My computer knows me when it sees me

So I was on Facebook the other day. Let’s just admit it, we all are aren’t we? Anyway, as often happens with Facebook, I was suddenly informed of some new “features” that FB had introduced, and was provided a brief explanation of each new bell and every whistle.

One of these new features in particular caught my attention. Buried in my privacy settings was a new option concerning my photos. Apparently, Facebook now has the ability to “suggest” to my friends that they tag me in photos. This sounds benign, but when you read between the lines, Facebook is actually scanning all the photos of all my friends, and looking for faces that look like me, and suggesting to my friends that they should tag me in the photo.

Let me say that again in case it blew by you the first time. Facebook is recognizing photos of me, and making suggestions to my friends based on what it SEES in the photos. Yes, that’s right, honest-to-goodness Face Recognition Technology, right there inside Facebook. This struck me as another example of technology that could get very out of hand, very quickly. Now Facebook does not have to wait for us lowly humans to “get around” to tagging all our friends in photos, now once Facebook knows what you look like – in just ONE photo – it can scan all the thousands of photos taken by all your hundreds of friends, looking for pictures of you.

What if you do not like being tagged? What if you are one of those people that scurry about “un-tagging” themselves furiously? How long will it be until somebody figures out how to exploit this technology such that with the right tool, I could simply say “find all pictures of Jane Doe that exist anywhere on Facebook”? Tagged or not, here they come.

So much for privacy. So much for choice.

Now of course, as with any technology, it’s inherent Evilness or Goodness lies in the hands of those that use it. There could be some good uses. Catching criminals for instance is one good use I can think of. But at what cost? At what price do we pay for the benefits of this technology? No longer can we rest comfortably knowing that only photos we have approved are tagged. And tagged or un-tagged, we have entered an entirely new era of privacy issues on the Internet.

Face Recognition Software is already used around the world but dozens of governments fighting the war on terror. Able to scan hundreds of pictures and video feeds for wanted faces is a huge boon to law enforcement. As the technology becomes more and more common, and cheaper and cheaper to possess, the odds that it falls into nefarious hands increases exponentially.

Today it’s Facebook. Tomorrow it’s every surveillance camera or traffic monitor you happen to walk in front of. That old fear of Big Brother watching our every move has come to pass. Only now, not only is Big Brother watching, but he recognizes you when he sees you, and he is taking notes.

Is that a humming bird outside my window?

I was watching the evening news the other night, comfortable in the knowledge that Brian Williams was telling me everything important that I really needed to know. There came a story – a very short bit, just a mention really – about this new flying surveillance camera the Pentagon had developed that both looked and flew like a humming bird.

What was that?

Yup. There it was, right there over Brian’s right shoulder, flitting about on the screen just like the humming birds of my youth that used to hover outside my bedroom window in North Carolina when I was a kid, chasing after the honey-suckles that grew in such abundance there.

It appears the Pentagon has developed a tiny flying, humming bird shaped surveillance camera that looks just like the real thing.

I was intrigued, so I did a quick search for “pentagon humming bird camera” and quickly found a link to the actual video: http://bit.ly/h8TOQh . At first I thought it was frankly one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time. But then watching that little humming bird fly around that parking lot, and then into and around the building, I began to get a very disturbed feeling.

There are now camera’s that – from even a modest distance – appear to be the real thing – a small bird flitting about. This means that the operator of that tiny mechanical fowl could fly it into my window if he wanted to. Or your window. And the humming bird of course is just the start. Mankind is the most amazing of creatures. It is said we double our collective knowledge every ten years. How long will it be before that hummingbird becomes a moth or a hornet? How long before there is no way to tell anymore where the cameras are and just exactly who is watching?

All of those nightmare visions of Orwellian futures come crashing back to the forefront of my mind. Big Brother keeping tabs on us all with tiny flying microscopic cameras. Thousands and millions of them, flitting about all over the place like an infestation of house flies. And all the time they are beaming back their signals. Reporting to The Man all the goings on of the masses, as we poor slobs trudge on through our miserable work-a-day lives.

Ok, that was probably a bit dramatic – pardon me. But it is a little creepy to think about these things flying around. And it frankly scares the crap out of me to think about where this technology might lead is in ten or twenty years.

I don’t know what the solution is to all of that, but I do think you should do what I am doing.

Be afraid.

Be very afraid…

Why again?

I’m not very good at this. The writing part is not hard, I’ve always sort of enjoyed writing. It’s the sitting down with the sole purpose of sharing my thoughts and feelings. I mean why would anyone have any interest whatsoever in what I have to say about anything? And even if someone did have the interest in my drivel, who has the time? I sometimes feel like I am constantly bombarded with information from all around me. Facebook, email, texts from everyone, more email, LinkedIn, work email, more Facebook…. Who has the time to sit and read some losers blog? Everyone and their uncle has a blog. Do we all really believe that what we have to say is important and valuable to anybody? Really?

Reality check time. Nobody cares. Not about what I have to say, and not about what 99.99% of those idiots on the inter-web, shooting off their mouths about every tiny bit of minutia in their lonely pitiful lives have to say either. The Internet (capital “I”) allows us all to be heard. Well, sort of. What it really does is allow us all to speak. About anything that might be on our tiny little minds. And speak we do! Millions and millions of us ranting and raving about today’s injustice, (“My double-shot, half-caf, latte espresso was not as hot as it could have been!”) or tomorrow’s predicted gloom (“The [insert political party]’s are a bunch of idiots! Only the [insert other political party]’s can save us from ruin!”).

Maybe that’s why I don’t update this blog as often as I should. It’s not that I have nothing to say. To the contrary, most who know me would agree that I seldom shut up. It just seems to me that there won’t be anyone reading this anyway, so why bother? Hm. There must be a reason. There must be more than just my desire to metaphorically hear myself speak, right?

Maybe the purpose of this blog is just to be. To exist. To give me a place where, if I choose to, I can vent or rant or whatever I want to – even if nobody is listening. Yea, maybe that’s it. Maybe it doesn’t matter if nobody is listening, right? Maybe this blog exists for me, and not for you at all (assuming there is actually a “you” reading this, and if you are reading this, then please gentle reader, excuse my rudeness to assume you didn’t exist…….. but I don’t think you do. Just sayin’). But I don’t care if you are reading this or not. I do sometimes have something I want to talk about, or rant about, or whatever. And dammit, it’s 2010. I live in the greatest nation on Earth, and if I want to speak my mind to the world, than a blog is simply how it’s done these days. So there. Deal with it.

Certifiable (again!)

Damn it. I thought for a few years there that I might actually get to coast for a while on the certifications that I have already achieved. I mean, I’m no slouch – I’ve done my time. I was doing desktop support and studying for my first MCP exam back in the mid 90’s. I shoveled my way through endless Microsoft prep-guides, classes and boot-camps over the years. Finally after 15 years in the business, after climbing to the top of the pile in my environment – a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer working as an Enterprise Administrator on a large Wide Area Network. There was only one place to go from there. The MCT. The revered and respected title of Microsoft Certified Trainer. Those few elite qualified to teach others the hidden secrets of the Microsoft world.

So I embarked on another certification endeavor. Spent more classroom time, read more prep-guides, and ultimately became not only an MCT, but also a CTT+. A CompTIA Certified Technical Trainer. So there. Now I was done with classes and studying. I would settle down into the twilight of my career and teach a new generation of fresh-faced and energetic young I.T. professionals the fine art of managing a complicated technical environment. This would be the time in my career when I would get to do that which I truly love – teach others what I know. This is my real passion, and something I think I have always been good at. These were going to be the good years…

But then the wake-up call came. One of the first classes I was asked to teach was for Windows 7, Microsoft’s latest generation of operating system. I gladly accepted the offer and set about preparing to teach the class. That is when I was informed that I could not in fact teach the class at all. In fact (I was told) I could not teach any of the classes associated with the Windows Server 2008 / Windows 7 generation of products from Microsoft.

“But I’m an MCT fer chissakes!” I told the lady at Microsoft.

“We understand that”, she calmly replied.

“AND I’m an MCSE too!” I added.

“We know” she sighed. “You have to upgrade your MCSE certification to the new ‘MCITP: Enterprise Administrator’ certification before you can teach any classes in that series”.

“Really?” I asked.

“Really”.

And so here I am, back where I started 15 years ago. I have made my employer purchase a 40 hour online CBT course (budget cutbacks make classroom time a rarity these days). While I work through that I have several books (ranging in size from 900 to 1700 pages thick – seriously, a guy could get a hernia just carrying these things around) all to prepare me for the first of three Microsoft exams I will have to take in order to upgrade my old MCSE certification to the new MCITP. And all this while keeping up with the full time job of my regular I.T. duties. No problem!

Now, all I need is a case of Hot Pockets, and several gallons coffee, and I’m good to go…

The future of Space

I know that time are tough lately for everyone. Families and businesses alike have to find ways to cut costs, and do more with less. That apparently is true even for the federal government, as evidenced recently by the complete elimination of NASA’s manned space programs to the Moon and Mars. Done. Fini. Caput. No space for us. At least that’s the way it seems to those of us who have been passionate about our manned space program. It seemed that with a sweep of the budgetary pen, president Obama dashed the hopes and dreams of a generation of space fanatics – squashing forever our dream of seeing humans return to the moon, and (dare I say it?) walk one day on Mars.

With the immanent retiring of the Space Shuttle fleet, and all funding for its replacement eliminated, there seemed little hope that we would continue the proud tradition in America of being first into space. First to the Moon, someday first to Mars. All of those dreams seemed to be lost.

At least it seemed that way. As we watched the president’s speech announcing his sweeping cuts to the manned space program, the lights it seemed, came down on the grand theater that is our destiny in space. No more heroes for our children to idolize. No more satisfied feeling of superiority as America shot ahead of every other nation in the race for space. At least there wouldn’t be if not for that most valuable and cherished off all beings in a capitalist society – the entrepreneur. For it seems that once again it will be those daring captains of enterprise that will swoop in and save this country from itself. And thank goodness for that.

You see it turns out that slashing the manned space program from the budget may just have been the kick-in-the-pants that the manned space program needed. Enter stage left, Richard Branson – followed closely by a host of other wealthy, visionary dreamers who see space as the destiny of the human race, not just an expenditure that should be cut from the budget.

While for decades, we Americans were perfectly satisfied to allow Big Government to manage our goal of reaching Space for real, as with so many things, it turns out they don’t do such a great job. Billion dollar cost over-runs, mis-management and even corruption have led to a bloated NASA budget, with precious little to show for results. No wonder Obama slashed their budget.

After the initial shock of these cuts sank in, I began to see this as the opportunity that it is. Now at last with NASA out of the way, and regulations relaxed a bit, the stage is set for the true movers and shakers of the world to step up and actually get things done. Driven forward by <Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic company, and followed closely by a host of other players in this new arena, private enterprise is finally making an appearance on the grand stage of Space Exploration.

I predict that as with so many other examples in the past, it will be the entrepreneur who will be able to build space craft cheaply enough, and reliably enough that finally Space will be made available to the common man. Oh mind you, not the average “common man” to start, but just as the first Trans-Atlantic airplane rides cost the equivalent of a year’s salary to most people, the price will come down. More and more companies will begin to offer private charters to space. Even now there are not one, but two separate “space ports” being constructed in the deserts of the southwestern United States. Science fiction had become science fact. Nothing like the raucous cantina of Star Wars fame (at least not yet) they are still a shining example that the human spirit of exploration cannot be kept down.

And so I will try to remember all that, as NASA prepared to “power down” and find work for the hundreds of people who are bound to be laid off as a result of all this. I will remember that this is not the end of manned space flight, but rather an evolution. Growing pains, if you will. In the end I believe that this will be viewed by history as the true turning point for manned space exploration. Not the end of the dream, but an energizing life-force that will carry forward so that our children, and their children will live in a world where a trip to the Moon of Mars is no more fantastic that flying to China is today. That day will come, and when it does we will have people like Richard Branson to thank for it.

Splitting Hairs

Like a lot of Americans over the past week, I have been following the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I have been watching the speed skaters and the downhill skiers and those must-be-insane Luge guys, and through all of that, a recurring theme has begun to emerge in my mind. In fact one of the commentators I say actually touched on this very thought, so I would like to share it with you here.

Is it possible that we, as human beings, have simply reached the maximum performance our frail bodies can produce? Have we taken our sports to the point that there is simply no more a mere mortal can do to shave any more significant time from our efforts. Is it possible (as this commentator suggested) that the only way we will see any more significant advances in speed in these sports, is through the implementation of technology?

There is a growing body of evidence to support this theory of course. Just take the fact that some of these events are now being timed down to the thousandths of a second. Yes, thousandths. Consider that there have been new breakthroughs for this Olympics in the timing mechanisms themselves – not just dividing the seconds into ever smaller and smaller slices, but actually improving the accuracy of the starting and stopping of the timers – using lasers and other tricks to get every more accurate times readings. We have to do this, because the margin between first and second place can sometimes be less than 1/10th of a second.

There is an entire industry dedicated to improving the actual steel used in the blades of Luge sleds and speed skaters and the like. New alloys, and revolutionary smelting and forging techniques are being employed – always striving to shave that next 1/10th of a second off. At the last summer Olympics, there was a great deal of hoopla surrounding the fact that the U.S. swim team were all using a new swim suit (called a Laser Suit) that claims to allow them to cut through the water with less resistance, perhaps shaving precious 1/100ths of a second off their times. There was no rule against using this suit, and every other country could have used it too, but they chose not to. As a result the U.S. swim team dominated most of the events, and the other countries all cried foul. Was the U.S. team cheating? No, they were utilizing technology.

Back to the current Winter Olympics, and the U.S. Luge Team. The runner blades of the sleds used by the U.S. Luge team are made of a top-secret, patent-pending alloy. They cost in excess of $20,000 each, and no other team is using them. Again, perfectly legal, and probably a wise use of technology. The point however is that it is only through the implementation of such technology that the Luge world will see any significant advances in speed or performance.

And so the moral issue becomes, is this a good thing? If technology is the ticket to winning gold medals, if the country with the deepest wallet (who can therefore afford the latest technology) is guaranteed the fastest times, where then is the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat? What happens to the ‘human drama of athletic competition’ if the winner is determined months in advance, in some secret laboratory?

I say there are some instances where technology gets out of hand. I say every Luge sled should be using the same basic, steel runners. That every speed skater should be wearing the same blades on their skates. Sometimes – just sometimes – it is better to just let the competitors compete, and not rely on who has the neatest wiz-bang gizmo to make them go faster. Somewhere along the way we lost sight of what the ancient Greeks intended with their Olympics. Sure, the geek in me likes all that technology, but the high-school athlete in me yearns for a simpler time.

What about when it fails?

I love my GPS. I bought it last summer before a motorcycle trip from Maine to South Dakota and she was my constant companion for the whole trip. I say “she” because when it came time to choose a voice for it to use, the least annoying option was a fairly pleasant Australian female voice – “Matilda”. I have referred to my GPS as “Matilda” ever since – as in, “Is there a grocery store near here?”. “I dunno, lemme check with Matilda…”.

Last night I was riding in the car with my wife, on our way to our daughters swim meet. We had never been to the particular YMCA that was hosting the meet, and it was in a town about 40 miles away, so we were following my trusty Matilda to the meet. As we neared our destination, our route took us onto a fairly congested section of highway, with a high cement and chain-link barricade between the two sides of the black top. Matilda began informing me that coming up in 1 mile was a sharp left turn. This seemed odd, as that would mean crossing the opposite side of the highway, but I figured there must be a leftward exit ahead, and dutifully moved over into the left lane. As we approached the supposed turn however (coming up in 400yds…350yds… 300yds…) I became increasingly skeptical that there was actually such a left ahead. And sure enough, as the countdown reached 100yds… 50yds… and then Matilda began to have a mild seizure informing me I was missing the turn, the un-interrupted barricade to my left continued to fly by smoothly. Matilda had been flat-out wrong.

It worked out all right. Matilda recovered and promptly had me take an exit to the right, and ultimately navigated us to the swim meet, but I mean – what the heck was that? So this episode got me to thinking. So much of our lives have become dependant (and increasingly so) on the technology all around us. I rely so heavily on technology to get through my day – and not just at work. I would die without my smartphone. I almost never carry cash, using my debit card for everything. Even when I am not at work, I am usually on the computer or my laptop.

We all begin to take these little technological wonders for granted. They are all around us, keeping connected, on time, on track, entertained, and generally pampered in a way that has here-to-fore never been experienced by the human race. And I’m all for that. I really am. But what happens when all that – or even a small piece of that – fails?

I think there are two basic approaches one could take to that scenario. Either 1) Have a backup, contingency, non-technical solution to fall back on (like keeping a paper printout of all the important phone numbers you need for your work associates taped to the wall above your monitor, just in case the Exchange server is down, and you can’t look them up). Or 2) Build your environment with enough redundancy (a laptop AND an Internet enabled smartphone, or a GPS AND a paper map, for instance) that you can survive the loss of one piece of your technology life raft, without going under all together. Perhaps the real solution is a combination of the two.

This of course is not always possible, but it is the best we can do. You can not completely insulate yourself from ever having a failure of the technology around you, but you can ensure that when the technology does fail you are prepared to deal with it. Having a flashlight, battery-powered radio, and lots of fresh batteries on hand at all times just makes good sense. It doesn’t necessarily mean the lights are going out, but if they do – you’re ready.

Good, bad or indifferent?

I was thinking today about some of the newest, cutting edge technologies that have come along over the past few years. Everything from the incredible advancements in 3-D digital filmmaking (ala Avata) or the advancements I have seen in robotics coming out of Japan. Even cloning – that other “C” word we’re not supposed to say – has gotten more common, and they just keep cloning more and more different animals while they perfect the process. I believe with every fiber of my being that the question of cloning humans is not “If”, but “When”. All of these things – and many, many others are examples of technologies in our lives. In the world around us.

The question then becomes, is this a good thing, or is this a bad thing? Now certainly if one were to round-up a hundred people and ask them all this question, you would get a wide range of answers spanning from one end of the spectrum to the other. Certainly everyone would have an opinion. I am not going to try and resolve this difficult question for myself in this one blog post. But I am going to begin to think about it more.

I make my living in the I.T. industry. For that alone I could be little else but a fan of technology. And to clear this up right now, I am. Have been since I was a kid and I read science fiction voraciously. I had the entire hardback series of Tom Swift books and read every one three times. So in general, yes I am a fan of technology. What worries me sometimes though is that mankind seems to have the ability to leap forward technologically, without taking a corresponding step forward in enlightenment. Sometimes I fear that we are not quite mature enough to handle some of the things our brightest minds have come up with. Cloning – yes that’s a big one. Also electronics – how small we can make cameras and listening devices. Are we really ready to give up our privacy? Or do we even realize we have?

Maybe the answer is just what the title of this post suggests. Not good or bad, but indifferent. Maybe, when the gun enthusiasts say that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people“, the same is true of technology. It isn’t good or bad. It is the people who employ it, and how it is employed that make the difference. Technology simply is. It exists because we humans have an unquenchable thirst for the “next great thing”. For doing more with less, for smaller, faster, smarter everythings. The human race is definitely on a path. I don’t know where that path is leading, but I intend to hold on tight and do my best to enjoy the ride. More later (of course) on this topic.

Thank you Mr. Gates

I should probably tell you right up front that I am a huge fan of John Stewart. I rarely watch it live, but have a long term committed relationship with my DVR, so do watch them all eventually. I just caught the January 25th episode with Bill Gates. It  was a good interview, and reminded me of all the things in my life that I have to thank Bill Gates for. (you can see the full Daily Show episode here:  http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/mon-january-25-2010-bill-gates).

The two greatest professional accomplishments of my career have been becomng a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (and earning those coveted letters after my name – “MCSE”) and becoming a Microsoft Certified Trainer, achieving one of the very few certifications that can trump the MCSE - the “MCT”. While these things may not mean much to most people, believe me – they are actually pretty cool amongst us pocket-protector types.

And so I thought I would just take a moment to thank Mr. Gates. You may hate him, and think there has never been a product produced by Microsoft worth the powder to blow it to hell, or you may love him and believe he is one of the greatest innovators that this country has ever produced. Lover or Hater though, you have to admit that he made a profound contribution to the technical landscape of the world. The simple fact that 90+% of all desktop computers on the planet are running some version of Windows is proof enough of this statement - with my apologies to you Apple lovers out there, but facts are facts people.

And so I thank you Mr. Gates. You may just be a computer geek  billionaire to some, but to me you’ll always be B-Giddy, the rock-star hero of millions of geeks around the world.

Technology meets art

I got home from a long day at work today, and settled in to catch up with all my Facebook friends. One of those friends posted a link that I just had to share. This is a 7 minute video of an art display at the BMW museum in Munich. Here’s the link: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/5XXGch/www.artcom.de/kinetik//r:f 

I am sharing this link with you now because I can think of no better example of technology meeting art. This display is created using 714 small metal spheres, each hanging from a thin metal wire, and each individually controlled (by a computer) with it’s own stepper-motor. The whole display covers six square meters, and is simply amazing to watch. I just had to share this video on this, the inaugural day of my new blog. Since I intend to talk about Technology here, and how Technology (yes, with a capital “T”) impacts all our lives (in both positive and negative ways) every single day.

This video is a perfect example of technology melding with art. In fact of the lines between technology and art becoming completely blurred. I think thats a good thing.