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Facebook's F8 Conference is starting Thursday. Facebook is approaching a Billion Customers--and it should be quite exciting:

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September 21st 2011 @ 03:56

Posted By: Mike Pouraryan - Category: politics, news, women, law, war

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KU Tech Watch (9/20/2011): The Future

Over the past week or so, there has been new developments on the Tech Front. What I have decided to do is to dedicate the next number of months to think about the future and to build upon the top 25 trends outlined by leading thinkers in the Tech World as reported in the May 9, 2011 Edition of Network World. They are as follows:

1) You Will Talk to Your Computers ( Bernie Meyerson of IBM);
2) Technology will be transaparent ( Cisco's Evans);
3) Robots will outnumber humans (Marek Rusinkiewicz, Telcordia)
4) Optical Processors will replace microelectronics (Donald Newell, AMD)

5) Cameras will be everywhere (Marek Rusinkiewicz, Telcordia)
6) Terabit networks will be available at home (Cisco's Evans)
7) Networks will be programmable (Chipo Elliott, BBNTechnologies)
8) We will have a truly global internet and marketplace (Fred Baker, Cisco)
9) Quantum Computers will be possible
10) Smarter Networks are imminent
11) Storage will be cheap enough that you can record every minute of your life
12) Everything will be digitized and accessible over the internet
13) Computers will be more like humans
14) Content will be hyperpersonalized
15) Your Smartphone will have the power of a Supercomputer
16) Sensors will be pervasive and communicating over the internet
17) 3D telepresence systems will emerge
18) More of your assets will be virtual
19) Augumented reality will become common place
20) Computers will prevent problems from occuring
21) A fundementally different internet aarchitecture may evolve
22) Information Security will continue to be a Problem
23) An internet catasrophe will occur
24) Your Job may be outsoruced--to a computer (The Semantic Web)
25) Only the agile survive

These are the trends I will be researching and commenting on going forward. It is a tall order--but the future has arrived and we have to be ready for it.

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September 20th 2011 @ 07:00

Posted By: Mike Pouraryan - Category: politics, news, women, law, war

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"Outsiders" Americas Watch (9/18/2011): Fantasy vs. Reality

Friday again was not a good day for the US Economy. Unemployment claims continue to rise. Official Government figures say that the Economy will grow--but grow at a very slow pace.

Everyone I talk to is profoundly concerned. High Technology continues to grow. Medical Devices & Drugs continue to see grow spats. But, key manfacturing segments of the economy continue to lag. Construction, in my view, continues to be in a severe recession. Some may argue that it is in a severe depression.

Beyond the key segments, there is of course the malaise by consumers. Consumers are not spending. Retail sales continues to be pretty much flat. The biggest one of all, Walmart, saw its' 9th straight drop in sales noting that customers were simply not showing up. Beyond such statistics, what horrified me ever more was when it was announced that 78,880 new foreclosure notices were filed in the United States in August.

President Obama, in the meantime, has been coming out with a flurry of ideas to help jump start the economy. There is the 447 Billion Jobs Plan with more than half of it in Tax Cuts. There is a new proposal coming out tomorrow that proposes a tax on the rich. The Republicans, though, have already said no.

What I continue to be worried about is the "Fantasyland" the Republicans continue to live in. All Republican pronoucements, in my view, point to one thing: they just want power. Mitt Romney was right when he noted how Rick Perry was able to impose his views on Texas because he controlled all the levels of Government. There will be more commentary, though, on the so-called Texas Miracle in future editions of the Watch. Rick Perry does need to be prepared to answer for his record in Texas. The fires around Austin and how Perry and his Adminstration deals with the aftermath is something that I would been keen to see.

Right now, the key problem is lack of jobs. I commend Michael Bloomberg for speaking up about his fear about how joblessness can lead to riots just as what has transpired throughout the World. The true divorce from the realities on the ground, though, is something that I am really bothered by. I am especially taken aback by the Republican Crusade to dismantle the remaints of a social safety net in the Country that has worked and continues to work.

As I have thought about the looming Presidential Campaign, I thought about the aftermath of the Gulf Oil Disaster. According to a recent article I saw on Al Jazeera, the aftermath is simply too horrific to think about and talk about. Yet, Republicans remind us that we have to leave it to the mercy of the Corporations to do what is right. They talk about Freedom, yet some of the very freedoms are being undermined through the institutionalization of a National Security State. I was especially shocked when a friend of mine told me about his Son being on a no-fly list. When they first discovered it, he was 5 years old. Apparently his name was similar to someone else--the man in charge was actually talking to the Folks in Washington telling them that "..I am looking at a 5-year old kid...what do you want me to do...". What they did, apparently, was to actually put in the date of birth of the child and other information so that this won't happen again. I told him that when the Late Ted Kennedy was on the no-fly list, then we ordinary individuals should not be that surprised.

I understand the Republican Fantasy to have the States and the Corporations to handle everything. This is shown by what Rick Perry talked about in terms of having everything handled by the States. But, what about America being one nation--or a collection of 300 Million Individual States who are to be left on their own. This led me to think about and reflect upon this clip from
the West Wing:

Is America One Nation? The founders seemed to believe so and understood that the Country had to grow and change as circumstances changed. Does America want to grow as a Nation or does it want to remain a child? Does it want to embrace the true challenges of the 21st Century? What about the 46 Million in Povertry? What about the 50 Million without health insurance? When will such questions be answered?

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September 18th 2011 @ 19:37

Posted By: Mike Pouraryan - Category: politics, news, women, law

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KU Tech Watch (9/15/2011): Life Goes On!!!

Since My last "Tech Watch" bulletin, a lot has been going on and I have struggled to assess where things are. What is cool about technology is that it is always evolving and changing-.

Let's begin with what Microsoft has done with Windows 8

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September 15th 2011 @ 08:49

Posted By: Mike Pouraryan - Category: politics, news, women, law, war

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"Outtsiders" V-Thought For the Month (II)-August 2011

It has been a very busy month on the World Scene. Although I continue to be hopeful, the challenges continue to remain.

I have been thinking about the wars the US continues to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. I undestand that the Adminstration has told us that combat operations have ended in Iraq, but the reality is far from it. Just within the past 24 hours, Iraqi insurgents attacked the largest Sunni Mosque in Baghdad on the eve of Eid-Al-Ftr, one of the holiest days in Islam

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August 29th 2011 @ 07:15

Posted By: Mike Pouraryan - Category: politics, news, women, law, war

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Today marks the third year of "Outsiders". It has been a very interesting and challenging year, to say the least

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June 21st 2011 @ 05:19

Posted By: Mike Pouraryan - Category: politics, news, women, law, war

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"Outsiders" Tech Watch (6/8/2011): The Gang of Four & Other Thoughts

It has been quite a year. But it seems as if that we continue to break down and milestones all the time.

I begin with what happened this past Monday. Steve Jobs emerged from his Medical Leave to roll out iCloud and iOs5. Although the services are not available til the fall, the idea was to simply make the ipod, the ipad and the iphone platform indepedent by allowing the data to reside in the "cloud". I thought Steve Jobs' "description' of the traditional View of the Cloud was quite interesting--but I think those of us who seem to try and get what is going with the h technology are of the view that there is truly more to the "Cloud"than simply it being a "disk in the sky". The idea of further music and document collaboration is also quite fascinating as the deadline of the fall rollout approaches

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June 8th 2011 @ 13:26

Posted By: Mike Pouraryan - Category: politics, news, women, law, war

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The War on Drugs

There is always a fascination with War. I have never understood it and will not claim to do so. But there is one War that I have been particularly against--and finally someone has come out to actually say that it has been a failure.

The War on Drugs was launched over forty years ago to eradicate the scurge and cancer of drugs. Billions upon billions have been spent on this so-called War and thousands of the best, brightest and bravest of us have fallen in this so-called War. What I find very very strange is how the usage has gone up despite this so-called War

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June 5th 2011 @ 10:00

Posted By: Mike Pouraryan - Category: politics, news, women, law, war

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"Outsiders" Americas Watch (5/7/2011): Scary Times!!!

I begin this editoin of the "Americas Watch" by noting a sobering statistic: 44.6 Million Americans rely on some sort of Food Assistance from the Government. This is as Unemployment Claims has hit new highs, housing continues to be anemic and the decision by the Fed to stop its so called QE2 (The quantitive Easing Mechansim).

A recent comment by the CEO of Walmart was quite telling: His customers are running out of money. The increase in the price of gas has begun to take a real bite out of the average ordinary guy who shops at Walmart everyday. This is as the clamour for budget cuts gathers momentum. I caught excerpts of a recent speech by the newest Republican "Boy Wonder" Paul Ryan noting that he felt that "Sound money" was the ultiamte objective by working to bring the fiscal house in order

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May 6th 2011 @ 06:50

Posted By: Mike Pouraryan - Category: politics, news, women, law, war

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