ServalCategory Archives

Google – can it compete with Facebook? Or anyone besides search engines?

Image via Wikipedia

Farhad Manjoo has this article running atm : Google+ had a chance to compete with Facebook. Not anymore. – Slate Magazine.

It got me thinking. Look, i love Google+. It is the same rush of intense gratitude for a service I had when first using Facebook, before it becoame so big and monstrous (all things to all people works for some, not me, and that’s ok). Google+ combines that with the integration of its other services. Wonderful. And blessed shock, for once, the interface is good. Not great, but good. Damning with faint praise.

I have written often on how, from a developer pov (and a user who wants so much to embrace their products), their UI is woeful, and they could benefit hugely from feedback from both developers and users there. I have an iPhone4. My husband has the Samsung Galaxy 2. I look at it, and admire it, but I wouldn’t swap for the world, and he is NOT enjoying Android – but I can see how much the iOS would suit him. I have tried living in Android world, I have had Android handsets, and always gone back to iOS. And I WANT to live in a Googleverse. But Apple UI beats them hands down – and I know of others working in Android who regretfully feel the same way. (Often they are people who care about UI and the user experience too).

But being a developer in Android, I know how hard it is to get Google to take feedback. By hard, I mean damn impossible. They are like a black box – feedback goes in, their own ideas come out. And we at the Serval Project want to work with them – they have teams working on similar ideas to us in mesh networking.It has been interesting at the IEEE 802 PLenary how many people say the same thing about Google being hard to connect to, to work with. And that is a pity. Because we get technical genius that misses the need – Wave, Buzz. They brush it off as learning, and integrate useful bits. But that is expensive, and alienates users. The more they do that, the more cynical people are about their products, and the further behind they are.

So in reading Farhad’s article, I so want to disagree with him, I really do. But he is probably right, because Google hasn’t learned that lesson yet.

But if you ever are Google – let’s talk.

Bits Blog: Google+ Isn’t Going Anywhere (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)
“There’s nothing to do on Google+, and every time someone figures out a possible use for it, Google…” (stoweboyd.com)
Why we shouldn’t be so quick to write Google+ off (gigaom.com)
The War Between Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple (npr.org)

timelady

November 11, 2011

Android, Apple, Google, IEEE, iPad/iPhone, Serval, Social Networks

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Android, Apple, Facebook, Farhad Manjoo, Google, IOS (Apple), Serval Project, Slate

Tired, tired, grumpy, tired.

Venting personal rant free of useful content : feel free to ignore if expecting usual interesting linkage. But it’s my blog, and I’ll whine if I want to – you would whine too if it happened to you;)

Hate bad nights. Trying to prepare to present at Atlanta (IEEE 802.11 Plenary) in just over a week and damned if sleep isn’t vile this week. Since giving blood last Friday (a rare group, B-, means I feel even more like I should, though of course everyone should). My iron level was ok enough to donate but it’s dipped into anaemia, which I tend to. So popping iron along with the other damn tabs I take – I can take up to 12 before getting out of bed when I include iron and Vitamin D, which I also need. Age, age, plus pain medication, and tablets to ease side effects of pain medication.

So the last few nights are exhausted battlegrounds: last night I slept fitfully 10pm – 3am, so was very tired tonight. When I managed that fitful sleep, had nightmares about being attacked by annoyed ESSIDs and angrier still BSSs (reading up on 802.11s). As i was terribly tired, i have been trying to drop off since 9.30pm. Fell asleep after 1.08am ( looked at time then). Stupid back woke me at 2.40am. Throwing heavy duty meds at it, base rate failing. Tossing and turning really sets it off.

And of course this fails to get the presentation finished – which makes me fret, so weighs on my mind to point I don’t sleep…bother! I do listen to a ridiculous amount of audio books – my comfort ones include Alice in Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass – blessed Audible.com!

Ok, I’ve been sufficiently self indulgent, time to resume normal transmission…:)

(update : 4.21am – do you think in sleep blogging? Arrgghh!)

IEEE, Insomnia, presentat

What has been going on in Serval land?

Well, one of the biggest things happening atm, on a purely personal level, has been putting in a proposal to the Shuttleworth Foundation for funding of my deep involvement with IEEE processes, on behalf of Serval. I am doing this as part of a scholarship that will enable me to get my PhD, and (hopefully) have huge benefits for Serval. As my cofounder, and general driving force/brains trust says on HIS blog :

Serval is going to Atlanta

Well, Romana (co-founder of Serval Project) is. And that is because she will be representing the Serval Project’s interests at the IEEE 802 plenary meeting there in just a couple of weeks (November 2011).

Romana will be putting forward use cases that reveal deficiencies in the current 802.11 family of WiFi standards for mesh and ad-hoc communications.

If all goes well, we may have the opportunity to input into a process of looking to address these issues, which is tremendously exciting for us.

via Enabling Communications, Anywhere, Anytime.

IEEE, Serval, Serval Project

Photos and Update from Nigeria

A blog post from my cofounder and personal visionary at The Serval Project, Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen….

Photos and Update from Nigeria – and introduction to Rhizome | Enabling Communications, Anywhere, Anytime.

Serval, Serval Project

Home is where the bed is…

Home from the way more successful than hopedIEEE conference. Himself beyond angel status. My halo has always been somewhat lost…

Exhausted. Back cranky but what’s news? Swollen legs down, especially the very bad RH one (stupid spinal problems affecting circulation). Kids home and happy with our return and gifts – oddly in that order!! Little dog very happy, cat umm catish about it;)

Adele’ 21 album got me through the last tired hurting leg of the flight, with the Zen2 iPad game. I love all the songs (her version of The Cure’s Love Song’ is now up there as my favourite romantic song ever, well, tied with the Tori Amos version). But this one has captured something in me : Set Fire To The Rain

timelady

September 23, 2011

Disability, Events, Family Friends Pets Kids, Serval

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And back in Hong Kong – Travel Vignettes 4

So, sitting at a cafe near embarkation point. Hong Kong Airport is absolutely MASSIVE, we would have been quite lost if not helped by the magic Eddie, ex engineer, now worker for four hours a day (“and then I go home and get very good sleeps”), a Taiwanese ex engineer, with two sons in the Taiwanese army. He took us to every necessary counter, through every procedure, and ferried us the length and breadth of the airport. Almost literally, that is, as the enormous Y shaped airport meant we started at the top of one Y arm, travelled down to the bottom of the base via immigration and initial bookings, retrieved luggage and fully checked in on way. then back up through customs and to the top of the other Y arm. This meant two rides on the amazing automated loop trains, one running clockwise, the other counterclockwise, every five minutes, with no driver, just like a child’s toy. It was utterly magic:)

Hated leaving Okinawa, what a fascinating place, al the quirky Japanese charm, with so much less population that you expect, and such an odd combination of buildings – small ramshackle houses next door to massive office buildings and mansions and empty blocks and car yards and factories and supermarkets – all higgledy piggledy, made of interesting forms and concrete. An incredibly warm and friendly place. More tourist places than you could pike a stick at, gorgeous country and beaches. but we had little time to even begin exploring. I would jump (if I physically could) at going back there:)

But now, oh now, I am missing my kids, and my home, and my bed, my dog, my everything. So is the ever patient and sweet himself, who has been my rock during this. Onehour to go, then winging home to be there mid morning. AT least i can say we had a success beyond our expectations, being invited to join the IEEE and work on the 802.11 standard on Adhoc! Fingers crossed for Serval getting the funding for me (or anyone else, but probably me at this initial stage) to go! It means heaps of travel, but this experience has eased many fears for me BUt business class would be critical for back recovery, if doing this on own…so many lessons learnt about disability travel, I will blog in upcoming days:)

hong kong airport – Hong Kong, China (travelpod.com)

timelady

September 21, 2011

Disability, Events, Serval

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Adhoc, Hong Kong International Airport, HongKong, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Okinawa, Okinawa Prefecture, Serval

Mini Typhoons in Okinawa, (or we aren’t in Kansas any more Toto) – Travel Vignettes 3

Image via Wikipedia

So, yesterday afternoon, after an hour and a half delay at Hong Kong airport (they broke the first plane, fortunately before boarding!), we flew to Okinawa. Then himself and I were stuck on the plane, until they managed to get a device attached to the long mobile stairs thing – sort of like an angled platform thing. Then off to the small building that is the airport – so much regional than I was expecting! Customs had never seen the forms I carry for my medication beofr (the ones issued by their government!), ans spoke little English, but all was smiles and fun and such lovely manners. Everyone in Japan, from the airport to the taxis and hotel, has been so friendly and kind, so polite and wanting to help. You would think they had personally damaged my spine at the hotel, the way thy all want to help me with the smallest of tasks. Actually, everyone on this trip has been delightful.

The hotel is very very grand, the staff so darling, all with hugely limited English. But, tragic disaster!!! The wonderful glamorous resort does not have wireless Internet! It only has ethernet – the cabled sort – I mean, who would think it!!! I have a Macbook AIr – lovely, light 13″ gorgeous speedy device. I have an iPad. An iPhone. Lyn has his Samsung Galaxy Tab, and his Samsung Galaxy 2S phone. No ethernet ports. But the hotel ONLY has ethernet. Anyone know where in Okinawa I can get a MBA ethernet plug, or a small Access Point like the one on our dresser at home, before tomorrow afternoon? No, I didn’t think so…not end of world, but I couldn’t contact kids to let them know I was okay. I felt pretty isolated, though we could have used long distance etc. I am just too connected to Internet to feel good without it now. I can live without it at home, when up at our beloved Wistow, but first time overseas..that is different. But conference has wifi, ahh, blessed wifi *drain*

My presentation was at 8am. I seem to have done sufficiently well to gain Serval an invitation to join the IEEE and drive the process to determine what we can do to make Mesh Networking easier and better, from a standards pov, working with the already excellent working groups looking into it. I felt very proud to represent our project, and everyone back in the lab had worked long hours helping me prepare for it, so a group kudos. I had wonderful, intelligent, and very detailed questions, support and encouragement from audience. The project always engages people whenever we talk about it.

Lunch soon, and then back to hotel for much needed rest (I was up at 430, fretting so much about getting it right I started rehearsing at 5am!) Lyn has been utterly amazing as a travel companion, and representing Serval as well. (He is also a jolly nice spouse:) ) Tonight, cocktails and meeting the Governor of Okinawa, and eeing traditional dances and drummers from the region, which is super exciting. Tomorrow will be another huge day, of flying to HK later afternoon, waiting there for 6 hours until about 11.30pm, then finally, direct flight home.

Oh, fr those wondering, photos when we get home, and bandwidth more controllable;)

Japan:Severe tropical storm lingering near Okinawa (laaska.wordpress.com)
Serval Mesh, A Network-Free Communication App, Finally Makes It To The Android Market (androidpolice.com)

timelady

September 20, 2011

Disability, Events, Serval

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HongKong, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, iPhone, Macbook AIr, Okinawa Prefecture, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Serval, Wi-Fi

Fun in Hong Kong – Travel Vignettes 1

The airplane staff have been, without exception, absolutely marvellous. Ernest, our cabin staffer, was so smiling friendly and intent on my well being. We ended up on a runway far far from the biggest acreage of airport I could have imagined, so a bus, and stairs, due to distance from terminals, was announced. Tired and in pain, I was defeated and upset, but trying to hold on, while himself was bound to ensure my well being – he was exhausted, but he had the forceful look he gets when his family needs something Implacable I believe it would be. Yet no, Ernest et al had organised a special hoist for myself, and a lovely woman in her 80s travelling back to Scotland. She was an old hand at this, and she was very reassuring. The young lady assigned to us was very determined to keep me safe and take charge. We got hoisted down but remained in this lift taxi thing until we reached the airport. Our temperatures taken (a device to the forehead for a few seconds), our young lady headed us to customs.

This incredibly lovely but amazingly forceful young lady took absolute charge of us last night. She was not to be satisfied until she had us organised into a taxi for our hotel. She made enquiries at various hotel counters until she found the chain managing this one and handed us into a taxi personally with the address card (in Chinese) to the taxi driver, with what sounded like admonishments and demands for our well being. She spoke almost zero English, but managed to communicate her intentions to any and all staff who dared to cross her path. She must have been the age of our eldest daughter, but was so self contained and self assured, she made me feel young and inadequate! Himself was magnanimously allowed to push the luggage cart, while she took determined possession of me in my wheelchair.

The taxi driver spoke zero English, but decided I should at least know all the place names we were passing, determined to correct my woeful pronunciations. He seemed to delight in me finally getting one right, before moving to the next. Hong Kong was hot, like walking into a thick dense wall of heat, almost but not quite muggy. Heavy air weighs you down.

Taking lots of photos to share. Have been working on the Serval presentation quite a lot, refining, and listening to meetings I recorded prior to travel, trying to capture everything.

And now, to Hong Kong Airport, thence Okinawa and Naha Airport.

timelady

September 19, 2011

Disability, Events, Serval

1 comment

Airports, Hong Kong, HongKong, Serval

Serval working on standards

As I mentioned in a more personal level post, I am presenting at the IEEE 802 Wireless Interim Meeting. We are proposing improvements to Adhoc mode for 802.11 ah/b/g/n. There are limitations with the current standard we have identified as prohibitive to mesh networking:

Cell-splitting / BSSID synchronization / interface hangs problems / outright device incompatibility: partly due to poor implementation of ad-hoc in WiFi drivers, partly due to complexity of ad-hoc specification.
Purpose of SSID and BSSID is to separate traffic. For ad-hoc mesh networks we want to prevent separation.
Beacons deplete available bandwidth, and not required for ad-hoc networks.
Indoor range of 802.11b/g/n on cell phone is ~ house: need several house range to form suburban meshes.
Outdoor range of 802.11b/g/n on cell phone is ~village: need several km to form rural/remote meshes.

These limitations effectively mean that we need to break the standard to achieve our networking requirements. Obviously, this is far less than ideal. So we are proposing (and this is in incredibly simplified terms), an ‘Innovation Space’, a narrow band where mesh networking can grow as a field while retaining standards. So we are proposing (again, smplified somewhat):

S1G Packet Radio WiFi/ Cellular baseband radio
Leave Mesh Routing in Software
Use of Variable & Low Bit-Rates
Wifi over Baseband Processor

We believe the benefits will assist in growing the emergent field of mesh networking, within a standards based framework, and allow for an enhanced reach of communications, using ubiquitous technology, with non prohibitive costs – manufacturers will have no cost change, there will be little to no adverse disruption. However, in terms of positive outcomes for an entire field of research, the change to our ability to innovate and develop will be quite fundamental

Projects like Digitata and Village Telco have been very supportive in assisting us with our submission. I would like to thanks all the Serval team - especially Jeremy, Paul, and Corey for their assistance in this presentation. Also Elektra, Batman genius, has been incredibly informative, and generous with her extremely busy time.

timelady

September 17, 2011

Events, Hardware, Internet Technology, Science Knowledge, Serval, Tech

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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Mesh networking, Mobile phone, Packet radio, Village Telco, Wi-Fi, Wireless

MiSer: an optimal low-energy transmission strategy for IEEE 802.11ah.

Reading up on IEEE Wireless Standards in preparation for attending the IEEE 802 Wireless Interim Meeting on behalf of The Serval Project & Flinders University has led to some fascinating facts, information, and some amazing research going on in this area. Here is one such project :

via MiSer: an optimal low-energy transmission strategy for IEEE 802.11ah..

Abstract: Reducing the energy consumption by wireless communication devices is perhaps the most important issue in the widely-deployed and exponentially-growing IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs (WLANs). TPC (Transmit Power Control) and PHY (physical layer) rate adaptation have been recognized as two most effective ways to achieve this goal. The emerging 802.11h standard, which is an extension to the current 802.11 MAC and the high-speed 802.11a PHY, will provide a structured means to support intelligent TPC.In this paper, we propose a novel scheme, called MiSer, that minimizes the communication energy consumption in 802.11a/h systems by combining TPC with PHY rate adaptation. The key idea is to compute offline an optimal rate-power combination table, and then at runtime, a wireless station determines the most energy-efficient transmission strategy for each data frame by a simple table lookup. Another key contribution of this paper is to provide a rigorous analysis of the relation among different radio ranges and TPC’s effect on the interference in 802.11a/h systems, which justifies MiSer’s approach to ameliorating the TPC-caused interference by transmitting the CTS frames at a stronger power level. Our simulation results show that MiSer delivers about 20% more data per unit of energy consumption than the PHY rate adaptation scheme without TPC, while outperforming single-rate TPC schemes significantly thanks to the excellent energy-saving capability of PHY rate adaptation.