Software in general is growing more intelligent, and within a few years may
be able to configure and fix itself
when it goes wrong, rather as the body does. That�s assuming Microsoft does not
get in the way of yet another innovation.

Speaking of which: Microsoft has won a patent for someone else�s old idea to
use the human body as a
networking device. It is not clear what Microsoft intends to do with the idea.

Still on the subject of monopolies (hard to avoid when discussing computing
and telecommunications): A technology to deliver broadband Internet through the
power sockets in your home is being
trialled in California. It has the potential to deliver broadband to every power
outlet in the US, and to put the monopoly phone companies out of business. If it
doesn�t do that, an advanced broadband wireless protocol called WiMax could.

The 2004 world computer chess champion is the latest version of �a
particularly aggressive and human-like software program called Junior,� writes
Will Knight in New Scientist. Instead of the �brute force� approach of
evaluating every potential move (the approach taken by most other chess
programs), Junior weighs and compensates for �factors such as mobility
and positional advantage.� While enabling it �to find very unusual and daring
moves,� is also is �prone to blunders more reminiscent of human players.� The
program is to be released commercially in the next few months.

Deep Blue, the IBM machine that defeated chess Grand Master Gary
Kasparov in 1997, �had scores of custom-built processors and was able to analyse
about 200 million moves per second.� Junior analyzes only about three
million, but does so in a much smarter way and only requires an ordinary PC.
Kasparov was only able to draw with the older version of Junior in match
played in 2003.

Reference: Knight, Will (2004). “New world
computer chess champ crowned.” New Scientist, July 13.

Self-healing Computing

A Duke University professor draws a parallel with today’s software
programmers, whose failure to allow for a margin of error in their coding
practically guarantees software crashes, writes Sam Williams in Salon.
“Autonomic computing . . . systems built to recognize and recover from their own
flaws without tying down a human administrator in the process� — is the
proposed solution, says Williams, but that is �a few years� away.

Autonomic computing systems will �manage internal resources the same way the
human body’s own autonomic nervous system regulates heart rate and breathing�
using with rigid functional boundaries � �the software equivalent of cell
membranes.�

With software growing more complex and hackers growing bolder and more
sophisticated, autonomic computing has the attention of NASA, DARPA, IBM, and �a
growing number of research underwriters� including the US National Science
Foundation. �The system,� said one expert, �has to be able to set itself up. It
has to optimize itself. It has to repair itself, and if something goes wrong, it
has to know how to respond to external threats. If I can think about the system
at that level, I’m using humans for what they’re good at, and I’m using the
machines for what they’re good at. That’s the idea here.”

Reference: Williams, Sam (2004). “Computer,
heal thyself.” Salon, July 12.

Personal Area Networks

Microsoft was recently awarded US Patent 6,754,472 for a �method and
apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body.� The idea is to
use the skin’s conductive properties to transmit the data needed to create a
personal area network (PAN) linking the various electronic gadgets today�s geeky
individuals carry around with them and ultimately replacing them with a single
server and input/output devices for unique functions. This is not a Microsoft
innovation (a contradiction in terms); a prototype PAN was demonstrated jointly
by the MIT Media Laboratory and IBM in 1996.

Reference: Unknown (2004). “The
skinny on IT: The human body as a computer bus.” The Economist, July 1.

Broadband via Power or WiMax

AT&T and Pacific Gas and Electric are delivering up to 3Mbps of Internet
access to a group of about 100 homes in Meno Park, California, in a trial of
voice and data over power lines. Commercial deployment of the technology will
depend not only on the results of this trial but also on the delivery of chips
that will increase the bandwidth, which won�t happen before next year at the
earliest. The technology has the potential to deliver broadband to every power
outlet in the US, and to put the phone companies out of business.

An alternative technology, which also threatens the phone monopolies, is
WiMax, �WiFi on steroids� broadband wireless delivered from antennas placed by
small Internet service providers on hilltops, barns, and homes. WiMax, writes
Paul Davidson in USA Today, �is expected to expand wireless broadband to most of
rural America, challenge cable-modem and DSL broadband in big cities and
eventually add roaming features that could threaten the fast-data offerings of
cell phone giants.� It threatens the cable monopolists too (and not before
time.)

Wi-Fi reaches about a 300-foot radius, but WiMax can go 30 miles. Intel plans
to have WiMax chips in most laptops within three years, according to Davidson.
Cellphone pioneer Craig McCaw plans to offer a �WiMax-like� service in
Jacksonville and St. Cloud, Minn., this summer and as many as 40 other cities by
next year.

Wireless broadband is yet another technology once derided as hype because it
did not immediately succeed when first introduced in the late 1990s. At that
time, transmitters costing as much as $200,000 each had to have clear line of
sight to the customer, with no intervening buildings or trees to block the
signals, and had to use expensive regulated spectrum. Today�s transmitters are
cheap, and today�s protocols not only overcome the line of sight problem but (at
least in rural areas) can also use free, unlicensed airwaves. However, �In large
markets with crowded airwaves, a service would have to use costly licensed
spectrum,� cautions Davidson.

AT&T and MCI are considering offering WiMax. Covad Communications and
EarthLink plan to roll out wireless broadband �in as many as a dozen markets in
a year.� BellSouth and Qwest Communications plan to use WiMax to reach rural
customers they can’t economically serve with DSL.

WiMax�s technology is superior to the cellular data services now offered by
the major wireless carriers, but its success may depend as much on marketing and
cost as on technology. Craig McCaw plans to beat phone-company prices by
charging about 30 percent less for better service.

Reference: Charny, Ben (2004). “AT&T plugs into power
lines for high-speed Net.” CNET News, July 14.

Reference: Davidson, Paul (2004). “Inventive
wireless providers go rural.” USA Today, July 14.