New I\O

The Future of Computing (Part 2)

2009-01-22T14:02:00.000-08:00

In the future "the network will be the computer". This old marketing
phrase from Sun Microsystems will be fulfilled literally.

Right now people still think of computers as individual entities, but
that is changing. We build supercomputers not with big iron, but with
collections of smaller computers. For example, the fastest computer in
the world as I write this, the IBM Roadrunner consists of a cluster of
3240 computers.

Another example is grid computing where you can add or subtract
computers to depending on the needs of the users. From Grid computing
we get cloud computing where real-time scalable resources are provided
as a service over the Internet. These services are typically provided
from a collection of, you guessed it, PCs in a data center somewhere.

The current situation is that there is not one cloud right now, but a
number of individual clouds each provided by a vendor. Now here is the
deal. When these clouds seamlessly inter-operate, then we will have
one global computer and one global operating system.

For this reason, I think this might be very important going forward:

http://groups.google.com/group/cloudforum

Unfortunately, it looks to me like they still want to base this on an
HTTP like protocol.

http://wiki.gogrid.com/wiki/index.php/API_Getting_Started_Guide

I would love to see the internet as a massively distributed operating
system something like Plan 9 but on a much larger scale, with public
APIs for storage servers, authentication servers, and I/O or
application servers. And, of course, the application I/O should be
something more suitable for the purpose like NewIO instead
of HTTP.

NewIO Presentation for UTACM

2008-03-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

I will be giving a presentation on NewIO for the University of Texas Association for Computing Machinery on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008. The presentation will be at Painter Hall room 3.14 from 7pm to 8pm. Please attend if you are in the Austin, Texas area and are interested in NewIO.

Epiphany

2008-02-26T07:24:00.001-08:00

I just had an epiphany this morning.

From "http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/":

"Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system runtime that enables you to use your existing HTML/Ajax, Flex, or Flash web development skills and tools to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop."

The web has always been a horrible and limited application platform and environment. What I was trying to do with my NewIO project was to lead the desktop developers to the Internet, bypassing the web.

However what appears to be happening is the opposite: The web developers are breaking out to the dekstop.

The nightmare of the whole thing is that the instead of the nice desktop development environments being used to create Internet applications, we are ending up with the opposite: the horrible web
development environments being used to create desktop apps.

I get depressed if I think too much about it.

Rails Disaster

2007-09-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

There was an article on Slashdot about a rails disaster.

Sure part of the problem was poor project management. However, the main problem is that web apps are so unnecessarily complicated that it takes perfect project management to pull it off. It does not have to be this hard.

I have never said that web apps are impossible. I, myself use g-mail for example. I just think web apps are way more complicated than they have to be. NewIO is the least complicated, shortest path to the Internet apps that we want.

Dreadnought Software

2007-07-31T09:20:00.001-07:00

Dreadnought Software licenses software and provides training and consulting on an open source Internet application platform that we created called NewI\O. This non-web based system overcomes the
limitations of the world wide web as an application platform by using a custom secure duplex messaging protocol that we intend to make an Internet standard. The NewI\O system consists of a universal client that we call the Dreadnought Application Browser, a small server process and a library/API.

With this library/API the NewI\O system allows organizations to develop powerful and easy to use applications and still keep the data confined to servers in the data center where the data can be properly managed and secured. NewI\O provides all of the advantages of a thin client architecture, without the limitations of the web and without the lock-in of hardware and proprietary solutions. The cost and risk to transition to NewI\O is minimal.

The primary market for Dreadnought Software is the software as a service industry. We intend to save the world from web based applications and profit from that transformation. We are looking for financial, legal and general business assistance to accomplish our mission from high character partners we can trust.

nIde

2007-07-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

Jason Reynold is using NewI\O for an Internet Web editor called nIde and getting some business interest from investors.

The Emerging Economic Paradigm of Open Source

2007-05-08T05:57:00.000-07:00

Family and friends, mostly those not involved in the tech industry, caution me about releasing my code via open source. It is difficult for them to understand how I can possibly make money by giving away my source code. Bruce Perens has written The Emerging Economic Paradigm of Open Source that addresses this issue in depth.

GravityZoo

2007-05-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

Up until now I was not aware of any direct competitors to NewIO.
There were similar technologies, but nothing that closely resembled
it. However, I noticed this article on slashdot:

http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/20/170211

This is about a company called GravityZoo (http://www.gravityzoo.com/)
which appear to be doing pretty much the same thing as we are. So far
they appear to be proprietary and only have a MS Windows client, so I
see no reason to stop working on NewI\O, yet.

Microsoft Silverlight

2007-04-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

Apaprently Microsoft has released a new competitor to flash called Silverlight. Devsource has an article about it. From what I can tell it is still client only software, and not client/server, so it would not be a true competitor to NewIO. Also, I see the lack of a linux implementation as a major drawback.

What's wrong with HTTP?

2007-04-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

The NewIO Project was mentioned in a very interesting essay by Kragen Sitaker on the suitability of the web as an application platform. He touches on quite a bit and I am still digesting it.

Has Silicon Valley Lost its Edge?

2007-04-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

John Dvorak writes, "Has silicon valley lost its edge?"

It seems to me that time is ripe for something new, something that changes everything, something like NewIO

NewIO News 4/8/07

2007-04-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

1. DemoCamp San Diego

I am pleased to report that the DemoCamp in San Diego on Wednesday, March 28th was a big success. Everything went well. The audience was really interested and asked lots of good questions. I interacted with lots of friendly tech people, including a member of the Firefox team. What was really great was that my Dad and his wife and my sister Tracy and her two boys were there, so it was particularly gratifying to do well with family watching.

On the downside there was no follow-up res ponces from the demo. It may be that we need to work harder to provide handouts and also to take names and contact information at these events. On the other hand at this point I am really looking for self motivated people to partner with to help develop this technology into a commercial product, so perhaps if they can not motivate themselves to contact me after the event, than perhaps they are not the right person for the job anyway.

In any case my philosophy is to keep talking and work on building the momentum and over time we will attract the kind of talent we need to be successful. I do think that like compound interest that at some point we will reach a tipping point and that momentum will become self feeding.

2. Future Demos

DemoCamp Portland (http://barcamp.org/DemoCampPortland1)

3. Developers

I am pleased to report that our new developer Alan is working out very well. I have met with him several times to get him up to speed. We are taking the opportunity to perform code cleanups and to port the server side (in addition to the client side) over to MS Windows. In addition to his significant programming ability Alan also has an interest in entrepreneurialism and business, so I think he is going to be a tremendous asset to the success of NewIO.

Our previous programmer Steve who did so much good work for the project has recently taken a full time programming position that pays benefits. I am happy for him and his wife, as they really need this, but I am sad to report that as much as he likes the project, he does not have the energy to both work his job and work on the project. I
offered him the opportunity to continue in a reduced role, but he declined. On the other hand he just contributed a fabulous new demo today, so who knows? Maybe he will not be able to resist us.

4. Competition

Alan recently talked to a potential NewIO customer. The customer mentioned that they believed Microsoft was working diligently on a secret competitive technology, so we eagerly await any announcement to see if this is correct, and to evaluate the possible competition.

There are a couple interesting aspects of this possibility. For one thing, Microsoft receives huge amounts of money for selling software for each computer. NewIO is a direct challenge to that business model. For Microsoft to risk stabbing its own cash cow would be a very gutsy move on their part. On the other hand they are not stupid. Perhaps they can see the writing on the wall?

The other thing is that even if they come up with a direct competitor to NewIO they usually only support their own operating system. So the door still might be open for NewIO since our strategy is to support all computers in a vendor neutral way which might be a decisive advantage.

However until we have specific information all of the above is mere speculation. However I am very aware that we probably have a limited window of opportunity to be successful.

5. Book

After I submitted my in depth outline the editor of the series expressed excitement about the book, however I did not hear from the publisher's rep. I wrote and she replied that I would hear from a reviewer and also a contact proposal would be forthcoming within a week. Alas, this was 2 weeks ago, and I have not heard anything. I wrote back again to her Friday, so hopefully I will hear from her again within a day or two.

6. Code

There are three main focuses in software development at the moment:

1. Windows Server - We need this to help make the code clean and portable and also to allow Alan to be productive since his background is in Windows programming and all of the application programming is on the server. This should help make the project attractive to the huge mass of other Windows programmers out there.

2. Widgets - Steve was working on using native widgets in the client code. This was proving to be complicated and difficult. Our focus will probably turn to creating our own widgets by drawing them and reacting to events on the server (server side widgets).

3. Apple OSX client. We would like to cover all of the major consumer platforms. However currently we have no programming expertise for OSX. We have been careful to pick third party libraries that work with OSX to make this possible. We are keeping an eye out in particular for someone who maybe be a good fit to take care of this need. We may need to hire someone for this, or I may give it a shot myself when I have more time.

7. Finances

We raised about $11, 800 for the project all from close relatives of mine. Almost all of it was used to pay Steve for 4 months worth of work. I think we got a good deal. This money (and then some out of my own pocket) is now gone. Several have expressed interest in investing more money, but at this time we have no direct need for it and I want to accept as little money as possible and bootstrap as much as possible.

I am keeping a list in my head of who is interested in case the need arises in the future. Possible future uses would be business or marketing expenses, or perhaps to fund an OSX developer.

8. Business

The next business step will be to incorporate at a Limited Liability Company (LLC). I have a lawyer in mind who will do this and other work for a flat fee of $1500. I am holding off at this time to resolve a personal matter with the IRS first to avoid complications. I expect to have this resolved within 3 months.

As usual if anyone has an questions or comments feel free to contact me.

BarCamp Austin

2007-03-09T14:56:00.000-08:00

I signed up to speak at BarCamp Austin tomorrow. It is not easy for me since I work weekends, but it should be interesting. Wish me luck.

Book Outline

2007-03-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

Beyond the Web with NewI\O
by Chris Nystrom

1. Why Internet applications?
2. What is wrong with current solutions?
3. What is NewI\O and How does it work?
4. Downloading, Installing and Running Dreadnought
5. Your First Program: Hello NewI\O!
6. Advanced NewI\O Programming
7. Extending the System: Adding to the API
8. Debugging NewI\O Programs
9. Running Your own NewI\O Server

Appendix A: NewI\O Links
Appendix B: NewI\O FAQ
Appendix C: NewI\O API

Current Witch's Brew is Apalling

2007-03-01T06:20:00.000-08:00

To: cnystrom@newio.org,
Debra_Williams@prenhall.com
Cc: arnold@skeeve.com
Date: Feb 23, 2007 7:28 AM
Subject: RE: Prentice Hall interested in epublication of New I/O

> Chris,
>
> That is great news that you are interested in publishing with us.

Ditto! That's really great!

> I'll have to let Arnold speak for himself on discovering you.

I saw a discussion of your site and then your note on the 9fans mailing
list.

I went to your site and really liked what I saw. I have to admit that
I find the current witch's brew of server-side PHP, client-side
JavaScript, and HTML / XML to be just apalling.

Thanks!

Arnold

Prentice Hall Wants To Publish an eBook on NewIO!

2007-02-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

to: cnystrom@newio.org
cc: Aharon Robbins
date: Feb 20, 2007 12:31 PM
subject: Prentice Hall interested in epublication of New I/O

Chris,

I am a publisher of open source books and ebooks. My series editor, Arnold Robbins, has brought your New I/O project and blog to my attention. We are very interested in publishing an electronic publication as part of the Prentice Hall Open Source Software Development series. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Debra Williams Cauley
Executive Editor

Prentice Hall PTR/Addison Wesley
1185 Avenue of the Americas, 26F
NY, NY 10036

212-782-3476

Debra_Williams@prenhall.com

The Web 2.0 Myth

2007-02-20T16:15:00.000-08:00

The Web 2.0 Myth

How To Tell The Open Source Winners From The Losers

2007-02-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

How To Tell The Open Source Winners From The Losers

NewIO Version 0.11 Build 065

2007-02-03T21:43:00.000-08:00

The NewI\O team is pleased to announce the latest release:

NewI\O (Alpha Version 0.11 Build 065)
http://www.newio.org

"Saving the world from web programming."

What is NewI\O?

NewI\O is a system for running programs on the Internet.

What is new?

This release now runs as a secure shell subsystem (thanks to libssh2)
and the client has been ported to MS Windows.

Bug IDs fixed in this release include:

1614479, 1614506, 1633264, 1633266, 1633660, 1648211

Where can I get it?

You can get source code for the whole thing at:

ftp://ftp.newio.org/pub/newio/newio-0.11_src_065_020107.tar.gz

You can get just the Linux binary of the Dreadnought Application
Browser client at:

ftp://ftp.newio.org/pub/d0/d0.0.11_bin_064.tar.gz

You can get the MS Windows binary of the Dreadnought Application
Browser client at:

ftp://ftp.newio.org/pub/d0/DreadNoughtSetup-0.11_065_020107.exe

Lastly you can get just the Dreadnought Application Browse client
source code at:

ftp://ftp.newio.org/pub/d0/d0.0.11_src_065_020107.tar.gz

Status

Alpha.

License

The NewI\O is system is free software. It is released under the GPL.
Libraries are released under the LGPL.

Acknowledgments:

Sam Lantinga, Ryan C. Gordon and the rest of the SDL team
Bob Pendleton - Font and text routines
Ryan Mcguigan - SDL_prim library
Steve Gettel - MS Windows Port, ssh subsystem

We would be interested in any comments that you have.

The NewI\O Team
February 03, 2007

Google Exec Coaxes IT Managers Toward Online Software

2007-02-01T03:58:00.000-08:00

Google Exec Coaxes IT Managers Toward Online Software

Google's Bosworth: Why AJAX Failed (Then Succeeded)

2007-01-31T11:11:00.000-08:00

Google's Bosworth: Why AJAX Failed (Then Succeeded)

On 9fans

2007-01-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

app porttikivi at gmail.com
Mon Oct 2 05:22:04 EDT 2006

Plan 9 people should get together with people with ideas like the New
I/O. This Nyström guy is fed up with trying to distribute
functionality with javaScript inside a browser and tries to come up
with a solution of his own, free of Web browser paradigm.

--

Christoph Lohmann 20h at r-36.net
Wed Oct 4 07:34:27 EDT 2006

Good day.

Am Mon, 2 Oct 2006 09:22:04 GMT
schrieb app :

> Plan 9 people should get together with people with ideas like the New
> I/O. This Nyström guy is fed up with trying to distribute
> functionality with javaScript inside a browser and tries to come up
> with a solution of his own, free of Web browser paradigm.

Got a mainframe?

Sincerely,

Christoph

[ANNOUNCE] NewI\O (Alpha Version 0.11 Build 062)

2006-12-12T19:09:00.000-08:00

The NewI\O team is pleased to announce the latest release:

NewI\O (Alpha Version 0.11 Build 062)
http://www.newio.org

"Saving the world from web programming."

What is NewI\O?

NewI\O is a system for running programs on the Internet.

What is new?

This release adds the performance improvements developed for the
Dallas demo. It includes batch messages and interthread queues. Also
two new games are included.

Where can I get it?

You can get individual parts of the system from the download links on
the web site or you can get the whole thing at:

ftp://ftp.newio.org/pub/newio

Status

Alpha, very alpha. Major sections, such as security, are still to be
implemented.

License

The NewI\O is system is free software. It is released under the GPL.
Libraries are released under the LGPL.

Acknowledgments:

Sam Lantinga, Ryan C. Gordon and the rest of the SDL team
Bob Pendleton - Font and text routines
Ryan Mcguigan - SDL_prim library
Steve Gettel - Interthread queues

We would be interested in any comments that you have.

The NewI\O Team
December 12, 2006

New Wiki

2006-12-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

Thanks to GNU Zoo NewI\O has a new wiki. You can find it at:

http://gnuzoo.org/newio/

Midas Networks Donates Server

2006-12-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

Midas Networks donated a hosted server for use by the project. This is greatly appreciated. This server will be the primary application server for NewI\O.

Huge Success!

2006-12-08T15:04:00.000-08:00

I travelled up to Dallas with my friends Darron and Jason (road trip!) and we presented NewI\O to 42 people. The setup was plain, but initmate. There were even 2 labrador retrievers running around, including one chocolate lab puppy that was a doll.

It was the largest crowd that I ever have had a chance to present to. Most everyone got it. I think we definetly had the wow factor. I believe that I picked up 2 new developers for the project. A major success.

NewIO Merchandise!

2006-11-27T14:44:00.000-08:00

You can now purchase NewIO merchandise at CafePress.

Curt Finch, CEO of Journyx Endorses NewIO

2006-11-20T05:17:00.000-08:00

"The web is accelerating towards applications with SaaS, AJAX and SOA, but clearly the web browser is somewhat of a hack. AJAX in fact is an obvious hack to make web applications be more 'application-ish'. Journyx eagerly anticipates the day when we can solve peoples' time accounting problems with this technology."

Curt Finch, CEO of Journyx

Web 3.0

2006-11-19T23:31:00.000-08:00

There was an article on Slashdot about Web 3.0, supposedly the marriage of the web and artificial intelligence, blah, blah blah. Most of the comments were about the silly "web 3.0" term.

But there was this very inciteful comment by Alex Hard:

If we ever want a good web, the current mentality must be disposed of..

The web today is built on transferring documents and everything else is a hack on that...we need something more unified, easier to code...something that will put the client and server side together in an intuitive way, not the AJAX crap flying around ATM...

He is exactly correct, and totally captures the reasoning behind my NewIO project.

Another commenter, MunkeyLife wrote:

I agree. I would love to see a stateful, strongly typed web architecture. Basically a streaming application. What a nightmare it is today to write a large/complex system with a scripting language like Javascript and this XmlHttpRequest hack job. People have done some interesting things to abstract this stuff away from us, but I'm still not satisfied.

Again, I agree 100%.

Another Laptop Stolen with Data

2006-11-18T20:31:00.000-08:00

Slashdot has another story of a laptop being stolen that contains sensitive data. This of course underlines why it is important to leave the data on the server.

CACTUS Meeting Report

2006-10-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

The October CACTUS Newsletter has a review of my September presentation. It is real nice to see NewI\O described in someone else's words. Here is the relavent section:

September Meeting Report

by Lindsay Haisley

Our presentor and guest this evening was Chris Nystrom, a system administrator for Oracle. After a few asides about how Oracle is undertaking a "huge Linux migration", he got down to a discussion of his own project, NewI\O.

Chris has tackled the problem of Rich Internet Applications head-on. While many people are still working with and trying to perfect web-based application frameworks, he's basically tackling the problem with a new TCP/IP technology altogether. As Chris says on his NewI\O website, "NewI\O has nothing to do with the World Wide Web".

Think of accessing a server shell with telnet, or a dumb terminal, and then educate the client/server pair to the 21st century to understand the event-driven programming model over the Internet, and you have a very rough approximation of NewI\O. Applications run on a server which users access with a special client, similar to a
browser. The NewI\O client processes not just text input, but mouse events, screen resizes, key presses, etc. and generates event messages which it sends to the server application, which processes client events and sends its responses back to the client for display. Audio I/O, control of peripherals, etc. is handled on the client side to address latency issues. The division of labor between the client and server is still an issue under development. Event driven programming can be quite complex, with multiple event queues, downloadable resources and the like.

The API will be simple, with a library (written in C) which can easily be wrapped for use by other languages, and conversion of existing applications written in C will be easy by design.

Will NewI\O be an expensive, proprietary system? No! It's Open Source, and will remain so. Chris made some effort to get Oracle to back the project and sent a white paper on it to a number of management types at Oracle, including The Oracle Himself, Larry Ellison. All he got for his troubles was a reprimand for jumping the chain of command and it became obvious that Oracle wasn't interested. Pity! IBM has gotten solidly behind the Open Source concept and a number of FOSS projects such as EVMS, to which they've contributed greatly. Some companies just don't get it yet.

Chris ended his presentation with a live demo. While the apps he demonstrated were quite simple in themselves, they served as an exciting proof of concept for NewI\O. This one looks to me like an Idea Who's Time Has Come!

Build 55 Relelased

2006-10-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

I pushed out a new version of the Dreadnought Application browser today (build 55). It includes fixes for playing movies and music. Also nio_lib updated and the jukebox application is fixed.

The Future of Rich Internet Applications

2006-09-19T01:21:00.000-07:00

An article on the future of rich Internet applications pretty much captures the current state of the art of the technical problem that NewI\O is intended to solve. Some of the comments seem like I wrote them.

Speaking Engagements

2006-09-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

I will be speaking this Thursday, September 21st at CACTUS, and also Decepber 7th at the Dallas/Ft Worth Unix User Group meeting.

Google Office

2006-08-28T04:21:00.000-07:00

Google has apparently shared its plans for an office suite. I think it validates the concept, but still do not think ajax is the right tool for this. See entry below where I tried using the spreadsheet. It was crap. On the other hand in time it will get so established that it will not matter anymore.

NewI\O Hosting Site

2006-07-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

Google just set up a hosting site for open source projects. I created one for NewI\O just to check it out. You can access it here:

http://code.google.com/p/newio/

Open Source Fest

2006-07-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a shot of me giving my lecture at the impressive facility at the Advanced Technology Center of the San Antonio Community College. What you can not see, is that only 7 people showed up! So that was quite a big disappointment.

However, it was not a total loss. Two of the seven who attended were college computer science professors and one was their star protege. They brought up the possibility of pointing exceptional students to assist with this real live project rather than some make work student project. This I thought was a great idea, and I encouraged them as much as possible to do this. The students are probably already better computer programmers than I (remember, I was a history major), and further, as they progress in their studies, they will only get better. So this is an excellent opportunity if it works. I will need to follow up on it.

My good friend Darron, who was my college roommate, came along on the trip with me which made it alot of fun. He was very helpful to me, and he came up with the idea to put out the (many) handouts we did not use to see if anyone wanted to take them to others. The college profs took a big stack to hand to students. Darron also provided some important feedback to my presentation which should improve my performance next time.

Lastly, we both had an excellent dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

Open Source Fest Remarks

2006-07-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

The following are the remarks I made in San Antonio for the Open Source Fest.

Introduction

Wow. Nice crowd here tonight. So far I have only presented NewI\O to smaller user groups.

I suppose I should start out by telling you who I am and why I am up here. I am Chris Nystrom. I work as a System Admin for Oracle Corporation. I am really happy to be with you here tonight to brief you on my personal project, which is NewI\O. I recently spoke to the San Antonio Linux User Group, so I wanted to add something new to the presentation, so I decided to tell 2 stories. The first is "How Richard Stallman Got Me Started".

Story 1: How Richard Stallman Got Me Started

About 1990 or so I was a big DOS PC guy. My computer at that time was a Tandy 1000, which at the time was hailed as the computer that should have been the IBM PCjr. I still remember the excitement when Windows 3.0 came out. What a breakthrough!

But as cool as things were, we kept hearing rumors of something bigger, and cooler, and that was the Internet, and the main computer for the Internet was a Unix workstation. At that time, a PC was a toy computer compared to a workstation, but nowadays the line is blurred and is really quite gone.

Anyway, by then I had already given up BASIC programming for C programming. However, I did not have access to the Internet or access to a Unix workstation, but I was interested. So one day, I picked up a copy of one of the Unix magazines like Unix Review or something, and on the cover was Richard Stallman, and of course, the article was all about free software, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF), in particular.

At that time, I had a friend named Hanan who was in junior high school, and he decided one day to call up Richard and ask if the FSF had any opportunities for young people, and RMS said, "Sure, come on up." Since my friend was too young to drive, naturally, I offered to take him.

So we show up off the street and walk into the FSF offices. Noah Friedman, who was the sysadmin at the time, set us up with accounts, and they parked us in front of internet connected Unix workstations, and they basically ignored us after that. We did our best to stay out of the way. But that day, and the follow on days, we learned a lot about Unix, and about the Internet.

Looking back, I am still amazed that they gave us guys off the street full access to the computers and network. But you have to understand, back then free software was part of a larger vision of open access to computers. The vision was to give everyone free access to computers, and the complaint was that you could not give free access to computers, because the software was proprietary. You had to protect it, so the solution was to create free software.

That vision changed shortly after we got there. They had one or more users log into the FSF computer and delete important files, and so RMS had to get a secret password. This was quite traumatic to RMS, and one day he was in tears about it, saying that his life's work was ruined, etc. My friend and I were in the office at the time, as they were all discussing it. As usual, we were trying to stay invisible, but we were shooting messages back and forth, saying, "Can you believe this? Do you think he will really leave the FSF?", etc. I remember it was such a big event that it made the NY Times. But apparently RMS got over it, as he is still with the FSF today.

And through the generosity of RMS and the FSF this History major was able to use the skills that I gained to make a good living and provide for my family. For that I will always be grateful.

Story 2: Oracle and NewI\O

There are many stories of how techs have had ideas that they wanted to freely give to their employers, but their employers were not interested, the most famous of which perhaps is the story about how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak offered their Apple computer to both HP and Atari and were turned down. I have my own story along this line with NewI\O, and I tell it not because I have any bitterness towards my employer, but rather because I find it amusing and interesting, and I hope you do, too.

In the mid 90s I was big fan of the internet and I was a programmer, so naturally I wanted to write internet programs. At that time, the one true answer for internet programs was Java, so I took Sun's java programming classes, and then started coding. I was working on a game called JavaTrek! But no matter what I did, I could never get the screen to paint when I wanted it to. So I got frustrated and gave up. A couple years later, I tried my same code on a newer version of Java and it worked fine, so it must have been an early Java bug. But anyway, in the meantime, I gradually became aware of other things about the Java system that I did not like, which I will share in a minute.

Over the years, other methods of creating internet applications arose, but nothing really inspired me, and instead, I started imagining in my mind the way it ought to be, the system that I would really like to use.

If you recall the Internet prior to the WWW, or even computers prior to the Internet, there was (and still is) a standard I\O. This was a text based interface. You could dial into or telnet into remote computers and since everything was text based, you could use programs on that computer with no problem, even if your computer was a totally different make and model. Everything was standard. What I envisioned was to split the program logic from the display, and connect them via a network layer and create a New Standard I\O (which I call NewI\O) that took advantage of more modern concepts such as pointing devices, graphics and sound, and networking, but still standardized for all platforms. This is similar to how X works.

Then about late 2001, during the tech bust I lost my job, which is a scary thing if you have a wife and kids, but about 4 months later I was able to land a job with Oracle. So I wanted to learn more about my new company so I read one of the many books about the Leader of Oracle Larry Ellison, and I learned that he is tired of being #2. Larry badly wants to be #1. And it occurred to me that I knew how he could do it. The answer was simple: paradigm shift. (This reminds me of that Star Trek episode where the the Enterprise is crashing down to the planet surface, and the problem is explained to Q, and Q said the answer is simple: change the gravity constant!). Simple! Change the Paradigm! If you are the company ahead of the change, expecting the change, driving the change, then you can easily be #1.

Further, there was no need to come up with something. The paradigm had already changed and that was the internet, but in my mind, no one had (or has) really taken advantage of the change yet. Oracle was sort of right when it tried to advocate the network computer, but it got burned because that was the wrong system to take advantage of the change. The right system, in my opinion, was what I had been dreaming about for a number of years, and that was my own NewI\O.

So at Oracle, in the employee handbook, under a section entitled "Open Door Policy" it states that if any employees had any ideas for senior (and it specifically states senior) managers, that they should send it on in. Secondly at Oracle, there is an employees data base that is hierarchical you can look up yourself, and it also lists your manager, and you can keep clicking up the chain, and I learned there was about 7 people between Larry and I. So I created a nice presentation (which is still available on the NewI\O website). I called it Project Dreadnought, named after the battleship that was such a paradigm shift, that all battleships were classified as dreadnoughts, or not dreadnoughts. And I sent it to everyone in my management chain up to Larry. What do you think happened?

Well what happened is I learned something. I learned that Employee handbooks are for employees, but not for managers. I never did hear from Larry, but I heard from my manager right away. So anyway, for suggesting a method we might become #1 I got a letter of reprimand. They said it was not necessarily for having an idea, it was for sending it to all of the managers at the same time. They said I should have gone to one manager at a time up the chain of command.

So I said, Great! I will do that then! Sign me up for the first manager! Then they said, sorry we know that that is what the letter we just handed you says to do, but you can not do that either. We are just not interested.

I was afraid of that. The problem is that I am on the system admin side of Oracle. There are no developers anywhere around where I work. I was hoping to lob it over the fence to where someone might be interested, but apparently that did not work.

So anyway, now days I just keep my mouth shut and do my job. But on my own time, I keep working on my project: NewI\O.

Inspirational Transition to Tech Discussion

This is why I am here tonight for Open Source Fest. There is one common denominator for all open source projects. Do you know what it is? Have they told you yet? All open source projects are recruiting. Did Linus create Linux? No he inspired and coordinated a community to help him build it. That is why Open Source is so great. We can all help and contribute to create something great that we can all then freely use. We can all participate in this process, whether you are a coder than can help build, or a user that can help test, or a writer that can help document. You, too, can help build the future.

So what I will be showing you tonight, is not a finished product. It is the kernel of an idea. When Linux was first announced it did not have a filesystem, it did not have X, it did not have networking, but people on the minix mailing list could picture in their minds how great it would be when these things were all added, and since it was open source, they could be added by anyone. In the same way, I need you to extrapolate on the possibilities of my approach with NewI\O. I hope to show you enough tonight to inspire you to participate. In short I am here tonight to recruit you to join the NewI\O community.

I can not pay you anything, but someday when you can list on your resume that you were a core developer for NewI\O you are going to get a very good job!

I will have a discussion on the reasons and vision for the project, as well as a technical discussion of how it works currently, and lastly I will demo the system.

'LIVE" Era is Coming

2006-07-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

Despite platform problems, internet based applications are on their way, even from Microsoft, ready or not.

Flash 2

2006-07-13T01:19:00.000-07:00

I read this article and I just get confused. When would you use Flex / Flash, and when would you use Ajax, or Java?

Open Source Fest

2006-07-13T00:54:00.000-07:00

I will be speaking on NewI\O at the Open Source Fest in San Antonio tonight. If you are in the area, please stop by and check it out.

Back Button Problems

2006-07-13T00:41:00.000-07:00

Here is an example of part of the problem with web based applications and programming them. I do not want to have to deal with this.

The Web is a page-by-page medium. The backward and forward buttons on your browser's toolbar direct the browser from page to page. When Macromedia's Flash became all of the rage, developers and users started to see how Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) break this metaphor. You might click around a few sites, land on a Flash-based Web site, then click around in it for a few minutes. One click of the Back button and the ride is over. Rather than going one step backward within the Flash site, you completely lose your place.

Google Spreadsheet

2006-06-08T09:25:00.001-07:00

Information Week reviews Google Spreadsheet. I agree with the limitations that they discuss about Google Spreadsheet. I think this just goes to show the limitations of the web and Ajax for application development. You can be sure that they would have overcome these limitations if they could have, and they might yet, but you can see that web development is not near as easy as developing for the local client.

I think this demonstrates the potential of my NewI\O concept. Since my system was developed from the ground up to run applications, NewI\O spreadsheet would not have near the limitations that an Ajax version of a spreadsheet would.

I would like to disagree with the last comment, about it not making sense to share spreadsheet data. The #1 person you want to share data with is yourself. I want an internet spreadsheet so I can access my spreadsheet data and manipulate it anywhere I have access to a computer that is connected to the net.

First Post!

2006-06-03T02:22:00.000-07:00

This is the first post I have seen mentioning NewI\O that I did not start. Cool. It is nice getting the idea into the technical thought pool.

Actually Google Search turns up even earlier posts...

Threat to Humanity

2006-06-03T02:14:00.000-07:00

I spoke recently at the Austin Linux User Group about NewI\O. They were very impressed with the concept and the speed of the apps demonstrated. However, one person said that while he was impressed with the technology, he thought that there was a real danger in it, and in fact that it was bad for humanity. I thought it was a real compliment that none of the other members present thought the remark hyperbole.

The danger he saw was that if a good system existed for running applications on the server, that governments and large corporations would keep the applications and data on the server, thus denying power to the masses.

I believe that this is a valid concern, but I believe any application that denies the users ability to download the data will be at a competitive disadvantage to another app that does allow the user to have the data.

Using Cairo For Rendering

2006-05-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

I have figured out how to use SDL with cairo, so pretty much the last major technical hurdle has been solved. You can see some documentation on there here. Now it is just improve, improve, improve. Fun stuff.

Solved SCP Issues

2006-05-15T02:06:00.000-07:00

I have solved my scp issues and am finishing up integrating scp code into the Dreadnought Browser.

After this I should be able to start work on a MS Windows port so that I can demonstrate the cross platform nature of the concept, and also make it more accessible.

Web Services Not Living Up to the Hype

2006-05-15T01:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a good article about how web services has not lived up to the hype:

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2006/05/reality_promise.html

Messages Over SSH Subsystem Done!

2006-05-14T23:00:00.000-07:00

I completed the low level transport on the access controlled encrypted channel, a big accomplishment. Now working on the built in scp file transfer, and am running into some little problems.

ToDo List

2006-04-27T03:37:00.000-07:00

I have a customer who is interested in a Windows port. Here is the todo list:

1. Convert pthreads to SDL threads - done.
2. Use libSSH2 for portable, low level, secure message transport and file transfer - in progress.
3. Finish MS Windows version.

After that I intend to

4. Finish the text editor example program.
5. Publish new version.

If the data was on the server...

2006-03-24T02:24:00.000-08:00

...this could never happen.

AJAX Issues

2006-03-24T02:23:00.000-08:00

Slashdot story questioning the hype about AJAX.

SVLUG

2006-02-04T01:13:00.000-08:00

I have been invited to discuss and demo NewI\O to the large and prestigous Silicon Valley Linux User Group on August 2nd. I feel like I am getting a little momentum now.

Resource Information

2006-01-19T10:57:00.000-08:00

When a program loads a resource like a font, or an image, the client should send a message back to the program with a data structure that contains information about that resource that might be useful to the program running. The program can wait for the return message, or not, depending on the needs of the program.

Currently NewI\O does not do this, but that is the plan.

Island Hopping Campaign

2006-01-13T06:57:00.000-08:00

Do you know the strategy the U.S. used during World War 2 against the Japanese? The Japanese had many well fortified islands, and it would have taken a long time to take out each one. So instead what the U.S. did was to skip some islands and just take on certain ones. The islands left in the rear would be isolated and then wither and die on thier own.

Pointer events are difficult in a network context, because it is very difficult to make the delay not noticable to the user. Using TCP_NODELAY to disable Nagel's Algorithm, and UDP do not seem to make a significant difference.

On the other hand, the mouse is a relative newcomer in popular computing. Computers were used for years and years very productivly without a mouse. I am thinking of taking out, or at least de-emphasizing the mouse, and just pressing on in other areas. I can always re-visit the issue later when and if I have more resources than I do now. This way I will not get bogged down in one technical area.

ToDo

2005-12-29T09:24:00.000-08:00

To get ready to publish to the SDL list I need to do the following:

1. Fix apps from pointer experiments.
2. Add loading resource messages to apps that load alot of resources
3. Add screenshots to sample apps on web site
4. Add homepage fixes
5. Add team web page

Successful Demo

2005-12-14T01:40:00.000-08:00

My personal blog has an entry about a demo I did for my programming class that went very well.

Ajax Backlash

2005-12-07T23:51:00.000-08:00

The ajax backlash has already started. More comment on slashdot.org.

Outage

2005-12-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

I apologize for an outage of about 26 hours that ended this morning to both the website and the app server. I lost a switch.

Build 50 added support for resizing the window. Build 51 added support for transparent image backgrounds.

I expect to finish porting Bob Pendelton's demo game next week, and release a new version of NewI\O at that time.

It seems to me that I need to improve the process of loading resources. I need to specify a slot for a resource to go into, and then send a message back the has information about the resource in that slot, information that may be useful to the program on the server.

For example, when an image is loaded I can send back information to the program about attributes of that information, such as its size, etc. This would be a seperate message, so that ap running on the server would not have to wait for the response, unless it chose to do so.

Build 49

2005-11-02T20:31:00.000-08:00

Build 49 fixes a major bug. I was drawing in more than one thread and occasionally seeing errors. Fixed now. Also API additions. So we are bumping up the version to 0.09. All users of apps.newio.org will need to upgrade. Dreadnought should force you to upgrade anyway.

Mark Andreesen Hates Java

2005-10-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

This [slashdot.org] post claims Mark Andreesen hates Java and thinks PHP is the answer. This brings out all of the comments detailing the problems with both Java, and PHP. Naturally I agree with all of the problems I read, and think NewI\O is the real answer.

It seems so obvious to me that the problem with Internet Apps is the web. Get rid of the web and make a system designed to do what you want. How can it be any simpler than that?

NEWI\O STATUS: I am finishing up adding video support and I want to fix the event system, perhaps even add a proper event queue, and then release again, hopefully this week.

After that I want to port Bob Pendelton's demo game Bounce to NewI\O. It is a more involved graphics app demo and would be an excellent and impressive test of NewI\O's capabilities. I do not expect it will be difficult to port.

Then I want to release NewI\O again, probably to the wider SDL mailing list.

[ANNOUNCE] NewI\O Alpha 0.07 (Build 043)

2005-09-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

In accordance with the release early and release often principle, the NewI\O team is pleased to announce:

NewI\O (Alpha Version 0.07)
http://www.newio.org

What is NewI\O?

NewI\O is a system for running programs on the Internet. Instead of trying to kludge a document browser to run programs, it is an attempt to create something from the ground up to run programs.

The NewI\O system consists of:

1. The NewI\O application browser Dreadnought (http://www.newio.org/dreadnought.html)
2. The NewI\O daemon NIOd (http://www.newio.org/niod.html)
3. The NewI\O library NIO_lib (http://www.newio.org/nio_lib.html)

NewI\O currently supports keyboard and mouse events, colors, drawing primitives, fonts, images, sounds, and music. Video support is in progress.

How it Works

Type in a URL to the browser. An application is started on the server, and I/O is sent back to the browser using a simple bi-directional message scheme.

Resources such as sound or image files are downloaded just like a web browser would handle them. Therefore, the first time it runs, it will
take some time for the download. The resources are cached, so subsequent runs are much faster.

What is new?

Everything. This is the first general public release for this software.

Status

Alpha, very alpha. Major sections, such as security, are still to be implemented.

The NewI\O is system is free software. It is released under the GPL. Libraries are released under the LGPL.

There are a few small applications written for the system, although most of the work to date has been in the lower level plumbing, and not in applications. Therefore the API is very preliminary at this point. Fortunately, it is very easy to modify or add to the API.

There are two reasons game programmers may be interested in this code:

1. Game programmers may be interested in programming for and using this system. Although it will probably never be adequate for the most advanced 3D action games, there are many other types of computer games where a system such as this may be adequate and even advantageous. One of the design goals was to create a system that is very easy to program for, and in my opinion, this has been achieved so far.

2. Game programmers may be interested in the code itself as an example. Since it is designed to be a general purpose client, it uses most all of the features of the SDL and associated programming libraries. It is written in straight C, and is hopefully fairly object oriented so sections could easily be pulled out and used in your own projects.

Acknowledgments:

Sam Lantinga, Ryan C. Gordon and the rest of the SDL team
Bob Pendleton - Font and text routines
Ryan Mcguigan - SDL_prim library

We would be interested in any comments that you have.

The NewI\O Team
September 27, 2005

Scobelizer on Thin Clients

2005-09-17T01:37:00.000-07:00

Scobelizer on MS Office and thin clients. Be sure to read the article this links to.

The thin client guys fire back. Be sure to read the linked articles here and this article, too.

I believe that the more powerful the thin client software is, the more right the thin client folks will be.

Older Thin Client Discussion

2005-09-17T01:30:00.000-07:00

I constantly see articles that remind of the need for NewI\O. Here are several:

There is an older discussion of Longhorn being too fat here.

Be sure to read the article it links to here. HTML is as good as dead for apps, which is why I am working on something new that I believe to be far more powerful.

And the article this article links to here. The world does need a simpler Java, and I aim to provide it.

Preliminary Report is In

2005-07-17T03:19:00.000-07:00

I have completed my library that implements a dual threaded client server messaging system. At my work behind the slow firewall I was getting about 8 transactions per second. With this new library I am getting 800. It is even faster than I expected. Very exciting.

In fact, to do 20,000 messages (10,000 in each direction) takes about 21 seconds on my home machine. To do it through the slow firewall connection at work it take about 25 seconds. There is hardly a difference. It is amazing. I am thinking that you will hardly be able to tell that you are running an application across the network.

I can not wait to finish integrating it with my application browser and see what it looks like visually.

Apple Abandoning Java?

2005-07-17T03:17:00.000-07:00

From this Slashdot article it appears that Apple is abandoning Java. It does not look to me like the future is Java.

Remember this Acronym: DOIP

2005-06-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

DOIP is Display Over Internet Protocol. See this link. This is what I am doing, except that my version also allows you to access your own data, which seems to be the big complaint against DOIP.

TCP -> UDP

2005-06-26T03:06:00.000-07:00

I convereted my application from TCP to UDP. I went from 25 transactions per second to 33 transactions per second at the local wireless cafe. Nice but perhaps not worth the hassle of using UDP. I have hopes for a more significant speed boost when I use dual (or triple) threaded one-way communication channels.

Dreadnought Browser Status

2005-06-08T06:26:00.000-07:00

Using the Fastevents and Net2 libraries added no noticable performance increase, so it appears those were dead ends. It did make me think of a new architecture, though. I am going to try using 2 channels, 1 from the app to the browser (basically the channel I already have), and also a new channel from the browser to the app. The second channel will send event info to the app, including keyboard, mouse, window resize etc. This will be maintained as a state by the library, so when the app needs the info it is a local call. Also, I am going to see if I can get rid of confirmation return messages. Again the purpose here is to increase speed.

Java Funny

2005-06-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

This was pretty funny.

Open Tech 2005

2005-05-29T03:20:00.000-07:00

Cool, a new conference to apply to: Open Tech 2005, in London.

I believe I will finish my speed improvements and then apply to be a presenter. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Deadline June 25th.

Also the INTETAIN Conference in Italy might be good. Deadline July 18th.

First Sun, Now Apple

2005-05-23T05:17:00.000-07:00

Now rumours that Apple is interested in DOIP and the platform will be QuickTime...interesting.

Also, what is this that Sun is doing on June 1st?

For years I have wondered why the computer industry has not figured out how to run applications across the Internet very well. I think they are starting to get it now.

I probably should get NewI\O out there for it to have any chance at doing something. For the first time, I feel the window of opportunity closing...

Competitors and NewI\O

2005-05-18T06:13:00.000-07:00

All of the competitors to the NewI\O system are sort of, semi-competitors, because nothing exists that is exactly like it. If it already existed, then I would just use it, becuase, I myself am a customer, and want to program for and use it. However, since nothing like it exists, I was forced to make it myself.

Sun Microsystems has one sort of, semi-competitor to NewI/O in Java. This is a competitor in the sense that it is portrayed as a nework application system. It is not a competitor in the sence that it works totally differently from NewI\O. Java downloads virtual code and runs it on the local computer, and so is not really even a network application at all. NewI\O runs applications on a server and displays the result in a browser (similar to a thin client): totally different technologies.

I bring this up because Sun just bought out a company that is another sort of, semi-competitor: Tarantella. This technology is similar in that it runs apps on the server, and displays them on a client, but what is different about this from NewI\O is that it is desktop sharing applciation, like X-Windows or Citrix. In this case my application is different in that it has nothing to do with desktops. My system simply shares an application and leaves your desktop alone.

It also occurs to me that there is one really big difference in strategies between me, and all of these companies. The competitors are all looking at what businesses need, and are trying to develop products for them. I, on the other hand, am looking at what an individual needs, and trying to create something to meet that need. While they are looking at specific business solutions, I seek to set an Internet standard.

For this reason ease of use is critical for me. The above applications are not for the masses. A home computer user is not going to be setting up Tarantella to run some program on the Internet somewhere. It is for this reason that I chose a browser interface. Users are already familiar with it. I can see users easily typing in or even just clicking on a URL to run an application.

I believe that I am shooting higher, and will be able to easily penetrate the business market, if I succeed in setting an Internet standard, so in a way, I am doing an end around on all of these other sort of, semi-competitors.

Dreadnought Browser Status

2005-05-18T05:56:00.000-07:00

I am still not satisfied with the performance of the Dreadnought browser, so I have decided to use Bob Pendleton's Fest Event and NET2 libraries which can be found here. This will put networking in its own thread, and also allow me to go from two loops to just one. So far it does not seem too difficult to bolt them on. I have already added them in to the project with clean compiles, but the Dreadnought browser is now broken, until I fix some structural issues like combining the network queue and the event queue, and re-writing parts of my NewRPC protocol.

Alas, this means that documenting the other parts of the system, such as niod and nio_lib will have to wait.

And there are tons of API changes and additions I want to make. And then when that is all done, I really want to start using it myself to write some apps.

The problem is, there are just too many good things to do.

OpenOffice 2.0 Criticized on Use of Java

2005-05-18T05:55:00.000-07:00

Here is another article about the controvery about using Java.

Browser Source Code Released

2005-05-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

I just posted the source code for the Dreadnought browser publically for the first time. You can get it here. There is already a linux binary available. WARNING: This is VERY alpha.

REST Based Web Apps

2005-05-09T03:36:00.000-07:00

I saw this on Miguel de Icaza's web log. It just re-inforces my contention that the web is not the place for Internet applications. We need something purpose built for applications. The I told you so is pretty funny, too.

DOIP (Display Over IP)

2005-04-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

Jonathan of Sun Microsystems had an interesting take on something that he called "Display over IP" (or DOIP). This is more often called "thin client". What it is is basically running your applications on a server, and then dispaying on your machine.

Sun's solution that he talks about is based on a very powerful technology called X-Windows. X-windows has been around for a long time in the unix world. It is standard on most unix distributions as it is the default desktop for unix. It is available has an extra from Apple for Mac OS X, and from third parties for the Windows platforms. While it is wonderful on unix, it is clunky and ugly on OS X, and Windows because, unlike unix, it is not the default desktop for these platforms.

X Windows uses a powerful communication method called Remote Procedure Calls (RPC). It is basically a way for a computer to make a call to a program routine on another computer across the network.

Besides being ugly on some platforms, X-Windows also has trouble doing modern things well. For example, while it displays well, it does not handle music at all. It was designed for display only, not sound.

Now a web browser (or Internet Document Browser (IDB)) can also act as a thin client. For example, you can use it as an e-mail program to check your e-mail, or you can use it as an editor, to build web sites, as I am doing right this moment.

The big problem with a web browser is that it was not designed to be a thin client. It was designed to display documents. Because of this, it is pretty clunky as a thin client. It uses HTML and various other technologies (java script, etc) to try to do the job of a thin client.
It works, but I believe that it does not work well.

My idea is simple: make a browser that uses RPC. Viola! An Internet Application Browser (IAB).

Also, what is different about my idea, and what Jonathan is talking about, is that he is talking about small islands of thin clients. With Sun's solution you have to choose thin or thick clients. You can not have a thin client that can also run local applications and vice versa. You have to pick one or the other for all of your apps.

With my solutions you can run thin client applications on your regular thick (regular) PC or Mac. This may at first seem to go against the thoery of thin clients, but the afvantage is choice. You can phase out your local applications over time, as your internet applications become useful.

Here are some discussion on the above referenced essay: 1, 2, and
3.

Rejected Again

2005-04-27T22:04:00.000-07:00

I just heard from the 6th International Free Software Forum. They turned down my proposal for a talk.

The answer was rather interesting though. It seems you can go online and see how they rated your proposal. I had three people rate my project.

The first thing they do is rate themselves on the subject that you are proposing. Reviewers #1 and #3 rated themselves "not experts, but comfortable with subject". They both rated my project 4 of 5 in relavence. I am a little puzzled by this score. Not sure why my free software would not be 100% relavent to a free software conference, but anyway. One rated my proposal a 5 and one a 4 (out of 5) for technical quality. They also check you out by poking around on the web and one rated me a 5 and one rated me a 4 for experience (by that I presume subject matter expert). Lastly both gave my project a weak acceptance (yes, but not strong yes) recommendation.

However one reviewer rated himself an expert on my topic, so presumably he would know better than the others, who are not experts. He gave my proposal a 5 for relavence, a 5 for technical quality, gave me a 5 for expereince, and gave my project a strong acceptance rating. Top marks all the way across.

It makes me feel good that the guy who knew the most about the subject, wanted to see it the most.

There is a bias toward existing (and more accurately famous) projects at these conferences, because they have to sell tickets to them to pay for the hall, etc. So actually I am encouraged that I got as far as I did with this, especially since there was virtually nothing on the web for NewI\O at the time of the submission.

It would have been nice to make a big splash at a conference to debut it, but I can not wait until next year to try again, so I will go back to the original plan and annouce it on various technical mailing lists.

Some might think it strange that I post my rejections on here, but they do not deter me. For some reason my mind tells me, "Don't worry, someday they will wish they had NewI\O on the agenda". This could be confidence or this could possibly be mental illness. My whole motivation to continue is to find out which it is. Heheh. :)

Problems with .NET

2005-04-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a somewhat recent article about problems with Microsoft's .NET platform:

http://www.ddj.com/documents/s=9211/ddj050201dnn/

Here is some discussion on this article.

I post this not to put any other developers or organizations down, but rather I believe that they are problems with all current solutions, and that no one has gotten internet applications right, yet. It is for this reason that I am working on NewI\O.

John Carmack Destroys Java!

2005-04-18T05:20:00.001-07:00

In his March 27th blog entry John Carmack (of Doom game fame), discusses coding games for cell phones. In it he really clobbers Java. I quote:

"The biggest problem is that Java is really slow."

and

"Write-once-run-anywhere. Ha. Hahahahaha."

In my opinion the latter is really the biggest problem. The whole reason for Java's existance is the latter.

Java as a network application environment has basically 2 parts:

1. Download portable byte code

and

2. Run portable byte code.

The first part is the network part and of course downloading is very simple, and this part works flawlessly, but in my opinion does not get you where you want to go.

The second part is the problem. Since Java can not control the execution environment (every computer is different) it fails in its mission to run everywhere. This is what John is talking about.

At work I have to have 5 different versions of Java installed on my PC, because each application was developed for a different version of Java, and (apparently) they can not run on a different version of Java. This does not even include trying to run on a computer with a totally different operating system, such as a Linux computer.

My New I/O system is simpler: run the application on a host (where you can control the environment), and display on the client. Since it is much simpler to display then to run a program, you you will be able to "write once, display anywhere", and in the case of New I/O it will really work.

Chris

P.S. Here is some more Java controvery.

FISL 6.0

2005-04-18T05:20:00.000-07:00

My strategy for New I/O is to create an open source platform and attract developers who are better coders than me to the project. If the platform were then to achieve wide-spread use, then there would be a great oportunity to form a company to commercialize it by selling support, enhancements, applications, etc.

To that end I have applied at various Free Software Conferences, in an attempt to garner publicity for my project. One of them was FISL 6.0, the 6th International Free Software Forum, June 1-4, 2005, in Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil. I had not heard from them in some time, so I was not hopeful, but tonight I got this e-mail:

Hello Chris Nystrom,

We're in the last step in fisl6.0's lecture selection process. We had a
high number of submitted proposals, all of high quality and,
unfortunatelly, we cannot accept them all in our program.

We inform you that your lecture proposal for fisl6.0, with title
"newio - an internet application environment",
have not entered this year program yet, but there's still a
possibility of it being accepted, depending on other factors.

Therefore, we ask you to wait: as soon as we can, we
will notify you of the final result.

Feel free to contact us to solve any doubts you may have by e-mail:
temario@softwarelivre.org

Regards,

--
fisl6.0 Program Committee
temario@softwarelivre.org

Cool! I am still in the running! This would really be a big boost to my project to get some exposure like this.

Chris

"Web services may collapse under its own weight"

2005-04-18T05:18:00.001-07:00

On March 4th, 2005 Jonathan Schwartz, president of Sun Microsystems wrote:

I'm beginning to feel that all the disparate web service specs and fragmented standards activities are way out of control. Want proof? Ask one of your IT folks to define web services. Ask two others. They won't match. We asked folks around the room - it was pretty grim. It's either got to be simplified, or radically rethought.

He is right. I vote for radically rethought.

Web services are basically services (applications) provided across the internet using the web infrastructure. This is a flawed idea from the beginning, because this infrastructure was not designed to do this. I am not saying that it can not be done, or will not work. What I am saying is that it is sub-optimal. The proof is that no one would design it this way, if the web had not already been in existance.

That is why I like my New I/O system. It is simple. Very simple. You may think that it is a negative calling something simple, like calling something simple minded for example, but it is not. In the computer field, as in good writing, simplicity is elegance.

A couple of other points. He is also right about C/C++. It is very much still alive, which is why I am basing my system on it. Also, he is right about Java, although, I think it is because the alternatives are limited, and Sun was disproportionally influencial during the internet era, rather than because it is the best possible solution.

Chris

New I\O

2005-04-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have this idea for a new internet service. Basically, it is a network application browser, designed specifically to run programs, instead of display documents, like a web browser.

I work for Oracle, the world's #2 software company. So anyway, I send e-mail to Larry Ellison and the entire chain of management a presentation, pitching it as a way to pass up Microsoft to become the #1 software company. Here is a link to the presentation:

http://www.newio.org/~cnystrom/Dreadnought.ppt

So do I get a response? Even a polite thanks, but no thanks? No! I almost get fired! I get a letter of reprimand. You would think that companies would want people coming up with ideas to take the company to the next level, but alas, I am too far down the totem pole to be able to give ideas.

The funny thing is, in the compay handbook, under a section titled "Open Door Policy" it says that if any employees have any ideas for _Senior_ (emphasis mine) management to go ahead and send it in.

Ironic, huh?

Chris

Welcome to the Blog

2005-04-12T02:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the New I/O Blog. This is the official communication channel.

Thank you, and Happy Computing!

The Management

New I\O

The Future of Computing (Part 2)

NewIO Presentation for UTACM

Epiphany

Rails Disaster

Dreadnought Software

Recent Comment on NewIO

nIde

The Emerging Economic Paradigm of Open Source

GravityZoo

Microsoft Silverlight

What's wrong with HTTP?

Has Silicon Valley Lost its Edge?

NewIO News 4/8/07

BarCamp Austin

Book Outline

Current Witch's Brew is Apalling

Prentice Hall Wants To Publish an eBook on NewIO!

The Web 2.0 Myth

How To Tell The Open Source Winners From The Losers

NewIO Version 0.11 Build 065

Google Exec Coaxes IT Managers Toward Online Software

Google's Bosworth: Why AJAX Failed (Then Succeeded)

On 9fans

[ANNOUNCE] NewI\O (Alpha Version 0.11 Build 062)

New Wiki

Midas Networks Donates Server

Huge Success!

NewIO Merchandise!

Curt Finch, CEO of Journyx Endorses NewIO

Web 3.0

Another Laptop Stolen with Data

CACTUS Meeting Report

Build 55 Relelased

The Future of Rich Internet Applications

Speaking Engagements

Google Office

NewI\O Hosting Site

Open Source Fest

Open Source Fest Remarks

'LIVE" Era is Coming

Flash 2

Open Source Fest

Back Button Problems

Google Spreadsheet

First Post!

Threat to Humanity

Using Cairo For Rendering

Solved SCP Issues

Web Services Not Living Up to the Hype

Messages Over SSH Subsystem Done!

ToDo List

If the data was on the server...

AJAX Issues

SVLUG

Resource Information

Island Hopping Campaign

ToDo

Successful Demo

Ajax Backlash

Outage

Build 49

Mark Andreesen Hates Java

[ANNOUNCE] NewI\O Alpha 0.07 (Build 043)

Scobelizer on Thin Clients

Older Thin Client Discussion

Preliminary Report is In

Apple Abandoning Java?

Remember this Acronym: DOIP

TCP -> UDP

Dreadnought Browser Status

Java Funny

Open Tech 2005

First Sun, Now Apple

Competitors and NewI\O

Dreadnought Browser Status

OpenOffice 2.0 Criticized on Use of Java

Browser Source Code Released

REST Based Web Apps

DOIP (Display Over IP)