Wired reports Caltech engineers are working on Fast TCP technology that boosts download speed by more than 6,000 times through server-side network stack changes.  Here is a list of related Caltech papers I found on the Web:

FAST TCP: From Theory to Experiments (500K PDF) – We describe a variant of TCP, called FAST, that can sustain high throughput and utilization at multi-Gbps over large distance. We present the motivation, review the background theory, summarize key features of FAST TCP, and report preliminary experimental results.

Optimization Flow Control, I: Basic Algorithm and Convergence (270K PDF) – We propose an optimization approach to flow control where the objective is to maximize the aggregate source utility over their transmission rates. We view network links and sources as processors of a distributed com-putation system to solve the dual problem using gradient projection algorithm. In this system sources select transmission rates that maximize their own benefits, utility minus bandwidth cost, and network links adjust bandwidth prices to coordinate the sources' decisions. We allow feedback delays to be different, substantial and time-varying, and links and sources to update at different times and with different frequencies. We provide asynchronous distributed algorithms and prove their convergence in a static environment. We present measurements obtained from a preliminary prototype to illustrate the convergence of the algorithm in a slowly time-varying environment.

A Duality Model of TCP and Queue Management Algorithms (250K PDF) – We propose a duality model of end-to-end congestion control and apply it to understand the equilibrium properties of TCP and active queue management schemes. The basic idea is to regard source rates as primal variables and congestion measures as dual variables, and congestion control as a distributed primal-dual algorithm over the Internet to maximize aggregate utility subject to capacity constraints. The primal iteration is carried out by TCP algorithms such as Reno or Vegas, and the dual iteration is carried out by queue management algorithms such as DropTail, RED or REM. We present these algorithms and their generalizations, derive their utility functions, and study their interaction.

You can find other interesting papers they wrote here.  Enjoy.

I am glad there is at least one graphics designer who knows how to take and make good use out of criticisms.  Responding to my comments about CSS Zen Garden, Don Ulrich writes:

"Graphic laden CSS, while dramatic for visual example can lack a clear message. As we use CSS and convey its usefulness through design we must consider that transparency has its own qualities." – AdventCode

Aye.  One can take a criticism like a fireball aimed to hurt you or a candle to illuminate what you couldn't see before.

One thing is for sure.  I am not a conference person.  I generally don't go to conferences unless I am a speaker.  While I like visiting exhibits to see what people think they are doing, I prefer reading online to sitting in a room full of people and listening to canned speeches and staring at pretty slides.  I also don't like debates where arguments are mostly rehash of what has already been talked to death on mailing lists.  I do enjoy meeting old pals and new people in person but, most of the time, there is just no time to talk with them extensively at conferences.

Before Internet, I went to conferences get information and software not generally available.  But now, material given out at conferences are usually made available online.  There are even live transcripts of sessions.  At large conferences, I can't possibly sit in on all the tracks.  Online, I can scan through it all.  Furthermore, most conferences are non-conclusive.  What was the result of last Digital Identity conference other than a short flood of digital identify discussions and news online?  What about the last Supernova conference (sorry, Kevin)?  JavaOne?  XML conferences?

I obviously have a huge blindspot when it comes to conferences because people are still going to conferences, even those that costs thousands of dollars in registration, hotel, and airfare.  Reality can't be argued with.  Still, I need someone to tell me "For THIS and THAT, I am willing to pay $2000 and three days of my time because I can't get it elsewhere."  I can then smack my forehead and say "Ah Ha!"

Is it the magic of F2F or solid handshakes?  Is it the parties afterward and the Marilyn Monroe impersonator?  Is it the joy of hobnobbing on company's expense?   What ever it is, it must be something that current crop of social software, blogging, IM, ICQ, IRC, discussion forums, and mailing lists fails to address.

Well? 

Using Technorati, I found Adam Vandenberg linking to my Lotsa Strings post.  Interestingly enough, he confused me with Don Box.  Amused, I looked at his resume and found Crass, a 6502 cross assembler written in Python.  Boy, looking at those 6502 code sure brings back memories.  After 6502, working with 8088 was like wearing Dockers Mobile Pants: pockets everywhere.

Good insults are as memorable as good poems, definitely more entertaining, and arguably good for relieving stress.  In Korea, there was an old lady who improved her restaurant business by insulting her customers.  The customers like being insulted so much, they came from far away just to get insulted by her.

Here is a particularly nice string of insults from Tim Bray.  Say them out loud to enjoy it fully:

"They are the offspring of dogs without genitals and maggots fed only on the excreta of diseased lizards."

"May Bolivian drug lords seize their only daughter as hostages in a tense geopolitical drama."

"May their next cruise-ship vacation remembered for the simultaneous outbreak of Norwalk Virus, an crunching encounter with an uncharted reef, and a record-breaking series of Nor’wester gales."

"May ruthless investment bankers place their retirement savings in airline shares."

"A green, crapulent, morbid, fulminating, metastasizing pox upon them!"

Bravo, Tim, Bravo!  I wish newspapers would print good insults like they do cartoons.  We are ignoring a large chunk of culture and history here you know.  If you have good insults, send them my way.  I'll try to print a collection of them once a week as Sunday Insults.

Yup.  It's not a joke.  orbiTouch is a new kinds of keyboard and it has no keys, just two orbs that you move independently in eight directions.  You can read the full review at ExtremeTech or watch a short video clip showing it in action (use the demo button on the orbiTouch home page).

I think I'll wait until there is a Pamela Anderson model because, if I have to pay $695 for a keyboard, I want one that will make me grin like a Cheshire Cat as I type.

Found this nice list of string libraries while taking a random walk on Freshmeat.  I thought some people might find this useful.  To me, it looks like a bad traffic accident that should have been cleaned up long time ago.

Jay Fienbert embraces my Blog Comments, Images, and Audio idea and rocks on, elaborating on it and thinking about implementing it in his iCite.  He wrote:

"The social aspect of all of this is that you will be able to offer your participation with others in richer ways. You can build online resources for yourself and share them with others, or build online resource with others and use them yourself. (In other words, you can build a part that gets used in a larger whole, or you can build a larger whole and extract a part.)" - Jay Fienbert of iCite.net

Marc gets it, Jay gets it, Boris gets it.  Pass it on and let's rock.  Here are links to my posts for your convenience:

• Blog Comments, Images, and Audio
• Micro-Wiki: a blog post as a wiki
• Chaotic Automatic
• Mental Cauldron

I learned a new word today: riffing.  Apparently, it is a common word of sort although I haven't run into the word until now.  Just in case you didn't know either, it means:

1. Music. A short rhythmic phrase, especially one that is repeated in improvisation.
2. A clever or inventive commentary or remark: “Those little riffs that had seemed to have such sparkle over drinks… look all too embarrassing in cold print” (John Richardson).

Thanks to Boris Mann, a Canadian infovore, for using the word in his blog to describe one of my posts.  He seems to be having a lot of fun with stuff Marc and I are rocking on.

CSS heavy web pages on display at CSS Zen Garden look great.  They make you stand up and shout "Wow!"  Now, try to read the textual content.  If you managed to keep your eyes focused on the page after reading the first few paragraphs, you did better than me.  It's like trying to read in the middle of Time Square at night.  In their pursuit of beauty, they succeeded only in catching vanity.