Microsoft's New Surface

The Future now

Back in college I heard about the "Surface" technology.  It was a tablet surface the size of a table and the surface was so intelligent that is could detect any thing that was placed on it and or was programmed to. The technology seemed unreal but awesome at the same time.

The technology that I am talking about was Surface Table by Microsoft. The advertisements that I saw at the time was from the Microsoft Surface promo website. They made the table smart to be used in a restaurant or in a home. The surface of this table table could sense anything that was placed on it and display information about that was placed on the surface on the screen.

1st Example: You are at a New High Tech restaurant and all the tables in the restaurant have Surface systems. You come in and are seated by the host. The host walks away after touching the surface with her card and entering a number of guests on the table, but doesn't hand you or your guest any menus. Then you see the table come up with menus and a commercial of the latest dish that restaurant has. You are prompted to select a drink from the touch screen and also your appetizers and meals. Then shortly after you had made your selection what what you wanted to drink a waitress is finally present and delivers your drinks. Once the glasses are placed on the Surface there will be a ring around the base of the glass that identifies what is in the glass. (say its Ice Tea, unsweetened and your is a sweet tea) you could also see the surface detail automatically as you start to get low on your drink that you will be prompted for a refill (Yes or No) and once you make you selection you waitress comes again to fill you up.

That same tech is seen again if you ordered a Pizza or a hamburger and there would be a ring displayed on the table to show what it is that you ordered... plus if the nutrition facts were available you could see that as well.

Paying you bill would be easy as well all you would have to do i place your credit or debit card on the sure in a precess your transaction at your table with out giving you card to the waiter.

2nd Example:  You get home and place your Keys cellphone and wallet on the surface in your hall and walk to you living room and sit down to another surface device. you tap the glass to wake the surface and you will be promoted with a list of connected devices that are on the Surface in your house and you could instantly have access to your photos on your cellphone or the contacts list or emails. You could identify where you wallet was left on which surface in the house or what key are on the table in the hall. You could control the TV and Lighting and other Smart devices in your home with any surface in the home.

Security

Granted most of this stuff that I mentioned was not all on the commercial. But I'm sure that you would be able to do all that I had mentioned. Maybe its creepy to you. But security could be implemented. Say a finger print scanner or retina scanner on the surface. You could lock your devices so that they could not be accessed from the surface. I'm sure that many people would be worry of privacy issues that could arise or theft. But at the same time all of these things would be looked into I can guarantee you they would have too.

This was back in 2007-09 when I first saw this technology or something like it. But now the "Surface" has come to light again. Microsoft have made and even small device much easier to transport and looks a lot like the iPad by Apple. I just wonder if this thing can do half the stuff I talked about above. Who knows, but we will find out.


Any thoughts? Comments? What do you think?

My 2 Cents: Colorado Massacre

Why?

This is the basic question that is going through everyone mind. Why would someone planning out a full out execution of Movie goers and booby trap his house to kill anyone that enters and kill everyone else that is in the building and blast radius.

Why did he drop out of the graduate program at the Colorado University? Why...? Why...? Why...?

The back story

Everyone knows by know what has happened I'm sure. If you haven't been watching by any news channel you know that this kid, James Holmes. Who is 24 years old. Killed 12 people and wounded/injured 58 others using a ar-15 with a 100 round drum and a shotgun and a pistol.

Two smoke bombs(tear gas) was used to start the ciaos. The shooter has starting shooting shortly after the smoke started to rise.  I will stop at the point.

My reactions

When I first heard the store it was around 8am EST on Friday. When a co-worker state that he had saw an alert about the issue in the news. I began to look into the article to read more. At the time I started seeing numbers like 13 dead 28 injured and words like  "Dozens Dead...", I was shocked. Then the questions of why started to pop in my head. Then they stated he was a PHD student of Neurology... He dropped out of school after only being there for 1 year in a 5 - 8 year program...

I Then heard that they were trying to get into the guys window of his apartment because he had booby trapped his apartment.

Well all of this information was wondering in my head I saw that they caught the guy...

My 2 cents

Why didn't the police kill this guy? Why did the guy decide to tell the policy that he booby trapped his house? Why didn't the kid run? and more thought. How did he get in the exit door of the theater?

First off I am not giving any credit to this kid. I was very angry at what I was seeing and reading on the internet about this guy. Yes the police made this kid out to be a genius in booby craps.  And others were stating that this guy had a moment of insanity.

I thought to my self, why would this guy do this? One is he was failing school and felt that because if finally failed at something he felt he needed to seek out revenge on others that had a better chance of make it then he did or the studding day and night and all the random thoughts in his head studing for school and he just had enough when he failed his exam. He decided that I tried my best and I failed screw it. I going to make this "college town" pay.

The other thought was they his girl friend broke up with him. And that crushed him so he got a ticket to the same theater his ex was in to kill here and all the others.

Of course this is just what I was trying to deduce as to why this kid was doing this. The guy had a ton of time to plan this thing out and let the plan build to flourition.

What do you think caused this guy to react this way? Do you even care? Do you think that this will cause theaters to change policies? Gun laws to change? Other thoughts?

The Next BIG Technology Advancement

The next big technology that is soon to come is going to be a solution that will help eliminate all theft (shop lifting) and inventory loses. This same technology will help stores with making the checkout processes easier and faster; as well for all of us that hate waiting in those endless lines at the store.

So what is this technology? And how does it work? How much will is cost? What is the impact?

There was an article in the news paper a few months back that stated that stores were looking to place RFID tags into items to help with inventory and theft prevention. But as you read the article you could tell that the writer had no idea what he was saying in stating that "the technology could be used to track you and invade your privacy."

The fact is this technology is not for tracking people as all. The technology is only used in the store and as soon as you purchase the product as the cash register, the RFID tags will be deactivated.

What are these RFID tags? Where will they be placed? These RFIDs can be the size of a strand of hair. They will be used to uniquely identify the items it is placed in or on. For example they can be placed in toys, games, clothes, shoes, CDs, any thing and everything non-editable. And for those things that are editable the tags will be place on or around those items. Like on a sticker on a piece of fruit or a bag of bread and in the tub of butter (embedded in the plastic).

The Tag its self reads just like a barcode, but it has a lot more information associated with it. The Code is just a simple number that can categorize the item the size, color, price, make, brand, manufacture, expiration date, etc.

Manufacturing
All Manufactures would need to change their labeling on their products to allow for the insertion/embedding of this thread it be one more fiber added to clothing or a bag. Just like the Bar codes that are on all sales items today.
These manufactures would need two more major pieces of equipment besides the actual fiber. First is the reader as the assembly line. The reader would detect is the thread is inserts into the item and also inventory the item and add all information to the database. The second reader would scan items being shipped out . this would date the logs on what, when, to whom and how much was shipped.

How does the RFID work?
The tags are placed in the item within the store, can be read at all times by a scanner “RFID reader”. The RFID reader sends out a signal to the RFID tags to provide power to the RFID chip inside and then the chip will reply to the reader with the RFID information. The Reader/s is fully capable of reading hundreds of thousand of tags at a single time. The tags all read back to the reader a Code. This code would then in turn reference a data base that states how much inventory was taken in and sold or taken out, etc.

All of this data can be used to order more products or keep track of inventory for the store.

Checkout
Checking out couldn’t be any easier and faster. All you would have to do is walk right up to the register and the scanners there would detect everything in the cart and on the person that was not purchased. And then a item list would be displayed and the total. The customer could see any amounts that didn’t look right and tell the cashier to make any changes necessary.

Theft control
These scanners located at all entrances to the store are set to track all products that has not been inventoried (new product to be added to inventory) or not purchased (items in inventory yet to be sold) and purchased (Items removed from inventory that was purchased by the customer).

So the door checkers would solely have the position to stop theft only and not waste time stopping honest customers.

All new inventory that was received by the trucks could be scanned before the trucks were unloaded into the store and or scanned once they were in the building as new inventory and then registered as stock or active sale.

Summary
This in the technology that will be the next big thing that will change the market place as we know it. The big players that I would see using this technology first would be Wal-Mart and all the larger companies like Sam’s club, BJ’s, and Costco. This would help to keep the costs low and products even lower. This would save tons in man hours used to count inventory in the store. This would help speed up the checkout lines at the register. And last but not least stop all theft.

This is the technology that I think will be the future. What do you think?

Help Wanted / Given

Pay it Forward?

What does it mean to you? In the society that we live, is it worth paying it forward?

OK, First let me explain to you what I think Pay it forward is and how it works.

Pay it forward – To give some of yourself and or ability to someone that is in need without requiring anything in return. Then that person is to do the same thing to someone else.  Eventually the Paid forward will come full circle and someone will pay it forward back to you.

I personally think that this only works with person/s that have been raised to be generous and always think of others before themselves. In my short life time I have seen only a few people that were like this and those people were very humble and were willing to do anything without any complaints.

Example:

I recently had to re-sod my front yard because the drought and chinch bugs killed my lawn so I rented a tiller and ordered a couple pallets of grass. I put on my work clothes and boots and tilled the front lawn on one day and started to lay out my grass squares the next day. A neighbor and his wife had just happened to be walking by my house and the husband stopped and asked me if I needed any help? I said, "no, I’m good I can do it." He insisted, and said "I’ll be right back after I get home from my walk with my wife and I will change over and come help you". I said "Okay, but you really don’t have too."

I totally thought this guy is not going to do it. This was some hard labor. It’s like 100+- degrees and I was burning up. I continued to do my lawn work and about 45 minutes later he showed up and began to help me out. It was also at this time, my wife also came outside to help lay the grass with me as well.

I wanted to pay this guy back, take him out to dinner or something. I couldn’t just let him just do all this hard work and not get anything in return. I told him "I have a case of beer in the frig. You can have for helping me." He said “I don’t drink.” I said I’ll take you out to eat anything you want to eat, just name it. He said there is nothing that he wanted to eat and that he didn’t want anything. I said come on you want something. I wanted to pay him something. 2~ hours later we finished laying out the grass and later he went home.

To this day I still want to pay him back, I just don’t know where he lives or what his name was.

It just seems that people like that neighbor are few far and in between. Or simply just don’t exist. I have seen more times than not people that just take advantage of people like that. These "users" just run them into the ground, an never give a second thought to think about the other person or at least try to do something for them.

I find myself thinking of things that I can do to help my friends. Like if they say they are having a hard time or need to do tasks that I know that I can help with. I end up volunteering myself to help them complete their tasks.

I have found my self staying late to help someone out at work off the clock just to be nice. Or just hang out with some of my co-workers when they have the late shift because I know how much it sucks to sit in an empty building with no one there just the hum of the lights and computer systems.

I am only looking for one thing in return, gratitude.

I just wonder if there are people out there that think like I do. Am I a fool for helping people?

Sometimes I feel like why should I bother helping people out if all I get in return is more “tasks” to complete.

Leave a comment below and tell me what you think, I really would like to know.

Conspiracy Theories - About "stuff"

Conspiracy Theories - About "stuff"

I was taking the trash out the other day and was looking down the road and all I saw was tons and tons of trash. I thought to my self, ‘wow that is a lot of trash, where is all this stuff going, dump sites must be over flowing’.

So what happened to the days of things being built with quality in mind?Why are we are so driven to buy the latest and greatest of everything? Like Cars, Clothes, electronics, and other stuff? And once you buy the latest and greatest, why does it not last?

I’m guessing that is has a lot to do with big business and manufacturing. I also think it has a lot to do with the Government as well. Here’s and example of what I’m talking about.

I was sitting in my Grand mothers house the other day looking at a Microwave that had to have been at least 40 years old and it actually worked better that mine at my house, that I just bought that was 1100 watts, the quality of the material that went into her machine was better to. Mine just had a ton of plastic pieces and more buttons. I some times had to nuke my meal twice just to get it hot enough to eat. But not her machine, I put a hot pocket in that thing and it was done in less time than the direction specified (with out a cold center, cooked all the way through).

So how does this have to do with the government and big business? Well there was a president recently and also in the 50s that stated that we as a nation need to become more consumer based and purchase more to get the economy going. And so the Big businesses said well, if we are going to need people to spend more money then we need to make cheaper products and also advertise things to the tune of people wanting everything they see on a TV commercial, or read in a magazine or see on a billboard. So business started making cheaper and cheaper quality products to sell to the public.We have to make them feel like buying the product will change their lives and make them feel good.

Women fall victim to the spending “hook” everyday. Everything that is sold or shown on TV, movies, commercials, News, magazines… everywhere is geared for women (and men, But we are only talking about the women for now). Ever go shopping with a woman, your mother, or daughter or other? And lets say that you are looking for a mans pair of gloves and hat. (The reason I mention this is because I was looking for one the other day with my wife). So we went to a local shopping area that is basically a street lined with tons of shops all the way down the road. It was very cold out side so I wanted to find a simple pair of gloves and a nice warm hat. We went from shop to shop up this road and to be honest I must have seen about 30 shops that didn’t contain anything for men. I saw about 25 of those 30 that had tons of hats of all kinds and gloves. But, luckily by the time we reached the end of the road there was women’s story that literally had only one self that had only two hats to choose from and no gloved. I never did find and gloves that day; only the little beanie hat.

This is not the only place that you see this type of setup that is strictly for the women. You can see this in malls, big box stores and a lot of other places. Now of course I’m not talking able the Men’s stores like suits and shops that are specifically for guys. But for men we have a whole other ball of wax to talk about here.

So why is this, the case? Well the answer is very obvious its in and on everything. It’s all around us. Like I stated before it’s on TV, commercials, movies, billboards poster, everywhere. Woman are told on some of these commercials it if you are feeling bad buy “X” product. Or look at these “women” the House wives and look at all the money they spend and the clothes they wear and the things they own. “Don’t you wish you could be like them?” It’s all a mental mind game.

This same trick is being played on guys as well. We see it the same why, we see the hot women and or girls on TV and we think what is it that attract that kind of woman to guys? And then you see the guy that is handsome and or topless with muscles everywhere. And you think well I could lose a little weight, I need to go to the gym. Or I need to buy that product that they are selling to help me lose weight or get into shape like that guy. Or they portray a normal looking guy that gets all the girls if he buys this cologne that makes the girls flock to him.

Most of men that I know including my self we are pretty much comfortable with the stuff we have and not require much. We don’t need to stay on top of the latest fashion; we don’t care about the latest CD or Car. We are happy just to get what we have a keep what we have and make it last.

This cycle continues to go round and round all the time. Making you buy everything they are selling or a similar product. Just like the smart phone wars. And the thing is that everyone for the most part knows that the technology with change every year an some times every six months and the Corporations know this. This brings me to the next topic.

Big business knows already months ahead of time that they will be releasing a new product every so often to keep it customers coming back for more. Like the iPhone. Every year just about there has been a new release of the iPhone. They always add new features (software) and change the hard ware just enough to make you say I want that phone. The thing is do you really need to upgrade? The honest answer is no. But you want to stay up with technology and not be left behind, so you want the phone. This effect is the same across all products.

I will add more about this topic later on. I figure I would share my thoughts on the topic.{EAV:8ff0d881873374d6}