The Pattern On The Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work

by William Daniel Hillis

Most people are baffled by how computers work and assume that they will never understand them. What they don't realize — and what Daniel Hillis's short book brilliantly demonstrates — is that computers' seemingly complex operations can be broken down into a few simple parts that perform the same simple procedures over and over again. Computer wizard Hillis offers an easy-to-follow explanation of how data is processed that makes the operations of a computer seem as straightforward as those of a bicycle. Avoiding technobabble or discussions of advanced hardware, the lucid explanations and colorful anecdotes in The Pattern on the Stone go straight to the heart of what computers really do. Hillis proceeds from an outline of basic logic to clear descriptions of programming languages, algorithms, and memory. He then takes readers in simple steps up to the most exciting developments in computing today — quantum computing, parallel computing, neural networks, and self-organizing systems. Written clearly and succinctly by one of the world's leading computer scientists, The Pattern on the Stone is an indispensable guide to understanding the workings of that most ubiquitous and important of machines: the computer.

Genres: Nonfiction, Computer Science, Science, Technology, Computers, Programming, Engineering

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Hesam · Rating 4 out of 5]

اول- همانگونه که از زیرعنوان کتاب برمی آید،- مبانی مفهومی کامپیوتر-، کتاب را می توان به نوعی نگاهی مرتبه دوم و فلسفی به مفاهیم کامپیوتر دانست. اگرچه گاهی این مرزها در نوردیده شده و به مفاهیم جزیی و کاربردی داخل می شود اما با این حال وجه نگاه مرتبه دوم به کامپیوتر یا به عبارتی توجه به «کامپیوتر بماهو کامپیوتر» ، وجه غالب کتاب محسوب میشود. از آن جمله توجه به اصل انتزاع کارکردی که به واسطه ی آن مفاهیم و مبانی کامپیوتر مستقل از تکنولوژی بیان میگردند؛ حال چندان مهم نیست که کامپیوتر تو هیدرولیکی باشد یا مکانیکی یا الکترونیکی و از ترانزیستور و یا حتی از طناب و چوب...
دوم- یکی از فصل های خواندنی، فصل چهارم بود با عنوان «ماشین های تورینگ تا چه حد جهان شمول اند؟» . در این فصل به این پرسش پرداخته میشود که حد توانایی های کامپیوتر کجاست و ذیل آن به بحث هایی جذاب در باب ماشین های تورینگ، محاسبه پذیری، سیستم های آشوب مند، قضیه ناتمامیت گودل و محاسبه های کوانتومی می پردازد.
سوم- یکی از نکات جالبی که نویسنده مطرح میکند نگرانی های انسان ها در باب رشد روزافزون قدرت کامپیوترها ست. نویسنده ریشه ی این نگرانی را در منشا ارزش و شانیت انسان و ترس از به خطر افتادن آن می داند. وی معتقد است همانگونه که روزی بشر معتقد بود زمین مرکز عالم است و انسان یگانه سلطان این مرکز و لذا سلطان همه ی عالم برای همین وقتی سخن از نقض این نظریه در آثار کسانی چون کوپرنیک و دیگران دیده شد، جنجالی به پا شد و یا زمانی که سخن از تکامل انسان ، این به ظاهر تافته ی جدا بافته آمد همه ی دعواها و جار و جنجال ها ریشه در نگرانی از خدشه در منشا ارزش انسان داشت، دعواهای اخیر در باب کامپیوترها هم چیزی از همین جنس است.
چهارم – مبحث جذاب دیگر در باب قدرت یادگیری در کامپیوترها و فشل بودن فرآیند طراحی مهندسی و سلسله مراتبی در این امر است که به بحث از ایده ی تکامل طبیعی در ساخت کامیپوترهایی با توانایی یادگیری میرسد و این که در نهایت مورد مطلوب روشی ترکیبی از تکامل، رشد، آموزش و ساختار مهندسی ست. چیزی که در ذهن و ضمیر وذات آدمی هم دیده می شود اینست که توانایی آدمی همان اندازه در ژنوم او نهفته است که در فرهنگ او.
پنجم- بسیاری از مباحثی که کتاب پیش بینی میکند امروزه به جریانهای پژوهشی مبدل شده اند و یا حتی به تحقق (عملی) پیوسته اند. مباحثی چون یادگیری ماشین، یادگیری عمیق، اینترنت اشیاء و... که با توجه به تاریخ انتشار کتاب (1998) در حد فرضیه و پیش بینی بوده و امروزه به جریان های اصلی حوزه های مهندسی تبدیل شده اند.
ششم- کتاب به همه ی علاقمندان به کامپیوتر توصیه می شود و ای کاش دانشجویان لیسانس کامپیوتر و حتی دانش آموزان دبیرستان ملزم به خواندن کتابهایی از این دست می شدند. چیزی که بیش از کتب فن محور و تکنیک محور و تکنیکال در این حوزه مهم و شایان توجه است.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a weird one for me....

On the one hand, I'm not the intended audience. I understand how computers work more than most, that's literally my job to write the software that runs the internet.

On the other, I AM the intended audience, because I have zero clue how computers work on a hardware level.

On a mutant third hand, I'm not really the intended audience again, because I intimately understand the physics behind all of the individual components....complex impedence, inductance, breakdown voltages, RF circuit resonances, and so on.

I'm in a weird place where I write the high level software that makes computers work. I understand the theory behind programming languages, object-oriented design, system design, compilers, parallel processing and multi-threading..... I also understand the physics behind the components and why transistors are able to function as logic switches, how data is stored and read magnetically on a HDD platter or, more recently, SSD chips.

What's missing is the middle bit. How does a circuit I know in and out turn into the operating system I'm modifying?

I was hoping this book might answer that question. In a sense, it did, but not at a level that left me satisfied. I understand better how memory registers function and how you build blocks of switches that are hard-wired function machines.

But I'm still missing the middle bit: How does what's in that data register (the machine code instruction byte(s)) end up at the correct block within the processor? How does the output get routed to the correct destination after it's computed....how does it know one result goes to the USB controller to get sent back to some peripheral device, but another gets sent to another controller to trigger a disk write to save a file?

Sadly, this book didn't answer that for me. That process was hand-waved away and simplified. And so my quest to find a book to fill that gap in my knowledge continues....

That said, this book is great at what it does. I can't grade it based on my expectations, but on how good it accomplishes its intended goal. I think it achieves that pretty well, with very little in the way of distractions or unnecessary filler.

[Chris Aldrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had been made to read this as a senior in high school, or as a freshman in college. I highly recommend it to beginning electrical engineering and biomedical engineering students, as well as those interested in broad-based popular science.

It provides a great overview of the fields of electrical engineering and even some biomedical engineering, pulling together many of their interdivisional ideas while covering topics like Boolean algebra/logic, feedback control systems, biology, the brain, evolution, neural networks, computer science and programming, nature vs. nurture debate, cognitive psychology, imaging/image processing, signals & systems, technology, ethics, philosophy and even history.

It contains an inquisitive feel that is integral to a true understanding of engineering. It also has some broad based questions that students should be made to think about and maybe eventually solve. It wonderfully ties together a lot of theory in to a coherent text that will help create better engineers (and even thinkers). How do we create questions and then go about answering them. Lots of students suffer from not knowing how all the theory and knowledge interrelate. This book helps synthesize many things into a better whole and allows the reader to see the small pieces that integrate into the big picture.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The function of an artificial neuron corresponds, very roughly, to the function of some types of real neurons in the brain. Real neurons also have one output and many inputs, and the input connections, called synapses, have different strengths (corresponding to the different input weights). A signal can either enhance or inhibit the firing of the neuron (corresponding to positive and negative weights), and the neuron will fire when the combined stimulation of the inputs is equal to or above some threshold. These are the senses in which an artificial neuron is analogous to a real one. There are also many ways in which a real neuron is much more complicated than an artificial one, but this simple neuron is sufficient for building a system capable of learning.

W. Daniel Hillis' The Pattern on the Stone is more philosophy than engineering. Hillis' goal in this short work is to provide, as the subtitle states, "the simple ideas that make computers work." Hillis never gets bogged down on engineering specifics, but he describes clearly the universal nature of "computing" and provides concrete facts and examples that we should stop proclaiming that "human thought is a magical manifestation which computers with their clunky innards can never emulate." I realize progress in the field of AI has come lightyears since HIllis wrote this in 1998, but Hillis' approach is still relevant and enlightening. There's a simplicity in computing which many of us fail to understand or even appreciate. Hillis' explanations and descriptions are simple yet provocative; a first-rate job by a first-rate thinker.

A non-fiction classic in the same league as Lewis Thomas' The Lives of a Cell or Charles Petzold's Code.

Oddly enough, I am in basic agreement with this prescientific notion: I believe that we may be able to create an artificial intelligence long before we understand natural intelligence, and I suspect that the creation process will be one in which we arrange for intelligence to emerge from a complex series of interactions that we do not understand in detail--that is, a process less like engineering a machine and more like baking a cake or growing a garden. We will not engineer an artificial intelligence; rather, we will set up the right conditions under which an intelligence can emerge. The greatest achievement of our technology may well be the creation of tools that allow us to go beyond engineering--that allows us to create more than we can understand.

[Prashob · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome book on classic computer science from addition operation to inception of AI within 200 pages is remarkable feat and author's lucid writing style and concise content make it delightful read.

[Ovidiu Neatu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good preview of what computer science is about.
For a person who wants to join the field this may give a hint for paths you can chose from within the domain.

[Mbogo J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daniel Hillis conceived of this book to explain the holistic view of the modern day computer, how hardware and software combine to generate the final products that we the users see. In a way he succeeded in explaining the concepts such that any person with minimal background knowledge on computers can understand.

My qualms with this book are more because of me rather than the book itself. I had picked this book in the hope that it will somehow explain to me how the logic gates and their operations are scaled up to create a programmable system but the book fell short. The question was glossed over...may be it was to reduce complexity or the author did not think it was important, like I said the problem was me and I am sure the author did not write this book with me in mind. I've also read a book with a similar intent D is for Digital by Brian Kernighan which was better written and a bit systematic, not to mention more recent...Though I've labored enough on this point, for the last time the problem with this book was me rather than the book itself and the reader should check it out for themselves to determine from the content what is wheat and what is chaff.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pattern on the Stone : The Simple Ideas that Make Computers Work (1999) by Danny Hillis is an excellent book by an important figure in computing history. If you're looking for an impressively short book to get an overview of how computers work this is definitely worth reading. 

Hillis starts from the ground up, describing how switches can be combined to perform more complicated operations. Then what programming does and how programming languages work are described. Hillis goes on to Turing Machines and computability, heuristics and algorithms. Parallel computing and neural networks are also covered. 

For the length the coverage is remarkable. But the book doesn't quite join up the basics of operation with how programs sit on top of a computer, that is to say the role of operating systems isn't well described. 

However, The Pattern on the Stone is overall a very good book and would be ideal for anyone who wants to start getting and understanding of computers. Code by Charles Petzold is possibly a slightly better book but it is twice as long. The Pattern on the Stone is definitely worth reading. 

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second reading 11 years later: This is one of the greatest non-fiction books ever written. Period. I have never encountered a more lucid piece of writing. It covers a massive and challenging topic with plain language. It wastes nothing, yet remains friendly and unhurried. It is truly, truly the work of a genius.

Original review:

I was very, very impressed by The Pattern on the Stone. Hillis explains, in terms that anyone can understand, how computers work from the most basic principals. A previous familiarity with any or all of the principals will make understanding easier, but is entirely unnecessary. There is no prerequisite to reading this book.

I will be completely honest: I don't think there is any one topic in this book that I had not already explored in other reading. However, I've never seen it all described together in one seamless narrative before! That's an amazing feat, especially considering the brevity of the book.

Computer Science is a huge subject with applications (and implications) that reach far beyond crunching numbers. Hillis describes many mind-expanding topics, such as Turing's hypothesis of universal computing, with wonderful lucidity and clarity.

The ability to put together a book like this with just the right amount of information to be clear, but no more, is rare. I'm sure the author's temptation to write much more on each topic was very strong.

I honestly believe everyone should read this book. People with no previous knowledge of the computer sciences would benefit enormously. Those of us who're already familiar with some or all of the topics will still, I think, gain insight by seeing the big picture. At the very least, it will surely jog the memory quite thoroughly. Even if all of those reasons fail, it's a quick, thoughtful read.

Other interesting note: I thought Daniel Hillis' name seemed familiar. I was delighted to discover he's also the creator of the "Clock of the Long Now", the 10,000 year clock, a project that has long been a fascination of mine. "Holy crap," I thought, "he's that Daniel Hillis!"

Here's Hillis on the clock:

I want to build a clock that ticks once a year. The century hand advances once every one hundred years, and the cuckoo comes out on the millennium. I want the cuckoo to come out every millennium for the next 10,000 years. If I hurry I should finish the clock in time to see the cuckoo come out for the first time.

Awesome stuff!

[Rachel Smalter Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was super excited to dig into this book and FINALLY understand everything there is to know about computers! It promised to be written for morons like me who didn't understand the first thing about input, output, and boolean logic gates. Transistors, what? Functional abstraction??? Anyway, I think I sort-of get it now. Hillis is pretty good at transforming all that linear engineer stuff into a narrative that I can grasp and understand. Nevertheless, it's all still a little bit hazy, and the last half of the book was sort-of a bore -- the 4th grade approach to otherwise interesting topics such as algorithms, heuristics, sorting, parallel computing and artificial intelligence.

[Eyana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides comprehensive introduction about fundamentals in computer science. I still find this book too verbose for beginners, but concepts introduced are good starting point for further study and research. Could have been a better read if more real-life analogies and illustrations are provided for clearer explanation.

Some topics covered include the following:
fundamental abstraction, boolean, finite-state mechanism, programming, algorithms and heuristics, quantum computing, turing machine, etc.

[Fin Moorhouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat attempt to demystify how logic gates add up to web browsers and computer games. Plus some shallow overviews of quantum computing, cryptography, and parallel computing. More cursory than Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, which I enjoyed more.

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, compelling reading
Danny Hillis is probably best-known as the inventor of the Connection Machine, a massively parallel computer which was manufactured by his company Thinking Machines in the early 1980's. In this book, he tackles the problem of explaining how computers work, using simple, direct language and examples which are accessible to the layman. This could be viewed as challenging, since most people (even those of us who work with them all the time) view these machines as being too complicated to understand, and take them for granted in the same way as we do the cars we drive every day, for example.

The author rises to this challenge very well, building his explanation from the ground up, starting with an account of Boolean logic - i.e. the construction and manipulation of AND, OR and INVERT functions - that's firmly rooted in concrete examples (he points out that, although these functions are invariably implemented using electrical signals in a circuit, they could equally well be built using sticks and strings, or water-operated valves). Having laid down this foundation, he is able to move to more high-level topics such as programming, algorithms, heuristics, parallel computing, data encryption and compression, and adaptive systems, ending up with a lucid discussion about whether it will be possible one day to build a computer which could be described as (in a nod to the name of his old company) a thinking machine.

In spite of the abstruseness of these later subjects, he never leaves the reader behind, being careful to explain new ideas in simple terms that are easily understood. For example, he quotes the philosopher Gregory Bateson's definition of information as 'the difference that makes a difference', and points out (p10) how this could be applied to a binary signal, or bit. Elsewhere, he remembers (p110) a talk he gave in a New York hotel in the 1970's where he predicted that there would soon be more microprocessors than people in the USA. This caused one of his listeners to ask sarcastically, "Just what do you think people are going to do with all these computers? It's not as if you needed a computer in every doorknob!" - a humorous remark at the time, but one which has become true today, since each doorknob in that hotel (and thousands of others) contains a microprocessor which controls the lock. It's touches like this that make this a compelling read, giving the reader penetrating insights into the workings and development of these ubiquitous machines.

Originally reviewed 15 March 2012

[Chris Esposo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though dated, this is a still-relevant high-level basic tour on the architecture of digital computers. It goes through the processor, memory, disk, and how computation is executed through these and other components. One big omission of detail is anything to do with circuit topology and gate-logics. Though, a good layman book on that is "The Engineer and the Logician", parts of which are fairly technical, and thus at a slightly higher level of difficulty with respect to written detail.

This book has charms of its own. Early in the text, the author uses the construction and functioning of a hydraulic tube-based analogue computer, which sort of fills in for the dearth on the topic circuitry. In effect, the author seems to be making the connection between this analogue computer as a type of "system dynamic", and uses this construct as his way of characterizing computers.

This choice of narrative isn't surprising since the book was written within the decade bound by the mid-1980s to the mid-90s when Chaos theory was ascendant. The author makes reference to self-organizing systems, artificial evolution, and emergence at several points in the book, especially when discussing the notion of intelligence towards the end of the text.

This book would be great for someone of any age getting into computing. Perhaps read as an ancillary text in their CS101 course, or just for pleasure by someone already in the field, but who may operate at a much higher level of abstraction (software), and want to review how instruction is carried out at a more literal level.

My only critique is the author is a bit naive in his perception that intelligence may evolve from the architecture of the internet. Though, he was hardly unique in this naivete for thinkers in computing at the time. Recommend

[Mark Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I have a Computer Science degree, I found this an easy read. Nevertheless, I learned some things from it. I think only a basic understanding of CS, and high school math, is necessary to understand what Hillis talks about in it, which is a compliment to what he gets across.

I'd say this book is divided into two subjects:

First, what a computer is. Some satisfying things about it are he covers both analog and digital computers, what characterizes them, and the advantages of each, though he mostly covers/prefers digital computers (and he states why); quantum computing, and why it's still theoretical; and I think importantly, parallel computing, and where it's most useful. He talks about how the best use of parallel computation is a misunderstood subject, even within the field.

Second, he gets into what computers can and can't do. He talks about this with simplicity and clarity.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in, or currently taking computer science in school. It is a good complement to what a typical CS curriculum covers.

[Mark Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I met Danny Hillis in the 1990s when I was programming video games in San Francisco and working with Doug Carlston and Tomi Pierce and Robert Cook. He designed a delightfully clever treasure hunt at Doug's house in Colorado that we all worked through for several hours in April 1997. A few years later, I interviewed with him at Applied Minds in Burbank and he again had fascinating problems and thought experiments. By that point, I was more interested in film production than engineering, but I loved spending a few hours with him and hearing his take about information science and the future.

Diving back into Danny's wonderful mind has been a lot of fun. He presents the inner-workings of computers and digital logic in a way that is straightforward and easy to understand, and many of the ideas he's discussing in this 1998 book are even more relevant today with the rise of machine learning, generative AI, etc.

[Beth Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this years ago, but I finally got back to it. I actually decided to re-read the first 50 pages, since it had been so long since I stopped mid-book.

This is a very basic primer on what a computer is, and how it works. Many computer engineering details are glossed over, but the point of the book is to provide an accessible, general understanding, and I think it succeeds in this aim. This was published in 1998, so I am sure the author would have additional things to say about computer technology from these additional 22 years that have followed, but, I do think the foundational information about computer structure and history is still highly relevant and useful reading now.

This was a quick read and recommended for anyone interested in gaining better insight into the logic and basic structures of the computer devices we use daily.

[Colin Hoad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is without doubt one of the best computer science books I have ever read. Hillis gives a complete description of computers from their most basic building blocks (Boolean logic, simple circuits and binary bits) all the way up to the most complex uses of a computer, from parallel processing and quantum computing all the way through to modern AI - and beyond it. For such a short book, it is incredible how much ground Hillis covers, and in a way that never makes you feel like you are missing out on the necessary detail. I would make this book an absolute must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in computers because it is just so well written and covers the topics with such flair and ability. Superb.

[Rafal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Are you tired of being clueless about how computers work? Look no further, because "The Pattern on the Stone" by William Hilis is here to save the day! Or at least, it's supposed to. To be honest, I read this book with high hopes of finally understanding the magic of electrical circuits and pixel-generating sorcery. But alas, it was not written in stone that I would actually comprehend anything. Don't get me wrong, I definitely have a better understanding now, and I would recommend the book to anyone who wants to learn more about computers. But let's be real, they're still a total mystery to me. Now I'll have to ask ChatGPT to get my answers (btw ChatGPT helped me to write this review and soon will change the world forever).

[Kenta Suzuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is good for someone who wants to understand overall concepts of CS; hardware, software, algorithms, artificial intelligence. This book scratches the surface of these subjects and this does not go into depth. This book may not be for type of person who likes to study calculus with precise limit approach (meaning that clear and rigorous definition are better than fuzzy explanation to understanding) since there are lots of abstractions and analogy of concepts in this book which some people do not clear. For FYI, Alan Kay recommends this book to understand CS concepts https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-be...

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be a good "how do computers work" explainer for people who don't know much about computers: it covers the basics systematically from logical primitives -> finite state machines -> turing machines -> algorithms -> parallelism -> feedback / control systems -> (early) machine learning systems.

But... I work with computers and already know most all of this. I was hoping to find an answer to "how do circuits become a computer (/processor / operating system)", and this was not that book.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice short book explaining generally how computers work, from things like boolean logic, to how we build up complex architectures, to more advanced topics like parallel and evolutionary computing. I read this to see if it might be something my kids could read, or could be a general explanation for various people. I think if you're interested in computers, and want an easy to read explanation of the basics of how they work and a few other topics, it's a nice short read.

[Mark Schulz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite sure who is the intended audience for this book. Many of the explanations are quite short. If I wasn’t already a computer engineer I would have found some explanations left me a little in the dark. I understand that the book was intended to be short but I felt that a little more detailed explanation would improve the experience for the reader.

Would I attempt to write a book like this - no way. It is far too Duffy for me.

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Missed adding the review update yesterday.
This was a good book But was dated and also had some ideas which didn't hold up over time.
That said, there's still much information in the book for a Computer/Software technology neophyte... which is Not me. The author write's well and is well-understandable and entertaining. There Are however many digressions into the author's background I'd always prefer were avoided.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and easy to read. It gives me an overall view about the theories of computation which made me appreciate computing advances more without the need to deal with technical jargons. It is a very good read for beginners who do not have any knowledge in this field and want to learn more and have a good overall picture

[Alireza Golrangian · Rating 4 out of 5]

شاید تعجّب کنید، ولی به لحاظ منطقی می‌توان کامپیوتری ساخت از طناب و چوب! فقط در اتاق جا نمی‌شود و برای روشن‌کردنش باید رفت به صحرا.
این کتاب، علمیِ محض است و از مهندسی برق و کامپیوتر، خبری نیست در آن.
خواندنش برای من گرچه لذّت‌بخش بود، نامفهوم هم بود تا حدودی؛ به یکی از دو دلیل: ترجمه بد یا مباحث سنگین.
با این حال مشتاقم به خواندن دوباره‌اش، با ترجمه‌ای بهتر یا دانشی عمیق‌تر.

[Jackson Peven · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting albeit brief introduction into many fundamental areas of computer science. I think the target audience for this book is niche, those interested in studying computer science (otherwise the examples might not be interesting), but someone who hasn’t studied much yet (otherwise the examples may mostly be familiar). Still an interesting primer and well written.

[Omar Nuboer]

Amazing explanation of building blocks that make a computer. I highly recommend this for anyone who does not have an information technology background but wants to learn. I read this book specifically before I start ramping up my coding self-education.

[Nick Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkably relevant for a tech book from the 90s. The concepts haven’t changed much since the 60s so it might be just as useful in 30 years as it is now. Excellent for somebody who doesn’t care to know the particulars of computer science and is happy with a general overview.

[William Yip · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave a good overview of the hardware and software that make computers work. Even a tic-tac-toe program can involve over a hundred "circuits" but it relies on the same simple steps throughout. The author even foresaw the potential of the internet-of-things and cloud computing.