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Half-Baked Ideas

Half-Baked Ideas

October 4, 2007 - 7:28pm — bex

These are some ideas that I liked enough to think about... but not enough to actually implement. Sort of like "the project that would never die."

Hopefully, they will serve as inspiration for others. Or hopefully some day I'll have my laboratory, and I'll implement them myself.

The Origin of "Bex"

August 28, 2008 - 8:16pm — bex

A lot of people ask me, "where did you get the nickname 'BEX'?" Well, it all started about three million years in the future.

Let me explain...

I always was a big fan of British comedy... about fifteen years ago I came across an odd sci-fi British comedy called Red Dwarf that I particularly enjoyed. It mostly took place in the distant future, and it has quite the cult following, even today. In one episode, the main character Dave Lister mentioned that his sports hero was a chap named Jim Bexley Speed. He liked him so much he named one of his sons "Jim," and the other "Bexley."

I thought... Bexley, that's a pretty interesting name...

So, I started using it as a pseudonym. I shortened it to "Bex" and started using it as one of my internet nicknames... along with more unusual ones like Grin, Slosh, and Thudwallow. Naturally, back then nobody called me Mr. Bex any more than they called me Mr. Thudwallow...

Anyway, one year I was in college, there were too many Brians in my dorm. There were like 5 in a group of about 50. My dormmates decided I needed a nickname. One of the geekier ones asked me for my IRC handle, and I said "Bex." They liked it, so it stuck. It didn't hurt that my favorite beer at the time was Beck's Dark, although it did lead to some debate over the proper spelling of my new nickname...

After I left the dorm the following year, nobody called me "Bex." Apparently outside of my dorm, the ratio of Brians to non-Brians was at an acceptable level.

A few years later, I started working at Stellent... this was about 8 years before it was acquired by Oracle. Once again, there were too many Brians. I believe there were 4 in the company of about 100... include two in my 6-person dev team! Just like before, they asked for my handle... and I replied "Bex."

They liked it... so it stuck. I eventually used it as my email address (bex@stellent.com), I put it on my name plate for my cube, even on my business cards.

It probably would have remained a Stellent-only nickname, however I spent so much time building the Stellent community -- including moderating user groups, writing 2 books, and numerous conference presentations -- that the name recognition started to grow. More people knew me as "Bex" than knew me as "Brian."

So... now I use it or a variation whenever I can:

And now I never have to concern myself with the ratio of Brians to non-Brians ever again...

XML End Tags Are Stupid...

August 5, 2008 - 11:27am — bex

Building on my observation that DNS is Backwards, I've decided that XML end-tags are stupid. For example, why do I have to write XML like this:

<head><title>foo</title></head>

Instead of just like this:

<head><title>foo</></>

Or even this:

<head><title>foo<//>

Huh? Crazy, I say... crazy! Coders have been dealing with generic end parenthesis, and generic end braces for decades... why complicate matters in XML? As Alec always says:

Your data format ain't better just because it has angle brackets in it...

Seriously, what semantic advantage is there? If you are creating XML of only minor complexity, its just a bunch of extra typing that don't add any value... if you are using complex XML then I might see the advantage... but in those cases you would probably use an XML editor which does all kinds of fancy code highlighting to make sure you can see everything... and the words in the end tag are superfluous anyway.

Besides... XML end tags are especially useless for HTML. Seriously... everything is DIV tags anyway. If your HTML is invalid, it usually doesn't help to know that you need to end an open DIV tag... the question is which one? Your only hope is an advanced editor, or decent HTML comment blocks.

Having the name of the tag in the end tag just makes the data format more bloated, and no more useful. I prefer JSON anyway:

{ "head": { "title": "foo" } }

Heaven...

Enterprise 2.0: What It Is, and How You'll Fail

July 15, 2008 - 3:29pm — bex

A few days ago Justin asked me if I would like to give a presentation at Oracle's Enterprise 2.0 Bootcamp on July 28th... I said sure, but only if I get to be controversial.

Hopefully this topic will be controversial enough!

I've heard a lot of buzz about Enterprise 2.0 lately... and lots of Enterprise Content Management folks (including Newton, Pie, and Billy) still seem to be frustrated by the general lack of a coherent definition of what exactly is Enterprise 2.0? Frankly, I think the very act of defining Enterprise 2.0 defeats the whole purpose, but I appreciate that some people need guidance...

The world is filled with "thought leaders" trying to railroad people into a narrow definition that is properly aligned with their own technology and ego... Some say E 2.0 is just Web 2.0 for the enterprise. Some say its emerging enterprise architectures (SOA, ESB, CEP, IdM) that make services easier to govern and re-use. Others -- like the lame-os at Wikipedia -- say its nothing more than enterprise social software. Others say its just the Knowledge Management Beast rearing its ugly head yet again...

triple ish on that last one...

In my upcoming book, I spend a chapter on how Enterprise Content Management fits in with Enterprise 2.0... and after swimming in blogs for the past year I think I have synthesized an approximate definition that might make everybody happy:

Enterprise 2.0 is an emerging social and technical movement towards helping your business practices evolve. At its heart, its goals are to empower the right kind of change by connecting decision makers to information, to services and to people.

Swish! Leave a comment and tell me what you think... Hot or not?

Its vital to understand that E 2.0 is still a moving target... we know that the enterprise is changing radically, but we don't have enough hard data to say what its changing into. However, I feel its just the latest leap in the neverending goal to make information and services more re-usable.

As an added twist, E 2.0 also has at its core the goal of connecting people with each other in order to discover the tremendous value that exists outside "the process." If the purpose of process is efficiency, then why do so many people in enterprises complain that their process is horribly inefficient? It might be because your process just plain sucks, or it might be because the process is keeping you from changing something that has drastic side-effects outside your view of the company. The point is not to mock or destroy "the process," but to help processes evolve at the optimal rate. This is not possible unless all decision makers can see first-hand how their changes negatively affect other departments. This cannot be done with metrics alone: you need friendly hallway conversations between people who normally would hate each other.

Unfortunately, after coming up with that definition I was staring point blank at something a little unsettling... If people focus on the wrong things, Enterprise 2.0 will FAIL HORRIBLY the same way Knowledge Management FAILED HORRIBLY! For those who forget, Knowledge Management was some snake oil sold 20 years ago saying that access to information was the #1 problem... its not. The problem is access to the right information at the right time in the right format. My industry -- Enterprise Content Management -- emerged from the ashes of Knowledge Management, trying to implement the few good ideas that it offered.

So... how did Knowledge Management fail? What implications does this have for the failure of Enterprise 2.0? I'm no psychic, but I anticipate that people might make similar mistakes... it all boils down to one problem: you're probably focussing on the wrong thing! How could you fail? Here's five ways:

Software Design is Gene Splicing!

July 13, 2008 - 1:37pm — bex

I came across a new article by ACM about Web Science, a new interdisciplinary approach to looking at how the web works. Its a great article about how we in software design have been thinking about the web all wrong, and need a more broad approach to solving its problems. Master Mark makes the comment that terms like "engineering" and "architecture" are completely misused when it comes to software. I never liked the terms myself... Mark suggests that instead we use the analogy of gene splicing.

That's the best idea I've heard in a long time... Maybe I should change my title to Chief Software Splicer? Maybe Chief Software Hybridizer? Chief Software Incubator? I'll noodle on it for a bit...

I have seen far too many projects go astray because people thought there was a "right" way to do software... probably because they bought into the concept of it being similar to designing a building, or slapping gears together. No No No! Software design is vastly different... we're more like mad scientists. Good software designers understand the potential for chaos, and use techniques to control it.

What we do has the vague appearance of science: we use algorithms and patterns that have worked in the past, we get to know limitations to physical hardware, we analyze common security and performance blunders, etc. However, every time we create new software, we are building a new Frankenstein's monster! It could be utterly mundane, or terrifying and ferocious. Likewise, integrating two existing systems isn't as simple as clicking together some Legos... its merging two completely different species into one single unholy unit. In other words, its creating a hybrid chimera like a eagle with a lion's head, or a fire-breathing manatee.

In short, its difficult to predict the end result of software unless you've done exactly the same thing in the past... but in practice, this almost never is the case. People rarely pay developers to do the ordinary... which is also part of the problem.

Sure, we can make reasonable guesses of what this new beast will be like... based on previous combinations, patterns that work, initial tests, and similar software development best practices. However, its still difficult to determine how it will behave in the wild until you unleash it. Perhaps software developers should take a page from the mad scientist handbook, and hone the following skills:

  • Keep close tabs on your new creations.
  • Observe closely how they interact with humans.
  • If they cause humans pain, then you must act swiftly:
    • either destroy your beautiful creation and start over, or
    • teach it to behave better.

Either way, new software will behave in erratic ways, and you always need a plan for what to do when it begins to behave badly... so keep the tranquilizer darts handy.

DNS is Backwards...

June 15, 2008 - 8:45pm — bex

Is it just me, or is DNS totally backwards? This was clear back in the old days of the internet, but its damn sure obvious today. Take, for example, a typical URL:

http://blog.company.com/2008/june/my-hands-are-bananas

Nothing too odd there, eh? You are going to the blog for the company, the article named my-hands-are-bananas, published in June, 2008.

What always bugged me is how they mixed up the order. A URL is supposed to be directions to find information... and directions always start off general (head east on I-94) and end up very specific (turn off the paved road and stop at the fifth pink trailer home).

But URLs totally mix up the order:

http://specific.general.very-general/very-specific/very-very-specific

Putting directions in that order makes about as much sense as these directions: turn left at reception, go to this company, go to France, then make a right.

A proper URLs should actually be structured like so:

http://com.company.blog/2008/june/my-hands-are-bananas

Adding to the oddness... things like .com and .org are called top-level domains. Yeah... it really makes sense to call something "top" when actually its on the "bottom."

Attention internet: please change.

Possible Twitter Business Model: Charge Leets, Not Tweets!

June 12, 2008 - 6:02pm — bex

All right... the Twitterverse is all up in arms about how crashy it is, and the lack of a business model... well, at least Jake and Radar are... so I figured I'd throw in my 2 cents, and solve both problems at the same time:

How to make Twitter crash less:

  1. Ditch Rails.
  2. Ditch Ruby.
  3. Rewrite it for Python / Django.
  4. Use Google App Engine for hosting.

Done and done. Pownce has proven that it way easy to redo everything Twitter did (but better) using Django... and in a remarkable short amount of time. Plus, if you use Django, you can port your entire system to Google App Engine, and get insane scalability and uptime for cheap. Google might even be a willing partner for such a high-profile client with such widely known scalability problems...

I always thought Rails was the wrong tool for Twitter... I'm sure the pragmatic programmers would be all up in arms if Twitter ditched their favorite tool... but who cares? Using the same tool for every job is woefully unpragmatic. "But Rails can do it! Rails can do it!" Ugh... At times like this I let Chris Rock do the talking:

Sure, you can do it, but that doesn't mean it should be done! You can drive your car with your feet if you want to, that doesn't make it a good idea!

Now, regarding the business model, there are these options:

  1. Charge $10 per year for people who tweet more than 5 times per day.
  2. Engage businesses, sell them "Twitter Appliances," and train them how presence can boost communication and productivity.

Seems pretty damn straightforward to me... at least, that's what I'd do if I had a brand like Twitter. Move into more of an evangelist model, teach people to collaborate with presence, and get into the enterprise before somebody else beats you to the punch. Heck, they could even sell enterprisey books, and be the first "sexy" enterprise app. I'm baffled why they haven't already done so.

In the meantime, I've moved on. Check me out on Friend Feed.

UPDATE: Garrick posted on another twitter business model... The scalability problem is not due to the number of tweets per day, but in the number of followers you have. Some people have thousands of followers, so one tweet per day from a popular person consumes more resources than a friendless one tweeting every hour. Therefore, perhaps you should charge people to be followers? I'm not 100% sold, because that would discourage popularity. Its also vulnerable to Twitter syndicators like FriendFeed... Why should everybody pay $10 to follow Scoble on Twitter? Just follow his FrendFeed instead.

Auto Companies Should Finance Solar Panel Installations

February 15, 2008 - 1:24pm — bex

Here's a half-baked idea inspired by a Freakonimics commenter: failing industries should help homeowners finance renewable energy.

The logic goes like this:

  1. Ford's business of selling cars has not be profitable for some time...
  2. Ford Credit -- which helps people finance the purchase of For cars -- has been incredibly profitable, so much so that it keeps the rest of the company in business... therefore
  3. Ford is actually in the banking industry. They help ordinary people purchase expensive manufactured equipment, which in turn help benefit the lives of ordinary people. Now,
  4. Alternative energy, such as Solar Panels, home-grow biodiesel, and cogeneration, also benefit lives by reducing the expense of energy for ordinary citizens.
  5. Alternative energy systems require expensive manufactured equipment, which many people cannot afford.
  6. Alternative energy creates a return-on-investment -- less monthly costs on electricity and gasoline -- which offsets the costs of making monthly payments. Therefore,
  7. If Ford got into the business of financing the sale and installation of solar panels, it really wouldn't be much of a shift in how they do business, but could be insanely profitable.

Ford, GM, and Chrysler are all touting how they plan on using alternative energies in the next generation of products... I say, why stop there? Don't integrate solar panels into cars... purchase a solar panel manufacturer, and finance solar panel installations in people's homes! Set up some local biodeisel co-ops... and make your money the way you always did: financing the sale of manufactured equipment. Use your leverage in Washington to get tax credits for people to install solar panels, and make it even cheaper for your customer base.

This initial step will also help the auto manufacturers get to understand the nature of alternative energy... before completely shifting your manufacturing process to create biodiesel cars, make sure there's a market for it. Use your financial influence to create the initial market, profit from it, and finance the rest of the endeavor. Purchase the best companies, learn from them, and make your cars more efficient as well.

To me, that strategy seems much more doable, and much more profitable...

Banks like Ford are the future, not the past... modern banks that focus on hedge funds, derivatives, and sub-prime mortgage financial vehicles are ignoring the sacred purpose of the financial industry: to spur the growth of industry that improves the well-being of the public. If you are a bank that is also into manufacturing (cars and solar panels), services (repair and installation), and perhaps agriculture (for biofuels), you have an edge that few could match. That won't happen overnight, but financing solar panels would be a good start.

Anybody know the CEO of Ford?

Half-Baked Idea: "Tweet" your Pain!

January 23, 2008 - 3:42pm — bex

If you have chronic pain, or any kind of intermittent health problem, then you should join Twitter.

Why? Well, in case your last trip to the hospital wasn't a clear enough sign, the communication breakdown between doctors and patients is costing us dearly. Too little treatment, too much treatment, improper treatment, it all boils down to the fact that your doctor doesn't know enough about you to make some of these calls.

What were you doing when the pain struck? Getting out of the car? Well, what did you do before that? An hour before? Four hours before? Last week? Did you move furniture? Sit at your desk all day? Or did you go for a run? If you used Twitter, all this information would be available for your friends, family, and even doctors.

Naturally, this does open up the problem of information overload... and in fact studies have shown that doctors can sometimes give better treatment by asking fewer questions. The most famous example is probably the chest pains decision tree described in the book Blink: by asking three questions and no more, doctors have a better chance of catching heart attacks. Of course, that's just for determining whether your chest pain is serious enough to warrant hospitalization, or whether you should take a Tylenol and go home. After a patient is in the hospital, the more information your doctor has, the better your treatment will be.

By constantly recording what you are doing with twitter messages (aka "tweets"), you give your doctor a wealth of information about your habits. If you moved furniture three days before you felt pain, you might not remember... but its in your Twitter feed, so your doctor will know.

Why Twitter and not a diary or blog? Simple... the easier it is to do, the more likely you are to do it. Diaries and blogs are for long-winded thoughts, rants, and essays. Twitter is simply what you are doing right now, and nothing else. Its clean and simple, and you can even "tweet" via cell phone text messaging. Nobody expects you to be pithy, funny, or even interesting... just approximately accurate.

In short, if you want good medical treatment, you should tweet your pain.

Half Baked Idea: Wiki Markup For Text Messages

October 23, 2007 - 5:53pm — bex

I saw the beta of Fanchatter at the latest MinneDemo un-conference... it looked good, it was a nice way to fuse text messages, micro-blogging, and sports fans. Kind of like Twitter, but sports-focussed, plus several extra bells and whistles.

While watching it, I had a bit of an idea: why does nobody use Wiki markup for text messages?

This wouldn't be needed for IM-ing your buddies on a phone... but as more and more people use text messages to communicate with web sites, the need for quick-and-easy markup becomes more important. I'd sure like to be able to convert that pure text into pretty HTLM, not to mention have quick links between my Twitter feed and a wiki somewhere...

Of course, you can't use traditional wiki markup on your phone... square brackets and underscores are a pain... How many times do you have to click the to get a [ symbol? Do all phones even have square brackets? No... it would be better to use numbers:

  • Bold: 0foobar0 or *foobar*
  • Italics: 1foobar1
  • Underline: 2foobar2
  • Hyperlinks: #bexhuff.com# or #https bexhuff.com#
  • Hyperlinks with custom title: #bexhuff.com Bex Huff#
  • Wiki links: camel-caps (ie, FooBar), or double pound sign (ie, ##foobar##)
  • Unordered lists: begin each line with a star (ie, *foobar)
  • Ordered lists: begin each line with a pound (ie, #foobar)

That's probably all most people would need... you can optionally use 3, 4, and 5 for blockquotes, code, or citations. The wiki links would go to either a global wiki page on Twitter, or a "tribal" wiki page for your chosen tribe. You can even allow micro-blogging turbo users to 2-digit numbers for custom markup... like 10foobar10 for a float:right text block.

If micro blogging ever hits it big, people will love this crap. Feel free to steal my idea, I'll never implement it... in part because I frigging hate cell phones.

Half-Baked Idea: Illegal Immigrant Citizen Tax

August 31, 2007 - 4:00pm — bex

There's been a lot of chatter about what to do about illegal immigration in this country... and, as usual, the discourse between the hippies and the rednecks is oh so productive...

I don't think either of them fully grasp the problem. The rednecks seem to think we can build a wall and everything will be fine... or at least put up a million guards on the border. What they fail to realize is that Cubans brave shark-infested waters on rickety rafts to get here. If they aren't afraid of that, they certainly won't fear a wall. Even if we wrapped the country with a de-militarized zone, and border guards randomly sprayed bullets across it, we'd still have illegal immigrants...

Also, the rednecks treat the economy like its a big pie, and there's only so many pieces to go around. Not true. Wealth can be created through innovation. In the long run, the more hard working Americans we have, the stronger our economy. Of course, in the long run we'll all be dead, so we should probably think short- and medium- term as well...

The hippies forget that there has to be an incentive to become a citizen, otherwise nobody would do it. They're also calling everybody and his dog a racist for being against amnesty, when the problem is primarily an economic one: without an assimilation plan, a flood of cheap labor can put a lot of Americans out of their jobs, and worsen racial tension.

One Possible Solution

After using a few tricks to boost independent thought, a four-step solution occurred to me:

  1. Allow any and all illegal immigrants to become citizens, but
  2. levy an addition -- permanent -- tax on people who become citizens in this fashion, then
  3. give some of the revenue to small, local entrepreneurs to create jobs, and
  4. issue the remainder as a "tax rebate" to the poor and jobless

Now, this solution isn't perfect. Rednecks may claim that its still amnesty... but they might change their tune when they see a tax rebate... even a few hundred dollars would be a good psychological boost. Hopefully it would stall their distrust until new jobs are created. Also, if the new citizens are the poorest, the rebate money goes right back into their own pocket!

I'm no supply-side economist like Helicopter Ben, so I don't expect a tax rebate to do anything but be a warm fuzzy. However, tax incentives for small, local, entrepreneurs almost always creates jobs...

Hippies might complain that this treats the new citizens like second-class citizens. Perhaps... but we should let them make that choice. By becoming a citizen, illegal immigrants would completely turn the tables on their stereotype: they are now the people who create jobs, not take them away! They could become a mighty political force not just for immigration reform, but also job creation! Some may be more than happy to pay the extra tax in exchange for instant political clout.

I like it...

I can't think of an economic downside, although the devil's in the details. So forgive my prejudice... but if you're against my plan, then you and your dog are racist ;-)

Half-Baked Idea: The Disaster Pack

August 29, 2007 - 3:54pm — bex

After the recent floods worldwide, and the 35W bridge collapse , I became inspired to write about an idea I had a back in the Katrina days about disaster preparedness...

It seems that people do one of three things when it came to disasters:

  1. they prepare for a disaster that never happens,
  2. they prepare for a disaster and are ready when it happens, or
  3. they never prepare for a disaster.

What was surprising to me was that many people who donate money to the Red Cross are completely unprepared for a disaster! No first aid kit, no water filters, no back-up food supply... If only they were better prepared, then the Red Cross wouldn't need to spend so much to bail them out of trouble!

The logical things is to kill 3 birds with one stone: the Red Cross should sell disaster preparedness kits, and make money off the proceeds. This would mean the following:

  1. More people would be prepared when disaster strikes,
  2. The Red Cross makes a bit of money,
  3. When disaster strikes, we could round-up available kits, and ship them to those in need

I haven't done the math on it, but it would be like the entire country would be a distributed warehouse for Red Cross disaster supplies! By being prepared yourself, you help others when disaster strikes. It seems like a natural idea to me... The Red Cross already has a detailed list of what a disaster pack should have... why not brand this to both save lives and generate cash? People would be prepared for the disaster, feel smart, feel charitable, and get a tax deduction for the donation!

In practice, the disaster pack would work like this: if a disaster strikes close to your home, the Red Cross has a pretty good idea of how many supplies are available locally to fix the problem. This wouldn't require an invasive database, you'd only need to give them your zip code. If needed, you and your neighbors would crack open your own disaster packs, and survive in relative ease for a week or so... Simultaneously, other groups who specialize in logistics -- like UPS, FedEX, or WallMart -- could coordinate a regional drive to collect and re-distribute disaster packs to the affected region.

Probably these regional drives would be most effective if it was hub-based. For example, if a massive flood hit the Midwest, it may be most effective to collect disaster packs from just the 5 largest towns in the region... people who are 50 miles from the event -- but not near a hub -- should probably just hang on to their supplies for later.

This idea would only work if the packs had the following features:

  • The food wouldn't spoil for at least a year.
  • The food needs to be very yummy... so if no disaster strikes they can be consumed by the owners or given to the food shelf -- no lima beans or pumpkin mix!
  • Non-perishable tools (crank flashlight, crank radios, fireproof waterproof matches, first aid) should be kept in a separate disaster pack, so they would last for many years more than the food.
  • Each came sealed, with instructions on both the inside and outside, to prevent tampering.
  • They came in uniformly shaped, easy-to-transport containers.

The Red Cross does already sell kits on their site redcrossstore.org, but nothing that conforms to all the above criteria.

This of course leaves the major problem with disasters: where do people get fresh water?

The solution to that is probably to include a lifestraw with every pack... which is a compact water filtration system. However, that assumes access to water in general. For floods, this is feasible... but in the event an earthquake destroyed the roads and waterways, the straw might just be laying there mocking you... Thus, it might be a good idea to have a water pack as well... despite the weight.

A yellow pack for food, a blue one for water, and a red one for tools. What do you think?

Again, not fully baked... but I'd certainly buy one and feel good about donating to the Red Cross / Boy Scouts / United Way or whoever decides to run with this...

Half-Baked Idea: The Wayback Machine Pinger

August 15, 2007 - 10:37am — bex

Assume somebody claims that something absolutely crazy was posted to the web, then removed... either on a government web site, or a major news outlet's site. Your conspiracy theorist buddy shows you "proof" of the shocking truth in the form of an screenshot. Unlike your friend, you know that screenshots are easy to edit with photoshop, and therefore aren't particularly good evidence.

However, what if your buddy showed you the proof from an online archive that everybody trusts? This could be possible, if your buddy could "ping" the Wayback Machine to take a snapshot and store it in its permanent archives... And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Hopefully you've heard of the Wayback Machine... its run by the Internet Archive organization. They have the mind-numbingly complex task of archiving all the content on the internet, or at least trying to. Then the Wayback Machine allows you to look at how the web site appeared in a specific month of the year. Pretty cool stuff... especially since a lot of web sites get taken down after their usefulness has expired... like a politician's web site after they lose an election.

Check out what bexhuff.com looked like in June 2006 2006... ah, the memories...

Well, why not expand upon this? Why not allow helpful individuals suggest when and what to archive? If something absolutely unbelievable is on a web site, and you're afraid it may soon become unavailable, just trigger the Wayback Machine to take a snapshot. At least then you'll have a (mostly) impartial judge.

It could also be extremely helpful in mitigating the flood of requests that occurs when a small web site is linked to from a large web site. After a link gets posted to Digg, Slashdot, or Techcrunch, the massive number of requests can overwhelm a small site's web server, or push them over their monthly bandwidth limit. Instead, the editors of these sites can "ping" the Wayback Machine to take a snapshot... then if an overload happens, redirect the link to the internet archive. Or simply post both links, and let the reader decide which to click.

This sort of API could lend itself to abuse... so there may need to be a "weighing" scheme. Anonymous and first-time posters are given nearly zero priority, and their suggestion puts it in the "archive this month" queue... However, watchdogs and polite editors who use the system often get high priority, and can see their pages archived the same hour.

Other options include the Google Cache and the Coral Cache... both are useful, and might be more receptive than the internet archive project at expanding their APIs... but there's only one Wayback Machine!

Congress Needs A Version Control System...

July 18, 2007 - 3:21pm — bex

Karl Fogel from the Subversion project had an interesting idea about government... perhaps its about time that we mandate our laws to be created inside a version control system. This could be an ECM system, or a source control system like Subversion, or something specific to government. In any case, it would help us track who made which change to which law, and when.

What I love most about Subversion is the blame feature... when something crazy goes awry, you bring up the source code and run blame. This will show you which user (or lawmaker) is responsible for which changes to the code (or law). If somebody snuck-in some untested code (or a $100 million kickback to a lobbyist), they won't be able to hide it too well...

In the image screenshot of blame in action, we see that there are four revisions of the file (8, 12, 13, 14), and the user "padma" is responsible for every change. This is similar to Microsoft's Track Changes feature... but since laws are high in content and low in formatting and photos, a plain-text specific tool might be a better match.

Of course, them Congressmen are tricksy... you'll need specific laws that only a Congressman gets access to the system to create a bill, and must have daily commits, and all amendments must be branches off of a bill to be merged in when voted on. I believe it will also be essential to have these be accessible over the web, so everybody can see not only who made what change, but what changes are being considered.

It would also be good to mandate a minimum time delay between when it was written, and when it can be voted on... not to mention syndication feeds and subscriptions so watchdog groups can instantly monitor proposed changes and proposed bills.

Heck, if Congress is making Wall Street follow Sarbanes Oxley, then its only fair to have some level of accountability in Washington as well...

Half Baked Idea: FedEx/Kinkos should purchase Northwest Airlines

July 10, 2007 - 11:06am — bex

The entire airline industry is facing serious management problems... union trouble, aging pilots, bankruptcy, canceled flights, and the like. Their software is woefully outdated, and the latest security laws are causing people to check twice as much baggage... which naturally leads to significantly more lost luggage...

Now, logistics ain't rocket science, but I am sympathetic that it's difficult to get right. However, there are dozens of industries that have made a significant profit by simply getting things from point A to point B reliably... so I'm mystified why the airline industries are struggling.

Ask around... it isn't easy being a Northwest Airlines customer... just talk to anybody who has to travel through Chicago. A lot of their pilots are nearing 60, which is bumping up against the mandatory retirement age. There are also strict rules about how many hours a pilot can fly in the month. Therefore, if you want to minimize chances of a canceled flight, book it no later than the 15th of the month.

You'd think that Northwest could have seen this coming five years ago and hired more pilots... sadly no.

Seriously, it could be a good move. FedEx already has all the software and a good chunk of the infrastructure. They have a brand name that screams "reliable," and relationships with airplane manufacturers. They just need a handful of the best and brightest execs from Northwest so they can learn the nuances of the travel industry... then they could be the 100% business infrastructure solution.

They'll print out your reports, ship a crate of them to your destination, and even pick you up from the airport in one of their stylish trucks! And if you can fit into their one-size-fits-all travel pod, they can guarantee delivery.

Like I said... not fully baked. Just the rantings of a frustrated customer.

The Decider

January 16, 2007 - 2:36pm — bex

People in software use terms like master and slave quite frequently. The master application (or computer, or system) tells the slave what to do, and the slave must do it.

As you may suspect, this terminology sometimes ruffles feathers... in the same way that terms like daemons, zombies, starvation, and kill can cause issues.

Well, I thought we could replace the term master with the term the decider. I like it. I am the egg head, I'm the commander, I'm the decider. Koo koo cachoo.

Update Your Resume to Include Person Of The Year, 2006

December 21, 2006 - 11:05am — bex

So the latest buzz is all about the Time Magazine Person of the Year for 2006... instead of narrowing down the field, Time decided to pick everybody.

Yep... You are Time's Person of the Year. Just like in The Big Lebowski.

I understand their motives... blogs and sites like YouTube have really turned the world on its head... and have really shocked those in the media industry who believed themselves to be the gatekeeprs of information. Each new internet innovation reduces their power more and more.

Well, then why not make the YouTube guys the Persons of the Year? Or maybe the webroots activists that influenced the 2006 election by capturing Macaca moments? Maybe throw in some Ze Frank?

Come on, Time! Pick a horse!

Anyway, Andy MacMillan had an awesome idea last night... since we are all now considered Time Magazine's Person of the Year, we should all update our resumes. We should place it on our list of accomplishments on our blogs, our MySpace pages, and all our online profiles. I mean, Person of the Year 2006 is a big deal, right? You should be proud!

I have already added it to my LinedIn profile, as well as my Amazon Profile.

I hope to see many many more by the end of next week...

Fully Baked Idea: The Fab Lab

November 10, 2006 - 10:20am — bex

CNN has an excellent article on Neil Gershenfeld, who is definitely on the list of Coolest Geek Ever. He's an MIT professor who teaches the course How To Make (Almost) Anything.

He also forsees a future where the printers attached to your computer can not only create newsletters and photos, but also three-dimensional objects like chairs and electronics.

Woah... so why isn't this a Half Baked idea? Well, because he's already damn close:

Want a new dining room chair? You'll design it on a PC and press PRINT, and your personal fabricator will create it for you right before your eyes. Just make sure tray No. 2 has enough wood.

The scaled-down model is a ways out, but factory-sized units are already available! He already has 15 around the world. He calls them Fab Labs. These are about $40,000 a pop, and come with laser cutters, sign cutters, milling machines, amongst others. All the pieces are tied together with open-source CAD/CAM software to help you design and make (almost) anything. You can make computers, robot cars, even small buildings.

Heck... given enough materials it might be possible for a Fab Lab to make little baby Fab Labs!

Naturally, there are issues with scale. A specialized factory will be able to make products more efficiently than a Fab Lab. However, those specialized factories require so much initial capital to create, and might be outdated in a year. Therefore, the generalistic Fab Lab might soon be the optimal choice. Soon we may never have factories again... just designers solving the latest problems!

I know what I want for Christmas...

Half Baked Idea: The Google Truth Predictor

October 5, 2006 - 11:31am — bex

Google has recently discussed an interesting new project... the Google Truth Predictor.

They haven't released many details, but in theory they could index specific facts into a fact database, along with the source, and the number of people who have verified it.

Then, a user could type in a question, such as "the US economy has improved 5%", and search for its truthfulness (versus its truthiness).

In theory, Google would take this question, and break it down into a topic (the economy), a trend (improvement), and a measurement (5%). Then, they could compare it with all existing data, and supply a list of evidence for and against the statement. Then, based on some weighing scheme, they could associate a probability of truthfulness.

The supposed goal would be to know instantly whether a politician is lying or not...

Some commentors on Slashdot questioned the value of such a system... because it could not take into account other tricks politicians use, such as framing, or logical fallacies.

I, however, am not so skeptical...

For example, lets say a congressman in a heated debate says "Every day my opponent visits Washington, a car bomb goes off in Iraq. Therefore, we should keep him out of Washington."

Strangely enough, this statement could be 100% true... but its just a coincidence, and therefore irrelevant. Its formally called the correlation implies causation fallacy. What would Google Truth® do with that statement?

Well, I'm no linguist, but it does seem that logical fallacies do have a similar pattern -- they usually have the word therefore in them -- therefore, a decent human language search engine should be able to identify these patterns. Once a pattern is found, it could also give a probability of a fallacious argument.

Even better, the search engine could warn the user that the statement was not actually a fact, and was probably designed to manipulate them. It could then educate them on what logical fallacy was being used, and why the speaker was being irrational.

Framing, however, is a more difficult issue. Calling the Inheretance Tax the Death Tax is a classic example of framing: use bad words to make something sound worse than it is commonly believed. Likewise, notice the terms Pro Life and Pro Choice. Both very positive sounding, and both designed to elicit a positive reaction.

Framing is as old as Alexander Hamilton. He called his political group The Federalist Party, and called the other guys the Anti Federalists... which in 1780 was the same as calling somebody Anti-American. Naturally, his party won more popular support.

This is despite the fact that Federalism by definition meant strong state governors, and a weak central government... despite the fact that The Federalists lobbied for exactly the opposite form of government.

I hate that Alexander Hamilton soooooooo much...

So, since framing is so context sensitive, how on earth can you defend against it?

The good news is that its really easy to lie, or throw out a logical fallacy, but its pretty hard to frame.

You can spit out a quick lie once to move on to a new issue, and never come back to it. However, to frame an issue, you need to repeat it over and over and over and over. If somebody asked you about the Death Tax five years ago, you probably wouldn't have a clue what they meant. But since it was repeated many times within the context of inheritance, you'd probably catch on.

That means that there is most likely a finite number of topics that are being framed in manipulative ways... and a critical thinker would probably catch them before they have infected the general population. Google could just keep a short list of these red flag words, and give a special warning when found.

My first test? Run Alexander Hamilton's old speeches through the truth predictor. Once it hits 0%, then I'm happy.

Half Baked Idea: Google Mashup With Voting Records

September 29, 2006 - 1:22pm — bex

I recently came across the US Congress Votes Database, which is maintained by the Washington Post. Its essentially a database of everybody in congress, every bill, and how they voted.

There are several sites like this, but I believe this is the only one who offers their data as an RSS Feed!

RSS Feeds are great, because then political junkies can get an instant fix, even when they're not watching CSPAN. Using the feeds, you could basically get an email every time your congressman voted, or refused to vote, along with info on the bill.

Having the data in an easily shared, XML format is a nice step towards transparency... but politics are so polarized these days that most of them vote along party lines. Often, you don't need 500 feeds, you really only need two.

Kind of disappointing... so I had better get busy mocking them.

So here's my latest mashup idea:

  1. Download the vote data for every senator via RSS
  2. Filter the data for votes that go against the party line.
  3. Do a mashup with Google Maps to display the districts of the offending congressman.

Now, any time a vote occurs, and somebody dares to challenge the status quo in congress, a little warning will pop-up over their district. It will contain the vote info, and links to learn more.

I call it The Independent Thought Alarm. It should help those thumb breakers in congress crack down on those pesky bipartisan coalitions, and their evil attempts to make the world a better place!

Now if I could only cross-reference it with how much pork-barrel spending each district gets... but the bill that would allow citizens to access a database of pork barrel government spending projects got killed... stupid secret senate holds.

Maybe next year.

hat tip: Simpsons

UPDATE: For those of you coming here from googlemapsmania, this project is not yet complete... I hope to find time to finish it by next week or so.

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