If you think Google Maps or “bump to share” iPhone apps are cool, just take a look at some of the truly cutting edge projects currently underway at various companies around the globe. Some of the algorithms currently under development are simply mind blowing. Sure, some may never see the light of day. But they’re indicative of how far we’ve come and how much untapped computing power is lurking around the globe.

Just consider #1 on the list, which “can look at photographic images and determine where the picture was taken” using GPS and topographic data read directly from the photo. Once the software scans the image, it “searches GPS-tagged images in Flickr for photos that are similar in appearance” and returns the result. That’s not as cool as, for instance, comparing the image directly to topographic or GPS data directly, but it’s a pretty good start.

Then there’s the software from Argonne National Laboratory that can “quickly and accurately assimilate biological data into climate models to generate more reliable forecasts.” Just imagine the impact such a tool could have on our predictive abilities. And people say nothing useful ever comes from the government. If only they knew how some of those tax dollars were being spent!

If you want something a bit more light-hearted (though it really isn’t) you can check out the University of California At Berkeley’s “joke recommendation site, dubbed Jester.” It “rates humor on a scale of “less funny” to “more funny.” It then recommends jokes based on the user’s taste (or lack thereof), dynamically making recommendations based on the user’s most recent ratings.” What this software is really doing is providing data for building new and improved recommendation systems like the one Amazon has used for years to anticipate customer tastes.

The moral of the story is simple: we’ve barely scratched the surface of computing power. Flickr and other sites may be the Next Big Thing…until a bored public yawns and moves on. But new and incredible applications are being developed every day. And not all are mindless diversions for bored Technophiles. Some actually do useful work!

Today I received a panicked call from a local medical office having serious network problems. It’s a busy place, growing steadily, and the physicians have been increasing the amount of online work they perform on a daily basis. They’d started off with limited Internet connectivity (as many places do), along with a fairly slow and cheap connection to the outside world. Then, a few weeks ago, they deployed a new online prescription-writing application.

Almost immediately, bad things started happening. Providers were getting spotty connectivity. Prescriptions were failing to print. Everyone was behind on their work because the system wasn’t working properly. Their IT support consisted of a contract with a “PC guy” who installed machines and software, but apparently didn’t know much more than that.

I asked for a synopsis of their network. They didn’t have one, nor any other documentation. I asked how fast their network connection was, and what type. They didn’t know. Exasperated, the office manager asked me to call their PC guy. I did, and he said he thought he’d found the problem. He’d finally thought of testing access from the office against one of the common network bandwidth test sites, and found the speed was only about 600kb/second.

Basically, deploying the pharmacy application broke their network’s back. Their traffic was exceeding their connection speed on a regular basis, causing dropped sessions and failures to print (these were emanating from the pharmacy application’s website, not from a local printer). I called the office manager and suggested she call their ISP with a request for increased bandwidth, since that’s their immediate problem.

This is not the PC guy’s fault. It’s no one’s fault. They simply didn’t understand what they were getting into. What they need is a full assessment of their current infrastructure (servers, security, network, etc.) and a list of suggestions for improvements. It’s the classic case of a system being overrun by its users — like a highway that can’t carry the traffic produced by a new housing development or mall. They understand that…now.

How’s your network holding up? Have you reviewed your company’s business needs lately and verified that your I.T. services are sufficient to handle them? If not, what’s stopping you?

Today we lost guitarist and inventor Les Paul, the original designer of what became known as the “solid body electric guitar,” at age 94. His invention, which was marketed by Gibson starting in the 1950s, practically revolutionized the music industry.

Just think about what we owe this guy. He invented what may have been the first “real” electronic instrument that was used in actual concerts (as opposed to being a curiosity or toy). Along the way, he also “helped bring about the rise of rock ‘n’ roll with multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the tracks in the finished recording.”

Prior to this invention, artists who wanted to record their works had only one real option…live performances recorded in one shot, with the entire group playing as one. If someone made a mistake, or a microphone failed to pick up a certain performer, they probably had to start over from the beginning. One can imagine a pile of discarded record albums (since that was the recording medium of choice prior to the arrival of magnetic tape) lying around a studio, then being tossed in the trash.

Today, with electronic instruments and recording software like Roland’s Sonar Pro, individual instruments and vocals can be recorded one at a time, then mixed at will. Someone’s tempo off a bit while performing? Speed it up, or slow it down, via the software. Mix, remix, make mashups, and what have you — Les Paul was probably the guy who started it all. And he invented all these things in the days of analog media, tube-based circuitry, and no computers.

Whether you’re a professional musician, an amateur with a tiny recording studio in your basement, or a hobbyist who just likes remixing music, you should thank Les. He may not have invented computer-based music editing, but today’s music industry is built on many of his innovations.

I’ve been using the same keyboard for about ten (yes, that’s right) years now. It’s an early Microsoft “Natural” unit I picked up while living in London, and it’s served me very well indeed. At first I found the angled, ergonomic design a bit odd, but after a few months I decided I really liked it. My wife does not (but she has her own PC, so it doesn’t matter).

I started thinking about hardware today when a friend said he had to go offline so he could go buy a new keyboard. Turns out his Dell wireless unit was dying, and it wasn’t that old either. He said the response had always been a bit sporadic, and finally it “went crazy” to the point where he had no choice.

Later on, he popped online again and said he’d bought a replacement: a Microsoft wireless unit that behaves much better than the Dell ever had (at least so far). One advantage to the new unit is that it claims battery replacement is necessary only once every six months. Apparently the Dell unit had been eating a set of batteries once every few weeks!

I’ve heard similar complaints from other wireless keyboard users, while others seem to like theirs just fine. I know developers and writers who dislike being tethered too closely to the monitor, and others who like to put the keyboard on their lap while kicking back in the chair. For them, wireless makes sense. It also makes (less, IMO) sense for people who desire aesthetically “clean” desks with no wires cluttering things up.

Wireless units may not work in some environments. They can be sensitive to interference from other electrical equipment, and may actually be prohibited in areas where sensitive information is being keyed in. Remember, they’re transmitter/receiver units, so I suspect the activity could be tapped and recorded.

If you decide to try wireless, don’t be cheap about it. Reviews I’ve seen suggest cheaper units can be sluggish and unreliable. Also remember to keep the box and packing, just in case you have problems with interference and have to return the unit to the retailer. When these units work, they’re great. When they don’t, they’re frustrating.

Me? I’ll stick to wires and save the cost of replacing batteries.

As reported last week, Microsoft is slated to become the functional search engine provider for Yahoo’s long-running and highly popular service (presuming the deal is sanctioned by the government). Under the terms of the ten-year agreement, Redmond will provide all the back-end horsepower and results. They’ll get 12% of the revenue generated during this period. The Yahoo name will (at least for now) remain on the masthead and is what users will see.

Is this the beginning of the end for Yahoo?

According to executives, Yahoo wants to “refocus” on newer products now in development. Why they want to do so while their search service is one of the top three in the marketplace is unknown. Search is the company’s bread and butter, like Google. And they’ve now opened the door to the Trojan Horse that is Microsoft. The end result could be a better Yahoo…or total fragmentation of the company into virtual nothingness after Redmond “negotiates” a more favorable deal for themselves a few years down the line. Only time will tell.

The strange thing about all this is Microsoft’s addiction to becoming a “search leader” in the market. They’ve tried for years, and have failed consistently to capture more than 1/3 of the market. Google is firmly on top, is constantly improving their core product, and its users are unlikely to change. Somehow, Microsoft believes that if it can get “more data” about user behavior from its deal with Yahoo, it’ll cause users to abandon Google in favor of its services. That’s not likely to happen. Once a user becomes comfortable with a given interface, they’re unlikely to abandon it without a very good reason.

This is, in fact, the primary factor behind the popularity of many of Microsoft’s own products — especially Windows-supplied tools like Internet Explorer and Outlook. Get an application in front of a user’s eyes first, and they’re not likely to look for another one. So the chance of Microsoft pulling business away from Google is probably very low.

I think the executives in Redmond are just obsessed with Google. It’s their own personal Great White Whale, and they’re determined to harpoon it no matter what. But we all know how that story turned out. And Yahoo might just be the Pequod that ends up being sunk as a result.

If you think you’ve run out of new things to do with your PC…well, you haven’t. You’ve “done” the Web, home automation, digital media (including home entertainment), and self-produced music. All well and good, but have you ever told your PC to actually build something?

I thought not. But no fear…the technology is closer than you think.

Some very clever people in the UK and elsewhere have been working on a system called “RepRap” that’s basically a small, self-contained parts-manufacturing engine. In industry parlance, it’s actually a “3D printer” that can take a set of data points and translate them into an exact copy of a given item. It uses a fine wire of plastic, similar to monofilament fishing line, to build the 3D image of a part its told to manufacture.

Now for the really cool part. Not only can RepRap produce exact copies of nearly any part (of reasonable size) you want, but its design goals also include the ability to self-replicate. Yes, that’s right. Once the first few machines are up and running, they’ll be able to produce exact copies of themselves. The goal is the creation of an “open source” hardware platform that can be exported anywhere at low cost.

The RepRap team state it this way: “what the RepRap team are doing is to develop and to give away the designs for a much cheaper machine with the novel capability of being able to self-copy (material costs are about €500). That way it’s accessible to small communities in the developing world as well as individuals in the developed world.”

The advantages are obvious. Put a few of these machines in outlying areas, and people can make their own replacement parts for broken items, not to mention components of their own design, for a very small amount of money. Commercial machines with this capability start at around $50,000US at present, so this is no small accomplishment.

Maybe in a few years we’ll see one of these (at least) on every street. And if the technology continues to develop, as it surely will, is a “Star Trek”-like “replicator” far behind?

Here we are at the end of the second quarter (or “Q2″ in business-speak) of 2009, and the tech sector seems to be showing signs of improvement. Is this a sign that the economy has indeed bottomed out, and might start rising (as some economists expect) in the latter half of the year? It’s hard to say, but today we saw quarterly results that suggest high tech is on the mend.

First, tech bellwether IBM announced a larger than expected jump in both earnings and share dividends. “Big Blue’s second-quarter earnings per share jumped 18 per cent from a year earlier, exceeding Wall Street expectations of a 3 per cent improvement, although sales slid a more-than-expected 7 per cent after currency adjustment.” In another announcement (not available on the net as of this writing) one IBM executive called it “the best quarter IBM has ever seen.”

And the numbers don’t lie. This quarter, IBM “boosted the pre-tax profit margin more than 4 percentage points to 18.3 per cent, delivering $3.1 bn of net income on sales of $23.3bn.” That’s a lot of money, even though indications still point to companies delaying purchases and upgrades in order to better weather the overall economic downturn.

Likewise, Google also announced some great-looking numbers for Q2. The company “reported net income of $1.48 billion on revenue of $5.5 billion for its second quarter ended June 30, versus net income of $1.25 billion on revenue of $5.4 billion for the same period a year ago.” That’s not a huge increase…but it is an increase, and this during the worst downturn in 70 years.

I suspect the dearth in tech spending is coming to an end, and I’ll warily predict a big jump in spending in Q4 as companies prepare for the holidays. There’s a method to my madness, too. We saw the same pattern in 1999-2001. First, companies that had spent themselves silly ramping up Internet presences and preparing for Y2K suddenly reined in spending in order to amortize all those upgrades and cut costs. A year or so later, they gradually started spending again because the next round of upgrades became mandatory in the face of growing Internet and general tech use.

Many companies have been on short rations in terms of spending for over a year. That means they’re probably starting to plan for the next step, which means increased spending yet again.

Am I right? We’ll know in a few months.

Recently a relative was experiencing hip pain, and her doctor scheduled “imaging studies” (back in the day, they would have just said “X-Rays”) in order to diagnose the problem. The studies actually consisted of a pretty thorough MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) series, with contrast, in order to see what problem might be lurking in her hip joint.

Once the studies were done, she needed to take a copy of the “films” to her orthopedic doctor, and also wanted to have another surgeon review the results. So today we walked into the MRI center and requested a copy of the studies. The administrator said “sure, we can do that right now. Wait here.” Fifteen minutes later she handed us — a CD.

I was immediately curious. Were the files on the disc in an encrypted format? Were they written in a specialized file format readable only by hospitals with sophisticated gear? We opened the envelope containing the disc, and found that it contained not only the studies themselves, but an embedded Windows application that could view them. Popping the CD into a local drive brought up the viewer, which allowed us to not only look at the studies, but read the Radiology report and step through the various views (there were 7, all from different angles). Clicking on an image produces a matching crosshair on other images in the set, so you can isolate exact anatomical points for further viewing.

Full 3-D imaging studies. All on a PC.

You can say goodbye to the days of lugging around packets of physical (and easily scratched or damaged) X-Ray films or MRI images. Now you can carry your medical records on a few CDs or DVDs, and anyone at any hospital can probably read them without specialized software. The diagnostic tools provided by technology are pretty incredible overall. This type of information was almost unimaginable only a decade ago. Who knows what the next decade will bring?

But of course, the same caveats apply. Portability and easy access also means it’s easier to lose, and simple for anyone else to view. If you do keep copies of your own medical data at home, keep it under lock and key.

Probably the biggest tech rivalry going on today is between Microsoft and Google. The former is desperately trying to hold onto its dominance in the PC marketplace while the latter works actively to overcome that dominance. It’s an uphill struggle, since Windows and Office are firmly entrenched worldwide. On the other hand, Microsoft has been attempting to wrest a larger percentage of the search market away from Google. Its latest attempt, “Bing,” has met with lukewarm response at best.

Google Apps and other projects are also languishing, and haven’t gathered much serious support so far (the fact that Google labels nearly everything, including its wildly successful Gmail, as “beta” releases doesn’t help anything). Now, however, Google is bringing out a new weapon in its attempt to unseat Microsoft. I don’t think it has a name yet, but it’s a Chrome-based operating system that Google hopes will help it take over (at least to begin with) the growing Netbook marketplace.

The new OS will be minimalist in design, and should appeal to anti-Microsoft folks due to its heavy reliance on Open Source code. From current reports, it won’t be long before we start seeing it in the marketplace. “Google intends to rely on help from the community of open-source programmers to develop the Chrome operating system, which is expected to begin running computers in the second half of 2010.”

The idea is clear: consumers don’t really care which OS they run as long as it does what they want, at a reasonable price, and isn’t hard to use. And Google appears to be taking a page from the Microsoft playbook, since “if enough computer manufacturers embrace the Chrome operating system, it could weaken Microsoft while opening up new avenues for Google.” This means they could bundle things like Google Apps, Gmail, and other offerings with the OS — just like Microsoft does today with its own offerings.

Will we see Chrome-based laptops and other machines in the future? You bet. If Google can demonstrate the ability to provide what consumers want at a better price and with fewer defects, Chrome could do what Linux has so far failed to accomplish. Or, it could fall flat on its face. Time, and the capabilities offered by the new OS, will tell.

As if mobile phones hadn’t got enough capabilities already — now sites are popping up that allow people to share video directly from their phone. Today a friend passed along a reference to Qik – one of the companies now offering this service. I haven’t actually tried it out yet (i.e. uploaded a video) but think of the possibilities.

With sites like Qik, everyone can be a reporter, submitting video directly from a phone with no need for an intermediate upload to a PC. Going to a concert? Record and upload interesting events immediately. Get into an accident? Take a video of the damage, upload it, and point your insurance company to it so they have the full story.

From the look of their “highlights” page, they have a pretty good product too. The video capture claims to be fast and reliable, unlike many other streaming sites. They claim to support higher quality video and to have latency as low as 1-3 seconds when streaming. This comes down to “making the video truly live in order to enable real-time interaction through chat. We tag the stream at every path it takes, from the instant a person clicks the Stream button to the video appearing on the web. The entire path is then analyzed, weighed against various parameters and optimized to ensure speed of delivery.”

I remember the original Star Trek, and the Tricorder device that was able to record data at high speed for later playback. The original series was set in the 23rd century. Here we are, barely into the 21st, and we’re already very very close to having a similar device.

And if that’s not enough, a group of researchers is making another use of the accelerometers built into devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry. These guys are working on technology that will let you “write” simply by moving your hand in the air. This trick is accomplished “through software that lets cell phone users write notes in the air using their handsets and have the text or images sent to an e-mail address.”

Wow. This is just cool.