Are we there yet ?

Digital pictures and probes

2008-05-29T19:26:00.009-05:00

Lead in toothpaste, poisoned food. What next you ask ? Your identity.
Some digital picture frames contain a Trojan that disables poplular anti-virus software, scans the computer for sensitive information and then regularly emails the information to a remote host.The code is hardwired into the digital frames flash drive and activates upon USB connection. Heres's the original story and Richard Clarke on NPR about his book "Government Failed You on Security".

Open-source software economics revisted

2008-05-14T20:02:00.001-05:00

A few years back Bryan Cantrill tried applying micro-economic theory to open source software. When I read this in 2004,it seemed simplistically plausible in Sun's strategy to open source its software stack (Java application server et al). Based on Brian's reasoning, one could infer (all else being equal) that given the supply side reduction in cost, the demand from customers should increase along the curve (e.g from P0 to P1 or P2), decrease for competitors offerings, or force competitors to lower price and eventually give away their software as well.
And since theoretically there is no change in the fixed costs, the supply curve simply shifts to the right for the "disruptive" drivers. In essence there are more enterprise customers flocking to Sun's free software and paying costs P1 or P2 for hardware or annuities like subscriptions or support.
Skip forward to 2008 and the theory doesn't seem to pan out. Why ? Well, revenue from supposedly complementary products like hardware, support, services and education to all this free/open source software don't seem to be reflected in earnings reports here and here.

The numbers all seems to vary around a flat line (before adjusting for inflation) like the graph on the right ('08 till Q3). Perhaps the demand curve has shifted to accommodate the lower price ?Meaning customers that were using the software before, are still using it but only playing less, and potentially not buying any complimentary services and no disruption has occured in the marketplace. Or alternatively the software stack being distributed for free, is a part of a competitive marketplace in which price is not really as big a differentiate as it is made out to be, i.e a somewhat inelastic (with what Brian called the FYO being waay up there). Customers are already entrenched with competitors who offer other marginal benefits, complimentary products or innovation driven by the revenue stream. Or perhaps lowered costs have led to lower perceived quality, thus reducing demand. Or perhaps competitor brands are stronger. Or perhaps by lowering the price floor shifted the competitor marketplace to one already dominated by other established brands (eg JBoss, Apache, Linux et al). Or perhaps everything else is not really equal -like organizational inability to tie and cross-sell product offerings in a unified portfolio. Or perhaps the very premise of using a loss leader to drive revenue in an Enterprise environment is fundamentally flawed. It may work for shaving blades and video games, but it doesn't work for servers and middleware in the long run.

It is what it is

2008-04-27T07:19:00.003-05:00

The recent "It is what it is" Dilbert stip echo'ed what I often hear . What does it mean ? Urban dictionary to the rescue one again ...

A phrase that seems to simply state the obvious but actually implies helplessness.
A phrase that seems to simply state the obvious but actually means "it will be what it is," as in "it ain't gonna change, so deal with it or don't."
A cliche.."It's happened. 'I'm going to forget about it. I'm going to move on. There is nothing that can be done about it."
Used often in the business world, this incredibly versatile phrase can be literally translated as "fuck it."
What incredibly vapid, stupid and unoriginal people say when they cannot construct a proper thought, retort or sentence
"this is the way its going right now, and thats how it is." kind of a way to say: dont overthink the situation. a reminder to keep things simple, dont overanalyze things, or a way to put a definition on something thats hard to explain.
Describes something that can not and does not need to be changed or will not be changed, but is generally not important enough to fight over and can be overcome
Used primarily to cause confusion to the listener.
A term popularized by the people of Los Angeles. It connotes that the truth is simply that... the truth. Deception of the truth will only piss people off down the line, and you don't want to piss people off, who knows you might get shot.

Sub-prime primer

2008-04-26T08:57:00.006-05:00

This sub-prime primer explains the sub-prime mortgage situation. Funny and to to the point. Perhaps someone should post another preso on why mortgage rates are rising amidst Fed cuts.
And here is a Ira's show on This American Life. I like the part where the guy says "I wouldn't give me a loan, let alone $540K"

Drive-by Google

2008-04-05T13:31:00.007-05:00

Google's street level mapping initiative has expanded beyond its initial CA launch last year.. That van driving by slowly may well be a Google contractor. Here's a street view of Boston.

And people have already found reasons to sue .

Ringing corneas

2008-03-09T21:08:00.003-05:00

It was bound to happen sooner or later. A contact lens that will project images to signal a phone call, email and maps. Businessweek says researchers at University of Washington are testing the lens on rabbits. Two questions - How do rabbits read the optometrists chart and when can I expect to drive with these on ?

High water

2008-03-06T19:52:00.001-05:00

"A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows". Now I know why I'm constantly thirsty.

Groceries & technology

2008-02-29T19:30:00.001-05:00

The local Stop&Shop has introduced an interesting twist to the self check-out line. Handheld scanners for customers. You pick up the items, scan them, hit done on the way out and scan your credit card. Nifty ! The Motorola scanners run Windows mobile (specs here) and are hooked up to the checkout kiosk via a wireless network. Would be cool if was also hooked upto their Peapod system . That would allow customers to go in, scan items and have them automatically home delivered. A lot more palpable business process optimization than Webvan of yesteryear's.

Submarine cables

2008-02-28T20:53:00.001-05:00

The recent news about undersea cables getting severed by ships prompted someone to ask -"what cables" ? Contrary to popular belief, the majority of Internet connectivity is achieved through cables, not satellites. A submarine map of the current global cable network can be found here. As shown, India is connected to the Internet via a submarine backbone through the Suez.

Calvin & Hobbes - simple answers to complex questions

2008-02-02T20:28:00.001-05:00

Valley boy

2008-01-20T16:58:00.001-05:00

In this semi-autobiographical book Tom Perkins talks about his boardroom experiences (some controversial momemts) and parts of his personal life. Its a really slow read at times. If you're someone like me who wanted to know more about his experiences and his part in the HP story then its worth the read, otherwise its really just another paper weight.

Chimps vs. grads

2008-01-02T21:30:00.001-05:00

"Chimps performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday"..."Her study pitted the ape math team of Boxer and Feinstein .....with 14 Duke University students." I m not sure what this means for my friends who are about to graduate from Duke :)

China Road

2007-12-17T20:52:00.001-05:00

Rob Gifford's presents a unique perspective on life in modern day China with China Road. The book is not about the usual economic propaganda, but it takes a deeply humanist and compelling look at the realities on the ground, from entrepreneurs to the AIDS epidemic and spawning churches. Its one of those rare non-fictional books where the writing and vivid descriptions transport the reader there, with the author, on the six week, 3000 mile journey from Shanghai to Kazakhstan across Route 312. The analysis of the interplay between the political system and economic growth seems spot on as well. I really liked the last few lines which represented the tone of the book "Hope cannot be said to exist,nor can it be said not to exist.It is just like the roads across the earth.For actually there were no roads to begin with,but when many people pass one way a road is made" (Lu Hsun, 1921).

Global warming lesson

2007-11-11T00:20:00.002-05:00

What We Know About Climate Change is the pocketbook version of a history/science lesson in non-scientific terms and simple language. I found a copy in WBUR's studios and this is going to be my holiday gift for a few friends who still dont seem to get it.

Rate fluctuations

2007-11-08T01:00:00.002-05:00

I first encountred the term "Fed" in a conversation with James and Don back in '98 and didn’t really understand or particularly care about rate fluctuations.
This week I managed to go through Age of Turbulence in one long read on a train ride to NY. As per the introduction, the first half of the book is a recap of Greenspans life. While intersting, it was of no particular interest to me. The second half is where the real meat lies. It provides a holistic overview and insight into some of the decisions and the role of the Fed, the economy and the intricacies of global markets, natural resources, terrorism.... the list goes on. In particular the analysis of the Indian economy and its associated problems like the "license-raj" and corruption are noteworthy (and quite accurate). He manages to carefully decompose the issue and explain why in four decades India’s per-capita GDP went from being equal to China's to less than half and still declining. There were three discussions that immediately resonated with me. First was the notion of happiness being relative (rather than absolute) and often judged in reference to a peer group, associated conspicuous consumption and its place in capitalism. This reminded me of Allain De Bottoms philosophical discussion of "Theory of Leisure class" in Status Anxiety. The second was the discussion on capital shift and the example of GM and Google. He described how in the bigger picture, GM was laying-off employees to direct cash flow to pension funds which in turn were investing in Google -ie "creative destructionism" (dismantling defunct businesses and reapply resources elsewhere), this reminded me of Thomas Friedmans description of how US jobs were being lost to outsourcing, but the money earned by outsourcee's was spent consuming products from the US. And the third was a discussion on IP protection of ideas by states, and circumstances in which such protection violates another’s right (e.g. to live!) then they can’t be protected, this reminded me of a conversation I recently had with an lawyer friend about pharmaceuticals... Overall, the second half of the book is really worth reading. Given the breadth of the coverage and sometimes obscure language, I might need to re-parse it again someday.

Versioning enterprise services

2007-11-02T17:53:00.000-05:00

The Nov issue of the SOA jounal includes my paper on Versioning web services in the enterprise.
Online here and the digital edition of the printed journal is here.

Whats behind your Gap?

2007-11-01T16:49:00.000-05:00

Its a sad fact that child labor is prevalent in India. When you're surviving on less than $1/day with a corrupt and apathetic government, then you're naturally susceptible to exploitation. But US corporations should know better. They talk of social morality and corporate responsibility, but will cut corners or turn a blind eye to make a quick buck or boost quarterly numbers, and respond with "plausible deniability" when caught. This time, its Gap: they got busted using child labor in Delhi, ironically, to manufacture clothing for sale in "Baby Gap". The clip on the left is from Boston Globe's 10/30/07 report. Heres the original post from Observer. Gap has an official response on their website here.
So the question is - knowing what you know now, are YOU going to think twice about shopping at the Gap, or will you conveniently forget and trade morality for the comfort of $59 jeans ?

Whats in a name

2007-10-27T21:52:00.000-05:00

Sameer समीर... Noun(1)
हवा, वायु, पवन, अनिल, मरुत्, पौन, बयार, समीर, बयारि, पवमान, अजिर, अध्यर्ध - प्रायः सर्वत्र चलता रहनेवाला वह तत्व जो सारी पृथ्वी पर व्याप्त है और जिसमें प्राणी साँस लेते हैं "हवा के अभाव में जीवन की कल्पना नहीं की जा सकती"

Gandhis sons

2007-10-21T18:30:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows Gandhi, but not everyone knows that he had four sons and what would be considered a dysfunctional relationship by modern standards with them, especially the eldest. Heres some information from Peter Ruhe about his them and a book about his first son (Harilal Gandhi-A life) and another book by his second son Manilal (Gandhi's prisoner). RecentlyHarilal rather sad life has been explored in this (artistically embellished) movie.

Mashups

2007-10-04T20:38:00.000-05:00

My respected friend and past colleague John, has written about SOA and mashups in "Implementing SOA Without Enterprise Mashups? You Might As Well Kiss Your Job Goodbye!". I m not sure I agree with him because first, this seems like the IT version of Fox News fear mongering to subliminally push a product, and second, theres no baseline definition of "mashup".

If you dont believe me, walk around the office and ask five of the smartest guys you can find, and "mashup" will mean different things to each of them. Wikipedia defines mashups here and heres a ZDnet mashup 101 whiteboard session. "SOA mashup" is a new twist.

Call me jaded, but this seems like old wine in new bottles. You could take any article or writeup about mashups and replace the term mashup with "xyz remoting", "Web Services", your favourite "WS-*" standard, "xyz services", "SOA" or "SOA mashup" and an eerie timeline will emerge.
It's vendor marketing like this which leads to "Info-management".

Rethinking work

2007-10-02T19:27:00.000-05:00

Picked this up at NPR's fund raiser last month. The book does a decent job of getting the reader to be more introspective. The diccussion about inner and outter economy made sense, but I tuned out somewhere in the middle. I couldnt identify with his approach (eg the way he encourages clients to cold-call peers etc). His other book "We Are All Self-Employed ", was referenced multiple times and seemed worth scanning through.

iPod and its Indian chip

2007-09-27T20:41:00.000-05:00

Some friends didnt believe me when I told them that their iPod was based on a chip designed in India. So here is the link to the original story and another one. The company was Pinexe Systems India, outsourced from PortalPlayer, which was later acquired by Nvidia. Here are the technical details on the inside of the first iPod line. Before you decide to open yours up -the newer(?) Nano internals are here. Same design, different company and lower cost. Thomas Friedman also talks about this in his book

The No Asshole Rule

2007-09-19T10:31:00.000-05:00

Stanford professor Robert Sutton provides insight into the corporate jungle in this humourous and thoughtful book -No Asshole Rule. He differentiates between temperory and “chronic” or “certified,”a-holes, provides identifying traits, strategies for dealing with them and ways of not turning into one yourself. Excerpts can be found on this blog. The book mentioned the MIT's Jerk-O-Meter - wish they sold this gizmo at Circuit City!

Personal information for $3

2007-09-12T22:02:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased a tin of cookies from a local RiteAid, the item was marked as $3.00 off. Come to find out at the register that its a mail in rebate and I have to go online to get the $3 discount. Fine, so I go here and find out that a) you need to register b) enter your information and c) enter information from the receipt which includes the location,transaction number,and time of purchase. Right before I hit send I realize that for a mere $3.00, RiteAid now knows who I am, where I live (and of course has my email), and has my credit card number. In computer security lingo - has formed an identity by associating a principal to a subject via a transaction. Interesting.
Maybe its the consultant in me, but, if the software guys have done their homework, they should now be able to track what I purchase at the point of sale, determine my shopping habits using patterns and track my browsing preferences on their website. If the marketing guys have done their homework, I should expect to see more spam in my email and mail box. If the corporate guys have done their homework, they will recoup and probably turn a profit - by sharing my information with their business partners & agents. If the legal guys have done their homework, I probably consented to all this somewhere in the small print when I selected that "terms of service" check box in the website sign up process.
Suddenly I feel used ! That box of cookies that I paid for, and getting back $3.00 of my money doesn't seem like a fair exchange.
By the way, there are meta-aggregators like ChoicePoint who are in the business of associating multiple transactions, financial or otherwise, and other records to an identity. So even though a no-body like me is a mere drop in the statistical ocean, it seems a lot of people are interested in deep sea diving.

Integrating services & UI's

2007-09-09T12:43:00.000-05:00

A litter over a year back I looked at DWR integration with web services. Things have evolved a bit since then. Version 2.0 of DWR has been released and now JAX-WS supports JSON

This new extension allows you to define a binding annotation on the implementation, which generates something that resembles a JavaScript webservice proxy. The service can be accessed via url?js like the usual url?wsdl. The data type marshalling seems to plug in directly into the jax-ws marshalling layer with Jettison and the switch occurs via a content-type=application/json header.

So I thought of plugging this into my earlier Flex example since Flex has support for JSON via an add-on corelib. It worked after some hit-n-trial but occasionally there were runtime exceptions possibly due to bugs somewhere in the Flex<->JSON<->Java marshalling chain. Still, this should be of interest to those looking for techniques to integrate services directly with UI's.