Month: August 2006

Spiritual Consulting

Well, it looks like my relationship with RSA is not over yet. I won't be frolicking on the bleeding edge this time around — I don't have time to enjoy a good bleeding these days – but serving mainly as a source of spiritual/intellectual guidance, a techno-priest of sort. Thankfully, it's only part-time which means I can stay focused on my own projects.

Microformat: hJob

Given recent [apparently failed] move by Michael Arrington, Om Malik, 37signals, and paidContent to consolidate syndicated job listing prompted me to initiate hJob discussion in the microformats group. Come join the group mailing list if you are interested. It's just getting started. If there is enough interest and momentum, I'll push for an early informal F2F to make sure all the ducks are aligned.

What I want to see happen is right jobs listings syndicated out closer to the consumption side, not just sitting on the production side like it is now.

Bubble Farting over Kiko Auction

Om Malik and Stowe Boyd reports that Kiko eBay auction closed at $258,100. Actually, Om wrote the auction just closed and brought in $258,100. The auction was closed but did the Kiko guys receive the money? As far as I know, they haven't and Kiko auction bid history showing a flood of bogus bids from two bidders (ogijun and wswire) doesn't inspire much confidence in the legitimacy of the winning bidder.

So, everyone, try to refrain from bubble farting until the fat lady coughs up some greenbacks.

Note: iBATIS Types and TypeHandlers

Just a note to myself to keep some often used technical details where I can find them. Please ignore.

Predefined type aliases (i.e. used in parameterClass):

  • string
  • byte
  • long
  • int
  • integer
  • double
  • float
  • boolean
  • date – java.util.Date
  • decimal – java.math.BigDecimal
  • object – java.lang.Object
  • map – java.util.Map
  • hashmap – java.util.HashMap
  • list – java.util.List
  • arraylist – java.util.ArrayList
  • collection – java.util.Collection
  • iterator – java.util.Iterator
  • cursor – java.sql.ResultSet

Predefined Type Handler Names:

  • CLOB, LONGVARCHAR
  • BLOB, LONGVARBINARY
  • OBJECT
  • DATE, TIME

iBATIS really needs more documentation and in easier to access format. It sucks to have to fire up Acrobat just to find some bits of details.

Web 2.0 Act 2: Integration War

Recent uproar over Kiko's demise and conversations that followed made me laugh, hard. Is Google the new Microsoft? Nasty question. Google has to grow continuously and that growth has to come from somewhere. A better question is: will Google compete unfairly? If one considers integration leverage unfair, my answer is yes.

It won't be so bad for a while though because all the big boys (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL) will be competing with each other to offer the best integrated web services which means acquisitions and partnerships for small companies. But pretty soon, the picture will turn darker, making it near impossible for small companies to survive without joining one of the big boy's integrated service network and, to succeed, companies will have to spend millions of dollars to get a prominent link on the big boy's main page.

A network of Web 2.0 companies can't compete with those of the big boys because there is no hub to rally around. If one somehow managed to organize and integrate all the small companies represented at the TechCrunch party, the result would confuse the users and constrain the companies. APIs? I am sure the big boys will use APIs to rally third parties to their side in the war, but the silkroad will eventually be turned into puppet strings.

It's useless to ask whether Google is the new Microsoft. Ask instead how can small companies survive the chaos to come.

JBoss Rules Rules

Wow. Drools has changed quite a bit since I last used it. Beside the name change (bought by JBoss) and new features, it now sports a nice Eclipse-based workbench for editing rules. Rule syntax has changed from awkward XML-based one to an easier to read template-based expression language. Very nice.

I've used Drools to drive PassMark Security's realtime forensic engine (now part of RSA Adaptive Authentication product). Drools was used not only for policy-based risk analysis but also as a blackboard of sort to which analysis modules (i.e. bayesian) and distributed forensic evidence sources (i.e. account management systems, wire transfer services) can be plugged into.

Essentially, bundles of low-level facts (i.e. IP address) are thrown into it everytime the customer does something. As low-level facts are added, high-level rules fire to add higher-level facts (derivatives) and modules fire to pull related facts in from outside like accounting department that may impact risk level evaluation or from data center monitors to provide 'environmental' facts. At any given point, bayesian engines may kick in to contribute what they think is going on over time or scope of activities.

Fun stuff although there are deployment issues which is why there was not much pushing going on in the architecture. You can easily (cost and tech wise) to pull information out of most enterprise systems but pushing new information into them gets expensive very quickly. My big picture was to turn what I had into a central hub for integration and extension of enterprise systems. Oh, well. I think that picture was too big/out-of-scope for RSA. With EMC (which bought RSA), it might be another story.

Anyhow, I am going to play with the latest verson because these kind of technologies can be very useful if used appropriately.

Bubble 2.0

I don't know. TechCrunch party feels to me like an echo chamber, whole lot of people with dreams and hopes seeking mutual assurances from others like them. While I am all for dreams and hopes, this just doesn't feel right. Maybe I am overly concerned. We'll see.