A Day Made of Glass 2 – A Mind-Blowing Glimpse into the Future

Posted on 05. Feb, 2012 by Brandon.

This phenomenal vision will require immense leaps in technology, bandwidth, processing power and a mind-shift in the way we interact with our environment. It’s both exciting and frustrating to know what’s possible and yet to realize we’re not there yet.

From Mashable:

Gorilla Glass manufacturer Corning has unveiled a follow-up YouTube video to its wildly successful “A Day Made of Glass,” providing another look into what the future could be like with the growth of glass touchscreen interfaces, from innovative chalkboards and activity tables in classrooms to uses for it in hospitals.

Corning released two versions of “A Day Made of Glass 2″ — one with a narrator and another, abbreviated version without commentary — the video follows the life of young Amy and her family as they go through their day using various products made of glass. Amy does classwork on a glass tablet, controls the temperature of the car from the backseat and even attends a field trip at the Redwood Forrest with an interactive signage that brings learning to life. Her teacher also works with students on interactive touchscreen activity tables. Corning expects these activity tables to be rolled out in the near future.

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5 future technologies I can’t wait for

Posted on 29. Jan, 2012 by Brandon.

5 future technologies I can’t wait for

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Gion without Geisha

Posted on 08. Jan, 2012 by Brandon.

Gion, Kyoto, Japan. I absolutely loved strolling the quiet streets of Gion in the light rain. I hope to return again in the near future to explore more of this magical place.

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Kimono and yellow umbrella

Posted on 12. Jan, 2011 by Brandon.

Kyoto, Japan

Obviously I’d prefer if you view this one in the larger size (click through the photo or here’s the direct link).

Taken in Kyoto, Japan, handheld in the rain. You may see this girl again in other photos which I’ll upload in the future, as I had previously asked her if I could take her portrait. I took a lot of photos in Japan based around different series and themes but still have yet to figure out a good way to display them.

By the way, this is what, the 10th photo from Japan that I’ve uploaded? Only 3,500 more to go through.

Canon 5D Mk II | Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L USM @ f/2.8 1/250sec

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An important article in The Huffington Post written by my cousin, "GM Goes Grassroots. A Son is Torn."

Posted on 19. Nov, 2008 by Brandon.

The following article in The Huffington Post, was written by my cousin, Jake Brewer. The article speaks not only to his father, my uncle who has worked for GM for 34 years (and helped start up Saturn), but to the entire nation during this desperate and critical juncture.

An excerpt follows, but please read the article in its entirity. My cousin writes from his heart, while maintaining his passion for a clean energy future. This crisis puts our family in a very difficult position. I have other family members also in quite successful positions in America’s automotive industry. Perhaps Jake said it best, ‘I “support the troops, not the war.”‘

“On November 12, Tom Brewer received an “URGENT call to action…” along with all other General Motors employees in the United States from GM North American President Troy Clarke. The return email address was “grassroots@gm.com.” The urgent task at hand: Call your members of Congress to request that the American auto industry receive a government “loan” of at least $25 billion.

Employees were then directed to a website through which to take action:

www.gmfactsandfiction.com

As a grassroots clean energy advocate and strategic communications professional, it’s a type of request I know intimately. I’ve written and received countless emails just like it. Two this week. Tom, however, has not.

Tom has been an employee of General Motors since he graduated from Evansville University in 1974. At the time, for a Midwestern kid from “stonecutter” Bedford, Indiana, it was kind of like going to work for Google today.

As you can imagine, Tom’s seen a lot happen in the energy and auto industries in the last 34 years, but before this year he never considered that his retirement, his health care, and indeed his professional future would be in such dramatic jeopardy. In fact, without ever changing careers, he once worked for the largest and arguably the most influential corporation in the world; now he’s getting these emails. He never dreamed that he’d need to be calling his congressmen to save the company to which he’s always been loyal, and upon which he and his family’s livelihood has depended. I can speak with such certainty about Tom’s past because I’ve known him for 27 of the 34 years he’s been with General Motors, and we’re very close.

Tom is my dad”

…

“Today my organization is calling on me to mobilize hundreds of thousands of young people to fight in Congress and the halls of politics nationwide for the clean energy future that we MUST achieve for the future of our economy and our climate. This week your organization is calling on you to get on the phones with your congressmen to save the 100 year old auto company to whom you’ve devoted your entire professional life.”

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The Twitter Post

Posted on 13. Nov, 2008 by Brandon.

A phenomenon has swept across the internet. Twitter.

No, it’s not new, in fact it was developed in March 2006 according to Wikipedia. I personally started using it in March of 2007, after reading Kottke proclaim:

“Twitter is the first thing on the web that I’ve been excited about in ages. Like years. The last thing was probably Flickr.”

I used it consistently since first joining, updating at a steady rate of about 1 ‘tweet’ per day. I approached it with the parallel mindset of posting a blog entry or a photo to Flickr. All was well in my slow and steady Twitter world, until the end of September 2008. My Twitter updates skyrocketed, and my network expanded. View the graph below. (only goes back one year)

Twitter posts by month:

This is due to two primary factors: my iPhone 3G and the discovery of ‘jtug’ – Jakarta Twitter Users Group. This has radically changed my Twitter experience, and completely enhanced the usage of Twitter for me. The iPhone enables me to use Twitter anywhere, and the Twitterific application is generally a pleasure to use, both on the iPhone and the desktop based version.

The Jakarta Twitter Users Group is a congregation of primarily Indonesian users based mostly in Jakarta. They’re a wonderful, vibrant, and positive conglomeration of Twitter users from diverse backgrounds, who often post in English (but the Bahasa Indonesia usage is helping me to learn more!). As an expat living in Jakarta, I find it refreshing to meet many new Indonesians that I most likely would not have had the chance to get to know. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet up with many of them in ‘real life’ offline as well, opening up a new world of friendships that otherwise would never have sprouted.

I pulled some data from TweetStats to view a breakdown of my own Twitter usage.

Here are the visual results.

By hour of the day:

As you can see, generally I peak first thing in the morning, usually in reply to the messages sent overnight, or to those people I follow in the States, Europe, etc.

Around 3-4pm it picks up again, as I’m leaving work or arriving at home.

And finally around 9pm is the third peak of the day, generally after the gym and dinner in the couple of hours before I sleep.

Conversations trends:

• The first conversations of the day tend to be more tech based, news related, tips for working, and replies to overnight tweets.
• The afternoon conversations are often more casual, unwinding, reflections on the day, social tweets.
• The evening conversations seem to snowball; sometimes totally quiet, but other times, this is when some of the Jakarta users go crazy and begin Twittering like crazy. Some of the oddest and most entertaining chats happen in the evening.

By day of the week:

Having spent so much time online during the week, I tend to break away from the internet on weekends. Monday through Wednesday, as with many online services (and hits to my blog), tend to be higher on these days than later in the week.

And finally, what Twitter client I prefer to use:

The client I’ve traditionally used is Twitterific, on both the Mac as well as the iPhone. Twitterific remains one of my favorite clients for its simplicity and small size. However, I’ve dabbled with a few others, and most recently found TweetDeck to be a nice option if you’re using a second monitor, or have a large screen. On a laptop I think it requires too much screen space. However, when using a second monitor, it’s great for organizing contacts by group, replies, and direct messages.

Some of you are thinking, “How do you find the time?”. Well, first off, I work in front of a computer most of the day. Secondly, I actually have quite a few professional contacts and coworkers that use Twitter to bounce ideas, share links, and communicate quickly with. I often work with many applications open at once, and can quickly glance over at Twitter without losing focus on my current task.

Ironically, very few of my family members are on Twitter (but Novita is!), and somehow it seems odd to know what my contacts are eating, reading, watching but yet, have no idea what my own family is ___, ___, ___,. Is this wrong? Well, perhaps not, as email is still my preferred way to keep in touch with them as it allows for more introspection than 140 characters provides (Twitter’s maximum message length). But it would be great to see more of my friends/family/Flickr/Facebook contacts join Twitter. If you wish to follow me, my username is (surprisingly) ‘javajive‘.

Many people recommend following each and every person that follows you. I do not share this opinion. I’d much rather follow 100 witty, intellectual, interesting people that I can keep track of, than hundreds of people that simply fill my account with static.

If you’re just getting started, it may help to have a purpose, to have an idea of why you’re going to create this network, and what kind of contacts you’d like to follow. A great site that offers many interesting articles, tips, and resources regarding Twitter is TwiTip. Here’s an article in Wired about its exploding popularity. Monitter is an awesome site for real-time keyword searches (just try it!) and gives an example of the potential for future news and information in streaming real-time.

What does the future hold for Twitter? Is this a fad that will die out? Will it morph over time? Will it become a Friendster-ish decay?

Surely Twitter will change dramatically for better or worse. But more importantly it represents the power of simplicity. People have video chat, podcasts, instant messengers, tumblr, blogs, facebook, myspace, flickr, etc, etc, etc. And yet, with the advent of services like Twitter, or another example, the mini-games that you can pick up and play on the iPhone/Touch, or the approach to blogging as Posterous presents (just need to know how to use email), the people have spoken. They appreciate quick, direct, and simple tools in this perpetually advancing landscape of technology and complexity.

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This article from 'Daring Fireball' pretty much sums up why I've been gushing over my iPhone 3G

Posted on 09. Oct, 2008 by Brandon.

From ‘Daring Fireball‘:

Let’s just say it up front: the iPhone is the greatest piece of consumer electronics that has ever been made.

If I could travel back 20 years and show my then 15-year-old self just one thing from the future of today, it would be the iPhone. It is our flying cars. Star Trek-style wireless long-distance voice communicator. The content of every major newspaper and magazine in the world. An encyclopedia. Video games. TV. Etc.

Read the rest here.

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Quietly freaking out about what the future may hold

Posted on 09. Oct, 2008 by Brandon.

It’s October, so it must be that time of year when I freak out about the future, to stay in Indonesia or not, to seek another career option, or simply maintain what I’ve been doing for so long now.

It doesn’t help that the American economy has been thrown in the canal, nor that the Indonesian economy is now heading towards possible turmoil as well.

It doesn’t help ease my mind to hear from expat friends and ex-coworkers who are less than happy back in the States. One particularly close friend was happy to jump ship (and rub it in my face that I was staying) and head back to America, and yet three years later is pining to get back… to Jakarta!? Citing that “America is just so… effing boring. Nothing new. At least in Indo there was a new adventure every day.”

It doesn’t help that my sister, who thought her wanderlust would be cured in a year of stomping around Southeast Asia and Australia, is completely ready to stay overseas. Or that my father says, “It’s time for you to come home.” Or that my brother lives in Tokyo.

This certainly isn’t the first time I’ve been struggling with these thoughts of what the future may hold, or have had to come to grips with the fact that your close friends leaving, is just part of this lifestyle. Those of you that have been dropping by for a while may remember my ‘Quarter Life Crisis‘ (which has gently eased into third-life).

I’ve actually been more calm and casual than usual in this regard, even prompting friends to ask, “Aren’t you worried?”. Perhaps this is just the quiet before the storm.

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