January 9, 2011 johncohn

I’m sitting in the Philly airport on my way home from a quick and interesting trip to CES in Las Vegas. As interesting as they were, the meetings and the conference both had a funny effect on me. As I wrote last night, I came away with the feeling that there’s just to much ‘stuff’ in the world. I just can’t get in to making more. My heart is really in to trying to use technology for good.. . I wish I had a better idea on how to make that happen more directly.. I think it will come to me … just not sure how or when

Not much new to report today.. woke up early, ate my ethopian leftovers for breakfast and went for a nice run. Then packed and left for the airport. My heartfelt thanks to friends J and M for the use of their lovely home as a roost. The trip home has been uneventful.. got lots of work done. kind of regretting the lack of a weekend this week.. but that’s life.

Two things I want to pass on.. first, The Houston Chronicle ran this article on my Baby Bro – Billy just before Christmas. I’m sure proud of that boy !

11 for ’11: Dr. Billy Cohn on the human heart

During the holiday season I’ve invited 11 of the greater Houston area’s top scientific minds to share a few words on something — a trend, a discovery or an insight — in their field that excites them as they look ahead to the next few years. A new entry in the 11 for ’11 series will be published each morning.

Today’s insight comes from Dr. William E. “Billy” Cohn, a surgeon and researcher at the Texas Heart Institute.

I am a cardiac surgeon at the Texas Heart Institute where I work on the surgical heart failure service with Dr. O. H. Frazier. I have a passion for medical device innovation and, as such, have been closely involved in the rapidly advancing field of mechanical circulatory support.

The field is focused on a new class of turbine-like blood pumps that can be implanted in patients who have advanced heart failure and are facing imminent death. These pumps assist the failing heart, restoring blood flow to the body and returning most of these gravely ill patients to a full and active lifestyle.

It is amazing to see these pumps, most of which were first tested and implanted at our hospital, evolve from highly experimental devices to routine tools in the battle against heart failure–all within the last decade. They are now implanted routinely at hundreds of hospitals across the country. (Recently, one was implanted in a former vice-president.)

Also, friend Mary sent this link to a video made by IBM interns that work with her daughter. Nice !

Looks like we’re boarding.. gotta go. More tomorrow

nite all, nite sam

-me

Saturday night – CES

January 9, 2011 johncohn 1 Comment

Hello friends, I’m finally sitting down after a long day at the consumer electronics show (CES). CES is the biggest convention of geeks and gadgets in the world. It’s even big by vegas standards. I was basically hiking at a moderately fast pace from 9 am until 6 PM with only a few breaks to talk to people.. The funny thing aotu this show is htat it’s not my industry.. when I typically go to a conference, I spend a ton of time talkign to folks I know. Here I only ran into a few folks I new….. which was both refreshing and a little lonely.

I had a really good time checking out the stuff here.. everything form car audio to pocket knives, from flat screen TV’s to wind generators. >.. All in all, though . I came away with the feeling.. ‘Who needs all this stuff’ . We really do consume so much in the world.

I took a bucnh of pictures.. but they don’t really convey the frenteic and croded environment of the place.. Instead of commentign on each one.. I think I’m going to try it as a slideshow. Hpe it gives you a sense of the insanity…

OK.. I’m having trouble staying awake (again).. etter hit send..

Night everyone.. nite sam

-me

Friday night – Vaguely vegas (delayed post)

January 7, 2011 johncohn 1 Comment

First a quick apology.. I was so sleepy last night that when I sat down to blog last night around 10:30 I shut my eyes for a second.. and the next thing I knew it was morning > Actually the sleep was just what I’d needed ..I only had about 4 hours of broken sleep the night before. I was (as always) nervous about the talk I was giving the next mrning

My talk went fine… it turns out I was really glad to have been invited.. to this event: the Amphion Forum. It was a very interesting gathering of folks concerned about security in the internet of things space.This cross section of people doesn’t usually get togehter, so it was really interesting heargng what was on folks minds. .. especially scince there were some petty high level peeps there. E.g. the guy on the left, Ton, runs Intel’s embedded Atom business… The forth guy from the left is one of the CTO’s of Google, the guy nest to him, Whit just won the IEEE Hamming Award.. and Rich to his left is the CEO of Freescale.

One of the hilights of the day for me was getting to meet and hang out with Ira Winkler. he’s a security wonk… he gave keynotes at several of the last DEF CON hacker conventions. It was like meeting the mick jagger of the white hat hacker community.. (and he’s a big colony fan !)

Here’s Ira with Hugh Thompsen.. another senior security wonk.. and a very funny man.. It was a really nice geekfest

I didn’t get out of the Amphion meeting in time to do much else with my day.. I got lost driving aroudn Vegas.. but the time I got to CES, it was shutting down for the day. I’m taking that on today. I wasn’t too sad.. I was pretty burned out. I did run in to my freind Mike who I used to work with when I leived in England.. and in Vermont. It was great catching up with him and his son..

I went back to the Cosmopolitan and met up with My friend David and his friend Susan and we had a really nice Sushi dinner. It was great hanging outwith them.

I left there about 10, drove to my friend Jeff and Michelle’s’ house. They are kindly letting me borrow their secret lair.. though they are out of town. They are really wonderful peope.. I wish they were here to hang out with. .. and theyhave the most amazing place.. More on that tonight.

I gotta run off to the conference now. More later !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Thursday night – Happy Birthday Satori !

January 7, 2011 johncohn

Howdy from the 19th floor of the Billagio in Las Vegas Nevada.. i’m out here for a conference.. which should be fun.. but it did cause me to miss our younger dog Satori’s birthday party ! Gabe and Diane made her a ‘cake’ out of scrambled eggs and cheese..

She just turned 3.. and she’s a really wonderful friend and companion. Her actual birthday was yesterday.. but we kind of spaced out on that. Satori .. which means ‘sudden enlightenment ‘ in Japonese… is a labradoodle-poodle mix… sort of a labrodoodledoodle.. She’s endlessly playful. and very loving. If you’re in the room. Satori is by your side.. usually with a toy.. She’s a good.. if somewhat pesky little sister to our older dog Chai.. Over the years they’ve become quite close.. I now find them playing together pretty often.. Satori and her sister have been such good warm and loving presenses in our lives..

Happy birthday girl !

Aside from Satoris birthday.. today was pretty uneventful.. an insanely busy work day.. follwed by a loooooong

cross country trip.. Las Vegas is always an interesting assault on the senses.. I’m a lover of Neon.. so that’s one major draw for me.. Here’s a quick impression of the lights on the strip..