Web/Tech

  • New Imaging Tools Will Change How You Access Information

    Photosynth is a new technology from Microsoft
    It is software that could transform the way we look at digital images.
    Using still photos (and more), Photosynth builds a breathtaking new
    form of composite image, and lets us navigate them.  This service turns multiple photos of a scene or site — say, an art gallery or a building — into a 3-D scene you can virtually "walk" through on the Web.

    080829 Photosynth of Venice Canals 600p

    Ten-years ago I saw something like this; it was the interface to a game called Myst.  It was ground-breaking at the time.

    In the early phase of adoption for Photosynth, I expect to see things like the 3-D rendering of the Canals in Venice.  It is an easily accessible way to explore the concept.  Soon, however, this could evolve into a new way to hyper-link a wide range of data, meta-data, and business information.

    To get a better idea of what this can do, watch this video from the Ted Conference introducing Photosynth.

    Think about how much the web has already changed how you do research?  Also, because it is so easy to do now, think how much more research you do.  For example, I'm amazed at how often I search Google or Wikipedia. Similarly, I use sites like Digg, Technorati, Regator, and various blogs to find relevant information – even if I didn't know I was looking for it.

    Photosynth is different, and in some ways a step beyond, those research tools.  It is graphics-centric instead of text-centric.  And I can imagine a new type of front-end (a new framework) for accessing information stored virtually anywhere.  Consequently, I expect to see a lot more of this, and things like it.

    Click here to explore some interesting Synths.  You can make your own, too.  For example, here is a link to a Photosynth of, my son, Ben's dorm room at Duke.  It took him about a half-hour to make it.

    Note: you can use arrows on the screen to navigate a Photosynth image; and the "Space Bar" is helpful, too, because it jumps to the next cluster of 3-D images.

  • LiveScribe – All Things Fit to Print

    Livescribe 250p I got a new gadget. It is a Livescribe pen that records both what it hears and what you write.

    From a small sample of using it about a dozen times so far, I am impressed; Livescribe works great, and delivers immediate benefit at meetings and seminars.  I use it to review conversations and brain-storming sessions for clarification, or to catch something I missed the first time through.

    It generates an interesting polarity of responses though. Some people get it instantly and want to know where they can buy them.  Others couldn't care less.  No one objected to its use during the meeting – and I suspect that it became invisible quickly.

    It records about a hundred hours of surprisingly clear audio.  The pen has a camera, just above the tip, that captures the image of what is being written — and synchronizes this to what you hear or say.  And if you go back and touch the tip of the pen to writing on the page, you hear what was being said while it was written.  You can even control the playback speed to go faster, or slower, when you want.

    The Livescribe pen looks and feels nice.  It comes with a leather travel case and a dock to sync it with your computer.  There is well-designed software that lets you manage and share the results. Livescribe created a place to post "pen-casts" online, to share with your team.  You can limit who see it with an access control list or leave it open.  Click here for an example.

    I'm sending my son to back to school with one.  It seems like the perfect environment for a tool like this. 

    All-in-all, Livescribe is worth a try. For more information about this interesting technology, here is the Livescribe's site.

    Here are some video demos.

    It looks like college book stores and Amazon are expected to be the big distribution channels.

  • LiveScribe – All Things Fit to Print

    Livescribe 250p I got a new gadget. It is a Livescribe pen that records both what it hears and what you write.

    From a small sample of using it about a dozen times so far, I am impressed; Livescribe works great, and delivers immediate benefit at meetings and seminars.  I use it to review conversations and brain-storming sessions for clarification, or to catch something I missed the first time through.

    It generates an interesting polarity of responses though. Some people get it instantly and want to know where they can buy them.  Others couldn't care less.  No one objected to its use during the meeting – and I suspect that it became invisible quickly.

    It records about a hundred hours of surprisingly clear audio.  The pen has a camera, just above the tip, that captures the image of what is being written — and synchronizes this to what you hear or say.  And if you go back and touch the tip of the pen to writing on the page, you hear what was being said while it was written.  You can even control the playback speed to go faster, or slower, when you want.

    The Livescribe pen looks and feels nice.  It comes with a leather travel case and a dock to sync it with your computer.  There is well-designed software that lets you manage and share the results. Livescribe created a place to post "pen-casts" online, to share with your team.  You can limit who see it with an access control list or leave it open.  Click here for an example.

    I'm sending my son to back to school with one.  It seems like the perfect environment for a tool like this. 

    All-in-all, Livescribe is worth a try. For more information about this interesting technology, here is the Livescribe's site.

    Here are some video demos.

    It looks like college book stores and Amazon are expected to be the big distribution channels.

  • The Only Constant is Change

    Change is constant.  Learning to respond and adapt faster and better is
    one of the foundational keys to success.

    Bill Gate VideoOne of the best illustrations of that in business has been the story of Bill Gates and Microsoft. 

    This week, was Bill’s last as a full-time Microsoft employee.  So, there was a lot of hoopla.

    This video is interesting, and puts his contribution in perspective. 

    It is worth watching.

  • The Only Constant is Change

    Change is constant.  Learning to respond and adapt faster and better is
    one of the foundational keys to success.

    Bill Gate VideoOne of the best illustrations of that in business has been the story of Bill Gates and Microsoft. 

    This week, was Bill’s last as a full-time Microsoft employee.  So, there was a lot of hoopla.

    This video is interesting, and puts his contribution in perspective. 

    It is worth watching.

  • Market Commentary from June 27th, 2008

    The Dow lost almost 500 points in the last two days.  Longer term, the stock market has been down sharply since May 2; in fact, it has been down five of
    the last six weeks. Several commentators note that the Dow experienced its worst June since 1930.
    Moreover, with this decline, it has also given back all of the gains it made since September, 2006.

    080627 Dow Low Divergence 600p

    Also worth noting is that the Dow just made new lows for the year, entering “Bear Territory” by sinking more than 20% from its October peak.  However the MACD’s downward momentum did not make new lows, even while the index price plummeted. 

    Perhaps more important, though, is that the Index broke below its 28-Year Up-Trend line.

    Dow 28 Year Uptrend 630p

    Also, Bespoke had an interesting chart comparing returns of various international indices.  Here it is:

    0806 Global Return Comparison from Bespoke

    Finally, here are a few of the posts I found interesting this week:

    And a little bit extra …

    • Trading Desks Turn to Video Game Technology to Speed Analytics. (Wall Street & Technology)
    • Your Money and Your Brain (Phil’s Favorites)
    • The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn’t Just More — More Is Different. (Wired)
    • The New Name Game: Internet Naming Rules About to Change. (CNN)
    • Will Brain Downloads will make lessons pointless? (Telegraph)
    • The Philosophy of George Carlin (Financial Philosopher)
  • Market Commentary from June 27th, 2008

    The Dow lost almost 500 points in the last two days.  Longer term, the stock market has been down sharply since May 2; in fact, it has been down five of
    the last six weeks. Several commentators note that the Dow experienced its worst June since 1930.
    Moreover, with this decline, it has also given back all of the gains it made since September, 2006.

    080627 Dow Low Divergence 600p

    Also worth noting is that the Dow just made new lows for the year, entering “Bear Territory” by sinking more than 20% from its October peak.  However the MACD’s downward momentum did not make new lows, even while the index price plummeted. 

    Perhaps more important, though, is that the Index broke below its 28-Year Up-Trend line.

    Dow 28 Year Uptrend 630p

    Also, Bespoke had an interesting chart comparing returns of various international indices.  Here it is:

    0806 Global Return Comparison from Bespoke

    Finally, here are a few of the posts I found interesting this week:

    And a little bit extra …

    • Trading Desks Turn to Video Game Technology to Speed Analytics. (Wall Street & Technology)
    • Your Money and Your Brain (Phil’s Favorites)
    • The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn’t Just More — More Is Different. (Wired)
    • The New Name Game: Internet Naming Rules About to Change. (CNN)
    • Will Brain Downloads will make lessons pointless? (Telegraph)
    • The Philosophy of George Carlin (Financial Philosopher)
  • Snap Shots

    In an effort to make this blog easier to use, I installed a tool called Snap Shots that
    enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia
    articles
    , MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and
    Amazon
    products
    , display inline videos, RSS, MP3s,
    photos, stock charts and
    more.

    Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having
    to leave the site, while other times it lets you “look ahead,” before deciding
    if you want to follow a link or not.

    Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the
    upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

    Hope you like it.

  • Snap Shots

    In an effort to make this blog easier to use, I installed a tool called Snap Shots that
    enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia
    articles
    , MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and
    Amazon
    products
    , display inline videos, RSS, MP3s,
    photos, stock charts and
    more.

    Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having
    to leave the site, while other times it lets you “look ahead,” before deciding
    if you want to follow a link or not.

    Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the
    upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

    Hope you like it.

  • Online Meeting Schedulers

    6-12-2008 Meeting Wizard Example 600p
    Have you ever tried to schedule a meeting with one or more people, only to play "dueling calendars"? 

    Even one-on-one lunches can be tough without shared calendars.  Getting groups together is considerably more challenging.

    Most people understand the hassles of playing telephone tag, and email can be the same. To organize a meeting or event, it might seem that it's easy to simply send an email message. But more often than not, you need to know when people are available. For example, if you're inviting six people, you need to wait for six separate responses, manually collate them, and hope you've got a match, then confirm with all the details. If you don't get a match, you have to start all over again. Moreover, there's just too much room for confusion and error in this process. 

    Well, I just found a few tools that help solve these problems.

    MeetingWizard sends the invitations and collates all information and all responses in one place. Another advantage is that it organizes and standardizes the event information so that important details aren't missed, and users become familiar with a standard request-response interface. This makes scheduling go much more smoothly.

    Another tool I found is called "Presdo" and excels at understanding natural language phrases,like: next Wednesday or two weeks from today.

    6-12-2008 Presdo Example 600p
    I also liked Presdo's user interface, which includes the ability to search for locations and include map links in the invitation.  Here is an example.

    6-12-2008 Presdo Example 2 600p

    Two others worth checking-out include Tungle and TimeBridge.

    So, let me know what you think.