Author Archives: Scott C. Lemon

About Scott C. Lemon

I'm a techno futurist, interested in all aspects of humanity, sociology, community, identity, and technology. While we are all approaching the Singularity, I'm just having fun effecting the outcomes of the future!

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The “last wire” … wireless power! (Almost!)
I have to admit that in this world of wireless communciations, it’s great to go visit companies that are using 802.11b networks. There is no longer the need to search for Ethernet jacks, and to have a mess of cables spread across the conference room table. I plug in my wireless card, might have to get some settings from them, and I’m on the net and running.

There is still the issue of power. What I am finding now is that people are looking for outlets to plug in their laptops for power. And so the tangle of power cords is still the “last wire” that will be dealt with. There are the fancy conference room tables that have outlets in the center, and then even some that have outlets for each seating position … or outlets on the floor or the walls around the table. All of this represents one of the last “pains” of mobile computing … power.

I am impressed that this company – MobileWise – has picked this as a new solution space. They are creating a pad that can provide power to devices that are placed on it. The pad could be placed on a desk or table, or possibly built into furniture, so that power can be delivered conveniently … and without cords.

I suspect that this is going to be a very successful company if they are able to execute on their plans. Powering and recharging all of the mobile devices that we are going to have is an important market.

One last thought … what about wearable computers? I just realized that I might want to chat with this company about how I’ll recharge my wearable by having a pad embedded in a chair that I’ll sit on. The conductive component of my wearable would then be built into the seat of my pants! So when I require a recharge, I’ll just head to an Internet Cafe to connect wirelessly to the Internet … and then “sit around” on a MobileWise chair to recharge my batteries!

‘Wire-free’ electricity juices mobile devices. MobileWise has unveiled a pad with a conductive surface that can power computing devices placed on top of it. The technology is due out early next year. [Computerworld Mobile/Wireless News]

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Seven weeks of development …
I continue to be amazed by the rapid evolutionary development of my son. Over this week, I realized that the awareness of the world is increasing. He is smiling and laughing … giggling … and starting to use his hands more and more. His legs are gaining strength and he just seems to be getting bigger and bigger. His sleep cycle is getting longer, and we’re seeing sometimes 4+ hours of sleep at a time. It’s a blast …

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RSS – Expanding the world of publish/subscribe …
I love to see articles like the one below. It shows the growing trend for publishers to utilize formats like RSS to increase the effectiveness and useability of their content. In my opinion, this is only going to increase due to the readers beginning to learn the value of the various “news aggregator” software that is available. At Vultus we are working on a variety of applications that allow a user to monitor RSS feeds for news. We deployed a simple one that monitors Slashdot on our demo web site – scroll down and look at SlashMon.

I am in the midst of putting together a presentatiuon for more of these publications that outlines the true value of RSS as a publish/subscribe mechanism. As publications learn that they can have RSS feeds for their headlines, for specific topic areas, and for individual writers, they will see that they are then providing a more customizable resource that will attract – and keep – readers interested. There are numerous sites that offer RSS feeds … but few of them offer the diversity of feeds necessary to really get things rolling. But it is coming.

All of this relates to a new generation, or classification, of software that I call HumaNueral. When software automates a process that allows a human to operate in a neural fashion … that is HumaNeural. Two core software technologies are combining to provide this solution – news aggregators and blogging.

News Aggregators – tapping into RSS feeds – allow me to receive news articles or blog posts – “signals” – from a wide range of sources. Reading all of this content allows me to then synthesize my own ideas and memes and then write my own “news” to my various blog channels. Blogging is the means by which I generate my outbound RSS feeds that others can tap into. I subscribe to the “meme streams” that I choose to monitor, and then generate my own outbound “meme streams” …

Collaborative software that is architected around this HumaNeural architecture – a form of biomimicry – is one of my core fields of interest for the last several years. More announcements like this indicate it is coming!

Computerworld has ten new RSS feeds. If you’re a Radio user, be sure to get the nifty RSS Explorer tool, and then click here to choose the Computerworld feeds you’d like to subscribe to. It’s a pretty nerdy pub, but they can probably tell you what IBM is up to and Unix and wireless stuff, and Microsoft. [Scripting News]

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Internet Access Everywhere …
I have to get into the blogging mode again. It’s been so long that I’ writing about things after the fact … instead of during the events. In this case, it’s funny to write about last weekend … especially when I was staying in a remote southern Utah town where I was able to get Internet Access!

I went to Hankville, UT with some friends for a “Fusion Weekend” of hiking, scientific discussions, and general life reflection. It was a blast. We stayed at the Wispering Sands Motel, and the manager is also the ISP for the town of Hanksville. He has installed a 56kbps Frame-Relay link into the Qwest cloud … connected to XMission here in Salt Lake City. If you are curious about why we all went to Hanksville, you’ll have to go visit the Fusion Weekend link above … it’s where to stay if you want to explore Goblin Valley and some of the incredible Utah slot canyons.

Don, the manager, was so cool that he let me put my mobile 802.11b Access Point in the lobby of the motel and we were all able to get wireless Internet in our rooms. This really got me thinking about just how connected we are becoming. I’m going to be talking more with Don about our http://80211.net project … he might be assisting us with more locations in the south.

Lastly … our weekend trip was a fun family adventure. With the birth of my son Sam our truck had become quite crowded. In order to provide more space for luggage and the possibility of road trips, I picked up a camper shell for my truck so that the bed is now fully enclosed. It worked great. We did the drive and started to get the process of driving with a baby worked out. All of this is in preparation of our trip to Seattle for Thanksgiving. It’s going to be a fun trip!

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International Symposium on Wearable Computers
After wanting to attend this conference for several years now, the planets aligned. The conference was in Seattle, and I was able to break away and go! I have to admit that ISWC 2002 was smaller than I would have anticipated in size and attendance, but well worth the price and time in the content and what I was able to learn.

The conference started with some tutorials and I chose to attend one on power issues with wearables, and the state of power solutions. It was a good talk, and I was able to get some insight into where research is going. One thing that I started to realize is that, IMHO, battery technology evolution is being underestimated.

The next three days consisted of papers that were presented. Each paper was given 30 minutes, and they had breaks every hour and a half. It was great … hearing everything from work on the International Space Station (Yes, they are using 802.11b wireless on ther space station!), to location-based services and map rendering, to the various software that is being developed to create augmented and mediated reality. I’ll talk more about this in future posts.

Overall, it was a blast. I can’t wait for next year … I’ll be there in a very different capacity … 😉

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Mestizo Gallery reopens as Angles Deli and Cafe!
After the Olympics were over, the Mestizo Gallery went through serveral transitions … and as of several months ago, it has reopened as Angles Deli and Cafe! You can visit their web site to read about the events and see their menu.

There is more space for meetings and gatherings, along with more Ethernet jacks for laptops. Currently, there is a single PC that can be used by customers and, of course, there is 802.11b wireless also! Come in, cruise the net, check your mail, and have a coffee!

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The Birth of Samuel Curtis Lemon …
I’ve put together some pictures of my son’s birth. And also of the my parents first visit to see him. Samuel is named after my father and grandfather as a tribute to who they are in the world for me. One thing that I truly recognize is how my father has been committed to me all of my life, and how my grandfather was committed to him. Sam’s middle name is my middle name … so I do get a little bit of a link through his name.

Now I get to be committed to generating him in the world … and I look forward to the adventure!

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Time gaps …
It’s funny how I have slipped from blogging from time to time. It seems that life just picks up and gets going at a pace that I just can’t keep up. Looking at my last post, I just can’t believe that it’s been that long. I’ve been keeping very busy the last several months … and of course that means that huge shifts have occurred.

I can’t believe it, but I just celebrated my one year wedding anniversary! Even with my wife Tracy being very pregnant, we had a great time close to home. We celebrated it in Salt Lake City … and talked about planning the next one to be somewhere very different. This special day was barely four weeks before the anticipated due date of our baby …

On the due date of our baby … the baby chose to arrive! Well … almost. He was actually born at 2:19am on the 13th of September … just hours into the next day. The last five+ weeks of my life have been amazing … what an experience. I just created a new category to post about my son – Samuel Curtis Lemon – and keep track of some of the amazing transformations that occur with him each day.

Anyhow … I am looking forward to getting back into the blogging … I’m starting to really have some fun with things …

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Personal, peer to peer devices …
I really like this article … it starts to really look at the next-generation applications that we are going to be seeing soon. I have a different opinion on the platform that this will occur with, but the concepts at the same. The power of the systems that we are carrying with us is extreme … and with low-cost wireless appearing all over the place it is only a matter of time before the various applications begin to appear. One of my core interests is the “Mobile Ad-hoc Networks” that are coming …

Inter-Personal Awareness Devices [Nooface: In Search of the Post-PC Interface]

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Location based information … information on how to get … information!
I really think this is a great idea for a cool web service! These guys have written a really cool application that consumes a FCC database and let’s you know what radio and TV stations are in your area. Very cool! If converted to a web service then anywhere in the United States that you might find your self, you would be able to detect what stations are around. This would be great coupled with a GPS and a wearable computer … and if the wearable had a radio/TV tuner peripheral …

Station Location and Information 1.0. Search and display AM, FM, and TV station information. [freshmeat.net]