RICK ASTER

What’s coming — and what does it take to be ready for the future?


RICK ASTER’S WORLD


June 2010. Blinking Lights, Two Different Kinds

Blinking, moving, and shifting lights are about to take on a more prominent place in modern life, and here are two developments I didn’t see coming. . . . (read more)

May 2010. Movie Research: It’s Coming From Video Games

The James Cameron movie Avatar was successful largely because of an unprecedented two-year research effort that defined both the story line and the visuals for the movie. Avatar’s unprecedented success has persuaded Hollywood of the value of research . . . (read more)

April 2010. Watching Your Movies for You

With so much content available now, you’re going to need the help of technology, of what theorists have called “intelligent agents,” to get through it all. And I’m not just talking about spam filters. . . . (read more)

March 2010. The Return of the Album

A court ruled this month that Pink Floyd’s record deal with EMI did not entitle the record label to sell all of the band’s songs as singles. This is a ruling that is likely to affect the entire music industry. . . . (read more)

February 2010. DVD Sales Decline

DVD movie sales are declining, and were actually less than movie theater box office totals in the United States in 2009 . . . (read more)

January 2010. Personal Hydrogen

Energy is controlled by big companies, many of them monopolies. It’s delivered over wires, in pipes, or on heavy trucks, because it’s too inefficient to deal with on a smaller scale. But this is going to change. . . . (read more)

December 2009. Water Is Universal

Recent observations of water on the surface of the moon tell us that water is not the rare property of Earth-like planets and comets, as was previously thought. Instead, we find that water is one most common chemical compounds in the universe. . . . (read more)

November 2009. Music As a Game

Advances in music performance video games are blurring the line between game performance and musical performance. . . . (read more)

October 2009. Focus

The main focus of philosophy in the 21st century will be focus. . . . (read more)

September 2009. The Prepaid Cell Phone

Most mobile phone users pay for most of their usage on a subscription plan. It’s simple: stay within the plan limits, and you pay the same amount every month. But there is a simpler approach to cell phone use that is becoming more popular now. That’s the prepaid cell phone . . . (read more)

August 2009. Beyond the ISBN

For a third of a century, ISBNs in numeric and bar-code forms have been obligatory for any book sold to the public. Now that run is about to end. . . . (read more)

July 2009. 3 Signs of the Death of Social Networking

Social networking is booming — but here are three recent signs that hint that the trend can’t last forever. . . . (read more)

June 2009. Digital Cameras Beat Out Single-Use Film Cameras

The last popular uses of film in photography are going away. . . . (read more)

May 2009. Blurring the Line Between Still and Video Cameras

The distinction between still cameras and video cameras is slowly disappearing. . . . (read more)

April 2009. What’s in the Mail?

Mail used to be what ties the world together. Now you could go for a week without checking your mail . . . (read more)

March 2009. E-Mail Moves to Social Networks

E-mail is moving rapidly from the open Internet to the comparatively safe environs of social network web sites. . . . (read more)

February 2009. Saving the Audio Cassettes

I’m converting my audio cassettes to CDs — before it’s too late. . . . (read more)

January 2009. Advertising vs. Viewer Control

It’s not a new issue. Ever since televisions got remote controls with mute buttons . . . (read more)


RICK ASTER’S WORLD HISTORY

June 1999Rude Hair
July 1999Divx Folds
August 1999Computer Revivals
October 1999The World Wide Web Changes the Political Process
February 2000XHTML: The Next Step for HTML
May 2000 Web Integration and Business Integrity
June 2000 Microsoft Faces the Blue Screen of Death
July 2000 What’s Happening to the Major Record Labels?
August 2000The Decline of Content
September 2000 Mainframe Computers Quietly Disappear
October 2000 Losing Control of the Media
November 2000 The Lie of Absolute Morality
January 2001Small Media
March 2001Mir
April 2001Bad Ideas in Advertising
May 2001Education Breaks Loose
February 2002Accounting’s Golden Age is Over
March 2002Saving Real Estate With Flat-Panel Displays
April 2002Miniaturization and the Loss of Privacy
May 2002The New Spiritual Economy
June 2002New Optical Disk Formats
July 2002“Stone Soup” Capitalism
August 2002No Music on Internet Radio
September 2002Simplifying Language for Global Communication
October 2002Light Gets Lighter
November 2002DVD Format Sparks Music Video Sales
December 2002The High Price of Metal
January 2003Say Cheese! Kodak, McDonald’s Not Smiling
February 2003What to Do When the Power Goes Out
April 2003Deflationary Forces
May 2003IPod On Stage
June 2003How Do Genetic Diseases Move?
July 2003Spam Destroys the E-Mail Standard
August 2003Lease Expiration
September 2003Wanted: Music Videos That Don’t Look Like Commercials
October 2003 Generation Gap in Software Development
November 2003It’s a Thin, Thin World
December 2003Concert DVDs Fill Gaps
2004The Commercial-Free Mind
January 2005Ring Out the Analog
February 2005Recruiters: the Next Travel Agents?
March 2005The DNA Photon Hypothesis
April 2005Plug In a New Computer
May 2005Sailing to the North Pole
June 2005A Future for Broadcasting?
July 2005Propping Up Software Prices
August 2005A Web Site With a TV Channel
September 2005Unprepared at All Levels
October 2005Cutting Back on Moving Parts
November 2005The Cable-Free Diary
December 2005The Copy-Protected Robot
January 2006Consolidating Utilities
February 2006The Perils of Commercial E-Mail
March 2006In Search of Open Standards
April 2006Release Day in the Record Stores
May 2006Running With Glucosamine
June 2006Moving to Cyberspace
July 2006Walking is More Than a Metaphor
August 2006Film Lives On
September 2006Real Estate and a Reluctant Economy
October 2006Uses for a Faster Computer
November 2006Remote Groceries
December 2006A Technology Transition in the Automobile Industry
January 2007The Clone-Free Diet
February 2007Staying Culturally Connected Without Flying
March 2007Space Jumping
April 2007Digital Music Players Change CD Mastering
May 200710 Updates
June 2007Energy Prices Slam Online Markets
July 2007In the Electric Car Era
August 2007Military Band Music
September 2007The Northwest Passage Is Open
October 2007Three New E-Commerce Experiences
November 2007The 911 Network
December 2007An LED Room Lighting Installation
January 2008Digital-Ready Documents
February 2008Rock Band and the Rock Drum Set
March 2008One Phone
April 2008Interactive Exercise Video
May 2008Quick Answers: The Next Big Internet Trend
June 2008Unicode Takes Over the Internet
July 2008The End of the CD Era
August 2008The High Cost of Radio
September 2008What’s Wrong With This HD Picture?
October 2008The Dark Side of Links
November 2008What Happens to the Two-Party System Now?
December 2008The USB Flash Drive Network

Rick Aster’s Notebook | Fish Nation Information Station