Echo Binary

I’ve just read the online edition of The Korea Times and there’s one article about Seoul building front-line combat robots. I thought, “This is insanity.” Robots in battles along with human soldiers? It sounds so familiar. Wait… I think I’ve seen this in movies. Uhm… I think I’ve seen similar stuffs in Ghost in a Shell and other mecha animes… even Hollywood movies incorporate front-line combat robots! No? Nevermind. What’s baffling about this news is that the concept may actually be deployed as soon as the research is finished.

On the other hand, has anyone watched Animatrix? It’s one of my favorite DVD! I have just attended a seminar about robots and I really fear that robots my take over humanity in the future. That’s why as far as possible I don’t welcome too much A.I. in robotics. Otherwise if they get too intelligent they’ll just enslave us (or perhaps I’m just reading and watching too much sci-fi)!

Three Laws of Robotics were written by Isaac Asimov, a Russian-born American author and biochemist, who is best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books.

1. A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

If all these rules will be followed… then it would be fine. Hopefully.

Having studied Total Quality Management this quarter, I’m aware that Microsoft is notorious for not implementing the processes that would produce the best quality output. Problems could be always patched over anyway. Microsoft’s softwares, let alone Windows, are historically known to be vulnerable to plethora of bugs. So what gives? One remarkable person stirred several changes in Microsoft for good. His name is Jim Allchin, senior Microsoft Corp. executive.

In the past, Microsoft let thousands of software engineers create their own code. As the chief architect, what Bill Gates does is filter those programs that produce the least bugs to get into the base code of Windows. Engineers would stitch those chunks of codes to create the intended program afterwards; hence, inadvertently creating spaghetti codes. Programmers literally browse thousand lines of codes if a bug pops up, making bug hunting a nightmare.

Google, Apple, and other open-source companies impose threat to Microsoft’s monopoly in software market. For instance, Google introduced its Gmail service out of the blue, competing with Microsoft’s Hotmail service. Mozilla Foundation introduced Firefox with features that Microsoft planned for Longhorn, reducing Internet Explorer’s popularity. There are many more companies that produce quality softwares and compete directly with Microsoft products. As these companies continue to grow, Microsoft had to continuously improve to catch up with the pace of development.

Jim Allchin proposed a change to the way Microsoft create codes. Microsoft should stop doing the same practice it had used in building old versions of Windows. The company must create software that would function like Lego blocks — having a single function and were designed to be connected onto a bigger piece. Microsoft had to be rebuilt from scratch in order to make it work. To make Allchin’s plans successful he had to get Brian Valentine and Amitabh Srivastava for help. Before the team proceeded with the plan, they gathered different opinions about the challenge and most engineers were willing to change. It was a good sign.

The team of Mr. Srivastava automated the testing that had used to be done by manually. If a feature had too many bugs, it would be rejected. If engineers had earned too many bug counts in his codes, they are put to “bug jail” and banned from writing new code. After all, the goal was to get engineers to do it right the first time.

Mr. Valentine is the enforcer of the challenge. Sometimes engineers would resist the new methods of coding. He said to one coder, “Is your code perfect? Are you perfect? If not, you should shut up and support this effort.” In any case, good coding practice needs enforcement.

Windows Vista beta 1 (codename: Longhorn) was announced on June but it was rescheduled on July to make Longhorn more like Lego blocks. From experience, the programmers expected tens of thousands of bug reports from Windows Vista beta 1 but they got a couple thousand bug reports only. It was a sign of improvement.

Provided that the new processes would be followed religiously by all Microsoft software engineers, Windows Vista should be able to exhibit a leap of improved level of quality.

Based on: The Wall Street Journal

P4 discussed the misfortune of my friend Jeremiah in our seminar in LaCo. Well, it was an equal trade after all. Discover why…

Link: The P4tal — Whew. Whoa. Wakokok.

Several days after Opera 8.5 was announced free, people all over the world downloaded the fastest browser on Earth. The ad banner that used to be placed on the free version of Opera was already removed. It has completely gone free.

Only two days after the free Opera was released, one million people have download it from the Opera website — and still counting. At this moment the download counter has reached 1.4 million.

Now that Opera is free, you have more options to choose from. In my opinion, loyal Firefox users would still stick to Firefox… IE fanboys would remain a fanboy unless saved by the angels. It’s like religion — those faithful followers of Firefox would stick to Firefox while the undecided will be converted. The free thinkers would be wiser and use Firefox, Opera, or any alternative browser they feel like using, occasionally switching from one browser to another.

WiMax is coming to town.

Inter Corp., announced on Thursday that it expected to implement trials of wireless broadband technology WiMax in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines by year-end.

WiMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access,which is IEEE 802.16 standards. It would enable high-speed Internet connectivity for homes and businesses in a radius of up to 50 km. To paint a clearer picture of it, if the WiMax transmitter is installed in Makati even the people in downtown San Pedro, Laguna could utilize the WiMax service.

Source:
Reuters
How WiMax works