Beartooth

Speaking of VHF/UHF radios that work with your smartphone http:https://t.co/rjRiD8lHqT

— BobW (@K0NR) December 4, 2015

Along the lines of the goTenna... the Beartooth:

"Beartooth is a software defined radio peer to peer communication platform that encases your phone and doubles your battery life. Our proprietary software defined radio allows your smartphone to communicate even without cellular or wifi service. We allow for Push to Talk "PTT" voice communication, text messaging, and geolocation sharing on our offline maps."

And:

"Our product will require FCC approval. We are currently working with attorneys and technical advisors who specialize in FCC approval. Our products are designed to meet the technical and legal requirements of the FCC, and we anticipate a favorable part outcome."

The audio on this video is spotty and you still only get high level info, but they do mentions amateur radio as a target market (along with consumers.)

Li-Fi

So, I'm gonna have chips for bluetooth, wi-fi, NFC, and Li-Fi in my devices?

"So, will Li-Fi be a competitor to Wi-Fi in the future? 

I highly doubt they will be competing technologies and will most likely be complementary if anything. For instance, you could have a situation where you have Li-Fi overlaid on top of a Wi-Fi network in high density environments such as a conference hall. The Li-Fi can support the dense number of users and wouldn’t interfere with the Wi-Fi network. In terms of home uses, it is unlikely to become commonplace as you would need to have an Ethernet connection to each light and the lights must remain on for communications. Most home users like the ability to use the internet in the dark and that is not possible with Li-Fi."

Li-Fi
1 kbps (infrared light)
1 Gbps (visible light)
224 Gbps theoretical

Wi-Fi
1.3 Gbps (802.11ac, 3 spatial streams, 80 MHz channel, SGI)
10 Gbps theoretical
(802.11ax research in 5 GHz band)

Vizio TV Watches You

I know there is a "in Soviet Russia" joke in here, but I hate to hear that the Vizio TVs are tracking me:

"Vizio's technology works by analyzing snippets of the shows you're watching, whether on traditional television or streaming Internet services such as Netflix. Vizio determines the date, time, channel of programs — as well as whether you watched them live or recorded. The viewing patterns are then connected your IP address - the Internet address that can be used to identify every device in a home, from your TV to a phone."

Other than that, I really like my Vizio (M55-C2) 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart TV.  Maybe it is too smart.

D&D in VR

There is now an app where you can play Dungeons & Dragons in VR. https://t.co/G5Z97GZ6Er pic.twitter.com/fYdL09mkFx

— Peter Rojas (@peterrojas) November 16, 2015

Do I feel lucky?

Well, do ya, punk?

Command line Russian roulette. pic.twitter.com/qk09i8O1LY

— John Fitzpatrick (@j_c_fitz) November 6, 2015

OneDrive Changes

So unlimited space didn't last long with OneDrive...

"Since we started to roll out unlimited cloud storage to Office 365 consumer subscribers, a small number of users backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings. In some instances, this exceeded 75 TB per user or 14,000 times the average. Instead of focusing on extreme backup scenarios, we want to remain focused on delivering high-value productivity and collaboration experiences that benefit the majority of OneDrive users.
Here are the changes:

• We’re no longer planning to offer unlimited storage to Office 365 Home, Personal, or University subscribers. Starting now, those subscriptions will include 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
• 100 GB and 200 GB paid plans are going away as an option for new users and will be replaced with a 50 GB plan for $1.99 per month in early 2016.
• Free OneDrive storage will decrease from 15 GB to 5 GB for all users, current and new. The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will also be discontinued. These changes will start rolling out in early 2016."

Cheaper Tech Except...

The trend is for tech to get cheaper over time... with the exception of your cable bill.

I've been thinking about cutting the cable cord and going a la carte - $40 gets me lots of channels including ESPN(s), SEC Network, and HBO.  I should probably pick up an ARRIS SURFboard SB6183 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem and quit renting, too.

Technology Good for Jobs

So we aren't all going to be replaced by robots...

"Their conclusion is unremittingly cheerful: rather than destroying jobs, technology has been a “great job-creating machine”. Findings by Deloitte such as a fourfold rise in bar staff since the 1950s or a surge in the number of hairdressers this century suggest to the authors that technology has increased spending power, therefore creating new demand and new jobs.

In the case of Ashley Madison, robots are just supplementing the number of women.

Inflation

In about 7 months average web page size will be same as Doom install image. Well done us! Onwards & upwards! pic.twitter.com/xtSAtZjPGl

— ronan cremin (@xbs) July 30, 2015

The Danger of the IoT

Got to be careful with that IoT.

 

Paper

What?

NPR just called paper "the iPad of its day." pic.twitter.com/r6e96mOE6H

— Squarely Rooted (@squarelyrooted) May 26, 2015

Via David Burge / @iowahackblog

Tesla Energy

I'm pretty excited about Tesla Energy - not so much for the product itself, but for what I think it represents.  I hope there is a coming wave of battery technology that will have performance improvements and cost reductions.

Cycle

What is old is new.

The evolution of the mobile phone since 1990, via: @itredux pic.twitter.com/dSQtH8x8uy

— evernote (@evernote) May 1, 2015

NoteSlate Pre-orders

Pre-order for $199... shipping in September for Collector's Edition and October for the standard version.

Celebrate #EarthDay with #Noteslate SHIRO. Pre-order starts now at http://t.co/YRXG98xstr #handwriting #SlateWasBorn pic.twitter.com/oabe9DqHDl

— NoteSlate (@noteslate) April 22, 2015

Docker and Windows

I'd been looking at Docker and saw this Slashdot post about a Windows container technology. As I was reading the comments, it made me think of how we used to setup a new Windows 3.1 machine. Basically, we got the machine on the network (with a PE3 if we had to problems!) and copied all the folders down. Change a few config/ini files and it was ready to go. Looks like I wasn't the only one thinking this way.

Jellomizer says in this comment:

"The is to solve the problem is simple. Keep the apps self contained. No shared libraries or dll. To move the package you just move the directory containing the app to an other location. Some will say that is how Macs do it. But I would go further and say that is how it was done in DOS. 

The shared library is an out of date concept, while sounds good when storage was expensive, today we are virtualizing full platforms just to prevent version incomparably.
What may be a little bonus is to give application/process level networking settings so you can just virtual network your app from the OS"

No More Cert Renewals

What a great way to save some money!

How not to deal with an expired SSL Certificate http://t.co/h5U9qWm8PT pic.twitter.com/FehGNvQsF8
— SERVERTASTIC (@servertastic) April 9, 2015

Bunnie Related Tweets

Nothing to do with Easter...

Check out my article in @IEEESpectrum The Death of Moore's Law Will Spur Innovation http://t.co/ZOHYZi0mS9 #OSH4ever #MooreAt50
— bunnie (@bunniestudios) April 1, 2015

"For example, throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium, programmers were encouraged to abandon hand-optimized assembly language in favor of cramming in more features using ever higher-level languages. Snappy performance, if it wasn’t there on release day, would come soon enough with the next generation of CPUs."

chumby was a former project of Bunnie's. I have a chumby One and used it for awhile, but it was never the smart desk clock on steroids that I thought it would be.

C3 prototypes pic.twitter.com/UPd3tZZnxP
— chumby (@chumby) April 1, 2015

USB Type C

The new Macbook has a Type C USB connector.

"USB-C port with support for:
Charging
USB 3.1 Gen 1 (up to 5 Gbps)
Native DisplayPort 1.2 video output
VGA output using USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter (sold separately)
HDMI video output using USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter (sold separately)"

I wonder if the Lightning connector will be replaced.

IoT: Neo Smart Jar

So there was the crockpot and now there are smart jars. I don't see them getting much traction at $99 for a pair.

Via The Blaze.

There's An App

...for that.

My trash company is urging me to download their app. I have to draw the line somewhere, and this is where it is.
— Michael Arrington (@arrington) March 6, 2015