Technology Futures

Truckers in the U.S. and Canada are using on-the-go hydrogen generation to cut fuel costs by 10% and as a by-product, pollution is also reduced substantially, with particulate emissions (the black smoke seen from some diesel engines) by up to half.

The hydrogen is generated by a small, bolt-on system that generates hydrogen by electrolysis, which uses electricity from the truck's alternator to strip hydrogen from distilled water. The hydrogen is injected into the fuel-air mix and produces more efficient burning fuel.

In yet another "new media" development--they seem to come almost daily--Cingular is going to offer a $6.99/month radio service that works with certain cellphones. It is an interesting offering, since lots of people have cellphones (yes, most of them don't work with this service yet).

Honda has announced a hydrogen generation fuel cell. Designed for home use, the system generates enough hydrogen to fuel a car for around town use, and also generates enough electricity to power an average home. It uses natural gas as a source of fuel.

Nokia has announced an "Internet tablet" computer. Just three inches by five and a half inches, the device is powered by a variant of Linux and comes with all the software you would expect on a PDA, including a calendar, Web browser, email, chat, news readers, and much more. It also comes with WiFI, and has a battery life of three hours of active use, and up to seven days of standby time.

The Register has a hilarious list of reader-contributed definitions of Web 2.0, which is the current buzz phrase for a whole new deluge of technology "solutions" in search of a problem. Web 2.0 offerings typically include other buzzphrases like "live" applications (apparently everything we've been doing has been dead), AJAX (not a soap, but a new set of programming tools), and the always delightful but overused "usercentric."

Sony has really made a mess of things with their Digital Rights Management software. In a utterly misguided attempt to prevent copying of their music CDs, the company hid software on the CDs that secretly changes the core operating system on Windows.

CNN has announced a beta TV news on demand service that will offer multiple news feeds and access to an archive of CNN video segments.

Why are so many players getting into this so quickly? For one, it is relatively simple. For the larger content providers like CNN and the other alphabet channels (CBS, ABC, NBC) they already have staff to throw at this. It is no big deal to digitize video (and much of it may already be recorded as digital) and stick it on a Web site. And they have enough server resources and bandwidth to support a pilot project.

Just weeks after Apple's video iPod was introduced to great skepticism (...who wants to download TV programs?), all the major studios are getting into this new business. The iPod was released with some primetime ABC shows available for download, but now CBS and NBC have announced plans to sell episodes of major shows for ninety-nine cents, bypassing the iTunes store and undercutting the ABC prices by half.

A vertical axis wind turbine that has been under development for more than ten years is nearly ready for commercial use. Propeller-type wind turbines have been controversial because they are visually ugly, make a lot of noise, can kill birds, and are not all that efficient.

Over the long term, I don't think products like Tivo have a future, for two reasons. First is more philosophical: If you can get any content you want on demand (like some kind of video program) via broadband, you don't need a device to store it. Second is more practical: If you do need something to store it, I think a "media computer" with a Tivo-like software program will be cheaper and easier to use, and will not require that you give away all your personal information (what you watch and when you watch it), like Tivo requires now.

EuroTelcoBlog has a story on Amsterdam's community fiber initiative.

The media loves nothing better than stories about itself, so there is much handwringing in the media about the drop in newspaper circulation. I predicted this in 1994 at a meeting of newspaper folk who came to Blacksburg to hear about the newfangled Blacksburg Electronic Village thing.

What I told them then has not changed--newspapers have a golden future ahead of them if they would only stop thinking their job is to print the news on paper and toss those clumps of paper in people's driveways.

Anyone who thinks that the new video iPod is strictly a novelty item for teens and twenty-somethings should probably think again.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth? Could it be ten thousand words (about twenty pages)?

That sounds about right to me. Zoom and Go, a popular travel site, is putting their entire library of travel videos in iPod format. According to the site, that is about ten thousand videos.

Some bloggers are calling this simple four part statement a "Monroe Doctrine" for the Internet. The United States has made it clear that it is not going to give control of the Internet to the U.N. Good. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

This article talks about Sony's Digital Rights Management (DRM) software that comes on Sony music CDs. The DRM works in part by installing a bunch of secret software on your PC, without your permission! In other contexts we call that computer trespass and/or illegal behavior.

Congress is fighting over a bill that would protect bloggers from having to file onerous reports on their activities. Part of the fall out of the 2002 campaign finance law is strict regulations on campaigning and candidate support. The problem arises because the law is so vague that a private citizen with a lightly read blog who endorses a candidate for election would fall under the regulation of the Federal Election Committee.

Red light cameras, which are used at busy intersections to catch people running red lights, are being turned off. Aside from some very serious privacy issues, the cameras cause accidents. Intersections with red light cameras are getting 10% to 20% more accidents than before the cameras were installed.

The mayor of San Francisco has proclaimed that WiFi is a "right." Here are his exact words, from a recent Yahoo! article.

This is a civil rights issue as much as anything else...It is to me a fundamental right to have access universally to information.

The FCC has approved the SBC-AT&T merger and the Verizon-MCI merger. What these deals really mean is that long distance as a service is dead, dead, dead, as I like to say.

The baseline for telephony service is now nationwide flat rate calling, or some variant of that that includes a lot of long distance minutes in the base rate and something around or below five cents a minute if you go over.

There is much handwringing by local and state governments and the Feds about the "lack of money" to spend on broadband infrastructure. But it is pretty hard to take all that seriously. When politicians say, "There is no money for that," what they are really saying is that there are other things they would rather spend it on, and often for no good reason.

This report on the ever expanding oil well style gusher of gas taxes is a perfect example.