New Florence. New Renaissance.

The Joys of "Speedcabling"

"Contestants are faced with a tangled mass of six ethernet cables of various lengths. Their task is simply to separate them in the fastest time.

To get them to replicate the conditions of the wires found snaking and choking their way around hard drive units, monitors and printers in offices worldwide, Schkolne first started by tangling them in a figure eight. Then he threw the bundles in a clothes dryer - no longer attached to any computer unit, naturally."

BBC News

GPS to track dogs

"Owners first attach a small, lightweight and water-resistant GPS receiver to their dog's collar and log into a password-protected website to set up a "safety zone" -– say, around your home –- so if your dog ever crosses this invisible parameter you’re immediately notified by an email or text message."

USA Today

Microsoft Worldwide Telescope

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT)  brings together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world. Created with Microsoft's high-performance Visual Experience Engine™, it enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources.

See a sneak preview from the TED conference.

"Grand Challenges for Engineering"

Courtesy of Charlie Bess of EDS I saw what the National Academy of Engineering lays out as challenges:

    * Make solar energy economical
    * Provide energy from fusion
    * Develop carbon sequestration methods
    * Manage the nitrogen cycle
    * Provide access to clean water
    * Restore and improve urban infrastructure
    * Advance health informatics
    * Engineer better medicines
    * Reverse-engineer the brain
    * Prevent nuclear terror
    * Secure cyberspace
    * Enhance virtual reality
    * Advance personalized learning
    * Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

Clothes that clean themsleves

"Researchers at Monash University, in Victoria, Australia, have found a way to coat fibers with titanium dioxide nanocrystals, which break down food and dirt in sunlight. The researchers, led by organic chemist and nanomaterials researcher Walid Daoud, have made natural fibers such as wool, silk, and hemp that will automatically remove food, grime, and even red-wine stains when exposed to sunlight."

MIT Technology Review

Healthcare: Back to the Future

I spent some time at the McKesson booth at HiMSS this week.

Mike Myers, SVP told me about the excitement in the industry about DNA markers and how they could revolutionize early detection of disease and also help customize solutions to each patient. Since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, there has been growing progress towards predictive medicine. Mckesson has teamed with Proventys which "translates predictive data from traditional and emerging diagnostic tests, including genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, into clinical decision support solutions."

Then I walked over to see their "1080p, diagnostic image quality" front end to their Horizon Medical Imaging products. The touch-screen technology allows physicians to highlight and enhance images for viewing. Physicians have always loved to look at images this way and that. I know John Madden gets credit for popularizing the telestrator but you should see what physicians do to mark up images on the touch-screen.

Then, with a neat application of unified communications, with a sweep of the hand, they can send an image to a colleague’s iPhone. And using a bluetooth headset, also discuss it. There are plans to also integrate with billing and other applications.

Old genes - and old practices. Brand new technology.

The Power Walk

"Researchers have developed a device that generates electrical power from the swing of a walking person's knee. With each stride the leg accelerates and then decelerates, using energy both for moving and braking."

AP Science

Personalized News Reports

"Right now you listen to your local radio station waiting for the specific type of info you want, the weather update, the traffic report, the newscast. Suppose, instead of waiting for the radio to give you the stuff broadcasters think you want, you could get exactly what you want and need - automatically."

Mark Ramsey of hear2.0

The Future of Retail Displays

"What if, for example, you were able to weigh someone as they were looking at a pair of pants? Or take their temperature by having them place their hand on a tabletop display in the doctor’s waiting room? In either case, you’d be prepared to ask the next round of questions you need to better serve them before an human intervenes. You could take five or 10 minutes out of a trip to the doctor with these screens, if they were placed in the waiting room or, even, in the consultation room for use by patients as they wait for the doc. Fitting clothes with interactive systems that display and capture data would transform the way off-the-shelf clothing was sold—no more sifting through hangars to find a good fit."

Mitch Radcliffe at ZDNet

"The House of the Future"

"Lights and thermostats will automatically adjust when people walk into a room. Closets will help pick out the right dress for a party. Countertops will be able to identify groceries set on them and make menu suggestions.

 

The $15 million home is a collaboration of The Walt Disney Co., Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., software maker LifeWare and homebuilder Taylor Morrison."

Associated Press