. These applications are still at the stage of research prototypes. A more solid foundation is needed to systematize and firmly ground them, and long-term research investments in that foundation will engender other new applications.
The powerful point-and-click metaphor is now widely embraced because it is intuitive and easy to use. Today, users can point and click at on-screen icons to activate a software program or at an entertainment center to control media devices. The committee predicts that one of the radical changes that will be enabled by location-aware computing is the extension of this metaphor to physical objects. Imagine, for example, being able to point a wand at an object (e.g., a building, tree, or bus stop) and obtain information about that object (the building floor plan, the botanical and common names of the tree, or the time of arrival of the next bus).8 Real-world point-and-click would effectively blur the distinction between physical and virtual worlds.
Reginald G. Golledge and his colleagues have developed a geographical information system for a GPS-based personal guidance system for the visually impaired (Golledge et al., 1998). The spatial database component of their system is one example of the collection and use of geospatial data to obtain information about objects in real time in a real-world context.
Clearly, enabling such applications implies cooperation among suppliers of relevant data as well as appropriate technology.
sensing, a host of supporting capabilities will be required. Examples of key research topics include the advances in mobile computing capabilities already discussed, plus image recognition, creation of world and object models, semantic filtering for disambiguation, and context sensitivity.
History is filled with instances of premature commercialization or maturation of technology driven by market forces.
Capital intensity and other features of infrastructure deployment raise the stakes and underline the need to get in early to integrate the research, policy, and commercial aspects.
The government played a similar role in the development of today’s Internet. The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board found that “[a] sound foundation for e-government and other applications of information technology throughout society depends on a continuing, broad, federal computer science program.” The report further suggests that the “rapid growth in the past decade was also based on the acceptance of an evolving set of common standards that enabled scaling up, competition, and interoperation. The development of the Internet suite of protocols, along with the establishment of processes for evolving them, is perhaps the most widely recognized example. A significant portion of these technologies and standards resulted directly from ongoing, farsighted government investment by a number of research agencies. Indeed, without this investment, it could be argued that the Internet phenomenon would not have come into existence—it was by no means an inevitable development” (CSTB, 2002).
Broad access to a national test bed could stimulate research in the development of a rich, open, location-aware computing infrastructure (e.g., standard protocols, APIs, platform-independent capability descriptions, scalability, reconciliation of conflicting information from different network nodes, adaptive resource management, static-mobile load balancing, and mediation of requests). Where feasible and cost-effective, such a test bed should leverage the physical infrastructure of the Internet. One strategy would be to use the Internet for low-level data transport but to overlay experimental location sensing and routing functionality on top of it. Part of this effort can include the creation and dissemination of benchmarks and testing methodologies for location-aware systems and applications. These artifacts can become part of the discourse of the research community and help forge a common basis for evaluation of ideas in the field. The test bed also can serve as the focal point for standardization efforts, through collaboration between researchers and industry groups. Because it can encourage location-aware applications, a large-scale test bed could speed up the commercialization of research results.
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 When I was a kid, if a movie wasn’t dubbed, we didn’t watch it. The education of English was so bad that I hated the language for more than 10 years before I’ve moved to the UK.
Although, once I realized how much better and authentic to watch anything with its original language, I quickly switched to view everything with subs. Whether it was in English, Spanish, Korean, or Italian, as long as I could find the relevant subtitle provided, I was extremely excited to watch the movie.
Even though I’ve become fluent in English, I still watch everything with English subtitles. It helps me to memorize and learn new words, and I couldn’t stand to see anything that’s not in its own language. I can’t do it anymore. Although, the German language freaks me out.
Thank you for your recommendations, I will check out Dear Ex, and The Farewell was praised by so many, as a film enthusiast, I kinda feel embarrassed that I haven’t seen it yet.
In return, I’d like to recommend 5 movies as well that you’ll hopefully find interesting enough to watch. And trust me, they are GOOD.
If The Skin I live in was your first foreign film, you kinda obligated to watch Almodovar’s latest that reflects on his career. It’s about an aging film director (played brilliantly by Antonio Banderas) who has a chronic illness (rooted in mental problems), living on his own, and suffers from writer block. He remembers and reflects on his life, by recalling his childhood memories, experiences, and heartbreaks. Rumour has it that it’s a self-inspired movie by Almodovar. If there was no Parasite, I think this would’ve taken the Oscar for the best foreign film.
Bong Joon Ho is a great director, probably even one of the best from South Korea, but if you want fucked-up thrillers, then Jee Woon Kim is your guy. I didn’t particularly like Korean films until I was introduced to his compelling cinema. I Saw the Devil is a cat and mouse fight between an obsessive secret agent and his wife’s serial killer. Mesmerizing, deeply disturbing stuff about revenge with