Pontificating the Future of Navels

WebTV launched in 1996 with the great idea of streaming content across the Internet. It was purchased by Microsoft and later shut down. The idea of streaming content has become pervasive, validating the original idea. However, there were barriers to the success of WebTV that kept it and the Microsoft variants (MSN TV and Xbox streaming) from dominating today's streaming content market. Barriers to good ideas vary, but two forces that act against sociotechnical plans are time and execution. In the case of WebTV, there is no mistake that the idea was ahead of its time. Market analysis from 2007 illustrates the vision of the streaming market domination over other video content distribution methods. The issue with WebTV is a common force that manifests through societal perception. That is, the timing of the introduction is vital to success. By 1996, the Year-2000 (Y2K) panic had already begun. Although the Internet was exp...

        See-Through Serendipity The X-ray is an example of an innovation discovered while a researcher was studying a different phenomenon, making it a serendipitous discovery. In 1895, German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen was studying electricity through vacuum tubes (Babic et al., 2016). Objects in Röntgen’s laboratory began to glow with a fluorescent light. Coincidentally, a container of barium platinocyanide exuded a glow that showed on a camera used in the vacuum tube experiment.  Röntgen  hypothesized there was an unknown radiation emitted from his experiment. He continued his study, trying different strategies to block the rays. In one attempt, the researcher used his hand to block the radiation. He subsequently found that a skeletonized picture of his hand had been captured on the camera screen. Röntgen coined the term X-ray, where “x” signifies an unknown type of radiation.  Tesla also studied X-rays, immediately grasping the importa...

  Education Finish doctoral studies in computer science at CTU Welding course to learn to do it right Harley mechanic program to do more complicated work on my bike Learn to play the piano Learn to play the guitar Learn to sing Business German course and certification (reasonably fluent in conversational German) Learn conversational Cantonese Learn French Learn the Cyrillic alphabet (and proper pronunciation) Job Return to programming (AI and graphics) Robotics engineering Optical engineering Teach at a university Horse rancher/trainer Forest ranger in a remote mountain location, such as Alaska or northern Idaho Instructor at university (remote, likely adjunct) Wood worker creating handmade hardwood furniture Quantum physicist Write fictional stories Philosophical/Religious Explore ancient Nepalese scriptures Explore Asian (Japanese and Chinese) mythologies Explore systems of rigor and the intent or purpose behind rules Construct and interact with non-biological entities (robots) t...

  The cloud services market grew to $597 billion in 2023, up more than $100 billion over 2022 (“Gartner forecasts worldwide public cloud end-user spending to reach nearly $600 billion in 2023,” 2023). Amazon Web Services (AWS) retains the lead share of the market at 32%, though that percentage has continued to drop. Microsoft Azure has increased its share. IBM’s cloud, which was previously third, was overtaken by Alibaba. Still, IBM maintains 3% of the cloud services market, or approximately $18 billion annually. Background on Distributed Computing and Data Centers Notably, in the early 2000s, AWS was nowhere on the horizon. At that time, several global outsourcing companies could have become market leaders in cloud services but failed to conduct proper scenario planning. The discussion herein is about one of those major players. The company will be called Global Hosting, Inc. to maintain anonymity. The account and discussion about Global Hosting are based on first-hand know...

The sociotechnical approach is defined as the integration of human and technical components and processes to develop target organizational recipients. In the case of the study (Hayashi & Baranauskas, 2013), the participants are children and adults in Brazilian schools.  The concept employed was to address formal, informal, and non-formal learning modalities to break traditional learning structures (formal) to rebuild new human-centric learning that is culturally adaptive by introducing technological artifacts and processes. The plan that Hayashi and Baranauskas (2013) discuss in the paper is the introduction of laptops to Brazilian children, employees, and teachers. The study used a self-assessment manikin (SAM), a standard for such studies, to allow participants to rank their experiences graphically. This study used a qualitative research methodology whereby the researchers were trying to understand the impact of the technology artifact from the point of view of...

    There have been many predictions that have eventually materialized. The source of the predictions varies. Several predictions have emanated from literature, such as Jules Verne’s submarine and various Star Trek and Star Wars technologies. Other sources of predictions are the giants in the field of science. One of those giants, Nikola Tesla, made multiple predictions. Most of those have materialized in one form or another. The predictions range from a government body regulating the environment to wireless communications. This latter prediction is discussed here.  Wireless communications are pervasive in the 21st century. However, there were already widespread wireless communications in the 20 th century. Two-way radios became popular devices as early as the 1960s. Fueled by military use during the world wars, a generation of radio operators evolved. Ham radio, commonly referred to as amateur radio, was already commonly broadcasting long distances long be...