What can a technologist do about climate change?
This is aimed at people in the tech industry, and is more about what you can do with your career than at a hackathon. I’m not going to discuss policy and regulation, although they’re no less important than technological innovation. A good way to think about it, via Saul Griffith, is that it’s the role of technologists to create options for policy-makers.
Is it true that most people who use mobile phones are unaware that the safety of the devices is still undetermined? Or, like myself, are they aware but somewhat nervously willing to gamble on the issue?
Every time I use my mobile, I feel like I’m playing with fire. I’m pretty good at limiting my time with the device directly against my head, mostly because I can actually feel physical effects with extended use.
So I tell myself I’m engaging in risk-management, that I’m taking reasonable steps towards limiting any potentially adverse health effects. And yet there is always the nagging voice that says this is not enough, that I should be staying away from the devices altogether until there is more definitive knowledge of the safety issues.
Unfortunately, that would mean waiting for someone with deep pockets to really, truly, once-and-for-all tackle the issue with sufficient research. For years, the mobile phone industry has been playing games with partial research — just enough to allow it to say the issue is still not clear, that there is no evidence that mobile phones are harmful. And the U.S. government has not truly stepped up to the bat, which is not so surprising.
Now comes news of a new, government-sponsored research project. The $10 million amount seems rather low for such an important initiative. But what’s really sad is the mention in the article that the U.S. agency responsible for mobile phone health-related issues has absolutely no money available for research.
Feds to launch $10 million investigation of cell phones, wireless technologies
By Nancy McVicar, Sun-Sentinel
Ron Melnick, a toxicologist and director of special programs at NTP [National Toxicology Program], said at least $10 million has been earmarked for the research initiative.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has health-related jurisdiction over the phones, but no money for research, recommended the NTP get involved, Melnick said.
The entire article is worth the read for some good background, and for a reminder that skepticism is healthy, in the truest sense of the phrase when it comes to using mobile phones.
What happened to Nokia phones? When did the company start churning out butt-ugly mobiles like the batch above? This is a collection of recent or soon-to-be-released phones from the company that only a few short years ago was making simple, well-designed, sophisticated phones. No more, apparently.
Aside from a few annoying issues (the easily-breakable internal antenna and the dust that collected inside the screen) the 8200 series was a joy to carry and use. It was clean, simple and small. It wasn’t fancy, just well-designed. The 8800 series, though ridiculously expensive, added some extra flash and style without looking silly or ostentatious.
I even liked the original (at least I think it was original) 6100 series, which was my first mobile phone. It was solid and well-designed.
Phones like these are what helped lead Nokia to success in the late 1990s. If the new phones above are any indication, the company has lost its way design-wise. Need proof beyond just the visual? Look here then here.
I played Ms. Pac Man last night, and had a blast. This morning I came across the following article, wherein a gaming magazine subjected a group of kids to classic video games.
In the following exchange, Tim and John tackle Pong.
Kids Play
Electronic Gaming Monthly
TIM: My line is so beating the heck out of your stupid line. Fear my pink line. You have no chance. I am the undisputed lord of virtual tennis. [Misses ball] Whoops.
JOHN: Tim, how could you miss that? It was going like 1 m.p.h.
A report by a group of computer security experts warns of the dangers of monoculture in the computer world:
Want PC Security? Diversify
By Joanna Glasner, Wired News
Will Rodger, CCIA’s director of public policy, said concerns regarding Microsoft’s monopoly prowess, and the analogies to farming, are nothing new among members. But worries are intensifying.
Rodger likens today’s situation, in which Windows dominates the vast majority of desktops, to conditions faced by farmers during the Irish potato famine and by American cotton growers devastated by the boll weevil. In both cases, he said, farmers were ravaged by a blight that would have been far less severe had they had a greater variety of strains in cultivation.
Being without a mobile for a week wasn’t that big of a deal — but I wouldn’t have wanted to go much longer.
After seeing all the crappy phones and interfaces that are currently being offered here in the States, I ended up going for small and simple — the Motorola V70 shown above.
After getting used to a camera-phone during my year in Japan, I had been shopping for a similarly equipped unit here — mostly for use in posting pics directly from the phone to this site. But all the models I saw were either too large, too clunky (physical design or interface), or just plain ugly. It’s still first-generation time here in the States when it comes to camera phones.
I was considering the Sanyo 8100, which is offered by Sprint, since I used a similar Sanyo in Japan. But although the 8100 was a bit shorter than the one I’d been using, it was noticeably thicker — to the point where the, um, pocket bulge would be too much.
It seems like most people in the States still carry their phones tucked away, out of sight, whereas in Japan mobiles have basically become accessories to be carried, displayed and in view much of the time. The cascades of dangly baubles just adds to the “notice-my-phone!” factor.
I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to do posts to this site from my phone, but glad to have gotten a small, simple, no-nonsense phone. I figure within the next year there will be more appealing camera phones.
On the subject of camera phones, Dan Gillmor has a few comments about some of the social consequences of the devices. He only scratches the surface, and his thoughts seem almost quaint to me after having lived in a society where camera phones are already so pervasive. I suspect there will be many more social problems with the use of camera phones in the U.S.
We may as well get used to the idea that visual recording devices will be everywhere before too long. The trick will be to use technology to offer solutions to counter-balance the invasive nature of this trend.
In the meantime, your ass may end up here.
A post by Tom Coates about cameras communicating with each other reminded me of something I was thinking about last week in Tokyo.
After an all-nighter, a group of about a dozen of us crowded together to take “morning-after” photos (still too happy to realize how wrecked we all looked). We asked a young girl who’d just stumbled out of a club into the morning light to be our photographer. Someone handed her a camera, and then another, and another — she ended up with half a dozen cameras lined up on the sidewalk beside her.
Later that same day, as we all wandered through Yoyogi Park at dusk, we passed a large group of students posing for a group photo. The designated photographer had more than a dozen cameras lined up in a neat row beside her. There were film cameras, digicams, phone cams, and disposables.
It’s already possible to share photos easily with phone cams, but the quality of those shots is not yet great. Wireless needs to be built into higher-quality digicams so one camera can be used, and then the shot sent immediately to any similarly-equipped, surrounding digicams.
Far better to share shots immediately than to worry about parking yourself back home at a computer, trying to remember who wanted what shot.
My internet connection gets switched off this Sunday, as I leave my apartment here in Nagano for three weeks of travel before I head back to Seattle.
Despite the fact that my phone forces me to change each and every character I type from uppercase to lowercase, making an already tedious method of text entry almost unbearable, I plan to post occasional (short) entries during those three weeks of travel (thanks to Kevin Cameron’s Mobloging For Other People).
So, I’ve been sitting here trying to think of an appropriate icon or tag line for use with entries posted from my mobile. But then I realized that labeling the entries as such is really more of a “gee-whiz” reaction to new technology. In the end, it doesn’t really matter how the entry is posted.
However, if you’re interested, entries during the next few weeks that are only one or two sentences are likely posted from my mobile. Either that or I’ve got a lot of time on my hands. A longer entry probably means I’ve found an internet cafe.
Over at Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow picks apart the terms of service agreement of a Canadian internet service provider.
That’s standard Asshole Contract language, of course, but it just galls me every time I read it. Can you imagine the chutzpah you’d need to characterize this as an agreement? “Here’s something we’re shoving down your throat, agreed? What’s more, we reserve the right to shove more crap down your throat, without notifying you, and you’ll agree to that too. By the way, did you know that last week you agreed to let us come over and eat everything in your fridge? You’re so agreeable. That’s what we like about you, our customer.”
Thailand’s finance minister had to be rescued from his car after the vehicle’s computer crashed.
Suchart Jaovisidha and his driver were trapped inside the BMW for more than 10 minutes before guards broke a window. All doors and windows had locked automatically when the computer crashed, and the air-conditioning stopped, officials said.
What was that line a few years back comparing crash-prone Windows with the auto industry? Looks like the distinction is no longer valid.
