on::RFID "The next step to THE INTERNET OF THINGS"

I'll be attending this RFID conference for the next days.

Here's the synopsis:

RFID is technologically and commercially ready, but several factors are holding back its use either in well established value chains or on innovative applications.

RFIDs are perceived as the trigger of a new phase of development of the Information Society, often referred to as the "Internet of Things" in which the net potentially interlinks any of our daily surrounding objects to other identifiers, context data and business processes. It is expected that the impact on several value chains will be considerable and a multitude of new applications will emerge.

RFID has a number of opportunities and threats that have to be addressed. The European Union has been particularly active launching a debate on 2006 followed by several framework policy documents e.g. Commission Communication on "RFID in Europe: steps towards a policy framework", First exchange of views at TTE Council, 7 June 2007, Conference "RFID: Towards the Internet of Things", Berlin, June 2007.

The present conference hosted during the Portuguese Presidency of the EU is an opportunity to discuss the existing barriers and concerns to the wide acceptance of RFID and the answer provided by the business and technical communities, the standardization bodies and the public policies for governance of resources.

Key Objectives:

Raise awareness of RFID topics in The European Union (benefits and concerns):

1. Raise awareness of RFID topics in The European Union (benefits and concerns).

2. Discuss the issues related to privacy and security, in the context of the work developed by the Expert Group on RFID created by the EU Commission .

3. Foster and reinforce knowledge networks and research based partnerships to contribute to the continuous progress and acceleration of the RFID and the Internet of Things.

4. Identify ideas for demonstration projects of the Internet of Things that are innovative both as business applications and on the usage of technology.
   

5. Identify mobilizing ideas for key research projects addressing technological barriers perceived as preventing a broader dissemination of RFID and the internet of things.

Organizing Committee:

• José Alves Marques (Link Consulting)
  
• Luís Magalhães (UMIC)
  
• Bráz Costa (IAPMEI)
  
• Rui Grilo (Technological Plan/Plano Tecnológico)
  
• Victor Barroso (CMU-Portugal Program/IST)
• Luis Correia (Institute of Telecommuncations/IST)
• Manuel Cruz (Fraunhofer-Portugal Program/IBERLOG)
• António Cunha (MIT-Portugal Program/U. Minho)
• Paulo Magalhães (Modelo-Continente/SONAE)
  
• Carlos Mesquita (Link Consulting)

Yet Another Genetics Quote

Let's welcome an old institution that I didn't know of, DarwinAwards.

Here's their moto:

Honoring those who improve the species...by
accidentally removing themselves from it!

SqlBulkCopy

.NetTipOfTheDay has just posted about this great class, SqlBulkCopy. After commenting about it, a friend of mine, Emanuel Rocha, reminded us that NetTiers uses this bulk operation for List. Cool.

Improve Your C#! Borrow from F#...

Here's another great post from DidItWith.Net, showing how using F# as a source of inspiration it's easy to create APIs that enable more declarative C# code to be written, resulting on clean and readble code like:

var a = ArrayEx.Create(20, x => x + 1);

ArrayEx.Iterate(a, (x, i) => Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", x, i));

Links

André Lourenço has just sent me the following links:

Mingle is a project collaboration and management tool for Agile software development.

http://studios.thoughtworks.com/mingle-project-intelligence

Selenium, generates Web tests and the corresponding code Java, .NET, Perl, Python and Ruby

http://www.openqa.org/selenium/

Maybe the time to throw away badboy and start looking at Selenium...

10 types of programmers you’ll encounter in the field

in: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com

Programmers enjoy a reputation for being peculiar people. In fact, even within the development community, there are certain programmer archetypes that other programmers find strange. Here are 10 types of programmers you are likely to run across. Can you think of any more?

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

#1: Gandalf

He (or even she!) has a beard halfway to his knees, a goofy looking hat, and may wear a cape or a cloak in the winter. (cont.)

#2: The Martyr

In any other profession, The Martyr is simply a “workaholic.” (cont.)

#3: Fanboy

Watch out for Fanboy. If he or she corners you, you’re in for a three-hour lecture about the superiority of Dragonball Z compared to Gundam Wing, or why the Playstation 3 is better than the XB 360. (cont.)

#4: Vince Neil

This 40-something is a throwback to 1984 in all of the wrong ways. (cont.)

#5: The Ninja

The Ninja is your team’s MVP, and no one knows it. Like the legendary assassins, you do not know that The Ninja is even in the building or working, but you discover the evidence in the morning. (cont.)

#6: The Theoretician

The Theoretician knows everything there is to know about programming. (cont.)

#7: The Code Cowboy

The Code Cowboy is a force of nature that cannot be stopped. (cont.)

#8: The Paratrooper

You know those movies where a sole commando is air-dropped deep behind enemy lines and comes out with the secret battle plans? That person in a software development shop is The Paratrooper. The Paratrooper is the last resort programmer you send in to save a dying project. (cont.)

#9: Mediocre Man

“Good enough” is the best you will ever get from Mediocre Man. Don’t let the name fool you; there are female varieties of Mediocre Man too. (cont.)

#10: The Evangelist

No matter what kind of environment you have, The Evangelist insists that it can be improved by throwing away all of your tools and processes and replacing them with something else. (cont.)

I've just figured out I am some of these. And you?

What is going on with NHibernate 2.0?

Ayende and Fabio Maulo are still porting some cool features, are here's the state of the nation.

From the new features, I've particularly liked:

• CriteriaTransformer - allows to clone and transform ICriteria and DetachedCriteria.
• Multi Criteria - the companion to Multi Query
• tables - allowing to compose a single entity from several tables.
• Events, Actions and Listeners - this is a very big feature, and it extends the way you can work with NHibernate in very deep ways. Think of it like the interceptor++.
• - like , but with union instead of joins

The slow warm-up doesn't seem to be addressed for now...

Geek joke

i and π conversation:

i: Be rational!
PI: Get real!

Thanks for the joke, Rui.

Google Android not Just a Press Release afterall

Let me start by stating the obvious: the Windows Mobile is a very mature and competitive product, and won't be easily substituted by any Google or Apple hype. And it won't be simple for the enterprise users to get away from Windows Mobile - or Blackberry, in that respect :)

And yes, Window Mobile needs some competition to keep getting better. And above all, being iPhone as closed as it can get, platforms where we can write code against (like Windows Mobile) are very much welcomed.

Now let me argue against what I consider a not so great remark from Ballmer:

Right now they have a press release

Android is not as vaporware as we might think:

Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project

http://code.google.com/android/

Android Demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FJHYqE0RDg

Android Documentation

http://code.google.com/android/documentation.html

Google Buys Android for Its Mobile Arsenal

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2005/tc20050817_0949_tc024.htm

Google's Android not an iPhone

http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9811421-37.html

Thanks for the links, André Lourenço.

A Simple MVC E-Commerce Storefront Application

Here's another great presentation of the new ASP.NET MVC from Scott Guthrie.

Scott has a such a particular way to explain technology that even my mother could understand.

[update]

As noticed by OakLeaf Systems:

it's interesting to note that Scott didn't mention the SubSonic DAL and persistence layer. Rob Conery, SubSonic's creator says SubSonic will be the "Convention-Driven Toolset for Microsoft’s New MVC Framework" for ASP.NET and Rob went to work for Microsoft yesterday.

A simple concept

We are just loosing control on our computers - people just ask for more power, but not all people need such computers.

Here's a nice simple computer, sold at Wal-Mart. Not as inexpensive as you would expect, but yet a nice simple concept. Would probably suffice for my parents computer.

One thing is for sure: it should suck less power then most other desktops.

Microsoft Viridian / Hypervisor / Windows Server Virtualization = Hyper-V

Microsoft will announce in the keynote at MS Teched|IT-forum in Barcelona that Viridian will be named Hyper-V. The hypervisor virtualization product for Windows Server 2008 will be released as beta in the RTM bits of Windows Server 2008 end of Januari.

in: bink.nu