Last year I wrote an article titled “After Windows 7: What Microsoft Should Do” and gave my opinions of what Microsoft might have up their sleeve for the version coming after Windows 7′s release later this year. Here’s a slight update to those predictions.
Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
After Windows 7: Update
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Karmic Koala Blueprints
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This week marks the real start to the development cycle for Ubuntu’s 9.10 release called Karmic Koala. The Ubuntu Developer’s Summit is being held in Barcelona this year, and is now in full swing. A lot of interesting blueprints have been uploaded to Canonical’s Launchpad service. Let’s see what kind of topics the Ubuntu folks are discussing for this release.
One of President Obama’s strong points during his campaign was the use of technology to reach millions of people and deliver a message. Part of that message was increasing the use of modern technology in government, and advocating modern technology in certain private sector industry that require government oversight. One such sector is energy, with the Obama Administration calling for the energy industry to green up the grid using 21st century technology. Another industry is the medical industry.
GNOME 2.26 was released a few months ago, bringing some small changes and overage polish to the venerable GNU/Linux desktop environment. In six months time, GNOME 2.28 will be released which will bring yet some more polish a few more changes. One year from now comes GNOME 2.30. This release should be a bit different than the other releases before it. GNOME 2.30 will renumbered to GNOME 3.0. That’s right, what would be the 15th release (only even numbered releases count, here.) of the GNOME 2.x line will indeed be the start of the GNOME 3.x regime.
But with GNOME 3.0 is supposed to come GTK+ 3.0. GTK+ is the toolkit upon which GNOME and its applications are written. It standardizes the look and feel of the desktop using widgets for things like title bars, buttons, text fields, and pretty much everything making up the user interface. For the folks that develop GTK+, branding it as a 3.0 release will mean taking a huge step forward. Unfortunately, for both the folks that develop GTK+ and the folks that develop GNOME, baby steps are usually the norm. Its no wonder they picked little gnome feet for the logo.
Greening the Grid Smartly
Posted in Environment, Technology, 2 Comments »
Its 2009. However, the technology used to power all of our 21st century devices is borne out of 19th century ideas and 20th century implementations. The United States power grid is in need of an upgrade. The Obama Administration has set aside money in the latest round of stimulus to spearhead an upgrade of the ailing power grid. President Obama has even asked Congress to come up with legislation to spur development of new high capacity transmission lines and for the country to double its use of renewable sources of electricity. Energy moguls like T. Boone Pickens have developed plans on how to cut the country’s dependence on foreign oil and take advantage of sources of energy here in the United States. Even Google has stepped up and offered its own plan, called RE<C or Renewable Energy less than Coal. Over the last few years California has stepped up adoption of renewable power as a percentage of its total usage. In 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger even signed an executive order requiring California to obtain 33% of its energy from renewable sources.
Google Sync: Recommendations
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Recently Google released a tool that allows some mobile phones, including the iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile-based units to synchronize Google contacts and Google calendars. However, currently there are some limitations to this technology. Below are some recommendations for Google to implement in their sync technology.
Intel invests in America
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Intel plans to spend $7 billion for factory upgrades and new manufacturings plants here in the United States. According to Electronista, Intel will create over 7000 jobs in the Southwestern US while they upgrade some of their fabs to the 32nm process that will be introduced next year when Intel does it “tock” on Nehalem. Seven thousand more jobs sounds like a very good thing right now. Good going intel.
Google: Project 10^100
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Its called Project 10 to the 100th. Google is putting a call out to the find a new innovation sourced from its users. Google is putting out a $10 million bounty for a winning idea in one of the following categories:
- Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
- Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
- Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
- Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
- Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
- Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
- Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
- Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don’t fit into any category at all.
Other than picking a category, the rules are very open. They seem to want an answer to five basic questions as well:
- Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
- Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
- Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
- Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
- Longevity: How long will the idea’s impact last?
Sometimes the Google thinktank runs empty of ideas. Asking the world for their ideas is a great idea. Google’s philosophy of “Don’t be evil” extends to wanting to help as many people as possible.
Hopefully Google will find an idea that can help the whole world. Whether social, technilogical, environmental, or educational, the impact of such a large project could see a ripple throughout the world for years to come.
Modern cars are full of all kinds of chips, wires, and sensors. They all have their function and synchronize into an orchestra of signals to give the car’s onboard computer a realtime evaluation of your automobile’s health and performance. Like all electronics, however, they can degrade over time.
Recently there has been some buzz as to what Microsoft has up their sleeves for Windows 7, the next version of Windows after the somewhat botched Vista release. Some of the features seem to be mostly evolutionary from those of Vista. Most of the features, though, have yet to be announced. So, what should Microsoft focus on after they get Windows 7 out the door?
