.NET From India

PDC Downloader - No More !!

A few months back I wrote and application called the PDC downloader and Viewer and released it at CodePlex.

Over the last couple of weekends, I kind of updated the application, so that it can also be used to get the Mix 2009 videos. So now it is a more of a generic Event video downloader and viewer. If MS continues to use similar naming conventions, this application can be updated quite easily to download and view videos from other future events too.

The new version 1.0.0.3 of the updated Event Video downloader and viewer is now available for download from Codeplex.

Technorati Tags: PDC 2008,Mix 2009,Video Downloader,Project,Codeplex

Play a game with a virtual partner

GIVE (Generating Instructions in Virtual Environments) is a online 3D game where you partner with a computer to win the game. The idea is to use the interactions to improve the AI system, based on the feedback from gamers.

The game is available at http://www.give-challenge.org/.

The feedback from gamers will be analyzed by the game developers to compare how well each of the four AI systems did in the GIVE challenge, with the goal of making computers better partners in a variety of both virtual and real world tasks.

GIVE is the first online game in which your partner in the game is the AI software itself. The challenge adds to a growing movement among AI researchers that allows Internet users to participate in the development and assessment of intelligent software.

The game is open till Jan 2009.

The system seems to be built on top of Java and does not use the HTTP port to communicate with the server. So if you are behind a firewall, you are out of luck.

Internet Bog down

Nemertes Research , an IT research firm has published a report that predicts that there will be a major problem with the availability of Internet bandwidth by 2012. They had initially predicted this will happen by 2010, but taking the current economic meltdown, they have modified the date to 2012.

Press Release: User Demand for the Internet Could Outpace Network Capacity by 2010

Nemertes emphasized it is not projecting that the Internet will crash or shut down altogether. Rather, the typical user probably will experience Internet "brownouts," where such high-bandwidth applications as high-definition video-streaming and peer-to-peer file-sharing will stop performing up to users' expectations, the firm says.

Another fallout mentioned in the report is in the area of innovation around the Internet. This includes a number of areas that are proving to be the hotbed of new innovations like around mash-ups, SaaS, service oriented applications etc.

Looking forward, Nemertes says that if this capacity issue is not addressed, the Internet will fracture into a tiered system where companies with the most money will pay for specialized network infrastructure that will ensure their content is delivered at higher speeds than non-favored content.

This fractured system -- where certain entities can pay extra money to give their content favored treatment -- is what advocates of network neutrality have been working to avoid by preventing ISPs from discriminating against certain types of content. The Nemertes report gloomily concludes that although the Internet will not shut down entirely, it will experience a dramatic slowdown in innovation because "new content and application providers will be handicapped by the relatively poorer performance of their offerings vis-à-vis those created by the established players."

We are already seeing quite a bit of capacity problem starting with ISPs like Comcast putting in place the so called "Network Management Systems" and putting in place bandwidth caps. There is also talk of different ISPs trying out bandwidth based pricing schemes.

Revisit Ancient Rome

Another example of how technology is being used to generate interest in something that we (meaning public at large) normally will not spend time researching. :)

You can now visit Ancient Rome without travel both in air or time via a new simulation that is available on Google Earth.

Ancient Rome 3D, as the new feature is known, is a digital elaboration of some 7,000 buildings recreating Rome circa A.D. 320, at the height of Constantine’s empire, when more than a million inhabitants lived within the city’s Aurelian walls.

It consists of about 7,000 buildings reconstructed through the efforts of Bernard Frischer, director of the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities. The project involved the collaboration of Google Earth, the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, and Past Perfect Productions, a company whose specialty is 3D cultural heritage models.

The above video is of some of the fly-thru of this model.

NY Times Article (may require registration) : Exploring Old Rome Without Air (or Time) Travel

Free Web Conferencing

I am looking out for a free web conferencing service that I can use for some technology webcasts/webinars for the community. The options that I want are:

1. Do a presentation using PowerPoint
2. Share applications or the desktop to show demos
3. Audio over the Internet
4. Video via a Webcam support (something that is not a must, but I kind of would like it)
5. Recording of the whole conference for later feedback either as WMV or other video formats
6. Unlimited attendees (or atleast a large number of attendees).

I am even fine if there is a low monthly fee, but most of the services either seem to restrict the number of attendees in the free or low cost form and need an enterprise license for the higher attendee support. The reason I want a high attendee count is because this is aimed at the community, it makes little sense if it is restricted to 5 attendees etc. Though I understand unrestricted attendees maybe too much to ask for, I would be OK with 500+ attendee support.

Skypecasts seem to be right for this, but then I found that Skype has pulled the plug on that one.

I kind of like Livemeeting, which is around USD 15 per presenter (in the professional version), but allows up to 1250 attendees per meeting. But you need to buy at least 5 user license. No single user license.

Any ideas anyone? If you/your company do run a webinar service and would like to offer Ad supported service I am OK with that too. Leave a comment, use the contact me link in the blog.

GPS Spoofing

GPS is such a important part of our everyday life in the US. It is also now becoming available in India and am sure in the next couple of years the usage will grow.

So it was interesting to find this article on how lax the security on consumer GPS really is. The military side does have security built in, but the consumer side was just an added feature. I assume they did not spend too much time thinking about security for that.

SAAS vs travel

I found this interesting post at SQL Performance.

In some sense it does make sense comparing SAAS to a taxi. You want to get to a place, you don't care about the make, how it is run etc. You agree on certain response times, cost etc. and focus on getting to the place.

You also get some of the same disadvantages, you have limited control on how the car looks, how fast it can go, how fast it can respond to changes in your plans etc. You may also be left in the lurch once in a while when your taxi just does not turn up at the right time.

Also if you plan to take the taxi to work everyday, you are looking at a very costly proposition. You usually use the taxi when the travel is not core to your business. When your business depends on it, most probably it is cheaper and definitely safer to get your own car, even if it means a little bit extra up-front.

Instant On Laptops

ZDNet has a blog post on the new Dell Linux based Instant On environment. The post talks about how this is a great thing and why this maybe something that MS maynot like so much.

My take:
It is a good thing to have instant on, booting a machine is the most frustrating time for me. But nowadays I rarely boot my laptop. It is almost always in sleep. I reboot only maybe once a couple of weeks or so when I have installed something that wants a reboot, or I just want to do a shutdown as I may not be using the machine for a couple of days.

Cloud based Services

Reading this post in Zdnet on problems with Gmail hosting got me thinking about cloud based services.

I have always been very doubtful about the web based office application thingy. Why? Well two major problems areas for me:
1. Security of my docs. I am not comfortable with having to have all my docs created online and with maybe copies lying somewhere on the cloud.
2. What if I want to create a doc when I don't have internet connectivity?

Well now I also see service availablity as a major problem. What if I need to get a doc out to a customer tomm morning and my service provider locks me out or they are down due to technical reasons?

If you want to go ahead and use a SAAS provider for business I would recommend you atleast consider the following:

1. Dont go for free for business ever. Initial costs maybe less, but SAAS means you depend on the service provider for your business. So free is not always good for SAAS.
2. What kind of support/QOS do they offer? I think in some of the Live for business offerings MS actually promises(in the contract, so it is legally binding) a 99.99% uptime or something like that.
3. Make sure that your provider is really commited to the service long-term? I think one of the points people seem to say in the above article is that Google is not really commited to the service as something that will make or break their business.
4. Make sure you have fallback plans
5. And don't cloud a service that is core to your business.

Trojans in Mac

Found this article on new Apple Mac security exploits that are being used to create Trojans. As I have mentioned previously in this blog, as Mac increases in popularity, the more attractive it is for hackers. Mac did not have viruses/trojans, not because it was in some way secure, but rather because it did not have enough installs out there to be of interest to hackers. So it is Trojans now and if Mac does grow its market share, viruses and worms will come for sure.

Also Apple, with don't talk about security holes approach is not really helping its customers. More they know about what not to do, the better it is for them and better they can protect themselves.

Is this why I am not seeing the Mac vs PC Ad on viruses recently?? :)