Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
That island in the sun
Singapore used to style itself as the "garden city", but these days everyone is trying to be just that. Last I heard, Singapore wants to turn that all around, and be a city in a garden. Now that's pretty neat.
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My sister's been working for gardens by the bay, a new "concept park" in Singapore, and she's told me a bunch of neat stuff lately. Now, I ain't the biggest fan of this country, but they have actually done quite a few neat things.
They built a very under-publicised water solution which won a big international award, and from what people tell me (the descriptions online aren't great), is indeed a very well designed and effective project. From what I hear, returns water to the ocean cleaner than the water that flows from the ocean in. The green roof on their main building emulates the other high profile green roof in Singapore.
Gardens by the bay looks like a really neat project too: whilst they are building gardens with climates very different from Singapore's tropical weather (mediterranean woodland and cloud forest), the developers are carefully keeping track of every input and output to make sure they make the best use of resources, and carefully designing buildings to carry out functions passively and use minimum external energy.
While the pictured green roof is not as effective as one could be (roofs can grow food and sprout trees and bushes that are much more effective at soaking up carbon than grass. this roof looks like it's pretty high maintenance too), you must admit, it's kind of a sexy building.
High end developments are really not my style, but it's nice to see the whole "green" movement being invested in and held up as something to aspire to, especially in a country I strongly associate with materialism and luxury. And while we might not want a green roof like the one pictured on every building, the first step to getting awesome green roofs on every building is getting people to want them.
Friday, October 15, 2010
blog party!
ha ha? get it?
I've learned so much lately. Back in the day, I spent an hour trying to figure out a way to take my google reader shared page and display it in my blog's sidebar, learning about inline frames and other html trickery, and trying to separate content from everthing else. Finally, I found that little link in the google reader that puts a clip straight into blogger with the click of a button.
I've recently also set up a mirror of my blog on Wordpress, which is, to my current knowledge, far more powerful and flexible than Blogger (this one here!). I'll update both and keep them linked to each other for now, til I decide what to do, but if you follow this blog, consider switching over to Wordpress, I would choose it over Blogger if I had to decide.
My blog on Wordpress and Blogger
Also check out my fancy new "About" page.
Life is different these days. In some ways, I do much more-- in the sense that I do more significant things. In other news, I've found myself with (varying periods of) extra time to think, write, and blog --I've been uncharacteristically prolific these past few weeks. After being introduced to google reader in August, I've filled it up with subscriptions, skimming dozens of articles, posts and blogs for read-and-share-worthiness each day. I feel like it's selling another bit of my soul to google, but it's such a useful tool.
So, with all this extra flux of information and free time (assuming it lasts, as work gets busier), I now usher in an era of hyper-increased blogging. Now complete with a google reader sidebar.
The last part of this is, as I get more comfortable with writing this and more comfortable with the idea that there's a lot of stuff that I want to tell y'all about, I'm promoting this blog more aggressively now (for example, actually telling my friends I have one). It's a little unnerving, but (I firmly believe that) doing (at least one) things that scare me or make me uncomfortable (every day) is good for me, and keeps me on my toes.
So, if you think this is good stuff, tell your friends to read! and maybe comment! or write back to me! and tell their friends!
Stay tuned gentle reader!
I've learned so much lately. Back in the day, I spent an hour trying to figure out a way to take my google reader shared page and display it in my blog's sidebar, learning about inline frames and other html trickery, and trying to separate content from everthing else. Finally, I found that little link in the google reader that puts a clip straight into blogger with the click of a button.
I've recently also set up a mirror of my blog on Wordpress, which is, to my current knowledge, far more powerful and flexible than Blogger (this one here!). I'll update both and keep them linked to each other for now, til I decide what to do, but if you follow this blog, consider switching over to Wordpress, I would choose it over Blogger if I had to decide.
My blog on Wordpress and Blogger
Also check out my fancy new "About" page.
Life is different these days. In some ways, I do much more-- in the sense that I do more significant things. In other news, I've found myself with (varying periods of) extra time to think, write, and blog --I've been uncharacteristically prolific these past few weeks. After being introduced to google reader in August, I've filled it up with subscriptions, skimming dozens of articles, posts and blogs for read-and-share-worthiness each day.
So, with all this extra flux of information and free time (assuming it lasts, as work gets busier), I now usher in an era of hyper-increased blogging. Now complete with a google reader sidebar.
The last part of this is, as I get more comfortable with writing this and more comfortable with the idea that there's a lot of stuff that I want to tell y'all about, I'm promoting this blog more aggressively now (for example, actually telling my friends I have one). It's a little unnerving, but (I firmly believe that) doing (at least one) things that scare me or make me uncomfortable (every day) is good for me, and keeps me on my toes.
So, if you think this is good stuff, tell your friends to read! and maybe comment! or write back to me! and tell their friends!
Stay tuned gentle reader!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
when i saw this.. i f4pp3d*
*homage to the greatest torrent of econometrics books ever assembled
Trivia point: "econometrics f4pp3d" is a googlewhack
Oh, the things that get me excited these days. I just learned about Village Telco, which is a super neat initiative to develop an extremely flexible and extremely low cost telephone network toolkit, which is both open-software and open-hardware.
To start at the head, we all really take our telecom network for granted. It can be a little painful sometimes, but we afford our x9.99 (sometimes y9.99 with a data plan, where y >> x), and we get to talk to our friends, figure out when to hang out, and also call in emergencies, like a flat tire, or being locked out of the house. Telecommunication is really useful, wherever and whoever you are in the world.
Now, people in developing countries face the same monopolistic telecom markets as in America (what is it, like two companies?). In fact, it's worse: telecom companies in developing countries are even more bent on getting a high rate of return and invest in the most rural areas last, leaving the poorest people with lack of infrastructure and options that are too expensive for them. With their much tighter incomes, the poor spend a much larger portion of their money on communication. They make much harder choices on a much more frequent basis about whether to use telecom services or not.
Now, this is the case for poor people and energy as well, but the situation differs by a few details. The electrical grid is much more expensive and difficult to afford than telecom services, this is true, but it is much harder to get communication without telecom services than light without the grid. This is not to say that the options are good: the most common alternative to the lightbulb is the kerosene lantern (and kerosene is expensive), which is a terrible thing to sit next to -it's like smoking a pack of cigarettes every night- and there are many other important amenities the electrical grid provides, but let's get back to communication.
Here's where we arrive at Village Telco, who have designed a most innovative piece of technology, allowing communities anywhere in the world to implement and operate their own communications networks (you could do it too!).
What they've designed fits in the palm of the hand, runs on just 2.5 watts of power, is resistant to rough handling, the weather, five different natural disasters, and civil war (and is also flexible to a range of power sources). It works out of the box with existing technology, like ordinary landline and WiFi phones (it's a WiFi based system), and automatically connects to multiple other units like itself to form a linked network or relay for communication. It does all of this for just $120. They call this little marvel a "Mesh Potato", and it's cheaper than most cell phones-- it's probably cheaper than some landline phones.
This means that an entrepreneur could set up a local telecom network on a very small budget (the system is designed to break even in 6 months -- where traditional telecom infrastructure can take decades to pay back), without the need for cell antennae or land lines, and can grow the meshed network Potato by Potato as subscription and demand increases.
This is the 2.0 of telecommunications, where users can take control of their own communication infrastructure. Yee haw!
This is easily the coolest piece of technology I've seen all year.
On the topic of communities taking control of their own infrastructure, Husk Power Systems is a homegrown company in the Indian "rice belt" installing powerplants that supply electricity to rural villages that don't get the national grid. These plants are powered by rice husks, an agricultural byproduct. It's beautiful, a perfect re-use of outputs from the food system, that produces an invaluable commodity and creates no food/fuel conflict. If anything, there is a certain peace, and a mutual encouragement on both sides of the equation.
Trivia point: "econometrics f4pp3d" is a googlewhack
Oh, the things that get me excited these days. I just learned about Village Telco, which is a super neat initiative to develop an extremely flexible and extremely low cost telephone network toolkit, which is both open-software and open-hardware.
To start at the head, we all really take our telecom network for granted. It can be a little painful sometimes, but we afford our x9.99 (sometimes y9.99 with a data plan, where y >> x), and we get to talk to our friends, figure out when to hang out, and also call in emergencies, like a flat tire, or being locked out of the house. Telecommunication is really useful, wherever and whoever you are in the world.
Now, people in developing countries face the same monopolistic telecom markets as in America (what is it, like two companies?). In fact, it's worse: telecom companies in developing countries are even more bent on getting a high rate of return and invest in the most rural areas last, leaving the poorest people with lack of infrastructure and options that are too expensive for them. With their much tighter incomes, the poor spend a much larger portion of their money on communication. They make much harder choices on a much more frequent basis about whether to use telecom services or not.
Now, this is the case for poor people and energy as well, but the situation differs by a few details. The electrical grid is much more expensive and difficult to afford than telecom services, this is true, but it is much harder to get communication without telecom services than light without the grid. This is not to say that the options are good: the most common alternative to the lightbulb is the kerosene lantern (and kerosene is expensive), which is a terrible thing to sit next to -it's like smoking a pack of cigarettes every night- and there are many other important amenities the electrical grid provides, but let's get back to communication.
Here's where we arrive at Village Telco, who have designed a most innovative piece of technology, allowing communities anywhere in the world to implement and operate their own communications networks (you could do it too!).
What they've designed fits in the palm of the hand, runs on just 2.5 watts of power, is resistant to rough handling, the weather, five different natural disasters, and civil war (and is also flexible to a range of power sources). It works out of the box with existing technology, like ordinary landline and WiFi phones (it's a WiFi based system), and automatically connects to multiple other units like itself to form a linked network or relay for communication. It does all of this for just $120. They call this little marvel a "Mesh Potato", and it's cheaper than most cell phones-- it's probably cheaper than some landline phones.
This means that an entrepreneur could set up a local telecom network on a very small budget (the system is designed to break even in 6 months -- where traditional telecom infrastructure can take decades to pay back), without the need for cell antennae or land lines, and can grow the meshed network Potato by Potato as subscription and demand increases.
This is the 2.0 of telecommunications, where users can take control of their own communication infrastructure. Yee haw!
This is easily the coolest piece of technology I've seen all year.
On the topic of communities taking control of their own infrastructure, Husk Power Systems is a homegrown company in the Indian "rice belt" installing powerplants that supply electricity to rural villages that don't get the national grid. These plants are powered by rice husks, an agricultural byproduct. It's beautiful, a perfect re-use of outputs from the food system, that produces an invaluable commodity and creates no food/fuel conflict. If anything, there is a certain peace, and a mutual encouragement on both sides of the equation.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Real big on quarks
It's official: century gothic is the "greenest" font, using 30% less ink than Arial, and even more economical than some eco-fonts.
It's so green that the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay changed their default email font to century gothic to save the ink, the environment, and most importantly, money: 30% greater text-for-ink efficiency is a lot, since printer ink costs about $10000 a gallon.
---
I've also heard, but found conflicting arguments, that dark coloured webpages save energy. Whether they do or not, mine's dark because I find gentle lights and dark backgrounds easier on the eyes.
---
Finally,
This is super awesome: Loband is something like a browser-in-a-browser (perhaps not an accurate description) written by a bunch of really smart guys one of whom I saw speak at this class (which is really awesome and welcoming to audit-ers and not-MIT / not-students). It's neat because it allows an internet user to load all of the content of a webpage text-first, and then waits for instructions to load pictures, sounds and flash...
Okay, I figured it out. It's a service that's run on a high-bandwidth server, to be accessed by users in low-bandwidth areas. It filters websites requested through the service down to their core content at the server before sending it to the user, reducing the amount of information that needs to be transmitted. As the name suggests, this allows for efficient and judicious use of bandwidth in situations where connection speeds are low.
The original business idea was for a whole bunch of high speed servers running loband in Europe-near-Africa and Asia-with-internet-near-Asia-without, allowing users in these countries better access to the internet, and easing congestion in those networks. I can't remember who was supposed to pay for it-- perhaps internet providers in those countries, who benefit from less traffic? I don't recall, but I do remember it made a lot of sense when I heard it.
I don't know how that worked out. In any case, Loband is a useful card to have up your sleeve.
It's so green that the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay changed their default email font to century gothic to save the ink, the environment, and most importantly, money: 30% greater text-for-ink efficiency is a lot, since printer ink costs about $10000 a gallon.
---
I've also heard, but found conflicting arguments, that dark coloured webpages save energy. Whether they do or not, mine's dark because I find gentle lights and dark backgrounds easier on the eyes.
---
Finally,
This is super awesome: Loband is something like a browser-in-a-browser (perhaps not an accurate description) written by a bunch of really smart guys one of whom I saw speak at this class (which is really awesome and welcoming to audit-ers and not-MIT / not-students). It's neat because it allows an internet user to load all of the content of a webpage text-first, and then waits for instructions to load pictures, sounds and flash...
Okay, I figured it out. It's a service that's run on a high-bandwidth server, to be accessed by users in low-bandwidth areas. It filters websites requested through the service down to their core content at the server before sending it to the user, reducing the amount of information that needs to be transmitted. As the name suggests, this allows for efficient and judicious use of bandwidth in situations where connection speeds are low.
The original business idea was for a whole bunch of high speed servers running loband in Europe-near-Africa and Asia-with-internet-near-Asia-without, allowing users in these countries better access to the internet, and easing congestion in those networks. I can't remember who was supposed to pay for it-- perhaps internet providers in those countries, who benefit from less traffic? I don't recall, but I do remember it made a lot of sense when I heard it.
I don't know how that worked out. In any case, Loband is a useful card to have up your sleeve.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Drawn onward to new era
This is (part of) the view from my office, and it doesn't really do justice to how amazing the view is. It's stunningly green, and the volcanoes are, in reality, huge.
After working for and talking to Ewa and Toshi at Kopernik here in Ubud, I'm getting a clearer picture of what exactly they're trying to do. There isn't really a simple explanation for what it is.
Kopernik works to address a couple of issues. In the first domain that they work in, they connect communities in developing countries in need certain types of technologies with companies or organisations which develop and produce innovative technologies, and finally with corporate donors and crowd-funding opportunities (where many donors each contribute a little to a specific project).
This gives poor people access to progressive, innovative and necessary technologies and products (which are often inaccessible because of cost) such as solar electric systems and water purification devices. Kopernik also provides support and advice to communities implementing projects. This spreads knowledge about technologies through the developing world and also connects companies to potential markets.
A key aspect of this is documenting the projects, and gathering comprehensive information on the outcomes and effects of introducing technology and projects. This allows experience to advise the design of future projects. Comprehensively reporting the impact of the projects that donors and supporters made possible is very important, and it helps to inform and engage people outside the field to support projects and learn about the impact of technology on the lives of the poor.
Kopernik not only connects companies to markets and communities with solutions, but also fosters communication between the organisations, businesses and people working on development challenges in low income countries. A big problem, I hear, is that "development" (a word and name I'm not terribly comfortable with), is a very closed industry, where there is little participation from people or other industries outside it, and where even some organisations within it don't talk to each other.
Kopernik wants to change this by being a marketplace and a hub for technology as well as for people, and by involving and engaging people outside the field to learn about and support initiatives in developing countries. Ewa and Toshi are both veterans of the UN, and another reason they are going this route of connections-en-masse and decentralised operation is because it is much faster and more responsive than the bureaucratic and sluggish UN.
We're making plans now for me to spend a couple of months, maybe? in East Timor, working directly with projects and communities Kopernik already works with, and introducing a whole bunch of new technology and programs. Yikes!
I wake up early everyday and ride a scooter (unfortunately, it's too far and the roads are too dangerous for bicycles) to Ewa and Toshi's house (aka Kopernik head office), where we type furiously at computers, sitting on a deck that hangs off the side of a hill facing a river and a countryside dotted with loads of coconut trees, hills (volcanoes?) in the distance. Simply amazing.
I've never owned or rented any kind of motor vehicle before, so it's here in Ubud that I'm buying gas for the first time in my life, a surreal experience. Gas must be really really well subsidised by the government here or something, it's about half the price of gas in the US. Probably in no small part because my scooter gets something like a hundred miles to the gallon, I pay about a dollar (no joke), a week right now for gas.
After working for and talking to Ewa and Toshi at Kopernik here in Ubud, I'm getting a clearer picture of what exactly they're trying to do. There isn't really a simple explanation for what it is.
Kopernik works to address a couple of issues. In the first domain that they work in, they connect communities in developing countries in need certain types of technologies with companies or organisations which develop and produce innovative technologies, and finally with corporate donors and crowd-funding opportunities (where many donors each contribute a little to a specific project).
This gives poor people access to progressive, innovative and necessary technologies and products (which are often inaccessible because of cost) such as solar electric systems and water purification devices. Kopernik also provides support and advice to communities implementing projects. This spreads knowledge about technologies through the developing world and also connects companies to potential markets.
A key aspect of this is documenting the projects, and gathering comprehensive information on the outcomes and effects of introducing technology and projects. This allows experience to advise the design of future projects. Comprehensively reporting the impact of the projects that donors and supporters made possible is very important, and it helps to inform and engage people outside the field to support projects and learn about the impact of technology on the lives of the poor.
Kopernik not only connects companies to markets and communities with solutions, but also fosters communication between the organisations, businesses and people working on development challenges in low income countries. A big problem, I hear, is that "development" (a word and name I'm not terribly comfortable with), is a very closed industry, where there is little participation from people or other industries outside it, and where even some organisations within it don't talk to each other.
Kopernik wants to change this by being a marketplace and a hub for technology as well as for people, and by involving and engaging people outside the field to learn about and support initiatives in developing countries. Ewa and Toshi are both veterans of the UN, and another reason they are going this route of connections-en-masse and decentralised operation is because it is much faster and more responsive than the bureaucratic and sluggish UN.
We're making plans now for me to spend a couple of months, maybe? in East Timor, working directly with projects and communities Kopernik already works with, and introducing a whole bunch of new technology and programs. Yikes!
I wake up early everyday and ride a scooter (unfortunately, it's too far and the roads are too dangerous for bicycles) to Ewa and Toshi's house (aka Kopernik head office), where we type furiously at computers, sitting on a deck that hangs off the side of a hill facing a river and a countryside
I've never owned or rented any kind of motor vehicle before, so it's here in Ubud that I'm buying gas for the first time in my life, a surreal experience. Gas must be really really well subsidised by the government here or something, it's about half the price of gas in the US. Probably in no small part because my scooter gets something like a hundred miles to the gallon, I pay about a dollar (no joke), a week right now for gas.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Open for business
I never wrote about IDDS, did I?
In 2009, I went to Ghana for the 3rd International Development Design Summit, which is all about designing for people in developing countries, who are traditionally overlooked by companies and industries that design and manufacture products and services.
It's estimated that 90% of all design work today serves 10% of the world's wealthiest people.
IDDS combines a few key principles, such as collaborative and participatory design, where the designers work with their end users to find the best specifications to suit them, and exchange of ideas: IDDS brings together people from many fields (doctors, farmers, mechanics, students, social workers...), countries, and all ages to work on the same problems.
That year, about ten (if I remember correctly) teams came up with ten prototypes of different technologies or products that were appropriate for different people in developing countries. The problem is, we had ten prototypes and very few plans for what we would do with them next. In fact, this happened with the first and second IDDSes as well.
This year, IDDS took place in Fort Collins, Colorado, and focused on developing (business) strategies for the distribution and dissemination of technologies. About ten (ish) teams took ten already-developed or prototype technologies and worked on strategies that would turn them into effective businesses that were financially viable and spread important and useful technologies to people who needed them most.
I was extremely impressed by the final presentations (check them out if you can!) at this IDDS; It was great to see that teams were very sure of themselves and knew exactly what they were going to do over the next five years.
I also got to talk (again) to Paul Polak (founder of IDE), a brilliant and visionary old man with a wicked sense of humour and no respect for anyone at all, who was delighted to hear I would be working with his old friend Bob Nanes at IDE Ghana come January 2011.
Wowee!
In 2009, I went to Ghana for the 3rd International Development Design Summit, which is all about designing for people in developing countries, who are traditionally overlooked by companies and industries that design and manufacture products and services.
It's estimated that 90% of all design work today serves 10% of the world's wealthiest people.
IDDS combines a few key principles, such as collaborative and participatory design, where the designers work with their end users to find the best specifications to suit them, and exchange of ideas: IDDS brings together people from many fields (doctors, farmers, mechanics, students, social workers...), countries, and all ages to work on the same problems.
That year, about ten (if I remember correctly) teams came up with ten prototypes of different technologies or products that were appropriate for different people in developing countries. The problem is, we had ten prototypes and very few plans for what we would do with them next. In fact, this happened with the first and second IDDSes as well.
This year, IDDS took place in Fort Collins, Colorado, and focused on developing (business) strategies for the distribution and dissemination of technologies. About ten (ish) teams took ten already-developed or prototype technologies and worked on strategies that would turn them into effective businesses that were financially viable and spread important and useful technologies to people who needed them most.
I was extremely impressed by the final presentations (check them out if you can!) at this IDDS; It was great to see that teams were very sure of themselves and knew exactly what they were going to do over the next five years.
I also got to talk (again) to Paul Polak (founder of IDE), a brilliant and visionary old man with a wicked sense of humour and no respect for anyone at all, who was delighted to hear I would be working with his old friend Bob Nanes at IDE Ghana come January 2011.
Wowee!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The future is mediocre
Are you dissatisfied with the progress of technology?
Well, it turns out that you're a minority.
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff_goodenough
Wired magazine talks about how the need/want for convenience in the digital age has encouraged "just good enough" gadgets, information formats, you name it.
Ben Hescott, computer scientist extraordinaire (who I heard about this article from) says, with a snicker, that the RSA system that protects so much of our commercial and personal communication today is also "just good enough". It relies on an unproven assumption about the hardness of certain problems involving large prime numbers. This means that everytime you go on the internet, you are "just secure enough".
But there's more. This is the flip side of just-good-enough:
The last page of the article touches on Kaiser Permanente, an integrated healthcare organisation made up of for- and non- profit groups of entities, the largest of its kind in the country. I'm not really a fan of large corporations, and they have got some negative press in the past, but as of late August 2010, I have it on reliable account that they're trying to reinvent themselves not as the-cost-concerned-HMO but the-HMO-that-cares.
Here they are, at the cutting edge:
Well, it turns out that you're a minority.
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff_goodenough
Wired magazine talks about how the need/want for convenience in the digital age has encouraged "just good enough" gadgets, information formats, you name it.
Ben Hescott, computer scientist extraordinaire (who I heard about this article from) says, with a snicker, that the RSA system that protects so much of our commercial and personal communication today is also "just good enough". It relies on an unproven assumption about the hardness of certain problems involving large prime numbers. This means that everytime you go on the internet, you are "just secure enough".
But there's more. This is the flip side of just-good-enough:
The last page of the article touches on Kaiser Permanente, an integrated healthcare organisation made up of for- and non- profit groups of entities, the largest of its kind in the country. I'm not really a fan of large corporations, and they have got some negative press in the past, but as of late August 2010, I have it on reliable account that they're trying to reinvent themselves not as the-cost-concerned-HMO but the-HMO-that-cares.
Here they are, at the cutting edge:
"In 2007, Flanagin and her colleagues wondered what would happen if, instead of building a hospital in a new area, Kaiser just leased space in a strip mall, set up a high tech office, and hired two doctors to staff it. Thanks to the digitization of records, patients could go to this "microclinic" for most of their needs and seamlessly transition to a hospital farther away when necessary...
What they found is that the system performed very well. Two doctors working out of a microclinic could meet 80 percent of a typical patient's needs. With a hi-def video conferencing add-on, members could even link to a nearby hospital for a quick consult with a specialist..."
This might have a developing world ring for some of you folks out there...
To me, What Kaiser is doing sounds great, especially in the world's-least-efficient healthcare system, where incredibly high costs, extreme bureaucracy, and poor incentives for doctors and healthcare providers trap people in inefficient and non-optimal plans and systems. Don't even get me started on the whole health insurance thing.
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