Uwe Trottmann

Some thoughts about implants

This is about implants enhancing your abilities in any way beyond what you are able to do now. I’m not talking about medical implants to help you do things you couldn’t do well or not at all before due to a medical or genetic condition.

First of all I have to admit that I would not really be comfortable having surgery to get something implanted into my body. Especially with the prospect of not being able to use it for a long time. Imagine having fiddeled around in your body every two years to exchange your devices, because greater and better hardware is available or even worse your stuff is not compatible with external interfaces anymore. This is something I would carefully way against the actual usefulness of a device itself. Meaning the latest social sharing gadget will likely not end up under my skin.

In general I only would put myself on the table if a device will be supported and usable in the longterm, obviously only if it adds extraordinary functionality. One way to solve this problem of being on the bleeding edge might be to borrow from a rather old idea: sockets. Light bulbs use them, computer processors use them. Why not add implants to that list? Just put a standardized socket in you (this still sounds strange) and plug-in the latest and greatest whenever you feel about it or need to. Some might opt for a below-the-skin (subcutaneous) plug which is not visible on the outside for beauty reasons. This way still a small cut into the skin would be required for changes, but this can be done at home.

So far so good, but thinking about it a little longer: where in your skinny body (I believe we will all have ideal body shape in the future, how generous of me) is actually the space to put new hardware? Sure it will depend on the actual functionality. The brain is likely to be off limits for most here, too much could go wrong. Close to the heart might not be that good of an idea either, albeit we already broadly utilize pacemakers and the like. Which leaves us with extremities and abdomen.

A rule of thumb might be that the smaller a device will get, the more likely it will end up in and all over the body of more and more people. And looking at the progression in microchips we might just start getting there (until we hit that low nanometer barrier with silicon, but we’ll figure something out). Simpler procedures and accommodating laws will do their part for mass market adoption.

Regarding the small hardware issue we might see some form of sensors appear way earlier than actual processing, enhancer-devices. Those feelers could be put anywhere and report if you are about to touch something, if you are standing or walking or which way your head is looking. These might help a long way in improving augmented reality applications. Looks like implants are not that far out anymore.

All this A,B,C,D-player crap

*rant on*

If you are one of the people who has read the biography of Steve Jobs, or at least part of it as it is rather long, you might have come across Jobs’ believe in only hiring A+ players. People that are better in certain areas than you are, so you can learn from them and to keep yourself on your toes.

The idea is nice. But reducing people down to a rating just isn’t fair. Ask every person on earth who ever received a grade for anything. It doesn’t pay justice to whatever that person might actually be able to contribute to society. Because in the end that is all that matters. A contribution to learning about our past, to running the now or to leaping into the future of humanity. We are all based off one and the same platform, so no one should ever have the right to demote or rise someone beyond others. Whatever the circumstances (See Andi Rubins statement in the GOracle case).

So someone might say how do you keep getting the right person for the job? How do you get the good people in a field? Well, not by looking at grades. The industrialization of education has to be reversed, stopped. We should now, in times of the rise of social, be more aware than ever that we are all human. Nothing more, nothing less. The solutions are out there somewhere. Let’s do what we do best: advance.

*rant off*

The Mass Effect 3 ending [update]

Now that some time has passed since I ended the game and the ending debacle has toned done a bit I thought I finally put my gripes with the Mass Effect 3 ending into words.

There are potential SPOILERS ahead, so don’t you dear read on if you haven’t finished ME3, yet. It is way better if you judge by yourself after completing YOUR ending.

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The Pirate Bay - LOSS

Took a long trip, parked it and found it like this in the morning...

Install Windows 8 on your HP tm2

The installation of Windows itself is smooth sailing. You should start installing from within Windows so you can select to keep your files. This way you will end up with a Windows.old folder on your C drive, but you can delete that (at least partially).

The fun part starts if you want to get the ATI + Intel switchable graphics to work. You first have to search for Turn Windows features on or off and in that dialog enable the .NET Framework 3.5 check box.

Then go into Device Manager and disable the Intel graphics chip.

Now, go to the folder where you have your ATI drivers setup.exe (should be on the C drive in SwSetup, or download it from the HP page, but make sure to cancel the installation after extracting is finished). Set the compatibility mode to Windows 7.

From here on smooth sailing again. The installer should just work fine.

In Device Manager you may have noticed an unknown device. Just try installing its driver. In the wizard select Browse my computer for driver software and select the SwSetup folder on your C drive. Windows will do the rest.