by Brendon J. Wilson

Content From The Edge

I attended the JXTA User Group meeting last week, and got a chance to hear about a really cool project called Paper Airplane. And to view some truly spectacular UI mockups while I was at it.

The project, headed by Brad Neuberg, is developing a user-friendly tool to allow people to publish content from the edge of the Internet. In its ideal form, Paper Airplane would incorporate distributed storage, relieving users from the need to run and maintain a web server or pay for bandwidth. It’s a truly revolutionary idea – if most of the knowledge is contained at the edge of the network, what better way to release that information and encourage innovation than to lower the technological barrier to sharing information? Paper Airplane was conceived with this purpose in mind: making it easy for people to create and share information.

That said, the ideal solution and the project’s current incarnation are quite different. Although the software will still achieve its primary purpose of allowing easy publishing, the more difficult elements of the implementation have been pared down. The lack of one of the most useful features of the original design, distributed network storage, means that end users will still need an “always on” connection to the net to allow their peer to serve content to other users.

In an ideal world, Paper Airplane would implement all of its original designs, plus more. For example, I’d really like to see this project try to provide a solution that co-exists more closely with the traditional web infrastructure. I envision a dynamic DNS-P2P bridge which would allow a user to enter a URL in a web browser and have the URL resolve to the IP address of a peer that could handle the request. This not only would allow individuals to publish content without running their own webserver, but also would allow the load for popular web sites to be distributed across their readership. For example, readers of a popular site like Slashdot could mirror the latest content on their local peer, reducing the load on the main website and solving what Neuberg affectionately terms the “tragedy of the dot-commons”.

I also got a chance to present an updated version of an idea I’d previously presented here. I’m hoping to put an updated paper together on the topic in the next couple of weeks, and join Neuberg in his quest to push the boundaries of information distribution to the edge of the Internet.

in Technology 0 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Paper-Thin Security

Foolish paper-based security solutions have been seriously annoying me over the past couple of days. Two recent examples come to mind: my recent trip to the DMV and my ongoing application for Irish citizenship.

The DMV lived up to its reputation this weekend – a purgatory whose screaming children and close quarters seem to be specifically designed to concentrate psychological distress. Welcome to the DMV, we’re here to serve you. After a mere three hours, we arrived at the counter only to have the DMV employee point out that my middle name did not appear on my newly-issued US Social Security Number card. This was unacceptable, given that my middle name appeared on my other identity document, my passport. “Ever since 9/11…” the DMV employee offered in half-hearted explanation.

Only when the employee’s supervisor came over and signed off on the condition that the information be matched against the computer did my application get the go-ahead. Funny, and here I thought the Orwellian concentration of personal data in government computers was going to be a bad thing. Apparently I shouldn’t have worried, as it doesn’t appear the government is actually using any of the data it’s collecting in any significant way during the normal course of business. Had I not even provided my passport (it wasn’t required, I brought it just in case), the integrity of the DMV process would have hinged entirely on a 3″ by 2.5″ piece of cardboard.

Has anyone considered how ludicrous it is to still be relying on paper for our security? With high-resolution printers and sophisticated imaging technology in the hands of every web designer on the planet, one would hope for something more sophisticated than heavy paper and pretty patterns. But what’s worse than pointless paper-based security? How about badly-designed security solution that are supposed to address the deficiencies of pointless paper-based security systems. Like those of the Irish government.

To be clear, the Irish government and Irish institutions have a weird love-hate relationship when it comes to paper. For Irish institutions, a utility bill is often enough to provide proof of identity. But for Irish immigration, this apparently isn’t enough – no, no, no, they want notarized documents. Sounds appropriate, right? But they also want the original documents to be sent to them as part of the application – if they need the original documents, what’s the point of sending notarized copies of these documents as well?

The devil is in the details – it’s not enough that the documents be notarized by a notary public. No, the notary public has to be personally known to you – meaning that you must have known the notary for a minimum of six months prior. Oh, and you can’t identify yourself to the notary using either a driver’s license or passport – no, they just have to know you, by telepathy or some other unspecified means. According to the Irish government, if you were to introduce yourself to a notary, wait six months, and then present documents for notarization, this would provide a much better proof of identity than just asking a notary (or the consulate) to do their job and verify the authenticity of the documents using one of the many computer systems available.

In the end, it probably doesn’t matter – I doubt they even bother to check the identity of the notary public! After all, they probably just rely on another paper-based security mechanism: the notary’s seal. No one could possibly duplicate embossed paper technology!

in Opinion / Politics / Technology 0 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Scotty! I Need Labels!

I’ve been tooling around with iTunes, trying get my digital music organized in preparation for something I’ll euphemistically call my tax refund. Though I have to agree with general consensus that the iTunes interfaces kicks extreme backside, I still think there’s room for improvement.

Every band known to mankind has uttered the phrase “well, it’s really hard to categorize what we do” and lived to regret it. Fantasies of originality notwithstanding, no band is impervious to being peg-holed; sooner or later, everyone gets stuck into a category, even if they’re stuck there in solitude. The problem is that making this category meaningful requires some variety of Star-Trekian pseudo-category, existing in the subspace that exists between and intersects with other categories.

Last I checked, Gene Roddenberry wasn’t a part of the iTunes dev team.

If such a facility existed in iTunes, it’d allow you to do really neat stuff. Right now, half my music is labeled pretty generically: Rock. But what if I could mix categories to better reflect the style of music? At a basic level, you should at least be able to assign multiple categories to a song, but why stop there? A more sophisticated system would allow you to say something like “this song is 20% rock and 80% punk”. Or better yet, you could take it to extremes, narrowing categories to comparisons to other bands – “this song is 20% Radiohead, 30% Alan Parsons Project, and 50% Pink Floyd”. At any time, you could queue up music to suit your current taste.

Still not enough?

Then what about augmenting Smart Playlists to generate playlists not only on static song data, such as song name, year or category, but also allow Smart Playlists to talk to other data sources? For example, wouldn’t it be cool to be able to tell iTunes to “queue up only songs that contain the names of cities in California or relate to California”, using MapPoint as a data source? This is something that might have been appropriate for my drive down to Silicon Valley. Or “queue up songs based on my current location?” Imagine iTunes being smart enough to queue up “Walking in Memphis” when you’re…walking in Memphis! Or “Walking on Sunshine” when your iPod detects you’re feeling especially happy? Talk about a soundtrack for life!

The final step would be to make the leap to tying iTunes to your life completely. We all have songs that trigger memories of particular times in our lives – if projects like My Life Bits succeed in allowing people to capture all digital assets the generate during their lifetime, wouldn’t it make sense to capture what music you were listening to at a certain point in your life? Instant reminiscence!

Yeah, it’d be cool. But instead, here I sit, using single categories and dumb Smart Playlists like a sucker.

in Entertainment / Technology 2 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Escape From Vancouver

It’s funny – the further you get from Vancouver, the more of it you see. No matter where I look, there it is! What’s really funny is to hear people say, “Yeah, I hear Vancouver’s nice…I should really check it out someday.” – not realizing that they probably know more about Vancouver than they might suspect.

Consider music. Now, I’m personally not a big fan of Finger Eleven, and God knows I’m happy to have escaped the 24-7 Nickelback shill machine that is C-FOX. However, the local music stations have regular rotations of both, as well as the occasional Hootie and the Blowfish version of 54-40‘s “I Go Blind”. And of course, there’s always regular play of chick-rock fav Sarah McLachlan.

Or how about movies and television? Scooby-Doo 2 is due out in short order, not that it’s anything I didn’t already see in production on West Georgia. Or how about Paycheck? Only a real Vancouverite would recognize the squeal of brakes from a BC Transit bus as it nearly runs over Ben Affleck. And didn’t that movie also star former Prime Minister Trudeau as an arch-villain – or at least, the guy who played him? And, of course, any number of television shows are shot in Vancouver, though they don’t really count. They’re all shot in warehouses in Burnaby. And with Aamer Haleem, former host on VTV’s morning show, hosting VH1’s Bands Reunited, it’s like we never left!

Notwithstanding the television shows, I think most people here in Silicon Valley could wander around Vancouver without so much as stopping to ask for directions.

in Culture 2 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

The “S” Is For Surcharge

One of the first things I worried about when I came to the States was the apparent lack of debit card use. In Canada, it’s almost pointless to carry cash – why would you bother? Every store, from the lowest corner store to the largest department store, handles Interac. Not only is it convenient, but it’s free. In the unlikely event that a merchant didn’t accept Interac, I could always use a credit card before reducing myself to <shudder> cash.

Since then, I’ve discovered the “check card” – the American equivalent. Basically, it’s the same thing as a debit card with one important distinction: it also doubles as a credit card linked to a bank account that is accepted anywhere that accepts Visa. Sweet! Now I had absolutely zero motivation to use either cash or a credit card! Or so I thought…

It wasn’t until I was in an In-N-Out Burger that I noticed an interesting new trick on the part of retailers. Instead of widely adopting acceptance of these hybrid cards, the exact opposite appears to have happened. For example: In-N-Out Burger doesn’t accept credit cards. Therefore, it doesn’t accept check cards. And on a completely unrelated topic, they have an ATM machine in the corner.

And there’s the rub.

Now, instead of just charging something to my credit card, or using a debit card, I either need to have cash on me or pay $3.50 to get money from the white-label ATM machines that grow like mold in these establishments (i.e.: in the corners). That’s right, $3.50: $1.50 charged by the ATM itself, and then another $2.00 charged by my bank for using a non-Bank-of-America ATM.

While I agree it might make sense for smaller businesses specializing in small ticket items to attempt to pass along card processing costs to improve their margins, there are some places where this seems downright inappropriate. Take the gas station for example: If I fill up using the “serve myself” pump and use a check card as payment, I’m doing the station a favor: I’m serving myself, and the station is avoiding the need to handle cash or hire staff to process payments. Everybody wins, right?

Bzzzt! Wrong! Welcome to Surcharge Country!

in Opinion 1 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

All Over A Word

Oh no, here we go again: gay marriage has come to the forefront of American politics, spurred by San Francisco mayor Gary Newsom’s recent decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Cue the delirious claims of the imminent downward spiral of family values and the collapse of society.

I really don’t get the opposition to same-sex marriages, much less the call for a constitutional amendment, for a number of reasons. The biggest annoyance is the lack of structured, logical arguments against same-sex marriage – if it’s so wrong/destructive/inappropriate, shouldn’t it be simple to demonstrate why?

Time for a quick tour of the arguments…

Let’s start with the claim that the traditional definition of marriage is between a man and a woman. These arguments are grounded in religious beliefs that God/Allah/your-deity’s-name-here says it’s wrong, according to an interpretation of the Bible/Quran/your-scroll-here. This viewpoint tends to ignore that said religious documents have been revised, tweaked, or changed wholesale at the whim of numerous rulers over time. I don’t mean to be sacriligious, but if I was The Almighty, I think I’d seek a better representation of my will on Earth than a document that’s seen more patches than a version of Microsoft Windows.

Another version of this argument attempts to dress up religious rhetoric in scholarly garb: gay marriage serves no purpose, as the purpose of marriage is to provide an environment for rearing children. I’ll be honest, there might be something to this – after all, if a gay couple can’t reproduce, aren’t they just taking up space, from a strictly evolutionary standpoint? But on the other hand, the same argument could be applied to couples who are incapable of producing offspring, either by choice or physiological incapability. I’m a stickler for consistency, so if we’re going to make propagation of the species a prerequisite to recognizing marriage, we’d better be prepared to apply the same rule across the board, right?

The final argument has less to do with whether or not same-sex marriage should be recognized, but the legal and legislative process by which it should or should not be recognized. Some groups claim that the Mayor has no place changing the law – I’ll agree with that. However, I won’t agree with the same groups’ claims that the courts are “out of control” and “rewriting the laws” without legislative oversight. Here’s a clue: that’s their job, to enforce consistency in the law. If one law says “we don’t recognize same sex marriages” and a higher law says “by the way, the federal government can’t discriminate”, then the courts have to apply the higher law. This isn’t something new; it’s the way it’s always worked. It’s the way it worked when equal rights for minorities were enforced, and when women won their right to vote, so why should we expect it to work any different now?

The most unsettling part of this debate is watching people trying to justify their own prejudices on screen, while trying to not come off like jerks. If you believe the soundbites, then nobody’s against same-sex marriage, they just don’t want to call it marriage, due to the traditional connotations of the word “marriage” as being a union between a man and a woman. It sounds to me like all the laws need to be re-written to replace “marriage” with “civil union” and make the separation of church and state definite. Of course, I’m not about to believe that this would actually solve the problem, but it’s nice to think it would. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure we have bigger problems that affect all of us that we should be solving instead of quibbling over a word.

in Opinion / Politics 1 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Techno Nomads

The movers arrived last week, finally. Up to this point, we’d been living like primitive nomads, surviving on the bare essentials: a lumbar-incapacitating air mattress, a few pots and pans for cooking (or wearing as hats), and paper plates. Oh, and three laptops harnessing an unsecured intermittent wireless connection being made available by a network security illiterate neighbour. Ok, maybe “primitive nomads” isn’t the right description. How about “techno nomads”?

Did I mention that our 500-channel cable installation was available as soon as we moved into the apartment? Sure, we couldn’t make long distance phone calls, and Verizon was totally incapacitated by an east coast storm, but hey, we had all the “Gilligan’s Island” reruns a human could possibly withstand from the get-go.

Now that our stuff is here and kind of unpacked, life is finally starting to return to normal. Whoever said that technology is a bad thing never realized that a chair counts as technology, and sitting on the floor sucks. Seriously. Maybe it was cool when you were five, and you were more focused on assembling Lego villages than maintaining correct posture, but once your ass has experienced cushions, there’s no going back. Still, I’m shocked to find that the lack of padding pales in significance compared to the lack of reliable Internet access.

Over the past month, I have discovered that I am almost completely incapacitated without Internet access. Want to figure out where to go? Why not just look it up on Gooogl…oh, right. How about letting your family know you’re still alive, and that California hasn’t transformed you into a raging hippie? Sure, just send them an emai…oh, right. Even once Internet access was installed, I was still dealing with a lack of connectivity. Only 1.5 Mbps? Bandwidth limits? What the hell?

How is it that Silicon Valley dominated the Internet age when people only had 1.5 Mbps into their homes? It’s positively Neanderthal! I can only hope Verizon is purposefully withholding bandwidth from me, trying to stop me from going into some kind of connectivity induced shock, the kind that starving people go into when they suddenly have food to eat. They’re planning to jack up the speed to the 6 Mbps I’m used to, right? RIGHT?

in Opinion / Personal 0 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Signs, Signs Everywhere

California is the land of signs. Everywhere you go, something is smacking you in the face, informing you that whatever you’re doing, about to do, or thinking of doing is probably a good, bad, or inconsequential decision. It’s taken to the point of absurdity.

For example, consider the sign at the entrance to my apartment building’s parking garage:

“This area contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.”

Weird, eh? Isn’t this same country that sneers at the thought of gun control (a fact of which I was reminded when some guy shot himself in the park across the street from my apartment)? One can only assume the carbon monoxide lobby is puny when compared with the NRA.

But it doesn’t stop there.

The per-capita ownership of vanity license plates is through the roof here. Everything from the seven-letter equivalent of “hi officer” to nauseatingly cute “his” “andhers” combinations accompanying matching SUVs.

Even TV gets in on the wackiness. The warnings accompanying drug advertisements are downright scary – who wants to use a treatment for acid-reflux disease that has side-effects that are worse than the disease? Or Cialis, a treatment for erectile disfunction, whose Superbowl advertisement included this warning: Erections lasting longer than 4 hours should be treated with immediate medical attention.

I nearly choked when I heard that ad. Then I went back to drinking my beer, the one I purchased from Safeway, under the careful watch of a sign noting: Drinking distilled spirits, beer, coolers, wine and other alcoholic beverages may increase cancer risk and during pregnancy can cause birth defects.

Where the hell am I? I thought this was California – you know, the party state! What kind of party state warns against chemical abuse, alcohol abuse, and four hour erections?

in Opinion 0 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Billie Jobs

Ashley and I attended the Mac event (The Macintosh Marketing Story: Fact and Fiction, 20 Years Later) tonight at the Computer History Museum. In attendance were numerous members of the original Mac team. The best part about this event was the numerous Steve Jobs stories.

Me with Donald KnuthIn one anecdote, Andy Cunningham recalled a trip to New York City. They arrived late and Steve, as usual, had to rearrange the furniture in the hotal room. He needed the furniture to be just right, as he could never stand the way hotel rooms were arranged. And he needed a big bowl of strawberries. With whipped cream. On the side. And a baby grand piano (despite not being able to play the piano). And some flowers of a variety he couldn’t agree on with Andy, not that it mattered, given that it was the middle of winter in NYC and nearly midnight.

The next day, the photo shoot proceeded as planned. Unfortunately, Steve hates working with photographers, and is normally extremely uncooperative. Luckily for the photographer, Steve was really into Michael Jackson at the time – in particular the song “Billie Jean”. Thus, Andy spent the entire film shoot watching Steve cooperate with the photographer in bursts of three “Billie Jean”-filled minutes, then desperately rewinding the tape to the beginning of the song.

These are not the stories you read about in Business Week.

Besides listening to the stories, I got the chance to meet two renowned pioneers in computing: Donald Knuth, and Margaret Wozniak. While you may recognize Knuth as the author of The Art of Computer Programming, the exhaustive catalog of computer science knowledge, you might wonder: who’s Margaret Wozniak?

She is the person without whom Apple would not exist: Steve Wozniak‘s mother.

in Culture / Technology 0 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Ducks. Lined. Up.

I’ve just finished my first week at my new job. Well, technically I was at work, but actually, I was at a training event for the Sales team. Except for when I was at IBM, I don’t think I’ve ever started a job and been provided with a proper orientation to the company. Until now.

Photo with Bruce Schneier! Though he doesn't look as thrilled as I do...It was just my luck that I would start a new job at the same time as the entire company came together for its annual meeting. Wow. Wow. Wow. When you say the word three times quickly, it loses its meaning; so consider how blown away I must have been for the word to have retained its meaning over the week. These guys are serious. These guys have a plan. These guys are going to get *bleep* done.

Behind the superficial organization of pretty corporate branding lay a much deeper organization. Most technology startups (or at least the ones I’ve been a part of) have an annoying tendency to try to do everything; they see all the possibilities of the technology, and fail to focus. Not a problem here.

By far the most impressive feature of the week of training was not what the company was going to do, but the forcefulness with which it had decided not to do certain things. That may not sound very intelligent to an outsider (“Excuse me, but don’t companies only make money if they actually do something?”), but when you’ve been on the inside of the “what’s the product this week” machine, you appreciate it. It shows focus.

Meanwhile, in other exciting things – I met Bruce Schneier at his book-signing at Kepler‘s book store. Let the hero-worship begin!

in Business / Personal 2 comments