Friday, March 30, 2012

RIM's Troubles Deepen

Numbered Days for Blackberry

It isn't fun to "pile on" and though I'm not a user of RIM products, I'm at least a little bit sorry to add to the numerous news stories about this today. But I can't help wondering about what short term steps RIM might make towards a best possible end. Blackberry's market share losses, and recent quarter's financial losses, are just the latest signs of a company that's probably too far gone to save in it's current form.

 What I think I hope for most of all is a merciful end.



The audience for Blackberry handheld devices is tanking. Users are picking Android devices and iOS devices and having very positive experiences. RIM, the maker of Blackberry devices has some interesting technology and user interface elements. It's time for RIM to pull the plug on new device development (even for their business users), strike a sweet deal with one or more of the other players (hardware or software) in the smartphone space, and orchestrate a soft landing for executives, stockholders, and users.

RIM is incredibly unlikely to make an Apple-like turnaround without a huge influx of cash and a Steve Jobs class celebrity/genius. They can die a slow ugly death, or can go out on a high note with a few deft moves.

What do the next 6 months look like for RIM? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.


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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Rock and Roll Band, Part 2

Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player


Back in September of last year I wrote about a project I have with some old friends. We're playing rock and roll together for the first time since 1980. The crazy thing is, it's starting to work out. We're all having a great time with the idea, and talking about the music. The one time so far that a few of us got together to play, we sounded pretty good. If we can get some more practice time together, we'll sound respectable.

When I wrote about this project last time, I mentioned that playing keyboards (my instrument) in a rock and roll band isn't much like playing piano in your living room, or playing organ in your church. It's very different. Sure, there are a few songs where the keyboards are playing the recognizable chords and melodies. Some of the Billy Joel music we are playing can be like that. But more often I'm playing a few backing chords, and lots of little "fill parts," like monophonic synthesizer parts that help to make the song sound the way it sounds when you hear it on the radio. The sheet music doesn't have these parts, so I learn them by ear and often practice them with the music playing behind me. When I actually get to play these parts with my band mates it's a lot more satisfying!

The other thing I'll mention today is the funny way that 30+ years doesn't really seem to change people. My friends, my bandmates, seem to me today very much the way they seemed in 1980. Their personalities are the same, whether loud or quiet, forceful or accommodating, jokesters or more serious. Best of all, they are all nice guys.

One of the funny dynamics right now is how several of us keep suggesting difficult music to try and the one and only pro musician among us keeps reminding us to start slow and build from there.

So far, it's a blast and I hope we get to keep it going for a while. If I can record some of our music later this year, I will, and then I'll share it with a few friends. If that sounds like a good idea, please let me know.


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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Self-Healing Plastic

When it's only a scratch

Last week I wrote about turning plastic into fuel oil. In keeping with the plastics theme, I have a story about self-healing plastics.


Polymer scientists have been working on approaches to self-healing materials for at least a decade. Most involve heat or light applied to the area of damage.


At a meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego this week, a polymer scientist named Marek Urban from the University of Southern Mississippi presented work showing a new development – plastics that initially respond to damage with a color change, and that then can "heal" when exposed to light. Special sensor elements are spaced at regular intervals within the polymer so that when surface damage occurs, a visual indication takes place. Some are comparing this to "bleeding." This change also prepares the plastic for the subsequent healing step, in which specific wavelengths of light cause the exposed material to undergo slight transformations that can result in a closing of the scratch.


So what's this stuff good for? Could it be used to restore scratched car and boat exteriors, patio furniture, and smartphone cases?


Is this an interesting development, and do you have an idea on how this technology could be used? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

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Friday, March 23, 2012

Plastic Alchemy

Oil From Dirty Plastic?

This is not an endorsement. I don’t even know if this process works or makes financial sense. But I certainly like the idea of turning “unsorted, unwashed waste plastic into ultra-clean fuel without the need for refinement.” That's what John Bordynuik, CEO of JBI Inc., says he can do.

JBI says they can produce oil from left over plastics for about $10 a barrel, which is about a tenth the going price (oil was selling for $105 on the day I wrote this).

I'm very much in favor of alternative energy sources, and especially interested in cleaner energy sources like solar and wind power. But homes will have furnaces that burn heating oil and industry will use heavy fuels for many years to come. And JBI produces those fuels, as well as Naptha, a light fuel that can be used as part of transportation fuels.

Having an interim strategy that increases the availability of oil, reduces dependence on foreign sources, reduces our waste stream, creates some jobs, and potentially reduces the cost of some manufacturing... that sounds interesting to me.

Is this for real? NPR reports that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation has good things to say about JBI efficiency. Seems to me like something to watch. 

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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Rest Of My Brain (part 2)

part of a series on thinking outside the skull

(Missed Part 1 and want to go back and read it? It appeared in this blog back on Feb 28.)

Let's engage in a little thought experiment. It's 100 years from today, and there are two key biomedical technology advances important to our discussion.

  1. Bionics beyond today's wildest dreams, able to recreate/enhance any body part. Or a whole body. Replace limbs, heart valves, eyes and more with parts as good or better than the originals.
  2. Brain download/upload technology, to protect and preserve human knowledge. "Backup" your brain to protect against catastrophic cognitive loss from head injury or disease or to share some specific knowledge with others.
Now let's imagine two scenarios involving tragic loss of brain matter and cognitive capacity.

In the first, you are undergoing a delicate brain tumor removal surgery and as a precaution, your brain is fully backed up. The tumor is large and the surgery complex, and a portion of your brain must be cut away. So you get some bionic brain implants AND you get the backup content of your brain reloaded. You recover completely.

Thoughts to consider: You clearly relied on external storage of your thoughts and memories, and without them, you would not have come through the ordeal nearly as well. Did you exist simultaneously in the confines of your skull and also in that external storage for a time? Which of the two was "you" during those few hours? Was it the incomplete version of your thoughts, knowledge and memory in your skull? Or the complete version in the storage device? Or both?

Now consider a second scenario.

This time, your delicate surgery is being done because of an accident so severe that nobody knows if you can be pieced back together. Head and body severely traumatized. A brain backup that had luckily been done just days before is available, and on hand. The surgery goes on for hours, with several organs and limbs being replaced, but your life holds on by a thread. 15 hours in, the Chief of Bionics at the hospital asks your loved ones to consider whether your stored brain contents should be loaded into a new humanoid full bionic body. It has never been done, but the team believes that the new bionic body is far and away the best ever and fully capable of carrying your thoughts, memories and knowledge. Word from the operating room is that you are near death, and your loved ones agree to the brain load into the bionic body and sign the papers. An overly zealous Bionics team begins the process immediately. And the surgery continues. Eight hours later, your brain has been fully uploaded into the bionic body. As the process is completing, more than 33% of that brain backup is accidentally damaged. At about the same time, word comes from the operating room that after 24 hours of grueling surgery, you are going to come through alive. Alive, but much of your brain is lost. The upload from the brain backup begins, but in a moment of shared horror everyone recognizes that the upload will be incomplete due to the 33% loss. Your brain is restored as completely as possible.


Thoughts to consider: Many mistakes were made and there was some unethical or at least unwise behavior on the part of the hospital. But medical mistakes happen a century from now just as they do today. Your thoughts, memory and knowledge are now mostly (but not fully) back in your own skull. But a complete copy is in a fully bionic life form. The latter carries on conversations and recognizes loved ones in your voice and with all your memories (many of which you, the original you, no longer have). Which is "you"? Should both continue to exist? Which one gets called "dad" by the kids, goes back to work at his employer, owns property? Would it be murder to terminate the bionic body with your full memories?

If this continues to be of interest, there will be a part 3. Meanwhile, please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

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Friday, March 16, 2012

Print Encyclopedia Goes All Digital

Encyclopedia Britannica announced this week that the 2010 edition of their print encyclopedia was their last. Whatever supply they have on hand is still available for sale, but no new edition will be printed. This is the end of an amazing run. The Encyclopedia Britannica was first published way back in 1768 and was key reference material for students of my generation and many before and after.

But things change.

Sounds like another casualty of the digital age, like failing newspapers, right? Is this the story of another company who couldn’t change with the times and watched their old distribution model slip away until no option existed? Nope. Encyclopedia Britannica has a much different story to tell.

Print edition represented only 1% of their revenue. Britannica had been evolving with the times over the last two decades.

This is not a desperation move. It’s good business. Britannica is and has been available as a paid subscription service on the web, it’s available as a smartphone app with a small monthly charge, and the content goes into a variety of revenue-generating educational material. The company has deftly navigated the rough waters that so many old media companies could not.

And the content is available for free online for the next week. Just to show you what you might want to pay to access at some point.

Things change. The smart people at Britannica showed us that they understand that. Hats off to them.

Fun experiment
As a comment on this blog or on my FaceBook or Google+ pages, tell me (1) when you last used hardcopy encyclopedia, and (2) when you or anyone you know last purchased a hardcopy book encyclopedia set.

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    Tuesday, March 13, 2012

    Lulz Leader 'Sabu' Snagged


    An End to the Lulz?

    If you follow information security stories in the news, by now you may have heard that high profile hacker Hector Xavier Monsegur (known as Sabu), alleged leader of LulzSec, was captured by the FBI. The capture actually took place secretly last June at about the time LulzSec was at the height of their notoriety, and appeared in these pages on June 15, June 24 and June 29. Monsegur went on to cooperate with the FBI, possibly providing a great deal of detail on activities and participants making up LulzSec, which was one of only a small number of very successful hacker/activist ("hacktivist") groups.

    As I said last year, I think that what LulzSec seemed to do much better than other well-organized and successful hacking groups was to communicate their message well. They achieved a large Twitter following and fed quotable material to journalists and bloggers.  As a result, we got a sense for who they were and what they cared about.

    LulzSec might be gone, but the even larger "Anonymous" group is still in operation (as far as we know) and rumor even has it that they plan a large attack on the Internet for March 31st. Impossible to say whether there's any truth to that rumor, but it has people thinking.

    There will always be Black Hat groups focued on conventional crime for profit. But with the megaphone provided by social networks and other Internet communications media, will "hacktivism" play a bigger role in the future?

    Leave a comment and let us know what you think.



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