3,000 Feeds

Keywords: RSS, web feed, news aggregator, blog

3,000 feeds in my Bloglines account! Sky is the limit...Topics: anime, artificial intelligence, audio, aviation, biotech, blogs, blogs - Africa, blogs - Asia, blogs - Australia, blogs - Canada, blogs - China, blogs - Europe, blogs - favourite, blogs - India, blogs - Latin America, blogs - Middle East, blogs - popular, blogs - USA, blogs - world, bookmarks, books, business, cars, CEO, CIO/CTO, consultant, culture, design, developer, downloads, economics, education, energy, entertainment, entrepreneur, events, finance, fun, future, hardware, health, history, ideas, innovation, international affairs, IT, jobs, knowledge management, law, library, lifestyle, magazines, management, marketing, media, mobile life, moblogs, multimedia, music, my blogs/links, nanotech, net, neurotech, news, outsourcing, people, personal technology, politics, reference, research, science, scifi, search, security, shopping, Silicon Valley, software, space, tech news, technology, telecom, Tribe.net, venture capital, video, virtual worlds, world, world - Asia, world - Europe, world - Middle East, world - USA, Yahoo groups, Yahoo news, zeitgeist.
Link

Audio:
Dave Sifry - Web 2.0 - IT Conversations

Learn:
How Blogs Work - HowStuffWorks

The 2005 Wired Rave Awards

Keywords: Wired magazine, award, rave

"They're reinventing TV and technology, music and medicine, buildings, books, and blogs. They're 15 mavericks and dreamers, winners of the Wired Rave Awards."

Link
Source: Wired

See also:
The 2005 Wired Rave Awards - Technorati
The 2004 Wired Rave Awards - Wired

Audio:
Adam Curry

Learn:
How The Oscars Work - HowStuffWorks
How the Cannes Film Festival Works - HowStuffWorks
How The Emmy Awards Work - HowStuffWorks

Podcasting 101

Keywords: podcasting, mass media, digital media, MP3 player, Adam Curry

"He's gone from MTV to MP3, and now he's leading a grassroots rebellion called podcasting. Why amateurs may soon rule the airwaves."

Link
Source: Wired

Podcasting, audioblogging, or mobilecasting?

See also:
Podcasting - Google News
Podcasting - Yahoo News
Podcasting - Topix.net
Podcasting - Technorati

Idea:
The Podcasting Boom (How to Profit from it) - Moore's Lore

Audio:
Podcasting - Bloggercon III - IT Conversations
Canter on Podcasting - The Chris Pirillo Show

Images:
Podcasting - Flickr

Learn:
How Podcasting Works - HowStuffWorks
How MP3 Players Work - HowStuffWorks

Book:
We the Media - Dan Gillmor

The Pentagon's Robotic Army

Keywords: Pentagon, DARPA, future combat systems, robot, artificial intelligence, UAV

"Compared to many aeronautical curiosities that have taken wing at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at California’s Edwards Air Force Base over the years, the latest military test stunts did not appear very remarkable. Last April, a low-slung aircraft, about the size of a sport utility vehicle but with batlike wings similar to those of the B-2 stealth bomber, took off, flew at 10,500 meters and then dropped a 110-kilogram inert precision bomb while zipping along at 700 kilometers per hour. Four months later, a pair of the aircraft took off and flew together. These were modest stunts, to be sure, except for this fact: the jets have no pilots. They are the future of warfare, the first working models of networked autonomous attack jets, and the U.S. Department of Defense would like to start building them by 2010. ... Realizing this vision will require the creation of new airborne communications networks and a host of control systems that will make these jets more autonomous (though always under the ultimate control of a person) than anything built to date. These are the goals of a $4-billion, five-year program at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon's advanced research arm."

Link
Source: Technology Review

See also:
Future Combat Systems - Google Search
Future Combat Systems - Yahoo Search
Future Combat Systems - Google News
Future Combat Systems - Yahoo News
Robots - Defense Tech
Robots - Google News
Robots - Yahoo News
Robots News - Topix.net
Robotics news - Moreover
Robots - Technorati

Discuss:
Pentagon To Send Robot Soldiers to Iraq - Slashdot
Robots - tribe.net

Storyboard:
Warfighting in the 21st Century – The Remote, Robotic, Robust, Size-Reduced, Virtual Reality Paradigm - KurzweilAI.net

Audio:
Helen Greiner - Mobile Robots - IT Conversations

Another problem:
Where is the Robot-Valley?
The Global War of the 21st Century

Images:
Robots - Google Search
Robots - Yahoo Search
Future Combat Systems - Institute for Creative Technologies

Video:
Robots - Yahoo Search

Scenarios:
Robotic Nation - Marshall Brain

Learn:
How Robots Work - HowStuffWorks
How Military Robots Work - HowStuffWorks
How the Predator UAV Works - HowStuffWorks
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - MIT OpenCourseWare

The Columbianization of Iraq

Keywords: Iraq, Middle East, Iran, Colombia, state, oil

"Between the realm of the failed state and the functioning, if not always healthy, nation, there lies the semi-state. A semi-state can be defined as a state which does not reach its internationally recognized borders. Within its control it fulfills the basic requirement being the fact on the ground, however, there are significant regions which would have been called 'palitinates' in English legal theory circa 1400 - that is, regions were 'the king's writ doth not hold'. In our post-feudal world, the easy acceptance of this idea is harder to come by, and yet there are a number of states that have come to a relative stablity as semi states: Zaire, Columbia, Pakistan - states with organized counter-government apparatus that have effective control of territory, and some degree of recognition from the 'central government'.

The title of the post is intentionally Ironic, and perhaps Iranic as well - Columbia after all means peace. And that is what Iraq will be seeking above all else - enough peace to begin development and exploitation of the oil reserves - which are what this entire active of the Great Game is about.

In short, Iraq is about to Columbi-ize, and there is very little that will be done to stop it."

Link
Source: The Blogging of the President

See also:
Iraq News - Topix.net
Iraq -Google News
Iraq - Yahoo News
Iraq - Technorati
Global Guerrillas
Thomas Barnett's blog

Another problem:
The Coming Energy Crisis or Peak Oil

Images:
Iraq - Google Search
Iraq - Yahoo Search
Iraq - Flickr

Video:
Iraq - Yahoo Search

Audio:
Iraq - Singingfish
Thomas Barnett - Emerging Worldviews - IT Conversations

Life on Mars?

Keywords: Mars, life, NASA

"A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water.

The two scientists, according to sources at the Sunday meeting, based their case in part on Mars’ fluctuating methane signatures that could be a sign of an active underground biosphere and nearby surface concentrations of the sulfate jarosite, a mineral salt found on Earth in hot springs and other acidic bodies of water..."

Link
Source: Space.com

See also:
Space - Topix.net
Mars - Google News
Mars - Yahoo News
Mars - Technorati

Discuss:
The Indirect Case For Life On Mars - Slashdot
Fermi Paradox - tribe.net
Space Travel - tribe.net

Learn:
How Mars Works - HowStuffWorks
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences - MIT OpenCourseWare

Images:
Mars - Google Search
Mars - Yahoo Search

Audio:
Sands of Mars - NASA

The Coming Energy Crisis or Peak Oil

Keywords: energy crisis, peak oil, oil, blackout

"Fertilizer, DVDs, rubber, cheap flights, plastics and metals. None of these things have anything in common, right? Think again. An ingredient in all of them, in one form or another, is oil.

Oil is the precious primer of the world economic engine, making it hum. Oil provides 40% of the world's energy needs, and nearly 90% of all transportation. It's also a building block for many products and goods. Cut supplies of this natural resource and life as we know it could change.

But while some experts say the world runs no risk of running out of oil, others disagree. Sounding the alarm is the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas. Its president is Kjell Aleklett, a physics professor at Sweden's Upsalla University.

'[During] the next 30 years we will find more than 150, maybe 200, but probably not, but 150 billion barrels of oil is roughly what you're going to find,' Aleklett said. 'And during the same period, we will consume 1,000 [billion barrels of oil]. So that means we are now digging deep into the reserves we have at the moment.'

Aleklett is among a group of international experts - ex-oil executives and geologists - who believe there is less oil percolating under the ground than the oil industry acknowledges. They say the world has burned up nearly half of all its oil - an estimated 900 billion barrels of crude.

In industry jargon, that halfway point is the 'peak', after which reserves no longer rise but drop. No one denies this will happen eventually. After all, oil is a finite resource. But these oil skeptics - so-called 'peak' oil analysts - say the 'peak' is coming sooner rather than later, maybe even in 2008. They paint a gloomy picture: falling oil supplies plus rising demand will equal shortages - and perhaps a rising risk of war."
Link
Source: Asia Times

A Question Of Scale
"To appreciate the magnitude of the Peak Oil crisis confronting us, it's necessary to come to grips with the colossal scale of the world's appetite for oil. Humanity currently consumes about 82 million barrels of oil per day, 30 billion barrels per year, and demand is increasing more or less exponentially (i.e., doubling at a constant rate). How big of a number is 30 billion barrels? It's roughly equal to one barrel per second, every second, for a thousand years. That's our annual consumption, and it's growing rapidly.

To put this in perspective, consider the debate over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). ANWR drilling proponents often talk about it in a context of 'US energy independence.' This is a cruel joke. Optimistic order-of-magnitude estimates of ANWR oil reserves are in the vicinity of 10 billion barrels. For the sake of argument, let's suppose 100% of this oil can be recovered (it can't). 10 billion barrels is enough to satisy world oil consumption for a mere four months. If it all went to the US, it would satisy US consumption for less than a year and a half. Then what?"
Link
Source: Past Peak

Change Agent
"Conclusion: in the next twenty years, China is certain to contest militarily for the world's remaining oil with what has been the prime customer for its manufacturing output. That would be America."
Link
Source: Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler

The next big thing on the internet will be video. The death of distance. I suppose we will travel much less. Invest in broadband!

See also:
Coal/Oil/Energy -Google Answers
Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash
The Post-Oil Megacity - WorldChanging
End of Cheap Oil - National Geographic Magazine
The Economics Of Sprawl - West of the Expressway
Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom - Wired
Peak Oil - Google News
Peak Oil - Yahoo News
Peak Oil - Topix.net
Peak Oil - Technorati

Discuss:
Solar Power and Alternative Energy - tribe.net
Peak Oil: Open Forum - Future Hi
Future Salon - Yahoo Groups
The Final Blackout - ImmInst.org

Audio:
The Future of Energy: Oil Reserves Running Dry? - NPR
Analysts See U.S. Goals and Global Oil Needs in Conflict - NPR
Peak Oil & Gas - Global Public Media
Alex Steffen - WorldChanging.com - IT Conversations
Bob Metcalfe - IT Conversations
Distance Infrastructure - Accelerating Change 2004 - IT Conversations

Another problem:
Global Guerrillas

Solutions:
Future energy development
Technological Singularity
Telecommuting
Hydrogen Economy
Broadband
Nanotechnology
Artificial Intelligence
Space Elevator

Learn:
How Oil Drilling Works - HowStuffWorks
What is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? - HowStuffWorks
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences - MIT OpenCourseWare

Humanity: The Next Revolution

Keywords: future, science

The Guardian asked some bright thinkers: "So what's next? What will be the [next] revolution?"

The answers:
'We will invent our successors'
Seth Shostak, senior astronomer, Seti Institute, California

'We will understand the human mind'
John Sulston, founder of the Sanger Institute, Cambridge

'The existence of parallel universes'
Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist, the City University of New York

'We will change our genetic makeup'
Norbert Gleicher, director of the Centre for Human Reproduction, Chicago

'We will find out if we are alone'
Colin Pillinger, head of planetary and space sciences, Open University

'Humans become a collective intelligence'
John Barrow, professor of mathematical sciences and author of The Infinite Book, Cambridge University

'We'll understand thoughts and feelings'
Steven Pinker, professor of psychology, Harvard University

'The end of the individual'
Susan Greenfield, neuroscientist, Oxford University

'What if God lives in a part of our brain?'
Nancy Rothwell, neuroscientist at Manchester University

'What it means to be a person'
V S Ramachandran, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California at San Diego

'Conscious machines'
Igor Aleksander, professor of neural systems engineering at Imperial College London

'Higher dimensions'
Lisa Randall, theoretical physicist, Harvard University

'Humans are less miraculous than we thought'
Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica and author of A New Kind of Science

Link
Source: Guardian
[via Sentient Developments]

See also:
The 2005 Edge Annual Question
Neal Stephenson’s Past, Present, and Future - Reason

Audio:
Pop!Tech 2004 - IT Conversations
Accelerating Change 2004 - IT Conversations

Google, Mark Jen & Office Politics 101

Keywords: Google, blog, office politics

"Since Google blogger Mark Jen got the ax there's been a lot of talk about whether or not the move was fair on Google's part.

Naturally this leads in to the bigger issue of whether or not employers have the right to lay down policies outlining acceptable blogging behavior (or, to put it more bluntly - censor their employees).

Among all the buzz (i.e., articles cobbled together from what little we've heard from Jen) comes this dose of common sense from Techdirt. The post takes a step back, removing the method of delivery (blogging) from of the equation and focusing on the content (what Jen actually said).

We agree that Jen was fired for what he was saying, not how he was saying it. What he was saying was negative stuff about his employer that included bagging on his compensation (big no no), disclosing the details of his compensation (even bigger no no), and describing HR policies and procedures of a company notorious for its secrecy.

Is it any wonder he got fired? Are we taking crazy pills here? Anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of office politics and acceptable standards of behavior knows this stuff.

And if Jen doesn't know, then why? Aren't Google employees supposed to be the cream of the crop? If he didn't realize that word gets around in the blogosphere, what's he doing as an Associate Product Manager, where one of the main tasks is, as Jen himself puts it, 'Coming up with new offerings that would revolutionize the way people use computers and the internet.' Hard to revolutionize with your head where the sun don't shine.

Bottom line: The cardinal rule of office politics hasn't changed - whether you're gossiping over cocktails with a coworker or blogging by yourself in your basement - what you say can (and will) come back to you."

Link
Source: Search Views

Anyway, Mark, I'm sorry that you got fired...

See also:
Mark Jen - Technorati
Google - Technorati
Jeremy Zawodny's blog
Robert Scoble's blog

Discuss:
Google Fires Blogger? - Slashdot

Audio:
Bloggercon III - IT Conversations
Scoble's Keynote MP3 - Blog Business Summit
On the Pod with Robert Scoble - G'Day World Podcast

Google's Strategy

Keywords: Google Inc., financial analyst

"Google Inc. provided stock market analysts with a rare peek at its mind-set but steadfastly refused to forecast its financial future as the online search leader navigated through another rite of passage in its short life as a publicly held company.

The four-hour meeting Wednesday at Google's Mountain View headquarters represented the company's first extensive discussion about its opportunities and challenges since completing its closely watched initial public offering of stock nearly six months ago."
Link
Source: Always On

Multimedia:
Google Inc. Analyst Day
John Doerr - Web 2.0 - IT Conversations

Reviews:
Things We Learned From Google's Analyst Day - SEW Blog
Google's Long Tail - The Long Tail

See also:
Google - Google News
Google - Yahoo News
Google - Topix
Google - Technorati
Google Acquisitions - Adam Rifkin

Discuss:
Google Formula For Adding New Products - Slashdot
WebmasterWorld - Google Finance, and Business Operations

Google MapQuest

Keywords: Google, search, map, beta, local

"We think maps can be useful and fun, so we've designed Google Maps to simplify how to get from point A to point B. Say you're looking for 'hotels near LAX.' With Google Maps you'll see nearby hotels plotted right on a crisp new map (we use new rendering methods to make them easier to read). Click and drag the map to view the adjacent area dynamically - there's no wait for a new image to download. Or get step-by-step directions to where you're headed. If a particular intersection on the route looks tricky, click on that step in the directions to see a magnified view. Play with the keyboard shortcuts (arrow keys to pan or the +/- keys to zoom in and out ) too. The tour shows you even more."
Link
Source: Google Blog

Where is George W. Bush? What about Bill Gates or Google? Irrelevant results. Too much noise. A cool, but dumb, search engine! This is a common problem for the search industry. Peter Norvig and his mates work on this task and I can't wait for the semantic web!

Reviews:
Google Blogoscoped
SEW Blog
The Unofficial Google Weblog
Is Google Maps a video game or a utility? - Eric Rice
Google Maps is a web of linked XML documents - Jon Udell
Mapping Google - Joel Webber
Google Maps is Critical to Success of Keyhole - ConnectMe Networks

See also:
Google Maps - Google News
Google Maps - Yahoo News
Google - Topix.net
Search Engine News - Topix.net
Google - Technorati
Marissa Mayer - Technorati
Peter Norvig - Technorati

Discuss:
Google Launches Mapping Service - Slashdot

Audio:
Peter Norvig - The Web 2.0 Weblog
Keyhole Mapping - The Web 2.0 Weblog

Future:
Search Engines - SadTech

Games: New Interface Technologies

"Dr. Richard Marks, one of the creators of the Eye-Toy, talks about new directions in interface design."

"Dr. Marks shows off a 'Minority-Report' style interactive interface."

"Next-gen cameras can easily and accurately map your movements onto a digital avatar in 3D space."

Link
Source: GameSpy

Wikipedia:
Human-computer interaction

See also:
Game News - Topix.net
Virtual Worlds News - Topix.net

Audio:
Interface - Accelerating Change 2004 - IT Conversations

Discuss:
Games - Slashdot

The Next-Generation Chips

"IBM, Sony and Toshiba join forces on a new microprocessor said to combine flexibility with raw computing horsepower. The processor, dubbed Cell, might chuck Wintel compatibility in a bid to dethrone the Pentium."
Link
Source: Wired

See also:
Semiconductor News - Topix.net
High Performance Computing News - Topix.net
Sony Playstation 2 News - Topix.net

Discuss:
More Cell Processor Details And First Pictures - Slashdot

Sun Microsystems's Grid Computing

Do you remember "The Software Paradigm Shift", the great IT Conversation with Tim O'Reilly?

Sun Microsystems gets the idea. Jonathan Schwartz says:
"We're well on our way to building out a global grid, with partners across the world, to make the network service called 'computing' as ubiquitous, and affordable, as electricity. Ditto for storage.

Our view is that many suppliers in the technology industry have relied on mass inefficiencies and opacity to drive short term profits - why bother delivering a computing service if you can custom build a grid for each customer and sell 10X the infrastructure? To us, that sounds like betting against the network - a bad move for any market. So what we introduced was simple - an opportunity for any customer needing a computing or storage grid to leverage ours for a simple, transparent price: $1/cpu-hr, or $1/GB-mo."
Link
Source: Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog

See also:
Sun Microsystems - Topix.net
Sun Microsystems - Google News
Sun Microsystems - Yahoo News
Sun Microsystems - Technorati

Audio:
The Gillmor Gang with Jonathan Schwartz - IT Conversations

The Coming Leisure Society

Paul Hughes, editor of Future Hi, writes:

"The last few days I've become increasingly obsessed with where the global economy is going and it's effects on the labor pool. After days of contemplating the large number of variables I now believe that a leisure society is inevitable, short of global catastrophe. Futurist and optimists have been dreaming about it for years, but I think we are likely to see it in our lifetimes, regardless of how bankrupt governments and social programs become in the interim.

One undeniable trend that almost every business guru agrees on, is that companies will have to become increasingly accountable and transparent to their investors and more responsive to their customers if they want to survive. As the power of the network grows, making it possible for more real-time information of a companies operations, the Board of Directors and the CEO are going to increasingly become accountable to investors and customers until they are almost superfluous in the organization. The current juggernaut of centralized and corporate behemoths, obscene executive salaries, and hierarchical organizations cannot withstand the power of the network much longer. I think the massive swindling is happening in part because of fear of their inevitable demise."

HERE IS HOW

Imagine you have two publicly traded companies that are both competing in the same sector. One of these companies is completely transparent throughout the entire enterprise - finances, hiring/firing, supply-chain, everything is open for review. One possible way to visualize this is to imagine a sophisticated 2D/3D real-time interactive animation display of every area of the companies operations. You could tell exactly how many people are working where, who is being hired, fired, expenditures for everything from trash bags in the company lunch room, to how much is being spent on advertising. All of it will be completely displayed in dynamical real-time techni-color graphics. The second company is just like most any company now doing business as usual (circa 2003).

In this competitive environment, the first company will be far more likely to attract investors than the second, but more importantly the first company's functioning will be so transparent to the people running it that clear communication and knowledge will available to everyone, even the customers and investors. Such a company will make it very easy for anyone to communicate, ideas to be exchanged across company lines, problem areas to be easily identified and resolved. The level of innovation and efficiency, not to mention the very attractive capital inflow from investor confidence, will easily out compete a company more worried about keeping things secret - regardless of whether its their books or intellectual property.

With the proliferation of RFID, good or bad, it will enable everyone, you and me to identify every product that we buy and automatically, and in real-time shopping mode, purchase only those products that come from companies who adhere to our ethical/corruption index, details of which I have blogged about earlier:

These types of measurements would be made via decentralized, ad-hoc, smart mobs in conjunction with individual reputation systems. So, not only will you be able to vote with your pocketbook, but also you will be able to make informed, even ethical consumer decisions based on people you trust. I can see this web-of-trust rapidly superceding top-heavy "consumer" capitalism, transforming it into a bottom-up grass-roots participatory capitalism.

As time goes on, and it won't take long in this nanosecond, increasingly automated and accelerated economy for this ecology of transparent companies to fine tune the very essence of what a company/economy does. By definition the economy itself will become utterly response to investors and customers who increasingly become the same person. These so-called ad-hoc transient companies will increasingly blur the line between one company and another, employees and investors, customers and executives, that such distinction will become meaningless. No longer will we have distinct "solid" and separate companies and consumers, but an evolving complex decentralized ad-hoc network of capital, people, ideas, innovation and wealth responding in real-time to the people it serves. It will mark the end of the corporation as we know it and the beginning of a truly support economy."

Link
Source: Future Hi

See also:
Revenge of the Right Brain - Wired

Discuss:
AlwaysOn

Audio:
Accelerating Change 2004 - IT Conversations
Pop!Tech 2004 - IT Conversations

2,500 Feeds

Now, I have 2,500 feeds in my Bloglines account. Blogs, news, moblogs, social bookmarks, audio, video, search...What's my next goal? 3,000 feeds.
Link