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Archive for the ‘The Future’ Category

All the world’s computers equal to one human mind

16 Feb

The time may come when a computer will be able to out-compute a human, but not yet. According to a recent study, adding up all the computation power in every laptop, server, mainframe, cell phone, and digital processors of all kinds, everywhere on the planet will give you approximately the ability to handle approximately 6.4 x 10^18 operations a second. About the same as a human brain.

All the worlds storage – paper, film, hard-drives, etc. would give you same amount of storage as human DNA. In other words, somewhere around 2011 the planet has enough computing power to account for 1 extra person. The vast amount of “thinking” is still done by organic chemistry. Read the article I read on ARS Technica.

 
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Posted in Imagination, Science, Technology, The Future

 

Attention Boeing/AirBus – Start working on blimps!

25 Jun


When I rent a car these days I try to rent a prius. I love gliding silently through the streets, pulling up to fast food windows and not having to shout over the rumble of an engine. Imagine if we could fly in such silent style. Imagine if the airplane was as quiet as a library. This painting made we wish for that. It is a painting by “futurist” Syd Mead who also worked on movies like Blade Runner, Tron and Aliens—but in his most recent work he envisions a future city by the name of Doha, Qatar.

I think we have the building architecture down. But somebody has got to get to work on these wonderful flying machines.
Technically, blimps are soft-body-inflatable aircraft – these are more like zeppelins, rigid-body-lighter-than-air craft. Either way, I would except the longer commutes if I could have a conversation without losing my voice and hearing.

 
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Art, The Future

 

Powerpoint version of Shift Happens Movie

25 Feb

The purpose of this presentation was originally to inspire a group of educators at a single school in Colorado to take their job seriously and invest in education. From that intended audience of 250 people, it has now been seen by millions. The message is clear, the world is changing. More and more of my clients are asking me to help them adapt to this change. To prepare road maps and visions and governance models that will help them adapt. What are you doing to prepare?

 
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Imagination, Observations, Politics, The Future

 

Decode Your Genome For $1,000

07 Dec
from Consumerist by Chris Walters
For $1,000, a small California-based company called 23andMe (financed in part by Google) will decode your DNA and tell you whatever it can about your predispositions, health risks, and family traits—for example, whether or not you’re in line for the same heart disease that affected your father and grandfather, which is what the author of the Wired article wondered. (Turns out he’s not, but he’s at a higher risk of developing glaucoma. When one door opens…)

con_dnaexplosion.jpg

For now, companies are offering genotyping—”the strategic scanning
of your DNA for several hundred thousand of the telltale variations
that make one human different from the next.” It will take a few more
years before anyone can offer (or afford) to sequence all 6 billion
points of a person’s genetic code, but in the meantime, genotyping can
provide a lot of the kind of health-related information many people
would love to know.

 
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Imagination, Science, The Future

 

Tired of waiting on hold – outsource your waiting to India

07 Dec

It’s not just for Fortune 500 companies, you can use a company like Brickwork and pay someone $4/hr to sit on hold for you. From the website:

Remote Executive Assistant

  • Do you spend more time on routine administrative tasks instead of important business issues?
  • Are you suffering from information overload?
  • Are you finding less time to devote to your personal interests?
  • Are you up against a deadline and need help with research on your project?
  • Do you have an interesting idea but need help in creating a business plan?
  • Do you need assistance for extensive internet research and database creation?
  • Do you want to create/improve your website which gets you more customers?

Tasks they do:

  • Formatting/beautifying any MS office files like word, excel, PowerPoint
  • Quick mail mergers and sending mass mails in your name; Email & fax blast
  • Internet search or any other sources that you provide them access to
  • Designing customized greetings cards and sending them on your behalf
  • Fine tuning your logo, business cards and other stationary including converting image to vector
  • Data processing like data entry, OCR conversion; creating the PowerPoint presentation from the handwritten data;
  • Updation, normalization & standardization of database;
  • photo edits; b/w to color
  • Shopping
    assistance like comparison of models & prices, listing of shops
    within a specific area with address, phone number & route map

Has anyone tried this?

 
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Guides, Hacks, The Future

 
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