David Zach, futurist

Augmented reality demo by Sony

Sony Demonstrates Life-Altering SmartAR (augmented reality) Technology http://bit.ly/kQN3hc

This is the way it will start. Pretty soon reality will look naked without it, and just as rude and socially unacceptable. 

The worst part about the prediction for the end of the world today is that if it actually does happens, we won't be able to talk with each other about how cool it was.

Gever Tulley on 5 Dangerous Things for Kids | Video on TED.com

1 day ago: One year for Christmas I bought my 4 year old son a small shovel, a hammer and an inductive flashlight. For Easter of 2010 I bought him a bow and arrows. I teach him how to use spray paint, tools, and even let him help me start the fire in the winter. I am a HUGE proponent of everything this man says. We have become too protective and afraid as a society in the USA. The rest of the world is going to knock us down, take our lunch money and fly our pants from the flagpole if we don't start letting our kids take chances again.

via www.ted.com

I'm crafting a talk for an economic development group in Oakland County Michigan - and one of the themes I'm going to address is "How can you have a bleeding edge ... if you're afraid of a little blood?" With the evolution of helicopter parenting, we've exiled the concept of risk - and reward from too many heads of children.

Too much planning for the sake of eliminating risk is likely to make for a very predictable future. It also means that most of the real innovations and breakthroughs are going to come from those who have not been afflicted with such fears of risk and reward.

http://www.fiftydangerousthings.com/ - makes me wish I were a kid again - though I suspect that I was from a favored time when I did a lot of those things, and have a favorite few scars to prove it.

The iPad, and the Staggering Work of Obviousness : Cheerful

The heartbreaking fate of the lovable Newton is exemplar of everything that is wrong at an Apple without Steve Jobs, and why a customer reaction of “Is that it?” can be a product designer’s best friend.

via cheerfulsw.com

As someone who foolishly bought not one, but two Newtons, I am really looking forward to the iPad that will no doubt work. How do I know? Because people I trust think it's a game-changer.

It arrives on Friday the 30th. April continues to be the cruelest month, right to the very last day.

How Important is the iPad? - Yahoo! News

On two occasions, Steve Jobs has called the iPad the "most important product" he has ever worked on. Keep in mind, this is the guy who, along with Steve Wozniak, essentially invented the personal computer. Jobs was also the driving force behind Apple's desktop publishing vision. He also gave the world the iPod and iPhone, products that have gone on to redefine the way we think about their respective spaces.

via news.yahoo.com

Only 101 hours, give or take a few minutes until I get to pick up my iPad 64g 3G. Not that I'm actually counting.

Interesting article on Steve Jobs' take on the importance of the iPad. From everything I've learned by talking with people who have them and reading various articles, this is a game changing technology.

The Sage of Fresno: Victor Davis Hanson

Selma, California—Most people who earn Ph.D.’s aspire to tenure-track professorships, think tank jobs, or careers in government. When Stanford University awarded Victor Davis Hanson his classics degree 26 years ago, he chose to become a farmer.

via www.hoover.org

A short bio on a favorite author and Classics scholar.

Hanson, reflecting on visiting Normandy, leads one to "prefer the wisdom of the noble dead to the ignorance of the shameful living."

Maybe that's why so many people today seemingly rush towards the allure of all the possible tomorrows — they're actually running away from the embarrassment of the present.

Paleo-Future - Paleo-Future Blog

The September 1, 1896 San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA) ran this image of inventor Dr. C. A. Smith's flying machine. Apparently Smith had a model of his airship propped up on two stools in a shop on Market Street in San Francisco. The functional version of the machine was to be 105 feet in length and have a capacity of nearly 90,000 cubic feet of hydrogen.

via www.paleofuture.com

One of my favorite blogs — I hope I don't insult this guy by saying we often think alike. He seems to also recognize that new is not necessarily good and old is often actually still futuristic. Unlike a lot of looks at the future, there's a lot of fun here. Remember when the future was going to be fun?

I just noticed that he's taking a break from Twitter, which I also did about a month ago. I'm still on Twitter, though I deleted my original account, and am only using it for research on speech topics [check out @stevekoss @steveshu @futureaware & @wallybock ]

For some strange reason I decided that limiting my thoughts to 140 characters was a insulting thing and the addictive nature of Twitter was something that I was loath to admit, but had to — and like this guy, I chose to just walk [type] away from it. Nice to know strangers that I admire have the similar thoughts.

The future isn't what it used to be — in fact it never was and when it is, it isn't.

SteynOnline - DING-DONG! THE WITCH IS DEAD

Four generations of children know those words, delivered by a four-foot municipal official holding an outsized death certificate 71 years ago in The Wizard Of Oz. The Munchkin coroner, played by Meinhardt Raabe, outlived almost all his Oz compatriots - young Dorothy, the Wizard, the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion and most of the Munchkins - but ten days ago Bob Rigel, president of the Penney Retirement Community in Penney Farms, Florida, confirmed that Mr Raabe was himself not merely dead but really most sincerely dead, at the age of 94. I don't know if the Sunshine State issues Oz-sized death certificates, but, if not, they might like to make an exception in this case. Those 20 words are the entirety of Meinhardt Raabe's Hollywood career - just a little over ten seconds of screen time, and, audio-wise, he became convinced his lines had been dubbed in post-production. But for the next seven decades he dutifully reprised them at Oz conventions and in speeches to schools and Rotary Clubs - and parlayed them into a lifelong minor celebrity complete with memoir, Memories Of A Munchkin. He grew up (if that's the phrase) in Watertown, Wisconsin, where no one had ever seen a dwarf before. Not until he was 18 and he visited the Midget Village at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago did he become aware that there were others like him. He was an accountant, and the shortest pilot in uniform in World War Two, and for 30 years the prototype "Little Oscar, the World's Smallest Chef", traveling coast to coast in the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile promoting Oscar Mayer foods - from whom he took a sabbatical in 1938 when he saw an advertisement seeking midgets for a new motion picture. If Oz became a burden to Judy Garland, Meinhardt Raabe took his ten seconds of fame and lived it to the full for the best part of three-quarters of a century.

via www.steynonline.com

It would seem that local boy Meinhardt Raabe, The Oz's Munchkin coroner who pronounced "And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead." is also now most sincerely dead at age 94. Mark Steyn writes a sincere paean to the actors, writers, stories and the land of Oz.

YouTube - Melody Gardot - Baby I'm a Fool

via www.youtube.com [YouTube doesn't allow embedding, so just follow the next link after clicking.]

Beautiful song, great artist, cool video. [and, in case you would wonder, for me the definition of "futuristic" is for anything that has lasting value. New stuff is not futuristic, it's the timeless stuff. And that's why I'm posting it on this futurist's blog.]

The Future of Shopping

A video by Cisco to demonstrate its architectural vision for "Borderless Networks". Company networks are undergoing so-called “de-perimeterization,” as online collaboration with partners, customers, telecommuters, and others outside the physical LAN becomes more and more important to doing business. At the same time, these users are able to connect to company resources with a wider variety of devices, including smartphones, Blackberries, and other handheld devices. This is great in terms of access, but not so great in terms of security. The old security model is dependent on “border patrol” via firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, DMZs, and other perimeter protection methods. In the new, borderless network, the focus shifts to protection of the data itself.

via www.flixxy.com

Rather cool video about one more expected application of augmented reality. How will old-school reality ever be able to compete?