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Thursday, April 28, 2005 |
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MoMa and Harlem
The second major treat of the day was after dinner entertainment by the The Boys Choir of Harlem . The Academy where they study is not only a place for high quality artistic instruction and performing opportunities, it provides a program designed to help students acquire "fundamental perceptual and conceptual understanding" through traditional subject areas: English, math, science, social studies and foreign language. In addition to classical academic disciplines, students are exposed to music theory, piano, movement and dance. The Academy also offers computer classes, visual arts, health, physical education and lab electives. The unique thing I perceived about the concert was that each of the thirty or so singers was also an individual "performer" with personality and pride. The performance was great but the best part is that the students almost all graduate from high school and go on to college. It was easy to tell that the standing ovation came from the heart. |
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 |
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Constant Conferences
For the last dozen years or so I have been attending an average of three to five conferences per month. I don't play golf or tennis and I really like the opportunity to meet new people and learn new things. At most of the conferences I attend, I am also a speaker or panelist or moderator. The engagement calendar is here. The "in the news" section is also updated. This week is "IBM Week" with the IBM IT Analyst Conference yesterday and today and the IBM/Forbes Executive Conference today through Friday. Next week Knovel Corporation is hosting a keynote at the the Nylink 2005 Annual Meeting, which will be held in historic Saratoga Springs, New York. Nylink is a not-for-profit membership organization for all types of libraries and information organizations throughout New York State and surrounding areas. I am looking forward to speaking with them about the "Future of the Internet". The next morning, after an early trike ride from upstate New York to Danbury, Connecticut will be a similar discussion with school superintendents and then the following Monday with students and faculty at Western Connecticut State University. |
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Sunday, April 24, 2005 |
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Geocaching in Kauai and Pennsylvania
There are many ways to enjoy the splendor of Kauai. In January 2003, I was there on a side-trip from the Global Internet Project meeting in Honolulu and rented a Road King for an afternoon. Another way to see the scenery is by hiking and geocaching. The hike to the bottom of Wailua Falls was the most challenging I have ever experienced. At one point we had to swing from a rope to get around some rocks. Climbing back up the 300 feet or so to the top would have been extremely difficult if it had not been for ropes that someone left attached at various points along the trail. The next day we had a mostly flat hike along the beach not far from Poipu. The hardest part was enduring the extraordinarily bumpy road to get from Poipu to the parking area. The cache -- named Tiny Bubbles -- was easy to find and not well hidden. We took extra care to make it more challenging for the next visitor. Two weeks later we found our fifteenth cache -- this one in Pennsylvania at Lake Wallenpaupack. I have been spending "escape" time at this lake for nearly thirty years and never knew there were 250 acres of undeveloped land along the shore near Hawley. The land was set aside by PPL Corporation, the owner of the lake, for public use. The area is called the Shuman Point Natural Area and Beech House Creek Wildlife Refuge. There are black bear known to be there but fortunately we did not see any. The cache we found is called Point Rock Geocache and the hike to get to it was very nice. Just right -- not too long, not too short. We made a false start by driving to the wrong park entrance. After a couple of false starts into the woods we realized we were in the wrong place. GPS always points to the right place but when the path takes you through someone's backyard, it just might be the wrong way to approach where you are going. The cache can be found by taking either of two paths. I recommend taking the right path from the parking lot and following the blue trail. After enjoying the cache, just keep going on blue back to the parking lot. The total hike is about three miles and takes about an hour and a half. We found the cache not well hidden but we left it much more hidden. I am sure the next geocacher will be grateful. The Point Rock Geocache had a "travel bug" in the container. Travel bugs are very interesting and a lot of fun. The bugs are usually dog tags that are attached to a "hitchhiker" and move from place to place, picking up stories along the way. If you find a travel bug, you go to geocaching.com and add your own story to its journey. Each bug has a unique serial number that allows it to be tracked. The one we found at Point Rock Geocache was #490539 and it has a very interesting history. We did not take it with us this time but if we had we would have gone to the site to "grab" the bug and put it in our own inventory and then take the bug to another cache somewhere. Some bugs have been all over the world! |
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 |
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WiFi Update - No. 11
That is about to change as mobility for WiFi is nearly ready to take a huge leap. In fact, already in Japan, there have been more than 100,000 handheld phones shipped which have WiFi built into them. As this type of handheld device becomes more ubiquitous, we will no longer think of the device as a "phone", but rather as a computer connected to the Internet at high speed. The one catch is the roaming problem. I have always assumed this technical challenge would be solved, and the announcement last week by the University of California San Diego has justified my optimism. Most of the obvious shortcomings of great technologies get resolved -- sometimes it takes awhile. The new technology, called SyncScan, will nearly continuously test the status of the connection between the device and the nearest WiFi access point. As soon as there is any deterioration in the signal, the device will automatically seek a different WiFi access point. The "handoff" from one WAP to another have shown the new technology to be highly effective. At present, WiFi handoffs are cumbersome and time-consuming. Not until the access-point signal weakens substantially and begins losing packets of data does a WiFi-enabled laptop, PDA or mobile phone begin scanning for a stronger signal. At that point, it broadcasts requests on all channels to find nearby access points. The result: a delay of up to one second, during which any packets may be lost. That may not seem inordinate when downloading data, but it can be unacceptable if the user is trying to listen to Internet radio, watch a streaming movie trailer or talk on a WiFi phone. The result will mean that a WiFi-enabled handheld device can be used for Voice over the Internet (VoIP) and applications like Skype and Teleo will become the "long distance" provider for millions of people on the road. The SyncScan invention will also make it possible to have CD-stereo high-fidelity music and video programming "streamed" to our handheld devices. Recently I watched a Norwegian television program on my Sony Ericsson P910a mobile phone. The high quality screen makes it practical and pleasurable. Speaking of Norway, Opera Software ASA of Oslo has just announced that the Opera browser is now being shipped with the new NTT DoCoMO M1000 mobile WiFi smartphone on NTT DoCoMo`s network in Japan. The M1000 is an advanced 3G (third generation) phone, initially for the business market, with full Internet and e-mail connectivity through both 3G and GSM networks, wireless LAN and Bluetooth. All the pieces are beginning to come together to allow people to have the Internet in their hands. This is what we want. Meanwhile the wireless "operators" (or "carriers") are trying to entice us to use their "toll booths" on the Internet. They have setup m-mode, t-spaces, My Carrier, etc. to enable us -- for a fee -- to get to news, weather, sports, and stocks. Unlike NTT DoCoMO, many operators don't seem to realize that what we really want is a high quality full-function browser on our device. Then we can use it the same way we use the browser on our desktop PC and go directly to the Web resources that we choose. And then there is WiMax -- much in the news lately. The media is suggesting that there is a battle between WiFi and WiMax. I don't see it that way at all. WiFi *and* WiMax are part of the evolution of wireless standards which will enable more people to connect to the Internet from more places -- and at greater distances. The way I think about it, WiMax is a long distance wireless technology that brings Internet connectivity into a neighborhood or business park. It is a great alternative to the old-fashioned telco technology called "T1". Once connectivity is available, then WiFi distributes it to people wherever they happen to be. The bottom line is that wireless is here -- and that will mean more people connected more often to more services doing what they want when they want it with whatever kind of device they may be using to connect to the Internet. Many people call it "On Demand". Whatever you want to call it, it is a good thing for the IT industry and for all of the users of the Internet. |
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Sunday, April 17, 2005 |
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Rachmaninoff (and other "R"s)
I first saw Rui Shi in 2000 when she was a petite Chinese girl of sixteen years old. She gave a truly outstanding performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major. Since then we have seen her perform a number of times and gotten to know her. She is a charming, poised and extraordinarily talented young woman. Born in China in 1983, the brilliant young pianist has performed extensively across America and in China since her first recital at the age of five. Rui has taken first-prize in numerous national piano competitions and currently is participating in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition which brings together approximately thirty young musicians from around the world every four years. The Competition is a "rigorous and comprehensive examination of every facet of each contestant's musicianship and technical proficiency". It was with great anticipation that the audience heard the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 performed by Rui Shi last night. She delighted us all -- the standing ovation continued until people's hands and arms wore out. It is truly amazing to me that Rui's arms and hands did not wear out from playing the nearly one-hour long concerto with at least tens of thousands of notes in it. It was an evening of "R"s. We will all remember Rui Shi's rendition of Rachmaninoff in Ridgefield under the direction of Sidney Rothstein. |
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Tuesday, April 12, 2005 |
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Tax Time  The time is now. I would rather be writing the final story about Kauai and then moving on to thoughts about WiFi and Internet Technology, but like most of us, I am spending time reporting numbers to our government. I avoid making political comments here in patrickWeb but, all things considered, I have to say that I am pleased to contribute my fair share toward the republic. Other topics to restart soon.
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Friday, April 8, 2005 |
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IBM Happenings: March 2005
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Thursday, April 7, 2005 |
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Kilauea Point
The island of Kauai -- one of the main islands of the State of Hawaii -- consists of 550 acres of beautiful terrain, including lush green vegetation of all kinds, miles of enchanting beaches, coral reefs, rivers, canyons, and trails. One might think that this small island would be technology-challenged but nothing could be further from the case. Not only is mobile phone coverage far more strong and consistent than Connecticut, but there is also EV-DO coverage. Evolution Data Only is a wireless radio broadband data protocol -- or translated to English, EV-DO is high-speed Internet access using a PC card plugged into your laptop. Not that I am spending a lot of time surfing the Web instead of surfing the surf, it is nice to be connected wherever you are in Hawaii without having to dial. The last place I expected to run into any technology was during a ride up to the National Wildlife Refuge at Kilauea Point. More than 200 acres of protected land there serves as the home to migratory birds such as the Pacific golden plover, seabirds such as the Laysan albatross and even Hawaii’s state bird, the nene goose. A number of Hawaii’s native seabirds nest and roost there and from the spectacular view it is possible to see Hawaiian monk seals, humpback whales and spinner dolphins. While there much to learn about the various birds, including an occasional albatros over head, it was the 52-foot tall lighthouse standing 217 feet above the water that was the centerpiece of this northernmost point of the main Hawaiian Islands. Construction began in 1909 and was completed in 1913. There was nothing electronic about it, but the lens was quite impressive. Made in France, the clamshell glass lens was the largest in the world and it's beam, originally from a 250,000 candlepower oil lamp could reach 20 miles out to sea and 90 miles into the air. In 1930, the oil lamp was upgraded to an electric source and a further upgrade in 1958 upped the intensity to 2.5 million candlepower. The lens weighs 4.5 tons and contains more than 300 hand-ground glass lenses and prisms. The lens would rotate every twenty seconds powered by a weight and pulley system that had to be "re-wound" every three and a half hours, much like a cuckoo clock. For more than fifty years, the lighthouse served as the main beacon for commercial shipping between Hawaii and the Orient. In the 1970's its light was turned off and the landmark was replaced by a low-maintenance automatic light beacon. |
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Friday, April 1, 2005 |
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Back From The Other Side Of The Globe (Summary)
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Back From The Other Side Of The Globe: Part 5 (The Sapphire Princess)
Between the Internet Cafe and the Library, there were quite a few PC's available for use of the Internet. For those with their own laptops, WiFi service was available in the Library and the Reading Room. The satellite connectivity was generally good although the bandwidth was not consistent. The cost was thirty-five cents per minute -- expensive if you used it a lot, but inexpensive compared to $4.95 per minute which was charged for any satellite phone calls. The obvious alternative for phone calls would have been to plug a headset into your laptop and use Skype or Teleo for VoIP. The cost would have been only an additional two cents per minute! I suspect the people reading books in the library would not have appreciated it though.
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March 2005 | Main | May 2005 �
The IBM IT Analyst Conference earlier this week was interesting and important as is the 
There are so many conferences. Seems like every major hotel is packed with attendees who are there to learn, share, make deals, make new friends and see old friends. Even though the Internet has made it possible to find almost anything and also to communicate in a myriad of ways -- including realistic live video -- people still go to conferences. I don't see the appeal for real live in-person conferences diminishing anytime soon. Maybe never. Aside from the many benefits to the attendees, there is quite a good business in running conferences. Companies such as Jupitermedia have an 
A personal review of the new 
The first piece about 
This week was the return from 
Sometime roughly six million years ago an island called Kauai was formed in the Pacific Ocean. Kauai is 5,012 miles from home and it takes a long time to get there -- although not as long as 
That's it. The story is told -- and now it will be back to other more important topics like 
The