3D printers can create solid objects from data. In the near future, you may own one. You may buy products printed to your specifications. Or you may know someone who has an artificial body part made by a 3D printer. In this enlightening TED video, Lisa Harouni shows how this technology works and how it might work for us.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_harouni_a_primer_on_3d_printing.html
Category: Chapter 3 Hardware Basics: Peripherals
After seeing some mysterious photos someone found on a brand new iPhone, comedian Mike Daisey travelled to China to find out where and how our digital gadgets are made. He tells his story (EDIT: his “story” was later found out to be just that, a story) in this episode of public radio’s This American Life.
www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory
Categories
-Context 14.6 Inventing the Future: The Future of Programming 3.5 Inventing the Future: Tomorrow's Peripherals 4.5 File Management: Where's My Stuff? 8.4 The Network Advantage 9.5: Inventing the Future: The Invisible Information Infrastructure Chapter 13 E-Commerce and E-Business: The Evolving Internet Economy Ports and Slots Revisited
Making the Cloud Clear
NPR.org/2011/12/26/143795017/now-hovering-above-us-all-the-cloud
If you’re not completely clear about “the cloud,” reading or listening to this short NPR story should help. Even if you understand the basics, you’ll probably be surprised by the many different ways that cloud technology is changing our world.
NPR.org/2011/12/26/144146395/the-touchy-feely-future-of-technology
A few years ago touch-screen devices were novelties; today they’re everywhere. Hundreds of millions of smart phones and tablets are profoundly changing the ways people interact with tools, the Internet, and each other. This excellent NPR report covers the evolution of touch technology. Segments examine unusual uses, social implications, and future applications of this rapidly-changing technology. The site includes both text and audio versions of the story.
Intel co-invented USB. Apple invented FireWire. Now the two companies have collaborated to produce Thunderbolt, a fast, flexible technology that may eventually make both of those earlier technologies obsolete. Born in Intel’s research labs, Thunderbolt first appeared earlier this year in Apple’s Macbook Pro. Thunderbolt will provide lightning-fast connection speeds for monitors, hard drives, input devices, and other types of peripherals, once those peripherals are redesigned with Thunderbolt interfaces.www.intel.com/technology/io/thunderbolt/index.htm