Commentary – Page 8

Augmented Humans…

Jemima Kiss writes at the Guardian: What if a bionic leg is so good that someone chooses to amputate? This raises some intensely challenging issues about whether we will see a far more profound human digital divide, already hinted at in sci-fi countless times: the augmented, and the unaugmented. Those of us who have been … Continue reading “Augmented Humans…”

Jemima Kiss writes at the Guardian:

What if a bionic leg is so good that someone chooses to amputate?

This raises some intensely challenging issues about whether we will see a far more profound human digital divide, already hinted at in sci-fi countless times: the augmented, and the unaugmented.

Those of us who have been following sci-fi have seen this before. Witness the hero of Cyberpunk 2013, Johnny Silverhand:

Would you be happier with a bionic eye that had zoom, camera, night vision and a pico projector? Would you want rewired reflexes? Would you want a port in your temple for uploading books and content or downloading memories that you don’t think you need right now?

Would you want a second heart? A lung that could remove toxins? Maybe even a gland that helps you regulate your body fat?

(Link via @ultramegajones)

Passion

Passion has overthrown tyrants and freed prisoners and slaves. Passion has brought justice where there was savagery. Passion has created freedom where there was nothing but fear. Passion has helped souls rise from the ashes of their horrible lives and build something better, stronger, more beautiful. – Jim Butcher Related posts: Drawing a line means … Continue reading “Passion”

Passion has overthrown tyrants and freed prisoners and slaves. Passion has brought justice where there was savagery. Passion has created freedom where there was nothing but fear. Passion has helped souls rise from the ashes of their horrible lives and build something better, stronger, more beautiful.

– Jim Butcher

Aston Martin Anecdote

After the release of “Goldfinger”, a friend of David Brown, Aston Martin’s owner, asked him for a DB5 at cost price. After much pestering he finally relented, and presented his friend with a brand new Aston and an invoice for £500 more than the usual sale price Related posts: AR The Games Market is about … Continue reading “Aston Martin Anecdote”

After the release of “Goldfinger”, a friend of David Brown, Aston Martin’s owner, asked him for a DB5 at cost price. After much pestering he finally relented, and presented his friend with a brand new Aston and an invoice for £500 more than the usual sale price

Electric Vehicles for Business….survey

Are you aware that businesses can apply for grant aid towards the purchase of electric cars or vans? Are you aware that businesses are exempt from tax, excise duty and benefit charges for electric cars and vans? Are you aware that businesses can retrieve the cost of an electric car or van against taxable profits … Continue reading “Electric Vehicles for Business….survey”

Are you aware that businesses can apply for grant aid towards the purchase of electric cars or vans?

Are you aware that businesses are exempt from tax, excise duty and benefit charges for electric cars and vans?

Are you aware that businesses can retrieve the cost of an electric car or van against taxable profits in the year of acquisition?

How likely are you at present to purchase one or more electric vehicles for your business?

The survey is linked here:

Unity 5 Launch Event at GDC

Again it highlights to me that these advanced shaders and textures are great if you can afford them. Honestly though, I don’t “get” the Blacksmith demo scene. It maybe shows the potential for Unity as an animation tool? Related posts: AppStore Wars starting to heat up… Ngmoco to target iPhone Nokia: the plan before 2012 … Continue reading “Unity 5 Launch Event at GDC”

Again it highlights to me that these advanced shaders and textures are great if you can afford them.

Honestly though, I don’t “get” the Blacksmith demo scene. It maybe shows the potential for Unity as an animation tool?

Should we treat Religion with humility?

(This was a response to Denis on FaceBook attributing the need to have some respect for religion because science cannot know everything. I think it would be a grave mistake to assume religion knows anything that science has yet to find an answer for.) Religion used to be the explanation for everything but as our … Continue reading “Should we treat Religion with humility?”

Religion used to be the explanation for everything but as our science has developed, religion has retreated into the recesses where science has no business and little interest.

• The universe: Genesis or Big Bang?
• Person having fits: possession by devils or epilepsy
• Sickness: the presence of sin or germ theory

Piece by piece religion is unravelling and even the devout pick and choose what they want to follow based in their own prejudices.

Galileo had his conflict because he was one of the first to pick at the threads and he did so under possibility of death because religion has always responded with violence to those who would question its ultimate authority.

Religions like Christianity know their cards are marked in developed societies which is why they spend so much effort recruiting and indoctrinating in developing countries – where the people have not experienced the enlightenment, where they still suspect devils and call the lightning by a name. For the same reason religion insists on having access to our children – to chide them into their twisted belief systems.

Religion has murdered it’s way to dominance and you suggest we should treat it with humility? I do not think so.

Games are bigger than Hollywood, Apps are bigger than Hollywood. And yet…

Horace Dediu puts together the numbers: Apple paid $10 billion to developers in calendar 2014 … Put another way, in 2014 iOS app developers earned more than Hollywood did from box office in the US. … The curious thing is that even though the medium of apps is swamping other forms of entertainment in all … Continue reading “Games are bigger than Hollywood, Apps are bigger than Hollywood. And yet…”

Horace Dediu puts together the numbers:

Apple paid $10 billion to developers in calendar 2014
…
Put another way, in 2014 iOS app developers earned more than Hollywood did from box office in the US.
…
The curious thing is that even though the medium of apps is swamping other forms of entertainment in all measurable ways, comprehension of the phenomenon is lagging.

It’s again one of the times when I hate being right. I made an impassioned plea to government agencies, visited universities and colleges and even spoke to politicians back when the App Store was still on the horizon and I said “This app thing is going to be massive”. With the App Economy worth 627,000 jobs worldwide, Northern Ireland should have a fair share there and we just dropped the ball. Some people saw the Apple logo and decided not to get involved and some, well, some just stood in the way. They couldn’t see the future or, as in one case, they had a major personal investment in a competing mobile software distribution platform (that ultimately went nowhere).

And remember this is just the Apple side. It doesn’t include ad-based revenue, it doesn’t include Android and Windows phone. It doesn’t include Mac apps and it doesn’t include apps sold outside of the Apple ecosystem.

Back in the early noughties, I attended a meeting where a consultant told Northern Ireland not to even look at the games market. It was too late they said. So we didn’t invest, we gave the responsibility for games development to agencies who didn’t understand, appreciate or even like games. And I don’t expect them to like them; I expect them to follow the best opportunities.

I cannot even begin to count the opportunity cost here; the friction of just being resistant to new ideas and new technology but we pay for it again and again in being conservative in our collective outlook, in mistrusting the novel.

I coulda had class.
I coulda been a contender.
I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it.
It was you.

comprachicos

A compound Spanish neologism meaning “child-buyers,” which was coined by Victor Hugo in his novel The Man Who Laughs. Adopted as a pejorative term used for individuals and entities who manipulate the minds and attitudes of children in a way that will permanently distort their beliefs or worldview. And we have a new word for … Continue reading “comprachicos”

A compound Spanish neologism meaning “child-buyers,” which was coined by Victor Hugo in his novel The Man Who Laughs.

Adopted as a pejorative term used for individuals and entities who manipulate the minds and attitudes of children in a way that will permanently distort their beliefs or worldview.

And we have a new word for those who are opponents of integrated education in Northern Ireland. People who wilfully distort the minds and attitudes of children, installing bitterness and fear where there is innocence and acceptance.

Electric Car Charging Up 50% in a single year!

Proof that journalists can put the negative into anything to get a headline: Two-thirds of London electric car charging points go unused Figures for June 2014 show that of the 905 units across the capital, only 324 were used (36%). The remaining 581 were not plugged into at all. By way of comparison, in June … Continue reading “Electric Car Charging Up 50% in a single year!”

Proof that journalists can put the negative into anything to get a headline:

Two-thirds of London electric car charging points go unused

Figures for June 2014 show that of the 905 units across the capital, only 324 were used (36%). The remaining 581 were not plugged into at all.

By way of comparison, in June 2013 there were 892 charging units in London and during that month a quarter (24.3%) were used.
…
However in June 2014 there were a total of 4,678 charging sessions, more than double the 2,243 figure a year earlier. This reflects the quickening take up of electric cars of which there are now about 16,000 in Great Britain.

(Link)

In essence…There were more charging units available in 2014 and the number of people using them jumped from 24% to 36%. That’s a 50% increase in a single year.

The figures are actually really positive and I am heartened that government is much more optimistic about this than the media.

The encouraging news is that electric car sales in the UK are at last showing signs of improvement, but we still have a charging network that is running far from capacity.

Running a charging network that is not at capacity costs a few feet of space and has a prominent mindspace benefit. Electric cars are a luxury right now but by 2030 they’ll be a necessity. They will be the most cost-effective way to move around – never mind being zero emissions and orders of magnitude more efficient than internal combustion-based cars.

Don’t get used to cheap gasoline

Clearly we’re seeing some of the supply-and-demand statistics play out and we’re seeing low fuel prices, we may see that for a certain amount of time but our medium and long term view is that they will go up. Ford CEO Mark Fields (link) Of course they’re going to go up. That’s what they do. … Continue reading “Don’t get used to cheap gasoline”

Clearly we’re seeing some of the supply-and-demand statistics play out and we’re seeing low fuel prices, we may see that for a certain amount of time but our medium and long term view is that they will go up.
Ford CEO Mark Fields (link)

Of course they’re going to go up. That’s what they do. They’re only down at the moment to strengthen the Saudi grip on the oil markets because they’re the only oil producers with the reserves to weather out a price war. That major oil producers are playing a game of chicken – oil is currently plentiful (as US oil production has reached a new high not experienced since 1983).

Enjoy the reduced prices for a while because they’re going up again soon.