Filed under Hardware …

Aug 19 2011
1 Comment
Biology, Hardware, Internet, Software

The operating system for your brain

Last Friday I finished my summer internship at GrammaTech. A few days before that (I forget when exactly) the discussion on our IRC channel turned to cybernetic implants. We’re a company full of pretty hardcore software types, what do you expect? Though to be honest, I was the chief instigator. Anyways, the conversation quickly moved to the question of securing such implants. The questions raised are summarized by one coworker’s comment: “Which software vendor do you trust to write the operating system for your brain?” Given that regular implant technology probably isn’t too far in the future, the question is a valid one. For now my answer is: no one.

Let’s be honest: most of our computer systems are hopelessly insecure. And making them insecure isn’t as simple as installing antivirus software from a big vendor. Depending on just how secure you need or want to be, you potentially have to go very, very deep. In a lot of cases the trouble is not worth it. Want to take down my VPS running my personal website and storing my Git repos? Go ahead, it’ll take me all of five minutes to shut it down and spin it back up, maybe half an hour to restore everything. That’s far easier to do than statically analyzing every line of the Linux kernel, the GNU utilities and the web stack for vulnerabilities (and then fixing them without introducing new ones or breaking things). This is not to say that these aren’t worthwhile, important activities, they’re just not top priority for most users.

However, it’s another matter entirely when the systems are mission critical — banks, defense, the Internet backbone – or they’re running inside our body. Coming back to the original problem, medical technology is quickly progressing to the point of us having fully functional implants replacing faulty organs. Insulin pumps are just the start. Cochlear implants and artificial limbs have been around for a while. Bionic eyes are slowing pushing forward and real cyborgs exist. We’re not going to see full cyberbrains just yet and we’re definitely not throwing out the wetware for full synthetic bodies. But as the number of computers inside our bodies gradually increases it’s never too early to start thinking about how we’re going to keep them safe, especially if we want them connected to the Internet (and we will).

Having our implants connected to the Net is a matter of convenience as well as health and safety. Real-time monitoring, remote diagnostics and over-the-air software updates would greatly cut down on the amount of time you spend in your doctors’ waiting room. However, if you want your arm or eyes hooked up to the Internet you definitely want to be careful about who can connect to them. Asymmetric encryption and signing for all communications (especially updates) would be necessary, just for starters. I can see some kind of code-signing for the software itself being beneficial. But it raises of the question of whether the user can/should be able to hack their own organs. I really don’t want to jailbreak a critical organ if there is a possibility of bricking it. But at the same time I do have a right to my own bodyparts, biological or synthetic.

Aside: I wonder why cars don’t come with 3G connections for remote software upgrades. If the Kindle can do it, it can’t be that hard. Then again car manufacturers haven’t exactly been the most innovative and forward thinking in recent years. Maybe I should be talking to Elon Musk.

Even if the proper technical measures are in place, there is still the question of just who do we trust to provide and potentially control our body parts. I don’t mind Apple storing my music and Amazon can store and sync my books. I do mind them locking me in, which is why I’m still hesitant to go completely digital. But do I trust either of them (or any for-profit corporate entity) with my vital organs, or even non-vital ones? Furthermore do they get keys to shut down “malfunctioning” organs, for some definition of “malfunctioning”? What safeguards are in place to prevent them for misusing these keys? Given the life-threatening nature that such shutdowns might have, requiring a complex legal procedure to overturn shutdowns is dangerous and ethically negligent.

When implants start becoming mainstream and popular we’re going to start seeing issues and problems similar to the ones with computer systems. There are always going to be people who want differing degrees of control over their technology, whether that technology be cars, computers or prosthetics. It would be interesting to see something like a “homebrew” implant scene come up, though I doubt it would rival the popularity of the homebrew computer scene. Like many important problems the questions are both technical and social in nature. So, who do you trust to write the operating system for your brain?

Tagged , ,
Jul 12 2011
2 Comments
Education, Hardware, Internet, News, Productivity, Software

The Age of the Maker is here

Last week a friend sent me a link to the world’s first sub-$1000 PCR machine. PCR stands for Polymerase Chain Reaction, it’s a method of replicating a section of DNA it billions of times. This means you can now study the building blocks of life to your hearts content, in your basement, for less than the price of a top-of-the-line computer. As the announcement says: DNA is now DIY.

OpenPCR joins a list of recent technological milestones including 3D printing, cheap embedded microcontrollers, ubiquitous computing and broadband Internet connections. The technological scene is supported by social phenomena like the open source movement, coworking and hacker spaces and organizations like Kiva and Kickstarter. The rise of increasingly powerful DIY technology and the surrounding social systems is pushing us toward what can best be described as the Age of the Maker.

Going from idea or innovation to self-sustaining product doesn’t require large factories or upfront investments anymore. As projects like OpenPCR and Coffee Joulies show it’s feasible to create a truly novel, popular product combining nothing more than talented, hard-working creators and willing customers. I’d like to believe that this is the beginning of a new industrial age, one that produces a similar improvement in the quality of human life without many of the bad side-effects of the last one. This revolution focuses on the individual and the small team rather on the factory. Sure, there are businesses and there is manufacturing, but the point of it all is not just profit. Profit is important, but a lot of people and groups I just mentioned are doing it largely because it’s fun and exciting.

Technology and the means of production are becoming increasingly democratic. What can be accomplished by small groups of focussed individuals leveraging modern technology is truly amazing. The software industry has already shown that small groups of people can create products and services that change the world. Today’s generation of makers and hackers are taking that a step further – showing that such world changing innovation doesn’t have to be limited to software.

I’m not an economist, but I’d argue that in many ways we’re seeing a reinvention of capitalism. Financial capital doesn’t have to be concentrated in the hands of a few – it can be widely distributed among the masses – millions of customers around the world. What is needed are people with ideas and skills that can bring that capital together just-in-time to create a product – the makers. And we now have the services required to bring the capital in (the Internet, Kickstarter, Kiva) and the cheap infrastructure needed to get the product out (UPS, FedEx, etc.). With OpenPCR, Arduinos, 3D printers and the we’re democratizing and distributing the means of production.

If you’re someone who likes building cool, interesting things there has never been a better time to be alive. The Industrial Revolution brought about mass production and cheap commoditized goods. But it also decimated independent artisans and craftsmen. Today we’re just getting ready to put all the manufacturing power of modern industrializaton back in the hands of individuals with ideas and skills. With today’s technology Leonardo da Vinci may have been able to build his flying machines.

What have you made today?

Mar 30 2011
3 Comments
Hardware, News, Productivity, Software

Separating work from play

A recent post by Seth Godin has showed up multiple times in my feed reader recently that has ignited some old ideas. As with most of Seth’s post this one is short and tight with a good lesson tucked into the end. While you should read the whole thing if you’re in any sort of creative profession, here’s the pithy one liner you need to remember:

Simple but bold: Only use your computer for work. Real work. The work of making something.

This ties in well with a tweet by the erstwhile _why the lucky stiff that I came across a few weeks ago:

when you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create.

Creating and making things is important. And not just on a one-off, once in a while manner, but on a regular, consistent, day-to-day basis. The reason that most of us get into programming, writing, designing and related fields is that we loved building things. Let’s face it: the joy of making something is pure, unadulterated crack. Sure it’s hard to get started and it can be even harder to keep going when things don’t go the way you want them to. And by the time we get done, we’re drained and tired and just want to sleep. But the rush of taking something out of our minds, something that was just a thought and putting into a definite shape and form is unequaled.

Unfortunately, as Seth Godin says, we’re using the same tools for both work and play and that doesn’t turn out well. It’s hard to concentrate on writing or hacking when there are email and Twitter alerts clamoring for our attention. And it’s not just the momentary interruptions. Even if you aren’t getting bothered by notifications, it’s hard to gather the mental energy to create when it’s easier to play a game or check the latest Internet happenings. Seth Godin’s solution is actually deceptively simple: use separate machines for work and play. In fact, this is something that I had written about in my rules for computing happiness.

Originally I had planned to wait until graduate school to put this division into effect. Since I was going to get a work machine form the department I would use it for work only. There would be no social software on it, no Facebook or Twitter, no RSS feeds and maybe not even email. I would have a separate Macbook for my non-work stuff, social or not. I’ve heard horror stories about graduate students hemorrhaging time until suddenly it’s five years later and the thesis is only half done. I did not plan on being one of them.

I considered keeping my current setup, but Seth’s post led me to think if I could make any quick, effective changes. The answer was staring me in the face. I’ve had a Google Chrome netbook for a few months now that comes with just the ChromeOS. However there is a developer switch that you can use to unlock it. Yesterday I flipped the switch and installed Ubuntu. I now have a lightweight, portable, lightning fast machine that I can use for getting work done. Also since this is a clean install I can consciously avoid installing stuff that has no place on a work machine. I have the standard Gnome terminal, Emacs and Firefox 4.0 and that’s it. There isn’t even music or a media player. Since I always carry my iPod Touch, that can be my ‘play’ machine. It has all the distractions that I indulge in and my entire music library (which isn’t that big).

I’ve been playing the productivity game long enough to know that no technological tool or setup is a silver bullet for the problem of wasting time. The new setup is going to work only if I use it properly and consistently. There is going to be some work involved to break my old habits and set new, better ones but this is a start. Someday I’ll get around to reforming my other machines but till then this work/play setup will do nicely.

Mar 23 2011
Leave a comment
Hardware, Productivity, Software

Attention to details

Yesterday I decided to subscribe to a friend’s RSS feed. She is currently in Japan and writing about her experiences there (yes, she’s been talking about the earthquake among other things). I’ve been carrying around my Chrome netbook since it’s more comfortable to use than my Eee PC netbook and I was using when I decided to subscribe to her feed. Chrome OS is supposed to be optimized for living on the web and RSS is definitely a part of the web. In fact, Google Reader is the probably the best web-based feed reader out there (and one of the better RSS readers period). However, despite Google’s expertise with the web and their investment in ChromeOS doing something as simple as subscribing to an RSS feed takes three separate steps.

When you get to a webpage that has associated RSS feeds, Chrome will auto-detect them and put a small RSS icon in the address bar. When you click that icon you get  a list of available feeds. That’s fine because it exposes important information in an unobtrusive form and makes more detailed information easily available. Once you click whichever link you do want to subscribe to, you get taken to another page which shows a preview of the feed articles and lets you choose which feed reader you want to subscribe to. To be fair, this step can be removed by picking a default feed reader. In my case I choose Google Reader. But instead of just adding your feed to Google Reader, you are dropped into Reader where you have to click the subscribe button to actually subscribe to the feed. Though I’ve seen far worse signup processes, this could all be boiled down to a single step process if Google Reader and Google Chrome OS worked just a little bit better together (yes, I said Google twice to make a point).

I’ve done this lots of times already, but today it really bothered me. A few hours before I subscribed to my friend’s feed, I read Andy Ihnatko’s review of the iPad 2. If you’re considering buying the iPad 2 (or just interested in it) take half an hour and go read it. I want to highlight the part of the article that really stuck with me (and fueled my annoyance at the Chrome/Reader signup process).

The iPad 2 Smart Cover is emblematic of what makes Apple a great technology company. I kind of want to hide one in my jacket pocket every time a tech company is giving me my first briefing on a new tablet, and bring it out at a decisive moment.

“Halt,” I would say, unrolling the Smart Cover and holding it before me like a talisman to ward off evil. “Did you put as much thought into your entire tablet as Apple put into this deceptively simple screen cover?”

See, I’m increasingly coming to the view that the small things matter. Not only do they matter, they are downright important and worthy of serious attention especially if they are part of products you want to get into the hands of lots of people. Unfortunately this does not seem to be clear to people and companies that are making said products, even companies that should know better.

As much as we’d like to pretend that humans are logical beings and use products and services based purely on their technical merits, the truth is we’re not Vulcans. Using beautiful, well-designed products and living in attractive environments actually makes us feel better and more productive. And when it comes to making a solid, fine-tuned experience, the small stuff matters. It really matters.

Not to sound like a total fanboy, but Apple realizes this and executes it well, and is one of the few companies that do. Interestingly enough, Apple’s penchant for polish and good design spills over into the whole ecosystem of Mac apps. OS X is the only platform where I honestly say that some applications are beautiful. The web is a becoming close second thanks to the increase in quality of rendering engines. I think this is an analog of the “broken windows theory” — Apple actively discourages broken windows on its platform. It’s own products are useful, well-designed and a joy to use. They’re continually raising the bar, in terms of hardware, software and the combined experience.

Demanding perfection and not shipping bad products is not a easy choice to make, but is certainly pays. Again, Apple last made $14 billion in profits. In profits. And is now the second largest company in the world. Companies like Moleskin, Behance and Rhodia make beautiful, thoughtfully designed stationary products and they’re not cheap. But they’re worth it. If you’re serious about creating products and services that people not only use, but want to use, then you should sweat the small stuff and work on creating the filter.

Tagged , , ,
Mar 18 2011
2 Comments
Hardware, Productivity

Technological Sentimentality

I’ve been thinking about making a list — a list of things that I want to get rid off/sell before I graduate. I’m moving a few hundred miles and I’d don’t want to take anything I won’t be using. I’m getting rid of things like my large desk chair (which unfortunately is not very comfortable) and a bunch of books that I don’t plan on reading again. But I also have gadgets and computers that I don’t use or won’t be using any more.

I don’t consider myself particularly sentimental, but a lot of things that I have are “firsts” — my first iPod, my first laptop and so on. At the same time I don’t like clutter and I don’t want to hang on to things I know I won’t be using. For some things the decision is easy: my Eee PC netbook I’m going to get rid of because it just doesn’t fit into how I like to work. It’s just a bit too small and underpowered for me to get real work done on it. The Chrome netbook works for when I’m on campus and connected and I’m saving towards a Macbook. Similarly I’m not keeping my Mini — it’s dying slowly (the wifi and optical drive are both dead) and a new Macbook will take over everything I use it for. My larger linux laptop will stay, even though it’s older than the netbook. It has a larger screen and I got an upgrade to 4GB of RAM (thanks to my summer work at Virginia Tech). The battery is dead, but it’s too heavy to carry around comfortably anyway (again Macbook to the rescue). But it makes a great Linux development machine.

But I also have 80GB iPod Classic (I believe it’s in the first generation of Classics), a 16GB iPod Touch, a 7MP Canon Powershot camera and probably a few other things here and there that I’m forgetting about. For each of these there are reasons to keep them around and reasons to get rid of them. The Classic is a better music player than the Touch and has more space. The Touch is my mobile Internet device and gets a good amount of use as a PDA and Twitter/RSS client. The camera, well, it’s a camera and it doesn’t really get much use. The Touch and the camera could both be replaced by an iPhone, but getting one of those is much less definite than the Macbook. And the Classic was the first device I bought with my own money. So even though I barely ever use it (except maybe for infrequent gym trips) it does have some sentimental value.

Decisions, decisions. Though writing this post has helped me clean up my thoughts, I haven’t made up my mind. In an ideal world, I’d be able to take my computers and turn them in for a shiny new Macbook. Likewise, I’d take my Touch and camera and turn it into an iPhone. But part of my dilemma is that I probably won’t be doing a straight upgrade (because I’m a starving college student and I want to wait till Lion Macbooks come out). The latest I can keep stuff is the end of May when I graduate. Going by Apple’s record new Macbooks won’t be out until September which means I’ll be out of a properly portable computer for summer. That doesn’t seem like a smart idea (considering I’m a programmer and all that). It’s been awhile since I’ve been in the market for a completely new replacement computer and this selling/buying process is starting to bring back bad memories of playing the upgrade/wait game.

At this point I’m considering getting rid of as much as I can and just dealing with the months I find myself laptop-less. There are still some things that I need to think about: I don’t know what I’m doing over summer and there’s the little question of actually getting rid of my machines. I don’t want to just throw them away. I’d like to be able to give them to someone who will find some use of them. (Which means if you really want something I mentioned, contact me).

Braindump complete.

Tagged ,
← Older posts
Newer posts →
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 287 other followers