It has been a while since I shot downtown. I recently purchased an excellent wide angle zoom lens, and I wanted to give it a workout. Downtown seemed like the perfect subject, so off I went. Given the evening light, I decided on the west side, shooting mostly east. Turns out, there were three major events going on the west side. Despite this, my super secret street parking location was still available, and, no, I’m not going to share.
The 10-22mm was a lot of fun, and I’m pretty happy with the results. The light was kind of harsh, so many shots would have benefited from a UV or other polarizing filter. Here’s one of my favorites; the rest are on the photos page.
Okay, so eight to ten years ago, when IM was just starting up and ICQ was the next big thing, I started following the work of an open source project called Jabber whose goal was create an open source instant messaging system. Being open source guys, they didn’t like the idea of being tied to a single company’s system. They much prefered a federated system, like email, where anyone can run a server, and there is an established protocol for servers talking to each other. So, that’s how they set their system up. XML was also a ‘next big idea’ at the time, so they decided to make a DTD for messaging, another for presence and contacts, and have the server, at its core, just by an XML router which routed the appropriate message documents to the appropriate contacts. Being forward looking guys, they knew this would make the system extensible, and, even at the time, had big ideas about adding DTDs that would support things like real-time white boarding and other collaboration tools. The Jabber guys established their niche, but the general public had already chosen one the handful of proprietary messaging platforms was happy enough that they saw no reason to leave.
What, you are probably asking, does all of this have to do with the Google Maps Team and lightning? Well, as good internet citizens, the Jabber guys documented they protocol and went through the hassle of getting it established as an ITEF standard known as an RFC. This standard was called extensible messaging and presence protocol, or XMPP. Many organizations have used this standard as the basis of their own messaging platforms. Among these was Google, who used it as the basis of Gtalk. Which, finally, bring me back to the Google Maps Team. After their technology was bought by Google and turned into Google Maps, they decided to work on something new: a real-time messaging and collaboration platform. After eighteen months work, the results, called Google Wave, were previewed at this week’s Google IO conference, and the results are astounding. I won’t attempt to explain it you just need to watch it:
Much as I suspected while watching the video, when I read their published protocol specification at waveprotocol.org, I learned that the whole thing is built on a extensions to XMPP. At the guts of the Wave are XML DTDs for wave detlas being streamed around, serialized, and sycnronized. This is going to be huge, and the Maps Team deserves the praise. But, it all started with the vision of the Jabber folks.
I watched the series finale of Battlestar Galactica last night. For the first hour and a half, it was wholely befitting of a show which has attracted the cult follow that BG has. The last half an hour was a bit of a disappointment for me, particularly the ending. The close featured a montage of the crude humanoid style robots that the current state of technology can muster, and a goofy warning that it will all happen again.
It has always amused me that people associate robotics with machine intelligence. Having worked in robotics, I can assure you robotics is much more about PID loops, sensors, and servo motors than it is about an artificial self awareness or machines having a soul. Anyone with even a passing interest in AI knows that it’s going to be an awful long time before we have to worry about an army of sentient machines taking over the word. Really, there is no need to fear your Roomba.
Last weekend I visited the 1st annual Indiana Microbrewers’ Winterfest at the state fairgrounds. Wow, who knew so many people in Indianapolis were into craft beers. When I arrived, there was a line wrapped around the side of the building waiting to get in…and it was 16 degrees outside. They eventually sold out. With your admission, you got tokens for ten 4 ounce samples, and there was plenty to choose from. Highlights for me were Upland Brewing’s Bad Elmo Porter, Barley Island Brewing’s Oatmeal Stout, and Warbird Brewing’s Shanty Irish Ale. My only complaint was that they needed more food as I arrived on an empty stomoch.
All in all, it appeared to be a smashing success for the organizers. So, I look forward to the second annual event.
While checking out the Indianapolis Auto Show, I got a good view of the results of the RCA dome implosion from the parking garage across the street. What a mess. Here’s hoping the expanded convention center will bring in the type of revenue need to pay for this…and the bonds from the original construction.
