NIST Next Gen Cryptographic Hash Algorithm Competition

NIST announced it is seeking a new cryptographic hash algorithm to replace or extend the existing SHA-2 family of algorithms.
The existing algorithm is described by the FIPS PUB 180-1 standard.
I am exploring whether or not such a new algorithm might be devised that uses, at least to some extent, new approaches to fulfill the requirements for NIST cryptographic hash algorithms rather than simply extending SHA-2 by modifying the number of rounds executed, the bit length of the final digest result, or the order/mix of bitwise compound operation performed per round.
I am sure that I am not the first to wonder about new approaches to this problem so maybe the current approach is the best that can be found.
I'll keep exploring the concepts just for the hell of it....

Feedback in Decision Support Systems

We monitor cell phone communications coming from certain parts of the world with the hope of detecting terrorist plans or intentions. They learn of this so they switch to other forms of communications. The question this raises is an old one.
How does or can the act of observing affect the behavior of the things being observed?
This question can be re-framed with regard to decision support system or decision analysis in which case the question becomes, in a much more indirect sense, how are the predictions inherent in generating data presented to users to aid in decision support affected by the ultimate decisions that are made based on them as those same predictions and decisions are made repeatedly over time?
In simpler terms, when does, if it does, the tail begin to wag the dog?
If it does, then how can such decision support systems compensate or dynamically adapt such that predictions remain valid and in fact become more accurate over time?

.NET CLI-RE vs Java JRE Why 2 VMs?

We now have two major virtual machines in the form of the .NET Common Language Runtime environment and the Java Runtime Environment

Why not develop a single open source virtual machine?
Or better yet, a common interface between VMs and operating systems, such that any VM can be plugged into any OS using said interface.
And while we are at it, why not a common interface between VMs such that any VM RE can be plugged into any other runtime environment.

XBox only for games

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but while investigating what I would need to do in order to develop software for the XBox platform I came across rules or policies that basically state that Microsoft does not support the development of non-game software for the XBox platform.

However, I think many interesting non-game applications could be developed for XBox as well as other game systems. These applications could take advantage of all positive aspects of game systems such as graphics, controllers, display on tv instead of monitor, etc.

Imagine navigating through some highly visual document library or presentation using a game controller and a plasma tv.

Whatever....

Hive Art

Experiments in group "art" or group design have been attempted before, but few examples can be found where the anonymous group designs something simultaneously without an explicit "voting" type mechanism. What if the only voting mechanism was immediate visual feedback and a kind of free-form change by modification.

Such an experiment is being attempted at Theory Flux's Collaborative Art Project
Anonymous contributors can change a public color bitmap in real-time and see other's changes as they are made simply be refreshing their browser screen.

What else can the hive design?

New WS Arena Project

The Source Forge project Web Services Exchange Point with Extensible Points Of Presence (WS-EPEPOP), renamed "WS Arena", has begun new website home at wsarena.org
Project is still in planning and modeling stage.

New Open Source Web Service Inter Enterprise

Newly registered project on Source Forge, " Web Services Exchange Point with Extensible Points Of Presence (WSEPEPOP)", aims to serve as a platform for web service publishers to access and use something like the Internet Exchange Point used by ISPs but in the context of web service points of presence with the option of using object brokering, application servers, local messaging, authentication, communication back-pipes to publisher's own systems, local persistence and database mechanisms, business process orchestration/choreography, based partly on wsdl/uddi/soap/bpel under the hood.
This will free web service publisher from exposing local port bindings as well as allow for new opportunities in integration and inter-enterprise services. Web service publishers might also off load simple processing to these exchange points and increase method response times as well a decrease network and compute loads on own systems.

Weblog blogging robots

I was still considering a post to Web n.0 about botnets . It makes me wonder if one could develop some sort of artificially intelligent application that could generate semantically and syntactically correct text summaries and/or editorial based on some type of seed input.
Such input might simply include headlines, blogger meta tags, etc.
One could even develop parameters to modulate the mood, tone, and negative/positive perspective, etc of the output text.
All kinds of adaptive parameters could be implemented and tested.
Such applications might be deployed in mass to influence opinion or otherwise spread ideas.

Botnets and Swarming Behavior

AlphaR in Web n.0 forum writes in regard to an item on Slashdot about botnets. The writer speculates about ... "autonomous network viruses" .. seeking .. "to coordinate their behavior as a community" and probing systems using trial and error type behavior.
Other "semi-autonomous agent applications" the writer says might one day be used to "spread information, truthful or otherwise, or tilt news and/or polls toward a certain opinion".

Probably not that far fetched...

2007 What Useful Wireless Stuff

Will we use the iphone like we used the ipod?
The iphone, or whatever they end up calling it, promises to make our lives better.
But combining useful tools does not always make them any more useful than they are individually.
It seems that usually the opposite happens.
One wireless application I would love to see in an inexpensive adaptable form would be a desktop flat panel monitor that I could detach from a base and continue using to view documents or the web while reclining on my couch. Simple mobility....

JVMs as Objects

Terracotta open source clustering software can abstract JVMs as though they were Objects themselves. String together virtual machines as you might link POJOs. Combined with grid technology and software, this type of infrastructure could revolutionize the way we think about software architectures employing Java implementations. I could imagine some uses for this kind of technology in Web 2.0 setups where networks of virtual machines could be dynamically generated to cooperate in parallel or otherwise, to accomplish group tasks in new and fascinating ways.

SOA Applications as Objects

Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) derive their potential from extending the Object Oriented (OO) paradigm as well as some facets of Aspect Oriented (AO) programming to the level of applications and/or whole systems. The Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is one part of SOAs that can provide a starting point on which to build an SOA or Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) substructure and can provide an insightful view to begin understanding how SOAs work.
One interesting open source ESB named Mule is a good example of a foundation on which an organization can begin to implement a SOA.