Alfred's musings

I've always bought into Microsoft's Software + Services story. In a nut shell, S+S says we'll get the optimal experience if we combine web services with smart software (rich clients) that can consume these services. I always used to say that some things would never be serviced just over the internet... things like spell checker and video editing would always require some fat client. But I've been proven wrong: Having a spell checker in the browser makes much more sense, and using dictionaries from the cloud can be *much* more relevant and accurate! And as for video editing... I've recently used http://www.youtube.com/editor and it has benefits of thousands of CPUs to do rendering... much better than on the desktop! Microsoft also dreamt at one stage of "the programmable web" where even rich clients would essentially get the rendering instructions from XML, therefore making it possible to deliver everything via the web... an effort ultimately culminating...

I just  realized another reason why working at Google is so fantastic. It's really got a sunny perspective on the planet. I recall when I joined Google London just over a year ago, it was sunny every day coming in to the office. And more: T oday, while looking at a Google Earth sight seeing tour playing in our offices, I realized that the entire planet is sunny! :)

I've commented about a few robotics things recently ( tennis , cyborgs and more ), but I'm buzzing about the potential opened up with the combination of AppInventor , Lego NXT Mindstorm and Android. AppInventor allows me to build a simple application for Android mobile phones by *just* dragging and dropping a few puzzle pieces around to build the logic and UI. The NXT Robot is a bunch of Lego Technic bricks, plus some sensors (e.g. Ultrasound, light, touch) and a few motors (but not just any old motor, effectively stepper motor style thing where you can control the speed and exact rotation angles), and a Lego CPU that can control the lot, and talk to all... including talking to the phone (and AppInventor app) via bluetooth... The possibilities are endless. Well, I've been playing with a few ideas... it can become a mobile controlled curtain open & closer, or the mechanics that can make my space travel for my phone easier by for example deploying the parachute when t...

Even though Contoso does not formally appear on my CV, it could just as well, as I've spent sooooo many hours working on Contoso systems. But the big news is that Contoso has gone Google , now running on Google Apps. Welcome Contoso & all the Contoso employees!

http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/uslocations/mountain-view/autocompleter/index.html Note this position could be based anywhere on the planet. "Yah cloud!"

Kinect is innovative and created a step change in gaming. But that's gaming. Now, Google have again leapfrogged the competition by making motion the way to control not only gaming, but to improve everyday productivity too, in gmail. And no expensive camera is needed. Similar to the technology used in YouTube Symphony experiment  (follow experiment link), the new gmail motion only requires a standard web cam!  This blog post, btw, was created with similar technology, with slight movement over the keyboard only.

I'm not a guru on education [yet], but was recently inspired by a couple of things that are now coming nicely together... NoPC.org.uk  and One.laptop.org are doing noteworthy work to bring technology to kids, especially where good education is lacking. But I know at least that my wife and I have been cautious in introducing too much tech too early to our kids, as we fear that the positive impact of tech could be overshadowed by an imbalance, if the kids don't develop other skills (e.g. those acquired through sports and play). Both NoPC and One Laptop Per Child need good content, and I know many companies build great content for this purpose. But today I followed a TED videocast about the work Salman Khan does in creating educational videos. There were a few interesting things that his organisation  has done and found. For example, their data shows that the "slower" kids quickly catch up and become indistinguishable f...