As a point-to-multipoint technology, 802.16a promises both extended range and much faster connections than existing wireless local area networks (LANs) and could become a replacement for existing “last mile” choices, such as cable modem and digital subscriber lines (DSL). [Wireless Newsfactor]
Can you say FRUSRATION!
As you probably know by now the power is out in all of NYC. I am in DC and my pregnant wife is “trapped” at our apartment. The good news is that she is OK but has been extremely freaked out for the past few hours as without power there is no news update. She climbed down the stairs (20 FLOORS!) to find company in the building staff – bless those guys – but can only think to head back up (slowly) to try and relax in quiet until the power returns.
There is literally nothing I can do. There is no power in the entire city and it seems to be affecting 5 states! I can’t get back even if I wanted to as there are no flights and no trains… there is nothing. We have only cordless phones and the cellular networks are completely overrun. I’m glad that at least we were able to speak on the phone twice – once from her cell (of course low on battery!) and once from the lobby phone. She is at least getting a low-tech phone from the local Duane Reade (I hope) which should allow us to speak again later…
Stay tuned…
Truckwidth
Long promised, often hyped, and undelivered, true Video-on-Demand may finally be coming. Imagine every TV show, available all of the time, living in the cable network, awaiting your request. Maybe this time’s for real — churn amongst digital subscribers is up to a murderous 5% per month, the DBS threat looms large, and the cable MSOs have seen that if they don’t give the masses what they want, well, the masses will just take it for themselves. [VentureBlog: TruckWidth
]
IBM, Cisco offer broadband tips
IBM and Cisco Systems have a suggestion for Baby Bells trying to compete with cable companies in the broadband arena: slash your prices. [CNET News.com
Intel’s Wi-Fi Chair…
A Wi-Fi chair, since you ask, is not a Professorship in mobile IT. It is a chair made out of the cables which people are throwing away because wireless LANs are making them obsolete. It symbolises the British wireless resurgence. Apparently… [The Register
]
Remember laptop burns man’s penis? How about Chair beams your bits!
Forget California, It’s Time to Recall Microsoft
Code Red, Love Bug, Slammer, Nimda, Pretty Park, BubbleBoy, Melissa, Code Red II, MSBlaster, and numerous other high-profile Microsoft-sponsored incidents…many view them as “the price of doing business in the Information Age” and cheerfully spend (or lose) increasing amounts of money with each new incident arising from poorly designed software. But rather than face reality by conducting a dollars-and-sense risk assessment of their IT operation to see how much Microsoft’s vulnerabilities cost their enterprise annually, these sheeple – at all levels of government, industry, and society — prefer tolerating mediocrity to efficiency and reliability in their software assets, because they’re either too lazy to investigate alternatives or don’t want to propose changes to the comfortable status quo.
What recourse do you have in such cases? You can’t just sue the software vendor for problems with their product like you can the maker of a vehicle or appliance since you’ve given up those rights by using the product under the terms of its license agreement. The only option you have is continue using the software in question and scrambling to update your systems whenever a new problem presents a danger to your information assets. In other words, when Microsoft says “patch” you salute and say “how soon?”
Or, you can vote with your pocketbook and move to an alternative software product that works better, costs less to buy and maintain, and won’t burn out your network support staff. Nobody’s saying you must use any one particular product or operating system, and they all tend to perform the same basic functions needed in today’s working society – although some are better at it than others. It may take a little bit of effort to switch and get used to the new product, but the long-term payoff will be worth it. [Richard Forno – Infowarrior]
Me? I’m just glad I use a Mac.
One of each….
Scientific-Atlanta shipped 387 thousand Explorer 8000 home entertainment servers in the fiscal year 2003, including 158 thousand in the fourth quarter. These are DVR/PVR boxes. The company also shipped 197 thousand HD set-tops in fiscal year, including 58 thousand in the fourth quarter. All in all, the company has shipped more than 300 thousand high-definition set-tops. [Lydia Loizides]
We’ve got one of each of these stacked up nicely in our TV stand… working well in harmony, though since the 8000 arrived we are watching noticeably less HD. I am actually very excited for the combo box (not sure the number) which is supposedly on the way.
Why Apple is So Tempting
Like a comet that passes Earth every few years, Apple Computer consistently comes out of the blue with products that alter the trajectory of the technology business and leave observers rubbing their eyes in amazement. [Wired]
Model plane flown across Atlantic
It didn’t fly high and it didn’t fly swiftly, but The Spirit of Butts Farm made it all the way from Canada to Ireland with a few drops of fuel to spare, a group of model airplane enthusiasts say. They are hoping for a distance record for the flight of 38 hours, 23 minutes over 1,888.3 miles by a model plane that weighed just 11 pounds when it took off from Newfoundland.MSNBC.com
Keeping the Net Neutral
Salon: A coalition of big-name tech companies — Microsoft, Amazon, eBay and others — wants the feds to make sure that cable companies don’t ruin the broadband Internet [JD’s New Media Musings]
New cell phones aim to connect standards
Cell phone maker Kyocera unveiled its first handset Tuesday that uses Qualcomm’s GSM1x technology, which is used to bridge two cell phone standards that are not interoperable. [CNET News.com]
This is very cool… one phone to roam them all
Think you’re missing some email?
Quite possibly, you are…
Return Path found that the false-positive rate varied wildly at ISPs, from as low as 1 percent to as high as 46 percent. Among major ISPs, AOL gave e-mail marketers the most fits, with a 25 percent rate. AOL, struggling to hold onto its 28 million subscribers, has made its robust spam-fighting capabilities a key part of its marketing. AOL has said that spam is its top consumer complaint by far.
Interestingly, Earthlink, which has vied with AOL for top anti-spam credentials, had one of the lowest rates at 7 percent. Yahoo! took top honors with a mere 4 percent false-positive rate. MSN’s rate was just under 10 percent.
Return Path found catalogers most vulnerable, suffering a non-deliverability rate of more than 40 percent. Software also suffers a high number of undelivered e-mail, with nearly a third not getting through. In contrast, Return Path found clients in retail, software and non-profit industries had non-deliverability rates under 10 percent. [InternetNews.com]
Wi-Fi Trains in the US
As I noted yesterday, there is a wi-fi train test happening in Europe… Well looks like Caltrans is adding service now to the Silicon Valley.
This is great stuff and I really hope that these tests are successful. It’s hard when you travel via train to run a stumbler and nab a connection — at a stop! If you could connect while working, things could be extremely productive… or not depending on how you wanted to use your time.
Planes, Trains …Automobiles??
Lizzie update
No great surprise: Lizzie Grubman won’t be on Howard Stern this week. Lizzie had scheduled it herself for Wednesday but then Lizzie’s people said, silly Lizzy, she forgot that she’s in Miami on Wednesday. She’ll reschedule. Uh-huh. [BuzzMachine]
Rich editing in Mozilla for Moveable Type
A quick search via the google bar in Mozilla and bam – rich text moveable type editing in Mozilla!! Loving it – just posted this entry… clicked to add a URL…
“Save our state — vote Terry Tate.”
The slogan for the tongue-in-cheek candidacy of Speight as Tate, as posted yesterday on the Web site, www.terrytate.reebok.com, is “Save our state — vote Terry Tate.” Mr. Speight is an actor and former football player and wrestler who has worn Reebok apparel and shoes to portray Tate since the campaign was introduced during the Super Bowl in January. [New York Times]
Once elected, Mr. Tate will tackle white collar crime: “Y’all suckahs who don’t pay taxes and hang out on your Gucci yachts? With Triple T in charge, you know you gonna get caught.” Terry also commits himself to reducing overcrowding at schools, improving air quality, and eliminating “long-[expletive] coffee breaks— five minutes tops, or y’all gonna get clocked.”
And despite the risk inherent in being the top executive of the state, Terry stands alone among leading candidates in his pledge to realize the hopes and dreams of the voters of California without taking a vacation or a sick day. “Playin’ hurt? Baby, that don’t phase me. The only pain I got time for is the pain I put on fools who don’t know what time it is.”
Most importantly, a vote for Terry Tate is a vote for a better future for California’s children, families, and businesses: “I’m gonna govern the [expletive] out of this state. Believe that, California.”[Terry Tate, Office Linebacker]
SMS addresses…
Here’s a nice listing of Carriers and the text address formats for their phones…Waste of a Good TypePad (thanks Anil!)
Scalable RSS Aggregators
Dave endorses the view, stating that “the three-pane `feed reader’ is a disaster, it’s merely recreating a mess I want to run away from. I like having a new queue every few hours.”
I think I have hit upon the ideal solution: a single folder with all the RSS items in an email client, like what our Info Aggregator does for the following reasons:
– it allows me to work within an application I know very well (the email client) and not learn (or download) something new
– the IMAP support ensures that I have a sync-ed RSS store irrespective of the computer I access it from
– the single folder elimintaes the wastage of working through differetn folders. Email clients have a sort on the source, so in case I want to view (or delete) all feeds by date or source, it is a matter of a couple clicks.
– search within the feeds is possible via the email client search itself [E M E R G I C . o r g:]
I have to agree… only a couple of days into Info Aggregator and I’m hooked! I do include a few rules, though for things I know I generally want to read later (BBC and NYT) and certain blogs I know I want to see immediately as they are updated.
I don’t think the three-paned interface is broken… bad habits are bad habits so if you can
t deal with volumes of email, than perhaps slowing down the number of subscriptions in your aggregator would be a better idea.
Jury Duty today…
I’ve got Jury Duty today… It’s the third time I’ve been picked in about a year and I have yet to serve. The first two cases were for Special Grand Jury but today is for Grand Jury… I have a feeling that today is my day – at least to go through with the complete service (I may not have to serve on a jury but can still get credit if I volunteer).
OR NOT! I totally missed this by a day. I had to reschedule (again) for October…
If you love a good Nigerian Spam…
Then you’ll love Scamorama!