GLIMPSES OF THE
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How New Media Stimulates Old Media Even though Google has set aside $200 million to deal with copyright infringement claims following its purchase of YouTube, the American CBS TV network has demonstrated how unauthorized copyright infringement can be leveraged for commercial advantage. Rather than suing YouTube for publishing many uploaded copyrighted snippets from its shows, CBS gave YouTube blanket permission to use CBS material without charge in exchange for an advertising deal. CBS itself has now uploaded more than 300 clips to the popular online video site, garnering a total of 29.2 million views and averaging 857,000 views per day. CBS struck its advertising partnership with YouTube after its copyrighted clips kept appearing on the site. Now CBS said it has three of the top 25 most viewed videos this month, including "Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (with some help, it appears, from Borat. The Borat clip has been seen more than 1.4 million times). CBS also said that YouTube has helped its TV ratings. Letterman has added 200,000 new viewers while Ferguson is up 100,000 viewers since CBS's partnership with YouTube. 'Petascale' Supercomputers To Keep The U.S. Ahead DARPA - the U.S. defense agency charged with developing advanced technology - has announced half a billion dollars of new funding to build supercomputers capable of carrying out one quadrillion floating point calculations per second (one 'petaFlop') - over three times faster than IBM's 'Blue Gene' which is currently the world's fastest computer. Intended to keep the U.S. ahead of Japanese supercomputer development, the funding has gone to research and development teams at Cray and IBM ($250 million to Cray, $248 million to IBM). Both companies are expected to demonstrate working models within three years. DARPA says that the ultimate goal of the programme is to make petascale computing available for US security purposes and for (selected) industrial and commercial use. Add Touchy-Feely Real World Effects To Your PC Games If you enjoy computer games, you'll be able to immerse yourself even more when Philips introduces amBIX, a multi-sensory environmental add-on kit for your PC. The amBix effects system will be introduced in early 2007 and it includes special-effects lights, fans and a 'rumble mat' which adjust and change their output according to special code being written into some popular games. The object is to provide a simulated environment in which you can become totally immersed in your game. Enter a cave and the lights around you dim, you feel a cold wind on your face as your push bravely on into the darkness. Suddenly there's a bright light up ahead, then a loud noise and then the surface starts to shake beneath your hands.... Who know what other types of game immersive simulation could enhance? Give The Spammers A Taste Of Their Own Medicine! If you hate spammers as much as I do, you may want to register to attend the Email Marketing Summit and Expo 2007 which is being held at the Radisson Hotel in Miami, Florida March 4-6th, 2007. What I suggest we do when we get there is cold call each of the email marketing delegates in their rooms at 2am, 3am, 4am and 5am to see if they want to buy solutions for male arousal disorders and to advise them about hot stock tips. The Cyborgs Are Coming! And not before time. On December 1st 2006 a panel of bioethicists & physicians will discuss the impacts of emerging neurotechnologies on cognitive liberty (personal freedom to you and me) at the United Nations in New York. Organized by The Institute For Ethics and Emerging Technologies, speakers will include James Hughes, the author of Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. Hughes teaches Health Policy at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut, and serves as Trinity’s Associate Director of Institutional Research and Planning. He is the Executive Director of the World Transhumanist Association. The theme of the seminar is described thus: "Emerging neurotechnologies offer expanded intelligence, memory and senses, giving us greater ability to understand and control our own minds. But they also expand the avenues for possible coercion and invasion of mental privacy. What is the state of cognitive liberty today? What steps do we need to take to protect cognitive liberty, mental privacy and freedom of choice in light of these neurotechnologies?" What indeed? See you there. Sony Reader Very Good But I Still Need More Thanks to CSC Australia I recently had a chance to examine Sony's new Reader, an e-book reading device which uses electronic ink technology for its display. The screen display is outstandingly good and the contrast and luminance make reading a joy. E-Ink is a technology developed by a MIT spin-out company which flips minute spheres (like miniature ping-pong balls) which are half white and half black to form images in the way paper printing uses dots to make a picture. In standard form the Reader can contain 80 books and I almost want one (they're not yet available in any territory except the USA). But I hesitate to import a unit as I like to annotate text as I go (and there's no way of doing this) and there's no search tool, which rather obviates the point of having electronic documents. I'll wait for the next model.
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From Seawater To Freshwater, Through a Piece of Plastic Materials scientists at UCLA have developed a new nanoscale plastic membrane which is so fine that when seawater is pumped through it, fresh water comes out. The "Reverse osmosis desalination" technique uses extremely high pressure to force saline or polluted waters through the pores of a semi-permeable membrane. Water molecules under pressure pass through these pores, but salt ions and other impurities cannot, resulting in highly purified water The new desalination membranes are structured at the nanoscale (the width of human hair is approximately 100,000 nanometers) to create molecular tunnels through which water flows more easily than contaminants. Potentially, the new membrane offers a sharp reduction in the cost of converting impure salt water to fresh drinking water. Recycling In Space As NASA contemplates returning to manned long-distance space travel, so the agency is being forced to invent systems that will recycle resources such as oxygen and water. NASA admits that the Russians are ahead in this field, having developed recycling life support systems for the MIR space station, but the Americans are now playing catch-up. Scientists and engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) are putting the finishing touches on systems for capturing exhaled carbon dioxide and urine and turning them back into breathable oxygen and drinking water (yes really). Fumbling Ford Fields FuturistsTroubled car manufacturer Ford (falling sales, continuing losses, production cuts) has appointed a panel of professional futurists to help it navigate its way back to profitability. The company hopes the futurists will help it ramp up innovation efforts and identify longer-term social trends that could impact its business. The panel - made up of more than two dozen trend spotters from academia, nonprofit organizations and the private sector - was established as Ford began looking for ways to anticipate the ever-changing wants and needs of car buyers. "Within Ford, we've really had to change the way people think about the future," said Lisa Bacus, Ford's director of global strategic marketing, who is heading up the effort. Ford will not disclose who is on the panel of futurists but, for the sake of clarity, I can confirm it does not include me. "Do It Now, Girl!" Says Your Phone Japan's mighty DoCoMo mobile phone company has just released a pink phone for the girls which reminds them when it is the most likely time in the month for them to get pregnant. Girl users key in their physiological data and the phone does the rest. It also provides girls with a one touch key to simulate an incoming call so they have an excuse to get away from any over-persistent males. Oh, and it also has recipes. 500 Million Mobile Broadband Users In The Next Three Years How many people do you know with true broadband connection for their mobile? Nor me, but I do know that it's the next hot area. Now a consulting firm, StrategyAnalytics reports that they expect to see 500 million mobile broadband users by 2010. What's more the well respected consultancy suggests that most of the new connections won't come from new forms of connection such as WiMax or UMTS TDD, but from incremental improvements to existing technologies and networks. At least I know where to place my bets. The Future of War Is Robotic Men will not fight other men in future wars, but robots will fight men - or other robots. The Australian armaments company Metal Storm Ltd has developed a new form of electronically-fired, large calibre, high-velocity gun (more like a cannon) that is designed to be mounted on a wheeled robotic carrier. It is claimed that the weapon can fire one million rounds a minute. The videos of the weapon in action are terrifying. Recently the inventor of the Metal Storm weapon, Mike O' Dwyer, told the media that the Chinese government had attempted to bribe him with one hundred million dollars to move with his family to China. Robotic warriors are clearly every general's dream but, as the New Scientist says, it is also a peace-seeking citizen's nightmare. Without the politically embarrassing threat of soldiers returning home in flag-wrapped coffins, governments would find it far easier to commit to military action. The consequences for countries on the receiving end - and for world peace - would be immense. And Now, A Plug For SwiMP3 - Music While You're Swimming My chosen form of regular exercise is swimming and I've just bought an underwater MP3 player called SwiMP3. It's absolutely fantastic. Sound is delivered to the ear via transponders that touch your cheek bones - the bones then conduct the sound to your inner ear. The problem with all forms of long-dstance aerobic exercise is boredom. Now I have my music with me (good quality sound when under water) and I find the time flies by. I'm putting in between 30-40% more training. If you're a swimmer, try it. And Finally, "Extinction" is Nominated For The World's Largest Literary Prize Just checking how many of my dedicated readers make it to the end of this newsletter... My 2005 novel about global warming, "Extinction," has just been nominated for The International Impac Dublin Literary Award - the world's largest and most international literary prize. There are 137 other novels contending (by some wonderful writers) so I don't expect to triumph, but the lucky winner will receive €100,000. "Extinction" was nominated by the Sierra Leone Library Board, Freetown, Sierra Leone. My thanks to them. My research reveals that the Sierra Leone Library Board is presently showing progress in almost every sphere of its activities: books, staff, buildings, and professional services amidst recent problems following nine years of rebel war in the small West African nation (pop. 5.5 million). The steady improvement in the security situation has ignited fresh hopes about the country's development prospects. Back issues of "Glimpses" are archived here.
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