I believe that the future of personal computing is starting to become clear.
Wearable computing .... forget that! This is about integrated computing!
If you haven't seen this video yet then I recommend that you look at it now. Forget the slight clunky nature of the device and imagine what is possible.
Enjoy.
Wednesday 25 March 2009
Monday 23 March 2009
ITWeb: IBM looks to save water
IBM is pumping more than $6 billion (R57.9 billion) a year into researching technologies, which – it believes – will help alleviate water shortages in countries around the world. IBM Sub-Sahara Africa CTO Clifford Foster says the initiative is aimed at starting discussions with heads of states on issues such as water contamination and shortages.
"Regardless of industry or geography, smarter water management is an issue faced by every business and government on the planet," says IBM Big Green Innovations VP Sharon Nunes.
The development of IBM's smart water offerings is a result of IBM's Big Green Innovations initiative, a company statement says. The initiative, which was announced in October 2006, as part of IBM's $100 million (R965 million) investment in 10 new businesses, has concentrated its efforts on water management, alternative energy and carbon management.
“In SA, we plan on finding opportunities for the private industry to participate in our water management initiative,” says Foster.
Developing new technologies
The computing company has been working on various water management projects around the world, Foster says. This includes collaborating with The Nature Conservancy to build practical Web-based tools for river basin management, and also IBM's Smart Bay sensor, which monitors wave conditions, pollution levels and marine life.
The Smart Bay system is the result of collaboration between IBM and the Marine Institute of Ireland. The system provides real-time information to stakeholders in the Irish maritime economy, runs on a cloud computing platform, and is able to predict water conditions critical to those stakeholders.
IBM plans to spread information collected on water conditions and contamination to African stakeholders using technologies such as mobile phones, which are predominant on the continent, Foster says.
“We have started discussion with African heads of state about introducing our instruments to detect water quality and contamination. The point of this all is to lessen the impact of water crises on the environment as a whole.”
Original article
"Regardless of industry or geography, smarter water management is an issue faced by every business and government on the planet," says IBM Big Green Innovations VP Sharon Nunes.
The development of IBM's smart water offerings is a result of IBM's Big Green Innovations initiative, a company statement says. The initiative, which was announced in October 2006, as part of IBM's $100 million (R965 million) investment in 10 new businesses, has concentrated its efforts on water management, alternative energy and carbon management.
“In SA, we plan on finding opportunities for the private industry to participate in our water management initiative,” says Foster.
Developing new technologies
The computing company has been working on various water management projects around the world, Foster says. This includes collaborating with The Nature Conservancy to build practical Web-based tools for river basin management, and also IBM's Smart Bay sensor, which monitors wave conditions, pollution levels and marine life.
The Smart Bay system is the result of collaboration between IBM and the Marine Institute of Ireland. The system provides real-time information to stakeholders in the Irish maritime economy, runs on a cloud computing platform, and is able to predict water conditions critical to those stakeholders.
IBM plans to spread information collected on water conditions and contamination to African stakeholders using technologies such as mobile phones, which are predominant on the continent, Foster says.
“We have started discussion with African heads of state about introducing our instruments to detect water quality and contamination. The point of this all is to lessen the impact of water crises on the environment as a whole.”
Original article
Monday 16 March 2009
techsmart: IBM’s smart water solutions
Thinking about water
IBM unveiled its smart water portfolio of services and technologies today at the World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey.
The smart water portfolio forms part of IBM’s larger Smarter Planet strategy in which the company intends to encourage the development of more intelligence driven societies by more effectively using instrumented and interconnected devices.
"Regardless of industry or geography, smarter water management is an issue faced by every business and government on the planet," said Sharon Nunes, Vice President for Big Green Innovations at IBM. "Without sufficient insight into near- and long-term factors affecting your water supply and usage -- complex issues such as access, quality, cost and re-use -- you increasingly run the risk of failure."
IBM also announced a water filtration breakthrough with the development of a new membrane which can more effectively remove salts and toxins from water supplies.
An excellent example of a demonstrable smart water solution in action is the SmartBay sensor system, which monitors wave conditions, marine life and pollution levels in Galway Bay, Ireland. The system, which runs on a cloud computing platform, provides real-time information to interested parties in the Irish maritime economy and is able to predict water conditions critical to those parties.
Clifford Foster, CTO at IBM South Africa, believes that the promise of a smarter planet offers South Africa, and Africa as a whole, the opportunity to leap frog the development processes that Europe and America followed by moving directly to the use of smarter technologies. While this won’t be a cheap process he believes that it will be far cheaper to implement these technologies while building infrastructures rather than having to overhaul infrastructures down the line, as the developed countries will have to do.
original article
Wednesday 4 March 2009
Cloud Computing vs SOA
I am often asked what is the difference between these architectures or whether Cloud Computing is replacing SOA (Service Oriented Architecture).
Let's remind ourselves:
- Cloud Computing is a deployment architecture that abstracts what we want to do from where it gets done. In addition a cloud is a pool of virtualised resources that ideally offers exceptional scalability.
- Service Oriented Architecture is an architectural style at the application architecture or even enterprise architecture level. SOA is fundamentally about building services that when composed deliver a rich application or business process.
These two worlds can and will intersect ... when a service is deployed in a cloud it becomes a cloud service.
Monday 2 March 2009
eSports … the future of live sports?
Just Imagine
Can you imagine playing a video/electronic game and being paid for it?
Can you imagine big brands like Intel and Adidas sponsoring electronic gaming competitions and teams?
Can you imagine supporters following electronic sports teams and paying to view the competition?
Can you imagine people betting on the outcome of competitive electronic games?
Can you imagine that a gamer or gaming team could have the celebrity status of a professional footballer/football team?
Now couple that with a gaming industry that is now bigger than DVDs, box office, movie rentals, books and music and you have a recipe for massive growth and success.
Now stop imaging and start believing because it is happening.
What is e(lectronic)Sports?
eSports is a term used to describe the playing of electronic games competitively, either at a professional or amateur level.
eSports leagues and tournaments are organized where teams and individuals compete against each other for an ever increasing pot of prize money and prestige.
Typically eSports are based on first-person shooters but is expanding into sporting and other genres.
eSports are played over the Internet or to reduce latency issues they will be played over local networks at gaming events (sports stadiums of the future). Spectators can view the event on video screens at the event or over the Internet.
Currently some of the biggest eSports platforms host games like Counter-Strike, Halo, Warcraft III, Quake, FIFA (football); and the exceptionally successfully World of Warcraft mmog(massively multiplayer online game).
If you want to explore this a little more then head over to SK Gaming.
The change and the potential
Most parents of teenagers or pre-teens can see it happening … we have a future generation of arm-chair sportsmen.
A new generation of businesses are spawning to support eSports and the demand for resilience are no less important to those involved in eSports than we currently demand from financial institutions.
Perhaps even more demanding as gamers have often been born with a joystick, gamepad and mouse in their hands. They will demand sub-50 millisecond response times and require the platforms that they interact with to handle millions of concurrent (yes I know I said that) transactions and users. They will demand that the games are fairly played and that security is tight to prevent exploits as well as protect their online privacy.
Love it or hate it but the world is changing and those that embrace this change can build new innovative business models and personal wealth from it.
Will your child be the Tiger Woods of eSports?
Can you imagine playing a video/electronic game and being paid for it?
Can you imagine big brands like Intel and Adidas sponsoring electronic gaming competitions and teams?
Can you imagine supporters following electronic sports teams and paying to view the competition?
Can you imagine people betting on the outcome of competitive electronic games?
Can you imagine that a gamer or gaming team could have the celebrity status of a professional footballer/football team?
Now couple that with a gaming industry that is now bigger than DVDs, box office, movie rentals, books and music and you have a recipe for massive growth and success.
Now stop imaging and start believing because it is happening.
What is e(lectronic)Sports?
eSports is a term used to describe the playing of electronic games competitively, either at a professional or amateur level.
eSports leagues and tournaments are organized where teams and individuals compete against each other for an ever increasing pot of prize money and prestige.
Typically eSports are based on first-person shooters but is expanding into sporting and other genres.
eSports are played over the Internet or to reduce latency issues they will be played over local networks at gaming events (sports stadiums of the future). Spectators can view the event on video screens at the event or over the Internet.
Currently some of the biggest eSports platforms host games like Counter-Strike, Halo, Warcraft III, Quake, FIFA (football); and the exceptionally successfully World of Warcraft mmog(massively multiplayer online game).
If you want to explore this a little more then head over to SK Gaming.
The change and the potential
Most parents of teenagers or pre-teens can see it happening … we have a future generation of arm-chair sportsmen.
A new generation of businesses are spawning to support eSports and the demand for resilience are no less important to those involved in eSports than we currently demand from financial institutions.
Perhaps even more demanding as gamers have often been born with a joystick, gamepad and mouse in their hands. They will demand sub-50 millisecond response times and require the platforms that they interact with to handle millions of concurrent (yes I know I said that) transactions and users. They will demand that the games are fairly played and that security is tight to prevent exploits as well as protect their online privacy.
Love it or hate it but the world is changing and those that embrace this change can build new innovative business models and personal wealth from it.
Will your child be the Tiger Woods of eSports?
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