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I can’t wait for this to happen!!!

More than 400 scientists gathered at the Global Grid Forum this week to discuss what may be the Internet’s next evolutionary step.

Though distributed computing evokes associations with populist initiatives like SETI@home, where individuals donate their spare computing power to worthy projects, the Grid will link PCs to each other and the scientific community like never before.

The Grid will not only enable sharing of documents and MP3 files, but also connect PCs with sensors, telescopes and tidal-wave simulators.

IBM’s Brian Carpenter suggested “computing will become a utility just like any other utility.”

Carpenter said, “The Grid will open up … storage and transaction power in the same way that the Web opened up content.” And just as the Internet connects various public and private networks, Cisco Systems’ Bob Aiken said, “you’re going to have multiple grids, multiple sets of middleware that people are going to choose from to satisfy their applications.”

As conference moderator Walter Hoogland suggested, “The World Wide Web gave us a taste, but the Grid gives a vision of an ICT (Information and Communication Technology)-enabled world.”

Though the task of standardizing everything from system templates to the definitions of various resources is a mammoth one, the GGF can look to the early days of the Web for guidance. The Grid that organizers are building is a new kind of Internet, only this time with the creators having a better knowledge of where the bottlenecks and teething problems will be.

The general consensus at the event was that although technical issues abound, the thorniest issues will involve social and political dimensions, for example how to facilitate sharing between strangers where there is no history of trust.

Amsterdam seemed a logical choice for the first Global Grid Forum because not only is it the world’s most densely cabled city, it was also home to the Internet Engineering Task Force’s first international gathering in 1993. The IETF has served as a model for many of the GGF’s activities: protocols, policy issues, and exchanging experiences.

The Grid Forum, a U.S.-based organization combined with eGrid - the European Grid Forum, and Asian counterparts to create the Global Grid Forum (GGF) in November, 2000.

The Global Grid Forum organizers said grid communities in the United States and Europe will now run in synch.

The Grid evolved from the early desire to connect supercomputers into “metacomputers” that could be remotely controlled. The word “grid” was borrowed from the electricity grid, to imply that any compatible device could be plugged in anywhere on the Grid and be guaranteed a certain level of resources, regardless of where those resources might come from.

Scientific communities at the conference discussed what the compatibility standards should be, and how extensive the protocols need to be.

As the number of connected devices runs from the thousands into the millions, the policy issues become exponentially more complex. So far, only draft consensus has been reached on most topics, but participants say these are the early days.

As with the Web, the initial impetus for a grid came from the scientific community, specifically high-energy physics, which needed extra resources to manage and analyze the huge amounts of data being collected.

The most nettlesome issues for industry are security and accounting. But unlike the Web, which had security measures tacked on as an afterthought, the Grid is being designed from the ground up as a secure system.

Conference participants debated what types of services (known in distributed computing circles as resource units) provided through the Grid will be charged for. And how will the administrative authority be centralized?

Corporations have been slow to cotton to this new technology’s potential, but the suits are in evidence at this year’s Grid event. As GGF chairman Charlie Catlett noted, “This is the first time I’ve seen this many ties at a Grid forum.”

In addition to IBM, firms such as Boeing, Philips and Unilever are already taking baby steps toward the Grid.

Though commercial needs tend to be more transaction-focused than those of scientific pursuits, most of the technical requirements are common. Furthermore, both science and industry participants say they require a level of reliability that’s not offered by current peer-to-peer initiatives: Downloading from Napster, for example, can take seconds or minutes, or might not work at all.

Garnering commercial interest is critical to the Grid’s future. Cisco’s Aiken explained that “if grids are really going to take off and become the major impetus for the next level of evolution in the Internet, we have to have something that allows (them) to easily transfer to industry.”

Other potential Grid components include creating a virtual observatory, and doctors performing simulations of blood flows. While some of these applications have existed for years, the Grid will make them routine rather than exceptional.

The California Institute of Technology’s Paul Messina said that by sharing computing resources, “you get more science from the same investment.”

Ian Foster of the University of Chicago said that Web precursor Arpanet was initially intended to be a distributed computing network that would share CPU-intensive tasks but instead wound up giving birth to e-mail and FTP.

The Grid may give birth to a global file-swapping network or a members-only citadel for moneyed institutions. But just as no one ten years ago would have conceived of Napster — not to mention AmIHotOrNot.com — the future of the Grid is unknown.

An associated DataGrid conference continues until Friday, focusing on a project in which resources from Pan-European research institutions will analyze data generated by a new particle collider being built at Swiss particle-physics lab CERN.

via Wired

“If you want to get a good idea of whether I’d make a good employee, drop by my house and take a look around.” — Malcolm Gladwell

Many companies place ‘creative stimuli’ like pool tables in their offices to inspire remarkable ideas, but what actually materializes as a result? Whether your office is made up of cubicles or open-plan architecture, your workspace should foster a culture of Productive Creativity.

You can learn a lot about a person from taking a look around their home. Since everything communicates, a brief glimpse at a bookcase is a lens for what your colleague finds interesting. Much like you can tell a lot about a person by looking around their home, you can understand a company’s culture from their workspace.

The typical office set-up of cubicles and fluorescent lamps reflects conformity, isolation, and a lack of individuality, where each employee is a mere cog on a wheel. Not surprisingly, remarkable ideas are seldom conceived in such settings. On the other hand, people assume that a fun-filled open-plan architecture is the answer to generate innovative ideas. With its emphasis on collaboration and fun, these workspaces reflect teamwork, collaboration and creativity for people to share and brainstorm new ideas. These companies believe that “bumping” into each other and engaging in an impromptu game of Rock Band is the catalyst for fresh ideas.

However, through some of our team’s research, we have discovered some liabilities with these collaborative spaces. As more value is placed on inspiration and less on structure and taking action, teams are liable to spend more time generating more ideas and less time on improving any particular ideas. We have found that ideas are less likely to gain traction when idea generation is never confined. Collaborative workspaces also encourage interruptions that can, in turn, produce distractions that reduce productivity. The “bumping” philosophy causes people to meet on the fly, rather than adequately prepare for a meeting. While open-plan architecture may facilitate raw creativity, this kind of environment does not necessarily foster the focus and accountability required to push ideas forward.

A workspace should be used NOT just to generate ideas, but also to make ideas happen. Since most great ideas are formulated in unstructured space, why not use time outside of the office for blue sky thinking…and then return to your workspace to take action? Here are some tips for turning your open collaborative space to a productive one.

* Treat your colleagues as if they have an imaginary door. Limit the spur-of-the-moment meetings. Limit the number of times you interrupt people when they are in the middle of doing something to get quick feedback. Instead, schedule a time to allow for preparation and more thorough thoughts.

* Wear headphones when you do not want to be interrupted. If you are focused and concentrated on getting something done, wear headphones to visually let people know that you do not want to be disturbed, even if you are not listening to music.

* Implement the Action Method visually. Some of the most productive teams in the creative community put their action steps on the wall for the whole company to see. This promotes an emphasis for capturing the Actions Steps behind ideas and accountability for taking them.

* Hold Action Meetings. Rather than holding a meeting to brainstorm new ideas, hold a meeting to determine Action Steps for each team member.

This tip was co-written by Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Scott Belsky, members of the Behance team. Explore more Behance tips, and check out Behance’s guest postings for small businesses trying to make ideas happen, hosted at American Express’ OpenForum.

via Behance Magazine

visit OPEN Forum Blog by Amex

Jaguar unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show the XKR-S - a lightweight sports coupe that takes the Jaguar sports car experience to a new level. As the fastest production XK to date, it delivers a combination of high speed performance, dynamic excellence and crafted luxury that is unique to Jaguar. The XKR-S is capable of 0-60mph (0-100kph) in 4.9 (5.2) seconds and has a maximum speed, electronically limited, of 174mph (280kph) – making it the fastest Jaguar since the XJ220 supercar. The limited edition coupe will come in Ultimate Black and can be easily identified by the unique XKR-S badge on the back of the car. The exterior has also been subtly enhanced along with new lightweight 20-inch Vortex forged alloy wheels. The car will go on sale in the summer of 2008 with a limited production run of 200 for the European market only.

Rémy Cointreau, the luxe wine and spirits company, is offering a new ingredient for mixologists to have a little fun with. By using a “Spherification” technique, it transforms the Cointreau liquer from a liquid into a set of solid “pearls.” These pearls also accompanied by edible 24-karat gold flakes, which would sparkle perfectly in various upscale Cointreau cocktails.

via New York Magazine

db clay offers unique, one of a kind wallets crafted using PVC Free, eco-friendly “Tope” material. I think the Version 3 collection (shown above) has a really nice selection of stamped and printed designs. I also like the fact that there is a limited edition, but still reasonably priced.

Visit db clay

I love spending weekends up at my parents’ place to re-energize my entire being. There’s time to enjoy home-cooked meals, nature, and undisturbed sleeping in (no honking, sirens, jackhammers, roommates). In addition, I spend a lot of time catching up on reading (blogs, mostly) and knowledge building. And best of all, it’s far away from work.

I think that I’ve been working way too much as of late. It’s taking a bigger toll on my energy level, mood, and all around sanity than probably realize. But fortunately, this weekend helped me assess what was wrong with the picture and I pinpointed it down to two things: productivity and simplicity.

My work habits are pretty good for a starter, but as of late, they haven’t been able to keep up with the increasing amount of things that need to be done. I found myself not having enough hours in a normal business day to finish everything that needed to be completed. Staying late at work has become the norm for me and I hate that I’m not phased by staying past 8PM. It just has to change.

So, this weekend, I re-visited Merlin Mann’s talk on Inbox Zero. His tips about how to manage the email beast were really helpful and it inspired me to find more tools, like his, to help wipe my mental slate clean.

Through a combination of pure random blog-hopping and Googling key words from Merlin’s talk, I found another great website: Zen Habits. This site offers a lot of literature on obtaining a healthier, simpler and happier lifestyle. Something that I desperately crave right now…

Other fabulous little gems:

• Tadalist: a simple online to-do list maker
• WriteRoom: a no-distraction writing tool
• PocketMod: a free recyclable personal organizer
• OmniFocus : a project/task manager

It’s an hour long lecture, but pretty interesting… I could take a lesson or two from Merlin Mann, creator of Inbox Zero, as I have over 28,500 unfiltered, unarchived emails in my work inbox. (no joke)

This is his Google Talk presentation about Inbox Zero that I found off of YouTube. Sorry for the audio/visual not sync’ing up correctly after the 20-min mark. It doesn’t affect your understanding for his lecture at all.

This is a brilliant solution to simple, mobile living. (without tools! not even the crazy IKEA-esque ones!)

From this:

To this:

How? Here’s a video of two guys putting it all together:

Or if you’re in a rush, the designers have put together a 7 second clip:

via Marcel Krings & Sebastian Muhlhauser via Yanko Design

Here is the new core values film by Louis Vuitton. This film ties into the print campaign that focuses on the concept of “the journey”, which features world-class icons including Mikhail Gorbachev, Catherine Deneuve, and the Steffi Graf / Andre Agassi duo. The imagery is stunning, almost transcendental at times. The film aims to make Louis Vuitton, a brand guarded as an status symbol, feel almost immaterial. All in all, this is a very elegant piece for LV that stirs up emotions and imaginations. It successfully reveals a fundamental human insight that the align with, and not all fashion brands are able to appear empathetic and enigmatic at the same time.

However, I am slightly disappointed that this otherwise inspiring message is distorted and discredited by the presence of a couple ostentatious fashion campaigns on the same website and running simultaneously in publications. And then… there’s Pharrell for LV, which is just a WHOLE other story.

visit LouisVuitton.com