mip's scan

More Info on 3D Printing

Ok - you know how I wrote about 3D printing and the potential application to the construction industry?  Well, it raised some interesting questions as I chatted with my father-in-law over our Sunday lunch.  You see he'd been in construction all his life, specifically concrete work, amongst other areas of construction work and when I told him about this type of technology, he was really curious to know more.  So I did some digging with him online and we found some great animations of how this would work and I wanted to share it with my readers.  Just click here to get more information.  The info comes from the site Contour Crafting.  What I really find fascinating about this is how the model for inkjet printers provided the example of how this would work.

The Future of User Interface

There are somethings that I see in technology that when I see them I think "beauty".  I know it sounds strange that someone could find "beauty" in something technical, but I do.  Since user interface has been something that I have kept as a focus in my career when I see good implementation of user interface it always catches my eye.  For example, when I saw what Apple was doing for the iPhone I really did think it was beautiful from the perspective of how elegant and functional the user interface was.  It made me think of the user interface paradigm that was in the movie Minority Report where Tom Cruise was moving "things" like video, photos, and files all with his hand gestures.  I started thinking, "how far behind can a large scale version of this type of user interface be?"  I found my answer.  See the video below.  This video is one of those things that truly made me stop and say "beautfiul".  Watch for yourself and let me know what you think.  In my opinion, you are seeing below what computing will be like in the near future.  Gone will be the days of using a mouse to point and click.

UPDATE:  If for some reason the video below doesn't play, you can go to it directly by clicking here.

UPDATE 2: I've moved the video to after the jump so it doesn't end up playing each time people visit the homepage of my blog.  Click below to continue reading and you'll be able to see this excellent video.

The Future of 3D Printing

Have you seen Mission Impossible 3? There is one scene I like where the team gets some covert snapshots of the villan, which are then wireless sent back to a computer and this computer creates a latex mask from the images. It is this idea that has started taking hold known as 3D printing.

Well this post is for my brother-in-law Dan Palermo. I've been fascinated by this idea of 3D printing for some time now as I think it hold some fantastic opportunities both in business and for personal use. I read this article titled Robo-builder Threatens the Brickie and I liked it for a a few reason: it dealt with concrete (which made me think of Dan), it dealt with robots (another area of interest for me) and thirdly, it was a great example of this concept of 3D printing.

What is it? From the article we read:

Engineers are racing to unveil the world’s first robot capable of building a house at the touch of a button.
The first prototype — a watertight shell of a two-storey house built in 24 hours without a single builder on site — will be erected in California before April.

The idea is that you would have a house in virtual format on your computer and when the design was completed to your satisfaction, they would do the equivalent of a Control-P (FYI that's how you print a document on your computer) and instead of sending the design to your inkjet printer, they send it to this robot-printer. Wow! That is so amazing to think. How do they pull it off? The key is that they are using only 2 materials.

By building almost an entire house from just two materials — concrete and gypsum — the robots will eliminate the need for dozens of traditional components, including floorboards, wooden window frames and possibly even wallpaper. It may eventually be possible to use specially treated gypsum instead of glass window panes.

Now that is some rapid building. Imagine, the structure of your next, custom design home, being all done in 24 hours. I think it would revolutionize the building industry, change the way we live and open the door to may other forms of 3D-printing automated creation of things that go straight from the computer to reality with the click of a button.

A Virtual Machine on A Mac "IS" Windows

I had two potential titles for this post, the one above, A Virtual Machine on A Mac "IS" Windows or an alternate Have No Fear, You Can Buy A Mac Now.  I read with interest this morning a post over on Coffee Conversations called Mac versus PC that made me realize that people still don't complete understand, one year later, what it means now that Apple is using the Intel chipset.  More importantly, people don't understand what creating a virtual machine is and what it gives you on your Mac.  So I thought I'd write a little about it and weave my thoughts on the latest release of Parallels into it as well.

The major fear that gets expressed to me often, and comes up in Jim's post over on Coffee Conversations, is that if they buy a Mac they somehow will find themselves in a situation where they can't do something they need to because it is a Windows only task.  This as always puzzled me.  For the most part, I would wager, that most people are doing only a few things with their computers.

• working on Office-like documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
• reading, writing, sending emails
• surfing the web
• listening to music
• watching videos

Ask yourself...how much more are you doing with your computer?  If that is about all you are doing, then all of the above can be done on a Mac. Microsoft Office 2004 has been around for a few years and works wonderfully well.  You can use the email client of your choice from a wide variety of applications available.  Ditto for the web browser.  if however you do need to run something Windows specific, well, this is where Parallels comes in (or, as you saw from yesterday's post....VMWare now).

A virtual machine is literally a fully function machine/computer that is running virtually on your Mac.  It is Windows.  I'll repeat that:  it is Windows.  When you create a virtual machine you are installing Windows.  You install the apps you want.  Then when you launch your virtual machine it is just like having switched on a Windows-based computer.  No difference really.  I run one all the time, everyday and use it off and on, mixed right in alongside my Mac applications. It is like getting 2 computers in one.  The other benefits of a virtual machine are this...you can easily back it up.  It is a single file (a large one, yes, but still a single file).  If something should then happen to your virtual machine, as things always do to Window's machines, you can just copy that file back over to your Mac and -BINGO- you have a fully functioning Windows computer again.  No reinstalling Windows, no reinstalling applications. Just copy, launch and get back to work.  Try doing that the next time your Windows laptop or desktop has crashed.

VMWare for The Mac

Running Windows on the Mac has become dead easy using Parallels.  The team at Parallels continues to evolve this product in absolutely fantastic ways.  I'll talk more about Parallels in tomorrow's post because today I want to talk about another virtualization tool for running Windows on your Mac.  VMware.

VMWare has for a long time been an outstanding product in the Windows and Linus world for creating virtual machines.  They had announced a long while back that they'd be bringing their application to the Mac.  For me personally Parallels has been doing everything perfectly, but for one instance in my workplace I was having an issue.  Memory limitations.  Parallels has been stuck at 1.5GB.  What does that mean?  It means that you can't create a virtual machine (a virtual PC) that has more than 1.5GB of RAM.  This wasn't a big deal to me but it was for a Mac Pro that I set up. This Mac Pro has a whopping 16GB of RAM that I wanted to leverage fully as possible, but Parallels was giving me trouble.  The 1.5GB was an issue, but to boot, on the Mac Pro I couldn't even get that.  So I patiently waited for VMWare to become available.

VMWare released their beta to me over Christmas and I've been using it on the Mac Pro at work.  Memory issues?  None.  I create 4 virtual machines each running with 3.5GB of RAM, which seems to be the limit that Windows XP itself recognizes.  I have to be honest that while I was happy that VMWare overcame the memory issue, as a product it doesn't stack up as well against the many features that Parallels has.  Granted, VMWare is still a beta and Parallels is fully released so we have to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.  Outside of the memory advantage that VMware has over Parallels, I also liked the ability to configure the number of virtual processors that your virtual machine has.  Again, this is only useful if you have applications that can take advantage of the two cores, but is nice to have this as an option to set during configuration.

My suggestion is this.  Try them both.  If you don't have any apps that need more than 1.5GB then I'd go with Parallels.  If for some reason you have an app that can leverage the additional RAM (or absolutely needs it) then VMWare might be the better choice.  I would be surprised if Parallels doesn't release an update to their product that gives us access to more virtualized RAM.

Whatever product you decide on, the great thing is that both of them show us how viable the Mac can be and is becoming in the enterprise.  Through virtualization products like VMWare or Parallels you can take the plunge, buy a Mac and never need to worry about not being able to run something in Windows, if needed. 

Art and Technology

Over the holidays we went to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) several times.  Last weekend we went again as my kids are taking some art classes there and I had an opportunity to re-visit some of my favourite things on exhibit, and I noticed a very interesting technical element that was being experimented with.

As I walked into their The Future Now exhibit, where the gallery invites you to experience art through their experimental installation strategies, I noticed a little icon on a number of signs depicting a cellphone.  At first I thought that it was one of those "no cellphones please" signs - you know the ones that are intended to keep people from yapping away on their cellphones while others are trying to quietly enjoy the art around them.  But this little icon didn't have the strikeout symbol on it.  Rather it was encouraging the use of cellphones.  Hmmmm....I was curious.  What they are doing is this.  At certain exhibits, for example, let's take a painting, you will find a sign beside or beneath the work of art that displays the little cellphone icon and a phone number.  It also provides options you can select once the number has been dialed.  An automated recording answers your call and you can select an option to hear commentary on the art you are standing before.  I think this is a great idea.  I've been to museums and galleries where you are issued a headset when you arrive.  What I've never liked about that approach is:

1. you are using headsets and gear that countless others have used
2. you need to listen to the commentary in a linear fashion, hence you can't walk the gallery as you like.

What is really nice about this cellphone approach at the AGO is that it allows you to move at your own pace, it allows you to get commentary on the items you want and it allows you to easily replay something you might want to hear again while standing there.  Everyone carries a cellphone, so the gallery can easily extend this added dimension to art to their visitors without the need to provide equipment.  I wandered from piece to piece, pressing different options (e.g., press 2 to hear a professor of art tell you the history of the piece, press 3 to hear an art student describe the changing roles of gender in art, etc., etc.).  I really was surprised, impressed and pleased to see something like this being tested at our very own art gallery here in Toronto.

Other technology things that the AGO is doing are things like:

• maintaining a blog
• photographing the kids art they do there during kids programs for creation of a website
• providing a podcast

All of these things make art accessible in a different way and I think it is exciting and very positive.  One of the things that the AGO could consider doing was something I saw at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.  There they were leveraging the fact that many many people carry/have iPods, especially young people.  In an effort to reach out to young people they provided art exhibition information on a computer in iTunes at the Museum of Art.  People would simply plug their iPod in, sync the content and then wander from exhibit to exhibit listening to the content. 

So hats off to organizations using technology to make art more accessible.  Art is an important part of society that is often overlooked, when it should be viewed as important.  Good for the AGO for exploring this as well as they undergo their transformation!  I look forward to seeing more of this in my ongoing visits to the gallery.

Skype and the Netgear SPH101

A long while back I spoke in a podcast about the wonderful Skype phone from Netgear, the SPH101.  I didn't do a full blog review on this phone at the time because I had just been using it a few days.  So here now is a full review of this little VoiP phone.  Over the Christmas holidays there were lots of phone calls being made to friends and family in different cities - all on this Skype phone.  Between myself, my wife and my visiting family we easily used 10 hours of talk time catching up with people.

The SPH101 performs very well.  The sound quality is excellent and I didn't realize that it had a built in speaker phone when I bought it. The speak phone is a nice addition and works well.

The user interface is very nice and the display of your contacts is much better than the previous USB-connect vTech phone.  You can see contacts coming on and offline and call them very easily with a single click. 

The phone connects to my Wi-Fi at home without any issue.  Of course I had to set it up the first time with my WEP key and other security items but it was fairly straightforward and took about 5 minutes to do so.  After that, whenever you power on the phone, it finds the Wi-Fi router, connects and then logs into Skype.  I've also taken it with me to other places (peoples homes, open public Wi-Fi connections, etc) and it finds the WiFi access, connects and I'm good to go.  You can't use it unfortunately in a public hotspot like you might find in a Starbucks for instance, because that would require you to login/connect via browser to your account.  This phone doesn't work that way. The reality for me however is that I'm using this phone 95% of the time in my home and it works super well.  I'm planning on taking it with me over seas in March so I can use the hotel Wi-Fi and make inexpensive calls home.

If I have any complaints with regard to the SPH101 it is the battery life.  I was finding that often when I would go to use the phone, the battery would be dead.  It is Wi-Fi so of course after several hours of being connected, the battery finds itself dead.  What I do is simply keep the phone plugged in all the time in our kitchen.  When I want to make a call, I unplug it and use it, no problem.  I spoke for an hour and had drained about half the battery.  Then I plugged it back in.  You can of course use it plugged in as well, just that then you can't walk around with it.  My wife however often just sits at the kitchen table with the phone plugged in and talks away without any battery draining at all, obviously.

I should say a word about Skype itself since that is the service this phone uses.  Through 2006 Skype allowed us to make free calls in Canada and the US.  This ended January 1st, but don't despair.  The package they are offering is awesome.  If you order before January 31st, for $14.95 you can get a year of unlimited calling in Canada and the US.  International calls will be 2.1 cents a minute.  Get all the details here.

So given the great offering from Skype and the excellent performance from the Netgear Skype phone I'd recommend it to anyone looking to leverage this tech in their home or small business.   

Some Video Showing the iPhone

Reader gresshoping sent this to me and it is a nice interview and video showing the iPhone and talking about how Apple approached the market.
Enjoy!

A True Thing of Beauty - The Apple iPhone

One of the big tech news items/developments that really lit a fire under my ass jump started my blogging this morning was Apple's announcement on Tuesday of the long awaited iPhone. My God this thing is beautiful.

Yes yes, I know it isn't out yet, and I haven't used it (who has really?).  I'm not going to pretend that this is a review of the new device.  Instead this is a commentary (like many others) on this device. 

First and foremost, I'm so excited to get my hands on this phone while at the same time, I'm dismayed at the thought of how long it could be before we see the iPhone in Canada.  I'm really glad it is a GSM phone, meaning Rogers will carry it (which is who I am with).  For those of you with Bell or Telus...well, come March...number portability will be in place here in Canada so....you could always make the switch to Rogers when the iPhone becomes available.

God this device is beautiful...did I say that already? Sorry about that.  :-)

I read criticism from analysts and competitive phone manufactures, like RIM defending their Blackberry, that alluded to the fact that Apple had delivered nothing new.  Hmm.  I guess a whole new mobile phone OS with a new user interface that focuses on usability doesn't count as something new?  Apple is a company that has mastered creating elegant products that just work.  Like the Mac computers, which just work, the iPod took the market not because it was unique in features....rather, because it's beauty came in the simplicity of using it.  The iPhone will be the same.  They've given us some great features on this phone that are going to be easily accessible because of the ease of use. Yes I know, Blackberry has a huge install base already....but so did Palm...remember?

The gesture-based touchscreen is something outstanding in my opinion.  It allows the face of the phone to become application centric, unlike phones today that are tied to their physical form.  I love that this phone runs on OS X, the operating system that powers the Mac.  I've heard and read that they might not allow you to put apps onto the phone besides what they bundle. This is a mistake...if they do it.  I can't imagine them actually doing this in the long run.  I would think that allowing people to create widgets that would run on this thing would only further drive the potential uses people would find for it.

Coming in at 4GB and 8GB the storage is more nano like rather than video iPod like.  I would expect to see future version of this with 60GB or 80Gb hard drives.  With only 8Gb on the unit, you'd be hard pressed to put a lot of video content onto the device. 

Anyway, be sure to check out the site Apple has up here.  Clicking through the various sections (e.g., widescreen iPod, revolutionary phone, etc.) will allow you to see some nice demos of the functionality and the user interface to this functionality. 

I can't wait till this phone comes out.  I love my Blackberry, but always knew that the day that Apple came out with the iPhone, I'd be making the switch.  I can only hope that someone at Rogers called Apple the day this thing was announced and that they are trying to get it sooner rather than later.  The official launch in the US is June 2007.  Wouldn't it be nice to have that happen here in Canada as well?

Whew...I'm Back...Anything Going On?

Ha.  Of course there is.  Wow!  Time sure does fly.

Sorry I've been away.  A couple of realities:

1. super busy before the Christmas holidays with work and family coming in before the break
2. super busy with my children who were attending parties, putting on Christmas concerts and my oldest who entered her art portfolio in an art competition and took a silver medal home (congrats!!  see article here and photo here (she is shortest/youngest and in front on the left)
3. crazy busy (but ultra-enjoyable) during the holidays where I completely unplugged, except for the utilization of our Wii and some other key technologies that proved to be awesome over the holidays (more on this in an upcoming post)
4. came back to work after the new year (Happy 2007 everyone) and found somehow, even more things that were waiting to keep me very busy
5. I came to realize that blogging and podcasting are a lot like working out....as soon as your schedule gets messed up, it is so hard to get back into it
6. i don't have the luxury of having a "ghost guest writer" write my posts like some other blogs do ;-)
7. I finally have risen extra early this morning, gone out for a run and started to write and look over partial posts I've been working on

So stay tuned, I've completed 6 posts all of which are timed to begin coming out starting today (great feature in Typepad).  Some of the things you'll read about:  the Wii and how it was received in our household over the holidays, VoiP, the Apple iPhone (could I be any happier!!!!!!!!), 2007 IT trends for IT departments, and technology meets art.

So nice to be back everyone!  Did you miss me?