TED: Tim Berners-Lee: The next Web of open, linked data

20 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. For his next project, he's building a web for open, linked data that could do for numbers what the Web did for words, pictures, video: unlock our data and reframe the way we use it together.

This talk refers to another great TED Talk (Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen) which is an excellent example of what can be done with linked data. It would be useful to watch Hans before watching Tim.



As my friend Richard pointed out, Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA is English.

World Water Day

Today, March 22, is World Water Day, when the world is asked to focus on the issues that a lack of clean water poses to our society. Nearly 1 billion people worldwide don’t have access to clean water, and that lack of water is a serious cause of disease and economic hardship.

So today we were discussing: How Much Water Is Required to Make Beer?

We thought that we may use 50 gallons of water to make 5 gallons of beer. Most of the water is used for cleaning and sterilizing all the equipment. But this does not count the water used to make the ingredients.

According to this graph from the Economist article "Thirsty work" 300 liters of water are required to make 1 liter of beer (or 1,500 gallons of water to make 5 gallons of beer). But that pales (pun intended) in comparison to the the water requirements of wine (3X) or coffee (4X).



Another interesting graphic from the GOOD blog article "Transparency: How Much Water Do You Use?" shows direct and indirect use of water for common daily activities.

The most disturbing part of the image above is the suggestion to save 35 gallons of water by not taking a bath. ick.

Keyboard Viewer

I want my daughter to read my blog, and she wants to know what symbols you can make with the option or option-shift key (on her Mac), so,...

This 67 second Keyboard Viewer video (from the Apple Quick Tip video podcast) shows you how to use the Keyboard Viewer to access characters and symbols available using the option or option-shift keys.

Angee (Lead Genius from the video) shows you how to enable the Keyboard Viewer:
* System Preferences -> International
+ check the "Keyboard Viewer" checkbox and
+ check the "Show input menu in menu bar" checkbox, then,
* click the (American?) flag in the menu bar, and,
+ select "Show Keyboard Viewer"

Now hold down the option key, to see this:


Or hold down both the option and shift keys, to see this:



Love, Dad

Talking to SKYNET

Today I sent an IM to SKYNET...and SKYNET IM'ed me back!

Today the BetterExplained.com blog entry was A Simple Introduction To Computer Networking which started off:

Most networking discussions are a jumble of acronyms. Forget the configuration details -- what are the insights?

* Networking is about communication
* Text is the simplest way to communicate
* Protocols are standards for reading and writing text

Beneath the details, networking is an IM conversation.

My IM (Instant Message), human to computer, was a simple text communication using TCP via telnet. All I did was type:

% telnet google.com 80
hello?

and google.com replied "Bad Request"!
Then I tried:

% telnet google.com 80
GET / HTTP/1.0

and google.com replied "HTTP/1.0 200 OK" and sent me the google home page html!
And when I IM'ed "GET /news HTTP/1.0" then google.com sent me the news!

It was kinda cool talking directly to The Google.

Happy Pi Day!

Happy "National Pi Day"!

Whereas the US "House of Representatives supports the designation of a `Pi Day' and its celebration around the world": Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That I will--
(1) throw a party on Pi Day in 2015;
(2) throw another party around Pi Day in 2016; and
(3) invite you if you feel those dates are significant.


Here is the full text of HR 224 from THOMAS (Library of Congress):

H. Res. 224

In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

March 12, 2009.

Whereas the Greek letter (Pi) is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter;

Whereas the ratio Pi is an irrational number, which will continue infinitely without repeating, and has been calculated to over one trillion digits;

Whereas Pi is a recurring constant that has been studied throughout history and is central in mathematics as well as science and engineering;

Whereas mathematics and science are a critical part of our children's education, and children who perform better in math and science have higher graduation and college attendance rates;

Whereas aptitude in mathematics, science, and engineering is essential for a knowledge-based society;

Whereas, according to the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) survey done by the National Center for Education Statistics, American children in the 4th and 8th grade were outperformed by students in other countries including Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, England, South Korea, Latvia, and Japan;

Whereas since 1995 the United States has shown only minimal improvement in math and science test scores;

Whereas by the 8th grade, American males outperform females on the science portion of the TIMSS survey, especially in Biology, Physics, and Earth Science, and the lowest American scores in math and science are found in minority and impoverished school districts;

Whereas America needs to reinforce mathematics and science education for all students in order to better prepare our children for the future and in order to compete in a 21st Century economy;

Whereas the National Science Foundation has been driving innovation in math and science education at all levels from elementary through graduate education since its creation 59 years ago;

Whereas mathematics and science can be a fun and interesting part of a child's education, and learning about Pi can be an engaging way to teach children about geometry and attract them to study science and mathematics; and

Whereas Pi can be approximated as 3.14, and thus March 14, 2009, is an appropriate day for `National Pi Day': Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) supports the designation of a `Pi Day' and its celebration around the world;

(2) recognizes the continuing importance of National Science Foundation's math and science education programs; and

(3) encourages schools and educators to observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about Pi and engage them about the study of mathematics.

405 and World Builder

"405" and "World Builder" are two short films by Bruce Branit with amazing special effects.

405 is a 3 min film about a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.

World Builder is a 9 min film about a man who uses holographic tools to build a world for the woman he loves. The "holographic tools" are like the MIT Sixth Sense technology on steroids!!!

ENJOY! World Builder:




405:





Bruce Branit has done special effects on many movies and TV shows that I enjoy. For example: "Pushing Daisies", "Lost", "Brothers & Sisters", "Ghost Rider (2007)", "King Kong (2005)", "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005)", "Sin City (2005)", "Star Trek: Enterprise", "Star Trek: Voyager", "The Devil's Advocate (1997)", "Spawn (1997)", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", and more, ... wow ...

Pattie Maes unveiling the "Sixth Sense"

Last month I watched this TED Talk live (from Sun) and then ran down to lunch and tried to describe what I had seen to my lunch crowd. Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry from MIT have created the "Sixth Sense", a really cool wearable computer device that has a camera and projector so it can see what you see and project information to you.

Watch the TED Talk yourself, and/or, read what I found exciting below the video!



The "Sixth Sense" can project images and then watch your hands, so:

* it can show you a keyboard (on a desk), and you can type,
* it can show you a cell phone keypad (on your palm?), and you can dial,
* it can show you some photos (on a wall perhaps) and you can use your hands to move them around on the wall, make them bigger, smaller, trash them, email them,...

The "Sixth Sense" also sees what you see, so:

* it can see WHAT you are looking at in a store, and then project information about the product
* it can see WHO you are looking at, and project information about that person (on that person!?)

What do you think?! Cool?!

A Lost Generation

A Lost Generation

I hear the voices of my nieces in this video...Emily, Alica, Erica, Nicky, Roana, Raquel, Gina, and Monica...



and someday Katie, Jessica, Arial, and Michelle will add their voices as well.

Plug computer

Plug computer

Last week Marvell announced a Plug Computer "small enough to plug directly into a wall socket and designed to draw so little power that it can be left on all of the time. Unlike other embedded devices in the home, it contains a gigahertz class processor to offer PC class performance. This makes it a viable alternative to a PC for any software service."





From Wikipedia:

A Plug Computer is a small form factor network attached server for use in the home. It is a lower cost and lower power alternative to a PC based home server. In effect, a plug computer is a network appliance that is fully enclosed in an AC power plug or AC adapter.

Suitable for running a media server, back-up services, file sharing and remote access functions such devices can be used as a bridge between in home protocols such as Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) & Server Message Block (SMB or Samba) and cloud based services.

I think I would like to buy one!

Rent-A-Person

After watching the short movie Validation my carpool buddy pointed out a related short movie Rent-A-Person (Thanks Seongbae).



After watching the movie I told my wife "I think my carpool buddy wants a raise" and she replied "He deserves it!".