Silicon Thoughts

What goes around comes around bigger!

2009-10-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

Check out Photosketch, a new way of finding images - you draw and annotate objects, and algorithms, combined with image search, can compose the perfect photograph for you! Cool! Google image search can show you just line art, or images by color tone. Reminds me of a pioneering project called QBIC (from IBM Almaden) that saw little widespread use. Full circle, I say!

At IBM, where I started my career, I'd heard people say "We did this ten years back ('twas called something else)". This was actually true! Technology cycles! There is, however, a reason why cynicism around having tried something before (and failed) in technology is misplaced - the environment has changed. The second time is not just luckier - it is often bigger and better (and sunnier :-))

So, when the Network Computer was introduced in the 90's and it did not fly, it was not because it was a bad idea - in fact, it was brilliant - it was because of other conditions, e.g., the networks were not fast enough. Sun employees run the Network computer as an X display over DSL, and that's exactly the issue. ("Credit" to Sun for sticking with it, killing productivity in the process). Today, the network computer (Net-scape?) is now viable as Cloud computing, and Google's the dot in dot.cloud, the big honking mainframe!

When we built a scalable video server at IBM in 1995, with real-time support, striped file systems, high-bandwidth networks, and a million dollar SP2 m/c, the initial pilots worked great, but the business model floundered - karaoke-on-demand wasn't an established market, and the cost per video stream was too high :-). Today, multiple streams can be served by a Linux desktop, and the idea is viable - it's called YouTube! (Note the fact that today's user does not pay for the stream - the environment has changed! Free works quite well!)

Heard the same thing when trying to push forward on a project at Yahoo! - "We tried this back at Altavista and it did not work!" Famous last words...(actually he's still going strong... :-))

Memory-based computers were prototyped many years earlier, and are only now becoming viable with Flash memory getting to the right price point. Paper-like displays, seen in the 90's, are still not in vogue, but HD televisions are everywhere, and paper-like displays will come (Kindle 4?). Tablets failed, but tablets will come (Courier? iPad?) ! Windows Vista ebbed, Windows 7 may flow...

Don't ever listen to someone who says, "We tried it 10 years back, but it failed!" Remember that technology comes full circle, but the second circle can be brighter, and someone else is usually holding the flashlight!

Privacy? What privacy?

2009-09-23T21:42:00.001-07:00

Loc8u has created a watch that tracks kids with GPS - and, of course, the privacy geeks have something to say! This is a violation of privacy, etc. etc.

Tell me that when I am running around the Great Mall in Milpitas for 45 minutes going all crazy that I'll never see my 4-year-old again ... this happened on Memorial Day a few years back, and, believe it or not, happened again (for only 5 minutes tho') with our younger son a few years later at Sears ... he was walking towards the escalator, assuming we'd gone down! As a parent, I have a right and a responsibility for a child, whether he/she likes it or not! If I suspect he's doing drugs at friend A's house, I'd rather he not hang out at A's house. He may find another way, but it is my prerogative to do my best to keep him honest while he's under my roof!

Privacy geeks make noise about every damn thing on the Internet! Leave the choice to the user! If there's value in search history, I'll turn it on - leave the search engine alone! I'd rather have a soccer result show up if I type "football" after reading an article about Maradona, than be told again about Brett Favre! And if I just Tweeted about Romo, I'd rather see a post about his performance for the same query "football" 5 minutes later!

Yeah! I've heard the argument - false positives! Sure - you'll get it wrong twice in 20 tries - egad ... that's 10 percent! Double-whammy digits! So what? You got it right 18 times! And I gave you my permission to do so! And with session-based personalization, you can do it all anonymously!

Opt in! That's the key!

If you want privacy - hey - go for it! Go into incognito mode and make merry. If you want privacy, tell the government to stop putting all your public records online, so that stalker doesn't find your phone number and address in 2 seconds on a search engine! Don't blame the search engine! And, a piece of advice ... stop putting those drunken photos on Facebook! Better yet, create 2 different accounts - for friends and your mom! Or suffer the consequences ... (LOL!)

Like ad networks aren't tracking you! Of course they are - and they should, so I see an ad for Hawaii snorkelling after I just purchased tickets to Maui! I'd rather see that ad than one for a GM car saying "May the best car win!".

Beacon! Why didn't you just do opt in, instead of trying to muscle your way in?

Online privacy is over-rated, and under-understood! Many complain that Internet companies are "watching you" when users are willingly using useful services. Sure, logs data, when used, is useful to the algorithm ... but they also add value to the user! If I had lots of friends, I'd sign up for Latitude. I'm ok with turning on tracking for traffic updates ...

As long as you can turn it off - do so and shut up (or go here) - and that's my "private" opinion! Oops! Did I just say that on the Internet?

A felicitation to The Internet on Labor Day!

2009-09-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

As we often take the time on Labor Day to commemorate human endeavo(u)r, I thought it appropriate to give kudos to one of our colleagues-at-work-and-home: The Internet!

Here are some reasons that makes sense:

My salary comes from the Internet (I work for an "Internet company"), and I even pay my damn taxes with it!
Many other peoples' salaries (or earnings) come from the Internet, via schemes of different flavors (Phishy or Spammy), and the Internet is an equal-opportunity payer, going all the way from Nigeria to the UK.
We don't have full time help, but the Internet does help me with my shopping, and many chores, like paying most of my bills and my scheduling.
For every interest I have (soccer), and for every one of a million interests I don't have (sailing, curling, etc.), there's a web site about it, and the Internet can take you there!
If my time is worth something (ha!), and I spend half of it on the Internet, The Internet must be really working hard for me. Remember CPU cycles = Busy cycles + Idle cycles
I send email and photos to my parents and family on the Internet. I think they'd still prefer that I visited more than once every 2 years, but I blame that on ... my job (the Internet).
If you want to not-work, you can do that through the Internet too - it's called YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. If you get caught - the Internet is always there to blame it on. It won't answer in its defense! (but be careful ...if you piss it off, you can get a virus! - or - as Obama says, "it can haunt you later")
When my kids ask me a question that I don't know/remember the answer to (getting more frequent these days), I delegate freely - "Ask the Internet"
The Internet is also a partner in crime. Download music? Internet! (Not that I would ever consider doing this!) Forgot to pay the bill? Blame the Internet (connection). If you can't find it on the Internet, it does not exist!
...and ...the Internet does not have any of these 10 bad office behaviors!

Long live... our-favorite co-worker ... The Internet!

C'mon! Spit out the truth!

2009-08-26T22:21:00.001-07:00

When you're driving to work, and see the 23 and Me Blimp in the Silicon Valley sky, you realize how close genetic engineering is to home.

Seems like spit parties are now becoming fashionable, at least among the selective elite - the friends and celebrity associates of the 23&Me founders, and their growing influencial reach. Maybe I'll change my mind when I get more hip - but I'd rather be drinking a margarita than making genetic spittle part of a party conversation.

But hey! - this blimp might just work? Maybe they'll double their flights during Christmas, as quoted:

“People think if you have money to spend on this, why not buy a test instead of a model train for Christmas,” said Dr. Alan Guttmacher, acting director of the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Sure, its cute when you claim that this could help with finding a date (matchmaker matchmaker make me a match, make me a perfect match), but it isn't very appealing when your date is tested with a propensity to offspring with a birth defect.

Well, maybe I should restate that. Maybe it is appealing to find out, now that a genetic defect can be directly manipulated out with genetic material from another person. Scientists just created apparently healthy offspring from genetic material from two mothers and one father. (Okay, so they were monkeys, but aren't we all lab rats?) This is one way to have you spit out the size of the parental family - it's all one big happy family.

I have a good business plan - perfect for the valley. VCs - wake up! Expand the consumer base by outsourcing spittoon services to the paanwaalahs in India! 5 rupees per acquisition!

Write the Terms of Service in the silver wrapping around fancy paan!!

Genetic testing for everyone - it's one (billion) big social network!

Games that are larger than life?

2009-08-17T19:40:00.001-07:00

Video games are becoming more realistic every day, and that brings a different experience into the living room! Now, the game is moving out of the living room, and the hospital, and, for that matter, the Pentagon!

Just this week, North Korea was taking objection to the commencement of the US - South Korean War games simulation. As quoted:

If the U.S. imperialist and their South Korean marionettes venture a smallest military provocation and make an attempt at the DPRK’s sovereignty, the Revolutionary Army will make an immediate and merciless strike at the aggressors with the use of all the offensive and defensive armaments at its disposal, including the nuclear ones, the KCNA said.

Now ... granted that this "game" involves a little more than a "simulation" - it apparently spans 10 days and involves 56000 S.Korean and 10000 US personnel. I guess N. Korea cannot just assume that the commanders won't just get bored and change their mind, attacking a few Pyongyang nuclear facilities instead!

Another realm where Sim City meets the real world is this interesting game called Pandemic - it allows you to create a pathogen with very powerful and nasty characteristics, and shows how humanity can be brought to a screeching halt! My teenager son seemed at ease selecting the pathogen's potency, infective symptoms and virulent features.

Not to be outdone, a new game - The Great Flu (partially funded by GlaxoSmithKline!), targets the Swine Flu! The good thing about this one - it asks you to battle the outbreak, rather than unleash the wrath of an organism upon the world's peoples!

I guess gameplay becomes more interesting when life and death are brought closer to home!

Prepare to play!

Windows to Mac - an unemotional assessment.

2009-08-13T22:03:00.001-07:00

At work, I moved from a Windows XP Thinkpad laptop to a Macbook Pro. Why? Not sure ... have been wanting to experience what folks rave about for a while ... and it's cool, I guess! I do love the iPhone (except the random times when I can't drag the green button to receive a phone call :-)), but it's the first time with Mac since the first year in grad school (those were different! :-))

All the machines at home are Windows, and likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Why? Price! The new "you find it you keep it" ads are right on regarding price. No wonder Apple freaked!

The transition from win to mac was reasonably painless. Here are some reasons why:

When most of your crucial work-related applications are web based, with data in the cloud, there's no disruption in email, IM, calendar - they all just work with zero setup!
Okay - I like the slickness, fonts, anti-aliasing, etc. Love the zoom back
I made sure that all my docs were copied over.
I made sure to install Office, so I did not have to scramble to open docs and ppts - yes ... still use those, and pdfs in addition to Google docs
Putty to shell (ah - the good ol' days!), downloaded Flash and did not need to download iTunes or Reader (for pdf)
Luckily, I did not have to move a development environment over - that would have been Eclipse, so should have been painless?

Were there growing pains? Yup...

I am still searching for a save button and not finding it :-)
Until I am assimilated one way or another, I remain, yours truly, in - Control vs. Apple key chaos!
I hate the touchpad - seems unresponsive ... paging seems line by line ... :-)
Trying to edit an HTML file in TextEdit, I had trouble figuring how to open up a text file in text mode by default (it was rendering the HTML), i.e., I couldn't insert javascript into the HTML like I wanted - had to change settings ... :-) Kinda embarrassing when I had to ask for help on this, but hey... I had work to do!
Had trouble upgrading to the latest Firefox - would tell me that it was still in use, and took me a while to figure out why (wasn't obvious)
Needed to figure out how to find a printer on the network (helps to have colleagues!)
Needed to figure out how to get screen capture to work - and then follow up with how to get TIF to convert to jpg/gif. Seemed onerous...but then, I did not have to install a screen capture program.
Aah - when I unplug from my monitor, I love that it auto-detects .... but I (just learned, after quite a bit of frustration) have to hit "maximize" to resize the window to fit in the smaller resolution! Bug? I thought Apple was perfect with usability, ...but then, again, I'm not crazy about iTunes. I've seen folks have issues projecting to external projectors, so a little apprehensive about a SNAFU when I get there...
I've been hit with browser confusion! Cannot figure out which browser to use any more - this applies to me on my home machines as well - Firefox, Chrome, Safari, IE - they all seem sorta similar - visual bookmarks, tabs, slices .... (Do I really need the Facebook browser?) I've been toggling browsers, especially at work. I'm not micro-analyzing speed yet - they all seem reasonably zippy - maybe I'm just more tolerant! Not tethered to a browser means we need browser independent bookmarking - plugged into the browser/toolbar - Google Bookmarks?
I exported my bookmarks to HTML on my old machine, and am in 2 minds about importing them, as this is one way to start a new life :-) ... but I guess I'll have to...but which browser? ...

Maybe a contrarian viewpoint: ... a few smiles ... and ... no big Win :-)

A Brief History of Search - A play for 3 ages!

2009-07-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

[Any resemblance to real ~~persons~~ entities, living or dead is purely coincidental. Certain events may seem overly dramatized - after all, this is a play...]

A Brief History of ~~Time~~ Search [Abridged version]

Cast: 6 characters - A, I, G, M, O, Y

Guest Appearances: B, V, T

Location: Idyllic Silicon Valley (+ a rainy Seattle)

Time Period: 3 ages - Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0

Lights: All colors of the rainbow, lots of blue and purple...

Sound effects: [a yodel sound, the ka-ching money sound, a bell-like sound, and a bird tweet...inline]

Curtains: Y enters, adjusting his glasses...

: Who'd have imagined - I wrote this directory of a few sites, and thousands of people want to crash my servers. Let's make a company ... we're Stanford!

1996: Circa Web 1.0

Lights fade out and fade back on. A appears, fluffing her hair on her shoulders...

: Ya know - we're Digital! I'm this really fast engine that gives millions of results for each search really quickly. The more the merrier ... and faster faster faster... my head is spinning...need some cold mountain air...

: Crap! This directory is getting larger everyday and I don't have any time for parties! Let's try this search thing that we've heard about. Hmm! It seems to work. Party time!

I enters. He has large sideburns, and powerful glasses ...

: We're Cal! We're the spider trickster! We have the ability to defeat larger adversaries through wit and cunning! We're a hot Bot too.

: Yup! Pretty hot! Look at the funky tri-color logo! I like it!

: Wow, I've been found(ed) at the right time! This search thing rocks! Let's try to crawl and index more stuff ...

: Hey this I search thing works quite well, let's use it ... and slap on some ads while we're at it

: People click on those ads? That's better than those blinking banners I tried last week

: Wow! Lets put more ads on these search pages and make real money ... real fast! Let's put a little knob on how many ads go on top - we can turn that up higher or ~~lower~~ even higher ...we'll try banners on search later :-)

B lumbers in. He's big, and wears blue overalls with suspenders

: Hey! I'm the big BB gun! I'm not feeling so Blue right now - we make a billion bucks from patents every year, and we have a really cool patent on this really Clever idea! And, BTW, we're BB so we're not really interested in making money of this really really Clever idea, since, you know, we're research and, you know, we luv tech, and, you know, that paper deadline is fast approaching, and we've gotta go...

G enters from the other side, sporting blue T-shirt, red shorts and lime green rubber slippers

: Hey - this Blue algorithm is quite Clever! Hubs and Authorities, huh? Neat! What? Deadline? Gotta write a project paper? Give it a few neat researchy twists and publish or something...

: What? We have traffic? We're actually better than A? Wow! ..Hmm... Let's make a company - we're Stanford after all...

Lights fade...

2000: DOT COM implosion ... beginning of Circa Web 2.0

A wild fire rages in California (read ... viral adoption)

: What the ****? Everyone's at our doorstep - they feel lucky to find a useful first result more frequently....we're actually ....useful! Hey....stop knocking at my doors...I didn't even market the damn thing yet!

: Hey - let's give this G thing a shot - they're apparently very lucky - so maybe we can make some more money... and don't forget to slap those ads on!

: Hey! What just happened here? I miss you! Can't I assume you'll go out with me tonight?

: Sorry! Shit happens! I've just found this cute new friend, who's trendier! I'm feeling lucky...

: Hi! Can we please get some recognition here? After all I went to Stanford like you...pretty please!

: Sure - slap that colorful ballsy logo on those results - folks seem to like you anyway...kinda cute!

: Are you sure you want those RPM numbers too - we'll send them over next week?

: Yeah! Thanks - they look pretty darn...WTF!? This is a shitload of money... this search thing is actually ... mandatory!! These geeks really built some magic pixie dust here... We've got to build this or something....

Enter O:

O is wearing a suit and tie and is carrying an expensive leather briefcase

: Hi! I'm O. BTW - I know how to make you more money - more more more! We are bad! Downright evil ... but buy me and we'll make you money... and ...we've got some cool patents too, including a few search ones. Remember A? That really fast chick? She's in my harem now...

: Money! Hotel California! I don't want to ever leave! This may just be a gr8 idea!

Meanwhile, I is twiddling his thumbs ...

: I've nothing to do - taking a bus around town! Wait - let me paint a banner on the bus so when I pass Y's offices, they'll remember I exist. Since Y seems to be in a daze, subliminal may work better ... and then ... they have a ... choice ... (pick me! me ... pick me!)

: Hey. What's that flashing banner?...Oh! our old friend's still around. Hmmm! Let's buy them and turn things harder for G, now that they're doing mail and finance and stuff ...

: The DOT com's imploded, but V's bought our U-seek, and Y has our web search - we're outta here! (our bet of cache-ing out sure paid off in a funny way ...)

: Hi I! How 'bout we make friends. We do live in the same big house now! I do know a few tricks. Be careful, I used to be really fast! Maybe we can do this together!

: What? This patent on making money on search is OURS?? Sue the twits! 300 Million? 300 Million Blue Blistering Barnacles! Take it before they change their mind!

: Are those bozos not looking at the RPM and growth numbers? Well...they're grown ups and ... we're growing up...no need to point it out to them...

: Okay, now! We're now as good as G. Well ... not exactly, but almost there ... and we are #2 and we do have 30% market share.

SEATTLE:

It's a rainy day. M, wearing horn-rimmed glasses, sleeves folded up to the elbows, is looking out the Windows

: You know...we're all the rage with our software the world over! I'm just about ready to retire, go off and save the world and deal with HIV and malaria and stuff, but I'm surprised with this G phenomenon! Looks like I'll have to deal with a delay in my plans. Put a few billion on researching that, will ya?

: Let's shore up the core! Let's focus on quality - people should always feel lucky - like we are, for finding this pixie dust. And we're making good money (not evil) - let's go public! We can do a whole lot of things with that money!

: Money's still pouring in through every window, but we should probably keep an eye on this new advertising-based free-ak-oconomy thingy! It's all the rage!

: Wow! That IPO was a fun ride! Who'd have thought we'd all be ~~mill~~billionaires!! Sweet! Silicon Valley rocks!

Audio Effect: The ka-ching sound of money repeats over and over for a while.

: What? 23B market cap? Who's smoking dope? This fad will surely pass...

: Let's see now... how do I spend the money? I'll build a few toys ... a couple of apps, a shiny new phone, ... and I'd like a new TV too please - that Tube thing is quite cool...

: Ok! That's it! We're not missing this boat! Put a few more barnacles on it!

Y is relaxing in a Sunny Vale, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a Panama hat, sipping Margarita

: OK! we've figured out this thing! We have all the ingredients! It's all about execution! (Execute or be executed!) There's money to be made and we're a search company now...and a media company...and a portal...yeah! that's it! we're a "media search portal mail social network" - let's spread the love like peanut butter.

Audio Effect: A yodel sound is heard in the background!

: Shit! This thing is harder than I thought. Put some more money into this! That'll fix it!

: Man! Am I glad this is lawsuit is behind me now...onward! forward!

: Wow! Look at these numbers!! Who was that lawyer who settled for 300M? Fire him! Every damn percentage point of market share is worth a chunk of change!

: Shit! This thing is harder than I thought. Put some more money into this. That'll fix it!

B is seen in a dark bar, Beer in hand, listening to Blues music

: M is into search now? Darn! Now I'm Blue! Maybe we should have sued when we had the chance ... Now it'll be sour grapes! Well ... we're research and we make a billion blistering blue barnacles licensing our patent portfolio - so we'll make it up in .... say... a million years! (we'll still be around)

: Let's get all of online America ! What?!!! G paid a billion green ones for that traffic? Who else is there besides the Fiery Fox out there, who we can't catch?

: Shit! This thing is harder than I thought. put some more money into this. That'll fix it! Wait! Let's give our users some money while we're at it - cash back...sounds fun

: Okay! we're almost there...almost as good as G.... we'll kinda sorta. That ought to be good enough! You want to do a new feature? Why? We're sitting pretty at 28% market share - and we have half the online world coming to our doorstep every day - no fear... O, A and I are here ... we've been doing this for a long long time...we know...

: OK! We've done a lot of stuff, but this is not working. Let's buy Y ... and I'm ready to save the world, so you fellas - take care of this - can't be that hard! Should be a done deal in a couple of days ... simple MBA stuff

: Whoa!

: Whoa!

: OK then - easy fella! time to play nice now...

: (kicking and screaming) NO NO NO!

: Don't worry...I'll help you. Remember we were always friends? We went to Stanford!

: I'm good enough! I'm smart enough! And doggone it...people like me...

: Come now....

: I don't like the same beer as you do! We have different weather! This won't work! We're on our own, and we have 20% market share...so there! Take your 33 and shove it... I'd like a 44 at least...

: (prim and proper) Well then ... be that way! We'll just go back to our labs then...we have live labs, search labs, labs with windows. We'll wait for you to calm down! I cahn wait, you know!

: Go! That'll teach you for not coming in at at least 42! You'll come back at 40 - hah! Surely! Surely? ...

Some commotion is heard in the Valley

Friends : What - are you crazy?? Unite now...

Stockholders : What - are you crazy?? At least go on a damn date, will you?

Wall Street: What - are you ****ing crazy??

News: what the ...

Me: do it do it do it...please! My ESP(P) says that it's the right thing to do!

: What - are you crazy?? (don't do it tho' ... I'm your friend and I endorse this message!)

: Yup! You are crazy!!

: Surely you're coming back? At 35? Maybe? ...

There is no answer. A door is heard shutting. There's a muffled shout and the sound of a chair being thrown against the floor. Lights fade!

Lights fade in. Some time has passed. A few gray hairs are seen on some of the characters

2009 - Circa Web 3.0

: Hello all you disgruntled fellas - come join us! We're building a new search thing that rhymes with "sing" - it should make a sweet sound when it lands ...

: Stop making any more noise, will you? You're distracting my users! We're at 18%...

Audio Effect: A dulcet bell-like sound is heard in the background!

: Ding Dong! Here's something new to try out - decide if you like this better! Hmm - people seem to like us now! We've gained some share, it looks like...

: Okay then! Where are we? 17% - that's not too bad a drop for monkeying around!

: That's it - you wanted 44? 33? Here you go! Pull the damn trigger. Hi Y Search! Ding! Decide!

: Bye! Y Search

Friends : Bye! Y Search

: Bye! Y Search

ENTER T: T enters, happy and skipping like a bird.

: Tweet tweet! Bye! Y Search. We've just arrived ...just-in-(real)-time!

Audio Effect: A bird tweets in the background!

T freezes in the spotlight in the middle of the stage!

Curtains!

Un-information overload! The Bill Gates Law!

2009-07-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

Apparently, our friend Bill stopped using Facebook because of an overload of invitations from folks who wanted to befriend him. I guess he has more important things to do, besides clicking on invitation emails that take him to faces he scarcely recognizes...

It isn't only Bill Gates who has the the problem of too many friends! Despite being a zero on the celebrity scale, I sometimes get friendly invites that I don't recognize. With Twitter, there are some that look awful good ;-) ... maybe I should just make more new friends...

Un-information is an issue even without having thousands of followers - even a few active twittery people (twits) can cause a daily gush of tweets, difficult to consume. Quandary - I don't want to turn this stream off, since there's often useful information and I learn of new things. I deal with this by mostly following on my phone, implying that I don't typically click through to linked web pages (the most useful part of tweets) unless I'm immediately compelled - the adverse result is that I often don't see stuff I'm curious about ... my loss ...

If you follow the right sources, the signal to noise ratio is quite high - but all signals are not aligned to your areas of interest. It is difficult, however, to set up the topic set a priori.

The other issue is that of mixing personal and professional streams - this, plus multiple social networks, implies greater time commitment to un-information.

This leads to the Bill Gates Law:

"More friends imply more friends, and more un-information."

Gadget convergence - the future of phones, laptops and netbooks!

2009-07-14T23:19:00.000-07:00

Much hullabaloo about netbooks and operating systems in the last week, with browsers and office applications clouding the horizon. The most entertaining reaction is from Fake Steve Jobs. An Apple take is relevant to the discussion, as it is all about convergence! Read on...

It's not a surprise if the iPod gets a camera, as recently rumored! No reason to create a major difference between the iPhone and the iPod - just take out the phone and sell for less - easier scale, easier manufacturing, easier reuse, easier software, more iTunes, easier user migration, etc. - no brainer!

What will you always carry with you, tho', wherever you go? The phone!!! What's made it finally fly is convergence! I hated carrying a phone and an mp3 player and my Radio Shack Rolodex and a laptop and a camera and a camcorder and my wallet and my car keys on a trip, so .... I didn't! Back in the day, I did have a Yepp MP3 player that was small enough to carry with my Treo. The iPhone's camera is terrible, so we're still forced to carry a separate digital camera - but that won't be required with the 3Gs (when I get one). At some point, the wallet is not mandatory - the phone is the payment device, and a fingerprint reader!

Now, why would one want to carry a Kindle or a CrunchPad to read a book when convergence nirvana is upon us? The reason, I assert, is "form factor discontinuity".

As convergence envelopes us, hardware performance, computing power, price, etc. will not be issues (the phone will get even more powerful and will double as a defibrillator!). Neither will battery life - the extended battery life on the Kindle for its e-ink-y display will no longer hold an advantage when all portable devices can be used for the whole day (or more), recharged at night ... anyone would rather have a high-def color screen instead of a b&w.

So what gives? -> Form-factor discontinuity!!

What's that? Simple ... I don't want to read a book on a 2x3 screen, and I don't want to watch a blu-ray movie on a laptop. That's why these devices (book readers, TVs) exist - these form factors are intrinsically different, serving different needs. Don't get me wrong! It's not like these activities are not possible - they're just not optimal. Of course I'd read a book on my iPhone if I were marooned on an island! Of course I'd watch a movie on a laptop if I were at an airport and there was no choice - it's just not what I'd choose to do on a regular basis.

That's also why I'm personally not too hot about Netbooks! It's an artificial form-factor - neither a phone, nor a laptop, serving really no need in the long term. If a laptop/iPad was cheaper and lighter, would a Netbook exist? No! There's no real need for this form factor once those parameters are tweaked! (cheap Macbook Air :-))

Now - does this mean that we'll have to live with this form factor discontinuity - multiple devices for different form factors? Yes - until some form of projection technology can create scalable form factor displays. If I can transfer my phone screen through laser projection in my glasses, or via a rollable or foldable larger screen, or holographic projection, I break the discontinuity! Until then, I'll be forced into using/carrying multiple devices. If I could project an HD movie in my living room from my phone, would I need a TV? My laptop would just be a docking station for my phone!

Maybe Fake Steve knows it! The only operating system needed is the Phone Operating System (POS)!

Let's get in form! Let's all get POSitive!

Unshackling the California Budget crisis!

2009-07-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

As California tackles its $24B budget shortfall, it appears as though an innovative (albeit controversial) part-solution has presented itself! Moving inmates from California's prisons to Michigan!

I'm not an expert on incarceration (although most of us in the Valley are tethered daily to our computers while the golden California sunshine oozes unused outdoors!), but it seems like moving inmates out of the overcrowded and more expensive California prison system to help transfer funds and preserve jobs in Michigan is a logical solution.

Apparently, the cost per inmate in California is significantly higher than other states - maybe we feed organic food to our inmates and buy them iPhones - so this makes fiscal sense. Assuming that inmates will continue to be visited by friends and family, this could also inject a little something into the travel industry!

The California system is also backlogged on executions. I assume this is expensive as well - as quoted:

Since Robert Alton Harris' execution in 1992 -- the first after a 25-year hiatus -- California's actual imposition of the death penalty has slowed even more. Just 13 people have been executed since then, which is less than one per year. These days, an inmate is more likely to die of natural causes than to be executed. But the number of people sent to death row has continued to climb, and San Quentin now houses 682 condemned men.

While this solution may sound insensitive (not my intent), this could help - ironically, the "land of the free" has the highest incarceration rate of any country out there, as quoted..

As of year-end 2007, a record 7.2 million people were behind bars, on probation or on parole. Of the total, 2.3 million were incarcerated. More than 1 in 100 Americans were incarcerated at the start of 2008. The People’s Republic of China ranks second with 1.5 million, while having four times the population of the United States...

Hey, what about GITMO?

Michael Jackson - alive in Bollywood!

2009-06-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

Watching the coverage following MJ's sudden death last night on television, I had tears in my eyes.

His music was an integral part of growing up! My memory of him will be his Superbowl performance, where he stands frozen for close to a minute with fans screaming!! A twitch in time saves nine!

When watching some of the choreographed moves in the music video, our sons pointed out that those are like the steps used in Bollywood songs!

True! He was not just a musical genius; his moves (or attempts at copying his moves) are standard formula for many Bollywood's superstars, like Hrithik Roshan. (I was surprised myself at the obvious copy of Michael's superbowl moves in this Hrithik video, ironically watermarked "Evaluation Copy")

Bollywood does this quite a bit. Once, I was watching an old Texas western, and the villain was eerily familiar ... Amjad Khan in Sholay!! The interesting thing is ..sometimes the "copy" is better, e.g., Masoom vs. Man, Woman and Child. Michael's moves have inspired hundreds of Bollyformula films!

But MJ has set the bar! Not even Bollywood can top Michael's moves!!

Life 3.0 - The webpage lives on!

2009-06-19T16:03:00.001-07:00

It was quite a shock to hear about the untimely and implausible passing of Dr. Rajeev Motwani. I cannot claim that he was my mentor, but I did meet him several times, had exchanged many emails with him, had coffee with him on University Avenue, was introduced to several people by him, and also presented once to his team at Stanford. He was always friendly, helpful and insightful. He'll be missed.

Over the past weeks since his passing, the Web has had an uncanny way of bringing him up! First, of course, all the Tweets and disbelief. Then the articles and blog posts. Then, when launching a search transliteration feature, I visited a Kannada website for testing, and his photograph featured on the front page! Searching in my personal email, emails from him surfaced. Saw a reference to Sergey Brin's blogpost at work today!

Visting his Facebook page, there were messages that were as recent as an hour old! Unfortunately, he was gone before he could sign up for his user-friendly URL.

The new Social Net doesn't even require anyone to validate posted messages on their pages - we can keep a conversation going right through his webpage!!

This is a new world, where your public legacy extends even beyond your contributions and accomplishments! Rajeev's Facebook profile, Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture", and Jim Gray's Wikipedia page ("born 1944, lost at sea January 28, 2007") are living entities!

What will your web page say about you when you aren't logging on anymore?

Shedding a new light!

2009-06-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

Load shedding ... this time it's OK!

Getting a nice reception out of the starting gates, startup HID Labs seems to be onto something! Their new High-intensity discharge (HID) lighting solution apparently cuts down energy usage for industrial, warehouse, and store lighting byup to 40%! The local indoor soccer complex likes them! Quoted:

Lighting represents 22% of U.S. electricity consumption and up to 30% of a commercial building's energy bill. High-efficiency lighting can reduce energy use — and the U.S. carbon footprint.

Their SmartPOD light fixture uses advanced switching technology to make these big-power-guzzler lights more efficient, dynamic (change based on conditions) and potentially networkable (for management). I'm no expert on lighting technology, but I believe that this commercial lighting sector is key to large savings in power. I've wondered why many large stores keep all (or a large percentage of their lights) on even after hours!! Security surely doesn't entail this kind of wastage, especially in places like malls...

I'm not sure if this is just lip service, but their environmental commitment statement is pretty positive:

We've set a five-year goal of reducing the carbon footprint of the built environment by 3 million tons and diverting more than 13,000 tons of waste from landfills. Our aim is to enable the net-zero energy building of the future.

Net-zero....free ~~Internet~~ energy for the masses!

Progressively scanning television!

2009-06-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

This last week's transition of television from analog to digital is a concrete milestone showing how much we've progressed in terms of delivery of information and entertainment to the home!

Today, even as traditional news media organizations are attacked on an ongoing basis by technology advances that stress their survival, making them seem obsolete and slow, e.g., see the trending topic #IranElections "coverage" of the Iran election on Twitter, Flickr, News and Blog search, other technology advances offer a richer delivery of multimedia content on phones, computers and televisions, forcing innovation in communications and cable companies.

High definition digital television is just...awesome! It will be interesting to see when high quality collides with the democratization of media...

Rewind...

We got our first television (a color TV) in time for the New Delhi Asian games (1982). At that time, we had neighbours who had black and white sets that they "upgraded" to color by placing translucent pink/blue screens over the set!! The "sepia" mutiny!!

When we were graduate students in Houston, my roommate and I had 2 hand-me-down B&W sets - one had better audio, the other had a great crisp picture - so we'd often turn both on :-) - that was the birth of Dolby "multimodal stereo" (patent pending!). When we had guests, for fun, we'd sometimes tune them to different channels - I can't describe the entertainment value of that!

Today, TIVO/DVRs are mandatory technology (once you've been exposed!). I find it difficult to watch a regular (non-HD) channel on my TV! U-Verse from ATT allows you to play 4 different programs to HD TVs in your home! Sony's Playstation 3, Apple TV and Windows Media Center are vying to become your online living room hub.

Like it or not, TV has gone digital in the U.S. - 1080 progressive ... here we come!

Dial "E" for egregious!

2009-06-11T14:20:00.000-07:00

European regulators are forcing Microsoft to not ship Internet Explorer with Windows 7. Are regulators over-reaching, or are they just stupid/useless/obsolete... (anyone remember SEC - Madoff?).

Not allowing the browser to be shipped with the operating system seems like a bit much, and definitely not in the interests of the user. I know, I know ... it's not like the manufacturers are going to ship machines without a browser - (imagine not having *any* browser loaded - how do you download a browser? FTP??) - manufacturers will have a choice about browser to include - but this is bogus IMO ... the choice should be to override the default browser, not ship without one! With IE's large browser market share, it's the logical default choice for manufacturers, and these regulators are just making more work for them, or worse, for the users.

Let companies innovate, and have meaningful checks and balances in place. Will Apple be forced to not ship Safari on iPhones? Will Google be forced to drop Chrome on the floor? Will Facebook...be banned by some country's "regulators" because its citizens can actually communicate openly (oops! that already happened...)

I just reinstalled my OS on my home machine, after a virus thingy, and the network driver is not working - do you know how frustrating that is? I can't connect to the network to download my drivers...

Let technology move on!

Please don't cut off your nose to spite your Face(book)!

Computer wars - the Trojan strategy!

2009-06-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

The machines are winning ... they are taking over the world by quietly, but surely, taking out increasing numbers of humans!! They started out by causing a pain-in-the-neck here, a throbbing-wrist there, a headache over dinner, motion-sickness in the bus, but now...they're getting bolder!!

They are apparently sending people to hospital emergency rooms in larger numbers!! Laugh if you will, but they're getting stronger (each computer doing more damage than ever before) - as quoted:

"Worse, the number of injuries outpaced the number of new computers in the home. While injuries jumped 732 percent, household computer ownership increased by just 309 percent."

Aha! Not to be outdone, we're battling them "head on" -> Terminator - the Resistance of the Flat Screen:

The data also showed head injuries increased until 2003, and then went on a decline. The authors guessed that the move to thinner LCD screens from the heavy, boxy cathode ray tube monitors had a safety benefit.

They have therefore evolved a more subtle Trojan strategy - viruses!

Given how many times I've wanted to bash in my computer over the last month due to a viral infection (not me, the computer, stupid!) driving me crazy, and also bang my head on the nearest wall ...I can believe that these critters are indeed going to take over the planet!! Proof, you ask? Well - how many humans on the planet, and how many cell phones??? What's the rate of growth?

Have you ever tried to play a YouTube video on the much-hyped Apple iPhone? I dunno about you, but I've *never* seen a full-length (5-minute!) user-generated movie on that deceptively cute machine without it teasing and stuttering, causing emotional trauma!!

Promises, promises...

Virtual Reality Check

2009-06-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

Late last year, a couple got confused between the real and virtual worlds, causing a virtual affair to lead to real world divorce!

The blurring of real and virtual continues at a rapid pace. Developments like voice recognition, laser projection from cell phones and Pranav Mistry's cool 6th sense device help bring the digital world a step closer -- breathing, signing, talking, walking, and gesturing to accomplish real-world tasks. That's all about living better!

Playing! That's more important, isn't it? At E3, Sony announced a new way to play, a special controller building on the success of Nintendo's Wiimote - a physical bridge to the virtual game. And XBOX is promising a lot with Project Natal. PC World has a good comparison and some questions.

Natal, according to Microsoft, uses a sensor that combines a camera, a depth sensor, a multi-array microphone, and a custom processor running proprietary software all in one device.

Virtually a reality!

The Greener Sixth Sense

2009-06-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

Ever since I saw this video (YouTube copy here) of MIT's 6th sense, I've wanted to write about it. Watch it in its entirety - it even elicited a "way cool" from my otherwise stoic teen - his Vulcan emotional integrity was severely compromised!!

Seeing the article on the Green laser turning cell phones into projectors brought this concept right back to the forefront!

Couple the MIT 6th sense technology with razor-sharp laser display on any surface, add voice control, and you have a serious paradigm shift.

In fact, one of the things that's been happening with mobile devices (and I was convinced needed to happen) - repurposing an application for the small form factor, e.g., Android and iPhone apps for Gmail and Facebook - may actually get reversed! If I can project from a tiny phone to a larger surface (anywhere), why do I need a constrained application screen size? I would have the choice of not even using the device screen; instead, project to the nearest surface, use a rollable bluetooth OLED display that I carry in my pocket, or the virtual projection in my glasses!

Going green may just mean something entirely different!

The Rattlesnake Farewell

2009-05-28T10:40:00.001-07:00

Goodbye, AOL! Today, Time Warner announced a spinoff of AOL, just a few days after Tim Armstrong's interview (watch it here) denying any knowledge of this :-). He did mention a funny incident during the interview that I could identify with - read on...

After he'd handed in his Google badge, he was stuck in the elevator (badge needed for garage access) and had to get out via jumping off a loading dock - an interesting way to exit after 8 years of helping build a company :-)

Reminds me of my departure from IBM's Almaden Research Center. We used to walk around the building at lunchtime - (fantastic campus) and there was a sign (photo above) stating "Caution - Beware of Rattlesnakes and Cattle" - we saw a lot of cattle, but in my 2+ years there, never a rattlesnake.

Last day! I've handed in my badge, and am loading up my boxes into my car, feeling really blue about leaving Big Blue, when I see a small rattlesnake hissing at me - a foot away from my box!! Apparently, younger rattlers are more dangerous, since they don't moderate the amount of venom they inject when striking...

I live on...but will never forget my "Rattlesnake Farewell" from IBM Almaden.

Mamma Mia - it's all about pizza(gna)!

2009-05-19T11:27:00.001-07:00

When I talk about Google Custom Search, as I did at SearchMasters, I often use the pizza analogy:

Custom Search allows you to take the slices of the Web that you care about, and put your own toppings on it (customize) - so you can make it caliente, or use a special chicken tikka masala topping on it - have it your way!

So it is only karma that the example we used for illustrating the newest feature -- promotions -- has something to do with pizza! In fact, Pizzagna is an invention of Tom Duerig, one of my colleagues - it is a mashup between Pizza and Lasagna! In Tom's own words:

"What was my vision?" you ask. A pizza with the depth and character of a lasagna. A lasagna that you could pick up with your hand and eat like a pizza. A match made in heaven?

I thought he was joking, until he told me that he actually did this!! Check it out and let me know in your comments if it works out well...

Next? Chikentikkazzagnia!

Full circle - The World needs more structure?

2009-05-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

When at Verity, the claim was clear - 80% of the world's data is unstructured, so you need a way to search it - databases don't do the job! Get search software!

When at Y!, we launched a great new feature that allowed publishers to get more specific information into web search results - more power to publishers (who, hopefully, know more about their own content). The problem is - often, where there's a solution to a problem, the solution can create a new problem. Thus, search engines created SEO, leading to the proliferation of search spam!! Because of this, roll out of these publisher-centric features is sometimes tentative.

Google just rolled out Rich Snippets, which gives publishers more control over the metadata that's associated with their pages (adding structure to semi-structured information). With Custom Search, where the incentive to spam yourself and visitors to your own web site is lower (ha ha?), even more control...

Google's Searchology event also mentioned Google Squared, a new way to add tabular structure:

Unlike a normal search engine, Google Squared doesn't find webpages about your topic — instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet.

More structure to unstructured data, more ways to slice and dice....

Full circle...or should I say square?

Deep Blue to Watson - what's the question?

2009-05-08T11:53:00.000-07:00

Seeing news of Watson, IBM's Jeopardy contestant, brings back some great memories - involvement with 2 super projects during my tenure at IBM's Watson research center - our software, including Network Dispatcher was used to provide scalability and load-balancing for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the Deep Blue vs. Kasparov chess match. (How can I forget the karaoke-on-demand trial in Tokyo, using our virtual shared disk system!?)

The Olympics server was the first time that Olympics results were live online - 14+ million queries a day was a LOT in those days, especially for dynamic pages.

There's one great thing about working for large companies - if lucky, you can be a part of big events - very exciting even if you're role is a small one.

I still remember trying to configure our software on IBM.com's SP2 server system (scheduled maintenance with down-time!! - that's a thunderstorm in today's cloud computing!!) in preparation for increased Olympics referral traffic to IBM - the web server logs were flying by and things were not working as planned - exciting and scary at the same time ...

Today, becoming the world chess champion, or the Jeopardy champ, or the next Jeeves is ... no big deal...

Who is going to be the quickest on the buzzer? Elementary, my dear Watson!

Email this dark horse!

2009-05-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

Something special was in the air last weekend - the dark horse, Mine That Bird, 50-1 underdog, came from behind to smash the rest of the field by 6 3/4 lengths (the most since 1946), reminding people eerily of Barbaro.

Was Barbaro's spirit in the air? His statue of suspended hyper-animation was unveiled recently at Churchill Downs, with his body entombed in the concrete. It so happens that Barbaro had won the same race by 6 1/2 lengths in 2006, before shattering his leg at the Preakness soon after, and suffering heroically for a while before being euthanized in 2007.

Barbaro had an email account for wishes. Several web sites were set up to honor the memories of his victory and fighting spirit during his rehabilitation.

The difference? Barbaro, apparently undefeated before the Kentucky Derby in 2006, had odds of 6-1. Mine That Bird? 50-1. But no longer the before the Preakness...

Email that dark horse your best wishes - all eyes will be on the Spirit of Barbaro!

When Apples get Soft!

2009-05-01T17:33:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, fruit that gets soft gets attention - those softening Apples may just get a few bites in them ....before they get really mushy...

Am I just not with it, or are Apple computers really expensive? I guess Apple figured they are expensive too, and are finally looking to nibble (byte) off a bit of the price tag - Finally!! I'll bet that even after that, an equivalent or "better" PC will be less expensive (I'm referring to the non-esoteric attributes like processor speed, screen size, memory, etc., and not karma, design, aluminum case, trip-proof power-cords, etc.), but let's give Apple some credit here for doing something specific about prices...

If the economy is not doing this, then Windows 7 is probably making its imminent presence felt - a drop in sales year-to-year is nothing for Apple to be happy about. And with rumors of an Apple Netbook or a new tablet (iPad instead of Newton?) that Steve Jobs is testing, and possible Netbooks running Android, this could be a good time to create a surge in demand beyond iPhone and iPod.

Of course, there are those that swear by Apple and will pay the premium - but the premium in this case has been a little too high to date ... given the news of price cuts, I'll keep an eye out for MacBooks...

Newton's apple did fall downwards!

Symbiosis on the Razr's edge

2009-04-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

Motorola, needing a real shot in the arm after a bad fainting spell, has decided to shut some windows and seek symbiosis with Android.

This is a bold move in an ocean with many predators, such as Bruce the Shark, Palm the Pre, Black the Berry, and Apple of my Eye-Phone. So Mota the Fella is going with Andy the Droid. Is this Friendly Connect an act of symbiosis, or a good move for survival? Pink the Zune-Phone could also ask for a ticket to the deep-sea party !

Mr. Softy seems to be enjoying the attention it is getting around this space as well, with Windows 7 getting some attention, and obvious connections to Windows 7 Mobile - what will that be?

Nok! Nok! Who's where?