Here is a mesmerizing, real-time animation of the winds across the United States and their complicated patterns. So much of our interaction with the wind is what we feel, or see in short distance. It’s neat to step back a little in awe of how they change and morph into visual spectacles.

From its creators, Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viegas:

An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us—energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future.

This map shows you the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US right now.

(via Khoi Vinh)

If your password is a word, you’ve got a problem. Yes, even if you replaced some of the letters with numbers.  Mother’s maiden name as a “secret question”?  Not so secret.  We’ve all read the stories of celebrities, politicians and simple folk that had their accounts hacked and their dirty underwear thrown all over the press.  They were all shocked to hear that someone didn’t “hack” the system, they just guessed their password.  Vindictive exes?  Snooping spouses?  Passwords on paper?  Probably the biggest threats to your accounts…not hackers.

Facebook and Google and Yahoo and Microsoft can have the best encryption and security protocols in the world, but that doesn’t mean anything if your password is “shinyobjects321″.  It may be easy for you to remember, but it’s also easy to guess.  And, chances are, you use it for every account you have.  Sound familiar?

So, please, do these three simple things and feel much safer about the security of your accounts.

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A few years ago, a friend and I read an article in the New York Times challenging readers to take a “digital vacation” away from their communications devices.  If you’re anything like most Americans today, you’re glued to at least a cell phone, but probably quite more, like a smartphone or iPad.  Permanently connected and infinitely accessible, we’re tethered to networks that bring use closer to friends, family and strangers despite barriers of distance or social obligation.  For many of us, we marvel at the possibilities and appreciate the moments that connect us with those whom we treasure most.  Increasingly, though, and for many that are tethered to the workplace by Blackberry and email, it’s really just a pain.

Dave and I were terribly unsuccessful in our attempts to eliminate communications devices from our lives every Sunday, lasting only a month before just giving up.  Oddly, it wasn’t because we needed to reach out to others, it was because we felt the pressure to be plugged in was simply too great.  We were missing out on something, we were sure of it.  What if friends wanted to go out?  What if there was a breaking news story that we weren’t even remotely involved in but obviously HAD to know about?  Were we letting friends down by not being available all the time?  I think we were pretty surprised at the feelings raised by this challenge.

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The world today was rocked by the sensational revelation that the iPhone is tracking our whereabouts and storing the coordinates in a file on its operating system.  I found this terribly fascinating, unlike most of the population.  Sure, there are privacy concerns and Apple needs to explain why it is they’ve been storing this information to begin with, but is it really a surprise?  Unless it comes out that this information was being transmitted outside the phone, I would hope that most iPhone users greet this news with cautious interest and take a moment to load their location information into the iPhone Tracker software the researchers that released this news have developed.

I suppose I’m a bit used to this, though.  Google Latitude, an app in my browser and iPhone, has been tracking my location since it was released.  I’ve enabled it and disabled periodically, but it has a rather detailed history of my precise movements since June 2010 (yet another reason I use two-step verification on my Google account).  It’s not public, and I don’t broadcast it.  My immediate family uses it and that’s it – my Mom calls it her Weasley Clock, after the magical device from the Harry Potter series. Read more →

It’s fun to say that the Internet tears down walls and allows a free flow of information around the world.  In many ways, it’s true.  People can communicate and organize in ways never before possible.  But at the same time, people can be blocked and restricted from content just as easily.  Look at China, Iran, North Korea, Singapore, and many other states that prevent their citizens from free use of the Internet.
This is not a post on the freedom of the Internet.  It’s also not a grand statement about the Internet’s role in democratization.  It’s about how I can’t watch my US television shows, and how I climbed over the wall.  Listen, I can be selfish sometimes. Read more →

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know my Facebook friends.  Well, I know who they are, but I don’t “know” them…most of them, anyway.  I knew them at one point, and some I still know.  Some of them I know too well.  Still, the vast majority of my Facebook “friends” are long gone from my life, hanging around through occasional status updates or stalking sessions.  I don’t really have a problem with this – it is what it is.

I’ve long wondered if there would be some major shift in the way people operate online – away from the “share all” culture to a “share a little” mentality – or at least to “share with a few” policy.  Software code originally forced us to share with everyone and we accepted it.  Then they let us scale it down to “friend lists” but it has been slow to catch on.  Now, we’re seeing the anti-social networks emerge.  The first I’ve actually liked is Path, released today. Read more →

Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s next operating system today, Mac OS 10.7, or “Lion”.  Part of the announcement is that the iOS App Store, from the iPhone/iPod/iPad universe, will move to all Apple computers.  Users will be able to download their computer’s software from an Apple-controlled store just like on their iPhones.  Apps will be updated directly and be licensed for all of the user’s devices.

I love Apple and am almost always in awe of the work they do.  But doesn’t this seem like a big leap from what was originally built to control the stability of mobile applications into control of our computer’s software?  Jobs says that of course the App Store will be one of many ways users can install software and that it won’t be locked down…yes. Read more →

Allow me to geek out a bit.  This isn’t anything all that new, but I’d never seen it for myself and thought I’d share a little.

Have you ever been walking down the sidewalk or standing in a square and wondered what you were looking at?  Perhaps a bit about the architecture, the history of a particular building, or whether that restaurant with that great happy hour deal is in fact any good?

Enter Augmented Reality.  These applications for iPhone, Android and others use the phone’s camera, GPS, accelerometer and compass to overlay graphical information on the live camera view.  Hold the camera up to the building, and peer through the looking glass to reveal the dense world of information behind it.

On my way home from the gym yesterday, I stopped in Trafalgar Square to give acrossair a spin…literally.  See my photos below with Wikipedia entries floating about.  You can also display Yelp reviews, bars, subways and more.  Really incredible stuff.  I look forward  to (read: dread) wearing contact lenses that do the same thing in a few years.