Posts tagged technology
Technology Overkill?
02 months ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Working in the interactive marketing often gives me pause about how much technological intrusion into our daily lives is right. I try not to judge, but this product seems like it might cross the line in terms of bringing too much technology into the ski or snowboard experience. That and the fact that I have enough troubles keeping goggles in good shape and de-fogged to have to worry about a screen inside the goggles! In any case, here’s a nice video about the new Android equipped MOD and MOD Live goggles via engaget, let me know if you’d use these in the comments:
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High-Tech Ski Resorts
21 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
A recent post titled the Top 10 High-Tech Hotels, prompted me to think about technological innovations that have been adopted by ski resorts. So, without further ado, and in no particular order, the top high tech uses by ski resorts (I haven’t tied many of these to specific resorts as many are in use at multiple resorts):
- Epic Mix by Vail Resorts, taking RFID lift ticket scans and blending it with social media is an intriguing direction that we’ll all be watching in 2010-2011.
- Groomers using GPS, like PistenBuly’s SNOWsat, to more effectively groom trails by optimizing mountain travel and passes on each run.
- For skiers and riders that are searching for the best lift ticket deals, using the online only site, Liftopia is probably the best use of tech for searching out lift ticket deals.
- Ski resorts with all-mountain cellular coverage – this one isn’t really up to an individual resort, as cell tower placement is obviously driven by cellular providers, but it can be awfully nice to have cell service around a mountain.
- Renewable green power efforts, most notably the Jiminy Peak and Grouse Mountain on-mountain wind turbines, are a beneficial way to use technology to reduce carbon emissions as well as save money.
- RECCO avalanche rescue technology, which allows for a beacon style rescue that uses technology that is embedded in many ski boots and clothing and will even give directional bearing to many cell phones.
- High-speed detachable lifts, which have completely changed how we ski and ride – on the chairlift topic, does the addition of heated seats to a lift add a technological boost to lifts, or is it just something else to break?
I know I’ve only scratched the surface of how ski resorts are integrating technology into their operations, please add additional examples in the comments!
Photo credit: Flickr user Leo-setäPrepare for Another Tahoe Snowcial
41 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in video
The date has been set (January 6-9. 2011) for the 3rd (I think) annual Tahoe Snowcial and once again, digital nomads, storytellers and other sundry hanger on’ers will converge on southern Lake Tahoe to network, learn, slide and engage in the general sort of debauchery that happens when ski industry folks get together in Nevada. I missed the first Snowcial and was hoping to get to the 2nd last season, but it was at the same time as my dad’s retirement party – truthfully, some ‘Sierra cement’ would almost have been welcome compared to the sub-zero arctic blast I got to ‘enjoy’ back in Minnesota. But, now we all have yet another chance to experience the wonderful world of “Snowcial” – check out this video to learn more:
Snowcial 2011 from Heavenly Mountain on Vimeo.
I hope I can find time to make the hop over to Tahoe as this sounds like an awesome event for those of us in the snow sports industry and there are more than a few people that I’d love to catch up with that I’m sure will be in attendance. Hope to see everyone in January!
A Look at the Rapid Evolution of Technology
01 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Those of us involved in the tech world are probably familiar with Moore’s Law, which states that the number of processors that can be placed on an integrated circuit will double every two years. It’s pretty amazing that this is something that has held true since 1965, 45 years and still no signs of it running it’s course. Hooray for that, because I can’t wait for smaller and faster devices, and if to demonstrate what that has meant for devices over the past 10 years, here’s a comparison of a 2000 iMac to a 2010 iPhone (from arstechnica.com’s forum):
2000
iMac
Operating System – Mac OS 9.0.4
Processor – 500 MHz PowerPC G3 CPU, 128MB Memory
Graphics – ATI Rage 128 Pro, 8MB of memory (8 million triangles)
Screen – 786K pixels
Data Transfer Speeds – 1.3-12.5 MB/s (DVD-ROM-1/100 Ethernet)
Storage – 30GB Hard Drive
Dimensions – 15.0 x 15.0 x 17.1 inches
Weight – 34.7 pounds2010
iPhone 4
Operating System – iOS 4.0
Processor – 1 Ghz ARM A4 CPU, 512MB Memory
Graphics – PowerVR SGX 535, uses system memory (28 million triangles)
Screen – 614K pixels
Data Transfer Speeds – .04-20MB/s (3G-WiFi)
Storage – 32GB Flash Drive
Dimensions – 4.5 x 2.31 x .31 inches
Weight – 4.8 ounces
Faster processors, smaller devices, more storage…I can’t wait to see what we’ll have to play with in five let alone another ten years!
Photo credit: Flickr user Marcin Wichary via CC 2.0 license
Should a Ski Resort be a “No-Tech” Zone?
61 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
As an interactive marketer, I feel like I spend hours upon hours pondering apps and other interactive items that could add value to skiers and riders on the mountain. However, a recent New York Times article, “Your Brain on Computers – Attached to Technology and Paying a Price” prompted me to wonder if perhaps the mountains are a place that shouldn’t enable our always connected addiction to technology? To clarify, does is it in some way devalue the outdoor mountain experience of skiing and snowboarding if a resort is encouraging guests to pull out their mobile device and in the words of the article, “our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.” Or, as one of the people in the article says of her husband, “‘It seems like he can no longer be fully in the moment.”
The closing paragraphs of the story further the point:
Mr. Nass at Stanford thinks the ultimate risk of heavy technology use is that it diminishes empathy by limiting how much people engage with one another, even in the same room.
“The way we become more human is by paying attention to each other,” he said. “It shows how much you care.”
That empathy, Mr. Nass said, is essential to the human condition. “We are at an inflection point,” he said. “A significant fraction of people’s experiences are now fragmented.”
Obviously, a ski resort can’t shut down the cell services that provide data and voice services, but does it do itself a disservice by unintentionally providing a negative (an incentive to use technology) in an otherwise oasis away from technology. What do you think?
To wit, I just saw another story on this same topic on CNN titled, “Is the internet making us quick but shallow?” this is certainly an interesting topic to ponder.
Photo credit: Flickr user Jean & Nathalie via CC Attribution 2.0 Generic
New Technologies for the Winter
02 years ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
It’s amazing how incredible the technologies that we use everyday have become. From the WordPress software that so many use to host our blogs, to the super computing devices that our cell phones now are. I’m writing this post on my new Motorola Droid phone, which I also used to take this photo of my blog (BTW, I just noticrd that there’s a ‘snow’ mode for the camera – I’ll definitely be testing that one out)!
This is all making me all the more excited for the upcoming winter season in that I can’t wait to see how we can use many of these new and yet to be developed. I’m excited about: iPhone, Android, augmented reality, social networking…it’s here, or will be soon.
What are you excited about for this coming winter? Feel free to say skiing and riding! 
Shift Keeps Happening – Did You Know 4.0
12 years ago
by Eric Hoffman
in video
If you haven’t seen any of the “Shift Happens” videos, and even if you have, I highly recommend checking out the latest in the series, “Did you know 4.0″. Even as a person that is very involved in the digital space, I’m always impressed by the stats and figures that are shown in these videos. In fact, I personally am reminded of the Mac SE I got in college (yes, I’m that old) with it’s massive 20 MB internal hard drive and speedy 8 MHz processor as I have my (2 year old) phone sitting next to me with 96 MB of built in memory and a 400 MHz processor. What were the specs of the first computer that you owned???
So, take a few minutes to watch this clip and as you do, try to keep in mind the intentions of the producers of the clip, that we all need to recognize that our world is changing rapidly and that it’s not just for us, but also for our kids, that we need to continually keep abreast and ahead of trends and directions in technology. Enjoy!
