Year: 2007

Walmart only has a RFIDer on Wii availability

colinizer Consumer, Culture, Gadgets, Gaming

I had spoken to someone in the electronics department at Walmart last week. They said they were expecting Nintendo Wiis this morning.

I woke up early this morning knowing that Walmart would open at 7am. So…

I pulled up at 6:55 and the store was already open.

On the way in, I saw other people of the ‘appropriate type’ strolling in. I wondered if it would be a foot race to the check out, though given the fact that the store was already open, I was kind of expecting them to have sold out.

As it turns out, the department was desserted and I was the only one there, well at least for 2 minutes, at which point a young asian couple and a teenage boy both showed up just as a staff member appears at the counter.

Undeterred by the make-shift ‘There is a shortage of Wii and DS – please call Nintendo for details on ….’ sign on the display case we all asked the guy what the deal was.

He kept on repeating that it was “Hard to say”. I resisted the urge to be pedantic and go with “But still possible then?”.

So then it was time to leave the store empty handed with that… ‘perhaps I should not leave because I need to stalk the display case for any possible sign of Wiis surfacing and I can not have those other people getting one an not me’ mentality. OK, not really. In fact there’s actually a kind of instant fellowship between console hunters, though this can be quite interesting given that heavy duty gamer types can be awkward social geeks – this was evident at 7am on the PS3 launch day last year when we were all waiting outside EB Games in the cold engaging our social skills; probably to avoid de-evolving to cavemen and ripping each other’s head off for the primal prey kill.

On my way out I remembered that Walmart has begun mandating a large amount of RFID chipping on supplier palettes (not yet individual items). I don’t know how widespread the mandate is yet and I wondered if Nintendo was subject to this. With my IT head on I thought of all the smart but useless things I could have said like “This is the company that mandates RFID chips – surely you know exactly where the shipments are and when they sneeze”.

So really my point is that I am (of course…) somewhat appalled by the fact that ‘in this day and age’) Walmart did not know whether a shipment of Wiis was coming, and couldn’t show me GPS tracking of the truck in question (highway robbery anyone? OK that’s the PS3). Actually I was pretty sure that someone somewhere did now, but of course they wouldn’t dare tell the floor guy for fear that alien beings would extract his brain matter just for the chance to be able to play some human entertainment.

So Walmart may have RFID but they only still pass on a RFIDer to the customer. Yes, OK, it’s cheesy.

Network stacking your brain

colinizer Medicine

Here we come Johnny Mnemonic

Ted Berger, at the University of Southern California in the US is experimenting with electronic chip brain cell replacements.

This is fascinating because his approach involves operating at what could be seen as analogous to a low level of the computer networking protocol stack, ignoring how it’s used higher up.

Amongst other thinks, the ISO layers of computer networking enables two things: I can abstract away lower levels (like a wireless medium or a physical cable) so that they all look like something that can carry IP data packets (with caveats); I can also on top of that generic platform, build other abstraction protocols like the TCP protocol (which provides for sessions with error correction) or go even futher and build web site protocols (that let your computer get this page) or Web services that allow computers to request information from each other.

Let’s say the brain talks IP packets. Think of this guy’s idea as saying that he can put in other hardware and make it look like something that talks IP packets too. He doesn’t care what the application protocols are – YOUR ACTUAL THOUGHTS AND MEMORIES – on top of this, or how the brain runs them.

He’s actually playing at a much lower level in the stack – more like the ethernet level – with the electrical signals that are occuring between brain cells. As Ted puts it: “I don’t need a grand theory of the mind to fix what is essentially a signal-processing problem,” he says. “A repairman doesn’t need to understand music to fix your broken CD player.”

He is talking about repair too. He means to develop something that can be used to replace damaged brain areas. Later this year, his super-star scientist team (some of them being involved in the early Internet networks) are testing it on rats by chemically disabling parts of the brain and then bypassing that part with his electronics to see if it works.

Many people have issues with this work. Ted gives the impression that he thinks they don’t understand this stack principal: they think it will not work because they say Ted doesn’t know how Brains fundamentally think and store memories (it seems no-one does yet); Ted is saying that it’s irrelevant because he’s just simulating the hardware that the ‘brain OS’ runs on.

If you have used Virtual PC or Remote Desktop, etc. you’ll get the idea that he is effectively emulating the hardware and has figured out the RDP protocol.

There are two big issues around emulation ‘characteristics’ that I can think of that could make replacable brain cells not work as expected. The first is that while the abstraction principle works in theory, in practice the facade can ‘crack’. For example, while you can send IP packages around your home computer network through a cable or wirelessly, the wireless method can exhibit characterisitics that are different to cable and those can have a knock on affect a higher level, e.g. interference may create signal behaviour causing a delay (or even data loss) that is significant to a higher layer (your web browser hangs waiting for a page and may not have retry code). To make this work in the brain will mean that the emulation must have the same characteristics, or at least characteristics that are within tolerance as far as the brain is concerned. The second is that even if the characteristics are within spec, the remaining deviation may actually still affect the character of the person. This could happen because the characteristics of the signal processing may contribute to the patterns and behaviour of the brain, so while a brain implant may fix something (or perhaps augment you), it could actually make you a different person – at an inconsequential level or avalanching to a different personality (as can happen with brain traumas).

I could go for a while discussing this, but there’s one other thing to get you thinking that I really must mention, and it’s somewhat philisophical.

A lot of brain surgery appears (on TV at least) to be done with the patient conscious (which I believe has something to do with it being the best way to monitor stability and the brain not feeling pain directly). Imagine that you had a surgery whereby pieces of your brain were replaced with such implants and assuming they had perfectly matching characteristics so that your behaviour is not altered. Now imagine that this process continues during the surgery until your whole brain is replaced… Remember that you are awake the whole time. Are you still you? Perhaps your brain reacts to the temporary bypasses. If you are still you, what happens if your new brain is totally removed and hooked up to bionic sensory apparatus (new eyes, ears, etc) – with a temporarly moment of sensory deprevation while you’re still conscious? You could even go for the human sensory equivalent of a keyboard, video & mouse switch. How about remote desktop from a robot in another room, across the world, or on the moon?

The major point, that gives this some extra credibility in my mind is that once a piece (or the whole of a brain) is replaced, we still wouldn’t know, and wouldn’t need to know, how the replacement is being used to do your thinking and memory storage. Even if we could monitor the activity, it is still too complicated to analyse, because there isn’t a computer powerful enough to data mine the whole thing (not even another brain perhaps), though maybe we could begin to understand the building block patterns.

They can only emulate less than a billionth of a brain’s cells on some small circuitry, so there’s a way to go yet before you can preserve your brain in a jar powered by a solar cell.

Fascinating…

Tech in education survey doesn’t add up

colinizer Education, Politics, Sheep

According to a CNN report, computer software in 132 schools not using it one year and then using it the next, says that it didn’t help.

There are far too many variables and major overlooked factors in this experiment, despite 132 schools to make this meaningful. There has been plenty of evidence that kids can engage and learn from computers.

I believe this experimental approach is avoiding four major factors:

  • The general professional training of the teachers
  • The overall methodology or the curriculum
  • The means of measuring results
  • The general calibre of software used

Being trained to use the software is not the same as being trained to use software in education.

Computers in education are a tool that can be well used to engage student interest. This sounds like an “oh well let’s give it a go I suppose” kind of experiement.

Shatner video phone mad cow

colinizer Communications, Consumer, Marketing, Sheep

Rogers in Canada recently announced their video phone call service on their new HSDPA high speed wireless network (with very limited coverage and even disclaimers that service make be intermittent as the network is built out).

HSDPA offers huge mobile data possibilities but video calling is the vehicle that (sadly, and clearly not learning from Three’s failure in the UK) Rogers has chosen to use because quite frankly, it’s really hard to figure out how to convince consumers to spend extra money on a new network investment.

They had William Shatner (who is Canadian – and why can’t the Canadian media resist the urge to tell everyone about someone being Canadian every time they sneeze) show up to do some kind of tongue-in-cheek launch event.

However, in a seperate media interview (and I’m paraphrasing/remembering here) he talks about science fiction become reality – bear in mind that they only had voice communicators on Star Trek, vs. say Space 1999 – but then started to go on about how text messaging was not a very warm way to communicate with people, etc. I think he was trying to say that video phone calls were much more ‘in-person’ and friendly but didn’t specifically say that as far as I remember, and remember sheep need to be herded.

I was wondering if Rogers executives were cringing at Bill’s words though. The point of having a celebrity is that it lends some persuasion to influence all those susceptible people out there. Now, imagine how much money Rogers makes from text messaging, and now Bill has told lots of people that text messaging is bad, and yet this new service is only available around Toronto…

I didn’t get to see the full media launch video, so hopefully, for Rogers’ sake, not many people will get to see this ‘mad-cow’ (see Boston Legal), i.e. confusing media clip. Yeah, OK… the texters are addicted so Rogers is safe, but it was a little like watching Denny Crane put his foot in it.

My kingdom/PS3 for a Wii?

colinizer Consumer, Gaming, Marketing, Sheep

I got a PS3 on launch day, but it came with an opportunity cost other than the cash. I (for the first time) slept overnight in my car – well from 2am to 7am – a month before to get my pre-order in. That wasn’t the cost, and it beat sitting outside in a chair or tent like most people had to in near-zero temperatures. The EB Games store I went to knew how many of PS3s and Wiis they’d be getting and I had to choose between the two systems, so I went for the PS3. That was the choice.

Since last November I haven’t seen a Wii in stock anywhere and yet I’ve been bombarded with the Nintendo commercials. Don’t they realise they’re wasting money given that it’s hard to convert ad time in to sales when there’s nothing to buy?

Nintendo is notorious for under supplying. I don’t care what they say; I believe it’s a strategy to keep demand up. It also hurts the accessory partners.

Most stores I’ve contacted (and trust me I have a list of all the relevant store’s phone numbers from my PS3 pre-order adventure) either have no idea when they’ll get their next shipment, or have a date that keeps slipping.

Would I trade a PS3 (or more) for a Wii? Well, no. My 1080p screen (to get the best PS3 and XBox 360 experience) will no doubt stick it’s nose up at the Wii’s graphics, but I’d like to have one because 1) I’m a gadget junkie so I have all the others, 2) the controller concept and games seem like fun & 3) one gets to get off the couch.

Internet Borders – use the off switch

colinizer Culture, Humour, Politicians, Sheep

A handful of videos offensive to the Thai king have caused Thailand to ban YouTube access in the country. Apparently such acts in Thailand can lead to serious prison time.

Apparently the king is regarded as semi-divine – he is 79 and apparently the world’s longest-reigning monarch. I kinda think the hat could make him a comedy target, but then it never hurt the British Beefeater guards at Buckingham Palace.

The Thai communications minister claims that YouTube told him that there was “much worse ridicule of President Bush on the site” which is kept there. One of the offending clips replaced the monarch’s face with a monkey’s face – imagine that with Bush and decide for yourself how many people would bat an eyelid – good ol’ USian free-speech. These are clearly different cultures. While Thailand holds its monarch in high regard, it also has a quite public thriving hospitality industry 😉 which the US would frown upon for the most part even if it has a similar industry covertly operating too (as do um… most countries?).

This brings up the discussion of Internet culture borders and jurisdiction. Quite frankly I’m surprised that a more blunt stance is not taken in Thailand (compared to say China). If YouTube is under the jurisdiction of the US constitution, which would seem to allow rights that are most definately not in line with Thai national laws and morals (once you’ve figured out who is in charge after the 18 coups in 75 years), then why would Thailand condone access to it in the first place?

If you don’t like something on TV (allowing for the fact that in some countries like UK there are watershed times during the day before which mature content is not allowed), you can turn it off. If Thailand doesn’t like US morals, they can turn it off too – in fact why did they even allow it in the first place?

UPDATE:
These Turks know how to do it. But then again, it makes me wonder if the only really effective remaining democratic action one can take is moving country. It’s just a shame you can’t make your own with its own set of rules – ah well there’s always Second Life or um Weblo(?) but even the US Feds are starting to look into those.

Windows Procrastination Foundation (WFP)

colinizer Graphic Design, Microsoft, Software Development, Tools

Windows Vista was released on Nov 30 for businesses – OK about time
.NET framework 3.0 was included which includes the runtime for the Windows Presentation Foundation – it is also available as a download for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 – lovely
Visual Studio 2005 has no designer support for WFP 4 months later – hoorah, oh… what? really?

Hard to believe that one of the huge fanfare technologies of Windows Vista has no serious tool support isn’t it? Well there’s Notepad and the erm… XAMLPad… and… 3rd party tools and convertors…

So when will there be Microsoft support for WFP?
Well there was a Nov CTP of designer support in VS 2005 but the download page is quick to mention that it make not be the same as the final support in Visual Studio codenamed Orcas.
When can I get Orcas? That’s due um… sometime later in 2007, with a March 2007 CTP available. So I’d need to use a less than beta version to get that support.

So I’m now left to consider things like Flash, Direct3D or some serious owner-drawing for a funky interface.

Wait, do I even want a funky interface? Perhaps all that UI consistency that Microsoft has instilled with their many UI design guideline documents will go out the window.

Well, it would make some pretty kiosk and web-launched applications (if everyone has Vista or the .NET 3.0 runtime download installed that is).

Oh well…

Bait, switch and upgrade with DRM-free music

colinizer Consumer, Marketing, Sheep

OK – who isn’t talking about this? DRM-free EMI tracks at a higher price and higher quality on iTunes.

I think it comes down to this:

  • you’re still (for now) locked into the Apple eco-system – Apple win;
  • you can get music at high quality and DRM-free – consumer win;
  • many people will re-buy or upgrade songs to get the higher quality or non DRM – EMI win

It’s marketing – someone thought it through…

People will do that last one for the same reason that people buy something on DVD that they already have on VHS – and when will Star Wars come out on Blu-ray or HD-DVD so all geeks feel compelled to buy it again??

The bait is DRM-free or high quality music. The switch is that people will likely spend money on music they already had. If you’re reading this and thinking you’re too clever for that, then this marketing scheme wasn’t aimed at you and you are likely in the minority. This deal is for people who buy stuff just because it’s on sale.

Of course even if the other major industry players cave, DRM will not come off rental/subscriptions deals which of course is perfectly rational.

No new fast food tricks?

colinizer Consumer, Marketing

I went to McTroggles on the weekend for the first time in over a year.

I wasn’t sure what they’d have but I was quite surprised to see that the menu really hasn’t changed in quite some time. Sticking syrup in a bun seems to be the last big ‘innovation’.

Come to think of it, I haven’t really seen anything new in fast food TV commercials either.

Has innovation in the fast food industry come to a stand still?

SQL Server 2005 Integration Services – Not bad

colinizer Microsoft, Server Application, Software Development, Tools

I have colleagues that have been using this for 8 months or so, and I just took the dive into using it properly myself yesterday.

SQL Server 2005 Integration Services is part of the Business Intelligence set of SQL tools that replaced DTS packages from SQL Server 2000. It’s heart is in the right place, but it’s definately a V1 product.

I should have probably looked at the Adventure Works samples because it wasn’t easy to get into. However, once you figure out what all the bundled task and data flow tools do, you are ready to go…

Well almost:

  • the designer interface is slow (even on an fast machine)
  • error messages are all horribly truncated with the hover tool tips not being too helpful
  • the debugging is pretty bad in terms of being able to really see what’s going on
  • it’s possible to get items corrupted in which case you need to delete, reinsert and reconfigure

However, it is doing the job I want it to do – create a data warehouse from database, webservice and CSV sources using excel reference data – put it’s a little painful at times. Getting the security right to run one of these packages in SQL is also a fun configuration job. Of course, I can create custom tasks and data flow items if I want to which is a plus.

I admit to not yet having installed SQL Server 2005 SP2 and Visual Studio 2005 SP1, so I’ll give those a go.

I’m about to shift to Vista and I know SP2 is needed (plus a hot fix) to make scripted tasks work in the new OS.

I’m wondering whether they will replace the control takes with Windows Workflow Foundation at some point. I can see how needs could have arisen simultaneously but that either the fit or the timing wasn’t quite right…