"You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf"– Jon Kabat-Zinn
New video from the BBC with a tour in Microsoft’s house of the future:
Microsoft invited BBC News to take a first look at its revamped Space of the Future at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The facility is used to portray what the firm thinks life might be like five to 10 years in the future
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You’ve probably seen them dozens of times, the Common Craft videos explaining an “IT Solution” or other overly complex thing in a very easy way … I am not sure but I think Common Craft was one of the first in making these type of videos and quite succesfull with it.
Now they have made their video library avialable with all videos unbranded. You can easily find the video your need :
Now more than ever, we see our membership service and video library as a utility, something professionals use to do their jobs more effectively. And we’re always looking for ways to improve that experience. That’s why, based on member feedback, we’ve made changes to nearly every video in the library.
What Changed?
Common Craft videos are now “unbranded”, meaning that they no longer display Common Craft logos, titles, or the tagline “Explained by Common Craft” in the videos, aside from a small copyright endnote.
Why?
Our videos are used in classrooms, on organization websites and inside companies. In these situations, the content is what matters – the explanations. By removing the branding, we can provide videos that focus more tightly on the educational content and the needs of our members.
Een inspirerende TEDtalk van Jane McGonigal, een game designer. Zij stelt dat games zoals World of Warcraft geven de speler de middelen werelden te redden en de drijfveer om de gewoontes van helden te leren. Maar wat als we deze kracht van gamers konden gebruiken om echte problemen op te lossen?
Gartner Group neemt de ideeën van o.a. Jane McGonigal nog een stapje verder en lanceert het idee dat we moeten stoppen met het "IT game" en dat het hoog tijd wordt voor "The Technology game" :
The IT game is a stalemate, time to define a new Technology Game CIOs and IT leaders are masters of the IT game. Executives play the IT game so long as it was the only game in town and it suited their needs. If you want to control IT cost, quality, services, enablement and control, then you are playing an IT game that worked for more than 30 years. But the IT game is not a classic game like Monopoly or Clue. It cannot pass the test of time.
•It is time to change the IT game.
•It is time to define a new game.
•It is time to define a Technology game.
The current IT game is a stalemate characterized by flat budgets, fights over shadow IT, concerns over control all based on a zero sum assumption that business wins require IT to lose. Consider the growth of business-initiated technologies, shadow IT, and consumerization. All represent alternative games to the IT status quo. Right now those activities and actions indicate demand for a new game. So perhaps it is up to the CIO to give them exactly that a new game.This post outlines some thoughts on the shape of the technology game and your comments are welcome and necessary to define the future.
Bron : Gartner.com
Kevin Slavin argues that we’re living in a world designed for — and increasingly controlled by — algorithms. In this riveting talk from TEDGlobal, he shows how these complex computer programs determine: espionage tactics, stock prices, movie scripts, and architecture. And he warns that we are writing code we can’t understand, with implications we can’t control.
Source: TED.com
Conceived, designed and engineered entirely by Microsoft employees, and building on the company’s 30-year history manufacturing hardware, Surface represents a unique vision for the seamless expression of entertainment and creativity. Extensive investment in industrial design and real user experience includes the following highlights:
Software takes center stage: Surface sports a full-sized USB port and a 16:9 aspect ratio – the industry standard for HD. It has edges angled at 22 degrees, a natural position for the PC at rest or in active use, letting the hardware fade into the background and the software stand out.
VaporMg: The casing of Surface is created using a unique approach called VaporMg (pronounced Vapor-Mag), a combination of material selection and process to mold metal and deposit particles that creates a finish akin to a luxury watch. Starting with magnesium, parts can be molded as thin as .65 mm, thinner than the typical credit card, to create a product that is thin, light and rigid/strong.
Integrated Kickstand: The unique VaporMg approach also enables a built-in kickstand that lets you transition Surface from active use to passive consumption – watching a movie or even using the HD front- or rear-facing video cameras. The kickstand is there when needed, and disappears when not in use, with no extra weight or thickness.
Touch Cover: The 3 mm Touch Cover represents a step forward in human-computer interface. Using a unique pressure-sensitive technology, Touch Cover senses keystrokes as gestures, enabling you to touch type significantly faster than with an on-screen keyboard. It will be available in a selection of vibrant colors. Touch Cover clicks into Surface via a built-in magnetic connector, forming a natural spine like you find on a book, and works as a protective cover. You can also click in a 5 mm-thin Type Cover that adds moving keys for a more traditional typing feel.
MOre info :
– Microsoft Announces Surface: New Family of PCs for Windows
I use the Microsoft Future Vision videos quite a lot in presentations and over the years Microsoft has produced a number of them. They are always very well received as they paint not only a futuristic, but in many cases also a realistic picture of how we work and play in the future. I can’t wait
A large number of Future Vision (and related) videos are now on Youtube so I put them in a list for you :
TED is a super resource to hear, see and experience the vision of tomorrow.
Check out this TED Talk : Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry: Unveiling the "Sixth Sense," game-changing wearable tech
The technology is just commodity stuff and this could be build at the price of a normal smartphone.You can do stuff like simply project a dialpad on your hand and start dialling a phone number .. awesome !
This puts mobile computing in a totally new perspective …
Very cool video about the history of the Internet :
History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.
Very cool stuff. Even your breakdancing skills will come in handy …
Oblong Industries is the developer of the g-speak spatial operating environment.
The SOE’s combination of gestural i/o, recombinant networking, and real-world pixels brings the first major step in computer interface since 1984; starting today, g-speak will fundamentally change the way people use machines at work, in the living room, in conference rooms, in vehicles. The g-speak platform is a complete application development and execution environment that redresses the dire constriction of human intent imposed by traditional GUIs. Its idiom of spatial immediacy and information responsive to real-world geometry enables a necessary new kind of work: data-intensive, embodied, real-time, predicated on universal human expertise.
Source: http://oblong.com/
This is a very cool site, developed by Sprint. It is sort of the ultimate widgets combined providing a realtime view on what’s happening : NOW …
Kudos to Ben 😉