Mind mapping has always been pushed by professors and business planners as one of the best ways to collaborate on ideas with a group of peers. German company, Codemart, released an on-line mind mapping service called MindMeister earlier this year. MindMeister allows users to create maps in concert with other users allowing for massive brainstorming sessions and a level of interactivity that could never be achieved on a white board. Maps can be printed, shared, or published to a web page with a touch of code. I'm looking forward to using this on a project in the future.

I just finished reading Neil Stephenson's third novel, Snow Crash. Set in a not-so-distant cyberpunk future, Snow Crash tells the story of the freelance hacker Hiro. Although published in 1992 much of the technology in the book is already showing up in our reality. I'm sure that Mr. Stephenson saw much of this coming in his research and decided to include it in his book. In the interest of not destroying the book for those who haven't read it I won't go into detail about the technology I found interesting. This is just a short list of Snow Crash Tech and its real life counterparts...

• The Metaverse -- SecondLife
• CIC Application "Earth" -- NASA WorldWind
• Armorgel -- d3o impact absorption material

This new JPL robot is one of the most versatile and unique robots I have ever seen. It might also be one of the most expensive, six sides and six wheels, all together 24 cameras to drive and operate tools. Imagine the size of the data stream this will be sending from the moon, if and when it gets there. Take a look at the video...

Source: NASA JPL