US Mint ends production of one dollar coins

Last Tuesday, 13 December 2011, The U.S. Mint announced that current production of one dollar coins is ending. The Mint will continue to produce a few one dollar coins for collectors, as required by law. But these will have numismatic value, and cost more than $1.00.

instead of producing 70-80 million coins per president, the Mint will now only produce as many as collectors order.

2010 Native American $1 Coin reverse

Forty percent of $1 coins were returned, unwanted, to the Federal Reserve Bank each year.

Circulating demand for $1 coins will be met through the Federal Reserve’s existing stockpile, which will be drawn down over time.

My favorite $1 coin featured Sacagawea, guide to Lewis & Clark. This is the 2010 Native American $1 coin, reverse side. It is beautiful. Click through for full details from the U.S. Mint.

Even though the $1 coins would have saved billions over time (they are more durable than paper money), they were never popular with the American public. Not all of the American public feels similarly. Those participating in this discussion on Reddit seemed saddened by the news. Others raised the point that the U.S. Mint remains committed to production of the penny. Despite my fondness for copper, and loyalty to the Arizona as The Copper State, one wonders at the sense of this. Both Canada and many European countries have already discontinued small denomination paper bank notes, and replaced them with larger denomination coins.

I liked $1 coins, as they were useful for buying commuter train tickets. I’ll miss them.

Idea for a very open ID

Be receptive! Be open to each and every type of user input for authentication.

Universal sign on

Luis Farzati's Smart Identity sign on widget

This very-user-centric identification approach leverages the many open APIs now available for most web services.  Feel free to select your user name-of-choice!

• @Twitter user name
• Facebook.com/user name
• user name@gmail.com
• YouTube.com/user name
• user name.wordpress.com or user name.wordpress.org blog URL
• Flickr.com/user name
• user name@yahoo.com
• Open ID URL
• more?

In this blog post, developer Luis Farzati emphasizes that:

the objective is to allow the user to input whatever wanted [in order] to login… If it exists as a valid username out here, we’ll find it and suggest it!

Proof-of-concept

I think the motivation for this was to facilitate user transition and comfort with the URL-based format of Open ID. A demo is available here. Luis named it The Smart Identity Resolver Widget, licensed under CC/license/by-sa/3.0 unported.  I tried it. The widget easily found my Twitter and YouTube user names. It did not work with my Open ID URL.  But Open ID requires a bit of fussing, the first time I use it in a slightly different context.

Do be aware that I found this via Chris Messina‘s Friend Feed stream several months ago. Chris is an open social advocate and Google employee. That is of some reassurance. This should be secure, though one must always exercise caution if asked for a password.

The code is open source, on Github. I had a look around. My impression was that Luis is using REST with OAuth to OpenID providers, or calls to APIs depending on the service. This enables the universal sign in to return the powerful visual cue of one’s own avatar. I noticed that GetSatisfaction had some sort of intermediate role, which was puzzling. Otherwise, it was straightforward, decently-commented JavaScript that I could sort of understand.

Assortment of user profiles returned for sign on

The Smart Identity effort was intended as proof-of-concept ONLY. Luis makes that very clear in the README. Also, there are two forks, Master and G-H. The latter includes an implementation of the universal sign on for FriendFeed. The G-H branch might be interesting to someone who could understand it!

I felt a little sad when I noticed that the repository had no commits since late-April 2011. This idea clearly generated some interest. It is quite appealing from a user-centric point-of-view. Yet something may come of it eventually, as Luis’s Smart Identity Widget repository has 17 people following it on Github.

Internet standards for HTML

REVISED 17-Nov-2011 The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is standardizing over 100 specifications for the open web, in at least 13 working groups. The CSS Working Group alone is in charge of 50 specifications. This does not include work on Unicode, HTTP and TLS.

New semantically expressive HTML5 tags proposed as part of the W3C standard. Not really.

The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from

I was waiting to post this until the debate between W3C and WHATWG about the status of HTML5 scope was resolved. However, I have waited since February 2011. Consensus is that HTML5 is being inappropriately used as a catch-all for every standard supported by modern browsers. Modern browsers actually include much more: CSS3 styling, WOFF (web fonts), semantic web elements such as microformats, 3-D graphics including SVG, and performance enhancements. HTML5 tags are merely one part of semantic web support.

HTML5

As a result, terminology was modified by WHATWG. HTML is the new HTML5.

What does that imply for the HTML5 logos and imagery introduced by W3C in January 2011? That is unclear. While still available, get your official HTML5-related logos. Here is the full-featured badge, on the right. Have a look at the official W3C HTML5 logo FAQ for an explanation.

Curious about the origins of the HTML5 logo, regardless of its future? I was. It was commissioned work by design studio Ocupop.

What now?

As best I can tell, HTML is now version-less. It is a living standard and maintained by WHATWG. A snapshot version of HTML5, updated on 14 November 2011, is approaching “last call” status. HTML5 documentation is a joint project of the W3C and WHATWG.

HTML remains in flux, as befitting a living standard. The most recent issue is <time>. HTML5 Dr. Bruce Lawson provides motivation and use cases for this element. Evolution of <time> is captured best by comments after the post. The rogue entry by a W3C impersonator was most exciting! It was masterfully dispatched by HTML5 Dr. Oli Studholme. Further discussion of the meaning of <time> was recently initiated by a WHATWG project leader.

Stray thoughts

Josh Duck’s delightful Periodic Table of the HTML5 Elements remains valid, after a name change to HTML. The <time> tag links to a pleasant web applications development company, Kaazing. The Kaazing pumpkin carving template for an HTML5 Halloween is available for download[PDF], CC License 3.0. Although too late for 2011, the template will not be  deprecated, and is portable through the year 2012 and beyond.

Earlier this month, Adobe Systems announced that it will no longer support Flash for mobile devices, with browsers to follow. This reinforces the importance of HTML as a web browser standard, due to its support of video. YouTube and Vimeo already offer HTML5 beta versions, which work nicely.

PDF history and something special from Adobe

Part One: PDF history 

PDF is a formal open standard, ISO 32000. It was invented by Adobe Systems 17 years ago.

PDF = Portable Document Format

History of the PDF by Adobe Systems

The image links to a pleasant interactive timeline of Adobe Systems and its role in the development of the PDF. The chronology is in Flash, and thankfully free of any video or audio. Read more about Adobe Systems role in the history of PDF file development.

PDF files are more versatile than I realized, and

• are viewable and printable on Windows®, Mac OS, and mobile platforms e.g. Android™
• can be digitally signed
• preserve source file information — text, drawings, video, 3D, maps, full-color graphics, photos — regardless of the application used to create them

Additional PDF file types exist, including PDF/A, PDF/E and U3D. All are supported by Adobe software. I didn’t realize that Adobe has manufacturing product lines. With Adobe 3D Reviewer, you can merge CAD files, move or delete parts, create animations and exploded assemblies, then save to 3D PDF documents.

I won’t belabor the many security incidents associated with Adobe products. Once found, they are patched. In light of recent events, Adobe’s troubles seem quite par-for-the-course.

Part 2: SiteCatalyst from Adobe Omniture free offer

Adobe CS Live online is free through April 12, 2012.

I discovered this while surfing the Adobe site, looking for User Help forums. I have not seen this promoted anywhere. It is even in rather small print on the Adobe CS page! CS includes various tools for developers e.g. Adobe BrowserLab to preview web content to make sure it displays as intended, and to assure cross browser consistency.

Free access to SiteCatalyst NetAverages (included with CS Live) was the highlight for me. I believe it is sourced from Omniture, the analytics company acquired by Adobe in 2009. Adobe suggests using SiteCatalyst to:

View Internet trends of desktop and mobile users, like browser usage and device types, to help you plan and optimize web content for the widest possible audience.

SiteCatalyst metrics are updated monthly. They are quite comprehensive, and useful for far more than developing Adobe applications. The interface is fun to use, too!

Note: This is a 100% free service. No payment information is requested. No other paid Adobe products or subscriptions are required. I am not a paid endorser, but you knew that already, no?

Power law relationship in modern demographics

Cognition seems to be the driver behind a power law relationship, which would be odd indeed. It implies a fixed way of thinking about geography and places that can be modeled statistically. Human thought processes aren’t generally amenable to quantitative models.

Is this something new?

Toponyms

Giving a name to a place is an important act. It says a place has meaning, that it should be remembered. For thousands of years, the way we kept track of place names—or toponyms—was by using our memory. Today, we’re not nearly so limited, and the number of toponyms seems to have exploded. Yet oddly enough, the number of places we name in a given area follows a trend uncannily similar to one seen in hunter-gatherer societies.…

via Per Square Mile
Next steps?

1. Confirm if Eugene Hunn’s 1994 findings were reproduced with current data
2. Check whether the USPS zip code information used was correct

Basic data visualizaton

Internet users by country in 2010

This is the first of five graphics in a series, State of the Internet 2010. All are hand-made graphics by Jose Duarte. He is exploring new and simple ways to represent information. With his handmade visualization tool-kit, he provides the technology to rapidly create any kind of graphics including

abstracts maps and diagrams, area graphs and charts, arrow diagrams, bar graphs, Venn diagrams, time line charts, bubble graphs, circle diagrams, proportional charts, organization charts, and really, whatever you want.

Do you want your own kit? Follow the link embedded above, and follow the instructions. It can be yours, free of charge, no-strings-attached. Just send an email to Jose Duarte as instructed in the text accompanying the “handmade visualization tool-kit” link.

Twitter Influence System

Twitter influence is subtle and difficult to capture

Twitter influence ranges beyond measuring followers, @ replies and re-tweets. It isn’t trivial to calculate the true reach of an individual’s Twitter updates. Such are the challenges encountered in quantifying influence (perhaps even value) of Twitter users’ activity.

Actual percentage of Twitter content read

This chart shows the percentage of tweets read in relation to the number of people followed. As could be expected, the more people you follow, the smaller the percentage of tweets you actually read.

Both images, Twitter Influence EcoSystem and Percentage of Tweets Read are original work by John V Lane, via Flickr, and reproduced here under Creative Commons License/by-sa/2.0.

Zanran is a new data search engine

Something new and different in search has appeared. Perhaps.

Zanran is an internet start-up company that hails from somewhere other than Mountain View or Sunnyvale, California. Nor is it in “Silicon Valley East”, the new incubator of technology ventures otherwise known as the Borough of Manhattan. Zanran is farther than farthest Fishkill, across a span greater than even the Tappan-Zee can bridge. Zanran is a U.K. domiciled company in Islington, London.

Not a Google Universal Search 2.0 competitor

Zanran seems to be more of a database searching tool. It would probably be best classified as a specialized search engine. Arthur Weiss, a competitive analyst and former long-time employee of Dun & Bradstreet UK, did a very thorough review, referenced below.

Zanran Search Beta screen shot

Zanran’s search method is described as patented but based on open-source programs. The actual patent, which I only glanced at, A Method and System of Indexing Historical Data, should help in clarifying. Zanran distinguishes itself because it is particularly well-suited to web search for information that has embedded numerical or graphical data:

Zanran helps you to find ‘semi-structured’ data on the web… numerical data e.g. a graph in a PDF report, or a table in an Excel spreadsheet, or a bar chart shown as an image in an HTML page. This huge amount of information can be difficult to find using conventional search engines, which are focused primarily on finding text… Put more simply: Zanran is Google for data.

Zanran is not a search engine with obvious uses in text or sentiment analysis. The beta website has a long page of examples demonstrating the speed (fast), breadth (across a very diverse assortment of scientific and analytic use cases) and quality of results.

Zanran enters the marketplace

Zanran appears to have retained Mallard Digital Marketing. Mallard Digital’s hallmarks are “Authenticity, Transparency and Engagement”. Mallard features an attractive duck in the company logo, and in this rather engaging 15-second video.

I base my conjecture about Mallard and Zanran upon three pieces of evidence:

1. Mallard’s recent announcement, describing acquisition of a search engine as a new client on 29 March 2011
2. The fact that Mallard likes Zanran and Zanran likes Mallard on the Facebook pages of each company
3. The Zanran company dog enjoyed playing with Mallard’s Labrador retriever in March 2011, also described in their Facebook company pages

Arthur Weiss had this (and much more) to say about Zanran in his very thorough review in April 2011:

I’ve been playing with a new data search engine called Zanran… The site is in an early beta. Nevertheless my initial tests brought up material that would only have been found using an advanced search on Google – if you were lucky. As such, Zanran promises to be a great addition for advanced data searching….

Read more:  Find It Out – Research Secrets and More

Analogy and Digression

As a very general analogy, Zanran functionality reminds me of Google Code Search or SHODAN.

SHODAN is a search engine that can be used to:

find specific computers (routers, servers, etc.) … [it is] a search engine of banners. Google and Bing are great for finding websites. But what if you’re interested in finding computers running a certain piece of software (such as Apache)?  Maybe a new vulnerability came out and you want to see how many hosts it could infect?

Here’s a screen shot of the main SHODAN query page:

SHODAN computer search engine screen shot

I am impressed to no end with SHODAN. It is quite clever, and remains very low profile, much like my blog.

UPDATE: I drafted this on 12 May 2011 but failed to actually post due to my insatiable need to excessively fuss and play with WordPress functionality. In the interim, others (most notably Search Engine Journal) have also found the subject of the following post, the Zanran data search engine. I mention this not as self-promotion, but rather, to emphasize that Zanran may be of greater significance than my casual tone indicates.

Risk perception and reality

This is an excerpt, selected by Moi, from the article Risk perception, a recent post that appeared on the Soapbox Science Blog, Nature Publishing Group.

Universal symbol of radiation and fear. Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes, no matter how right our perceptions feel, we get risk wrong. We worry about some things more than the evidence warrants (vaccines, nuclear radiation, genetically modified food), and less about some threats than the evidence warns (climate change, obesity, using mobile phones when we drive). That produces a Perception Gap, the gap between our fears and the facts.

The Perception Gap produces dangerous personal choices that hurt us and those around us (declining vaccination rates are fueling the resurgence of nearly eradicated diseases). It causes the harm to health of chronic stress (for those who worry more than necessary). And it produces social policies that protect us more from what we’re afraid of than from what in fact threatens us the most (we spend more to protect ourselves from terrorism than heart disease)… which in effect raises our overall risk.

We do have to fear fear itself…too much or too little. So we need to understand how our subjective risk perception works, in order to recognize and avoid its pitfalls.

Here was the take-away for me: Societal risk management has to recognize the risk of risk misperception–  recognizing the risk that arises when our fears don’t match the evidence. This is truly the risk of The Perception Gap. It has always been relevant, and becomes so once again in light of the recent E-coli outbreak in northern Europe. The Guardian UK used that as a starting point for a well-written and up-to-date article about the hazards of risk misperception and the consequences of irrational behavior.

Kahneman and Tversky did extensive research on this topic. I am not concerned whether articles like the one referenced above are derivative, in the sense of revisiting past work. Possibly it is an application in the context of current events. Or it may be entirely original new work. My concern is solely that there is an awareness of the reality, and that it be acted upon.

You May Need This One Day

Part One: Ruby, FORTRAN and the infinite

Attention Rubyistas: you may need this one day! If you ever find yourself in a situation requiring some way of capturing the infinite, this tip from the Byzantine Reality blog might be helpful.

Implementing some old-school algorithms?

You may find that you need something like infinity. But don’t fret – Ruby has that right at your disposal! Just try this:

>> inf = 1.0 / 0
=> Infinity
>> 10000000 < inf
=> true

And you’re good to go! Of course, this won’t be useful in most contexts, but keep it in your Ruby programming belt for just the right occasion!

This had a certain appeal to even one such as myself, with antediluvian programming skills in PL/SQL, Pascal, APL* and yes…. FORTRAN77.

APL Keyboard courtesy of Wikipedia

What comes around, goes around?

Maybe something more Proustian? Plus ca change…  well, you know how that goes. Here’s my point: FORTRAN is now the 32nd most popular programming language on GitHub. Not FORTRAN77, mind you, nor FORTRAN66! A more current version of FORTRAN.

Why?

This is my guess: The modernized form of FORTRAN is useful in high performance computing (HPC) as used for scientific programming. Actually, that’s why I used FORTRAN77. It was great for very quickly, inefficiently coded queuing models, random-number generator tests, Monte-Carlo simulation and basic cryptography.

But this part of the Github phenomena eludes my understanding: How does one do HPC (if HPC implies usage of super-computers), in a social coding context such as GitHub? Perhaps the FORTRAN code repositories on GitHub are for the type of HPC that utilizes networked arrays of GPU’s for processing power** and not Cray style supercomputers? Yet the mystery endures even so.

Feel free to enlighten me by responding in the comments!

*APL = “A Programming Language”. It is an IBM invention. Yes, IBM did invent software languages. They weren’t exclusively about hardware. Programmers reveled in using it to create the most opaquely incomprehensible code imaginable. Or at least some of my co-workers did. They would program with no comments, spaces or breaks, merely one monolithic block of nearly incomprehensible Greek letters and other mathematical syntax characteristic of APL. See keyboard for reference regarding symbols.

** For example, scalable parallel programming with CUDA on processors with many cores. Or China’s entry in the November 2010 edition of the TOP500, as the fastest supercomputer in the world.

Part 2: Recommended Reading

I highly recommend the Byzantine Reality blog. The author, one Chris Bunch, who has acquired an impressive collection of Stack Overflow achievements, is also quite the Renaissance individual. Contrary to myself (I feel more like a dilettante), he actually is a bona fide programmer, fine writer AND savvy observer of the human condition.

Read his book review of Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World. First Thoughts on Erlang will be of interest to many.  Issues include execution speed of a concurrency-oriented language versus code writing speed of a scripting language like Ruby. I noticed game reviews for Gemini Rue, and an older one for the original Call of Duty: Black Ops. More book reviews were interspersed throughout. And this was a gem: Ancient History Round Two! It is a lengthy survey piece of recommended reading (with Chris’s original reviews of each text) for the historical period beginning with Scipio Africanus, to Julius Caesar, then the sacking of Rome by Alaric, to Justinian, the Battle of Hastings and concluding with Genghis Khan!

While I’m at it, I’d also recommend Curt Monash’s work. It is of a very different sort, focusing on things closer to my realm of understanding i.e. DBMS, enterprise data management, analytic methods. Curt’s recent three-part series of posts about best practice use-cases for Hadoop began with Dirty Data Stored Dirt Cheap. I liked the conclusion:

But if the signal is sufficiently important, the overall data set may have decent average value. Intelligence work is one case where the occasional black swan might justify gilded cages for the whole aviary…