Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

 
Government Executive Magazine - 11/15/03 :Managing Technology: :The Superheroes of Computers.  This Shane Harris November 15, 2003, article on the current state of supercomputers is very interesting, especially with regard to the philosophy behind grid computing.  It is a little startling to realize that the systems now doing major weather-prediction and storm-tracking work operate with 42 terabytes of disk storage. Even more startling is the observation that this is about 1000 times the capacity of a current PC. (I have 40 GB on the laptop I am using this very moment.) What that suggest to me is that 42 TB is not that far away. When I had my first 5 MB hard drive, 5GB was unimaginable. Times have changed. I still hanker for 100GB of non-destructive RAM on the tablet I want for my graduation gift in 2005. I wonder how close I will get?

The prediction of autonomic supercomputers that don't require humans for problem solving is another topic that I find a tad worrisome.
posted by Dennis at 12/6/2003 01:05:19 PM

 
New Weapons of Information Warfare - Computerworld.  This Paul Strassman opinion piece rifts off of an October 2003 C.ACM projection of the equivalent cerebral capacity of computer systems, as a trend from cockroach to mouse to whatever.  Strassman says that static approach to security will fall before this onslaught, and smarter, robotic responses will be required.  I am not convinced, and it is a worrisome thing.
posted by Dennis at 12/6/2003 12:57:23 PM

 
The Guts of a New Machine.  This is a tantalizing New York Times Magazine article about the Apple iPod and what it seems to bring together that has made it an icon of the ultimate portable digital player.
posted by Dennis at 12/6/2003 12:53:07 PM

 
Linux Security Expert Defends Debian.  This is a nice summary of the steps that the Debian project took before discovery of compromised servers, and the steps they are taking to keep the servers off the Internet until they are fully restored and secure.  The subtlety of the exploit (which involve a known Linux kernel bug that wasn't considered a security vulnerability [!]) and the use of layers of protection was important.  It is indicative of the measures that open-source development programs take to protect their assets and the authenticity of their distributions.  This attitude is also reflected in the approach at SourceForge, and it suggests that the Open-Source community has a strong appreciation for the particular exposure to hacking that OSS programs provide, because of the open-community and sometimes anonymous nature of activity.
posted by Dennis at 12/6/2003 12:35:04 PM

 
ISR Research - Open Source Software Development.  This is the Open-Source research being undertaken by the Institute for Software Research at UC Irvine.
posted by Dennis at 12/6/2003 11:49:29 AM

 
Newswise: Open-Source Practices May Help Improve Software Engineering.  A release describing the work of Walt Scacchi at UC Irvine in analyzing the way that open-source practices may be applicable and support software-engineering objectives.
posted by Dennis at 12/6/2003 11:48:03 AM

 
Java Card Update Shows Full Hand of IT Issues.  This 2003-11-19 Peter Coffee article is a positive appraisal of the Java Card 2.2.1 and how it supports extension of security to all devices of any size.  Coffee also favors the strength of the security model with regard to bringing trust questions around to choice of partners and recognized trustworthy sources, not just on the technical.  It is suggested that the Java Card provides appropriate technical support for the secure
posted by Dennis at 12/6/2003 09:03:57 AM

 
Peer-to-Peer.  Also from Thorsten, this set of links and articles is from Currid & Company Associates.
posted by Dennis at 12/4/2003 05:37:05 PM

 
P2P Computing.  Here's a site recommended by classmate Thorsten Kollstede.  Beside the extensive links on P2P, there are pages of them on other IT-important topics (such as Software Engineering).
posted by Dennis at 12/4/2003 05:35:13 PM

 
ACM: Ubiquity - The Dawning of the Age of Transparency.  A good read about a good read on Transparency.
posted by Dennis at 12/3/2003 03:06:55 PM

 
Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking.  This is the Microsoft offering for P2P connections from Windows XP.  It will take a little analysis to discover what this is about and whether it honors industry standards or not.
posted by Dennis at 12/2/2003 09:02:08 PM

 
OpenP2P.com: What Is P2P ... And What Isn't [Nov. 24, 2000].  Another great Clay Shirky analysis, from 2000-11-24.  He suggests that the key is the placeless character of connections, however they are achieved, and then how the edges operate together without intermediary.
posted by Dennis at 12/2/2003 08:55:47 PM

 

Più Miscellanea

Print Article: Come, the revolution.  This Graeme Philipson article on the Sidney Morning Herald on-line reflects an interview with Intel's Chris Thomas.  It is about wireless and everything being connected to everything else.  At the heart of this is various forms of web service and peer-to-peer technology (basically, what you get with an Internet message or phone call, and also what will connect wireless applications).  One noteworthy aspect is moving to a document-centric, off-line distribution mode compared to an always-present mode.
posted by Dennis at 12/2/2003 10:04:23 AM

 
Read Darwin -The Promise and Pitfalls of Social Networking - SOCIAL COMMENTARY - Magazine - Darwin Magazine.  An article by Stowe Boyd on the current stage of innovation in Social Networking.  This is an area that is ripe for P2P and Grid solutions on an open, unencumbered standard approach.  The way the social networks grow and participation is self-mediated should be useful and valuable.  The connection to web services, the direction for blogging and wikis too, should help.
posted by Dennis at 12/2/2003 09:31:40 AM

 
PeerEdge Services Network from Equinom.  Here's a company that puts at stake having transactional P2P be the next big thing.
posted by Dennis at 12/1/2003 10:13:50 PM

 
So How Come the New Economy Bombed.  Here's a blurb about it.
posted by Dennis at 12/1/2003 10:08:16 PM

 
Client Server NEWS - News Dispatches On Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Microsoft and Linux.  This particular squib is on how Peer Services Computing should have been the approach.  Client/server operation didn't get to the P2P or peer grid that is the answer.
posted by Dennis at 12/1/2003 10:05:08 PM

 
Course Info -- CSCI 5166.  Page with some nice lecture slides on client-server architectures on the web, with a little about P2P
posted by Dennis at 12/1/2003 09:47:53 PM

 
The Renaissance Web.  This site represents a research and methodology project to provide for evolutionary re-engineering to client-server-based systems.  An interesting aspect is that evolution is stated in terms of continuous improvement and the notion of Kaizen (and, presumably, Gemba Kaizen). There is extensive material and it appears that the object is to migrate to distributed systems, not simply client-server.
posted by Dennis at 12/1/2003 01:55:16 PM

 
Approach - Bridging the MS-Access / Client-Server Gap.  An eyes-wide-open look at Microsoft Access and Jet as front-end technologies that can be integrated with mission-critical client/server applications with care.
posted by Dennis at 12/1/2003 10:45:37 AM

 
Establishing the Research Foundations for Successful Client-Server Computing: What Naturalistic Studies Could Contribute.  Some speculation on the absence of information that exists in the determination to deploy client-server systems.
posted by Dennis at 11/30/2003 10:28:20 PM