The Forge

You’d think I’m referring to the famous 1968 Ford Mustang that Steve McQueen drove during the chase scene in Bullitt.  However, i’m speaking of a different type of ‘vehicle’ that showed off McQueen’s driving skills.

The Bullitt Chase scene gained a recent resurgence after the live video platform Seero.com tracked the entire chase with real-time GPS synced to video from the film.  It was recently released that Seero is up for sale to the highest bidder on Ebay.

Seero was one of the first live video broadcasting platforms available, debuting not long after Justin.TV in 2007.    Seero distinguishes itself by offering novel GPS sync functionality, allowing broadcasters to track their position along with any live video feed.  Although it doesn’t have the most traffic out of the current live broadcasting platforms, it certainly has a great look and feel.  I can see a number of companies in the Travel, Auto, or GPS sectors benefiting from  Seero’s technology and UI.

You know that dream, where a random person that you haven’t heard from or interacted with in any way for years suddenly pops out of nowhere?  Well I had one of those last night.   Said random person, Lyle, was eating dinner with me at a San Francisco Sushi  restaurant.   It seemed like Lyle and I were best buds in the dream, but in reality I barely even knew him years ago.

I chalked it up to another strange dream, until I was on Facebook the other day and BAM, there’s Lyle right smack dab on my homepage as a ‘recommended’ friend.

First of all, I’m not sure how Facebook figured out to recommend Lyle.  He isn’t friends with any of my other friends.  He doesn’t live in the same city as me.  We didn’t go to the same schools or participate in any of the same groups or activities.  I’ve heard that Facebook may pull from an ‘email’ list if you’ve allowed them access, but my only email correspondence with Lyle was via a now defunct account.   So why did Facebook suggest Lyle to me?

The most likely scenario is that Facebook  is  attempting to control my dreams.  Lyle’s mug must have been sitting on my homepage for a few days and managed to creep into my subconscious.  If not for Facebook’s recommendations, I could have avoided an awkward Sushi dinner with some random guy.  Who knows, I might have dreamt about surfing in Hawaii or living on Mars.   Lyle invaded my dream and I couldn’t do anything about it.

Another new Facebook feature, ‘Reconnect,’ attempts to get you to write on a friend’s wall that you haven’t corresponded with in a while.  Another clear attempt to push random people into our dreams.

Don’t worry though, I can smell Facebook’s dream control plot from a mile away.  Slowly, but surely, you’ll start seeing more random faces in these recommended friend slots.   These random, uninvited individuals will continue to invade your dreams: playing with your dream pets and barbecuing your dream spareribs.  Then, one day you’ll recognize one of these faces in a TV commercial,  a viral video or a magazine ad.    You won’t know this person but you’ll like them for some strange reason.  And you’ll buy their brand name bleach products and anti-depression medications.

Call me paranoid, but I’d bet the farm that Facebook’s various friend finding functionalities are modifying the contents of dreams around the world.  Why don’t you think back to that last random person that popped into your dreams.  Then go and log into Facebook and see if they’re staring right back at you.

Over the past several years, cell phones have advanced from mere portable calling devices to all-in-one mini computers.  The iPhone’s launch marked a transition from our past of using mobile phones primarily for voice, to utilizing them as full-fledged internet surfin’, app. toutin’ devices.

Today, hype is starting to build around the new Android / Verizon lovechild named ‘Droid’.  Droid is being advertised with the following slogan:  “Don’t you wish you had a Robot Sidekick that moved at light speed, could get you out of any problem, and lived in your pocket?”

Clearly Verizon is marketing to the mass of Star Wars fans that have always dreamed of having their own R2-D2 buddy.  (In fact, Verizon is even utilizing Lucas Film’s trademark on the word ‘Droid’.)  Despite the nifty Star Wars tie in, we all know that the Droid’s abilities won’t be able to live up to R2-D2’s intuitive interpersonal skills, such as shocking Ewoks and warning Luke of incoming Tie Fighters.

It’s going to be a while before mobile device A.I. catches up to George Lucas’ imagination.   However, there are several future phone features that we will see in the next few years that should bring us that much closer to having our own ‘Robot Sidekick’.

Augmented Reality 2.0: We already have apps like Layar and Yelp’s iPhone App. which lets you pull up anything from Wikipedia articles to restaurant reviews by pointing your phone in the direction of the object of interest. This stuff’s only gonna get better.  I suspect lightweight glasses with virtual information displays will become as big as iPod earbuds.   Think Terminator’s Termo-Vision, only with less data on killing people.

Also, social augmented reality that ties in Social Networking data and visual recognition software seems a logical next step.  Imagine pointing your phone at that gal in the bar only to find out she’s a friend of a friend and also can’t wait for the 2013 release of Episode 7.  Kinda creepy though.

Language Translation: Imagine traveling around the world and speaking every language you encounter.   With the progression of current language translation and voice recognition software, this doesn’t seem very far off as a mobile application.  Any incoming speech will be instantly translated to your default native tongue and relayed to you through an ear bud.

The output is harder, and might be a bit culturally sensitive.   Speak into your mouthpiece and have the phone output the audio translation in a designated language.   Many cultures could see a ‘robot’ speaking to them as somewhat offensive, however, it could also be a great way to get out of a jam.  The real question: will the app. be able to translate Wookie and Elvish?

Holograms / Projector Displays

When will we get to re-enact the ‘Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re our only hope,’ scene with a holographic text to friends?   LG expects to have a projector installed on some phones by 2010.  While it’s not quite a hologram, this could be a great way to take us away from squinting at tiny screens all the time.

Here’s to Google Docs

Open Collaboration

At your finger tips

One thing you should know about the Insight Forge team here in San Francisco: we’re all pretty big Google Document devotees.  We utilize Google Docs for pretty much everything – idea brainstorms, camping trip supply lists , brownie recipes, time spreadsheets, you name it.

If you own a small business, Google documents provides a forum for you to collaborate in real time between team members or directly with your clients.   For example, if you’re a chef and want to send a revised menu out to your staff, a Google Document would be the perfect place to express your thoughts.  You could add notes, and they could respond with questions to prepare for the menu’s release.

Most of the hitches we’ve encountered have to do with formatting between Google Docs and MS Word or MS Excel.   In an ideal world we would never need to use Word or Excel, and all of our writing could take place on Docs.

Google just released a new feature that allows complete folders to be shared, each containing multiple documents and spreadsheet under one umbrella.  This further promotes the easy collaboration and quick access that Google Documents excels at (no pun intended).

So… cheers to Google Docs!

Elizabeth Blackburn © 2007 Micheline Pelletier

Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of San Francisco was one of three scientists to receive the Nobel Prize today for her research on chromosomes.

This is not only huge news for the human species (her research on the enzyme Telomerase could be pivotal to stopping cancer and lengthening the human lifespan) but also for San Francisco, as she has been a long time researcher at UCSF’s department of biochemistry and physics.

I’d like to say to Dr. Blackburn:  Represent!  Why aren’t we as proud of locals like Dr. Blackburn as we are of our other San Francisco heroes like Joe Montana or Willie Mays? Although brilliant scientists may not agree, I’d like to think we would worship them ala that Intel Commercial featuring the ‘USB Co-Founder.’ Perhaps if our culture was more centered on making celebrities out of innovators we would see more funding going into pivotal research.

This isn’t the first time that UCSF has produced a winner: three past scientists, Stanley Prusiner, Harold Varmus and J. Michael Bishop have also won the Nobel Prize for their works.

Blackburn will be splitting the $1.4 million dollar prize with two others.  Hopefully after all her dedicated research she will use some of her prize to enjoy herself.   I recommend Cafe Maritime in the Marina district, if she’s a fan of seafood that is.