A Hat of a Different Color

It used to be that computer hackers came in two shades, black hat and white hat. Black hat refers to the nefarious hacker illegally trying to exploit network and computer security holes for gain or simple malice. White hat refers to hackers trying to highlight security lapses in order to warn others and work to patch vulnerabilities. With the recent hack of Ashley Madison, it appears that there is a third type of hacker trying to right moral or political wrongs instead of or in addition to potential economic gain.

History

In the early days of hacking I read about the exploits of Kevin Mitnick. As a teenager, he hacked into the networks and systems of technology and telecommunications companies and spent over five years in prison on two different occasions after being sentenced on federal wire fraud charges. Much of his success he attributes to social engineering, or the ability to charm passwords out of unsuspecting people. Now he is an information security consultant. He is a case of a black hat turned into a white hat.

I also enjoyed the 1989 book “The Cuckoo’s Egg,” by astrophysicist Clifford Stoll, which relates the tale of tracking a hacker who broke into Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and used it as a jumping off point to burrow into military and defense systems. The hacker was eventually caught, with Stoll’s help, and it was discovered that he was selling stolen information to the KGB.

Computer hacking has existed since computers were connected together in a network and people sought vulnerabilities in the technology. As computer code becomes ever more complicated, it raises the possibility of errors that can and will be exploited by either the black hats for monetary gain or malice or the white hats trying to highlight the vulnerability.

Ashley Madison

The Ashley Madison hack seems at first blush to be a hack of a different color. AshleyMadison.com is a website that matches people seeking adulterous affairs. Hackers identifying themselves as The Impact Team took over the site and announced they had stolen identity information of 33 million subscribers and threatened to publish that information unless the parent company, Avid Life Media (ALM), agreed to shut down the site. It appears the hackers were angry over the content and purpose of the site but in their manifesto they also blasted the practice of ALM charging $19 to have a profile removed from the site. To prove that a profile was not completely removed from databases, they released the names of two members who had paid to be eliminated from the site.

Whether the hackers were incensed with the moral foundation of the site or the economical injustice against members, this seems to be a different type of exploit. The Impact Team could still demand ransom for the stolen information, in which case I would put them squarely in the black hat camp, or they could use this hack as a platform for their cause, whatever that may be. Either way, this will no doubt be a topic of conversation at the upcoming information security conference sponsored by the likes of Microsoft and Cisco, which is oddly named the Black Hat Conference.

Thoughts

What do you think? While hacks of this type are still clearly illegal, their aim seems to be to prove a point instead of seeking monetary gain or notoriety. I wonder what’s next? Other dating websites? Perhaps gambling sites? Let me know your thoughts.

About Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional and assistant professor of practice for the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.

The Quest for Elegant Simplicity

In our business solutions class we have been studying product and process innovation and the need to maintain the right balance between desired features and unmanageable complexity. After the recent high profile outages at the New York Stock Exchange and United Airlines, I wonder if the balance has tipped toward the latter. Both outages reportedly happened because of software upgrades and the interaction between the old code and the new code. In some instances, there is so much complex code that no one can tell what is going to happen.

Elegant Simplicity

I believe that there is a sweet spot between simplicity and complexity that I call elegant simplicity. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. is reported to have said: “For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.” There is a big difference between crude simplicity and elegant simplicity. Perhaps you have come across a product, service, or process that is well thought out and just works, every time. Here are a couple of my favorites, and I invite you to write to me about yours.

Netflix

As I shared with our class, I love the Netflix service. I have been a customer for several years and it always works as promised. I am a DVD customer and I have established a personal queue from their selection. As soon as I am done watching the current DVD, I send it back in the prepaid envelope and the next one in my queue comes very quickly. They send me unobtrusive e-mails to let me know that they have received my DVD, and another e-mail to let me know that my next movie is on its way. I just received notification that they are consolidating both of those e-mails into one, to further reduce the mail in my inbox. They read my mind. Netflix does the job I need to have done and no more. They have fulfilled my definition of elegant simplicity.

Internet Radio

Another example of a product that for me just works is my internet radio. This is a recent purchase that I easily connected to my home sound system and my wireless router. I then found several stations that I listen to on a regular basis. This product is complicated, but the interface is intuitive, either from the front panel, the remote, or from the smartphone app. I can access several thousand stations and it delivers exactly what I need and no more. It can be as elaborate or as simple as I want it to be.

These examples highlight products that are complex under the surface but provide a simple user experience and are reliable. In these I have found elegant simplicity free of the complexity that could make them unreliable.

Thoughts

I am going to strive to find that spot of simplicity on the other side of complexity in my writing, my work, and my life. Will you join me? Do you have examples of products, processes, or services that make you smile? Our innovation class would love to hear from you and learn from your experiences.

About Kelly Brown

Robotic-Assisted Surgical Technology

Last week my wife and I were driving down the road and came across a billboard advertising “robot-assisted bariatric surgery” at our local hospital. While we weren’t interested in the particular surgery, it did spur one of our many philosophical debates. Our topic of conversation was this: would you rather be operated on by a robot or by a human? I would take the robot any day of the week. They are steadier, more consistent, and they have nothing on their mind but my surgery. The downside is that they are not as creative. My wife would prefer the human. She fears the robot would crash in the middle of the surgery or the pinwheel of doom would appear and stop the surgery prematurely. But this is robot-assisted, so it is a marriage of consistency, accuracy, and creativity. In any case, I had not heard of robot-assisted surgery so I had to learn more.

Blessed by the FDA

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved robot-assisted surgery in 2000 with the introduction of the daVinci Surgery robot. This tool allows a doctor to sit at a console near the patient and control robotic arms. These arms enter the body through tiny incisions and have a camera, a light, or a selection of wristed instruments on the end. The surgeon can then see a magnified, high definition picture of the area and can guide the tools through the body using a joystick-like interface. The doctor’s movements are translated into much smaller motions by the instruments, which have humanlike wrist movement. The upsides are:

Small incisions vs. open surgery.
Quicker recovery.
Less chance of infection.
Potentially greater accuracy.
Less invasive procedure may mean faster healing.

Since being approved, surgeons using these robots have performed thousands of surgeries in areas such as gastroenterology and cardiac surgery. This is laparoscopic surgery merged with robotic technology to provide for even more accuracy and finesse.

The Future

This is an incredible use of technology to assist skilled doctors in performing critical and delicate surgeries. One of the future improvements is telerobotic surgery where the surgeon is not even in the room and could control the robot from anywhere. This requires rock solid networking. Another potential development is completely robotic surgery. This would require preprogramming and very accurate vision and recognition systems.

Thoughts

I am excited about this use of technology and the future possibilities of advancements in this field. This will require new technical skills and new training to ensure that all systems are functioning and that the infrastructure supplying these systems is foolproof. How would you feel about being worked over by a robot directed by a skilled surgeon? Do you trust the two working together? Let me know your thoughts.

About Kelly Brown

Why I Chose an Online Education

Today’s post is written by Jason James, 2012 graduate of the AIM Program. We asked Jason to share his thoughts on his experience with online education.

In 1996, I was a junior at Auburn University majoring in management information systems. Like many college students, I couldn’t afford to go to school full-time and cover all of my living expenses. Bar tabs, video games, and framed pop art can really eat into a student’s budget. I was working over 30 hours a week at a value added reseller (VAR) upgrading, repairing, and selling personal computers and peripherals while balancing a full course load. That same year, I was presented the opportunity of buying the company I was working for. After much deliberation, I took the opportunity. I quickly realized that being an entrepreneur means working 80 hours a week for yourself so you don’t have to work 40 hours a week for someone else. The workload was overwhelming and I decided to drop out of school to focus on my career. Besides, that worked for Bill Gates and Michael Dell, right?

Fast forward to 2002, and I was director of IT for a growing global software company in Atlanta, GA. While my career was on solid ground and growing, I felt that something was missing. Keep in mind, not having a degree never impacted my work nor kept me from promotions. Even though I had years of hands-on technical and management skills, I felt I needed to have a degree in order to remain competitive.

Going back to school to finish my degree would prove challenging. After all, working in technology often requires long hours with plenty of unforeseen issues. It’s difficult to make it to a 6:30 p.m. class when a server in your data center goes offline at 6:00 p.m. While more colleges were embracing non-traditional students, class schedules were fairly rigid. In 2002, more colleges were offering online studies, but only a few had online degree programs. Out of hundreds of schools I researched, only about 10 or so had fully online degree programs that did not have at least some on-campus requirement.

In 2002 I started my online education. After years of sleep deprivation, I finished an associate’s degree from the University of Wisconsin Colleges, a bachelor of science from Oregon State University, and in 2012 I finished my master of science in Applied Information Management (AIM) from the University of Oregon, all entirely online and without ever stepping foot on campus. Don’t tell anyone, but the only time I have ever been to Oregon was to attend the commencement ceremony when I completed my bachelor’s. I should probably visit Oregon soon.

Online education has given me a competitive advantage. In the last decade or so I have been able to grow my career without sacrificing my education. The flexibility of online courses allowed me take classes while working in India, China, Japan, Germany, France, and the UK. Mark Twain is often quoted as saying, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Well, choosing an online education never let schooling interfere with my career.

Benefits of the Greenfield Approach

In the AIM course that I am leading right now, we talk a lot about innovation and the best ways to introduce a new product, process, or technology. One way to introduce new products or features is the incremental approach. This adds new features to an existing technology. Another method is the greenfield approach, where a new application or technology is developed with no consideration of what has been developed in the past. The term greenfield comes from the construction and development industry to define land that has never been developed, as opposed to brownfield, where you need to demolish or build around an existing structure. There are advantages and disadvantages to the greenfield approach that I would like to explore in this post.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The advantage to a greenfield approach is that you can start fresh without any legacy equipment or applications to work with. You are free to innovate without having to consider previous iterations and restrictions. You are not tempted to create a small incremental change but are free to reinvent the core processes that were in place.

The disadvantages are high startup costs. With nothing already in place, you need to create new infrastructure, procedures, and applications. The fresh possibilities can be exhilarating, but the high initial costs can be daunting.

Greenfield in Action

In 2006, Hewlett-Packard used the greenfield approach when deploying new worldwide data centers for internal applications. They built six new data centers in Austin, Houston, and Atlanta and stocked them with new HP servers. All applications were ported to these new servers and off of the local servers in computer rooms and data centers around the world. I was involved in transitioning applications and shutting down the small computer rooms. There was a lot of weeping and wailing because people could no longer walk down the hall to visit their favorite computer. Some applications had to be shut down because they could not be ported to the new computers. In the end though, this approach yielded three main benefits:

Reduced infrastructure and support costs from shutting down inefficient small computer rooms in many locations around the world;
Decreased number of applications and data stores; and
Improved computing capabilities, including enhanced disaster recovery.

There was an initial $600 million investment into these new data centers and equipment, but the cost was quickly recovered in better efficiencies and reduced support costs. This also showcased HP capabilities for external customers.

Greenfield Innovation At Work

When I was in Dubai in 2013, my host explained to me how a speeding ticket is distributed in that country. There are cameras located along the main highways and when you exceed the posted speed limit, the camera takes a picture of you, complete with license plate, and sends a text message to the phone that is registered to the owner. The owner can then pay the fine from their smart phone. Dubai is a relatively new country without a traditional traffic control system so they abandoned the old school police speed trap and court systems for this streamlined fine and pay system.

While not completely greenfield, I am also excited about the new parkbytext system in Ireland, the UK, and other locations, and a similar system in Russia. You can pay for a parking spot by texting your information and—in the case of the Russian system—you even get a refund if you leave the parking spot before your time expires. Associated with these systems is an app that allows you to locate an available parking spot. These are examples of where the traditional infrastructure and processes were abandoned in favor of a completely new approach.

Thoughts

It’s not always possible to start fresh, but it frees you up to imagine different innovations without being encumbered by structures and legacy systems. Do you have any examples where you were able to design something from scratch? Was it daunting or liberating? Let me know.

About Kelly Brown

The Virtues of Flesh Sensing Technology

I was visiting with a friend this weekend and he showed me his table saw from a company called SawStop, based out of Tualatin, OR. He is a part-time woodworker and cabinetmaker and, while his table saw is certainly nicer than mine, I was most intrigued by the safety features. SawStop has a patented flesh sensing technology that stops the saw and drops the blade within milliseconds if it detects skin. Instead of an amputation, you come away with a scratch. If you have been reading this blog for very long, you know that I love unique technology applications so I had to find out more about this one.

History

SawStop was formed in 2000 when cofounder Steve Gass invented the saw brake and sensing technology that is used in their cabinet and portable table saws. He shopped the invention to the likes of Ryobi, Craftsman, and Black & Decker but could not come to an agreement with any of them. In 2005, he gave up and manufactured the saw himself through the SawStop name. The other manufacturers were interested but were hesitant to raise the price of their product to compensate for this additional safety technology.

How It Works

The SawStop carries a small electrical signal through the blade. When skin contacts the blade, the signal changes because the human body is conductive. When the signal changes, a spring loaded aluminum brake is released into the blade, slowing it from 5000 RPM to 0 in approximately 1/200ths of a second. The force of the brake also drops the blade below the surface in that same amount of time. It ruins the brake, which is a relatively inexpensive replaceable cartridge, and also breaks the blade, which can be replaced. Comparatively though, it is less traumatic to replace saw parts than to lose a finger. This is incredible technology that can prevent a lot of woodworking accidents.

Fast Forward

This safety technology has only been available in the SawStop large cabinet saw up until early this year when the company also introduced a portable table saw with the same technology. Bosch’s new REAXX portable jobsite table saw, available this fall, is the first saw to copy the flesh sensing technology since it was developed in 2000 and commercialized in 2005.

Thoughts

So while I love this application of technology, my bigger question is this: why did it take so long for a competitor to copy this proven safety feature? Would consumers pay extra for this if it were available, or are we focused only on cost? I chose this blog topic today to highlight this technology but also to ponder on the bigger economic questions of safety features and marketability of a product. Let me know your thoughts.

About Kelly Brown

Will Technology Change How We Value Art?

$Colorful computer generated fractal art in swirls of browns, greens and golds.$ I enjoy listening to classical music but am not a big fan of synthesized music. Maybe I have worked around computers too long to appreciate the fact that a computer can produce art. In other words, I question whether the bridge between technology and art can actually be bridged. I wonder also about computers that can produce visual arts. Are they comparable to those works created by a traditional artist? Will computers ever make traditional sound and visual artists obsolete or does their value lie in aiding the human creation process? Lately, I have been reading about some new applications that may be spanning that bridge between art and technology.

Sound Machines

German industrial automation company Festo has developed a robot controlled

music system that consists of five self-playing instruments. The system can “hear” or record a melody, then improvise and play it live with electrically controlled mechanisms that consist of one string and a sliding bar, which simulate fret action or the left hand of a musician. A hammer simulates right hand plucking or hammering or stroking of the string. They have built this mainly as a showcase for their factory automation capabilities, but it holds some real promise for creating and playing computer-controlled music.

Fine Art

Kenichi Yoneda, aka Kynd, is trained as a fine artist but has recently been creating computer-generated art that looks like traditional artwork in different simulated mediums. He is currently an electronics designer who programs computers to create artwork that looks like the real thing. His work can simulate oil, watercolors, or other techniques. To be clear, this is not a robot with a palette but digital artwork generated on a computer and printed or just displayed on digital monitors. Lately, he has been experimenting with artwork combined with sound in an attempt to improve on traditional computer animation. The results are very unique and engaging.

Thoughts

The two thoughts I have are these—first, what is art and second, how do we define it? I believe art is a personal expression. What is considered art by one person is simply noise to another, whether that be audio or visual arts or a combination. Secondly, will we, or have we already created a computer that will be able to create Mozart concertos, the works of the Rolling Stones, or artwork to rival Rembrandt or Andy Warhol? If so, will we still hold it in the same high regard as works created by an individual through training and inspiration? Do we value computer-generated artwork the same as human creations?

As we continue to refine computers and try to endow them with humanistic capabilities and reasoning through advanced algorithms, it is reasonable to think that we will have to face that question. What is art? What will art museums look like in the future? I would love to hear your opinion so that we can explore this topic further.

About Kelly Brown

Making Education Accessible and Affordable

How can we creatively make higher education more affordable and accessible? I am wrapping up preparations for a course on innovation later this month and my thoughts turn to ways to apply innovative ideas to higher education. There are some new ideas that have developed over the last several years such as online delivery, but they have not always been implemented in a deliberate and holistic manner. I am hoping that you will weigh in and help me figure out how we can create new solutions to this long-standing problem.

What Is Our Mission?

Harvard professor Clayton Christensen suggests that there are really three purposes of higher education and that we as universities and colleges often dilute our focus and try to cover all three areas with a confusing combination of products. The three suggested areas are:

knowledge creation, or research;
knowledge proliferation, or teaching; and
preparation for life and careers.

Christensen claims that universities use three different business models to deliver these value propositions, creating confusing products in the process. He suggests that we be clear and purposeful about our mission, our value proposition, and how we deliver our product. This clarity can help reduce program administrative costs and therefore help reduce tuition.

Innovations in Education

Universities and colleges have been working through different delivery methods in recent years to make higher education more accessible. Several of these have been centered around online delivery. Correspondence courses have been available since the mid-nineteenth century and as technology and networking improved, these morphed into online courses. To make education more accessible, massive open online courses (MOOCs) were developed that enrolled thousands or even tens of thousands of students in various subjects. These are free or low cost but do not generally grant credit. Some universities such as Stanford are experimenting with hybrid MOOCs whereby a student can take the online course and apply and pay for credit. The University of Pittsburgh is experimenting with what they call a HOOC or a hybrid open online course. In this model, the course is offered online and onsite simultaneously and at some point during the course, the online students can join the onsite students synchronously, often offering input through tweets or other discussion applications. Online education—in all its forms—has made learning more accessible to those that are not near a college or cannot take courses at the time prescribed.

Employer Criteria

One of the most important factors in aligning higher education with employment is understanding what an employer wants in an educated worker. Are they looking for someone with a broad four-plus year education and exposure to many ideas and thoughts, or are they looking for someone that has proven mastery in a particular area? Would a series of technical certificates prove the worth of a potential employee, or do they need to produce an advanced degree from a recognized college or university? I believe the problem is two pronged and we need to address both areas. As mentioned earlier, universities need to develop expertise delivering in a prescribed area rather than trying to cover all business models. Additionally, employers need to be precise in their requirements for employment and not add layers of education that are unneeded. If we can tackle these two areas, then we can come closer to matching delivery to expectation and drive down the overall cost of education while increasing accessibility.

Thoughts

Do you have specific thoughts on innovations that will help lessen tuition and make education more accessible? I know that greater minds than mine are working on this very problem and I welcome your input and ideas. Perhaps together, we can come up with a solution.

About Kelly Brown

In Case of Emergency: Weather Warnings, Amber Alerts, and National News

I am traveling in southern Idaho and I got to thinking about the technology necessary for modern emergency notification and response. I got an AMBER Alert on my cell phone to watch for a vehicle involved in a kidnapping. First of all, I had never heard my phone make a noise like that and second, I didn’t even remember signing up for AMBER Alerts. That was the first alert I ever got, so I was intrigued by the infrastructure necessary for emergency notifications and I did some research to see how it works.

Emergency Notification

With the proliferation of cell phones, emergency notification becomes a lot easier and can be localized. In addition to the AMBER Alert I got this week, I also heard a tornado warning and flood warning from other cell phones. These all come through a program called Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA). WEA enabled cell phones from mobile carriers to automatically send these alerts through local cell towers. If you are in an area that broadcasts an emergency alert, then you will receive the message. Possible messages include AMBER Alerts, messages from the weather service, and emergency messages from the President of the United States. According to FEMA, you can opt out of weather and AMBER Alert messages but not messages from the President.

This makes it possible to broadcast to many people at the same time outside of the traditional television and radio emergency broadcast system. With the shift away from watching live television or listening to the radio, the broadcast system has adapted to reach us wherever we are.

Emergency Response

As with emergency notification, emergency response has been updated as well. Since cell phones can broadcast GPS signals, your call to 911 can be traced to your specific location, even if you don’t know where you are. This is most important when speed is critical for emergency personnel to reach you. Again, the system has adapted to our lifestyles and current technology. With enhanced 911, wireless and wireline calls are routed through a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) where your information and location are detected and relayed to safety personnel.

Thoughts

As we become more mobile and rely more on mobile devices, it is good to know that our emergency systems are broadcasting and collecting information through these devices. It may feel at times as there are few places left where we can get away from being connected but in an emergency, that’s a good thing.

Do you have any experience working with emergency systems? Are there still updates that would make it even better? Let me know your thoughts.

About Kelly Brown

The Future of Self-Driving Cars

I own a sports car that requires all of my attention while driving. I love driving it but from time to time I think about what it will be like to drive (or ride in) a self-driving car. According to a recent article, at least two automakers are only five years away from production of self-driving cars. I think I would be bored, but I can see the advantages of being able to get caught up on work or sleep or enjoying a good book during commutes. It would be like having your own chauffeur. I was curious as to what the future holds, so I did some research.

Computers vs. Humans

In the article mentioned above, self-driving cars have been in 11 accidents in the last six years and Google claims its cars were not at fault in any of them. Perhaps the future of self-driving automobiles lies in providing transportation for people who do not drive well or choose not to drive. When it comes to driving, do you trust a computer or a 17-year-old?

The Future Is Now

The early components of self-driving cars are already available. Adaptive or autonomous cruise control is an option on several foreign and domestic vehicles. This technology typically uses radar to sense the distance between you and the car ahead of you. It will then actively brake or accelerate to maintain a safe distance between the two vehicles. Unfortunately, it is less effective in rain, fog, or snow.

Acura’s Lane Keeping Assist System uses a camera mounted between the rearview mirror and the windshield to track whether you are staying in your lane. If you veer outside the lines, then the car will warn you and also apply light torque to the steering to guide you back into the lane. In theory you can drive without hands on the wheel, but a dashboard warning will appear if you do it for very long. If you signal for a legitimate turn or lane change, then the system will assume that you are in control and not try to nudge you back to center.

Crash avoidance systems are also available now. Other technology exists, but needs to be integrated and perfected before going into mass production.

Thoughts

Google’s self-driving cars are set to hit the streets this summer in neighborhoods around the Mountain View, CA campus. Self-driving cars are on the near horizon, but there are social and legal issues to deal with. For example, should laws be different for self-driving vehicles? In the event of a traffic infraction who is responsible, the car or the driver/rider? How can a self-driven car help certain segments of the population? I will explore these questions in future blog posts.

About Kelly Brown