An Introduction

This is the first posting of this new blog. I do write and post items to another blog that is more music oriented, titled the Western Front, which is attached to my Feast of Noise site (http://www.feastofnoise.com/), which largely focuses on rock and alternative music in and around NYC.

This one, however, will be in my Linkedin account and will focus on technology trends and new technology. In short items that intrigue me and make me pause in the course of the day. As I am often not sure what else to do with this information I figure I can at least post them here and share them.

For those who have interest, they can pursue these items further, perhaps drop me a note, or at least like myself say to themselves that it is interesting. I figure, you never know, someone might respond to my postings with an idea on how or what should follow. I figure the least I can do is at least share them.

With that, below are three items I have seen in the last few weeks that have caught my attention and which have propelled me to finally set this up:

1. In Electrical Engineering a team at HP Labs has developed a "memory resistor" or memristor. A memristor is a fourth type of electrical circuit. Up until now there were basically three categories - the capacitor, resistor and the inductor. All of the circuitry we use entails those three basic circuits. When you consider what we have done with those three, to add a fourth sounds very promising!

What really caught my attention, however, is what this device does. The original article explains that the "resistance of the devices at any point in time is a function of history of the device –- or how much charge went through it either forwards or backwards." In short it is a resistor with a memory.

The two projects that the article point to for the device is non-volatile random access memory (RAM), and simulation of a human brain or neuronal computing. Time will tell if these happen. HP Labs is doing the research so I could certainly see the possibiity of a computer where if you have a power failure, you reboot, and whatever was in RAM- all of it - is still there.

When I read this article, however, I instantly went back to Kurt Godel and Douglas Hofstadter. and the issue of self-reference. I guess that is what memory is all about and likewise a memristor might have some element of that.

For the full article, check out http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/04/scientists-prov/#ixzz0ikleoZP5

2. The second item that caught my attention was a new electronic futures exchange that Cantor Fitzgerald is going open in April, and with it a new asset class - Movies. The new market will allow investors to buy futures for new movies coming out. In short any and all will be able to bet on the box office draw of a movie. If you think you know a movie that will be the next Big Fat Greek Wedding or the next bomb, this will be the place to place your bets and see if you were right. So much for mortgage backed securities.

For more details check out http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61L4XB20100222

3. The last item I just saw in the last day or two - that Google, Intel, and Sony have teamed up to develop a box for on top of your TV, or next to your TV in the age of flat screens, that will facilitate access to the web. Basically the product will allow you access to all the video content on the web, plus any and all other sites, all of which would now be available in your living room.

Apple several weeks ago was also reported to be exploring this nexus of web and television. Of course today, the big one that I believe is having some success is Hulu, which stream television content on the web. Hulu, however, is over on the other side of this Nexus. They are bringing TV to the web. With this Google, Intel, and Sony partnership, they are working on the other end, bringing the content from the web over back into your TV.

All of those threads along with the recent acquisition of NBC by Comcast is just the beginning of how these two mediums, the web and television, will being fighting it out over how we get our news, and entertainment.

For the details on this you can go to http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/technology/18webtv.html

Hopefully I continue and add items of interest, and even better perhaps go the next step and do something with them! No doubt not every posting will focus on new technology or trends. I do hope that I might sit down and write some commentary on these. We shall see.