Google Supporting Equality at the Sochi Olympics

 

The above was the Google Logo this morning on the day of the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics, with all of the coverage on Russia's appalling homophobic policies it is good that some companies are willing to make a stand for what they think is right, I think the logo itself being the rainbow flag shows their support for the LGBT community in Russia but adding the quote from the Olympic Charter will hopefully make the IOC look more carefully at their own charter when they think about where they host their tournaments.

Hopefully Fifa will put some pressure on Quatar and Russia ahead of more global showpieces being held in areas where equality is a word rather than a way of life.

3D Printing could be the next big step into Piracy

Saw this article on the BBC today which if it comes to pass as they say could revolutionise the way we do, well everything.

the new range of 3D printers - Printers which can build a prototype of a product you see on line - have not just become much more advanced in the recent past, the used to be little more than a plastics moulding device which it would have seemed had little ability to affect the normal persons day to day life, the usefulness in the design and manufacturing industries seemed clear, being able to send a plastic prototype across to your business partners instantly would revolutionise those businesses.

However now they are claiming that they are closing in on the ability to recreate actual usable products, perhaps the most interesting change mentioned in the article however is the Price, down from north of £2,000 to around £300 which could definitely place it within the budget of most households.

I guess the only question now is that after my recent article in which I asked how many people would lose their jobs due to Google's new AutoDrive car, will the ability to have products manufactured directly into your home simply mean there are even fewer jobs available than ever before?

Google Car Set to Finish off Driving Instructors

I decided to go on line this morning to see if I had won the £115m lottery jackpot. Unfortunately it wasn't me, however I was very interested to read that Google have been testing a self-drive car, this is fascinating for a variety of reasons, not least of which that it shows just how diverse Google's business interests have developed - anyone else remember when they were just a search engine?
However as someone who loves new technology it is simply the idea that we may soon be driving around in real automobiles has got my mind racing.
Just think of what this would mean, on the down side it will completely wipe out the driving school industry - especially RED driving school's claims that it is a recession proof industry - I can also imagine it may increase the number of cars on the road, after all you could easily send a car off to get the kids whilst you are going elsewhere - now that I think about it taxis will be surplus to requirements as well, why call a cab when you can just call up your own car to pick you up from the pub.

Anyway onto the good, the main selling point is better safety, Google drove the car around San Francisco on what are some very challenging roads, each of The google test drives had a computer programmer and a human driver standing by and the police had been notified of the route in advance, however there was one reported incident however that was actually caused by a human driving into the back of the googlecar so if anything it could be said the problem there were not enough automatic cars not too many! Along side safety of course comes the potential to have much faster driving and less jams, the fact is that speed is not actually dangerous when driving, driving too fast is the dangerous thing, if you are driving at 200 on a completely flat straight road you should be ok (may be a bit frightening the first time, whilst at the same time if you are following someone in icy conditions at 20 you are probably going too fast, the google car should be able to plot you a route that ensures you can travel at the fastest and safest speed possible, if they were to move the technology on and actually create a mainframe of all traffic movements you could actually find that the car could easily programme you in the perfect route avoiding any need to stop at all (I guess this may put TomTom out of business as well.

Well I for one will be waiting with great interest to see what becomes of this trial and would gladly buy an auto drive once they are available (They look like ordinary cars with a sensor which reminds me of google's street view vehicle) Although I have to admit that since I started writing this I have realised just how many industries this could actually wipe out - but that would not be until the technology is very widely used - thinking about it, isn't there a Dr Who where the auto drives start killing people? perhaps I am not as big a fan as I was at the start of this post.