The industrial revolution was about using Tools as Physical Amplifiers. Prior to the steam engine, the oxen/bullock/horse/donkey/elephant was the dominat non-human power-source. Humans can work at about 125-250W continuously (1/8 to 1/4 of a kilowatt, or 1/6 to 1/3 Horsepower). Elite athletes can produce 500W or more for short periods. All biological systems have a short and medium term "duty-cycle" - our muscles get tired, non-linearly, and need short-term recovery and longer-term rest and recuperation. Sleep and recreation are about the nervous system/mind/brain. From chapters of Taylor's book Scientific Management here's proof you get more out of people by making them rest! He improved average output from 12 tons/day to 47 tons/day through careful (psychological) selection and enforcing rest periods. Counter-intuitive, but well-researched. For example, when pig iron is being handled (each pig weighing 92 pounds), a first-class workman can only be under load 43...
The 2005 Australian Computer Crime and Security Survey (PDF) reports that at the end of 2004 "the hackers turned pro". The ACCSS index may be easier for downloads. For 2-3 years now, most malware has satisfied the definition of Organised Crime - it's theft, it's purposeful, it's co-ordinated. In an August 2006 post , I reported the ACCSS comments and new comments from SANS . ZDNet now report that Rootkits becoming increasingly complex and operate by stealth. They say: Rootkits -- malicious software that operates in a stealth fashion by hiding its files, processes and registry keys--have grown over the past five years from 27 components to 2,400, according to McAfee's Rootkits Part 2: A Technical Primer (PDF). If you use a Microsoft system and connect to the Internet without extensive protection, you should be afraid, very afraid. And even large organisations who do everything right, are still open to targetted "zero day" attacks. The first Windo...
Horace Dediu of asymco charts commodity computing up-take (as yearly sales) since 1975 in " The evolution of the computing value chain ". It includes personal computers, smartphones and more. Current PC (desktop+laptop) and Android sales are about equal at 350MM/year, with iPhones ~150MM/year and iPads closing in on 100MM/year: or near 1Bn new personal compute devices per year. With current growth rates, how soon will we saturate the IPV4 address space? There are two questions in there: How many IPV4 addresses are left? Where? Each region has its own challenges. How fast is the demand for Internet addresses growing? New Sales are not the whole story: replacements account for most sales in mature markets. The active PC fleet is now somewhat static. When the smartphone and tablet markets mature, Sales will still hold up with replacements catering for the 2-5 year product life. The 32-bit IPV4 address space can assign no more than 4Bn unique identities. My guesstimate of realis...
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