Category Archives: The Future

GPS, as Political Issue

Posted on July 23, 2002 | Leave a comment

This article in Wired focuses on some interesting military strategic issues around Galileo, the new European satellite navigation system that is supposed to provide consumers around the world with navigation services that supplement and improve on the accuracy of the existing Global Positioning System (GPS) beginning in 2008. The goal for Galileo is to make Europe independent of non-European space infrastructure for strategic and commercial applications associated with space systems. This drive for autonomy is rooted in the idea that space is an essential part of a nation’s infrastructure in the 21st century, just as railways were in the 19th century and roads and power grids were in the 20th. The problem is that Galileo has been assigned two small frequency bands, E1 and E2, which the US military wants the ability to jam if necessary. But because these bands bracket the US GPS, jamming signals in them might risk obstructing a new US military GPS signal called M-code, which will be broadcast in two parts at the edges of the existing GPS band. Some are worried that putting encrypted signals onto the E1 and E2 bands, where it can hide in the M-code’s skirts, may make them unjammable, neutralizing a key tactical advantage for the US military.

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Posted in Public Policy, Tech, The Future

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Truly Anonymous Surfing?

Posted on July 23, 2002 | Leave a comment

This article in Wired talks about a new method for masking online identities to provide ultra-anonymous Internet access. It was developed by Hacktivismo, an offshoot of the hacker collective Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), and is called “Six/Four”, named after the June 4, 1989 massacre in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Six/Four combines peer-to-peer technologies with Virtual Private Networking (VPN) and “open proxy” connections, which allow one computer to establish direct, secure communications with another over the Internet. Traditional VPNs take the information along a single path from Point A to Point B. Six/Four’s route is more circuitous, sending its tunnel through a series of computers on its peer-to-peer network before heading to the public Internet. Data goes from Point A to Point K to Point Z to Point G, only eventually winding up at Point B. Each link in the chain only knows the link immediately before, not the final destination. Since every server along the way requires separate search warrant in order to view that computer’s logs (if they even still exist) to get your IP address, the approach adds layer after layer of anonymity between client and server. One developer says “It’s like a highway that’s redesigned for every Brinks truck that rides on it.”

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Posted in Public Policy, Tech, The Future

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From Avatars to Advertising

Posted on July 23, 2002 | Leave a comment

This article in the LA Times (free registration required) reveals that companies are using artifical agents called “digital buddies” to pitch their products on Instant Messaging services. These bots are programmed to make friends and small talk, and they’re eerily good at it. They take cues from questions and answers, searching databases for conversational fodder, and then urge people to buy Ford trucks, check out the eBay auction site and take in “The Lord of the Rings.” Most buddies are programmed with personalities that appeal to their target audiences. For example, ELLEgirlBuddy, the Internet ego of teen magazine ELLEgirl, is a redheaded 16-year-old who likes kickboxing, the color periwinkle and French class. Though most users are aware they are communicating with a computer, some engage in deep conversation with these buddies, talking to them as they would to friends. Many of the companies are using technology from ActiveBuddy, which offers the BuddyScript Server and Software Development Kit for building and deploying interactive agents.

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Posted in Just for fun, Tech, The Future

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Internet/Television Convergence: Program Tivo over AOL

Posted on May 2, 2002 | Leave a comment

This article says that AOL and Tivo are partnering to offer services that call for San Jose, Calif.-based TiVo to integrate AOL features like instant messaging (IM) and live chat into its new TiVo Series2 DVRs, and both companies are working to provide AOL members who are also TiVo subscribers the ability to schedule recordings on their TiVo from the AOL service.

TiVo already supported web controls: http://tivo.lightn.org/, but it seems that simplifying this software and integrating with AOL would lead to a higher rate of adoption.

This appears to me as a signal that AOl and TiVo are coordinating their efforts to attack Microsoft’s convergence strategy. Personally, I was hoping that AOL would work with Sony for this instead. Microsoft has pulled their UltimateTV business, and is focussing instead on XBox to get into your homes. AOL should recognize this change in strategy and team up with Sony’s Playstation division. Web services as we know them on the desktop and web services as they will be applied through home appliances such as the playstation will create a large amount of integration value – exactly the strategy that Microsoft used to take over your desktop. If Microsoft succeeds at home, too, then we are all doomed. 🙂

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Posted in Media, Tech, The Future

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AI and Program Trading

Posted on May 2, 2002 | Leave a comment

NewScientist published a good article describing neural network program trading systems.

An extension allows for a large number of competing signalling systems. One such signalling system may be an improvement on traditional cointegration techniques.

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Posted in Bonds, Brain in a jar, Commodities, Investment, Stocks, Tech, The Future

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