Ten Things That Will Rock About the Future

March 31, 2009

This is the last blog post I'm writing for Nerdabout.  Bummer.  I can be sad about it, or I can give you a list of cool science-y things to look for in the future:

1.) Fuel made from algae.  Algae self-replicates quickly and can be fed waste that distributors pay to get rid of.  This fuel can be made in a lab, which would cut down on fuel refining and distribution costs and would put us in a much safer geopolitical position.

2.) Diesel made out of waste.  Every large transport truck runs on diesel.  Diesel can be made out of anything from switchgrass to Mexican food grease. Just make sure your legislators, car makers, and others understand that biodiesel means cleaner air, and everyone likes that, right?

3.) Using the natural resources that are around us.  Are you in Phoenix?  Go for solar energy.  North Dakota?  Try wind.  Energy is in everything.  With modern technology, we can harness it better than ever.

4.) Cheap web hosting.  Better bandwidth.  Want to run an online movie theater in HD?  The only thing that will stop you in the future will be the big studio lawyers *shakes fist*.  Not to fret.  Smaller studios will now have better distribution (=the web) for their stuff and won't have to pander to big studios interested merely in big bucks.  Hence, movies we will really want to watch.  Sweet.

Oh. P.S. big screens are getting cheaper too.  Ha.

5.) Mobile apps, apps, and more apps!  Hooray!  The Palm Pre's platform will be easier to build for than ever.  Smart phones are getting more and more common everyday.  We'll start to see more and more everyday tasks being performed through our phones.  Some speculate that the screen will be able to be projected on a nearby wall, and there are already fullsize keyboards for the iPhone.  Dell Mini?  Try Dell Phone that fits your purse.  Hizzah.

6.) Linux on the desktop.  In the United States, we don't see Linux as much as the Europeans or Africans.  What is the truth?  "Return of the King" was created on Linux machines and it would meet the needs of 90% of most Americans.  It's secure, uses less resources, and is free. 

7.) Local food.  Less preservatives. If you knew what was in half the food on the market, you wouldn't eat it.  It's there because it's a cheap filler and some of it, like trans fat, isn't actually even food.  Blech. 

8.) Better surgeries and preventative care.  Guess what?  You don't want to get cancer.  And neither does your insurance company.  So they will heavily encourage you to get early screenings so you can catch it early saving them money and you loads of suffering.  If you do get it, nanosurgery techniques will allow surgeons to remove the cancerous cells while preserving the healthy ones.  Rawk. On.

9.) Regenerative care.  Stem cells are awesome.  Whether they are from embryonic stem cells from fertility clinics or adult stem cells, having my spine grow back after I've been injured is pretty freaking awesome. 

10.) Crowdsourced science and improved metadata.  It's already happening.  Biologists, physicists, chemists are all compiling information together into huge internet libraries.  This equates to faster innovation and solutions.  With that information, the need for data to describe that data will be huge, so look for interesting ways of classifying what is put in these libraries.

All I can say is, I hope the patent offices can keep up. 

So that's a wrap for Nerdabout Austin.  Just know that progress in technology doesn't always come from the top.  It comes from you, the consumer, who wants it.  Peace!

Nerdabout Austin Joins Team Mashable in the Celebrity Smackdown

March 26, 2009

Not everyone who gets cancer ends up like Lance Armstrong.

My sister has been undergoing treatment for a leukemia relapse for four months.  She hasn't walked or eaten solid food since shortly after she arrived at the hospital.  She has been poked, prodded, and received medication after medication with awful side effects.  She's hallucinated about bugs and people dying.  She has almost died several times and after all this struggle, she still might die.  At one point, I held her hand and felt she was going to die while I was in the room.  "I don't know how to do this, Michelle," she said.  I was balling, and all I could think to say was, "I don't think we are supposed to, Deb."

My sister has watched as her friends both young and old perished of leukemia.  Not just older people.  Ten year old kids.  A thirty-five year old marathon runner with two children.  What strikes you about walking into M.D. Anderson's leukemia facilities is that cancer spares no one, not poor, not rich, not young and not poor. If I had breast cancer, I'd be scared.  If I got leukemia, based on what I've seen, I'd be petrified. 

It is brutal for everyone, including victims' families.  Now that my sister is ill, my 68 year old mother and my 73 year old father have been taking care of my nine year old niece.  My two sisters who live in Houston have been taking turns being with Deb in the hospital.  I've visited Houston three times in two months and feel guilty actually enjoying myself because my sisters visit Deb so much.  It's a strain for everyone.

It's the last day to join Team Mashable in the Celebrity Smackdown to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  I feel bad joining so late, but I'm hoping this post can provide a push in funding to end this disease.  Scientific research helps.  It funds early screening, easier and more reliable recovery, and provides support for those currently suffering from the disease.  I hope you consider making a donation to help end leukemia and lymphoma forever.  Thank you.

Nerdy Stuff for Kids: The Austin Children's Museum

March 23, 2009

 

The kids!  Moral decay!  World of Warcraft!  It's all over!

Hmph. 

It feels good to be proactive about your kids' upbringing.  After all, if you let them watch MTV, they will value partying and hedonism.  If your kids watch Nova, chances are, they will be pretty smart. 

So if you like science and all things nerdy (which if you are reading this, you probably do), it's not a bad  idea to take your kids to the Austin Children's Museum.  Watch your kids build, tinker, be an ACL rockstar, or even work at a grocer's.  The museum is full of interactive fun.

There are also interactive workshops available for your kids.  Perhaps better than plopping them in front of the Disney Channel on a Saturday afternoon.

Support future geeks by paying the Museum a visit.  It is at 201 Colorado St.

What Linux Against Poverty Means

March 19, 2009

When we think of Linux, we think of a bunch of geeks in their basement arguing over IRC about which version is better.  Or we think about huge data centers and cloud computing.  Or goofy penguins.  What a lot of people DON'T think about is how a single operating system can offer a wealth of information to people who are rapidly becoming second world citizens in our own country.

Whether you work at Freescale, a startup, or even a KFC, you use computers.  And if you make $5.50 an hour which is well below Austin's living wage, you probably do not own one because it is seen as a luxury item to you.  This means it is a struggle to use the computerized systems at fast food restaurants.  This means that you don't regularly access the internet, which disconnects you from a vast expanse of knowledge more complete than any library known to the history of mankind.  In a new sense of the word, you are illiterate.

We are letting this happen.

This is why I have tremendous respect for people like Ken Starks at the HeliOS Project for trying to bridge this gap.  Ken operates a space in East Austin to promote computer literacy and Linux.  I tried putting some machines together for some Burmese friends of mine.  With all sorts of parts and so much noise in the blogosphere, I didn't get much traction.  This is hard but very necessary work.

Lynn Bender, Whurley and Dan Rumney are doing what they can for Linux Against Poverty, an install fest to help Ken.  You can follow updates about this event by tuning into GeekAustin. 

Good Content Can Get Squashed in New Media

March 18, 2009

TypePad ate my previous post about SxSW.  I'm too lazy to write it again because at this point, I doubt you'd read it.  Always listen to Tom Conrad or Tim Westergren at Pandora if you can.  If you liked Pandora before you will love it afterwards.  I recommend seeing Kathy Sierra's talk if you haven't already and check out James Powderly at Graffiti Research Labs.  If you are into free speech, it will rock your world.  If you ever have an opportunity to hear Hugh MacLeod speak, you should.  He is wise and well, his cartoons are funny. 

Best part about Kathy's talk?  Don't make a better product.  Make a better user of that product.  Brilliant.

I am posting this in honor of noisy people on Twitter who scare cool, productive people away.  I've worked hard to research for this blog, but felt it's promotion was squashed under tweets about cheesecake, tacos, or iPhone apps.  We've all done it, so this has to be said:

SxSW Panels Not to Miss for Media Makers

March 12, 2009

So as many of you may know, Discovery is going through some tough times like many people and had to let me go effective April.  I am quite disappointed at this as I was excited about the prospects of highlighting science and technology in Austin, but feel I have a responsibility to understand how content producers can continue to make money in a crowdsourcing age.

We have yet to truly understand how web content can be monetized.  Some like Wikinomics author Don Tapscott have proposed an NGO model for publications such as the New York Times, but I would like to take a different approach.

I could not help but notice University of Phoenix and Whataburger ads on this blog.  If you are reading my content, you are probably not the type to go to University of Phoenix.  You might be similar to me in that you tend not to eat fast food.  I am not claiming that these are bad businesses by any stretch of the imagination--I am merely saying that they would get better ROI if they advertised elsewhere.  Other businesses would get much higher ROI by advertising on Nerdabout.

I feel we are in an age of microtargeting for ads.  If you read Wired, you may notice that you actually like seeing the new products advertised there.  That's because Wired ad reps actually call advertisers and tell them, "Hey, we are running a story on this, and we feel you would be a good fit for an ad next to it".  If you study how political campaigns are run, they have targeting down to a science.  Why can't web content sites figure out how to display ads with products I actually might want to buy?  Metadata is going to be key for this, as well as great stats and microtargeting (see Sunday's keynote) and more effective ads (no panels?).

That being said, many the SxSW Interactive panels I am going to this weekend are on future of web content.  My only beef with SxSW this year is that I found a lot of the panels I want to see are in the same time slots, and then there is a lot of dead space where I have nothing.  I put up interesting panels and will decide on the cuff what I want to see.  Check 'em out:

SATURDAY:
3:30
Kicking Ass with Controlled Metadata (Room 8)
Soapbox Spielbergs: Making Hollywood FX on Indie Budgets (Room 12AB)
5:30
Comedy on Television and the Web (Room A)
Politics, Technology, and Pop Culture (Room 9)
Designing the Future of the New York Times (Hilton Room C)

SUNDAY:
11:30
Breaking Boundaries: Mobile Web Access and Emerging Economies (Room 9)
2:00
Sunday Keynote: Steven Baker/Nate Silver Interview (Room A)
3:30
Get Me Rewrite! Developing APIs and the Changing Face of News (Room B)

MONDAY:
10:00 AM
Beyond Aggregation  -- Finding the Web's Best Content (Hilton Room A)
11:30 AM
The Future of the DVD and Digital Distribution (Room 12AB)
2:00 PM
International Business in China for Fun and Profit (Room 8)
3:30
Curiosity Marketing: Using Secrets To Create Engagement (Room 5C)
You Are LIving in Your Own Private Branded Experience (Room 6)
Old Man Nielsen vs. New Market Research (Room 10)

TUESDAY
10:00 AM
Cloud Computing: Defending the Undefinable (Room 8)
New Threats to New Media: Fair Use On Trial (Hilton B)
11:30 AM
Building Strong Online Communities (Room A)
2:00 PM
Tuesday Keynote: Chris Anderson / Guy Kawasaki Conversation (Room A)
3:30 PM
Policy Trainwreck: How Copyright Law Failed the Digital Age (Hilton Room B)
Rebuilding the World with Free Everything (Room A)
5:00 PM
From Blog to Book Deal:  How-To (Room 18BCD)
DRM: The Fight Isn't Over Yet (Hilton Room D)

Follow TacoJournalism and Never Eat a Bad Taco at SxSW

March 10, 2009

If there's one thing Texas is really good at, it's tacos.  I've traveled all over two continents, and there is nothing like biting into a good fajita taco when you are really hungry.

All tacos are not created equal though.  Some have better salsa.  Some make their tortillas from scratch.  Some have meat that is more tender.  Mando Mayo, the Director of Hands on Central Texas at United Way, took it upon himself to find the more worthy tacos in Austin by starting the TacoJournalism blog.  Since South by Southwest Interactive is the one of the coolest web conferences in the U.S. and A and attracts a lot of taco newbies, I asked him to post about the best tacos in the area around the conference.  This is what he, @pennydelossantos, @todoaustin, and @jneece found:

El Sol y La Luna

They have a new location, 6^th & Red River.  The place is an old Austin hangout (formerly on South Congress) for live musica en Español. They’re having their official grand opening next weekend so look out for especials!   

Okay, now for the tacos: Jarod and I tried the Migas & Machacado tacos.  We were in fact, pleasantly surprised. (This place doesn’t have a good track record.) The migas taco was fresh & it was a good mix of huevos & crispy chips, yeah, they were still crispy!  The Machacado taco was good too. The dried shredded beef was right on par; crunchy & moist.  The salsa also had a pretty good kick to it.  

3.5 Estrellas

El Sol y La Luna

600 East 6^th Street  

http://tinyurl.com/dz6y66 

El Chilito Tacos y Cafe

Another new place to hit up while downtown.  The “hipsters” love it & they have decent coffee. Try the Puffy Taco or the Cochinito Pibil Taco. They also have a pretty good roasted red salsa.   

3 Estrellas

El Chilito Tacos y Café

918 Congress Avenue

http://tinyurl.com/d2kmh8 

La Condesa (reviewed by @todoaustin)

This ain't your regular taco stand.   The decor is upscale and a bit pretentious and it does feel like you walked from the streets of Austin, into a fancy cliche Dallas chain restaurant.  The Pork Belly Tacos were $12 for 2 taquitos.  $12!?  I guess they have to pay the rent some how.  It did seem rather pricey, but I figured these tacos must be special, super fresh or maybe they use some special Kobe pork meat that was massaged and fed beer.  Well what can I say, I have an active imagination... 

The double wrapped corn tortillas are stuffed with fried pork belly meat, caramelized red onions, fresh cilantro and cabbage and smoked pineapple chunks.  Please check with the waiter that this is all they include, because he said sometimes the chef does throw in some green salsa which does contain avocado!  If you are dining with someone who is allergic to avocado it can really mess up your dining experience!  Since Mando was unable to partake in this batch, it did luckily mean more for me - and I was starving!

The tacos were very good and surprisingly juicy.  The smoky pineapple did blend well with the greasy pork meat and the salsa did offer a slight kick to counterbalance the sweet.  My first bite did have the rating at a 4.5 and I did think that if I won the lottery I would return soon to explore the menu further, but as I reached the end of the taco I noticed a pool of grease collecting on my plate that quickly started to congeal into a thick, murky goo.  I like greasy food as much as the next person and I can appreciate the extra flavor it might provide, but too much can take away from the experience.  For such a fancy upscale joint I would think they might have a special grease colander back in the kitchen that might help separate some of the liquids before they serve the solids, but I already mentioned I do have an active imagination!?  I give the "Pork Belly Tacos" at La Condesa a rating of 3.5 and I recommend you be prepared to dive into your wallet if you are stopping in and ask them to please hold back on the extra serving of grasa!

I know it sometimes takes some time to find your sea legs and seeing as how this was the 1st day they opened for a brunch crowd, I can see how the new restaurant is still working out the kinks.  Maybe in a few months they will have everything in tip-top shape and maybe I can win the lottery and return!!?  I know...active imagination...    

3.5 Stars

La Condesa

400 W. 2^nd Street

http://tinyurl.com/bmybqb 

Austin Java City Hall Café

Well, after the greasiness of La Condesa, I decided to try Austin Java by City Hall. Talk about a 360!  I ordered the Roll Your Own Taco plate with eggs, bacon, cheese & homemade salsa.  The eggs were fluffy & quite buttery. The bacon was crispy and no, not soaked in grease.  The salsa brought it home, it was fresh & thick and that sealed the deal for this taco.  Yummy, go there! 

4 Estrellas

Austin Java City Hall Café

301 W. 2^nd Street

http://tinyurl.com/dgmb9b 

>Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant

Last stop was Rio Grande by the Convention Center.  I sat at the bar ordered a Pacifico and a Taco al Carbon. The taco was a bit pricey but it did come with a good pico. The carne estilo carbon was okay.  It had a good smoke to it but just needed a little more kick. The dressing did take it up a notch; it was mix of salad & pico with fresh jalapeños.   

Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant

301 San Jacinto Blvd.

http://tinyurl.com/cq6wbr 

Still looking for more choices or tacos on the go? Check out these joints for pay-n-take it stylez… 

Day Stage Cafe – In the Convention Center, Upper level – Gets 5 points for convenience!  
Hideout Theatre & Coffee House – Provides delicious taco from El Borrego & Tacodeli 
Anna’s Market/Convenient Store – Good tacos from Mi Madre’s – Corner of 8th & Brazos

Littlefield Market – Corner of 6^th & Brazos – Eastside Tacos

If you are willing to order tacos from someone who potentially does not speak English (rare, but it happens), check out Taco Journalism's many reviews of tacos across our great city of Austin or follow @tacojournalism on Twitter.  Thanks, Mando!

Learn about P2P...then Weigh in on the Pirate Bay Trial

March 04, 2009

To non-nerds, the Pirate Bay trial is completely off the radar.  Apparently these people do not listen to music, watch TV, or enjoy a movie now and then.  The Pirate Bay, a non-commercial file sharing site, is one of the highest traffic websites on the net and is currently being sued by major players in the music and film industries.  The outcome will affect how movies and music will be monetized and how we will all consume media.  So the big question is, what did Pirate Bay do to make these people so mad and is it actually illegal?

Austin's own Brandon Wiley is the former Director of Product Management at BitTorrent, Inc, can clue us in on what Pirate Bay is actually doing.  BitTorrent is the technology people are using to share files peer to peer.

"The Pirate Bay is a user-contributed catalog and search engine. It's often compared to Google, but it's really more like Wikipedia. Users of the site post torrent files and people can rate and comment on those torrent files, as well as search for torrent files.

Of course, a torrent file contains no copyrighted content itself. It's just tells you how to fetch the file using BitTorrent. It's the equivalent of a BitTorrent URL. So the Pirate Bay is basically a bookmarking site similar to del.icio.us or StumbleUpon, only it's for bookmarking torrent files instead of URLs. So there is a question of whether the torrent file is an inherently illegal format such that making a bookmarking site for torrent files is promoting illegal activity.

It's a little more complex than that though because a torrent file is not enough to get a file from BitTorrent. You need to know the addresses of all the other computers that have the file so that you can download from them, peer-to-peer. This changes quickly and new people start downloading and finished downloads disconnect, so it can't be stored in the torrent file, which is only generated once. So the torrent file contains the address of a BitTorrent tracker, and the tracker keeps track of who is currently participating in the network. The extra complication for the Pirate Bay is that they are running open trackers that they let anyone use. So there is a second question as to whether participating in a download via BitTorrent is inherently illegal such that running the tracker software would be promoting illegal activity."

Is creating a map to piece together songs, movies, or TV shows illegal?  Is it illegal if the people who share it are not using it commercially?  Is the mass effect of torrenting unfair to those who pay for the production of music?  The attorneys involved are currently wrapping up their arguments.  What say you, nerds?  Guilty or innocent?  Should the operators of Pirate Bay have to pay 14.3 million dollars?

Nerd Nite Austin Needs YOU

March 03, 2009

**Note: this Nerdabout figure would be pointing at you if he actually had fingers.**

Being a nerd can be kinda rough.  There's nothing more alienating than going on and on about a particular nerdy subject only to discover that the person you are talking to is actually paying attention to the latest TMZ cellulite report playing on the TV behind you. 

Not to worry, Nerd Nite Austin is coming to a pub or coffeehouse near you.  Nerd Nite gives nerds the opportunity to share all things nerdy with people who care.  Talk about your research on ants.  Show off your Hackintosh.  Bring a PowerPoint...or not.  Just hang out and drink beer with a bunch of nerds to learn something you probably didn't know but are very interested in. 

Nerd Nite has been a hit in New York City and Boston already, so Austin's own Dan Rumney decided to bring it right here to Austin.  The first Nerd Nite will take place on March 26 at Opal Divine's downtown.  For more info, email nerdniteaustin(at)gmail.com

A Chocolate a Day Keeps the Doctor Away?!?!

February 27, 2009

Melissa Adams is the only mother I know who makes sure her kids get a good dose of chocolate everyday.  Melissa owns Viva Chocolato, a chocolate boutique and cafe in the Domain in Austin.  Melissa isn't trying to fatten up her kids--she just knows the immense health benefits of eating high quality chocolate. 

So how do you justify eating chocolate everyday?  Here are just a few health benefits that Melissa clued me in on:

1.  Chocolate can help prevent cancer.  Dark chocolate actually has about three times the amount of antioxidants of red wine.  Pair red wine and chocolate together and it's all the better.

2.) Chocolate improves cholesterol levels and improves cardiovascular health.  The naturally occurring fats in chocolate (cocoa butter) consist mainly of strearic acid, a neutral saturated fat that doesn’t raise your bad LDL cholesterol, and oleic acid, a mono-unsaturated fat like the kind found in olive oil, which may even raise good HDL cholesterol levels. 

A recent study compared a 25 –gram dose of dark chocolate with a blood-thinning, 81 milligram dose of aspirin and found both the chocolate and the aspirin prevented platelets from impeding blood flow.  In other words, chocolate acts similarly to aspirin in promoting healthy blood flow and reducing the risk of stroke and heart attacks.  The flavanols in chocolate, specifically procyanidin, have been found to relax vascular tissue and blood vessel walls also aiding in general cardiovascular health.

3.) Cocoa is the highest natural source for magnesium. Getting enough magnesium in your diet protects against symptoms of hypertension, diabetes, joint problems and pre-menstrual tension.

4.) Chocolate is a natural pick-me-up and appetite suppressant (and no, it's not from caffeine). Chocolate only contains about as much caffeine as a cup of decaf.  People seem to assume that caffeine is the only stimulant, but theobromine is the active ingredient in chocolate and cocoa is the biggest source of theobromine in the world.  Theobromine has very different effects than caffeine.  Its effects are gentle and mild, have a very slow onset and are long lasting.  It increases feelings of well being, is mild antidepressant, causes a sensual stimulation (ooh la la), and stimulates the cardiovascular and the muscular system.   Almost no one is allergic, it’s not addictive, and there are no withdrawal symptoms.

The Aztecs actually consumed cocoa before battle, as the theobromine allowed them to fight longer without getting hungry.

Remember though that these health benefits come from cocoa and not from the sugar, milk, or oils often seen in common grocery store chocolate.  The more cocoa, the better. 

What do you think, nerds--should chocolate be its own food group?  Discuss.