Remembered Secrets: Multisession Systems,LANs, and Other Hiding Places

In the new world order, the boundary between national and corporate objectives could become indistinct. Resources aligned as part of the Cold War could be refocused for perverse commercial advantage. One possibility is the shifting of intelligence-gathering capabilities of individual nation states so that they are more overtly targeted at the international corporate environment. Some consider this just a “profitable” adjunct to normal market forces (as in a multinational corporation buying time in the competitive marketplace from an enterprise offering services on a spy satellite). In the extreme, however, it could result in a closer coupling of the national intelligence services to specific, preferred and friendly capitalist enterprises.

Moves to align national and corporate security objectives may have already emerged as national authorities agonize over the imbalances in the trade of manufactured goods between the various players.     

An internet of old things as an augmented memory system

The interdisciplinary Tales of Things and electronic Memory (TOTeM) project investigates new contexts for augmenting things with stories in the emerging culture of the Internet of Things (IoT). Tales of Things is a tagging system which, based on two-dimensional barcodes (also called Quick Response or QR codes) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, enables the capturing and sharing of object stories and the physical linking to objects via read and writable tags. Within the context of our study, it has functioned as a technology probe which we employed with the aim to stimulate discussion and identify desire lines that point to novel design opportunities for the engagement with personal and social memories linked to everyday objects. In this paper, we discuss results from fieldwork with different community groups in the course of which seemingly any object could form the basis of a meaningful story and act as entry point into rich inherent ‘networks of meaning’. Such networks of meaning are often solely accessible for the owner of an object and are at risk of getting lost as time goes by. We discuss the different discourses that are inherent in these object stories and provide avenues for making these memories and meaning networks accessible and shareable. This paper critically reflects on Tales of Things as an example of an augmented memory system and discusses possible wider implications for the design of related systems.     

The illusion of requirements in software development

This viewpoint explores the possibility that many software development projects may have no useful requirements. Specifically, for problems (e.g., knowledge worker burnout) with two completely different solutions (e.g., better tool support or hire more employees), an analyst may state a goal (e.g., decrease work hours) but more specific desiderata are contingent on the chosen solution. Furthermore, without fully exploring the design space, the designer cannot be sure whether there exists another approach, which would achieve the goal without any commonality with known approaches. In these situations of sparse requirements, analysts may misrepresent design decisions as requirements, creating an illusion of requirements in software development.     

Dynamic Mechanical Analysis of Amorphous-Phase Organization in Acrylic Polymers

Factors affecting polymer network organization were studied in highly crosslinked acrylics of the type used in dental adhesive resins. The variables tested were comonomer content and processing conditions. BisEMA (2,2,-bis[4-(2-methacryloyloxyethoxy)-phenyl]-propane) and BisEMA + TEGDMA (triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate) were cured with and without 25% comonomer. Comonomers had characteristics that are expected to influence intrachain organization in amorphous phases: TEGDMA, crosslinking; methyl methacrylate (MMA), monomer conversion; isobornyl methacrylate (IBM), low cure shrinkage; tetrahydrofurfuryl methacrylate (THFM), antiplasticization. Dynamic mechanical analysis temperature scans were run at 0.1 Hz 2h or 24h after ambient cure, or 24h postcure after heating at 75° or 125°C. After 24h, tan δ maxima occurred in ranges centering on approximately -30°, 75° and 150°C (T_g). Heating at 125°C nearly eliminated all peaks except T_g, reduced tan δ peaks and increased T_g by 0–14°. T_g increased in the order: TEGDMA>125°C>IBM>MMA>75°C>2h>24h>THFM. The ability to crosslink, and postcure heating at 125°C, were the more important factors found to increase intrachain organization in amine-promoted, unfilled BisEMA resins of the type used in dental sealants, luting cements and bulk-filling resin composite materials.