New Workforce - The Weblog of New Equities

Open source Coca Cola?

Or Pepsi, or something very much like it, used to promote the concept of open source software:

If you’ve been to a computer show in recent months you might have seen it: a shiny silver drink can with a ring-pull logo and the words “opencola” on the side. Inside is a fizzy drink that tastes very much like Coca-Cola. Or is it Pepsi?There’s something else written on the can, though, which sets the drink apart. It says “check out the source at opencola.com.” Go to that Web address and you’ll see something that’s not available on Coca-Cola’s website, or Pepsi’s — the recipe for cola. For the first time ever, you can make the real thing in your own home.

OpenCola is a brand of cola unique in that the instructions for making it are freely available and modifiable. Anybody can make the drink, and anyone can modify and improve on the recipe as long as they, too, license their recipe under the GNU General Public License.

The company who devised this promotion has long since exited the scene, but the opencola recipe lives on... (Via Digg.)

Retro PC dreams

Remember Atari and Commodore? The Apple II and the original IBM PC (and its hapless successor, the PS/2)? Now, you can relive the TV commercials that sold us all on the dream of owning our own personal computer, thanks to the folks at Downloadsquad, who have meticulosly compiled them in one nostalgic post, "The history of the personal computer in TV commercials".

It's all here, including Apple's famous "1984" superbowl ad introducing the Mac, and the early IBM campaigns incongruously featuring a Chaplin lookalike. Plus, classic Microsoft ads ranging from the Rolling Stones to a bizarre performance by Microsoft's own Steve Ballmer hawking Windows 1.0. Not to be missed!

Hat tip: Pajamas Media and James Hudnall

They all scream for iPhone

Lots of buzz at MacWorld over Apple's new iPhone though somewhat less at CES. The general consensus is that it's pretty damn cool, even as some question whether it's ready for enterprise use.

Meanwhile, Cisco is suing Apple for copyright infringement over its use of the iPhone name.

The shape of things to come

Wired Magazine boldly gives its predictions for 2007.

Coming in 2007: the VR internet

In his now-classic 1981 short story True Names, author Vernor Vinge imagined a worlldwide virtual reality network in which users could assume alter egos and manipulate data with techniques similar to wizardry and magic. Many computer users, particularly gamers, embraced those concepts wholeheartedly, as attested to by the success of Second Life and other online environments (including World of Warcraft and similar MMORPGs). Now a non-profit group is building a new type of internet specifically for VR games and applications:

Neuronet, which is separate from the Internet, "will evolve into the world's first public network capable of meeting the data transmission requirements of emerging cinematic and immersive virtual-reality technologies," according to a Wednesday announcement from the Vancouver-based International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies.

The first-generation Neuronet is scheduled to go live in 2007, the group said. Consumer applications are expected as early as 2009.

Virtual reality generally refers to environments with visual and audio information that makes a person feel immersed in a computer-generated realm. The growth of environments such as Second Life has spotlighted such efforts, and IBM believes that virtual worlds will open new doors to e-commerce as well.

The group promises that Neuronet will have high-speed communication, a key constraint for virtual reality, which requires transmission of large quantities of graphics and other data, as well as fast responses to give users a better illusion of realism.

Although the full impact is still years off, it's not much of a stretch to imagine the impact of such a VR network on project management and collaboration among remote team members. Online meetings and webinars, once a novelty, are now a staple in the business world. In 10 years, will it be commonplace for project teams to collaborate in simulated meeting rooms, solving problems by manipulating shared data models in 3D? IBM's endorsement of Second Life, and now Neuronet, is an indication that it may be.

Now you see it...

According to the BBC, two scientists claim to have cracked the physics of a working Star Trek-style cloaking device -- albeit at present on a very small scale:

Nicolae Nicorovici and Graeme Milton propose that placing certain objects close to a material called a superlens could make them appear to vanish...

The complex mathematical phenomenon outlined by Milton and Nicorovici closes the gap a little between science fiction and fact.

The phenomenon is analogous to a tuning fork (which rings with a single sound frequency) being placed next to a wine glass. The wine glass will start to ring with the same frequency; it resonates.

The cloaking effect would exploit a resonance with light waves rather than sound waves.

The concept is at such a primitive stage that scientists are talking only at the moment of being able to cloak particles of dust - not spaceships.

First replicators, now this. Arthur C. Clarke, who claims the mantle of both scientist and science fiction author, once famously said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Perhaps he should have added, "or pop culture sci-fi".

Wikipedia on your iPod

It's not exactly The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but we're getting closer. How about Wikipedia to go, downloadable to your iPod?

Encyclopodia is a free software project that brings the Wikipedia, which is one of the largest encyclopedias on the world, on the Apple iPod MP3-Player. It has been successfully tested on a third-generation iPod and on an iPod mini, but it should also work on other iPod generations.

Don't panic!

Just chill!

The USB beverage chiller. No outlet required. Now that's progress!

Catching up with the future you

The latest twist on technology - sending emails to your future self:

The site is one of a handful that let people send e-mails to themselves and others years in the future. They are technology's answer to time capsules, trading on people's sense of curiosity, accountability and nostalgia.

"Messages into the future is something that people have always sought to do," said Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future. "In a way, it's a statement of optimism."

Matt Sly, 29, came up with the concept for FutureMe about four years ago. He was inspired one day after recalling how during his education he had been given assignments to write letters to himself.

Sly, who partnered with 31-year-old Jay Patrikios of San Francisco on the project, said the site has made maybe $58 through donations. He is adamant that FutureMe is not a reminder service and that users should think long-term.

The site lets people send messages 30 years from now, though Sly's numbers show most users schedule their e-mails to be sent within three years.

"We want people to think about their future and what their goals and dreams and hopes and fears are," he said. "We're trying to facilitate some serious existential pondering."

He said a large number of the messages sent do one of two basic things: tell the future person what the past person was doing at the time, and ask the future person if he or she had met the aspirations of the past person.

"The tone of the past person is not always friendly," said Sly, now a Yale University graduate student. "It's often like 'Get off your lazy butt.'"

Of course, some things are probably best left relegated to the past.

"The lesson about all these things, it's the lesson from time capsules, is you have to be careful lest you set yourself up for enormous embarrassment in two decades," Saffo said. "Do you really want to be reminded that you thought ABBA was cool?"

Move over, Apple!

It's the Pumpkin PC, created by the computer store staff at the University of Arkansas.