Time and Space Machine

Creating a Time and Space Machine with Today’s Technology

(C) 2005 Aaron L. Richards

A Time and Space Machine - Able to traverse time and space at a moments notice. Just select a location, and a point in time and ba-boom, you are ready to fight evil aliens, and others bent on doing harm to our world. It is a premise filled with all sorts of contradictions as to altering the time-space continuum.

Popular fiction? An advanced future technology? I don't think so. We can start recording time and space for use in our Time And Space Machine today. We can do this by extending currently available services through the use of popular and commonly available technologies. We can make the Time and Space Machine available through the World Wide Web. What we are in need of is the vision. Here it is!

Concept of a Time and Space Machine in the Popular Media

According to popular fiction, a Time And Space Machine is a device that bodily places one or more individuals over geographic space and through time to different location and a different time in the past or future. Once there, an individual can often view (and interfere with) great moments in history, and change the present in an unexpected way. At other times, individuals go into the future, and bring back devices of great or terrible purpose, which have been developed in our future and which have capabilities for which we are unprepared to accommodate, and which cause problems in the current time.

How We Are Going To Define A Time And Space Machine

I would like to define a Time And Space Machine as a service that allows individuals to see images of different locations at different points in time in the past. It would only be able to view such images of locations at times that had previously been recorded. The viewing of such recorded "history" would occur on a personal computer or workstation. I see such a service being made available on the World Wide Web. I will describe what the Time And Space Recorder consists of later on in this article. A Time And Space Recorder will be designed to be used on the worlds roadways as I envision it, and as a result the Time And Space Machine will primarily be designed to view scenes from automobile traveled roadways.

Such a system would have the ability to go forward or reverse in time while focusing on a view of a specific location provided recorded data existed for that location.

Similarly, geographic space could be traversed, while time was frozen.

In addition, one could traverse both time and space at the same time. Either in forward or reverse order, at "normal" speed, or fast forward or fast reverse, kind of like watching a DVD of a travel video.

What Would a Time And Space Machine Consist of in the Way of Equipment?

There would be a Time And Space Viewer, a Time And Space Server and there would be the data acquisition component which earlier I referred to as the Time And Space Recorder.

The Time And Space Viewer would be a personal computer or workstation with a web-browser program. All that it needs to do is view and interact with the Time And Space Server as a standard PC interacts with a web server.

The Time And Space Recorder would consist of a Global Positioning Satellite receiver, one or more video cameras, a video digitizer if the video cameras were not digital, a cellular broadband modem, a small computer, an internet connection, a database program, and a computer program that could tie it all together.

This equipment would be tied together by the computer in a system that allowed the video camera(s) to take in video as a vehicle drives down a road, encodes each frame of video with a latitude, longitude and orientation (direction) taken from the Global Positioning Satellite receiver as well as a time stamp. It could then transmit these images with their associated data to the Time And Space Server. This data would be transmitted through the cellular broadband modem.

The Time And Space Server would be part web-server, part specialized search engine. It would match time and space queries received from the Time And Space Viewers to the data supplied it by the Time And Space Recorders.

How Would This Time And Space Machine Work? What Would It Do?

In order to be feasible, this system would have to be deployed something like an On-Star system with video capability. Cars and trucks would be equipped with Time And Space Recorders as described above. As vehicles traverse the worlds roadways, they would capture video all along their routes. Each frame of video would be encoded with time and location data and sent to the Time And Space Server. If the Time And Space Recorders became commonplace, then many popular roadways would be traveled by these systems several times an hour.

Traverse space

If you had a large number of vehicles that were equipped with the Time And Space Recorders, that were traveling over a given geographic space, collecting images at roughly 30 frames/second, and each frame of video was being encoded with latitude and longitude from the GPS system, there would be quite a collection of images that would span a large geographic space.

If the appropriate software systems were in place to locate and traverse this information (the Time And Space Server), allowing the aggregation of all of the information from all of the vehicles with TASRs that were on the road, one could have a system such as that in the following description:

One could have a website that was similar to today’s map websites such as MapQuest, Yahoo Maps or Google Maps. The individual could type in a specific address or intersection and in return receive an image of a map. Like Google Maps, this map would be scrollable by clicking and dragging the mouse. In addition, there would be an image from a Time And Space Recorder (TASR) on the web page of the given location. If you moved the mouse, guiding a cross-hair around the streets on the map, images that had been acquired by TASRs at that geographic point could be displayed real-time (with a broadband connection) on the web page with the map. Not all of these images would necessarily come from the same vehicles TASR. The images displayed could potentially be from tens or even hundreds of vehicles systems aggregated over time into a system that coordinated with a mapping system on the Internet.

Traverse Time

Now that we can traverse space, how do we traverse time?

Well, taking the system described above, with images aggregated over a large geographic area from multiple vehicles' TASRs, note this: in areas with more traffic, it is highly likely that certain areas will be traversed by TASRs multiple times a day, perhaps, depending on how prevalent these systems are, maybe multiple times an hour. Now in these places that are traversed by TASRs multiple times an hour, if this data is recorded, there will be multiple images of a location per hour, for as long as the information is recorded, which at some future time could potentially be years worth of images. Now imagine the same mapping website as mentioned above. A user puts an address or location in the mapping website, and up pops a map of the surrounding area with a star at the specified location, as well as an image as viewed from the TASR of a vehicle at that location. Now in this scenario, imagine that this page would also have a clock and calendar on it. As you move the hands of the analog clock on the page, images taken of that location closest to the time specified would be displayed real time on the web page. If you wanted images from a different date, you could change that calendar date and the image of that location, closest to the date and time specified would be displayed. It is highly likely that the images would not all be from the same vehicle or TASR, but from an aggregated pool of images coded for that geographic location.

Now Imagine – Time and Space Traversal

Just imagine what would be possible if the number and density of the TASRs was great enough. It would be possible to view the scene of an accident, such as a two car collision using this system, and then follow either vehicle in reverse through time and space to see the events and behavior of the vehicles before the accident. You could, provided the image data resolution was great enough actually watch the accident occur in the form of a video clip. There are a number of possibilities, some very beneficial, and others more reminiscent of the Surveillance Society of Big Brother to be feared.

Although such a system as described may raise certain fears, being bodily transported into the past to battle aliens, and in the mean time disrupting the time-space continuum is highly unlikely to happen given this technology. Or is it?

BrainStormer II

I've decided not to develop and submit my software to Momentum. Nothing wrong with Momentum, I had run into a set of technical issues which I debated on the likelihood of being able to overcome (and I have since overcome.)

Since last blog article I have created a set of wireframes and storyboards and begun the process of database design. I am using SQL Server Express 2008 to create the database, unfortunately the hosting service I use is SQL Server 2000, so there is a bit of extra work involved in porting the structures over. I'll have to see if the hosting service will support the Express 2008 files.

I've also created a couple of pages and connected them to the database using Visual Studio 2008.

I'll keep you updated as I progress.

Brainstormer - A Web Based Creativity Tool

A number of years ago it occurred to me that it would be really cool to create a web-based creativity tool which facilitated the activity of brainstorming. Recently, having been out of the computer programming biz for roughly a year, I was looking for something to work on to develop my technical skills, and the brainstorming concept came to the forefront of my mind.

Not only will developing the brainstorming application increase my skills, I also plan on making it my submission to an organization called Momentum (http://momentum-mi.com/) which as they state "is a new kind of venture firm, a collective of designers, dreamers and doers."

My selection of technology is simple. Microsoft and possibly Adobe. I will be using Visual Studio 2008 - and possibly transitioning to Visual Studio 2010 after the VS '10 release. I'll be using SQL Server 2000 for my database as that is database my hosting service uses.

I want to write software which tracks closely to the most effective practices in the business of brainstorming, so I contacted James Manktelow of Mind Tools (http://mindtools.com/) a Brit who maintains a collection of information for improving the human side of business practices. He has a number of articles on his site about brainstorming and a variety of variations on brainstorming. He also has agreed to review the results of my development efforts.

On the technical management side of the project, I've developed a process flow and a new user screen - which I've already decided to rework in an effort to use the .Net 3.5 framework to the greatest extent possible.

That is it for today, check on this blog weekly for progress. Until next time!

(C) Aaron L. Richards - All Rights Reserved

Exploring Next-Gen Cameras (Photo and Video)

© 2009 – Aaron L Richards – All Rights Reserved

Exploring Next-Gen Cameras (Photo and Video)
Next generation recording technology for photography and videography (we are calling both cameras here) is busting loose! With advances in wireless communications, camera's features and operations, and 3D editing, modeling and animation software the cameras of tomorrow will have little resemblance to those of today!

The first aspect of cameras to look at are the newly arriving communications capabilities. There are a number of technologies to choose from. A camera may have Wi-Fi,Wi-Max, Bluetooth or cellular, perhaps all 4. With these capabilities the photos or videos can be delivered to a PC for editing, sharing on YouTube, a TV or a DVD-burner anytime the camera is within range of a compatible wireless technology. There are also a number of activities which may be coordinated between multiple camera operators with wireless technologies. We may cover those at another time.

Onto the structural features and operational issues of future cameras.

First it is quite clear that future cameras will be 3D capable for both stills and video. There exist a number of technologies for filming and consuming 3D content: stereo-optic red and blue, stereo-optic polarized lenses, time-of-flight systems, alternating LCD shutter/image glasses and “bug's-eye” imaging systems. The benefit of time-of-flight systems and bug's-eyes technologies is that in addition to creating 3D stereo-imagery, they also lend themselves to creating 3D meshes or digital models of objects in the field of view. 3D meshes and models provide for later manipulation of a scene in 3D for a future 3D image manipulation and video editing software suite.

Today video editing consists primarily of virtually cutting clips and putting them together in a layering system with creative transitions. Tomorrow's systems, incorporating stereo imagery derived from a 3D mesh/model system will provide for editing through moving and positioning 3D models in a virtual space. This is in contrast to today's “green screen” video technology where different video layers are super-imposed on one another and may possess different lighting characteristics. Also content in different layers have an inability to interact with content in other layers creating a flat look.

This contrasts with 3D editing, where a 3D model of a person, vehicle or building can be copied from one 3D video and placed in another while maintaining consistent lighting and consistent interaction with other 3D models in a scene. In a 3D scene, created with 3D models, objects can quickly be added, deleted or posed. In addition, future 3D editing suites will facilitate the generation of 3D video from viewpoints differing from those originally filmed. It will become a relatively simple task to place a 3D movie star digital model into a 3D location where the star has never been, to do things the star has never done, and have the star look better than they have ever looked.

Today this is common in Hollywood's multi-million dollar blockbusters. With tomorrow's 3D cameras and software this will happen at prices suitable for the casual hobbiest.

Perhaps one of the most visually obvious innovations in camera design will be the “bug's-eyes” lenses. Bug's-eye lenses are paired, hemispherical, geodesic forms used for both imaging and 3D modeling and 3D mesh/model generation. Through the use of an interesting software algorithm and innovative physical design, focusing an image shall be achieved, not through mechanically moving lenses and mirrors, but through a software technique I call “Algorithmic Focusing and Mesh Extraction.”

Using Algorithmic Focusing and Mesh Extraction the count of moving parts in a camera is reduced, simplifying the design and assembly and the longevity is increased through decreased focusing related wear during use.

Additionally the camera will provide the operator with a 3D viewer while imaging, perhaps with binocular-like optics or a diffraction lens.

A substantial amount of meta-data will be available for the imagery created. Even today latitude, longitude, height, orientation, date and time are available.

In the near future adding 3D mesh coordinates and a textual representation of recorded dialog to the meta-data will be possible. This enables cool features such as searching through a video for keywords in the audio meta-data. In addition, using both image and mesh data, imaging systems will have the ability to identify “Things” in the imagery generically such as a “big-old-fat guy” using object detection and distinction features. After the technology matures, the software will make distinctions like both “big-old-fat guy” and “Uncle Tom Sleeping.”
This information will also be embedded into the meta-data, enabling noun-verb searches like “Alex eating ice cream cone” and “Kris bouncing ball.”

So lets review and further illustrate characteristics of future cameras.

First 3D capabilities are guarenteed. Both in stills as well as video. Next-Gen cameras will also create 3D meshes and models- consisting of both 3D coordinates as well as the visual imagery which gets wrapped around the 3D models, be it imagery of skin, bricks or a wood-grain, providing a “real” looking model. Focusing an image won't be done through moving lenses and mirrors but though a technique I call Algorithmic Focusing and Mesh Extraction which generates 3D mesh and image information from the scene brought into the camera through “Bug's-Eye” lenses.

This Algorithmic Focusing and Mesh Extraction software algorithm allows the camera operator to focus on any element in the photo for clear and sharp pictures as well as generating a 3D mesh of the scene. Focusing and mesh generation can be done both real-time in the camera or in the post-production phase with software.

Cameras already create 4:3 and 16:9 imagery, that is old news. The new idea is to decompose a video or picture into elements such as a 3D mesh, imagery, audio data and motion information. Images will be contained and described in a future mark-up language such as Microsoft's XAML. By decomposing pictures and video into computer and human legible XAML or a XAML-like mark-up language, absolutely incredible feats of audio/visual wonder will be enabled. This has implications in a variety of fields from entertainment to Homeland Security.

With camera's wireless communications capabilities it will be possible to orchestrate photo and video sources, both live and post-production, using video content from the cameras on a PC while the cameras are in range. In addition, using either a live feed or post-production it will be possible to introduce elements in scenes that interact with the scene environment, even though they did not physically or visually exist in the scene at imaging time.

This suggests the possibility of merging virtual characters and worlds with a live feed from one or more cameras in various locations around a downtown center or other area of interest.

In the next 5-10 years, camera technologies will explode. You've heard my thoughts on the matter, what are yours?

Pyro-Dinos Coexisted With Mankind

Portions (C) 1995 American Century Dictionary and (C) 1984 NIV Bible. All other text (C) 2009 Aaron L. Richards, All Rights Reserved.
Yes - you read that right! Fire-breathing dinosaurs not only existed, they coexisted with mankind. How do I know this? The world's greatest history book has a couple of chapters discussing this scenario. In other words, I know because the Bible tells me so! Where? Take a look at the NIV version of the bible, Job 40:15 which states "Look at the behemoth, [...] which feeds on grass like an ox. (16)What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! (17)His tail sways like a cedar; [...] (21)Under the lotus plants he lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh... (23)When the river rages he is not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth. (24)Can anyone capture him by the eyes, or trap him and pierce his nose?" (1984, NIV).

The verses above tell us of a number of attributes which identify this creature. First of all the name of the creature - "behemoth" - which the American Century Dictionary (1995) defines as a "huge creature or thing." We know from fossils that some dinosaurs were huge creatures. We know from studies of fossils that some dinosaurs fed on grass and vegetation which corresponds to Job 40:15, this creature "[...] which feeds on grass like an ox."

The biblical passage also refer to the behemoth having "strength" and "power." Here is the kicker, "His tail sways like a cedar;" Job 40:17 (1984, NIV). If you think of dinosaurs, specifically the brontosaurus, it had a long, thick tail. This is in conflict with the footnotes in the NIV which suggest that the behemoth is "possibly the hippopotamus or the elephant (1984, NIV, Job 40). When the bible mentions "cedar" in other books of the bible it does not mean sprouts or saplings, it refers to well developed or majestic tree trunks (1984, NIV) not the relatively small fly-swatting tails of an elephant or hippo.

Here is another key point - the behemoth in the bible "(21) Under the lotus plants he lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh" (1984, NIV, Job 40:21).

When I was in grades K-12 the understanding of the brontosaurus is that it lived in and ate of vegetation in marshes and swamps. The behemoth is said to be "...secure though the Jordan should surge against his mouth" (1984, NIV, 40:23). The brontosaurus as an extremely substantial animal would live unbothered by the torrents of the Jordan.

Job 40:24 makes an interesting remark, "Can anyone capture him by the eyes, or trap him and pierce his nose?" (1984, NIV). I'll leave answering this question as an exercise for the reader!

Let us look at another one of God's creations described in Job. Job 41:1 reads "Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope?" (1984, NIV). Job 41:7 states "Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?" (1984, NIV, Job 41:8). If you lay a hand on him you will remember the struggle and never do it again!" (1984, NIV).

Job 41:15 "His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together;" (1984, NIV). Job 41:19 "Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. (20)Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. (21)His breath sets coals ablaze and flames dart from his mouth..." (1984, NIV).

Going back to the American Century Dictionary, we see that the word "leviathan" in Job 41:1 is defined as a: "Sea monster" or "anything large and powerful" (1995). OK, sounds like a dinosaur so far...

Next in Job 41:7 the Lord questions Job as to the ability to inflict damage on the leviathan with harpoons or fishing spears (1984, NIV). The footnotes in the NIV sugest the leviathan is a crocodile. I don't think crocodiles are impervious to harpoos or fishing spears, but then I've never tried to use a spear against a crocodile. Let us continue and see where this leads us...

Job 41:15 states "His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; (16) each is so close to the next that no air can pass between" (1984, NIV).

Hmmm... Sounds like a stegosaurus to me. Now we are getting to the really cool stuff!

Job 41:19 illustrates an amazing biological ability - "Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. (20) Smoke pours out from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. (21) His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth" (1984, NIV).

A substantial amount of text is dedicated to expressing the pyrotechnic abilities of our stegosaurus. You may think we are looking at a dragon, the "fictional" beast of ancient times; think about it, what is a dragon but a fire-breathing dinosaur?

How can this be? Let me propose a couple of possibilities. Like the methane producing cows who today are blamed for global warming, the stegosaurus may have produced methane gas as a result of its digestive organs processing food. As an alternative to flatulence it may have exausted this flammable gas through its nostrils and mouth. My only experience with the flammability of the gases resulting from digestive processes are the second-hand stories I've heard in the public school system where

(*** WARNING - DANGER - DO NOT TRY THIS ACTIVITY - BURNS OR OTHER EXTENSIVE INJURIES MAY RESULT ***)

I heard that students placed a match or a lighter behind the bottom of a student who consequently passed gas. The result, depending on who I head tell the tale was either as subtle as the flame turning blue for a moment, to a combustion resulting in a burn through the gas-passer's pants.

Perhaps the stegosaurus had an organ - a bladder dedicated to the storage of methane or other flammable gases resulting from digestive processes.

A second possibility is that bacteria or other components in the digestive process of our stegosaurus enabled fermentation to occur whereby the resulting alcohol once again was stored in an organ, perhaps a bladder of some type, able to be ejected though the mouth or nostrils of our stegosaurus.

I have to admit, igniting the gas or alcohol when ejected from our pyro-dino stumps me. Perhaps a paleontologist, archeologist or anthropologist who has studied dinosaur fossils and remains has an answer. If pushed into guessing, I would offer something like sparking teeth or maybe a chemical ignition with stomach acid or something similar. Hey - Send me your best guess!

Here is the moment of truth. How do I know our brontosaurus and stegosaurus coexisted with mankind? I know because the bible tells me so. Job 40:15 "Look at the behometh, *which I made along with you...*" (1984, NIV). (Emphasis mine). BOOM!

An additional proof, albeit more subtle is the fact that the Lord is mentioning these creatures as the Lord addresses Job (1984, NIV). If Job had no experience or understanding of these creatures, Job would have had a difficult time relating to or understanding the power of God through these creatures.

I was quite surprised when the Lord led me to the revelation a few years ago that fire-breathing dinosaurs coexisted with mankind. I am amazed that I had not been taught this in school. When I read Job, the Lord opened my eyes and allowed me to understand that which may not be clear to others.

A bible verse I've read recently which applies to a number of revelations coming to me states this: Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you, telling you great and unsearchable things you do not know" (1984, NIV).

Praise be to God!

Mobile Memory

First, understand… Moore’s Law says (depending on who you talk to) that somewhere around every 18 months to 2 years the number of transistors in a processor doubles. Variations on wireless technologies abound. Electronic storage media is becoming very inexpensive.

Imagine if you will, the future of video. A memory card, as San Disk says “fingernail-size[d]” already come in 2, 4, 8 and 16 GB sizes (http://sandisk.com/). According to Apple a movie needs roughly 1.5 GB (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1906?viewlocale=en_US#faq5). So you can put a number of movies onto a 16 GB card the size of a fingernail.

OK – lets look a bit further into the future and toss wireless into the mix. There is a technology called RFID currently in the infancy stage. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. These are small computer chips that can send information over distance to a reading device or computer. The trend is to put tiny RFID chips into retail goods. One focus of this technology is to allow a customer at a retail store to take a cartful of goods tagged with these RFID tags, allow them to walk through a checkout lane, and have a computer read the RFID tags and total your purchases without scanning codes on your purchases. It would allow you to tally your purchases in a second or two without taking them out of the cart. Another current use is in credit cards or the SpeedPass® purchase system where you wave a credit card or a “dongle” near a reader to pay.

Now lets tie this with the memory cards discussed earlier. If you create an RFID tag the size of a fingernail, with16GB (several movies), incredible video games or like SanDisk offers, a 1000 songs (http://www.sandisk.com/Corporate/PressRoom/PressReleases/PressRelease.aspx?ID=4529) of storage, what do you have?

You will be able to watch videos on TV or play games on a mobile video player if people around you have the movies-games-music in their pocket! Movies, games and music will no longer have to be “put into” a player device. You will be able to play and perhaps copy movies, games and music simply by walking around. Think about how large a DVD player is. A RFID reader for movies could take the form of a video connector without the cable, plugged into a television – for those TVs that do not have the reader capability built in.

At some point in the future the price point will allow movies, games, songs, advertisements, etc to be incorporated into stickers or product packaging. So every time you come home from the store your box of Lucky Charms may have a movie or game built in. All your store purchases will transmit content. Your TV, video player, cell phone/PDA will be able to read the digital content through the cupboards, refrigerator, walls of your home and will provide a list of videos associated with all of the products in your home on the screen for you to choose from. These could include promotional, usage, storage, safety videos, games, or value enhancement software.

The step after that is video surface packaging. As depicted in Minority Report, there will be thin flexible film video surfaces. In the movie, they had animated newspapers. Extend that a bit – Your box of Lucky Charms with the video? It will play video advertisements on the surface of the packaging – on the store shelf. Perhaps the movie capability will be enabled at the point of purchase. This may bring on the resurgence of serial (cereal) video programming. Instead of getting a little toy in the box, you will get the next show in a series of programs that plays out over the reoccurring purchases of your cereal. Or maybe the next level of a video game tied into the product(s). Your kids will be mesmerized over breakfast watching, or perhaps playing the box. The movie or game associated with the product could be played on the wall or ceiling (thin flexible film – large size) in all of its superHD-high resolution glory.

One great benefit to this – the need for original content will increase tremendously. Those needed to create video, graphic design, music, 3D modeling and animation, sculpture, photography, story and plot development, martial arts, illustration, aesthetists, athletes, designers will all increase as producers of products and services meet the need of content development to support their offerings.

I get wiggly just thinking about it.

Take that the next step beyond. That box of Lucky Charms – it may begin to watch you and comment on your activities. Hmmm…

The Scared and Hungry Masses

(C) 2009 Aaron L. Richards - All Rights Reserved - Links Appreciated!

This is an excerpt from an email I sent to a high school buddy of mine in Florida when he asked about the Michigan economy.

..."The guys that have run the town have targeted the medical industry. I think the number of square feet in downtown dedicated to medical treatment or research will have gone 8X or more in the next year from 4 years ago. I didn't see the trend 10 years ago, but lately it has become apparent to me that with the aging of the baby-boomer generation, there are big bucks to be made from healthcare.

Looks like you are in a good business (my friend is in medical coding). It is interesting to see how healthcare and IT are getting along. The medical establishment is spending major bucks on IT - programming, systems, networks, etc. This will help them minimize additional headcount and at some point in the next 5-10 years will actually allow them to reduce headcount substantially, even with more patients coming in the door. They will still need bodies to handle patients, but the proportion dedicated to administrative will be substantially reduced. Technology will allow fewer nurses to handle more patients, and those that come into contact with patients will be deskilled. I used to think that there would be a huge number of unemployed resulting from this transition. Now I see that as huge numbers of baby-boomers leave the workforce, they will probably leave many holes that need to be plugged - so it is a matter of developing skills in the workforce that does exist to get them ready with the skills desired by businesses.

The ebbs and flows in industry, the economy and employment will become larger and more pronounced in the coming years. There will be tremendous need in some areas, and tremendous excess in others. Online education is key. If industry wants to be effective, I think business leaders will have to integrate electronic systems of education, training and analysis into the work environment so that they can sit relatively any competent body into the chair and have them come up to speed while performing work.

Tonight I had an epiphany. The small business is back. With corporations divesting themselves of 100,000s of employees, many people are setting up small shops. These are bringing back the small shops along the strip. These small shops not only provide variety which the megastores (currently) can't afford, but they can provide service far above and beyond the megastores as well. These scared and hungry people will use their wits above and beyond what they had when employed by the Fortune 1000, to come up with creative and strategic ways of doing business. Many will leverage technology in ways that ingrain them into their niche, as opposed to trying to be all things to all people like the big box stores and services.

What trends do you see in your business? What questions does your manager not answer when asked? :^) "