algo nuevo, y se han podido rastrear precedentes de algunos dispositivos y tecnologías en la ficción, especialmente en la ciencia-ficción: como el móvil StarTAC de Motorola y su inspiración en Star Trek, o los motores de iones también de la misma fuente de inspiración.

La ficción como inspiración de la tecnología tiene una curiosa expresión en los interfaces inspirados en la película “Minority Report”: hay más referencias en Internet a gente tratando de generarlos que a la propia película. Otro curioso punto de fricción, muy borgiano, entre ficción y realidad son los manuales técnicos de dispositivos de Star Trek, publicados en forma de libros, o los vídeos que añaden elementos de ficción sobre imágenes reales (como las naves de Star Wars sobre San Francisco).

Lo que he podido ver estos días es que más allá del ciclo “ficción – ciencia ficción – diseño – realidad” que se realimenta continuamente, hay acciones encaminadas a introducir el arte y la expresión artística en el diseño conceptual tecnológico. A fin de cuentas, una de las funciones de la ficción como arte es mostrar en un contexto pretendidamente real objetos que aún no existen lo que permite valorar su potencial aplicación, y su necesidad.

Introducir personas de un perfil más artístico para que jueguen con la tecnología y que así busquen nuevos usos o los imaginen, puede ser  una fuente de inspiración para quien se dedica a crear dispositivos y técnologías.

En ETech pudimos ver, por ejemplo, a Aaron Koblin del “Google Creative Lab” que está detrás de proyectos que van de lo curioso (obtener miles de dibujos de ovejas o regenerar con dos mil personas la primera canción hecha con síntesis de voz) a lo inspirador, como es el uso de un llamado “scaner de realidad” para dar imagen a un video de Radiohead, o la visualización de vuelos:

El “scanner de realidad” es un producto desarrollado por Velodyne para ayudar a la conducción vehículos autónoma de vehículos que ha acabado teniendo usos bien diferentes en manos de diseñadores y artistas:

Scaneado en la realidad: tomando una foto junto al pasillo tercera fila del lado izquierdo

En este sentido, ver diseños como los de los vehículos futuristas de Daniel Simon (en el entretenido “Dark Roasted Blend“) para su libro “Cosmic Motors” es sin duda una fuente de inspiración.

Diseño de moto por Daniel Simon

Usando una técnica que combina fotografía, dibujo e imágenes generadas por ordenador, produce imágenes espectaculares y evocadoras, capaces de despertar la imaginación, y de inspirar:

Diseño de coche de Daniel Simon

Claro que otra forma aún más inspiradora de imaginar el futuro es creándolo, bien en la ficción (como lo ya mencionado de “Minority Report”) bien en la realidad, construyendo un objeto real y funcional que permita valorar su función, utilidad y necesidad, y al mismo tiempo servir de estímulo y sugestión. No se me ocurre mejor ejemplo que lo que se ha descrito como “el mayor avance en el mundo del automóvil de los últimos 50 años”, el space frame, la piel como carrocería de BMW:

Hay mucho que hablar sobre este tema, y espero poder volver sobre él para poder contar algo más, especialmente sobre lo que vi en el pasado ETech, y en particular el papel del diseño en la anticipación de la realidad.

Did you hear the one about the coder who was stuck in the shower? This joke killed them at ETech. This year I was honored to be invited as a guest speaker to present a sneak peak of Social Animal’s 360 degree interactive music video at the ETech emerging arts showcase, a platform for artists to present their vision of the intersection of art and technology at ETech 2009.

ETech is the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, O’Reilly Media’s flagship “O’Reilly Radar” event. It is a technologist’s R&D lab, workbench, and playground, specifically designed as a conference to expose new ideas and to learn from the people behind them. ETech is the only place for first access to the innovations and disruptions that are changing the way we live and do business – access people need to stay ahead of the curve in their respective workplaces. This year’s theme at ETech focused on how the way we live is changing — through policy, technology and ideas.

ETech is better experienced than described but I was pleased to be able to spend time with other artists who employ a technology approach like Aaron Koblin, who talked about making art with lasers (I drove up with said laser in our backseat), Alex Bisceglie and his partner in innovation Nick Spears, with whom I’ve been cooking up a collaboration involving video to be displayed in his wonderful spherical display, The Orb, and the guys from Uncommon Projects. Also really enjoyed talking with Nick Bilton from New York Times R&D, who convinced me that my quaint love of paper may not influence the company’s delivery method moving forward.

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories spotted one of the first images of the Arduino MEGA. The board is based on the ATmega1280 microcontroller, which has 128KB of flash,4KB of RAM, and 4KB of EEPROM. We haven’t seen any official specs yet, but the silkscreen shows 12 PWM connections, 36 Digital I/O, and 16 analog inputs. The post mentions 4 hardware UARTs and an I2C bus as well. No release date yet, but we can assume it’s soon since the hardware was already demoed at ETech.

Related: We added an Arduino category.

- hitesh and friend were in mumbai at the time of the attacks

- started facebook: “ending terrorism with non-violence”

- started wondering bout how to empower all these groups

- talked w/ 20+ groups

- how can these groups help each other?

- how can they form one achievable goal?

- what is available now in terms of tech?

– digg-style lists

– obama’s campaign methods

— this is actually hitesh’s inspiration.  They talked with Chris Hughes.  the common goal was to get obama elected, but they used various different methods.

–

- “causes” app on facebook focuses on generating money and members, but Hitesh’s goal is different: how to opensource the social movement

- can you think of a person who emerged frim the noise w/o having a pre-existing political presence? (Christine)

– generating “cult of personality around a change-maker”

– do online tools accelerate or are they the genesis?

Tom Igoe and Brian Jepson ran a great RFID workshop at ETech 2009.

As the description on the page says:

Ever wanted to get a real understanding of how RFID works? In this workshop, you’ll learn about the different classes of RFID devices. We’ll discuss what RFID can and can’t do, what devices are already on the market, and what kinds of future applications are possible. Then, using your own RFID reader and an Arduino microcontroller, you’ll learn how to move data from the tag to the screen to the database. You’ll learn how to read to and write from tags, and how creative thinking about RFID reader antennas can lead to all new devices.

And that’s exactly what we did.

The first task was to assemble the RFID read/write module and antenna on the breadboard.

With this circuit connected to the computer via a USB cable, it was possible to read a MIFARE RFID tag.

The next step was to write to the tag, and read the information back.

The next (slightly more tricky) task was to use a Mini Arduino board to host a small application that could read the RFID tag. The point of this is that the circuit then becomes independent from the computer; you can make a self-contained box that can read tags.

I chose the lazy method of just moving a few wires, while leaving the bulk of the circuit where it was, and adding the Arduino board below the RFID module.

Uploading the application to the Arduino was fairly simple. The GUI app running on the laptop (in Processing) simply takes the tag id, and looks it up in the ETech profile database. (The tag was associated with my profile during  conference registration.)

(I’m skipping over the problem caused by the fact that I hadn’t uploaded a photo to my profile page, and the GUI app didn’t handle this. A quick commenting-out of the relevant code fixed the problem.)

And here it is. The Arduino board is running an app that grabs the tag id. This is passed to the GUI app that then looks up the associated ETech profile and displays it.

This was a good fun workshop which served as a great introduction to both RFID and Arduino.

The code and circuits for this project are available at Tom’s site.

More on the same tutorial from The Daily ACK.

Pulsar 200cc DTS Hadir Full Sporty
Minggu, 17 Februari 2008
Melanjutkan kesuksesan produk Pulsar 180 DTS-i, PT. Bajaj Auto Indonesia meluncurkan produk terbarunya yaitu Pulsar 200 cc DTS-i ke pasar Indonesia pada hari ini. Produk anyar ini telah dilengkapi dengan teknologi , tampilan, dan gaya terbaru untuk memenuhi kebutuhan para pengguna sepeda motor yang jumlahnya semakin hari semakin meningkat.

Lihat Video Iklannya berikut http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzu45HbtWUM

Pulsar DTS-i 200 cc, memiliki banyak keunggulan. Produk ini telah dilengkapi dengan sebuah pendingin oli (Oil cooler) yang berfungsi mengontrol temperatur oli mesin pada saat mesin dipacu dengan kecepatan dan rpm (putaran per menit) tinggi untuk waktu yang lama, sehingga dapat memastikan tingkat kekentalan oli mesin yang lebih stabil. Mesin Pulsar DTS-i 200 cc mampu menghasilkan tenaga maksimum 18 (Ps) sehingga dapat memenuhi harapan para pencinta sepeda motor sport yang mendambakan performa prima sebuah sepeda motor 200cc.

Pulsar DTS-i 200 cc ini adalah sepeda motor pertama di Indonesia yang dilengkapi dengan ban tanpa ban dalam (tubeless) untuk ban depan dan belakangnya. Ban tubeless tersebut mampu memberikan stabilitas serta keamanan yang jauh lebih prima bila dibandingkan dengan jenis ban biasa. Ban belakang PULSAR DTS-i 200 cc adalah yang paling lebar di kelasnya sehingga menghasilkan cengkeraman yang lebih kuat di jalan serta memberikan kestabilan yang lebih mantap.

Panel digital pada Pulsar DTS-i 200 cc merupakan panel versi terbaru dibandingkan dengan panel digital pada Pulsar sebelumnya. Selain dilengkapi dengan Odometer digital,Speedo Meter digital http://saft7.com/?p=270, Pengukur Bahan Bakar digital, serta dua Trip Meter digital, panel pada PULSAR DTS-i 200 cc juga memiliki indikator-indikator kondisi saringan udara, temperatur mesin, tingkat voltage (tegangan) aki dan tinggi permukaan oli, yang kesemuanya berkontribusi pada informasi bagi pengendara agar dapat memacu sepeda motornya dengan aman, sehingga kenyamanan berkendara bukan lagi hal yang sangat langka untuk didapatkan. Keunggulan lainnya adalah bahwa Pulsar DTS-i 200 cc ini dilengkapi dengan jok yang terpisah antara pengendara dan penumpang, membuat nampak lebih gaya dan nyaman.

“Peluncuran Pulsar 200cc DTS-i sejalan dengan strategi utama kami untuk membangun image (citra) Bajaj di Indonesia dan menjadikan Pulsar sebagai flagship dengan membawanya ke level yang lebih tinggi. Keseluruhan fokus dan usaha kami adalah untuk memberikan teknologi terkini dan performa sepeda motor yang maksimal bagi pengguna sepeda motor di Indonesia. ” ucap Mr. K.S. Grihapathy, President Director dari PT. Bajaj Auto Indonesia, sehubungan dengan peluncuran Pulsar 200 DTS-i di Jakarta.

Dia menambahkan, “Pengguna sepeda motor di Indonesia telah menerima Pulsar 180 cc dengan sangat baik sehingga tercapai penjualan 800 unit per bulan. Tentunya peluncuran Pulsar 200cc DTS-i ini akan memperkuat market share produk kami di segment Sport Motor Cycle (SMC) yang sedang berkembang. ”

Bajaj Pulsar 200 cc DTS-i tersedia di seluruh dealer resmi Bajaj di Indonesia dengan empat (4) warna pilihan, Ebony Black, Wine Red, Long Beach Blue dan Titanium Silver. Harga On The Road (OTR) adalah Rp. 20,000,000. Bajaj Auto akan memberikan jaminan 3 tahun / 30.000 km (untuk mesin) bagi kepuasan pengguna Pulsar.

Untuk mendukung penjualannya, Bajaj Auto telah membangun 40 exclusive showrooms di 23 kota di Sumatera, Jawa, Bali dan Sulawesi.

Tentang Pulsar 200 DTS-i Tampilan Bajaj PULSAR DTS-i 200 cc yang lebih sporty dengan casis yang lebih besar telah ditopang oleh beberapa fitur yang memiliki teknologi mutakhir sebagai berikut:

• Lampu Utama (Headlamp) yang lebih rendah dan dilengkapi dengan bagian belakang yang lebih tinggi, telah memberikan kesan yang sangar.
• Sebuah peredam bunyi (silencer) yang terbuat dari bahan baja anti karat yang melekat pada knalpot yang terbuat dari bahan alumunium memberikan kesan sporty sejati dan keabadian.
• Garpu suspensi depan lebih besar dengan panjang 130 mm, memberikan kesan kekar dan macho yang mampu mengatasi kondisi jalan yang ekstrim serta membantu memberikan efek pengereman yang mantap.
• Cakram depan besar yang berdiameter 260 mm mampu memberikan tenaga pengereman yang besar dan mantap.
• Dengan teknologi pengalihan otomatis (Auto Switchover) yang unik dan akan bekerja bilamana salah satu dari dua lampu pijar (filament) dari Lampu Utama (Headlamp) tidak berfungsi.
• Fitur teknologi untuk menghemat daya aki akan memastikan terjadinya penundaan untuk beberapa saat apabila setelah dihidupkan sebanyak 3 kali berturut-turut namun sepeda motor masih juga belum hidup.
• Bola lampu berwarna kebiruan digunakan untuk lampu utama dan lampu-lampu parkir / senja. Bola lampu tersebut mampu memancarkan cahaya putih yang kuat sehingga memberikan kesan dan tampilan yang berbeda.
• Saklar-saklar pada setang kemudi yang halus dan menyala apabila lampu utama dinyalakan.
• Sama halnya teknologi pada mobil, Indikator lampu sein akan mati dengan sendirinya dengan tiga kondisi :
o Setelah berbelok dan posisi stang lurus kembali
o Apabila berbelok berlawanan arah dari sebelumnya
o Apabila tidak jadi berbelok
• Perpindahan gigi yang halus, lancar, ringan dan bebas selip dengan rangkaian tuas pemindah gigi model baru.

Rahasia Nggak Mbrebet, Bedah Teknologi Exhaust Tech Bajaj Pulsar 180CC

November 14, 2007 @ 8:44 am · Filed under Sport
Published in : Bajaj Pulsar, Exhaust TEch

Nerima telpon saat berkendara atau sekedar menghisap rokok yang biasa dilakukan tangan kiri, emang hal yang biasa untuk kalangan pengedara motor. Kadang membuat pengendara tak pedulikan peranan fungsional tuas kopling, kan tuas di kiri sedang tangan kiri tadi pegang telpon atau rokok.

Dengan begitu, saat kecepatan motor dan putaran mesin turun. Posisi gigi jadi tak seimbang dengan kecepatan motor. Artinya posisi gigi porsneling masuk 4 dan kecepatan tutun menunjuk 10km/jam. Dalam kondisi seperti ini, acap nimbulkan detonasi dan suara asing dan caller, khususnya motor laki atau sport.

Itu sama halnya dengan saat melakukan pengereman mendadak pas bereda di top speed. Pengendara mesti menurunkan gigi porsneling higga gigi 1. Kalau tidak dan tetap membiarkan posisi porsneling, bukaan gas yang tak seimbang dengan posisi gigi porsneling, asap membuat mesin motor mati.

Dari fenomena inim produk Bajaj Pulsar menambahkan fitur tambahan yakni Exhaust Tech (ET). Berupa box dan pipa terusan dari leher knalpot. ET ini berfungsi mempertahan kan torsi motor agar tetap stabil, di saat mesin motor mengalamami perbadingan yang tar wajar antara putaran mesin dan posisi gigi porsneling.

“Dengan ET, tenaga jadi bisa dipertahankan memiliki torsi meski berada di rpm rendah, ” terang Kukuhlid Hertiko area service manager Bajaj di kawasan HR. Muhamad, Surabaya.

Mekanismenya, saat di atas 3000 rpm – 4000 rpm gas buang sebagian tersuplai ke box ET. Tapi kalau di atas 4000 rpm, gas buang langsung terbuang ke catalytic converter terus ke sekat sarangan, dan menuju udara bebas.

“Sebaliknya, saat di putaran rendah di 100 rpm, terjadi perbedaan tekanan dalam knalpot. Tekanan gas buang yang keluar dan exhaust menifold lebih rendah, dibanding tekanan gas buang yang keluar dari box ET.

Dengan begitu gas buang yang keluar dari mesin, akan terhandang dan kembali lagi ke lubang buang pada silinder head. Dan sebagian tertahan di leher knalpot. Sedang gas buang yang sempat ngendon di box ET, langsung keluar menuju catalytic converter dan sekat serangan, ” beber Kukuh.

Selalu terjaganya torsi mesin, tenaga mesin dikail kian besar meski di rpm rendah. Dan tenaga mesin masih mampu mentransfer putaran as kruk, pinion shaft dan counter shaft pada perbandigan porsneling berat, macem sdi gigi 3,4 atau 5.

Kukuh juga menambahkan, selain imbas ET, hal itu juga berkat pemakaian teknologi TRICS, yaitu Throttle Response Ignition Control System. Jadi bukan derajat throttle (model butterfly) pada karbu dilengkapi magnetic sensor. Dari sensor itu, sinyal dikirim ke perangkat pengapaian untuk mengalur Na-Voor timing pengapaian sesuai dengan bukaan throttle.

Bajaj Pulsar Sparepart Replacement
Informasi dari (Kompas) tentang sparepart pengganti untuk Bajaj Pulsar, benar atau tidak saya mohon sharingnya di comment article ini.

Beli motor Bajaj Pulsar, baik tipe 180 DTSi maupun 200 DTSi, enggak usah pusing mikirin suku cadang (spare part). Dari bentuknya yang mirip model sport dari Honda, ternyata beberapa komponen bisa dipakai. “Memang, beberapa bagian sudah dicoba di Pulsar dan cocok. Bahkan ada yang memberi efek positif karena performa motor malah menjadi baik,” bilang Amurullah, Supervisor Teknik Fontana Perkasa Motor, dealer Bajaj di Jakarta Barat.

Malah di luar komponen Honda, ada juga dari merek lain bisa diaplikasikan. Inilah komponen tersebut.

Kampas rem belakang
Kalau sudah habis dan suku cadang asli belum tersedia, bisa dijejali punya Honda Vario.

Gir set
Bisa pakai Honda GL Pro buat jaga-jaga kalau stok Pulsar kosong. Tidak punya pengaruh apa-apa.

Seal master rem
Seandainya ada masalah pada master rem, terutama menyangkut sealnya, bisa dipakai di luar produk Honda, yakni Yamaha Force 1. Bentuk dan desainnya setali tiga uang.

Karburator
Komponen ini sangat memengaruhi performa. Para komunitas Pulsarian sudah meraciknya, “Tarikan lebih sip. Mungkin karena ukuran karburatornya juga lebih besar,” papar dr Ahwan, pengguna Pulsar di Lubang Buaya, Jakarta Timur.
Caranya, cukup mengganti main-jet dengan punya Yamaha Scorpio. “Kita yang sudah pakai tarikan lebih berisi,” tegas Amri lagi.

Pelat dan per kopling
Selain jeroan karburator, dari Yamaha Scorpio bisa diaplikasi pelat kopling. terbukti, seperti diakui Amri, akselerasi jauh lebih bagus setelah mengganti punya Scorpio. Hanya, disarankan ketika penggantian pelat kopling juga dibarengi dengan per. Untuk komponen satu ini, ia menganjurkan punya Suzuki Satria F-150.

Batang pengungkit As Stut
Menghindari dari tangan cepat pegal menahan tuas kopling saat kemacetan, ada baiknya coba ganti batang pengungkit as stut kopling dengan punya Yamaha Force 1. Dijamin jemari tangan bakal lebih nyaman

Tags: bajaj pulsar, Motorcycles and Bike

I wanted to highlight another, more educational, cloud application and this program happened to fill a need. I use Adobe Pro at work; I use it to produce pdf documents but I also actively use the highlighting and commenting features that come with that program. I find that if I can use those functions I’m perfectly happy to read large numbers of pdf articles on the screen rather than in print. Unfortunately, I don’t have Adobe Pro at home (300 USD for the basic version!) so I’ve been scrolling the net for an alternative. I’ve found one, Nitro, which isn’t too exorbitant ($99) but it’s PC only, and I want something that I can use either on my Mac laptop or my PC desktop.

A.nnotate, another possibility, is a good alternative – if pricey @ 10USD a month. It allows for collaboration (anyone can collaborate at no extra cost), stores documents and works with most document types as well as images and web pages. How long it will last, how many users there is the question. It’s also very insular – no ability to share the document with the larger community like diigo does – a site I really like, which, once integrated into your browser, allows you to see other diigo users comments on websites.

Below is a jing video capture of A.nnotate. Not sure it was entirely necessarily, but I was having fun with Jing. You’ll notice that I have a complete brain fart about 3/4s of the way through where I basically just wave the mouse cursor around.

A.nnotate via Jing

I tried, for quite awhile to embed the video, but finally discovered that this involved re-shooting the Jing video so that I could size it appropriately and I wasn’t prepared to do that, despite the brain fart mentioned above. Learning what the problem was involved learning a fair amount about changing embed code and ftping, how to embed Jing on an EduBlog and a cool Jing video resizing tool (too late for me since I didn’t save my Jing video locally).

The adage the more you learn the less you know is perfect description for where I’m at with my understanding of cloud computing and its implications – I’m now somewhat familiar with the concept of cloud computing, have a broad sense of what the implications are, and still feel like I’m missing the point (or the boat). Or more accurately, considering Winnipeg weather this past week (freezing rain) feel like I’m about to slip and fall flat on my face.

To a certain extent, cloud computing demands a paradigm shift – not with the idea per se, but with the way we currently use our computers. We’re used to locating our data and our programs in one space – they are a fixed point and our data stays were it is place. I suspect that most users struggle with placing their trust in programs that will store their data ‘out there.’ What the research is saying about new users might indicate that the paradigm shift is happening with the upcoming generation; as times get tighter, it’ll be interesting to see if this shift happens with the older generations as well. Social networking sites like FaceBook also begin to introduce my generation to a different way of computing and interacting that they potentially will want to see extended to their daily work lives as well.

In a recent article I read this quote stood out.

Cloud computing is”as important as the Web was 15 years ago,” said Nelson, speaking at a Google forum on the policy implications of hosted applications and services. “We don’t have any idea of how important it is, and we don’t really have any clue as to how it’s going to be used.” (via)

I have no idea who Nelson is, or how reputable he is, but I suspect he’s right, that cloud computing is “as important as the Web was 15 years ago. Its potential importance is indicated by the avalanche of materials available on the web and how quickly web-based, platform ‘blind’ programs are spreading.

But at this point in time, most workplaces – particularly government and educationsal institutions – still provide and use desktop software. My institution provides an OS (Microsoft XP), Microsoft Office 2007, a calendaring system, data analysis software, Adobe Pro (for a smallish extra price) and so on. Why would anyone want more – when they are at work? The need for something different arises when the need the same tools at home or on the road (although sans the cloud the iPhone or Blackberry or other such portable devices might be some kind of solution). When they start to switch I think we’ll see a sea change.

New technology also takes time and usually has a fairly steep learning curve. I’m naturally curious and tend towards the tech obsessed, so I’ve definitely explored more programs online then most of my colleagues. But if I hadn’t take the Emerging Tech course I doubt I’d be using any of the programs that I’m now actively trying to figure out how to integrate into my department. The advantage right now is that most of the programs are free or free-ish and allow me and my department to explore with minimal cost or risk. This, I suspect, will change quickly. So, when will we reach the point that a typical user takes cloud computing as the norm? And will the cloud become just another monolith like Microsoft or Apple? Will a company like Google be everything to everyone?

The two key concerns that I hear from my colleagues when I describe cloud computing are ownership and security. This is supported by a new-ish Pew Internet Study (see p. ?). They want to know who controls the data, and who has access to it. That lack of ownership is already a concern with sites like Flikr (see #8), Facebook and other social sites, and that insecurity will only increase. Not to mention the implications of larger organizations like the government adopting cloud computing .

I’m pretty comfortable with my lack of ownership over data, but that comfort doesn’t carry to all sites. Blist is a great list keeping site, that’s ‘free’ and easy to use, but I would hesitate before putting certain data. I’d be comfortable using it for listing the wines I like, or the books I want to buy or details on a party I’m planning, but not a list of student’s who had submitted online requests. I’d need ensure that if I put student data (i.e., a list of student’s who used our online service) that it would be secure.

Cost will enter in pretty soon. As this article in the Wall Street Journal points out, the venture capital monies are drying up, and the current model, as used by Google and others, will have to change. Most of the programs I’ve been looking at for this series of blog posts have some cost associated with them. Programs like Blist, Box.net, A.nnotate, and Base Camp have a base level access but if a user wishes to use them as one of the daily productivity tools then payment will be necessary. It will be interesting to see if suites like Google Docs or Zoho become first choice platforms.

Support is another issue. A classmate raised this issue in conversation with another student about cloud computing. Currently we work for organizations that make all large computing decisions and provided support in-house. If there is a move to the cloud will support be needed? And if it is who will provided it?

There’s also the question of which cloud? I don’t quite understand how it all works, but it does sound like there will be multiple clouds, much in the same way there are multiple OSs. Do developers use IBM’s HiPODS or Adobe’s Air or Google’s Gears or Zoho’s SQL or Amazon’s EC2? Will these platforms increase innovation as IBM says it will, or limit it in the same way that Mac vs. Windows vs. Linux does now? Will these platforms continue to increase innovation as IBM says, or will they eventually compartmentalize it?

What does cloud computing mean for other, particularly non-western countries? More a boon then a curse?

How will netbooks change things?

And, what does it mean that the ‘clouds’ are either in the US or pushed by US companies (Amazon, Joyent, IBM, Adobe)?

Aquí tenemos una de las presentaciones más comentadas del ETECH 2007, organizado por O’Reilly:

Su autora, Quinn Norton, es una colaboradora de la revista Wired. El mensaje de Body Hacking no es la mejora ni la modificación del aspecto físico (sería “body tunning”, si es que ese término existe). Es en realidad la mejora de la “funcionalidad” (como por ejemplo, el añadir un sentido extra “magnético” a los dedos).
En la presentación hay referencias a la automejora, incluida en medicina, lo que estaría relacionado con conceptos aparentemente extravagantes pero bastante más cercanos de lo que suponemos como es el “P2P de esas cosas”, es decir la transferencia de diseños físicos que luego cada persona puede imprimir en su casa.

Por extraño que pueda parecer, es creíble como signo de los tiempos: si va a existir la posibilidad de cambiar -mejorar- una funcionalidad del cuerpo se hará, de la misma forma que se hace con el aspecto, aunque sea de formas tan disparatadas como las que muestra en la presentación. Es otro signo de la tendencia hacia la “personalización” y la diferenciación pero llevada hacia campos donde no nos lo esperábamos. Obviamente, el formato que ha usado busca causar una respuesta, aunque sea de rechazo, por eso no escatima el “gore”.

Según la descripción de la presentación en la web del evento:

Technology that was the traditional purview of the medical establishment is migrating into the hands of body hackers, and the medical establishment itself is finding ways to enhance humans, not just cure disease, and faces a new dilemma about whether and who should be enhanced. All of these advancements come with health dangers and unanticipated possibilities, as well as an ethical debate about what it means to be human.

This talk will touch on the latest medical advances in neurological understanding and interface as well as physical enhancements in sports and prosthetics. But more time will be given to how the body hackers and renegades of the world are likely to go forward with or without societal permission. Journalist Quinn Norton will touch on sensory extension, home surgery, medical tourism, nervous system interfaces, and controlling parts of our bodies and minds once thought to be nature’s fate for us.

Podemos empezar a vislumbrar un momento en el que atletas con prótesis sean capaces de competir en igualdad de condiciones. ¿Cuál será entonces la reacción del público y de los deportistas? Si una prótesis mejora mi velocidad punta o la fuerza de un lanzamiento ¿podré usarla o será una nueva forma de dopaje?

Eso es lo que se presenta en la estupenda de galería de imágenes de “Body Parts, New and Improved“[registro] de Technology Review:

Otro día hablaremos del brain fitness tal y como se presentó hace ya un año en el ETech.