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I recently decided to buy the X-keys L-Trac Red Trackball because I just like track balls and this was one of the best reviewed trackballs I could find. Over all I m happy with my purchase but I have had some issues and I wanted to explain in this article how I solved them. My hope Continue reading X-Mouse Button Control, Web Navigation, Tilt Wheel and Remote Desktop
Yaron Y. Goland www.goland.org yaron AT goland DOT org OBJECTIVE: Be part of an outstanding team building massively scalable software infrastructures where I can contribute my skills as a software architect/technical program manager. EMPLOYMENT 04/11- Principal Developer/Architect Microsoft Redmond, WA Architect/Dev Manager/Core Dev/PM for an open source peer to peer enabled web framework I…
In this article I argue that depending on how one programs one’s client, one can build a Consistent and Partition Tolerant or Available and Partition Tolerant system on top of Bitcoin or really any block chain. And no, that isn’t a contradiction and no this doesn’t violate the CAP theorem. [Note: Lots of updates in Continue reading The block chain and the CAP Theorem
Block chains can be strongly consistent but not in the normal deterministic sense we are used to from consensus protocols like Paxos. Instead the strong consistency is probabilistic. That is, if one waits for long enough then the probability of a particular transaction being removed from the chain falls to negligible levels. This then provides Continue reading How to make block chains strongly…
It turns out that building a distributed database with ACID behavior (aka a block chain) isn’t easy, it requires a lot of code and a lot of processing. As a result block chains like Bitcoin can process around 4 transactions/second. A pretty slow pace for a globe spanning system. To work around this and other Continue reading Going off chain for storage
My day job has required me to look into issues related to using the block chain in the enterprise. This lead me to a simple question - why would an enterprise be interested in the block chain for running its own business? Near as I can tell the purpose of the block chain is to Continue reading Why are enterprises interested in the block chain?
Previously I waxed poetic about the amazing powers of Serval to create mesh based Internet infrastructure for developing and less developed countries (LDCs). The thesis being that if we had meshes of Wifi endpoints that could move data around without charge then people could have local applications on their smart phones that run peer to Continue reading How do we build apps for this wonderful mesh…
Smart phones are showing up in the poorest of countries. Even the Internet is showing up but it’s still quite expensive. But for a reasonable price we can deploy Wifi based local mesh infrastructures that can let people run applications on their smart phones and communicate locally with people around them. We have the technology! Continue reading Building local Internet infrastructure for…
I needed to figure out how many Wifi endpoints which had a range of around 300 feet would be needed to form a mesh that covers a square mile. I do a bunch of 1/2 baked math below to estimate that 138 endpoints would be needed for complete coverage. For some work I’m doing I Continue reading A quick and dirty way to calculate endpoints needed for forming a mesh with radios
Serval is a project that wants to enable mobile phones to work no matter what. They have built mesh technology to let mobiles make voice calls as well as share data and have an app available on Android to use this technology. This is a technology that Thali could potentially really leverage. In the first Continue reading Serval and Thali