Archive for Feb 2011

10 entries

Starting a High Tech Business: Making Hard Decisions

Mon Feb 28 16:25:00 2011

I'm the founder and CTO of Kynetx. This series of articles relates my discoveries and feelings about starting a high-tech business. This is the thirty-first installment. You may find my efforts instructive. Or you may know a better way---if so, please let me know! Suppose you had a big tank. It's got water in it. There's a hole in the bottom and a few small pipes delivering water. Unfortunately the pipes are smaller than the hole. Your goal is to never let the tank run dry. You've managed to get by through periodic deliveries of water from an out
Continue reading...

Building a PubSubHubBub Endpoint for Kynetx

Fri Feb 25 14:39:00 2011

The Live Web already exists and is exemplified by emerging technologies and concepts such as PubSubHubBub and webhooks. PubSubHubBub (PuSH) is a method for augmenting RSS and Atom feeds that turns the formerly request-response-style interaction of RSS into one that makes calls to subscribers when relevant updates are posted. Webhooks are a simple way to use HTTP to create event notifications . Both of these technologies are raising events, although not in a form directly usable by Kynetx. One approach to using them with KRL would be to write a custom endpoint. Often for special projects, however, it's just
Continue reading...

Terror and Consent: a Book Review

Mon Feb 21 16:42:00 2011

As I write this, the news about protests in Libya is streaming over Twitter. I've been meaning to write a review of Philip Bobbitt's Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century for a while because it's given me a new vantage point from which to view and make sense of the events I see in the news. I reviewed Bobbitt's earlier work The Shield of Achilles and I have to admit, I'm something of a Bobbitt fan. I like the intellectual scaffolding he erects for hanging up and examining current and historical events. In Terror and Consent,
Continue reading...

A Completely Connected World Depends on Loosely Coupled Architectures

Fri Feb 18 10:11:00 2011

This article from CNNMoney describes a completely connected world where not just every device, but literally every thing you own "will want to be your friend on the Facebook of things." At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, companies like IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), Qualcomm (QCOMM), AT&T (T, Fortune 500) and Ericsson showed off their vision of a not-too-distant future in which every item in your life, from your refrigerator to your fridge magnets, will soon connect to the Internet or communicate other Internet-connected gizmos. Here's how it would work: Electric devices like washing machines, thermostats and televisions will
Continue reading...

Saying Goodbye to ExpertsExchange! Creating a Personal Block List with Kynetx

Tue Feb 15 14:16:00 2011

Yesterday Google announced a Chrome extension that allows you to create a personal block list of Web site URLs. The idea is to reduce spam in search results by letting users block sites from their personal search results. The extension also sends this information to Google so that they can crowdsource their search spam efforts. But what if you want to do this Firefox or Internet Explorer? Or on Yahoo! or Bing? Kynetx to the rescue! When we saw the Google extension we thought "great idea" but we can do better with KRL. KRL is a language that lets
Continue reading...

Kynetx is Looking for a Part-Time Programmer

Wed Feb 9 15:35:00 2011

If you're a good developer, have always wanted to work on cutting edge stuff in a fun place, and are looking for part-time work, then Kynetx would like to talk to you. If you send me email, leave a comment on this post, or call, you will be ignored. If you come to Free Lunch Friday the day after tomorrow or next week, then you can get to know us and we can get to know you. Please RSVP to the plancast so we know you're coming. This position has the possibility of turning into fulltime employment and what
Continue reading...

Starting a High Tech Business: Follow Standard Business Practices

Wed Feb 9 08:06:00 2011

I'm the founder and CTO of Kynetx. This series of articles relates my discoveries and feelings about starting a high-tech business. This is the thirtieth installment. You may find my efforts instructive. Or you may know a better way---if so, please let me know! The other day my wife was telling me about a friend of our's whose ex-husband "lost everything because his partner was embezelling." I hear things like this from time to time. I'm sure you do as well. But there's really no reason for it. Proper financial controls can help keep everyone honest. When we started
Continue reading...

Reading for February 8, 2011

Tue Feb 8 09:50:00 2011

China: Wealth But Not Freedom - I wonder how long this can go on. Indefinately, perhaps, if most people feel satisfied with State actions and it maintains its legitimacy. Supposed change in Apple policy has e-book fans worried about their apps - As someone who regularly buys books from Amazon for the iPad Kindle, I'd hate this. All abstract strategy discussions are useless - "Strategy is worth thinking about if it causes you to make difficult or non-intuitive decisions." Can Government Manage the Economy? - And no, the question isn't rhetorical The unearned follow - Nice introspection from Robert
Continue reading...

"Data Incoming!" Event-Based Systems and Self-Determination

Fri Feb 4 09:53:00 2011

A while ago, Steve was helpfully giving me information related to my driving from the passenger seat. I jokingly told him it would be helpful to me if he'd tag his utterances so I'd know what they were. So he started prepending "data incoming!" to the start of his driving tips. So, he'll say something like "Data incoming! There's a car on your left!" Wednesday were driving around Mountain View and he said "Data Incoming! Turn left!" I said "That's not data, it's a command." This is a vital distinction and captures perfectly the difference between request-based system and
Continue reading...

Reading for February 1, 2011

Tue Feb 1 07:28:00 2011

The AirPlay Network - I follow the news now on Twitter, not the TV. Real-time is real. 16 Ways Your Startup Needs To Be Getting Customers by Jason L. Baptiste - Like the idea of conferences. Eight Lessons from the life and work of Jack LaLanne - Bootstrapping Apple Plans Service That Lets Users Pay With IPhones - Near field communication => General-purpose RFID impersonators Explore your LinkedIn network visually with InMaps - I explored mine in some detail in the previous blog post. Why 3D doesn't work and never will. Case closed. from Roger Ebert's Journal - I
Continue reading...