Saturday, May 31, 2014

2014 Internet Trends

A lot of interesting data and observations...



slides: 2014 Internet Trends — Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers: by Mary Meeker



s3.amazonaws.com/kpcbweb/files/85/Internet_Trends_2014_vFINAL_-_05_28_14-_PDF.pdf?1401286773

ideas: dual touch phones!

Ingenuous!
brilliant design sketches for interactivity using the back of the phone as a touch-sensitive input device.
If there is a patent, it could make somebody rich...
Otherwise, it will make world a better place!

Super Fun Happy Time Blog -:

double tap on touch pad

game played with double touch phone


Free Data Mining Books

12 Free (as in beer) Data Mining Books | christonard:


Each of these is free-as-in-beer, which means you can download the complete version without expectation for anything in return. I think most of them are available for purchase as well, if you prefer a hard copy. Some of them include code samples in R, Python or MATLAB.


Bitcoin: $300 M / day and growing

Bitcoin Set to Overtake eBay's PayPal in Transaction Volumes:

"bitcoin is fast establishing itself as the currency to use globally and instantly to make purchases or payments over the internet recording nearly $300m (£178m, €220m) daily in transactions. 

 "Whenever you have an instrument that trades over 300 million US dollars a day, it must be recognized," Peter Tasca, CEO of Laureate Trust, said in a statement. 

 "The digital currency works, Bitcoin has greater volume transactions than Western Union and we anticipate it will overtake PayPal later this year."

PayPal processes payments totalling $315.3m every day, according to Statistic Brain.

"





distributed database: cockroachdb

cockroachdb/cockroach · GitHub:

"Cockroach is a distributed key/value datastore which supports ACID transactional semantics and versioned values as first-class features. The primary design goal is global consistency and survivability, hence the name. Cockroach aims to tolerate disk, machine, rack, and even datacenter failures with minimal latency disruption and no manual intervention. Cockroach nodes are symmetric; a design goal is one binary with minimal configuration and no required auxiliary services."




book: DevOps: A Software Architect’s Perspective

An interesting way to develop a book and receive feedback while in progress.
Pages shared as slides (images) @ SlideShare

DevOps: A Software Architect’s Perspective:
The book will be later published through a publisher

ideas: Write-Only Dataase: Datomic

Rich Hickey,  creator of Clojure programming language has also designed a matching database. Datomic has some quite special properties, based on principles of simplicity. By the way, he also gave a special presentation to explain difference of "symple" and "easy".

Datomic Content on InfoQ
Datomic is based on facts called "datom" (like "data atom" :) that are sets of:
  • Identity of the Entity
  • Attribute / property
  • Value (could be simple or an array also)
  • Transaction, that defines time and may also include creator etc.
  • (plus "Add/Retract" flag?)
All data in Datomic are represented as a tree of such values.
The only "schema" are definitions of Attributes.

The crucial distinction from most of other information systems is the requirement to include time (in the form of transaction). 
That is based on observation that any information is not complete without defining when it is added to the system.
In this case that is crucial, since "changes" are in fact new assignments of values to same Identity and Attribute, just at different time.

For example, field "Address" can have one address at one time, and some time later when the person moves, a new value can be assigned.  The old value still stays in the system, to preserve consistency of the system, and enable easy historical queries, based on any snapshot of database state in previous time.

Based on described "information architecture" the system separates function of "write" to system, that is transactional and very scalable, since it does not do anything else. The read from the system is enabled by separate  "readers", that are again simple and could be added as needed to handle the load.

There are many other nice properties, such as ability to represent queries / program as data (that is based on Clojure's Lisp heritage), and nice ability to match various data models, including
  • relational
  • object oriented
  • key-values
  • multi-value (arrays) properties
Datalog is a truly declarative logic programming language that syntactically is a subset of Prolog. It is often used as a query language for deductive databases

The Architecture of Datomic: @ InfoQ
"This representation has obvious similarities to the Subject/Predicate/Object data model of RDF statements. However, without a temporal notion or proper representation of retraction, RDF statements are insufficient for representing historical information. Being oriented toward business information systems, Datomic adopts the closed-world assumption, avoiding the challenges of universal naming, open-world, shared semantics etc of the semantic web. A Datom is a minimal and sufficient representation of a fact."

Note: I think that "add/remove" is not necessary,

The Architecture of Datomic


The Impedance Mismatch is Our Fault @ InfoQ
Stuart Dabbs Halloway explains what the impedance mismatch is and what can be done to solve it in the context of RDBMS, OOP, and NoSQL.

Deconstructing the Database @ InfoQ

Datomic - Home

download Datomic (free)
while the technology is striving to be simple, versions are a bit "complected"
presumably to help business...



Datomic @ YouTube

Datomic is almost perfect data management platform, with one significant shortcoming: it does not come with data synchronization tool for distributed environment, and identity resolution. That is for a good reason: to keep it simple.

There is likely a possibility to combine that platform with Semantic-Web like ontology based brokers.

The key issue, in my opinion, is that the such nice system is not separated from its "abstract" information model. It would be nice to have a simple specification, such as HTML/HTTP is for WWW, and then prominent implementation(s)...

Friday, May 30, 2014

Python (and others) in Web Browser

Skulpt 

Skulpt is an entirely in-browser implementation of Python.
No preprocessing, plugins, or server-side support required, just write Python and reload.


Various programming languages all running directly in Web Browser, 
thanks to compiling to optimized subset of JavaScript.

Such compiling is usually done by this award winning compiler






Wednesday, May 28, 2014

tool, web server: nginx

nginx:

nginx [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as a mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev. For a long time, it has been running on many heavily loaded Russian sites including Yandex, Mail.Ru, VKontakte, and Rambler. According to Netcraft nginx served or proxied 18.16% busiest sites in May 2014. Here are some of the success stories: Netflix, Wordpress.com, FastMail.FM.

Nginx logo.svg
Nginx (pronounced "engine-x") is an open source reverse proxy server for HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP,POP3, and IMAP protocols, as well as a load balancer, HTTP cache, and a web server (origin server). The nginx project started with a strong focus on high concurrency, high performance and low memoryusage. It is licensed under the 2-clause BSD-like license and it runs on Linux, BSD variants, Mac OS X,Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, as well as on other *nix flavors.[6] It also has a proof of concept port for Microsoft Windows.[7]
...
Nginx uses an asynchronous event-driven approach to handling requests, instead of the Apache HTTP Server model that defaults to a threaded orprocess-oriented approach, where the Event MPM is required for asynchronous processing. Nginx's modular event-driven architecture[17] can provide more predictable performance under high loads.[18]

tool, media player: XBMC

About | XBMC:
xbmc_about

XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub that can be installed on Linux, OSX, Windows, iOS, and Android, featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most videos, music, podcasts, and other digital media files from local and network storage media and the internet. Our forums and Wiki are bursting with knowledge and help for the new user right up to the application developer. We also have helpful Facebook, Google+, Reddit, Twitter and Youtube pages.
...
In addition to creating XBMC, the members of Team XBMC have created an official
- XBMC Remote Control for Android
- XBMC Remote Control for iOS


XBMC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The software was originally produced as a media center application named "Xbox Media Center" for the original Xbox game console,[6][7][16] and was later made available under the name "XBMC" as a native application for Android, Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, iOS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.[17] It is also available as a standalone version referred to as XBMCbuntu.

Google's Self-Driving Car Prototype

Google's Self-Driving Car Prototype Ditches the Steering Wheel | News & Opinion | PCMag.com:

Google Self-Driving Car Prototype, Rendering

The small, Volkswagen Bug-esque vehicle does not have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal, "because they don't need them," Google said in a blog post. Just get in, and Google's car will take you to your destination with the push of a button.



For Self Driving car future, Traffic tickets are a trivial $6.5 billion for the USA vs $100 billion from relieving traffic jams another $100 billion from few deaths and injuries and 4 times more road capacity for larger cities and a potential 30% Urban GDP boost

Google's Self-Driving Cars Could Double The Size Of Our Cities - seattlepi.com

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

pluralsight: Raspberry Pi for Developers

Raspberry Pi for Developers - Online Training Course for Developers: @ pluralsight
"Raspberry Pi is a low-cost computing platform that provides a way to building interesting applications using common programming languages. It also opens up the possibility of interesting hardware scenarios as well. This course will cover the basics of what you need to get up and running with the Raspberry Pi."

Raspberry Pi.org

Download Python | Python.org

Raspberry Pi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
RaspberryPi.jpg   Raspberry Pi Logo.svg
The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools.

The Raspberry Pi has a Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC),[3] which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU,[12] and was originally shipped with 256 megabytes of RAM, later upgraded to 512 MB.[4][13] It does not include a built-in hard disk or solid-state drive, but it uses an SD card for booting and persistent storage.[14]

The Foundation provides Debian and Arch Linux ARM distributions for download.[15] Tools are available for Python as the main programming language,[16][17] with support for BBC BASIC[18] (via the RISC OSimage or the Brandy Basic clone for Linux),[19] C,[16] Java[20] and Perl.[16]

IoT: secure gateway

New gateway offers secure communication for the Internet of things:

"KAAZING Gateway 4.0 JMS Edition with Enterprise Shield aims to deliver secure enterprise messaging systems. Based on the HTML5 WebSocket standard it provides a scalable full duplex solution with near-zero latency."

Internet of Things

"Smart Data" (Semantic Web)

Forget big data, here comes 'smart data': Semantic Web Meetup - Technical.ly Philly:

"Adding more data isn’t the solution to all problems. Getting value from data comes down to how easily you can do something with it.

Smart data is data with semantics attached. Semantics gives data meaning. More specifically it creates data with computer understandable meaning"

"Stardog is the leading RDF graph database that has semantic search capabilities built-in."


IoT: Apple's "Smart Home"

DailyTech - Report: Apple to Take on Home Automation with “Smart Home” Platform at WWDC:

 

"The earlier filing (Patent No. 8,577,392) described how an iPhone or iPad could be used to control “lighting systems, security systems, garage-door openers, music controllers, climate controllers, or kitchen appliances” – in fact it could be similar in scope to AirPlay and iBeacon, but geared towards home automation products and appliances."


Sunday, May 25, 2014

podcast story: Oceanic @ The Long Now

Sylvia Earle, Tierney Thys: Oceanic - The Long Now
"Two-thirds of global fisheries are overfished. Eating a tuna, Earle points out, is like eating a wolf or a tiger. It is a magnificent predator often decades in age. We no longer commercially harvest wildlife on land. Why do we do it in the sea?
...
A sea-going photosynthetic bacteria named prochlorococcus was identified as recently as 1986, yet it may be the most abundant species on Earth, responsible for half of all the oxygen in the atmosphere"

Oceans significantly getting more acidic, due to increased CO2 dissolved in water, affecting ecological balance... 



data visualization: Eurostat

Eurostat - Tables, Graphs and Maps Interface (TGM) map:



Eurostat - Tables, Graphs and Maps Interface (TGM) graph



Ok, it is a "graphic" or "chart", not a "graph"

but it is an interesting visualization.

A proof that "pie" chart is useless for comparison.

Maps out of sync with table data, that is not quite good...



Some interesting data, too; 100 is Europe's average GDP/capita

1. Luxembourg, 263
2. Norway, 195
Ireland = 129, more than Germany = 123
USA = 152
Japan = 105

Drones

A near-miss on 20000 ft with a passenger airplane...

Things are getting serious...



podcast: American Drones Moving In At Home | On Point with Tom Ashbrook:



Big and lethal American drones have changed the equation of global power projection in the last decade. Raised big moral and legal and strategic questions in skies around the world. Now, a swarm of smaller drones is chomping at the bit to flood America’s skies. The FAA is still working out the rules, but some aren’t waiting. We had a near-miss with an airliner just reported in Florida. They’re calling it the Wild West up there. And it’s just begun
About Us | 3drobotics.com
3D Robotics develops innovative, flexible and reliable personal drones and UAV technology for everyday exploration and business applications.

Now working with Google on 3D mobile project "Tango"...

3D mobile: Google Project Tango

Kinect-like features in an Android device (phone or tablet).
Coming soon, likely to be released to select developers at Google I/O conference in June, as an 7" tablet with 2 cameras and distance sensors, to track 3D view of environment, for indoor navigation, gaming, and whatever comes next...

ATAP Project Tango – Google:
current prototype is a 5” Android phone containing highly customized hardware and software designed to track the full 3-dimensional motion of the device as you hold it while simultaneously creating a map of the environment. These sensors allow the phone to make over a quarter million 3D measurements every second updating its position and orientation in real-time combining that data into a single 3D model of the space around you.
Project Tango







Saturday, May 24, 2014

Reactive REST, JSONPath

Very interesting generalization of data access and caching:
  • IObservable (reactive extensions) for both synchronous and async calls,
    making possible to mix fast (cache) and slower (remote REST) calls
  • JSON object (dictionary) as universal representation, including for arrays,
    that are effectively mapping of integer index to value.
    Dictionary properties can be "split" and "re-assembled", to help partial data retrieval and updates. 
  • References inside of JSON, to avoid duplication
  • Re-assembling "objects graph" from JSON references and simple structures.
Reactive REST: @ InfoQ
Jafar Husain explains how Netflix uses reactive programming to build and consume REST endpoints, and how they work around the limitations of the HTTP protocol to create high-performance REST APIs.

qconsf.com/system/files/presentation-slides/Reactive REST.pdf

cufp.org/sites/all/files/slides/2013/husain.pdf

Medium/falkor · GitHub

json-path - Java JsonPath implementation - Google Project Hosting

JSONPath (JavaScript / npm)



http://netflix.com/user 
{ 
  videoLists: { 
    “0”: { 
      “name”: “Thrillers”, 
      “0”: [“videos”, 2654], 
      // more titles 
     length: 74, 
    }, 
    “1”: { 
      “name”: “Action Movies”, 
      “0”: [“videos”, 2654], 
      // more titles 
      length: 74 
    }, // more lists… 
    length: 25 
  }, 
  videos: { 
    2654: { 
      name: “Die hard”, 
      rating: 4.0 
    } 
  } 
} 

Friday, May 23, 2014

ASP.NET vNext and MVC 6

Introducing ASP.NET vNext and MVC 6: @InfoQ

"Microsoft feels that System.Web needs to be removed because it is actually quite expensive. A typical HttpContext object graph can consume 30K of memory per request. When working with small JSON-style requests this represents a disproportionately high cost. With MVC 6 new design, the pre-request overhead drops to roughly 2K. 

Included in MVC 6 is Web API and Web Pages, allowing Microsoft to remove a lot of the overlap between the three frameworks. One result of this change means that MVC will be self-hosting just like Web API 2 and SignalR 2. 

In order to make deployment easier and more reliable, “vNext will support true side-by-side deployment.” Rather than being installed in the GAC, each MVC library needed for a given web site will be referenced like a normal developer-created DLL. “That means you can update your app without affecting other applications on the same server.”

book: HTML5 Game Development

based on Udacity class:

Learn HTML5 - Game Development Course Online - Udacity:

Alt text

@apress



free book chapters:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/udacity-hosted-downloads/Udacity-HTML5-Game-Development-Insights-

Sample.pdf






story: Bitcoin @ Freakonomics

A very interesting view on digital currency solution(s).
A parallel with early web and internet, that was not taken seriously...
(Photo: Jason Benjamin)

Freakonomics » Why Everybody Who Doesn’t Hate Bitcoin Loves It: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast:

Freakonomics » Why Everybody Who Doesn’t Hate Bitcoin Loves It: Full Transcript

Explanation by Mark Andreessen, a web pioneer:
"The problem Bitcoin solved, says Andreessen, was known as the Byzantine General’s Problem:

ANDREESSEN: The metaphor basically is you have a group of generals in the Byzantine Empire and they’ve surrounded a huge city. And there are these encampments that these generals have all around the city. And at some point they’re going to lay siege to the city. But they have a coordination problem, which is they have to be able to communicate with each other to develop the battle plan and to decide when to launch the attack. And so they’re sending runners back and forth between the cities. 
The twist to it is some of the generals are traitors. But none of the other generals know which ones are traitors. 

And so the question is how do you coordinate a significant number of people who don’t know each other and don’t trust each other being able to communicate securely and be able to basically establish digital trust. And as you’re probably well aware, digital trust is a concept that’s brand new. You know, one of the huge problems of the Internet over 20 years is who do you trust, which websites do you trust, which people do you trust when you do a transaction, who do you trust? 

And so this idea of the Byzantine Generals Problem turns out to apply directly to the Internet as a whole. One of the things as a consequence that’s been missing on the Internet for 20 years is kind of a native concept of money, right? And so, the ability to very easily pay somebody online, the ability to very easily charge for a piece of content, the ability to very easily exchange a digital title, or a digital key, or a digital contract has just been missing because you have no mechanism for establishing trust. And so Bitcoin basically holds out the promise of being the first solution to establishing trust over an untrusted network."



Just recently, a solution for "Byzantine Generals Problem" was referenced in relation to Leslie Lamport, Touring award winner, who actually defined the term and proposed solution now commonly used in core network protocols.

The Writings of Leslie Lamport: The Byzantine Generals Problem


Thursday, May 22, 2014

IoT: ubiquitous as electricity

'Internet of Things to be as ubiquitous as electricity by 2025' | The latest news from the Computer and IT Industry | PC Retail:
"A report has predicted that the Internet of Things will become as commonplace as electricity in day-to-day life by 2025."

'Internet of Things to be as ubiquitous as electricity by 2025'



Well, general Internet is already (almost) ubiquitous as electricity.
It is interesting to start thinking about IoT as a "data service", and "utility".
And why limit to data from "things", there are other data that make for useful services.
"Data Smart Web"

IoT: Apps by SmartThings

Interesting concept, to aggregate management of various IoT devices by common apps platfrom

SmartThings takes steps toward open Internet of Things with app enhancements | TechnologyTell:
"...create a better app experience that makes it easier to monitor, control, and automate your home with an expanded list of uses and products..."

hardware-certificationAs developers add new and creative use cases to our Platform, we add these to our app for all customers to use.


Wednesday, May 21, 2014

ideas: Learning from Feedback

Freakonomics » The Three Hardest Words in the English Language: Full Transcript:
"There’s only one way to learn, and that’s through feedback."

"One of the first steps in learning to think like a freak is learning to say “I don’t know.” Why? Because until you can admit what you don’t know, it’s virtually impossible to learn what you need to. Because if you think you already have all the answers, you won’t go looking for them. But let’s be clear: simply saying “I don’t know” isn’t a solution. It’s just a first step. You have to figure out what you don’t know – and then work like a dog to learn.

The thing about always faking is that if you fake like you know the answer, you don’t have the freedom to explore other possibilities. But if you actually care about the outcome and the truth, saying ‘I don’t know’ is critical. One thing we’ve learned is that the only way to learn is through feedback. That whether you’re a human being, an animal or an organization, the way that you learn is by trying different things and seeing the outcome when you try different approaches, and comparing those outcomes."



Microsoft Surface Pro 3

What's right (and wrong) with the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 | ZDNet:
2014-05-21_10-40-53
The screen aspect ratio closer to 3:2
$799 to $1,949
An expensive tablet that compares with ultrabooks...

Surface Pro 3: Too little hardware, too late for too much money | ZDNet

ideas: Japanese Disposable Homes

Freakonomics » Why Are Japanese Homes Disposable? A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast
In most countries, houses get more valuable over time.
In Japan, a new buyer will often bulldoze the home. Why?

(Photo: Jacob Ehnmark)

It is a combination of cultural preference for "new", and historical and geological.
  • Earthquakes are very common and strong in Japan, and building code requirements are updated after large earthquakes. 
  • During World War 2 large number of houses was destroyed, and replacements ware build quickly and not in good quality. 
  • In Japan there is a cultural belief in natural renewal of all things (see Wikipedia article below)
  • Houses are considered temporary, and as such not maintained very well, so after a while they are not in great shape.
  • Value of houses depreciates over time, and as such it is not maintained
  • Because they are considered temporary, houses are often build in unique taste, that may not match desires of next owner... 
  • House buildings fully depreciate in 20-30 years in Japan. The land has more stable value, but that is also subject to large fluctuations
Some observers say that this is no effective for building wealth in the society... 

The shrine buildings at NaikÅ« and GekÅ«, as well as the Uji Bridge, are rebuilt every 20 years as a part of the Shinto belief of the death and renewal of nature and the impermanence of all things — wabi-sabi — and as a way of passing building techniques from one generation to the next.

Visual Studio Online API

Subscribe to Visual Studio Online events from another service | Visual Studio Online REST APIs:

Use the REST APIs to programmatically create subscriptions that notify your service when a specific event occurs in a team project. For example, create a subscription to notify your service when a build fails. When a user signs up for your service, you can let them choose what notifications they want and then create the subscriptions for them so that they don't have to set them up manually.



This may be one example of "cloud first" development in Microsoft:

introducing features on Azure hosted services first...

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Basics of Machine Learning

Basics of Machine Learning Course Notes
slides and audio from university course. Watch along on YouTube.

homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/vlavrenk/iaml.html
Basics of Machine Learning: Naive Bayes, decision trees, zero-frequency, missing data, ID3 algorithm, information gain, overfitting, confidence intervals, nearest-neighbour method, Parzen windows, K-D trees, K-means, scree plot, gaussian mixtures, EM algorithm, dimensionality reduction, principal components, eigen-faces, agglomerative clustering, single-link vs. complete link, lance-williams algorithm

  • a collection of statistical machine learning techniques
  • used to learn feature hierarchies
  • often based on artificial neural networks

CShell, open source C# REPL IDE

CShell, the open source C# REPL IDE | Coding4Fun Blog | Channel 9:

"CShell is an interactive C# scripting environment. It allows you to use C# without any fluff right in a console like environment called a read-eval-print-loop (REPL). Your code is directly evaluated and executed in a shell window, no separate executable has to be compiled and then run in a different process. More elaborate code can be written in a C# script and then evaluated as one file, only one line, or a selection. Then, your results can be easily dumped to HTML (like LINQPad) or viewed as a data grid or plotted to a chart."



CShell by ArnovaAssetManagement




China bans Windows 8 from government PCs

Did China ban Windows 8 from government PCs over XP's end of support? | ZDNet: "China has mysteriously announced it will exclude Windows 8 from newly-procured government computers.

In a brief statement on the Central Government Procurement Centre's website about a particular class of energy-saving products, the agency noted that new government computers are forbidden from having Windows 8 installed."

...the move is the Chinese government's response to Microsoft's recent end to support and security updates for Windows XP, which still runs most government computers.
...the government has "moved to avoid the awkwardness of being confronted with a similar situation again in future if it continues to purchase computers with [a] "foreign OS".


...the first step to supporting a homegrown OS is to promote the use of "Chinese-designed" (Linux based) OS among official users...


Is it time for Microsoft to introduce its own Linux distribution, i.e. "Winux" all with Office and official subscription support, and XP and Live Tiles "themes"... 

Serbia Floods

After a rainfall equivalent to 4 months in one day...
About 40 people dead, tens of thousands evacuated...
Possibly a $ billion damage...

Serbia Appeals for Worldwide Assistance After Deadly Floods - Bloomberg:


Balkans Flooding: Rising Danube Waters Likely to Spare Region - weather.com Over 1 Million Affected By Floods


FLOODRELIEF #SerbiaFloods #SerbiaNeedsHelp

Monday, May 19, 2014

AI, Climate Change, Under-water Archaeology, Ice-Age Americans

A fascinating scientific story about relatively recent human history (9000 years back). AI game-like simulation is used to identify likely behavior of hunted animals and people, to identify likely locations of submerged remains of hunting traps.

The water level was 150 feed (50m) lower than today before melting of ice.
And it was successful, they did find them under water.

How Paleo-Americans Emerged From The Ice Age | On Point with Tom Ashbrook: "We go under Lake Huron to see how America’s paleo-Indian mastodon hunters lived and moved at the end of the Ice Age. Plus: new studies suggest that the Antarctic shelf is collapsing for good.

9,000-Year-Old Caribou Hunting Structure Found Submerged in Lake Huron | Popular Archaeology - exploring the past
caribouhuntingimage2
"Discovery under 121 feet of water in Lake Huron sheds light on prehistoric caribou hunts | MLive.com


Irreversible melting of Antarctic Ice Shelf has started, to result with eventual sea level rise of 10 ft. It will take some time, but will change geography.

What Does U.S. Look Like With 10 Feet of Sea Level Rise? | Climate Central


Cities that will end up mostly submerged (or protected by sea walls):
www.climatecentral.org/wgts/10ft/CitiesList-10ft-SLR.html

New Jersey | Surging Seas: Sea level rise analysis by Climate Central


Rubik's Cube 40th birthday

Celebrate the 40th birthday of Rubik's Cube with today's Google Doodle:
Rubik's Cube game on Google

Rubik's Cube - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rubik's Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle invented in 1974[1][2]
by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture ErnÅ‘ Rubik.


Rubik's cube.svg

Official web site:
rubiks.com/

Solving 3x3 cube, from official web site:
rubiks.com/uploads/general_content/Rubiks_cube_3x3_solution-en.pdf

Today would be a good time for this site to be using a "cloud hosting".
"Scale out on demand"...

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Microsoft: Mobile First, Cloud First

Microsoft marketing has outdone itself again...
While Google declared "Mobile First", Microsoft has also added "Cloud First".

Azure is a great service, and apparently they are adding one CPU core every 5 seconds... that is 6.3 million cores per year, so at least a million servers.

TechEd Keynote | TechEd North America 2014 | Channel 9:

Microsoft helps enterprises embrace mobile-first, cloud-first world

Microsoft Announces More Of Its Mobile-First, Cloud-First Product Line

Mark Russinovich and Mark Minasi on Cloud Computing | TechEd North America 2014 | Channel 9

Microsoft's Russinovich: 'Azure is the new Windows' - FierceEnterpriseCommunications

An there is in fact a rational explanation what "Cloud First" means:
Windows, SQL Server, Office etc, a now being developed for Azure first,
as a temporary branch from the main product.
Those "cloud" changes are done, deployed and updated faster,
and then selectively included in "boxed" product releases for enterprise.
So it really is "cloud first".

Similar may be true for Mobile, since desktop features and apps are now usually following those developed for mobile devices...
"Metro GUI" appeared first on Windows Phone...
maybe it should have stayed there a bit longer :)


Saturday, May 17, 2014

ideas: Managing Meetings Time

Time Is a Company's Most Valuable Resource - HBR IdeaCast - Harvard Business Review:

"There’s also been a proliferation of attendees at meetings where the average meeting size has grown over time. And our research on decision making has basically supported what we call the Rule of Seven which says, for every person you add to a meeting over, above seven, the effectiveness of that meeting goes down by 10%. 

The effectiveness being gaged by the quality and your ability to actually reach decisions and outcomes in that setting. Say that, by the time you reach 17 people in a meeting, you’re actually not making any decisions"

Google Maps + Elevation API

The Google Elevation API - Google Maps API Web Services — Google Developers:

Google Maps adds elevation data for cyclists braving the hills | PCWorld
"Google has quietly added elevation data to bike routes in its Maps service, providing better intel for intrepid cyclists.

The feature, which launched Friday, seems to work for much of the U.S. and Canada. Google says Maps already factored in elevation when determining routes for cyclists, but until now the elevation data wasn’t made easily visible."

Friday, May 16, 2014

cloud: Windows Azure Pack for Windows Server

Windows Azure Pack for Windows Server:

"Windows Azure Pack for Windows Server is a collection of Windows Azure technologies, available to Microsoft customers at no additional cost for installation into your data center. It runs on top of Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 and, through the use of the Windows Azure technologies, enables you to offer a rich, self-service, multi-tenant cloud, consistent with the public Windows Azure experience."



Microsoft TechNet


IoT: Cisco Innovation Grand Challenge

Cisco IoT Innovation Grand Challenge - Home:

"Cisco IoT Innovation Grand Challenge

This global open competition aims to recognize, promote and reward innovators, entrepreneurs and early-stage startup businesses that can help us transform the industry by connecting the unconnected. Three winners of the Internet of Things Innovation Grand Challenge will share US $250,000 in award money that can be used to jumpstart new and existing businesses. "


tool: "Terminals", remote desktop client

Terminals - Home:

"Terminals is a secure, multi tab terminal services/remote desktop client. It uses Terminal Services ActiveX Client (mstscax.dll).

The project started from the need of controlling multiple connections simultaneously. It is a complete replacement for the mstsc.exe (Terminal Services) client."


Terminals


Supported server protocols:
  • Windows remote desktop (RDP)
  • VNC
  • VMRC
  • SSH
  • Telnet
  • RAS
  • ICA Citrix
  • HTTP and HTTPs based viewers

Thursday, May 15, 2014

IoT: $20 LaunchPad board

Prototype Internet Of Things Apps for $20? | Automation World:
"A new microcontroller from Texas Instruments enables engineers to prototype Internet of Things connectivity ranging from sensor gateways to control networks

Features of the Tiva C Series Connected LaunchPad include: • Onboard 10/100 Ethernet MAC+PHY with advanced-line diagnostics for smart identification of cabling issues. Integrated CAN and USB provide high-speed connectivity for the creation of gateway applications."

IoT: A Simple Explanation Of 'The Internet Of Things'

A Simple Explanation Of 'The Internet Of Things':



libelium_smart_world_infographic_big-500px

Net neutrality?

Net neutrality advocates flood FCC Twitter chat | PCWorld:



"...force the Internet to become a “public utility,.."
"..It's as important as electricity to modern Americans..."

Elon Musk for Nikola Tesla museum

Will Elon Musk fund a Nikola Tesla museum? - CNN.com:

"Inman tweeted Tuesday "@elonmusk I wrote a review of my Model S,
and then asked you for a little favor here [link]." 




To the delight of many Twitter users, 

Musk tweeted back: "@Oatmeal I would be happy to help.""



What it's like to own a Tesla Model S - A cartoonist's review of his magical space car - The Oatmeal



What it's like to own a Tesla Model S - Part 2 - The Oatmeal



Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a Serbian-American engineer and unsung inventor who helped pioneer the use of electricity, among other achievements. A campaign is underway, aided by entrepreneur Elon Musk, to turn Tesla's last remaining laboratory into a museum.



Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a Serbian-American engineer and unsung inventor who helped pioneer the use of electricity, among other achievements. A campaign is underway, aided by entrepreneur Elon Musk, to turn Tesla's last remaining laboratory into a museum.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Windows 8.1 Experience Index

Find your Windows Experience Index scores in Windows 8.1 - CNET
The Windows Experience Index benchmark tool is harder to find in Windows 8.1,
but is still available if you know where to look.


Open a command prompt as administrator, then type "winsat prepop" and press Enter.
This will run the benchmark and store the results on your PC as XML files.

Open the Windows Powershell as administrator, then type
"Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_WinSAT" and press Enter.
This will analyze the results in the XML files, then present them as scores for each category

.