I learned about this cool site from AOL over at Digital Inspiration named Truveo. It provides users with the a one stop shop for video content found from different video sharing websites, content portals and most mainstream media websites.
Truveo offers great search options so you can zero in on a specific video and also provides RSS feed, a feature not found even in Youtube.
My only grip is that some information shown about the videos on Truveo don't reflect the information of the video from which they're sourced. For example, below you'll notice the number of views of a clip posted originally on Youtube - 9,420. On Truveo, when I did a search for "Most Viewed Of All Time" for a particular martial art, the same clip showed up among many other clips but the number of views reflects 16 as opposed to 9,420.
I'm sure the 16 reflects only the views from their site but in my opinion, give respect to these clips by posting the actual number of views as found on the source site... it's the least you can do.
Friday, August 17, 2007
A Hub Where All Videos On The Net Can Be Found And Shared
Enhancing Your Life Through Alternative Medicine And Therapy
I've always been impressed by the healing powers of Chi - the vital life force/energy in the body. There are a lot of skeptics out there and I used to be one. But the more you research it and experience its cultivation and manifestation, like in qi gong or tai chi classes, the more you realize that there's more out there that we just don't know. Or maybe at one time in the ancient past we did know but we've lost the old wisdom and we are now a shadow of our former selves. After all, we are only using a tiny percentage of our brain's capability and there's little information on what the pineal gland or third eye can do. I used to hear a lot about the third eye from friends who practiced yoga and meditation, where the sixth chakra (Ajna or third eye) is believed to be some dormant organ that can be awakened to enable telepathic communication. Too good to be true?
Having taken internal martial arts like tai chi and bagua zhang in the past, I've been on the receiving end of chi manipulation and pain received from certain strikes. I do believe in Chi and I believe we all possess it. Chi, when you used for harm, can do great internal damage to the organs. You don't see any bruises on the body, but you feel it inside. Chi can also be used to heal and there are many well documented cases where this has been successful. But like in any field you have your charlatans and quacks. The onus is on you to research, get referrals and ask the right questions when looking to receive alternative therapy. If there are state regulations or boards, contact them to see if the practitioner is licensed or has a history of complaints.
The clip below just amazed me and scared me at the same time. I respect the fact that the doctor was using his gift for healing purposes. I also see that he is really human after all... with egos just like the rest of us. Near the end of the video you'll see that he remembered that he shouldn't be showing off his skill and making it public. Ever since that documentary, he's refused any more students and invitations for interviews. It's true - those who know, don't speak; those who speak, don't know. What scared me, well maybe just a little, are the untapped powers each of us have but are not ready to handle. You don't learn about this stuff in science classes in school. In my opinion, western science works as an Imperial Command-Control system - anything that cannot be logically explained and proven is quackery. The workings of Chi and its manifestation is found in meditation and spirituality, both of which conflict with and have no place in western science as it cannot be seen, studied through a microscope and experimented on. But that's only one part of it. Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners of today also know the inner workings of the human body and their healing arts have been practiced for thousands of years with herbs, massage (tui-na), acupuncture and other secrets that all involve the use of and intimate knowledge of Chi.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Why Solar Energy Is Good
The concept of using sunlight to power our homes, cars, industries and everyday gadgets has been discussed, researched and utilized for many years now. It's cost saving and helps the environment by not relying on fossil fuels. And with the looming global energy crisis, there have been suggestions of many other alternative energy sources - from thorium power, coal, water, hydrogen and the list goes on. We need to keep this on track because the powers that be will do everything in their power to ensure you keep "filling up" instead of "saving up."
Here in Nevada, I notice a lot of homeowners using solar panels. The only problem I hear from neighbors and friends is that solar roof panels are aesthetically unattractive... butt u
gly! In my opinion they are a bit of an eyesore, but who am I to tell an owner of his castle what to do with it, especially if that means stifling his commitment and sacrifice to saving money and the earth? I say sacrifice because reports indicate that within the first many years of use, solar energy currently costs the equivalent of 20-25 cents per kWh, compared with 8 cents per kWh for conventional electricity. This means the materials and cost of producing these solar panels are quite substantial and will not be a viable alternative for many even if they wanted to. Oh, and not to mention the sacrifice of being ridiculed as the ugly duckling neighbor. Sheesh, stop the persecution already!
A lot of research has gone into finding materials that are cheaper to produce and designable so that you can have the panels or material match the color of your roof. Perylene/Polymer Composite Solar Cells may provide a good alternative to silicon solar cells in its designability and lower cost of production. A company called Nanosolar also provides a cheaper and more aesthetic alternative to regualar solar panels.
Nanotechnology can even play a major role in providing widespread use and integration of solar power in objects you would never think possible - like a sweater or in a can of paint. Ted Sargent, a pioneer in solar science, is working on solar nanotechnology that focuses on capturing the infrared portion of the sun's rays, the portion available to us even in cloudy weather.
In my opinion, solar cells are a more attractive renewable energy source because, unlike wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power (which require windy areas, hot water reservoirs, and fast rivers, respectively) solar cells can be used in a larger range of locations. Even in regions where the sky is often cloudy, batteries can store the energy produced from solar cells while the sky is sunny for use at night and on overcast days. Solar energy - it's all good.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
My Observations On Interactivity In Life
Everyday I'm learning about new ways we humans interact with each other and the world. I observe that interaction or interactivity greatly enriches or greatly frustrates each of our lives. In some ways it splits us up and we grow farther from each other and in other ways it brings us much closer to each other.
I'm thinking that with new technology comes new innovations, like new ways of teaching. I also understand that with new innovations come new technology - we come back full circle. And smack dab in the center of that circle is a seed called human interaction. Always looking for faster and better ways of doing things, this seed grows into a tree and eventually, its branches meet with the boundary of the circle sharing with technology and innovation its experiences, wants and needs before the tree dies. But like the saying goes, "the old becomes new." So sooner or later a new seed is planted in the circle and the process repeats itself over and over and over again. I always wonder if there'll ever come a point when this circle and everything inside it will implode - I hope not.
I'm not going to go into a whole essay about interaction. We live with it everyday, we take part in it and we take it for granted... sometimes. I say sometimes because if you're an international corporate executive, you know about social interaction in different countries and cultures. You will not take this human-to-human communication for granted because it's important to establish rapport and therefore, garner a partnership that will help your company grow and prosper. The way you shake hands will differ between France and Japan. Once you've sealed the deal and start to work together with your new partner overseas you will plant a seed in your circle and through effort, experiences and more interaction, your money tree will grow and its branches will touch the boundary of the innovation/technological circle and subsequently another seed will be planted and the process starts again.
We see human interaction co-mingled with technological (ie. online/internet) creations in new media and the arts. For instance, a website called Wetpaint Please Touch invites guests to use different types of artistic media to paint a wall. They can interact with others by passing it along for the next person to finish or submit it to a gallery where others can rate it. Another website called Finish-a-Story encourages readers to creatively write and share their endings to different stories.
Another type of interaction we might take for granted is human-to-artifact communication. When I test out cell phones at a store the design, color and features are only one part of the equation. I also look at how intuitive it is to operate. How easy is it to navigate the interface? How cumbersome is it to push the keys to make a call, or control the volume? The interactivity of a cell phone is the behaviour of its user interface, the artifact, as experienced by me, the user. A very unique interactivity that in my opinion might be an extreme form of human-to-artifact communication is found in Empathic Painting. This is a video-based human-computer interface that allows an artist to convert an input photograph into a painting using stroke patterns and colors selected by special Computer Vision algorithms capable of recognizing facial expressions. So bright, happy smiles will translate to bright, vibrant paintings and sad ones will translate to gloomy, dark paintings. That is so very cool!
Haptic technology is another way for computers and software to interact with humans. Haptic coming from the Greek, Haphe, means pertaining to the sense of touch. The technology is seen and experienced through the use of devices such as the Wacom Pen Tablet. By applying force onto the tablet you can get different size strokes and effects just as if you were using the real medium. When I play games on the Wii, like tennis, it provides vibrations in the controller to simulate and enhance the virtual sensation of hitting the tennis ball. When you set your cell phone on vibrate, you're making use of haptic technology. New cutting-edge computers now allow the wave of your hand over the screen to manipulate objects and documents. Doctors will use teleoperators, or remote controlled robotic tools to perform surgery over long distances. The force-feedback reproduced to the surgeon will give them the sense that they're actually right there with the patient. I think the seed planted by haptic technology will give birth to more innovative products for users who'd rather interact with an interface through the sense of touch by applying forces, motions and feedback.
We have come full circle but the wheel of life never stops spinning, and I'm sure we're in store for a lot more innovations in humanoid, I mean, human interactivity.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Is Your Handwriting Starting To Look Like Chicken Scratch?
I've noticed recently that whenever I write on a piece of paper, I can hardly read what I write - and it's embarrassing when I'm at the grocery to have to ask someone if they can make out what I wrote down. But I've learned that if I have to do that, to just go up to a worker because at least they can show me where the item is right after making out the chicken scratch. Now I do remember my handwriting being somewhat legible and clean in high school, but with our increasing dependence on computers and typing I think handwriting might fall by the wayside. Of course, not everyone wants to abandon their "old school" ways and there are some companies that are catering to this market and bridging the technological gap - in this case, pen and paper.
When I did a little bit of research on the internet I found that there are companies like Logitech and Nokia that offer a digital pen that is written on digital paper. I then went to Amazon and couldn't find any reviews on the Nokia digital pen, but did glance at a few comments about the Logitech one - not too favorable and it's used mostly by college students for basic note taking. I did find a blogger who uses the Nokia digital pen but complained that it only saves the data in GIF format.
My cousin gave me an old issue of Wired magazine dated April 2001. It showcased articles about different technologies and people to look out for - a future reference edition basically. One company I read about was Anoto, based in Sweden. This is the daddy of the digital pen and
paper setting the defacto standard for this type of technology. After checking out there website, it seems like they're healthy and growing - and you can see that from their case stories. Obviously, industries are seeing the value and benefits of using this medium to transfer their handwritten notes and reports to computers. The website also gives a straightforward explanation of how the pen, paper and transfer of data works. I find the transfer of data particularly cool - by USB or wirelessly by Bluetooth via a mobile phone. Another important item - data may be exported in any preferred format to suit the recipient system. I like it!
Monday, August 13, 2007
What Is The Million Dollar Wiki?
We've all heard about Wikipedia.org, the free online encyclopedia where topics are created, researched, shared and edited by numbers of interested individuals. Can you place a link of your website on a Wikipedia.org page? It has a high page rank and would most certainly help bring traffic to your site. But don't be surprised if it gets deleted one day. I've placed my martial arts school website link on a Wikipedia.org page and so far so good.
Now if you really want control and sole ownership of your wiki then The Million Dollar Wiki is the answer. Created by Graham Langdon, a 21 year old senior from the University of Connecticut, the content on each page is controlled by the page owner. Owners use the site, and specifically their page, as a vehicle to generate traffic, revenue or publicity. Each page costs $100 and Graham plans to sell 10,000 pages so he can make his million bucks. Graham is off to a good start with the project. Since starting it two months ago, he has sold 158 pages and made $15,800.
One of my favorite blogs, John Chow dot Com, is holding a million dollar wiki blog contest, sponsored by The Million Dollar Wiki. If you decide to to buy a Million Dollar Wiki page, make sure to enter JohnChow into the coupon code at checkout. This gets you $10 off. In addition, you get five entries into the contest to win a $600 LCD monitor and a signed copy of the best selling book, The 4-Hour Workweek! You can also get two entries by blogging about this contest. Find out how to enter here.
