Category Archives: Technology

DNA Seen Through the Eyes of a Coder

Great paper looking at DNA from the perspective of a computer programmer. DNA seen through the eyes of a coder by Bert Hubert:

The language of DNA is digital, but not binary. Where binary encoding has 0 and 1 to work with (2 – hence the ‘bi’nary), DNA has 4 positions, T, C, G and A. Whereas a digital byte is mostly 8 binary digits, a DNA ‘byte’ (called a ‘codon’) has three digits. Because each digit can have 4 values instead of 2, an DNA codon has 64 possible values, compared to a binary byte which has 256.

A typical example of a DNA codon is ‘GCC’, which encodes the amino acid Alanine. A larger number of these amino acids combined are called a ‘polypeptide’ or ‘protein’, and these are chemically active in making a living being.
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Furthermore, 97% of your DNA is commented out. DNA is linear and read from start to end. The parts that should not be decoded are marked very clearly, much like C comments. The 3% that is used directly form the so called ‘exons’. The comments, that come ‘inbetween’ are called ‘introns’.

A Child’s View of the OLPC Laptop

A child’s view of the $100 laptop

Enter Rufus Cellan-Jones. He is nine, has far more experience of games consoles than computers, and has strong views on most matters. “Looks fun,” was his only comment when I handed over the small, green and white laptop, explaining that he was the only child in Britain to have one. But very quickly he was up and running. All I did was give him the security code for our home wireless network so he could take the XO online. The rest he figured out for himself
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“I just seemed to work it out. It was rather easy. I didn’t even need help.” Surprise, surprise, his first discovery was a game. “I found Block Party. It’s like Tetris. I’m now up to Level 7.” I thought my young games fanatic might stick there but he moved on. “Then I discovered paint. You can use pencils, change the texture, use different sizes of brush.” Even better, there was an animation programme called Etoys. “That’s my favourite.You make things. You can see tutorials and demos. Then you can make a new project. I’ve made a crazy UFO which you can move.”
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With no help from his Dad, he has learned far more about computers than he knew a couple of weeks ago, and the XO appears to be a more creative tool than the games consoles which occupy rather too much of his time. The One Laptop Per Child project is struggling to convince developing countries providing computers for children is as important as giving them basic facilities like water or electricity. Unusually, Rufus does not have an opinion about that controversy, but he does have a verdict on the laptop. “It’s great,” he says.

Open Source: The Scientific Model Applied to Programming

xo-laptop: On the Open-Sourcing of Business – interesting post worth reading, though I disagree with some points:

There is no obligation to “give back” anything, though it often makes sense to participate in the community based on a particular open-source project. However, that is a strategic decision for you to make. Your sole obligation is to respect the license terms.

There is a difference between your sole legal obligation and your sole obligation. I agree legally all you are obliged to do is comply with the legal requirements. That does not mean that is your sole obligation. I don’t see any problem making money in efforts involving open source efforts but I do believe that as that happens an obligation (perhaps not legal but real none-the-less) grows to give back to the community (Google’s summer of code is a great example of giving back). Most open source efforts require that any additions you make to the software be given back to the community (those involved in open souce know this, I add this just for the information of those not familiar with open source practices). Legal obligations are the minimum you can be forced to do, not the only obligations one has. Great quote (emphasis mine):

I think the best is one I have often seen expressed by Linus Torvalds, and it was one of the explanations I gave in a talk to the New York City Linux User Group in a talk in December, 1999.

Simply put, free and open-source software is just the scientific model applied to programming: free sharing of work open collaboration; open publication; peer review; recognition of the best work, with priority given to the first to do a meaningful new piece of work; and so forth. As a programmer, it is the best arena in which to work. There are no secrets; the work must stand on its own.

Another great post on this topic: What Business Can Learn from Open Source.

Full Body 3-D CT Scan in Under a Minute

Pretty cool new gadget, though probably out of the range of most people’s budget – ‘Super’ scanner shows key detail

The new 256-slice CT machine takes large numbers of X-ray pictures, and combines them using computer technology to produce the final detailed images. It also generates images in a fraction of the time of other scanners: a full body scan takes less than a minute.
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Because the images are 3D they can be rotated and viewed from different directions – giving doctors the greatest possible help in looking for signs of abnormalities or disease.
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At present, it is only being used in one hospital: the Metro Health medical centre in Cleveland, Ohio, which has been using it for the past month.
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the first commercially viable CT scanner, which was invented by Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield in Hayes, United Kingdom at the company’s laboratories and unveiled in 1972. At the same time, Allan McLeod Cormack of Tufts University independently invented a similar machine, and the two men shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Medicine. “This is a quantum shift from the first CT scanners as it gives a lot more detail,” says Dr Keith Prowse, Chairman of the British Lung Foundation.

Programming Ruby

Why I Program In Ruby (And Maybe Why You Shouldn’t):

Harmony and balance make you feel good. American Rubyists frequently take up all the points of Ruby’s power, expressiveness, and efficiency, but they don’t seem to register the point that Ruby was designed to make you feel good. Even Rubyists who want to explain why Ruby makes them feel good often fail to mention that it was expressly designed for that exact purpose.
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Don’t program in Ruby because you want power or efficiency. Don’t program in Ruby because you think you “should”, either. Program in Ruby because you like it. And if you don’t like it, don’t program in it.

Very nice article discussing the importance of joy in work. I enjoy programming in Ruby on Rails.

Robot Boats Hunt Pirates

Robot Boats Hunt High-Tech Pirates on the High-Speed Seas

The International Maritime Bureau is tracking a 14-percent increase in worldwide pirate attacks this year. And although modern-day pirates enjoy collecting their fare share of booty—they have a soft spot for communications gear—they’re just as likely to ransom an entire ship. In one particularly sobering case, hijackers killed one crew member of a Taiwan-owned vessel each month until their demands were met.

For years now, law enforcement agencies across the high seas have proposed robotic boats, or unmanned surface vessels (USVs), as a way to help deal with 21st-Century techno Black Beards. The Navy has tested at least two small, armed USV demonstrators designed to patrol harbors and defend vessels. And both the Navy and the Coast Guard have expressed interest in the Protector, a 30-ft.-long USV built by BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Israeli defense firm RAFAEL.

The Protector, which comes mounted with a 7.62mm machine gun, wasn’t originally intended for anti-piracy operations. But according to BAE Systems spokesperson Stephanie Moncada, the robot could easily fill that role.

Google’s Secret 10GbE Switch

Google’s Secret 10GbE Switch, interesting speculation by Andrew Schmitt:

Through conversations with multiple carrier, equipment, and component industry sources we have confirmed that Google has designed, built, and deployed homebrewed 10GbE switches for providing server interconnect within their data centers. This is very similar to Google’s efforts to build its own server computers (excellent article here). Google realized that because its computing needs were very specific, it could design and build computers that were cheaper and lower power than off the shelf alternatives. The decision to do so had a profound impact on server architecture and influenced the market’s move to lower power density solutions that Sun (JAVA) , Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD) now embrace.

One Laptop Per Child – Give One Get One

photo of One Child One Laptop

Why you should buy an OLPC XO Laptop:

The laptop hardware is really impressive. This laptop is really small – dimensions are 242mm Ã— 228mm Ã— 32mm (9.5″ x 9″ x 1.25″) and weight is about 1.5KG (3.3 lbs). There is a 7.5″ 200dpi high resolution display capable of displaying 1200×900 pixels in grayscale (usable in direct sunlight!) or 800×600 in colour. The processor is relatively low-powered, but probably fine for the types of things most people will use this laptop for. There is no hard drive (storage is 1GB of flash which you could increase with USB drives or memory sticks or an SD card if you needed to), a rubber membrane water resistant keyboard, gamepad, touchpad, audio, built-in camera, integrated wireless (both 802.11b/g and 802.11s “mesh” networking support), a long-life battery (I’ve heard different stories, but it sounds like battery life will go into the double digits!), rechargeable with AC/DC power, solar or hand/foot generator, etc. On top of all this, the laptop is the most energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly laptop ever made!
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The OS is a paired-down version of Fedora Linux with a custom Sugar graphical user interface and Bitfrost security platform. There are programs for internet browsing, chat, wikis, word processing, and most other “standard” things you would need to do on a laptop (as well as “non-standard” utilities for things like music synthesis/composition, drawing, games, etc). The standard programming environment consists of Python, Javascript, Etoys (Squeak/Smalltalk), Csound, LOGO, and others.

We mentioned the Give One Get One program last month – you can buy one for yourself with the purchase of one for a child in the developing world. The cost is $400, $200 qualifies as a charitable deduction (the gift for the child). That offer is available now (for the next 12 days). One of our popular posts recounted what kids in India learned using a computer.

Google Offers $10 Million in Awards for Google Phone Development

Android is the new Google Phone platform. The Android Developers Blog has announced Google has offered $10 million in the Android Developer Challenge:

One of our goals in releasing the Android SDK is to unleash the creativity of application developers on the platform. We’d also like to get feedback early enough that we can make changes before the first Android-powered devices are available to the public. We plan to release updates to the SDK regularly which means that there will be additions and changes to the APIs and user experience — subscribe to this blog to stay up to date.

We’re really looking forward to seeing all the amazing applications that developers will create on an open mobile phone platform. In fact, you may even want to enter your application into the Android Developer Challenge — a USD$10 million challenge sponsored by Google to support and recognize developers who build great applications for the Android platform.

The award money will be distributed equally between two Android Developer Challenges:

Android Developer Challenge I: Submissions from January 2 through March 3, 2008
Android Developer Challenge II: This part will launch after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008

In the Android Developer Challenge I, the 50 most promising entries received by March 3 will each receive a $25,000 award to fund further development. Those selected will then be eligible for even greater recognition via ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards. Once again Google is showing they understand how to manage in the new world.

The Simplest Universal Turing Machine Is Proved

The Prize Is Won; The Simplest Universal Turing Machine Is Proved:

And so as part of commemorating the fifth anniversary of A New Kind of Science on May 14 this year, we announced a $25,000 prize for determining whether or not that Turing machine is in fact universal. I had no idea how long it would take before the prize was won. A month? A year? A decade? A century? Perhaps the question was even formally undecidable (say from the usual axioms of mathematics).

But today I am thrilled to be able to announce that after only five months the prize is won–and we have answer: the Turing machine is in fact universal! Alex Smith–a 20-year-old undergraduate from Birmingham, UK–has produced a 40-page proof.

Vaughan Pratt Standford CS professor, disputes the proofs validity.