Monday, October 07, 2002

Define the following concepts, and their relationship to one another: clustering peer-to-peer grid computing Web services Next, compare and contrast IBM's Autonomic Computing, HP's Planetary Computing, and Sun's N1, with reference to the definitions above. There's something important here, but you have to strip away all the marketing varnish to find it. [Werblog] Can you say "Planetary, digital nervous system"?  Can you say "world-wide brain"?  What is the nature of that which Wintermute became? 11:59:40 PM

IDC says 31 billion daily email messages sent worldwide in 2002. Jupiter Research says 35 percent of all email is spam. You do the math.  That's two spams a day for every person on the planet. [Werblog] I can certainly atest to this.  At least 35% of my email is spam.  Probably more like 65% if you include my yahoo email address. 11:46:22 PM

Mark Pilgrim says he tuned into Scripting News this morning expecting to see what I thought of the W3C's change in its patent policy. Since I had no advance knowledge of the decision, it took me some time to figure out what had changed, and honestly I'm still not sure. Anyway, here's what I think -- the W3C needs the money from the BigCo's and they do patents. But the Web can't tolerate having its standards controlled and taxed by companies. So the W3C is being stretched, and I don't think they can pull it off long-term. It would have been better to forgoe the big budget, tell the BigCo's to take a hike, and say no patents, without any exceptions or qualifications. I would have supported that. Anything short of that is giving comfort to the enemy. Does that answer the question Mark? [Scripting News] 11:39:27 PM

Vocera pins Wi-Fi to collars. The company is selling wearable Wi-Fi gear that it envisions will replace bulky handsets in large stores, warehouses and hospitals. [CNET News.com] Wi-fi: Not just for PC's anymore. 11:36:10 PM

Laptop Fuel Cells Approved For Air Carriage. gilgsn writes "According to reports in BusinessWeek, the US Department of ... [Slashdot] Mmmmmm...  Is it possible that, in the near future, I'll be able to run my laptop for a week without recharging?  And without burning power generated using fossil fuels?  Freedom and clean-living.  That would be ga-rooooovy.  11:12:37 PM

Pint sized planet discovered: "Quaoar". Astronomers announced the discovery of an 800-mile-wide planetoid in the solar system. It's the largest object anyone has found since the discovery of Pluto. It also has ther most inpronounceable name of any object since pharmaceutical companies started giving new drugs impossible-to-pronounce generic names in order to make their trade name more valuable. Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog] All my life, there have been nine planets in the solar system.  Now there are ten.  The bizzare thing is how low-key the announcement was.  It wasn't the front page headline, or the top story on All Things Considered.  It was just sort of a human interest story.  Britney Spears gets a new pimple and everyone is up and arms, but the structure of our little part of the universe changes and most people barely notice. 11:05:35 PM

I have seen the future of television commercials, and it is the obnoxious ad banner. In order to combat the commercial skipping feature of the PVR, advertisements are starting to appear at the bottom of the screen during regular programming.  Don't believe me?  Watch an episode of Star Trek TNG on "The New TNN".  Even if you skip the commercials, you can't avoid the flashing CSI ads at the bottom of the screen.  I've also seen similar "pop out" ads on some Discovery Channel (TLC, Animal Planet, etc.), though they tend to be more creative and not so annoying. This development could have both positive and negative results.  One upside, if traditional commercials become obsolete, then maybe we'll get more program content.  On the other hand, longer programs with distracting ad banners is almost worse than what we have today. 10:54:50 PM

Steven Levy's wireless neighbors. After discovering an open wireless net available from his sofa, Steven "Hackers" Levy interviewed lawmen, academics and WiFi activists about the legality and ethics of using open wireless access points. I downloaded my mail and checked media news on the Web. When I confessed this to FBI agent Bill Shore, he spared the handcuffs. "The FBI wouldn't waste resources on that," he sniffed. Now I know that if it did, it would be hard to argue that I broke a law. What's more, I certainly didn't feel illegal. Because—and this is the point of all that war-driving and -chalking and node-stumbling—when you get used to wireless, the experience feels more and more like a God-given right. One day we may breathe bandwidth like oxygen—and arguing its illegality will be unthinkable. Link Discuss (Thanks, Steven!) [Boing Boing Blog] It is an interesting point that Brother Levy makes.  Culturally (legally?), if something is broadcast over the air, we instinctively believe it is up for grabs.  This has been the case historically.  It's the classic argument used to support the legality of radar detectors and police radio scanners. In general, if I set up an access point, and fail to take the minimum precautions in order to keep it private (WEP is the best we have at the moment), I should expect that sooner or later someone will use it.  However, if I make reasonable attempts to protect my network (use WEP, add the "closed" warchalk to my SSID, etc.), anyone with half-a-clue and no malicious intent ought to stay the hell out.  It's the wi-fi equivelent of a "no trespassing" sign.  To paraphrase a popular adage: This access point protected by Smith, Wesson, and me. 10:37:37 PM

Nowhere to hide from cell-phone tracker?. Ericsson's equipment lets wireless carriers offer a service that automatically e-mails a cell phone user's exact location to friends or relatives. It's got some privacy watchdogs worried. [CNET News.com] In Star Trek, whenever one of our heroes needs to get lost on the ship, the first thing they do is dump the comm-badge.  How soon before we have to do the same for our cell phones, but world-wide? My advice: Just turn it off, man! 8:55:40 PM