I read this bit on the Gawker network today about iPhones secretly recording their movements based on tower triangulation! If this isn't straight out of Orwell then I'm Shaquille O'Neal's dirty shorts. One contributor to the article speculated conspiracy. But what caught me off guard the most was the first comment on the piece: "Meh." The user went on to explain that he haas no interest in whether his movements are tracked. He argued that in the future such technology will be so commonplace that it'll seem weird that we were ever afraid of it.
. . .and I don't think he's wrong. I've read that at the advent of the television, the idea of "voices and pictures coming out of a box" was madness. Sixty-some years later, those magic voice and pictures boxes are the grandfather to a new way of life that is only now starting to open its eyes. Social relationships abandon old forms! Consumers never have to leave the home! The president speaks from the palm of your hand! This is the way of the modern world!
I saw this video a while back on the same site. Corning, Inc. is a specialty glass manufacturer that may or may not be Apple's glass supplier. The following video is the future according to Corning. I predict that by 2025 these technologies will be available at least in designer homes:
21 April 2011
20 April 2011
The United States of Facebook
Barry O'bama and his homies know about the internet. El presidente's got a fully functional, interactive website and his own Facebook page which is regularly updated with his latest shenanigans . White House Live, which is the administration's live streaming video site, just held it's first digital "town hall" meeting, broadcast from Facebook HQ in Palo Alto, CA.
This is the kind of stuff that makes for great conspiracy theories. The problem with conspiracy theories for me is that they seem to overlook plainly obvious and problematic facts by focusing on a perceived malice of parties involved. In this case, I could say that Buck and the Zuck are planning to take over the world, but regardless of whether or not they are, the facts are that they are both extremely powerful people who are in the early stages of a potentially world-changing relationship. This could become especially interesting with the recent announcement of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. As you, me and the mailman encounter Facebook more times for more reasons each day, the need for secure Facebook identities seems proportionately relevant. Why have two trusted cyber-IDs when you could have just one?
This is the kind of stuff that makes for great conspiracy theories. The problem with conspiracy theories for me is that they seem to overlook plainly obvious and problematic facts by focusing on a perceived malice of parties involved. In this case, I could say that Buck and the Zuck are planning to take over the world, but regardless of whether or not they are, the facts are that they are both extremely powerful people who are in the early stages of a potentially world-changing relationship. This could become especially interesting with the recent announcement of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. As you, me and the mailman encounter Facebook more times for more reasons each day, the need for secure Facebook identities seems proportionately relevant. Why have two trusted cyber-IDs when you could have just one?
The machines are running. . . late.
According to the Governator, the machines were supposed to begin their rebellion today. As far as I can tell, they're still working on it, but that's not to say they don't already completely control our lives.
I always assumed that the brillant and creative people of the science fiction world represented technology as its own, often evil character not only because it was entertaining (read: totally awesome), but because it had so much value as metaphor for the ways in which they saw it invading a precious way of life. Now, thanks to the geniuses over at Boston Dynamics, science fiction is becoming scientific fact.
"It's like living in the future!"
Here's another corporate profile of an Apple client that has included the iPad into their infrastructure. This time it's Thomas Edison's own General Electric, the world's go-to source for light bulbs and big-ass guns.
Game Changer!
Do you have a hemmorroid? Do you lack the flexibility to see what it looks like? Just ask the folks at Medtronic! They'll be happy to give you the lowdown on your downtown. Using their internally-developed iPad applications, not only will they provide you with full-color, high-definition illustrations of that pain in your ass, but they'll offer exciting and innovative alternatives to sitting down!
For more: [http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/medtronic/]
19 April 2011
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