On July 27, 2010 at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), the WCA LBS SIG celebrated its third anniversary by presenting “Locationpolooza! Hyperlocal, Social Apps, and Emergency Alerts.” Jill Oana of WCA moderated panelists Jonathan Delong of Zos, Brendan Kenney of Geodelic, Shawna Pandya of CiviGuard, Renato Mascardo of MotiveCast and Christian Wiklund of Skout. Several new companies got a chance to talk about what they are doing with Location Based Services (LBS).
First and most importantly, LBS emergency notification can make sure information gets to people in a specific area during a disaster or simply heavy traffic. For everyday use, social apps help you keep in-touch with friends and family. Finally advertisers are developing an augmented reality on your phone that overlays your shopping experience with “hyper-local” ads offering you deals as you walk through a store or neighborhood.
While all these remarkable services tend to be free and opt-in, I would love to see a service that would allow people to turn it all off and go about their business. I recommend attending WCA events in order to keep up on what is happening in the mobile space. It is a smart and funny crowd that deals with things that have a direct effect on our lives.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Events, Reviews at 2:35 PM UTC []
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It is difficult to write separate reviews for summer blockbuster movies since they’ve become so similar. My solution is to mash them all together below. Text from DJCline.com
Inception
A hypnotic Jason Bourne. Leonardo DiCaprio gets inside people’s heads to steal their secrets. It is like the Matrix but more touchy feely. There is an amazing weightless scene in an elevator. Obviously written by a strict Freudian, you have to pay for two fifty minute sessions and really want to see the end of this movie.
Iron Man 2
A wealthy Jason Bourne. More of the same only sillier. Robert Downey does his job and clocks out on time. Very loud and lots of explosions.
The Kids Are Alright
A slacker alternative Jason Bourne. I thought this was a documentary about The Who. Actually it is a routine family comedy. A teen brother and sister find their biological father. Their birth mothers handle it differently. One mom is a control freak, the other is a drifting drunk, opposite sides of the same coin. The inevitable happens and one of them has an affair with the father. Disaster ensues, proving that all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way. There is a better story idea currently under development at Warner’s, but I digress…
The Killers
A goofy Jason Bourne. Ashton Kutcher plays a secret agent blah, blah, blah. Very loud and lots of explosions. Don’t get punked into seeing this one.
Knight And Day
A crazy Jason Bourne. Tom Cruise plays a crazy secret agent who is at heart a Boy Scout. Tom is in excellent physical shape. He always escapes and has his own secret island and cache of weapons. He has not seen his family for years. They think he is dead. Cameron Diaz falls in love with a man who co-workers think is dangerous. He is… if you are a villain. Very loud and lots of explosions.
Salt
A female Jason Bourne. Angelina Jolie plays a secret agent who may be a Russian sleeper agent. Angelina is in excellent physical shape. Co-workers think she is dangerous. She is… if you are a villain. Lots of stunts like jumping from moving trucks. These trucks are also used to drive through the holes in the plot. Very loud and lots of explosions.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Movies, Reviews at 2:47 PM UTC []
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Patrick McGoohan created the original Prisoner TV series back in 1967. It was a trippy mix of Kafka and Carnaby Street. A man quits his job but his former employers don’t want him to do his new job. They keep him in a prison they call The Village. No one will answer his questions but everybody is watching his every move. He spends most of the time trying to find out who is behind all this and eventually escapes. It was a masterpiece.
The remake moves like molasses and that is with the fast forward button on the remote taped down. Don’t be held prisoner by this remake.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Reviews, Television at 5:23 PM UTC []
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On July 13, 2010 in Mountain View at NASA Ames Research Park, Singularity University presented “Women @ the Frontier.” Susan Fonseca-Klein, the Singularity University Founding Architect welcomed a diverse crowd to the new campus.
Sonia Arrison Senkut of Pacific Research Institute moderated panelists Yvonne Cagle of NASA, Liddy Karter of Karter Capital Advisors, Cynthia Kenyon of UCSF, Laurie Yoler of GrowthPoint Technology Partners and Rebecca Moore of Google.The question was how to meet the 10^9+ challenge: How would you positively impact 1 billion people, in 10 years, leveraging exponential trends and innovative entrepreneurship?
I will try to consolidate everything I heard into one paragraph. You can live on a space station and learn how to recycle air, water, shelter and food. You can cut back on eating sugar and live longer. Use the food waste to generate alternative energy to power your electric cars. Use the internet to share what you have learned with the rest of the world. Give a billion people the opportunities and tools to make their life better.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Events, Reviews at 8:30 AM UTC []
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Elmore Leonard is best known for the movie “Get Shorty” and its cast of colorful characters. The FX TV series “Justified” is in the same vein. The dialogue, characters and plot are well done. Set in Appalachia, the hero is a trigger happy US Marshall who literally wears a white hat. After killing a suspect in Miami, he has been sent back to his home territory to keep out of trouble. It doesn’t work. He becomes involved with his dysfunctional family, former lovers and friends. The villains cynically use religion as a justification for their crimes.
There are people I know from that area who are concerned about stereotyping. Perhaps their feelings are…justified.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Reviews, Television at 4:45 PM UTC []
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Notes From A Silicon Valley Watcher
By Tom Foremski
After twenty years of covering Silicon Valley for the Financial Times, Tom Foremski saw the future and started Silicon Valley Watcher. He has carefully condensed his observations over the past five years into a new book “In My Humble Opinion: Notes From A Silicon Valley Watcher.” It will be a rare book by the simple fact that soon all printed books will be oddities. How does an author sign a downloaded file?
Foremski explains the transition between old and new media. He says that every company is a media company. There are some shrewd points about Apple and Google’s strategies toward content. After reading it I think it important that all companies realize their data is their greatest asset. They should hire the best local independent database developers to make the most of the data they have. If you ask the right questions and make the most of the answers you will do well in the future Foremski sees.
He reveals a little of his background, including how his parents escaped from behind the Iron Curtain. He carefully chooses his words in the tradition of Joseph Conrad and Vaclev Havel. It is always fun to cross paths with him and hear what he has to say.
In whatever form, buy the book.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Books, Reviews at 10:30 AM UTC []
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On August 7, 2010 at DeAnza College in Cupertino, the STC Silicon Valley chapter will have a “Introduction to DITA Workshop” with instructors Lauren Katzive and Bob Kauten. Some of the topics covered will be DITA concepts, tasks, references, ditamaps, tools and technologies (DITA Open Toolkit, XML Mind) There will also be hands-on examples so students will work on pieces they can include in their portfolios.
Register before July 25, 2010 and it will be $60 for STC Members and Full-Time Students
and $75 for Non-members. Register after July 25, 2010 will be $75 for STC Members and Full-Time Students
and $100 for Non-members
To register:
http://stcsv.wufoo.com/forms/intro-to-dita-workshop/
For more information visit their website at:
http://www.stc-siliconvalley.org/
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Events, Reviews at 9:23 AM UTC []
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On Jun. 30, 2010 in Palo Alto at SAP, the Bay Area Future Salon hosted a Peter Marks of Design Insight presentation on Blind Spots. Marks is best known for his landmark books “Aligning Technology for Best Business Results” and “Winning Products”. He understands the implications of technology in business and customer psychology. He demonstrated his expertise in visual perception.
You never see the car that hits you. If you did, you would be able to avoid it. In business the same sort of issues have to be dealt with everyday. What disruptive trend did you overlook? What crucial detail drove a customer to buy your product? Marks gave a lively presentation on how to look for what you can’t see. Change the way you think and it will change what you see.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Events, Reviews at 8:00 AM UTC []
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On June 29, 2010 in Palo Alto at SAP, SDForum presented a Clean Tech Breakfast titled “Next Generation Batteries: Challenges and Opportunities in Energy Storage.” Jeffrey Selman of Nixon Peabody moderated panelists Dania Ghantous of Qnovo, Ashok Lahiri of Enovix, Mark Platshon of VantagePoint and Camille Ricketts of VentureBeat.
To give you an idea how much things are changing, this was the day Tesla went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Storing alternative energy and the growth of mobile technology is driving the need for more efficient and environmentally sustainable batteries. The demand of batteries for cell phones, laptops and cameras will only skyrocket when we need thousands of batteries for electric cars. We need more students majoring in math, science and particularly chemistry. Buy your child a chemistry set and walk them through a periodic table. In the mean time there will be a scramble for the raw materials for lithium ion batteries and in countries like Afghanistan and Bolivia just as there is for oil in the Middle East. There is strong interest in the outcome of battery technology. In the audience I saw people from Lawrence Livermore, Sony, Wells Fargo and one mysterious gentleman in the corner who did not want to be identified.
I mention him because over the weekend I saw a movie starring Tom Cruise called Knight and Day. A crazy secret agent finds and protects a genius who develops a super battery. I never though batteries would be a major plot point in a Hollywood movie, but I think it will be key to our economy in the future.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Events, Reviews at 4:59 PM UTC []
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