VelociPeek

Yesterday, AOL Technologies had an all-hands with CTO Maureen Govern. The buzz started earlier in the week as a crew assembled the tent over a 3 day period on the Dulles campus green. I took a couple snapshots of the event, which included vision and goal statements, an interview with Tim O’Reilly by Jon Miller, manager introductions and Q&A, and a good ol’ fashion beer bash to wrap things up. One can usually tell if a meeting is good when it lasts 2 hours but doesn’t seem like it, and you leave wanting more! Furthermore, the meeting had various real-time interactive sessions answerable with Reply wireless devices, which made the event entertaining.

The prevailing theme, at least for me, was about innovation, Web 2.0, and platform contemplations. All this reinforced with the Tim O’Reilly interview, which was great.

Mr. O’Reilly actually has a long history with AOL when he sold GNN to AOL in ‘95. It was on the cutting edge in many respects with edited content and the first website to sell ads. Ultimately, the service and site was absorbed into other AOL offerings. I joined AOL during the tail-end of GNN’s operations, but still remember one program that launched before it was shut down: Spanq!. If anyone remembers that show, along with Trip Anchor and Uncle Dutch, please write a comment for nostalgic purposes :).

Most answers by Tim can be read in his articles. For example, Web 2.0 thoughts can be viewed here, and inventing the future thoughts here. Although I’ve heard O’Reilly speak before about Web 2.0 at the WWDC, it was good to hear about his thoughts on recognizing trends and patterns within the industry in person. Also, I like the quote he used, and uses, from William Gibson, the science-fiction writer, concerning “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

Perhaps I’ll write more thoughts on the event in a future post, but let me wrap up this session by confirming that the beer bash was also a rousing success.

How do I know?

Well, at the end, a few attendants were wheeling out the remaining beer in a tub and co-workers were diving hands into the tub pulling out trophies of beer two at a time, one-handed, as others cheered in amazement.

Haven’t seen feats and spirit like that in a few years.

Song of The Day: What’d I Say - Artist: Ray Charles

I read an interesting article in the WSJ Online this morning, Time Inc. Makes New Bid To Be Big Web Player by Matthew Karnitschnig, providing further evidence that Time Warner and AOL are making positive steps forward to leverage their brand, scale, and experience. With all that has been written about Pathfinder and about the AOL and Time Warner merger, it is great to read articles that I think truly reflect how the times and philosophies are changing for the overall company.

From the article:

In recent months, Time management has taken steps to dissolve the divisions between its Web and print operations. It has made selling ads online a priority and demanded that writers produce more copy for its Web sites. It is also expanding the sites to include more video, blogs and photographs. Former “Wonkette” blogger Ana Marie Cox has been hired to write for Time magazine and its revamped Web site, alongside Andrew Sullivan, another well-known blogger and columnist. Time Inc. has even launched an irreverent Web site aimed at young male workers called Office Pirates.

I think, and this is my view and not necessarily the views of the company, that this article points to a broader realization and confirmation that the Web is relevant and that the company’s philosophy on the Web is gelling. Although there may not always be direct collaboration between the units, when philosophies align, then it lowers barriers for strategies and initiatives. In other words, people start speaking the same language.

Kudos to Time, Inc., and I like what I see on initiatives like the Office Pirates site, but I promise to view them only during lunch hours…hee.

Song of The Day: Beverly Hills - Artist: Weezer

Since the announcement of delays in Windows Vista, industry pundits are now starting to offer analysis of why. The NY Times has an interesting perspective on why Microsoft is slowing down: code complexity.

The article points to the lines of code in Windows software as a measure of its problem:

Windows 95     - 15 million lines of code
Windows 98     - 18 million lines of code
Windows XP     - 35 million lines of code

Windows Vista  - 50 million lines of code

However, there appears to be other indicators as well from various Microsoft bloggers including lack of accountability and morale challenges.

The good news is that this type of problem is a result of success-immense success in Microsoft’s scenario. Microsoft has approximately 90% of the operating system market share for desktop PCs. However, with that success has come legacy support, which can put a significant drag on future progress if left untamed. In my opinion, there are few easy ways to handle this….

One: Do a quality analysis of the cost/benefit of the legacy support. If the benefit outweighs the costs, assuming one knows and agrees with the cost/benefit ratio, then scale the workforce to handle the complexity.

Two: If the cost outweighs the benefit, determine what complexity will be purged; then purge it. This isn’t easy, but one will theoretically realize so much benefit–speed, agility, etc.–that the pain will quickly be forgotten.

Three: Do a little of both in some evolutionary way. This one seems pragmatic, but also contains inherent risks that the changes will not be forceful enough to make a difference.

In many ways the blogging entries point to a bigger issue than code-complexity, which is a little more disturbing. Although there may be bloggers that agree that code-complexity is an issue, it appears that many point to leadership and managment as the central problem. Perhaps this is why there were management shake-ups recently. In my experience, it has always been easier to purge hardware and/or software, in pursuit of simplicity, than to deal with leadership problems, which can be much more complicated than code could ever be, regardless of line count :).

Since the company has a spirit of try-try again, I think history is on their side for making appropriate moves to stay focused and relevant. Stay tuned….

Song of The Day: We Will Rock You - Artist: Queen

This entry goes out to the George Mason University Patriots: Hoorah!

Never imagined I’d see Mason in the Final Four contending for the NCAA National Championship. Today’s over-time victory over top-seeded UConn was a stunner; don’t think I’ll forget it anytime soon. Having attended the school and having GMU’s campus (Fairfax, VA) so close to home and work provides a special affinity during March Madness.

No matter how the rest of the tournament plays out, they’re champs.

Go Mason!

Song of The Day: The Way I Am - Artist: Eminem

As is typical on Thursday mornings, I headed for the WSJ Online and opened up the Personal Technology column of Walt Mossberg. I had expected something about Apple, about Google, about Microsoft, or about a new product gizmo, or something other than what I found: a complimentary review of AskJeeves.com, now renamed Ask.com!

Quote:

In college basketball this month, we’ve all been reminded that the superiority of champions can’t be taken for granted…George Mason University…That’s also true in high tech.

Every so often, an underestimated contender rises up to compete with a champion play for play, or even to beat the champ. Something like that is happening in the search business…Ask Jeeves, a largely failed search service, has…been overhauled and renamed Ask.com…

Ask’s search-results are richer and better organized than typical Google results, and they give greater priority to content over ads.

Wow. My first reaction was that AOL Search has similar enhancments with Snapshots, recently saved searches, and links to videos, audio, pictures, etc.; all this with Google as a foundation.

However, the above literary montage re-enforces one thing: one can never rest on laurels in the technology biz :). Just when someone or something is considered irrelevant at 2.3% market share according to
Nielsen (i.e., Mr. Mossberg must have reported 6% for Ask.com from comScore that includes other owned properties), a little ingenuity and hard work can go a long way.

We see this time and time again: Apple, Microsoft, Autodesk, AOL….

Inspirational Message (Angel harps in background): Keep chuggin’. You know Google will counter. Likewise, AOL will keep cooking things up as well. However, a few competitive nudges can be good for focus and motivation :).

Song of The Day: Wake Up - Artist: Rage Against The Machine

Web 2.0 Case Study: Grid Computing

Recently, Sun launched a grid computing system, called the Sun Grid Compute Utility, which allows folks to pay $1 for an hour of distributed processing power. Although distributed, parallel computing has been utilized by educational and corporate institutions since the early 80’s, this latest offering is a rather interesting one within the industry.

So what is grid computing? My layman definition is that grid computing is an architecture to distribute computing tasks across a network of networks. Utility computing draws comparisons from eletrical grids and costs associated with operating them.

Consumer interest in distributed, parallel computing peaked somewhat late in the 90’s with the launch of the SETI@home project. One could download the program, linking multiple workstations together into one big computer and the program would analyze radio signals from outer space. The purpose was to search for signs of extraterrestrial life and take the guess work out of solving Drake’s Equation: N = N * fp ne fl fi fc fL.

No one has hit the lottery on discovering life–yet–but projects like SETI@home and Sun’s Grid Compute Utility may provide further evidence of the notion…

…that the Web is evolving into a sophisticated distributed, computing platform. Various folks have written about the potential (e.g., IEEE’s Computer magazine and recent articles on grid computing), and the route may be patently obvious to some; however, I think there is still plenty of room for innovation and expansion in the area. For example, with most solutions, including Sun’s current one, one is bound to a particular platform or clustering software. I think this will evolve through time with more open standards like the Open Grid Services Architecture.

Perhaps O’Reilly should add this to a future list of old versus new trends on the Web:

Web 2.0: Sun Grid Compute Utility

Web 4.0: OGSA and Skynet

This may be a truly poor way of ending a post like this, but the urge is irresistible. Swartzenegger: movie star, governor, and Skynet, grid computing consultant.

Song of The Day: Tunnel of Love - Artist: Bruce Springsteen

Web 2.0 Case Study: Gawker Stalker

I was getting ready to delve into another fascicle on Carol Bartz’s guidance on leadership, but couldn’t resist the the urge to write about a popular site–yet unpopular to celebrities–that uses Web 2.0 mashups: Gawker Stalker. The mashups contain some of the usual suspects: Google Maps, Google Images, communities providing data. Apparently, one sends sighting tips to tips@gawker.com and the editors and site do the rest. However, the site has attracted negative attention from various celebrities and their representatives.

During a local newscast last night Jessica Cohen, an editor at Gawker, defended the site; basically saying that the interests and tips, even a Gawker Stalker interest or tip, comes with the territory, etc.

Afterwards, I had to check out the site to see what all the fuss was about…

The site is fairly compelling in my opinion. Although I don’t consider myself one to be overly absorbed with celebrity happenings or gossip, I ended up being lured to follow links, to read bios, and to reminisce about movies and music. I guess the celebrity lure and the compelling gossip got me! However, the experience for me was relatively positive and I could see people enticed to purchase memorabilia or advertising, which it looks like the site is already doing.

Although I do believe that some of this fascination comes with the territory, for celebrities I can understand the angst. First, the site’s name, Stalker, doesn’t help. Second, I could see how the up-to-the-minute sightings and locations could be disconcerting. What if the name were changed? Hey! What about VelociPeek? It is nice and I could let go of my affinity to it for a reasonable price! :)

Also, maybe the frequency of updates should be dialed down a bit. No one complains, as much, about a weekly magazine or daily website where the whereabouts and happenings lag. This gives people a chance to escape—maybe even have celebrities update it on some agreed frequency. Moreover, one could see limiting information and locations to business-related activities like movie premieres, etc. However, with all the buzz the site will likely continue as-is.

Regardless of one’s opinion, it is Web 2.0 in action: welcome! The Web is a-changing.

Song of The Day: Dionne Reel/Mouth Of The Tobique - Artist: Celtic Fiddle Festival

Staying true to my Irish heritage today, I took the day off; I wore blue jeans and a black mock shirt; and I ate sushi for lunch. Oh yeah. I had tea to drink for lunch too.

Screech! (sound of needle scraping across an old turntable LP)

Okay, okay. I promise to adjust this evening. I’ll throw on some green socks or something; eat rubbery cornbeef and wilted cabbage, and maybe drink some cheap green beer :).

Seriously, I hope all a Happy St. Patrick’s Day and may the luck of the Irish be with you.

Song of The Day: Hypnotize - Artist: System of a Down

Last evening an AOL colleague and I hit the DC 2.0 event held at Reston, VA. From the website it was the first DC area Web 2.0 event and the purpose was to meet folks interested in the next generation of the Web. The website doesn’t currently have any detailed information concerning the event, but I think they will have pictures and other information posted in the near future.

Upon arrival the first thing we encountered was food and beer, always nice when meeting after hours, and we mixed and mingled with a few local digerati including an ex-AOLer that joined Revolution recently.

Thereafter, Steve Boyd kicked off the event by showing a few statistics of how Web 2.0 (i.e., specifically the Ajax part and Mashups) interest and jobs openings have climbed over recent months. For example, he visited Indeed and PageBites to show job trends and postings in the area.

After Steve’s opening, Dion Hinchcliffe gave a few words concerning Web 2.0 and about SOA and how SOA progress has fueled and started Web 2.0 activity. A venture capitalist accompanied Steve as well encouraging companies in Web 2.0 efforts and offering support for business plans, etc.

Eveything was fine and good up to that point; then we delved into a few demos….

Read the rest of this entry »

Song of The Day: Inside Out - Artist: Eve 6

A little while ago, when contemplating and debating web performance of applications and services at AOL, I thought about how various mathematical models, applied to parallel computing, could potentially be used to estimate speedups and/or slowdowns of various web-based applications and services. Most notably I was interested in speedups, network costs, concurrency, and efficiency. Also, I wondered if more performance issues could be caught earlier in design phases rather than during deployment phases, which are lagging indicators. These questions and thoughts resulted in a mini-research paper investigating the use of two fairly well-known equations: Amdahl and Gustafson’s Laws.

The paper, here in PDF, outlines a few theoretical examples of how one could apply the laws, but more work is necessary to apply these models, or derived works, to real-world scenarios.

Although there are similarities between message-passing systems (e.g., MPI) and web-based applications, there are also plenty of differences. For example, a web browser consists of an aggregation of systems rather than a serialized algorithm partitioned bewteen replicated processors or processes. On a related note web systems typically have multi-tiers that affect overall estimations as well–not necessarily the case on HPC systems.

However, new models, and better models, are needed in my opinion to identify performance and optimization challenges earlier in development cycles, thus the paper. Interestingly enough, and maybe obvious, but the discipline of modeling helps in a number of web-based problem domains, not strictly page download performance, but that may be good fodder for a future entry. In the future I hope to expand on the concepts, but for now, here is a little taste and stay tuned :).