AI Gets a Brain [Amazon Mechanical Turk]

AI Gets a Brain [Amazon Mechanical Turk]: "In 1769, Wolfgang von Kempelen built an automaton that defeated many human opponents at chess. Known as 'The Turk,' the wooden mannequin toured the United States and Europe for many years, defeating such famous challengers as Benjamin Franklin, Napolean Bonaparte, and Edgar Allen Poe. The secret to the automaton was, of course, a human chess master hidden inside. Like its namesake, Amazon's Mechanical Turk presents a mechanical front to conceal, or abstract, the human processing power and intelligence hidden inside. Developers can use the Amazon Mechanical Turk Web services API to submit tasks to the Amazon Mechanical Turk Web site, approve completed tasks, and incorporate the answers into their software applications. To the application, the transaction looks very much like any remote procedure call: The application sends the request, and the service returns the results. In reality, a network of humans fuels this 'artificial artificial intelligence' by coming to the Web site, searching for and completing tasks, and receiving payment for their work. This allows software developers to easily and economically build programs that tap into a worldwide, massively parallel, Internet-scale human workforce on an incremental, as-needed basis."

Great article by two Amazon.com technologists.

Lighting Up Microsoft - May. 8, 2006

Lighting Up Microsoft - May. 8, 2006: "[John Battelle:] A lot has been made about Google's computing infrastructure - those hundreds of thousands of CPUs distributed around the globe. Why haven't we heard anything about Microsoft's?
[Ray Ozzie:] If you just step back and forget about this year or next year, in five or 10 years there will be very few companies on the face of the earth with both the capacity and the willingness to spend billions of dollars on the capital equipment and operating expenses it takes to field that kind of infrastructure. Microsoft will be one of those, Google will be one of those, and by all indications Yahoo will be one of those. I don't think any one of them will have a substantial advantage."

Read the full interview...

Warner Bros. to Sell Movies and TV Shows on Internet - New York Times

Warner Bros. to Sell Movies and TV Shows on Internet - New York Times: "'We've been struggling with peer-to-peer technology and trying to figure out a way to harness the good in all that the technology allows us to do,' said Kevin Tsujihara, the president of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group.
'If we can convert 5, 10 or 15 percent of the illegal downloaders into consumers of our product, that is significant.'"

WSJ.com - Online Sharing Evolves for Warner Bros.

WSJ.com - Online Sharing Evolves for Warner Bros.: "In a sign that Hollywood is trying to adapt to a technology it long feared, Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. is expected to announce that it will sell and rent movies and television shows online using BitTorrent Inc.'s peer-to-peer technology.
...
Prices haven't yet been determined, but they could be less than physical DVDs. 'We're working with a user base that is accustomed to not paying for content,' said Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of BitTorrent, who says TV shows might sell for as little as $1."

Strange days indeed...

WSJ.com - Will Videogame Race Go to Tortoise, Hare or Alien?

WSJ.com - Will Videogame Race Go to Tortoise, Hare or Alien?: "Microsoft executives today are expected to say that the company has shipped to stores around 3.3 million Xbox 360 consoles, which they say is strong progress toward a goal of selling nearly 10 million by the time PlayStation 3 ships. That's an important threshold for attracting developers to write their best games for a system.
The company is expected to show for the first time Halo 3, the next version of the most popular game for the current Xbox and one of the key drivers of its sales. Microsoft will also demonstrate ways for mobile phones to link with its Xbox Live service, which allows Xbox 360 users to play games with each other over the Internet."

Later in the article:
"Sony announced prices for two versions of the PlayStation 3: One with a 20-gigabyte hard drive will go for $499 and one with a 60-gigabyte hard drive for $599, more expensive than many industry executives had hoped. The premium version of the Xbox 360 sells for $399. However, the PlayStation 3 will include the Blu-ray DVD drive, while a next-generation drive for the Xbox 360 will sell separately."

I suspect price elasticity is going to be a serious challenge for Sony.

PBS | I, Cringely . May 4, 2006 - Killer Apps

PBS | I, Cringely . May 4, 2006 - Killer Apps: "It doesn't take an Einstein to realize why Microsoft is headed down and
Google is headed up."

More Microsoft == bad, Google == good from Cringely. Unusually harsh and binary for Cringely, who is apparently still annoyed about an IE + Yahoo incident that recently infected two of his PCs. Tangential excerpt:

"A lot of this comes down to how companies view themselves and what they are really good at. You'll notice, for example, that I didn't include Sun in my list of vital companies. That's not so much because Sun can be defined in terms of the others but that Sun is simply doomed. Their software isn't better, their hardware isn't better, and they can't see themselves as anything but a maker of hardware or software, so my simple recommendation is that they take the rest of their cash and try entering a hot new field like -- say -- space flight. Or making really fine cakes. The world will always need fine baked goods. Or just give it back to the shareholders. Really."

WSJ.com - Silicon Graphics Files For Chapter 11 Protection

WSJ.com - Silicon Graphics Files For Chapter 11 Protection: "Silicon Graphics Inc., a long-struggling maker of high-performance computers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
SGI is known for desktop workstations and larger server systems that are favored by engineers and others who demand sophisticated graphics, including Hollywood studios. But the company has suffered a long slide, partly due to competition from machines based on standard components used in personal computers."

I.B.M. Seeks to Make the Mainframe Modern Technology - New York Times

I.B.M. Seeks to Make the Mainframe Modern Technology - New York Times: "The mainframe business, while far smaller than it was, remains crucial for I.B.M. Sales of the machines alone account for only about 5 percent of I.B.M.'s revenue. But all mainframe-related hardware, software and services account for a quarter of its revenue and, more important, about half of I.B.M.'s total operating profit, A. M. Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, estimates. "

WSJ.com - Judge Rules Apple Computer May Use Apple Logo on iTunes

WSJ.com - Judge Rules Apple Computer May Use Apple Logo on iTunes: "Apple Computer Inc. is entitled to use the apple logo on its iTunes music store, a judge ruled Monday, rejecting a lawsuit filed by Apple Corps Ltd., guardian of the Beatles' commercial interests.
Apple Corps contended that the computer company had broken a 1991 agreement in which each agreed not to enter into the other's field of business. But Judge Edward Mann ruled that the apple logo was used in association with the store, not the music, and thus was not a breach."

Poll finds 4 in 10 are electronic gamers - The Boston Globe

Poll finds 4 in 10 are electronic gamers - The Boston Globe: "According to a new AP-AOL Games poll, 40 percent of American adults play games on a computer or a console. Men, younger adults, and minorities were most likely to play those games.
Among those who describe themselves as gamers, 45 percent play over the Internet. And more than a third of online gamers spent more than $200 last year on gaming, compared with nearly a quarter of those who don't play games online."

Welcome to the New Dollhouse - New York Times

Welcome to the New Dollhouse - New York Times: "As far as we know, children have always played with dolls of one sort or another to act out variations on their own lives, or lives they observe or imagine. Today, a vast and growing number of kids are doing the same thing -- but with a very new tool. Instead of dolls, they are using video games. And perhaps most of all, they're using The Sims. "

McAfee bites into Apple security | CNET News.com

McAfee bites into Apple security CNET News.com: "McAfee has launched a Mac security product, saying that Apple Computer's OS X is 'just as vulnerable' as other operating systems are to targeted attacks. "

FAST FORWARD: Microsoft's cash versus Google - May. 5, 2006

FAST FORWARD: Microsoft's cash versus Google - May. 5, 2006: "The software giant's plan to build datacenters the size of 10 Costcos, complete with electrical substations, signals a major shift in the industry's fundamental economics.
...
I believe Microsoft's strategy will increasingly be to seek to outspend Google. Since Microsoft has $35 billion in cash, that may not seem too difficult. But at the end of the first quarter Google had $8.4 billion of its own. Then it raised another $2.1 billion in a secondary stock offering. It is clearly concerned about having sufficient financial resources. With each of its recent stock offerings, people have asked why Google could possibly need so much money. The answer is becoming clear."

Read the entire article...

foldera - blog ? Blog Archive ? A Few Words From Foldera Tech Evangelist Jnan Dash

foldera - blog ? Blog Archive ? A Few Words From Foldera Tech Evangelist Jnan Dash: "Editor's Note: Jnan Dash is Foldera's Chief Technology Evangelist and the former CTO of Oracle Corporation. Jnan was also directly responsible for the development of the DB2 database while at IBM. Here he shares with us his thoughts from two years ago when he made the decision to come aboard the then fledgling Foldera Team"

(Hey Michael, I'm ready for a briefing any time :)...)

Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed: Please Google, No New Products

Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed: Please Google, No New Products: "Apparently Google is announcing a number of new products next week, including Google Health. I wish it wasn't. Not, however, because I have anything against health-related services -- a friendlier and faster Medline would be a dandy thing -- but because I want ever-scattered Google to sit in place for a minute and finish crucial features in existing products. "

See the post for some examples.

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: McCaw's Clearwire partners with AOL

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: McCaw's Clearwire partners with AOL: "Kirkland-based Clearwire said Thursday it has formed a partnership with Time Warner's America Online to resell its wireless broadband services.
The partnership is yet another high-profile announcement for Clearwire, the venture led by wireless entrepreneur Craig McCaw."

Microsoft and QUALCOMM to Revolutionize the Next Generation of Smartphones

Microsoft and QUALCOMM to Revolutionize the Next Generation of Smartphones "QUALCOMM Incorporated and Microsoft Corp. today jointly announced a collaboration to enable the porting of the Microsoft® Windows Mobile® operating system to QUALCOMM’s Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chipsets. The companies’ collaboration will enable device manufacturers to develop affordable, feature-rich and attractive Windows Mobile-powered phones with MSM chipsets while shortening their product development times. Support for the Windows Mobile platform on QUALCOMM’s highly integrated MSM solutions also gives users extended battery life while running a wide variety of business and entertainment applications, such as Microsoft Office Mobile and Windows Media® Player Mobile, along with third-party offerings."

Hopefully this also means my next Windows Mobile phone will boot in less than 2 minutes...

AOL to Add Free Phone to Instant Messaging Feature - New York Times

AOL to Add Free Phone to Instant Messaging Feature - New York Times: "AOL is preparing to offer the 41 million users of its instant messaging system a free phone number that will allow people to call them from regular phones while they are online.
...
In addition to expanded Internet calling features, AOL also plans to introduce AIM Pages, an effort to compete with MySpace.com, the rapidly growing social networking service. MySpace, which is owned by the News Corporation, gives its 70 million mostly young members a place to post their writings, photographs, favorite music and video clips."

Scripting News: 5/3/2006

Scripting News: 5/3/2006: "And the [Apple] ad about viruses is just plain STUPID. Man are they asking for it. What happens when users who bought Macs thinking they couldn't get viruses all of a sudden are getting them. The Federal Trade Commission is going to love that. Can you spell Class Action Lawsuit?"

Read the rest of the day's post for some Dave Winer perspectives on Microsoft, Google, and Apple.

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Will Google win the enterprise?

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Will Google win the enterprise?: "It remains to be seen whether Google will be able to adapt its noble and strongly-held 'user empowerment' ideology to the realities of big-company operations. The company's confidence and arrogance are strengths, but they're also weaknesses.
But Worthen ends on the right note. Even if 'Google implodes on its own, done in by growth, internal squabbling or hubris,' he writes, 'the model will survive and thrive. Applications are destined to move to the Web. Perhaps not all at once, and maybe not even quickly (after all, companies are still running Cobol applications on mainframes), but Google has demonstrated that the Web computing model is viable ... And that's going to change everything for CIOs.'"

If I were using categories for this blog, I'd categorize this post (read the full essay, BTW) under "Google c2006 == Netscape c1996?"