Dew Tell

We will control computers just using our hands and voices no keyboard or mouse, like in the movie Minority Report staring Tom Cruise, the computer screen and different windows were hologram images projected all around him that he can control with just his hands and voice commands.

I watch a video of Jeff Han a research scientist for New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.   Where, he demonstrates—for the first time publicly—his intuitive, “interface-free,”touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 09:32) On TED Talks under August 1, 2006: The Future of Computing/Jeff Han, at www.ted.com/tedtalks/

He demonstrates that his drafting table style screen has multiple points that can be used at the same time unlike touch screens that are out now, like for PDA’s and tablet PC’s that use a pen tool for single point function at one time.  He shows that he can use multiple fingers and users at once to access everything that you would normally need a keyboard and mouse to do.

A couple of weeks ago I was watching Channel 7 and 20/20 or a show like it was doing a special on the You Tube era.  They talked about how You tube with a combination of computers, cell phones and digital cameras, that media and news for this generation is being created by the people not by networks, journalist and politicians.  For example things that have been going on during this war in Iraq would have been kept hidden or came out 20 years later like Vietnam.  But because of camera phones and the internet soldiers themselves of documenting events in Iraq and sending it out to the public instantly.

It was also mentioned how You Tube is a source of entertainment for the new generation with videos of almost anything being uploaded, people display there talents for the You Tube audience in hopes for fame.  A young man and his friend created their own TV show that they put on You Tube and it got so much buzz that TV network executive contacted them about doing their own show.  The young man stated out of 700 channels there is nothing that he want to watch on TV because the networks are run by older people that doesn’t know what the new generation wants to see. 

Will You Tube replace Television?

The two “Five Minutes University” clips are funny but I was more interested in watching it on You Tube than on Wiki.  The Wiki page gave me more info about the clip like the name of the comedian and the character, but the page was plain and didn’t keep my interest.  The You Tube page gave no info about the clip but had ratings and comments about it.  The page keep my interest because of it’s many hyperlinks to other videos.  The hyperlinks sucked me in.

So far the first 60 pages of The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson gives me a good sense of how this futuristic world functions.  With advance technolgy like nano devices implanted into the body and artificially intelligent beings as teachers, the world still has the same social issuses as the past and present. 

In this world instead of race it is a cultural or regional separation (eventhou Bud made racial remarks about the Indian man) , Victorian vs Confucian or Eastern vs Western and then with in the cultures there’s class separation.   Hackworth being in the middle class has access to things not privleged to him but tries to use it to improve the standings of his children.  The life of the lower class like Bud is fill with crime, drugs, and violence caused by poverty and sub standard education.

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