] Tokyo--Toshiba Corporation today announced the
] world's first prototype of a small form factor
] direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) for portable PCs, a
] clean energy breakthrough with the potential to end
] reliance on rechargeable batteries. The new fuel cell
] currently realizes average output of 12W and maximum
] output of 20W, and can achieve approximately five hours
] of operation with a single cartridge of fuel. It provides
] instant power supply, and achieves significant advances
] in operating times with replaceable methanol cartridges.

This thing is a little large, but its a step in the right direction. Ultimately I see these things enabling more home robotics. Power consumption is one of the most challenging thing about effective household automation.

Toshiba announces laptop fuel cell.

] People used to worry about the government compiling a
] database of everything they knew about you and everything
] you did. But who'd have thought we'd be so keen to keep
] updating our own entries?

The amount of free speech our society will have in this environment will depend on either our ability to acknowledge that people change, and old net posts are not things you hold people accountable for, or our ability to develop and use powerful anonymnity software.

Guardian Unlimited | Online | A blogger is a stalker's dream

] In the photo above is the webACE: a Fairchild ACE1101MT8
] microcontroller programmed as a Web server and containing
] two tiny web pages in its on-chip memory. Since the
] ACE1101MT8 is the smallest available microcontroller, I
] believe that this really is the World's Smallest Web
] Server.

This is the platform used in that fly article. This article is a little more informative. I don't really care about the fly. I care about the server. Links to a number of other more practical platforms such as PIC based servers (they are technically larger, but basically the idea is the same). A little digging and you'll find a number of open source TCP/IP stacks for microcontrollers.

This is of use if you want to embed internet connectivity into extremely small devices. The next question is how small can you make your bluetooth transmitter.

Tiny webserver, without the fly

The soldier on the front line needs a network structure and he has to be shown that power comes out of that network structure. He have to institutionalize peer-to-peer and power-to-the-edge. ... If we do that well we find that we step out of the information domain of merely networking and into the cognitive domain where battles are truly won or lost.

One of the most gut wrenching things that occured during the raid in Somalia depicted in Black Hawk Down was the direction of the caravan through the city through two levels of higharchy. It was obviously stupid. You had someone in a command center looking at a video of the caravan, making a decision, relaying that decision to someone in an airplane, who relayed that decision to the driver. By the time the driver got the decision the circumstances had totally changed.

Thats it in a nutshelll. In the past the people at the top made decisions because they were the only ones with the perspective to make them. This is an extremely inefficient way to operate. The people on the frontlines need to be making the decisions, and the people in the offices are simply there to give them the perspective they need to make those decisions.

These changes will mirror the changes you'll see in every kind of organization that exists.

Transformation Trends - 17 February 2003

digitalreporter wrote:
] ] The latest trend in the increasingly popular Web log--a
] ] personal or professional online diary--is audioblogging,
] ] the posting of audio clips instead of or alongside text
] ] entries. In addition to providing a new means of keeping
] ] bloggers' fans up to date, the audioblog is inspiring
] ] software developers and start-ups to raise a whole new
] ] crop of tools and services.

I don't think that audio blogging is going to take over. Its not a better interface. Its not easy to edit, and its a pain for the poster because you have to download an mp3. Furthermore, it eliminates the ability to scan content and see if you want to read it in detail. This is really important on the web. I think that people, when faced with an uncommented audio recording on someone's blog, are unlikely to click on it. I think camera phones are a much bigger deal because the web is a visual medium. There is a lot of audio blogging right now because its the neato new hip thing, but I think a lot of it will go away. This stuff isn't going to stick until you've got video. Streaming video from your cellphone is going to require much more bandwidth. We're a moore's law cycle away at least.

RE: Dialing for bloggers | CNET News.com

] The typical news article consists of quotes from
] interviews and a little bit of connective stuff and some
] facts, or whatever. Mostly it's quotes from people. If I
] can get the quotes with no middleman in between--what
] exactly did CNN add to all the pictures? Maybe they
] earned their salaries a little bit, but Web logs have
] become journalism, and it's much richer. Journalism is a
] high calling, but it's really no more than points of view
] on what's taking place. I think the pros are going to use
] this tech, and they are doing it more and more.

Winer actualy says this in a media interview. Being resented by the media is not really a good place to be, in general. Of course, there is that quote on the front of this web site. :)

Dave Winer Goes To Harvard

For "Net-genners," Microsoft learned that using the Internet for socializing is a way of life.

Microsoft aims to tap 'Net generation' | CNET News.com

As network size, link bandwidth, CPU capacity, and the number of users all increase, research will be needed to ensure that the Internet of the future scales to meet these increasing demands.

IAB Concerns Regarding Internet Research and Evolution

] "What we're seeing now is the weaving of electronic
] warfare, psyops and other information warfare through
] every facet of the plan from our peacetime preparations
] through execution," said Maj. Gen. Paul J. Lebras, chief
] of the Joint Information Operations Center, a secretive
] military agency based in Texas that has sent a team of
] experts to join the Central Command info-warfare team for
] the Iraq campaign....

] "We are trying very hard to be empathetic with the Iraqi
] military," said a senior American information warfare
] official. "We understand their situation. The same for
] the Iraqi population. We wish them no harm. We will take
] great pains to make those people understand that they
] should stay away from military equipment."

Firing Memes, US Wages Information War

] The Pentagon calls this new doctrine RMA, for "revolution
] in military affairs," and it's made possible not just by
] fresh thinking in the Pentagon but also by a subtle shift
] in the ranks of U.S. defense contractors. In building its
] new high-tech arsenal, the United States has also created
] a new military-industrial complex.

A catalog of toys. The first page is the best one...

The New Military Industrial Complex