Jason Thibeault's Blog: From My Pen, page 59

Visions of Undersea Cables

May not seem like much but this interactive map of trans-atlantic cables enabling the global Internet is pretty cool:

http://www.submarinecablemap.com/

Now just use your imagination a little and think about the process to not only lay this cable but fix it. Puts our global Internet into a much different perspective. Almost like the blood vessels of our new, digital planet.

Originally posted 2011-09-26 14:16:07.

Enabling More Digital Content Consumption

To provide an example of what I was talking about around the “digital consumer” of 2012 (and the devices that support the consumptive behavior), Roku recently announced their “Streaming Media Stick.”

http://technologizer.com/2012/01/04/roku-is-going-beyond-the-box-with-a-stick/

It’s a thumb-drive sized gizmo called the Roku Streaming Stick, and it incorporates the Roku software, service, and Wi-Fi connectivity, just like the boxes do.

The stick also has a connector that uses a new standard calle...

Sometimes We Forget About Our Humble Beginnings

We often think of Science Fiction as alien spaceships and deep-space adventures but as a genre, science fiction has existed long before that and really represent “imaginative literature.” Did you know that Mark Twain wrote some science fiction?

A recent event outside of Boston, Readercon, sought to both explore this and pay homage to the humble beginnings of such a worthwhile genre.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2011/07/readercon-science-fiction-as-it-was-born.html

Originally post...

Bye Bye Dropbox?

It’s not just Dropbox that may go bye-bye, it’s all of the cloud storage providers. Well, at least if ownCloud has anything to say about it!

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OwnCloud is an open-source alternative for enterprise cloud services. Instead of pushing files and calendar outside the corporate firewall, companies can deploy ownCloud within their infrastructure, keeping everything secured without giving up the flexibility of cloud-based resources. Have a VPN connection? Establish it and start browsing your company’s i...

The E-Textbook. What’s Missing?

There is a lot of noise in the techsphere around the concept of the e-textbook. The noise isn’t necessarily about the concept itself. I think as e-books have evolved, everyone’s subconscious has been coming to the same conclusion: it’s only a matter of time. As tablets have captured mainstream attention (more devices, more manufacturers, cheaper pricing) I’d say that the conclusion has become even more apparent. No, the noise is more about Apple’s headstrong charge into the space spearheaded...

A Peek at the Always On World

Having written a few posts recently about our coming “always on” world and the state of being “always on,” it’s interesting to see some data recently come out that supports what’s being talked about in the media: tablets and smartphones continue to rise along with the data they consume when people use them to stay connected:

http://gigaom.com/broadband/smartphones-ipads-the-state-of-the-mobile-internet/

Some great stats from the research:

The average monthly 3G traffic is the highest for laptops...

A Sign Of Things to Come for Mobile Apps (and Apple’s Appstore in Particular)?

Amazon’s recent launch of Kindle Cloud is pointing to an interesting possibility with regards to mobile applications.

There are two core components to which I want to draw attention.

First is that the application is based in the browser. Quite obviously, this means that regardless of what browser the user is employing ,the user experience and functionality of the application stay the same. Leveraging industry-standard technologies like javascript and CSS ensures that the application remains cro...

Review: 500px.com Online Photography Portfolio

A startup, 500px.com, is aiming to be the “best photography and the best user experience for aspiring and pro photographers.” Apparently they have been around a couple of years but only recently have started to see some serious growth.

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This site serves two primary purposes:

Browse, find, and purchase photos
Build an online photo portfolio (to be included in #1)

Searching through photos is a great experience. You can simply click on a popular photo (or one you find through search) to not only view...

Photos: The REAL Cloud…

If you have any respect for how sublime nature can make us feel, you have to watch this video of the dust storm that rolled over the Phoenix, AZ area on July 5, 2011:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/videos/time-lapse-amazing-phoenix-dust-storm-21209

Although this happens a few times each year, this one was particularly interesting as it came in from the Southeast (most come in from the West). This is a result of colliding pressure systems (i.e., thunderstorms rolling in quickly), the hot air, an...

When The Camera is More Than Just a Lens (Augmented Reality)

I have been writing a lot (and seeing a lot written) about how more and more software is using cameras, whether on the phone or via web cam. I thought that I would collect a bunch of links from around the web that talk about this growing trend (often called Augmented Reality although that only refers to a single type: using the camera to capture, via video; I believe there is a growing use of the camera to capture information, via static photo, that is then uploaded and analyzed as well). Com...