tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15644559.post8207774993804826656..comments2024-03-21T03:55:51.565-07:00Comments on Omniorthogonal: Diasters need atoms not bitsmtravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02356162954308418556noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15644559.post-71617324305512875492010-01-25T23:30:56.084-08:002010-01-25T23:30:56.084-08:00Mike Gibson has a post you might be interested in:...Mike Gibson has a post you might be interested in:<br />http://athousandnations.com/2010/01/21/the-diy-industrial-revolution/<br /><br />John Robb also writes a lot about the coming "desktop manufacturing revolution".<br /><br />My last job was about the logistics of lots of atoms, though it was a software company. You acknowledged that sort of thing in your post, so this isn't really new information so much as an example. The companies I'm interviewing with now don't create any value, which means I will assuredly be paid more!TGGPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11017651009634767649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15644559.post-69624894897549870922010-01-23T05:54:56.229-08:002010-01-23T05:54:56.229-08:00One of my heroes is Frederick Cuny, a professional...One of my heroes is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Cuny" rel="nofollow">Frederick Cuny</a>, a professional disaster relief expert who saved hundreds of thousands of lives with his work from Biafra in 1970 up to Chechnya in 1995. He was trained as a civil engineer, and applied straightforward engineering principles to housing and feeding displaced people. He founded a company, Intertect, which managed relief operations for NGOs. I wrote about him <a href="http://world.std.com/~jlr/doom/cuny.htm" rel="nofollow">here</a>. He died in a predictable way, executed by some thug in the worst place in the world.<br /><br />Intertect no longer seems to be around. I wonder if anyone has come up in its place. Cuny's fate is sobering. There seem to be professional mercenaries everywhere, but I've heard less about professional relievers.jlredfordhttp://babelniche.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15644559.post-57129589465426274472010-01-18T07:34:16.210-08:002010-01-18T07:34:16.210-08:00I often think of applications when I am waiting fo...I often think of applications when I am waiting for a taxi at Boston Logan airport. The taxis must wait in a pool, and then they are called to the gates as a human monitor sees increased demand.<br /><br />It seems to me that it would be easy enough to gather together the data from the airline and the airport computer systems to estimate the number of taxis that would be needed at a taxi stands at particular times. After such a system was running for a while, and enough data had been collected, such a system should be able to estimate the number of taxis that would need to be in the pool at particular times.<br /><br />In a situation such as Haiti, it seems to me that gathering data would be the main issue in order to utilize digital systems. Since Haiti is probably not digitally mapped, information would need to be gathered on the ground and relayed back to the system. Conditions and needs would need to be estimated. This soft data would need to combined with satellite imagery to begin to see the situation on the ground so that strategies could be planned and executed. What data would need to be collected would need to be determined beforehand. Could a small, air-dropped team equipped with satellite phones and mountain bikes gather useful information? Et cetera. I think that you can see where I am going with this.<br /><br />Large retailers are now beginning to fully embrace technology that enables them to understand their customers and those customer's buying habits. Business is willing to invest in this technology because they understand that it will enable them to operate more efficiently and effectively. It seems that the US military is doing this as well.<br /><br />FEMA has a long history of screw-ups, so the disaster relief fiasco after Hurricane Katrina should have been no surprise. 'Brownie' was just the tip of the iceberg. <br /><br />I doubt that there has been any comprehensive and critical study of disaster relief. As with any data analysis of a new area, what is discovered is often far different than what the people involved think they know.Lexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07691466489670072451noreply@blogger.com