High Definition, High Expectations

Posted on November 10, 2010 by GilPress

“Now in 56 percent of U.S. households, High Definition television is one of the most quickly adopted consumer entertainment technologies of the past 20 years, but true HD viewing is still far eclipsed by viewing of standard definition television. Only 13 percent of total day viewing on cable and 19 percent of viewing on broadcast television is “true HD” viewing, which requires an HD television and HD tuner that are tuned to an HD channel.  In other words, despite the billions of dollars that Americans have spent buying high definition TVs, more than 80 percent of television viewing is still a standard definition experience.” —NielsenWire, November 8, 2010

“In the U.S., the Electronics Industries Association, National Telecommunications and Information Agency, and the American Electronics Association assume that the market [for High-Definition Television (HDTV) TVs] will take off in roughly 1994, 1997, and 2000 respectively.” –U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, The Big Picture: HDTV and High-Resolution Systems, June 1990

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Exploring Data Trails: Google’s Aaron Koblin

Posted on November 9, 2010 by GilPress

Aaron Koblin’s presentation (1-hour video) at MIT on data visualization.



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This Day in Information: The Bodleian Library

Posted on November 8, 2010 by GilPress

Today in 1602, the Bodleian Library was officially inaugurated at Oxford University. “Thomas Bodley wanted his library to become ‘a notable treasure for the multitude of volumes: an excellent benefit for the use and ease of studentes: and a singular ornament in the University.’ His vision of a library serving not only Oxford but the whole scholarly world – what he called the Republic of the Learned – has defined the Bodleian’s role as a university, national, and international library for over four hundred years.”

Indeed, the Republic of the Learned had flourished and throughout the 17th century, parish (and public) libraries were established in many towns in England (e.g., Francis Trigge Chained Library, Chetham’s Library). But that wasn’t enough for the Reverend James Kirkwood who published in 1699 “An Overture for Founding and Maintaining Bibliothecks in every Paroch throughout the Kingdom, ” arguing that  “[The] Establishing of Bibliothecks in every Paroch … will allure and provoke Gentlemen to spend their spare Hours in reading of new Books, which may prove a good Means to restrain them from Gaming and Drinking, by preventing that uneasie wearisome Idleness of Mind, which is the Parent of these, and many other Enormities.”

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InfoStory Quote: Blogging is Elementary, Dr. Watson

Posted on November 7, 2010 by GilPress

Therapist: Writing a blog about everything that happens to you will honestly help you.

Dr. Watson: Nothing happens to me.

—Sherlock, 2010

“I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was dispatched, accordingly, in the troopship “Orontes,” and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it.” –Dr. Watson, Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, 1887

 

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Rosenthal’s Laws of Digital Preservation

Posted on November 6, 2010 by GilPress

“The more copies, the safer. As the size of the data increases, the per-copy cost increases, reducing the number of backup copies that can be afforded.”

“The more independent the copies, the safer. As the size of the data increases, there are fewer affordable storage technologies. Thus, the number of copies in the same storage technology increases, decreasing the average level of independence.”

“The more frequently the copies are audited, the safer. As the size of the data increases, the time and cost needed for each audit to detect and repair damage increases, reducing their frequency.”

David S. H. Rosenthal, “Keeping Bits Safe: How Hard Can It Be?“ Communications of the ACM, November 2010.

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InfoStory Quotes: On Dogs and Books

Posted on November 5, 2010 by GilPress

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” —Groucho Marx

“The old saw says, ‘Let a sleeping dog lie.’ Right. Still, when there is much at stake, it is better to get a newspaper to do it.” —Mark Twain

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This Day In Information: Elections and the Media

Posted on November 4, 2010 by GilPress

Today in 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected U.S. President, taking over 55% of the popular vote and winning 39 of the 48 states. It was the first time two of the major television networks used computers to predict the election results.

“The radio and TV networks hope to end the suspense as quickly as possible on election night …. CBS has arranged to use Univac, an all-electronic automatic computer known familiarly as the “Giant Brain.” Because it is too big (25,000 lbs.) to be moved to Manhattan, CBS will train a TV camera on the machine at Remington Rand’s offices in Philadelphia …. NBC has its own smaller electronic brain … Monrobot …. Says ABC’s News Director John Madigan, professing a disdain for such electronic gimmicks: “We’ll report our results through Elmer Davis, John Daly, Walter Winchell, Drew Pearson—and about 20 other human brains.” –“Univac & Monrobot,” Time Magazine, October 27, 1952.

“When CBS hired a newly minted Univac to analyze the vote in the 1952 presidential election, network officials thought it a nifty publicity stunt. But when the printout appeared, an embarrassed Charles Collingwood reported that the machine couldn’t make up its mind. It was not until after midnight that CBS confessed the truth: Univac had correctly predicted Dwight Eisenhower would swamp Adlai Stevenson in one of the biggest landslides in history, but nobody believed it.” –Philip Elmer-De Witt, “Television Machines That Think,” Time Magazine, April 6, 1992

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The InfoStory Quant: Cyber Protection

Posted on November 2, 2010 by GilPress

New Unisys Security Index report tells us that

  • 80% of Americans regularly limit access to personal information that can be accessed on social media sites; only 6% never do this
  • 73% of Americans who access the internet regularly update antivirus software; only 8% never do this
  • Only 37% of Americans regularly use and update mobile device passwords.
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Body-to-Body: The Future of the Social Network

Posted on November 2, 2010 by GilPress

Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) researchers have developed wearable sensors that could create new ultra-high bandwidth mobile Internet infrastructures and reduce the density of mobile phone base stations. The researchers say the technology could lead to vast improvements in mobile gaming, remote healthcare, the precision monitoring of athletes, and real-time tactical training in team sports. The QUB researchers are studying how small sensors, carried by members of the public in next-generation smartphones, could communicate with each other in an extensive body-to-body network. “The availability of body-to-body networks could bring great social benefits, including significant healthcare improvements through the use of body-worn sensors for the widespread, routine monitoring and treatment of illness away from medical centers,” says QUB’s Simon Cotton.

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This Day In Information: Informed Citizenry

Posted on November 2, 2010 by GilPress

Today in 1772, the town of Boston established a Committee of Correspondence as an agency to organize a public information network in Massachusetts; the Committee drafted a pamphlet and a cover letter which it circulated to 260 Massachusetts towns and districts, instructing them in current politics and inviting each to express its views publicly; in each town, community leaders read the pamphlet aloud and the town’s people discussed, debated, and chose a committee to draft a response which was read aloud and voted upon. When 140 towns responded and their responses published in the newspapers, “it was evident that the commitment to informed citizenry was widespread and concrete” according to Richard D. Brown (in Chandler and Cortada (eds.), A Nation Transformed by Information). But why this commitment? In Liah Greenfeld‘s words (in Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity), “Americans had a national identity, the English national identity… The English idea of the nation implied the symbolic elevation of the common people to the position of an elite, which in theory made every individual the sole legitimate representative of his own interests and equal participant in the political life of the collectivity. It was grounded in the values of reason, equality, and individual liberty.”

 

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