The New York Times has just published a piece on a technology we’ve written about a few times before (here, here, and here).  They’re covering research into its possible uses in the data center, whereas we came across it in a consumer electronics context:

Problem: Stakeholders in the preservation of the broadcast/cable television paradigm (networks, cable companies) are much less inclined to deliver content via the internet to your television than they are to your computer’s web browser.  That’s a shame, because your computer is essentially a single user, lean-forward device – not great for television.  In fact, that’s what makes it nonthreatening enough to be accommodated.  It’s a business-driven issue rather than a technological one, and it’s what has crippled Apple TV, Google TV, Boxee, and any number of other set-top box contenders to date.  It could be a while before a stable and sustainable internet television business model gets hammered out.   In the meantime, how to get that web content over to the television where it belongs, without running an HDMI cable under  the carpet?

Solution:  Use an  Ultra Wide Band wireless solution, of course!  Getting an uncompressed audio and video stream over to the television would require a lot more bandwidth than what even the most up-to-date flavor of  802.11 wireless technology can handle, but luckily, ‘short fat pipe’  UWB technology capable of moving a very large amount of data a very short distance does exist, and in fact it’s been around for a few years now.  It was surprisingly difficult to find, but over a year ago we found a simple and inexpensive  WiMedia-based solution that we’ve happily been using ever since: it consists of only a small (dongle-sized) USB2 transmitter at the computer and another small dongle-sized HDMI receiver at the television.  Install the driver on your computer, put that website or iTunes video into full screen mode, and you’re good to go (until you have to get up off the couch to pause the video – but hey).

The product (bought for under 100 USD) has ended up being a highly effective workaround for the ‘browser-only’ internet television problem described above.   Funnily, though, it’s remained something of a well-kept secret in the consumer electronics space – and since I imagine our particular use case will disappear once true internet television does indeed arrive (whenever that is), this recent New York Time piece on whether the same ‘short fat pipe’ technology has an unexpected future moving large amounts of zeros and ones between servers in the data center caught our eye.

My friend and fellow disruptor, Brian Reich, has written a very important book, Shift and Reset, which is a MUST READ for anyone who wants to lead an organization in this hyper-connected age.

You can get a flavor for what his book has to offer by viewing these slides he put together outlining 12 Big Ideas for 2012.  And be sure to buy the book – it makes a great holiday gift to yourself or someone you know.

Briefly and simply, Facebook Timeline is amazing!

What launched globally this week, Facebook now affords anyone to post one’s complete life stream in chronological order. With that the ueber-popular social network introduces a powerful new form to feed back and forward one’s entire live story in one fell swoop.

Think your teenage 1978 Miss America picks alongside your favorite cheesy 80s movie flicks side by side your current day Philip Glass CD collection. All neatly timelined in chronological order and interspersed with plenty *foursquared* bars and clubs revealing exactly when, where and who you’ve been hanging out with over the years.

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I’ll admit it: I’ve never uploaded a video to YouTube, I’ve never subscribed to a YouTube Channel, I’ve never (ok hardly ever) used it to discover video (vimeo is more to my taste for long-tail/user-generated online video).  In short, I was never a big YouTube user  (it turns out YouTube is a big Brian Ales user, but that’s another story).

Then a few days ago, I received an email from Google regarding my seldom-used YouTube account:  I had until December 20th to log on and upgrade to the new YouTube, or my account would be deleted.

Deleted?  That’s one aggressive upgrade policy.  But when das Google sends you an email with a link to click on, you click on it, right?

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#1 Thing You Need to Learn from This Post:

Leaders in Port-au-Prince are hosting the #OpenHaiti Camp on Monday and welcome your online attendance to help them define a Project Worth Doing using open technology.

A More Detailed Exploration:

During my recent trip to Haiti, our group had the opportunity to meet with the organizers of this coming Monday’s #OpenHaiti Camp. This ideas came out of the recent TEDxPortauPrince event and will be hosted at the same venue, EPIH.

Do you have an interest in open technology and open systems? Can you spare 15-30 minutes or more to join in via Twitter and their wiki?  Be sure to RSVP on their Eventbrite page.

Here’s the full event description from the organizers:

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I made this list over on Foursquare to help folks who are visiting and want to have an easy-to-follow plan. This is inspired by the number of times friends and family from my hometown upstate have done one of the day-trip-to-the-city packages, and I’ve taken them around. There’s a million other things to add (taking suggestions in the comments!), but this generally works for the timeframe allotted.

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It was my birthday this weekend. Thanks everyone for your kind and warm wishes.

Turns out, it was actually my first truly Facebook-centric celebration – a social media-powered birthday if you will.

This might not necessarily be anything new to you, but I had never had a birthday were Facebook wall posts took center stage.

Be that personal calls, emails, or postcards arriving in the mail (remember those?), wall posts from Facebook friends way outnumbered any other forms of traditional greetings I received this time around.

From New York to Berlin back to LA, friends apparently pay notice to Facebook’s able birthday alert system. True to social media’s promise, incoming wall posts even made for a bit of a reunion with some of the folks I hadn’t been in touch with in years.

Old fashioned me, I did respond to each and every post. Not even sure if that’s the proper etiquette and instead a single *bulk* mille grazie reply post would have done?

Who knows? Despite its success – social media is still relatively new. So is Facebook’s personal wall concept. (Hey, my car is older than that). And as the social powerhouse continues to introduce new features and capabilities, rules around Facebook usage will likely stay equally in flux.

So, let’s see what shape and form Facebook will take in years to come, as it continues to grow into what seems to have already turned into our central e-greetings hub.

Just back from a trip to Rome, Italy, I was floored by the unparalleled wealth of artistic talent and expression the city harnessed across two and a half thousand years.

Touring the Vatican St. Peter’s Basilica and its Sistine Chapel was an especially mind-blowing experience.

I kept thinking what back then were the unique circumstances that enabled this tremendously beautiful body of work? Did they see it for what it is to us today? And would we be able to create similar genius if we tried?

Clearly, Michelangelo painting his Sistine Chapel frescos today would have a decidedly different outcome compared to the genius beauty he created back in 1508 to 1512.  (Oh, if Michelangelo is too dated for you, who among us doesn’t wonder how Paul McCartney’s 60′s Beatles era genius squares with his 9/11 Freedom song out in 2001. But let me not digress ; -). Conversely, today’s great industrial design – let’s say of Apple’s Jonathan Ive genius – would have been impossible to conceive in 16th century Rome.

In other words, yes, universal artistic genius is subject to its unique time, place and circumstances.

Which brings me to our own now, here, our current environment.

For instances, do any of today’s *early 21st century* consumer digital devices and their designs count as art? If so, will any of them be considered of timeless artistic appeal in, let’s say, another two and a half thousand years from now?

To be sure, back in Michelangelo’s 16th century most art was commissioned by a few to elevate a few and typically tied to a single theme (i.e. religion). Today art is largely created by anyone for anyone, no longer limited to a canvas or church walls, instead feeding off of constant reinvention – one marketing-driven consumer *revolution* at a time.

Over the past weeks, much has been written about the late Steve Jobs and his impact on popular culture. If anything, we seem generally certain, the work that Steve accomplished jointly with Jonathan was pretty darn genius.

Whether in 4511 it will pass Michelangelo-level muster, let’s see.

For now to us anyway it is – well – insanely genius art!

On German exposure to credit crises of all flavors: North American and European  Michael Lewis is the author of several non-fiction bestsellers chronicling the current plight of the US and global financial markets.  Last month he wrote a thought-provoking piece in Vanity Fair that not only covers not Germany’s central role in the US (sub-prime mortgage-driven) and European (sub-prime EU partner-driven) debt crises, but also speculates on some cultural issues that may have might have contributed to the extent of the country’s involvement.  As a US expat living in Germany, I felt that while a few of his points in that regard were a bit of a stretch, he gets a lot right.  Agree or disagree, an interesting and well-written piece.

If you read one article on Steve Jobs’ legacy…  read David Carr’s piece in the New York Times.  Enough said.

A picture’s worth a thousand words… especially when it’s a gigapixel picture.  No reading required to get the point here on what the combination of hi-resolution photography and social media (or even worse, facial recognition technology) could mean to privacy.  Not just ‘online’ privacy, but physical privacy – in public. 

Just click here (it takes a bit for the image to load), and zoom into the crowd.  Keep zooming – until the little blue icons (and the implications of this technology on personal privacy) become clearly visible.

When was the last time you donated money to a good cause – using your very cell phone that is?

No, this is not about poll voting for one’s favorite America Idol performer, or buying another app.

This is about wielding one’s smartphone to part ways with some of your hard-earned money purely with philanthropic intent.

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