The Battle of OSes: Valve vs Windows (Round 1)

Pseudo-Abstract:

The post discusses the changing technological landscape. Using a fake claim that Half-Life 3 will be exclusive to Linux as a leaping point, it seeks to imagine what the industry might look like in the not so distant future.

Key Links:

Any recent post describing Gabe Newell's critique of Windows 8.

Some time ago I read a post in which Gabe Newell, director of Valve (Half-Life 2, Portal, Left 4 Dead), scathingly stated:

I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space.

And, this got me thinking... With the current changing digital market, the technological world may be on the threshold of a radical differentiation. Hardware is becoming increasingly cheap to make and thereby offers new frontiers of exploration (see my previous post, this post [overview], and this post [example]). Portable devices (e.g., smartphones) are ever increasing their power and potential, thereby radically displacing various markets. Google has exploded into the portable device scene (e.g., Nexus 7), is setting the stage for new technologies (e.g., Google Glasses), and may even break into the OS market. Microsoft is shifting its emphasis to portable devices with Windows 8 and following in Mac's footsteps with the 'Windows Store.' In a nutshell, the world is bound for a big collision as these monster companies begin to tread on each other's domains.

When I saw a post that suggested Half-Life 3 might only be released for Linux, I jumped entirely on the bandwagon. It turns out that the post is a fake, but it did inspire some additional thoughts.

If one were to imagine the future tech scene, one might see something like the following:

Casual users will slowly migrate entirely to portable devices as the current problem of peripherals (e.g., keyboard, mouse) and screen size basically disappear (see Google Glasses and Leap). Businesses will transition to integrated peripherals (i.e., scaled up versions of the portable tech) with cloud based operating systems offering both a distributed and centralized solution. The only remaining market for the nostalgic personal computer the world has come to know and love will be power users and tech junkies. Capitalizing upon ever newer and more powerful open source and underground hardwares, these folks will emerge from the overclocking scenes. They will remain with the tried and true PC simply because it can push more, harder, and for cheaper than any portable device.

What this story illustrates is an inevitable 'heightening' of an already present divide in the digital community between the 'casual' and the 'knowledgeable'--those that breathe tech being immersed in it; and, those through which the tech breathes being indifferentiable from it. That is, in the future, tech will be so central to the world as it functions (see my previous post and Kevin Slavin's TED Talk) that one's proximity in their understanding produces a difference in socio-cultural kind. And, this should play out in the gaming industry.

In the context of games, a move like Half-Life 3's exclusive distribution on Linux will make sense. The mainstream power gaming industry will have vanished with the transition to portable tech, and Windows/Mac will be all but non-existent. Their continued perpetuation in PCs will be propagated by the few remaining stragglers operating outmoded technologies (i.e., those who are still using Windows XP/Power PC or earlier, today, without explicit justification).  Linux will be the only thing that makes sense on the hardware monstrosities that persist at such a time. And, it will hold the entire share of the remaining 'gamers,' a species that is rapidly disappearing in the mobile/casual gaming of the contemporary scene (1, 2, 3, 4).

Images courtesy of:
http://www.kosovo.net/kosbitka.html
http://www.technologytell.com/gadgets/43948/intel-shows-off-minority-report-like-glass-touch-screen-at-ces/
http://shelf3d.com/Search/Uploaded%20by%20Sidekicks912

Augmented reality 2.0

It seems that I was previously mistaken. There are a number of groups that are implementing preliminary hardware and software for mobile and otherwise that is beginning to collapse the divide between our cyber and material worlds.

It's hard to comment on all of this stuff as I am a tad overwhelmed. Nevertheless, here are some preliminary thoughts.

For the games, I would like to see some gaming classics like PacMan get reinterpreted. It would also be nice to see someone explore the current limitations of our hardware so that we have an idea of where the boundary is in this domain. I think the explosion of excitement in this industry, though wonderful, had best be reined in. The domain is potentially infinite, but currently has some solid limitations in our hardware and software design. Rather than see programs and apps that really push the limits, I would like to see some slightly more modest but functional attempts. Take one facet of the infinite potential and develop it until it has some obvious practical usefulness. And, though I love these ideas (1 2), wearing a giant suit or helmet is... not feasible.

In this vein, I think I am following other thinkers. The importance of finding ways in which augmented reality, given its current limitations, can legitimately reinforce or support our current existence in our environments is pertinent. That is, given a camera, gps, a small screen or primitive glasses (1 2), an accelerometer and/or gyroscope, a live feed to the internet and the cloud, audio input/output, and a touch screen, what can be implemented?

The cloud offers the ability to extend our memory capacity if we can find a seamless way to 'recall' the information or begin to implement triggers (e.g., visual, auditory, etc.). If someone could find a way to integrate this with multilingualism (i.e., by having a list of common phrases, etc.), I think traveling would become much simpler.

The accelerometer and gyroscope offer an alternative to touch screens. Just hold your phone and swipe it around like a computer mouse. In fact, I'm surprised I have not seen any software implementing smartphones as UI for standard computers. Though, I have heard of other countries using it for UI more generically. And, actually, the idea of being able to graphically scan anything and have my smartphone find where I can buy it, virtually or otherwise, is certainly worth exploring.

This software has some interesting uses socially. I can see a time when people have clothing that encodes their 'avatar' (i.e., appearance) in cyberspace so that they are seen as such through AR. Subcultures, I'm sure, will be able to integrate this as an interesting form of identification. There are possible consequences here for gangs, etc.  as well as the police. On the extreme end, machines could be seen in a more anthropomorphic frame, which might have interesting repercussions for our relationships with them and we may be able to project our avatars to new places in order to send cues, or even interact with the world. Imagine your phone's 'ring tone' was the person appearing in your peripheral vision and waving at you. Interesting implications for the research I have heard on less invasive forms of human-computer interaction.

Actually, this would be an interesting way to implement some of the ideas I discussed previously. I could have it such that messages or social cues, interests, etc. are encoded right on my person (e.g., approachable, busy, single, etc.). If people start doing this with tattoos, that would certainly be fascinating. And, to forecast a future post, the ability to tag others given a particular network or context would be fascinating, too, especially with ratings.

Images courtesy of:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/21/augmented-reality-iphone-advertising
https://t.co/5jjnouAY
http://strangehorizons.blogspot.ca/2011_06_01_archive.html

A way to check your backlinks

For those of you who are not veterans of the blogging world and, doubly, who are interested in utilizing my alternative to comments, I offer you the following:

http://www.google.com/search?q=link:YOURBLOGNAME.blogspot.com&hl=en

Just enter this into your browser and replace "YOURBLOGNAME" with the appropriate text to find the number of sites that have linked to your blog/site (courtesy of this site).

Either I or someone savvier than I should at some point integrate this into a gadget for Blogger. I don't recall seeing such a thing in the list last I checked and it shouldn't be a difficult implementation.

On a more detailed check, I found two neat implementations of this here and here. You have to scroll down a bit for the latter.

iWitness and tech acceleration part 2

This is a continuation of my last post; the gist being that this new app is a surprisingly close approximation of a project I was working on myself. However, it is missing some features that I would like to describe.

A word of warning: I lack an internal description of the app's functioning. Hence, some of these adjustments may not be applicable or may have already been implemented.

First, it would be useful to have a brief description of each and every client that could be sent to the police in addition to their GPS coordinates.

Second, if raw GPS data is being sent, one can implement a more detailed description of the clients whereabouts leaving less processing on the side of the police. A lot of the difficulties associated with E911 are related to the challenges in locating an individual when they are not calling from a land line. The result is that an operator must reroute you from a central hub in order to place your call to the appropriate PSAP (i.e., valuable time is being wasted and you have to be able to speak). Thus, by sending even raw GPS data, iWitness is minimizing the second factor, but increasing the first if the integration is not seamless (i.e., processing of the raw GPS coordinates must occur without forewarning). My solution to this problem was to use this site to determine the nearest street address as well as the Country of origin (necessary for global implementation), etc. The long-term goal was to be able to route to the PSAPs directly.

Third, it would be my hope that the producers of iWitness will be keeping track of the statistical usage of their app. All of that data related to when and where the app is armed and fired is likely to be crucial for future systems. These systems, like Y!kes, will be able to use positional data to warn the client that they are entering a 'redzone,' for what reasons (e.g., by implementing a feedback system for clients), perhaps auto-arming, and/or auto-warning friends, family, or parents that this individual is in a vulnerable location or that their app is armed.

Fourth, I can see this augmentation of the 911 service quickly transferring to other emergency services: hospitals and fire departments. Distributed processing and decentralization would become crucial in these frameworks as the user becomes the ever-present eyes, ears, and hands of these services. Virtually unlimited amounts of information about households and medical records could begin to be stored by the users and for the users. And, if one user fails to indicate a problem, any and everyone else will have the capacity to capture valuable forms of information for transmission to the relevant services and vice versa from the services to the user. Location mapping and hotspots will become useful sources for community objectives while communities themselves become stronger through cross-communication. At least, this is the potential.

There are potential issues here regarding the security of this data, but these infrastructure kinks are likely to have been problems all along (i.e., the whole system needs to be updated). Thus, the fact that they are inescapable in this new framework is in some ways beneficial in that solutions will be sought and the system will adapt.

Similarly, distributed, user based networks are still criticized in some circles (e.g., Wikipedia in most Universities). The possibility of imprecise or blatantly incorrect data is always present. However, in my mind, as long as the users (on both sides) know the limitations, these primitive infrastructures are still better than none. Plus, even centralized data entry must be checked and rechecked.

In sum, as technology becomes ever present in our lives, society and its members are going to have to become more technologically inclined overall. Limited coding knowledge and understanding of electronic architecture is going to need to be basic parlance. Protective mechanisms will be no different than modern day clothing. The fact that we can currently run around naked in cyberspace does not legitimate the behaviour.

An emphasis on hardware

I would like to take this article as a jumping point.

It's interesting to run into an article of similar mind, if from a different position. The gist of the article being predictive: the recent advancements in software development in the current digital context is perhaps shifting advantageously towards hardware development. That is, micro development is now possible materially as well as virtually. My thoughts are an effort to move this development forward through a re-conceptualization of the environment, much as Brondmo did in the article, above.

It is my sense that the greater majority has largely forgotten about hardware. Software has become predominantly cross-platform while decent hardware comes in increasingly cheap package deals at your local tech shop (i.e., you don't even need to know what you're buying to run it). Yet, in place of this standard conception of hardware as 'the thing on which the software operates,' I would like to propose an alternative: materiality is just as equally infinite potential.

A few thought experiments.

First, take any old intersection with a traffic light during rush hour. Assuming two individuals knew of this intersection, a time to watch it, and had a means to control the traffic light, one could transform this innocuous location into a transmitter of information. That is, the cars themselves could become data packets, either ones and zeros or Morse code's dashes and dots.

Second, take any communication line (Ethernet, Coaxial, Fiber-Optic, etc.). In the standard conception, information goes into the line and comes out of the line with a bit of noise in the middle. This middle part seems particularly interesting to me. Is it possible to create information through the use of interference patterns in the actual signal? Perhaps the role could be that of a firewall. If the signal is sent incorrectly, the interference distorts it incoherently and, thus, it becomes noise. With the right signal, both the information being sent as well as the reception become coherent. Thus, in actuality, you are getting two things in one: encryption and decryption/firewall except at the hardware level.

Third, take, once again, a firewall, but a standard software-level firewall, in this case. This firewall, when it detects a malicious threat, assesses the degree of the threat, traces it, and disables its router at the hardware level. If this is too volatile a tech to give to consumers, then perhaps the firewall sends information to a centralized agency/computer that flags the threat, continues assessment and proceeds with physical dismissal of the router or a complete decommissioning of the computer.

The latter idea is likely dangerous, but it illustrates my point quite well: hardware is a virtually untapped domain given the new tools we have developed in the previous software era.