Nicer online? I don’t think so
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Uncategorized on
Something called the Social Issues Research Centre says that the Internet is going to make us all ‘nicer’. Generation C - that’s C for content, connectivity, creativity, collaboration, communication and a few other Web 2.0 catchphrases originally coined by Steve Case of AOL - is going to do better at communicating and finding common ground with people who don’t agree with them. According to Dr Peter Marsh, growing up with open access and free exchange of information will make future generations more understanding.
Haven’t these people ever seen a flame war?
I’m a big fan of the inclusive Internet. It’s where I met my husband and many of my friends, and where I keep in touch with just about everyone who matters to me, for work or fun. It’s where I start a lot of my research, where I chat to my peers and where I see flaming rows day after day. Mark Anderson is one of the smartest futurists I know; he has a blog at http://www.tapsns.com/blog/ which mixes technology, science, economics and politics. The day he posted about Jimmy Carter’s book on the Middle East the comments flooded with vitriolic diatribes and denial of service attacks. I don’t know where to go online to see Jews and Palestinians discussing things calmly.
A blurring of real and virtual works with technology integrated into our lives, always on and taken for granted? You’ve got me. Like-minded people staying in touch in new ways? Check. People learning that other people who play X Box games but happen to live in another country are more like them than people who live round the corner and like croquet or QPR instead? Absolutely. Major societal change by 2020 because the Internet releases our inner communicator? What colour is the sky on your planet again?
-Mary
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Is HD DVD dead too?
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Uncategorized on
HP and Lite-On were planning a USB 2.0 external HD DVD drive - with the usual mix of pluses, minuses: HD DVD-ROM, DVD
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Grabbing your Attention
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Uncategorized on
Last week saw hundreds of web developers fill a Kensington conference centre for the standing room only Future of Web Applications conference. The speakers came from the ranks of the Web 2.0 illuminati, and the topics covered everything from finding venture capital to building and managing communities. Microsoft and Adobe demonstrated their latest tools and platforms, and Fotango unveiled its Zimki hosted web application platform.
However, once you sat down and listened to the speakers, there was one theme that kept cropping up. It was there in Yahoo!’s tale of how they used Flickr as a glue to hold their new acquisitions together, and Kevin Rose’s description of how Digg detected attempts to game the site’s ratings scheme. The key was “attention data” - the ability to use site metrics to generate additional metadata about a piece of information: who’s looking at it, what have they looked at before, who’s linking to it, who’s blogging about it, who’s commenting on it. Site metrics are mashed up with user information to develop a picture of what the information is being used for, and how trustworthy the users that are working with it are.
You don’t need sophisticated machine learning or AI techniques - you just watch what people are doing with the information. There are things that people can do that computers can’t, like determine what a good picture is, or whether a blob of white in a satellite image is a yacht. Amazon uses this approach in its Mechanical Turk service, using computers to break down a task into work units, and then sharing them out among internet users.
Yahoo! has used this approach to develop the “interestingness” ratings used on Flickr. A sometimes controversial way of indicating the best images on the site, the measure of interestingness is still a secret. However, Bradley Horowitz, VP of Yahoo!’s Advanced Development Division (or as he put it, the “ADD VP”), described it as a measure of the organic activity around an image, looking at comments, “favouriting”, whether it’s been blogged about, amongst other metrics. Instead of being limited to time-based exploration of the site, you can now jump to the “best” images instantly - and be sure that this isn’t a machine’s judgement of what makes a good photograph.
While Yahoo! introduced interestingness after it acquired Flickr, the organic nature of the data meant it could be applied retroactively - and could be kept updated dynamically. What was interesting today might not be interesting tomorrow. Geotagging adds a new layer to attention data, allowing Flickr to analyse crowd effects. A cluster of photos from a group of people in one place at one time, did something interesting happen? Two Yahoo! research projects use this information from Flickr, and map it on Yahoo! Maps, making it easier to see what’s attractive about a place.
Attention data is another element of what people have called the semantic web. However, instead of relying on complex, committee-led metadata definitions, it uses folksonomies, user metadata, and user activity. Yes, you may need to put some work into analysing log files and writing tracking code, but in the end you’ll have a site that’s not only responsive to your users’ needs, but also capable of building the type of community that stays around - long after the hype has gone.
Let’s hope it’s true of Web 2.0 as a whole.
–S
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Grabbing your Attention
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Uncategorized on
Last week saw hundreds of web developers fill a Kensington conference centre for the standing room only Future of Web Applications conference. The speakers came from the ranks of the Web 2.0 illuminati, and the topics covered everything from finding venture capital to building and managing communities. Microsoft and Adobe demonstrated their latest tools and platforms, and Fotango unveiled its Zimki hosted web application platform.
However, once you sat down and listened to the speakers, there was one theme that kept cropping up. It was there in Yahoo!’s tale of how they used Flickr as a glue to hold their new acquisitions together, and Kevin Rose’s description of how Digg detected attempts to game the site’s ratings scheme. The key was “attention data” - the ability to use site metrics to generate additional metadata about a piece of information: who’s looking at it, what have they looked at before, who’s linking to it, who’s blogging about it, who’s commenting on it. Site metrics are mashed up with user information to develop a picture of what the information is being used for, and how trustworthy the users that are working with it are.
You don’t need sophisticated machine learning or AI techniques - you just watch what people are doing with the information. There are things that people can do that computers can’t, like determine what a good picture is, or whether a blob of white in a satellite image is a yacht. Amazon uses this approach in its Mechanical Turk service, using computers to break down a task into work units, and then sharing them out among internet users.
Yahoo! has used this approach to develop the “interestingness” ratings used on Flickr. A sometimes controversial way of indicating the best images on the site, the measure of interestingness is still a secret. However, Bradley Horowitz, VP of Yahoo!’s Advanced Development Division (or as he put it, the “ADD VP”), described it as a measure of the organic activity around an image, looking at comments, “favouriting”, whether it’s been blogged about, amongst other metrics. Instead of being limited to time-based exploration of the site, you can now jump to the “best” images instantly - and be sure that this isn’t a machine’s judgement of what makes a good photograph.
While Yahoo! introduced interestingness after it acquired Flickr, the organic nature of the data meant it could be applied retroactively - and could be kept updated dynamically. What was interesting today might not be interesting tomorrow. Geotagging adds a new layer to attention data, allowing Flickr to analyse crowd effects. A cluster of photos from a group of people in one place at one time, did something interesting happen? Two Yahoo! research projects use this information from Flickr, and map it on Yahoo! Maps, making it easier to see what’s attractive about a place.
Attention data is another element of what people have called the semantic web. However, instead of relying on complex, committee-led metadata definitions, it uses folksonomies, user metadata, and user activity. Yes, you may need to put some work into analysing log files and writing tracking code, but in the end you’ll have a site that’s not only responsive to your users’ needs, but also capable of building the type of community that stays around - long after the hype has gone.
Let’s hope it’s true of Web 2.0 as a whole.
–S
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USB power now
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB on
There aren
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How many keys make text?
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Mobile on
I like QWERTY. I learned to thumb type on a Psion Series 3 and I can type almost as fast on a BlackBerry as I can on a notebook. The hunt and peck of predictive typing - BlackBerry SureType or standard T9 or worst of all the strange Motorola version - gums up my thoughts in the mechanics of the letters I’m hunting and pecking for.
I also like being able to start typing a name on my phone and have the phone number get dialled for me, which is why until Windows Mobile 6 comes along and puts predictive dialling on both versions I have two choices: a Windows Mobile 5 smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard like the T-Mobile Dash or the Samsung BlackJack, or the Palm 750v I’ve stuck with for nearly a year even though the keyboard isn’t a patch on a BlackBerry because it combines predictive dialling with the extra power of a Pocket PC phone. The BlackBerry has better mail search too, but without putting in a BES server I don’t get over the air sync of contacts and calendar, so even if I didn’t mind having to open the address book every time I wouldn’t have the numbers I want to call.
But the next version of T9 - on show at 3GSM and in phones by the end of this year - makes a third option that extends to more than just Windows Mobile.
XT9, as it’s known, is better at actually producing the words you were trying to type; it takes common spelling mistakes into account in the list of alternatives you get and it learns not just from the messages you write but from the emails, texts and IMs you receive on your phone. So when a colleague suggests meeting at Potemkin for dinner it won’t take you an hour to reply ‘Potemkin at 9′. The most often and more recently you’ve used a word, the higher up the list it comes. And XT9 works on QWERTY phones and touchscreens with handwriting recognition too.
Plus it’s not just words you’re typing. Power up your phone, type in ‘clock’ and you’ll get a list of options that includes the app that changes the time. The list includes bookmarks and contacts, all together or separated into categories. It’s almost exactly the same effect as typing into the Start menu in Vista to search for file, applications, documents and everything else.
Tegic calls this ‘T9 the discovery tool’ which sounds like a bad RPG, but as I hardly ever meet anyone who knows everything their phone can do it isn’t a bad tag line. As with Vista it ceases to be a matter of knowing how to do things and becomes about what you want to do. A predictive interface that makes everything easier to do.
-Mary
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Quad Core Wars
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Hardware on
The end of January set the scene for a year in which new processor technologies from both the main hardware vendors look set to battle for the server crown. Intel’s new Penryn processors move it onto new 45nm processes, while AMD’s Barcelona offers single die quad core as a drop in replacement for many existing servers.
While Penryn is only just starting to sample, and is unlikely to ship until the later half of the year (though there are rumours of earlier ship dates), Intel’s Clovertown quad core processors are already shipping. AMD is hoping to leapfrog Clovertown’s performance with its new Opterons, and expects Barcelona to offer 40% better performance than the equivalent Clovertown. With Intel having stolen back the performance crown with its Core 2 architecture, AMD needs to offer big performance gains to win back flagship customers like Sun.
The power/heat envelope for next generation hardware remains critically important for managing existing infrastructure. Adding extra heat to an existing rack of blades can quickly reduce life
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Nokia’s free maps change the market
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Mobile on
I’m not Nokia’s biggest fan. A Finnish journalist once asked me why on earth I thought Nokia was arrogant and got to sit through the full half hour of me explaining. And at that time I hadn’t even heard about the phone that was supposedly delayed for six months while Nokia and a mobile network argued about whose logo would be bigger… So when we saw the announcement that Nokia was doing a free mapping and GPS service, I agreed with Simon’s first comment, that Nokia had just Steved another partner (to Steve a partner; to encourage them to develop an accessory, application or other add-on to your product and then to bring out your own equivalent once the partner has established the market for you; for example Konfabulator, Watson). But then I looked at the optional pay-for upgrades and decided that actually Nokia has been very smart, very Web 2.0 and has changed not only the entire mobile mapping and navigation market but its own position.
Nokia isn’t just a handset manufacturer who sells more phones in a quarter than Apple has sold iPods (ever). Now Nokia is also a software and service company, butting right up against Google, Yahoo and Microsoft in one of the big moneymakers of the next decade. And delivering one in the eye to mapping software companies like CoPilot and TomTom and Navicore (although with error messages like ‘please drive closer to a road on the map’, I think Navicore has it coming).
From this saturday www.smart2go.com will give you free maps for 150 countries and free satellite navigation for 30. It doesn’t only work on Nokia or Symbian handsets - there’s a Windows Mobile version. Like Google Maps or Windows Live Search it offers maps from Navteq (so they’re good quality), but unlike the mobile services once you’ve downloaded the maps once you don’t have to keep downloading them - and you can get a big map on your PC and transfer it to your mobile. Like Microsoft’s Pocket Streets (Windows Mobile only, of course), you get free maps and points of interest (nearest petrol station please); but if you have a phone with GPS - or more likely a Bluetooth GPS - you get navigation as well as maps, which Pocket Streets doesn’t do.
The Web 2.0 bit is that companies can put their logos on the map, so McDonalds can clutter up the virtual high street too. I know Web 2.0 is supposed to be about social networking and community but it’s really about metadata and integrated advertising.
And the reason Nokia’s sat nav partners aren’t muttering and complaining is that you can upgrade to get turn by turn voice navigation. And you can buy it for a week - while you’re on holiday and need help on unfamiliar roads - or up to three years. I’ve lambasted Nokia roundly in the past for making users pay for its sat nav software every six months but depending on the price these limited licences shouldn’t be too bad. You can always stick with the free version.
Of course smart2go could still turn out to be hard2use but if it’s anywhere near as good as Live Search, Nokia has put itself on the map.
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What’s wrong with Office 2007
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Microsoft on
I’ve been using the new Office for months now, through betas and technical refreshes and release candidates and I’m a fan. Word makes almost everything I do easier, Excel makes tables and filters easier, Outlook’s To-Do Bar is the way I organise everything now. OneNote is almost the perfect app for taking notes and recording meetings (almost). Check out the
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Help Find Jim Gray
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Uncategorized on
Jim Gray, one of the men behind modern database design, is missing. You can help find him.
On Sunday, January 28th, 2007, Jim Gray, a renowned computer scientist was reported missing at sea. As of Thursday, Feb. 1st, the US Coast Guard has called off the search, having found no trace of the boat or any of its emergency equipment.
Follow the story here.
Through the generous efforts of his friends, family, various communities and agencies, detailed NASA aircraft imagery has been made available for his last known whereabouts.
An Amazon Mechanical Turk has been set up to help analyse this imagery. Just spend half an hour or so on the task - marking imagery for further analysis. It could help at least understand what has happened to Jim.
I’ve met Jim a couple of times. He’s a fascinating speaker and entertaining conversationalist, with much still to give the world - especially in his current area of research, tools to help manage large-scale distributed scientific computing projects.
It’s somewhat fitting that we can use the fruits of his research to help his family…
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