Daily Bits

Arun

Virtual Browsers

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Virtual browsers are one of the two technological twists that have come to the browsing world. The other being 3D Browsing. With increased focus on security over internet activities, the concept of virtual browser makes for a secure browsing environment that would ideally not take down your system due to some malicious activity with or without your knowledge. I use the word ideally here because virtual browsers are not exactly proofed from all known and unknown exploits.

Virtual browsers provide for more secure browsing by a process called Sandboxing. Sand-boxing is the creation of a safe execution environment on a host machine so that changes made from one process do not affect the functioning of the system. The processes running inside a sandbox have limited access to the system resources and importantly to the critical resources. Thus the host as such is as secure as the absence of flaws in the sand-boxing program itself.

Coming back to browsers, the main criteria to consider when choosing among various sand-boxed environments is the option of how much fine grained control you have on the data that is stored in the sandbox session and movable to the host machine. Recently, HP in association with Mozilla announced its virtual browser. Google Chrome also features a sand-boxed approach to its browser tabs – which means that each tab runs as a separate process and does not crash all other tabs in event of any failure. This technology has been a reason why Google acquired Greenborder, a maker of secure software.

Virtual browsers are a good choice to make your web browsing experience much safer.

The Day of the Large Hadron Collider

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Any person in the world, sparing those who have been blessed with seclusion from information, would have come across the words LHC or Higgs Effect or Doomsday proclamations today. Invariably, this day marks a milestone in human achievement. The results from this experiment involving the largest particle accelerator man has built so far will make some staggering contributions to particle physics and eventually to the whole of science and engineering.

The Large Hadron Collider, a circular tunnel with circumference of 27 km, located about 100m below the ground at the border of France and Switzerland. The purpose of the device is to collide protons (its a particle accelerator after all) at nearly the speed of light which would make it possible to study the state of particles in the minute time brackets similar to the ones after the Big Bang. This basic opportunity is what makes this whole experiment so unprecedented. There are many theoretical models as to the origin of the universe and this is one time when they can be put to test to see which one predicts the outcome the best.

The project has required co-operation on a global scale with about 8,000 scientists from 85 countries. Piloted by CERN (where Tim Bernes Lee worked on the concept of hyperlinks that eventually led to the Internet) and at a cost of about $10 billion, the project has a few skeptics who see it as merely a means to prove a theory. The main purpose of the project is to confirm the presence of Higgs boson, the particle that is causes other elementary particles to acquire mass.

The project is as much about particle physics as it is about the bleeding edge technology that has gone into making it possible. The whole experiment is hinged on the analysis of minute sub-second activities between sub-atomic particles and hence deploys the very best in digital photography, networks and processing. Considering that scientists began work on this a few decades back, its amazing to the extent they have been able to predict the developments in various technologies and how best to use them.

Coming back to particle physics, the atom is composed of Protons and Neutrons which in turn are made up of elementary particles called quarks. There are two kinds of quarks – up quarks and down quarks. There are several other sub-atomic particles as well but the LHC is basically about confirming the presence of Higgs Boson, a sub-atomic particle that causes other particles to gain mass (the Higgs Effect) and which in theory is incorporated in the Standard Model.

This experiment also has its publicity owing to the Doomsday scenarios ( which are very very unlikely). There is one in 50 million chance that this experiment could result in creation of black holes that may suck in the whole experiment or cities or even earth. But this is really all in the realm of remotest of remote chances. The hope is that this experiment will provide gargantuan amount of information about a time when the universe began.

Nonetheless, like the sequencing of the Human Genome, this is one massive project that we are lucky to be part of in our lifetimes. As we read, the particles are making the rounds in the tunnels of the LHC that would hopefully provide a revolutionary view of the creation of the Universe. Do take the time to go through the videos on YouTube, there is a lot of information to be had from them. This is one time when I have really known the advantage of having online videos so readily accessible. Its provides the best figures of knowledge density ( Information gathered per unit time spent ).

Live Video Streaming with Qik

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In the ever expanding panorama of online media services a new service eases the effort it takes to go live. Qik ( pronounced as ‘Quick’) provides live video streaming from a wide array of mobile phones to the net.

In many ways this is a logical evolution from the Youtubes and Metacafes of our times. As mobile devices proliferate, becoming computing devices of choice, services will grow to fit this medium.

An excerpt from InformationWeek:

Basically, if you’re a mobile video fanatic, you need to sign up. I shoot video using my cell phone all the time. Transferring it to other sites was a major pain until Qik came around. Using Qik, any video you shoot is streamed live, and also archived at the same time, so you can watch it again later. For those who need to share what they see and don’t think picture messages or MMS messages are enough, this is the avenue you need to take.

The list of mobile phones supported by Qik includes the Nokia NSeries and ESeries, several Windows Mobile and S60 devices.

The features offered by Qik Are:

  • Streaming of video to a select group of users.
  • Creation of events for group upload to be viewed by a common audience.
  • Integration with Facebook, MySpace, Orkut and several more services.
  • Support for several phone models with an App for the iPhone planned shortly ( the Qik Blog does mention a alpha version for iPhone 2G being available).

What’s more, the service has recently moved into public beta. It could be another enabler in taking memory limitations off phones and heralding yet another viral medium of expression.

So what’s next ? A juxtaposition of virtual worlds wrapped around user generated video bringing more realism to Avatars ? Perhaps.

Is Google’s Android Initiative Going Down?

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Last year, Google was at the center of much speculation that it would be making a gallant entry into the mobile devices space with a device tailored towards openness and flexibility of use. The rumors were confirmed to some extent when Google announced that they were working on a mobile operating system (Android) that would finally bring openness in its true meaning to all mobile users. For once it seemed that a truly open device focused on the requirements of the user would be available. But that vision has got a bit hampered in recent developments that have seen Apple making huge strides with its iPhone 3G and Nokia wooing for more developer attention with open sourcing the Symbian OS. And added to these are the few steps taking by Google that has invited the ire of several Android developers.

Open as in “Open”

First of the hits that has come to Android concerns the recent uproar in the blogosphere about Google making available the recent versions of the Android SDK to a select few of the developers community (winners of the Android Developer Challenge). The action has invited the ire of several developers who are miffed about Google not considering all developers of Android on an equal footing.

Google’s grand vision of an open OS that gives independence to mobile users on several fronts is a big move against the closed garden that telecom space has always been. Low cost handsets with a multitude of applications supported by local ads could make communication more accessible to many. But for that vision to carry through, Google needs the support of the developer community and they cannot afford to draw lines of separation among them.

Apple’s second act

While Google continues parry questions on the delay of Android handsets, Apple has completed the second phase of its mobile act with near perfection. Folks were lining the streets outside Apple stores days before the release of the iPhone 3G. The new devices, faster and less costly than the previous version is also the first time that Apple will support third party applications via the App Store. A million plus sales and 10 million plus downloads via the App Store signify a great success. And all this should add to Android’s chagrin. But Google would be taking measures to hedge its bets and there is no doubt that its vision to dominate in mobile search is no way limited by Android.

Nokia’s bid for openness

And lastly the news that Symbian, the smart phone OS that currently leads in market share, is going to be made open once Nokia acquires full ownership may represent a direct jab at Android. There are several advantages that Nokia could gain here – a readily available developer base, a real market share – both of which are essential differentiators that Android lacks.

The Mobile Developer’s Quandary

Its great opportunity and great fragmentation out there. There are several developers who have taken to the Apple App Store since the model seems pretty sound and viable. Google Android does have several important issues that need to be addressed if the interest of the developer community is to be maintained. I was initially interested in working on Android but could not continue owing to inability to commit sufficient time. But considering that Google is not all that eager to roll out updates to the larger community, perhaps, it was not much of a loss after all.

Lastly, there are still more rumors that Google was after all working on a Google branded mobile device. Not much of a surprise considering what Apple has achieved in this area. Google would be looking to gain some market share in the mobile space, if not to be an outright leader. But perfectly blending hardware and software is a very esoteric art.

2007: The Year of Social Networking

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An article at PC World does a great job of summarizing the major developments in social networking space in 2007 and ponders over the prospects and uncertainties for 2008.

One insightful point mentioned in the article is how innovation at start-ups startles tech giants. Google, the great Web firm that one-upped Yahoo in claiming the search crown and hailed as the poster child of innovation was beaten at the social networking front. All the major internet firms such as Yahoo, Google and MS were done in by FaceBook which sort of perfected the concept of applications around social networks.

Social Networking is moving from the domain of an ‘nice add-on’ feature to a must-have even at the enterprise level. Various organizations are now waking up to the possibility that to attract the next generation of talent, it is essential to incorporate the flavor of social networking and connectivity within the enterprise.

While there were major salvos fired at FaceBook’s walled garden approach to social networking apps (which it did counter by licensing the F8 platform), it will be LinkedIn’s progress in the API space that will be really interesting. Being a site for business networking, it is one network that will really see a boost with professional networking going beyond just the website to the Web as such.

But another shift that can also be expected is the increased availability of affordable feature-rich mobile phones and compelling mobile applications. Apart from the enterprise user, the benefits of mobile applications have not really trickled down to the casual user. 2008 will hopefully be the year when mobile applications especially for social networking will really take off. Since Google has made several bold moves in the mobile space, expect a lot of innovation in this front.

Overall, its been a great year for Social Networking and for 2008 there’s a lot to anticipate.

Google and Its Doodles

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Google’s got a way of keeping its users uptodate with latest on content. And that extends right from the most compelling links to the very doodles that appear on the home page. The Doodles (the Google logo) have a very interesting history in themselves – having been produced for the first time in 1999 by Sergey and Larry themselves after they attended the Burning Man Festival.

And the oodles have gone all the way from the commemoration of Louis Braille’s birthday to the once-every-122-years Transit of Venus. And the man behind the Google Doodle, Dennis Hwang does the doodles only as a small part of his job as Google’s International Webmaster.

You could also go ahead and send in details on any event that you feel needs to be reflected on the Google home page.

And if you’ve noticed recently, Google’s present doodles are ‘in-the-making’ holiday doodles. Click on the image and you are led to a page with a set of holiday images and quizzed on what to expect next.

Another first from Google I think, doodles for a doodle in the making. Its the face of the company to the world and it reflects the real-time dynamism that has made it the powerhouse of the Web.