One small change at a time...

If someone were to ask me for my definition of the “perfect” job, it would be an occupation where (in no particular order):

• I enjoy the work that I do.
• I would be well-paid (subjective, I know) for the work that I do, and…
• I get the opportunity to help people.

Jobs like these don’t come along everyday.  But, if you’re like me AND you live in the United Kingdom, then I should inform you – you’ve got less than two weeks left to apply for that perfect job.  Just don’t use me as a reference 

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The divide between our imaginations and our reality may not as be as wide as we think.

Tonight’s “60 Minutes” had a repeat piece titled “Mind Reading” on the development of a budding technology referred to as ‘Thought Identification’ or in laymen’s terms – ‘Mind Reading’ – and it’s a technology that seems to work with a fair degree of accuracy.  As Lesley Stahl asks:

“How often have you wondered what your spouse is really thinking? Or your boss? Or the guy sitting across from you on the bus? We all take as a given that we’ll never really know for sure. The content of our thoughts is our own–private, secret, and unknowable by anyone else. Until now, that is.”

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NileGuide.com's iPhone Application

When it comes to “getting away”, sometimes my travels are superficial (like when I just want to follow a band that’s performing within four hours of me).  Other times, they’re much more in-depth (like when I take that two week getaway to that new vacation spot and don’t want to miss ANYTHING).  In the past, I’ve relied on personal experiences, scattered web searching or research by concierges at my hotel to give me recommendations.  It is from these sources that I build my local “knowledge base” of the area in question.

But now, thanks to NileGuide, things have gotten a lot easier.  Continue Reading

This Moxi HD DVR is one of five units that’s looking for a good home.

When my wife and I moved into our new house, my office/work area/lab/dungeon got relegated to the basement -  not a full-size basement, mind you, more like a “large cubby under the stairs” sort of place.  Little did I realize though, that when she used the term “Man Cave” for the first time, it wasn’t a novel phrase.

My Man Cave is not much to write home (or even this post) about.  There are lots of books and magazines,  and old or malfunctioning PC’s to tinker with.  It’s not the kind of place that I can really invite “The Guys” over for.  But now, there might be hope for me yet, from the Cool Dudes at Digeo:

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The CPF® Trolley Bag with laptop compartment swung out for X-ray scanning.

For a while now, flying hasn’t been that much fun.  Airlines cutting costs (say “goodbye” to complimentary peanuts) and security checkpoints adding on time make personal airline travel feel like an ordeal, and business travel feel even more like a necessary “evil”.

But for the business travelers amongst you, there’s one small piece of good news – you can now get through the process of running your laptop through security checkpoints that much faster, thanks to the CPF® line (short for ‘Checkpoint Friendly’) of laptop bags from Aerovation.  Continue Reading

In my dreams, after a long day of completing triathlons, coming in first at poker tournaments and winning Pulitzer prizes, I would sit down in my massaging, comfy chair at my home in New Jersey and sip iced tea while watching streaming internet-hosted web content on my large screen television or perhaps listen to a nice long run of Radio Paradise.

But until the next time I clutch my pillow tight, I will have to make do with the next best thing – the VuNow from Verismo Systems.  In the war for control of your television, this tiny package could very well be the “suitcase nuke” of media extenders.

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Someday Soon, Inhalers Such As This One May Be "Smarter"

At one of my former jobs, my then-manager once told me that a cousin of his had suddenly died from an asthma attack.  Saddened as I was for his loss, I became more concerned about my own wife, who suffers from asthma as well (the adult onset type, or as she likes to call it – “a parting gift from Philip Morris”).

According to the Center for Disease Control, as of 2007 Asthma affected over 16 million people in the United States.  And the number of cases is increasing.  For years, scientists have been researching into the environmental factors that contribute to asthma.  But to solve a problem, one must first understand a problem.  To do that one needs to have data – LOTS and LOTS of data.
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Just When You Thought Nuclear Fission Was the Only Game in Town.

Tonight’s “60 Minutes” had a piece on the resurgence of interest in a field of Energy Physics known as ‘Cold Fusion’.  As the description for the piece from “60 Minutes’” website reads:

COLD FUSION IS HOT AGAIN: Presented in 1989 as a revolutionary new source of energy, cold fusion was quickly dismissed as junk science. But today, the buzz among scientists is that these experiments produce a real physical effect that could lead to monumental breakthroughs in energy production.

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So this past Friday I was watching an episode of Numb3rs, a fictional FBI drama about an FBI team lead by Agent Don Epps which uses the services of Don’s brother, Charlie (who is a university Mathematics professor) to solve crimes.

Although the episode titled  “Animal Rites”, which centered around the death of Charlie’s college colleague, professor Nelson Horowitz, was nothing to write home about (pun unintended), one particular piece of dialog between the two main characters caught my attention.

This excerpt comes from a discussion Charlie is having with Don about the idea of getting the FBI to implant keyword-searching programs on web servers where Animal Rights activists frequently chat:

Charlie:  I can only see data that meets my criteria, everything else remains private. So, the person who killed Nelson will never know we observed him.

Don:  Is that legal?

Charlie:  Uh, it’s not illegal. Technology’s ahead of the law.

Don:  Alright.  Well, I’ll get going on the warrant.
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Members of the 125th Precinct pondering a technological question

So this past week was the last episode of the American remake of “Life on Mars“, a great show about Sam Tyler, a 21st police detective transplanted back to 1973.  The show, besides being part sci-fi/part police drama, was also quite capable of being tongue-in-cheek.

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