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 Tuesday, September 17, 2002
DNA database "should include every citizen" [New Scientist]
This is from the man who invented DNA fingerprinting. The idea that my DNA sequence could reside in a government run database is frightening. Because, databases are not secure. Here is a 'what if' for a future detective story. If you know the DNA sequence for an individual, how difficult would it be to synthesize DNA corresponding to that individual and plant it at a murder site? Since everyone knows that a DNA fingerprint is damning, that individual would be found guilty. See, you really cannot easily fake a real fingerprint, but I bet you could do a reasonable facsimile with DNA, enough to convict someone. Assuming you knew what the sequence is for important regions that labs use to examine DNA. It is much easier to break into a database than to completely sequence someone's DNA yourself. I'm waiting for the movie. I'm sure someone will take my idea and make some sort of Minority Report ripoff. Have fun. 11:42:31 PM 
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How to balance a stick on your finger. With practice, most people have no trouble balancing a long stick on the end of their finger. But as the stick gets shorter, the challenge is greater. The biggest problem in balancing the stick is that human reaction times can be slower than the time it takes for the stick to fall. An analysis of stick balancing shows how the human nervous system copes with balancing problems even for 98% of the time when reaction time isn't fast enough. A new model suggests that the nervous system introduces random motions to a person's finger. Surprisingly, these random motions can help stabilize the stick. This idea of introducing randomness to an unstable situation and thereby creating something more stable has been previously recognized and used in human-made technologies such as the design of high performance aircraft but this study shows it naturally at work in the human nervous system. The authors suggest that these techniques may also be applicable to making buildings more earthquake-proof and to making two-legged walking robots.
To appear in Physical Review Letters
(From my physics tip sheet) [David Harris' Science News]
I love the idea of random events helping to stabilize a situation. I have to check the article. 11:19:26 PM
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Here comes Internet2 for businesses -- in 2005?. Before going on with our story, do you remember what is Internet2? It started in April 1999 as a $500 million project linking 37 U.S. universities. AT this time, the network was supposed to operate at a 2.4 gigabit-per-second speed and the project, linking more than 140 universities, completed by 2003.
Have you heard about Internet2 lately? Harvard Business School (HBS) Richard Nolan spent lots of time on this project and is telling us about the current status.
"I talk to managers about Internet2," Nolan said. The usual response? "Internet what? I thought Internet 1 was dead."
Some executives, he says, are experiencing "dot vertigo," that dizziness accompanying claims about all the wonderful ways the Internet is going to transform their lives. What they don't realize is that their fears make them discount the impact of the Internet in what Nolan called a very dangerous way.
Quickly and quietly, said Nolan, Internet2 is making inroads in important ways in collaborative learning and R&D. When privatization and business applications start to enter the picture, which he predicted would happen by the year 2005, managers will have much to gain -- or lose.
The power of Internet2 lies in its ability to connect networks of networks. Currently, he said, universities and labs use it to connect researchers working on collaborative projects. These projects can range from building virtual reality models of the ear -- a medical application -- to studying the stars -- a scientific application.
And, even in a publication from Harvard, there is the -- usually irrelevant -- comparison.
A DVD version of the Hollywood movie "The Matrix," for example, can be downloaded via Internet2 in about thirty seconds, Nolan said. The same DVD would take approximately 25 hours to download via a standard DSL/cable line (and 170 hours -- or more than seven days -- via a 56K modem).
Source: HBS Working Knowledge, September 15, 2002 [Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends]
Of course, the businesses of the moment, the major media, would never allow this technology to be deployed since all it would be used for is pirating their material, right? Society will figure something out, I am sure. And by society, I mean US, not corporations or the government. 11:12:29 PM
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NYT. Krugman on Thomas White's shady dealings as a senior Enron exec before he became the Secretary of the Army. He also gives a nod to Salon for breaking the story. Time to get a replacement. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
It is things like this that make me seriously consider A Wag The Dog scenario. In the movie, it was to cover up indiscretions of the president. Funny how, during midterm elections, we are hearing more and more drums of war. Are they to cover up the stench of corporate malefeasance? A stench that would overwhelm all of our senses, if it were not for that damned drumming in our ears? (Ohh. I just love mixed metaphors!! I wonder if I could enter this in the Bulwer-Lytton contest ?) 11:08:49 PM
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Wired. Big companies are increasingly blocking instant messaging. This is bad news for all those companies that think that IM doens't improve a company's ability to get things done. The ability to answer a customer's questions in real-time while they are sitting in a meeting deciding your sale's fate, is a big advantage. Coordinating with a partner to provide them a quick bit of implementation knowledge that helps them launch a joint project a day or a week early is a big advantage. I've heard lots of anecdotal evidence that backs this up. Well, I guess this is going to be a darwinian process. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
Again, social pressures will soon make 'wasting' time something that someone has to do. Maybe not everyone, but the companies that find the right balance will do much better than those that do not. We are going through a sea change in society and it will take some time for standard social pressures to re-exert themselves. The example I use is office mail. At Immunex, everyone's mail was placed in central receptacles on each floor. There were magazines, confidential interoffice mail, bills, etc. There was no security, nothing to prevent anyone from just walking up and reading anyone else's mail or taking a magazine. Yet there was not rampant stealing of people's mail. Why not? I mean all we hear about is how people are crooks, pirates and can not be trusted to do the right thing. I think society had just taught us that it was the wrong thing to do. I am sure that in a few years, if the media companies and the government let us, society will have taught everyone what the right thing to do is. 10:45:28 PM
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