Microsoft’s Photosynth was a hit at TED last year and looked to be really promising regardless of running only on XP SP2 and Vista (shame on you Microsoft) but the same team along with the University of Washington has moved forward with new photo, video and VR technologies:
This should be a very interesting mashup of multiple media formats. Great work and a wonderful tool for education.
Tags: Photosynth, photo, virtual reality, panaoramic, globalization, trends
I continue to be amazed that consumers are being held hostage to failed business practices regarding digital products sold on the internet and requiring a connection to “use” your product.
If you buy a book, read it and then move to a new house, you take the book with you right. Sure. Simple and not even something to think about.
But if you purchased digital music from Yahoo and move that music to a new computer or external drive, you cannot take it with you. Yahoo’s underperforming music store has announced they are closing their doors (and also taking down their DRM technology keys) stitched into your downloaded music.
This means the music you paid for will not play anymore. If you purchased Yahoo music you are simply SOL. Actually Yahoo tells a better story:
After September 30, 2008, you will not be able to transfer songs to unauthorized computers or re-license these songs after changing operating systems. Please note that your purchased tracks will generally continue to play on your existing authorized computers unless there is a change to the computer’s operating system.
This should serve fair warning to all the music etailers to abandon DRM. The customer is always right and today’s teenage market has a powerful voice and the tools (like Digg) to flex their collective financial muscles….so don’t piss them off.
Big thanks to my most excellent colleague John Pederson at WiscNet about this video. Take a moment and listen to the testimonials all you administrative bean counters and computer directors. BTW: How many of you are facing budget cuts this year?
Remember Google makes this solution to schools F O R F R E E.
Tags: Google, education, network, teaching, globalization, trends
A political pollster finally meets The Tipping Point. That is how I would describe Mark Penn’s Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes.
Penn’s 75 microtrend stories are interesting, but I could not help but think back to Gladwell’s book when reading each microtrend that lasts only two or three pages.
I do believe he is accurate in identifying societal atoms, small trends that are reflecting the changing habit and choices in our consumer marketplace and access to the internet. This work also reminds me of Freakonomics.
This book will make you think about the microtrends but you may feel overwhelmed by the number and come up short on analysis.
Book Website: with downloadable chapter
There is an article about future capacity relating to the ESNet that is ramping up to support 400 Gigabits/second. Although I’m glad the news is available, We’ll not access to Internet2 via a PDA as anything beyond Draft N for another 3 years when ESNet comes up to speed.
Tags: Internet2, bandwidth, network, fiber, globalization, trends