Monthly Archives: October 2001

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Distributed, replicated file and data storage …
This is a project that resembles the work of the Freenet organization … only this has the backing of Microsoft! They are creating a distributed set of shared storage as a solution for fault tolerant data protection. A group of people form a “replica ring” of sorts … and begin to store files on each others file systems. There is encryption and meta-directory capabilities which make this a very likely future.

MIT Technology Review: Fault-Tolerant File Storage. That earth-shaking experience got Theimer, then an operating systems researcher at Xerox PARC, thinking about how to make computer file storage systems radically more fault tolerant. His work has helped to lead to Farsite, a fail-safe storage technology being created at Microsoft. [Tomalak’s Realm]

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Weblogging … a truly “humaneural” application …
This is a very good article, and outlines some of the benefits of “weblogging” … which I see as another step in the direction of “humaneural” applications.

A “humaneural” application is one which improves the effectiveness of communications with a community of people. It is an application which begins to mirror the neural structures of the brain. A neuron has the ability to monitor hundreds or thousands of other neurons, and then generate it’s own output signals. In the case of weblogging, when coupled with an application like Radio from Userland, this same architecture can be mirrored …

What become amazing is the concept of Internet attached devices which will generate weblogs that can be subscribed to. If you are not watching weblogging, Radio, and Userland … you might want to!

WTF is Weblogging

Chris Ashley has written one of the best articles I’ve seen about Weblogging, Really Simple Syndication and the communities that these systems create and cultivate. It’s no surprise that his site links to Peter Ford, who I’ve been working with on integrating weblogging into education. If you want to know what Weblogging is all about then put this on your reading list.

[Adam Curry: CurryDotCom]

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PDA Abstraction …
Microsoft has got to love seeing this type of development going on. If and when this releases, I can run all of my Palm OS applications on my PocketPC … or better … on my wearable PC!

It is projects like this that demonstrate that the products that are developed around “scarcity” theory are doomed to fail. Powerful wearable systems are just around the corner …

PalmOS Emulation On PocketPC [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

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Very cool “sniffer” application …
I couldn’t help but read through this application description. Very innovative … I really like it. This application not only “sniffs” IP traffic off any Internet connection, it looks for images being transferred over HTTP connections, and grabs the images … displaying them for your viewing pleasure! (Or displeasure!)

What I really like is that this demonstrates how insecure your connections can be … it looks for specific data types and snatches them … and could be a very usefull tool for administrators. This again shows how VPNs and SOCKS proxies can really provide you more security … if implemented correctly.

Driftnet 0.1.1 (Default). Picks out and displays images from network traffic. [freshmeat.net]

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Open Source and Location Based Services …
Although this project does not directly move to location based services, it demonstrates the types of projects that are being developed in the Open Source community.

It is my opinion that as mobile hardware become more powerful, and wireless and GPS are an integral set of peripherals, we are going to see some incredible applications which relate directly to this project. The concepts of “location marks” or “location servers” … along with “route servers” … are going to be the basis for the creation of powerful augmented reality solutions. My ability to store locations, routes, and other information which can accessed by others, will create incredible amounts of data which will augment our everyday experience through goggles and other visual and audible enhancements.

The beginning is here …

GPSMan 5.4 (Default). A graphical manager of Garmin GPS data. [freshmeat.net]

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Open Source finding out about directories …
This is a very interesting project since it begins to explore the uses of directories for valuable end-user solutions. I like the demo, and it begins to explore the storage of users, multiple address books, etc. Cool stuff.

Directories, IMHO, are fundamental to the digital identity of the future. They can provide the facilities to create powerful identity storage … and this application starts to deal with some of these ideas and implications.

Rolodap 0.94 (Default). Multiuser contacts managment system based on LDAP and PHP. [freshmeat.net]

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Wireless networks of the future …
This is yet another article which outlines some great points about the future of “parasitic” wireless networks. I think of these more as “collaborative network infrastructures”. There are some huge benefits to this architecture in such a build out as the participants of the network defray the infrastructure costs, and also determine the standards and features of the network. This is the root of my 80211.net project … which is currently looking for funding. 😉

Wireless Freenets [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]