Just announced as of today: June 24, 2009

Sugar Labs™, nonprofit provider of the software that runs the “One Laptop Per Child” (OLPC) computers (over one-million children worldwide got one thus far), is giving away a version that runs on a USB Stick (works with standard flash memory USB drive) = “Sugar on a Stick” (version 1, aka, ‘Strawberry’)

“Sugar on a Stick” can be loaded onto an ordinary 1GB USB flash drive and used to reboot any PC or netbook directly into the operating system on the USB stick. It can (if desired) also work with a School Server in order to provide content distribution, homework collection, backup services, Moodle integration, and filtered access to the Internet. Today’s Strawberry release is meant for classroom testing

Sugar on a Stick is a great way to try Sugar without touching your computer’s hard disk. It is also well suited to slower, older PCs and low-powered netbooks.

• Video: http://tr.im/pC51
• FREE Download: http://tr.im/pCaB
• Storyboard: http://tr.im/pCbg
• Screenshots: http://tr.im/pCcd
• Announcement: http://tr.im/pCfX

What was once a determined, practiced deep meditation and focused analysis, became a brief but engaging 1 hour television show, with 2-4 commercials interspersed. Then came the 7 minute video on MTV, followed by VH-1, then BET, and finally YouTube. Attention spans recovered with blogging, for a respite of 10 full minutes of thought…only to be smashed by the explosive rising God called Twitter (artificial ADD). How long before we can offload routine processing of vocalizations (and even motor coordination) to an on board chip implant, which might also record and schedule our favorite “vicarious living”  (the boob tube) into flexible screen surgically inserted into our eye balls behind the lens?

Better yet, why not just hijack the whole optic nerve with a direct feed from a wireless receiver, controlled of course by the central “co-processor”?  That way, we can finally use our conscious brains according to their naturally evolved design; wherein each emotion need not be translated to spoken symbols, censored, or well-composed. But instead, these atomic impulses can be instantaneously gratified, in vegetative zombified indulgence – electronically by the “co-processor” reward bus. That bus (interfaced to and feeding the reward center), can heed the basal motives without guilt or planning, as we gluttonously graze on a high-fat low-thought diet of media designed for compliance management and pacification. We will at that point be ripe dumb slow targets for any self-aware mobile AI bot.

This year’s host for the conference is Rockcliffe University Consortium. The conference is a free event for educators and researchers of virtual worlds, knowledge emergence, knowledge development, and their educational impacts.

Main Website

Venues
Facebook Group

(Online, Anytime, Anywhere, Just in Time, Free of Charge)

There are (as of Feb. 18th, 2009) currently 4 related free services offered by Microsoft.
I have created a small summary of each below, which may help clarify the differences.
Note that each of these are unique, separate services, and do not interconnect with each other.
Most analysts presume that at least some of these services will merge in the near future.

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Windows Live SkyDrive:

FEATURES:

• 25 GB online storage
• Max size per file 50 MB
• All types of files supported
• No install required, access from any browser, any computer
• Optional tool to drag from explorer
• no sync between computers
• Mac & PC support
• Integrated Live services (eg. Live Photos)

ABOUT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Live_SkyDrive
ACTUAL SITE: http://skydrive.live.com/

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Windows Live Sync:

FEATURES:

• Mac & PC support
• no online storage, install is required
• sync only, with remote file access
• Up to 20 folders, 20,000 files (each file max 4 GB)
• Integrated Live services (eg. Live Photos)

ABOUT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Live_Sync
ACTUAL SITE: https://sync.live.com/welcome.aspx
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Windows Live Mesh:

FEATURES:

• 5 GB online storage
• FULL Remote Desktop control (PC only)
• After initial setup, no install required, access from any browser, any computer
• Sync folders between computers/devices to online
• Privately or Publicly share access to folders
• Mac & PC support, plus Cell Phone w/Windows Mobile 6.1 up

ABOUT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Mesh
ACTUAL SITE: https://www.mesh.com/Welcome/default.aspx
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Microsoft Office Live:

FEATURES:

• 500 MB online storage, >1,000 “documents”
• Max individual document size 25 MB
• Competitor & similar to Docs.Google.com
• Create & edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint online inside browser
• Private or public sharing
• Mac & PC support
• No install required, access from any browser, any computer
• Optional download integrates with installed Office (open from, save to, online)
• Sync Outlook contacts, tasks, events, etc.
• Many additional functions & uses for fee-service (Small Business)

ABOUT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Live
ACTUAL SITE: http://workspace.office.live.com
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UPDATE: October 6, 2010

Well, today (Oct. 6th, 2010) I was just sort of fiddling around on my lunch break today, logged into Live Sync, and got this message:

Windows Live Mesh 2011 is replacing Windows Live Sync, and new users can’t download Sync anymore. In early 2011, this website will be shut down and your files will stop syncing

… and then there were 3, sort of.  You see, it appears that Office Live and Live Skydrive saw the impending demolition of Live Sync by Live Mesh, and so they have joined forces, so that now Office works hand in hand with Skydrive.  In fact, there are actually two different versions still operating online of both Mesh and Skydrive now.  The difference is that “Windows Live Mesh” is designed for Windows 7, and thus your XP boxes won’t be able to install it (and are stuck with “Live Mesh” or just “Mesh”).  It’s really IRRITATING the way that MS screws with these names huh?  It’s their way of saying,

Hey, product ’X.2′ will be taking the place of product ‘X.1′.  We are calling them “DIFFERENT PRODUCTS” even though the names are nearly identical, and even though the underlying code, user interface, functionality, distribution channels, and many other things are nearly identical also.  In fact, it’s really just a slight update of the code, but we couldn’t figure out a way to make it backwards compatible, and you know that’s our bread and butter (slamming out silly updates with a few interface changes every other year), so we compromised.

I’ve used (off and on) all of these programs for several years now, both in collaboration with research partners, and in classroom/work settings.  I personally like Sync better just because it consumed fewer CPU cycles, and caused less HELL for me (Good God Almighty!), when I had to FIX problems.   I guess Sync and Skydrive are now being gobbled up by Mesh too though (based on what I’m seeing now). 

But back to my story.  Sometime early this year, after running Sync, Mesh and Gbridte simultaneously for about 6 months, I eventually switched to Gbridge, which has been working fine for me.  So now I’m just waiting a bit to see what happens next, but always open to switching to whatever works best.  Thus far, Gbridge has set the bar really high, IMHO.  Analogous to Android (relative to iPhone w/iTunesHell), the learning curve is higher at first, but Gbridge’s final returned value to the power user is much higher than other products I’ve tested (including me.com).

I will say that I think MS is on track to get the formula right though, by merging much of these systems together.  It seems that Windows Live Mesh is set to eventually gobble up Skydrive, Sync, and Office Live storage online.  In fact, I was able to choose to sync my Windows Live Mesh folder on Win 7 to use Live Skydrive for online storage, where Office Live also stores focs for me.  The big question still lingering for me though, is that we can all anticipate XP boxes being around for a long time to come… so, what’s that going to do, if the new versions of Live products are NOT backwards compatible?

Check it out:

Update:

From: Richardson, Paul
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 8:25 AM
To:
Subject: RE: Surface expected to be released by commercial partners in November 2007http://www.microsoft.com/surface/Available this November at $5,000 to $10,000 per unit   In 3-5 years they project consumer price ranges.I would be very surprised if Apple doesn’t beat them to that.  I’ve seen patent applications from Apple for laptop models which are very cool, and lest we not forget, the iPhone is already consumer level and was the first to make “finger” multi-touch ubiquitous on consumer devices.———————————————–

From: Richardson, Paul
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 11:17 AM
Subject: RE: UPDATE: Multi-Touch Touchscreens

Greetings,

UPDATE: We now have the first windows phone with a touchscreen (called the HTC Touch SmartPhone):

(quick text review) Really Long URL
(video demo) http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/htc_touch/

Note that the OS (windows mobile 6) is the same. The touch capabilities are merely an application that rests on top of the OS. This difference is important. The iPhone is an operating system custom tailored AROUND the idea of multi-touch (sort-of). Not only is the HTC Touch an extremely limited version of touch screen capabilities, it is NOT multi-touch.

The NEW PARADIGM of human device interfaces, which multi-touch provisions for, is that there are no “input” devices, just humans acting directly on data, using their own bodies and sound. Some prokaryotic creatures may only have one digit > humans have more.

Regards,
Paul

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From: Richardson, Paul
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 8:49 AM
Subject: UPDATE: Multi-Touch Touchscreens

For over a year now, I’ve been tracking the progress on ‘multi-touch’ capabilities (you may recall my prior email below). Not being chained to a stylus or some other tool, but rather, your finger is a big plus, but using two or more fingers, on a smartscreen?— priceless. This opens up lots of possibilities in scientific and design fields.

Here is the link to the Microsoft video I mentioned before: http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2007/05/29/announcing-microsoft-surface.aspx

MY OPINION: Surprise. Microsoft is finally getting on the bandwagon. Of course, rather than spend a billion dollars on making multi-touch affordable, and part of the next operating system, it looks like they are sequestering it to expensive coffee tables >> which doesn’t bode well for it’s perception as viability in the minds of VCs.

Regards,
Paul

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From: Richardson, Paul
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 9:36 PM
Subject: Multi-Touch Touchscreens

Greetings my friend,

About a year ago (Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 10:25 PM), right after TED ‘06, I (Paul Richardson) sent out an email to nearly all my techie friends, about the new multi-touch technology show-cased there. It is so remarkably close to the “special effects” of movie magic such as in ‘Minority Report’ by Tom Cruise, that I was really blown away. In that email I predicted that it multi-touch would be ubiquitous on tablet PCs everywhere very soon (probably within 5 to 10 years): “Play with OneNote on a sweet tablet, and dream, nay I say, merely place your bets when this (or some derivative) will be everywhere.”

I am going to be tracking this closely. I love my Tablet PC, and though it’s clunky and slow and awkward (just like PC’s were before the X86 days), I know enough about HCI that I am confident that multi-touch is on the absolute verge of becoming accessible on a whole new generation of tablet PCs. IT workers often chuckle at the gullibility of the public when watching movies like ‘The NET’, ‘Firewall’ and ‘Swordfish’. That is why when something truly remarkably different, which is a giant leap forward, and represents a turning point (like the tablet PC itself) comes along, those who understand the old-fashioned idea of a hacker, who enjoys hacking all kinds of gadgets, get excited. We can wait to get to touch it, play with it, and test it.

Apple BOUGHT FingerWorks. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Apple is going to one day unveil a full-size touchscreen device (Microsoft’s currently unchallenged domain in consumer tablets). By moving to a Unix based kernel (FreeBSD) Apple sent a clear message with Darwin: Not only do they want Neo-Luddites and artists, they now want hard-core IT people (they got the other far tail of the bell curve). Next, by moving to the Intel CPU, Apple is now targeting the vast middle 2 standard deviations, who just use computing as an means to an end (but never an end in itself). What will be next? Perhaps their current OWNERSHIP of the patents and technology created by FingerWorks (which can be seen in the new iPhone) are some clue to a forthcoming full-size multi-touch device within the next few years?

Regards,
Paul

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch

Multi-touch is the name of a human-computer interaction (HCI) technique and the hardware devices that implement it. It is a kind of touch screen or touch tablet / touchpad that recognizes multiple simultaneous touch points, frequently including the pressure or degree of each independently, as well as position. This allows gestures and interaction with multiple fingers or hands, chording, and can provide rich interaction, including direct manipulation, through intuitive gestures. Depending largely on their size, some multi-touch devices support more than one user on the same device simultaneously. One salient aspect of this technique is that it makes easy to zoom in or out in a Zooming User Interface with two fingers, for example, thereby providing a more direct mapping than with a single-point device like a mouse or stylus.

FingerWorks produced a line of keyboards that incorporated multi-touch gestures. FingerWorks has since been purchased by Apple, who has incorporated the technology into its iPhone. The firm Tactex Controls is one supplier of multi-touch pads.

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Use of gesture for HCI is admittedly infantile still: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVQrhsjOlwU&mode=related&search=
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The Apple iPhone is a big leap forward. The video is rather long (about 1 hr, I guess??), and it’s also rather boring and slow in places, so pick something you can do at the same time (like I did, watch TV at the same time in bed, ha ha!). Check it out, http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf07/

Here is an ULTRA-SHORT version of SOME of the features: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgW7or1TuFk
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Imagination is the ONLY limit to the use of Multi-touch:

Longer, better version:
http://infosthetics.com/archives/2007/01/jeff_han_multi-touch_display_demo_applications.html

Includes some discussion by Researcher:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLhMVNdplJc&mode=related&search=

Shorter version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp-y3ZNaCqs
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New Type of KIOSK?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiuwMe4QpBQ&mode=related&search=
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Make Dinner or Any Table Surface more Interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaKehq6qsdY&mode=related&search=
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Make window shopping Interactive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1-w7maL36k&mode=related&search=
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Hackers are building their own versions NOW! (on Linux): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQkSObRtw0o&mode=related&search=
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Now you don’t need a keyboard, just type on the virtual keyboard:
http://techzoogle.com/the-canovo-dual-touchscreen-notebook/