Happy Birthday, Mac OS X

5 years old and it's been a great 5 years. The future sure does look bright! To sum up my feelings about Mac OS X, I'll say what I've always said, "Get a Mac. It just works."

Reasons for EFI

So with Apple's new Intel based Macs, they no longer use the Open Firmware BIOS. Since that announcement in January, I've often wondered why Apple chose EFI. Yesterday in a MacEnterprise.org webcast "Demystifying the Transition" Apple shared these two slides:

Larger ROMs: This makes sense, more features, more space needed. Okay at a high level I can understand that.

Richer graphics: Sure, I like not looking at some black screen with white text on boot. Check.

Dynamic boot volume picker: Okay, I do not know what this is. Any ideas?

Faster start-up time: This is always good. And I've already noticed how fast my MacBook boots and comes out of sleep.

Apple Remote for controlling boot options: Again, what could this possibly mean? Why would I want to use my Apple remote to control boot options? I know you can use the remote to bring your computer out of sleep, which would make a lot of sense if you have you Mac setup as your PVR. Still, it's not exactly a boot option. Hmmm. Any ideas what this might be?

NetBoot support for using BSDP: Sure, NetBoot is a very cool Mac feature and making sure EFI can suport this scenario is important. (From the webcast it sounded like Apple did make some modifications to make EFI work with BSDP.) All in all, EFI looks to be a Good Thing indeed.

Apple an OpenXML Developer

OpenXML Developer launched today and guess who's on the list? Apple. If you're wondering what the OpenXML Community is all about here's the Mission Statement from the website:

Mission Statement The Open XML Formats Developer Group is being formed as a community for developers to exchange information with each other regarding the usage of the Ecma-developed Office Open XML file formats. The community will serve as a technical resource for Open XML developers to submit and answer technical questions and to share tools and ideas around Open XML Formats-based solutions. The Open XML Formats Developer Group is open to anyone free of charge to enable broad participation and development of solutions using the Open XML Formats on any platform. The Open XML Formats Developer Group will support the wide adoption of the specifications being created by Ecma Technical Committee 45. More information is available at www.OpenXmlDeveloper.org.

It sure would be cool if the next version of iWork supported in some way the Office Open XML file formats.

Microsoft's First Universal Binary!

But, alas, it's not from MacBU... A few days ago the Microsoft Mouse software turned 6.0. The drivers may be downloaded here under the laconic name of IntelliPoint 6.0 Mouse Software for Mac OS 10.2.x to 10.4 (excluding 10.0 and 10.1) My first reaction: Way to go for using Apple's installer! Looks great! But then, why do we need to restart to use the driver? What ever, let's try it out... After the restart, sure enough there's a beautiful Microsoft Mouse perference pane. Cool. Let's click and see what you can do with it... Well, looking at the pref pane, not very much really. Another application boots allowing you to configure all the cool features available with Microsoft mouse, but in another app? Is this normal for Mac OS X drivers? Admittedly, I don't install drivers on my Mac very often. Things just work normally with the drivers that come with the OS. The main window of the Microsoft Mouse driver app allows you to configure a whole bunch of settings, even per app settings. Then there's this non-standard help button... and this Microsoft Mouse application installed in my Applications folder. But as you can see, it's a Universal Binary and running just fine on my MacBook Pro. My conclusion: It's great to see the hardware team jumping so quickly and making the drivers work on the new Intel based Macs. I love the product and the installer. I'm still a little disapointed that things are not as Mac like as I'd hope, but the functionality is there. It's just the Mac style that's not quite finished.

ARD in Rosetta, less than functional

If you use Apple Remote Desktop as much as I do and you've just got a new MacBook Pro, and you are working from home, well then, this doesn't help the situation.

IM Build Status

Here's a clever idea. Apple just posted an ad/white paper on their dev website about how QuickBooks Pro was converted from a Carbon application to a half Carbon/half Cocoa application. Congrats to the QuickBooks devs! Here's the fun part:

Building An Application With iChat The list of Mac-only benefits in QuickBooks for Mac goes on. Here’s a final example: have you ever considered using iChat in your build process? Probably not. But the team creating QuickBooks for Mac did, and they’ve found it to be a useful tool. Here’s what they do. The build server is on the iChat buddy list for the team. An AppleScript process on the server checks for incoming iChat messages. When someone on the team sends a message (any message - “Hey there!”), the server automatically starts the build. The server then uses iChat status messages to reflect the status of the build—in process, complete, and so on. The team can easily keep track of what’s going wherever they are—in a meeting, in a cubicle, or in the Intuit cafeteria.

Using IM to communicate group wide build robot status. Now why didn't I think of that? Maybe there is a place for a scriptable IM client...

Office 11.2.3 Update

I haven't been this excited about an update for some time. Here's the best of what's new: Sync Services integration! - You can now sync Entourage 2004 calendar events, contacts and tasks with handheld devices (iPod and cell phones) and any other applications that support Mac OS Sync Services. Spotlight support for Entourage 2004- Now you can use spotlight to search your Entourage mail messages, events, contacts, notes and tasks! Smart card support for Entourage - Using Apple's Keychain technology, Entourage will allow customers to use their smart cards to digitally sign and encrypt mail. Government and military customers may now rejoice! We also have a new version of Mac Messenger, version 5.1, which has better Live Communications Server support. Update: Here's a link to the update since it looks like it hasn't dropped from Microsoft AutoUpdate yet.

Thinking Differently

I've been thinking about this post for a while now, but after watching this video of MacWorld Boston 1997 keynote, it just brought it all back to me. Remember that this was the MacWorld that Apple announced the 5 year agreement with Microsoft for, to quote the slides: 1. Patent Cross License 2. Microsoft Office on the Macintosh 3. Internet Explorer Browser as the default browser 4. Java Collaboration 5. $150 Million investment Stop now and watch the whole thing. Seriously. Especially the end, but you can't fully appreciate the end if you don't what the whole thing. After all the negative emotion from the crowd during the announcement you'd think a normal presenter would be just floored, done, finished. But Jobs was able to get truly genuine to the core the last few minutes and speak to the heart of what makes Mac users, well, Mac users. I personally loved it, it resonated with me, but from perhaps a different perspective than most. I think it's pretty easy to throw pot shots at a big mega successful company like Microsoft and I understand that. I've got to interact with the Microsoft haters many times over the years at our MacWorld booths, though it has diminished quite a bit. What I don't think folks always get is that if you're working in the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft, you choose to be there in a very tangible way. This is not to say that others are forced to work elsewhere at Microsoft, nor that every member of the team bleeds six colors. There's no one forcing you to work on the Mac and in fact, there a lot of other exciting places to work at Microsoft, but only one place where you work on Mac software exclusively. The people who work on the Mac software at Microsoft have made a very explicit choice to work on the Mac at Microsoft. If they were here to check off a box on their corporate career path then why not do that at any other team at Microsoft? I think that's why I enjoy working here so much. For someone to do the crazy thing, and work on Mac software at Microsoft, when there are so many reasons to work on the Windows products, there's got to be something different going on. And there is. And I love it.

On Battery Conditioning

So after finding this gem in the MacBook Pro User's Guide, I've decided to read it and see what else I could find. So on page 24 I find this:

Calibrating Your Battery To get the longest running time from your battery, calibrate it sometime during the first week you have your MacBook Pro and repeat these steps occasionally to keep your battery functioning at its fullest capacity. To calibrate your battery: 1 Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your MacBook Pro battery until the light on the power adapter plug changes to green and the Battery icon in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged. 2 Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for two hours or longer. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in. 3 Disconnect the power adapter with the MacBook Pro on and start running it from the battery. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery warning dialog on the screen. 4 Continue to keep your computer turned on until it goes to sleep. Save your work and close all applications when the battery gets low and before the system goes to sleep. 5 Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or longer. 6 Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again. Important: Repeat the calibration process occasionally to keep your battery fully functioning. If you use your MacBook Pro infrequently, it’s best to recalibrate the battery at least once a month. If you purchased additional batteries, follow the calibration procedure with those batteries as well.

Is it just me, or is this just a totally new recommendation for getting the, "longest running time from your battery"? Update: After a little more recon and talking to some friends and some tidbits from the Apple Genius Bar, it looks like this "conditioning" exercise is all about allowing the chip in the battery to better predict the its capacity so that the battery status menu can accurately predict how much longer you have to work. Still, the text "To get the longest running time from your battery, calibrate it sometime during the first week you have your MacBook Pro" (emphasis mine) is mighty presuasive. How could that text make it into the guide if all this is about accurate user feedback about battery status? Update 2: Now I'm totally confused. On page 80 appoint points the reader to this URL http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html from which I quote the following:

Standard Maintenance For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her iBook on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month. Need a reminder? Add an event to your desktop’s iCal.

So now I need to discharge once a month as well as recondition every few months. Obviously I've been far too simple minded in how I use my laptop. I simply plugged it in when there was power available, and didn't when there wasn't. At least they've given me and iCal reminder...

The Unpaired Remote

I learned an intersting tidbit about the Apple Remote. Initially I had an Intel iMac in my office, then I got the MacBook Pro. Both come with an Apple Remote. When I took the remote and pressed menu to activate FrontRow on my MacBook Pro, both my MacBook Pro and the iMac responded. Either remote would control both machines. This looked hilarious and I wondered, did Apple miss testing this scenario? Nope, here's what's going on:  Initially any of the FrontRow capable Macs are setup to respond to ANY Apple Remote. However, each remote has an ID and you can "pair" the machine with a specific remote ID. You do this by holding down the menu and fast forward buttons on the remote for 5 seconds. What you will see on the screen is a white picture of the remote and a chain link icon to indicate that the remote is now "chained" or "linked" to that machine. Once the remote and the Mac are paired, other remotes no longer are able to control that machine. To unpair simply go to the security control panel and click the "Unpair" button. Simple and easy. How did I find this out? From a friend at work who actually reads the manuals! Here's the part from the MacBook Pro Users Guide pages 36 and 37: Pairing Your Apple Remote If you have multiple computers or other devices with built-in IR receivers in a room (for example, more than one MacBook Pro or iMac in a home office or lab), you can “pair” your Apple Remote with a specific computer or device. Pairing sets up the receiving computer or device to be controlled by a specific Apple Remote. To pair your Apple Remote with your MacBook Pro: 1 Position the Apple Remote 3 to 4 inches from the IR receiver on your MacBook Pro. 2 Press and hold the Menu and Next/Fast-forward buttons on the Apple Remote for 5 seconds. When you successfully pair your Apple Remote with your MacBook Pro, you will see a chainlink symbol onscreen. To delete a pairing between the Apple Remote and your MacBook Pro: 1 Choose Apple () > System Preferences from the menu bar. 2 Click Security and then click Unpair.

I work at Microsoft

Summary: I work at Microsoft. I started working here when I was 18. I grew up in Redmond, Washington. I attended Redmond elementary, Redmond Junior High and graduated from Redmond High School. It's only fitting that I should work at Microsoft. :) When people ask me what I do at Microsoft I say matter-of-factly, "I work in the Macintosh Business Unit." It's fun to see the consistently quizzical expressions on people's faces when I say that. A while back I got the hesitant response, "So, did Microsoft buy the Mac?" No, Microsoft has not "bought the Mac", but we do make some mighty fine software for the Mac OS. I am a part of the Infrastructure team. This means I'm a programmer that writes code that's used internally by most everyone else in the Business Unit. We write all our Mac tools almost exculsively with Xcode and the Cocoa APIs. It's a great place to be. It's a great time to be a Mac developer. My official title is Software Design Engineer in Test, which is a fancy way of saying a large part of my efforts are spent improving our testing efforts in the MacBU. Note: Almost no one ever says, Macintosh Business Unit, since everything at Microsoft must have a ancronym, ours is MacBU which is said, "mac boo". So that's the summary. More details to follow...

Workwise...

I just recently returned from a wedding. It was wonderful to see family and meet new friends and relatives. Invariably the small talk and conversation turns to questions about what I do for work. I find myself following this general pattern: Other Person: "So, where do you work?" Me: "I work at Microsoft." Other Person: "Really, what do you do there?" Me: "I work in the Macintosh Business Unit." Other Person: "You what? There's Mac stuff at Microsoft? ..." Insert 30 second history lesson about the computing industry here along with random comments about small screened Macs they used in High School or College. Other Person: "So, I've got this problem with my PC, maybe you could help..." At this point, it get to exercise one of the great blessings of my current employment: Me: "You know, that sounds complicated. I don't really know the answer for that problem, I spend all my time on the Mac and that's really where my expertise lies. Have you used a Mac or iPod lately?" Other person: "Yeah, they are so simple and just work..." Me: "Yeah, that's what I like about my job. It's great!" So, gentle reader, I've decided to focus the next few post on what I do at work. I do this because it's often difficult to explain what I do in a 30 second small talk sound bite and the next time I'm asked, well, I'll just give them my URL. :)

My MacBook Pro!

I just got my new MacBook Pro and it's very nice. I'm upgrading from a 1.25 GHz PowerBook G4 with 512 MB RAM to a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook Pro with 512 MB RAM. I need more RAM! I took the plung and even risked using the Migration Assistant and in fact, 1 hour later, I'm mostly up and running! I'm just resyncing my iDisk and iSync stuff, and that just takes time. - The AirPort reception seems much better. From the same spot in house I can see 4 new wireless networks. :) - The AirPort speed seems worse which makes no sense to me. I'll keep an eye on this. - The track pad is wider. About double the original size, which makes the machine look wider, but infact it's only a tad bit wider. - The extra screen realestate is much needed for my dev work. - The mouse button also clicks much better/softer and I like that. The best part is the engraved mirror "MacBook Pro" text in the lower center of the display housing. This used to be just gray paint, and would always ware away. This engraved text should last longer. Well, actually the best part and worst parts are all connected. The power supply for this thing is huge! It's and 85 watt brick and did I mention it's huge? That's the worst part. The best part is the magnetized way it attached to the laptop. The "charging" LED indicator is on both sides and the connector, while rectangular, not round, can work in both right side up, and upside down! Again, Apple sweats the details. All in all I'm a very happy camper. Now, I wonder if I can install Vista... ;-)

Interesting Apple Blog: Writers Block

I've been reading Writers Block Live for a while now, and I've really enjoyed it. Since I don't keep a blog roll, I'll just comment about blogs I enjoy in my posts. This blog is about an ex-Apple employee who has left and is now writing a book about his experiences at Apple. It's interesting to here about the inside of a company I admire so much. Have a look at it and let me know what you think!

Dean Kamen on Education

I just read this interesting interview of Dean Kamen on Make: Magazine and it included this interesting bit about education:

You dropped out of college to pursue a more "hands-on" education. So, too, did Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs, among many other creative luminaries. Is there a pattern here? Does public education and higher education actually stifle creativity and innovation? I think that most of the people who succeed in some extraordinary way, and most of the people who fail in some extraordinary way, tend to be people who did really well or really poorly in school. I think that school systems are really good at telling people how to do "okay" in the world. That is what their curriculum is about. That is what their institutional capability is about. That is what the people who run them are about. This is not to say that there isn't a world full of hugely talented teachers working hard every day to make a difference and change kids' lives. It is simply to say that the bureaucracy of the educational system limits the ability of educators to address the fringes. So if somebody was a good "B" student in school, you can be pretty sure that he or she is a good, average person. If a person gets A pluses in everything, or F minuses in everything, you can be pretty sure that he or she is an unusual person. Unusual people wrap around the ends of the bell curve. The system does not deal well with them. And I am not sure that the A+ person and the F- person are particularly different. It does not surprise me that when you look at people later in life, the people who got A pluses and F minuses end up doing substantially differently than the average people who are doing well in a system designed to accommodate the center of the bell curve.

At work we hired a new developer and while he was introducing himself to the team, he explained that he was homeschooling his son, "Basically, because we don't want him to waste his time." he explained. There is so much wasted time at school. Education is so important, but that doesn't mean school is. How you get your education is something you choose. No matter your choice, education costs. It costs time. It costs energy. The return on your invested time and energy however, can vary dramatically.

All I want for Christmas...

Powered and controlled by your USB port. Control the aim and the firing mechanism of the darts via your computer. Just one more interesting thing found via digg.com

Burt Rutan: The Future of Space

This last Summer I went to the famous EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2005 with my Dad and 5 brothers. It was amazing. For those who might not know what the Oshkosh Airshow is all about-many of my friends and coworkers have never heard of it-here is the summary from Wikipedia.org:

The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. EAA was founded by Paul Poberezny. Today the organization is run by his son, Tom Poberezny. Paul still works with EAA as its Chairman of the Board. On January 26, 1953, Paul and 35 other aviation enthusiasts created the EAA in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as a club for people who were constructing their own homebuilt aircraft. Homebuilding is still a large part of EAA, but the organization has grown immensely over the years to include almost every aspect of aviation and aeronautics. Each summer EAA presents the largest annual aviation event in the world, 'EAA AirVenture Oshkosh', also known as the Oshkosh Airshow. During the airshow, the city's airport, Wittman Regional, is the busiest airport in the world. The week long event annually attracts around 10,000 planes and about 700,000 visitors to the region.

I can't really explain how big this airshow is. There are so many planes, shops, shows, booths, demos, sales, restorations, how to presentations and generally fun things to do, it's frankly overwhelming. One of the presentations I attended was one where Burt Rutan, Sir Richard Branson and Will Whitehorn talked about the Future of Space. I had my video camera with me, so I took video of the presentation. I found the presentation inspiring. I've encoded the video in a format suitable for use with the video capable iPod. Now some disclaimers about the video: The video is a bit shaky. This is because I didn't bring my tripod and I was literally holding my video camera with my hands for the whole presentation. People who have held a video camera, no matter how light, for longer than 15 minutes can understand. Because of muscle fatigue, stabilization later in the video it gets worse. I'm sorry, but the audio is still good. :) I'm constantly trying to avoid heads and moving people. I didn't get to the presentation near early enough. Each presentation in this outdoor hanger starts every 1 hour 30 minutes. I got there an hour early, but when the prior presentation finished, I think maybe 20 people of 300 left. The were all there for this presentation 1 to 2 hours early! The upshot is that unless you got there early enough to get a good seat for the prior presentation (around 2+ hours early) you basically didn't get a good seat. For this reason I'm zoomed in the full 10x optical zoom on my Canon SR10. Obviously this exacerbates the image stabilization problem. I've encoded this video as a MPEG-4 movie so you'll need to download QuickTime 7 in order to watch it. I've tried a few of the of compression options available in iMovie, but decided on the video iPod compatible format in the end. As I mentioned earlier, I have some online storage and transfer limits, so I was really looking for the best quality given these limitations. Here are some of the best parts if you don't have a spare 1 hour 5 minutes and 10 seconds. 00:00:50 - Space Ship Company founded to manufacture 5 space ships dubbed SpaceShipTwo or is it Space Ship 2? 00:01:15 - Will introduced as Paul Allan who was NOT there. :-P 00:01:50 - 30th anniversary of Brut Rutan bringing the Very EZ to Oshkosh. 00:02:41 - Able to hold on to SpaceShipOne long enough to bring it to Oshkosh. Apparently there was pressure to put it in the museum quickly to avoid putting it at risk. I love that Burt wanted to fly it, and even had an engine all prepared for his flight. 00:03:19 - It doesn't take the government to put people out side the atmosphere! 00:04:40 - Less than 450 astronauts in the last 45 years! 00:05:00 - Spaceline will only be a reality when space flight is 100 times safer. SpaceShipOne and carefree re-entry is part of that. 00:06:30 - One or two degrees loss of control with the Space Shuttle on re-entry would cause catastrophic results. SpaceShipOne attacks that problem face on. 00:07:00 - Thermal protection isn't the big danger, it's the flight control failure that are the risk with Shuttle re-entry. 00:08:00 - SpaceShipOne's hybrid motor and airlocks were big advances just like the feathered "care-free" re-entry. 00:10:00 - Great story about Burt's Dad watching an airplane take off and thinking he'd never get to fly one because he could never afford it. 00:11:30 - Mention of some secret plans for the space program once the safety of space travel is proven. I wonder what this is and why he wouldn't want to share it just yet. It's not like he has a whole bunch of imminent competition. Still interesting to speculate. 00:13:30 - His plea for key talent, what he calls, "fire-breathers" :) I love his comment that, "I will not look at your grades, but I will look into your eyes to see if you have the passion." 00:15:00 - Will's dream of space travel as a kid. Sadly, taking risks for the cause of a dream is no longer encouraged. The shuttle program didn't have a dream or a vision. 00:17:00 - Great story about Will's son getting sent out of class for telling the students, "My Daddy is going to build a spaceship." 00:19:00 - The vision is lowering the cost and as proof of this Virgin Galactic is ordering 5 Spaceships! This talk of courage, and risk and simply doing the valiant thing is what is driving these men. It's not the money and it's obvious. 00:21:00 - Sir Richard Branson talks about focusing on sub-orbital first, then orbital and then after that "other" things. 00:23:00 - Branson talks about the environmental damages caused by the Space Shuttle and commits to helping make Spaceships that are much less damaging to the environment. This is a cost of space travel that I've personally never considered before, but I'm glad that they are aware of it and think they have a solution for making less damaging space travel. 00:25:30 - Question: What is your plan for dealing the bureaucracy of certification? (Part 25 conformity in particular) 00:35:20 - Launch license for SpaceShipOne: Faith in the American government. Amazing. 00:37:00 - Funny story about British Space Program. 00:37:45 - Question: Any comment on the Shuttle foam issue? 00:38:00 - Question: Will you be going public soon? Answer: Virgin Galactic will invest all profits back into the program so the goal is space exploration, not profits. This proves the focus on exploration and not the money. Very noble in my humble opinion. 00:29:00 - Question: How does T-space relate to the SpaceShip company? 00:42:00 - Question: Honeywell employee plugs to supply parts for SpaceShipOne :/ 00:43:19 - Question: How do you address the velocity difference between orbital vs sub-orbital? 00:44:00 - Burt compares SpaceShipOne with X15. SpaceShipOne only gets up to 270 degrees on re-entry. Thermal protection is really needed for accent boost, not decent. SpaceShipOne has 10 times the thermal protection it really needs and that's only 14 pounds of thermal protection. 00:46:00 - Question: Can an non-US citizen's apply for a job? 00:49:00 - Question: How might the economy effect your venture? 00:51:30 - Question: Could this scale to intercontinental travel? 00:52:00 - Interesting note about how intercontinental travel would work. Bouncing on the upper atmosphere 00:53:00 - Question: Is debris up there a problem for sub-orbital travel? 00:55:20 - Question: 4 Phases of Innovation. Commercialization too soon? How are you going to keep government at bay to allow you to innovate? 01:00:00 - Question: Didn't the airline industry grow because people were able to get from here to there quickly, not because they got to see pretty pictures of the black sky. 01:01:40 - We have the internet because we had a decade of people buying computers, "just for fun" 01:02:15 - Airplanes for fun and how great innovation starts with just doing things for fun. "There are 5,000 pilots at Oshkosh, and I don't think they're traveling anywhere, they're having fun!" 01:02:55 - Question: Are you going to stick with the current propulsion system? The movie link: Burt Rutan: The Future of Space

Save $250 on Mac Office Pro

Just in time for your shopping, if you are going to buy a Mac this holiday season, don't miss this awesome deal. Office Pro comes with Office 2004 + VPC 7 + Windows XP SP2 and with this rebate you save $250! Check out our MacBU home page for more information.

Office XML an ISO standard

Today Microsoft announced that the XML file formats to be supported by default in the Office "12" product will be open.

"We are going to bring the Microsoft Office Open XML formats to a standards body with the intention of eventually making the formats an ISO standard. This should really help everyone feel certain that these formats will always be available and fully accessible. We are going to work with Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, the British Library, Essilor, Intel Corporation, NextPage Inc., Statoil ASA and Toshiba to form a technical committee at ECMA International that will fully document all of our schemas so that anyone can understand how to develop on top of them. This is obviously a huge step forward and it really helps to increase the value of these document formats because of the improved transparency and interoperability. This will help to create a large ecosystem built around these formats that will support them in a large number of different scenarios for customers.

This is great news, for various reasons, but what this means to consumers is this, if your data is stored in Office 12 file formats, in the future the question will not be if you will be able to get to your data, but how you will get to it. I've had documents in several file formats that have eventually died and getting the data out has been a real chore. This kind of commitment is a great thing for everyone involved. I hope it is well recieved.

Endless Imitation

I've often wondered about how things we create so often attempt to "represent" things that are already created. From Object Oriented Design to Database Theory to Human Computer Interaction, there is a theme that I'm only beginning to see, and that is our search for doing things like they are done in the natural world. Sometimes it's using the examples of schools of fish or clouds of flying grasshoppers to elucidate dense transportation problems. Other times it's as simple as organizing a set of data the way a tree organizes its leaves for sunlight. As one of my favorite poets writes of little children this way:

Behold the Child among his new-born blisses, A six years' Darling of a pigmy size! See, where 'mid work of his own hand he lies, Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses, With light upon him from his father's eyes! See, at his feet, some little plan or chart, Some fragment from his dream of human life, Shaped by himself with newly-learned art;     A wedding or a festival,     A mourning or a funeral;         And this hath now his heart,     And unto this he frames his song:         Then will he fit his tongue To dialogues of business, love, or strife;     But it will not be long     Ere this be thrown aside,     And with new joy and pride The little Actor cons another part; Filling from time to time his "humorous stage" With all the Persons, down to palsied Age, That Life brings with her in her equipage;     As if his whole vocation     Were endless imitation. William Wordsworth - Ode: Intimations Of Immortality From Recollections Of Early Childhood

I just finished reading a most interesting article entitled Turing's Cathedral where George Dyson visits Google on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of John von Neumann's proposal for a digital computer. All of it is interesting. This part I really liked:

Fifty years later, thanks to solid state micro-electronics, the von Neumann matrix is going strong. The problem has shifted from how to achieve reliable results using sloppy hardware, to how to achieve reliable results using sloppy code. The von Neumann architecture is here to stay. But new forms of architecture, built upon the underlying layers of Turing-von Neumann machines, are starting to grow. What's next? Where was von Neumann heading when his program came to a halt? As organisms, we possess two outstanding repositories of information: the information conveyed by our genes, and the information stored in our brains. Both of these are based upon non-von-Neumann architectures, and it is no surprise that Von Neumann became fascinated with these examples as he left his chairmanship of the AEC (where he had succeeded Lewis Strauss) and began to lay out the research agenda that cancer prevented him from following up. He considered the second example in his posthumously-published The Computer and the Brain. "The message-system used in the nervous system... is of an essentially statistical character," he explained. "In other words, what matters are not the precise positions of definite markers, digits, but the statistical characteristics of their occurrence... a radically different system of notation from the ones we are familiar with in ordinary arithmetics and mathematics... Clearly, other traits of the (statistical) message could also be used: indeed, the frequency referred to is a property of a single train of pulses whereas every one of the relevant nerves consists of a large number of fibers, each of which transmits numerous trains of pulses. It is, therefore, perfectly plausible that certain (statistical) relationships between such trains of pulses should also transmit information.... Whatever language the central nervous system is using, it is characterized by less logical and arithmetical depth than what we are normally used to [and] must structurally be essentially different from those languages to which our common experience refers." Or, as his friend Stan Ulam put it," What makes you so sure that mathematical logic corresponds to the way we think?"