Web Translation Tools

Have you ever been in a situation in which your search engine returns results in language that you do not understand? If your answer is 'Yes', web translation tools might be a good solution. Translation tool is not a new service in search engine industry. It has been existed for quite a few years. More and more search engines have integrated web translation tool in their services. Goggle - Translate, Yahoo - Babel Fish, and Windows Live -Translator are best examples. From the comparisons I have made between these three translation tools, Google provides the most complete translation services. Thus, through out the post I will use Google Translate as the example to discuss.

Google provides a link (as indicated by the red arrow in the image shown above) to translate the search results when the search results are not in the default language. When users click the translate link, the page is redirected to a translated page. The translated page looks pretty much the same with the original page; except, it is now in the language that you can understand. Google translation tool is not only integrated on the search result. More complete translation services can be access from Google Translate homepage. In the homepage, Google - Translate provides four services, which are Text and Web, Translated Search, Dictionary, and Tools.

• Text and Web - Translate foreign language text typed in the text box, or a web page by providing the link to the page.
• Translated Search - Using your own language you can search web pages which is written in foreign languages.
  
• Dictionary - Translate word.
  
• Tools - Provide JavaScript code that you can add to your own web page(s), so that your visitors can translate you web page(s) to foreign languages.

In addition those mention above, Google has also added translations tools in Google Talk and Gmail. The following pictures shows a chat bot which you can add to your contact list. It works just like a chat partner that replies what you have typed in foreign language.

Google translate currently support 15 language pairs which includes these languages: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese.

In term of quality, all of the web translation tools mentioned above are still unable to deliver accurate translations. It often translates words out of context and does not apply any grammatical rules. However, it is still sufficient to help users to understand the general content of a foreign language text. According to Google, "Automatic translation is very difficult, as the meaning of words depends on the context in which they're used. While Google is working on the problem, it may need some time before anyone can offer a quick and seamless translation experience. However, in the interim, Google hopes users find the service useful for most purposes."

In my view, when translation tools has reached certain quality, in which they can delivers a good quality of translation, Internet will be a universal medium of communication. You can communicate and distribute information to anyone on the Internet. Language will no longer be a barrier for information sharing. For business, this can be an enormous target market.

References:

• http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/faq_translation.html
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Translate
• http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/faq_translation.html
• http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/10/google-translate-switches-to-googles.html
• http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/search-without-boundaries.html
• http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-12-19-n41.html
• http://www.androidtech.com/html/google_translate.php
  

Online Casino - Casino in Your Own Home

The first online gambling website was introduced in mid 1990s. Online gambling had gained more popularity year by year right after it was introduced. The industry made nearly $12 billion in 2005, a high jump from $1 billion in 1997. Online Casinos managed to attract gamblers as they facilitate easy way for everyone to bet or gamble. As according to BBC news, one of the reason why many gambler likes Online Gambling is "You don't have to physically walk anywhere. You don't have to take your purse out of your handbag or your wallet out of your back pocket"

Online casinos usually offer dozens of different games such as poker, black jack, roulette, sports games bets and etc. All the games are operated by computer programs which usually run within a Web browser. Players can also download the casino's software and play the games in desktop-based application. To assure gamblers that the casinos are not cheating in the games, games are usually developed by third party company. Casinos purchase the game from the developer and they rely their credibilities on the company that develop the game.

To start gambling, casinos require gamblers to register and deposit some money. The deposit payment can be done through credit cards, debit cards, electronic money services, check or wired transfer. However, nowadays most banks prohibit the use of their cards for the purpose of Internet gambling, and attempts to use credit cards on Internet gambling are usually rejected.

According to a study conducted in 2001, online gambling promotes addiction. For some players, the addiction starts with playing with fake money and win. When they started playing with real money, they tend to lose because they were nervous. When more and more players get addicted and lost in the games, it started to raised a lot of social issues (e.g. increased in number of unemployed and crime rate). Moreover, due to its accessibility, it increases the participations of underage players. It can be concluded that online gambling offers no potential economic benefits.

Realising the impact of online gambling, many country have started to banned online gambling by setting new rules and regulations. However, these rules and regulations are not quite successful because of the architecture of the Internet that makes prohibition of online gambling easy to evade and impossible to enforce. For example: online gambling websites may still freely operating by hosting their website in countries in which online gambling is legal.

Based on my personal view, solution to this problem may be by forcing the online gambling websites to register under a dedicated domain name. For example: ".bet or .casino" Thus countries that banned online gambling can filter and dismiss connection requests to websites which have those dedicated domain names.

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_gambling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_casino
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3929455.stm
http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~skiena/jaialai/excerpts/node19.html
http://www.nhttp://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=53477bc4.com/news/9877949/detail.html
http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=53477
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/conditions/03/17/internet.gambling/index.html
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=12210
http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=9979
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/online-gambling3.htm

Sun Microsystems Acquired MySQL

Almost a month ago, Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced that they had acquired MySQL AB (the company behind the world's most popular open source database) for the vaue of approximately $ 1 Billion. This acquisition leaded Sun to enter the $15 Billion worth database market and at the same time it strengthen Sun's position as the leader in open source software.

What does this acquisition means to Sun?

As reported by ZDNET, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz called this acquisition as the “most important acquisition in history of company” and added that the database firm will have “a central role” as Sun rolls out its open source strategy. Schwartz also added that the acquisition puts Sun at “the centre of the global Web economy” since a lot of the world's largest and fastest-growing organizations use MySQL. Examples include industry leaders such as Yahoo!, Alcatel-Lucent, Facebook, Google, Nokia, YouTube, Baidu, China Mobile and Booking.com.

What does this acquisition means to MySQL?

According to Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, the acquisition carries a big opportunity for users and organizations of all sizes seeking innovation, growth and choice. As quoted from his interview, he said that "Sun's culture and business model complements MySQL's own by sharing the same ideals that we have had since our foundation -- software freedom, online innovation and community and partner participation. We are tremendously excited to work with Sun and the millions of members of the MySQL open source ecosystem to continue to deliver the best database for powering the modern Web economy."

How do users react towards this acquisition?

This acquisition resulted in users' enthusiasm. Even before the acquisition is completed, the number of MySQL's daily downloads have also increased from approximately 50,000 to more than 60,000 per day. At the same time, Sun also received an overwhelming response and embrace from customers and community members, who are excited to see MySQL's tremendous innovation with the support of Sun.

Joshua Rand, CEO of Sapotek, Inc. (a Web 2.0 company that uses MySQL), said "As a developer of open source web applications and services that relies heavily on both Sun and MySQL, we believe that the combined companies will better address our IT needs today, tomorrow and beyond. We're confident that the MySQL acquisition will reinforce Sun's commitment to providing hardware, software and services that will save us money in having one integrated, end-to-end platform. The combination of MySQL and Sun provides the community with unlimited possibilities, ensuring the highest level of quality assurance and advanced feature contributions to the world's leading open source initiatives."

Personally, I think this acquisition might bring great benefits to us, as users. With the support of Sun, I believe MySQL will be able to provide better products and services. Although at first, I doubted it (because Sun might limit language support of MySQL to Java only), this doubt is cleared after I read the Marten Mickos (the CEO of MySQL) interview, in which he said that there will not be any language restrictions. In facts, he said "Our mandate within Sun is to grow our database business - on all operating systems and with all development and scripting languages and on all hardware platforms".


References:

• http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-02/sunflash.20080226.1.xml
• http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-01/sunflash.20080116.1.xml
• http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=7611
  
• http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/marten-mickos-sun-qa.html
  

Internet of Things

Have you ever imagined that one day you can locate your room key by searching through Google? If you have not? Be prepared, a technological revolution, so called, Internet of Things is coming. The idea behind Internet of Things is to connect objects and devices to a large database and network. The objects are not only referring to electronic devices and gadgets, but also daily objects such as key, toothbrush, shoes and etc. The illustration bellow shows what Internet of Things can do from the view of business.

source: http://www.forbes.com/global/2002/0318/092chart.html

As defined by International Telecommunication Union (ITU), "The Internet of Things is a technological revolution that represents the future of computing and communications, and its development depends on dynamic technical innovation in a number of important fields, from wireless sensors to nanotechnology".

Internet of Things is possible by the support of technology that facilitate machine to machine communication. According to (ITU), there are three types of technologies needed to create internet of things:

• Identification Technology:Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is one of a good example in which identification can be done in fast an convenient manner.
  
• Embedded intelligence: This embed processing capabilities to objects. Hence, It is believe that it can enhance the power of network.
  
• Miniaturization and nanotechnology: devices are getting smaller and smaller, this is enabled small objects to interact and connect .

There are two potential problem than comes across my mind if this technology is successfully implemented. First, security problem. What is the security mechanism used by this technology to make sure than an identification cannot be duplicated and manipulated. The second problem is privacy problem. It is possible if someone put an identification object on my shoes and track me wherever I am. Is there any protection to individual's privacy rights?

Despite of the problems it may bring, Internet of things offers a lot of benefits. Imagine that this technology is implemented on all the cars on the road. Isn't this means that we don't have to drive any more? This technology enable machine to communicate with machine, car may be able to communicate with another car or traffic lights to ensure no accident happen. More over, cars may communicate with web services such as Google map, you just need to name your destination your car will bring you there.

I think this is more than just my imagination. These things are absolutely possible with the support of internet of things.

References

• http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Ecommerce/rfid/
• http://www.rfidconsultation.eu/docs/ficheiros/InternetofThings_summary.pdf
• http://www.forbes.com/technology/forbes/2002/0318/155.html
• http://www.cio.com/article/14652
  

Microsoft Surface

Has anyone ever heard of Microsoft Surface? If you have not, this post might be an interesting post for you to read.

Microsoft surface was introduced by Microsoft in 2007 under new product category, called 'Surface Computing'. It is a combination of hardware and software that allows users to interactively interact with digital content. Interactions are achieved through touches, instead of using keyboard and mouse. Microsoft claimed that, with Microsoft Surface we can actually grab data with our hand and move information between objects with natural gestures and touches.

From the picture, we can see that Surface Computer looks just like an ordinary table that is usually placed on your living room. In fact, it is more than just an ordinary table. As reported in Wikipedia, it is a Windows PC placed inside a table, topped with a 30-inch reflective surface in a clear acrylic frame. It has a projector inside, that project images for the reflective surface to display. Five cameras are installed inside the machine to record reflections of infrared light from human fingertips and recognise objects (which have been applied with special tagged) placed on the surface. Users can interact with the machine by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects such as paintbrushes across the screen, or by placing and moving tagged objects. For example: a tagged camera is put on Surface, Surface automatically transfer all pictures from the camera to the screen. Users can move, rotate, resize and interact with pictures by touching and dragging the pictures.

This product is marketed with the price around $5,000 to $10,000 per unit. However, Microsoft expected the price to drop, so that it will be affordable for home consumers. At present time, Microsoft Surface is used in hotels, restaurants, bar, and retail stores. It allows users to choose meals, and place order at restaurants. It also allows users to pay, as it can recognise credit card that is dropped on it. In retail stores, users can compare and look for the product details by just placing the product on the top of the table.

In future, Microsoft Surface may bring a great influence on the way people do business and the way people live their life. Microsoft believes that: "As form factors continue to evolve, surface computing will be in any number of environments - schools, business, homes and any numbers of form factors - part of the counter-top, the wall or refrigerator." But ofcourse for this to happen, Microsoft has to make this system affordable for home customers.

References:

• http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
• http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Surface
• http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/317737_msftdevice30.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY

RFID Technology: Pro and Contra

I found this video on You Tube. It's a very interesting video. Try to watch it before you read through this post.

Video shown above is one of IBM’s commercials. A guy, who initially looked like shoplifter, took whatever he wanted in a supermarket and just walk out without queuing on the checkout line to make payment. According to IBM, This is how we going to shop in future time. Customers do not have to queue up on check out line to pay. The supermarket/store system automatically scans the items taken including customers information (for payment) just as the customers walk out of the store. This is possible due to adoption of technology called Radio-frequency identification (RFID). This technology has been existed since 60 years ago (during word war II). However, only in the last decade, people started to use it commercially.

As according to Wikipedia, RFID is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. An RFID tag is an object that can be attached to a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radiowaves. The picture below shows how RFID tag looks like.

RFID tag contains microchip that stores particular information and small antenna that sends out information to the reader. RFID tag is relatively small and thin, thus, is can be hidden behind product label. This technology offers more advantages compared to bar code system. Unlike bar code reader, RFID reader can read hundreds of tags at one time. RFID tags are relatively inexpensive, although it is not as cheap as bar code. It costs around $0.05 at the minimum. This trigger the growth of this technology's adoption. People started to apply RFID technology in many areas. One example of successful adoptions of RFID technology may be the warehouse management system. RFID helps in keeping track of all products that are entering and leaving the warehouse. It saves time, cost and effort.

Regardless of its usefulness, this technology is likely to be misused. Imagine that one day RFID technology is so advanced that it can tracks any tag on earth. A shoe manufacturer may simply attach RFID tag in the hidden area of your shoe, and use it to track you down. Application of RFID technology to track down human may be a serious privacy violation.

IBM has patented human-tracking system called "Identification and Tracking of Persons Using RFID-tagged Items". The following paragraph is the abstract taken from the patent application.

"A method and system for identifying and tracking persons using RFID-tagged items carried on the persons. Previous purchase records for each person who shops at a retail store are collected by POS terminals and stored in a transaction database. When a person carrying or wearing items having RFID tags enters the store or other designated area, a RFID tag scanner located therein scans the RFID tags on that person and reads the RFID tag information. The RFID tag information collected from the person is correlated with transaction records stored in the transaction database according to known correlation algorithms. Based on the results of the correlation, the exact identity of the person or certain characteristics about the person can be determined. This information is used to monitor the movement of the person through the store or other areas."

The following video shows how that system may look like.

Personally, I am not against the use of RFID technology in tracking human. However, human have to be given the right to decide when and where the tracking should be active or inactive. For example, when someone is hiking , he/she may want to be tracked in case he/she get lost. Therefore, to prevent misuse of this technology, tight control and proper policy are needed.

References

• http://www.hightechaid.com/tech/rfid/rfid_technology.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID#History_of_RFID_tags
• http://www.spychips.com/documents/ATT00075.pdf
• http://www.rfidconsultation.eu/docs/ficheiros/InternetofThings_summary.pdf
• http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/02/spychips.html
• http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60898,00.html
  

True Knowledge - Computer System that Understands

Although Valentine’s Day has ended, it would be interesting if I can start this blog with Valentine-related topic. I started to find a topic by doing a search with “love” + “computer” keywords on Google. Indeed, I found something interesting, which is a blog posting titled “Teaching a Machine to Understand love”. This blog discussed about a blogger who tried to teach his computer system what love is. The first question popped up on my mind is “How to do that?”. This Question leaded me to a system with unique technology called “True Knowledge”.

According to the developer, True Knowledge is “a technology which can represent the world's knowledge in a form that is clear and accessible to humans, as well as being comprehensible to computers”. That means that this technology enables the knowledge to be stored in the form that can be understood by computer, not merely plain text that it doesn't understand. Thus, computers can analyse and process that knowledge and then derive new knowledge.

This knowledge can then be used to answer questions from users or other computers. The developer claimed that this system “can answer questions it hasn't seen before and can combine knowledge through a process of inference and cross-referencing stored information to produce a reasoned answer.” This makes the system different from standard search engines such as goggle or yahoo. Standard search engines response to queries or questions by searching for web pages that have matching keywords, and then it returns the list of the matched web pages as search result. Therefore, most of the time users may get irrelevant responses.

Unlike the standard search engine, this system intelligently addresses users’ queries or questions by providing straight-forward answer. At the same time, it also provides standard search result as supplementary response. The following picture is a picture that I took from the developer website. It shows a sample response of the question: “Is Jennifer Lopez Single?”

Knowledge gets in to the system from two main sources: users' contribution and external databases. Users can contribute new knowledge to the system, just like Wikipedia. To contribute, users only required to type in facts in plain English. Users can also modify or remove incorrectly or maliciously added fact. Both knowledge from users and external database are analysed and processed before they are stored to the knowledge base.

On the main page of the developer website, there is a form in which visitor can sign up to test this technology. So I sign up, hoping to get a chance to try the system myself. However, I felt so disappointed after I had completed the registration process. I got a notification saying: “We'll be in touch with an invitation to create an account in due course, however please note that there are currently many thousands of people in the queue, so there may be a delay while we scale up the test.”

Although I could not test the system myself, I found a demo video on You Tube. The video shows sufficient information about the technology, including: the features, architecture, comparisons with other technology and etc. Here I included the video.

This technology may replace the standard search engine in future time. I suppose, if "True Knowledge" managed to launch this service, it will be a threat to Google and other standard search engine companies. And this makes me wonder: “How come Google, as a current biggest search engine company, has not shown any sign of movement to compete?” or "are they silently preparing their 'secrete weapon'?".

References

• http://www.trueknowledge.com
• http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/teaching-machine-to-understand-love.html
• http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/08/true-knowledge-launches-natural-language-search-engine/
• http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/11/08/trueknowledge-shows-off-its-semantic-search-engine/