EDS' Next Big Thing Blog: Read and Respond to What the EDS Fellows Say About Technology

Another article on application assembly

A few weeks back I wrote a brief post on application assembly, and I noticed in this month's Business 2.0, an article titled Rolling Your Own Applications. It talked about a number of companies coming out with products to enable rapid assembly of Web services...

Some hard core 3GL developers may try to ignore the warnings, but it’s inevitable.

More Than Just Nanotube Computing

I am a definite fan of nanotubes so, given this kind of news, it should be no surprise to find it in my blog. An MIT Technology Review article titled “Nanotube Computing Breakthrough” is a real attention getter for me. But the article isn’t just about the distant goal of nanotube computing, it is about a process that can be used to sort nanotubes for all kinds of near term breakthrough applications from high definition displays to solar cells.

Emerging Personal Technologies

I read an interesting special report in the MIT Technology Review that I would like to pass along. It is a collection of articles on several diverse emerging personal technologies. With a theme like personal technology you can’t help but get into topics related to mobility, and this report has its share.

Speeding Up Automated Banking

Remember the Speedpass? Wave it at a gas pump and quickly pay for a fill-up. It has been with us since 1997 and remains a popular way to pay at the pump, convenience stores and even car washes. Well now banks are casting an envious eye on the whole idea of “contactless” transactions. Security concerns aside, this may be the next credit card wave (no pun intended).

Another Step Toward Telepresence

Telepresence systems are what will ultimately allow us to almost be in two places at once. The extremes of telepresence will even give us the ability to manipulate physical reality at a distance. True, we already have some capabilities, but current limitations are still significant. Telepresence for realistic face-to-face communications my, however, be closer than we think.

Several years ago, the EDS Fellows spent considerable time talking about and using something called Teleportec. It was a personal telepresence tool that did a good job of bringing distant parties together in a face-to-face virtualization. EDS even used Teleportec to put Arthur C. Clarke, while in Sri Lanka, on a Comdex keynote speaker’s stage in Las Vegas.

Teleportec used an expensive and complicated transparent projection system to achieve what was a strikingly realistic experience; but I don’t think it was that transparent projection system that made it feel so convincing. I remember thinking that there were three things that worked in concert to deliver such an effective experience:

1. Camera placement at eye level, directly behind the image
2. Image was life-size and video was smooth at about 20 frames per second
3. Sound was high fidelity and with perfect lip synchronization

The key to achieving these three things isn’t a high tech transparent display system; it is instead the proper placement of the camera (a little tricky) and abundant bandwidth.

Now Cisco has launched their lifelike videoconferencing system. I have no doubt that they will do what needs to be done in order to succeed with this endeavor. At $80,000 for the workgroup model and Cisco behind it, this solution could signal a transition to the next step in remote collaboration.

Web Site Localization

Placing a Web site on the Internet is a good way to achieve a global presence, but a Web site isn’t really global until it addresses the issues of localization. The localization of a Web site consists of resolving user interface issues like language translation and the adaptation of the site to foreign cultural differences. It is not a new discipline, but it is becoming a more important one.

I recently read about a new localization solution that simplifies global Web site development; it uses WYSIWYG displays to help developers create localized Web sites for both desktop and mobile users. This may not be the only toolset out there that supports XML translation and localization standards from the W3C but, if you’re interested in this topic, it may be a good place to start.

Finding Images and Searching Videos

When I search the Internet for text, using a tool like Google, I am amazed by how much pertinent information I find. Google is a great tool when coupled with the skills required to devise accurate and effective search arguments. There are a number of interesting operators that can make the formulation of a search argument even more interesting. Google’s on-line cheat sheet has a number of operators that really help narrow things. Sure, text searching will continue to improve, but it is already good enough for most of us.

As the Internet’s inventory of images increase, categorization and keyword extraction strategies will need to be devised to make these images findable. Google is already labeling images using human intelligence as a resource. Based on searches that I have launched on the Google Images Web site, I am satisfied that text based search arguments work fairly well in locating specific images. A search for “london bridge at sunset,” sans quotes, returns this multi-page list. The success of such a search is due in large part to keywords and other forms of metadata found in context with the image. Images without context are a more complex problem but using human intelligence to define keywords seems to help fill that gap.

Video poses a more complex problem because simply finding it may not be enough. You may be searching for a specific scene or segment, something that is just a small part of a large video. A researcher at the University of Leeds has presented research that approaches the problem with a combination of script data, close-caption text and sophisticated face tracking software. It's only the beginning. Now, with Google and YouTube together, the future for video searching looks brighter than ever.

iPod’s Happy 5th

The Apple iPod is turning 5 and, for Apple, that’s worth celebrating. Thanks to the iPod and the “iPod Halo Effect,” Apple’s Mac sales are up 30% over last year. If you doubt the halo effect read on.

I bought my first iPod about two years ago, a 30 GB iPod Photo, so I got into the iPod thing a little late. As a Windows fanatic I didn’t have much use for Apple but, having seen a friend’s iPod, I decided to take a closer look. At the Apple Store the iPod really won me over, it was much easier to use than other music players of the time and it seemed crafted like a Swiss watch. It was one of those gadgets that, once held in your hand, you just had to have. I was also careful on that first visit to the Apple Store. I successfully avoided looking at any of Apple’s other products. I simply purchased my iPod and left.

As I began using the iPod, I became a fast fan. The iPod user experience was so different; it had a user interface so simple and yet so capable that it redefined user friendly. I had never seen a handheld device with a better interface for accessing audio content. It was this demonstration of Apple’s innovation that piqued my curiosity to the point where I had to look at Apple’s other products. Within three months of obtaining my iPod, I found myself back at the Apple Store, first looking, and then buying.

Over the next several months I slowly replaced my Windows home computers with a Mac PowerBook, a Power Mac G5 and a Mac LCD Monitor. I still have one PC left, but I only use it as a file server and for storing backups. I continue to use a Windows laptop for business – that’s still a no-brainer – but all of my non-work related solutions, like personal email, finance, photo processing and assorted hobbies, are on my Macs.

As for my iPod, I keep my original iPod Photo in my car, and I have a new iPod video that is always with me. I plug it into my stereo when at home, I listen to it in the airport and watch videos on the airplane when I travel. Thanks to iTunes I have access to all kinds of reasonably priced content, both audio and video.

So here I am, like millions of other iPod users, happily entertained at home and on the road and content with the technology that makes it possible.

DNA Computer Plays Tic-Tac-Toe

This may not seem like such a big deal but researchers have created a simple DNA computer that plays Tic-Tac-Toe. While this may seem insignificant in the overall scheme of things, it is an important step toward adding some substance to the whole DNA computing concept. It does a good job of demonstrating that DNA based logic gates can solve specific compute problems, but it doesn't help us understand how DNA computing will finally fit into the big picture.

If nothing else, this article clearly conveys that DNA computers don't remotely resemble anything like the PCs and servers we deal with in our day-to-day lives. But DNA computing isn't about replacing your desktop or your server, its about a new, and maybe better, way to tackle problems that silicon solutions can't.

With DNA computing still in its early stages of research, we shouldn't be expecting much anytime soon, but it does help a little if we know what it is.

Future Vision

Charlie’s post “The future isn’t what it used to be” got me thinking about the game of predicting the future - again. After some deliberation, I have decided that predicting the future may be more in the domain of literature (specifically science fiction) than the more scientific disciplines like chemistry, physics, mathematics or even engineering.

While science and engineering bring us the technologies of the future, futurology is not the scientist’s or engineer’s domain. There is a difference between scientific prediction and predicting the future. When a writer paints a picture of the future, it is not necessarily bounded by current scientific possibilities. It is this unbounded landscape that allows bold and exciting futures to be crafted more as art than science. Many science fiction writers have a solid foundation in science so the fact that some of these futures come true is not purely coincidental. These writers have given us much in the way of future visions, in some cases, such visions have come to pass because their very prediction may have served as a roadmap.

I am struck by the work of a couple of very popular writers; specifically Jules Verne and Arthur C. Clarke. I think of Verne as the grand old man of literary scientific prediction. I have no doubt that Clarke will be considered just as prescient to those who study him 100 years from now.

So where do the Futurists fit into all this, and what is a Futurist anyway? If Arthur C. Clarke calls himself a Futurist, and I think he does, he gets no argument from me. His life's work, to date, contains a stunning track record of successful prognostication and places him in a class with very few peers. If we start with his Three Laws, we get a good understanding of how a good Futurist thinks. When we look deeper, we find that his works include numerous remarkable predictions including (but not limited to) communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit, asteroid tracking initiative (Spaceguard), notebook computers, fax machines, space shuttles, gravity slingshot for space travel, ion drive, the millennium bug and man landing on the moon (predicted it to happen ten years later than it actually did). For Futurists and Science Fiction writers alike, he has set the bar high.

Not all of these predictions sound sensible; Clarke predicted that an elevator to space would be necessary before we could build a real presence on the moon. This was well before the materials existed that would make such a project possible. Now, with carbon nanotubes, the seemingly absurd becomes interesting. When asked when the elevator would be built, Clark’s answer was, “About 50 years after everyone has stopped laughing.” Indeed, I now hear but a few chuckles.

The future isn’t what it used to be

There is an article on MSNBC from their practical futurist that I found entertaining. It was discussing the book: Follies of Science: 20th Century Visions of Our Fantastic Future. This book describes a number of predictions that were a bit off the mark.

My favorite was: Vita Radium Suppositories (High Strength): radioactive suppositories intended for daily use that “are absorbed by the walls of the colon” so that “every tissue, every organ of the body is bombarded by its health-giving electric atoms.”

Eventually that’s gonna hurt.

This MSNBC article is similar to one they created earlier: Seven flights of fancy that fizzled. I guess every couple of years you need to look at this issue for a new generation.

The Dojo Toolkit

Back in August, I posted a blog entry on Ajax and Atlas. One of my team members recently brought the Dojo Toolkit to my attention and it immediately struck me as a good Ajax and Atlas follow-up.

The Dojo Toolkit serves as a common syntax for specifying Ajax features and behaviors. It is designed to both simplify and accelerate professional Web development within the Open Source community while, at the same time, supplying a standardized approach. This doesn’t sound like a bad thing for Open Source developers. In many ways, its intent is similar to Microsoft’s Atlas without the intimate relationship to ASP.Net.

Is collaboration a game only people can play?

I was thinking about the perspective most people have about collaboration? It consists of blogs, wikis, discussion groups...

Isn’t workflow just a way for the enterprise to collaborate with a person (or even a system) on meeting a corporate objective?

Is agentry another example of a different type of collaboration?

Is there a collaboration model that takes into account a variety of inter-personal and inter-device techniques and objectives that could be met?

This perspective may be viewed as a bit strange, but since this is a blog - I can probably get away with it?

YouTube a la Google

So, Google has purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion; big deal. Since the introduction of the Internet and the World Wide Web, we have seen many similar transactions with higher price tags. But this deal has generated so much buzz, one wonders what all the fuss is about. Given the amount of respect that Google has earned in just a few years, I must assume that there is a method to their madness, and we may not fully understand until the dust settles.

Without getting into sooth-saying or an outpouring of opinion regarding the value of this transaction, I will just make a few observations.

• The very nature of YouTube makes it possible for its founders to directly address their vast community in an ultra-casual YouTube-esque style. This total lack of formality adheres to the “standards” of the YouTube community and is probably reassuring to its users. It gives a real community feel to the whole YouTube experience while imparting a certain uneasiness to the business sector.
• There is considerable opinion, both positive and negative, from pundits, investors and Internet celebrities. This outpouring of opinion makes for interesting reading, but I think we are in new territory. What we seem to have here is more speculation than information.
• Other related deals and acquisitions currently underway at Google need to be considered if one is to ultimately understand the big picture (an understanding that I don’t claim to have).

With Internet communities creating so much buzz lately, maybe it is a big deal. As is usually the case, we will be able to more accurately judge the merits of this deal for ourselves, in due time.

Why do we have people in our processes or why won't workflow work?

In the past few months, I've talked to some groups about the use of information technology to optimize people out of day-to-day business processes and focus the people on turning the anomalies in those processes into opportunities.

I've met with few organizations that are willing to initiate projects today in this space, even though I can give specific examples of where teams within EDS have been using rules engines and pattern recognition like this for over a decade. In fact, it is essential to the efficient and effective operation in the services industry.

Many times the initial response is to roll their eyes and view this as some technology for the next decade, not this one. Techniques like Business Rules Management Systems (BRMS) and Business Process Management Suites (BPMS) are not perfect but they are useful.

With new multi-core devices coming out every month, the parallel processing capabilities are within the grasps of anyone.

It makes me wonder what will it take to push organizational leadership over the edge and begin to seriously look at these concerns.

Is it when their competitors publish their results? If that's the case, the opportunity costs will be very high.

Is it when their ERP system releases these capabilities as part of their product? I don't know about the ERP deployments you may work with, but few users want to be running on the new system the day/month and likely year it comes out.

What do you think it will take for these techniques to enter the mainstream?

As we move to adopt workflow techniques like Windows Workflow Foundation (here is a great set of articles about it) and other techniques, we'll need to turn our business analysis into consultants in order to make the shift. That in itself can be a tough hurtle for many IT delivery teams.

Software Defined Radio

There are few things viewed as so "last century" as radio. And yet in the last few years, we've seen a resurgence of a techniques:

• Satellite - pay per use radio from XM and Sirius
• High Definition Radio - using in-band on-channel technique to piggyback the digital information on the sidebands of the existing analog broadcast
• Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) – in its infancy in Europe but expected to come on stronger, providing FM like signal quality for the short wave bands

I may have mentioned it on this blog before, but I’ve been a ham radio operator since 1971 and so have played around with a wide variety of digital radio techniques in my day.

The next big thing in the radio space is Software Defined Radio, where most of the signal processing is done in a digital computer, instead of analog. An open source project exists around the Universal Radio Peripheral (USRP). The most obvious benefit of software-defined radio is that instead of having to build extra circuits to handle different types of signals, you can just load the appropriate software.

Software Defined Radio techniques are being used in areas like radio astronomy, telecommunications and medical imaging. There are both commercial and open source projects (like GNU radio) and kits relying on these techniques, as well as forums and challenges to stretch the capabilities.

The Cutting Edge of Remote Surgery

In this months IEEE Spectrum, there was an interesting article titled Doc at a Distance. The article talks about some of prototype work being performed using waldo techniques. This was the first case I've seen where they tried to mimic real world conditions. These techniques are most needed in the field, not in a hospital.

As the article states:
"The concept of surgical robots has gone from crude prototypes to FDA-approved commercial technology in just the past 15 years. The surgical robots of the future promise even more spectacular advances. They will use imaging technologies such as ultrasound, MRI and CT scans as their “eyes,” and they will break free from centuries of surgical convention, entering the body through existing openings and moving inside the patient as they make their way to the surgery area. Your descendants might even swallow one of these some day."

Google's Interesting entry into Source Code Indexing

Most of you are probably aware that Google has just gone live with its Public Source Code search engine that may become the “golden portal” for developers.

I think what is significant about Google's entry into what is arguably a non-main stream indexing venture is the recognition of the fact that software indeed, does "run the world," as Grady Booch put it. If Grady is correct, then there are some 16 million IT professionals out there, either directly or indirectly that have churned out some 800 billion lines of code during the last 40 or so years. He has been a leading advocate for wanting the world to better understand what code exists, to better understand it and to ensure that it is not lost.

What is next? How about all the software and data models out there, all the services - what will be really interesting is to see how the "dots" are eventually connected. This is where the true breakthrough will come - once the APIs are opened up what innovative mashups will be created?

Panel Participation at the Society of New Communications Research Symposium

Later this month, I am going to participate in a panel about blogging at the Inaugural SNCR Research Symposium in Boston.

The SNCR Mission is to investigate, develop, share and transfer in-depth and forward-facing insights resulting from our deep ongoing study, learning, and continuous mastery of new communications tools and technologies with the academic community and industry for the promotion of best practices.

I don't know if I'll be able to live up to that kind of mission, but I'll give it a shot. I guess that means I'll need to get my blog content production volume up.

Generator on a Chip

Since one of the big opportunity areas for mobile technology advancement is based on mobile technology’s need for reliable, lightweight and long lasting power, we have seen considerable attention paid to finding better batteries. Much of this work is still in research and development and ranges from thin film technology to fuel-cells to super capacitors. This recent news from MIT ups the ante by adding a tiny MEMS gas-turbine-driven-electric-generator-on-a-chip to the list. But don’t expect it to show up in cell phones anytime soon, it is still very much on the “R” side of R&D.

Artificial Artificial Intelligence

As I mentioned in my last post, one of Amazon’s new Web services seems interesting enough to warrant a blog entry all its own. A bizarre case of IT imitating life imitating IT, this new service, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, is billed as Artificial Artificial intelligence. The idea is that, when your application needs a human to do something, an API is available that your program can use to submit the request to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service. The service then posts your HIT (Human Intelligence Task) to a Web-based list where it waits for a human to complete it. Upon completion, it is reviewed by the requestor and, if accepted, the human is then paid a predetermined, typically miniscule, fee.

With points rather than small payments as the incentive, you will find a similar much more targeted concept alive and well in Google’s image labeler. Though it is not as generic a tool, it does not expose general purpose API; it is still designed to exploit human intelligence where artificial intelligence falls short. For a reward of 100 points per validated word, you work with an invisible partner to suggest key words to be associated with random images. These keywords are then used as search tags for their associated images. I don’t know what the points are ultimately worth, if anything, but it sure is an unexpectedly addictive chore.

Finally, and not surprisingly, someone is already exploring the concept of becoming a Mechanical Turk middleman. AskForCents actually uses Amazon’s Mechanical Turk as a delivery mechanism for its product – human answers to random questions. It is currently free of charge and will remain so until it proves itself. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see on this one.