mip's scan

Car with Feelings

It's like a cross between your car and Aibo the robot entertainment dog!
Is this really what we need? A car with feelings?

Coming from Toyota...

...the Pod car detects and reacts to the feelings of its driver through special sensors.

It's headlights look like eyes and its side lights look like ears - and it can smile, frown and cry...

To me the question is why?

I can see the scenario now based on this info

If you puncture a tyre, run out of fuel or have a bump, it goes blue and cries.

I'm pulled over at the side of the road trying to change a tire and my car won't stop balling its headlights out.

Redesign for Nintendo DS

It would seem that the unit we saw at E3 this year of the next generation Gameboy has gone through a bit of a change. I've included a picture of the new design, which still has the dual screen but seems to be quite a bit larger in width. I think this design puts it in about the same dimensions as the upcoming Sony handheld gaming device.

As for specs on this unit:

Nintendo has already said the handheld will be powered by twin ARM-based processors running at 67MHz and 33MHz, respectively. It will contain 128MB of RAM. The two displays - the lower of which is touch-sensitive - operate at 256 x 192, a little better than the GBA's 240 x 160 panel. The DS will possess decent 2D capabilities, but it also has a 3D graphics system which, the spec. claims, is capable of drawing 120,000 polygons per second, representing a fill-rate of 30 million pixels per second.

The unit will support wireless Internet access and multi-player gaming across an 802.11b WLAN.

Missed Point

So I've seen this theme pop up throughout the week and now I thought I'd comment. The theme I'm talking about is this flurry of articles that states that perhaps technology introduced to kids at too young an age in not beneficial. The most recent article I read that wrote about this says that one mother

soon realized Madeline, now 4, wasn't really learning anything. She just kept clicking, dragging and playing the same games over and over. Now, she's in no rush to get her 1-year-old son, Liam, on computers or the Internet.

My response to this is that technology is like anything else when it comes to children. If you just put your child in front of a computer and say "play a while" its like putting them in front of tv, popping in the latest Disney film and saying "watch tv awhile." Technology is a tool and a parents involvement with their kids as they leverage this tool is paramount. Computer use, like anything else, needs to be done in moderation. Kids need balance. Technology has that ability to totally absorb a child (adults as well) and so working with your kids and setting limits is important. Surfing onto some online game site and leaving your child to repeatedly play the games there is not my idea of good exposure to technology. There is a place for it - it teaches mouse skills, hand/eye coordination, etc. but it only goes so far. Parental involvement, similar to reading with your kids or watching TV with them, is a must.

Done properly, you're never too young (or old for that matter) to be exposed to technology and its benefits.

Artificial Brain

I've always been fascinated with the idea of technology someday replicating the functions of the human brain. Artificial intelligence is an area that has always been of great interest to me. That's why I thought I'd post this interesting article I read. According to e4engineering.com, a company named Artificial Development has recently completed a representation of a functioning human brain. This project, named CCortex is mind boggling from the perspective of what they've assembled so far.

The picture to the above is described as follows:

Here is a picture of the CCortex Linux cluster which has 500 nodes for 1,000 processors, 1 terabyte of RAM, and 200 terabytes of storage (Credit: Artificial Development). The company says that "CCortex is up to 10,000 times larger than any previous attempt to replicate, partially or completely, primary characteristics of human intelligence."

Getting to the Root of the Problem

There's been a lot of buzz around the IE vs. alternate browsers both in the media and here at mip's scan. A friend of mine and I were chatting about this last night out by a bon fire and he asked me "If these other browsers like Firefox became the primary browser being used by people wouldn't hackers just set their sites on attacking those browsers?"

This is a fair question and I would have to say that I agree with the thinking. Of course hackers would turn their attention to whoever was leading the market. But there is a fundamental difference in what the outcome would be. I think that hackers would be less successful, less damaging, because of a difference at the very core of the way the browsers by the alternates have been developed and that of Internet Explorer from Microsoft. In its attempt to gain marketshare Microsoft integrated IE with the operating system. This is a big mistake and that is really what dogs MS today. The browser, whose sole purpose is to let users browse the internet which is outside the local computer should never (I repeat, never) be part of the operating system. Its is this tight integration between the browser and the OS that will guarantee that neither of the two from Microsoft will ever truly be secure. It's also the reason other OS's and browsers will be harder to attack as they lack this fundamental flaw to exploit.

Cancer Fighting Video Game

I came across this article that I also will post at our Youth Technology Camp blog since we have a focus in the Youth Technology Camp that includes video game development for the kids. I encourage the children to think of other ideas/paradigms and reasons for video games as they learn the foundation of video game development and build games of their own. The CNN article featured a young boy named Ben Duskin whose made a wish through the Make-A-Wish Foundation and wished for a video game that other children afflicated with cancer could play to "take their mind off the painful side effects of chemotherapy."

...Johnston agreed to volunteer his time to help Ben achieve his wish.....they developed "Ben's Game."

The game's central character, modeled after Ben, zooms around the screen on a skateboard, zapping mutated cells and collecting seven shields to protect against common side effects of chemotherapy, which include nausea, hair loss and fevers.....

To me this is an excellent example of how video game technology can be used to as a powerful learning tool with children. Children learn differently today because of the environment they are in that differs from when I was a child. The game itself is fun and that is always the objective of a good video game - to entertain. Ben's objective was to entertain so kids could cope with their illness. In the process though it educates and opens a dialogue. I let me oldest daughter play the game and she had fun and then she started to ask questions about why cells mutate?, what is cancer? and how doctors fight that kind of sickness? and there lies the opportunity to teach. I've always felt that the key to having kids learn is to keep them passionate about the process of learning. If the passion, the curiosity, the wonder of learning disappears then kids tune out, they turn off and become disinterested. Over time I believe that we'll see more and more of this type of thing, not only available for kids to use as end products, but I believe we'll see more & more kids actually using the vehicle of creating games as part of their communication of information.

You can download the game here.

Mozilla Security Flaw

Of course you knew it was going to happen. A secuirty hole was found this past Wednesday for users of Mozilla. A friend of mine sent me an email to give me a playful poke because I'd written that people could consider using Firefox over IE.

So I'll playfully counter by referencing this Globe & Mail article that reads

Developers at the open-source Mozilla Foundation have confirmed that the latest version of their Web browsers have a security flaw that could allow attackers to run existing programs on the Windows XP operating system.

What I'll put emphasis on is that the attackers can "run existing programs on the Windows XP" OS - so if you want to be really safe, use Firefox on an alternate OS.

Microsoft vs. Linux

It's been a busy week with the opening of our Youth Technology Camp so I apologize to my readers for being absent. I have a backlog of stuff to read & comment on.
This one here struck me in a big way. In article at eWeek we see comments from a memo from Steve Ballmer regarding the threat of Linux and their approach to combating this threat.

In the memo, Ballmer wrote, "We are effectively using independent studies by Forrester Research, the Yankee Group, IDC, Giga, BearingPoint and many others to change perceptions of the advantages of Windows over Linux when it comes to total cost of ownership [TCO], functionality and productivity advantages, support and security. We need to do work like this in every business to get customers to recognize our work and appreciate it fully."

To me I find it to be a somewhat strange & oddly funny approach. Why?

Who's Copying Who?

I must say that I was amused by the great banners that Apple had on display recently that poked fun at the fact that Microsoft often copies Apple innovations in the area of the operating system. I was recently given some software however for my Macs that is called Konfabulator that made me stop and say "Hey - now who's doing the copying?"

One of the flashy features coming out in in the next release of the Mac OS, codenamed Tiger, is something called dashboard. The dashboard feature allows various widgets, such as notepads, clocks and stock tickers, to fly on screen at the touch of a button, then fly off when dismissed. I thought this was quite a great concept....and then I see that its already being provided by software known as the Konfabulator! Hmmm....now I wonder who's photocopiers have been hard at work? If you have a Mac, this piece of software is an excellent addition - and you don't even have to wait for Tiger to enjoy it.

The Operating System of the Future (Part 3) - Waiting Long for Longhorn

This will conclude our brief look at operating systems (OS) sparked by a recent conversation with a client around alternates to Windows. We looked briefly at the Java Desktop and Tiger (not really an alternate unless you are looking to change hardware within an organization) and now I wanted to briefly touch on Windows itself and its future release codenamed Longhorn.