Computers and Technology

Dropbox and some extra space

2011-11-24T13:10:00.001+05:30

I've been using Dropbox on and off (mainly because I have to switch too many PCs), and I love it. I have written about it earlier as well.

Here's the thing: If you use this link - http://db.tt/IInECxd - to sign up and install dropbox, you will get an extra 250MB space (on top of the 2GB).

PS: So will I :) (it is a referral link)

Thank you Dennis!

2011-11-20T10:44:00.001+05:30

Of late, I am totally lost to what is happening in the outside world. I just read this news about Dennis Ritchie's passing. Unfortunately, and taking nothing away from what Steve Jobs has contributed and accomplished, Steve's passing sort of put this news under the covers.

I have never followed Dennis' life, but I know everything significant in computing that has happened in the modern era traces its roots back to C. I have spent days poring over his "The C Programming Language" book during my earlier years. Even the Python language I love and adore was written in C.

This is a thank you to Dennis for everything he has contributed. Knowingly or unknowingly, his work ticks around our life - if ever we used a computer or perhaps even a mobile phone.

Note: Message from Dennis' family.

ubuntu desktop - the leap

2011-06-13T21:33:00.031+05:30

Earlier, I wrote about installing Ubuntu on a pen drive. I recently made the leap and installed it on my laptop as well.

Desktop

I haven't done away with my Vista yet, and probably won't as well. I also won't go overboard and state this as a panacea as well - mainly because my skills of handling Unix aren't exceptional. But Ubuntu 11.04 as a GUI itself is pretty impressive. I can say that my basic work can be done here - namely, all browsing plus minimal spreadsheet and editing work. I have yet to see how well this goes. But GUI Unix is growing up :)

I installed this on about 45GB of partition. I found a very useful step-by-step guide. The main difference I see between Windows and Linux here is that when the system is idle, i.e I am not using it, the system stays idle. In Windows, the HDD light keeps glowing suggesting background activity. The responsiveness of the machine is also good.

The other amusing thing is that Ubuntu can read contents from my Windows partition, while Windows pretends Ubuntu doesn't exist!

Finally, I found this uber-cool game I played long ago I don't remember where. Here it's called KGoldRunner and is very addictive! A lot of other impressive apps are available for free from the software center.

Closing your Bank of America (BOA) checking account

2011-04-26T19:22:00.000+05:30

I searched the net for the procedure to close a BOA checking account "online". Online as in - no talking to a rep and having to hear why my relationship is important to them or why I am a valued customer - etc!
But I saw almost no first-hand confirmation and the BOA help page indicated that I had to mail in my request to a Florida address.

One person mentioned he did it and I decided to give it a shot. It is indeed possible - you can do it through the following steps.

1) Stop all deposits and withdrawals (including automated ones). Your account will open back up if any of that happens. BOA charges hefty (and sneaky) fees if the account balance drops below the minimum balance (a whopping 1500 USD as on date). This step is important - make alternate arrangements for all payments and deposits.

2) Wait for your statement cycle to complete - that is, wait till you receive your statement. Clear your balance to zero through ACH or whatever means. Note that once this happens, BOA can charge their minimum balance step penalty - so the next step has to happen ASAP.
(Leaving a balance has some complications so it is best to zero it out)

3) From your online account, use the online chat option to talk to a rep and inform him/her about the closure request. You will hear why you are important, valued etc, but my rep was helpful and did it quickly. There used to be a secure email option for the same, but it appears to have been removed now.

ubuntu

2011-01-29T18:51:00.000+05:30

Linux and ease of use don't always go together. This is one area where Windows scores over other OS'es. This blog post is being done with my x386 laptop running Ubuntu 10.10 from a USB stick.

From scratch, it took 4 hours to be up and running - two hours of which went for the download itself. Trust me - installation was a piece of cake - the creators of Ubuntu have really gone to great pains to make ease-of-use a top priority. This is what I did.

* Head over to pendrivelinux and download their universal installer (~1MB)
* Download ubuntu itself (~700MB)
* Setup a partition of 4 GB for persistence and install (8GB USB drive)
* Change boot order to check USB first

You're up and running! You don't really have to use the command line for basic operations (mine are web browsing / emails).

I even got Reliance Netconnect running without software setup. There is a good link for that if you need help (in the comments).

Now, this is not just a fancy thing - it is actually a necessity.

Windows doesn't provide an easy option in case your HDD crashes or the OS is corrupted. Booting through USB is tricky and unless you have your original DVD for installation it is going to be difficult. My laptop shipped with Vista preinstalled. Also, installing recovery tools and AV on this Ubuntu stick will help fix problems later. As a side benefit, there is also this portable OS that goes along with you.

I have some learning to do, but it is exciting! Linux and ease of use are really together now!

A woot for Wikipedia!

2011-01-05T21:59:00.001+05:30

Read this today - and kind of made my day! Thank you note from Jimmy Wales!

A thumbs up to all folks who pitched in together to make this happen. Makes me hope that people are capable of joining together and work for something they want to see happen in the world!

Wikipedia is unique now - the content and the site itself (in line of donations) are owned by the Internet public!

RSS is dying?

2011-01-04T23:19:00.000+05:30

For some reason, people are caught up with the idea that RSS is obsolete and no longer relevant? Even browsers seem to push RSS to the backseat?

Some time back, I read another article that stated RSS was dying - and the reason/substitute? Twitter/facebook. I think it is lame! Someone else pointed out the correct term for the best advantage of RSS - high signal to noise ratio. With Twitter/Facebook - it is very low. RSS gives everything I need without the clutter in one single interface (with a reader of course). It beats me - Bloglines decided to shut down citing this reason (and lives on now because of another reason) and now RSS support is being designed out be default?

Am I missing anything? What other technology gives this single focus advantage? Definitely not Twitter and Facebook! I quit them because of the high "noise"!

Webmasters: Please don't stop supporting RSS! Even if browser designers are myopic! I can live with adding URLs manually to my reader - but I am totally lost without RSS! P-L-E-A-S-E!!!

That original site I linked to explains the implications very well.

Facebook

2010-12-22T22:01:00.001+05:30

:) - I have no spite, but I thought this was cute!
And honestly - despite whatever reasons for which I quit FB, I miss it!

Support Wikipedia

2010-11-26T22:10:00.000+05:30

Robert Munday has written a great post about this.
The appeal from the founder Jimmy Wales is here.
The contribution page.

I've taken Wikipedia so much for granted that I don't notice it being present even anymore. Right now, any topic that is Googled almost always has the Wikipedia entry among the first three results. This is an opportunity to help them when the request for it.

World Population | India and China

2010-11-04T14:21:00.000+05:30

Looking at the charts below - the first one is the top 10 nations in terms of population as of 2006. You can see China and India are in their own league. In terms of nation size, comparing India, China, USA, Brazil and Russia makes sense.

The second chart compares the gold medal contenders. China's growth rate is 0.6 while India's is 1.5 (%). So extrapolating this [slightly trivialistic but plausible], we can see that in the next 10 years or so, India will over take China. Fact: China has four times land size of India. USA, Russia and Brazil are more than 2x the size of India (Russia probably 4 or 5x).

If population management is not a priority of the Governement [it appears it is not], it probably shouldn't exist!

Data is from WHO. I made the charts.

Blackberry Games

2010-10-31T11:35:00.001+05:30

I started playing some games on the Blackberry in an idle moment. I am not a great fan of the card games, but I found two very interesting and addictive games that were not cards-based.

One is the ancient (in computer era) brick and paddle game. The other is word mole, where you weed out letters from the garden in a particular order to form words. Larger words get more points.

Python PET Challenge - Resolve an input number into a product of its prime factors

2010-10-24T11:53:00.002+05:30

PET issued a programming challenge. Read the detail text:

In summary, the goal is to express a number is a product of its prime factors. For example
24 => 2^3 * 3^1
25 => 5^2
26 => 2^1 * 13^1

My Python program is here. Contrary to their requirements, I used Python 3.1 instead of the 2.xx series and did not skimp on whitespace. The output on the codepad website is incorrect - I presume they are using an earlier version of Python.

A sample output for 433132:

input number => 433132
all factors ==> [2, 4, 7, 14, 28, 31, 62, 124, 217, 434, 499, 868, 998, 1996, 3493, 6986, 13972, 15469, 30938, 61876, 108283, 216566]
all prime factors ==> [2, 7, 31, 499]
2 ^ 2
7 ^ 1
31 ^ 1
499 ^ 1
[[2, 2], [7, 1], [31, 1], [499, 1]]

Update - 25th Oct 2010, Monday:
I had also shared this problem for my team to solve and one of them came up with this incredible solution. It's the simplest I have seen so far. This is C# and code is here.
It doesn't bother with storing the results and goes strictly by requirements.

Dream digital camera!

2010-10-18T18:12:00.000+05:30

My dream digital camera – anything that matches? I haven’t found any camera so far. Makes me think that tech has to advance further!

1920x1080 FULL HD video at 60fps
12MP or higher resolution photographs
Water proof (fully – no trick caveats)
64GB of inbuilt memory with additional slot provided for a 32GB card (or higher)
10x optical zoom – preferably 20x
HDMI out for videos/photos
A/P/S/M controls + prefixed controls for common scenarios (portrait, landscape, action etc)
Exposure bracketing
High Speed Sequence shot mode
Time lapse mode
Battery should last for 2 days of intense use, but should run without battery if powered in (like laptop). Can we make it solar powered also?
Finally – how small can we really make it without compromising on anything? The deal breaker is the 20x optical zoom for size!

Yes in short it is the perfect cross between a HD Video Cam and a Digital SLR.

Other things that are really bells and whistles:
Inline video editing (well, the iPod already allows this!).
WiFi connectivity, so you can upload to YouTube/Picasa (can allow a front end application to manage account settings and store in the camera)
Always on (iPod style)
Built in video/picture themes (so the video/picture comes out in that style). Can allow folks to upload themes into the camera
Someone can gift one to me!

Managing Music - what I do

2010-10-10T13:30:00.001+05:30

Over the years (say a decade), my music collection has grown immensely. At this point, it is about six thousand tracks and ~40GB in size. Most of it was accumulated through the purchase of audio CDs over the years, ripped as MP3s and then tagged and organized.

In this period, due to the sheer size of the collection, I have had to evolve my own method of managing this collection and choosing the tracks to play. With the arrival of iPod, I've again had to adapt the approach a little, but I should say the iPod has made things much more easy.

Though the collection is to listen, the order has to be reversed. The first priority is to organize the music and then to listen. The better a collection is stored, easier it is to find and hear music. I use multiple tools for this. I originally used MediaCenter, but it became quite expensive. It is excellent and AFAIK, it came as close at it could to be a one stop shop for all organizing and playing needs. Its absence is not a show stopper - I was able to accomplish the same effect with multiple but free tools.

Getting the digital version of music

Now a days, this is pretty no brainer stuff. A lot of MP3s are available on the Internet. I personally get my own audio cds and rip them for my collection for quality reasons. I use only MP3 (stay clear of DRM crap!) and encode them at 192 kbps fixed bit rate if it is music. For audio talks, 64 kbps is good enough. A lot of built in tools in the OS itself. For example, in Windows, Media Player does a good enough job of encoding music. iTunes, which I now use also is good. This is free (and excellently usable even if you don't have an iPod). Media Player cleverly defaults to WMA which I don't recommend. MP3 is here to stay - so stick to it!

Organizing music

There are two components to organizing music.

Tagging - is vitally underrated and is the most important step. All audio players and most audio management software relies on MP3 tags - not file names to recognize tracks. I've seen a lot of music files which use their own way of storing information in tags which is not at all good. There are four important tags that need to be filled to keep the music collection sane.

Artist, Album, Track, Genre. Others are optional as far as I've noticed. Track No is normally filled by the encoding software if from an audio CD. Keep a consistent naming convention for naming the artist, albums and track names. Especially when it comes to regional names stored in English, inconsistency can be a pain. Genre is useful when you want to do automated song selection from thousands of tracks - as in my case.

In the above example, the three fields as shown by iTunes are the track name, artist and album name.

The second step is to store them in a consistent way in folders. Normally, you would want to accomplish the following:

Put all the tracks categorized properly under folders and sub folders

Name the physical file consistent with the tag names.

Most software follows the Root Folder -> Artist Name -> Album Name -> Tracks folder structure. Some allow you to customize them. I use this option - as you can see below.

Many music softwares allow you to rename files in a way that is consistent with the tag names. I use the following format.

[Track No]...[Track Name]...[Album Name]...[Artist Name].mp3

This good if the music library in the software is lost - the library can be rebuilt from the files. The MP3 themselves have the tags as well - so it is a two way backup.

I use a software called MusicBrainz Picard to accomplish both steps. It is good because it allows to do both steps in one go. For more popular tracks, it does a database lookup as well and fills in the tags (I rarely get the luxury for Tamil tracks!). The really cool part about this is that it allows to customize the file name to no end using formulae. If you're the finicky fussy kind, this is your dream software!

Above is the format I use to rename my files.

%artist%/%album%/$num(%tracknumber%,2)...%title%...[%album%]...[%artist%] is the formula. It roughly translates to the naming convention I listed above. You can also see that the Folder structure is also specified here.

Upto now, whatever we've done accomplishes the following:

Getting your digital media

Tagging them

Putting them properly in folders and files

Naming the files neatly

If you already have a collection that is not in any proper order, I recommend taking the 30-40 hours it requires to organize them now! Once you have the root folder under which your entire collection sits, you can load them into iTunes in one swoop and voila - automated music library.

Volume Levelling

I do this additional step to ensure all tracks have uniform volume. I use a software called MP3Gain for this. It adjusts the gain of the MP3 tracks after analysis but doesn't change the MP3 file contents itself, which is good!

Above, you can see a sample interface. My default is set to 92 dB.

How do I keep track of which MP3 files have completed this normalization exercise? I use the Comment field of the MP3 file and mark it "Volume Levelling Done". A little lame - because the comment field is a great place to store lyrics. I don't use it that way so this works for me. Another good thing is that this comment travels with the MP3. You can also use a custom field in your music library software to store this, but that gets lost if the library is damaged.

You can see this comment above.

Once all your tracks are volume levelled and you have this comment in the comment field, you can write a smart play list on iTunes to filter out any track that is pending volume levelling.

Choosing tracks and listening to music

What you will need to do is to rate your songs as you listen to them. Over a period of time, you will have a huge collection of songs you've listened to and rated. If you have an iPod, this process is easy. iPod and iTunes are like peas and carrots. Every time you sync, iTunes knows what you've listened so you have to just go and rate them from your "Recently Played" list. Otherwise, do this manually. This is a self updating list. The more you listen to and rate to songs, the better the future picks will be.

After this, picking new songs from the library is a matter of writing a smart play list (very powerful and customizable iTunes feature!). An example below from my library:

The above smart play list gives me 25 random songs that are not Spiritual in nature but are outstanding (as per my rating). If you've rated 5000 songs, the pick will have a lot of variety and quality.

Backing up

For me, my collection is a decade long effort. So having it all in one place, while ultra convenient is also dangerous. For me, my iPod itself is a backup. In the event of a disaster, I can reverse extract from my iPod. Additionally, I also backup the HDD once a month to another.

Finally...

Anything I've missed? Anything that you do is simpler or better?

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Bloglines - bye!

2010-09-12T20:32:00.000+05:30

All these years, I avoided Google Reader to stay with Bloglines, only to find this today! :-(
For whatever reasons ("focus" apparently), Bloglines is going to go away shortly and I have to move to Google Reader now!
It was a service with high quality - I didn't have to use Google Reader at all all these years! I even had a mini blog going of all items I was reading through Bloglines. I did stop after a while because it was too unsustainable!
Adios Bloglines - may be good things cannot be free all the time!

Alpine CBE 103 EBT and KCE-433iv

2010-07-13T22:35:00.000+05:30

The arrival of the iPod changed a lot of things in my gizmo-life. Well, not a lot, but lot in significance!

One such change is the Alpine CBE 103-EBT. This is an iPod compatible car unit. In retrospect, it is much better than whatever I anticipated. It is also an icing that it was my mini DIY project.

Can listen to my iPod in my car
The unit controls the iPod
The unit displays the song title, artist and album information
The songs sound pristine with the Alpine's DAC (digital -> analog converter)
The unit connects to my phone with Bluetooth and answers calls. Can talk handsfree while driving
The unit pauses the iPod when a call arrives and resumes after the call.

It's actually too good to believe. Before this, I had the iPod plugged into the aux input of the unit from the headphone out of the iPod. The difference (signal to noise ratio) is considerable (> 50% in terms of volume required to listen to the song).

Well, when I got the unit, post installation on the car, the technician got the cable to connect the iPod. That cable was different than what the unit was expecting and so the iPod couldn't be connected. It was like the only reason why I was getting the unit. A month later, the store still couldn't get the cable. This cable is what is listed as KCE-433iv on the title.

So I had to scour the internet to get it and I finally got a place where it was selling. It had to come from the US. After I got it, I had to install it myself (DIY part)! It involved opening the car's driverside dashboard panel, reaching into an obscure angle to find the connecting slot and plugging in the wire. It was much difficult than I had anticipated.

But it worked first time like a charm - and I haven't looked back since then. I am now like this spoiled kid who cannot go back to old ways!

Logitech PureFi Anytime

2010-05-24T23:27:00.002+05:30

Some cool and not so cool things about this unit:

1) The one that I got did not detect the iPod. Apparently, many units have a high failure rate in this department. But Logitech serviced it for free.

2) Charges the iPod while playing

3) Can carry the unit around for portable sound. In effect, my entire music library!

4) Really nice to wake up to PY!

5) No play/pause button on the unit. Big design mistake!

6) Could have a longer snooze time (15 mins max currently)

Case in point for the iPod creating an industry around itself.

Note: The image or screenshot in this post is licensed with creative commons.
The copyright for this image / screenshot belongs to illustir. Click on the image above or here to view the image on illustir's website.

Sennheiser HD580

2010-05-10T19:12:00.002+05:30

I am an audiophile.

Actually, I am not. I like to think I am though :)

During my college days (read: I was not earning), my appa took care of my education expenses and my travel expenses (didn't expect differently did you?), plus also gave me some pocket money (to the tune of 400 Rs per quarter). I started saving to buy a very good headphone. I didn't know much then, so I found this over-the-ear philips headphones that cost 750 Rs. After some time (many painful days, don't remember how long), I purchased them. Remember its a big investment for me. Essentially, I was putting all my money into an unknown expense. But it was worthwhile. I had them for a long time and it was a joyous experience listening to music through them compared to the run-of-the-mill one I had earlier.

Then, in one of the forums, someone mentioned about the separation clarity provided by Sennheiser headphones. I always wanted to get one since. So the first thing I did when I went to "Pardes" was to buy one. I had no clue, no prior experience, no way to validate the quality (you know, when everything sounds the same through everything you put on your ears?). But I walked into a hi-fi sound shop and I pointed to the Sennheiser headphone range and told them I wanted one.

"Which one?" asked the rep.

"I don't know."

"Would you like to sample them?"

"Yes. I still don't know where to start!"

"What do you want to listen to?"

"Show me a Western Classical sample." (I obviously cannot say iLaiyarAjA :))

So he took the HD580, plugged it into a high end system (that is a separate topic I think - the system was something for audiophiles) and played a sample I don't know where from.

But those few moments were ethereal. I will never forget them. I listened to the piece for 4-5 mins and I told him I would take it. The scary question was "How much?"

"280 USD plus taxes".

Remember this was 2001. 10000+ bucks in INR.

The thing is, I still have them. They're slightly worn out on the ear cushions, but the sound is still pristine. The above picture applies to me as well - I have the same gear now - iPod classic plus HD580. Only thing is, they're so huge, its awkward to walk on the streets with them without gathering attention.

Otherwise, the separation of tracks, the "stereo width separation" are all awesome. I don't know how long it will last, but I think it already has more than provided its worth. This is how you make a product!

A note on the photograph: Spend some time looking at it - the attention to detail is stunning!

Note: The image or screenshot in this post is licensed with creative commons.
The copyright for this image / screenshot belongs to targophoto.com. Click on the image above or here to view the image on targophoto.com's website.

Dropbox - Startup lessons learnt

2010-05-01T14:39:00.001+05:30

As someone who uses Dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com), the startup story was amusing, informative and it made me happy for their success. The app is surprisingly effective and the free version is more than useful (and sufficient) for individuals. Try it and you may be pleasantly surprised!

Dropbox Startup Lessons Learned

View more presentations from gueste94e4c.

Cooliris is cool!

2010-04-24T10:35:00.000+05:30

It's a way to see a large number of images in an infinite 3D wall. It's already proven handy (especially useful in those situations when your friends share a Picasa link contining 3500 images - of course I am exaggerating with the 3500!). Click on the image below for the larger size.

It basically works as an add on with IE, Firefox (I haven't tested or know that it works with Chrome). It works using MediaRSS (Picasa uses this, you will see a CoolIris icon on your album after a successful install).

Its not a substitute of browsing through an album or playing a slideshow, but if you want to pick the juiciest photos from a large bunch, this is the way to go!

Go to http://www.cooliris.com/

Premium Brands

2010-04-21T20:42:00.001+05:30

With some exceptions, I've had a disdain for "premium brands". While it is true that some of them are just a product of slick marketing without offering anything premium in performance (monster cables for ex), I've begun to realize some have reason to claim the premium (attention and price). Some examples:

Ipod: I haven't seen any other player come close in terms of marrying functionality and usability (I've used about 5-6 players over the years). Apple is still on my list of "review before buy". For example, I won't be owning an iPad anytime soon!

Blackberry: Was high on my disdain list. But I realize that it took one particular aspect and engineered it to the extreme (mailing and messaging). I can see a stark contrast on the usability aspect vis-a-vis other phones (Win PDAs, Nokias, Samsungs)

Bose: I would say it's 30% premium and 70% hype marketing. There are very few speakers that match the tiny size aspect with monster performance.

Tissot: Still can't say if the price is justified. But altimeter, compass, thermometer, chronograph, alarm all rolled into one waterproof compartment - very little to argue. Oh, you can check your time too!

Suzuki Swift VDi: Well... couldn't resist :)

The Third and the Seventh

2010-01-16T13:06:00.000+05:30

I know the blog says "Computers and Technology" and the post is also relevant in a sense, but this is more art!
The video below is all (99%) CGI! In retrospect, I could make out a few areas like that, but it is mindblowing! It is said to have taken two years for Alex Roman to complete this. If you're not convinced, look at the second video below that shows the timeshots.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

The timeshots:

Compositing Breakdown (T&S) from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

10 questions to Hans Rosling

2009-11-29T22:58:00.000+05:30

Ever since I saw the gapminder statistics, I suddenly have a lot of respect for Hans Rosling (paradigm shift!). These are ten questions the internet community presented to him and his responses. Beautiful questions and beautiful answers! In the five world leaders to whom he would choose to present his statistics (in the hopes of creating some change), he names Manmohan Singh as one of them. Not sure about the others, but I am wondering if he is being too optimistic about the Indian PM :)

Gapminder | Countries of the world

2009-11-26T10:31:00.001+05:30

The above chart is proof that data can be "interesting" as well. Just keeping the contents aside for the moment, the eye-opener is the number of dimensions the chart uses for representation.

1) Size of the circle to represent population

2) Color of the circle to represent geographic location

3) Horizontal orientation to represent income

4) Vertical orientation to represent child mortality rate

Also, none of these would fly if the chart weren't "intuitive". It will make me think twice before I need to represent something as data. The other thing is to see if there are tools that will allow me to represent multiple dimensions like these. I don't think the traditional excel chart will fly!

You can download the chart here - it's been used per Creative Commons.

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Relevant technology breakthroughs

2009-11-19T20:07:00.000+05:30

The scientific community is always going to be innovating. It has more to do with the way the human mind works, really! We benefit in the form of gazillion gadgets and their variants. Technology itself has traveled a long way especially in the past two or three decades. But there are still crippling limitations. Now if we can channel the obsessive need to innovate in the proper direction, it is a win-win situation. The proper direction might be what is today's crying need for environmental protection and sustainability. So, some of my thoughts below.

1) A way to pump massive volumes of data across the globe in a cheap way:
Yeah, I know we're getting there. Broadband internet is a good example. But it is still limiting. For example, if we theoretically assume that all data transfer is instantaneous, we can have a five or six member video conference that is real time. Imagine what that would do to "business travels"? If companies can cause its stakeholders to interact across the globe very effectively, business travels for individual folks might even need CEO approval (companies will do anything to cut *costs*). This translates directly to reduced carbon footprint.

2) A foolproof, non clumsy, side-effect free way of birth-control:
To get some perspective, no birth control method today goes on record saying it's 100% effective. This can only mean we're still doubtful or limited in terms of what is being offered. I think seven billion is good enough for one planet.

3) Clean, 100% renewable energy:
We're dabbling with solar energy. But seriously, we should be at a point where every single source of energy is clean and renewable. In other words, for as long as we can imagine into the future, we really shouldn't be thinking about an energy crisis. And seriously, the sun seems the most obvious choice, but we're really struggling to tap its energy at that scale. Our jokes in terms of global warming debates today would be non existent today if we were able to tap the sun's energy that way.

4) Emission free cars:
We already know it's possible. BMW released a car that outputs water (steam) as its only side product. So why not focus intensely in making something like that a standard?
Similarly, why not think of planes that do the same? A plane today has a footprint of 1kg of CO2 per km of travel!

5) A way to "create" water:
We are not very far away where water will be a premium commodity. Why not start working on it today? How about plants that produce water (not purify them) from elements? A sideline might be translating ocean water to drinking water *on a mass scale*. We already have technology in place, albeit an expensive one.
I am really hoping we don't get to a point where we have to wear oxygen masks to live!

6) A scientific process to reverse population growth:
There is no real technology here. The only way to do this without killing anyone (we do that for different reasons though!) is to stop producing people to the level that this number is lower than the amount of people who naturally die in the period. That needs peoples' cooperation! May be the technology to get "global messages" to all people in the world is the key here.

7) Technology to bio-degrade plastic:
Come on! There has to be something! I trust the wisdom of nature which has always been ahead of humans in forethought. I feel it's only a matter of time for humans to "stumble upon" what is already existing. In any case, we've been given the building blocks to piece together whatever we wish to create!

Anything else that is begging for attention? I didn't include treeless paper here because we already have the technology (hemp, bagasse etc). If you don't use what you already have, and still cut down trees for that, that can only be called overweening arrogance.