BradFuller

“10 Things” has 10 Tips for Proper Computer Disposal. My advice: don’t take tip #3 lightly.  You can destroy your hard disk drive yourself, and the result is probably just fine (I use a hammer.) But if you really want the drive completely destroyed – so data cannot be retrieved even from drive fragments – take it to a company you trust. They must have the proper shredders that eat metal. There will be nothing left but bits (metal bits, that is.)

Eric Schmidt illustrates how technology infuses transparency in our daily lives during his interview with Charlie Rose.

“And we’ve now — because of the Internet and because of the digital revolution, given people — we’ve essentially given them the ability to see everything.  So you can now take photographs, take videos of everything you see in your world and people discover it. ” said Mr. Schmidt.

Perhaps we will never be alone again, and that’s scary.

I found his discussion regarding mobile computing interesting. When asked what role mobile devices will play in the evolution of technology,  Mr. Schmidt replied

“They’re probably the most important of all.”  He goes on to say:

“…Fast forward a few years from now, with the content and the capability of that, with a new generation of applications.  We expect eventually that the majority of uses of the Internet will be on mobile phones.”

With operating systems like Android and mobile hardware advances, such as Nvidia ION and Intel’s Atom, we may see the Dynabook in our lifetime.

Let’s hope so.

Here’s the video (56min):

ARM announced at their developer’s conference a collaboration called the Linux Mobile Platform to enable development of portable computing devices for browsing, multimedia, wire/wireless Ethernet connectivity and better battery life. Since one of the six partners is Mozilla, focus on the Firefox web browser is a given. The integration of GStreamer for the multimedia framework is targeted for multimedia. But, since the platform is Linux and is open, anything is game.

This is great news for me because it provides the world another potentially capable hardware platform to support Squeak mobile computing. It may also provide the computing power for the software being developed at Viewpoints Research in their quest to create a new personal computing model.

If ARM and partners follow through, with the Viewpoints’ new software paradigm the journey to a truly portable Dynabook may be measurably closer.

The six partners are: Marvell, MontaVista, Mozilla, Movial, Samsung, Texas Instruments

Other Links:

• Squeak already runs on Linux, RiscOS and many other platforms: Download Squeak here
• ARM-Linux Developer Wiki
• Connected Mobile Computing at ARM
• TI and MontaVista pair up on Linux mobile computing

ARM, CMC, connected mobile device, dynabook, linux, linux mobile platform, mobile computing, personal computing, squeak, viewpoints research

Tom’s Hardware ranks beer, specifically Molson Canadian, in 2nd place over professionally designed coolants:

1. SilverStone Thermal Fluid
2. Molson Canadian Beer
3. Thermaltake Standard UV Sensitive High Performance Coolant
4. Koolance Computer Liquid Coolant
5. Xerex Automotive Antifreeze

note: long-time corrosion tests not performed – so watch out

Almost a year ago to the date I posted an article about Microsoft’s Photosynth research software. I wondered if it would ever be a product. Well, I don’t think it is yet, but you can view a Photosynth experiment on the MSN site. It’s a trial between the Microsoft research labs, MSNBC and NASA called Space World, to chronicle the Space Shuttle Endeavour (which is set to launch tomorrow, Aug 7, 2007.) Microsoft divides the photo experience in 4 separate categories: Vehicle Assembly Building, Attaching the Rockets, the Launch Pad, and the 747 transport.

No surprise that Photosynth still does not run on MAC nor Linux. You must use Windows XP or Vista to view these pictures. C’mon Microsoft!

Also note that Microsoft Labs provides a video about the work.

3D photos, microsoft live labs, photosynth, space shuttle endeavour, space world