technology

The Great Science Fiction Gap?

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I was talking with a friend who’s a fellow Silicon Valley resident and professional about the various devices and gizmos we’d seen – and that frankly we weren’t sure about what the holidays would bring. Nothing enthused me, the gaming platforms seemed to be headed for weirdness and overstepping. Nothing seemed, well interesting. Or new.  Or meeting a need.

This quickly led to discussions about innovation, where we needed to innovate, and why we innovated. This in turn led to science fiction.

A realization settled: we’re living in the technical worlds that we saw created in the 80’s and 90’s.

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What I Learned From Dinklage

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Sadly, this column is NOT about me and Peter Dinklage on a road trip where we learn valuable life lessons.  OK, that would probably be pretty cool (“He’s a Project Manager!  He is constructing a house entirely out of Emmys!  They’re on a trip to wackiness!”), but no, Dinklage is my phone.

I got a Droid Razr Max HD, and since it’s small and powerful and gorgeous,  I nicknamed it Dinklage for obvious reasons.

The phone has taught me some valuable lessons.  Without a road trip.  I share them because this phone is an example of buying a personal device based on what my friend Doug calls “Use Cases” – what we want to do and what we buy or make to address it.  In turn there’s a lot of lessons for technology and those of us who use it and work in it.

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Home Theater PC Adventures

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I haven’t used my XBox in a week.

This is not some great statement on my ability to focus on work – I’ve been gaming, watching Netflix, and more.  I’ve just been doing it on an accidental Home Theater PC.

I say accidental, because it’s a laptop I got to let me work out of my home office more effectively.  But as I have thought of building a Home Theater PC (HTPC), I started experimenting.  See how the HDMI goes, try out a wireless game controller, take a look at Steam . . .

. . . and end result is that this is that I’m really not using the XBox anymore, which was my prime media system.

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