Month: August 2012

The Woz, the Cloud, and Control

The Woz

It’s about time somebody said it: “I really worry about everything going to the cloud.”  Steve Wozniak, creator of the earliest widely used personal computer – the Apple II – spoke to a group recently in Washington, DC, and warned that cloud computing will be “horrendous”.

Personally, as a lifelong data professional and uber geek, I would say – it could be horrendous.  The potential is certainly there.  The shift to cloud computing puts the onus on the cloud providers to ensure safety and availability of the information contained in the cloud.  Does that guarantee a horrendous outcome?  I don’t think so.  But it’s certainly possible.  There’s unquestionably an element of risk involved.  That’s why I only put certain digital assets in the cloud, and not others.

Wozniak, I believe, is speaking to the notion that most people and organizations are moving to shift larger amounts of information to the cloud, and therefore he’s convinced that it will ultimately be “horrendous”.

The key concept in cloud computing is the element of “control”.  Who controls your digital assets?  By “digital assets”, I mean – the software you’ve purchased, the eBooks you bought, your own personal data that you’ve developed,  collected, and stored?  Your documents you’ve written, your emails you wrote, sent, and received?  Your family photos?  Your scanned bills and bank statements?

Even your votes you’ve cast on official ballots in your local polling station – those are subject to the cloud as well.  Everything that has been digitized is now subject to the major paradigm shift of moving the storage of such digital assets to the cloud.

The term “cloud” is intended to emphasize the nebulous nature of the storage of this information.  You’re not supposed to be concerned with it’s location, it’s just “out there”.  Somewhere.  On some computer, connected to someplace on the Internet.

It could be the down the street.  Or Siberia.  Theoretically, it could be physically located in a satellite in outer space, literally.

You’re not supposed to be worried about it.

Wozniak apparently is worried about it.

Are you?

Prosthetics and 3D Printing

One thing about working in the database industry:  you don’t work in a vaccum.  By that, I mean you generally don’t work solely on data issues, since data does not exist for its own sake, but rather for the sake of supporting a business, government agency, or some other organization.  Data engineers who work with business systems and large scale enterprise applications must eventually learn about the businesses they work with, and in great detail. Lucky for me, too, since personally I just happen to be fascinated by just about everything.

Case in point:  the recent advances in something called 3D printing.  If you’ve never seen it in work before, the second video below won’t make any sense, so do yourself a favor and watch the first video, and see how computer-aided design systems can directly “print” fully functional three-dimensional objects, including tools, with moving parts, all at once:

Next, if you want to see how 3D printing can go beyond a simple crescent wrench, take a look at this stunning application:

That second video is what prompted me to blog about this subject today.

It’s remarkable enough to imagine that a space travel team could theoretically “manufacture” any tool they need in space with a minimum of a 3D printing machine and a supply of resin, plus the right software and knowledge of how to create whatever tool is required.

But in the second video, we see how a prosthetic manufacturer is challenged to deliver a significantly smaller set of complex prosthetics than what he has previously created. In short order, he is able to scale down the design, and switch to a lighter material that won’t burden the patient, and he completes and delivers the devices almost instantaneously – and is able to continue delivering scaled prosthetics as the patient – a growing child – requires larger devices over time. And he does it all in a virtual instant, via mail order.

Remarkable.

Press Club Awards and the Boston Globe’s Jenn Abelson

On July 24, I attended the annual awards dinner of the National Press Club.  I serve as a judge for the Friedenberg Award for the Online Journalism category, and this year we selected a work published at the Boston Globe.  The journalists were Jenn Abelson and Beth Daley.  Jenn was present for the award, and here I am with Jenn, and with Bloomberg’s Jonathan Salant, the chair of our committee.

Steve O'Hearn, Jenn Abelson, Jonathan Salant, the NPC Awards Dinner, July 24, 2012.

Here’s a closeup of Jenn and Beth’s award.

The Friedenberg Online Journalism Award 2012. The NPC Awards Dinner, July 24, 2012.

I’ve been involved with this awards category for almost ten years now. When Jonathan was NPC president in 2006, I met with him at his home, the intent was to strategize an overhaul of the National Press Club’s website with his very skilled wife Joan Friedenberg, who was the founding editor of Online Newshour and was skilled at cutting edge media-based websites. Unfortunately, Joan had just fallen ill, and within a year she passed away. Today, the award category is named in her honor.

The National Press Club’s annual awards dinner is a night in which many more awards are given as well. One in particular went to C-Span’s Brian Lamb, who was honored with the President’s Citation.

Brian Lamb receives the National Press Club's 2012 President's Citation. The NPC Awards Dinner, July 24, 2012.

It was a great night, in large part due to the outstanding staff at the Club, as well as the emcee, Club president Theresa Werner! There’s more information about this at the National Press Club’s website.

John Batchelor’s “good evening”.

I love how John Batchelor will introduce a guest and end with “Good Evening”, like this – and I’m going to paraphrase – but he’ll say something like “Tonight there is mischief afoot, intrigue from Washington to Cairo, with tension in the balance and yadda yadda yadda … so tonight we are joined by Joe Smith who has been intimately involved and understands the nuances of the situation. Joe, do you think this and that and what about the other, and with the world hanging in the balance and the history of humanity at risk do you think there’s a chance for human survival, good evening Joe.”

GOOD EVENING – after all that, he’ll always end with “Good evening”.

He’s so civilized.  And insightful.  He covers a wide array of intelligent topics – from astronomy to current events, to international economics and politics, but not the kind you typically hear in American media.  Perhaps the sort you might find in The Economist .  If you’re a news junkie, John Bachelor is a breath of fresh air.  If you like being informed in an intelligent way, tune in, you’ll love the show.  And his bumper music is the best.

Here’s a video of a song John always plays around midnight during his late night radio show, a song called “Midnight, the Stars, and You”, in a beautiful old recording of Al Bowly, that always makes me think of Doc Scantlin … click below to hear it.

 

New Government Scanners Know Everything – From a Distance

The most excellent tech blog Gizmodo published an article about three weeks ago titled Hidden Government Scanners Will Instantly Know Everything About You From 164 Feet Away.  In it, Gizmodo states that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working on equipment that will be ready in two years, and will be “capable of detecting every tiny trace of any substance on your body, from specks of gunpowder to your adrenaline levels to a sugar-sized grain of cannabis to what you had for breakfast.”

This isn’t new technology, but it’s faster – “ten million times faster” than existing technology.  It’s also mobile and rack-mountable.

In other words, they’ll be able to scan everyone who walks through airports, shopping malls, office buildings, subway stations, and really – just any random place – without the individual being subject to lines, or even giving their approval necessarily.

For those of s who are tired of long lines in airport security, this is a great thing.

And for those of us who are law abiding, and who live under a government that responds to the will of the people and is not tyrannical, this is also a good thing.

For others … not so much.

And for those of us who are obsessed with technology, the potential for something like this, and available to existing automated systems, is … very very interesting.

 

 

Todd Bauchspies, PRS Guitars, and “Cecil, Pronto, and the Monkey Man”

Todd Bauchspies is, quite simply, the most gifted guitarist in the music industry today.  A number of us in the Washington, DC / Baltimore / Annapolis area have known this for years, and the rest of the world is finally starting to figure it out.

Case in point:  the world famous Paul Reed Smith, maker of some of the best (and some of the most expensive) guitars in the business – selected Todd to help promote some of the new line of acoustic guitars.

For those who aren’t “in the know” on high-end performance electric guitars, PRS guitars are among the preferred musical instruments of such musical artists as Carlos Santana, Steve Vai, Alex Lifeson (Rush), Ted Nugent, Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction), Nick Catanese (the 2001 movie Rock Star, among other things), and also – the amazing Todd Bauchspies.

Todd’s a virtuoso with a stunning range of capabilities.  He used to perform a great deal with the late great Eva Cassidy, famous for her covers of classics such as Over the Rainbow and Sting’s Fields of Gold.  And Todd’s fully capable of burning up the fretboard of any screaming electric (often a PRS) out there.  My favorite searing electric leads of all time are Todd’s originals that he performed with the fusion group Permanent Vacation.

Recently PRS selected Todd to help promote their acoustic guitars.  Here’s one of the videos that PRS created and uploaded to their own PRS channel, featuring Todd’s original composition, “Cecil, Pronto, and the Monkey Man”.

He’s the best – click the video above and enjoy!

Kathie Lee Gifford at the National Press Club

Gifford, Reid: National Registry Act Not Funded

“If we had a 747 airliner that went down every month and killed 150 people – we wouldn’t stand for that,” said playwright and former TV talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford at a Club Newsmaker April 13. Yet too many children, four a day, are dying from child abuse and neglect, often in their own homes,” she said. Gifford, in town with her new musical “Saving Aimee,” was invited to the Club along with John Reid, executive director of ChildHelp, a child-abuse victim advocacy and support group. Reid said that The National Registry Act passed Congress in 2006 requires state-level data on the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders to be shared across state lines with child-abuse victims; but he added that funding required to implement has not been appropriated. He announced a new service called ChildHelp Alert, which provides phone calls to subscribers, informing them when registered sex offenders move into their neighborhood.

From The National Press Club Record, April 23, 2007

Predictive Analytics at the Batman Theater Shooting

In the aftermath of the horrible crime that was committed in Aurora, Colorado, some have questioned whether the crime could have been prevented or otherwise averted.

Incidentally, I prefer the word “crime”, because that’s what happened in the theater that night – a crime.  While the results of it are certainly tragic, I find it difficult to use the word “tragedy” when referring to the shooting itself.  To me, the word “tragedy” implies a certain element of inevitability, or unavoidability.  Hurricanes and tsunamis are tragic.  Earthquakes in major cities are tragic.  The shooting, allegedly committed by James Eagan Holmes, was a crime.  And I think it’s safe to omit the word “allegedly” here, but let’s let the investigation play through.  The point is that Holmes could’ve taken a different course of action that night.  Presumably he chose to do what he did.  If all of this is true, and it’s hard to imagine otherwise, then Holmes is a thug and his actions were criminal.  No sense in diluting his responsibility by implying that it was somehow unavoidable.  But I digress.

Piyanka Jain is the president of a company called Aryng, a company known for its work with data analytics and forecasting models.  Jain wrote an article about the shooting and the potential for predictive analytics, and his company sent it out on the wires.  Yahoo News picked it up and posted it under the headline Could Analytics Have Preempted Colorado Theatre Shootout?.  It’s very interesting.  In the article, Jain points out several things.

But first, another aside – do you ever watch that CBS TV show The Mentalist, with Simon Baker and Robin Tunney?  I love that show.  Baker plays the main character who’s name is “Patrick Jane”.  This reference to the Aryng CEO reminds me of something you’d hear on that show.  But I digress once again, where were we?

Oh yes – Jain – not Simon Baker’s “Jane”, but the Aryng CEO – points out several things.

First, predictive analytics are already being used with success in Santa Clara, California.  Jain gives an interesting example of how police were present in larger numbers than usual at the scene of a  crime, because of the information presented by an application called Predictive Policing, which in this instance, issued a forecast to law enforcement that the probability of a crime taking place at that time at that location was elevated, based on its analysis of previous trends and statistics.  The software was correct, the crime began, and police on the spot arrested the suspects.

Jain second point: he’s of the opinion that it’s theoretically possible that the Aurora, Colorado shooting could’ve been forecast as well.

I don’t think Jain is saying that someone fell down on the job, that’s not the message here.  The point is that the technology is “here”, and can enable these sorts of possibilities.  It’s still relatively new but predictive analytics are probably a lot more mature than most people realize.

Stay tuned.