Is Glass Revolutionary, Or Just Revolting?

Google has spent considerable time and money making its wearable computer, Glass, ready for a general consumer rollout. Google's latest move has been to make the device work with prescription lenses and a variety of frames. But is it just too geeky to succeed?

Here's a video that introduces how Glass works. And here is an NPR story about what it is like to wear Glass around other people.

Questions...

•Is Glass too geeky to succeed?

•Is it more like an iPhone, which a lot of people want, or more like a Segway, which only a few people want?

•Who is most likely to buy Google Glass? Who is the target customer?

•Will people eventually get used to others wearing Glass?

•How might Glass be a bad thing for the wearer, or for others?

•Design a Glass app for the Getty Center.

Sam Cyberspade

Something of great value has been taken from you. The police are no help.

As any reader of classic detective fiction will tell you, it is time to call a Private Eye (think Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade) who has ways of finding disreputable people with valuable things.

Today, the valuable things being taken from people are computers and smart phones. And increasingly, people have their own technological way to track them. And the police are telling these amateur detectives to be careful. The LA Weekly reports.

Questions...

•Define "Disintermediation." How is this an example of that?

•What other valuables could someday be trackable online?

•Could this type of tracking technology be used against law-abiding people? How?

•Would you put a tracking chip in your dog or cat? Your elderly grandfather? Your small child?

WikiTV, or Snakes on a Tube?

Usually, a new television show is lucky if it can trot out a few well-written characters and contains some ideas that, at least, seem fresh. But HitRECord is striving to define what a TV show is.

HitRECord is audience-participation TV. Here is a trailer for the show. And here is a Los Angeles Times article about it.

Questions...

•How is this different from most TV shows? What past or current TV shows does it most resemble?

•What is the "We Are Smarter Than Me" Theory, and how does it apply here?

•Do you believe that thousands of people on the Internet can out-create a half-dozed professional television writers? If so, how?

•How will this show build an audience?

•Is this the future of TV?

Shifting Out of Neutral

"Net Neutrality" is a complex legal, philosophical, technological and economic issue that a some people (including a very smart JPL engineer friend of Your Humble Blogger) are deeply interested in. In brief, Net Neutrality is the idea that internet service providers (ISPs) must offer equal access to web sites. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would have the job of enforcing net neutrality. The counterargument is that ISPs have the right to restrict internet access as they see fit. A recent federal appeals court decision ruled in favor of the ISPs and against the FCC. National Public Radio reports.

Questions...

•Was the FCC regulating for the public good, or was it wrongly inhibiting the free market?

•Phone companies are common carriers, meaning they must allow equal access to all phone numbers. Should the ISPs be treated the same way?

•How does the federal appeals court decision affect freedom of information in the U.S.?

•What does this decision mean for streamed entertainment?

•What are the arguments against net neutrality?

TV or Not TV? (That is the question)

Ultra-high definition televisions are getting bigger and have crisper pictures than ever. But does the audience really care? The Los Angeles Times reports.

Questions...

•Has television "jumped the shark"? Is it a declining medium?

•How much television do you watch, compared to your parents?

•What are all the capabilities, video and otherwise, that a modern television should have?

•Will these ultra HD televisions be successful in the marketplace? Why or why not?

•How will television be different in 10 years?

Upping Their Game?

The video game industry has grown so large that its profits rival that of the movie industry. So it makes sense that game makers are exploring the far reaches of what a game can communicate, while remaining playable and profitable. This NPR story discusses the rise of so-called empathy games.

Questions...

•Why do you think companies are experimenting with "empathy games"?

•Which is the better teaching tool--games or films? Why?

•Which is the better storytelling tool? Why?

•Which is the better persuasive tool? Why?

•Will empathy games be successful at broadening the gamer audience?

•Should games be considered a mass medium? Why or why not?

Dump the Disk?

How do you spell DVD? In a few years, it may be D-E-A-D. Sales of streamed entertainment is booming, while the sales of disks are falling. There are many reasons for this, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

Questions...

•Will people always want to own physical copies of their favoriteTV shows, movies and music? Why or why not?

•What are the advantages of streamed video for the consumer?

•What are the advantages of streamed video for the studio or distributor?

•Who loses out with the streaming model?

Your Talking Toothbrush

Internet-connected scales and beds are among the high-tech gadgets being previewed at this week's Consumer Electronics Show. Is there no end to what parts of their private lives that people will share over the Internet?

NPR reports.

Questions...

•How might a person use an Internet-connected scale?

•What are other everyday items that might be connected to the Internet?

•If every new car becomes a 4G Internet hotspot, how does that change the idea of what a car is? And what if the car can drive itself?

•Does all this Internet connectivity matter to advertisers? How?