Tag Archives: means
John Bassos 2012 Technology Predictions: Prediction: Sensors Everywhere
Whenever the subject of “sensors everywhere” comes up, people usually have one of two responses:
A. George Orwells “1984” and omnipresent monitoring
B. Efficiency, knowledge and omnipresent monitoring
The advances we have seen recently have been pretty remarkable, and as those inventions make their way into business and consumer markets well be able to do some really neat things that havent been possible or economical.
Like most innovations, the ability to place and monitor sensors in almost anything is really a combination of multiple innovations and changes. Specifically:
Capable low powered devices
Low powered networks
IPv6
The first two are pretty obvious. Miniaturization of devices, as well as the ability to work at very low power means that we can put them almost anywhere. Also, low powered networks means that you can easily and wirelessly connect to them which makes installation and maintenance very affordable.
As a part of the networking capability, IPv6 makes it much easier to connect these devices to the internet. We explained IPv6 and its business implications in a previous post, which may be worth checking out if you have any questions about IPv6. As for its implications for sensors, IPv6 basically could give a unique web address to every atom in the galaxy. By comparison, the current system (IPv4) does not even have enough addresses for every person on the planet.
The ability to place sensors everywhere means that you can monitor and control things with more precision, and it has home, business and government implications. Using data collection software and data management applications, users can use the data to make informed and effective changes to improve performance or reduce the cost of whatever they are monitoring.
For home uses, you could easily and remotely monitor power usage, reducing your monthly utility bill. You could monitor when doors and windows are left open, the water table around your house (for basement flooding), weather and rainfall, or pretty much anything else you would want to monitor. Of course, there are hundreds of practical medical uses, including the ability to wear or implant sensors that could tell if you fall or lose consciousness and automatically call for help.
For businesses, the uses are pretty much limitless, but the short description is it gives the ability to monitor key indicators that might otherwise be more challenging to monitor. Sensors help to improve efficiency as well as improve safety and performance. We see these in manufacturing and production already, but most other industries are less capable of accurately monitoring workflows and outcomes.
For governments it will help ensure the safety and maintenance of infrastructure, including roads and bridges. It also means that traffic patterns could be more accurately determined and planned for, rather than relying on static timers and quantized car groupings.
There are some security and privacy concerns related to this which will be discussed later. However the biggest potential concern is that people will set up their own sensor networks at home and fail to secure them properly.
Article Writing Tips: The Phrase
The hardest article writing tips to learn and apply are the ones that teach us to abandon bad writing and speech habits. This is especially true of a writer’s propensity to write in the same manner that they speak in. This is never a wise idea as any transcriptionist will tell you: most people speak terribly and constantly blurt all sorts of nonsensical crap. This means that if you already speak poorly your writing will probably seem amateurish at best. This includes the use of phrases like “Should of,” “Anyways,” and one of the most common idiotic phrases of all, “Try and.” Nearly everyone uses the words “try and” in everyday speech, but this is a perfect example of poor English. And when this phrase makes its way into the writing of even very good writers it can result in the loss of the most valuable readers: the intelligent ones!
In the first sentence of this article are the following terms: “learn and apply.” Let’s compare that to “try and write.” The word “and” is an operator that indicates there are two things being combined, or that one follows the other. So in the case of the first term, we know the usage of “learn and apply” is correct because there are two specific things going on: learning AND applying.
In the case of the second term, “try and write” doesn’t yield any real meaning once you examine it. We know that there is writing going on, but what is this “try and” part mean? What does this person intend to try in addition to writing? The phrase can be broken down into its two parts to clearly see why it’s ridiculous:
*Try
AND
*Write
Don’t forget, AND is the operator that combines the two words. The “try” part of this term is vague and makes no sense: what is being tried? The phrase really means that two things are happening: one is writing and the other is unknown.
There is never a time where you could use the phrase “try and” where it would be considered correct. Instead, you should always say “try to.” Compare the following sentences and you’ll easily see the difference:
“I will try and run 3 miles later.” Or “I will try to run 3 miles later.”
“Try and get this done quickly please.” Or “Try to get this done quickly please.”
So now that you know the difference, you shouldn’t use the phrase “try and” unless you’re running a tween blog that uses words like “coulda” and “ur.” But if you want to be taken seriously as a writer, you’ll TRY TO ensure that you never write as you speak. Chances are great that once you start writing correctly, you’ll probably start speaking correctly as well.
Article Writing Tips: The Phrase
The hardest article writing tips to learn and apply are the ones that teach us to abandon bad writing and speech habits. This is especially true of a writer’s propensity to write in the same manner that they speak in. This is never a wise idea as any transcriptionist will tell you: most people speak terribly and constantly blurt all sorts of nonsensical crap. This means that if you already speak poorly your writing will probably seem amateurish at best. This includes the use of phrases like “Should of,” “Anyways,” and one of the most common idiotic phrases of all, “Try and.” Nearly everyone uses the words “try and” in everyday speech, but this is a perfect example of poor English. And when this phrase makes its way into the writing of even very good writers it can result in the loss of the most valuable readers: the intelligent ones!
In the first sentence of this article are the following terms: “learn and apply.” Let’s compare that to “try and write.” The word “and” is an operator that indicates there are two things being combined, or that one follows the other. So in the case of the first term, we know the usage of “learn and apply” is correct because there are two specific things going on: learning AND applying.
In the case of the second term, “try and write” doesn’t yield any real meaning once you examine it. We know that there is writing going on, but what is this “try and” part mean? What does this person intend to try in addition to writing? The phrase can be broken down into its two parts to clearly see why it’s ridiculous:
*Try
AND
*Write
Don’t forget, AND is the operator that combines the two words. The “try” part of this term is vague and makes no sense: what is being tried? The phrase really means that two things are happening: one is writing and the other is unknown.
There is never a time where you could use the phrase “try and” where it would be considered correct. Instead, you should always say “try to.” Compare the following sentences and you’ll easily see the difference:
“I will try and run 3 miles later.” Or “I will try to run 3 miles later.”
“Try and get this done quickly please.” Or “Try to get this done quickly please.”
So now that you know the difference, you shouldn’t use the phrase “try and” unless you’re running a tween blog that uses words like “coulda” and “ur.” But if you want to be taken seriously as a writer, you’ll TRY TO ensure that you never write as you speak. Chances are great that once you start writing correctly, you’ll probably start speaking correctly as well.