Alston Grove

There’s quite a buzz about a Dashboard demo shown at OSCON during the keynote by Miguel de Icaza and Nat Friedman (infamous GNOME hackers and founders of Ximian). It’s not a corporate dashboard like the ones so many Fortune 500’s are putting up — it’s for end-users!

Dashboard is a little GUI window that displays information related to what you are currently doing on your computer. It gets “clue packets” from the front-end applications you use, like mail and IM. So if you are chatting with a friend over IM, Dashboard might display the last few e-mails you received from them, previous conversations, and their latest blog entries.

This reminds me of “agents” that were popular to talk about in AI circles. Agents were supposed to learn your habits and preferences, then make smart decisions for you, like finding a book you might like at a discount price. Why do I want an AI to try and second guess me? What I like about Dashboard is that it is taking cues from the user to make information easier to access. It puts the user in control, and doesn’t try to make decisions for them.

So is Dashboard going to be a “killer app”? We’ve had apps like Visicalc, Lotus 123, and Office in the corporate world. It’s about time we had a revolution for the end user.

I was cleaning out a “junk drawer” when I found an old audio tape. It struck me how the cassette contains mechanical parts that allow you to access its data. I thought about how DVD/CDs are superior because they contain no moving parts. Except that — when you put them in a reader — they are spun around mechanically to access data once again!

Having little parts spinning around in my computer to access data makes me feel like I have a Fred Flintstone computer with little dinosaurs inside making things work. I realize that these devices must operate within a physical world, but they should defer mechanical operation until required. My computer should be using data to light up pixels and undulate air into sound, but I shouldn’t hear platters spinning up like an airplane so I can read my e-mail.

We have solid state media today, but more data can be fit on a hard disk platter for less money. Lasers led to the invention of the Compact Disc. Hopefully, some new technology using molecules or quantum mechanics will lead to solid state storage for the masses. I can’t wait to have vast amounts of data on a little card that just plugs in.

This article [abc.net.au] “Marriage may tame genius” just confirmed my fears. I am getting more stupid by the day.

I remember writing assembly code in 7th grade for the 6502 processor. I could smooth scroll text and play tricks with the display raster. Today, coding is infrequent and conducted in high level languages. My former 13-year-old self would laugh at my pitiful skillz.

Maybe the article should be renamed “Children may tame genius.” Raising kids takes way more time than just being married.

Joking aside, perhaps the author has cause and effect confused. Maybe people decide to settle down, start a family, and make that their priority. It’s not that marriage squelches genius, just that geniuses eventually figure out what’s important in life.

Another one of my software ideas just got picked up and implemented while I twiddled my thumbs. Open Groupware is an open-source replacement for Microsoft Exchange. These guys were rather sneaky about getting around the problem of reverse-engineering the protocol of Exchange. Instead, they wrote a plugin for Outlook that converts MAPI into standard WebDAV-based calls.

Pretty soon there will be a window of opportunity for an infrastructure company that converts small offices to Linux. With a desktop environment like GNOME, Mozilla, Open Office, and server support with Apache, Cyrus IMAP, and Open Groupware, an office could run totally open source.

Ever play the Passing Game on the highway? I had several people playing this game during my drive to Akron for Independence Day. Here’s how you play. Find a long stretch of main highway, and set your cruise control. The best highways to use have curves and hills. Now wait for someone to pass you and begin playing. They will beat your speed by 10 mph and travel several cars past you. Then, they will slow down to 10 mph under your speed so you can pass them. Now repeat it again! Inclines in the highway add interest to the game. You will travel up the hill, maintaining precise speed, while the other players fall far behind. Once you pass the peak, the other players will zip past you. The worst players will cut in front immediately, sending a plume of exhaust through your ventillation system. Phew!

I wonder what thoughts go through these people’s heads? Do they realize they keep passing me? Do they think I am the one speeding up and slowing down? Do they think there are a lot of similar cars on the road? Do different songs on the radio make them drive faster or slower? Am I giving them too much credit about having thoughts?