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Polyglots, Plutonians, and Mercurians continued...
Two of the most obvious examples of interplanetary differences are in timing (response) and error-management.
Timing is everything (or, not…)
Telephony People are from Mercury means that we have a "hot" planet that is very time-sensitive. The whole digital world is based on "something" happening every 125 microseconds (or 8000 times a second). Voice codecs (using Pulse Code Modulation, based on ITU's G.711) output eight-bit samples 8000 times a second. Similarly, equipment on fiber-based links or rings chop their channels into the same 125-microsecond frames. Everything on Mercury is "hot", and very time-sensitive. It would be totally unacceptable to have timing gaps in a voice call that causes the words to come out in a broken manner (e.g.: Good…Mor..rning..how….are. you today?)
The Data People on Pluto, though concerned with time, are much more lenient on responsiveness. It's almost like their planetary motto is "Delay happens…" The Plutonian year seems like an eternity to the people from Mercury, but the Data People are aware that "good things come to those that wait"…like error-free transmissions that we'll discuss below! To Data People a delay of a couple of seconds (totally unacceptable for the Telephony People) is not only acceptable, but is laudable. How long did you have to wait for your last web-page download…1/8000th of a second? Don't think so…
What'd you say?
Errors, to the Mercurial World, are facts of life that are "not my problem". If somebody is on a circuit-switched voice call and there is a burst of static, which "errors the voice", then the receiver simply asks "What did you say?" (or, "Huh?" which is the North American protocol for "Excuse me, there was an error in transmission, could you please repeat your last phrase for clarity"). Errors, therefore, are almost trivial in nature.
Errors on Pluto, though, are an anathema! Just imagine your paycheck's direct deposit where there was just a "tinsey-winsey" error in its transmission. So what if your paycheck's 'comma' and 'period' changed places! Data people would rather throw away data with errors than to deliver it in a corrupted state (like California…).
What's a CTO/Director to do?
The first thing that a CTO needs to do is to understand that different languages are a normal part of the technological world - there is no babblefish we can borrow from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe*. The corporate juggler of information opportunities needs to be a polyglot to exploit the best return-on-investment opportunities.
You also need to be wary of what I call the vendors of "The Sirens Song of Simplicity" (with apologies to Homer…not Simpson). Some vendors will tell you that "all you need to do is install their great Babblefish/PacMan solution and you won't have to worry about any other technology". As we'll explore in another article, this Song will drive you onto the Rocks of Insanity, because "The Sirens Song of Simplicity" is counter to the Law of Thermodynamics (remember the word entropy…it ain't gonna' get any simpler, it'll get more chaotic!)
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