http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Business/SiliconInsider/SiliconInsider-1.html
The travails of Sun Microsystems, as mentioned in this blog, are, according to this analyst, typical of big firms which tried to turn themselves around and failed. His extensive analysis of why Sun is doomed is certainly worth considering, especially when analysed in terms of 'survivors' like IBM and Texas Instruments -- which had attributes and timing that Sun lacks.
Perhaps the most provocative statement in the article is the notion that it would be more beneficial for all if Sun accepted the inevitable now, wound itself up, and distributed its considerable assets. Whether true or not, I suspect those same assets will in fact fuel Sun's CEO's natural pugnacity to keep on fighting to an end which this article clearly indicates, can be indeed bitter.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2004/tc20040413_0505_tc146.htm
The question of IT commodification, discussed earlier in this blog was related to the degree to which IT innovation appeared to have slowed or stopped. The indexed article looks forward into the near future of office hardware and software, suggesting that there is a lot of evidence for further productivity gains with improved techology.
With the costs of basic hardware falling, the home-office gap has closed remarkably -- one wonders if these developments are pursued, if the gap won't open again. It is not that people don't need productivity at home -- it is just that most people can't afford such improvements.
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0421chinaagree.html
The initiative taken by the Chinese Communist government to develop a restrictive IT standard, mentioned earlier in this blog, has been retracted as a result of international negotiations. One would have liked to "been the fly on the wall for to see that!". Perhaps the most interesting outcome of this is the degree to which it suggests that China's trade ties to the rest of the world are so valuable that it will not take risks which jeapordize them, even if the Chinese IT industry would benefit in the short term.
http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/
The link is to a free, downloadable copy of Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity, by Lawrence Lessig. This issue is so important that information about it should be widespread. The ultimate irony is, that by restricting culture to the degree big media do, they ultimately kill the creative goose which lays the golden eggs by which they profit.
The usual remedy to such a market failure is government action. One of the major functions of government is to make and enforce decisions in the general benefit against stakeholders with vested interests. Since to all intents and purposes in most 'democratic' countries in the world, the vested interests effectively own the government, there is little chance of that happening.
Spider Robinson wrote a SF short story on this issue: "Melancholy Elephants" which is right to the point -- alas, Robinson overestimated the sagacity and probity of today's politician, a shortcoming only forgiveable because it is so easy to do.
http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1551702,00.asp
Short article covering new initiatives in Communist China to develop IT standards which differ from those prevailing in the rest of the world. Because mainland China is such a large market, and is also such a large producer of IT equipment, the force of such standards is significant. Currently, most of the IT production structure in China is owned by foreign companies, implemeting low-cost production of foreign technology designs. By mandating different standards in a large and growing market, and licencing these to select Chinese companies, who then become mandatory partners for any foreign firm in this area, China hopes to keep more profits in the country.
Since this goes against the long-term trends to open, non-proprietary standards, it represents a considerable challenge to the 'accepted way of doing things', which challenges have tended to fail in the past. The question here, perhaps, is the degree to which Chinese economic expansion continues, because the more it does so, the stronger China's bargaining position with the rest of the world.
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=170177&seqNum=1
The IT arena has always had community elements [and seen itself as a defined community: 'the geeks'], but as IT becomes more pervasive, in one sense that community becomes so large that it evaded easy identification. In another sense, what some commentators are seeing as enabled by IT is "social networking", as discussed in this article.
Blogs and RSS are important components of social networking, but the full range of tools, with their advantages and disadvantages are also covered here. The fact that mobile computing proliferates terminals simply makes the potential for social networking all that more extensive.
There is a lot to this, but there is one aspect which needs further commentary, having a double-edged aspect. The first edge comes out when the author remarks "Surely you've been invited by someone to Friendster or Orkut" -- well, in fact I have not been, and don't expect to be soon, even though I am tightly connected to the InterNet. So some people will be excluded from social networking by their nature. The second edge is that a significant portion of the populace lacks access to the IT network, and always will do so. To the extent that social networking comes to define 'the human community', this represents another (and extreme) case of technological marginalization.
That someone so insensitive to 'people' issues like myself should come to this realization with such speed says something about this phenomenon, though as usual, I can't say exactly what.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5182641.html?tag=nefd_lede
As an example of a justice system which is not in the thrall of corporate domination, a judge in Canada made a common-sense ruling which undercuts much of the effort of the record industry to restrict file sharing. In essence, the judge noted that simply placing a copy of a copyrighted work on a shared device did not equate to publication, so long as the copy was not advertised. Although this is a major spoke in the wheels of those who wish to strangle the public domain with a cord of gold, international viewers should note that in Canada, apart from the written constitution, which is both diverse of interpretation and resistant to amendment, all law is capable of being rewritten by legislative action ["the supremacy of parliament"], and the Minister of Communications, probably nudged appropriately by industry, is on record in favour of a rapid initiative to change the law to align more exactly with USA practice.
As a Canadian citizen myself, I can only sigh....
http://www.cambridge-mit.org/cgi-bin/default.pl?SID=6&SSSID=446&SSSSID=366
As a general rule, this blog discusses the here-and-now, with only occasional looks at big questions or future potentials. In this case, however, the fact that the concepts discussed in the indexed article have yet to be implemented [and indeed, the question of whether they can be implemented is indeed beggable] is overshadowed by just how basic the concepts are in the IT industry. For the fact, as every technogeek knows, is that computers are our masters, not our servants -- we must accommodate their interfaces, properties, and methods, rather than the other way round.
Apart from the general damage this does to humanity [which however unquantifiable, cannot be lightly dismissed], the more important issue, especially from the hardware manufacturer's point of view, is how such inflexibility serves as a barrier to adoption. This article discusses a 'pervasive computing' research initiative joining the computer, communications, academia, and industry players in one group to help address how to make computing easier and better.
For every time I have moaned: "It shouldn't have to be this hard!", I can see this intitiative as one with major potential, very well worth tracking, and a useful source of all sorts of teaching moments.
Another perspective on this pervasive computing concept can be found here:
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/1124
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5173287.html
The latest, and possibly last, act in the Eolas-Microsoft patent case, which has been discussed in this blog before, features a rarely-exercised bureaucratic review process which essentially excludes the opponents, with the potential to either void the patent (which is what common sense would require) or uphold it.
Should the patent dispute be resolved in the way that will do the least harm to the smallest number of people, there is reason to cheer. It is, however, distressing to see justice done in such a hole-in-the-corner way -- and inter alia many will be convinced, without a shred of evidence, that Microsoft has used its considerable influence to prevail over the government once again.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2004/tc20040311_3157_tc024.htm
The gloomy clouds over Sun's prospects have already been mentioned in this blog, but the company keeps on trying to shine. The indexed article mentions such balloon-poppers as S & P reducing Sun's debt rating to junk status, and dowgrades and stock slides on Wall Street.
While Sun's CEO still beams forth with optimism, the article suggests that sales and profits are needed to allow Sun to rise again. Since Sun is the licence-holder for JAVA, its demise would be of no small consequence to the IT world in general and Web development in particular.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2004/tc20040316_6114_tc166.htm
The USA has enjoyed high-technology leadership for so long that it has come to be taken as a given. Now with increased outshoring and the flight of IT jobs to India and points west and north, fears mount that this leadership position is unsustainable. Clearly, in specific areas, ranging from cell-phones to passenger aircraft, the USA's lead has been eroded or eliminated.
When developing countries will fund new ventures in a wey that government in the USA cannot, this introduces potentials for additional competitive mismatch. Over-concentration on defence hardware development is one contributing factor, a reluctance to invest in long-term R&D is another, and a reduced higher education graduating cadre in science and technology is a third. Of course a nation which rewards its lawyers far more than its technologists is bound to develop an educational output which corresponds to this reward system. The fact that other countries have started recognizing the 'brain drain' only exacerbates this.
The fact that the USA still has a climate most congenial to intellectual innovation is one of the few cards it has left to play in this game. With such an obvious way to maximize public benefits, one could almost expect governments to start chipping away at the university system. This race is by no means over, and the outcome is by no means a sure thing.
Related articles on technology competitiveness are indexed in article sidebars.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_11/b3874102.htm
This blog tends to concentrate on the here and now, only occasionally lifting its head from the quotidian trought to look into the future for inspiration and things upon which to ruminate. Quantum computing is one of those things, which has been mentioned in this blog before. Here is another review of the prospects and progress being made in this technology, which certainly has the potential to remake the computing and security landscape.
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/InformationControl.html
"Que custodiet custodiens?" was the Roman expression of worry over control -- we might look at it as "who is informing the informers". The referenced article comes from an admittedly fringe magazine, but the issues it addresses are so salient [and just because of that, so likely to be ignored in the mass media] that it is certainly worth taking the time to wade through it.
My private take on this is than in North America, much of Europe, and the Pacific Rim nations, people have such a well-developed sense of skepticism that the extent to which media can be used for social control is much more limited than this article suggests. But then, perhaps I am myself brainwashed....
How all this relates to IT? Because IT in general and the InterNet in particular represent forms of media of unparalled speed, power, and flexibility.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35498.html
Article on and interview with Jim Griffin, who suggests that the advent of high-speed wireless spells the doom of DRM and the lock-down model. Historically, such models have failed in the past, and he suggests an alternative flat-fee licencing scheme which would reward producers without penalizing producers.
It all sounds very seductive, but knowing the effort Microsoft has put into DRM, I am not sure another model will prevail, even if people desire it. The author uses the anology of the satellite broadcast providers being able to carry major channels, as being forced by public opinion. The power of public opinion has declined markedly since then, and Microsoft is a lot more resistant than the satellite broadcasters were.
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-5166887.html
A long 5 years after the imposition of a ban on publishing the DeCSS DVD cracking tool on the InterNet, the California Court of Appeals overturned the injunction on the basis that it burdened free speech unnecessarily. This rare victory for common sense and the meaning of constitutional law is described in a link-filled article summarizing the state of play in the DVD copy world.
Why a common-sense approach like that taken to VCRs has not been adopted by the industries involved in this case continues to escape my understanding, except perhaps as an indication of the degree to which corporate community obligation has withered in the 30 years since the VCR landmark rulings.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,62562,00.html
Concern about the environmental effects of discarded IT equipment has been expressed for many years, with impressive statistical documentation. This article summarizes a UN report on the environmental impact of computer manufacture, which raises another aspect of the issue. It turns out the impact of manufacturing a computer are on par with most other major industrial products, in terms of resource use [most particularly, large amounts of water used in cooling during the production process]. The key to minimizing the environmental impact of computing is to keep existing machines running as long as possible.
With a standard lifespan of two years, computer systems could, in theory be upgraded to minimize the impact of replacing the case, keyboard, etc. In practice, new machines are so cheap that upgrading, prima facie makes no economic sense. Perhaps a deeper investigation and accounting is needed to make the sums balance in this case.
http://www.osnews.com/search.php?search=blachford
The indexed URL displays a page of articles, including a 7-part series on the future of computing [oddly enough, none of the individual parts link to one another, which is why I had to index this search page instead]. It reflects the ruminations of an interested observer rather than an academic expert, and could be useful in the classroom as a scorecard, as well as stimulating discussion or research papers.
Since the search displays all the author's articles, a number of other interesting computer-related articles are also displayed here.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/virgin/162079_virgin26.html
One of the most famous 'bad predictions' was the idea that the computerized office would be paperless [or very nearly so]. This pontifcation seemed reasonable at the time, and was argued most forceably and lucidly by F.W. Lancaster, who himself was an expert of no mean intellect. Except, of course, as this article observes, that the projection of a paperless future was entirely wrong.
Yet if our present is not paperless, pace the discussion here, it does seem to me that it is not as heavily papered as it otherwise might be. While it is true that our desks and filing cabinets are rife with paper, this is still just a patch on the volume of data stored electronically.
I certainly find myself using less paper in the past 5 years; whatever the ultimate results, this is an instructive case study to put before students, since it shows how technical potentials get subverted by humble human needs. It also can serve as an example of the need for disciplined scepticism in evaluating future trends [note that electronic information neither replaced paper nor was without impact -- the two media forms in fact co-existed] more effectively.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1537712,00.asp
Detailed article which looks at the recent decision of a USA District Judge ruling that a DVD backup software product [DVD-X-Copy] violates the DMCA. As a result the product was pulled from the market. The indexed discussion clarifies how this decision violates individual fair use rights in protecting corporate profits, while suggesting strategies to fight back.
Apart from its intrinsic interest, this is a useful subject for a case study of how technology affects and is affected by individual rights and the exercise of corporate power.
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/29644
Computers have the gloss of modernity, and the emphasis is always on what's new, what's improved, what the next 'killer thing' will be. This article shows that the roots of current and upcoming computer technology are both old and deep [the Intel processor base and UNIX being two cases in point]. In part, potential future developments are overconstrained by the hand of the past, but in part, developments simply unfold in a 'natural' manner based on what has already been established. In this, computing really is no different from most technologies, which at any one time are an amalgam of the old and the new.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17700027
While the implications and revelations involving Radio Frequency ID chips have been touched upon in other entries in this blog, this thorough article (which also has sidebar links to a number of interesting related stories) clarifies the magnitude of what we are facing. We are going to create billions of remote sensors within a decade, producing a cascading torrent of data which brings to mind the grain silo scene in Witness.
How we handle this data, and what we do with it are questions addressed by this article. One of the problems is the tendency of data to exponentiate -- as RFID chips become more sophisticated they can report on more items of interest -- and each additional data item can imply billions of additional records. Policy management is as important here as any technical element.
Wal-Mart has been an early adaptor of this technology -- if every item it merchandises has a RFID chip, and all of the data they send are collected, we are talking about nearly 8 additional TB/day. This represents data collection which warms the hearts of storage manufacturers. The big mistake is to look at only the present of RFID -- those who consider its future can position themselves for a massive competitive advantage.
Another measured overview of the promises and perils of RFID can be found here:
http://www.discover.com/issues/mar-04/departments/emerging-technology/
http://entmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=6135
Wireless Fidelity connectivity is mushrooming in major cities across the world: this article predicts a compound annual growth nearing 57%. The fact that Wi-Fi hotspots can be found in places like cafes and bars makes a prediction that worldwide use may reach a "staggering" 25 million over the next 5 years completely credible. The fact that there is an extensive array of service suppliers and a good selection of technological alternatives makes Wi-Fi a very big busines indeed.
The article does note the dowside -- the current 802.11b/g bandwidth limitations may result in crashing congestion in the not-too-distant future, with major effects on the SMB and SOHO environments. The solution, upgrading to new 802.11a hardware, is by no means a snap sell. Rollout replacement plans might prove very valuable, and could be the source of useful student exercises in this area.
Another perspective on Wi-Fi is provided by this special report on problems with Wi-Fi growth:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2004/tc20040218_4891_tc140.htm
These problems are by no means trivial, in particular those relating to the issues enveloping roaming. A menu of related items discusses several other aspects of this topic as well.
A recent special report on implementing wireless connectivity in the enterprise, found here:
http://www.entmag.com/reports/print.asp?EditorialsID=59
indicates that connectivity options are improving, although phone-based e-mail may be of dubious value, even while better costing models for introducing wireless are becoming available.
When the 800-pound gorilla of the hardware market, Intel, starts becoming active in the wireless arena, this is a sure sign of a technology which has arrived:
Side/end bars provide additional links to wireless articles at this site.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040216/tech/16dust.htm
An update on the progress in developing miniaturized remote sensors, which shows that they can actually be used effectively in research. The methodologies underpinning such application go far to reduce problems of power consumption and transmission bandwidth. The article also notes concerns about the potential for this technology to be misused [and these are very real] and how shortcomings in existing deployments point up the need for future improvements.
But perhaps the most startling point in the article is the revelation of the chief scientist in charge of this DARPA research (which began in 1998): "We had no idea what the applications would be and never in our wildest dreams expected it would lead where it has[.]" This invites consideration at several levels. One would be the degree to which the technology's potential has exceeded expert previsioning in just a little over 5 years. The other is the availability of several conceptual models on just this very thing in SF, which might have helped with the previsioning in the first place.
Another overview of the rapid pace in sensor development can be found here:
http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/hardware/story/0,10801,90529,00.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/start.html?pg=2
Short article which compares current efforts by would-be intellectural property monopolists in the USA to restrict competition with the efforts made over three decades ago to save the USA cargo shipping industry. It didn't work then, and it is not going to work now -- the only result will be a loss of USA competitiveness accompanied by a rise of less-effective [but adequate and much cheaper] services and products elsewhere.
The major point of the article deserves to be hoisted inboard: the objection to excessive IP restriction is not that it is wrong and harmful [though in fact it is], but that over the long run it just plain does not work. The hows and whys of this are breifly sketched here -- they are nevertheless convincing.
If there ever was an argument against special interests that should be heeded throughout national policy-making, this is it. With the way governments protect people's rights today, of course, this is simply a laughable delusion, but we have to know what to want before we can ask for it.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00048144-10D2-1C70-84A9809EC588EF21
The classes of objects the Web can handle is highly restricted [yet even this restricted feature set brings an information deluge with the click of a button], and many researchers consider it capable of useful extension. The result, as explained in this article, is the "semantic Web", which can react helpfully to the meaning of selected words and phrases [as opposed to reacting to the structure of a URL]. The result is a Web which is more precise and responsive to human intention.
Such a development in and of itself is a prospect worth pursuit, but consider this: the more the Web becomes semantic, the more it becomes a form of embedded prosthetic. It is a bromide that tools work on the user even as the user uses the tools to effect some task -- making the Web semantic could carry that reciprocal shaping deep into our secret selves. Like many other maind-stunning prospects, I don't think we can really grip all of the implications of this before deciding whether to do it or not -- we will shoot down Alice's rabbit hole while praying we find an umbrella handly in case of strain.
The components of the semantic Web are discussed in this article:
http://logicerror.com/semanticWeb-long
An introduction to the concepts behind the semantic Web, and the the state of play as of a couple of years ago, with links to further reading, is found here:
http://infomesh.net/2001/swintro/
A primer on the semantic Web [which once again emphasizes that this strirring in the reeds has been ongoing for nearly 3 years, which is a century in InterNet time] is available here:
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2000/11/01/semanticweb/
A more recent account, which discusses the XML programming side of the semantic Web is here; it includes a whole page-load of additional references:
http://www.disobey.com/detergent/2002/sw123/
Anything which involves ontology as part of its description should cause one's skeptical antennae to quiver mightily, but here is the site which not only flaunts the concept, but also provides you with the current news about this whole development:
To paraphrase Mr. Fudd: "This is wery, wery important!"
Even those of us who love computers and networking experience the occasional attack of fear and loathing, when instead of a mouse, we wish we had a 9-pound hammer. Here is a site devoted to logging whines, gripes, complaints, and other manifestations of discontent. You can search the gripes and view them by popularity, alphabetically, or by latest updated.
Apart from being a souce of direct information on a problem or a bug, this could also be an inspiration for a wide variety of critical research.
http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,3959,1460177,00.asp
Here is a downloadable survey of more than 750 respondents on the future of IT for the next 5 years. Of less importance are the specific facts revealed; what is more important is your reaction to what is predicted. If you agree, why? If you disagree, why?
Since we are educating students not for today, but for tomorrow, discussing such research as this in the classroom context should highlight the relevance of what we are teaching. If it does not, this is an urgent call for curriculum reform.
http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline/
OK. I'll 'fess up -- not only do I not understand what is written in this book, I can't even understand the pictures. The link indexes an online version of A New Kind Of Science by Stephen Wolfram, the underlying premise of which [to the extent I grasp it at all] is that computation is giving us the capacity to do science in new and valuable ways outside the realm of material experimentation.
If he's right, this is A Big Deal indeed, and having this book online is the equivalent of having Newton's Principia Mathematica delivered to your doorstep in the 17th century.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5153627.html
Guy Gilpatrick characterized the effect of the extraordinary on one's imagination by saying "it not only staggered, but also reeled, tripped, and fell face-down into the gutter". That's somewhat the appropriate reaction to IBM's WebFountain initiative, a supercomputing project which intends to push current Web searching into data-mining services delivering meaning and content.
A number of competitors are also pursuing the same goal, which in some sense is the inverse of the 'semantic Web' concepts discussed previously in this blog. This article describes the roots of this project, along with the hardware, software, and personnel resources required to support it, and gives a glimpse of potential applications.
I have tin-drummed the concept that those companies which can make effective use of the plethora (if not surfiet) of information on the InterNet can get an immense leg-up on their competitors. IBM seeks to make this a service operation which could, prehaps, actually level this playing field even as it was being sodded and marked.
A number of related stories are covered in links within the indexed article, and another balanced evaluation of this system and its implications can be found here:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/jan04/0104comp1.html
Absorbing article about the evolution of 'hidden tech' -- the fact that internetworking has improved to the point that the (sometimes vacuous) dream of de-urbanization for knowledge workers can be realized. While the result is a more humane way of life [with the not inconsiderable side effect of spreading the economic benefits of IT more widely], it has even more significance: because this development may be key to sustained economic recovery in the USA, and also because it is small, unincorporated, and therefore under the radar of standard business statistics.
There is a model worth considering in this regard: how the Falun Gong movement in China seemed, from the government's point of view, to emerge from nothing overnight. Something of the same impact, though far more benign, may be happening here. If so, the phenomenon is well worth keeping in mind.
http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,3959,1458955,00.asp
If music is liquid architecture, is the implementation of a network the equivalent of hard rock? The term 'architecture', as this article notes, is dangerously misused if it is applied only to the devices and connections comprising the network. All the blinking lights have to serve some use and purpose. This means that the IT infrastructure must support organizational goals while scaling to meet expected demands.
Doing this effectively for an organization occupying part of a floor in a single building may indeed be sufficiently served by an ad-hoc approach. This article suggests that for anything larger, disciplined application of architectural principles are essential to success, and provides downloadable fact sheets and a nine-step whiteboard process to support this contention.
Just as effective scaling is required for a successful IT implementation, so is it necessary for the initial architectural effort, making this article a useful resource for a wide audience.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,62158,00.html
I have inveighed against the tendency to clip the USA's Defence Advanced Projects Agency in previous comments to this blog, and here we have another example. A DARPA project known as LifeLog, which intended to build a database tracking someone's entire existence, has been cancelled [for no apparent reason, although civil libertarians were up in arms about it].
The concept of a prosthetic memory in the face of the data glut which inundates us today would seem very worth investigating, and even if it did have the negative implications its opponents averred, ignorance is not the solution to this problem. The loss of nerve this seems to betoken in an organization which can only succeed by implementing daring decision is itself dauntingly disquieting.
When one considers that this research is of great interest to the private sector, and may well proceed under the cover of commercial secrecy, one is tempted to award the Phyrrus Palm with Crassus Cluster to the architects of this particular 'victory'.
The indexed page also includes some links to related stories.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_06/b3869066.htm
Japanese high technology industries have been uncompetitive for so long that it comes as something of a surprise to read that they are bouncing back in consumer and information technology. Combining innovations with a very un-Japanese headcount reduction and corporate restructuring, the major Japanese technology firms, which are still big players with deep pockets, are bidding to resume their dominant position.
To read that TV manufacturing is one of the areas from which Japan is withdrawing because it is not technologically rewarding enough is to get one inkling of what is involved here. There is no question that these firms still face major and serious obstacles, but I would be inclined to bet in their favour right now.
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/
Just when you thought it was safe to turn on your computer, here is The Risks Digest, a moderated Forum On Risks To The Public In Computers And Related Systems from the ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy. This site explains a multitude of access options -- the fact that there are hundreds of issues going back to 1985 is an indication of the degree to which computers can be a problem rather than a solution.
This is a good educational corrective to blind computer worship, and would be an excellent component for any beginning programming class as well.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62083,00.html
A sales concept for disposable DVDs, which only could be veiwed for 48 hours after they were opened has foundered against massive consumer indifference. Given that the disks were priced at $7.00, a good $2.00 more than the most expensive video store rental [or a very conservative montly rental from Netflix, for that matter], one can only wonder what were these people thinking?
Not only do the disposable DVDs add insufficient convenience for their added proce, but they also were objectionable on environmental grounds. This is such a dumb idea one wonders how it ever got out of the concept stage.
Incidentally, one presumes that if these things were produced in quantity, the materials cost would not justify any price beyond a normal rental in terms of the profit to be made, and if they were priced competitively, they might have had a chance, though I cannot be sad they did not succeed.
http://www.infoworld.com/infoworld/article/04/01/16/03FEgrids_1.html
After several years of 'more of the same' in PC developments, a cluster of technologies bids fair to bring us a new class of machines which combine speed and a small space footprint. Many of the individual developments summarized in this article are referenced elsewhere in this blog.
The major determining factor here is economic -- the degree to which existing machinery is still capable of doing the job. Since older machines typically have a higher maintenance cost, resolving this conundrum is by no means simple.
But if customers want to buy, manufactuers will have some attractive devices on display.
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3302121
Brief article discussing the thesis that companies are stockpiling patents as a way of extracting licensing fees. Even if the patent is contestable, it may be cheaper to pay the fee than to fight the case in court. The long term implications of this for software developers are extremely negative.
More to the point, the stockpiling of patents as a litigation weapon seems a perverse frustration of the original intent of patenting, which was to increase the spread of useful knowledge.
I am firmly on the side of those who consider the current state of software patenting to be broken -- I am less sanguine that it ever can be repaired.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2004/tc20040127_2819_tc047.htm
The RIAA has succeeded in putting its foot in its mouth before shooting itself in the foot. By its aggressive tactics it not only looks like a bully, but it also gives a powerful impetus to the use of strong encryption for all Netly transactions. Once that happens, the 'enforcers' will not even be able to find their victims without an extensive amount of legwork -- more than the game is worth.
And by forcing file sharers underground, the RIAA also makes it more difficult for others pothered about the implications of the digital era, like the MPAA, to detect transgressors.
An engaging analytic article suggesting that over-concentration on Moore's Law may actually be harmful to technology planners and the industry as a whole. Noting that older processors are embedded by the billions, and we still have not gotten the full chicken richness out of most of these, the author suggests we are asking the wrong questions, and so are guaranteed to get the wrong answer.
The physics of the situation are outrunning the capacity of organizations to implement -- successful Google has gotten that way partly by looking at the 'price' end of the price:performance ratio, and not the 'performance' end. How many organizations can successfully emulate this feat is in question, because the fate of those who try to avoid, cope with, or just ignore Moore's Law seems to be equally dismal in the long run.
Of course, in the long run....
The continuing battles relating to copyright have already been recorded in this blog; the article indexed by this URL reviews the degree to which copyright has moved from a limited protector of individuals to a near-permanent protector of corporations. The question is discussed in some detail, with the inevitable negative consequences on creativity and art being clearly laid out.
This is another example where a large amount of people collectively suffer loss which is neither direct nor easily quantifiable, whereas the few who gain do so directly and in large measure. The inbalance which results may have long-term negative consequences even for the 'winners', but by the time this point is reached, there may be no return possible.
To the extent that copyright is now a global phenomenon, this is very grim news indeed.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114417,00.asp
The DVD Copy Control Association announced it was dropping a case against someone who posted information about DeCSS, which defeats DVD security technology. This is a body-blow, I think, to the overly-restrictive provisions of the DCMA which were contrary to requirements for free speech and open research. Similar cases elsewhere in the USA, as well as in Norway, have also resulted in these stranglehold provisions being struck down, making it harder for those who would control information with a fist of iron to succeed in their aspirations.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/01/0114_040114_robot.html#main
General article describing the results of an experiment to use a robot [which was in no way humaniform] to do some of the investigative tasks [hypothesization, experimentation, and interpretation] which human scientists do. The particular field was genetics, and the robot performed effectively. Some proclaim this as the first step in automating science, and others remark that true scientific genius will always be needed.
Again, I think we have heard this argument before. This certainly drives the capacity of IT as an enabler to new levels of ability, and represents a trend well worth watching. Perhaps scientists will join IT workers in the unemployment line!
And the line may get even longer if inventors have to join it -- the following article discusses a computer program called a 'Creativity Machine':
I confess myself a bit skeptical bout this, but on the other hand, it does seem to be the logical outome of work which has been ongoing in the AI field.
A more focussed application, devoted to helping scientists with literature searches, is described here, showing that the impact of IT development does not have to be negative for scientist employment prospects:
The relevance of this at first blush may appear tenuous. My first defence is to say that the site is intrinsically interesting, but my second is to ask a question: why should IT workers be less concerned with interface issues than anyone else? Apart from the programmer's specific role in interface development, IT professionals generally are in the business of making the complex simple, not only for users, but for themselves as well.
I don't think there is any evidence suggesting that we have interface issues solved correctly across the IT board [when using a computing device is as simple as using a toaster, then we will have made some success]. It behooves us then to consider examples of bad interfacing, such as those supplied on this site, from all its aspects. The intended reaction is "WHAT were they thinking of" -- that the answer was not an effective interface seems obvious, and can serve as a useful discussion starter in many aspects of IT education.
The site provides monthly and categorized archives.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-01-13-patentscover_x.htm
An overview article which, while providing some counter-arguments, demonstrates that the current USA patent system as it applies to software is stifling innovation and enriching parasitic legal lampreys. Many small businesses accused of infringing obscure and perhaps invalid patents cannot afford either to fight or comply, so they simply drop off the Web altogether.
When giants like Intel and IBM also express concern about this situation, it is clear that Something Must Be Done. Since my usual prescription for these sorts of situations required the painful reorganization of bodily parts, I must recuse myself.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/dec03/12035com.html
A number of rubrics conveying conventional wisdom in IT go by the definition of 'law', when in many cases [like Moore's Law] they are more rule-of-thumb generalizations. This article looks at five instances of such laws, and concludes all are less than perfectly lawlike. Of those examined, it looks like "Rock's Law": Semiconductor tool costs double every 4 years, is the one which now has the least quantitive relationship to reality, being out by a factor of 5 whereas most of the others instances are only out by a factor of two.
Some, like Metcalfe's Law, are impossible to qualtify fully, and thus the degree to which they are adrift is not possible to evaluate in the same way as some of the others. Still I can propound Ox's Law: Rock's Law looks less like a law than a guess, with a perfectly straight face.
Not only is this an interesting discussion of some major factors in the IT industry, but it can also be the starting point of many fruitful investigations, whether about the eponymns of these laws or about their current and future validity.
http://www.technologymarketing.com/mc/content/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2030373
A gtoup of noted computer journalists look at the past and future of the PC in an interesting and engaging article. The changing role of the computing press is also highlighted [it is clear that we have lost something in our gains in InterNet information]. There are problems to overcome, without doubt, but the PC still has a role to play at home and in the workplace, and companies can still make money in this market [one particularly valuable way to do so is to exploit an underfulfilled niche].
http://www.infoworld.com/infoworld/reports/49SRiw25.html
A retrospective on 25 years' of information technology is one thing, but coupling this with an attempt to forecast the next 25 smacks of hubris. Nevertheless, the indexed article attempts just that, suggesting that the major foci for advances will be:
Pervasive computing, with consumer electronics showing the way
Computers that mimic intelligence
The invisible workforce: IT in the future: as IT becomes invisible, so do the workers who keep it that way
After silicon: Biocomputing, where organic processes become the model for future technology
In addition, some IT leaders make predictions about the future, about which one wonders if we should keep a scorecard.
Still, the future is going to happen, so we might as well expend some skull sweat in showing whether or if these sorts of predictions are wrong.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3340491.stm
The notion of pervasive computing, which I have referenced previously in this blog as "making the world smart" would appear to be as unexceptionable as Mom and apple pie. Enter the Philip Wylies of the computer world, who call for more social reflection on whether pervasive computing is a good thing or not.
In principle, such second thought seems like a good thing in and of itself, but I have my suspicions that in an arena as complex as this, not only are we able to pause for thought, but we really cannot adopt any useful vantage point in any case. It may well be that we will only be able to see effective coping strategies after we have suffered the deluge.
http://marshallbrain.blogspot.com/2003_12_01_marshallbrain_archive.html#107294501224793568
Indexes a blog archive from Marshall Brain, who comes to the conclusion, in relation to the amount of time wasted in reparing computers: "this is just nuts". Having spent a substantial time of my holidays on exactly this issue, I can sympathize -- and this is from people who, prima facie, are supposed to know about this stuff.
And then we wonder why the mythical "average user" gives up or operates an insecure and poorly performing system. I think that Brain's main point -- that we should have a secure and easy-to-use operating system by right -- has a lot going for it, and as I have suggested before, the first manufacturer to realize this will make a bundle.
http://sensorsmag.com/articles/1103/22/
One drum I have been pounding in this blog, using the leg of one of the big bees drawn from the hive in my bonnet, is the implication of distributed sensors ['smart dust'] for networking and communication, as well as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in general. Here is an excellent long illustrated article on the current state of play with small sensors, and what is likely to be available in the future.
Applications in several major areas are discussed, references are provided, and further readings are suggested. In general, I am prone to postpone consideration of the immediate future until it gets here [the long-term future, I have mooted previously, requires much more care and planning], but in the case of small, smart sensors, I think the issues and capabilities are so front-and-center [as well as, paradoxically, being so elusive] that it is worth considering them now.
Mighty oaks from little acorns grow -- the implications of smart sensors could be "vaster than empires" while not being slow in any sense of the word at all.
http://news.com.com/2010-7345-5121763.html
XML was originally intended to be the universal language for Web pages and Web-enabled applications, but its advent collided with the big bubble bust. Despite promises that it would become a standard for applications interchange [as, for example, made much of by Microsoft in its plans for OFFICE], it is Not There Yet. But as this article indicates, support for XML standards is growing, and it looks like the long-delayed maturation of this technology is at hand.
One thing which networking folk should regard in all of this [and indeed, originally this was front-and-center when Server 2003 was known as Server.NET] is that the sort of programming which XML represents is going to become essential for network operation as well. For those networkers working in a *NIX environment, and for Windows [and other OS] administrators who do scripting, this will not come as much of a shock, but for those, especially in smaller installations, who think of programming as a separate and arcane black art, the development of XML is indeed protentious, because, I think, it blurs the boundaries between programming and network administration.
This is no small thing.
http://www.techreview.com/articles/sahin1203.asp
Whenever anyone asks me why I have such a swollen head, I reply: "My bonnet is full of buzzing bees". The whole issue of how innovations get fostered and aopted amounts almost to a complete hive. The impression I get that we are not using our wealth of tools wisely or well reflects, au fond, difficulties in innovation adoption. Here is an article which speaks to the state of innovation today, explaining how economic forces have produced stagnation in this area, and suggesting some potenital cures. All very interesting in and of itself, but also, I think, relevant in some way to the more specific organizational theme.
http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-105-1-1-618817-4347-1
The issue of Radio Frequency Identification devices has already aroused a storm of ontroversy, as noted in earlier remarks in this blog. Like any other technology, there is a 'right way' and a 'wrong way', and the corporate take on this may not be the correct one. This article suggests some guidelines for RFID implementation, which itself is one of the ways 'we will make the world smart', and is probabaly therefore inevitable -- but we might as well get it right.
That the sailing is not completely smooth on this electronic sea can be gauged by this account of Wal-Mart's problems with RFID:
http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-105-1-1-618817-4350-1
On the other hand, if the army of the USA is enthusiastic about this technology, it can't be all bad:
http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-105-1-1-618817-4344-1
A more balanced examination of this technology is provided in this report from Harvard on a conference which discussed RFID issues:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=3879&sid=-1&t=special_reports_cyber2004
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031211.wtxkapica1211/BNStory/Technology/
One of the refrains of this blog is that the current legislative regieme, particularly as it relates to intellectual property, is in fact repressive, benefits only the "haves", and contains long-term destructive effects for technology competitiveness. When it becomes more profitable to sue than to innovate, more will sue, which is like men in a leaky boat fighting over a cup of water. This article essentially agrees with me, which simply highlights the good sense and discriminating intellect of its author.
Whenever a corporate entity launches a legal challenge in the public interest, we should look very carefully to see whose ox is being gored.
http://www.economist.com/science/tq/
The Economist carries a good deal of weight in the dead-tree world; here is a quarterly on-line look at technology, with back issues, available for free. The major problem with a resource like this is not getting sidetracked by "oh that looks interesting" -- the main reason why it takes me 3.5 hours to look up "Cat" in the encyclopedia.
http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,3959,1395384,00.asp
Interesting article which connects the dots among RFID, ubiquitous wireless networking, and continual downsizing of computational devices. The results could be a seamless information ecosphere to which we adjust as we move; and the timeline suggested for this is under 5 years out.
This is another example of something which just yesterday was science fiction, and tomorrow, appears to be a coming reality.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20031125zg.htm
Japan has always taken a leading role in the development of robotics, with the latest evidence being a virtual avatar appointed as a digital diplomat to the ASEAN nations. Yet the overall attitude towards robotics development in Japan is to see it as a sort of dream which can inspire recovery from its current depression. The wider implications of this certainly are not easy to evaluate.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/994223.asp?0cv=KA01
The concept that IT does not matter, as indicated in a recent Harvard Business Review article discussed in previous postings in this blog, is something which is vigorously disputed in the IT community. In addition to the cited article above, which attempts to evaluate the degree to which the bloom is off the high-tech rose generally, this article:
http://www2.cio.com/analyst/report1929.html
makes the argument that even on the individual firm level, the fact that IT has become a general commodity has nothing to do with the effectiveness with which it is used, and it is the latter which generates real competitive advantage.
http://www.circleid.com/article/369_0_1_0_C/
Article bemoaning the inability of even the erudite popular press to get IT issues right, using as a focus an article about IPv6 and its necessity as misreported by the BBC. Indeed it often appears that the level of press information, far from abetting informed choices, confuses more than it counsels. The most disturbing point the author raises, which is one I encounter whenever I detect an error in an information source is this: if we are reading a book which addresses some things which we know, and some we do not, and the part we do know has multiple errors, how much can we rely upon that part of the exposition about which we know little or nothing?
My answer to that is fairly blunt, if not actually pungent.
http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/tipsIndex/0,289482,sid1_tax294820,00.html
A series of browseable accounts of true bloopers in the IT arena. As well as being useful to consider when developing a disaster prevention policy, these could serve as extremely useful teaching or problem-solving starters.
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/32166.html
One of the myths of the PC age is that the PC has replaced the mainframe [the term "dinosaur" is thrown around in relation to the latter as if it weighed nothing]. IBM makes out like the bee which does not know it cannot fly, and being able to make mainframes sit up and do the network dance is still a good job specialty. Now the claim for grid computing suggests that the mainframe is no longer needed.
And it may even be true, though I would be inclined to wait a bit before pulling my big iron's plug.
The range of Ziff-Davis/EWeek topic centers is certainly comprehensive, and each features news, reviews, opinions, and analysis, in the following categories:
Database http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3850-1
Desktop http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3853-1
Developer & Web Services http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3856-1
Enterprise Applications http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3859-1
Linux and Open Source http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3862-1
Macintosh http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3865-1
Messaging & Collaboration http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3868-1
Mobile Devices http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3871-1
Networking http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3874-1
Security http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3877-1
Storage http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3880-1
Windows http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3883-1
Wireless http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-95-1-1-618817-3886-1
With this cornucopia, there should be little reason for an assignment or a research paper to lack content.
http://www.clickz.com/feedback/buzz/article.php/3112021
Insightful article on "The 10 Biggest Spam Myths", from which I quote directly:
1. There are only 200-300 hardcore spammers worldwide. They account for the overwhelming majority of junk e-mail.
2. Most spam comes from outside the U.S.
3. Spam legislation can end the problem.
4. [Spam can be defined.]
5. Legitimate marketers don't spam.
6. Opt-in is a sufficient spam deterrent.
7. Never opt out.
8. Microsoft is committed to helping end the spam epidemic.
9. A do-not-e-mail database will stop you from getting spam.
10. Spam can take down the whole Internet.
Since many of these points go contrary to what 'everyone thinks', they are worth considering and investigating. We cannot control the problem [and it is a problem with potential to estrange many from the InterNet] without thinking about it clearly and accurately.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/13/MNGPU30H811.DTL
A California state appelate court has ruled that InterNet Service Providers can be held legally responsible if someone using their services defames someone online and the ISP knew about it. This makes an ISP equivalent to a bookstore or a library, instead of a telephone or telegraph network. The chilling effects of this misguided ruling on free InterNet speech cannot be exaggerated, and serves as yet another example of how the legal system continues to vitiate the promise inherent in information technology.
Of course, the ruling is being appealed...we can comfort ourselves that the lawyers at least, are making money out of this.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5106129.html
Following strong and concentrated protest, the USA's Patent and Trademark Office has agreed to re-examine the Eolas patent which effectively broke Web browsers (see previous entry) and was agreed to be both voided by prior art and a humongously bad social decision by anyone with technical competence. The article also indexes related stories on this issue.
I would expect the patent to be reversed on careful re-examination, so we may see here an uncommon victory for common sense -- and of course, another lesson in what happens when Microsoft's ox is gored.
http://www.digitaldeliverance.com/MT/archives/000281.html
Amid all the hoopla for RSS as a delivery system, here is a negative view which suggests it will not be all that useful to most people, who are not inclined to raise their technological heads above the trough of e-mail. I have been somewhat skeptical of those RSS proponents who regard it as replacing e-mail; the fact that current RSS installation require more of a software updating on the desktop than I care to contemplate at this moment suggests that even people who are technologically aware and conscious of the technology's benefits may not jump on this bandwagon with NICs unholstered.
RSS is, nevertheless, a new form of InterNet communications which enables information gathering in different ways, shifting the activity burden from accessing to using. The consequences of this ought to be major, if the technology really can deliver on its promises; if not, then never mind!
http://entmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=6021
Business Intelligence is another formerly arcane process which automation and deskilling are now causing to be devolved throughout the workplace. In one sense, this is a vindication of the flattened hierarchy and theories of decentralized or 'bottom up' control. In fact, some BI operations have been automated entirely.
This is an excellent example of the importance of 'information' in IT -- the sort of technological upgrading which can result in greatly improved productivity. But as suggested previously in several entries in this blog, such improvement does not happen automatically -- the tools must be applied with vision. An example of a real problem with BI at Cisco, and an analysis of the structural stresses which this development is causing IT operations sound some useful cautionary notes.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2003/tc2003114_2291_tc134.htm
The 'beige box' is now some two decades old as a form factor, and with the exception of laptops, has retained its same essential form [although having considerably more power]. This artilcle looks at the future of distributed computing, and suggests we will have a multitude of form factors:
1) The cooling limitations of current chips will be overcome with different cooling media technologies, shrinking CPU size;
2) Specialized computers will proliferate, and often not even be recognized as such;
3) Increased power, capacity, and reliability of networks will enable a wide variety of mobile computing tools, since consumers will be able to get a fast signal from anywhere -- so a terminal will become equivalent to a PC;
4) Flexible displays will enable portability, and wireless connection can mean that public flat panels can be accessed by any system.
It took several decades for our current computing environment to evolve and it will probably take about the same amount of time for replacement technologies to become pervasive.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/SciTech/FutureTech/RSSWeb031029-1.html
One sign that the technology known as RSS has reached the mainstream is that the acronym is given different interpretations [Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication]. This article explains the basics of RSS and what problems still remain. For my 2 cents, the fact that you have to install the .NET framework before being able to make an on-desk aggregator work is the main stumbling block.
If I can't do it in 5 minutes, it won't get done -- this is my latest computing mantra, and RSS still has to succeed on that account. But if your life involves tapping into news/information services and making sense of them, an agregator is an essential tool. One could concieve of an organization which aggregated at different levels, a form of meta-aggregation, so to speak, which might help people see the InterNet forest in that profusion of trees.
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/031029datadouble/index.html
I tend to be somewhat bullish about IT, but I confess this article surprised me: the amount of stored data has doubled in the past three years, according to a UCB report -- the total in 2002 was 5 exabytes [or 500,000 Libraries of Congress], most stored on magnetic devices.
No wonder that petabyte storage for small firms and well-heeled individuals is becoming a reality -- data growth at that level makes for a quantity/quality shift. With a doubling rate of every three years, the idea of anyone ever having "universal knowledge" becomes risible.
One dark site -- magnetic storage is vulnerable -- a large and tempting target for those who would create massive social disruption.
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/Gartner_predicts_future_of_IT.html?tag=zdannounce0.list
In many ways, the URL says it all: Gartner predicts that in 2004 cost-cutting will be gradually replaced by innovation for growth, leading to an upswing in 2005 and a major surge in 2006. The next generation of computing will be built on a service software architecture based on always-on communication. "The next wave of technology [is] the confluence of pervasive wireless, real-time infrastructure, service-oriented architecture and low power-consumption mobile devices...".
If this vision is even approximately correct, we should be thinking about its educational implications now, so our 2006 curriculum reflects real applied needs.
http://www.corante.com/policy/redir/32260.html
The oppressive nature of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, surely one of the most obnoxious national laws since the Volstead Act, has been somewhat mitigated by the USA Library of Congress granting exemptions in four cases:
* bypassing digital content protection for InterNet filtering software;
* allowing access to programs with broken or obsolete dongles;
* programs/games using obsolete fomats/hardware; and
* e-books which prevent handicapped access.
Certainly these exemptions are both reasonable and supportable [and the fact that they are needed in the first place is ample condemnation of the DCMA]. We still do not have the degree of 'fair use' we previously had, and we could expect the Library of Congress to do more, but it is the library of Congress after all...
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/technology/29soft.html
The Eolas patent case has attracted sufficiently pungent commentary already in these pages, but the inervention of the WorldWideWeb Consortium on Microsoft's side is indeed an example of strange bedfellows. As the W3C submission makes clear, not only was the patent application invalid on the basis of 'prior art', but enforcing it will also cause economic harm throughout the Web.
One has to think that causing general harm in the support of mistaken policy decisions is simply another of these delightful surprises government constantly brings us. One also has to wonder when enough becomes enough.
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/october29/nilsson-1029.html
Reflecting on his career as an Artificial Intelligence researcher, the article subject suggests that humans and computers will always be different, but the intellectual and creativity differences will narrow. This is sufficiently ambiguous to give one pause. On one reading, if the differences are sufficiently narrow, then AI will ultimately usurp human intelligence, because it is much more effective within the corporate structure. On the alternative reasoning, when our machines 'grow up' enough that the gap is sufficiently narrow for us to treat them as alternative autonomies, then the potential benefits from man-machine interaction could be boggling to the minds of both [and this is an issue where there is much SF writing of merit].
Of course, if you seek to determine which of these future will come about, based on the principles I have expressed elsewhere in this blog, the answer is obvious.
http://www2.cio.com/analyst/report1860.html
Article suggesting that there are continuing signs of a recovery in the IT industry, which can be expected to continue into 2004. The more interesting part of the discussion is the explicit rejection of IT 'commodification', which sees it as just a base cost which everyone pays. Since established vendors are back in control, and technology users are increasingly business users, we are seeing significant structural changes in the environment which may lead to massive productivity gains across industries.
Of course, if all this simply means accelerated employment outsourcing, it is not necessarily a matter of warm confidence.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60927,00.html
In this article we have a good example of rights in conflict. A firm providing electronic voting services, Diebold Inc., had internal memos detailing problems [potentially serious] leaked to voting activists, who have published them on Web sites. The company is suing the ISPs carryng the Web sites, claiming copyright violation, and many ISPs have submitted on this issue [though this fatally compromises any claim they might have to "common carrier" status, in my opinion. Note that the telephone company would not be liable if someone phoned the press and read one of the memos in question to someone at the other end].
One the one hand, you have the company claiming that its intellectual property has been stolen, and on the other, you have the publicizers claiming that the company cannot use IP law to cover up what may be a criminal activity. On the face of it, one would have to think that the activists have the better of the case, but consider this: an internal memo often does not state facts, but opinions or incorrect information -- so wonders whether the gun is smoking as furiously in this case as might initially have been thought.
http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/itspending/story/0,10801,86122,00.html
Despite appearances, I am just as human as the next person who has my same quotient of human kindness, and one thing to we are prone is looking at which technologies are on the upward slope, since these are the logical candidates for curriculum development. This article lists 5 technologies which are going in the opposite direction, plans to abandon which should be put in place posthaste:
* Windows 9x
* Client/server computing [as strictly construed]
* IBM SNA and proprietary network architectures
* Tape backup
* Visual Basic 6
In fact, I de-emphasize the first four of these in my current classroom teaching, only avoiding the last one because I don't teach programming.
http://www.cio.com/archive/092203/kurzweil.html
Some form of constructive engagement with the future, I strongly believe, is an indispensable tool in any IT professional's armoury, especially those engaged in teaching people who have a very good chance of living to the 22nd century.
This article by the ever-provocative Ray Kurzweil is an absorbing defence of the proper attitude towards future risks, and is thus worth reading in itself, but the fact that it is part of an article set: "Technology's Impact On Everything" with a diverse range of author links, each article with subscriber comment, makes it a resource worth highlighting.
A somewhat different take on the near future of IT in the 21st century is given here by Bill Joy, whom Kurzweil mentions in his article:
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,490598,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60770,00.html
A design guru opines on the importance of the 'wow' factor, the viscerial reaction we get when we see someone using an Apple 17" widescreen portable. His position: the look and feel, and concomitant pleasure a techological object gives is as an important a design criterion as actual function. Clearly, this bit of advice applies to IT, particularly program design.
And yet, I wonder: what makes me go "wow" about my main home system is not the case, which is boring beige to the featureless max, but the fact that it contains a 10,000 rpm SCSI RAID array, which gives new meaning to disk speed.
And what slows my hand with something like the highly lucious APPLE G5 with 23" Cinema display, which has the 'wow' factor in spades, is a little matter of some $6K. For that, I can have a higher-performing Athlon 64 FX box with a much more capable graphics card, a bigscreen display, and lots of money left over to buy cigars. It may not look like much, but I don't think I really care.
In the case of much modern technology, my response is not "wow" but "what?!?!", although I must admit I am weakening when it comes to keychain USB storage peripherals, which appear ever-more indispensible to me.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60770,00.html
A major problem in conserving our computer heritage is the degradation of media, widely regarded as a serious problem. The answer, suggested by the creator of th 'Wayback Machine" is to archive them on the InterNet. But this, surprise, surprise, violates copyright law, even if the copyright holder cannot be contacted for permission in the first place. Even more absurdly, the DCMA suggests that for encrypted works, permission cannot even be given to allow such storage.
This is just another instance of the degree to which the current legal structure attempting to regulate information technology is devoid of reason, common sense, or any concept of "the greatest benefit to the greatest number".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20031011/FOLD11//
One of the most endearing [and irritating] aspects of the IT field is the way in which supposedly disparate intellectual concepts fuse together into a mutation of astounding potency. In part, this is simply a reflection of the computer's capacity to be a 'general machine', but the trick still looks magical for all that.
This article discusses programs which simulate orgami-style folding on computers, and their surprising and fruitful research results.
Now when we can get computational bending, stapling, and mutilation, we will indeed have crossed the threshold of a Brave New World.
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2121720
Article reporting on the first conference on agents in networking, displaying areas of success [principally financial markets] as well as areas where the application is more speculative, but has much broader payoff effects. This area of research is well worth constant attention of networking folks for two reasons:
1) It represents a major opportunity for more effective control of highly complex networks; and
2) If successful, it will cost most of us our jobs.
The agent concept is one which hitherto has not reached its considerable potential, and progress may be about as frustrating as with speech recognition, but it is nevertheless something which could become a dominant feature of our future lives.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/
Certainly one of the most attractive aspects of the InterNet was its reputation as a technology providing liberated freedom of speech, since it turned the old saw about a free press ["a press is only free to whomever has the gold to own one"] on its head. Increasingly, however, a variety of developments have called this bright promise [which at its most anarcho-libertarian probably was fools gold] into question.
This on-line publication by an experienced and concerned observer: "The Digital Imprimatur" gives its plot away in its subtitle: "How big brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the bottle". Increasingly, alas, it does look like this is going to happen, and there is SFA we can do about it.
A more generalized view of this, which essentially concludes that we will sell our souls for a mess of pottage, can be found here:
http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3606168&p1=0
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994248
A new form of copy protection, called "Fade", protects games from being copied, not by making the copying impossible, but by making it unattractive. Games using this technology can be copied freely, and will work well at first, but eventually the copy protection degrades the game experience so badly that getting a legitimate version is the only solution.
Defeating the technical ability to make flawless digital copies seems like a perverse technological triumph, but it does have this upside: ordinarly I can know if I am going to play a game intensively within several hours of first playing it -- so if I did like it, I would not object to buying it.
The major caveat is that the Fade technology should be clearly distinguishable from an actual machine malfunction, so I can correctly diagnose what is going on. I also wonder, based on the technology used, if this protection could not be defeated by cloning the original, instead of copying it.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/100603C.html
Article invoking the technological equivalent of Adam Smith's "invisible hand" in economics [that the emergent properties of individual and disparate transactions can nevertheless have directive {and more arguably, beneficial} results]. The upshot of the "digital hand" is such an empowerment of consumers that producers have no price leverage at all.
Since most of us are consumers, this initially appears to be good news -- but without producer margins of profit for salaries, how can consumer wages be maintained? The whole issue of extending commoditization is at work here. The locus of competitive advantage will shift from techological capabilities to organizational deployment.
This is another "tip of the iceberg" issue.
Here is a site with breaking news about information technology, broken into sections on hot news, e-business, technology, trends, enterprise computing, opinions, innovation, cybercrime, Macintosh, worldwide technology, techology developments outside the IT umbrella, and special reports. The site is cleanly laid out, and it is easy to see when a section is updated.
http://utilitycomputing.itworld.com/4589/031001linkfeature_uc/page_1.html
The URL indexes a page of links about utility computing and related isues, including news articles/features, webcaset, white papers, product information, and a newsletter up with which you can sign. As a much-heralded enterprise solution, this technology is definitely worth keeping an eye on, and this site effectively peels that eye,
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/gmsv/6925805.htm
The appeal of technology can be seductive, and in some cases, produces effects, as this columnist arges, which are equivalent to addiction -- something addressed by E.M. Forster nearly 80 years ago in his story "The Machine Stops". There is no question we do become dependent, and as users of Microsoft operating systems in particular have learned to their cost, this dependency can be used against us.
As this article notes, there are important political costs to this technological dependency, and the nature of the situation means that these are getting higher and higher, with no apparent way out, short of radical action. Somehow, I get the feeling we have been through all this before....
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6924663.htm
Once a leading light of the IT industry, Sun Microsystems is sliding towards apparent oblivion, accoring to investment analysts. At a time when some faint signs of a recovery in the IT industry can be discerned, Sun's sales continue to decline. The increasing power and ubiquity of the Intel chipset and the Linux operating system has negatively affected both the hardware and software side of Sun's business. Sun, of course, perfers to shine light on the brighter side, saying its installed base is firm.
Another perspective on the Sun situation is available here:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/gmsv/6925805.htm
A very much less gloomy outlook on Sun's prospects, invoking the way IBM turned itself around, and itemizing Sun's strengths as well as its real, albeit solveable problems, can be found here:
http://news.com.com/2009-7339_3-5087245.html
A late-breaking analyst upgrade of Sun Microsystems stock is described here:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7664198.htm
On the IBM PC and all its Wintel derivitives, a warm reboot requrires the 'control-alt-delete’ three-finger salute. This short article profiles the individual who invented this control sequence, and explains why he made the choice he did. This is an interesting vignette on how a common standard came to be.
http://www.e4engineering.com/item.asp?ch=e4e_aerospace&type=Features&id=50026
If there ever was a case of killing the golden goose, the current controversy over the USA's Defence Advanced Research Project Agency must rank as a prime example. The value of this agency and the current political peril it faces are reviewed in this article, which also explains how the UK is affected by DARPA. As an incubator of tomorrow, DARPA tak