Growing up in Southern California, we enjoyed going to Disneyland more frequently than our friends and relatives who only visited from time to time.
My favorite area was Tomorrowland and one of my favorite exhibits was seeing the videophones.
For years, we would go and see the same exhibit. You'd sit in a booth while someone else would sit in another booth about 20 feet away. You could then talk to them while you saw them on a television screen and vice versa.
Every year, we were told that videophones were coming in our lifetime. We would be able to communicate with friends and neighbors around the world and see them as well as hear them.
But the technical hurdles were high. Televisions were expensive. The ability to send so much video information over far distances was also very high. I could only hope to see a videophone in my lifetime.
Then the world changed. The Internet happened.
All of a sudden, televisions not only became much less expensive, but not needed. We had computers with screens whose computing horsepower was rising dramatically while the cost per unit of performance plummeted.
Along with inexpensive screens, the ability to move large amounts of data became essentially free.
And so what entered are a number of services — many of them also free — that allow people to do what is now called a "video chat" on their computers. Skype is probably the best known of these software applications, but there are hundreds of others.
The strange part is that when I was sitting in that booth at Disneyland, I thought that when I had the ability to use a videophone, I would do it all the time. I don't.
I still make phone calls, but rarely do I use the video features. It's not just that picking up a phone is easier, but I don't always want to see the person on the other end of the line or even have them see me.
And while I in my mid-50s am not always the best indicator of what's hot with the younger generation, my 13-year-old daughter, who has a far more sensitive finger on the pulse of teen technology, doesn't use video calling much, either.
Sure, my daughter like to video chat with her friends. In fact, she uses the video calling features more than she uses a regular telephone.
Where I have seen video calling in popular use is among the young, digitally-connected companies who want do have video conferences to save on travel time and costs, and the occasional special call to someone to show off something.
I earlier reported that during a trip to China last summer, we were able to place a video call from the Great Wall to my brother in California so that his two young children could see what we were seeing. And the cost was zero.
While it's surprising how the reality of video calls hasn't turned out to be what we thought it would be, I can't say I'm surprised. It really is difficult to predict the future or how people will use inventions.
But now I want my flying car. When traffic on I-95 or the Merritt is bad, I want to unfold the wings and get on my way.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 25 January 2012.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
I Want My (Private) Space
Growing up with Alan Shepard as the first American in space, then later literally watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, I am a child of a space exploration culture.
Going to the moon and beyond was what most children wanted to do growing up. Seeing the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" convinced me that I was going to fly into space on a Pan Am spacecraft.
Of course, Captain Kirk and the other Star Trek stories had me convinced that I wanted to explore the cosmos.
Needless to say, a lot has changed since my younger years. Cars still don't fly and neither are we able to go into space.
But the dream of space flight and space exploration continues.
When President Obama announced a scaling back of NASA last year, I was dumbfounded. How could we take a national treasure such as space exploration and slash the budget and "privatize" it?
It's taken me months before I can actually understand and kinda sorta agree with President Obama's decision.
The good news is that NASA will still work on very large, expensive missions, such as going to Mars. The bad news is that the Shuttle program has ended. We now rely on the Russians to transport crews to and from International Space Station.
What has brought me around to thinking that the decision to cut NASA's budget for "local" spaceflight might be a good thing is the Internet.
The Internet was originally a government project to connect colleges, universities and the government. While the core technology for the Internet was developed as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Internet really took off when the commercial ventures became involved.
I recall when the Internet was struggling to decide whether commercial, for-profit (.com) domains should be allowed on the Internet. Previously, only .edu (education), .org (not-for-profit), .net (network providers) and .gov (U.S. government) domains were on the Internet.
When the commercial entities came to the Internet, its use quite literally exploded overnight and has continued to change our planet.
A number of companies have seen the opportunities for space businesses. These include Richard Branson who has started Virgin Galactic (www.virgingalactic.com), offering sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public, and Scaled Composites (www.scaled.com), also offering sub-orbital manned rocket flights through SpaceShipOne, There's also International Launch Services (www.ilslaunch.com), a company that has been launching satellites into space since 1995.
In thinking about it, if NASA were the only player in the space business, the odds of me or my children ever going into space would be slim to none. With commercial ventures working on scaling space flight and gaining efficiencies in both safety and cost, I still think the chances of me going into space are slim.
But I would not at all be surprised if my children are able to affordably and safely take a ride into space or even to the moon in their lifetimes. What a wonderful experience that will be!
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 11 January 2012.
Going to the moon and beyond was what most children wanted to do growing up. Seeing the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" convinced me that I was going to fly into space on a Pan Am spacecraft.
Of course, Captain Kirk and the other Star Trek stories had me convinced that I wanted to explore the cosmos.
Needless to say, a lot has changed since my younger years. Cars still don't fly and neither are we able to go into space.
But the dream of space flight and space exploration continues.
When President Obama announced a scaling back of NASA last year, I was dumbfounded. How could we take a national treasure such as space exploration and slash the budget and "privatize" it?
It's taken me months before I can actually understand and kinda sorta agree with President Obama's decision.
The good news is that NASA will still work on very large, expensive missions, such as going to Mars. The bad news is that the Shuttle program has ended. We now rely on the Russians to transport crews to and from International Space Station.
What has brought me around to thinking that the decision to cut NASA's budget for "local" spaceflight might be a good thing is the Internet.
The Internet was originally a government project to connect colleges, universities and the government. While the core technology for the Internet was developed as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Internet really took off when the commercial ventures became involved.
I recall when the Internet was struggling to decide whether commercial, for-profit (.com) domains should be allowed on the Internet. Previously, only .edu (education), .org (not-for-profit), .net (network providers) and .gov (U.S. government) domains were on the Internet.
When the commercial entities came to the Internet, its use quite literally exploded overnight and has continued to change our planet.
A number of companies have seen the opportunities for space businesses. These include Richard Branson who has started Virgin Galactic (www.virgingalactic.com), offering sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public, and Scaled Composites (www.scaled.com), also offering sub-orbital manned rocket flights through SpaceShipOne, There's also International Launch Services (www.ilslaunch.com), a company that has been launching satellites into space since 1995.
In thinking about it, if NASA were the only player in the space business, the odds of me or my children ever going into space would be slim to none. With commercial ventures working on scaling space flight and gaining efficiencies in both safety and cost, I still think the chances of me going into space are slim.
But I would not at all be surprised if my children are able to affordably and safely take a ride into space or even to the moon in their lifetimes. What a wonderful experience that will be!
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 11 January 2012.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Digital Cinema Projection
I love going to the movies. And so far, watching movies at home just isn't the same as going out to the local multiplex. I like the big screen, the great sound, being around other people, the popcorn, going on a date with my wife ... the whole idea of making a movie an event.
I also like watching movies at home, and with the large-screen, high-definition TVs, watching movies at home is far better than it was a decade ago, but it's just not the same as the theater.
Despite the latest craze of 3-D movies that have come out, there hasn't been much that has changed at movie theaters in the past few decades, except one thing: digital movie projection. Digital cinema projection has been coming for a long time. It used to be that whenever a movie came out, the studios had to spend about $25,000 per copy to send to movie theaters around the world. Multiply that by a few thousand theaters and you can see where distributing a movie gets pretty expensive.
However, replacing the film projectors with digital projectors was an expense that the local cinemas would have to bear in order to receive something other than a film copy.
Luckily, the economics to both the movie distributors and cinema owners has finally come to pass and many, if not all, of the movies you see in a theater are now digital. This means there are no longer reels of film in the projection booth.
So instead of a movie studio sending out large reels of film, it can send out optical discs, or even transmit a digital file directly from the studio to the theaters.
For you and I, who go see a movie, what's different? First of all, the images will generally be clearer, as there's no film jitter that could be caused by film moving through a projector.
Second, there's far less chance of the inevitable dust, scratch or other artifact on a screen in the middle of a movie.
Third, there's no chance of a film jamming and melting in the projector, as those of us over 40 have probably seen.
The current standard for cinema projection is called "2K," which has a resolution of 2048 x 1080 pixels — high-definition video has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. A new standard is out but not yet fully deployed called "4K," which has a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels — a full four times the resolution of 2K. See this website for a sample digital cinema projector. As the new 4K movies come out, expect to see higher clarity images that will make our current crop of movies look like old hand-cranked silent movies.
With the holiday season upon us, there is always a vast number of movies to see and always something for every taste.
So, while I will continue to see better and more diverse movie entertainment in my home, I will always want to go out to see movies in the theatre, if not just to enjoy the time with who I'm with, but also to check out the latest bit of Hollywood magic.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 14 December 2011.
I also like watching movies at home, and with the large-screen, high-definition TVs, watching movies at home is far better than it was a decade ago, but it's just not the same as the theater.
Despite the latest craze of 3-D movies that have come out, there hasn't been much that has changed at movie theaters in the past few decades, except one thing: digital movie projection. Digital cinema projection has been coming for a long time. It used to be that whenever a movie came out, the studios had to spend about $25,000 per copy to send to movie theaters around the world. Multiply that by a few thousand theaters and you can see where distributing a movie gets pretty expensive.
However, replacing the film projectors with digital projectors was an expense that the local cinemas would have to bear in order to receive something other than a film copy.
Luckily, the economics to both the movie distributors and cinema owners has finally come to pass and many, if not all, of the movies you see in a theater are now digital. This means there are no longer reels of film in the projection booth.
So instead of a movie studio sending out large reels of film, it can send out optical discs, or even transmit a digital file directly from the studio to the theaters.
For you and I, who go see a movie, what's different? First of all, the images will generally be clearer, as there's no film jitter that could be caused by film moving through a projector.
Second, there's far less chance of the inevitable dust, scratch or other artifact on a screen in the middle of a movie.
Third, there's no chance of a film jamming and melting in the projector, as those of us over 40 have probably seen.
The current standard for cinema projection is called "2K," which has a resolution of 2048 x 1080 pixels — high-definition video has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. A new standard is out but not yet fully deployed called "4K," which has a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels — a full four times the resolution of 2K. See this website for a sample digital cinema projector. As the new 4K movies come out, expect to see higher clarity images that will make our current crop of movies look like old hand-cranked silent movies.
With the holiday season upon us, there is always a vast number of movies to see and always something for every taste.
So, while I will continue to see better and more diverse movie entertainment in my home, I will always want to go out to see movies in the theatre, if not just to enjoy the time with who I'm with, but also to check out the latest bit of Hollywood magic.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 14 December 2011.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
OK, eBooks and eMagazines Win
When Amazon came out with its Kindle a few years ago, I wondered if anyone — including myself — would truly prefer digital reading over paper reading.
I had no doubt that digital publishing would succeed. My question is whether people would choose digital over paper.
Having been using a number of digital devices over the year, most notably an Apple iPad 2, I have been converted.
Initially, I thought that reading the newspaper or a magazine digitally would not deliver the same — or as fulfilling — experience. True, reading on a digital reader is a different experience. And I prefer it.
We all know the experience of paper publishing, so I won't go into those benefits. Instead, let me tell you what I like about digital publications.
First, the experience is richer. Along with the text and photos that one normally has on paper, there are interactive bits such as video, interactive graphs, the ability to bookmark and even email a story to friends.
Second, delivery is reliable. I know that if BusinessWeek normally arrives in my driveway — yes, it's hand-delivered here in Westport — on Friday mornings, if I happen to be away or it's buried under 6 inches of snow, I can still download it.
Third, I can carry an entire library on a single device. When I used to travel more extensively, I used to take dozens of magazines with me in my carry-on luggage and then discard them when I was finished. Now, I can carry virtually unlimited amounts of reading material — and even use it on a flight when I'm not on the Internet — with no waste at all.
Fourth, it's green. There's less use of trees, printing, shipping and waste. I like that.
Fifth, we're only seeing the beginning to what digital publishing will like. I know the publishing business is a tough one. It's in the midst of a transformation. People expect information to be free, advertising revenues are down. But there are huge opportunities for a successful transformation of this industry. Multimedia is only the beginning. Interactivity and other features we haven't even considered yet will be coming.
Some of the problems with digital versus print publishing are that some companies provide you with free access to their content if you subscribe to their print magazines. Others require you to have two separate subscriptions — one to print and one digital.
I also find the interfaces to the magazines different and somewhat challenging. Where to access the reading applications, how to access the menus and issues, how to enter your subscription information and more. Each of these indicates to me a nascent technology that's striving to find a common solution.
So while I will find myself doing less and less reading of ink on paper, I can't say I'll miss it as much as I thought I would. I predict that within 10 years, our children will think of print newspapers, magazines and books are as quaint as vinyl records.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 30 November 2011.
I had no doubt that digital publishing would succeed. My question is whether people would choose digital over paper.
Having been using a number of digital devices over the year, most notably an Apple iPad 2, I have been converted.
Initially, I thought that reading the newspaper or a magazine digitally would not deliver the same — or as fulfilling — experience. True, reading on a digital reader is a different experience. And I prefer it.
We all know the experience of paper publishing, so I won't go into those benefits. Instead, let me tell you what I like about digital publications.
First, the experience is richer. Along with the text and photos that one normally has on paper, there are interactive bits such as video, interactive graphs, the ability to bookmark and even email a story to friends.
Second, delivery is reliable. I know that if BusinessWeek normally arrives in my driveway — yes, it's hand-delivered here in Westport — on Friday mornings, if I happen to be away or it's buried under 6 inches of snow, I can still download it.
Third, I can carry an entire library on a single device. When I used to travel more extensively, I used to take dozens of magazines with me in my carry-on luggage and then discard them when I was finished. Now, I can carry virtually unlimited amounts of reading material — and even use it on a flight when I'm not on the Internet — with no waste at all.
Fourth, it's green. There's less use of trees, printing, shipping and waste. I like that.
Fifth, we're only seeing the beginning to what digital publishing will like. I know the publishing business is a tough one. It's in the midst of a transformation. People expect information to be free, advertising revenues are down. But there are huge opportunities for a successful transformation of this industry. Multimedia is only the beginning. Interactivity and other features we haven't even considered yet will be coming.
Some of the problems with digital versus print publishing are that some companies provide you with free access to their content if you subscribe to their print magazines. Others require you to have two separate subscriptions — one to print and one digital.
I also find the interfaces to the magazines different and somewhat challenging. Where to access the reading applications, how to access the menus and issues, how to enter your subscription information and more. Each of these indicates to me a nascent technology that's striving to find a common solution.
So while I will find myself doing less and less reading of ink on paper, I can't say I'll miss it as much as I thought I would. I predict that within 10 years, our children will think of print newspapers, magazines and books are as quaint as vinyl records.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 30 November 2011.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Digital Shoebox Redux: iMemories
As the unofficial "family historian" — or at least the person who takes the most pictures and videos in our family — keeping track of all of the photos and videos we have is a nightmare.
Note that my wife is far better at saving the tangible memories from our family, such as children's artwork, report cards, school projects, trip memorabilia and more.
When photographs used to result in prints, slides, negatives, reels of film and more, it was relatively simple to put them into a shoebox — or collection of shoeboxes — to review whenever desired. With the advent of digital technology, the idea of a shoebox is less relevant and far more complicated.
In recent years, I've talked in this column about the "digital shoebox" and how it's evolving. The real problem is storing all sorts of media, whether it be prints, slides, film and/or video. There hasn't really been a way to put it all together.
I've recently come across a website that seems to do it all quite well. It's called iMemories.com.
There are a number of items I like about iMemories.
First, it handles all types of media, including analog — film, for example — and digital. Second, in the conversion process, they can do things like color correct, especially important for film and prints that may have faded over time. Third, they store it online for you forever. Fourth, you can create online methods and physical ways, such as DVDs, to present the materials.
As far as handling all types of media, you can send them just about any type of media you have, whether it be prints, negatives or slides, and they can convert it for you.
If you have movies or video, they can convert just about any format of film of videotape you have.
Once the items are in the iMemories system, you can use their website to sort through what you want to keep, edit them down to what people might actually want to see and then create online videos, slide shows, DVDs or other items which can be made available to yourself, your family, your friends, or anyone willing to watch.
Note that iMemories knows how valuable your media is and so offers more than just a normal package tracking system. They also offer a GPS tracking tool so that if the package is truly missing, it can be located using GPS, not simply "out for delivery".
iMemories also returns your media to you once it's been digitized. This way you always have your original source items.
iMemories stores your media online for $4.95 per month for unlimited storage. Where they make their money is in the conversion of media and producing products. For example, converting a videotape costs $9.99, scanning a photo is $0.49, creating a DVD is $9.99.
These costs aren't too high on an individual basis, but I have probably 100 videotapes of my family. Converting them would cost close to $1,000, not to mention all of the still photos I have.
Luckily, iMemories offers the ability to upload video to its site for free. This is good, especially if you have a fast Internet connection — note that typical Internet access is far faster downloading than uploading — so upload times can take days, if not weeks, if you have lots of media to upload.
But if you are looking for a good place to store your digital assets, I encourage you to give iMemories a try. They appear to have put all of the proper pieces in place to provide a needed service.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 16 November 2011.
Note that my wife is far better at saving the tangible memories from our family, such as children's artwork, report cards, school projects, trip memorabilia and more.
When photographs used to result in prints, slides, negatives, reels of film and more, it was relatively simple to put them into a shoebox — or collection of shoeboxes — to review whenever desired. With the advent of digital technology, the idea of a shoebox is less relevant and far more complicated.
In recent years, I've talked in this column about the "digital shoebox" and how it's evolving. The real problem is storing all sorts of media, whether it be prints, slides, film and/or video. There hasn't really been a way to put it all together.
I've recently come across a website that seems to do it all quite well. It's called iMemories.com.
There are a number of items I like about iMemories.
First, it handles all types of media, including analog — film, for example — and digital. Second, in the conversion process, they can do things like color correct, especially important for film and prints that may have faded over time. Third, they store it online for you forever. Fourth, you can create online methods and physical ways, such as DVDs, to present the materials.
As far as handling all types of media, you can send them just about any type of media you have, whether it be prints, negatives or slides, and they can convert it for you.
If you have movies or video, they can convert just about any format of film of videotape you have.
Once the items are in the iMemories system, you can use their website to sort through what you want to keep, edit them down to what people might actually want to see and then create online videos, slide shows, DVDs or other items which can be made available to yourself, your family, your friends, or anyone willing to watch.
Note that iMemories knows how valuable your media is and so offers more than just a normal package tracking system. They also offer a GPS tracking tool so that if the package is truly missing, it can be located using GPS, not simply "out for delivery".
iMemories also returns your media to you once it's been digitized. This way you always have your original source items.
iMemories stores your media online for $4.95 per month for unlimited storage. Where they make their money is in the conversion of media and producing products. For example, converting a videotape costs $9.99, scanning a photo is $0.49, creating a DVD is $9.99.
These costs aren't too high on an individual basis, but I have probably 100 videotapes of my family. Converting them would cost close to $1,000, not to mention all of the still photos I have.
Luckily, iMemories offers the ability to upload video to its site for free. This is good, especially if you have a fast Internet connection — note that typical Internet access is far faster downloading than uploading — so upload times can take days, if not weeks, if you have lots of media to upload.
But if you are looking for a good place to store your digital assets, I encourage you to give iMemories a try. They appear to have put all of the proper pieces in place to provide a needed service.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 16 November 2011.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Cloudy With a Chance of Coolness
There has been a lot of discussion about "cloud" technology and what that means. In a nutshell, it means that much of the storage -- music, video, spreadsheets, emails and more -- as well as computation are done not on the device you're using, but in data centers somewhere else.
No longer do you have to have all of your data and lots of horsepower on your local computer in order to do what you've been doing for years...listening to music, watching movies, writing emails, working on presentations and spreadsheets and more.
All of these things can now be kept in the "cloud."
For most people, this will be an evolutionary change that takes place over years. In particular, as smartphones get smarter and their connection to the Internet gets faster, there will be less and less things that physically reside on the devices you carry around or keep in your home or office.
Other devices that will rely more and more on cloud technologies include tablet computers, such as the Apple iPad and the tablets that use the Android operating system.
Desktop computers, the ones that sit on the floor or on a desk and aren't particularly mobile, will continue to be used for tasks such as video editing, music composition and large projects that use lots of disk space and plenty of processor power.
Interestingly enough, the work that most of us do daily, such as surfing the Internet, doing email and texting people, is ideally suited for cloud computing.
What has prompted cloud computing's ability to exist is the virtually ubiquitous Internet connectivity. In homes and offices, Internet connectivity is almost a given.
Outdoors, between cable companies providing WiFi as part of their home Internet services and the mobile companies providing Internet services as part of their smartphone services, most places where people go there is some sort of Internet access.
As I wrote last year, more and more airplanes are offering WiFi onboard, for a fee.
So unless you are going hiking, climbing or exploring to remote areas, odds are that you can have access to the Internet.
But cloud technologies do have some limitations. If everything you have is in the cloud, if and when your connection to the Internet -- and hence the cloud -- goes away, your access to your information goes away.
Additionally, if the provider that is storing your data or providing you with the computer power were to go away, you may not be able to retrieve the data. This could also be problematic.
Don't get me wrong. Having data locally on your computer isn't without its perils. If your laptop computer with all of your data goes missing and it's not backed up correctly, the data could be gone, too.
With all of the hype about cloud computing, most consumers will see more subtle shifts of keeping and managing their own data on their own devices to having providers keep and manage it for them. Overall, I see this as a good thing and one which will continue to provide more features that we will find unfathomable to live without.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 19 October 2011.
No longer do you have to have all of your data and lots of horsepower on your local computer in order to do what you've been doing for years...listening to music, watching movies, writing emails, working on presentations and spreadsheets and more.
All of these things can now be kept in the "cloud."
For most people, this will be an evolutionary change that takes place over years. In particular, as smartphones get smarter and their connection to the Internet gets faster, there will be less and less things that physically reside on the devices you carry around or keep in your home or office.
Other devices that will rely more and more on cloud technologies include tablet computers, such as the Apple iPad and the tablets that use the Android operating system.
Desktop computers, the ones that sit on the floor or on a desk and aren't particularly mobile, will continue to be used for tasks such as video editing, music composition and large projects that use lots of disk space and plenty of processor power.
Interestingly enough, the work that most of us do daily, such as surfing the Internet, doing email and texting people, is ideally suited for cloud computing.
What has prompted cloud computing's ability to exist is the virtually ubiquitous Internet connectivity. In homes and offices, Internet connectivity is almost a given.
Outdoors, between cable companies providing WiFi as part of their home Internet services and the mobile companies providing Internet services as part of their smartphone services, most places where people go there is some sort of Internet access.
As I wrote last year, more and more airplanes are offering WiFi onboard, for a fee.
So unless you are going hiking, climbing or exploring to remote areas, odds are that you can have access to the Internet.
But cloud technologies do have some limitations. If everything you have is in the cloud, if and when your connection to the Internet -- and hence the cloud -- goes away, your access to your information goes away.
Additionally, if the provider that is storing your data or providing you with the computer power were to go away, you may not be able to retrieve the data. This could also be problematic.
Don't get me wrong. Having data locally on your computer isn't without its perils. If your laptop computer with all of your data goes missing and it's not backed up correctly, the data could be gone, too.
With all of the hype about cloud computing, most consumers will see more subtle shifts of keeping and managing their own data on their own devices to having providers keep and manage it for them. Overall, I see this as a good thing and one which will continue to provide more features that we will find unfathomable to live without.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 19 October 2011.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Maker Faire 2011 - What You Missed
Sept. 17 and 18 was the second annual Maker Faire event at the New York Hall of Science. It is the East Coast exhibition of people who make things.
On the surface, this may not seem like much, but America was built on the ingenuity of our ability to create things, whether they be tools, cars, technology or other things.
For a variety of reasons, including lower labor costs in other countries and globalization of companies, Americans don't make as much as we used to. Nonetheless, the event is a celebration of the creativity and ability to make things that is still alive and well here in the United States.
The event is also an excellent place for children of all ages to explore science, engineering, electricity, creativity, music, visual arts and more.
Some of my favorite exhibits were the 3D Pavilion where there were demonstrations of devices that work in 3D, including 3D printers that can take a design in your computer and output it in 3D. My other favorite exhibit was the Maker Shed where people can actually build things, whether they be small electronic devices or a marshmallow shooter out of PVC pipe — my 6-year-old son's favorite.
In the video I created, which can be viewed at here, one of the crowd pleasers was the "Sashimi Tabernacle Choir," a Volvo to which the owner attached 250 dancing mechanical fish.
Another crowd pleaser was the electrical performance by ArcAttack, a musical group that wears metal suits — Faraday cages, actually — and interacts with huge bolts of electricity generated by giant Tesla coils. Its performance can be seen at www.arcattack.com.
Along with the exhibits that came in for the two-day event, there were a number of speakers, including Westport's David Pogue, who spoke on iPhone tips and tricks.
What interests me the most is to see the creative people who are keeping our abilities to create alive. I also relish seeing adults and children who see things that spark their interest and curiosity in science, engineering and the fact that they can create things rather than having to always buy things.
At the end of the day, it was fun to watch the families leaving Maker Faire talking about the fun things they saw and did.
I know my own family had to make a trip to Home Depot the following day to buy some PVC tubing and corners so that we could make some marshmallow shooters for my son's friends.
After we brought the PVC tubing home and sat on the steps cutting the pieces to size, my son was quite happy to experiment with his marshmallow shooter, putting pieces together, finding out what configurations worked and what didn't, how he could make the shooter bigger or shoot the marshmallow farther. He then had fun taking the new marshmallow shooters we'd made to his neighbor friends, putting them together and having marshmallow wars in the back yard. I think I have a young "maker" on my hands and we'll be going to Maker Faire 2012 next year.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 5 October 2011.
On the surface, this may not seem like much, but America was built on the ingenuity of our ability to create things, whether they be tools, cars, technology or other things.
For a variety of reasons, including lower labor costs in other countries and globalization of companies, Americans don't make as much as we used to. Nonetheless, the event is a celebration of the creativity and ability to make things that is still alive and well here in the United States.
The event is also an excellent place for children of all ages to explore science, engineering, electricity, creativity, music, visual arts and more.
Some of my favorite exhibits were the 3D Pavilion where there were demonstrations of devices that work in 3D, including 3D printers that can take a design in your computer and output it in 3D. My other favorite exhibit was the Maker Shed where people can actually build things, whether they be small electronic devices or a marshmallow shooter out of PVC pipe — my 6-year-old son's favorite.
In the video I created, which can be viewed at here, one of the crowd pleasers was the "Sashimi Tabernacle Choir," a Volvo to which the owner attached 250 dancing mechanical fish.
Another crowd pleaser was the electrical performance by ArcAttack, a musical group that wears metal suits — Faraday cages, actually — and interacts with huge bolts of electricity generated by giant Tesla coils. Its performance can be seen at www.arcattack.com.
Along with the exhibits that came in for the two-day event, there were a number of speakers, including Westport's David Pogue, who spoke on iPhone tips and tricks.
What interests me the most is to see the creative people who are keeping our abilities to create alive. I also relish seeing adults and children who see things that spark their interest and curiosity in science, engineering and the fact that they can create things rather than having to always buy things.
At the end of the day, it was fun to watch the families leaving Maker Faire talking about the fun things they saw and did.
I know my own family had to make a trip to Home Depot the following day to buy some PVC tubing and corners so that we could make some marshmallow shooters for my son's friends.
After we brought the PVC tubing home and sat on the steps cutting the pieces to size, my son was quite happy to experiment with his marshmallow shooter, putting pieces together, finding out what configurations worked and what didn't, how he could make the shooter bigger or shoot the marshmallow farther. He then had fun taking the new marshmallow shooters we'd made to his neighbor friends, putting them together and having marshmallow wars in the back yard. I think I have a young "maker" on my hands and we'll be going to Maker Faire 2012 next year.
Mark Mathias, a 30-plus year veteran of information technology and a resident of Westport, Connecticut, was named by Computerworld magazine to their inaugural list of “Premier 100 IT Leaders.” This column was originally published in the Westport News on Wednesday 5 October 2011.
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