Mr. Emmer has been in politics for a while.  This means he is a career politician.  Our society should not allow for career politicians but for the past few decades it appears that becoming a politician is very profitable.  If you do not believe me just look around.  Most politicians have made their money in politics at the expense of voters.  This is why American in general and MN in particular are experiencing the serious problems.

Lets take a quick and rather superficial look at Tom Emmer and decide if this individual has any qualification to become the next governor of the State of MN.

Mr. Emmer has been a politician for years.  As you are aware, all politicians support their cause by voting in favor of issues that do not align with the people that elected them.  The contrary is also true.  Politicians should vote against proposals that go against the people they allegedly represent.  Mr. Emmer has missed 20% of votes while in office.  This means that he works 4 instead of 5 days a week.  Kind of nice (for him) for a job paid by taxes coming from MN Naïve Americans.

Mr. Emmer has had two (2) Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) convictions.  Apparently he knows better that the rest of Minnesotans and is able to drive and not cause serious problems for his family and other people out on the roads and streets.  His answer to this, “I was young and stupid.”  Perhaps most Naïve Americans have the false believe that people changes.  People do not change.  Circumstances do.  If the same / similar circumstances appear most individuals will repeat their behavior.

I am not going to go about Mr. Emmer’s plans to address the economical problems of the State of Minnesota.  They are as illogical and absurd as the ones from the Democratic candidate.

The attitude and demeanor of Mr. Emmer is not conducting to be elected governor.  To remedy this serious issue a TV ad has been airing the past couple weeks.  It shows his family backing up Tom’s political ambitions.  My first reaction when I saw the ad was what kind of responsible individual would have seven (7) kids in this day and age.  None, one or two kids is what makes sense to have.  When my wife was pregnant of our second son I took drastic measures to make sure we would not have a third child.  It was the responsible course of action thirty some years ago and it is still today.  A person that acts without thinking should make for a good governor ;o)

Last but not least, a political professor at a MN university was interviewed on TV about the ad.  The professor stated that it was a good move by the Tom Emmer for Governor campaign to portray a different, caring and family oriented Tom Emmer to be more appealing to voters.  STOP for a second and think about what is going on.  The guy is not qualified BUT he is PRETENDING to be someone else (softer and caring).  What can I say; Mr. Emmer is just one more career politician.

After seeing what is being lined up for the next elections by both Democratic and Republican parties I have reached to the conclusion that the future for MN is not too bright to say the least.  If Mr. Emmer feels he is qualified for the job he and the people working for him should be directly responsible / accountable for failures to achieve his campaign empty promises and goals.  If Mr. Emmer is so sure he is the right person for the job then he should be liable for his failures (if any).

Mr. Tom Emmer, are you or all / any individual in your political group willing to back up your empty promises with financial and prison terms?  You do not have to answer.  All MN Naïve Americans know the answer.

The Naïve American.

At this point in time both Democrats and Republicans have elected their respective representatives for the Governor’s race.  This blog entry deals with Mark Dayton (D).

During the past few weeks leading to the primaries and after Mark Dayton was elected, starting early campaigning against the Republican candidate, interesting ideas, to say the least, crossed my mind while watching Dayton’s ads on TV.

As you might well know, Mark Dayton is one of the heirs of the Dayton’s fortune.  Mark, his family, relatives and I would dare to say most of his friends are well of in the economical sense.  Mark Dayton put several millions of Dollars of his own money when he ran a few years ago for MN State Senator.  The results of that incursion into politics can be summarized by his own and press comments giving him an F for his performance as a senator.  Not sure what could possibly change in an individual (people does not change) that Mark Dayton feels he is better qualified to become the next MN Governor.

It was interesting to watch his campaign adds on TV.  His success is due to promises he made to the Teachers Union (70,000 strong), nurses and police unions.  As we all know the school system is in shambles not only in MN but also all over the country.  Our K-12 performance is ranked 18^th worldwide.  The solution according to Mark Dayton is to increase salaries to the mostly incompetent teachers to hopefully motivate improvement.  Mark Dayton used to be a public school teacher (not a good credential).

Nurses will also get better pay if Dayton is elected for office.  The same goes for police and law enforcement.  The big question is how are the funds coming from?  Believe it or not his answer is taxing wealthy people (like himself, his relatives and friends).  If you believe a word of this I do have a bridge that I would like to sell you )  Naïve Americans like to believe on the Robin Hood approach as long as they can get something.  It is quite different when they have to give.

Mr. Dayton did not and currently does not have a logical plan to get Minnesotans to work and sustained, productive and well-paid jobs.  That is what MN and our country in general need.

In conclusion, Mark Dayton or any other politician with reasonable plans for the future of MN should not run for office.  If he is elected then he should be also responsible for his actions.  If the GDP of the State does not get into the 6% to 10% and the MN State deficit is not eliminated, he and his supporters should be held liable (e.g., prison and fines).  Of course not a single politician would accept such proposition.  After the business of politicians is to deceive and get wealthier at the expense of Naïve Americans.

The Naïve American.

The book is quite different than “Applied Cryptography” also by Bruce Schneier.  “Secrets & Lies” is easy to read and there is little (if any) technical information that can be used by software designers or developers.  The book is easy to read and provides an overall picture of security as it relates to networks and probably most important the Internet.

In “Applied Cryptography” there were several comments and statements that the software industry is a disaster.  Someone said that everyone knows that no one can write good software.  Being a computer scientist and software developer for over 30 years I did not take very well such comments.  While reading chapter 24 “Security Process” in “Secrets & Lies” I believe to finally have understood what Bruce refers as poor software.

Allow me to digress a couple decades.  At that time I was very interested in the software development process.  The existing processes (then and today) (e.g., Waterfall, Spiral) did not make much sense or work.  They sounded good on paper for managers without education in the subject but were not effective in producing quality software in practice.  My PhD advisor at the University of Minnesota Dr. David Wei-Tek Tsai, who was very interested in software engineering, moved out in search of warmer weather (can’t blame him) and I never finished a book I was writing on a new development methodology which I named Cyclic Development Process (CDP).  Given my electrical engineering formal education I generated a diagram to describe CDP, which should be quite familiar for those in process control:

 The idea in a nutshell is to come up with a written initial set of requirements, a design followed by an implementation.  That would be the Input to the process.  Aol would represent testing at the component and system level.  The Output would be the results of testing.  Based on them written adjustments to the requirements and design would be implemented and feedback to the software.  The diagram represents a real-time operation.  The CDP process suggested three (3) passes.  Each pass with a properly staffed development group should last no more than three (3) months.  All software development projects should last about nine to ten months.  Enough said about CDP.

CDP did not make it as a mainstream concept / product in the software development industry.  Last weekend I was on Skype with my sister.  We talked about the FIFA futball / soccer world cup.  About 280 countries participated in the tournament, which started with eliminations played all over the world leading to the final games in South Africa.  Given that more people on the world watches and plays futball than any other sport (e.g., baseball, basketball, football, golf) combined why is it that it is not the mainstream sport in the USA?  The answer appears to be purely economical.  Naïve Americans are fed sports in which promoters can make MONEY.  That is all that counts.  One of the most watched sports in our country is football.  There are millions of dollars made every year in equipment, games, endorsements, and broadcasting rights among others.  The game lends itself to play for a few seconds and then stop for a few minutes while, advertisements costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a minute, bombard us letting us believe that drinking beer and / or sports beverages is the cool thing to do.  Soccer on the other hand is uninterrupted action for two periods of 45 minutes each.  To top it off the fifteen minutes between periods do not lend singers to mount shows with wardrobe malfunctions.  Overall soccer does not provide the incentives to popularize it in the USA.  It appears that most Naïve Americans are not interested in sports or physical conditioning.  Our main interest is making money while ignoring the health issues on players.  The same holds true for a new software development methodology.  If there are no sexy tools that could be sold to the vast majority of people writing software then it is better ignored.

Bruce mentioned in his book that most security issues can easily traced back to the development process.  Most of the time people who have no formal education in computer science embark coding software with no requirements, design, reviews or testing.  Such practice has lead to the current state of the software industry.

The other issue is that software development companies want to put out a product (or release) before it is ready and in most cases with little or no testing.  I was able to map several of the ideas and points brought up by Bruce to Quality Assurance (QA) processes.

Another interesting point in the book was that of open source software.  I agree that cryptographic algorithms should be made completely public.  That is the only way that people will be inclined to look for flaws and correct them or discard the algorithm in its entirety.  I completely disagree on having open source code.  Source code (specially when it is well developed) represents the intellectual property of the individuals and companies that spent time and resources developing it.  Open source is just an invitation for people to copy the state of the art and with simple modifications have a new product without prior background and knowledge.  I believe that it would be foolish to believe that in a global economy all developers would follow rules to assign merit (and revenues) were they are due (just think about the millions of copies of pirated movies, music and software sold every year).  In the Resources section of “Secrets & Lies” Bruce makes reference to “Securing Java” by Ed Felten.  The book should provide some interesting concepts and ideas behind open source code.  Will let you know my opinion after reading it.

One of the points brought up in “Secrets & Lies” is that the legal system should and will provide mechanisms to outlaw and prosecute individuals that compromise (steal or alter data) computer systems on the Internet regardless of the country where the attack is conducted.  Sounds nice and looks promising but in reality if there is no money to be made legislation will never live up to the threat.  In our country things only occur when there are groups that would benefit economically.  Given that the Internet encompasses the entire world laws in the USA would not deter people, organizations and countries from attacking systems in the USA.  Perhaps the NSA would / should stop spying on others before we initiate talks with a straight face.

The legal system in our country is broken.  It seldom works the way it is supposed to.  Politicians are easily and routinely bought (what do you think is the job of lobbyist) by special interest groups and companies to pass laws that favor them in order to amass larger revenues.  The legal system will be completely useless in making the Internet a safer place to browse and shop.

In conclusion, the Naive American strongly recommends reading “Secrets & Lies” to all IT managers and software developers that wish to develop or maintain their products and networks secure.  Remember that cryptography alone is not the panacea of security and that the weakest link appears to always be humans.

Hope this blog finds you and your family doing well.

Most Naïve Americans and in general the United States of America as a country continues to collapse.

Yesterday evening my wife and I watched Dateline on NBC.  The first (hour) segment dealt with the absurd war your predecessor, president Bush thanks to the vice president at the time, Mr. Cheney (a.k.a. defense contractor), promoted an impossible to win war in Afghanistan.  I believe you have been in office for about year and a half and have not lived up to any of your presidential campaign promises.  Naïve Americans should understand that the promises came from a politician and should not expect them to be fulfilled.  Most Naïve Americans do not appear to be too smart when it comes to politics.  Perhaps they are and voted for the democratic candidate based on promises made behind the scenes by the Democratic Party to special interests groups (i.e., unions).  As usual the common Naïve American was left out in the rain.  So far you have not delivered a single CHANGE but the USA needs to put up with another two and a half years of your administration.

The report on Dateline showed how the Taliban killed and injured dozens of Naïve American soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.  I happen to have military background and when I saw the location of the camp, immediately the idea crossed my mind that the soldiers would not be able to make it in such location.  It took a few days and dozens of dead and injured young Naïve Americans for the Army to close the new camp.  If I am not mistaken, during your presidential campaign, you promised that the arm forces deployed overseas fighting absurd wars would be brought back home.  If I am not mistaken you even had the audacity to provide some rough schedule to bring back home our troops.  Nothing like that is happening.  The USA will never under no circumstances will destroy the perceived enemy in Afghanistan.  The Soviet Union failed and we will too.  Perhaps you need to change your military advisors with people with common sense and no special interests.  A personal question Mr. Obama, do you happen to have stock in companies that manufacture weapons?

A few minutes ago I read on the web an article titled “China pushing the envelope on science, and sometimes ethics” by the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/27/AR2010062703639.html).  The article contains a picture of Zhao Bowen (not John Wayne) a 17-year-old Chinese scientist.  This Chinese (not Naïve American) teenager was part of a scientific team that last year cracked the genetic code of the cucumber.

If you have a chance to read the article, the change in science and education has been quite radical and fast.  A few years ago most people, excluding this Naïve American, believed that uneducated China would always be there as a source of cheap labor.  Today China has not only surpassed the USA as an economic and military power but is already stating to show super powers in the scientific arena.  So what is left for the USA?  I can tell you, we have a plethora of lawyers, politicians, business, sales people and CEOs, which are not able to provide a single good or service desirable outside the USA.  Not sure if you Mr. Obama or your elite team of advisors needs the example that my son and I used to describe global economy to my ten-year-old granddaughter.  She does not understand economic theory (if such a thing exists), but she can tell you that our economy the way it is going will not be able to make it.  On the other had, she fully understands how China is growing and will continue to grow.  I know she is on summer vacations.  If you need an economic advisor I believe we could arrange her to meet with you.

I fully understand how incapable your administration could be if something unexpectedly was thrown at you.  I am referring to the 60+ day fiasco with BP in the Gulf.  It does not take much to figure out that if you are slow to react to an unexpected problem, the problem will destroy you.  The issue is that after two months there is no clear and absolute resolution to the oil spill.  Given that you and your administration lack of engineering and scientific background, you are handling the issue like a politician.  Millions of wild life specimens are and will die before the problem is resolved.  Millions of Naïve Americans will loose their jobs and hundreds of thousands of small businesses with go under.  I guess your green initiative should provide those Naïve Americans with new well paying jobs funded by the few taxes paid by the few Naïve Americans that are able to hold a job.

Following is some food for though.  Please take the amount of oil being spilled in the Gulf by the BP oil well and think of it coming from a flotilla of oil tankers sunk in the Gulf by Osama bin Laden.  911 was caused by a handful of airplanes hitting very few targets and it created a serious problem for the USA.  I guess Tony Hayward BP’s CEO is better dressed and more influential that Osama bin Laden so all is and will be well.

America is sinking and you and your administration have not done a single thing to solve the obvious problems.  All we have seen is additional useless bureaucracy in the economic and healthcare front that are making it harder for most Naïve Americans to get ends to meet.  Hopefully these few words will motivate you and your administration to wake up before things get past the point of no return.  I fully believe we are almost there.  When we pass such point, there will not be enough CHANGE to make a difference.

Sincerely yours;

The Naïve American

Earlier this year I purchased a copy of “Applied Cryptography” by Bruce Schneier.  The cover claims over 100,000 copies sold.  After reading the book and spending some time experimenting with some of the source code I could relate to my experience as a child reading an encyclopedia, this time about the single topic of cryptography.  The author definitely has a vast experience in the subject and has spent time researching the different topics.  The book includes a vast list of references for those who wish to expand on the different topics.  The book deals with protocols and algorithms.  What a great book on the subject!

I read the second edition of “Applied Cryptography”.  The copyright on the book is from 1996.  It is a shame that the book does not cover current topics like the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).  Encyclopedias used to add volumes every so often.  Perhaps that would be something the author and publisher (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) might consider.

Towards the end of the book there is a section that contains source code listings.  That is OK if you are good at copying and not making mistakes.  I am from the “hunt-and-peck” school.  For those like me, Bruce Schneier provides source code on a disc.  If you are interested (like I am), for a nominal fee listed in the book you can request a disc with the source code and additional goodies.  I sent the check to the wrong address.  It was returned by the postal service.  A couple weeks ago I sent it to the proper address, which happens to be in the Twin Cities in Minnesota.  I am currently waiting for the disc.

While waiting for the software I started reading my next book on the list, which also happens to be authored by Bruce Schneier “Secrets and Lies”.  Will provide comments when done with it.

While reading “Applied Cryptography” two items called my attention.  They did not because of their technological interest but because of past experience.  These were a comment on SHA and a comment by Matt Blaze.

The design of the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) briefly described in section 18.7 Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) of the “Applied Cryptography” book mentions that a 64-bit representing the length of the message before padding is used.  This reminded me when John Canessa was designing the first Content Addressable Storage (CAS) server.  At that time the MD5 was made public.  Before using it as a handle to an object stored in the CAS, John spoke with Ronald Rivest about the chances of a digest collision from two distinct messages.  Professor Rivest mentioned that it would be possible but highly unlikely to experience a collision.  Based on the candid response from Dr. Rivest John used the MD5 digest, a regular incremental checksum, and the size of the object to verify if objects were different.  Given that at this time I am not that familiar with SHA I will find out the implications of generating the same digest using a different file size.

The comment made by professor Matt Blaze.  Not knowing whom Matt Blaze is (rather new to the field) I looked him up on the Web.  I found the following link http://www.crypto.com/blog/afterword/ which believe it or not had an entry made on 09, April 2010 (about two months ago) commenting on the AFTER WORD in the second edition of “Applied Cryptography”.  What called my attention was his comment (#1) regarding the sorry state of software “Everyone knows that nobody knows how to write software”.   I do have a hard time accepting such comment.  I do believe based on many years of experience in software development that the vast majority of people writing software who not know what they are doing.  The reason is that they do not have the necessary background in  [1] the specific field,  [2] in Computer Science, and  [3] do not have a clue of what software engineering is.  I once met a developer (good looking gal) who a month ago was a receptionist at a software development house in Minneapolis, MN.  She read a book on Visual Basic and when done her salary went from $10 an hour up to $35.  What type of software could such person develop?  Most people believe that because they learn a programming language they can develop software and computer systems.  A programming language is like a natural language.  I might be able to speak four natural languages, but if I have nothing to say in English, what would change if I speak Italian?

All Computer Science curricula should have at least four semesters in software engineering.  My two sons attended a private military school in the Twin Cities.  When they handed a paper on any subject they would get points off for using improper grammar and spelling errors.  After two offenses in a manuscript the paper was returned even if the contents deserved an A+.  The paper had to be corrected and presented to get at best a B+.  If universities would follow this simple procedure with all assignments the quality of software products would probably go up a notch or two.  I fully understand that there is no silver bullet nor like I read earlier today in “Secrets and Lies” also by Bruce Schneier, there is no single The Answer™.

I believe that young and capable Naïve Americans that decide to make a professional career embracing security, storage and software engineering will have a bright future.

The Naïve American

Let me start with what prompted this entry.  Dan (rather not divulge his last name) started work at Sam’s Club in Eagan, Minnesota about eight years ago.  He is a male in his late fifties, married with two children.  Early in life he was struck with Polio, a crippling decease.  Due to this unfortunate event, he wears special shoes to take into account the difference in length of one of his legs.  About ten years ago Dan suffered a heart attack.  Apparently he recovered from it.  He also had a double bypass.

Up to a month or so ago, Dan used to work in the bakery at Sam’s Club in the Eagan store.  He started work early mornings, most of the time no later than 05:00 AM.  Dan is a very responsible and by all accounts a good employee.  He was proud of his job and what he did.  A few months ago, during a review, he was cited as an exemplary worker.  Life for Dan was good with the exception that the intense work, plus the changes in temperature from the ovens to the coolers started taking toll on him.  Given the number of years of service he was making about $16.00 per hour.  Most of the weeks he would be given forty hours.  During slow months he would be scheduled a few less hours.

About two months ago he decided to move to a different position.  He just could not take the amount of work he had to do.  A break, at least that was what he thought, occurred.  A full-time opening for a “greeter” opened.  If you have been to Sam’s Club, greeters are people that welcome customers and check their membership cards and when customer leave, they check the number of items printed on the receipt against the actual items in the cart.  Quite less strenuous that lifting heavy loads, changes in temperature, etc.  Dan moved to his new position with his seniority and about $16.00 per hour wage.

Several of his friends mentioned to Dan that he had positioned himself as a target.  Starting greeters make $8.00 per hour.  He should be careful and watch his back.  As soon as he started his new assignment he realize that his friends and some of his coworkers had told him was true.  He just kept doing his job with a smile.

Management at Sam’s Club started giving him schedules that changed almost every day.  Sometimes he started early mornings, other days around noon and others in the afternoon.  The schedules were posted a day or two in advanced.  Dan though this was happening because he was starting as a greeter and within a few weeks he would get a better work schedule.

Early this week he had one day off.  The day before he checked his schedule and as usual wrote it down.  He had to start at 01:00 PM the day after.  The day after he went to work and noticed that the schedule had been changed while he was off.  He had to start at 10:00 AM instead of 01:00 PM.  He went to speak with his manager.  The manager told him that he was responsible for his schedule.  Dan explained the sequence of events and the manager told him to take his post.

When he was done that day, the same manager told him that it was inconceivable that he did not show up to work at the scheduled time and he did not call in with a reason.  Apparently the manager had a problem with short-term memory.  Dan was told to pick up his last paycheck.  After eight years he had been fired because he showed up for work based on the last schedule posted before he took off.

Dan wanted to talk with the store general manager.  She was not available.  The day after Dan called her and explained what had happened.  She told Dan that she understood but that was his side of the story.  She could not believe that a manager would change the schedule during his day off.  What the general manager did tell him is that due to his eight years of work she could surely hire Dan back without his seniority at $08:00 per hour.  What kind of business is Sam’s Club running?

Dan is going to go back and see what can be done in the short term.  He cannot believe that after eight years of hard work he was set up by some punk managers to be fired.  This is when unions come into play.  Dan does not belong to a union.  Not sure if Sam’s Club has a union at all in that store.  I personally disagree with the concept of unions.  All unions in this country should be abolished.  On one end you have large corporations (e.g., Sam’s Club) that want to reduce costs and increase profits at the expense of customers and employees and the United States by promoting companies to develop and manufacture in China.  On the other end of the spectrum you have union workers that want to take home huge wages working as little as possible.  Both ends need strong regulation.  I always thought that the Labor Department was the advocate for employees.  There is no need for unions; the well-paid public employees at the labor department should make sure incidents like the one that happened with Dan would not go unnoticed.  Sam’s Club should be fined, the managers reprimanded, and Dan should get his job back.  What are the changes of this happening?

Sam’s Club and Wall-Mart have a history of abuse with employees.  The mentality that nothing is personal it is just business reins.

Hopefully someone at the State of Minnesota Labor Department will take notice of this blog and would start an investigation and make things right for Dan, his family and all Naïve Americans.  You do not know when your employer will turn against you and your family in the name of business.

British Petroleum (BP)

BP is a very large energy company based on oil.  They start with exploration to locate oil deposits.  Make the necessary assessments to drill or not, transport the crude oil to refineries which make lubricants, gasoline, jet and diesel fuel among other products.  BP takes their products directly to consumers by selling through gas stations and service departments.

The company employs people from different countries including the USA.  They drill for oil in different areas in and outside the USA.  One would expect that BP employ a large number of well-educated and trained scientists and engineers to keep the business going and to seek future energy sources.

Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

 About a month ago or so there was an accident in an oil platform located in the Gulf of Mexico owned and operated by BP.  Accidents happen.  Tree huggers want to believe that progress and energy can be easily obtained from alternate sources and are against drilling when it may affect them.  They are also against nuclear power and coal burning.  Perhaps we should go back to the Stone Age.  Nice try but the world population is so large that most of us would die of hunger and cold if we would eliminate the use of oil.

As we all know there are always two sides to a coin.  Naïve Americans have been told that the spill was the result of an accident.  We need to think about  [1] what the issue was and  [2] who is providing the public such information.

Most of us are home and / or car owners.  Given that the oil spill was related to an accident based on some equipment that failed, we should draw analogies to maintenance on our homes and automobiles.  My wife and I through the years have purchased around a couple dozen vehicles for our use and for our two sons (today each is responsible for purchasing and maintaining them). 

In general we have kept the cars very well maintained with very few exceptions.  This does not imply that every 3,000 miles we changed oil and filter.  Most times service was done a few weeks after the recommended time.  We do not check the engine oil level each time we fill up or for that matter the pressure on all tires including the spare.  Do you know of any Naïve American that does so?  You are in most cases supposed to.  If you do not believe me take a few moments and pull out from the glove compartment the car manual and read about what is expected from the driver.

Naïve Americans should give BP the benefit of doubt regarding the cause of the accident unless there is a full disregard for safety and maintenance.  Getting back to the analogy with the automobile, if one would be driving a car with the oil light on, the car overheating and perhaps smoking, then if the engine burns or the car catches on fire, we certainly would be at fault.

Politicians

This is were things get completely out of control.  There is a huge amount of money in oil.  BP makes millions of dollars in profits each and every day.  Apparently BP is a very healthy contributor to several politicians that have control and saying on when and how off shore oil drilling is performed in the USA.  Not only that, but politicians have given BP the authority to decide what and when to do things and what to report.  One does not have to be too bright to figure out that BP will try to play down the incident.  BP is reporting a small amount of oil leaking while other neutral observers are reporting over five times the amount.

What Naïve Americans need to understand is that our system is fully corrupt.  For example, when we hear about the ways things are done in other countries we get all worked up on how corrupt they are.  Typical examples come from Italy and Venezuela to mention just a few.  On the other hand, the world looks at our lobbying system and laugh at us.  Naïve Americans vote to elect politicians and then politicians do what lobbyist tell and paid them for.  We have legalized bribes and we do not realize the consequences that we have had, are having (BP is an example) and will have in the future.

When president Obama ran for office, he filled his mouth and campaign ads with the word CHANGE.  Nothing has changed in America for better.  We have seen on TV in the past few days Obama visiting the shores in the Gulf of Mexico and posturing changes.  In the mean time the oil spill is still uncontrolled and BP is deciding what and when to do.  The joke by politicians on Naïve Americans continues.

The problems with DICOM are quite obvious and there are reasons why.  DICOM is cumbersome, inefficient and poorly specified.  The reason is that is was designed by committee whose members were not computer scientists and electrical engineers.  Representatives came from different vendors that wanted to impose their ideas and protocols in order to get faster and deeper market penetration.  One way or another the benefits that DICOM brought to the industry are obvious and welcomed by healthcare providers, not so much by vendors who still try to eliminate competition by stating that if other DICOM products are not certified with their implementations they will not be able to provide service or might even void warranties.  It is interesting that in all the years I have been dealing with DICOM I have run into a situation where a vendor would put such opposition in writing.

With the advent of globalization, specialization and costs (recent changes in healthcare reform have increased) medical images (e.g., CT, MRI, US) might be captured in an imaging center.  DICOM images need to be sent to a radiologist specializing in the type of modality (e.g., CT, MRI, US).  The radiologist generates a report that must be associated with the images and sent to the referring physician that ordered the study.  If time is not crucial to the outcome, then the DICOM data could be transferred using optical (i.e., CD, DVD) or other removable media (i.e., USB disk, USB memory).  In most cases transfer speeds are important and they are done over open (e.g., Internet) or virtual private networks (VPN).

To add to this, there are some regulations, courtesy of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), that specify, among other things, who is responsible to store the DICOM data, for how long should the DICOM data be stored and who has access to such DICOM data.

There are other issues that fall in the realm of overall system design.  Most of these escape the design and implementation of most products just because of scope and reduced engineering resources available to most companies.  This is especially true now a day when most design and implementation activities are done abroad (i.e., China, India) by companies that bid the lowest on a project.  As an example of some of the missed requirements / qualities are consistency, redundancy and availability.  What if different copies of the same DICOM object are different?  The differences may be valid due to changes made on the object following standard procedures or they may be maliciously performed to hide some evidence that could require an insurance company to pay a considerable settlement in a malpractice lawsuit.  It becomes difficult to manage multiple copies of a DICOM object when they are in disparate media types, on different private systems or in some type of removable media forgotten in a drawer or in a closet in a private or public place.  When multiple copies of a DICOM object are floating around how can they be located when needed if they are in private systems at healthcare providers, referring physicians, or in removable media.

I have been designing and implementing computer based systems for disparate vertical markets for a rather long period of time.  I very well understand that thinking out of the box is quite rare.  Most junior engineers tend to believe that something they learned while attending school or read in the last issue of a technical publication could be blindly applied to improve on something that needs it (i.e., DICOM).  I recall an electrical engineer that had designed a computer bus that was faster that what was available at the time.  For a few years all he would consider was changing from EISA or VME to his creation.  The problems with using non-standard hardware or software are not just a unique feature but compatibility, overall performance, additional modules, and support just to mention a few.

Based on all what has been said so far, perhaps the time and technology is ripe for a next generation of DICOM routers.  The idea would be to come up with a design what is easy to use, does not break existing systems and follows the DICOM standard.

A typical set of DICOM routers would be used as follows:

1] DICOM images for a patient are captured by a modality (e.g., CT, MRI, US) and sent using the DICOM protocol to a DICOM router.

2] The DICOM router would have a set of rules to send a copy of the DICOM objects to local storage in a DICOM archive and another copy to a remote location to be read.

3] A DICOM router receives the DICOM objects and routes then to a local storage and to a viewing station.

4] A radiologist, specializing on the type of image, would read the set of DICOM images and generate a report.  The report would be typed in or transcribed and sent to the DICOM router.

5] The report and images would be sent to a DICOM router to be sent to the referring physician clinic.  A copy of the report would join the local copy of the DICOM images in case there are questions or they need to be resent to the destination or to a new destination at a later time.

6] The DICOM router at the final destination receives the DICOM objects and sends a copy to the local storage and a copy to a viewing station.

7] The DICOM objects, which include the images and report, await the referring physician.  Based on the report the referring physician decides on a course of action for the patient.

The typical system has several isolated private copies of the same DICOM objects.  The system as a whole makes use of several DICOM routers, each with its own set of rules, each controlled by different organizations.

A new DICOM router could be designed and implemented as illustrated in the following figure: 

1]  DICOM images for a patient are captured by a modality (e.g., CT, MRI, US) and sent using the DICOM protocol to a Content Addressable Storage (CAS) with a DICOM front end implementing a DICOM archive.  The archive uses the DICOM protocol to receive the DICOM objects.  It makes multiple copies in different locations and on different types of media.  The number of copies, their location and media type are configurable.

2] The DICOM front-end interface at the offshore reading center determines that the CAS has received DICOM objects specifying it as a destination.  The DICOM front end at that remote location transfers the DICOM objects to a DICOM viewing station for them to be read by a radiologist.

3]  When done with the read, a report is transcribed (if needed) and sent to the CAS.  Please note that the DICOM images do not need to be sent back unless they have been altered.

4] There are at least two ways the DICOM images and report can get to the final destination, which is the referring physician at a clinic.  In the first approach, after the CAS receives the report, the report and DICOM images are sent to the viewing workstation.  On a different approach, the DICOM objects are sent to both the offshore reading center and to the viewing station at the referring physician clinic.  Later when the report is completed and stored in the CAS, it is sent to the viewing workstation via the DICOM protocol.

As a system, the second implementation is quite more elegant, probably less expensive and quite more reliable than the first approach.

I welcome comments and suggestion regarding this blog entry.

The Naïve American

Apparently we were not the only ones with the same cravings.  The line at the drive through averaged five cars.  We ordered, paid and received our cones.  We then drove to the end of the lot and parked facing east.  ‘Jaws’ (the min pin) got some Trader Joe’s treats.  He prefers them to traditional brands (e.g., Milk Bone).

Across the street from the Dairy Queen’s lot is one of the lots for school busses for Independent School District 196.  I asked my wife if she had an idea of how much a school bus driver makes.  I also estimated the number of the yellow busses parked in the lot (at least a hundred), the amount of fuel spent every day taking and bringing back kids to school.  The facility also has administrative offices and a repair garage.  We estimated that this particular facility costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year.  The big question is, what are we as Naïve American tax payers getting back in return?

Very few countries in the world spend tax money transporting kids to and from school.  In most countries it is up to parents to take care of the educational needs of their kids.  For some reason in the USA we have this unique believe that we deserve and can afford such luxury.  Is providing transportation in any way shape or form affects the performance and achievements of students?  Everyone knows this is not the case.  Our K-12 education system ranks 14^th worldwide.  Whatever we are doing is just not working.

Before starting this blog entry, I tried getting the ranking of the school systems in the USA compared to other countries.  Not a simple task.  Apparently Naïve Americans do not want to see the issue.  I call it the ‘Ostrich Syndrome’ because when the animal is threatened it tends to stick its head in a hole in order not to see the eminent danger while leaving exposed the rest of its huge body.

I did find a web site (http://www.realonlinedegrees.com/education-rankings-by-country/) that had some numbers of Math and Science that are the most reliable and probably best indicators for education.  One should note that the data is collected every four years and reflects eight graders.  When the eight graders get to twelve grade their scores plummet even further.  This is how the USA ranks 14^th not 10^th.

Yesterday evening while watching the local news a commercial for the Teachers Union came up.  For some reason the union does not want some changes that may jeopardize the interests and cushy well being of their 70,000 members.  Yes, they threaten career politicians.  The union better get what they want or will vote for someone other career politician that will bow to their demands.  It is interesting to watch this set of events unfold in front of Naïve Americans who are not able to pause for a second and reflect how corrupt our society is.  The USA is just in a downwards spiral is so many fronts and very few people are able to realize the threat and think about how to correct the situation.

Over the weekend I was on Skype talking with my sister that lives on the East Coast.  We talked about the Nova program, which she was also able to view.  The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg, winner of the 1979 Nobel Price for Physics, came up during our conversation so I ordered a copy on Amazon.

The book is quite interesting and relevant to the Nova show we watched.  Weinberg did a good job by separating concepts and explaining them as simply as possible and separating it from mathematics.  The mathematics is incorporated into a single section at the end of the book.

It is quite interesting to see how human ingenuity and intelligence has been able to come up with different theories about the origin of the universe.  Some of the hypotheses have been corroborated to some extent with science experiments.  Some of the experiments have been conducted on earth while others in space.  This takes us to the point of NASA and the future and role of the USA in space exploration.  Mr. Obama apparently does not see much value in NASA.  Hopefully the next administration will be better educated in order to understand the value of science for our country and humanity in general.

The book has an interesting section, which was written years after the original book.  It provides the author with the opportunity to fill the reader with developments after the late1970s when the book was first printed, to 1993.  The font of this section is quite smaller.  It was hard to read.

Weinberg concludes the book with the following sentence:  “The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy”.  Something to think about.

Enjoyed the book.  It is easy to read.  It is interesting to say the least, how humans have been able to build a model of how the universe was started millions of years ago.