Data mining is nothing new.  The physical world has been collecting information on processes and populations through sensors and cameras.  But the interest in a more personal level of data mining … looking at what “YOU” are doing is something new.  Driving the technology is the widespread use of sophisticated cell phones.  Today’s top-end phones have the computing power of low-end computers and contain physical locators such as GPS.  Their capacity to collect, store and transmit data makes reality mining possible, Pentland believes.

Pentland and his group accurately modeled the social networks of 100 MIT students and professors recently.  This was accomplished by combining the cell phone logs with GPS information regarding the users’ proximity to other people’s devices (collected via bluetooth sensors).  Statistical analysis allowed the team to identify relationships that in turn, translated into maps of social relationships.  Such maps can be used to categorize all the people in someone’s address book as family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, etc.  Privacy and security settings could be based on these social maps, allowing family and close friends to “view” more of a persons whereabouts and schedule versus someone not as “socially close”.  By monitoring social maps of your contacts, your phone could even predict when you might be in close proximity to someone else and suggest activities, meeting locations based on your history of social contact with that person.

The benefits of reality mining could extend to healthcare where accelerometers and diagnostic software could detect small changes in gait from diseases such as Parkinson’s or detect changes in speech patterns consistent with depression.

Of course there are privacy issues, but Pentland believes that now is the time to decide how the information will be used.  He would like it used to better our lives.  Big Brother may have other plans … stay tuned.  To read more, go to http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=emerging08&id=20247

Seriously, the virtual world of Second Life is not just a game.  It’s not really a brave new marketing and advertising world to generate revenues for real-world companies (although people ARE generating incomes “in-world” by providing virtual products and services within it).  Second Life is more of a social space, with the added twist of being able to provide a 3D Web look and feel. 

Reading an article at www.lunchoverip.com concerning “Virtual Worlds and The Enterprise” I learned that the emerging future of where humans will interact will include three separate kinds of “worlds”:  the Real World, the Digital World (2D Web), and the Virtual World (3D Web).

The article categorizes Virtual Worlds as either MMORPG’s (games) or METAVERSES (social oriented).  Under Metaverses, there are MMOLEs (learning and training focused), Intraverses (virtual worlds behind a corporate firewall), and Paraverses (think of a Mashup of Google Earth and Second Life).

As virtual worlds become less constrained by technology and more accepted by the masses, we may see browsing 3D Web as often as we now experience the 2D version … with avatars providing the browsing interface for the person exploring (or shopping, learning, etc).  Virtual worlds and Real Worlds may merge as technologies such as Google Earth feed Virtual World landscapes.

The average man on the street will know when we’ve arrived there when all his friends are telling him .. “What?? You STILL don’t have an avatar yet?”  Time, interest, technology will tell when that happens.

http://www.garageband.com/mp3player?|pe1|WdjZPXLrvP2rYVK0a2llAA

Getting my avatar set up was cool.  I could adjust a huge array of body aspects (fyi – you don’t come with genitals, you have to buy those “somewhere”).  I tried to set my avatar up as close to “me” as possible … not wanting to misrepresent myself in the virtual world, ya know.  I got to pick a first name and Second Life gave me choices for a second name (some reminiscent of the Star Wars Cantina population).  I’m Dwblue Silversmith.  Satisfied with my initial avatar work, I decided it was time to visit “Orientation Island” and meet some of the residents and learn what’s going on.  Hmmm… no sign of STA Travel … seems like STA has pulled the Second Life plug.

At the time I was “researching” (Sunday mid-morning), there were 74,000 residents reportedly online …

OMG!  All the girls are either Pamela Anderson or, if possible, a raunchier version of Pamela Anderson!  Seriously, all of the girl avatars were either hot , wickedly gorgeous … incredibly “costumed” shall we say?  Some of the modeling of the avatars were stunning (was that sweat glistening between that Vampiress’ um … (insert jargon here) … and most likely not toooooo representative of their real-world selves.  Lesson number one, Dwblue … most people are in Second Life seem to want to be “someone” else or “something” else.  No issues with that and perhaps I did rein in my love handles a bit after arriving (you can adjust your avatar pretty easily) … I mean, i DO plan to do some sit-ups soon!  The dudes were all pumped up … taller than Blake Ives and sporting “packages” that defied current genetic strains (yes, you get to pick “packag-i-ness” in your avatar set-up).  I may have inched up my height a little bit more  as well, feeling a little less than adequate …

Anyway, after learning to walk, communicate, fly, pick up objects and peek at people in a 360 degree view (a sweet function), I left Orientation Island for one of the many Help Islands, offering just a little more freedom.  I met a nice Vampiress (Unalee), a Bangles’ Susanna Hoff-look-alike, but more lace and less clothing (Kate) and after letting Unalee bite my neck (how could I resist her well-scripted posing, luring me to stop and say hello?), I had my first “intimate” experience with another resident of Second Life.  Ok, I just pretty much stood there, but she had scripted some really cool embrace/hug/bite neck routine which was visually … ummm, “impressive” shall we say?

Another ”visualy delightful” avatar (Amy) warned me that I had “just lost 5% of my humanity to UnaLee” and that I could just tell the Vampires “no”.  I told here I was here for research reasons and it was ok.  She said … well, if you keep getting bit, you’ll lose more humanity.  Hmmmm … more of my virtual humanity?  I could live with the 5% loss.  We chatted some more and I watched Amy and some of her girlfriends dance and gyrate to some cleverly scripted routines in a thumping outdoor dance area.

Needless to say I missed lunch … and 8 hours later when my wife told me I missed dinner too, I finally shut down Second Life for the night (did I mention that Second Life goes through daylight/night-time phases?)   I’ve lost the “newbie” clothes, but am still shopping for some cool “free” stuff to wear and add to my “inventory”.  Maybe I can swap them for something I want more later on.   I’m keeping in touch with my new friends (2 are from the US and one is from India), and I’m learning more from everyone I meet.

Is Second Life for real world companies to market in?  Probably not, but it’s real and it’s happening and this cat thinks it’s cool …

From the website:

1. Faulty Soviet early warning system nearly causes WWIII (1983)

It happened back in 1983, and was the direct result of a software bug in the Soviet early warning system. The Russians’ system told them that the US had launched five ballistic missiles.  However, the duty officer for the system, one Lt Col Stanislav Petrov, claims he had a “…funny feeling in my gut”, and reasoned if the US was really attacking they would launch more than five missiles. The trigger for the near apocalyptic disaster was traced to a fault in software that was supposed to filter out false missile detections caused by satellites picking up sunlight reflections off cloud-tops.

2. The AT&T network collapse (1990)

In 1990, 75 million phone calls across the US went unanswered after a single switch at one of AT&T’s 114 switching centers suffered a minor mechanical problem, which shut down the center.  When the center came back up soon afterwards, it sent a message to other centers, which in turn caused them to trip and shut down and reset.

The culprit turned out to be an error in a single line of code — not hackers, as some claimed at the time — that had been added during a complex software upgrade.

3. The explosion of the Ariane 5 (1996)

In 1996, Europe’s newest and unmanned satellite-launching rocket, the Ariane 5, was intentionally blown up just seconds after taking off on its maiden flight from Kourou, French Guiana.  The European Space Agency estimated that total development of Ariane 5 cost more than $8bn (£4bn).  On board Ariane 5 was a $500m (£240m) set of four scientific satellites created to study how the Earth’s magnetic field interacts with Solar Winds.

According to a piece in the New York Times Magazine, the self-destruction was triggered by software trying to stuff “a 64-bit number into a 16-bit space”.

4. Airbus A380 suffers from incompatible software issues (2006)

The Airbus issue of 2006 highlighted a problem many companies can have with software: what happens when one program doesn’t talk to the another.  In this case, the problem was caused by two halves of the same program, the CATIA software that is used to design and assemble one of the world’s largest aircraft, the Airbus A380.

Put simply, the German system used an out-of-date version of CATIA and the French system used the latest version.  So when Airbus was bringing together two halves of the aircraft, the different software meant that the wiring on one did not match the wiring in the other.  The cables could not meet up without being changed.

5. Mars Climate Observer metric problem

A problem occurred when a navigation error caused the lander to fly too low in the atmosphere and it was destroyed.

What caused the error? A sub-contractor on the NASA program had used imperial units (as used in the US), rather than the NASA-specified metric units (as used in Europe).

6. EDS and the Child Support Agency (2004)

Business services giant EDS waded in with this spectacular disaster, which assisted in the destruction of the Child Support Agency (CSA) and cost the taxpayer over a billion pounds.

EDS’s CS2 computer system somehow managed to overpay 1.9 million people and underpay around 700,000, partly because the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decided to reform the CSA at the same time as bringing in CS2.

7. The two-digit year-2000 problem (1999/2000)

That the predictions of doom came to naught is irrelevant, as we’re not talking about the disaster that was averted, but the original disastrous decision to use and keep using for longer than was either necessary or prudent double digits for the date field in computer programs.  A report by the House of Commons Library pegged the cost of fixing the bug at £400bn. And that is why the Millennium Bug deserves a place in the top 10.

8. When the laptops exploded (2006)

It all began simply, but certainly not quietly, when a laptop manufactured by Dell burst into flames at a trade show in Japan.  There had been rumors of laptops catching fire, but the difference here was that the Dell laptop managed to do it in the full glare of publicity and video captured it in full color.

It was an expensive issue for Dell to sort out. As a result of its investigation Dell decided that it would be prudent to recall and replace 4.1m laptop batteries.

9. Siemens and the passport system (1999)

It was the summer of 1999, and half a million British citizens were less than happy to discover that their new passports couldn’t be issued on time because the Passport Agency had brought in a new Siemens computer system without sufficiently testing it and training staff first.

10. LA Airport flights grounded (2007)

Some 17,000 planes were grounded at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this year because of a software problem.  The problem that hit systems at United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) agency was a simple one caused in a piece of lowly, inexpensive equipment.

If the hours spent in front of the computer were subtracting from television time, that might be good.  However, Mr. Bauerlein presents his facts to show otherwise:  TV viewing is constant.  The printed word has paid a price; from 1981 to 2003, the leisure reading of 15 to 17 year olds fell to seven minutes a day from 18.  The real home run was struck in the young peoples’ ability to multitask.  By 2003, children were cramming an average of 8 1/2 hours of media consumption a day into just 6 1/2 hours – watching TV while surfing the Web, reading while listening to music, composing text messages while watching  a movie or some of the previous activities. 

This daily media binge isn’t making students smarter. The National Assessment of Educational Progress has pegged 46% of 12th-graders below the “basic” level of proficiency in science, while only 2% are qualified as “advanced.” Likewise in the political arena: Participatory Web sites may give young people a “voice,” but their command of the facts is shaky. Forty-six percent of high-school seniors say it’s “ ’very important’ to be an active and informed citizen,” but only 26% are rated as proficient in civics. Between 1992 and 2005, the NAEP reported, 12th-grade reading skills dropped dramatically.  Conversation is affected, too and Mr. Bauerlein sums up part of the problem: “The verbal values of adulthood and adolescence clash, and to enter adult conditions, individuals must leave the verbal mores of high school behind. The screen blocks the ascent.”

What frustrates Mr. Bauerlein is not these deficits themselves – it’s the way a blind celebration of youth, and an ill-informed optimism about technology, have led the public to ignore them.  Mr. Bauerlein eulogizes New York’s City College in the mid-20th century, “a book-centered, debate-fostering place where a generation of intellectuals rejected the “sovereignty of youth” in favor of the concerted study of canonical texts and big ideas”.

I remember the case study where Encyclopaedia Brittanica did a similar thing … rejected the power of online knowledge in celebration of millions of printed words.  Those hallowed halls are a lot emptier now than if they had embraced the winds of change. 

Look, every generation is viewed by the preceding generation as being lazy, lost, anti-”establishment” … sometimes even dumber.  Yet somehow, every generation seems to have enough youth who make it to adulthood with enough ability to keep things moving forward and arguably towards a better state for the masses. 

I haven’t read the book and I probably won’t.  My gut feeling is Mr. Bauerlein is the same type of person who put up the sign that inspired The Five Man Electrical Band to write the lyrics, “and the sign said, long-haired freaky people need not apply”.  A portion of youth will always rebel against the status quo and there will always be a segment of the “older generation” that will look at the youth with disappointment, fear and/or worry.  Information technology isn’t the culprit any more than rock and roll or television was to the 60′s.  It’s just change.

Anyone with a Blackberry knows how this evolution occurs seemingly against your will.  Pretty soon, you learn to hold your beer with one hand while deftly solo-thumb-texting a reply while seemingly to pay attention to whomever is watching you across the table commit yourself further to your Blackberry communication needs.  *sigh*

So this weekend I went to the Blackberry “Owners Lounge” where I gave up a bunch of personal information (can’t wait to hear from whomever they sell THAT to!) and was admitted to some pretty interesting download areas (some free and some not so free).   Games, business applications and personal productivity, and communication.

Hmmm, lots of games, but they want me to buy them.  Of course, they give me a discount but I still gotta pay.  No thanks.  Well, maybe Suduko because it’s free and it’s better than Brickbreaker.  Looking under business applications, I chose “The Street” adverstising real-time market information.  I can view stock prices (with a 15 minute delay), and get some sponsored news information (Go Jim Cramer!).   The do offer market information (losers & winners, and analyst upgrades/downgrades).  Tried to get the NY Times but the server isn’t available.

Let’s look at something for me.  I’m an Aries and I’m all about me!  Personal productivity (looking at my dust-gathering Palm III device with Frankin Planner software in the corner) … um, personal productivity is good, right?  I was interested in improving my personal productivity enough to withstand over 2 hours of downloading and installing Handango with InHand, Viigo and Hockey News – all free applications.  Handango is still configuring itself, but Viigo has some cool links via AccuWeather to cities I frequent and some good information on things going on in Houston.  Hockey News is awesome … too bad I don’t follow hockey more closely.  Maybe I will now.

One thing I noticed is that to get more out of today’s devices (Blackberry vs. Palm III PDA) … one needs to invest a lot of time and probably some $$$ to really get what you want.  I saw some good apps in the $30-$40/year subscription range that look pretty cool.  I don’t feel like paying for them … not now.   Hope Handango finishes configuring before I go to bed.

That reminds me of an old joke about the difference between being involved and being committed concerning a breakfast of eggs and bacon. The chicken is involved, but the pig is committed!  I think I just got more committed to my Blackberry with these downloads … at least more connected!!

According to their website they say, “We’re a global community of thousands who sincerely believe in the power of technology to enrich people’s lives.  (I like the idea of that!)

We’re a public benefit organization dedicated not to making money but to improving the way people everywhere experience the Internet. (NOT dedicated to making money?  Now that sounds a little suspicious to me …)

…  the Internet is a public resource that must remain open and accessible to all … use a highly transparent, collaborative process that brings together thousands of dedicated volunteers and corporate contributors from around the world with a small staff of employees to coordinate the creation of products like the Firefox web browser. This process is supported by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiaries, especially the Mozilla Corporation.

Our community exists as a virtual Mozilla organization that is independent of employment status. Leadership in the Mozilla Project derives from respect: the more valuable your contribution, the greater your authority. We are a meritocracy, so even Mozilla Foundation employees must earn the respect of the community.

Mozilla’s technology and products belong to everyone. Not only are our products freely available, but our entire code base is a shared public resource. Many other projects use Mozilla technology as the foundation for their own products, both free and commercial.

In the end, the Mozilla community, organization and technology are all focused on a single goal: making the Internet better for everyone.  (How cool is that?)

These applications are developed by the Mozilla community and their code is hosted on mozilla.org.

• Bugzilla

  Bugzilla™ is a bug tracking system designed to help teams manage software development. Hundreds of organizations across the globe are using this powerful tool to get organized and communicate effectively.

• Camino

  Camino® is a Web browser optimized for Mac OS X with a Cocoa user interface, and powerful Gecko layout engine. It’s the simple, secure, and fast browser for Mac OS X.

• Firefox

  The award-winning Web browser is now faster, more secure, and fully customizable to your online life. With Firefox® 3, we’ve added powerful new features that make your online experience even better.

• SeaMonkey

  SeaMonkey® is the all-in-one application formerly known as the “Mozilla Application Suite”, containing a web browser, a mail and newsgroups client, an HTML editor, web development tools, and an IRC chat client.

• Sunbird and Lightning

  Sunbird® is a cross-platform application that brings Mozilla-style ease-of-use to your calendar. The Lightning extension adds a fully integrated calendar to Mozilla Thunderbird.

• Thunderbird

  Thunderbird™ is Mozilla’s next generation e-mail client. Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster and easier than ever before and can also scale to meet the most sophisticated organizational needs.

 So here then are a bunch of smart people, writing programs and improving products to make everyone’s Internet experience better … and they do it for FREE!  Check out the products and don’t mind letting this Internet Gorilla called Mozilla into your world!

I’m still amazed at how my cell phone knows where I am.   I know, I know, I only scored a ’24′ on the geek-o-meter scale, but I have actually managed to set up this blog and a wireless router at home. Come to think of it though, I never could set the time on the VCR (that’s ok, it’s obsolete technology now).

Anyway, back to my phone. I can fly from Houston to San Francisco and STILL call my wife or friends just as if I was in Houston.  I don’t have to dial long distance even though I’m thousands of miles away.  It KNOWS!  Well, “it” doesn’t know, but somehow, my phone “talks” over bits and bytes and keeps Verizon up to date where I am.  I’m amazed and the technology behind some of the things that seem so simple – like making a “local call” from San Francisco to Houston.

People carry with them enough technology to win over prehistoric cultures with just a flash of a Nano i-Pod!  I can talk to someone in “real time”, while carrying on a texting conversation with someone else (who may be far away), access work information via VPN connections, read emails and get web information from my phone and do all of this while listening to music (assuming the volume is low enough to manage that pesky “real time” conversation!).

The air is full of technology.  I think I’m glad I can’t see it, or I’d probably be dodging and ducking …

I had always thought that blogging was basically web-based complaining of sorts.  I clicked over to Wikipedia (Encyclopedia Brittanica’s definition of blog didn’t show up the first page search results on Google) and found this definition:

A blog (a contraction of the term “Web log“) is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts.

Wow, I thought I was going to complain about stuff, but it looks like I can do a lot more creative blogging.  I keep looking around outside though … it’s a really nice day.