Predictions for 2008

I read earlier today a list of tech predictions for 2008. So I thought, why not make my own. Here they are.
1) Online storage is the big thing this year. Right now 1 GB to 5 GB is the norm. Expect this to change from 10-50 GB. Still not big enough to back up your hard drive in its entirety, but big enough to store most of your video and all your photos.
2) GPS devices will have satellite images - Why not?
3) GPS devices will begin to become a vehicle computer -- expect two way communications to begin to emerge
4) The first Microsoft Surface interface will appear somewhere in Topeka. Probably Best Buy.
5) Another Starbucks ... hopefully closer to my house. Not really tech, but I'm out of coffee.
6) Secondlife interface will begin to emerge as both a social networking norm and a way to move around the net.
7) A 5TB hard drive will be available for under $500
8) The Blue Ray, HD DVD debate will be like so last year.
9) Someone will build a Second Live Kansas State Capitol Building before the remodel of our own is complete.
10) An online subscription service for movies will emerge. You will be able to download and view any number of movies you want for $25 a month. This will eventually replace NetFlicks.

I Stream, do Ustream?

It’s Thursday night, just a few weeks short of Christmas and I am working out on the elliptical trainer because it is too icy to go out and run on the streets. I visit Twitter to see what others are doing and I see that Cali Lewis is hosting a virtual Christmas party with a Geoff Smith piano concert. At 8:30, myself and some 330 others join in to watch Geoff perform live.
I recently discovered ustream.tv, which is a live streaming video site which allows a person, such as Geoff Smith, to broadcast out to the world (or at least 15,000 is what I have been told). Users, or in this case fans, log on and watch with an option to chat. This is not limited to concerts, but it can be also used for business meetings, family communication or to create your own television programs. If I had a vote for the site of the year, this might earn my vote.
For those wondering about the immediate economic benefit to this site, there is a “tip jar” viewers can contribute to.
It seems that a great many users are doing life casts (think The Truman Show) and talk show type programs. But I can also see a great many uses for this in terms of the arts (poetry readings, book readings) and of course politics and other presentations.
I can only imagine there are countless uses for this site and I am interested in learning what you have to say. Check it out at www.ustream.tv and let me know your thoughts at digitopeka@gmail.com.

Windows Live

There seems to be a lot to Windows Live that I am excited about. While these individual apps seem to work independently of one another on the front end, on the back end, it appears that all your online files are stored together in your Windows Live account folder. Someday, your online photos, file storage, etc., may be able to be accessed from one place. I have not been real impressed with Live up to this release, but besides playing Parsec, I will be doing a lot more research on this.

Update to Windows Live

Leo has a segmant on Windows Live at http://twit.tv/ww. Check it out. Listening to it now. I'll post my thoughts at the end.

Some things to check out for the weekend

If you have a few minutes over the weekend to check out a few sites, here are some I will be playing around with.

1) http://www.watchthatpage.com/ - WatchThatPage is a service that enables you to automatically collect new information from your favorite pages on the Internet. You select which pages to monitor, and WatchThatPage will find which pages have changed, and collect all the new content for you. The new information is presented to you in an email and/or a personal web page. You can specify when the changes will be collected, so they are fresh when you want to read them.

2) The Commodore 64 is celebrating its 25th anniversary. If you are like me, there is still a soft spot in your heart for thse 5 1/4 inch floppy DOS disks and programming your computer to say, "Shall we play a game?" as you "login" to the WOPR. For me, my first love was the Ti 99/4a by Texas Instruments. There is a great emulator out there that I downloaded the other day and I am going to play a few games of Parsec.

3) I am still working through Windows Live and I still dig the email. I know, its just Windows Mail, but it is a great way to monitor my email on my roving home laptop. I did run into some troubles with the Live Family Safety which blocked complete access to my computer after I restarted. I just deleted it completely for now. Didn't have the time to mess with it.

4) While still a little pricey, they are becoming more affordable. These look like fun. I saw a lower tech version at Toys 'R Us for like $180 that use just RCA cables. But 52" screen at 6 feet away sounds pretty good to me.

5) Let me know what kind of geek you are. http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2086153791&size=o&context=set-72157601200807582.

Windows Live

This morning I happened to stumble upon Microsoft’s new Windows Live application. If you are not familiar with Windows Live, it is a collection of online software apps similar to those of Google and others. As with all Microsoft online applications, it is integrated into the Internet Explorer Browser and so you might not even be aware you have it. If you use Windows Messenger you have a Live Account.
Like other online apps, Windows Live attempts to put photo sharing, instant messaging and your email into one easy to navigate application. In the latest version, two things have been added which deserve mentioning and I will try them out and report back to you.
1) Windows Live Mail – This new app puts Microsoft Vista’s Windows Mail on your desktop. Of course, it integrates Windows Messenger into it, so if you are an IM user, I think this is a nice addition. I like Vista’s mail application much better than Outlook Express, even though it is essentially the same thing. It does seem to integrate better into the OS than does Outlook Express. Live Mail is an actual mail program rather than browser based. It operates just like Windows Mail and you can set it to download your home email while at work or work email at home. Overall, a nice feature and if you run XP and you like the aesthetics of Vista, Live Mail has the Vista menus. Initial Grade A
2) Windows SkyDrive – While still in the beta stage, Microsoft now offers online storage. Amazingly enough though, they chose to do it within a browser application. So you physically have to logon to the site and then navigate through a somewhat clumsy webpage, although to their credit, they did make it look like a folder. It does have drag and drop capability, but you have to download an additional program and once you do that, it still does not appear that you can drag and drop a folder. Instead, you have to drag individual files. And with only a gigabyte of storage, this won’t last very long. But it is at least something. I have struggled to find some site to store files on that works well. I have tried XDrive from AOL and have been less than impressed so I am hoping that Microsoft can get this right before the final version is released. Initial Grade C
I’ll continue to review the programs and will place any other thoughts at http://digitopeka.blogspot.com or you can email me at digitopeka@gmail.com with questions.

Zune 2.0

I have been a Zune user for about a year. Before that, I was into Napster (the legal version). The thing that has turned me on to these services is the subscription service. For $15, some will argue this is too high, you can pretty much download onto your device any of the roughly 3 million songs the service has. For me, I listen to music of all genres and eras so it doesn't make sense for me to have paid $3123.45 (3155 songs) for the music that I carry with me. At $15 a month for a subscription, it would take me 208 months or 17 years to spend that amount. Now that podcasts are available on the new Zune service, the online marketplace is slowly building to Itunes. Once they get there (television, movies and audio books) I look for this to really take off. I just don't understand why Microsoft hasn't been more agressive about advertising the relatively inexpensive subscroption content.

The New York Times has more.

Googlementary

A few weeks ago, I took some video from Humbolt, KS. The idea was to use this video to better understand the way the small town looks and feels. Humbolt is the setting for the Family Tree. But while I was there, I visited the site of Walter Johnson's boyhood home. Walter Johnson was a pro baseball player back in the early 1900's and was one of the greatest pitchers of all time. I posted that video on YouTube and then linked it from a posting in Google Earth. The result is a short Google Earth documentary or a Googlementary.

Starbucks to Give Away Free Music

Hit your local Starbucks between oct. 2 through Nov. 7 and you can receive a free "Song of the Day" card through Apple's iTunes store. The promotion sets up Starbucks entry into the digital music sales. While I am not an avid iTunes user, I think this will be a great relationship. I find myself often brousing the starbucks music library at the store just to find interesting new music. If you have not explored the world of digital music, use this as a gateway into iTunes and try a free download.

Google Earth Primer

I found this wonderful video over at Youtube's Google Channel. If you have never used Google Earth before and have an hour to learn (yes that is how long it is, but I would highly encourage you to do it). The presenter does a great job of walking you through the different aspects of Google Earth. I watched it and although I dont' know I learned anything new, I was still amazed at the many incredible features. I thought the whole whale thing was pretty cool.

Zooming in on Our City

I was searching around the other day looking for satellite imagery of Topeka. I found an old image (at least in terms of satellite imagery anyway) taken in 1991. I searched for things I was familiar with and noticed how undeveloped Wanamaker Road was at this time. The mall, WalMart (Hypermart as it was called back then), Sam’s and the Target shopping center and a few other businesses were virtually the only buildings along the corridor. Look at a recent image and things have changed dramatically.
That led me to think a little about Topeka and technology and the way in which Topekans are using technology in various ways. It seems that there is so much going on out there in cyberspace that it is impossible to keep track of. Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Blogs, I-Report, Google Earth, and Podcasts aren’t just the vernacular of the college crowd. Used properly, these are powerful tools that enhance our communication not only with our friends and family, but across the world.
I am an avid user of Google Earth and in just a short time have “virtually” toured much of the world from the major world cities to remote islands in the Pacific. Recently, I uploaded a few photos to Panaramio, a service that allows users to upload photos online and they will appear in Google Earth at the location of the photo. I have noticed photos of Topeka landmarks people have taken and uploaded too. For example, this feature will allow you to look at a photograph of the Kansas State Capitol Building taken and uploaded by a user like yourself with a digital camera. The photos are reviewed by Panaramio before they are made public. I have several from a recent trip to Chicago waiting for approval.
I know, some of you are thinking that this is already too much for me. I don’t even know what Google Earth is or even think that it wouldn’t be of any benefit to you.
Trust me when I say that Google Earth is going to change the world. In upcoming articles I will talk more about this phenomenal tool and the many useful ways you can utilize it from looking at vacation destinations, tracking flights or cruises, or even gardening.
My challenge is to meet the needs of the beginning user, the casual user and the advanced user and to help all Topekans better their skills in the digital age. So here is your first assignment.

1. Beginner – Visit Google Maps starting at the state capitol building. Work with the controls and see if you can locate your house or place of business.
2. Casual User – If you haven’t downloaded the updated version of Google Earth, go and do it now. The new Sky feature is incredibly fascinating – turn the point of view around and look into the sky, not just at the stars, through the stars, deep into space. From the layers menu, select Geographic web and then zoom in on Topeka.
3. Advanced User – Take your vacation photos, create a Panaramio account and begin uploading them. Once you have done that, send them to your friends and family and let them know where you have been.

Here are the photos I have taken. I plan to contribute more.
I live a lot of my life in the digital age and I have found that my appreciation and understanding of the world around me is growing every day. From music, to art and to the environment, the digital world has taken the giant planet in which we lived and put it right in front of our very own eyes to explore and to make better. I hope you will learn a little from me and I want to learn more from you in the process.
Until next time, enjoy your journey through Digitopeka.