Micro-Computational Long Tail Technique

Today I saw something I see every day: electronic devices.

So what?

I noticed how few of them are being used at any given moment. Gaming consoles sitting on standby, cellphones charging throughout the night. DVRs, graphing calculators, and many others spend most of their time sitting idly by, instead of being used.

Create a system for electronics to spend their downtime doing cloud computing micro-processes, and you've harnessed a Goliath ant-hill of logic.


Does your iPhone dabble in protein folding on the weekends?

Professional VS. Power User+

Trend Guess of the Day:

As information and technology become increasingly available to the public, an individual's internal locus of control will soon encompass materialistic possessions.

Expounding:

Most modern households currently own a printer. Some homes have multiple printers, some of these have additional features such as scanning or photo-printing capabilities. Recently, 3D printers, while usually much too expensive for personal usage, are starting to appear in the sub-$500 category.

From this point, it doesn't require a huge stretch of the imagination to think that soon individuals will be rapid prototyping their own circuits, cellphones, and clothing within their homes.

The capability to do so will exist, and will be desired. People like things made just for them. 'A perfect fit'. And how can we be surprised, when the word 'Custom' encompasses most of the word 'Customer'?

This same concept applies to food, energy, and many other areas. When homes are efficient, and can run on their own solar and wind energy, they wont need a power grid. I had never realized before how much "Going Green" is synonymous to "Going Independent."

Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear To Tread)

While discussing design's incentives, conversations regularly broach the subject of aiding '3rd world' nations.

It is no secret that many 'first world' nations have historically amassed wealth and resources through the subjugation and abuse of weaker countries. Yet even today, under scrutiny, signs abundantly hint that the "Manifest Destiny" wolf is currently alive and well, now thriving under a democratic sheep's guise.

However, within these industrialized first world states, there are individuals genuinely attempting to soothe the woes of developing nations. These people have designed many wonderful products and services specifically around afflictions of the 3rd world. Early designs, such as Vestergaard-Frandsen's 'Lifestraw' and Envirofit's improved cooking stoves, are based around obvious basic human health needs.

More recently, primarily through the dissemination of cellphones and integrable services. work is begin committed towards building data infrastructures within developing nations. People such as Jan Chipchase and Natahn Eagle are laudably creating new ways to bolster health and economic growth solely through wirelessly attained knowledge and services.

Although human aid is a commendable task, we need to fully realize the implications of our actions. Who is financially backing the research? If a company is making an investment, they must expect a profitable return. We should always be examining their motives, and making sure corners are not being cut, potentially hurting their consumer base in exchange for slightly larger profit margins. Once upon a time, America thought nothing of immersing playing children in vast clouds of DDT. Today, without full understanding of the potentially carcinogenic properties of cellphone signals, we are heedlessly flooding Africa's nations with handheld devices.

To clarify, I am not advocating that cellphone usage leads to cancer. And even if it did, the gained utilitarian value probably offsets this cost for now. Simply, I urge discretion to those outside the box, attempting to design for those caught within.