A thought on computer control...

Last week I was invited to speak, along with a colleague, at an UCISA event in Huddersfield on the LSE's trials and tribulations of a rapid roll-out of Windows 7 and Office 2010 to our 1000 plus student and teaching room PCs. If you're interested, you can see our presentation here.

But that is not my reason for writing. It was while I was on the train from Kings Cross that I downloaded the new Wired Magazine app for the iPad. As electronic magazines go, this surely sets the gold standard: a beautiful interface, a clear and elegant design - akin to the paper based magazine - that the iPad renders superbly. The best bit, however, is all the 'secret' mulit-media content accessed by rotating the iPad or tapping on the various icons. This month I was able to explore the film sets of Aardman, creators of that dynamic plasticine duo Wallace and Gromit, in glorious 360-degree panoramas.

But even that is not the reason for my post today. No, it was an article in Wired on a new way of interacting with computers that caught my attention. A San Francisco based company called Emotiv has designed a way to literally control a PC by thought! Now part of me gets a little (or even a lot!) worried by that. The other part thinks Wow! this must be the future of computer interaction. The device uses 'neuro-signal acquisition' - a set of sensors to tune into electric signals produced by the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expressions and then connects wirelessly to most PCs. Their website suggests that the technology can be used to translate one's thoughts and emotions into art and music, to add a whole new dimension to playing games, and to get true insight into the effectiveness of marketing and advertising. There is of course, one other dimension where Emotiv should be able to help - in creating life-changing applications for the disabled. That could be a "thought keyboard" or innovative ways to control peripherals or even wheelchairs! And this is something that AACT4Children, the charity I am a Trustee of, should think about getting into.

So you would expect the Emotiv EPOC (their headset product) to be hugely expensive. Because it is still in development and requires other developers to work with it, they are selling this incredible technology for just $299! The downside - it seems to be only available in the US. Otherwise I think I would have placed my order today! I think this kind of technology, along with the camera/sensor/action recognition systems being developed by the Gaming industry (see Microsoft's new Kinect and of course the Wii), is the future. The days of the mouse and keyboard are clearly numbered.

Steve Ballmer on the Cloud, Xbox Kinetic, and the demise of Microsoft(!) at LSE

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, came to give a talk at the LSEthis morning. Nothing that unusual about that, perhaps, from the institution whose public events programme have included Bill Gates senior, Nelson Mandella, Bill Clinton and a host of other heads of state and global figures. Slightly unusual was that the ticketed (but free) event was hugely oversubscribed. Even more unusual was that it started at 8.30am in the morning, with students and others (myself included) queuing for ‘returns’ well before 8.00am. And I don’t think it was just the offer of LSE free coffee that drew them in (no, I know that’s not the case.. have you ever tried LSE coffee?!). Alas, I didn’t get to see Steve in person. I was herded into an adjacent lecture theatre and watched him via a video link.

So what did Steve talk about? Well, his presentation was entitled"Seizing the Opportunity of the Cloud: the Next Wave of Business Growth." But what did he really say? In truth, not a lot. He only spoke for 35 minutes and he was light on content. The slides sucked (though that might just be their rendition via the video link). Having talked about the evolution of IT, he tried to describe the “Cloud” and failed, though he did manage to plug Microsoft’s Azure. Then he moved onto Microsoft’s soon to be launched (next month in the UK no less) Xbox Kinetic. A short video clip showed kids enjoying the “full body experience” but I just got the feeling that it’s yet another Microsoft remake of someone else’s innovation (in this case the Wii). I don’t really see anything original coming out of Redmond.

But Steve was much more animated than I expected and he really opened up with the 30 minutes of Q and A towards the end. There were, of course, the usual media questions: Microsoft’s position, its competitors etc. More interesting were the questions that Steve didn’t answer. One was a question on Stuxnet, a Windows-specific worm described byKaspersky Labs as "a working and fearsome prototype of a cyber-weapon that will lead to the creation of a new arms race in the world” from a journalist (Grant Somebody who couldn’t even get his publication right.. was he from Computing or Computer Weekly? An easy mistake… didn’t the editor of one become the editor of the other just recently…?!). It really sounded like Steve hadn’t heard of Stuxnet at all. The other on the impact of Google’s ChromeOS. “Sorry,” said Steve, “I didn’t quite catch that.” The audience laughed but after repeating the question three times and commenting on the acoustics, I really don’t think he heard the question at all. He certainly chose to avoid an answer.

What got him animated most? He was asked what his favourite Xbox game was. “Beach Volleyball, Baby!" he yells. "My kids would tell you that's a lot of air under your feet, daddy!" He wasn’t going to be drawn on losses in the Cloud, Windows 8, iPads and those “competitor phones” and retorted that Microsoft must be doing something right, “we made 26billion dollars, with only one company doing better…”

There were some good questions on patent law and the impact of piracy in China. But it was the final question that stole the show. Asked by an LSE student, “what would bring about the demise of Microsoft?” Apparently, the direct actions of Microsoft itself. Let’s hope that Xbox Kinetic lives up to Steve’s expectations and the quiet pulling of their last big launch (anyone remember the Kin…?!) isn’t anything to go by. Now all we need is Steve Jobs at the LSE (LSE Public Events are you reading this…?)

IT in Schools

A colleague of mine posted a link to an article in the Guardian today that might be of interest to those of us running ICT in education: http://trunc.it/a9rn2

Oh and in case you wondered...

The finger's almost healed. It took weeks of being strapped, followed by weeks of physio. It's a bit bigger than it was and I can't straighten it fully but I can almost make a fist and can both type and ride my motorbike again :)

Here's a pic taken with (yep, you guessed it - the new iPhone!)...

Things I like about my new iPhone4...

• I love the screen definition or "Retina display" as Apple call it (though I didn't think the old one was bad until I saw the new one!)
• I love the unified inbox - at last I might be able to manage the onslaught of five separate mail accounts!
• I love the speed - compared to my old 3G, this thing is on rocket-powered skates. Even Navigon opens quickly!
• I like the new camera, although not experimented with video just yet.

Things I'm still getting used to...

• It's shape... I need a new case (any recommendations out there...?)
• Multi-tasking. I can see the benefit but haven't got used to it yet. By the way... is there a way to close apps once you've opened them? The list of apps I can switch to seems to grow and grow.

And while I'm on the subject of technology i liked...

I played with a friend of mine's all in one PC with a touch screen display running Windows 7. I kinda liked it. Maybe the novelty will wear off, but for now I think it's worth looking at and I'm sure it might have a part to play in providing more accessible IT.

Just one finger counts!

Never mind all this new technology... I hadn't realised until this week just how important a finger could be...!

I was up in Edinburgh last week completing the last week of the Leadership Foundation's Top Management Programme (an excellent course). As I was about to enter my hotel on Friday night, I slipped on a metal grate in the road and fell "A over H" (it had been raining and the thing was like sheet ice). Of course I had lots of luggage which didn't exactly help. The Concierge ran out to help me and I soon stood up. I guess I was in a little shock and the adrenaline was pumping as nothing appeared to hurt... until I looked at my right hand... and saw something rather unpleasant. My middle finger was bent back on itself forming a sort of dog-leg. Then the pain started! I was helped into the hotel reception (thank you to the staff at The Glasshouse - and I can thoroughly recommend a stay) where an ice bucket was promptly fetched.

A taxi ride to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary later and I was in the safe hands of the hospital staff. I have to say I was very impressed with the ERI... I was seen almost immediately, X-rayed within 10 minutes, treated, X-rayed again and out in a little over an hour! The diagnosis - a dislocated finger. You can see for yourself. It took two people a good deal of tugging at my arm and finger to get it back in place. Thank goodness for the anaesthetic!

So back in Reading on Monday, I soon realised just how necessary this particular digit really is. Writing is very difficult. Typing is possible, albeit slowly (it harks back to when I first started using a keyboard with two fingers). Actually, using the virtual key pad on my iPhone is easier and quicker than the keyboard on my PC where I'm writing this now. The real challenges are shirt buttons, cuff links and neck ties.

I had to visit my local hospital for an orthopedic referral and they've now referred me for physiotherapy. Apparently, it will take 4-5 weeks to heal. And riding my motorbike is out of the question :( Hmmm.

The power of mobile devices...

It occurred to me that I've not really posted much on my blog, so here comes some more...

I was looking through my usual RSS feeds and came across a feature on Engadget (for those of you not familiar with Engadget it's a great way to see what's happening in the world of technology). Anyway, the article (click here) describes how Looktel have developed some software that literally performs "artificial vision." Running on a Windows mobile SmartPhone, the software uses the on board camera to recognize objects and text. There is a YouTube demo on their website (here)that shows just how powerful this stuff is... it will recognize groceries, shops, read newspaper and magazine articles and read these aloud... amazing. Designed to help those who are visually impaired, this is just the sort of thing the Charity I'm a Trustee of should be looking into...

Second post

I've uploaded the customary photograph (and I'm very grateful to my friend and photographer, Nigel Bruce, for doing the honours) and added a a few more details about me.

I'll add a few more here too...

Last week, I attended the thought provoking and very interesting UCISA Annual Management conference in Harrogate, where I was promptly elected to the Executive Committee as chair of the Infrastructure Group. For those of you who don't know about UCISA, it's a body that represents the Information Services needs of universities and colleges in the UK. You can find out more here.

My First Post

Well, I have been meaning to set up a blog for what seems like an eon now. At last I've got as far as my first post. I hope this will be the beginning of something useful. Useful to me (so I can record my mindless blather in one place. And maybe useful to others, should my blatherings prove to have some relevance after all! So, I'll post this for now and go an hunt down a photo so you can see who I am. Then I'll try and add a little more detail of things that I'm interested in and, most important of all, I shall try and keep this up to date!