RedHat to be available on Amazon EC2
Came across this article on the topic. I am more and more interested in trying out the EC2 and S3 services from Amazon. Will like to start with non-mission critical infrastructure and DR site for some of the corporate applications. The first step will be to run all our applications on virtual machines. I believe that the EC2 virtualization service is based on Xen. I hope we can run our complete corporate infrastructure on a service like this in the next 5 years.

I met Jeff Barr (blog), Chief Evangelist of Amazon Web Services (blog) at a conference and we had a good chat about their web services strategy.

This is how we will buy infrastructure in the future!

PCs being pushed aside in Japan
Came across this interesting AP story. I feel that highly mobile and user friendly narrow-function devices will over-take the PC as the primary computing devices for consumers. Increasing network bandwidth allows most of the transaction processing to occur in the the cloud and leaves the user devices to provide a great experience. Clearly, the generic multi-purpose PCs do not do the best job of that and users are increasingly attracted to narrow-function electronic devices.

Tablet PC from Apple? (article on Crave)
I have been recently trying out a whole lot of tablet devices:

• Nokia N800: Very cool Linux based internet tablet. Lots of applications are available for this device. The next generation of this device, N810, has a pullout full keyboard.
• iPhone: The best web-browsing experience on a small device
• iRex Iliad: e-Ink reader with WiFi. The refresh rate (1Hz) is the big drawback. Good book reading experience.

I think that, with the right user interface, a tablet computer can be really fun to use. Will love to see what apple will do to make it a reality.

Connectbeam: Enterprise Social Networking Appliance
They seem to be getting a lot of traction. I am not sure if social networking can succeed within the Enterprise. Will like to give this or a similar device a try.

Protest against IBM in SecondLife
I came across this very interesting protest when I read the news that the IBM Italy CEO has quit. The article has several links to how over 1,800 IBM Italy employees picketed on Second Life.

I also found this interesting Union web page explaining in detail how to join SecondLife.

Very interesting use of the virtual medium.

Enterprise Mashup Tool: JackBe
I think this is an essential functionality for Media web-sites and might even have value in the Enterprise space. One of the companies that seems to have a lot of traction is Jackbe.

Nokia: Point&Find
I just saw a blog posting on Gizmodo that Nokia is demonstrating a technology that helps you get information on any restaurant, cinema and even people. The search is conducted using a photo (camera phone) and GPS location. I have been very interested in technologies that improve the browsing experience on phones. This goes way beyond what is available now.

Here is a posting on another blog: MobileMentalism.com. A bit of interesting information on Nokia Research on the same blog: "Nearly a third of Nokia's total workforce is dedicated to R&D: a staggering 21,453 people. More amazing still is the amount Nokia spends on R&D - an almost unbelievable 3.9 billion Euros a year. WOW!

Will love to see a demo of how it works. Have been playing with N800, the internet tablet from Nokia. It is cool ... will love to get my hands on N810 that has been recently announced.

Sharp combines a Scanner with an LCD

This is very cool and has the potential of significantly improving "touch" based interfaces.

Story on InfoWorld

Press release from Sharp

Products using this technology are expected to ship next year!

Pic: From the Sharp Press release

Sony OLED TV
When I finally replaced my 13 year old Sony TV with a Pioneer Plasma a couple of years ago, I though that I was all set for the next 13. That was till I saw the new Sony OLED TV. It is 3 mm (.12 inches) thick and as a great picture. Complete story on one of the blogs. Will love to get to see one of these.

I suddenly feel that my TV may not last 13 years.

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) explained on Wikipedia.

Believe it can be delivered in a flexible film format (check-out the photo below).

Gadgetoff 2007:
Was invited to attend this very interesting Geekfest last Friday. Got to see and try some really cool stuff. Check out the video captured by the New York Mag team. I am in one of the frames watching the flame-thrower cook a steak. It did not taste bad. :-)