Foresight and Futurism

Change In Wind Direction

2008-07-09T22:02:00.002-05:00

Within the past couple of days a couple of high profile names have been making headlines concerning wind power: T. Boone Pickens and Philippe Starck. Pickens has been on every major network announcing his plans to build a wind farm in Texas. Starck is making stylish, designer windmills. Before Pickens was all over TV I read about his intentions in the June issue of Fast Company. The Pickens that you see is a much sanitized version of the Pickens in this article. If you want to know what’s really going on with energy read the article. He's "on the money", literally and figuratively.

Announcing The Laurel Highlands Foresight Institute

2008-07-09T21:38:00.001-05:00

Soon this blog will be converted into the "Founder’s Blog" linked to the Laurel Highlands Foresight Institute’s website. I have taken a long hiatus from this website in order to find inspiration and direction. In this time I have founded this new company with the mission of improving the human standard of living in ways that are in harmony with and beneficial to the natural environment of the planet by providing education, products, and services for advancing energy efficiency and environmentally sustainable practices. Stay tuned for the cutover time and the official launching of the site.

Where are the Flying Cars?

2007-10-07T21:15:00.000-05:00

I’m about to risk any credibility that I might have by talking about this, but I’m going to do it anyway. Futurists get asked, “Where are the Flying Cars?” all the time so I’ll put in my two cents. The October 2007 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine had a one page article giving the latest progress on the flying car, so I feel compelled to talk about it. I bought the magazine while I was camping in my in-law’s RV. This thing is something like 30 feet long, has 3 slide-outs to expand the interior room, has automatic leveling gear that descends from under the vehicle, and too many other features to name. It’s probably even more advanced than most of our permanent homes. For instance, the refrigerator can run on propane or electricity. Can yours do that? Mine can’t. In any case, my point is that we can build very sophisticated vehicles. So why don’t we have flying cars? Short answer – they’re just not practical.

Think about it, do you really want your average person zipping around overhead? I know I don’t want cars driving over my house anymore than I want the present cars driving through my yard. I have enough air traffic from the small airplanes and helicopters that are already in the air. Therefore, flying cars would have to stay on designated paths (i.e. roads). We would probably just use the same pathways we have now. If this is the case we wouldn’t get anywhere any faster than we already do. Sure, a flying car might be able to achieve higher speeds than a wheeled car, but the cars we drive now are capable of higher speeds than we are allowed to or can safely drive. Another thing that makes a flying car impractical is that it would require more energy to stay suspended in the air than to sit on the ground. With the energy situation being as it is flying cars aren’t the prudent choice unless there is an advantage of great magnitude which I have yet to see.

Blogging from Bar Harbor

2007-09-19T20:13:00.000-05:00

I’ve been vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine this past week. This is my fourth visit to Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park in 12 years. My wife, Cindy, and I honeymooned here and we made it back for our 12th anniversary. While one of the best things about Acadia is its timeless beauty that changes in terms of geological time and not Internet time the Internet has not missed the island. For one thing, I enjoyed wireless access to the Internet from the campground where we parked our RV. There are wireless hotspots all over the island including the city park in Bar Harbor. Twelve years ago I would have been lucky to find a 33 kbps modem connection. Another interesting memory involves the use of cell phones. When Cindy and I were on our honeymoon we attempted to make a call on our cell phone from Cleftstone Manor, the Bed and Breakfast we were staying at. The phone was in a leather case about the size of 8x10x2 inches. When we dialed our number an operator came on the line and asked us if we were sure we really wanted to complete the connection because it would be very expensive. We she told us the cost we decided that the phone call was not worth it. Today we can call for free as long as we are within our allowance on our plan’s minutes.

One of the first activities we did on the island, because it was a rainy day, was to visit the Seal Cove Auto Museum. It was really thought provoking to see how the designs and the technology have changed over the years. Even more thought provoking was seeing all the different U.S. companies that made cars that are no longer in business. Although there are some specialty auto makers (like Tesla Motors) we typically thing of the Big Three (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) today. In today’s global economy we are seeing them falter too. Another thing I saw at the museum was an electric car that was made in 1903. It was not a prototype either, it was a finished product. This is an idea that is still struggling to find acceptance, for instance Tesla Motors and the EV1 which is no longer produced by GM.

Something that hasn’t changed, though, is the abundantly filled, starlit night sky.

Technorati Tags: Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Tesla Motors
, cell phone

Mind Shift

2007-09-01T15:06:00.000-05:00

Once again it’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. The day after I made my last post I found out that friend from the neighborhood that I grew up in died of brain cancer. It was hard to believe that something like this could happen to one of my friends. He is the same age as me. I always admired his intelligence and he became successful as the director of a local television station. The world has lost one of its best. Recalling the memories of my childhood friend sent me into deep contemplation of my own life, what I have done, and what I will do.

Around the time that this happened I was doing some environmental scanning for what could be one of the next big significant trends. I came across the webpage for Paul Zane Pilzer. He claims that the next trillion-dollar industry will be in the health and wellness business. That seemed plausible to me. But reading deeper I found that the health and wellness industry mostly comprised of people peddling vitamins using multi-level marketing (MLM) tactics, also known as network marketing. He claims that this is going to produce a significant number of millionaires. Pilzer seems like a really intelligent guy, but I’m just not buying it. I do believe that the health and wellness industry is going to be huge. This is in large part due to the baby boomers wanting to maintain their health as they age. But I don’t get the MLM connection. Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki have a book out called, Why We Want You to be Rich. In there they also promote MLM as a way to attain riches. Frankly, I don’t want to live in a world where I am constantly being approached by MLM’ers. The thought repulses me and I don’t believe that it is a good path to being a millionaire any more than winning the lottery.

Scott, you say, where are you going with all of this? Well, these things combined had me thinking about what defines success, how money is made, and how I measure up. While I’m not a big fan of the MLM model I do believe that if you want to make money sales is the place to be. I read an interesting line in some literature on the Landslide website: “A company doesn’t exist to make things. A company exists to sell things.” I thought that was a very powerful statement. I also believe that the health and wellness industry will be as big as Pilzer says it will be. This is definitely a trend to watch. But, there is much more to it than peddling vitamins. Health (and youth) is what people are after. Really, the best thing that anyone can do is exercise and eat a healthy diet. That is what I try to do. Yes, I take some vitamins too, but they are more for enhancement than a foundation (see Joel Garreau). Unfortunately, most everyone has heard and understood the message but they still won’t do what it takes to be healthy. The even bigger trend is biotechnology and new methods of diagnosis and new surgical methods. My conclusion is that, while it is perceived that futurists like to dream big dreams, my personal emphasis will be on sales strategies. Sales is a more complex field than most imagine and it is evolving everyday. Sales is about offering solutions and solving problems. If you don’t know how to sell your solution you don’t make any money and people’s problems don’t get solved. Being a success requires being successful in sales. This is true whether you’re trying to convince a colleague in the next cubicle to "buy" your way of doing somehting or if you are trying to sell the next breakthrough in biotechnology.

Technorati Tags:
sales
, Paul Zane Pilzer
, health
, Donald Trump
, Robert Kiyosaki
, Joel Garreau
, MLM
, biotechnology

Nuclear Power Is Not An Option For Energy Independence

2007-06-13T21:34:00.000-05:00

In recent years former opponents of nuclear power in U.S. have changed their minds in the face of concerns over global warming caused by burning fossil fuels. Some thought that this would revive the nuclear power industry in America. But, the United States’ ability to produce the nuclear fuel is in question. USEC, the company in America that enriches uranium, is in serious financial trouble. This is the focus in this New York Times article. Something even more startling pointed out by the article is that the U.S. imports 90 percent of its uranium. Nuclear power now appears to not be an answer to the United States’ long term energy plan.

Technorati Tags:
nuclear+power, uranium, global+warming

The System Dynamics of the US Government

2007-06-12T21:37:00.000-05:00

Have you ever heard someone say something to the extent of, "The founding fathers would be rolling in their graves if they knew what going on today?" That kind of thinking really doesn’t make sense. The US government is no different today than it was at its founding. It is a system. The system permitted the creation of laws, constitutional amendments, or procedures that are different today from those created 231 years ago. So, if someone thinks that the government is broken they are wrong. It’s always been this way. The system of governing is still the same. Perhaps if the leadership of the United States is not performing as it should then a new system of government needs to be created. It would be foolish to believe that the perfect form of government has already been created. As times, communications technology, and belief systems change it is possible that a major change in governmental systems is needed to deal with the complexity of the modern world. I don’t know what this new system is yet and I’m not advocating revolution. I’m just suggestion that we leave our minds open to a new way.

The inspiration for these thoughts comes from a paper I recently read on system dynamics titled, Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System by Donella Meadows. It describes the least powerful and most powerful ways to create change in a system. I highly recommend reading it. If you’re short on time you can get the Wikipedia version.

Technorati Tags:
system+dynamics, founding+fathers, us+government, donella+meadows

More Evidence That US Patent Laws Need To Change

2007-06-11T21:10:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update on what some other people are saying about how US patent laws are strangling innovation. Check out this interview with Alan Cox. Take a look at his response to question 12 concerning Microsoft and intellectual property:

12) Do you share some people's fear of Microsoft's threats (concerning patents and intellectual property)?

"I don't think they are the biggest danger. As Microsoft has been finding out recently it is the patent trolls, and organisations with buried patents in interesting areas that are the biggest threat in the USA. The real answer to that problem however is to pull the USA back into line with the majority of the world which simply does not recognize patents on software but respects them as literary works subject to copyright law. Also therefore we have to make sure the continuing US attempts to spread bogus patent law into the EU are defeated."

It appears as though I’m not the only one that sees this is a problem.

Technorati Tags:
Microsoft, intellectual+property, patent

Amish Power

2007-05-30T21:07:00.000-05:00

This is the first time I've ever heard anyone refer to the Amish as "early technology adopters". But that’s what this NPR Radio segment calls them. I've been to the area of Ohio where this Amish community resides several times. I have been in the furniture stores that are lit by electric light bulbs connected to large, probably deep cycle, batteries. I didn't realize that they could be recharging them with solar panels. I admire their slower pace of life and their contemplative approach to technology. But, I still can't help to think that there is quite a bit of hypocrisy in their methods. I think it is great that they are conservative power users and that they are using clean, solar power. Have they ever thought how those solar panels are made? They would never use the technology that it takes to make them, so how is it right to use them? To me, this is just proof that you can't always expect logic and rational thought to explain why things are the way they are in the world.

Technorati Tags:
Amish, solar+power, early+adopters

Teach Me, Google

2007-05-24T21:45:00.000-05:00

Folks with an MBA might be familiar with PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) analysis. The futurist crowd typically uses STEEP (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political) analysis. Google shows once again that they are ahead of the crowd with PESTEL (Political, Economical, Sociocultural, Technological, Environmental, Legal) analysis. See slide 13 of this Strategic Analysis: Google presentation to see where I got this from. The addition of the legal frame makes a lot of sense given the litigious nature today’s copyright and intellectual property (IP) landscape. I’ve written before about increasing court battles over IP. It is my concern that court battles will stifle rather than stimulate innovation in America. In the past IP protection encouraged innovation because people knew that they would benefit from their hard work and that a competitor with larger resources could not take their idea and profit from it. Digitization and the Internet have changed the rules of the game. While Americans argue in court the rest of the world, not under the jurisdiction of American courts, will move right ahead inventing and making things. The United States only accounts for approximately 300 million of the 6 billion people with purchasing power on this earth. While the U.S. has been the wealthiest population in the world this too is changing. If you don’t believe me check out the numbers in Shift Happens.

Technorati Tags: Google, PESTEL, intellectual property

The Global Nature of Shutters

2007-05-23T21:16:00.000-05:00

I’ll have to keep this brief tonight. It’s getting late now that I have helped clean up the house for the Pampered Chef party that my wife is having tomorrow and helped unload a shipment of shutters that my wife received in for her home-based business, V2K Window Décor and More. The interesting thing about this evening was the packaging that the shutters came in. The Sunland Shutters were manufactured by TA CHEN International, Inc. in Davenport, Florida. They were shipped to us in Greensburg, Pennsylvania on a paperboard pallet made by JIING SHIN ENTERPRISE Co., LTD in Taiwan. How’s that for a global economy?

Technorati Tags: Cindy Anderson, shutters, packaging

Shades of Green

2007-05-21T21:27:00.000-05:00

I came across two contrasting views of what it means to be environmentally conscious. Ashley Menger is trying a personal experiment. She is attempting to not create any trash for two weeks. You can check on her progress on her blog, Trash Talk. In contrast, Seth Godin posted on his blog today that asking people to deprive themselves is not a workable solution. Seth’s advice, "let's figure out how to turn this into a battle to do more, not less." It's hard to pick sides.

I like Ashley's approach. I think we are way too wasteful. I can recall the guilt I felt recently when I went with my wife and my son to Chick-fil-a. When we were finished with a couple of chicken sandwiches, fries, and drinks I had a whole mountain of trash on my tray. All I could do was say, "More for the landfill," as I dumped it down the whole. What if there was a way to recycle it? Sometimes I think recycling is energy intensive. You make a package, transport the package, fill a package, ship the finished product, take it home, possibly rinse it out with hot water, transport it to a processing facility, then energy has to be used to break it down so it can be used again. This seems like an awful lot for a thin plastic container. It seems like it would be much better to just produce less waste.

Then there is Seth's view. Whether his way is the right thing or not for the planet he’s probably right. The majority of people aren't going to give anything up. I found some soundbites and commentary on a recent speech made by Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Radical Congruency blog. I like Arnold's approach. Perhaps what he is doing right now (using fuel cells and biofuels) isn’t the best long-term solution. But, it's the best that technology currently has to offer. I like that he pushing people to come up with new ideas to solve our environmental issues. We can’t go back, we can only go forward.

Technorati Tags: environment, Ashley Menger, Seth Godin, Chick-fil-a, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Radical Congruency, Fuel Cells, biofuel

Holographic Storage Now Available

2007-05-19T07:22:00.000-05:00

Holographic storage is something that I mentioned back in January. It will finally be commercially available for Early Adopters this fall. It will be interesting to watch this development and see if advances in optical storage will parallel the advances in magnetic storage as detailed by in the book, The Innovators Dilemma. I have watched it progress from CD-R to CD-RW to DVD-RW to HD-DVD and Blu-ray (and all the steps in between). It will be interesting to see if holographic storage will Cross the Chasm and be used by Pragmatists.

Technorati Tags: Holographic Storage, Crossing The Chasm, Innovators Dilemma, Early Adopters, Pragmatists, Technology Adoption Lifecycle

Semantic Web Dead Before Being Born

2007-05-18T20:26:00.000-05:00

I found this story in my RSS feed from webpronews.com this morning. It goes even further than my previous posting. Rather than Semantic Web just being a long way off Mor Naaman, a Semantic Web developer, says that it is not likely to happen. I won’t be that pessimistic. But I will say that the Semantic Web will not likely be what we believe it will be today. I can think back in my personal experience to 1995. This is when I read Neuromancer because Mark Pesce said that it was his inspiration for creating VRML. I jumped on it, but the rest of the world wasn’t ready. VRML never took off. But today we have Second Life. Second Life didn’t start until 2003. The graphics are much better, though, than anything I saw in VRML back in the day. I heard an interview the other day on the BBC World Service with the author of The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb. He claimed that Google is a Black Swan. Basically, he claims that nobody could have predicted that Google would be what it is today. So then you might say, "Why should I believe anything a Futurist says?" Because good Futurists don’t claim to predict the future. We only claim that based on a set of assumptions a certain scenario is probable. Also, a good futurist doesn’t create only one scenario, we make three or four. The real future will most likely have elements from all the scenarios.

Technorati Tags: Semantic Web, Mor Naaman, Neuromancer, Mark Pesce, VRML, Second Life, Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Google, Futurist, scenarios

Will Semantic Web Be Web 3.0?

2007-05-17T20:46:00.000-05:00

I have been a user of the World Wide Web since it began, when Mosaic was the only graphical web browser. I have followed its development all along the way. I honestly can’t recall anyone predicting Web 2.0. I also don’t believe that Web 2.0 is really any different than previous web activity or even pre-web networked computer activity. What we are doing hasn’t changed, how we are doing it has. New technology has permitted new software applications, that’s all. Ajax and Mashups are making new applications easier to create. But, back to the question stated in the subject, I don’t believe that Semantic Web is next.

Access to information from a cellphone will form the next wave. Cellphones are becoming/replacing PC’s with their power and significance. Mobile Web is what’s next. If you want to make money in the short-term with a web application, make it mobile. If you have long-term vision and long-term financing create the Semantic Web.

Technorati Tags:
Semantic Web, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Mobile Web

Keep On Blogging

2007-05-17T20:26:00.000-05:00

You might have noticed that my blogging over the past couple weeks has been a little sparse. This is because I allowed something that someone said to poison my mind. I don’t feel at liberty to talk about the exact circumstances at this point, but I’ll just say that I am over it now. Thankfully, it was nothing as severe as what happened to Kathy Sierra. My fears concerned financial harm, not physical harm. But, something occurred yesterday caused a shift in my consciousness and helped me realize the things that are really important. Writing this blog is something that I really enjoy and I am thankful for the response that I have received from readers through email and comments. I promise that I will not let this happen again.

Technorati Tags: Kathy Sierra, blogging

Happy Cinco de Mayo, Maybe

2007-05-06T13:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was May 5th, or to some it was Cinco de Mayo. I thought it was funny when I asked my father-in-law what he was going to do for Cinco de Mayo and he asked, "What's that?" When I told him he replied with something of a sneer. My mother-in-law and father-in-law like to go out to eat a lot. I thought they would be game for a special at a Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo. But, my father-in-law was not interested. Later that day I talked to my father on the phone. When I wished my father a happy Cinco de Mayo he just sneered. In the afternoon I watched a lecture by Wade Clark Roof on TV. He was talking about Generation X’s relationship with religion. Part of his lecture focused on pointing out the differences between Gen-X and the Baby Boomers. There are definitely differences between the generations. Something as trivial as an attitude toward Cinco de Mayo made this evident to me. Honestly, I could care less about the significance of Cinco de Mayo. To me and my friends who are Gen-Xers, Cinco de Mayo is a day to act a little silly by actually pretending like you care that it is Cinco de Mayo and to say something in a foreign language that we only know a few words of. Most importantly it’s a day to eat some Mexican-style food. A friend of mine told me how to make taquitos. I made them for the first time yesterday. My wife and I had fun eating them. The phrase, "South of the Border", always makes me think of getting a little crazy and having some fun. Baby Boomers (at least the ones I know best), on the other hand, seem to have negative feelings about Mexico. This negativity seems to prevent them from even allowing themselves to enjoy a dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It makes me wonder what meme exists within their generation to create these feelings. Many Boomers are bitter over Mexican immigration. I suppose that could have something to do with it. While something different does need to be done about immigration I didn’t let it stand in the way of me having a good time.

Technorati Tags: Cinco de Mayo, Wade Clark Roof, Baby Boomers, Generation X

Multicore Programming

2007-04-11T20:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, a discussion I was involved with turned to the subject of multithreaded programs running on computers with multiple core processors. Basically, most programmers today do not know how to write software that takes advantage of multiple processors. This will require a new programming paradigm. Yes, methods exist for doing this already but the techniques have not reached maturity. New frameworks are just now being developed to make this easier to do. I remember back when I was a C programmer saying that the C language gave you just enough rope to hang yourself. This was especially true for the memory allocation methods. Newer environments and languages such as Java and .NET have made things better for the old problems but the advent of multicore processors and the implementation of threading have introduced new problems and a new rope for hanging yourself in code.

A year ago Intel predicted that there would be processors with tens or even hundreds of cores within the next decade. This article, published just a couple of days ago, claims they could be available within the next two or three years. The article also points out that we are not prepared to utilize this kind of computing power. As this trend in hardware continues it is difficult to conceive that a single person or even a small team will ever be able to utilize this kind of power for the types of applications we use today. This is probably because humans won’t be doing the programming for long. Application development will turn to creating Genetic Fuzzy Systems that will start programming where humans leave off. These new computers are not what I consider to be artificially intelligent or anything verging on sentient. They are simply the next step in information automation. A catalyst and contributor to this technology will be the advent of the Semantic Web. Metadata will become part of the programming code that will provide the contextual information that the Fuzzy Genetic System will use to reformulate and redistribute the original human-written code. For now I will call these Sentinel Programs. Sentinel Programs will become the killer-app that will advance the wide-spread use of multicore processors.

Technorati Tags: semantic+web, genetic+fuzzy+systems, multicore+processors, threading

Growing Replacement Organs

2007-04-02T21:12:00.000-05:00

Sir Magdi Yacoub, a professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College London, has succeeded in growing a human heart valve from stem cells. He believes that we will be able to grow an entire heart within 10 years. If this is possible for the heart then it must also be true for all of the other organs in the body. Organ replacement, though, is no substitute for healthy living. Hopefully when we achieve full organ replacement capabilities it will not have the secondary effect of causing people to live unhealthy lifestyles believing that they can just replace the parts when they go bad. I believe this would have negative social consequences if this were to happen. Now is the time to start thinking of ways to head off negative secondary effects while the technology is still in its infancy. Click here to read more about the discovery.

Technorati Tags: heart+surgery, stem+cell

The Next Big Music Genre

2007-03-29T20:45:00.000-05:00

I just finished listening to A State of Trance hosted by Armin Van Buuren on XM Radio’s The System station. Maybe I’m a little late to the dance party but this stuff rocks. I’m talking about Trance. It’s not exactly new but it’s still only heard in dance clubs in big cities for the most part. But, the Internet and sites like myspace.com are going to change all that. The digital nature of it all encourages swapping and remixes. It’s portable and customizable. Check out Jennifer Rene’s MySpace page and listen to her song Louder. Take a look at the faces; they’re young, trendy, and smart. Think about the technology that is being used to make this music. Think about how new genres of popular music have been introduced since the advent of radio. They’ve all been technology driven. Presently, in my city of Pittsburgh there are no major radio stations playing this genre of music. Someday I believe there will be. If you don’t have a Trance station yet, be on the look out, they are coming. That is unless something else like pervasive, ubiquitous, wireless Internet replaces radio. Then you will be able to get your Trance on-demand.

Technorati Tags: trance+music, armin+van+buuren, jennifer+rene, asot

A Different American Auto Industry

2007-03-26T12:41:00.000-05:00

Change is finally coming to the American auto industry, but not in a way that Americans would have hoped for. I fear that General Motors may be the only one left standing when it is all over. Ford may survive as a brand but not as a company. The legend of Henry Ford will be hard to erase from the auto landscape. This is all speculation, of course, a short scenario if you will. My inspiration was this article at Edmunds’ website. My recent probing into the future of the American auto industry stems from a conversation I had with my neighbor yesterday. He was saying that his next car purchase might be a foreign model, a Toyota Tacoma. I haven’t known him for long, but he struck me as the type that would be loyal to domestic cars. When I told him that I was surprised that he would buy foreign his response was that he does want to be loyal but American cars have problems, they don’t last as long as Japanese cars. He has a Ford pickup from the 70’s that he keeps running just for the love of it. He said that Japanese engines last far longer than American engines. Among other things, American cars have real quality issues (at least in the mind of the consumer where the battlefield really resides). My neighbor also mentioned somebody he knows who works for GM. He said that this person he knows is so frustrated because the management that is above him is not willing to do anything to change the situation. It reminds me of what happened to the steel industry. Take a look at what the steel industry used to be and look at what it is today. That is what you are going to see happen to the auto industry. Cars will still be made here but on a much smaller scale and much differently.

Today, the President of the United States is going to meet with leaders of the Big Three. The agenda will focus on developing solutions for using alternative fuels. This seems misguided, they should be talking about other things. The Big Three are in no position to help. They can’t even help themselves. If the present situation persists they won't be making cars and will have no influence on alternative fuel use.

Technorati Tags: iraq, cars, ford, general+motors, chrysler, alternative+energy, auto+industry

House Approves Deadline in Iraq

2007-03-23T21:31:00.000-05:00

I thought this was an interesting quote from the NPR story, House Approves August 2008 Deadline in Iraq.

"In these snippets of the debate, there is much more than the lauding of the troops; there is also a struggle — just below the surface — for the public's perception of what happened in Congress Friday."

It makes me think of the Trout and Ries book title, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. If politics is anything, it’s just that. The ultimate outcome is what we believe happened, not necessarily what did happen. For those who think that Orwell’s 1984 can’t or won’t happen, guess again. History is changing everyday based on what the spin doctors get you to believe. Nothing demonstrates this better than a good ol’ American political campaign.

By the way, if you want the short version of Positioning, read this.

Technorati Tags: iraq, spin+doctors, orwell, trout+ries, jack+trout, al+ries, positioning

Skywalk Cognitive Dissonance

2007-03-21T08:58:00.000-05:00

Is the Grand Canyon Skywalk compatible with the concept of what the Grand Canyon represents? I suppose it is if enough money, or at least the hope of money, is involved. I am troubled by the words of Miss Teen Hualapai in this NPR story:

“Before, when I [first] heard of it, I thought that it wasn't gonna be a good idea, because it's disrupting the land," Bravo said. "But I started to think its probably gonna help the tribe raise more money, so whatever they're willing to do, then they can do it."

I realize that the people of the Hualapai are impoverished but this comment makes their struggle to live on the reservation for all these years sound as if it was in vain.

Technorati Tags: grand+canyon+skywalk, cognitive+dissonance, money, hualapai

3D Printer For Everyone

2007-03-16T20:56:00.000-05:00

Fab@Home will soon become the next big thing in home computing. This will be to the mechanically inclined what personal computers were to the electronics buff. This will bring the physical world and the information world together. Imagine, it’s like having your own CNC machine! This will be the ultimate in personalized items. For example, instead of buying a skin for your cellphone you can just make your own. Here’s where it will get interesting, companies will sell you "a document" that you can print yourself (with personalized modifications, of course) instead of manufacturing a physical product.

Technorati Tags: 3d+printer

iReader by Syntactica

2007-03-07T12:30:00.000-05:00

A couple of days ago a friend alerted me to Cringely’s review of iReader. Once installed iReader allows you to hover your mouse over a link and a balloon will pop up with a summary of the page’s contents. I don’t know why Cringely is so hot on this thing. Both my friend and I attempted to use it with disappointing results. To its credit the software was easy to install and easy to use. But, the information it returned was no more helpful than visiting the link itself and, even worse, it locked up my browser a couple of times forcing me to use Task Manager to end the process and lose all my browser sessions. I just removed iReader from my system. Sorry, Syntactica.

Technorati Tags: ireader, syntactica, cringely