I came across a scheduled talk at Stanford Networking Research Center this week on “Cognitive Networks: Implementing Alternate Network Management & Routing with Software Programmable Intelligent Networks” by Shannon Lake, CEO of Omivergent. Unfortunately, I had another seminar to attend at exactly the same time (as usual), but I was curous about this talk and Mr. Lake’s assertions on “IP dogma”. So I went and asked him why do we need to “change our views on IP networks”, layer 3 versus layer 4, and the impact of jitter. He most kindly replied.
Buzzmachine and NYC Video
Chatting with Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine on viral video after seeing him in the NYTimes. Viral is right. But old-line media types don’t want to get viral. They think it means “steal”. Or loss of message control. They don’t master it. They really should read Sun Tzu. They also don’t get that they’re increasingly dependent on the whirlwind of the Internet, networks, computers, and other technology. That it’s rapid response and message control by using the medium itself. Jeff’s right when he says “welcome to the future of TV”.
What else does he say. “There will need to be a Google of video — a means of helping people find what they want. And, no, that’s not just about creating a search engine. It’s about capturing the metadata we create when we watch and share things and making sense of it. It’s not trivial but it’s vital for without a great guide, we’ll never find the programming we want and this new medium won’t work. This video Google thing will be the next Google and TV Guide and it will be big. And I doubt that either Google or TV Guide will be the one to create it.”
Jeff’s right on the money. And metadata has been quite an ExecProducer obsession for several years. We don’t just do search for video – that’s too narrow and doesn’t leverage the medium well. We care about the metadata and the meaning. It’s the end-to-end production to deployment that’s key. Very difficult. Years of technical work. Operational system. Deep business model.
386BSD Design Notes Video Series: Configuration Story
Ordered configuration is simple design, but is it good design? Join William and Lynne as they discuss the issues, architecture, and implementation of an unordered configuration model in the 386BSD Design Notes video Configuration Story. Early work appeared in 386BSD Release 1.0, while later versions of 386BSD incorporated “self-healing” software modules.
Fun Friday – Now, What is it About Unix or Yourself You’d like to Change?
Well, it probably comes as no surprise that I read Physics Today. But it sure came as a surprise to me to see GRE and research proposal disguised as recruitment ad…
Some of the questions are very interesting. Like question 5, “What’s broken with Unix? How would you fix it?” or question 4, right out of Adventure Unix days, or 12 “In your opinion, what is the most beautiful math equation ever derived? (perhaps Hamilton’s, as any physicist knows, but I’m sure they don’t). Even 14 – What will be the next great improvement in search technology?
It’s a GRE-styled booklet test. Not an ad. A booklet. If it had been blue instead of green, it would have been a classic “blue book” from Berkeley for exams. It was made for scientists – not just compsci people. Remember the most beautiful equation question – that’s speaking to a physicist’s heart and also a mathematician, but I don’t know if they bother with hearts at Google or any other Silicon Valley company these days.
It’s called the GLAT (Google Labs Aptitude Test). Would you know how to solve in a 2-d rectangular infinite lattice of 1-ohm resisters the resistance beteen two nodes a knights move away? (I’ll give you a hint – we use an infinite lattice to avoid edge effects so the equations are simple). 🙂
Interesting? Especially the Unix question…this shouldn’t be here in a “work for Google” ad. Nor the Adventure one. Or should it?
A Tisket, A Tasket, I Lost My TCP Packet Part II
Well, my Japanese datacenter manager story hit a bit of a nerve, with one reader asking “doesn’t anyone test equpment anymore?” You’re correct. This was the first question in this incident. Didn’t anybody test anything? Yes, they did, as did the datacenter. Here’s the continuing saga of A Tisket, a Tasket, I’ve Lost My TCP Packet direct from that datacenter manager.
A Tisket, a Tasket, I’ve Lost My TCP Packet
A gentleman today wondered if his expensive leased fibre line was causing packet loss, even though he compared it with an ADSL line from the server to the host. As Dennis Rockwell of BBN pointed out “What you have discovered is that your 2Mbps link is not the bottleneck; that lies elsewhere in your network path. The extra bandwidth of the fiber link cannot help this application”.
Dennis is correct. But how do you know where to look to fix the problem? Here’s a little story from a manager of international datacenters in Japan and the US to illustrate how complicated the issue can become…
Satire by Email
Last spring, I spoke with Larry Lessig about some of my work in scalable video production for community groups (see Massive Video Production Debut) with ExecProducer. His interest was in using the technique, not just for Berkeley alumni (Massive Video Production (MVP), Berkeley physics, and all that ) or business and marketing video (like MinutePitch), but for mass political communications movements. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I knew it could be done.
Turns out he was quite forward thinking about this. According to the San Francisco Chronicle today, “Interest groups, outspent nearly 16-1 and aiming to defeat the corporate-backed measure, e-mailed a cartoon mocking Proposition 64 to more than 200,000 Californians on Wednesday, hoping they’ll forward it to others and create an online stir”.
Problem is – if you don’t have the infrastructure end-to-end for production / email / deployment, the support on this will kill you. And people focussed on message don’t have time to learn everything about production and Internet streaming media. No cost to email doesn’t mean no cost to make sure people get your message. It’s more than just trying to email someone an ad and hope for the best. So how do you do on budget and make sure it’s good end-to-end?
Attention WalMart Shoppers – You Can Find Linux Computers Next to the Ironing Boards
David Einstein’s review pans the WalMart Linux PC, and deservedly so. With a slow processor, small disk drive, miserly memory, and no monitor, for $300 you could get a lot more system building it yourself. Admittedly, the kind of shopper WalMart is selling a Linux PC to is probably not “top drawer” when it comes to computers, so it may seem a good enough “bargain” to them. But it is a bad bargain nonetheless.
David is correct in noting that Linux / Unix systems don’t support as much software as Windows, especially for certain apps like Quicken, and support for printers like Epson has always been difficult. This is why the stats say 80% of the aftermarket Linux PCs have bootleg windows copies placed on them over Linux in Asia. This is to be expected as legacy apps are converted. In the meantime, it’s hard to compensate with open source without expert assistance, as in a company.
But it can be done. And here’s how to do it.
Partying with Mr. BIG in SF
Last night marked the launch of BIG (the Bay Area Interactive Group) and what a party it was. Over 525 people were packed the Mezzanine in San Francisco. I haven’t seen this kind of action since, dare I say it, the first Internet bubble. Are we in for a second Internet boom?
As Scot McLernon of CBS MarketWatch announced proudly in a kind of interactive theater on a platform in the middle of the floor, “Rumors of the death of the Internet are greatly exaggerated.” Sure looked it from the bodies swirling around the floor. John Durham added “It started right here in San Francisco, and we’re bringing it back”. Lynn Ingham, Advertising Age chimed in that putting on this party was like “herding cats” but it came together, while Brian Monahan of Universal/McCann said it all hinged around the “power of the brand”. All very obvious statements, yet immensely pleasing to the crowd. After such a miserable four years since the bubble burst in April of 2000, who could not be pleased?
So why did BIG start moving “big-time”? According to Jon Raj, Visa, there are a lot of “good indicators”. Highest in everyone’s minds – the IPO of Google validates the interactive marketing mechanism for ads on the Internet (see How Google Took the Work Out of Selling Advertising). BIG thinks that the continued high cost of TV / radio ads, coupled with the fact that more households are getting high-speed connectivity means we’re at a turning point.
From the Mailbag – Buffer, Buffer Where is the Buffer?
In my current article Buffer, Buffer, Where is the Buffer? in Byte, Jim S. sent me the following:
Hi Lynne, Nice article in Byte. It reminds me of the old days when you could read a good technical piece in the print Byte. Kind of a rare phenomenon today. But do you really mean to say that *all* security problems are buffer problems?
Thank you Jim for your kind words. Could you please tell the editor of Byte as well? That way, more articles like this come the reader’s way. 🙂
No, obviously security isn’t just buffer overflows. But these little bandaids are everywhere, and cause an amazing amount of problems for something so trivial.
For example, on Cnet today another buffer overrun afflicting Windows was announced. “Secunia issued an advisory saying a buffer overrun flaw has been found in Office 2000, and potentially also in Office XP, that could allow hackers to take over a user’s system. The company rated the flaw as ‘highly critical.'” Alas, these bulletins are all too common.
I used the essay to illustrate that a one size fits all solution like a buffer can have larger implications than my “engineer” in the introduction realized, and that his solution may not be a solution at all. There’s a lot of sloppy thinking nowadays, and that doesn’t help in a more competitive global economy. I’d like to see fewer unemployed obsolete engineers and scientists, and more innovation and critical thinking. So I write these essays. I hope it helps. And I hope you continue to enjoy them.