911 Medical ID

Have you ever thought about how you would relay important medical information to first responders if you were in an accident or emergency alone and unable to communicate? Do you ever get tired of filling out pages of medical forms at the doctor’s office? After three years of development, the new 911 Medical ID™ may be the answer to your concerns and frustrations.

The 911 Medical ID™ is the world’s thinnest USB medical information storage device, measuring two millimeters in thickness. Its size resembles a credit card, and fits into your wallet just the same. When inserted into the USB port of a computer, pre-loaded software launches and walks the user through the process of entering medical information including: doctors, prescriptions, insurance, medical tests, medical history, allergies and any other relevant information. The card is password protected to maintain privacy, and the ability to back up this information onto a secure website is also offered at no charge.

This new concept not only saves time by eliminating medical office paper work, but can potentially save lives.

Best Buy Partners With CinemaNow

One of the nation's biggest sellers of DVDs is making a leap into movie downloading.

Best Buy recently announced its partnership with online video provider, CinemaNow, in a deal that will stream first-run DVDs directly to consumers. CinemaNow was one of the earliest online movie suppliers, with a library of over 20,000 titles, mostly consisting of new releases. Best Buy’s agreement will allow customers to buy or rent from CinemaNow’s library of content on connected consumer electronics sold through Best Buy retail stores. This movie downloading service will be integrated into most internet-connected electronics sold at the store.

Essentially, this is the idea: you must pay once for a DVD, then you are able to play it on any connected device, be it a television, Blu-ray player, PC, or smartphone. Ultimately, this service will also serve as a means to leverage digital copies to bridge the physical and digital stream worlds. Facing an industry-wide decline in sales of physical media such as DVDs and CDs, Best Buy has been making an aggressive push into digital delivery. The partnership with CinemaNow, which is expected to launch late this year or in early 2010, marks a companion move in online movies and comes at a time when DVD sales are down in comparison to previous years.

Legal movie downloads have been available for about a decade, but the business has been impeded by high prices and limitations on availability and consumers' ability to play video on different devices. Best Buy’s top priority is to make the distribution of online movies simpler for the consumer, allowing them to play movies on multiple devices and eliminating some of the limitations that exist with other companies in the market.

Considering how quickly the pace has picked up in the race to media-free media, this is a good move by Best Buy to acquire a streaming media company - especially in a down economy when acquisitions are a winning strategy.

Cray Jaguar Leads as the World’s Fastest Supercomputer

Cray has recently surpassed IBM and has obtained the lead position on the Top500 Supercomputer chip-measuring contest. The XT5 supercomputer, better known as Jaguar, has six-core Opteron processors and has climbed the mountain of 2.3 petaflop per second. A petaflop is a measure of a computer's processing speed. It is expressed as one thousand trillion floating point operations per second. This calculation has exceeded the petaflop per second threshold of 1.042 petaflops.

Hello again, Moore's Law!

3D Theater Technology Reaches the Home Front

Do you remember the buzz that stirred when 3D entertainment hit the movie theaters? Well technology has come a long way since then, and 3D technologies are making their way to your home theater. The traditional anaglyph red and blue glasses from the past are being replaced with newer technologies, and companies like Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung are bringing 3D to the comfort of your home.

Anaglyph images were, until recently, the most popular method of presenting 3D, largely because of the ease of their production, and also due to the fact that this was the first 3D technology widely adopted by the Hollywood film industry. Sony has displayed a prototype that uses standard Real D polarized glasses for viewing. The Real D Method uses a single projector that alternately projects left-eye and right-eye images and then uses a method to circularly polarize the viewing using clockwise polarization for the right-eye and counter-clockwise polarization for the left-eye. The polarized lens eyeglasses separate the images for the viewer. Both Panasonic and Samsung have decided on a different approach, using the LCD shutter glass method. This method uses alternating left-eye, right-eye images, but the LCD shutter glasses lens alternately go from opaque to transparent many times per second in synchronization with the image being displayed. The most interesting part about the use of shutter technology is that is should theoretically work on any television with a 120 Hz refresh rate with the use of an external 3D controller.

While Sony and Samsung have no immediate plans for the production of a real product, Panasonic is in the process of developing a product that will reach the market.

Well I would imagine that, although the movie industry will certainly benefit from this new possibility for enhancing the experience, this technology will really be a huge player in the gaming circuit. Gaming applications for this are nearly endless, and it could make new kinds of gaming scenarios possible. Without the familiar blue and red lenses, some people may mistake the new types of 3D glasses for just really unfashionable sunglasses, so make sure you leave them at home.

Airports Screen for Body Signals

Over the past several years, airport security has intensified due to the nation’s circumstances. The days of being able to walk through security checkpoints without being stripped of shoes and jackets are no longer present. However, they could potentially return if an experimental program funded by Homeland Security proves to be effective. The project is known as the Future Attribute Screening Technology.

The idea of the project is that sensors and cameras located at security points would measure natural signals coming from passenger’s body as they pass through. These signals include breathing, heart rate, eye movement, body temperature, and fidgeting. According to project manager, Robert Burns, the measurement of these signals combined is able to indicate one’s intent to do harm. He stated that there has been prior extensive research that suggests that one’s natural physical reactions are tied into mental and emotional state.

The machines being tested include an eye tracker, a thermal imaging device, a fidgeting monitor, and two machines that test heart rate and respiratory rates. Screeners will be keeping an eye out for elevated levels as well as lack of signals, which are both significant signs that there may be an issue that needs handling. Once there is cause for concern, security personnel will send those individuals for secondary screening.

There has been some criticism of the project, bringing up the issues of privacy and workability. Some critics have said that it is an invasion of privacy, and others believe it is impossible to carry this out effectively. The project manager has disputed this criticism and hopes to have the project ready for field testing in 2011.

This is a really fascinating technology, however, I just don't know how much it can be relied on for accuracy. Personally, I do quite a lot of fast breathing, fidgeting, and have an elevated body temperature when in an airport because I'm terrified of flying. It brings up some of the same arguments for and against polygraph machines - they can easily be tricked by a person who trains controlling their reactions and they can easily show false positives. I'm not sure that this tool will be effective enough to justify its market price.

Your "Presence" is Important

Do you ever experience trouble contacting certain individuals due to their hectic business calendar? Presence, “the glue of unified communications”, allows you to determine the current status and availability of these contacts. OCS 2007 incorporates communication endpoints, user availability, and user relationships. With the combination of these, users are able to effectively communicate with one another at any point in time. Ultimately, Presence reveals who is available as well as what they are currently doing. In addition, it combines voice, e-mail, IM, and other forms of communication, allowing you to decide which form will be the most productive depending on the individual’s current status.

The nice thing about Presence is you can decide how much information you want to share with other users. One contact may simply be able to see if you are available, whereas another contact has access to seeing exactly what you are currently engaged in.

We rolled out Presence in our office, and I have to admit that knowing whether someone is available or not before trying to buzz them or find them in the office is really convenient. Lots of folks have wished that keeping track of people at work was just as easy as using instant messaging.

Become Familiar with Open Source Applications

Australia has recently given every high school student their own laptop. Australia has 70,000 students in high school, and therefore this represents the number of laptops that will be distributed this year. These laptops will be Lenovo machines with Windows 7. For those who prefer open source applications, 17,000 programs are being distributed as well. The interesting thing in all of this is that the applications are fairly unfamiliar to most countries, leaving room for growth and expansion in school systems all over the world.

Some of the open source applications include Geo Gebra, MuseScore, Audacity, and FreeMind. Geo Gebra is an outstanding technology tool that aids in improving mathematics education. Its main focus is geometry, yet it expands into branches of algebra and calculus as well. MuseScore is a program that deals with music composition and notation. In fact, Macintosh has just received its delivery of this release. Audacity is an open source application for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac, Microsoft Windows, and GNU/Linux. Free Mind is a mind mapping program which allow students to outline and brainstorm.

News of these applications is in fact spreading out of Australia, and it is only a matter of time before it has hit a vast amount of countries. The area of interest at this point is whether school boards and colleges across the universe will open up to this new idea in education.

It's great to see open source applications on school machines because students should be familiar with them and understand their role. I personally already had Audacity on my laptop for basic sound editing, and after reading this article I downloaded a copy of MuseScore because I was looking for an open source notation program after I lost my CD to load Finale 2000. Now I may check out FreeMind as well!

Microsoft Launches Windows 7 with a Party

With the rollout of Windows 7 approaching, Microsoft has put a tupperware-style twist on the debut. Encouraging thousands of employees, partners, and technology enthusiasts to throw parties in their homes and communities, Microsoft hopes to spread the word about their new operating system. Although there will be no literal selling of Windows 7 at these “tupperware-styled” parties, the people accepted as the official launch party hosts will get their own copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition! Additionally, non-Microsoft employees who host these parties will also be eligible to win a mini-notebook computer. Microsoft employees from around the world are expected to host these parties between October 8 and 12, prior to the debut of Windows 7, while members of the public who had been accepted has party hosts are expected to hold their sanctioned parties anytime between the launch of the program on October 22 and 29.

Microsoft’s plan to instigate a word-of-mouth buzz about Windows 7 shows their confidence in the stability and compatibility of the devices and software. After all, nothing would kill the party like a system crash, but Microsoft is no stranger to these issues. Similar problems plagued the January 2007 launch of Windows Vista, creating a reputation that I’m sure Microsoft is eager to put behind them.

This is definitely a creative idea - not sure how well it panned out, but debuting Windows 7 with a house party is definitely creative.

Broadband – The Next Generation

Broadband is the capacity to deliver Internet access with a continuous “always on” connection. While today’s broadband offers significant improvements over dial-up Internet, it is still no match to the proposal of 100-megabit per second broadband. The new, high-quality applications of this connection are expected to reach 100 million homes and small businesses by the year 2010. The ability to both receive and transmit digital content or services at high speeds has the potential to significantly improve our economy. It is projected that universal access to high-speed Internet connections could produce an estimated $300 billion into the U.S. economy each year.

Since broadband is the foundation for continued technological and economic leadership, it is essential that the United States continue to invest in a next-generation broadband infrastructure. Currently, the U.S falls behind our global competitors in broadband deployment. Many states recognize the transformational impact that broadband can have on the economy and its citizens, and subsequently, these states have adopted state policies to stimulate broadband deployment and demand.

Technology Goes Green!

“Go Green!” It is a phrase that has become so popular in our culture, and it is largely because of the world’s energy crisis that can no longer be ignored. With national security, environment, and economic challenges, the nation as a whole is making changes in the way we live our day-to-day lives, and the world of technology is no exception.

The technology industry is developing new alternative and renewable energy technologies including advances in solar, wind, biofuel, energy efficiency, and fuel cell technologies as well as developing technology products and services that drive energy efficiency and environmental improvement. These innovations hold the potential to be the next great disruptive technologies, especially with the future of our nation as a great concern. We can all take part in protecting our environment by encouraging outreach efforts in promoting and educating the nation about green technologies and by highlighting new technologies and innovation as a critical part in the solution to global energy and environmental challenges.

The First Computer Virus?

A program named “Rother J” was the first computer virus to come into sight “in the wild” — that is, outside the single computer or lab where it was created. Created in 1981 by Richard Skrenta, it attached itself to the Apple DOS 3.3 operating system and spread via floppy disk. This virus was created as a practical joke when Richard Skrenta was still in high school. It was injected in a game on a floppy disk. On its 50th use the Elk Cloner virus would be activated, infecting the computer and displaying a short poem beginning “Elk Cloner: The program with a personality.”