Ralph Bonnell's May 2007 Monthly Newsletter: Hello everyone and welcome to my first monthly newsletter. You are one of the few, one of the elite, one of the members of the BEST technology newsletter ever written! Mine! Moo-hahaha .. err, welcome to Ralph Bonnell's mailing list. Think of this as a members only blog. If I sent this to everyone, I am not so sure the human race would recover from the insanity.
79 30 68 30 68 30
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
.-.01.-. First section: showing off
======== --------------------------
First off, I have to show off my room :) ( http://ralph.cx/groovypad ) I spent a couple days at Ikea ( http://www.ikea.com ) scoping things out, spent a bunch of money, and then a week of building and reorganizing, while jamming to various bands ( quite a weird mix of Ricky Skaggs (Bluegrass), Eric Hansen (Nuevo Flamenco Guitar), Thievery Corporation (Downtempo Electronica), Dido, Elton John, Dean Martin, Van Morrison, Robert Miles (Ambient Trance), Deep Forest (World Music), Delerium (umm.. Dark Ethereal Ambient), and Konami tracks from various Castlevania Nintendo games are currently in my playlist ) I have found that having 2 screens is VERY nice!
.-.02.-. Where is Cybie?
======== ---------------
Ok, first of all, what the heck is a Cybie?! Its me of course! So when I was starting out with the whole software cracking, hardware hacking, skript kiddie scene in the early 80's I had to pick a handle. First handle was 'Spy'. Not too exciting, so I went through a few others I cannot mention, just remember that I am innocent as far as you know ;) You may see my 'Spy' handle on some Commodore 64 warez, I remember such happiness when I cracked Bard's Tale III. So, eventually I ended up with 'Cybersonic'. I loved it, but eventually people kept calling me 'Cybie' for short at my BBS picnics and Rocky Horror Picture Show events.
So this month, for a nice change, I am going to be at home base for most of the month. I will be in St. Louis, MO the week of May 21st hoping up and down on a desk rambling on and on about firewalls to a group of unsuspecting students. May I change their lives forever :)
.-.03.-. The Future of Mobile Computing ...scratch that... Personal Computing
========
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I have to admit, I love technology. I think personal computing is going to explode, changing the way we, as a race, live our lives. We have seen what the internet has done: the web, email, instant messaging (which I, personally classify as just another type of email, just... uh... more instant), iPods, the list goes on. The next step of this evolution, in my opinion, is custom-built information delivery devices. We have seen the beginning of this with the podcast phenomenon, people are downloading video and/or audio streams of current content to their media devices, usually iPods, and viewing them. The next step is to embed a variety of wireless communication technology into these devices so they are always on-line. Before I go on, watch this for a sweet, sweet glimpse into the future of technology:
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrzeiUvDZog )
This video shows off technology I have been wanting for 10 years, but for some reason did not proceed to develop. (I am now...) I think the implications are enormous. Here is a short description of how I see people using personal computing in the near future:
1. First off all, throw out the idea of the PC in common sense of the term. PCs are too complicated for their own good, no matter what Operating System you run on them. (Ubuntu Linux, Sun Solaris, etc... or for some idiotic reason, Windows XP)
2. The internet server. This is key, somewhere on the net will be a very large server that handles your data. This can be encrypted for privacy, or not for easy searching ,etc... I see Google, Yahoo/ Microsoft (if Microsoft does, indeed buys Yahoo, which I believe they will), and possibly a few enterprising startups. This will act as a highly available data store, for backups, and easy information access from any terminal on the net.
3. The work/home network server. A home server makes so much sense. It does not need a monitor. Actually it should not even have a video card. It should be a box with lots of hard drives in it. Its only purpose if to store your information. Using RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives - makes it possible to have a hard drive fail and you do not lose any information) and UPS (Unintteruptible Power Supply - does power conditioning so you do not have to worry about power spikes and short power outages) technologies. This is where you store your files, audio tracks, movies, pretty much all entertainment.
Enjoy DVD disks while we have them as most forms of physical media may seem like a foreign idea in several years once the bandwidth is available to stream the movies / video games to your home over the network.
4. The personal server. This is a neat concept. It is a small device and wireless. Think of it as a digital wallet. Can fit in your pocket, purse, briefcase, hat, coat, belt buckle, watch, eyeglasses (err, mabey not), etc... Most likely flash based, but could contain a miniature hard drive. The idea is having a device for local data storage. Your actual personal interaction device (ill talk about this next) will have access to this data. Your cell phone will too (it might even BE your personal server). Your wireless headset, which can decode mpeg compressed audio streams, your network server, etc...
Most people carry USB flash drives with them now. I see a progression of this technology into a device with a CPU (a computer chip) and a set of various wireless technologies in it: 802.11 (standard computer networking), Bluetooth (personal area networking technology), Wireless USB (a new, personal area networking technology), ZigBee (a very new secure, low power, low bandwidth personal area networking technology), and possibly IrDA (Infrared, line of sight, low bandwidth personal area networking technology).
5. The personal terminal. These will come in all shapes and sizes. Here is the kicker, and everyone I talk to who do not share my vision think I am crazy and these will never take off (they are wrong.), they will be solid state, in other words, will not contain a hard drive. Most people cannot imagine a personal computer without a hard drive. Well, hard drives have problems. For one, they fail. They have moving parts, a magnetic spinning disk and a read/write head on a servo motor. They use up lots of power, and they are slow (compared to computer memory). I see the new interface for a typical computer to be a flash based appliance that boots over a network. Accesses content, such as news, your word processing documents, spreadsheets, audio files, and video files, over the network. Essentially, the network IS the computer. Some people tried to do this already and failed for various reasons. Sun and Oracle took a crack at it. I think they just did not try hard enough :) Looks like IBM and Intel are going to try next.
This terminal might be a handheld cell phone, a 3 or 4 inch media display, a 22 inch monitor, a HDTV, a lcd panel woven into your sleeve (I have seen the latest in wearable computing and it is looks like so much fun!) Eventually, these display devices will have battery spans of weeks. Another cool technology that is coming soon is wireless power. Still requires physical contact, but the idea is you have a table, which supplies power to recharge your battery powered devices by just placing it on the table. Exciting stuff, I cannot wait to see what is next! As long as it runs Ubuntu Linux, naturally...
.-.04.-. Random Thoughts
======== ---------------
Feel like playing a really cool flash game? ( http://www.kodiefiles.nl/games/hedgehog.swf ) Beware! Very addicting!
I am a frequent visitor of ( http://slashdot.org )(User number 7113 - which is major geek cred to have a 4 digit UID) and ( http://digg.com ).
Recently ( http://scummvm.drunkencoders.com ) I got the SCUMM DS project working and I have been playing old sk00l LucasArts games on my Nintendo DS. Ah, the original Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tenacle, Secret of Monkey Island, Zak McKracken, and the Indiana Jones games. Those games are AWESOME, funny, entertaining, and I may just play them the rest of my life... errr... day. ( my scumm archive on my ftp site: /roms/scumm/ a little over 14 gig as it contains all of the audio and movie tracks )
This is a neat flash application that may leave you in a trance for hours. ( http://www.neave.com/imagination/ ) You have been warned.
I have been reading The Abs Diet lately. Great book. Not your typical diet. It simply encourages healthy eating (along with various recipes) and some exercise.
This is COOL! ( http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/feature-laptops-of-the...
) These are technology demonstrations of... well, you will see. I wish my current laptop did all of this!
.-.05.-. Final Thoughts
======== --------------
Well, thats it for this month. This is a read only list, so email me at ralph@ralph.cx if you have any questions (or want to be removed from the list, if your thinking about leaving I will give you 1 Billion Cybie bucks to stay. of course I am not sure what Cybie bucks can buy you, but I will think of something). Set phasers on stun, redirect all starboard power to the deflector shield, and dont forget your sonic screwdriver. oh, and your towel. most important possession in the universe so dont let the vogons take it from you!
-Ralph Bonnell - 31337 network security ninja pirate. email. ralph@ralph.cx
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment