Tablet PC Thoughts

As I am completing my divorce, it is causing me to find obscure bugs in various software. I have a 4 year old son, and I have 50% custody of him. Part of that arrangement means that I have to share holidays with him on alternating years. I had him for the Thanksgiving vacation this year, but his mother has him next year.

As a user of a Palm Tungsten E2, and Outlook, I figured that I would set-up the "recurring appointment" in Outlook and the sync that to my Palm. I learned that it's not that easy. The first thing was learning the syntax of the recurring configuration in Outlook. First I created the "Thanksgiving Vacation" appointment in my calendar, from November 22 at 7:00pm, till November 26th at 7:00pm. Then, I have to create a recurring appointment that repeats "From 7:00pm till 7:00pm lasting 4 days, monthly on the fourth Wednesday of every 24 months, starting on November 22, 2006 through November 29, 2020". Outlook actually deals with this ok ... but when I sync to the Palm it fails.

As I dug further into the problem, I found that the issue is that the Palm conduit, or sync software, can't seem to deal with the 24 month interval. The error log tells me to "split the appointment" into individual days, however when I do that the appointment sync's to the Palm on a 12 month interval. Uh ... not quite what is showing in Outlook.

After I spent hours trying to resolve this I finally realized that the only way around this is to "hand create" all of the appointments each year. Or to go in and modify each of the "occurances" of the recurring appointment to modify them in a way to make them unique and "non-recurring".

Hello ... Palm? Anyone out there interested in fixing this bug?

During the Tech Boom there were numerous companies and people working on Head-Mounted displays. As a dealer for Xybernaut, one of the only dedicated wearable computer vendors at the time, I bought a nice unit from Olympus. It was one of a very small lot of units, and was built to integrate into the Xybernaut units. I used it for a lot of my WarBlading efforts ... our "war driving" on roller blades. :-)

Shimadzu is one of the vendors who has persisted in this space ... they have always had an impressive (yet costly) solution. Their Data Glass 2/A has some impressive specs, and I can't wait to see exactly what the Data Glass 3 will be!

What got my started looking at this again was a post I read that lead me to some more current research. I came across this web page by Ozan Cakmakci who designed a new head-worn display, and wrote some papers about them. It's cool to see that people are still looking at this.

I've had my Nokia E70 for about a month now. Here are some thoughts on the phone ...

• It is slow. Period. This phone has now taught me that hardware vendors are trying to push far too much software and functionality at the limited processors in these devices. I find myself constantly waiting for the phone ... waiting for menus ... waiting for the applications to load and be usable. This phone is noticeably impacting my productivity in a negative way.
• The phone is not reliable. Right now, my key problem is around the bluetooth connection to my Jabra BT250v headset. Once or twice a day now my headset connectivity stops working. I go through the menus on my E70, turn off the bluetooth, then turn it back on, and re-connect my BT250v and it's back working. But this is like having to re-boot my phone once or twice a day. C'mon Nokia ... can't you create a reliable product?
• The task list is too limited. I had bought the phone hoping that I could replace my Palm Tungsten E2 ... and it's close ... but the Task/ToDo list application on the E70 is just too limited. I use 15 different ToDo lists on my Palm to organize my life. The E70 doesn't include the ability to create multiple lists ... it's all dropped into one big list. Bummer.
• I do like the browser. I have to admit that it has been fun just opening up my phone, and cruising the Internet every now and then. The browser is small, but well designed, and very usable. I'm able to read the news and do searches, etc.

These are just a few quick thoughts off the top of my head ... I'm still glad I bought it ... maybe I'll have to keep checking for firmware updates to see if anything gets fixed. I am impressed at where these devices have got to ... I can only imagine what the next generation of phones will be like next year ...

Ok ... I love to see where this is going. Someone in government begins to see the "dollar" volumn of commerce within virtual worlds ... and they soon think "Gosh ... how can *we* get a cut of that?"

I had really thought that taxation was something done for a purpose ... not just because it can be done. If the government is going to tax in virtual worlds, then are they going to begin to spend that money in virtual worlds? I can't even wait to learn about the newest virtual pork-barrel projects that are going to show up on the scene. Politicians are going to begin to cater to the special interests of "furries" or some other group within Second Life ... just to get their real-world votes?

If government really gets involved in Second Life, for example, then I wonder if they'll set up the various programs to assist the "needy" or "unemployed"? Hmmm ... maybe I'll be able to create a new character in Second Life and have them left homeless ... file to collect virtual-unemployment in Lindon dollars? Convert those on the various markets to real dollars? Wait ... I'll create 100 characters in Second Life and have them ALL file for unemployment! At that point will the government create "virtual immigration"? I won't be able to create a character or enter a virtual world without a proper passport that will limit me to one virtual character at a time?

It is amazing the times that we live in where the government is considering that they tax the creation of virtual wealth ... however this will begin to set some precedents on how virtual worlds are looked at by laws, and general definitions.

Congress to look into taxing virtual worlds. Blog: For at least the past couple of years, one of the biggest questions in virtual world circles has been whether or not the U.S.... [CNET News.com]

I love to think about the future, and how it is going be for my 4 year old son. As I consider the models of "how things are", I keep wanting to explore the "edges" more and think about what things are going to be like 10 years from now ... or 20!

Virtualization is one of those technologies that is just beginning to alter how we look at hardware and software. The hardware that we are buying is now so powerful, that we can emulate whole PCs on our PCs. On a daily basis I am running Linux on my laptop ... in a window, on Windows, using Microsoft Virtual PC. I am also running Windows XP and Windows 2000 in Virtual PC on my desktop at work for testing purposes. What is fun is that I now have a library of "machines" that I have created in Virtual PC, and I carry these on my 80GB pocket USB hard disk. Windows (various versions), Linux (numerous distros), OpenSolaris, OpenDarwin ... even a CP/M hack. When I set up my new desktop machine I simply copied my "test machines" onto the new hard disk, and immediately booted them in my free Virtual PC that I downloaded and installed.

What I found last week - and predicted years ago - is that "virtual hard disks" are now being distributed by Microsoft. Do you want to check out Windows Server? Exchange Server? SQL Server? Instead of installing all of that software, simply download the pre-configured Virtual Hard Disk and boot it in Virtual Server! You are instantly up and running with a machine ready to go!

What is facinating to me, is that I start to see this as a whole new level of software distribution. Instead of downloading ISOs images of CDs and DVDs ... just download the vitual hard disk and boot it! Why download the software to run on yor machine ... when you can download the machine!?!?! I can begin to see a future where people are running numerous virtual machines on their desktop or laptop ... just as we run applications on our OS today.

There are already tools like WinImage that can read and write the .vhd (virtual hard disk) file format, and Microsoft has opened up the specification for others to use this format. What this means is that we are watching the first moves to create a "standard" format for passing virtual machines around on the Internet.

I'm curious when we'll see the first Linux distros that realize that offering their installed solution as a .vhd might get them some real traction with Windows users who want to experiment with Linux? I'm also watching to see what Internet web site becomes the defacto palce to download *any* .vhd that you might want? Who will become the one-stop-shop for grabbing a VM? I can see whole libraries of VMs being developed and made available ... all in the not too distant future!

Oh yeah ... and my son? I can already see that he won't be into "file sharing" on the Internet ... he'll probably be into "machine sharing" or "VM sharing" ... or what ever comes after that.

With all of my disappointment with cell phones lately, I started to wonder where is the Microsoft Ultra Mobile PC? I saw the one Samsung Q1 unit ... but are there others that are shipping? I see the Asus unit on the web site ... but is it out there?

I still have to say that I was left slightly disappointed by the current generations of Tablet PCs ... I really like the concept, but the hardware specs of the available Tablet PCs are just too far behind my current Dell Laptop. The one key feature for me was the screen resolution ... I must have more than 1024x768 pixels to view!

I'm now in the market for a new laptop ... I'm having a hard time nailing down what I want to buy ... a new Dell, a MacBook Pro, or a new Tablet PC.

Oh, and the Ultra Mobile PC? I'm looking at that for my son. He's four years old now and I'm thinking that might be a good Christmas present for him ... :-)

While down at the Adobe MAX conference in Las Vegas, I saw some very nice demos of Flash Lite v2.1 ... a version of Flash for mobile devices and cell phones. It was interesting to see that both Verizon and Qualcomm were on hand to talk about the immediate availability for developers. As I just bought my new Nokia E70 phone (which I'm slowly getting used to!) I thought this would be great! I'm doing some Flash development ... and now I can write apps for my phone with it!

Well ... then reality set in. I went to the Adobe Flash Lite booth, where I was told that my phone ships with Flash Lite v1.1 ... an archaic version with severe limitations. Ok ... so when can I get the upgrade? Well, go ask the Nokia folks. It was nice that Nokia had a booth at the show ... I simply strolled across the room to ask! When I got to the booth, one of the Nokia reps even had a E70 in his hand! Woohoo!

As we discussed the wonders of Flash Lite v2.1, I finally asked "When will I get my update?" Long silent pause. "Well, at this time I don't know if we'll support Flash Lite v2.1 on our 3rd Edition Phones." was the answer. Uh ... I just bought this thing ... I asked "What is a 3rd Edition Phone?" The response was something like "Everything on the market is 3rd Edition or less. The 4th Edition Phones are already being developed." So the bottom line that I learned is that Nokia probably will never support Flash Lite v2.1 on any phone in the market. Yes ... there is a possibility asa a developer you can get your hands on a version that will work on your phone ... but the end-user community will not get it. What the heck are they thinking? The answer seemed to be that they did not want to go back and test and recertify the phones in the market. Bummer. Strike One for the Telcos and Cellcos.

The next step was to ask Adobe for the latest development tool that would allow me to create Flash Lite v1.1 applications! The answer was Flash Professional 8 ... a $700 tool. On top of this, the development paradigm used by this tool was completely foreign to me ... although I had been warned about the "timeline" model. When I got the developer demo, I quickly realized that this was not going to work for me. Bummer. Strike Two for the Telcos and Cellcos.

Before giving up completely, I then began to explore a conversation about some possible applications that I had thought of. Things got even worse. I really wanted to have some applications do some cool things with the camera, and SMS services. It turns out that the Telcos and Cellcos have prevented the Flash Lite applications from directly working with the Camera or SMS capabilities of the phones. So I can't have my application take photos, or send photos, or send/receive SMS text messages. Bummer. Strike Three for the Telcos and Cellcos.

It was amazing to me that after years of waiting for the cell phone to catch up and be a real player in the Internet age, it's still handcuffed and locked up by the Telcos and Cellcos. Yes ... I know that you can still do *some* things with these devices ... but they are far from being free, and a truly open and mobile platform for applications.

I just bought my new cell phone the other day. Well ... I ordered it. I'm buying a new Nokia E70, and I bought it directly from Nokia. Well ... from Nokia's distribution partner LetsTalk.com. There are two things that really struck me about the purchase ... one was the "Identity Leakage" that I am detecting about myself ... the other was their customer service. Both were impressive.

Identity Leakage? What is that? Well ... it's all of the information about me that is leaking out all over the place. And the slow accumulation of my leaked identity by various organizations that provide services based on that identity information. Nokia uses a company that is busy slurping up all of my leaked identity ... and yours too! How did I experience this? Well upon completion of my purchase of the phone, I received an e-mail indicating that I had to call into their offices to complete my sale.

When I called the 1-877-xxx-xxxx phone number I spoke with a customer service rep who indicated that I was going to have to answer three questions to verify my identity, and to receive my phone. I started to think about the experince that I had on-line with Tiger Direct that was similar ... and it ended up being identical.

First, the customer service rep asked me "Which of the following vehicles have you bought or sold recently?" She then listed five vehicles ... and the sixth choice "None of the listed vehicles." The funny thing is that the third vehicle she listed was my truck ... exact year, make, and model.

Second, the customer service rep asked me "What counties have you bought or sold property in?" ... and listed 5 or 6 county names several of which I had no idea. But of course, again, one of the last counties that she listed was one where I have bought both a house, and a building.

The third question was to "Please identify the name of a friend or family member." ... after which she read the names of 5 or 6 people ... none of which I recognized ... followed by the option to indicate that I didn't know any of these people. I told her that I didn't recognize any names, and she then said that I had answered the questions correctly.

Now I do have to mention that when I saw this on-line with the Tiger Direct system, when they listed names of friends or family I *did* see my sisters married name.

Through public records (vehicle registration, property title registrations?) companies are able to begin to assemble a lot of my identity. My involvement in public activities allows my identity to "leak". It's not a far leap to see where this will continue to go ...

P.S. Th other part of my story ... about their customer service? When I bought the phone on Friday it was ~$460.00 ... by Monday after they shipped the phone the price dropped to ~$400.00 ... and so on Tuesday morning I called to see what they would do about it. The customer service rep immediately asked if I had got the e-mail. Well ... I was on the phone driving to the office, so no ... I had not yet seen an e-mail. He indicated that an e-mail had already been sent Tuesday morning indicating that I'd get the $60 refund. They had already covered me with some sort of price-protection. Nice.

While down here at Adobe MAX, we wanted to get some work done after dinner. We realized that we hadn't brought ethernet cables, and chose to run to Fry's in Las Vegas ... we also had a Fry's virgin with us, and it's always fun to introduce a geek to the Fry's experience.

While wandering through the wireless section at Fry's, I chose to look for a new portable wireless access point that I could take on trips with me. I used to carry a Lucent RG-1000 with me everywhere that I went. It was an amazing box for the time ... it provided Ethernet and Dial-up capabilities, and was a router with DHCP and NAT built in. I could go into any place with a phone line, and create a shared wireless network ... uh ... sharing a 56kbps dial-up link. Not the best speeds, but it worked.

Well, I have now found my modern replacement ... and it's very cool. I'm impressed. The Linksys WTR54GS is now going to be travelling with me. This compact little unit appears to have two wireless radios, and two ethernet ports. It is able to be a complete wireless router, with either wired or wireless connection to the Internet, and then both a ethernet and/or wireless access point functionality for clients. Amazing. So, for example, I had it connect as a wireless client bridge to the hotel wireless network, and then was able to connect to it's wireless access point and have multiple machines share that single connection. So it was an active wireless client, and wireless access point at the same time ... complete with NAT, firewall, and even MAC Address cloning.

All of this in a compact little unit, with a retractable power connector, that fits into a small zippered carrying case. And the price? Fry's had it for $79 .... I'm sure that you might find it cheaper elsewhere. I'm sure that I'll blog more about it if it continues to live up to the experience that I've had this week.

I came down to Adobe MAX 2006 this week. It's being held in Las Vegas, and this is my first time attending this event. Last night at the welcome reception I met some great people, and saw a few interesting applications. One thing that hit me was the deep penetration that Adobe has into government. There were government employees - federal, state, and city - along with military employees and defense contractors everywhere!

I'm down here with part of my team from mediaForge as we are now committing This morning I'm at the keynote, and I'm impressed that Adobe has really spent some money on this event ... and there are a *lot* of people here. Our first guess is that there are maybe 2000+ people attending. After an intro by Blue Man Group, Kevin Lynch - Chief Software Architect - came on stage and said that this is the largest Adobe MAX conference to date.

The CEO then reviewed the Adobe/Macromedia merger, and showed a video of the feedback from users. He talked about the adoption of the "labs" concept that Macromedia brought. His focus then turned to the technologies that they are going to focus on - video, mobile devices (FlashLite is running on over 100 million devices!), Flex, and Flash Player 9 (now 10 years old).

Kevin Lynch returned to the stage and fist addressed the adoption rates of Flash Players. He showed where the Flash Player 9 reached over 80% adoption within 9 months, and how Flash Player 9 is on track towards 40% adoption in close to three months. This again demonstrates that the ability to deploy updates globally, in a seamless and simple way, is key to software adoption.

There was then a series of demos of new features in Fireworks, Photoshop, After Effects, their new application Soundbooth. Then came the demo of what I'm here for ... Apollo. Apollo is the new "cross-OS runtime that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, Ajax) to build and deploy desktop RIA’s." I'm hoping that Adobe will release a beta to us here at the show ...

More later!

For those people who just don't seem to think it can get better, consider that within a few years you'll be able to head to Costco and pick up your 2TB and 2.5TB hard disks for your personal computers. This article outlines the announcements from Seagate and Hitachi announcing record densities in magnetic media ... and the fact that the 1TB drives will be in our hands by this coming summer.

So when will the 4TB and 5TB disks be here? 2010? Sooner?

Seagate, Hitachi up density in hard drive material. Blog: Seagate and Hitachi celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the hard drive by announcing two records in areal density, or the amount... [CNET News.com]

Bummer. I just realized that I missed the 10th Annual Telecosm Conference held by George Gilder and Steve Forbes. This has always been one of my favorite conferences, where I'm always stimulated with something technology oriented that I never would have thought of. I'm really into discovering what I don't know that I don't know.

The one thing that I was glad to find is that they are releasing the conference proceedings as podcasts ... good move. The first one is on Net Neutrality and has an all-star line-up of speakers. I'm downloding it now. Oh ... ad it even says that it's a video podcast.

One of my friends asked me some questions the other day about my constant focus on identity within the context of community. As usual I was being asked about the "real" application of this notion ... not just the "philosophical" perspective. Well ... I'm always thinking the "real" application ... I just don't seem to express it well.

I started to think about how - from my perspective - this notion would be implemented in code, or within an identity store. All of this relates back to my work on digitalMe while at Novell ... and a group of us were working towards this back then. As I thought more about some of my recent comments, I realized that one of the "real world" aspects was what I'll now call "Identity Tuples".

What exactly is an Identity Tuple? First, lets look at what most people use as examples of identity ... simple name/value pairs.

• age = 32
• shoe_size = 12
• job_title = CTO

There are a number of critical issues with this perspective, and to me it is the gross assumptions when we view this that make it nearly useless. Let's first look at "age = 32" ... uh, well 32 WHAT? Oh of course most people will call me silly and state "32 years of course!" But that is an assumption. And even if we do say that "age = 32 years" then we still have to reference what a year is, or also identify the context that the measurement "year" exists within. A "year" is what, exactly? 365 days? Nope ... it's actually 365.242 days. Who says so? NIST! Ok ... and the second flaw in this perspective? WHEN was this true? Well, it would be at some epoch in time ... or between some range of dates. Lastly, who is the community or authority that states this as fact? When we state that "age = 32" it is a very incomplete statement. This is where an identity tuple can come into play ... instead of storing "age = 32", we would actually store:

• Attribute: "age = 32" :: NIST
  
• Epoch: @ 2006-10-05 09:50:34 :: NIST
  
• Context/Community: http://www.utah.gov/, http://www.state.pa.us/ :: ICANN
  

It is how Identity "attributes" can be stored and represented. What this provides is support for the fact that identity evolves with time! I understand that most often people are asking about my identity right now, but there is considerable identity information that relates to the past, or trends in your identity. Credit History is a classic example of this. Likewise, if you have children you would know about the "growth charts" that compare your child to the averages of other children.

The other core value of Identity Tuples is that the context, or community, where this attribute is distinguished is referenced with the identity information. To me, this is critical to be able to properly assess the identity information and determine its value to me. It's not enough to say that I am {x} years old ... in the case of liquor laws, we want that information from a credible source. We have to identify the community which will support my claims.

Now some people reading this will notice there are some subtle flaws in this example ... it's a rough example. But it is an attempt to describe some of what I see lacking in existing solutions ... and what a real solution will one day have to have to be more effective.

This year it has been fun to retest the edges of the Internet. What I mean is "How easy is it to get on the Internet from various places?"

In May I took a trip to the Philippines (Philippines Videos) and was blown away at how easy it was to get Internet access everywhere. There were cost-effective Internet Cafe's all over the place. I was there from the 21st to the 31st, and travelled from Manila to Baguio, to Iloilo and Bacolod, and back to Manila. Internet was everywhere. Cheap and plentiful.

I'm posting this from the coast of Cuba, on the way to Labadee, Haiti. I'm aboard the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas, and yes ... there is Internet. In fact, I'm on Wifi sitting in a lounge on the 14th deck looking out over the upper decks of the ship toward the distant horizon. Somewhere out there is Haiti. We'll get there sometime tomorrow morning ... I think.

Slowly but surely access to the Internet is reaching everywhere on earth. Everywhere. It was interesting to see that even cellular is reaching out ... there is a Cingular cell onboard the ship and so I have full strength cellular service and SMS text.

As technology continues to advance, wireless technologies improve, and business models support it ... the edges of the Internet are slowly going away. It is inevitable that when something like the Interent permeates the entire planet ... there are no longer any edges ... it simply becomes something that is.

This last weekend I was talking with a friend about Google, and the tracking of identity. I blogged about Google, Identity and Privacy a few weeks back, and have been doing a lot of R&D in this area. On Monday there was the uproar about the AOL leak of search queries and how this data could be used to locate the person who was making the queries. What this article does not address is the "undistinguished identity" that the person is revealing ... information about themselves that even they do not know.

The more that I discussed the issue with my friend, it started to really get clear to me that my concerns about provacy and identity are not as much my identity as most people think about it ... but large systems and companies that gain access to my undistinguished identity.

What do I mean by this? To me, undistinguished identity is all of my thoughts and behaviors that are completely a reaction to stimulus around me. Companies like Google are beginning to gain vast amounts of information about me, what I search for, when I search for it, and then have the ability to relate to to seemingly unrelated events.

To me, it's not just about companies knowing information about me that I also know ... it's when they begin to know me, better than I know me.

It's always fun to learn whole new layers of technology. What I'm posting about here is probably known by a lot of people, but my recent involvement in two new start-up companies has really started to have me think about the breadth and depth of data mining occurring on the Internet involving personal behavior and habits. And one of the largest harvesters of all of that personal information is Google. There are already others who cover this much better than I ... Google Watch is one ... however I still wanted to blog about this.

Two of the four start-ups that I am now involved in are working on web applications - hosted services - that want to provide new levels of social and affiliate networks. With one start-up we are creating a new form of video advertising on the net, with a full affiliate marketing network behind it. So it becomes important to track when affiliates (bloggers or web sites that host the ads) cause sales to occur. When that happens they get paid a commission. With the other start-up we are creating a new interactive media type that can be spread virally through web sites, e-mail and IM. With this solution we want to be able to track and map the viral spread to acknowledge and reward the people who are able to cause the most spread.

As my teams and I began to build both of these solutions we began to examine how other vendors are accomplishing the same things. We have now looked at dozens of implementations, and then created our own solutions that we believe will give us what we are after. While doing this I began to see a pattern that is an amazing wealth of personal information that Internet users are giving away about themselves ... about who they REALLY are. On one of the largest consumers of all of this personal behavioral information is Google. It's really the scale of their ability to gather this data that caused me to pause and think.

It all starts with a cookie

In doing some research into how ot track consumers, I was surprised to find that most people agree that 99%+ of web browsers operate using the default settings when it comes to cookies. Cookies are the small pieces of data that a web site can pass down to your web browser, and from then on - until the cookie expires - that data is passed back to the web site every time that you access it. Cookies can be defined to last for a very short amount of time - just that particular session - or a very long amount of time ... decades, or even hundreds of years.

So when you first visited Google ... the very first time ... you got your first Google cookie. And this is a good starting point ... when did YOU lose your Google-virginity? When exactly was that first time? Google knows. Even if you have changed computers, browsers, upgraded, etc. there is a chance that Google still knows. They know the year, day, hour, minute, and second. You were given the mark of Google. Ok ... big deal ... so what.

Tracking what you search

The first thing they are now able to do is track every single search that you perform on Google. Lots of people know about this, and understand this is the case. They also know the time of day, day of the week, phase of the moon, weather conditions, popular news, and even the popularity of that particular search when you did it! So what searches do you tend to do late at night during a full moon? Ask Google ... they know!

In my opinion, it's not really the details of what you searched that have the real value ... it is when you did them, and in what sequences, and what other patterns emerge about you. This is where your true identity begins to emerge. What? You were on-line searching on a Friday night? Not out with friends?

Proliferation of AdWords

Ok ... now this next part is where I started to really think. While working on how to dynamically inject video advertising into a web page, I found that Google is using a very interesting technique for AdWords and Google Analytics. Again ... it's very simple and easy, and many people know this ... however many people do not. And the implications are very interesting.

If you have a web site, and you choose to place AdWords on your web site, Google will give you a nice little bit of HTML to embed in your page. That HTML includes a script tag that will fetch a snippet of Javascript code from Google's servers. The Javascript then causes the AdWords ads to be rendered within your web page. It's actually pretty impressive that when I browse to your website, without being told a thing, my browser will automatically load your page and go and load the script from Googles servers. Clean ... transparent. Ok yeah ... and when it did that ... the Google cookie went with that request. Remember the Google cookie?

Yes ... now it's not just the searches that you do on Google's web site that are being tracked, but also every single web page that you visit that contains Google AdWords!

Tracking what web sites you visit

Google is now notified by your browser any time that you visit a web site that hosts Google AdWords ... and it only gets better. Google recently announced Google Analytics. This is a service that allows web site owners to get detailed analysis of the traffic to their web site, and about the visitors to their web site. Any web site owner who wants this impressive reporting can simply request that Google give them an account. When approved, Google will provide access to the Google Analytics web site, and there you get ... another little bit of HTML to put into your web pages. The little snippet again requests a script from Google, and of course passes along your cookie!

So now Google knows what you search, and what sites you visit that have AdWords, and now any site that uses Google Analytics. I'm digging to find figures to understand just how much of the Internet now falls into this category, but it is a large number of sites. And just like the searches, Google not only knows what web sites you have visited, but at what time, in what order. Combined with their broad indexes of Internet content, they have the ability to categorize those sites. Combined with all other types of data they can really begin to get an idea of just who you are, what you do and when, on the Internet. I really begin to wonder what some of the patterns must look like.

If Google knows your real identity also ...

Now ... they know you by your cookie, but do they really know who you are? Well, if you choose to use any number of Google services - gMail, AdWords, AdSense, etc. - then the answer is yes! In most cases, you join these services and begin to disclose personal information that just might be a solid connection to the real you. And remember, each time you use these services that nice little Google cookie ensures that they know it's you. Closing the loop. Connecting the dots.

Lastly ... your friends? Well ... Google now knows via gMail who you communicate with, and at what intervals and times. They now know the type of people that your friends and contacts hang out with. Google knows that YOU are the type of person that all of these people communciate with. From their e-mail address they might even draw the direct connection to yet another person who they have collected all of the data about ... from their Google cookie. I haven't really spent too much time thinking about how much deeper all of this goes ... however it makes sense why Google wants all the storage and bandwidth they are building out. It's not about providing search to you ... it's about owning a perspective of you that no one else on the planet could recreate right now.

Google knows you like no one else. Google knows more about you and I then we know about ourselves. Google will use this to provide us what we really want ... right? Google will do no evil ... right? Google would never use this data to use us ... to manipulate our undistinguished behaviors ... right? The Internet is here, and some things appear to be inevitable ...

Google knows who you REALLY are.

The weekend before last, I took my son Sam out to spend some time with my parents in the Bay Area of California. While we were there we also ran around so that he could visit with with my sisters and their families. On the Saturday he and I ran down to Big Basin, one of my favorite parks just outside of Silicon Valley. We spent several hours hiking around the immense trees, enjoying the quiet, and the incredible coniferous forest smells.

On the way back we met up with my sister Susan and her family. We ran to get dinner at a local soup and salad place. As usual they have the dessert bar, with soft ice cream. Sam wanted a ice cream cone, and so we walked up to the machine and I pulled a chair up for him to stand on ... he is really wanting to do everything himself these days. He did a good job of filling his cone with the mixed chocolate and vanilla ice cream, and then asked if he could get some "sprinkles."

We walked over to where the "sprinkles" are, and I was surprised that they only had raisins, broken Oreo cookies, coconut shreds, and crushed peanuts. No other choices. I immediated commented to Sam, "Oh man ... they only have LAME sprinkles!"

Sam immediately replied, "Daddy ... I want lame sprinkles! I want lame sprinkles!"

To Sam ... even LAME sprinkles are better than no sprinkles. I've become tainted with age. We did have some peanuts, and Oreos.

Wow ... I'm wondering if there might be a glint of sunlight out there for Novell. Once again ... and long over due ... there has been a change of guard in the executive ranks of Novell. Jack Messman is finally out the door, along with the CFO.

I have to admit that I'm only willing to call Jack an executive ... not a leader. From all of my experiences, and watching the direction that Novell has taken, I would have a difficult time calling him a respected leader. Instead, most of the employees that I have talked to felt that he created an oppressive, dictatorial workplace that suppressed the potential of the company.

All I am hearing today are the IMs of joy coming from all directions ... employees and investors.

Good for the board of Novell. No matter what, the culture and the overall energy level in the Novell offices just jumped several notches up.

Last month I was working on rewiring my data center rack to install a slew of new machines. It was on a Sunday afternoon, and I had to run and pick up some CAT5e patch cables ... but where was i going to get them on a Sunday?

I had a few other things to pick up from Home Depot, and so I went back to their electrical section and looked around ... sure enough they sell 3', 7', 15', 25', and 50' pre-made patch cables. Even multiple colors! I didn't even want to look at the price.

I was shocked ... but in the good way! When I looked at the prices they were just under $1/foot! I couldn't believe it. A 3' patch cable for ~$2.98 ... the 25' was $24.95. I bought enough for my rack, and some extras!

Yesterday I walked into CompUSA to buy a video card ... something that I don't think Home Depot would have. While there I figured I would check to see what CompUSA charges for CAT5e patch cables. This time I was SHOCKED ... in a bad way! CompUSA was charging $14.95 for a 7 foot cable in the store!

We have reached an interesting tipping point in computer technology when I can run down to the local hardware store (Ok ... the local Home Depot!) and pick up a CAT5e patch cable ... at a good price. Technology is continuing to weave itself into our lives ... becoming a more and more natural extension of our lives ... leading towards the inevitable substrate transition ...

I'm back working on several very cool Internet/Web projects now. It's fun to get back deep into the Internet, and catch up on what is going on with the bleeding edge. There are several areas that I'm now really digging in ... video on the net, and the whole SEO, web marketing, web advertising, and affiliate marketing.

One thing that has now become evident to me, is that the acquistion of Macromedia by Adobe was brilliant. Adobe/Macromedia is now making huge inroads in web properties, and seems to be linked to a lot of the best things going in Web 2.0.

First lets look at YouTube ... all based on the Adobe/Macromedia Flash player. So distribution of video on the Internet quickly becomes ubiquitous and platform independent! Google Video? Same thing ... Adobe/Macromedia Flash player. There are now a half dozen video related sites ... all using the Adobe/Macromedia Flash player.

Besides the fact that the player is everwhere, and it's on all the top operating system platforms, by using the Macromedia player, the videos can quickly be embedded anywhere in any web property. This is one of the core value propositions that we are leveraging in one of my new start-ups.

So then we get to Flex. Amazing stuff. Again, Adobe/Macromedia now has a platform for creating advanced applications, providing rich UI, and the player is everywhere! And the one key feature is that they can escape much of the "sand box" surrounding current AJAX applications! Writing applications in MXML is now easier ... they have adopted the Eclipse development environment ... and their plug-in can escape issues like cross-domain access. In one of my other start-ups, we're looking at embracing the Flex technology for all of it's benefits. We immediately get a ubiquitous, cross-platform solution that produces user content that can be embedded in any of the top web properties on the planet. Nice.

Oh yeah ... and Adobe also got Cold Fusion in the acquisition.

I started to think about new metrics for measuring the success of companies in the Internet. One possible metric is user viewable pixels ... or even a percentage of user viewable pixels. For example if you went to CNN.com and looked at the page. Out of all of the viewable pixels, who's technology "owns" what percentage of those pixels? In the case of CNN, there are all sorts of Adobe/Macromedia ads running, and even if they are 10% of the viewable pixels ... that is a lot of web real estate. Some sites are more. Again ... think of Google Video ... there Adobe/Macromedia has a huge percentage of viewable pixels. If you add in the number of Cold Fusion sites on the net? Adobe has a lot of the "web-top" now in their pocket.

I think that people so quickly forget about the battles for the desktop, and the complaints about Microsoft "controlling" the desktop. What is amazing to me is the penetration that Adobe now has with the Acrobat reader, and Flash player ... and the tools for the creation of powerful content.

I completed a couple of short, amateur videos of my trip to the Philippines and put them up on YouTube. The first was just of a cab ride through Makati to the Manila Airport. The second is the plane flight from Manila to Baguio.

I'll do a few more ... I'm wanting to get back into creating videos.

A few weeks back I made an on-line purchase - for the first time - with Tiger Direct. When completing the purchase - a $3000+ Plasma Display for a client - I was really surprised when I was presented with a notification that I was going ot have to answer some questions to verify my identity!

Ok . .. so I was thinking some steps ... but never would have imagined what I was going to see. I was presented with a page that appeared to contain an iFrame, and it suddenly filled with a set of three multiple-choice questions. As I read the questions ... I was shocked.

• The first question had my city name - Heber City, Utah - and it asked me to pick which street address was in that city. It listed four street addresses ... and sure enough one was for another property that I own. Uh ... ok ... kinda' weird.
• The second question? This is the one that got me. It asked me to identify the name of someone that I know ... and listed four names. The second name ... was the married name of my younger sister. No way.
• The third question showed a street address ... and asked me to identify the city that the street was in. I immediately recognized the street address ... but could not identify which of the four listed cities it was in ... funny ... must have been an old rental or something.

It really was a weird experience to see that type of personal detail ... being asked on a web page. Overall, I like it ... it was a cool system and I can see where it would be very tough for someone to gather those pieces of information. At the same time, it was strange to see personal information gathered in such a way.

What made me think about this tonight was when a friend indicated that he requested his annual free credit reports today. He said that the same system was used to verify his identity to request the reports ... wild.

I'm not sure that I want to say that it's over ... but as of today I can SkypeOut again! I spent weeks on their on-line forums, and posted 16+ support requests through their website (NONE of which were ever answered!) and then as of today got a personal message on the on-line forums indicating that I was unblocked.

My Skype account was blocked when I unsucessfully attempted to purchase Skype credit with my credit card from the Philippines. That was on the 28th of May! They blocked my account that night ... and I have been struggling to get it unblocked - on a daily basis - since then.

Sure enough ... I can use Skype again!

I like this one even better. So what we seem to be doing is planning for the future, when technological life has taken over. In this future, entities that have come from the technologic substrate will be able to have biological implants!

Ok ... all kidding aside ... this is till pretty cool stuff. We're making huge advances in the merging of biological and technological life!

Scientists Couple Nerve Tissues With Computer Chip.

[Slashdot]

I first heard about RNA Interference a few years back ... caught this article today - here is the full text - that talks more indepth about the tools and techniques. This is amazing stuff ... I have read a few papers about the possibilities and they are endless. The first article that I saw was about a possible gene therapy using RNA interference to possibly change your eye color!

Now we are talking about modern body/identity modifications!

Sharpening the tools of RNA interference. Nature May 23 2006 8:13PM GMT [Moreover Technologies - Genetics news]

When I read this article I immediately began to think about all of the science fiction movies where the various characters are always trying to REMOVE tracking devices from themselves. I can remember the image of Arnold pulling the giant round tracking module from his nasal cavity in Total Recall.

This article, however, is about a growing number of people who are now inserting RFID tags into themselves! Well ... in some cases they are having doctors do it ... but the one web page referenced includes the list of items to do it at home!

Of course this links me back to Pete Ashdown's comments last night about integrity ... we spoke about this breifly after the Utah Bloggers conference had ended. It's cool to see people who are ok with being tracked ... and aren't afraid of anything that might be gathered about them. They are ok with where they go, and what they do.

I'm going to keep thinking about this one. I have been thinking that with the younger generations adopting lifestyles where 'body modification' is becoming the norm, they will be more and more open to technological implants. If you are willing to get tattoos, and have piercings, then when might you go for subdermal animated LED impants, or RFID tags?

Social Consequences and Effects of RFID Implants?.

[Slashdot]

Ok ... this is my day for finding interesting articles on molecular manufacturing. I really like this one ... a MIT team using genetically modified viruses to manufacture.

Battery electrodes self-assembled by viruses. Genetically modified viruses that assemble into electrodes could one day revolutionize battery manufacturing.

The MIT team genetically modified viruses to create the electrodes. They introduced snippets of single-stranded DNA that caused the virus... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

I caught this today ... IBM going further and further with their molecular-scale lithography. They are now able to write compounds onto a substrate at sizes down to 10 nanometers. We are getting closer and closer to molecular manufacturing at a whole new scale.

IBM uses atomic microscope for direct writing. IBM has unveiled a new method of direct writing (like an inkjet printer) to substrates that harnesses an atomic force microscope (AFM) to electronically control molecular-scale lithography.

For semiconductors, IBM's new electronically controlled ... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

I always like a good visualization of Internet activity. Especially when it relates to social and human interaction. I like this paper ... some nice ideas in here.

Visualizing Bidder Activity In Online Auctions [Nooface]

I'm at the first Utah Bloggers conference, and it's fun to see the size of the community here. Ryan Money from HireVue kicked off the meeting, and quickly went into the panel discussion.

The group of panelists included Cydni Tetro, Phil Burns, Phil Windley, Tim Stay, and Pete Ashdown. The questions varied from what blogging software is being used, to making money with your blog. It was good to hear them all. I really liked one thing that Pete Ashdown said about the record of your history on the Internet ... he referred to that as the "... price of integrity." Instead of going to edit your history - such as on the Wikipedia - you simply live honestly with the choices that you have made.

One of the people stood up and admitted that he doesn't yet have a blog ... he wanted to know what to do to start. Phil Windley suggested his essay How to Start a Blog. Nice ... it's the first result when you search Google for that sentence.

Ryan wrapped things up talking about how we really do have a good blogging community. Utah is continuing to grow rapidly, and the growth from people moving to Utah is fueling the tech industry here. We are slowly gaining some real momentum. There are going to be some future events ...

That was it for now ... I'm going to get some other video ... another YouTube video ...

Man ... too many new things since returning form the Philippines. I'm going to get back into the habit of regular blogging ... and I'm at the Utah Blogger event tonight which is kicking me into gear.

I got home on the 1st of June, and thought long and hard about what I have been doing with my life. I've been working at Agilix Labs and having a lot of fun, however I realized that I wanted to do more ... to further pursue some Web 2.0 projects. In addition, Agilix is realigning its direction to more focus on the student and mobilized learning market ... and for now not as much focus on the SDK and developer community. I made the choice ... time to move on!

I'm still going to be working closely with Agilix on some specific projects, but I am now back out in the consulting world. I've already landed two consulting deals, both which are working on some cool new technologies and human-oriented services. I'll be blogging more about them as I get rolling and into the groove of the new routines. What is really fun already is working deep in the Web again ... I'm developing in both 'realms" ... AMP and .NET.

The AMP development involves a lot of Javascript and AJAX, and has been a great learning experience. It also involves a lot of digital video, and so I get to play back in one of my favorite hobbies ... video editing. I'm not a pro at it ... I just like to play around. I posted my first video to YouTube and am going to be posting a number of others.

The .NET development is for a social networking site ... but more. It's actually looking to create a new type of media ... combined media ... interactive media. I guess it's kind of like true 'multimedia' ... a new way to deliver a media experience 'wrapped' into a single download. What is really cool also is that the site is already leveraging some of the most advanced Atlas technologies ffrom Microsoft ... so taking the site to new levels of interactivity and customization.

On top of this ... I'm working on my new Software Development Outsourcing company. The web site is coming quickly, and after I have now been using a half dozen developers from overseas, I am ready to share the power of these people with anyone interested.

Anyhow ... I'm going to listen and blog about the Utah Blogger conference ...

Amazing ... I have been sending support requests every single day. And I get no response, except for the occasional reply to some of the messages saying "We normally will respond within 72 hours." Uh guys ... if you are hearing this ... it's now been almost two weeks! Uh ... they still have my $10.00 ...

I wrote them the following message:

Please ... oh Skype gods ... let my account go! Please unblock me ...

My prayer to the Skype gods ... please have mercy on my account ... PLEASE unblock my account. Why haste thou forsaken me????

Our Skype who art in Luxemburg,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy phone call come, thy will be done,
on the Internet as it is on POTS lines.
Give us this day our daily SkypeOut,
and forgive us our use of mobiles,
as we forgive our non-Skype friends.
And deliver us from expensive calls,
for thine is the $.02/minute, the p2p calling,
and the VoIP solution forever.
SkypeMe.

Oh please Skype gods ... please unblock my account ...

Will it work? Hmmmm ... we'll see ...

Ok ... I had to take a moment to vent about Skype. What a great product ... what lousy execution. Their support? It sucks beyond almost any vendor I have ever dealt with.

On my recent Philippines trip, I started to use SkypeOut ... or tried to. First, I was unable to get them to accept any of my credit cards ... business or personal. Now these are the same credit cards that I use for all other on-line purchases ... but not with Skype. Nope. They wouldn't take them. So no SkypeOut credit.

Well, then I noticed that they accept PayPal ... hmmm ... wonder if that will work. Yeah! It worked! A week ago I was able to pay Skype $10 for SkypeOut credit. They even gave me an extra $1.60 of credit for paying! I called lots of people ... for one day. Then ... back to ground zero.

Six days ago ... the morning after my success paying via PayPal ... and after using Skype to make calls for over an hour ... I wen to dail a number only to see a red bar appear that said:

Skype Account Blocked - Your Skype account has been blocked! Click here for details

Yeah ... right. Try clicking ... it takes you to their home page. Uh guys ... how about if I log into my account? I simply get another message:

You are currently restricted from purchasing services or redeeming vouchers. Please contact Customer Support to review your account status.

Ok ... great. No details ... I click the link ... get taken to a crappy tech support form. Fine ... I filled it in, posted it, and was sent to a page with a bunch of unrelated "knowledgebase" articles ... with another button to *really* post my support request.

So six days ago ... I sent my support request. And I have done so for each and every day since. No response. Oh ... well this monring I finally got back a message saying that they have received my first support request ... sent seven days ago!

So Skype has my money ... and has blocked my account. As for the "free in the US" they claim to be offering? I can't call those numbers either now ... my account is blocked. I can call PC to PC ... I think ... but no SkypeOut at all ... nada.

So they lie ... the whole world CAN NOT talk for free. And in my case, I have even paid my $10 and I can not talk ... at least not via Skype. What a bummer ... some people are screwing up a perfectly good idea.

After spending one day and night in Manila, we headed up to Baguio City ... north of Manila in the Mountains. We left early and flew Asian Spirit ... in a YS-11 ... an old turboprop airliner. After taking off, we quickly climbed to ~10,000 feet. The grey color of Manila slowly began to be sprinkled with green, and the quantity of green again continued to grow as we flew north away from Metro manila.

As we continued our flight, the spots of green continued to grow until we were over a large flat valley with some large winding rivers. Various roads - paved and otherwise - cut convoluted paths between farms, towns, and open ground. All of these roads seemed to wind in strange directions with no rhyme or reason. Below, one large river wound below us, leaving groups of buildings, and maybe whole towns, stranded on empty oxbows. And then the foothills appeared.

It was impressive to see the mountains rise from the valley as a series of large sharp ridges. The river winding below us came from a valley in between some of these ridges, and a large reservior with a dam had been built to hold back its waters. The mountains continued to rise. And rise! All of the sudden the stewardess announced that we were approaching Baguio ... and the mountains continued to climb up towards our altitude. Below us there were now a few roads winding up the jagged mountain sides ... all looking like dirt roads. And then the first towns appeared up in the mountains. As we passed over one of the larger ones ... now looking only a few thousand feet below us ... I caught site of a runway cut into the mountains ... one end spilling out over a shear mountain face. Baguio Airport?

As we now passed that runway the plane began to turn ... yep ... that's Baguio! I actually shot some pretty good footage of the landing ... amazing mountain with a mix of small homes and big mansions. The vacation homes of the upper-class, mixed with the homes of the average people. We continued to bank hard left ... circling around to the other end of the runway that I saw ... to land in the direction of the shear mountain face. As we got lower and lower there were all sorts of streams and rivers flowing down the mountain, with waterfalls all over the place. We continued to decend, and finally touched down. We're in Baguio!

As we exited the aircraft, it was immediately cooler than Manila ... by far! Nice. We wandered the parking lot ... found a cab ... and headed to Session Road ... one of the main roads in Baguio. I'll write more later.

We flew to Manila, from Los Angeles, on Sunday the 21st. One of the first things that was nice was the free wireless Internet provided by the Asian carriers in the LA terminal. Getting there early we were able to get our seats (nice big aisle exit-rows!) and then hang out and get work done.

The Philippines Airlines flight over left at ~10:00pm, so we flew into the darkness, being chased by the sun. The flight actually landed at ~4:00am in Guam for refueling, and then continued its way to Manila. We approached the Philippines at daybreak, just before sunrise. As we crossed over the first edges of the Philippines, it was a combination of islands and then the mountains of Luzon. The mountains turned into a large flat valley, and then the density of grey structures began to grow. Slowly, the grey started to overwhelm the green and we had started to cross over the outer edges of Manila. As we continued to descend, the grey color took over ... it was impressive to see the sprawl of Manila below us.

We landed and got off of the plane, walked into the terminal and passed through immigration ... very uneventful. We had both packed in only carry-on, so we had no luggage to claim ... instead we headed right out into the hot and humid air to look for our car.

The first thing that hit me as the humidity wrapped all around me was the smell of smoke. Everywhere. Like a fireplace nearby kicking out the smoke of burning wood. I had been told about this ... it was the smell of forests being burned in Indonesia. Some of my contacts here indicated that a month ago it was a constant haze that was almost unbearable. Even today in Iloilo I am greeted each morning to the same smell as I leave my hotel room.

I'll write more later ... have to catch the high speed boat to Bacolod!

I've been telling myself each day this week that I was going to post ... and I'm only getting to it right now. I'm sitting in the Amigo Terrace Hotel in Iloilo, Philippines ... and after completing a whole ton of work, I'm now ready to post. I'm in the lobby restaurant ... on wireless.

I'll probably break this into a whole set of posts ... there is too much to write about. It's been a very cool trip so far, and a lot has changed since the last time I travelled in this region. I've never been to the Philippines before, but when I was with Novell I visited a number of Asian countries ... Singapore, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Thailand ... all amazing places. But these trips were in the early 1990's and predated the penetration of the Internet. What a huge difference. I'm floored. The Internet is everywhere.

So where exactly am I right now? I'm at the hotel here in Iloilo. I've been here a few days after visiting Manila ... we stayed in Makati ... then visited Baguio City. Tomorrow we'll be heading over to Bacolod for the day ... then another day back here in Iloilo, before heading back to Manila and home.

I'll write more ... it's been eye opening. An amazing trip.

It is time for another Phil Windley CTO Breakfast. It was a smaller group, but some good conversations - both technical and philosophical. Some good talk about business and team management.

I walked in and there was a conversation about "in the net" storage. Bruce Fryer from DiGiSENSE brought up JungleDisk ... which looks very cool! This solves one of the things that I have wanted for a while now. I've been backing up my various laptops and home computers to a server at my house. On Windows I'm using a very cool tool called Second Copy that I found years back. Second Copy provides very customizable copying profiles to mirror date from my hard disk to almost anywhere. So each night when I go to bed I ensure that I set up a Samba share to my Linux server in the basement. Second Copy kicks off after 2:00am and replicates several designated subdirectories from my machine to the server. It also will create "archive" copies of any changed files ... keeping the last {x} copies of changed files. The one hole in my model is that I don't currently have "off-site" backup. With JungleDisk it appears that I can now consider automating the replication of my server storage to Amazons S3 storage in the net!

I really didn't take too many notes today ... the conversations were too fun! I started to fall quite behind in my typing. We talked about Identity, and that VeriSign has added an OpenID service. This is a good thing as it is showing the growing momentum in Internet Identity.

The web site World Mapper was brought up. This is a very cool site that shifts the sizes of the various countries based on a number of criteria. I really like maps and checking out the statistics of the world ... this site has great information.

Someone brought up the "the Lost experience" ... which is a very interesting way that the TV show Lost is now attracting people to the commercials by embedding puzzles into these commercials. Hollywood and the Networks are now starting to learn how to leverage the net ... finally.

Too many other conversations ... I just wasn't committted to blogging it all today. It was fun to be with the group, and I look forward to next month!

I'm sitting here playing with WuFoo ... what a nice AJAX tool. I was reading this great article on AJAX Prototyping, and it linked to WuFoo. It's a pretty amazing example of where applications within the browser are going. What I started to think of - and maybe they are already doing this - is how I can download the final form that I create and host it on my own server?

Wow ... I have been too heads down on projects lately ... I missed the release of the new Croquet SDK Beta! I'm downloading it as I write this ... and will begin to write more about what I find.

For those who are not familiar with Croquet, it is a full blown 3d virtual world platform being developed by an amazing team. It is cross-platform for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms and is able to be networked for multiple users to interact. If you go to the web site, check out the FAQ, and the Screenshots ... they are really worth seeing so that you can get an idea of what is possible.

What I am currently most interested in is the state of the networking components. These were rough when I played with Croquet last, but to me hold the real network effect value of the platform. This is where I am able to "hyperlink" between spaces, and into other spaces. Consider that this is the equivilent of hyperlinking between web pages in the Web ... but that I am moving from space to space in a 3d universe where much of that universe does not exist initially on my machine. Oh yeah ... it's all Open Source!

I'll blog more about my experiences ... I'm also starting to learn more about Second Life and will be comparing and contrasting my experiences.

[04/18/06]
Croquet SDK 1.0 Beta released!

The Croquet Software Developers’ Kit 1.0 Beta has been released. This represents the first complete public release of the core Croquet technology. Croquet is a new open source software platform for creating deeply collaborative multi-user online applications. It features a network architecture that supports communication, collaboration, resource sharing, and synchronous computation among multiple users. Using Croquet, software developers can create powerful and highly collaborative multi-user 2D and 3D applications and simulations.

I have had some people asking about my deposition for the SCO vs. IBM lawsuit. Well ... it was delayed. I was supposed to be deposed in Salt Lake City on the 16th of this month, however it turned out that SCO didn't have enough lawyers to cover all of the depositions going on. So I was asked to alter the date ... which was fine with me.

So my new date is this Friday ... the 31st. I'll head into Salt Lake City first thing in the morning, and the deposition will begin at 9:00am. I had to ask some questions to learn more about this since I have not been subpoenaed for a deposition before ... by the US Federal Courts no less.

• Do I get paid or reimbursed for my time?
• Nope. Nada.
• Well ... how much time to I have to provide?
• IBM is allowed up to 7 hours of "tape time". Crap! That's all day!
• Can I blog about the experience?
• Yeah ... but not about the content. Period. The judge said so.
• Can I plead the Fifth?
• I didn't really ask this ... but it sounded kinda cool.
• Do I get to eat lunch?
• Yeah ... there's a lunch break, but it's not counted in the 7 hours above.
• Who pays for lunch?
• I didn't ask, but I'm going to guess that they can't buy me lunch either!
• (As a side note, I think that IBM and SCO ought to fairly split the cost of my lunch so that I would be equally biased.)

Hmmm ... I ownder what to wear? :-)

Well ... I'll blog about the experience. It's going to be interesting.

Wow ... time flies. I know that I have to alter my blog writing behavior. It seems that when I start to get busy with things. I stop blogging until I have the time to "post it correctly." I want to make sure that I write it well. I really want to give this up and just blog.

Today I started to think that I want to stop creating Blogaps, or Bloggaps ... large gaps of time between my blog posts. Ok ... time for a new word:

What I realize in all of this is to just BLOG. Post it! Don't worry if it's good enough!

My friend Dave Cline sent me another link today about Mechanical Turk. It's a story from the MIT Technology Review about Pennies for Web Jobs. To me this is the type of article that backs some of of my theories on the coming Singularity.

From the article, I really liked this quote:

Not only did participants supply the necessary answers, but they did so "outstandingly fast," according to Cabrera, allowing Amazon to use the photographs in its search results. "This is the tip of the iceberg, but you can see how it enables 'massively parallel' human computing," he said.

When I last met Vernor Vinge I spoke with him about my theories on how to measure the presence of the Singularity. I proposed that we might look to create a metric based on how many people are performing machine driven work. Mechanical Turk is a very good example of this ... and yes it is simple ... but there are people and systems putting "work" into a large database, and there are people who are executing on queues of tasks for money. To me, this really isn't that different from the little mouse pressing a bar for a piece of food.

A more complex example are the drivers for UPS and Fedex. Their entire day is coordinated by massively complex computer systems that manage the thousands of drivers all over the world. From the beginning to end of the day they are simply following the directions of computer systems that are managing a process far too complex for humans to direct anymore. In fact, the computer systems are managing the flow of packages and simply using humans as one of the components in that management system.

Vernor talks about a hard takeoff, and a soft takeoff of the Singularity. I will argue that we are already accelerating on our way in a soft takeoff.