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News Items of Note
October 28, 2003

The amount of information in the world doubled in the last three years! - according to a Berkeley study.

The amount of new information stored on paper, film, optical and magnetic media reached about five exabytes - or 5 million terabytes - in 2002, compared to about half that in 1999.
Some 92 percent of new information is stored on magnetic media, primarily hard drives.
New information flowing electronically on radio, television and the Internet in 2002 totaled nearly 18 exabytes.
The phone accounts for the largest percentage of information flow, with e-mail placing second.
While original information on paper continues to grow, most comes in the form of office documents and mail - not books, newspapers and journals.
North Americans consume 24 reams, or 11,916 sheets, of paper each year, while residents in the European Union account for 15 reams, or 7,280 sheets.
Peer-to-peer file sharing has exploded, and MP3 music files and digital video accounted for 70 percent of the files on the hard disks of users who participate in online file exchanges.
Globally, the average Internet user spends 11.5 hours online per month, but the average Internet user in the United States spends more than twice that amount.

The first hero of the coming war with Iraq - Colonel John Richard Boyd (no relation)

"The coming assault on Baghdad already has its first hero: Colonel John Boyd, a foul-mouthed, insubordinate fighter pilot who has been in his grave at Arlington National Cemetery for almost five years. When Iraq's tyrant is brought down, that inevitable victory will be Boyd's doing. You won't hear Boyd's name being cited in Rose Garden speeches, however. Nor will the Pentagon be authorising any posthumous decorations for the man who, through 30 years of bureaucratic guerilla warfare, transformed America's military. "

Future Body
November 18, 2002

Nanotechnology will allow us to engineer and augment our bodies for longer life and more capability. Imagine not ever having to sleep again, never forgetting, not tiring, not getting sick. Would that be worth the unnerving (literally) idea of having billions of tiny machines crawling around inside you? Put that way, I guess it isn't that much different from all of the microorganisms that inhabit us now.

Check out the concept for PRIMO

Hollywood offers web movie service
November 11, 2002
See more about Web movies here

Years after hackers figured out this market Hollywood pays attention.This is a great idea, but I think they have the pricing wrong, at least for current hardware. Today I pay $3.95 for a fairly recent movie by pay per view on my 40 inch screen with Dolby surround sound. Would I really pay $4.95 for a movie on my tiny computer screen with my tiny laptop speakers? I might, but only if that movie were still in theatres or not yet released. When I met with entertainment execs they told me their business was driven by the amount you could charge for an hour of quality entertainment (today about $4.20). Since the quality of the entertainment is less, shouldn't it be a fraction of the pay per view price?

My dream machine
October 28, 2002
We are one step closer to having the PDA/phone hybrid that all traveling professionals really need.
OLED technology promises to create displays that can be rolled up or even folded. One day I will wake up Sunday morning, unroll my wireless broadband OLED screen and read the New York Times in high resolution delivered just the way I like it.