"Danny showed me his video parser. I gave him a .3gp video of my son, newly arrived back from snowboarding in Canada. The video, from my camera-phone, was tiny and grainy. Danny's program read frame after frame, displaying each magnified pixel map. It was incomprehensibly to my eyes.
"The program does standard things like edge-detection, object-inference and finally scene-reconstruction. It's based on the detailed models of people and objects stored in its object-database. The parsed result is a high-resolution 3D animation model similar to those we use to generate video games. We can then invert the process and render this model at any resolution we choose."
Danny showed me his processed video based on my original postage-stamp movie, but it was now rendered on a high-definition TV screen. And it was perfect.
"You do realise the implications, don't you?" Danny said. This cinematic version of your video is a reconstructed reality, a kind of 'informed hallucination' based on your original coarse and tiny video. And that too was a kind of hallucination of reality, formed from pixels illuminated by your camera lens.
"And as you sit there looking at me, your brain is doing just the same thing" he continued. "You have no access to the 'real me'. Your 'view' is entirely reconstructed from retinal images on the back of your two eyes: tiny, noisy and upside-down neuronal 'bit-maps'. It looks like you're seeing the world, but you're hallucinating a view based on retinal image processing."
He grinned. "Intellectually you know it, but you don't really believe it, do you?"
Miffed, I replied. "You're sitting there looking at me and being amused. Consider this - the 'you' being amused is just the activity of 100 billion neurons doing their thing behind your eyes. 'You' are no more than the sum of their activity. How does that work, d'you think? And do you really believe it?""
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Some 'Learnings' (sic)
In the sense of Vernon God Little.
1. Be a 'yes' person.
Trade little favours with other 'yes' people (in the sense of the 'Favor Bank' in 'Bonfire of the Vanities'). 'No' people are both high maintenance and incur too-high transaction costs to get them to do stuff well. 'Yes' people get the world's work done.
2. You can look stupid talking to lay people
How many times have you discussed something technical with a bright person who knows nothing about the area? As you run an internal translation system to filter acronyms and too-hard concepts, and work on generating appropriate metaphors on the fly, your conversational partner thinks you can't really understand this stuff all that well.
You are then joined by someone else who is also an expert. You switch gear - now you are motoring! Your original conversational partner is amazed: they now have no idea what you are talking about, but they see you flying rather than crawling. Your reputation is back.
I have been on both sides of this divide.
3. Building your reputation takes time.
How many times have I fallen into the trap of wanting to impress someone, and therefore hitting them with a lot of intellectual firepower - kind of hosing them. Although it's a truism, it is also true that less is a lot more. Understated competence allows people time to assess the evidence and to make their minds up. After a week or ten days, they may start to trust you and you may acquire a reputation. Attempts to short-circuit the process fatally undermine it. Patience and the Tao!
1. Be a 'yes' person.
Trade little favours with other 'yes' people (in the sense of the 'Favor Bank' in 'Bonfire of the Vanities'). 'No' people are both high maintenance and incur too-high transaction costs to get them to do stuff well. 'Yes' people get the world's work done.
2. You can look stupid talking to lay people
How many times have you discussed something technical with a bright person who knows nothing about the area? As you run an internal translation system to filter acronyms and too-hard concepts, and work on generating appropriate metaphors on the fly, your conversational partner thinks you can't really understand this stuff all that well.
You are then joined by someone else who is also an expert. You switch gear - now you are motoring! Your original conversational partner is amazed: they now have no idea what you are talking about, but they see you flying rather than crawling. Your reputation is back.
I have been on both sides of this divide.
3. Building your reputation takes time.
How many times have I fallen into the trap of wanting to impress someone, and therefore hitting them with a lot of intellectual firepower - kind of hosing them. Although it's a truism, it is also true that less is a lot more. Understated competence allows people time to assess the evidence and to make their minds up. After a week or ten days, they may start to trust you and you may acquire a reputation. Attempts to short-circuit the process fatally undermine it. Patience and the Tao!
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Lyme Regis
This week-end we camped close to Lyme Regis. This little seaside town on the English south coast dates back to Saxon times - today it looks rather Georgian, like Bath.
At the west side of the enclosed harbour is a seawall about twelve feet high called 'The Cob' (see picture above, where I'm standing on the uneven surface).
It's been there for a long while.
Jane Austen was in Lyme in 1804 and her later novel, Persuasion, had the dramatic scene where Louisa, one of the female characters jumps off the top of the Cob, supposedly into the hands of Captain Wentworth, the male lead character. Missing, she sustains concussion and the event helps to precipitate the happy ending whereby Wentworth gets to marry the heroine Anne.
Clare, pictured above, shows steps leading to the top. We took our courage in both hands and climbed up using this route. A fall from the top would really be no joke.
Our banal camping movie is here.
At the west side of the enclosed harbour is a seawall about twelve feet high called 'The Cob' (see picture above, where I'm standing on the uneven surface).
It's been there for a long while.
Jane Austen was in Lyme in 1804 and her later novel, Persuasion, had the dramatic scene where Louisa, one of the female characters jumps off the top of the Cob, supposedly into the hands of Captain Wentworth, the male lead character. Missing, she sustains concussion and the event helps to precipitate the happy ending whereby Wentworth gets to marry the heroine Anne.
Clare, pictured above, shows steps leading to the top. We took our courage in both hands and climbed up using this route. A fall from the top would really be no joke.
Our banal camping movie is here.
Friday, June 09, 2006
Why big companies are more competent
As Adam Smith noted, the division of labour is limited by the extent of the market. There are not many specialist rocket scientists, brain surgeons or carrier network architects who can make their living within the economic confines of a small town.
But one could equally state that the division of labour is limited by the extent of the company. A large company making economic profits can afford specialists and can allow them to work with some autonomy - freed from the immediate need to make the next dollar, euro or pound. This is not just a complex way of describing traditional R&D: large companies also do better with large scale product development as well as support services and systems integration, if they are in a somewhat competitive market.
The smaller company may enjoy freedom from group-think and an incentive to innovate, but it is the large company which brings the innovation to the mass market. A number of possible causes have been proposed for this phenomenon, but look to Adam Smith’s insight for the real reason.
But one could equally state that the division of labour is limited by the extent of the company. A large company making economic profits can afford specialists and can allow them to work with some autonomy - freed from the immediate need to make the next dollar, euro or pound. This is not just a complex way of describing traditional R&D: large companies also do better with large scale product development as well as support services and systems integration, if they are in a somewhat competitive market.
The smaller company may enjoy freedom from group-think and an incentive to innovate, but it is the large company which brings the innovation to the mass market. A number of possible causes have been proposed for this phenomenon, but look to Adam Smith’s insight for the real reason.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Laptop problem (cont.)
The problem reported a few days back recurred in a different way recently. At random intervals, the laptop would freeze as the CPU was taken over by an unknown process. Using ctrl-alt-delete to open the task manager was no help at all. Various tasks such as iexplorer were flagged at 98-100% of CPU but stopping them (eventually) did not solve the problem.
Too many times, I would have to kill the machine dead by holding down the power button.
I rather feared that the spectre of a full XP-reinstall would be forced upon me. But I decided instead that the problem was with the Microsoft Indexing Service, via cidaemon.exe. This was, after all, exactly where I had had the problem before.
I therefore turned the service off using the control panel (administrative tools - services - indexing service => disabled). I use Google Desktop to search for local files anyhow.
Postscript: no sooner was I celebrating 24 hours of the problem apparently being cleared when it recurred! I have noticed, though, that whatever process is grabbing 100% of the CPU then releases it after a few minutes. So I walk away from the problem, get a green tea, come back and restart the machine. Seems to work provided life is not too urgent!
Too many times, I would have to kill the machine dead by holding down the power button.
I rather feared that the spectre of a full XP-reinstall would be forced upon me. But I decided instead that the problem was with the Microsoft Indexing Service, via cidaemon.exe. This was, after all, exactly where I had had the problem before.
I therefore turned the service off using the control panel (administrative tools - services - indexing service => disabled). I use Google Desktop to search for local files anyhow.
Postscript: no sooner was I celebrating 24 hours of the problem apparently being cleared when it recurred! I have noticed, though, that whatever process is grabbing 100% of the CPU then releases it after a few minutes. So I walk away from the problem, get a green tea, come back and restart the machine. Seems to work provided life is not too urgent!
Friday, June 02, 2006
Video old and new
Clare has managed to push my family tree of male ancestors back to a John Seel, born in Oldham, Lancashire, in 1847. We have no idea what he looked like.
A while ago there passed away the last generation of which this could be true. Consider the .wmv movie of Adrian Seel, here. As I was taking it, I was conscious that despite the poor resolution and 2D technology, it is easy to anticipate a future technology - based on 3D modelling - which could transform this video into a high-resolution 3D object: all the information required is either there, or can be extrapolated.
Technology forecasting: take something which would be good to do, and where in principle we know it can be done. It will happen - 10-20 years max.
A while ago there passed away the last generation of which this could be true. Consider the .wmv movie of Adrian Seel, here. As I was taking it, I was conscious that despite the poor resolution and 2D technology, it is easy to anticipate a future technology - based on 3D modelling - which could transform this video into a high-resolution 3D object: all the information required is either there, or can be extrapolated.
Technology forecasting: take something which would be good to do, and where in principle we know it can be done. It will happen - 10-20 years max.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Paradise Lost
Back to infrequent posts here - the commute to London for the BT 'Wireless Cities' project takes up a great deal of time.
Down to the Salisbury Playhouse this afternoon to see 'Paradise Lost' (John Milton) adapted for stage by Ben Power. Press release here.
The first half has Satan and cohorts planning their future strategy, having ended up in hell after losing a power struggle with God. Cue lightshow and loud music.
After the interval, we are in the Garden of Eden with a naked Adam and Eve on stage, about to be tempted by the serpent-disguised Satan. The play ends with A. and E.'s expulsion from the G. of E. following the apple incident.
Although 'highly-aclaimed', we were not unduly impressed. The language is sub-Shakespearean, and the acting - although technically competent - seems to lack conviction. The central problem, however, is with the plot. The dilemma facing A. and E. is to eat the apple, get knowledge and take charge of their destiny (but incur God's wrath for disobedience), vs. obey God's arbitrary injunction not to eat it and continue to wallow in brain-dead luxury.
Since there is no rational reason for God to have forbidden the apple to be eaten, or at least no motive which the script identifies, there is no interesting central dilemma for the characters. And hence no dramatic tension.
Confession: we both almost fell asleep in the first half, and we did not find the nudity arousing in the second. Looks like the naturists are right after all.
Down to the Salisbury Playhouse this afternoon to see 'Paradise Lost' (John Milton) adapted for stage by Ben Power. Press release here.
The first half has Satan and cohorts planning their future strategy, having ended up in hell after losing a power struggle with God. Cue lightshow and loud music.
After the interval, we are in the Garden of Eden with a naked Adam and Eve on stage, about to be tempted by the serpent-disguised Satan. The play ends with A. and E.'s expulsion from the G. of E. following the apple incident.
Although 'highly-aclaimed', we were not unduly impressed. The language is sub-Shakespearean, and the acting - although technically competent - seems to lack conviction. The central problem, however, is with the plot. The dilemma facing A. and E. is to eat the apple, get knowledge and take charge of their destiny (but incur God's wrath for disobedience), vs. obey God's arbitrary injunction not to eat it and continue to wallow in brain-dead luxury.
Since there is no rational reason for God to have forbidden the apple to be eaten, or at least no motive which the script identifies, there is no interesting central dilemma for the characters. And hence no dramatic tension.
Confession: we both almost fell asleep in the first half, and we did not find the nudity arousing in the second. Looks like the naturists are right after all.
Monday, May 22, 2006
BT Wireless City project
Attended a meeting in London earlier today where I signed up for BT's wireless city project. This will roll-out municipal WiFi in a number of UK cities, in a pattern previously seen in San Francisco and Philadelphia. I will be managing roll-out in a couple of the cities (yet tbd) through my company Interweave Consulting.
Just as well that I shipped the book manuscript to the publisher on Friday.
Just as well that I shipped the book manuscript to the publisher on Friday.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Really finished this time!
Over the week-end I really blitzed the last chapter (12) on 'spoken dialogue systems' and produced 5,000 words, which is OK. This is now out for review - it's titled 'Machines Who Talk'.
My other major task was to incorporate the anonymous reviewer's comments, which mostly involved adding material about GMPLS, Grid Computing, SONET and a review of current 'Internet2'-type systems.
I am now just fine-tuning and rewriting the odd point here and there, and tomorrow I will review again the last three chapters. Once comments are back from the various people who are looking at material, I think this is about ready to ship :-)
My other major task was to incorporate the anonymous reviewer's comments, which mostly involved adding material about GMPLS, Grid Computing, SONET and a review of current 'Internet2'-type systems.
I am now just fine-tuning and rewriting the odd point here and there, and tomorrow I will review again the last three chapters. Once comments are back from the various people who are looking at material, I think this is about ready to ship :-)
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Data Bombing
Something weird affecting my laptop.
It has an 18.6 GB hard disk, with 5.3 GB free. However, Monday evening (May 8th) I got a message that the disk was full. Yep, only a few Megabytes left. When I checked folders very carefully, I found that the WINDOWS/TEMP folder was filled with files like this:
AcrF4.tmp, AcrF5.tmp, ..., AcrFF.tmp, Acr100.tmp, Acr101.tmp, ... etc. Counting up in hex.
Each file was around 4 MB in size (just under, just over, it depended) and they were being written into the folder around four times a minute, although the rate was also variable. Windows marked the application as unknown, and when I opened a file in Notepad, it was binary.
Aty first I suspected BOINC, the distributed science application platform. But I stopped it, and the problem continued. I checked the active processes, and nothing seemed amiss. It's a shame there is no disk access logger with XP though.
In desperation I have re-installed the McAfee antivirus program (I had some suspicions) and have used System Restore to back up to last Sunday. As of this time, the Acr files have stopped arriving. More later (if the problem recurs).
UPDATE: Thursday morning, May 11th 06
End of last evening, the problem had not gone away. This morning, I started by closing down systematically all my user processes (via the task manager) - checking at each stage whether the demonic file-writing would stop. It did not.
I then downloaded the freeware program: mst IsUsedBy, a utility which opens a window, into which you can drag a file. The program then tells you which process is using that file. It told me that the culprit was the Microsoft indexing program cidaemon.exe. Surprising, because although this program can apparently be a CPU hog, it is not flagged as dumping data.
I tracked it down to C:WINDOWS/system32 and renamed the process (prepended an 'x'). This may have cured the problem. However, re-checking in this folder, I see that Windows has put it back! Still ...
I also took the precaution of organising all my data, collecting my executables together, listing the programs I continue to use, and backing everything up to my external HD. This, because the next step is a full Windows XP re-install on the assumption that I have a piece of malware here. It has evaded McAfee antivirus, spybot S&D and Lavasoft ad-aware so it's pretty pernicious.
A re-install from Toshiba's 2003 CDs looks like an all-day operation (SP2 download all over again, etc) so it really is a last resort...
UPDATE Friday May 12th 9.00 a.m.
Now 24 hours without any reappearance of the problem. I guess we can say fixed. What seems to have happened is that the cidaemon.exe process appears to have gone 'rogue'. Whether this was a bit error, or some corruption of a config file or debug setting is completely unknown.
However, Windows recreated the process, presumably from a clean source, and the problem has gone away. By side effect, it did force a clean-up of my data and an audit of what I have as well as rehearsing the complete recovery process - which has value. Still, what a waste of time, overall.
It has an 18.6 GB hard disk, with 5.3 GB free. However, Monday evening (May 8th) I got a message that the disk was full. Yep, only a few Megabytes left. When I checked folders very carefully, I found that the WINDOWS/TEMP folder was filled with files like this:
AcrF4.tmp, AcrF5.tmp, ..., AcrFF.tmp, Acr100.tmp, Acr101.tmp, ... etc. Counting up in hex.
Each file was around 4 MB in size (just under, just over, it depended) and they were being written into the folder around four times a minute, although the rate was also variable. Windows marked the application as unknown, and when I opened a file in Notepad, it was binary.
Aty first I suspected BOINC, the distributed science application platform. But I stopped it, and the problem continued. I checked the active processes, and nothing seemed amiss. It's a shame there is no disk access logger with XP though.
In desperation I have re-installed the McAfee antivirus program (I had some suspicions) and have used System Restore to back up to last Sunday. As of this time, the Acr files have stopped arriving. More later (if the problem recurs).
UPDATE: Thursday morning, May 11th 06
End of last evening, the problem had not gone away. This morning, I started by closing down systematically all my user processes (via the task manager) - checking at each stage whether the demonic file-writing would stop. It did not.
I then downloaded the freeware program: mst IsUsedBy, a utility which opens a window, into which you can drag a file. The program then tells you which process is using that file. It told me that the culprit was the Microsoft indexing program cidaemon.exe. Surprising, because although this program can apparently be a CPU hog, it is not flagged as dumping data.
I tracked it down to C:WINDOWS/system32 and renamed the process (prepended an 'x'). This may have cured the problem. However, re-checking in this folder, I see that Windows has put it back! Still ...
I also took the precaution of organising all my data, collecting my executables together, listing the programs I continue to use, and backing everything up to my external HD. This, because the next step is a full Windows XP re-install on the assumption that I have a piece of malware here. It has evaded McAfee antivirus, spybot S&D and Lavasoft ad-aware so it's pretty pernicious.
A re-install from Toshiba's 2003 CDs looks like an all-day operation (SP2 download all over again, etc) so it really is a last resort...
UPDATE Friday May 12th 9.00 a.m.
Now 24 hours without any reappearance of the problem. I guess we can say fixed. What seems to have happened is that the cidaemon.exe process appears to have gone 'rogue'. Whether this was a bit error, or some corruption of a config file or debug setting is completely unknown.
However, Windows recreated the process, presumably from a clean source, and the problem has gone away. By side effect, it did force a clean-up of my data and an audit of what I have as well as rehearsing the complete recovery process - which has value. Still, what a waste of time, overall.
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