Posts tagged "technology"

Spoiler Alert: Just Give Google Power of Attorney

Greg Hendershott — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 19:48:50 UT

Spoiler Alert: Just Give Google Power of Attorney

2013-08-03 :: Google, technology

Robert Scoble’s “Google, the freaky line and why Moto X is a game-changer” describes the significance of its always-on voice recognition. Under the heading, “the joy of context”:

Moto X is just one in a string of products and services that will bring radical new functionality to users. Examples? Google Now, Google Glass, and the new Moto X phone that keeps the microphone open full-time. The Xbox One, coming this winter, will have a 3D sensor on it so sensitive it can see how fast your heart is beating just by watching your skin.

These new contextual, sensor-based features are game changers and I’m hearing Google has a raft of other product announcements lined up that will turn on even more freaky features. Why? Because the more Google can get you to communicate with your phone, the more context it can slurp up.

The more sensors it can turn on, or put on you, the more it can learn about your intent and your context. Today your phone doesn’t really know that you’re walking, running, skiing, shopping, driving, or biking, but in the future, Google will know that and will be able to build wild new kinds of systems that can serve you when doing each of those things.

Naturally people have a variety of reactions for different reasons. You may find it yawningly predictable, or alarmingly freaky, or something in between. You might not mind Google slurping your data because you gave consent, but be creeped out by NSA contractors wrapping their lips around it uninvited.

But at bottom what’s the motivation behind this push for “context” and “intent”?

Why does Google want such a complete picture of us? To increase our economic value to them. The better Google understands what we want — and when and where we want it — the more they can charge companies who want to sell us stuff.

Simple example: If you sell pizza, you’ll pay more to reach people who want pizza (a) now and (b) near you. Much more than you’ll pay (if you’re smart) to do traditional advertising.

And to the extent this allows a company to form and sustain an ongoing relationship with you, it becomes even more valuable.

Let’s extrapolate, William Gibson style — hold down the fast-forward button and skip to the end. (SPOILER ALERT!)

If we keep moving the “freaky line”, we quickly arrive at a basic question: Why even faff about with all this technology? Why not simply give Google power of attorney? That way they can decide on our behalf what we want, procure it for us, and deduct the money from our bank account. Done. Sorted. Issue closed with pushed commit.

All this stuff with sensors, context, and intent is wonderful geekery. As technology for its own sake, it’s awesomely awesome. But truly, it’s a typically over-engineered solution to the problem of parting us from our money.

Google, if you want to know us deeply — know us, shall we say, biblically? Rather than passive-aggressively fap with sensors, be up-front and say you want to do the deed. Give us the power of attorney form and a blue ink pen: tell us to press hard, make three copies. What’s that? You’d rather sample our DNA using the retractable swab in the phone microphone? Well…OK. You asked honestly. We won’t judge you.

In case it’s not clear:

Am I being completely serious? No. But I’m not being completely un-serious, either.
Although Google isn’t alone in this, they’re a leader, so I think it’s fair to use “Google” as an abbreviation.

Roger Ebert, not engines

Greg Hendershott — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:14:08 UT

Roger Ebert, not engines

2013-04-05 :: technology

I’ve owned a couple TiVos over the years. The first thing I do on setup? Turn off the suggestions.

The HBO series Mind of the Married Man joked about this a decade ago: “My TiVo Thinks I’m Gay”.

Although I love NetFlix I also find their recommendations underwhelming.

About the only film recommendations I ever find valuable are from a friend or someone like Roger Ebert, who sadly just passed away yesterday.

Why? Precisely because the recommendations aren’t limited to what I already like.

This is the fundamental flaw with TiVo suggestions, NetFlix recommendations, Facebook’s fucking “Suggested Posts”, Twitter promoted tweets, Amazon’s you-may-have-clicked-on-something-like-this, and so on.

The problem isn’t the recommendation engines, even though they could and should be improved. The problem is the premise of the whole model: That I want more of the same. That I want to live in a bubble.

I’m not claiming to be a special snowflake, floating above the masses. I think everyone wants some level of novelty. People may differ in the amount and frequency of novelty. But for most mentally healthy folks, not wanting to be bored out of our skulls is a fairly basic need. Speaking of Roger Ebert, here is one of the many awesome things he said:

What I believe is that all clear-minded people should remain two things throughout their lifetimes: curious and teachable.

The other thing is, people go through phases. It may well be the case that, for a month, I want to inhale everything related to a given topic or genre. During that window, the recommendation engines might be more helpful. Which is why it’s worthwhile to improve them. Just don’t use them as the 24/7/365 model to predict what I’ll like.

I’ve realized this is another reason why I’m disappointed about Google giving the finger to Atom/RSS feeds. They seem to have the idea that they can choose better than me, what I’ll want to read. It appears they want to join the giving-me-dubious-suggestions party. And they want me to join the party, too—and want it so badly they’re taking away my LA privileges.

Supposedly “you are what you eat”. You’re also what you read and watch. That’s why I want feeds. I want to feed myself. I don’t want to live in Google’s (or Facebook’s or whomever’s) Monsanto-inspired monoculture. Not even in a supposedly “personalized” monoculture.

“Oh, but you can still visit whatever web site you wish.” Yeah, but as The Dead Kennedys said, give me convenience or give me death. The point isn’t possibility, it’s feasibility. With limited time, feeds are a way to keep up with a variety of sites. And although I don’t hate typing or pasting URIs in the browser bar, I’m in the minority. Plus even I don’t want to type the URI when it means banging glass on a mobile device.

So in a computing future where we’re increasingly swiping and tappping — or glancing and blinking — the question matters more, not less. What’s the source of this stuff? Are we eating what we choose, or what’s chosen for us using a model with a flawed premise about who we are?

Fucking "Suggested Post" (why web apps matter)

Greg Hendershott — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 23:55:00 UT

Fucking "Suggested Post" (why web apps matter)

2013-02-20 :: software, technology

So speaking of AdBlock, sometimes I forget it’s there.

I was using the Facebook app for iPad today. Which I hardly ever do. And I’m getting a lot of this in my feed:

My Chrome extensions

Greg Hendershott — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:00:00 UT

My Chrome extensions

2013-02-14 :: software, technology

My Chrome extensions these days, from left to right…

Chrome Extensions

Xmarks

Xmarks to sync bookmarks. (But not passwords; I use LastPass for that.)

AdBlock

AdBlock to, well, block ads.

When someone jokes about the latest bizarre ad that Facebook showed them, I’m like: Ads?

Note: I do unblock ads for specific sites I want to support.

LastPass

LastPass to manage passwords.

If I were forced to choose just one, it would have to be LastPass. It’s the only realistic way to Do the Right Thing with passwords. Such as creating sufficiently strong passwords. And not reusing the same password across multiple web sites.

It’s also the only sane way to use such passwords on mobile devices.

It’s available for all major browsers, for free. To also use on your mobile devices you pay a fee per month.

You can set it up to use two-factor authentication: something you have (e.g. your phone) as well as something you know (the password).

Music Plus for Google Play Music

Music Plus for Google Play Music to make Google Play Music spiffier and scrobble to Last.fm.

Although I’m mostly using Rdio these days to discover music, what I’d already purchased is stored in Google Play Music.

Ghostery

Ghostery to block a variety of “trackers”. My most-recent addition.

tl;dr

The must-have extension is LastPass.

Clear interrupts

Greg Hendershott — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:00:00 UT

Clear interrupts

2013-02-12 :: life, nostalgia, technology

For some reason CLI popped into my head the other day.

CLI is the 808x instruction to clear maskable interrupts. If you’re writing a routine to service a hardware interrupt, you do a CLI early in your routine — to prevent another hardware interrupt from causing your routine to be re-entered. Neglecting this invites the most delightful form of bug, the intermittent bug.

Roland MPU–401

I spent a lot of time struggling with this stuff early in my coding career, writing a MIDI sequencer. The Roland MPU–401 MIDI interface would hit IRQ 8 when some MIDI bytes arrived, or when a timer ticked. I remember eagerly reading BYTE magazine articles and learning how write ISRs (interrupt service routines) by trial and error. Many trials and many errors. There was no internet search much less StackOverflow.com back then. (Also, we lived in a shoebox in the middle of the road.)

In real life we have interruptions. The worst is when you’re interrupted, then that interruption is interrupted. And so on. People don’t have stacks they can pop instantly to return to their prior context. Instead of popping a stack, the process is akin to flailing around with Google search, throwing around keywords and trying to sniff out the right track.

It’s too bad there’s no CLI instruction in real life.

We need a prior art database

Greg Hendershott — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:00:00 UT

We need a prior art database

2013-02-07 :: patents, politics, software, technology

Last week I visited Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. Mark Cuban and Minecraft creator Markus Persson had recently funded an additional staff attorney position, the “Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents”.

Considering this after I got home, I had an idea about an additional angle from which to attack this problem.

What if there were a sort of “prior art database”? Where people could submit and find information about first-use or discovery of techniques—whether patented or not?

Benefits:

Engineers/inventors have an alternative to the patent process. This alternative allows them to receive recognition, which for many people is the primary motivation. And although they would forgo licensing (or trolling) revenue, there are other financial rewards that can result from a demonstration of expertise.

Companies have a time- and cost-effective alternative to “defensive” patents.

It’s a helpful resource for contesting stupid patents.

Implementation:

Instead of a database per se, probably this would work better as something like a wiki or StackOverflow.com.

Perhaps Google could sponsor/spearhead, as they’re presumably both willing and able.

Perhaps the USPTO could sponsor/host. If sufficient people chose this alternative, it could appreciably decrease the application backlog and work overload.

Is the concept of “approval” needed? Maybe not. People could file an electronic affidavit, or even just make a mere to-their-knowledge statement.

If some form of approbation were needed, it could be crowd-sourced. Think of the voting and reputation system of StackOverflow.com.

In fact, this seems like a natural evolution for Stack Exchange.

As I said above, this is not “the” answer. The patent system is horribly dysfunctional, especially for software patents. The problem needs attacking from multiple angles. Reforms like five year expirations for software patents are needed and should be implemented. In addition, I think some sort of go-to resource for prior art could help.

Compare apples to oranges with the Nexus 4

Greg Hendershott — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:00:00 UT

Compare apples to oranges with the Nexus 4

2013-02-05 :: technology, Android

About a month ago I got my Nexus 4. My observations follow.

Google Nexus 4

Pure Android experience

Most Android phones are adulterated with stuff added by the phone hardware manufacturer and/or the mobile carrier.

The Nexus 4 is the pure Android experience as Google intended. This lets you compare apples to oranges: the Platonic ideals of iOS vs. Android.

Android 4.2 on Nexus 4 is polished and smooth. Although I haven’t used an iPhone, I’m pretty familiar with iOS from using an iPad. Both iOS6 and Android 4.2 are fast, mature mobile OSs.

My opinion? Android 4.2 is more zazzy.

Google Now

I took it on a 3-cities-in–1-week trip to the West Coast. Google Now was surprisingly smart. I got “cards” about travel time to appointments and airports, flights, nearby sightseeing and photo opportunities, the local time back home, and so on. Pretty neat.

Although slightly creepy, it’s using information I’ve already chosen to give Gmail and Google Calendar, plus location information I knowingly opted to share. I feel a little better knowing that Google pioneered transparency reports.

Logistics

There was a four week wait for my order to be fulfilled. In December 2012, nearly all of the devices on Google Play store had multi-week waits or were “out of stock” entirely: Nexus 4, Nexus 7, both Chromebooks, even accessories like the bumper for the Nexus 4.

Although this is a good problem to have, it is a problem. For the first time, Google created a coherent, appealing set of hardware products. It’s generating excitement. And … they can’t fill orders. I don’t get the impression this is an intentional tactic (“scarcity makes people want it more”). Hopefully with more experience and volume they will show more confidence, as well as command more mindshare with their supply chain.

Computing like component stereo systems

Greg Hendershott — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:16:00 UT

Computing like component stereo systems

2013-02-01 :: technology

Which of these do you use, and in what proportion?

Phone
Tablet
Laptop
Desktop

Noel Borthwick asked this and the resulting discussion was interesting. Here’s a longer version of a comment I posted.

Noel said he uses mostly tablet and desktop, and barely uses phone.

Personally I’m more like 90% laptop, 5% tablet, and 5% phone (MacBook Pro Retina, iPad, and Nexus 4, respectively.) That’s while stationary. While traveling it’s more like 50% laptop and 50% phone. I find the tablet to be neither here nor there: Not as powerful as the laptop, and not as small as the phone. (Although I do bring my eInk Kindle, because it’s incredibly light and is powered by magic faeries (i.e. the battery lasts for weeks), so it’s kind of a no-brainer.)

Anyway, I could see decomposing the pieces. Remember component stereo systems? Oh, you’re not old enough or hi-fi enough? Well, people would buy amplifier, tuner, turntable, cassette player, CD player, and speakers as separate units. Connected by a mess of wires.

What I want is component computing, but without the mess of wires. This would be in contrast to purchasing various all-in-ones (phone, tablet, laptop) that have unnecessarily redundant functionality.

A phone-size thing with your radios, main CPU(s), local storage, and a small screen.
A tablet-size touch screen (“mini”, big, or one of each).
A physical keyboard.
Goggles (ala Google Glass).

They connect wirelessly. You can mix/match depending on your situation. Also you can connect to big-ass displays.

1–3 already exist; 4, soon.

Apple could sell this vision and make it “just work”. On the other hand, what I describe is lower-margin than what Apple does today. For instance 2 would be closer to a simple touch-screen that uses 1’s CPU/storage, as opposed to a full-on iPad or Nexus 7/10. Pursuing a lower-margin version of something isn’t usually Apple’s game plan, so it’s hard for me to imagine them doing this, at least not yet.

Of course 2+3 has been tried, most recently by Microsoft with Surface. But not really: I mean a “dumb” tablet not a smart one. Plus, Microsoft is so far behind with market share on phones, I don’t think they could pull this off today.

Other companies tend to be primarily in just one business, and the resulting hybrid is accordingly wonky. For example the Motorola Atrix felt like a phone with an optional keyboard tacked on, and didn’t even attempt to integrate with a bigger touch-screen. Motorola saw the world through phone-colored glasses. Most other companies wear tinted lenses, too.

In conclusion, this seems like an obvious and desirable direction. I just don’t know if there are players today who are both willing and able to pull it off. Specifically I think Apple is able, but not willing.

Series A round: Human worker theme park

Greg Hendershott — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:17:00 UT

Series A round: Human worker theme park

2013-01-24 :: technology

I am seeking funding for a new venture: A theme park featuring “human workers”.

The theme park will be similar to Old Sturbridge Village or Plimoth Plantation, but focusing on the last half of the 20th century.

Visitors will be able to see humans performing a variety of quaint tasks, such as:

Cooking and cleaning
Serving food
Constructing buildings
Paralegal work such as reviewing evidence
Writing and testing software programs
Helping humans with health issues (a so-called “doctor” or “physician”)

Upon admission, visitors receive a small stack of paper known as “money” or “currency”. They give this to the cast members, as a way to participate in the illusion that the activities have a financial value. (Historically, this paper would be exchanged among humans for various kinds of goods and services, in what was known as “the economy”.)

This theme park gives visitors a way to experience the quaint period where most humans did work for money and were categorized as “middle-class”.

Guest services will include typical amenities such as battery-changing stations.

Please look forward to my Series A round proposal in the coming months. I will try to post something to AngelList, too.

Thank you.

Inspiration: Recession, tech kill middle-class jobs, which I found via Chris Nahr’s Google+ post.

Domain registrar switch

Greg Hendershott — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:13:00 UT

Domain registrar switch

2011-12-27 :: technology

My domain wasn’t working for ~24 hours due to my switching from GoDaddy to Namecheap. Although it’s possible to make that kind of switch with minimal downtime, in my case:

It was an impulse decision on my part. (Finally got some time to reflect on GoDaddy’s support for SOPA. As well as the elephant killing and the tacky “babe marketing”. SOPA was strike three.)
GoDaddy seemed to be dragging their heels releasing transfers.
Namecheap seemed to be struggling with an unexpected number of transfers, inconveniently over the holiday weekend. (In fairness to GoDaddy, maybe their delay was at least partly due to the same reason.)

Fortunately it’s not as if greghendershott.com is a hot destination for millions of fans. Or dozens.

Also, I wanted to mention that I did a couple live chats with Namecheap support and they were very helpful and quick.