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The polygot web

December 25, 2009 kforden Leave a comment

Mapping the internet as it goes truly global (Image: Matthew Hurst/SPL)

Imagine what browsing the web would be like if you had to type out addresses in characters you don’t recognise, from a language you don’t speak. It’s a nightmare that will end for hundreds of millions of people in 2010, when the first web addresses written entirely in non-Latin characters come online.

Net regulator ICANN – the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – conceded in October that more than half of the 1.6 billion people online use languages with scripts not fully compatible with the Latin alphabet. It is now accepting applications for the first non-Latin top level domains (TLDs) – the part of an address after the final “dot”. The first national domains, counterparts of .uk or .au, should go live in early 2010. So far, 12 nations, using six different scripts, have applied and some have proudly revealed their desired TLD and given a preview of what the future web will look like.

The first Arabic domain is likely to be Egypt’s and in Russia orders are already being taken for the country’s hoped-for new TLD. The address HOBЫЙyЧеНЫЙ.pф – a rough translation of “newscientist” with the Cyrillic domain that stands for Russian Federation – can be registered today.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427395.800-2010-preview-the-polygot-web.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Categories: posted via lfestream, technology, the future, the world

Mind Reading (Neural Decoding) Goes Mainstream

December 6, 2009 kforden Leave a comment

For the past two months I’ve been running a large project for the world’s largest provider of higher education and have not really had a lot of time to post.

During that time I kept seeing signs of what I call the start of the human-machine convergence.  Yes, I know there are precedents for this and these are not the “true first signs”.

I’m interested for another reason, the way it is being marketed.  For some reason it’s being commercialize this holiday season.  Several “toys” are being promoted to consumers that allow brain reading to control objects in front of you.

Mattel and StarWars Science are both offering these toys at your local Walmart or Target.  But good luck finding them, even with a $100+ price tag they appear to have sold out.

I don’t have the time to post all of my thoughts, and came across this article below that sums up what I was missing above.  Have fun and enjoy the read, let me know your thoughts too!

Mind Reading (Neural Decoding) Goes Mainstream | h+ Magazine.

Other Resources:

Resources:
Categories: future, just because, learn from these folks, science, technology, the future Tags: , , , , , , ,

Guggenheim Upwards P.O.V

December 5, 2009 kforden Leave a comment


Guggenheim Upwards P.O.V, originally uploaded by e.schumann.

Guggenheim Upwards P.O.V

Categories: 1

Memories of my past

December 5, 2009 kforden Leave a comment


, originally uploaded by R&M DiGrazia.

Memories of my past – Happy Holidays!

Categories: 1

Singularity Salon Talk

November 26, 2009 kforden Leave a comment

Singularity Salon Talk – Presentation Transcript

  1. Putting the Human Back Into the Post-Human
  2. If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Singularity Some Meandering Thoughts by Jamais Cascio
  3. What is the Singularity? A disproportionate increase in the power of intelligence to achieve desired ends, including further boosting the power of intelligence.
  4. Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.
  5. Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. –Vernor Vinge, 1993
  6. The Singularity story echoes two very old tropes in popular mythology, but with a more recent twist.
  7. HUBRIS. We make things that try to kill us.
  8. ASPIRATION TO HUMANITY. We make things that want to be like us.
  9. The twist? Transcendence.
  10. The Singularity Story (in five slides)
  11. we create AI
  12. The AI “wakes up”
  13. The AI makes itself smarter
  14. The AI makes itself much smarter
  15. The AI takes over It might be friendly It might be unfriendly (not much we can do about it, either way)
  16. (the end)
  17. But what happens when you change the focus?
  18. we create AI
  19. we create AI (but now the focus of the story is the “we”)
  20. we create AI (but now the focus of the story is the “we”) OK, what “we”? Are there competing projects? Is this secret? Public? Civilian? Military? Open Source? How do governments react? How do markets react? How do citizens react? What are we doing in the meantime?
  21. not the end
  22. What’s Pushing Us to Do This? Technological capacity Competition (markets & politics) Need for complex systems to grapple with complex problems Curiosity
  23. What Might Hold Us Back? Dead-end technology paths Regulations Backlash against AI (or related technologies) Fear
  24. COMPLICATION #1: RESPONSIBILITY CREATION HAS CONSEQUENCES
  25. COMPLICATION #2: POWER POLITICS MATTERS
  26. COMPLICATION #3: LIABILITY A NO-FAULT SINGULARITY?
  27. COMPLICATION #4: RIGHTS NO SUCH THING AS A HAPPY SLAVE OR AN ETHICAL MASTER
  28. COMPLICATION #5: EMPATHY DON’T KICK THE ROBOT
  29. So… where does this all lead?
  30. Scenarios!
  31. Scenarios! tool for collaboration vs tool for competition short-term thinking vs long-term thinking
  32. cascio@openthefuture.com Twitter: @cascio

Singularity Salon Talk

View more presentations from Jamais Cascio.

Categories: future Tags: , , ,

The Geography of the U.S. Recession

November 21, 2009 kforden Leave a comment

Animated time-lapse map of county-by-county unemployment rates in the U.S. since January 2007.   Jarring.

Evolution of unemployment in the US, down to the county, from 2007 to 2009

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

Categories: future, posted via lfestream, the future, the world Tags: , , , ,

Forbidden City, Beijing, China

November 21, 2009 kforden Leave a comment

, originally uploaded by Nocturnales.

 

Categories: just because, posted via lfestream, the world Tags: , , ,

13th level

November 21, 2009 kforden Leave a comment

13th level, originally uploaded by p r i m e r.

 

Categories: posted via lfestream Tags: , ,

Agile – Project Management

November 21, 2009 kforden Leave a comment

After working with Scrum with assorted business units, I’ve discovered we don’t always have “Done as Done” shippable products at the end of the Sprints.

You might ask, if each sprint ends up with an incomplete work, when can we see a stable product  ?

Answer is the work around invented by the thought leaders. It is called Stabilization sprints.

What are stabilization Sprints ?

These are sprints dedicated towards tasks such as

Defect fixing
Fixing technical debts
Completing any final rounds of testing
Update or fix any architectural issues
Getting ready for the release by completing release notes, etc

Stabilization sprints can be scheduled based on the need of the hour. There is no hard and fast rule around when it should be scheduled.

Many people call stabilization sprints with different names based on the specific activity being executed. Some names are, Testing Sprint, Technical Debt sprint, Analysis Sprint, etc

via feedly.com

 

Posted via web from kforden.com

Categories: science, sort of different, success, technology, the future Tags: , , , , ,

Life with my 17 year old son is getting to be interesting

November 7, 2009 kforden Leave a comment

and not in a great way. 

Colleges, future, decisions, responsibilities…welcome to the real world.

Posted via email from kforden.com

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