Abstract: We envision a future in which clouds of microcomputers can be sprayed in an environment to provide, by spontaneously networking with each other, an endlessly range of futuristic applications. However, beside the vision, spraying may also act as a powerful metaphor for a range of other scenarios that are already under formation, from ad-hoc networks of embedded and mobile devices to worldwide distributed computing.
These last two seem like important theoretical contributions, regarding heirarchical composability of policies in coalitions. I really ought to come back to this and write more soon…
https://commerce.net/mindystaging/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/commercenet-logo-1.png00amshttps://commerce.net/mindystaging/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/commercenet-logo-1.pngams2004-08-05 21:37:122004-08-05 21:37:12Some Decentralization papers for the day
Latency matters — and embedded within this little trick forced by Reg NMS, is an agency conflict to boot: who’s really motivated to give me, the little guy, the best possible price??
The New York Stock Exchange next week will unveil a plan for further upgrading its automated execution system, Direct Plus, to enable more trades to be processed electronically. Earlier this year, the NYSE upgraded the system to handle orders of any size and to let investors use the system as often and as rapidly as they like; previously, Direct Plus was restricted to order sizes of less than 1,100 shares and investors had to wait 30 seconds before entering another order.
The NYSE plan is an effort to meet an SEC definition of “fast market” under trading rules proposed in February. That SEC definition would allow the NYSE to keep a large portion of its order flow. But the move to electronic trading will move business away from the floor. Friday was the deadline for comments on the watchdog agency’s Regulation NMS, or national market system.
The trade-through rule, which was first instituted in 1975, was designed to make sure investors got the best available price for their stock trade. A market system would not allow one customer to “trade through” an existing order without first matching that order. A customer’s order has to be routed to the destination with the best price at the moment the order is entered.
That sounds like a good idea on the surface, but the rule was enacted before electronic markets existed. Though it’s moving in the direction of automation, the NYSE is still at heart a manual system, with trades handled by specialists in particular stocks.
Nasdaq, however, is fully automated, so while a quote on a Nasdaq stock is currently executable, a quote on an NYSE stock is considered an indication and not a firm quote.
The trade-through rule as it stands means that if you place an order and the best possible quote is with a particular specialist on the floor of the NYSE, then your broker is required to route your order there. But a NYSE quote is not immediately executable–it’s more analogous to an advertised price than an actual price.
Specialists are allowed to hold an order for 30 seconds before either executing it or handing it off to another specialist—and during that time, the price may change.
https://commerce.net/mindystaging/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/commercenet-logo-1.png00amshttps://commerce.net/mindystaging/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/commercenet-logo-1.pngams2004-08-03 20:03:352004-08-03 20:03:35NYSE prices update at no more than 0.25 Hz (!)
Project Jumpstart, discussed in this article, is an effort by major pharmaceutical manufacturers to test item-level RFID tagging of drugs as an anti-counterfeiting/theft strategy.
In considering the surveillance issues, drugs are certainly a sensitive issue; on the other hand, it would be easy to “shed” the tags, as an end consumer. My question would be more toward the claims for anti-counterfeiting. Given that the means of detecting counterfeits won’t be through detecting a counterfeit tag — tags are easily copied — but in assessing the object’s claimed pedigree, it just seems too complex to work all that well. Any number of insiders could probably compromise such schemes fairly easily, for example; until and unless RFID reading throughout supply chains becomes highly pervasive, a great many products will sport pretty sparse pedigrees as it is.
A stat from the above Information Week article: “The pharmaceutical industry estimates that between 2% and 7% of all drugs sold globally are counterfeit. Earlier this year the Food and Drug Administration issued a report recommending that drugmakers use RFID on bottles of the most commonly counterfeited drugs starting in 2006 and on bottles of most drugs by 2007.”
The idea is to put together records that patients control and manage
themselves, collecting data from different providers and sharing it as
they see fit. Consumers surveyed by the group Connecting for Health
became receptive to the idea of electronic medical records after
viewing an ad showing a man falling from a ladder with the caption
“You have three seconds to remember every doctor you’ve ever seen,
every procedure you’ve ever undergone and every medicine you’ve ever
taken.” In addition to recording vital information such as next-of-kin
contacts and lists of allergies, patients could use the records to
track their own immunizations and note any mistakes in their doctor’s
records.
Step by step the National Health Information Infrastructure will get built.
https://commerce.net/mindystaging/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/commercenet-logo-1.png00amshttps://commerce.net/mindystaging/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/commercenet-logo-1.pngams2004-08-02 13:26:182004-08-02 13:26:18Your Medical History On A Microchip
Depending upon your POV, TP could either be PEP/SOAP (or similar), or HTTP itself. mod-pubsub probably best reflects the latter position, but I could see value in the former.
I’m not sure that there’s much in the way of a significant architectural difference between the two, but the latter would be a more useful self-contained package; a personal server, I reckon…
Oh, and parameterized topics! Woot! I think that’s just an optimization, but an important one…
Note how routing messages to you via email doesn’t work, but routing blog comments to an initial message of yours does? There’s a lesson there, somewhere.
TP will likely have both PEP/SOAP and HTTP gateways that
canonicalize the messages being sent so they can be output in either
format as well. SMTP is likely another important gateway interface.
The key arhitectural question we will likely pursue is: how to
make the TP protocol itself as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Parameterized topics? Hmmm… topics seem so gossamer sometimes
that it’s hard not to see them as just another name/value pair
attached to a message.
https://commerce.net/mindystaging/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/commercenet-logo-1.png00amshttps://commerce.net/mindystaging/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/commercenet-logo-1.pngams2004-08-02 12:01:062004-08-02 12:01:06SOAP or HTTP as the basis for TP
Some Decentralization papers for the day
DecentralizationI know it’s a little rude to just post links and little more, but I at least wanted to note four papers I came across today. The first is pretty fanciful, but I think it actually speaks to a real set of problems for programming “mass quantities” of computing devices: Spray Computers: Frontiers of Self-Organization for Pervasive Computing Marco Mamei, Franco Zambonelli Dipartimento di Scienze…
Abstract: We envision a future in which clouds of microcomputers can be sprayed in an environment to provide, by spontaneously networking with each other, an endlessly range of futuristic applications. However, beside the vision, spraying may also act as a powerful metaphor for a range of other scenarios that are already under formation, from ad-hoc networks of embedded and mobile devices to worldwide distributed computing.
The 2003 Blackout – Reference and Analysis from the Kennedy School of Government, particularly pointing to the US-Canada Power System Outage Task Force. Final Report on the August 14, 2003 Blackout in the United States and Canada: Causes and Recommendations.
April 2004. 238 pages.
These last two seem like important theoretical contributions, regarding heirarchical composability of policies in coalitions. I really ought to come back to this and write more soon…
Flexible Regulation of Distributed Coalitions – Ao, Minsky
Developing Multiagent Systems: The Gaia Methodology – Zambonelli, Jennings, Wooldridge
NYSE prices update at no more than 0.25 Hz (!)
Event Driven ArchitecturesLatency matters — and embedded within this little trick forced by Reg NMS, is an agency conflict to boot: who’s really motivated to give me, the little guy, the best possible price??
NYSE To Further Upgrade Automated Execution System
Thain proposes new electronic trading for NYSE
Today’s Trade-Through Rule Must Die
Tagging Pharmaceuticals
Health CareRoss Stapleton-Gray writes:
A stat from the above Information Week article: “The pharmaceutical industry estimates that between 2% and 7% of all drugs sold globally are counterfeit. Earlier this year the Food and Drug Administration issued a report recommending that drugmakers use RFID on bottles of the most commonly counterfeited drugs starting in 2006 and on bottles of most drugs by 2007.”
Your Medical History On A Microchip
Health CareLaura Landro’s Informed Patient article in the Wall Street Journal on July 27, 2004:
Step by step the National Health Information Infrastructure will get built.
SOAP or HTTP as the basis for TP
Event Driven ArchitecturesMark Baker responds to Rohit’s Teepee post:
TP will likely have both PEP/SOAP and HTTP gateways that
canonicalize the messages being sent so they can be output in either
format as well. SMTP is likely another important gateway interface.
The key arhitectural question we will likely pursue is: how to
make the TP protocol itself as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Parameterized topics? Hmmm… topics seem so gossamer sometimes
that it’s hard not to see them as just another name/value pair
attached to a message.