5 innovations that will change your and my lives

The invention of wheel changed human life forever. So did the invention of electricity and so many others after that! Things that we only read about until a few years back have moved from the pages of science magazines to become an integral part of our daily lives.Big Blue has unveiled a list of five such innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The list is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from the company’s labs around the world.

Staying healthy, remotely!
Millions of people with chronic health problems such as diabetes, heart, kidney or circulatory problems will be able to have their conditions automatically monitored as they go about their daily lives. Device makers and health care professionals will take a proactive approach to ongoing, remote monitoring of patients, delivered through sensors in the home, worn on the person or in devices and packaging. These advances will also allow patients to better monitor their own health and help clinicians provide the on-going preventive care regardless of a person’s location. Hardware and software advances in the field of remote-control healthcare will be a major source of consumer and enterprise innovation by 2012.

Mobiles reading your mind
Advanced “presence” technology will give mobile phones and PDAs the ability to automatically learn about their users’ whereabouts and preferences as they commute, work and travel. “Presence” technology — used in instant messaging — already makes it possible to locate and identify a user as soon as the user connects to the network. In five years, most of the mobile devices will have the ability to continually learn about and adapt to the users’ preferences and needs. Your phone will know when you are on your workstation or in a meeting and divert automatically to voicemail. Your favorite pizza joint will know when you’re on your way home after a late night and ping you with a special-price, take-home meal just for you.  

Real-time speech translation
The movement towards globalization needs to take into account basic human elements, such as differences in language. Real-time translation technologies and services will be embedded into mobile phones, handheld devices and cars. These services will pervade every part of business and society, eliminating the language barrier in the global economy and social interaction.Internet goes three-dimensional
The popular online immersive destinations, such as Second Life and the World of Warcraft, will evolve into the 3D internet, much like the early work by the likes of Darpa, AOL and Prodigy evolved into the World Wide Web. In this immersive online world, users will walk the aisles of supermarkets, bookstores and DVD shops, where they will encounter experts they did rarely find in their local store. The 3D Internet will enable new kinds of education, remote medicine and consumer experiences, transforming how you interact with your friends, family, doctors, teachers and more.

Going Nano, turning Green
Governments and companies are increasingly looking to improve environmental stewardship and working to secure reliable and cost-effective resources like water, energy etc. Information technology, materials science, and physics will help meet environmental needs.

Nanotechnology — the ability to manipulate individual atoms and molecules to form tiny new structures — has already had a major impact on microprocessors, making electronic products like PCs and mobile phones smaller, better and cheaper. In coming years, nanotechnology will likely be used for water filtration. This could advance ecology and conservation, helping to address the growing worldwide shortage of potable water supplies. Other areas where IT, physics, and material science will have a big impact are advanced water modeling and improving solar power systems.

Hacking microsoft zune – Productivity +

Until it went on sale last November, Microsoft’s Zune was heralded as the first true iPod-killer. But with its overly aggressive copyright protection and the odd, self-imposed limits to its most innovative features (like built-in Wi-Fi), it has so far failed to make even a dent in the iPod’s shiny white-and-chrome armor. It’s likely the Zune will improve with version 2.0 and beyond, but until then, here are three easy Zune tune-ups to ease the pain of waiting for a better model.

UPGRADE THE HARD DRIVE

The Zune’s 30-gigabyte drive could be a little roomier.

1. Buy an 80-gigabyte Toshiba drive ($160; welovemacs.com) or harvest an iPod’s.
2. Open the Zune (see ipodmods.com for directions). Remove the battery, the hard-drive casing and the new drive’s label plate, and install the new drive.
3. If you still don’t love your Zune, at least hold on to the battery—as with the hard drive, you can use it as a spare for the latest video iPods.

USE IT FOR STORAGEUnlike almost all other players, the Zune can’t be used as a USB drive out of the box.

1. Install .NET Framework 2.0 from microsoft.com.
2. Download the ZuneHDPatch at cppworld.com/Zune/ZuneHDPatch.exe, and run it on your PC with your Zune unplugged and the Zune software closed.
3. Plug your Zune into your PC, and it should appear as an external hard drive.
4. To copy files, make sure the Zune software is running and set to “syncing.”

KEEP SHARED SONGSYou can beam songs to other Zunes, but they are deleted after three plays.

1. To avoid this, do the storage trick [previous], then change the song files’ extension to .jpg. Place the files, along with a real image file, into a new folder in your Zune’s “received pictures” folder (only noncopyrighted songs!).
2. Send the “pictures” folder to a friend’s Zune.
3. On that Zune, sync the folder with a PC. Change the extensions back, and move the songs to your Zune.

MORE TRICKS:

Watch YouTube
Use the Internet Explorer add-on ZuneMyTube (tinyurl.com/y2oomb) to download videos automatically.

Free Up Your Music
Go to Options > Rip > Format > MP3 to set your Zune software to encode files in MP3 format instead of Microsoft’s WMA so you can still play your songs if you pawn your Zune for an iPod.

george bush joke

The Smarts[Digg]

Bush and Powell are slaving in the hot sun digging a hole while Rice is sitting under a tree drinking iced tea.

Bush says to Powell, “hey, how come we’re out here sweating and she’s over there relaxing”?

Powell shrugs and says “I dunno George why don’t you go ask her.” Bush climbs out of the hole he’s been digging and wanders over to Rice and says “Me and Colin want to know why we’re working our butts off and you’re relaxing under this tree”.

“Well George”, Rice says, “it’s like this.”

“You ever heard of a thing called Smarts”? “Smarts”, George says, “what’s that”? Rice says, “Here I’ll show you how it works”.

“Now I’ll hold my hand up in front of this tree and you punch it as hard as you can, okay?” Bush sensing a great opportunity eagerly agrees. He gathers all of his strength and punches with all of his might but Rice moves her hand just in time for George to bust his on the tree.

“Now you understand how Smarts works George” Rice asks.

“Gheeez”, Bush replies, “that’s pretty neat”. Swelling with confidence Bush goes back to his hole and tells Powell, “hey, this is neat, the reason we’re working is because of a thing called Smarts”.

“Smarts” Powell says. “What’s that.”

“Bush replies, “Now I’ll hold my hand up in front of my face and you…”