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!

I never even thought about this … the TRS-80 alive!
I started my microprocessor programming on a TRS-80 Model-I … and I still have it around in the basement! I never even thought about the fact that (of course) someone was going to write an emulator for these old boxes. It only makes sense … if MAME can be created to emulate the old game machines, then it was just a matter of time until the old Z80 machines like the TRS-80 were emulated …

Catweasel to DMK 2.1 (Default). Use a Catweasel to copy any SD or DD floppy to TRS-80 emulator image format. [freshmeat.net]

Like Ricochet, is the future of MobileStar already known?
There are, IMHO, some serious flaws in the business models of the current wireless providers. This is becoming more and more evident as 3G roll outs are done, and not done. The costs of constantly upgrading the wireless infrastructure are extremely high, and without the ability to defray these costs, the ROI in a quickly evolving market and industry are just too high.

This quote actually demonstrates the flaws of their business model … one which is tracking closely to the same cellular model:

“But like 3G and other wireless technologies, Wi-Fi must find backers at a time when investors have little appetite for tech start-ups. Mr. Kaiser is trying to raise $30 million in new funding for MobileStar, which he says has enough cash to operate at current levels for four to five months.”

IMHO, MobileStar is already seeing the flaws that are also hitting those looking to deploy 3G wireless solutions as promised.

Elliot Spagat writes in great detail about MobileStar’s plans, and commentary on the rest of the industry, in today’s Wall Street Journal: unfortunately, the article is not publicly linkable, available only on their subscription site. A brief summary: MobileStar has received additional financing and hired a new CEO. Both WayPort and MobileStar are sitting on large cash stakes. MobileStar is now stating that roaming agreements would be premature in this nascent industry; this sounds more like a winner-take-all argument, and they are in the catbird’s seat with more active locations than any other national provider. MobileStar apparently has the contracts for JFK, San Francisco International, and O’Hare (Chicago) airports. A formal roll-out with advertising of the Starbucks network is planned for later this year.

[80211b News]

A good analysis of 3G …
This is yet another good article on the state of 3G wireless solutions. I too believe that this will become one of the many wireless solutions that people will be using with their wireless devices.

When I put on my wearable computer (or when it’s on me because I put my clothes on!) I know that I’ll be using several wireless technologies at the same time – 802.11b for high-speed/close range, Bluetooth for peer to peer/close range, and some sort of cellular for PSTN voice communications and low-speed data.

I still think that 3G will be too little, too late for real useful digital data communications …

Analysis of 3G cellular, Bluetooth, and 802.11b, dismissing hype and making a fair assessment of prospects

[80211b News]

Not quite a wearable …
This article indicates some of the “wearable” peripherals that are showing up. This one is a kit that adds a wearable half-keyboard and other “mounting” straps for wearing your Palm device. I’m not in agreement that this “competes with industrial PCs”, however it is demonstrating the “fashion” that is beginning to appear.

Palm Becomes Wearable. Kit competes with wearable industrial PCs [allNetDevices Wireless News]

Yeah … right … 3G is going to be the solution …
I have long said that 3G looks like it’ll be too little, too late. These companies are looking to invest billions of dollars to provide kilobits/sec of digital data access! What a joke. I have yet to hear a good story about how this is all going to happen in time. My belief is that the “parasitic networks”, like the 802.11b networks, will be here far sooner …

FCC Delays 3G Allocation Study. Will cause delay in U.S. spectrum auction [allNetDevices Wireless News]

Bluetooth confusion continues …
I met with the President and CEO of a Bluetooth development company the other day. I was really impressed at his perspective, and our agreement, of the potential of the Bluetooth market. It’s funny how so many people see the “conflict” between Bluetooth and 802.11b … and yet this executive doesn’t see any!
Bluetooth is a very cool wireless solution for certain applications. Most people don’t understand the various bandwidth limitations, and understand the Bluetooth profiles that have been defined. I’m impressed that Bluetooth is getting closer, and looks like a great solution for ad-hoc networks. I’m going to do more investigation at Comdex … I want to understand the costs and capabilities. I have also found that the SDKs and developer tools are very thin at this point … I really can’t write the Bluetooth applications that I want to yet … 😉

Survey: IT Managers Want Bluetooth. But often confuse it with WLANs [allNetDevices Wireless News]

Another interesting computer being proposed and built in India …
I really like this one for a couple of reasons:
1. This is being developed in India! I am a huge fan of India, and the potential of this country to evolve into a dominant world force.
2. This is running Linux … not a crippled partial operating system, but a full blown PC operating system.

India to Compute on the Cheap. In a country of nearly 1 billion people, there are only about 2 million PCs. This could change with the ‘Simputer,’ a Net-accessible computer that could cost about $200. Swaroopa Iyengar reports from India. [Wired News]

More early experiments of Mirror Worlds …
For those of you who have not read the book Mirror Worlds by David Gelernter, this description by Dan Gillmor starts to fit the bill. Gelernter writes about software systems which allow the real-time observation of almost anything on earth, anywhere, at anytime. And the ability to zoom into business and personal processes that are automated to see what is really going on from the macro-scale to the micro-scale. I agree completely with Gelernters basic premise that this type of software is inevitable … and I can see many ways that it is starting to appear …

Dan Gillmor: “Imagine, for example, that you’re looking at a map of major Bay Area highways. The map is embedded in a PC spreadsheet or Web browser. Every 30 seconds, it updates the average traffic speeds noted by road sensors at various locations along those highways. I saw such a map earlier this week in Mountain View, at the offices of KnowNow.” [Scripting News]

Some perspectives on Xybernaut and Wearable Computers …
I wrote this on the Xybernaut thread on SiliconInvestor … a stock and market discussion board. I figured that I would post it here also …

Hello Truthseeker,

> Is this crap paid for? i only ask because xybr has been
> recommended by fraudulent analysts in the past such as
> Donner Corp and Access1Financial/Mark Bergman.

I have no way to speak for anyone but myself … so I can not answer your question about this press release.

I *am* (and have been for quite some time) an advocate of the wearable computer marketplace. I do a lot of research into leading edge trends, and use evolutionary theory to create frameworks for predicting future trends.

I am not sure who the companies are going to be, but I can see that there are some very powerful indications (to me) that wearable computers will become a very fundamental part of being human … in the core industrial and technological communities of the world.

Some of these indications are:

1. Communications, and the devices that facilitate communications, are a fundamental part of an efficient organization of any kind.

2. The ability to effectively organize, communicate, and share information within an organization is directly related to the effectiveness of that organization. This includes effectively “staying in communications” within the organization – hence pagers, cell phones, and demand for “always on” wireless connectivity.

3. Practices, methods, and devices which enhance and extend the human beings ability to organize, communicate, and share information are coming into higher and higher demand … for obvious reasons. These are what transform a human being into what I call a “Humaneural” element within an organization.

4. Devices which can enhance and extend our human capabilities, adding to our abilities to “sense” the world around us, to “remember” more information for future use, and to “augment” our perspective of the world around us are increasingly becoming integral in our daily life experience. The lines between where we end, and these devices end, are going to blur more and more in the coming years. (e.g. think about pacemakers, hearing aids, contact lenses, and now cell phones, and PDAs)

5. Our ability to create more and more powerful computers, in smaller and smaller form factors is nearly limitless … and is only a matter of time.

6. Microsoft, even with all of the criticism, is not going away any time soon. The demands for their products, and their evolutionary process of creation, will only continue until something massively disrupts or shifts the market.

7. Any company, IMHO, creating hardware products which will bring Microsoft software platforms, and Linux software platforms, closer to being tightly integrated into the human experience is on the right track. This includes the core compute platform, along with the peripherals which integrate with the human senses – eyes, ears, mouth, etc.

I believe that over the next 5-10 years we are going to witness some incredible evolution of what it is to be human. We are going to see people who will become more and more dependant on “new” senses which result from a net-connected world.

In the business/organizational world, this means more effective and immediate access to information to react to market conditions, and deliver to customer/employee demands. In the personal world, this means being in communication with the important communities and organizations in ones life on a full time basis … being available to those communities, and having those communities be available … on demand.

I believe that Xybernaut is on the right track when I compare their vision of the future to the PDA and cell phone visions. I can not promise that they will, as a organization, transform from an innovative company to a dominant force in the industry … but I believe that they are heading in the right direction …

This is probably more than you were looking for … but I felt like rambling … 😉

Scott C. Lemon