Jul 1, 1998 12:00 PM

The Holo Trinity

By Mark Frauenfelder

| CRUCIAL TECH

| The Holo Trinity

Encryption Evader

Hands-Free Package Handling

Mr. Potato Med

Snap-Together Software

Heavy Rebreathing

Betrayal, by Brutus.1

Crankshafts Are Forever

Raw Data

<h4>#### Holzbach, Michael Klug, and Alejandro Ferdman are taking holograms from high-end labs and delivering them to your desktop.</h4 Mng a hologram in the '90s is a lot like using a computer in the '60s. It requires a trip to a facility staffed with trained technicians, who take your order, send you home, and work on your project with expensive equipment. When you return for the results, you're also given a hefty bill. No more, thanks to a trio of former MIT Media Lab researchers who are developing holographic printers for the rest of us.

MHolzbach, Michael Klug, and Alejandro Ferdman, founders of Zebra Imaging in Austin, Texas, have built a large-format printer that can generate billboard-sized tiled holograms. In February, they delivered the world's largest hologram (6 feet by 18 feet) to their chief investor, an undisclosed Fortune 10 company. Now, Holzbach, Klug, and Alejandro are working on a desktop printer suitable for advertisers, architects, engineers, or, says Ferdman, "anyone doing design of mechanical parts who wants to see how they're going to look before building them."

Iead of taking hundreds of photographs of real-world objects from several viewpoints (standard procedure for typical holograms), "you can use a virtual camera in a synthetic scene,"explains Holzbach. "It's no problem to take 10,000 views – and once you have a database of images, it's easy to make a hologram."

Ay part of the printer is DuPont's new photopolymer film, which – unlike previous holographic material – doesn't require chemical processing. "You just flash it with ultraviolet light, bake it, and that's it," Holzbach says.

"look at a flat piece of paper and see Zebra's 3-D images is absolutely stunning," enthuses Tim McClure, cofounder of the GSD&M advertising agency. "They're just scratching the surface of the market applications."

Tfirst desktop models, available by late 1999, will be geared toward high-end clients. Holzbach, however, won't speculate on the cost, explaining that Zebra has yet to design a mass-producible unit. Still, he says, the goal is to "put the ability to make holograms into the hands of the public."

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Ron Rst – the "R" in RSA encryption – has done an end run around the export endgame that's been keeping the US State Department and crypto activists at odds for years.

wd all be better off with the widespread deployment of strong encryption," says Rivest. To accomplish this, the legendary MIT computer scientist suggests chopping an electronic text into small numbered pieces, each of which is sent with an authentication code. There's nothing new in this: Authentication is a standard technique employed not only to verify that a message is genuine, but that it arrives undamaged and unmodified. But Rivest would add fake text fragments, each potentially as small as a single bit, and corresponding bogus authentication codes. The text fragments are just a bunch of added noise to hide content. Rivest calls this his chaffing-and-winnowing method, where "the receiver merely discards all of the chaff packets and retains the wheat packets." Moreover, such noise could be created by ISPs, making the process transparent to users.

ategy makes the message unreadable to eavesdroppers, who can't tell real fragments from impostors – unless they possess the authentication key.

nificant, Rivest's system complies with export laws because it doesn't create encryption. "The Bureau of Export Administration has routinely approved export systems where keys are used for authentication," he explains.

ffragments and codes would expand message length, but Rivest proposes modifications to minimize this obstacle. "It's a cool idea, and the enhancements make it more practical," says crypto consultant Bruce Schneier.

sidea offers the best of both worlds: confidentiality and adherence to the law – while making a mockery of the latter in the process.

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p compning about your lost luggage – tracking bags through connecting flights, layovers, and last-minute changes is a logistical nightmare. That's why Jacob Jacobsson, CEO of SCS Corporation, expects airlines to soon employ his company's new radio-frequency tracking technology. SCS

sembed its patented 0.024-mm-thick radio-frequency ID chips into disposable paper labels. The tags, which resemble barcode-style stickers but emit a weak radio signal, could be slapped onto luggage when you check in. Bags passing through automated scan tunnels at airplane-hold entrances could be quickly linked to passengers on board – or not on board. But

iaren't the only businesses looking into SCS's tags. J. Sainsbury, a British supermarket chain, is implementing SCS's system in its perishable-foods department. "We're putting millions of crates of food into the supply chain each week," says Mark Venables, the firm's manager of innovations. By encoding dating in the ID chips, he explains, "we know exactly what needs to go to the front of the shelf the fastest."

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may kup to a million people annually in less developed countries, and immunizing arm by arm is a formidable, if not impossible, undertaking. But molecular biologist William Langridge has a simple solution: Eat potatoes. Using the latest DNA cloning techniques, Langridge and his colleagues at Loma Linda University have transferred the gene for a nontoxic portion of the cholera toxin into the potato genome. This means Langridge's spuds will contain a cholera antigen that immunizes anyone against the toxin. The first anti-cholera potato crop should be ready in two years. Langridge foresees vaccines derived from transgenic plants for a variety of ailments. <h4>With co

e#### software designers can avoid scratch programming and write more reliable applications faster than ever before. By Steve G. Steinberg</h4> I stopp ning why the US dominates the software industry after I worked as a programmer in Tokyo one summer. In America, good programmers are expected to be eccentric. But in Japan we all wore the company uniform and punched the time clock. Programming was just another kind of engineering. That's f

mally wrongheaded. The process of building software is still too poorly understood, too immune to systematic methodologies, to be treated like building a bridge. That's why every few years there is some new, bright idea that sweeps through software departments, promising to make programming more of a science. In the 1970s it was structured programming, in the '80s it was object-oriented programming (OOP), and today it is component-based programming. What's s

ig, however, is that components may actually work – partly because they build on the lessons learned, but more because the world around software is evolving. To under

dmponents and how they are changing software design, you first need to understand the shift in programming brought about by objects. Traditional programming was based on procedures – a series of instructions that manipulate a piece of data. A banking application, for example, would include a deposit procedure that adds money to an account and a withdrawal procedure that subtracts money. OOP turn

irocess around: Instead of dividing a system into procedures, it breaks the steps down into collections of data with associated actions. The banking application now consists of an "account" object that contains data such as the account's balance, as well as the code needed to implement certain actions, like depositing and withdrawing money. If this

dike semantics, you're right. But by splitting software up into objects that correspond to real-life entities, it becomes easier to reuse and recombine code. Why not take an account object from one program and a purchase-order object from another, and – voilà! – construct an automatic bill-paying system? The last

aof programming development has shown that this system isn't quite so easy. "One of the promises that OOP has fallen short on is reuse," admits Grady Booch, chief scientist at Rational Software and one of the pioneers of object-oriented design. Assembling an application out of objects is a lot like putting together an intricate jigsaw puzzle. Each piece is shaped slightly different and must be carefully studied and tested to figure out how it fits with the rest of the pieces. That may be a fun way to keep busy on a rainy day, but it's not a radical improvement in design efficiency. Componen

othis in a blindingly obvious way. Components are similar to objects, but bigger. The bigger the objects, the fewer you need – and, therefore, the less time it takes to assemble the puzzle. They also function within standard models, which define how they interface with other components. "Compone

wbecause they reduce the number of moving parts a programmer has to keep track of," agrees Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's chief technology officer. "A text-editor component might be very complex inside, but from the outside it just looks like a black box with key presses going in and a hunk of screen coming out." Granted,

sa very simplified explanation of components, but it sure seems like an obvious idea. Why has it taken the software-design community so long to come up with the concept? Because it wouldn't have worked before. "There i

bt that components are a sign of maturation," says Booch. "We now have enough experience in certain areas, and a pretty good idea of what the good solutions are, to make components possible. Programmers no longer start with a blank page – everyone pretty much agrees on what a payroll application should look like." At the s

t, software increasingly lives in a networked world. And just as the railroads forced farmers to come up with standards for everything from wheat to cattle, the Net is forcing programmers to standardize how one piece of software talks to another. "Components are a natural fit in a world where computers are connected together," points out Myhrvold. Componen

clogy is still in beta. There are too many competing standards and not enough tools to help programmers hook components together. But there is little doubt that components will change the development process. It will

eabout creating and more about combining. The old saw "Bad artists borrow, good artists steal" will apply even more to programmers. Stev

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er's bles are essentially just wasted air, cutting short the time a diver can stay underwater. Explorer and engineer Bill Stone has a solution: Eliminate the bubbles and you can stay down all day. Stone's comp

-Lunar Development Laboratories, has come up with the first commercial bubbleless, microprocessor-controlled "rebreather," which enables the diver to remain as deep as 400 feet for up to 15 hours. By comparison, a typical scuba dive is limited to about one hour near the surface and mere minutes at greater depths. The US$15,00

bther is approximately the size of two scuba tanks, with a twin-hosed breathing loop, a Newton-sized computer console, and a heads-up display that attaches to the mouthpiece. Originally d

nby the military to help combat divers avoid detection – a rebreather emits no bubbles – the Cis-Lunar device removes carbon dioxide from exhaled air, recycles it through a gas processor, and adds oxygen and diluting gases as needed. "It's really

ureedom," says Stone, who has sold 70 of the units to filmmakers, underwater scientists, and well-heeled sport divers. "It's a potent exploration machine that opens up realms previously out of reach." By David

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ved thniversity. He loved its ivy-covered clocktowers, its ancient and sturdy brick, and its sun-splashed verdant greens and eager youth. He also loved the fact that the university is free of the stark unforgiving trials of the business world – only this isn't a fact: Academia has its own tests, and some are as merciless as any in the marketplace. A prime example is the dissertation defense: To earn the PhD, to become a doctor, one must pass an oral examination on one's dissertation. This was a test Professor Edward Hart enjoyed giving. Dave wanted desp

eto be a doctor. But he needed the signatures of three people on the first page of his dissertation, the priceless inscriptions that, together, would certify that he had passed his defense. One of the signatures had to come from Professor Hart, and Hart had often said – to others and to himself – that he was honored to help Dave secure his well-earned dream. Well before the

nStriver gave Hart a penultimate copy of his thesis. Hart read it and told Dave that it was absolutely first rate, and that he would gladly sign it at the defense. They even shook hands in Hart's book-lined office. Dave noticed that Hart's eyes were bright and trustful, and his bearing paternal. At the defense,

ught that he eloquently summarized chapter 3 of his dissertation. There were two questions, one from Professor Rodman and one from Dr. Teer; Dave answered both, apparently to everyone's satisfaction. There were no further objections. Professor Rodman

nHe slid the tome to Teer; she too signed, and then slid it in front of Hart. Hart didn't move. "Ed?" Rodman sai

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ehis office in his big leather chair, saddened by Dave's failure. He tried to think of ways he could help Dave achieve his dream. Brutus.1 is

lory generator that cranks out tales following literary themes reverse engineered from human-penned stories. It took four years for Selmer Bringsjord, director of the Minds and Machines program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and David Ferrucci, senior scientist at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center, to create a mathematical formula for betrayal. Next on the syllabus is mendacity. By Jess

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edmannd John Sullivan at Sandia National Laboratories have made an amorphous diamond coating from vaporized graphite. The superhard veneer, heat resistant up to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, will prolong the life and durability of mechanical parts, from hip replacements to crankshafts. As of April 1, the I

thad nearly 35,000 computer systems it needs to rid of the Y2K problem before the January 1, 1999, deadline – that's an average of 282 systems each business day between July 4 and New Year's Eve (IRS) … Monday issthe week to get online, with connections failing almost 9 percent of the time, compared to 5.2 percent for other days (Inverse Network Technology) … Competiti carriers will capture up to 20 percent of the US$100 to $120 billion local telecom market over the next five years (Battery Ventures LP) … Internet ig every three to six months (UUNet Technologies) … Last year2accidents in Japan – resulting in 25 deaths – occurred while drivers were talking on cellular phones (Japan National Police Agency)