Infographic: Free Cities
Theo Deutlinger, one of my favorite infographic artists, has an interesting take on the branding of cities.
He visualizes cities with “free” as a prefix or suffix, both geographically and on a timeline. Of the data, 90% of the cities were in Western languages (German, Spanish, Slavic, English) and farther back on the timeline. The remaining 10% were in non-Western languages, and were developed more recently.
Conclusion:
It seems that within Europe the free town concept was used as instrument for urban development while outside it was used as marking the end from European oppression.
Secret Service Technology
A classified review of the United States Secret Service’s computer technology found that the agency’s computers were fully operational only 60 percent of the time because of outdated systems and a reliance on a computer mainframe that dates to the 1980s, according to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.
Singer on Drone Defense
Singer (one of the smartest folks in DC) does a good job outlining the threat of cheap and plentiful drones:
Today, the lag time between the development of military technology and its widespread dissemination is measured in months, not years. Industrial farmers around the world already use aerial drones to dust their crops with pesticides. And a recent U.S. Air Force study concluded that similar systems are “an ideal platform” for dirty bombs containing radioactive, chemical, or biological weapons—the type of WMDs that terrorists are most likely to obtain. Such technologies have the potential to strengthen the hand not only of Al Qaeda 2.0, but also of homegrown terror cells and disaffected loners like Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. As one robotics expert told me, for less than $50,000 “a few amateurs could shut down Manhattan.”
However, his prescription for a defensive strategy is far from optimal:
To succeed in this revolution, we need something many competitor countries already have: a national robotics strategy. That means graduate scholarships, lab funding, and a Silicon Valley–style corridor for corporate development. Otherwise we are destined to depend on the expertise of others. Already a growing number of American defense and technology firms rely on hardware from China and software from India, a clear security concern.
The solution isn’t a new Manhattan project. It’s in widespread tinkering.
JooJoo Is Going To Fail
Ignoring all the TechCrunch fluff, this thing is going to crash and burn. Why? No local storage means it’s basically a $500 screen with a battery and a buggy interface. A castrated netbook (which in themselves are pretty impotent.)
The only hope Fusion Garage has is to turn that – it’s an empty touch interface – into a strength and apply it to solve a niche problem with custom software (think warehouse management, or libraries, etc). One possible route is as a web conference interface. (Would require a better built in webcam, however, though whiteboarding is a real option again.)
Some of those will require dropping the price quite a bit though.
Rethinking Building Homes
Very cool. Martell Home Builders are rethinking the way families purchase homes. In short, the builder facilitates, rather than dictates.
- Strict timeline. 99 days. Excellent for an industry that has long thrived on perpetual delays.
- Makes a complex process transparent (via a rich media focused project management system.) This builds trust and drives innovation.
Coupled with the right support systems, (transparent financing, innovative architecture, local production of materials etc) this could be huge. If they let you gets hand on, you can save a pretty penny and learn something as well. (There’s a TV show to be had here as well.)