Do you live in a place where the sun rises each day? Yup, me too.
Coming to a street near you very soon.
Filed under: NGO, New Technology
April 8, 2008 • 9:54 am 0
Did Web Hosting Just Become Free? Google Launches App Engine
Google have just further opened up their resources to developers with the introduction of Google Application Engine. Essentially it’s a web application hosting environment built upon Google’s network so it’s robust, distributed and scalable. If you’re familiar with Amazon’s S3, EC2 and SimpleDB, this is Google’s offering.
However, Google have gone further than Amazon and other utility computing providers by providing 2 key differences. Google’s offering is a stack. Not the usual LAMP stack people are used to. It’s Python and Google APIs focused at the moment, but it’s a stack.
The other difference is that it removes virtually all barriers to entry for developers as you can get a free account which they reckon will enable you to serve up to 5 million page views per month. Now, the limited number of free accounts have all gone, but once this is opened up wider, the entry free account will still be available. In the meantime, you can experiment locally with the SDK.
Essentially, it’s a free development area for you to try out web apps in an environment that you know is going to scale if they get popular, without incurring any hosting/hardware costs until you’ve proven the viability of the project.
Slam the brakes on!
Now before you walk into your bosses office to resign your job and go home to build that web app that is going to make you a million just take the following into consideration.
- it’s a preview. Free accounts are limited to the first 10,000 developers to sign up, and they’ve already all gone. There is a waiting list though…
- you’ll have to know python … though more languages are on the way, I wouldn’t hold your breath. I doubt any other languages will be added for another couple of months.
- If you did manage to get an account, you’re limited to 500MB of storage so you’re not going to create the next Flickr
- You can’t write to the file system – making the 500MB seem very reasonable.
- Queries are limited to returning a result set of 1000 rows
If you’re still interested, and you should be, here are a couple of videos from YouTube to help get you started. Links to the documentation and the SDK are below. It might be worth doing some reading up on Python as well. I imagine Python books are going to be flying off the shelves.
Presentation by Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python
Actual code examples of someone working with Google App Engine and Django
Filed under: Free Software, How To Manage A Website, New Technology , Django, google app engine, python
April 1, 2008 • 10:18 am 0
Buttock Authentication Scrapes Through IEEE Approval Process By Seat Of Pants
In an exclusive interview at BlueClock headquarters in Brussels, ButtLock CTO, Ralf Piloo, today announced that they have received approval from the IEEE to put their latest security innovation into production. While the world’s eyes have been focussed on Microsoft’s struggle at the ISO to get approval for OOXML, Piloo has been patiently working the political back channels in preparation for the day when he can finally reveal his brain child to the world. Yes, today, we have the great honour to be announcing the ground breaking new technology of Buttock Authentication ®.
The following is a transcript of our interview.
Buttocks : Gateway To The Future
GW: “Let’s begin by you giving us an overview of Buttock Authentication ® and your modest plans for how it can revolutionise the world.”
RP: “Well, we’ve been looking for a universal solution for user authentication for quite some time now. The key problem is that everyone has to be able to use it without thinking. It should also provide a secure and unique set of attributes for every person on the planet. We’ve been is secret talks with Microsoft and Apple for years now but finding a solution that everyone could agree on was nigh on impossible until we struck upon buttocks.”
“Our ButtLock device will be the first chair/office seating solution that can log you on to your computer with out you having to lift a finger. All you have to do is what you would do anyway; sit down. It’s simple and secure. It’s one of these great paradigm shifts that begin with a slight change in the way we use technology. We’re sure this is going to be a huge hit. People love it when there’s one less thing to do.”
“After a year or so we’re going to open source all the code and then it’ll become a real bottom up technology.”
GW: “You’re making some pretty big claims that buttock authentication is the log on solution that everyone will adopt. But what about accessibility and internationalisation issues?”
RP: “Hey, everyone has buttocks… well maybe not those skinny boys in Franz Ferdinand.. but generally speaking everyone has buttocks. And we’ve done a lot of research in this area and we can definitely be considered the leaders. We concluded that buttocks cross all language and ability barriers.”
GW: “You’ve mentioned sitting a few times. Isn’t that the Achilles Heel of this project? Aren’t you constraining people by insisting that they sit down to log on? What about mobile workers?”
RP: “Mobile workers are a massive growth area along with people who, for some reason, like to work standing up. Naturally, we’ve go that covered. We’ll also be launching mButtLock later today which is a pair of wi-fi enabled boxers/panties that read your buttock signature and transmit the authentication information to any devices within range. With our new ButtLock range, we’ll be taking the company where no company has gone before”
GW: “What about other applications beyond authentication?”
RP: “That’s a great question. You’re right, this does go beyond security. For example, we have scientists in our labs right now working on all sorts of useful FaceBook plugins. Just think, in a few weeks, you might be able to automatically update your FaceBook status with insightful messages such as “I’m sitting down.” or “I’ve just stood up.” The possibilities are endless. You could even send message such as “I’m a bit warm”.”
“Employers are going to love it as well as you’ll be able to monitor a user’s temperature. Because of the bi-directional nature of ButtLock the authentication server can send information to you that goes way beyond, “Hello and thank you for sitting down”. If your temperature falls below a certain level employers will be able to send a mildly irritating charge of electricity to your ButtLock in order to determine if you are dead or merely asleep at your workstation.”
GW: “That sounds great and I can see why people will be rushing adopt this systems, but what about people on a diet? How do you cope with changing buttock shapes?
RP: “I can’t go into that too much at the moment, but what I can say is we don’t just track the buttock shape. There are a number of parameters that we use to identify the user including warmth, wriggle rate and velocity of sitting. Also each time you log on successfully, we resample your buttocks, so provided you don’t take a really long vacation and lose lot’s of weight then you should be OK. ButtLock grows with you.”
So there you have it. A new dawn in security technology. We’ve had the e the x and now the i as the cool prefix for all things tech. Could the day of “b” have arrived.
Filed under: How It Works, New Technology , april fool, authentication, buttlock, buttock authentication, ralf piloo, security
February 28, 2008 • 11:44 am 0
Microsoft World Wide Telescope Trumps Google Earth
[UPDATE : May 2008, Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope can now be downloaded for use]
Microsoft revealed the World Wide Telescope yesterday after it had been one of the worst kept secrets of the um … past few weeks. The buzz started a few weeks ago when Robert Scoble announced that he’d seen technology that had made him cry (in the good way, not the every day bad way).
What Is The World Wide Telescope?
Think Google Earth for the universe. Microsoft have created an application that has stitched together satellite imagery and data from space telescopes such as Hubble and enables us all to take a wander through the parts of the universe where this kind of data exists.
Now I know that Google Earth has a feature to explore space, but it’s rubbish and according to the massed ranks of scientists and children that have sat in front of Microsoft’s publicity video cameras, WWT will make our jaws drop in wonder.
I’m going to remain sceptical so I can be pleasantly surprised when it becomes available to the public.
Of course, the great strength of Google Earth, is it’s relevance. I live on Earth and I like to visit places on Earth. I think this is probably true of most of my readers. We’ve all checked out our house on Google Earth and peered into the garden of that big house at the end of the road etc or shown someone the nice little village where we went on holiday last year.
I’m not sure there will be many people thinking, “Ooh, I used to live on Alpha Centauri, I wonder if my old house is still there.” But if the hype is right, World Wide Telescope isn’t just going to be limited to the astronomy community (though they’ll get most out of it) , it should bring a little bit of wonder to us all and that can’t be a bad thing.
For me, nice thing about all of this is that Microsoft launches WWT at TED, which is great for TED as the massive coverage that this project is going to receive will undoubtedly bring TED.com to a much wider audience. If you don’t know what TED is, throw out your TV and get on over to their web site now. www.ted.com
Ted Have also posted a video of the launch presentation. www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/224
You can check out the WWT web site at worldwidetelescope.org
Filed under: New Technology , astronomy, microsoft, TED, World Wide Telescope, WWT
January 24, 2008 • 5:23 pm 1
Does Adobe AIR Matter?
I’ve been putting together an article about why web browsers are so important for publication on another web site and it’s really made me think about the implications of AIR for the web.
The web is all about content, right? And to access the content we need to start somewhere. A search engine, a bookmark, a URL we’ve memorised. These all require us to fire up a web browser. Web browsers are our window onto the web.
Interrupting The Search Chain
Our start page in our web browser influences what information we will find, what tangents we go off on and what advertising we view.
At the moment, if I want to check my Google analytics account, I fire up my browser. Now, Analytics isn’t my home page, Google is, and I’ve got a couple of news feeds on there so there’s scope to go off at a tangent.
Applications like the Analytics Reporting Suite built in AIR would just deliver you straight there.
Is this better? Is it worse? Neither. It’s just different. It’s only subtle, but it is different. Content is certainly still King, but will the web browser remain the gatekeeper?
Like RSS feeds, desktop applications such as those built using AIR will help us interact with the web without necessarily going “on” the web. That opens up another battle ground for the search engines and advertisers.
The Acceleration of CSS3 Adoption
For AIR developers of the HTML variety (as opposed to the purely Flash/Flex variety) AIR could be a bit of a playground.
For once, we will know exactly how our HTML will render, because AIR uses WebKit as its rendering engine. While that’s nice because it places us in a hitherto unknown Utopia of only having to deal with one “browser”, stripping away a whole layer of testing and potential compromises, it’s also important for another reason.
WebKit is leading the field in implementing CSS3 features. AIR applications could well be the proving ground for the new CSS3 techniques that we will all have to learn.
The iPod Effect
AIR apps are pretty. AIR apps are nicer to use than most web apps. AIR will be cool. That can go a long way in the adoption of a new product whether it’s any good or not.
Like the iPhone, I think AIR will have a ripple effect on the landscape, not by dominating the market, but by setting the tone and by setting client expectations.
Nobody expects Apple to trounce Nokia, but all of the major mobile manufacturers have to follow Apple’s lead, at least for the immediate future.
AIR Matters Because Adobe Matters
Finally, AIR is being delivered by Adobe and since their acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe have become the web company. That could have gone horribly wrong, but they have improved many of Macromedia’s products and made important decisions in standardising formats and handing over technologies to the web community.
They are also putting efforts into making sure that Flash and AIR are going to be on a par for Linux which not only matters on the desktop, but in the plethora of mobile web devices out there.
Adobe seem to be simultaneously reading the future of the web correctly and managing to shape it and that has to be a recipe for success.
Filed under: Adobe Air, Apple, New Technology, Web Browsers, Web Standards, Accessibility and Best Practice , adobe, air, css3, iphone, macromedia, webkit
January 21, 2008 • 7:08 am 0
$75 Laptop To Launch In 2009
“Why is it that the price of DVD players has dropped precitiously in the last 15 years, but laptop prices have stayed flat by comparison?” asks Mary Lou Jepsen the Founder of Pixel Qi.
The former Chief Technology Officer at the One Laptop Per Child project, responsible for creating much of the low energy technology used in the XO $100 laptop, has set up a new company to change this and bring ultra low cost notebooks, ebook readers and mobile devices to as wide a market as possible.
They are also developing a new screen technology with works well in strong sunlight by changing the display from colour to black and white depending on the light intensity.
Something tells me this one is going to be more popular than the Macbook Air.
Filed under: Linux, New Technology , $75 laptop, laptops, Linux, low cost hardware, OLPC, pixel qi, XO
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