30 November 2002

Ray Ozzie's Defining Moment NYT -- Ray Ozzie tells Glenn Rifkin that his career-defining moment came in 1974 while in college. I was an electrical engineering major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and had a job as an electronic technician. On my way to work, I kept passing this building that had a strange orange glow emanating from the windows. I looked in and saw people sitting at rows and rows of terminals. The system was called Plato, a computer system built in the late 1960's by Don Bitzer, Paul Tenczar and an amazing team of bright, eccentric, creative individuals. It was unique and way ahead of its time. Of course, I wangled myself a job as a systems programmer on Plato. There were a thousand terminals connected to the mainframe, half on campus and the other half at universities around the world. It was amazing. It had instant messaging, e-mail, online discussions, interactive games. Remember, this was 1974! Ray Ozzie went on to create Lotus Notes, the infrastructure used by more than 100m desktops, including that of the Irish courts system.   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Bold Technology Predictions for 2012 SILICON VALLEY com -- Mike Langberg gives himself a B for his 1992 predictions. Here is what he believes will happen by 2012. The Internet is everywhere -- and nowhere. "Almost every object we own that uses electricity will be connected to the Internet in 2012." That's useful ubiquity. "You'll no longer be surprised to get a call from the repair center saying your washing machine is using too much hot water and needs adjustment." All present and accounted for -- always. "Family, friends and co-workers will be able to instantly see where you are, thanks to wireless phones even tinier than what's available today and other devices with built-in GPS locators. You'll be able to specify how you wish to be reached." Walk now, pay later. "Stores without doors will rely on RFID, or radio-frequency identification, tags to keep track of inventory and payment. These tiny semiconductors communicate a small amount of information, such as a product serial number, when queried by inexpensive transmitter/receivers." These chips are inexpensive now and by 2012, RFID chips could be printed onto packaging and price tags. This is the beginning of the end for cash registers. Prime time is your time. "Every cable and satellite television receiver will include a hard disk for recording shows, and those disks will have a minimum capacity of one terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes, enough to store hundreds of hours of high-definition programming." Finally, we can talk to our computers. "Reliable speech recognition will allow computers, phones and household appliances to understand our spoken commands."   [Comment on Shoptalk]

802.11b Just Like the Reflector Crowd 72-mile, 2.4-GHz link IRELAND OFFLINE org -- Perhaps the time has come for Irish wireless broadband users to start acting like the guys running TV reflectors. Move up from the puny milliwatts of power and pump your links between one and two watts. A researcher at the San Diego Supercomputer Center turned up a 72-mile wireless hop between San Diego and San Clemente Island. The link uses hopped-up 802.11b WLAN gear, two foot parabolic antennas, and operates at the maximum allowed 1-watt output.   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Profile of a Spam King Mike Wendland -- Ex-con Alan Ralsky makes a terrific living by spamming 250,000,000 email addresses. In the lower level of his home, tucked away in a still-unfinished room, will soon be an array of 20 different computers -- the control center of what many believe is the largest single bulk e-mailing operation in the world.   [Comment on Shoptalk]