I’d like to start this year off with a TED video I just watched – hopefully you’ll find it interesting too. If achieved at a manageable price point, we will have solved a major problem with this World’s future – energy!

Physicist Steven Cowley is certain that nuclear fusion is the only truly sustainable solution to the fuel crisis. In ths video, he explains why fusion will work — and details the projects that he and many others have devoted their lives to, working against the clock to create a new source of energy.

btw: Happy New Year everybody!

Just noticed this smallest writeup on Cloudera’s About page:

“Philip Zeyliger comes to Cloudera from Google, where he worked on scalable storage for user-facing applications. Before that, he worked in finance, at D.E. Shaw. Philip holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Harvard University.”

Sounds pretty impressive, no? Checkout the space the other guys got. Oy vey!

What impresses you the most about someone: what came out of their mouth, what they drove up in, or what they’re wearing on their back?

Case in point: I drive a Mercedes (previously a Porsche), and while they were both bought and paid for with cash, I’ve never used them to try to impress anybody. Truth is, they’re just awesome cars ’cause they’re both examples of great engineering, they’re fun, and they just work! At the same time, I walk around in flip flops every chance I get, so you’d never know I owned them once I was 10 ft. away from the car!

When I have something to say, it’s usually on some IT-related topic; matter of fact, I can spend hours with anybody talking about computers, etc.

You couldn’t help but wonder what was gonna come out of Eric Schmidt smoozing up to the D.C. folks during Pres. Obama’s final campaign days, but it’s pretty apparent now Google has a strong foothold on America’s technology going forward.

With 34 year old Vivek Kundra in place now as Pres. Obama’s CIO, isn’t life grand? – for him and us!

* UPDATE 3/17/09: White House CIO On Leave Amid Scandal At D.C. Technology Office – Acting CSO, technology consultant for D.C. technology office also are arrested on charges of theft and corruption.

Yesterday I talked about the hyperbole around Twitter – a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Today I’m just gonna add on to that discussion with a quick reference to Facebook, where users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people.

After 13K+ saves to Delicious.com – the granddaddy of web2.0 sites IMO – I can honestly say the whole movement is a load of crap for the little guy, and just works out for advertisers and the few that do make it big – which I honestly do admire.

With over 13K saves to my Delicious bookmarking account, it’s safe to say that I’m slightly ahead of average-Joe when it comes to technology news – although I don’t own an iPod or a gaming platform, and I hate text-messaging!

So it’s oddly funny to hear this dude predict that “normal people” will use twitter in five years – in his dreams maybe. Nothing will get me to text message every little nook and cranny of my life on a little handheld device all day.

In the first such system deployed in the country, police vehicles in Ponca City, Oklahoma _(map) will have wireless video cameras installed so precinct dispatchers and supervisors can monitor activities during traffic stops in real time, and quickly deploy additional officers and resources if necessary.

‘Our goal is to be one of the most mobile communities in America, and this is a significant step in that direction,’ said Nicholson.

The system to provide an added level of monitoring and protection for its force is part of a broadband mesh network comprised of more than 490 wireless nodes and gateways connected to 120 miles of fiber backbone that will provide coverage for approximately 30 square miles of the city.