July 2011

We had a great conference this year. In my opinion the topics were more relevant and presentations had more quality. To know who is who check: http://www.ictf.ox.ac.uk/conference/2011/whos-who.html

Please note that PDFs of the workshops can now be found here: http://www.ictf.ox.ac.uk/conference/2011/workshops.html

An Introduction to Biometrics by Julian Ashbourn

He gave some examples to illustrate ‘history’:
Egyptians – had a way to identify people using marks on forehead, etc
Galton – Eugenics
Henry Goddard – Feeble-Mindedness
Juan Vucetich – fingerprint system based upon Galton’s ideas. First positive identification – Francisca Rojas – adopted by police – Galton-Henry system adopted by Scotland Yard

So, biometrics is not new idea…. what changed through time was the use of computers/technology to allow automation.

How does it work

define what we want to measure/match
extract features/biometric reference
statement of ‘likeness’

Two moments:
1. Registration – capture sample, extract features, create reference/biometric code (hash)
2. Live operation – capture sample, extract freatures, create code, retrieve stored code and compare!!!
– problems with accuracy and false positives – what comes to my mind is the case of Shirley McKie, for example (false positive, or better, a lack of proper judgment from the specialists involved)

The use of “User Psychology Index” to compare theoretical performance vs real performance. You can check some sample images from a software that does that.

Biometric matching is not an exact science…

Important:
Where to use? everything? security? convenience only?
Who the biometrics belongs to? Americans say it theirs, a person say that is theirs. So depends who holds it/the information, who will decide how is going to be used? Should a biometric be covertly? (here he gave an example of people watching a big screen and the screen scanned the ‘biometrics’ and started to show information on screen according to analysis on the public / face recognition (male/female, age, etc).)

Because it is biometric doesn’t mean that is correct.

Enrollment procedure very important. Establishin and identity, template quality (if the quality is bad, you can have bad data), user instruction, etc.
Be extra careful about exception handling; repudiation; and use of biometric forensics.

Ideas, new frontiers…

Biometrics in the cloud – (my personal reaction: “aaaaaaaaaaahhhh”)
Federated identities – implications for the registration process, who owns them? who services them? WHO MAINTAINS THE DIRECTORY OF BIOMETRICS?
Aligntment with profiles, privileges, location, device and other factors.
Virtualised environments and identity measures

Brave new world
Do we want the William Shakespeare version of it?

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t!
The Tempest (V, i)

OR these other verions:
Aldus Huxley, George Orewell, H.G. Wells

Final conclusion

Maybe is a good time to take a fresh look at what we might achieve with this technology.

Re-statement of relevance (where to use),
best practices around the systems integration,
clarity around privacy, ownership and data protection (on an international scale).
Clarity of purpose with respect to large scale public sector applications (and communication)

Book suggestion (same author): Guide to Biometrics for Large-Scale Systems – ISBN 978-0-85729-466-1

The Python Scripting Language by Bruce Beckles (e-Science specialist)

Did some interviews to academics/students/staff to identify what they need in computing support.
Answers: basic programming skills, easy access to libraries (not reinvent the wheel), lack of time (scientists, not programmers), return of investment.
Then, repeated the interview to social science and answers were the same/similar.

Why python?

good first language – match basic programming skills
loads of libraries available
‘instant gratification’ because is interpreted
strict about syntax
object oriented
does its own garbage collection
dynamically typed/strongly typed

Common ‘academic’ libraries:
NumPy – numerical python
SciPy – scientific python – scipy.org/Topical_Software

There is a Python Package Index – http://pypi.python.org/pypi – that could help in finding the package you might need.

Ubiquity

the capacity of being everywhere or in all places at the same time

Python everywhere: OS, types of application, disciplines, people

Alternative Implementations

CPython – bytecode interpreter
IronPython .net
Jython – Java
Stackless – Branch of CPython supporting microthreads

Where used?
Many places/projects, a few examples:

Eve Online – multiplayer online game, written in stackless python
Web apps – Django, turbogears, Zope/Plone,
Graphical applications in Linux are written in Python
Glade – gui builder written in Python, can be use to create GUI
Robots:PyVISA and PySerial
Embedded systems — mesh network
Written in Python:

Gutenkarte – book catalog
PyArchint – excavatioon management tool
Pleiades – cartographic framework

Integration/interfacing with existing code:
c, c++ > swig > python
fortran > f2py > python
java > jython > python
.net > ironPython > python

Python 2 (still supported for about 3-4 years), slowly the most common libraries are being converted to Python 3

Challenge for Computer SVCS in HE by Tom Mortimer

UCISA – Conferences, training sessions, lobbing in all UK universities

Top concerns:
1 – ongoing funding and sustainable resourcing of IT
2 – delivering services under sever financial constraint (new concern compared to 2008)
3 – providing a quality, resilent service (structure of service)
4 – IT strategy and planning
5 = business systems to support the institution
5 = organisational change and process improvement
7 – IT/IS service quality (delivery of the service)
8 = benchmarking, costing and value for money (new concern compared to 2008) – 2011 meeting – Know your numbers
8 = mobile computing, anytime, anywhere computing, home working (new concern compared to 2008) 2011 meeting done by Paul Golding
10 = cloud, managed services and alternative service delivery models (new concern compared to 2008)
10 = use of technology in teaching
12 – governance of IT

Concerns that are ‘out’: environmental and energy and data centres (feel that these concerns were ‘dealt with’)

Iceberg example (12% above water, 88% below)

How IT spend money: 5-15% transform, 5-15% grow, 70-90% run the business
IT expenditure – driven by business needs and funding pressures

Ideally increase percentages of transformation and growth to up to 40% and reduce the running of the business to 60% through resources and funding.

Multi-platform Mobile Apps by Greg Jennings (IT manager – Hertford College)

Started with DVDs for things about Hertford. Film, sound track with orchestra, 20000 cds over the years….
But to reduce costs and look ‘in the loop of technology’ they decided to invest in mobile apps. Starting with iOS then add one another platform per year.

Phonegap – framework for making apps. Don’t need to relarn Object C, can design for many platforms (symbian, iOS, #Blackberry, etc…)
What phonegaps gives you: accelerometer, geolocation, etc…

What you will need: html + css + phonegap + device + SDK
Starting from iOS/android – they limited their project to 50hs development if it was to be longer than that they would scratch the idea.
Phonegap, jQTouch – free

How to start
Design – keep it simple, design on paper first (useful article, not included on the ICTF, if you like wireframing, I highly recommend Balsamiq mockups)
XCode, – (xcode3 is quite nicer, but xcode4 is the way to go now…), Phonegap, JQTouch (get the whole bundle except the demos, they are too big)

Basic index.html

hello world, you can go here or there

this is here

this is there

Images are usually PNGa

PhoneGap Build – compress files into a zip and upload it don’t need to use multiple compiles

Testing – repeat the process many times, get tested on simulator, get tested on devices, etc

Publishing – screenshots, icons, descriptions, android self sign or tun off trusted sources – apple requires a registered CA or development device (ad hoc, jail broken, b2b) – android market updates happen synchronously – iTunes take 2 days but 14 days for ‘review’.

The results – iTune connect is poor and is yesterday’s info – iTunes connect is ok, android market is great – android app andlytics is great app

Json – why should you use it? it is small/compact/great – why not xml? because doesn’t scale well, too much info you don’t need to know.

Building a search – mysql back end, php ‘fuzzy’ query page, separate page lookup.html within the app for ease of writing – what we wanted it to do: either retain user details or do a look up of anyone’s details. (this part I missed a bit, so it may clarify when I get an update with the presenter’s slides)

Links
https://build.phonegap.com
http://www.jqtouch.com
https://itunesconnect.apple.com
http://testing.hertford.ox.ac.uk/www
http://developer.android.com/index.html

Green Open data & sustainability by Alex Dutton and Howard Noble

Main idea: check how much saving happens with people turning off their pc before going home. Also, making this data available so people get aware of it.

Meter data is open at Oxford
https://sites.google.com/site/jiscopentochange

Problem with efergy – smart metering – might help in the begining but once you don’t have more reduction people will get bored and start to consume more.

Ways of presenting the information to people:

Graph A-G rating (like the refrigerator scale)
Are we saving energy? NO, 2.7% more than UK.
tidystreet.org – graph on street
Graph with the polar bear sad – not very good for some people
Energy dashboard – showing in reception

I urge developers to use data.ox.ac.uk to represent electricity as a public good, i.e. help others understand how private consuption has public ramifications. Help reduce the ignorance that propelling us to a tragedy of the commons and/or social injustices with respect to electricity, clean water, air quality, natural gas, nuclear waste, fish stocks…
Please get creative with the University electricity meter readins and help us upload more data sets.

More widgets on website – “how we are doing”
Tags/barcodes on bins to weight how much is reclyclable or not

Apple Technology Update by Stuart Anderson

OS X Lion is the new release (the new big cat) has 250+ new features as:

muti-touch gestures
full-screen apps
mission control
mac app store
launchpad
resume and auto save
versions
mail with ‘conversations’ (which looks a lot like the google mail already
server

Voices downloaded as needed; no printer drivers, just download when necessary; accessibility inherited – if you have a mac desktop then you can connect an iphone, ipad to it and it will inherit your accessibility features (hi-contrast, or color scheme for example).

File vault – encrypt your home folder
iCal has colouring code for slots that are too busy (a way to show you that you shouldn’t add any more opinion)
Launchpad – applications organised by category
Search – faster
Networking – you can wake up a specific drive for backup without having to wake up all drives automatically, they support DFS now
Preview – can open word documents in Preview
Privacy – location data, who can use
QuickTime Player – share directly to Flickr and Facebook
Resume – resume the whole state of the computer
Safari – loads of features, populating email
Screen Sharing – can see under the hood not only screen itself
Spotlight search – gives a preview while scrolling on the list
System – general system: can import everything from Windows machine, AppleID
Text – improving on the entering too
TextEdit – revert to other version (only the final version)???
Time machine – not always have to be online, back it up daily just syncronyse when you are online
Version – browse between versions of your document, nice interface
Resize from the corners (in Windows for ages, but now in Mac)
Multiple desktops (Linux has for ages)
Integrated Mac Store
AirDrop (friends around can receive documents without worrying about network configuration)
Mail Server 3 – beautifully design interface (finally)

iOS 5 200+ features

notification cente
newstand
reminder
twitter integrated
faster safari
reader – get the ‘clutter’ out of the way, just show content
photo – accessible from main
split keyboard to make it easier to type
share with the TV: show on tv what you are seeing on the iPad (you need an Apple TV for that)

iCloud

content in all devices
5GB free storage
itunes in the cloud
photo stream (+apple tv)
apps, books, documents and backup
contacts, calendar and mail (me.com)
iCloud API
available in full this autumn

Sense and Sendability – Novel Mobile Devices for the Future by Lyndsay Williams

sensecam@gmail.com
http://girtonlabs.com
http://sensecam.co.uk

My personal comment on this presentation: very amusing, this woman did LOADS, and some very creative things!!! Hard to describe in words… well, some of her inventions:

Camera to take pictures of room when a person crosses a door, the door frame gives a very different change in shadow: to aid people with memory problems.
SenseSurface – Knob to adjust volume on lcd screen but real 3d experience
Hand tracker for mobile phones
Detection of tremor of someone having epilepsy (hand sensor detector)
Thrill chip – record and replay skin sensations, touch, replay feeling with skin actuators like chill, heat, nerve stimulation – http://tinyurl.com/6eyvko9
Microsoft GyroTablet handheld computer with motion detection

Please have a look on her slide presentation – found on her website – it has links to youtube videos with demonstration of the technologies… http://girtonlabs.s3.amazonaws.com/GirtonLabsv260809a.pdf

Going on holiday!

ICTF 2011