DIYcity

Their are local groups in cities around the world. Making up the groups are Web developers, urban planners, sustainability designers, students, government workers. DIYcity members collaborate to help invent new ways of applying free and open technology to problems facing our urban areas today. Their aim is to reinvent their cities as places that are more efficient, more cost-effective, more sustainable, and simply more livable places to be.

This collective brainpower is channeled into three areas on DIYcity:

1. discussions, where people exchange thoughts and come up with ideas for products,
2. design, where people boil these discussions down into actual products, and
3. development, where teams of programmers build and launch DIYcity products.

The result is an open source suite of tools that residents of any city, anywhere, can plug into and use to make their area better. This toolset, as it grows, becomes an initial version of a city/resident interface. This interface is the ultimate product, and the ultimate goal, of DIYcity.

A lofty goal, but worthwhile goal indeed.

This guy has learned what VIRAL means the hard way!

Apparently he fell from his chairlift and got a bit tangled up. So while he waited for a rescue he disguised himself as a human bat and thanked his lucky stars that he didn’t die. Of course, once he sees the number of hits on this photograph of him he’ll probably kill himself any way.

Tough way to start of the year, eh?

For more on the story visit: Dangling dingaling in Vail

For more about the recent battles being fought: Great Aussie Firewall

Personally, I welcome the effort to begin the process of improving the overall value and usefulness of the internet by reducing the odds that users are traumatized by inadvertently arriving at a Website with material unsuitable for all but the most twisted and sick among us.

The Australian “solution” may not be the perfect one, but something does need to be done. One things the internet has proven is that there are far more wicked people with bad intentions surfing among us then we would have imagined 10 years ago. While we can’t completely block their ability create or consume their filth we can, and should, remove it from the “mainstreet” internet.

There are no easy solutions and more regulations are not comforting, but my fear of the harm the sickest amongst us can do through their Websites and content is greater then the fear of giving our government some leeway in preventing the most extreme content from making it’s way into the minds of innocent internet users.

The second video (see full article) consists of the clips that were edited out, but it’s equally as entertaining!

—————————————————————

mauiman

————————————-

No point… just found it interesting.

The project, named Bhuvan (Sanskrit for Earth), will allow users to zoom into areas as small as 10 meters wide, compared to the 200 meters wide zoom maximum on Google Earth.

For more information: Times Online – ISRO vs. Google

Not sure how everyone’s photo is verified are you?

The other day an anonymous bidder paid $2.6 million for the domain. For more information: pizza.com

While we’re talking about million dollar domain names I noticed that the owners of moms.com were asking something around $4 million for it. I own momz.com and would accept less…. I also own momz.net, momz.tv, dadz.com, dadz.tv. I sometimes wonder what they’re worth. If moms.com is worth over $4 million then I suppose momz.com is worth at least 1/10th that. ; ) And what about izit.com? What izit worth?

I can’t help but think back to my days online in 1994 when I was surfing the net, trading stocks on eTrade, and sending emails back and forth to people back east from my perch on the side of Haleakala on Maui. Will I kick myself this hard again in 14 years for not doing what I just know I should be doing TODAY?

What do you think the next 14 years will bring us and the internet?

The internet has evolved by linking together a hodgepodge of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.

The grid, on the other hand has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no old fashioned components to slow the tremendous volume of data. Their are 55,000 servers installed today and that number is expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.

By routing all data through the new technology it is estimated that the speed would be up to 10,000 faster.

What that would mean is:

• Cloud computing – No more data stored on desktops. All data would be stored at an offsite location and retrieved realtime via instant data transfer
• Full length movies will be downloadable in 5 minutes instead of several hours.
• Holographic video conferencing will become reality.
• Online gaming could include thousands of players.

The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day – the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.

For more information:

Cern – The European Organization for Nuclear Research

“David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society. “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.”

For the full article visit: Super Fast Internet

For information on: Cloud Computing