What happens when Google competes with Facebook?

Google Me - a rumored social networking project by Google - looks like it is actually in the works:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/29/google-me-facebook/

Clearly Google sees the benefit of social networking integrated with its already wide variety of internet-based holdings, and I think I do too.  Although it's obviously going to take a while before it reaches the widespread popularity and universiality that Facebook has already achieved, Google Me has the already expansive Google network at its back.  Users of Gmail and Blogger will likely become the first participants, and with YouTube now owned by Google, there is a huge potential market of users and viewers.  Personally, I can't wait.

KarlLHughes.com gets a make-over

Well, I'm still having some trouble viewing my website with my version of Internet Explorer (it's the darn transparent tables), but it appears to be working great in Firefox.  I think the load time is a little high (probably need to lower my image quality on some of the pages), and I think I need a new Javascript slideshow for the main page to speed the load time.

It's still got some work, but I think it looks a lot better than that crappy template I had up before.  Check it out, and please send me your feedback so I can work on improving it, thanks!

www.KarlLHughes.com

Navigating the "Smart Grid" for Dummies

If you know how the power grid works in most countries and areas inside of our country, you know that we rely on a very archaic system that has remained largely unchanged from the power grid envisioned by Nikola Tesla over 100 years ago, but the emergence of faster data transfer (ie: the internet) has led to some exciting new possibilities in saving energy intelligently.  So what does this new "smart" system do?

"A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital technology to control appliances at consumers' homes to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency. It overlays the electricity distribution grid with an information and net metering system.
Such a modernized electricity network is being promoted by many governments as a way of addressing energy independence, global warming and emergency resilience issues. Smart meters may be part of a smart grid, but alone do not constitute a smart grid.
A smart grid includes an intelligent monitoring system that keeps track of all electricity flowing in the system. It also incorporates the use of superconductive transmission lines for less power loss, as well as the capability of integrating renewable electricity such as solar and wind. When power is least expensive the user can allow the smart grid to turn on selected home appliances such as washing machines or factory processes that can run at arbitrary hours. At peak times it could turn off selected appliances to reduce demand." - Wikipedia

If you know anything about "green" or "alternative" engergy, you probably know that there's just not enough of it to supply our current (and growing) energy needs.  Sure, there are a few places in the world where wind or solar or geothermal energy can feed the area's energy needs, but by and large, this is not true, especially as China's energy use per capita nearly doubled between 1990 and 2005, and although I have yet to find data to back this up, I am guessing it is continuing to rise, and likely at a faster rate.

This being said, I don't think that we will cut our dependence on fossil fuels anytime soon, but the use of efficient energy use and delivery systems can be part of the road that gets us closer to that goal.

Cyberspace Declared a "National Asset"

Ok, so it hasn't passed yet, but Ol' Joe Lieberman has brought a bill up in the Senate that gives the government the ability to effectively turn off or alter the internet in the case of a national emergency. 

http://gizmodo.com/5567094/new-bill-would-give-the-president-an-internet-kill-switch

No part of that sounds good to me.  I can't really think of a situation where the internet would need to be turned off by my government.  I'm okay with government regulations involving public safety, but this is too far for my tastes.

Another interesting page I found recently on google shows how many site removal requests have been submitted by each country.  The US ranks 4th (China is not included though). 

http://www.google.com/governmentrequests/

Maybe these were just requests to remove terrible things (ie: child pornography, "snuff" films, etc.), but who draws the line?  I guess that's always the trouble with increasing regulation though; at some point, "regulation" becomes "paternalism" which eventually becomes "totalitarianism".  Give Orwell's 1984 a read sometime before the next election, and think about it.

And before you blame it all on the Democrats, read up on the USA PATRIOT Act sometime.

Electric Cars, anyone?

Check out this article from Gizmodo about early attempts by Thomas Edison and Henry Ford to produce and market electric cars.

I find it interesting that the problem they had nearly 100 years ago is the same problem we are seeing today: batteries.  I know the debate over switching to electric cars has pros and cons, and being that I don't know much about how electric car batteries work, this whole thing is arguable, but it's interesting that we still haven't been able to get the power to weight/size ratio down.  Hopefully soon, because I like the idea of driving a smooth, quiet, efficient car, even if it was charged off a fossil fuel source that is actually less efficient than an internal combustion engine.

Money for nothin' and energy for free?

First, I will apologize for the hiatus I've taken from posting.  I try to write something at least once a week, but I've been heavily involved in re-vamping my website in addition to my two jobs and numerical analysis class, so I'll play catch up tonight.

In the wake of the BP spill that is dominating at least 90% of CNN's programming every day, I feel like this disaster is worth another post from a slightly different approach.  I'd like to play the blame game along with all the other pundits, politicians, and professionals out there, but I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear...

YOU are to blame.  Not just you though, I am to blame, and so is every other person living in the modernized world we are a part of.  Both directly and indirectly, and I doubt most people realize just how much they use petroleum-based products.  Besides the obvious use of gas and oil in your car, most commercial plastics are actually made from petroleum, and if you haven't looked around lately, you probably use plastics more than any other single material in your home or place of work.  So, we can sit here pointing fingers at the BP executives, but they were simply obeying the laws of the capitalist system that America provides them (maximize profit, even if it's risky), and we each have the right to change our government via elections, revolutions, etc., so once again, the blame circulates back to us.

I say all that, and it sounds like I'm spouting idealist-socialist-hippy-bull...poop, but that is not actually my point.  My point is that nothing is free, and when you as a voter, consumer, and citizen choose to remain ignorant about an industry that you freely choose to support, you cannot later place blame on that industry just because you naively trusted them with not only your life, but the lives of your fellow man and your environment.

So rather than sit around debating which executive or politician you can point your fingers at, and lamenting the destruction of the environment over a cup of Starbuck's coffee, get up and find a way to improve the technology and energy sources that you and I rely on daily.  The US Government is likely to crack down, and spend millions (or billions) re-writing and enforcing new regulations on the oil industry, when the long-term answer lies not in enforcement, but improvement.  The latest economic crunch has led schools (including UT) to make cuts in all areas, including science, engineering, and math, but in the light of disasters like this, I think it's time we re-thought our priorities in regards to education.  Without getting into that argument, I think that we as citizens here need to take the time to try to understand and educate ourselves on these modern conveniences that we take so much for granted, and realize that nothing comes for free.

Yes, I would like to live forever, thank you very much!

For all those who say they don't want to have a computer implanted inside of them, I bet that will change when it can save your life:

Do You Want to Live Forever?

The end of unlimited wireless signals the rise of WiFi

AT&T and Verizon, two of the US's largest cell-phone carriers, and (I'm going to assume) the largest distributors of wireless internet in the country have now both announced that they will no longer make "unlimited use" wireless plans available to their customers.  My guess is that the big two were getting too much demand for data from their networks, and had to find a way to manage it.  I'm going to go ahead and announce my predictions for the future of wireless/portable internet:

1.  Cell phone bills skyrocket for some, stay the same for others.  With the rise of 3G tablets and super-capable smart phones, customers subscribing to the new "Pay-as-you-go" internet plans will undoubtedly pay more than the $35 per month that they paid for the now-defunct unlimited plans.  AT&T's new data rate is set-up so that you pay $20 per month for 20 MB of data (about 9 minutes of YouTube video), but in an age that is moving rapidly in the direction of mobile computing, this will prove to be far too expensive for even a casual phone internet user, but for $60 per month you can get a whole 5GB of data.  Now 5GB is probably enough for most people in a month, but who wants to fork over $60 for it?  Not me, and probably not you, which is why I predict...

2.  The rise of WiFi.  Its likely that this won't all be free either, but the competition from an increased number of WiFi hotspots could seriously damage the cell companies' ability to charge such exorbitant prices for mobile internet.  We'll also have to see who starts to dominate the WiFi network though, because a lot of them are managed by AT&T or Verizon, so I could see them raising the price on WiFi hotspots to keep up with the increase in mobile charges.

As kind of a side note, I think we're reaching a sort of bottleneck with internet connection and speeds.  Computing is trying to move mobile, and put its storage off in a remote location for access from any computer in the world, but the connection speeds don't yet make it practical.  Maybe Google's fiber optic idea will catch on...I can dream at least.

This could change the iPad

It looks like someone has come up with a solution to the absence of Flash on the iPad and iPhone:

http://gizmodo.com/5552545/smokescreen-converts-flash-to-javascript-on-the-fly

As the article says, it's a little "hefty" at the moment, but the open-source nature of the software leads me to think that this could be up and running on Flash-free devices soon...assuming Apple will let it.

Props to UT

Some interesting facts about UT Knoxville from their website:

UT A Top National Public University

"From ever-increasing research dollars to affordability and value, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is recognized by many for its high-quality programs and initiatives that prepare students to thrive in a global economy.
As the state's flagship, research-intensive university, UT is the state's leader in promoting education, research and public service and continues to strengthen its impact on the citizens of Tennessee.
U.S. News and World Report ranked UT Knoxville as No. 52 among all public universities and No. 106 among all national universities for 2010. The national universities group includes 262 American universities that offer the comprehensive bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.
Academic Reputation
U.S. News and World Report ranks UT graduate programs among the best in the nation for 2010. The supply chain management and logistics program is ranked ninth among all national universities. The College of Law's clinical training program is 15th nationally, and the College of Engineering's graduate program in nuclear engineering is ranked 12th nationally.
The magazine ranked UT's College of Business Administration undergraduate business program 28th in the nation among public institutions and 48th among all national universities. The magazine also gives high rankings to the college's undergraduate program in supply chain management/logistics, which ranked seventh nationally and fifth among public universities. The College of Engineering undergraduate program ranked 32nd among public institutions and 64th nationwide.
In 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked the School of Art's MFA in printmaking program fourth nationally, and the College of Social Work's graduate program ranked 15th among public universities and 26th overall.
Forbes Magazine lists UT in its 2010 edition of "America's Best Colleges" based on quality of education and how much graduates achieve after receiving their degree. Forbes also cited UT Knoxville's College of Business Administration as 42nd out of 75 for its MBA program, on a list that contains both public and private institutions.
The Princeton Review lists UT in its 2010 edition of "The Best 371 Colleges," making the grade with just 15 percent of America's 2,500 four-year colleges chosen. UT also was cited for the second year in a row for its environmental friendliness, scoring an 85 on the publication's "green rating." The magazine also named the full-time MBA program one of the nation's "Best 301 Business Schools," and the College of Law one of the "Best 172 Law Schools" in its 2010 editions of those publications.
The Princeton Review also named UT a "Best Southeastern College" for its high standards and outstanding reputation among higher education institutions in the Southeast. The magazine in 2009 also ranked UT Knoxville among the 100 "Best Value Colleges" based on undergraduate academics, affordability and financial aid.
National Jurist Magazine ranked the College of Law as the nation’s 14th Best Value Law School.
Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine ranked UT as one of the top 100 universities in the nation in 2009 for "best value," a measure of the quality of academic programs compared to costs and financial aid.
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education this year ranked UT as a "Top 100 Doctorate Degree Producer" institution for African Americans.
The Sustainable Endowments Institute gave UT high remarks in its 2009 College Sustainability Report Card for making strides in green initiatives, rating it the greenest university in the state, and among the top four among Southeastern Conference member institutions. UT Knoxville was also the first university in the state to institute a student fee for the purchase of green power.
Make Orange Green, the campus environmental effort, has been honored across the state and nation as one of the top campus environmental programs. UT Knoxville campus environmental programs have been recognized in BusinessWeek and Newsweek magazines.
UT Knoxville also was named a "Military Friendly School" by G.I. Jobs magazine. This ranking places the institution in the top 15 percent of all colleges, universities and trade schools nationwide.

Top Students

UT's student body is another sign of the university's strides in academic quality. The new 2009 class of 3,723 entering freshmen had an average core GPA of 3.79 and a 26.5 average ACT score—the highest ever for an entering class.
Forty percent of the incoming freshmen had GPAs of 4.0 or higher. There are 40 National Merit scholarship winners in the incoming freshman class.
The HOPE Scholarship began in 2004, and UT Knoxville officials say the scholarship has impacted the flagship university more than any institution in the state by increasing applicants, bolstering incoming students' academic preparedness and allowing the university to increase access by creating need-based scholarship programs. About 99 percent of in-state freshmen qualified for the HOPE Scholarship.
Fifteen of the nation's top students recently accepted the invitation to attend UT Knoxville as the inaugural class of Haslam Scholars—a premier program that offers special opportunities for undergraduate research projects and study abroad.
Graduate students from UT Knoxville recently were awarded prestigious Fulbright and DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) external scholarship grants to study and research in Europe. A new Office of External Scholarships focuses on helping students compete for these and other top awards like the Rhodes, Marshall and Truman scholarships.

Research and Economic Impact

UT Knoxville is committed to the support and advancement of research as a way to enhance the lives of people across Tennessee, the nation and the world. The campus hires faculty with a commitment to world-class research and provides the support necessary for them to bring research dollars to Tennessee. From 2004 to 2009, sponsored research awards at UT Knoxville increased 155 percent, from $113 million to $179 million.
The University of Tennessee is classified as a research university with very high research activity (RU/VH) by the Carnegie Commission. The Center for Measuring University Performance, formerly Lombardi, an organization that ranks the top 200 research universities, ranked UT 31st nationally, up from 47th.
UT is a key economic driver in the state and its partnership with Battelle Memorial Institute to manage Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) supplies the fuel for continued growth and diversification. This partnership formalizes the university's longstanding collaborative relationship with one of the nation's premier research facilities and the U.S. Department of Energy's largest national laboratory.
UT Knoxville's Center for Business and Economic Impact recently estimated the economic impact of the campus on the state of Tennessee at more than $800 million, which accounts not only for direct expenditures by the university, but also the multiplied impact of things like spending by employees, jobs created by research funding and more.
Funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to UT Knoxville is at an all-time high. New awards from NSF for 2009 totaled more than $24 million, and four major NSF awards since 2007 have vaulted UT Knoxville into the national spotlight with funding for world-leading science and research endeavors.
UT Knoxville is now home to the one of the world's most powerful academic computers. Called Kraken, the computer is funded by a $65 million NSF award—the largest in the history of the UT system. The computer will allow researchers from UT Knoxville and around the world to find answers to humankind's most pressing questions from climate change to drug design. Kraken is the world's sixth fastest computer.
Joining Kraken will be Nautilus, a $10 million supercomputer whose purpose will be to take the staggering amount of data created by computers like Kraken and interpret it in ways that are meaningful. Not only is UT Knoxville leading the way in big computing, but it is leading they way to ensure that computing research has a broader impact on the world.
NSF also recently awarded UT Knoxville $16 million to begin the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), a first-of-its-kind center dedicated to finding creative solutions to major ecological and biological problems from animal disease to wildfire control. NIMBioS brings hundreds of scientists to UT Knoxville and puts millions of dollars into the local economy.
The NSF also has awarded $3 million Integrative Graduate Education Research and Training, or IGERT, awards to two UT Knoxville research groups studying sustainable technology and scalable computing. The centers will bring the nation's top graduate students to UT Knoxville.
UT's managing partnership with ORNL is enhancing the state's role as a growing hub for research in topics that will affect the lives of all people in the coming years, including alternative energy, national security and the creation of new materials. ORNL's crown jewel is the Spallation Neutron Source, which allows researchers from the United States and all over the world to use neutrons to understand the most fundamental structures and processes of matter, transforming it for uses that were unimaginable even a few short years ago.
UT and ORNL have created joint institutes in areas such as biological sciences, computational sciences, heavy ion research, nanophase materials sciences and neutron sciences. These joint institutes take advantage of the instructional and research strengths offered by the university and the national lab, and have already served as magnets for top researchers and major funding for centers housing resources like Kraken.
UT Knoxville is now home to five UT-ORNL Governor's Chairs. These faculty members, who hold a joint appointment with ORNL, are among the nation's best and brightest, and were recruited to UT Knoxville as part of the ambitious program that is supported by funding from the state of Tennessee. By providing resources for these faculty to conduct cutting-edge research in relevant topics, UT is establishing itself as a powerful hub for top scientists.
UT Knoxville's Center for Business and Economic Research measures the dollars the institution generates. Conservatively, UT Knoxville's impact approaches one billion dollars -- that's 24,000 jobs and $80 million in tax revenue.
UT Knoxville contributes to every aspect of life, from theater and music, science and technology, to law and athletics. The institution is moving forward in its mission to be the preeminent public research and teaching university linking the people of Tennessee to the nation and the world."

Source:
http://utk.edu/features/rankings.shtml

Cyber-Venting

Be careful what you complain about online. As NBA stars have found out, social networking can get you in some hot water if you're famous enough, but who would think a college kid's complaints about a towing company would get him sued?

You can look at the Facebook group that Justin Kurtz started here.  Kurtz started a legitimate group complaining about a towing company with poor service, and did not attempt to maliciously defame the company, but rather warn others about them, and allow others to chime in.  From the looks of the FB page, not many people in Kalamazoo are a big fan of T&J towing, and from the NY Times article, it appears that the suit is going to get thrown out, but this use of legal bullying by companies should be stopped.

Most suits like this end when the person who posted the complaint online removes his comment or page, and things never go to court.  Of course, the defendant may win if he took the time and effort to fight it, but probably doesn't want the trouble involved in a legal battle.  This kind of frivolous lawsuit by the company being defamed is basically an intimidation technique.  It bothers me that companies think they can just push their own unsatisfied customers around rather than working with them to fix the problem.

I had a similar situation crop up not long ago on Twitter.  I posted a complaint about Comcast, and their poor service in our apartment, and received a direct message from a Comcast account on Twitter, offering help.  This is the way that these problems should be handled, and it made me feel like Comcast was listening to me rather than fighting me.

What your email address says...

The Oatmeal always makes me laugh.  Here's another classic: