Netizen

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Seven Screens

Movie screen. TV screen. Desktop screen. Laptop screen. Tablet screen. Smartphone screen. Wristwatch screen.

Post PC Or PC Plus

Screen size is the primary way to classify, really. Each screen could come with a keyboard. A virtual keyboard is as good as a physical one. And there is no limit to how much intelligence you can add to any particular screen. (Supercomputing + Neuroscience + Nanotechnology, Adding Intelligence To The Biggest Screen: TV)

Imagine a scenario where there is ubiquitous, wireless, global one gigabit per second broadband. We as humanity basically live in this sea called the Internet. That is the first country anyone belongs to. (Tim Berners-Lee: The Internet Is Not A Country)

In such a reality the browser is your interface on all screens. And it likely would be build for one, build for all. This is post HTML5 reality you are talking about. (HTML 5 And The Small Screen)

Image representing Microsoft as depicted in Cr...

Image via CrunchBase

Winrumors: Microsoft slams post-PC idea, claims “PC isn’t even middle aged yet”: even their most ardent admirers will not assert that they are as good as PCs at the first two verbs, create and collaborate. And that’s why one should take any reports of the death of the PC with a rather large grain of salt. Because creating and collaborating are two of the most basic human drives, and are central to the idea of the PC. They move our culture, economy and world forward. You see their fingerprints in every laboratory, startup, classroom, and community.

I am in agreement with Microsoft on this one. But let me clarify. A laptop is PC. The Macbook Air is PC. The Chromebook is PC.

In my case instead of me migrating my computing to the smartphone I have migrated most of my phone calls to the free Google/Gmail/Google Voice phone on my laptop. If you have been getting many text messages from me and have been impressed with how fast I can type on the small screen, be warned. I am not typing on a small screen. I am typing on a proper keyboard on my big laptop. I am sending text messages to people from my laptop. Thank you Google Voice.

Being on the move is important. But if you already know you are going to be online for so many hours per day, there the laptop rules. The laptop is mobile.

Steve Jobs' home office features a huge screen desktop. That dude be driving a 18 wheeler.

The smartphone is a great addition to the family and is on its way to becoming the center of the known universe, and for good reason.

Supercomputing + Neuroscience + Nanotechnology

This thing is looking to be pretty badass.

VentureBeat: IBM produces first working chips modeled on the human brain: so-called cognitive computing chips could one day simulate and emulate the brain’s ability to sense, perceive, interact and recognize ..... Dharmendra Modha .... is the principal investigator of the DARPA project, called Synapse (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics, or SyNAPSE). He is also a researcher at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif. ...... “This is the seed for a new generation of computers, using a combination of supercomputing, neuroscience, and nanotechnology,” Modha said in an interview with VentureBeat. ”The computers we have today are more like calculators. We want to make something like the brain. It is a sharp departure from the past.” ...... the project could turn computing on its head, overturning the conventional style of computing that has ruled since the dawn of the information age and replacing it with something that is much more like a thinking artificial brain. The eventual applications could have a huge impact on business, science and government. The idea is to create computers that are better at handling real-world sensory problems than today’s computers can. ...... It has “neurons,” or digital processors that compute information. It has “synapses” which are the foundation of learning and memory. And it has “axons,” or data pathways that connect the tissue of the computer. ....... In von Neumann machines, memory and processor are separated and linked via a data pathway known as a bus. ....... With the human brain, the memory is located with the processor ...... The brain-like processors with integrated memory don’t operate fast at all, sending data at a mere 10 hertz, or far slower than the 5 gigahertz computer processors of today. But the human brain does an awful lot of work in parallel, sending signals out in all directions and getting the brain’s neurons to work simultaneously. Because the brain has more than 10 billion neuron and 10 trillion connections (synapses) between those neurons, that amounts to an enormous amount of computing power. ......... “We are now doing a new architecture,” Modha said. “It departs from von Neumann in variety of ways.” ...... Modha said that this new kind of computing will likely complement, rather than replace, von Neumann machines, which have become good at solving problems involving math, serial processing, and business computations. The disadvantage is that those machines aren’t scaling up to handle big problems well any more. They are using too much power and are harder to program. ........ These new chips won’t be programmed in the traditional way. Cognitive computers are expected to learn through experiences, find correlations, create hypotheses, remember, and learn from the outcomes. They mimic the brain’s “structural and synaptic plasticity.” The processing is distributed and parallel, not centralized and serial. ....... can mimic the event-driven brain, which wakes up to perform a task. ...... The goal is to create a computer that not only analyzes complex information from multiple senses at once, but also dynamically rewires itself as it interacts with the environment, learning from what happens around it. ...... neurobiology ...... IBM wants to build a computer with 10 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses ...... will consume one kilowatt of power and will occupy less than two liters of volume ..... a cognitive computer could monitor the world’s water supply via a network of sensors and tiny motors that constantly record and report data such as temperature, pressure, wave height, acoustics, and ocean tide. It could then issue tsunami warnings in case of an earthquake. Or, a grocer stocking shelves could use an instrumented glove that monitors sights, smells, texture and temperature to flag contaminated produce. Or a computer could absorb data and flag unsafe intersections that are prone to traffic accidents. Those tasks are too hard for traditional computers.

GroupMe Anniversary Party

Just met the other GroupMe cofounder as well. This one did not recognize me!less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
paramendra

@paramendra I recognize you now!!less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet ReplyJared Hecht
jaredhecht

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Supercharging Android: 19,000 Is A Lot Of People

Image via CrunchBaseSupercharging Android

The Google workforce nearly doubles in size with this acquisition, and Google has been a pioneer of sorts in terms of corporate culture. I wonder how Google will eat and digest the Motorola workforce. It better do it with style if this acquisition is to prove magical.

This acquisition is also looking good on Apple and Steve Jobs. The idea that software and hardware has to happen in house is Steve Jobs' idea. Google just bought into that. That makes the iPhone more not less attractive. The iPhone remains the flagship smartphone. But I hope Google does one better. I believe in Android.

The Google thing to do would be to make the hardware much, much cheaper and go global in a big way. Search ads on Android should subsidize hardware costs. Cheaper will sell more. Make money on volume. Or, hey, make money from search.

Motorola on its own is too small a presence in the handset space for this move to be a major threat to the other Android handset players. I believe Larry Page when he says this move is primarily to bolster the entire Android ecosystem.

Boston Tweets (3)

Monday, August 15, 2011

Inbox Zero

I just did a major cleaning up of my #Gmail Inbox. I went from 18% full down to 3% full. #reliefless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
paramendra

Achieved: Inbox Zero. Mercilessly deleted all old emails. #reliefless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
paramendra

Supercharging Android

Image representing Larry Page as depicted in C...

Image via CrunchBaseWorld War III Time: Let's Go To War
Android Has To Be Kept Free

This move means that now when Microsoft and Apple and Oracle ask handset makers to pay a fee per handset, they will be asking Google directly that fee. And that's gonna be a problem. This fight is just getting started.

Next stop for Google: buy a carrier. And get rid of the monthly payments. Phones ought be ad supported.

Microsoft might buy Nokia now, for more money than it has illegally made off of Android.

Statue of John Harvard, founder of Harvard Uni...

Google Plus' Quora Quality

Image by Eva Blue via FlickrOne of the first things I noted about Quora at the beginning of the year was that people I wished blogged but were not blogging were active on Quora. They were speaking. I am feeling the same way about Google Plus.

Look at this Hilary Mason post for example. Hilary is a big tech brain at Bitly, the URL shortening service. I think this woman has data for breakfast while the rest of us are still asleep. And she is a permanent fixture on the speaking circuit of the NY tech ecosystem. You go to some random event and there she is on a panel.

Did I Get An Email From Hilary Mason?

The discussion she has started has generated some intelligent comments. It is a robust discussion. This is not exactly Fred Wilson's comments section, but it is pretty good.

Pages

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Seven Screens

Post PC Or PC Plus

Friday, August 19, 2011

A Brett Martin Brisket

Thursday, August 18, 2011