tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47861785122615784792011-11-27T16:01:57.502-08:00How will technology transform the human landscape for you, or for your friends and family?The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.comBlogger201100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-90998260182803351952010-01-31T10:37:00.000-08:002010-02-08T12:42:41.303-08:00

In 1987, Apple released a visionary film featuring a book-like device that would manage data, schedules, email, and voice contacts. It had a voice-command interface as well as speech synthesis for interaction. They called it the Knowledge Navigator. Our visions of what a tablet-sized mobile device should be capable of have changed considerably over the last 25 years or so, and although the

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-87651688672261751892009-10-28T09:36:00.000-07:002009-10-28T10:15:32.134-07:00

This morning, I got yet another message from my work login system: "Your password will be expiring in 7 days. Customers are required to change their passwords at least once every 180 days."Hmm. Already? It seems like it's only been 180 days since... oh right. But there's more! The new password requirements must meet three of the following four criteria:1. Must contain english uppercase

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-17315564401825051742009-08-26T16:43:00.000-07:002009-08-27T18:38:46.763-07:00

"Attention, multitaskers (if you can pay attention, that is): Your brain may be in trouble" writes Adam Gorlick of the Stanford Report. According to communication professor Clifford Nass, multitaskers are "suckers for irrelevancy." That's the claim that Stanford researchers are investigating in a recent study that compares media multitaskers with... um... non... media... multitaskers. Whatever

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-57976360305687911612009-08-02T20:58:00.000-07:002009-08-02T21:00:22.623-07:00

Short post this time because I don't feel like writing, but I saw something cool. Nissan recently announced the Leaf, a new electric vehicle with a companion iPhone app. How cool is that? Tell me! Go on, write a comment! You know you want to!

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-47126597944690763322009-07-27T14:00:00.000-07:002009-07-27T14:00:01.677-07:00

On Friday, Gizmodo posted a leaked slideshow detailing design proposals for Microsoft's answer to the hugely popular Apple Stores. The prototype Microsoft Store features wall-to-wall displays, counters with netbooks and laptops, and an "answers bar." I could go for the obvious commentary and talk about how obnoxious it is that Microsoft copies EVERYTHING that Apple does, from it's operating

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-48924023411618146822009-07-08T07:34:00.000-07:002009-07-09T11:58:55.357-07:00

In a blog post yesterday, Google announced another operating system targeted for netbooks. From the post: "We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. " The announcement seems to indicate a strong push toward cloud computing, although, interestingly, Google doesn't actually use that term in the post. Google cites viruses, malware, and the tendency

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-13557130033003300352009-06-25T14:00:00.000-07:002009-06-25T14:34:38.222-07:00

It seems like only yesterday that The Great Digital Divide was a political buzzword used to describe the "haves" from the "have-nots." It used to be that the biggest barrier to technology adoption (and subsequent digital literacy) was income, but since the explosion of cheap computer hardware, the newest and most severe threats to digital literacy are not economic. At a recent institute I

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-20997412166809111392009-05-26T14:00:00.000-07:002009-05-26T14:09:54.713-07:00

Prologue for this post: "Missing Work"Do you hate sitting behind a desk? (Or if you're unemployed, do you hate NOT sitting behind a desk?) The recession has spurred a number of innovations and needs in the digital realm, and among these is the need to be more versatile and mobile and to buy computers that are lightweight and inexpensive. Laptop sales grew by 23% in December, to 1.9 million

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-15299415557272049492009-05-14T14:00:00.000-07:002009-05-14T16:39:49.415-07:00

Is Windows 7 the operating system of the future? Probably not. But it is the operating system for the immediate future, so I am going to break from my normal editorial posts and talk a little bit about Windows 7 because I've had a chance to install it and play around with it, and I want to share some highlights.It's not so much new features that interest me when I work with operating systems--

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-81605883514028976712009-05-07T14:00:00.000-07:002009-06-03T09:47:52.639-07:00

How often have you heard the phrase, "When I was your age..." followed by some outrageous anecdote of hardship that you know cannot possibly be true? (Six miles through snow, uphill both ways!) Even as our elders continue trying to convince us that they had it so much rougher when they were growing up, it's getting easier to make the claim that our hardships are at least as difficult as those

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-67832144433561540312009-05-05T14:00:00.000-07:002009-05-05T14:00:00.870-07:00

Prologues for this post: "Hello Computer" & "The Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything"If I walked up to you and said "light bulb," without any context, you'd probably lift one eyebrow at me. If I added some context, "first light bulb," you might reply "Thomas Edison." You might even tell me the year it was patented: 1878. Well, a new technology, demonstrated last week by Dr. Stephen

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-6615570952148424092009-04-25T15:13:00.000-07:002009-05-10T18:22:23.388-07:00

You might alternately ask, "why is there a picture of breakfast on Techri-La?" But if you'll let me self-indulge for a bit, today's post begins with the image of an egg because I find it to be one of the most beautiful and inspiring forms in the world: simple and elegant, and distinctly feminine. It's also a great introduction to today's topic of biomimicry.In a not-so-recent TED Talk, Janine

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-73729415698039288662009-04-19T15:31:00.001-07:002009-05-05T09:47:38.069-07:00

If you normally write with a pen and a piece of paper, does your writing change when you sit down to type at a keyboard? Or a cell phone? In the past, I used to run my own little experiments, sitting down with a piece of paper to write short stories (or bits of short stories) and then comparing those to stories written when sitting in front of a computer. Almost always, my thoughts were more

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-68180763445385827072009-04-14T20:58:00.000-07:002009-05-02T13:04:44.575-07:00

For the last couple of weeks, I've been struggling to come up with an appropriate blog post. Today, it occurred to me that in my last few posts I addressed how people interact with computers, but I haven't yet talked about how computers are changing how people interact with each other. I was reminded of this while watching a recent talk from a Kansas State University Professor named Michael

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-41024480741094800422009-03-24T19:25:00.000-07:002009-04-14T21:45:21.636-07:00

Have you ever noticed that after a long stretch of sitting at your home or office computer, you feel somehow less human? You stand up from your chair, muscles creaking and vertebrae popping, and you feel more like a machine yourself. When you consider increases in repetitive strain injuries and the amount of time the average person spends in front of a computer, we're long overdue for new kinds

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-46720963712931044092009-03-09T12:36:00.000-07:002009-05-05T11:58:52.741-07:00

Managing all of your photos, music, docs and video files is a real hassle, especially when you start adding computers, game systems, and other digital devices to your home network. When you're a content creator, it's much worse, because you often need immediate access to different kinds files spanning many different kinds of media (CD, DVD, hard drives, and video tapes). As people have

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-972829242746932542009-03-06T14:44:00.000-08:002009-03-06T14:52:55.711-08:00

photo from the DARPA Urban Challenge galleryA car that drives itself. This technology sounds really scary, but ironically, that's what will ultimately make it safe. Consider elevators--the consequences of an elevator failure are so frightening that they tend to be over-engineered, with redundant safety systems that make them extremely reliable. Now, consider the complexity of navigating a

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-66515822249647057062009-03-03T19:51:00.000-08:002009-11-23T14:32:15.372-08:00

With the announcement of the Kindle 2, it seems like digital prognosticators everywhere are forecasting imminent death for magazines, newspapers, and printed books. Well, okay, maybe not everywhere. But one thing is clear: the cost of producing print media on paper is making digital ink more and more attractive to publishers who are not weathering the recession well. A recent post to The Business

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-84018284713763306052009-03-02T14:24:00.000-08:002009-12-07T10:38:09.254-08:00

Stevon Roberts is an award-winning videographer and Instructional Technologist at Oregon State University. He's a published writer, a blogger, and an enthusiast in technology and marine science. He earned his BS in Biology, with a writing minor, from Oregon State University. Since 2004, he's worked for Oregon Sea Grant as a documentary filmmaker, producing and editing programs to highlight

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786178512261578479.post-70219499358346821092009-03-01T19:22:00.000-08:002009-03-01T20:04:08.537-08:00

When I was younger, I used to love going to my grandparents' house and picking up their copies of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. My favorite parts of the magazines were the product pages that showed all the new technological gadgets being released that year. Now, I'm an avid follower of blogs like Slashdot, Engadget, Gizmodo, and Coolest Gadgets. Although I enjoy these blogs very much,

The Real Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09949501083084612541noreply@blogger.com0