Amazing and appalling at the same time -- finding excitement in enabling technologies

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Bob Frankston" <Bob19-0501 () bobf frankston com>
Date: December 4, 2008 9:43:35 PM EST
To: <dave () farber net>, "'ip'" <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Amazing and appalling at the same time -- finding excitement  
in enabling technologies

This touches upon a larger and serious problem with infrastructure in  
general. There is no glory in making the building blocks – everyone  
wants to ride the value chain to glory and profits. This is why our  
home and infrastructure still use wired logic.

But then it was like that in the good old days when only nerds found  
it exciting to write a prime number program. In the 60’s what else  
could we do with computers – prime numbers and copying big decks of a  
few hundred binary cards so we could run a 10 line SNOBOL program.

These efforts weren’t really that valuable in themselves but for many  
of us they were just practice to what we do with computing today.

But even today it’s hard to get the hardware building blocks. Sure, we  
have things like Lego Logo but the value is in the projects as an end  
in themselves – we don’t get the pro version out of which we can build  
more stuff. We also have basic stamps and other pieces of hardware but  
it’s hard to take all that stuff and make it into a light switch. And  
why would anyone do anything when the marketplace for the gear are  
electricians who don’t like this software stuff.

Perhaps I’m fortunate because my first real job was working online  
systems in the 60’s creating tools for users so they could do their  
own analysis using generic timesharing systems. Multics was another  
step in this process (along with its step-child – Unix).

What it gave me was an appreciation for creating tools for others to  
use to create solutions. It’s why I was excited about home networking  
as IP level connectivity and not talking toasters.

Home control is not about trophy homes – it’s about being able to give  
my neighbor the ability to dim the light over a shared driveway late  
at night. Yet how many people on this list find that to be an exciting  
applications – and how many are thinking that there couldn’t be a  
duller person in the world that someone who finds that exciting?

This why the bit commons is so important ... it unlocks the value chain!

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 20:54
To: ip
Subject: [IP] Re: amazing and appalling at the same time



Begin forwarded message:

From:
Date: December 4, 2008 8:08:03 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: PLEASE ANONYMIZE - Re: [IP] Re: amazing and appalling at the
same time

PLEASE ANONYMIZE - thanks

> From: "Bob Frankston" <Bob19-0501 () bobf frankston com>
> Date: December 4, 2008 5:08:12 PM EST
> To: <dave () farber net>, "'ip'" <ip () v2 listbox com>
> Subject: RE: [IP] amazing and appalling at the same time

> Telemedicine should be too boring to write about.

Perhaps that is the problem. I worked in a lab with graduate-level
computer scientists in health informatics. None of the students were
what I would describe as high caliber. Those students worked on
'sexier', more 'hardcore' PhD topics, like graphics, algorithmics, and
programming languages. I could not be dragged kicking and screaming to
work on 'telemedicine', and I suspect most high caliber CS researchers
would be the same.


PLEASE ANONYMIZE - thanks




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