“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” — William Shakespeare.

Technological advancement changes the way people see the world. Up becomes down, good becomes evil, smart becomes stupid, small becomes big, safe becomes dangerous, outcasts become moguls, cats become cash. As Gnarls Barkley sings, all this expansion of human consciousness can seem a little Crazy.

This blog was once called Emerging Earth, but the craziness isn’t just emerging anymore. It’s right here, right now, in piles of big boxes sitting right in front of you. Handle them the wrong way, and you end up with a mess. Let’s figure out which side is up.

Post from: EveryJoe

Tech Side Up

1.5 exabytes of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year — more than was generated in the previous 5,000 years.

If you still doubt the imminence of the emerging Earth, Living in Exponential Times should clear some of your doubts. Singularity in 2013, baby. Heck, Google’s already building an AI.

Post from: EveryJoe

Living in Exponential Times

So Jon Stewart is good, but his bosses at Viacom are evil. Maybe he should cut a deal with YouTube.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Geek’s Guide to Good and Evil

Andrew Liszewski for OhGizmo! has a great article about just how it may be done in the future. That’s some really cool stuff.

Post from: EveryJoe

Magnetic Slingshots Into Space

• 3 orders of Pad Thai Chicken Hot w/ spring rolls
• 1 order of Massaman Curry Chicken Hot w/ soup
• 1 order of Pa Gra Pow Chicken Hot
• 1 water, 1 Diet Pepsi, 1 Pepsi

Lately, instead of meeting at the restuarant, we’ll order it and one of us will pick it up and bring it back to the office. Although we’re regulars at this location (the owner’s know us well), when we call in our order sometimes it’s a challenge to get everything straight with the strong accent of language barrier.

The idea then occurred to us, what if we setup up our “3 Hungry Guys Combo” with the owners and whenever we called in, they’d know it was us and just duplicate our order. After that thought, we then expanded it to ask why we can’t do that at any major restaurant change.

National pizza chains like Dominos, Papa John’s and Pizza Hut are doing a pretty good job of this now with their websites. When you logon, some of them remember your last order and give you the option of repeating it. They remember your delivery location and payment information, etc. I can go online now and order a pizza, pay for it and be off the site in a matter of seconds and choose my delivery location of home or office.

What if you could do this type of thing in the drive-thru? You could use existing RFID technology or even the SpeedPass dongles that McDonald’s is already accepting for payment. Imagine this scenario, I’m sure it’s familiar in your family.

When my family goes to Wendy’s, here’s our order pretty much every time:

• Me: Spicy Chicken, large chocolate Frosty
• Wife: Combo #6, large Diet Pepsi
• Son: 4-piece nuggets, fries, chocolate milk
• Daughter: 4-piece nuggets, mandarin oranges, Sprite

What if instead of having to turn down the radio, get the kids to be quiet and try and remember the details everytime, you could just wave your little key fob thing at the sensor and it ordered exactly what you wanted. You could make it more flexible as well. What if you had a couple of different “Family Combos” that were identified by number from your RFID fob. You then clearly stated you “Family Combo #4″ into the speaker, the LCD screen quickly displayed the details of your order and you pull up to pick-up your order. Your account would have your form of payment known and you pull up and drive away with your food. Gives a whole new meaning to “FAST” food don’t you think?

What if instead of a FOB, you dialed a number posted at the drive-thru with your cellphone. It used the caller ID information to pull up your profile and then offer your preferred meal combinations.

What if you had a network of restaurants that let you do this? You could manage all your favorite combinations with an online customer profile management system and be on your way with a nice, quick meal the next time your out running yourself ragged with Christmas shopping or running errands.

Photo Credit: The Consumerist

Post from: EveryJoe

Mass Customization at the Drive-Thru

It seems as if the family’s car had gotten stuck in the snow and mud and they were unable to free themselves. The family, consisting of James, his wife and two daughters, ran the car’s heater as long as they could to stay warm until they ran out of gas. They then began burning the tires to keep warm.

James eventually went off on his own into the snow covered forests to try and find help for his family. His family was finally found by search crews and were alive and well. James Kim’s body was found a few days later.

It’s a tragedy to me that this type of event could take place with all the technology at our fingertips. We can only assume that cell phones were out of range and there was nobody anywhere near the area to hear them if they screamed or were honking the horn to the car. Burning car tires, you’d think the thick black smoke would have raised attention too.

There are plenty of little devices that do exist that backpackers, climbers and explorers take with them to use in an emergency. How many of us would have thought to purchase or take with us such items for a simple family vacation.

What kinds of things can we do to improve this situation? Homing beacons put in all cars as an emergency device? What do we do about late model cars? Personal tracking devices? We’ll upset privacy advocates. Cell phones with emergency battery back-up enough to make an emergency signal burst with a SOS message?

What do we do to make sure this never happens again?

Source: Searchers Find Body Of Missing SF Man

Post from: EveryJoe

Tragedy in the Midst of Technology

I believe that part of what makes this emerging Earth of ours so interesting is that we continue to develop and realize our dreams into reality.

After reviewing the site and reading what it’s all about, some of the interesting ideas that I came across in a category labeled “Give Back” was a section entitled “Invent Something to Improve the World“.

Just what are people dreaming up? What are you dreaming? The sky is the limit.

Post from: EveryJoe

MyDream.TV

Regardless of the lack of my time doesn’t keep Google from continuing to improve and release updated versions of their product. Such is the case with Google Earth 4 beta.

Download Google Earth 4 Beta now

Post from: EveryJoe

Google Earth 4 Beta Released

Broadlogic’s new TeraPIX processor works by compressing those 80 legacy analog television channels — which currently hog 500MHz of the available 750MHz in a coax cable — down to a mere 50MHz, freeing up a whole lotta’ bandwidth in the process.

Engadget originally go the information from Om Malik’s blog.

Post from: EveryJoe

Lots of Room for TV Channel Expansion

Congratulations!  YOU have been selected as a TiVo Open Beta participant. In fact, your TiVo(R) box has already been authorized to receive the beta upgrade. Please place a connection to the TiVo service to download the updated software version.

I can’t tell you anything…

Remember, by committing to this program, you signed an NDA (non-disclosure agreement). That means you won’t share the details of this program with anyone.

But I’m in, and at some point maybe I’ll get to share something with all of you. I might get to make ridiculous claims like “Hey! I told them to do that and they listened to me!”.

Post from: EveryJoe

TiVo Open Beta Program