Bob McGinley::J2Evolution

Importance of Programming Language Popularity

I wrote my first programs while I was in high school during the early 1980's.  I copied a BASIC program out of a book and typed it into the school computers text editor.  Of course I had no idea that I would need to compile the program, I just thought you wrote them and expected them to run.

In college I learned PASCAL, the bind and compile processes, and it all came together.  But I wasnt enamored with PASCAL at the time, in fact I was hardly enamored with computers at the time.  This was the age of MS-DOS, and other than an occasional flight simulation, computers at the time were nothing more than typewriters and spreadsheet calculators.

On Intelligence

Just checking in.  I havent had my nose in the news much lately, but I have been indulging in a great book, On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins.  Hawkins invented the PalmPilot and other hand held devices, he also wrote some of the first successful handwriting recognition software.

On Intelligence is an easy read, not too technical, but not dumbed down either.  There are some great ideas discussed in the book regarding the mechanics of how we think, and actual steps that occur in our brains.  Hawkins describes his struggle getting support to research neuroscience, and his frustration with the arrogance of AI researchers who think that the brain is primitive, and computer brains should be evolved without considering our brains design.

I've considered the same debate, and after reading this book I'm firmly in the camp of Hawkins.  We still know too little about how our brain works.

The other aspect of the book I was immediately intrigued by was the concept of feedback, and how much of it our brains are designed to provide.  The flow of information in our neocortex is actually greater in the direction opposite of the input.  Our brains are instruments of prediction.  It is always predicting.  As the movie of our life rolls by, our brain tries to predict every frame.  When a prediction is wrong, we react.

Hawkins has a great view of this landscape if you ask me.  Its already gotten me thinking about some new neural net ideas.

Self-driven robotic cars hit the streets

I have strange obsessions, I know.  My obsession with vehicle traffic and intelligent traffic systems is only outdone by my obsession with intelligent vehicles.  I'm one of those people who thinks driving is an enormous waste of time, especially time stuck in traffic.  I would rather be able to program my vehicle with a destination, and then let it take me there, quickly and safely.  Will it happen in my life time?  It will if I have anything to say about it.

11 finalists to hit the streets in DARPA's $2M Urban Challenge

"The teams that competed in the [National Qualification Event] were subjected to a series of rigorous tests to determine whether they were equipped to compete in the Urban Challenge final event," said DARPA Director Tony Tether in a written statement. "The NQE tested the vehicles capability to merge into traffic, navigate four-way intersections, respond to blocked roads, pass on-coming cars on narrow roads and keeping up with traffic on two- and four-lane roads. In fact, the only major difference between the NQE and the final event is that other robotic vehicles will be part of the traffic in the final event."

The vehicles must accurately navigate a complicated course without human assistance. No one is in the car to turn the wheel, apply the brakes or figure out which way to go. The automobile must work its own way through the course, navigate around about 50 human-driven vehicles and do it within six hours.

Hows that for advancing the technology?  It was only a few years ago that the DARPA contest was simply navigating pylons and other small obstacles.  The vehicles in this years DARPA challenge can literally "see" the traffic around it.  Check out some video.

Now if we could tie all these vehicle locations into a grid, we could get them to act in synch with one another, and the traffic system.  Cars on the grid would know the traffic system, and would be able to navigate congested areas, and even predict road signal changes. 

What this boils down to of course is a safer highway system, and cars that allow the drivers to do something else with their time, rather than stare at traffic.

The next leap forward: Parallel Processing

One of the nice things about having a blog is that I can always point to a previous post and say, "I predicted this!".  Unfortunately, predicting parallelism as the next great step for computational processing is no great feat.  The serial nature of our current CPU's is inhibiting.  The processors are fast, but they are primarily single threaded, meaning they can only process one instruction at a time.  The human brain by contrast is slow in comparison to today's CPU's, but the human brain is multi-threaded and can handle multiple requests at once, making the brain more efficient at processing information per cycle.

Last week at the OOPSLA (Object-Oriented Programming, Systems and Languages) conference in Montreal, the programming demi-gods of our age got together to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Simula 67, the first object oriented programming language. 

Zabaware Wins Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence

The Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence is awarded every year for accomplishments in making computers more 'human', or more like humans.  This years award has gone to Zabaware's Ultra Hal software for 'most human' computer in the world.

Zabaware Wins Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence

It is one thing to talk to your computer it is quite another to have a conversation where you are exchanging information and the computer learns and utilizes the information in the future. Zabaware’s Ultra Hal technology and its associated brain are currently doing just that. The software can give your computer a personality using AI technology, speech recognition technology, and real-time animation. It can be used as an entertainment program, a companion, or an office assistant. It learns from conversations and evolves and improves the more it talks with a person. In addition to chat it can perform useful functions such as remembering and reminding of appointments, keeping an address book, dialing phone numbers, launching program, and more.

Zabaware appears to have combined a decent voice recognition solution with some rather high-level response routines.  I haven't downloaded the app (which is available here) but I went and read through some of the interaction that is displayed in text form.  I'm impressed with the semantic nature of the AI responses from what I can read.  Of course I'm not sure if these responses are actually conversational, or if they are actually canned responses regurgitated based on indexed keywords.

Either way, this is a nice step forward for human-machine interfacing.  As this type of technology matures and becomes more natural, I think we'll see it become more pervasive in other technology areas like gaming, and even business applications.

There are some great little companies out there making progress in these areas.  I couldn't help but think that Zabaware and Mike Sellers' Online Alchemy should consider some collaboration in this area.  This could end up being the game engine of the future.

The H-1B Visa conspiracy

As an IT Architect who has led multiple large scale development engagements, including hiring a large staff of technical resources, I can't help but comment on the fiasco around H-1B Visas.  And because this subject has so much to do with race and culture, I'll state right out of the gate that my opinion has nothing to do with race and culture.  My opinion is based on pure labor economics.

Vivek Wadhwa writes in last weeks Business Week:

The Visa Shortage: Big Problem, Easy Fix

This visa shortage is a problem for U.S. companies that depend on engineers because significantly more foreign-born students than Americans are completing higher degrees in engineering. According to the American Society of Engineering Education (asee.org), foreigners account for nearly 45% of masters-level engineering students and 60% of PhDs. The result? Multinationals have little choice but to expand their engineering operations abroad, and smaller businesses that can't afford to expand overseas are unable to hire the talent they need.   ***snip***

Unlike many of the problems facing the U.S., this one isn't hard to fix. All we need to do is increase the number of visas that are available for international students who get job offers from U.S. companies. An even better solution is to offer these students permanent-resident visas rather than H-1Bs. In the new global landscape, we need the world's best talent on our side.

Let me be very clear on what I think here, this is nothing more than pure, unmitigated, CRAP!  I don't know the last time Mr. Wadhwa has had to hire any technical staff, but I can tell you his article is highly biased to the employer (cheap labor) side of this debate.

Computers to predict the unpredictable

Get ready for a rant. U of Arizona prof. Jerzy Rozenblit has been awarded a $2.2 million grant to study volatile 'political and military situations' using software that will predict the actions of paramilitary and ethnic groups, terrorists and criminal groups, etc.   I'm in constant amazement with the human race.  Why does it seem that every time we make any scientific progress in a specific area, our first instinct is to use it to make weapons.

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable

The Asymmetric Threat Response and Analysis Project, known as ATRAP, is a massively complex set of computer algorithms (mathematical procedures) that sift through millions of pieces of data, considering many factors including social, political, cultural, military and media influences, said Rozenblit, who holds the Raymond J. Oglethorpe Endowed Chair in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the UA.

The software can handle data loads that would overwhelm human analysts, while dispassionately exploring actions and behaviors based solely on the data, sidestepping human cultural biases that might prematurely rule out unorthodox or seemingly bizarre courses of action.

The brain to computer interface

In a recent post I discussed the concept of establishing a protocol for machines to communicate with human brains.  The question I posed had to do with variances in our brain functions across individuals, and our brains filter systems that it uses to block certain kinds of information, i.e., a learning disorder, or even autism.

There is some progress being made in areas other than what the folks at uMind are doing. 

Engineers work on real-time control of artificial limbs

"A prosthesis revolution is under way, and a lot of the mechanical problems are getting solved," said Nitish Thakor, a professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, speaking at one of two workshops on neural systems. "Now the challenge is linking prosthetic devices to the nervous system to control them in a real-time fashion."

OT: Citizens for Financial Responsibility

This is off topic, but worth sharing.  As an avid market participant I find it becoming more and more obvious that the game is rigged in favor of the large banks in investment houses.  I think what crisis with subprime mortgages could have been avoided with proven conservative and fair lending practices.  The greed and corruption have been allowed to run rampant under this Treasury and Fed Reserve.  Its time for a change.  Please help me in supporting an effort to let Congress know that we demand a fair and trust worthy financial system.

Congress - Repair our Financial System!

New Human Interface gadget uses transparent screen & robot eyes.

I'm not a hardware geek by any means, but I couldn't resist tossing this one out there.  I happen to be one of those people that is very frustrated with the current state of user interface development.  Sure, AJAX and some of the WEB 2.0 technologies are great, but which technology is going to make the next great user interface leap?  Where is the next generation mouse and keyboard?

Transparent Gadget could trump iPhone interface.

A touch-sensitive gadget with the sensing panel on its back, instead of the screen, is being developed by US researchers. Using your fingers behind the device allows a firmer grip and more accurate performance without obscuring your view of the screen, they say.