# Adaptive software -- a late bloomer



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Adaptive software -- a late bloomer.

*Adaptive software is the largely unfulfilled promise of mobile technology, but now a new platform developed by European researchers promises to finally deliver software that reconfigures itself depending on the context.*



> The MUSIC project achieved all its design goals and has created a robust prototype platform. The software is designated open source and is freely available.


-- Tom


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Well, "promises" is the operative word here.


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## Ent (Apr 11, 2009)

Personally I'd rather be given the option to set up a few presets and left to configure them for myself. 

After all, I know where I am without any special hardware or software. "Do what I mean" is nice in theory, but at some point this technology will end up misjudging the circumstance precisely because it tries to work by rule.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi Ent,

The problem with most rules (except in a compiler) is that they ignore context, so to paraphrase John's statement - context has promise!

-- Tom


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## Ent (Apr 11, 2009)

But surely a machine can only respond to Context according to a set of rules. So even if your phone knows when you're at home and when you're moving, it still has to check its rule book to find out how to adapt. Adaptation by rule can hardly be called adaptation at all, and will still mismanage issues based upon the subtleties that the computer hasn't been programmed to _adapt _to.

Furthermore unless its human operator is well aware of every scenario and response, it will just appear unpredictable.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi Ent,

The set of rules that can be included in context are not limited to static rules, but dynamic, heuristic rules that may cover more ground than the static rules specify. For example, with regard to zero-day malware outbreaks, Nod32 has heuristic rules that may prevent an infection, but signature based (example of static rules) do not yet have the signature (static) rule to prevent the infection.

-- Tom


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I'm still a skeptic. The pundits have been predicting the end of programming as we know it for about 30 years or more, and it's still alive and well.


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## Ent (Apr 11, 2009)

Aye, until the computer really knows what we want (instead of being taught to guess), we'll have to keep telling it very precisely. Fortunate for some of us.

Joking thought though: what would Cookiegal do once intelligent or adaptive viruses started landing in her forum? Viruses with anti-anti-malware heuristics. No more renaming MBam Puppy I suppose.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

JohnWill said:


> I'm still a skeptic. The pundits have been predicting the end of programming as we know it for about 30 years or more, and it's still alive and well.


Hi John,

This topic has nothing to do with whatever those pundits were predicting. The end of programming will only come when robots take over that task and can produce reliable, consistent, verifiable, correct programs - a very, very long way off if ever. But, it's good to be a skeptic!

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Ent said:


> Aye, until the computer really knows what we want (instead of being taught to guess), we'll have to keep telling it very precisely. Fortunate for some of us.
> 
> Joking thought though: what would Cookiegal do once intelligent or adaptive viruses started landing in her forum? Viruses with anti-anti-malware heuristics. No more renaming MBam Puppy I suppose.


Hi Ent,

The fact is that humans have never been able to precisely predict what they want, but they know it when they see it. Thus, the propensity to constantly modify initial designs and implementations to purge the flaws that inevitably will exist in poorly thought out designs and implementations - in the rush to release product (e.g. the cause of the Gulf oil spill was a complete breakdown of safety protocols in that rush to release product - BP's fault, not Trans Ocean's).

The kind of adaptive software they are talking about is more like what you may find in terms of a feedback control loop in signal processing which is very doable - and, a much smarter design, only if the implementation follows the design. As such, adaptable configuration on boot up at runtime is nothing new - just hasn't heretofore been done where it is sorely needed.

-- Tom


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## Ent (Apr 11, 2009)

> The kind of adaptive software they are talking about is more like what you may find in terms of a feedback control loop in signal processing which is very doable - and, a much smarter design, only if the implementation follows the design.


I'll re-read the article. I had understood it as a sort of DLLish or Service system for identifying external conditions for the main program to take account of. That is an Email client working with MUSIC would be told it's on Low bandwidth, and would then accommodate this by only loading the header and first 100 words, blocking pictures, or whatever else it had been configured to do in that situation. Then when it's plugged into the office fiber-optic connection it recognizes this, looks to its configuration, and just grabs the whole thing.


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