*michael parekh on IT*

ON MEANINGFUL SECURITY FOR AIR TRAVEL

RESOLUTION TIME

This New York Times piece by Patrick Smith, titled "The Airport Security Follies" says a lot of things well that most of us likely feel when we travel in this post-9/11 world, but almost never dare say.  And it says it all together in a pretty readable "blog post".  Here's a taste:

"Six years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, airport security remains a theater of the absurd. The changes put in place following the September 11th catastrophe have been drastic, and largely of two kinds: those practical and effective, and those irrational, wasteful and pointless."

You know what's coming next...a list of many practices now in place in the name of our security, that have many logical fallacies.  It includes my favorite such practice, which includes the removal of shoes by hundreds of millions of people every year for half a decade since one guy tried something that failed. 

As I outlined in a piece over a year ago, the practice likely costs us almost $10 billion a year.

The NY Times piece goes on to say:

"How we got to this point is an interesting study in reactionary politics, fear-mongering and a disconcerting willingness of the American public to accept almost anything in the name of “security.” Conned and frightened, our nation demands not actual security, but security spectacle.

And although a reasonable percentage of passengers, along with most security experts, would concur such theater serves no useful purpose, there has been surprisingly little outrage. In that regard, maybe we’ve gotten exactly the system we deserve."

Maybe a good, collective resolution for all of us next year, would be to communicate better how we feel about accepting "almost anything in the name of security".

Wish you all a very Happy New Year.

 

ON REVIVED LATE-NIGHT TV

VIVA LA DIFFERENCE

The New York Times announces that "Letterman makes deal with writers", explaining the significance:

"Most of television’s late-night shows are scheduled to return to the air that night after being off for two months due to the strike, but it is likely that only Mr. Letterman, and the show that follows him on CBS hosted by Craig Ferguson, will be supported by material from writers.

The reason is that Mr. Letterman’s company World Wide Pants, owns both those shows."

Guess we'll see the difference writers make to late-night television, or not, starting in the New Year. 

Finally, we'll really know.

ON INNOVATION, INVENTION, AND PATENTS

HISTORY REPEATING

Techdirt has an interesting post on how invention and innovation relate to our patent system:

"For many years, we've tried to argue how important it is to understand the difference between innovation and invention. While it may seem like a minor point of semantics, it actually plays quite heavily into the debate over the patent system. Invention is the process of coming up with something new. Innovation is taking that something new and successfully bringing it to market in a way people want..."

"If you look at the true history of major breakthroughs, you'll quickly learn that invention is fairly meaningless -- and the important point is the innovation. In fact, if you look at all the "great inventors" championed by American history, you'll quickly realize that most weren't great inventors at all, but rather innovators, who later (often through questionable means) took credit as the inventors they never were..."

"Last year, there was a book showing how Thomas Edison wasn't the great inventor he claimed to be. Now, there's a new book suggesting not only was Alexander Graham Bell not the great inventor many hold him up to be, but the famous story of him rushing to the patent office to beat Elisha Gray's patent filing by mere hours may hide the fact that Bell actually cheated the system with the help of a corrupt patent examiner, who shared Gray's filing with Bell and then helped make it appear that Bell's filing came first..."

They then press on to conclude the argument:

"The reason this is so important is that a patent system really only makes sense if it's the invention part that's important and that invention is basically the pinnacle of advancement in the space. Instead, if it's innovation that's more important, and innovation is an ongoing process that is sped along by competition, then there is little reason to have a patent system at all."

Putting the difference between invention and innovation in the context of our times, Google invented it's Pagerank system and was granted a patent for it in 2001.  That drove it's success on the search engine front.  But the company innovated with Adwords, it's flagship advertising product, based on technologies pioneered by companies like Goto.com (aka Overture).  As this Wikipedia entry reminds us:

"Overture Services, Inc. sued Google for patent infringement in April 2002 in relation to the AdWords service. Following Yahoo!'s acquisition of Overture, the suit was settled in 2004 with Google agreeing to issue 2.7 million shares of common stock to Yahoo! in exchange for a perpetual license under the patent. ^[7]"

Maybe if Elisha Gray's estate got some different lawyers...

ON THE BHUTTO ASSASSINATION

ANOTHER DAY

First news to hit me when I was able to get back on the net in Sao Paolo, Brazil, was the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan.

Regardless of what one thinks of her legacy, this is big news for Pakistan, not to mention the U.S., not the least because of the administration's support of her return to Pakistan to run for office again.

The New York Times has a very candid, non-puff piece on the Bhutto's legacy, and it's a greater primer on anyone not familiar with Bhutto's history in Pakistan.  Here's an example of the no-punches-pulled nature of the article:

"Saturday night at the diplomatic reception, Ms. Bhutto showed how she could aggrandize. Three million people came out to greet her in Karachi on her return last month, she said, calling it Pakistan’s ”most historic” rally. In fact, crowd estimates were closer to 200,000, many of them provincial party members who had received small amounts of money to make the trip.

Such flourishes led questioning in Pakistan about the strength of her democratic ideals in practice, and a certain distrust, particularly amid signs of back-room deal-making with General Musharraf, the military ruler she opposed.

“She believes she is the chosen one, that she is the daughter of Bhutto and everything else is secondary,” said Feisal Naqvi, a corporate lawyer in Lahore who knew Ms. Bhutto."

Fingers are likely to be pointed by many in the country to the current leader Musharraf, regardless of whether he's innocent of any complicity.  As this BBC story points out:

"Analysts note that Rawalpindi, a garrison city, is seen as one of the country's most secure cities, making the attack even more embarrassing for the military authorities."

The other opposition leader to Musharraf, formerly deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who returned to the country recently with Saudi Arabia's support, was wasting no time, as the BBC story explains:

"Mr Sharif said there had been a "serious lapse in security" by the government."

 

Pakistan is on a long road to discovering it's own path to a bespoke democracy designed best to fit the needs of it's people.  So far in it's 60 year history, the path has been rocky to say the least, with "democratic" governments designed more for the ruler (aka Prime Minister) de jour.

Yesterday's development in Pakistan is but another bloody mile marker on this really bumpy road.

ON A GLIMPSE OF BRAZIL

NEW SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

As I highlighted a few days ago, I'm excited to be visiting Brazil over the New Year Holidays.  En route there today and looking forward to reading up on the country on the twelve hour flight from New York.

Try as we did, we couldn't find a direct flight from New York to Rio de Janeiro, with most flights from New York routing through the country's largest city Sao Paolo.

I guess that surprised me having grown with lots of movies a few decades ago where the place the good and/or the bad guys always seemed to fly off to from New York was Rio...on Pan Am of course.  Different era, I guess.

Today, Brazil is leading the green race on the automobie front.  Yes, this is the country where over 70% of the cars runs on ethanol, something I'm looking forward to seeing first-hand.  What's extraordinary, is how fast that's happened, as this USAToday article highlights.  Ethanol usage was only at 3 % of the population as recently as 2002.

The country has farther to go on the internet side, as one might expect.

According to some recent statistics, this country of 186 million has 23% of it's population on the internet, with broadband penetration still nascent at 3.4%.  Mobile penetration is apparently the highest amongst it's peers at 41%.  I'm curious to learn which applications and services are the most popular.

More observations from the ground to come.

ON UPCOMING WIRELESS BROADBAND AUCTIONS

HOARDING AWAY

Good article in the Wall Street Journal this morning covering Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen's declared interest in bidding in the upcoming 700 Mhz wireless broadband auctions, via Vulcan, his investment company:

"Tim Sanders, an analyst with market researcher Maravedis Inc., said Vulcan may be acquiring and holding the spectrum for cable operator Charter Communications Inc., in which Mr. Allen bought a controlling stake in 1998.

Keeping the spectrum in the hands of a private entity like Vulcan could save Charter money on taxes, Mr. Sanders said. In addition, he said, it could reduce the amount of information publicly traded Charter is required to divulge about what it might be doing with those assets."

Here's the bit though that feels increasingly archaic, not just in the context of Paul Allen's interest, but broader wireless status quo in the U.S.:

"Amassing spectrum is a venerable tradition," Mr. Sanders said. "There are tons of spectrum in the U.S. just sitting there waiting for somebody to do something with it. Mostly it is in the hands of big companies. In the cellular frequencies, it is very well utilized and nearing capacity, but in other spectrum ranges it is barely deployed."

Archaic because selling "public airwaves" to the highest bidder seemed to make sense when technologies that enabled innovative wireless services, evolved at a glacial pace.  It certainly feels very obsolete when technologies to provide services are evolving at a much rapid pace.  Public policy needs to shift to a more "use it or lose it" focus going forward, for all wireless auctions and for all bidders.

ON THE NATURE OF LIGHT

SEEING BEFORE BELIEVING

Saw this pop up as a quote of the day in my iGoogle page early this morning, as I slowly recover from Christmas day.

"There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.

              - James Thurber"

It made me think of the top ten stories of 2007 as reported by the AP I posted about a few days ago.

In particular, it made me go back to the list to see how many of the stories were illuminated vs. obscured by the glare of media generated attention. 

It also raised the second derivative question of how many of those stories became stories due to the efforts of specific vocal minorities who had an ax to grind.  Which narrow constituencies benefited, which broader ones lost.

It made me think especially about the ninth story on AP's list, the immigration debate, which I've worn on my sleeve in my blog posts of late.

And it's not just the top stories on the AP list, but any other list we're likely to read as we close out this year.

Today is the day after the day of good will towards all.

Let's think about the issues we're passionate about in the light that illuminates.  And the good of the many, not the few.

ON FUN AND GAMES CHRISTMAS DAY

HO HO FUN

How could I not comment on an article with the headline "Joysticks to the world" from USA Today? Especially on Christmas day after I've opened my presents to find not one, but three games from the article?  (There go the productivity resolutions for January).

The article is a good video games guide to the latest and greatest just out for the holiday season, and a good list to peruse if you're scrambling for that last-minute stocking stuffer.

In the meantime, I'm going to try and find time at least boot up one of my three games for a few minutes of gaming fun today.

Which of the three should I crack open first?  See list below*.

Merry Christmas and Happy holidays all!!  Take it easy on the Christmas feasting, but not the fun.

*Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, from $49.99), Valve's The Orange Box (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, from $49.99), EA Games' Crysis (PC, $49.99),

ON TECH INNOVATION IN RURAL PENNSYLVANIA

PUSH-BUTTON FOOD

One of the annual joys of returning to my in-laws' family for the holidays in rural Pennsylvania, besides hanging out with them of course, is seeing the deployment of technology-driven services not yet available on either coast. 

Yes, that's right.  We dwellers of either coast may think we have the best services enabled by technology, but we haven't seen anything yet.

Until of course you pull into a Sheetz convenience store in Pennsylvania. 

There, besides getting gas, and other items available in a typical 7-11, you find made-to-order breakfast, lunch and dinner via automated kiosks, the type we find increasingly at airline check-in counters.  This article from selfservice.org last year explains:

"Sheetz stores are a little different. The convenience chain that began in 1952 as Sheetz Dairy Store in Altoona, Penn., now hires baristas to pour gourmet coffee. Their store-branded MasterCards have RFID chips.

 For the past 10 years, Sheetz stores have leveraged kiosks to move their made-to-order sandwiches. Each of the 327 Sheetz stores has multiple ordering stations.

From those stations, customers input their orders, while being automatically prompted for cross-sells and up-sells. The orders are then moved to the appropriate production area of the kitchen, depending on what sandwich the customer selects."

It really is empowering in the extreme when you can custom make one's breakfast service down to whether one wants salt and pepper in the sandwich.  The article goes on to explain the win-win benefits for all the parties concerned. 

The make-to-order combinations for any food and gourmet drinks via the kiosks seem to rival the choices possible at one's local Starbucks.

And you don't have to talk to a Barista feeling pretentious saying things like "Grande Black double-cup skim with two Splendas".  You do it with the privacy of your very own kiosk.

Wish we'd get this technology innovation closer to home in New York, LA and San Francisco.

ON A CHOCKERBLOCK FLYING SEASON

FEELING STUFFED

Flew on a red-eye on USAir last night to Pittsburgh last night, en route to my in-laws for the holidays.  Heard the following announcement before our flight boarded (image source):

"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight's flight is severely oversold.  We're looking for volunteers who would be willing to fly to Pittsburgh on our first flight out tomorrow.  In exchange you'll receive a round-trip voucher for travel anywhere within the 48 states, or $200 off on a flight to Hawaii or Alaska".

Now we've all heard announcements like this from airlines, especially around the holidays.  What made this one unusual is that they repeated it half a dozen times before boarding, plus two more times AFTER we'd boarded.  They were really trying to get volunteers.

Arriving at our hotel this morning, I picked up a copy of USA Today at the counter.  One of the lead stories titled "Higher fares don't deter holiday fliers" caught my eye, especially this bit:

"The price for flying home for Christmas has jumped nearly 14% in the last two years, but higher fares haven't put a dent in robust holiday demand for air travel...
A major reason for higher fares:  More passengers will be squeezing into roughly the same number of airplane seats on domestic flights as a year ago. 
To boost fares and make the most of every tank of jet fuel, U.S. carriers have scheduled the same amount of domestic flying capacity as last holiday season despite stronger passenger demand."

Guess we're going to hear more beseeching calls for volunteers to give up their seats on flights across the nation this season.