Oh, Make it So!

Camping Star Trek Style

by Heath Alseike

License: Creative Commons 2.0

How Star Trek will finally come true | ideas.ted.com:  'via Blog this'

This post on TED by Nilofer Merchant discusses how we're about to bring the Star Trek world to life.  We're thirty years out Merchant thinks.

As exciting as the technological inventions that mimic what was once the far-fetched tech on the classic Star Trek--communicators (smartphones), universal language translators, video chatting, replicators (3D printing), using light to diagnose medical conditions etc--these aren't the focus of Merchant's prediction.

She is more interested in the ways the new forms of communicating provided by technology are creating new ways for people to form purposeful associations that have the power to make effective and lasting change that once required the involvement of huge organizations or governments.  Both notorious for lumbering zig-zags toward goals they are as actively resisting as they are pursuing.

The notable characteristics of these groups forming for a purpose are their tendency to celebrate diversity, see the potential of those with different abilities, champion creativity over conformity, value individual and community well being over material wealth, and the ability to envision even the far-fetched and make it so.

This was the heart of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe and his vision for our future.  Though I couldn't have articulated that at age eleven that was the heart of my fascination with Star Trek from the classic 1960s series and through each movie and series that followed.

I wanted to live in that world.  I still do.

Nilofer Merchant a two-time book author, former tech executive and blogger at: Yes & Know. Twitter: @nilofer.

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Stardate What Now?

What could you do with the world’s smallest 3D printer? Klaus Stadlmann demos his tiny, affordable printer that could someday make customized hearing aids — or sculptures smaller than a human hair. (Filmed at TEDxVienna.)

Can anyone tell me what the Stardate is?  The Star Trek replicator is now here.  Maybe the transporter is next?

I am over-the-top excited about 3D printing.  I can imagine a hundred applications a minute just in my areas of interest.  For starters:

• creating that miniature bodkin for tucking the beginning and ending threads on my thread crochet
• beads of every size, shape and color
• scrapbook misc
• Christmas ornaments
• cake decorations
• babydolls
• knickknacks
• jewelry and jewelry making misc
• organizing containers in custom sizes
• bookmarks
• shoes with perfect fit
• replace missing parts
• toys
• puzzles
• games

Imagine taking the web entrepreneur concept to the next level.  Today many of the online stores sell digital products like ebooks, music and video.  What if they could sell physical products that you download the minute you pay.  

Of course it is still a digital product--the program that instructs your own 3D printer in making the physical item so you would be supplying the raw materials in the substance used by your 3D printer.  Of which there are quite a few alternatives already though each alternative raw material requires its own printer.  

The materials in use already include paper, plastic, nylon, metals, ceramic.  The printers themselves come in various sizes from large industrial sized that can make things the size of a car and bigger down to this small one featured in this video.

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Morning Cuppa

This was the first picture taken with my Blaze 4G smartphone.

I took this picture of my breakfast because I was amazed how much it looked like a cup of fancy espresso coffee.  It is not.  It is my hot farina aka cream of wheat.

I doctored it with cinnamon, sea salt, Truvia and Pumpkin Spice before adding the water and heating and water was absorbed by the wheat.  Then added a tablespoon of peanut butter and a half cup of applesauce and heated it again.  By then I could tell I had not added enough water at the beginning as it was so thick it accumulated on the stirring spoon in a big clump that would not fall off.  So I added a third of a cup or so of water and heated again.

When it was just the right thickness for my taste (which is on the soupy side) I filled the 16oz cup two thirds full.  Then put a big dollop of plain yogurt on top with a couple teaspoons or so of half and half around the rim,  Then I sprinkled flax seed and hemp hearts over the top and gave the pumpkin spice jar a few hard shakes over the surface.

I spent many hours again today with my fingers glued to the Blaze,  But I had three clear goals:

1. figure out why I still can't make or receive calls. Very frustrating since the main reason Ed wanted to do this for my birthday was so we could communicate more often during the day.  We've only connected via the phone three times and they were all cut off after a short time.  Most attempts don't even get through.
   
   It's still a mystery but I think we're closer to solving it. Two error messages keep getting are clues.  One saying the SIM card is not ready.  The other saying something about not registered on network.  And that last seems to have something to do with using the Wifi here for calling.
   
2. get ebook aps for all the formats my ARCs come in and get all my ARCs loaded on the Blaze.
   
   I have Kindle and Adobe aps now but still need to find an epub reader.  Still haven't loaded any books and am thinking will run into the same problem as with any other attempts to connect device to device.  Error messages.
   
3. the third goal was to gather all the aps etc. needed to create a blog post start to finish.  Learn to use the camera.  Find and learn a photo editor. Learn methods for sending the photo where I can access it with Blogger.  I was hoping Picasa but every time I tried I got error messages.
   
   I have Blogger and Google Drive, Gmail and Google Calendar.  And having listened to Ed rave about it for months, I got EverNote.  That might have solved the problem of getting files to where another ap or device can access them as it apparently syncs across devices and interacts with several common aps.
   
   I wanted to be able to make this post start to finish from the Blaze but finally had to give up and email the photo to my sister so I could get to it via my Gmail on the Aspire to download it.

But if I had succeeded in creating this post from the Blaze, it would have been much shorter--little more than a caption for the photo explaining: 1st pic taken with Blaze.  1st post created from Blaze.  Because it is still a challenge getting any text typed on those tiny touch keys.

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Google's Project Glass: I Want to Know

Of the many questions prompted by this intriguing video, one pops out and its possible answer excits me.  

I would like to know what would happen if he opened the book he pulled off the bookstore shelf and started reading it.  Could he use zoom and other camera features to adjust for visual impairment?  

In other words would I, with my advanced Retinitus Pigmentosa be able once again to pull regular print books off shelves at home, at the library and at bookstores and read them without a magnifying glass?  

If the answer is 'Yes' then I'm uber excited and only wonder if Google's future will get here in time for me.

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Chandler: The Note-to-Self Organizer

Chandlerproject.org

I'm always trying out aps to help me organize my time, my to do lists and my mind.  Most are complete busts but Chandler is closest among those that provide calendar functions, assigning date and time, alarms, separating urgent from it-can-wait, and one of my must haves--allowing links to web and computer folders and aps to be associated with tasks.

Chandler is an open source project and has just recently provided 1.0 rendition which indicates it is out of its infancy.  I had high hopes on seeing the screenshots on their site and reading the testimonies of users.  So I downloaded it last night and spent upwards of six hours inputting tasks.  Though it has the ability to import from some other aps like Google calendar and outlook that was of no help to me as my to do lists are in my head, in my WhizFolderDeluxe note taking ap and in my email inbox.

The problems I encountered were not so much the fault of the application's ability to do the tasks I need of it but rather the fault of my eyes and the fact the program has compatibility issues with Windows platforms newer than XP.  Maybe if I wasn't working on a netbook  with a screen whose default font is the size of a mustard seed the vision issue would be moot and I hope in the future they develop an RTF for the notes so I can enlarge fonts, though that wouldn't help with the font in the menus and sidebar.  I assume the compatibility issue with Windows 7 will also be addressed in future builds of Chandler but until it is I don't think I can trust my data to it.  FYI if you are using Linux or Mac Os X you might be in better luck.  As is often the case these open source programs have fewer compatibility issues with those platforms than with Windows.

There was another irritating issue I hope they resolve in the future.  The alarm pop up dialog box causes the cursor to freeze and move like molasses over ice so your work is interrupted while you wait until you can click it away.  Maybe that is one of those Windows compatibility issues.

I also would prefer not to have to type in the date and time especially with those teeny fonts and I've worked with aps and online forms that provide the little calendar for selecting the date and  little popup lists of times to select.  I imagine Chandler will provide that eventually.

And a minor irritant tho minor as a mosquito bite is compared to a wasp sting is the presence of a demo file aka Cllection called US Holidays which they made read only and disallow delete and it is cluttering up my dashboard with two years worth of past holidays in the Done section.  Tho it is may be nice to have the reminders show up in the Now and Later sections as the holidays approach and pass, it is irritating I can't write notes in their note section regarding personal plans for that holiday and it is irritating I have to create a separate Collection called Events to collect Bdays, Anniversaries and other occasions which I would just as soon have grouped in with Holidays and also be able to add non US Holidays.

But since the calendar function--assigning date and time to a task so they are automatically prioritized by the program, moving into place at the appointed time--is the only function my WhizFolder does not provide while also having a smaller footprint, faster opening and closing, font size control and no Windows compatibility issues, I guess I will be sticking with it.

Screenshot of my Whiz Master Task List Outline Collapsed

That task list with all it's nested hierarchy opened is approaching a mile long.  I exaggerate.  Slightly.  Maybe.

I've been fiddling around trying to implement David Allen's Getting Things Done method since last February.  Chandler was the first ap that came close to automating the prioritizing task that I now do manually with Whiz--moving task topics out of the To Do Queue and the Daily/Weekly/Monthly sections into the Today/This Month/This Week sections.

Before you go away thinking that I'm totally dissing Chandler, rest assured I'm not. I wouldn't have bothered writing a review if I'd no admiration for it at all.  If not for the compatibility issues I'd be using Chandler in conjunction with Whiz for prioritizing the upcoming two or three months.  And if I were working on a project with a team or even trying to coordinate schedules and tasks with a family Chandler can do things no other small p project manager can do: It can share data with others and synch data between platforms.  I can imagine how helpful that could be for a couple raising a family, for partners in a small company, or for a community organized event.

Chandler is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

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