Archive for March, 2008

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The Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0

Monday, March 31st, 2008

There is a W3C effort (working draft) titled Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format. EXI is the result of work by the W3C’s XML Binary Characterization (XBC) and Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Working Groups, and as you can see is applicable to (and might be useful on) restricted devices such as mobile handsets.

The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group has published a Working Draft of Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0.

The Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) format is a very compact, high performance XML representation that was designed to work well for a broad range of applications. It simultaneously improves performance and significantly reduces bandwidth requirements without compromising efficient use of other resources such as battery life, code size, processing power, and memory. EXI is a very compact representation for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Information Set.

EXI uses a grammar-driven approach that achieves very efficient encodings using a straightforward encoding algorithm and a small set of data types. Consequently, EXI processors are relatively simple and can be implemented on devices with limited capacity.

EXI is schema “informed”, meaning that it can utilize available schema information to improve compactness and performance, but does not depend on accurate, complete or current schemas to work. It supports arbitrary schema extensions and deviations and also works very effectively with partial schemas or in the absence of any schema. The format itself also does not depend on any particular schema language, or format, for schema information.

The EXI format uses a hybrid approach drawn from the information and formal language theories, plus practical techniques verified by measurements, for entropy encoding XML information. Using a relatively simple algorithm, which is amenable to fast and compact implementation, and a small set of data types, it reliably produces efficient encodings of XML event streams.

ceo

Posted in W3C | No Comments »

Two cool videos of STS-123 Night Launch

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

I found two very cool videos (YouTube) of STS-123 night launch. Night launches are the coolest, with literally night becoming day.

The two videos are from different point of views and distances of/from the launch pad. The cracking sound from the solid rocket boosters (and main engines) is one of the cool things to experience; but just imagine that loud sound (and vibrations) but x10 as loud passing through your body — that is how I felt when I saw the STS-60 launch from less than 3 miles away. The first video is great, as you can listen the reaction of the people watching the launch. The second video is just 2.5 miles away from the launch pad (must have been taken by a NASA employee to be that close).

(Added on Mar 31 2008) This video shows the power of the space shuttle at liftoff. It was taken with a remote camera at close range (people are not allowed that close to the launch pad during liftoff).

ceo

Posted in Space | 2 Comments »

The Large Hadron Collider Doomsday Machine – Not!

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Update Sept 9, 2008: Doomsayers are watching too much TV. Doomsayers sent death threats to MIT professor, see MIT physicist gets death threats over collider (Boston Globe). If these doomsayers would have lived in the year 1539 or so, they would have tried to kill Nicolaus Copernicus. Let’s continue moving forward with scientific understanding of our Universe.
 
Update Sept 12, 2008: A 16 year-old girl committed suicide because of all the stupid predictions by doomsayers; all you doomsayers are responsible for creating fear, doubt and uncertainty, that led to this; shame of you. See Girl Commits Suicide Over LHC Doomsday Predictions.
 
Update Sept 19, 2008: See Brian Cox: An inside tour of the world’s biggest supercollider (TED Talk; thanks to Jason Delport for the link)


There is a very good article, the DOOMSDAY FEARS SPARK LAWSUIT (Cosmic Log) that covers the recent efforts to stop the Large Hadron particle super collider from going online, due to fears that it might cause a doomsday scenario.

The builders of the world’s biggest particle collider are being sued in federal court over fears that the experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet.

Some of the fears include "Runaway black holes", "Strangelets" "Magnetic monopoles", and Anti-matter creation concerns.

Representatives at Fermilab in Illinois and at Europe’s CERN laboratory, two of the defendants in the case, say there’s no chance that the Large Hadron Collider would cause such cosmic catastrophes.

And more incredible is:

The current lawsuit could well be decided not by scientific arguments but rather by narrower regulatory issues.

Regulatory issues? That’s stupid and illogical. What are the chances of getting the Earth destroyed due to anti-matter annihilating the Earth? I’m no physicist, but I’ll bet that it’s next to zero. We just don’t know how to generate such tremendous power for long-enough time to annihilate Earth.

Don’t stop scientific progress, there is so much to learn about our Universe.

See STUDY OF POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS EVENTS DURING HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS AT THE LHC: REPORT OF THE LHC SAFETY STUDY GROUP (PDF).

ceo

Posted in Science | 4 Comments »

Michael Yuan at TheServerSide Java Symposium (TSSJS)

Friday, March 28th, 2008

eZee inc.

Michael is presenting (today) at TSSJS!

eZee inc. developer Michael Yuan is giving a technical presentation at the TheServerSide Java Symposium (TSSJS) this week in Las Vegas. TSSJS is a premier developer conference that focuses on enterprise Java technologies. Michael will be there to present the advanced mobile web application framework pioneered by eZee. In addition to the full length presentation, Michael will also sit on the expert panel for next generation web applications in TSSJS.

Way to go Michael!

ceo

Posted in Mobility, eZee | No Comments »

UIQ Technology continues to push forward

Friday, March 28th, 2008

UIQ continues to push forward, with its latest version UIQ 3.3. UIQ 3.3 based on Symbian OS v 9.3, includes support for Java MSA platform (JSR 248), as well as a number of Opera-browser goodies, and new messaging-oriented additions.

From their annoucement:

  • Focus on enhanced support for operator acceptance – UIQ enables phone manufacturers to meet the requirements of several major telecom operators. The features added into this release allow UIQ 3.3 based phones to target a broad audience.
  • A new version of Opera 9 – Includes an extensively enhanced version of Opera browser (9.5) with an improved user experience of browsing on the mobile phone including faster page loads, a new layout engine and a new intuitive user interface including page overview and panning. It also includes a Widget Manager making it possible to see, run, download and remove widgets on the phone.
  • A widget dashboard – The new version of the Opera browser also includes a Widget Manager, making it possible to see, run, download and remove widgets on the phone.
  • Contains a fullset Java JSR 248 – This Mobile Service Architecture is the emerging standard for mobile devices running J2ME and CLDC allowing developers to create a wide range of media-capable applications.
  • A full-feature unified messaging suite – Contains improvements in SMS and MMS such as a unified message composer allowing for the intuitive creation of SMS and MMS, Voice messaging and rich text messaging.

On February of 2008, Sony Ericsson completed the acquisition of UIQ Technology.

ceo

Posted in Mobility | No Comments »

Mobile Content Consumption: iPhone, Smartphone and Total Market for January 2008 (M:Metrics)

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

Earlier this month, M:Metrics released some interesting numbers on Mobile Content Consumption: iPhone, Smartphone and Total Market for January 2008:

US EU FR DE IT ES UK
Total mobile subscribers (13+) 219m 220.5m 45.5m 48.5m 46.5m 33.5m 46.5m
Watched video 4.6% 5.5% 5.3% 2.8% 6.7% 8.1% 5.6%
Listened to music 6.7% 16.9% 14.7% 15.9% 13.9% 21.1% 19.9%
Accessed news/info via browser 13.1% 9.4% 9.5% 5.5% 7.9% 7.5% 16.5%
Received SMS ads 19.2% 50.6% 64.7% 31.1% $ 56.0% 73.1% 35.4%
Played downloaded game 9.0% 8.4% 4.1% 7.5% 9.0% 12.3% 10.4%
Accessed downloaded application 4.7% 2.7% 1.4% 2.3% 4.0% 2.4% 3.4%
Sent/received photos or videos 21.9% 28.4% 25.5% 22.1% 33.2% 31.7% 30.6%
Purchased ringtones 9.5% 4.1% 4.3% 3.8% 4.9% 3.9% 3.6%
Used email 12.1% 8.4% 6.3% 6.9% 10.6% 9.1% 9.4%
Accessed social networking sites 4.2% 2.6% 2.2% 1.1% 2.3% 2.5% 4.7%
Source: M:Metrics. Copyright © 2008. Survey of mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending 30th January 2007, mobile subscribers in France, n = 12,783 Germany, n = 15,585; Italy, n = 13,059; Spain, n = 12,720; United Kingdom, n = 15,259; United States, n = 32,262; the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Chengdu, Wuhan and Xi’an for the three-month average ending China n = 5,163.

ceo

Posted in Mobility | No Comments »

Motorola, the split, and an open letter by an insider

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

Motorola

Earlier today William Volk shared a link to the article Motorola insider tells all about the fall of a technology icon, a letter by Numair Faraz, who was Geoffrey Frost a personal adviser during his days as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Motorola.

A great, touching, honest letter by Numair.

I know many at Motorola, many very bright folks, very committed to the success of the company; even after all these months of debacle. Very much with their hands “tied”; have tried, for years, but not listened to. Too bad. Sooner or later, time takes care of things…

This is business, not pleasure. Time to cut, cut many from the company. Cut the ones with the wrong vision, the ones without the passion, the ego-maniacs, and the ones with personal agendas. The executive management must make the decision, starting with a new management team. Again, business is business. Time to make the right, tough decisions. For the Company.

And many of the folks with the right vision and experience, and (with the Motorola) culture, already are in Motorola, right now. With Numair being one, having the guts to tell it as it is. Those folks must be identified, and be given the task. And a new leader, the right leader, who is in touch with the realities of the industry must be found. And those folks should be rewarded.

Is the Motorola split a good or a bad thing? It all depends on how you like to see the glass, as half empty or full. Perhaps for the Mobility Division it is a good thing. Radical changes can turn into great opportunities, if properly embraced, and in this particular case, it very much is an opportunity for the Handset Division to become laser-focused, and to get rid of legacy baggage.

Time will tell.

And I say again, that I won’t be surprised, if Dell acquires the Motorola handset division… But I really hope that never happens.

ceo

Posted in Mobility | 1 Comment »

Software Development Strategies For Startups

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

In startups it’s so important to make an impact (Go to Market) early and as efficiently as possible, with the resources at hand, and while following proper software engineering methods. Many companies fail because they never deliver, or simply deliver too late. Timing is everything. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Below are some recommended strategies to follow:

Rule #1: Get to market, now — Per Guy Kawasaki, “Don’t worry be Crappy“:

“Don’t worry, be crappy. An innovator doesn’t worry about shipping an innovative product with elements of crappiness if it’s truly innovative. The first permutation of a innovation is seldom perfect–Macintosh, for example, didn’t have software (thanks to me), a hard disk (it wouldn’t matter with no software anyway), slots, and color. If a company waits–for example, the engineers convince management to add more features–until everything is perfect, it will never ship, and the market will pass it by.”

Well, in reality, you can’t afford to be crappy, but the point is to get to market fast, as early as you can — there is always time to go back and address things.

Delivering early means running pilots or Betas, to learn about the customer, learn about what you produce, and about related business models.

Rule #2: Set proper expectations. Following #1 above (deliver early to market) set the expectations that “this is an early version, work in progress”. Be explicit that the early version is a pilot, or a Beta version. This is very important, especially if you want to convert current Beta customers.

Rule #3: Reflection period. Once you have delivered/hit the market, it is time to look back, reflect. Reflect about the product, the methods or processes used; were these too loose or stringent? Separate enough time for this. Do the design and code reviews you couldn’t do earlier due to go-to-market pressures. It is OK. Developers and QA engineers, talk about what and how to improve the product; this is the time to refactor, refactor, and refactor:

Refactoring is a disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior. Its heart is a series of small behavior preserving transformations. Each transformation (called a ‘refactoring’) does little, but a sequence of transformations can produce a significant restructuring. Since each refactoring is small, it’s less likely to go wrong. The system is also kept fully working after each small refactoring, reducing the chances that a system can get seriously broken during the restructuring.

See the refactoring catalog, maintained by Martin Fowler.

Also, use this time to document (see Wiki below).

Rule #4: Keep track of issues and new feature requests. No need to go over board and spend thousands on issue tracking products. Use a simple issue tracking system, there are many. Trac is a simple but effective one.

Rule #5: Implement an internal Wiki. Trac also has an integrated Wiki. Use the Wiki for your documentation. Document, document, document. Use the reflection time to document. Documentation is that task all developers hate (rather postpone), but a very important s/w engineering life-cycle step it is. Organize the Wiki as you like, perhaps per Tier. When hiring new folks, point them to the Wiki to learn the system.

Rule #6: Use Version Control. Use Subversion, or CVS; use whatever you want, but keep it simple. Tag/branch at major releases. Use version control for your documentation as well. Integrate your Wiki with version control.

Rule #7: Establish a build process. Start simple, but eventually do automated daily builds; use Continuous Integration.

Rule #8: Test, test, test… Start simple, but eventually move to automated testing. Performance, stress, concurrent testing are of great importance.

Rule #9: Use popular open source projects and frameworks. Nothing beats the already adopted and fully tested projects. In addition, as my good friend Edmund says, “what good does it bring the customers to re-invent already proven frameworks?

Rule #10: Start simple, grow as needed, try to anticipate: people, processes, functionality, complexity.

ceo

Posted in GoingToMarket | 2 Comments »

Space Shuttle and Station Sighting Opportunities for March 2008

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

By coincidence today I saw the Space Shuttle and Station flying just over, at 12 o’clock. I immediately recognized then as potentially the Shuttle and Station; because of the inclination, they were as bright as I can remember seeing them, for a long time. Back to back flying over, close together. What an awesome sight. After they were gone, I went inside the house and hit the NASA page for sighting opportunities. Yes, I was right.

There is another sighting opportunity tomorrow. Check it out. Below is the sighting opportunities for Austin:

THE FOLLOWING ISS SIGHTINGS ARE POSSIBLE FROM TUE MAR 25 TO SUN APR 06

SATELLITE
LOCAL
DURATION
MAX ELEV
APPROACH
DEPARTURE
DATE/TIME
(MIN)
(DEG)
(DEG-DIR)
(DEG-DIR)
ISS
 Tue Mar 25/08:33 PM
5
65
 12 above SW 12 above NE
ISS
 Wed Mar 26/08:57 PM
2
25
 25 above NW 11 above NNE
ISS
 Fri Mar 28/08:08 PM
2
23
 23 above N 10 above NNE

ONLY DAYS WITH SIGHTING OPPORTUNITIES ARE LISTED

THE FOLLOWING ATV SIGHTINGS ARE POSSIBLE FROM MON MAR 24 TO MON MAR 31
SATELLITE
LOCAL
DURATION
MAX ELEV
APPROACH
DEPARTURE
DATE/TIME
(MIN)
(DEG)
(DEG-DIR)
(DEG-DIR)
ATV
 Mon Mar 24/08:08 PM
2
12
 10 above SSE 10 above E
ATV
 Mon Mar 24/09:41 PM
1
17
 10 above WSW 17 above W
ATV
 Tue Mar 25/08:28 PM
5
55
 11 above SSW 12 above NE
ATV
 Wed Mar 26/08:53 PM
3
28
 28 above NW 10 above NNE
ATV
 Fri Mar 28/08:09 PM
2
24
 24 above NW 10 above NNE

ONLY DAYS WITH SIGHTING OPPORTUNITIES ARE LISTED

THE FOLLOWING SHUTTLE SIGHTINGS ARE POSSIBLE FROM TUE MAR 25 TO SAT MAR 29
SATELLITE
LOCAL
DURATION
MAX ELEV
APPROACH
DEPARTURE
DATE/TIME
(MIN)
(DEG)
(DEG-DIR)
(DEG-DIR)
SHUTTLE
 Tue Mar 25/08:33 PM
5
67
 10 above SW 12 above NE
SHUTTLE
 Wed Mar 26/08:59 PM
2
24
 24 above NW 11 above NNE
SHUTTLE
 Fri Mar 28/08:10 PM
2
24
 24 above NW 11 above NNE

ceo

Posted in Space | No Comments »

GoMo News on Wheels at CTIA 2008!

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

For those attending CTIA 2008, Debi Jones (aka Mobile Jones), who runs the US efforts for GoMo News, is producing GoMo News on Wheels! at CTIA 2008.

Debi will be producing LIVE content from CTIA using her N95 over Sprint’s EVDO network at 1MBs+ uplink. Live she will be interviewing folks including MTV and MTV Choose or Lose, Sony Pictures, FB, and Chetan Sharma, Buzzd, as well as a number of startups.

Below are a couple of URLs related to this:

ceo

Posted in Mobility | No Comments »

ZAIO – creating a photo DB of YOUR house, and selling that info to others

Monday, March 24th, 2008

So after running some errands midday today, I drove home to pickup something. And on the street was a photographer, taking pictures of the homes nearby. As the photographer approaches my house I asked the lady, “what’s this all about?” She identified herself as a Zaio Zone photographer, who is taking pictures of all homes in the area, for the purpose of “emergency services, real estate, appraisal assessments, insurance and lending institutions”.

BTW, Zaio stands for “Zone Appraisal and Imaging Operations”.

And I’m thinking to myself, yeah right, I can think of a couple of places the photo of my house might end up… Yes, you got it, Google is one of those places. LOL. I won’t be surprised if that becomes the case… Combine this with all the personal information on the web, and you have someones’ complete profile, home photo included…

I don’t like that shit… Stay away from my house Zaio!

So I asked the lady, “what about privacy?” And “I don’t want my home be part of that DB?” She politely replied that “people can contact Zaio to get the photo removed, and that she would skip my house”. I said, “Thank You!”.

If you visit Zaio Corporation, you will see that the company has a massive operation, with around 19.4 millions photos already taken! Wow.

Welcome to the new world, the era of physical and digital worlds convergence…

ceo

Posted in Privacy | 3 Comments »

Sun SPOT at the Mobility Weblog

Monday, March 24th, 2008

SunSpot layers

Thanks to the Sun SPOT team, who sent me a Sun SPOT development kit. SPOT stands for Small Programmable Object Technology, and are very powerful and sophisticated little devices, perfect for sensor-based applications, and pervasive computing.

Sun SPOT

A Sun SPOT has the following:

  • a 3-axis accelerometer (with two range settings: 2G or 6G)
  • a temperature sensor
  • a light sensor
  • 8 tri-color LEDs
  • 6 analog inputs readable by an ADC
  • 2 momentary switches
  • 5 general purpose I/O pins and 4 high current output pins

Very cool indeed. I will be playing with these gadgets, and will be writing about what I learn here in this blog. I’ve a number of projects in mind — starting with basic sensors, to more sophisticated guidance, navigation and control, it would be cool if used in Rocketry, to using the Sun SPOTs to teach and get kids involved in Computer Science, via LittleTechies.org, a non-profit organization I’ve been wanting to establish for a while now. So many things to do/try. Send me your recommendations for projects to consider.

I’ve added a new page on my blog dedicated to Sun SPOT, which will develop over time as I learn more.

ceo

Posted in SunSPOT | 2 Comments »

Rudy De Waele on Mobile 2.0 revisited

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

Rudy

My friend Rudy De Waele has published a revised presentation on Mobile 2.0. It’s a great summary, check it out below.

ceo

Posted in Mobility | No Comments »

Rules for Ethical Reformatting: A Developer Manifesto

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

I’m glad to see Luca Passani et al. Rules for Ethical Reformatting: A Developer Manifesto.

These rules (or guidelines) on ethical reformatting for mobile we are a must, and I hope that everyone shows their support for it now, and through their evolution.

Those nasty techniques such as USER AGENT spoofing, header changing, and unwanted content adaptation are the worst thing that has happened to the mobile web since its inception. These techniques are idiotic, have a negative effect on innovation and progress, are simply wrong, and drives me nuts…

“This situation is a threat to the neutrality of the web and one that can jeopardize the mobile web as a platform in the years to come.”

The above sentence is a truism. Proxy vendors, and network carriers, listen up! Don’t block progress, don’t restrict proper adoption.

I, C. Enrique Ortiz, supports the Rules for Ethical Reformatting.

Thanks to Luca for leading this.

Related to this see How Web to Mobile Transcoding Should Work (Wap Review)

ceo

[Via Wap Review]

Posted in MobileWeb | No Comments »

Naked-Eye Gamma Ray Burst – most distant object ever seen by human eyes without optical aid

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

GRB

The brightest ever gamma ray burst, visible by the naked eye, was observed on March 19th.

“If someone just happened to be looking at the right place at the right time, they saw the most distant object ever seen by human eyes without optical aid.”

The explosion took place at a distance of 7.5 billion light years from Earth, meaning 7.5 billion years ago, a time when the universe was less than half its current age and Earth had yet to form. This is more than halfway across the visible universe.

Most gamma ray bursts occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. Their cores collapse to form black holes or neutron stars, releasing an intense burst of high-energy gamma rays and ejecting particle jets that rip through space at nearly the speed of light. When the jets plow into surrounding interstellar clouds, they heat the gas to incandescent visibility. It is this gaseous “afterglow” which was visible to the human eye on March 19th.

ceo

Posted in General | No Comments »

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