Two telecom companies in New Zealand recently settled a dispute over access to a mobile radio network by arm-wrestling for it:
Bosses at New Zealand telecoms firm TeamTalk have been arguing with radio communications company MCS Global Digital over access to their mobile radio network.But, worried over the time and fees involved in court hearings, TeamTalk boss David Ware challenged MCS chief Allan Cosford to settle the dispute through an arm-wrestling contest.
Mr Cosford accepted, and agreed to a duel before spectators in a gym near to his firm's Auckland-based headquarters.
Cosford won.
Ware's comment in defeat? "I guess losing ws tough...[h]owever, it's not nearly as painful as dealing with lawyers."
According to Cellular News daily text messaging in the United Kingdom exceeds 55 million:
The total number of chargeable person-to-person text messages sent across the four UK GSM networks in February 2003 totalled 1.53 billion. February's figure takes the daily average to 55 million compared to 44 million in February 2002 and 28.8 million in February 2001.As February's figures continue to show, texting has become the premier communication tool for the millennium. Six times (78 million) as many text messages were sent on Valentine's Day compared to traditional cards, as romantics across the UK sent messages of love to partners via text message.
According to Mobtopia, the US lags behind with a mere 1 billion text messages in 2002 (the UK total works out to around 1.53 billion).
According to Government Computer News, the US military forces in Iraq are using ruggedized handhelds and portable PCs to help with battle information:
Troops on the ground in Iraq are using ruggedized portable PCs and personal digital assistants to support operational and logistical applications.Equipped with a Global Positioning System receiver and a tactical military modem, and coupled with a laser range finder, PCs and PDAs can be used to transmit firing coordinates to artillery on the ground or to aircraft overhead. They supply maps and personnel information for medical evacuations and carry maintenance manuals for military vehicles.
...via Gizmodo
Lawrence Lessig reports:
The Mexican Congress is about to consider a revision to its copyright law. Among it many changes, the law will extend the term of copyright from life-plus-70 to life-plus-100. (And no doubt thus beginning yet another cycle of "harmonization" around the world.) Worse, at the end of the copyright term, the government has the right to charge royalties for works in the public domain."Posted by dcoates at 04:50 PM
PCWorld reports that LA Police are building a wireless LAN:
Believing that heightened homeland security requirements demand higher-bandwidth communications systems for public safety agencies, the Los Angeles Police Department plans to install 27 wireless local area networks (WLANs) at police stations throughout the city in the next three months, according to Roger Ham, deputy chief for communications at the LAPD.
Howard Rheigold's blog, Smart Mobs, has pointers to Eleksen's new soft cell phones-
...via Gizmodo
According to an article in Ad Age, the TIVO and its ability to skip commercials may be not be so bad after all:
Recent internal research by Procter & Gamble Co. indicates that consumers who fast-forward through ads with digital personal video recorders such as TiVo still recall those ads at roughly the same rates as people who see them at normal speed in real time.
Of course, the article goes on to say:
"That's probably not an unusual finding based on the way people recall things," Mr. Schar [who formerly oversaw P&G's market research department] said. "People hardly recall anything. So you're dealing with low numbers anyway, and differences with low numbers take a lot to be significant. So I could see how statistically you could make that case."
FrogPad introduces...Frogpad:
FrogPad is a one-handed keyboard to be used with any USB keyboard compatible Desk Top, LapTop, PDA, Pocket PC, Tablet PC, Wearable PC, and other mobile applications, gaming applications or Telematic form factors.
Russell Beattie at Mobitopia talks about the applications on his phone:
So I'm starting to pare down the apps I'm using on my phone. With the 7650 specifically you really need to choose which apps you use wisely because there's just not enough room to store everything and choose later. So far, here's what I've discovered are the best apps which I have installed on my phone.First the Symbian Apps:
Yellow FTP is the killer app of my phone. It allows me to upload/download any piece of data I want and was the first app to show me that my handset was a real IP connected computer. I use this app to upload photos to my Moblog directory on my server and to upload/download text files to read on my eBook reader. This really allows me to manage the space on my phone better and is the inspiration behind DotMob. This app cost $25.
And of course, there's much more
Peter Lewis has an interesting article at Fortune.com on convergence, that is, devices that do everything you'd ever want--video, audio, Internet all right there in one device. But, Lewis says, is that really what we want:
Mr. Hanson gives this example: He takes his camcorder into the backyard to take video of his children at play. When he walks back into the house, he wants the camcorder to automatically communicate with other devices in the home. The TV might offer to display the video. The computer might offer to store the video, or to e-mail it to grandma. The game console might offer to incorporate images of the kids into a game. He wants to download music from Sony's online music service and transfer it to the music player in his car. He wants to order a Sony movie through his VAIO and have it streamed to the Sony Wega TV in the bedroom.This isn't convergence; it's divergence.
And here's what's wrong with the picture:
It's far too complicated for a consumer audience, unless the consumers have a technical degree from the University of Pluto. Most Americans still connect to the Internet over dial-up modems. The VCR clock is still blinking 12:00. When consumers go to the electronics store to buy home networking gear, more often than not they return it because it's just too hard to figure out. That's not an exaggeration: The return rate for home networking products is well over 50 percent, according to retailers.
And that's just for connecting computers, not to mention a United Nations of devices that use different communications protocols, different operating systems, and different media formats.
Sony and Microsoft don't even know how to explain to Ma and Pa and the kids why they should want their PC to communicate with the TV. Stop someone on the street and ask, "Are you frustrated because you want to stream video from your PC to the video monitor in your bedroom?" Chances are you'll get slapped.
jill/txt reports that in Norway they're considering using SMS messaging to warn the population of invasion or chemical attacks rather than the old air raid sirens. The original article is here but, fair warning, it's in Norwegian.
PhoneScoop shows us Frog Design/Motorola's new Wearable Technology.
Frog Design and Motorola today unveiled the "Offspring" concept design for a set of wearable devices. The individual pieces communicate via Bluetooth. A central device - the WDA - serves as the hub, and provides a wireless connection to an iDEN network. The design is only a concept at this point, although Motorola is preparing for user testing, and plans to bring a product based on the design to market within two years.
Devices include clip-on digital cameras, wearable digital assistants (WDA), goggles with heads-up display (albeit connected to the wall with a power cable), and a pen that saves what it writes in digital form.
American FactFinder at the US Census Bureau provides access to 2000 Census data, including a snapshot of your neighborhood.
Just enter a street address to find information on ethnicity, age, household population and more. It includes maps of each area as well.
Brighthand proposes that there are three technologies that could profoundly change handhelds
While the current crop of handhelds is good, it could be better. There are three technologies currently being developed that could significantly improve future handhelds.
These are:
The Japan Media Review has an article on A New Set of Social Rules for a Newly Wireless Society:
Keitai [cellphone]-wired youth are in persistent but lightweight contact with a small number of intimates, with whom they are expected to be available unless they are sleeping or working. Because of this portable, virtual peer space, the city is no longer a space of urban anonymity; even when out shopping, solo youths will send photos to friends of a pair of shoes they just bought, or send fast-breaking news about a hot sale that is just opening. After meeting face-to-face, a trail of text messages continues the conversation as friends disperse in trains, buses and on foot, nimble thumbs touch-typing on numeric keypads.
These Social Mobiles (prototypes, not real) won a grand prize in the 2002 Media Arts Festival of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. They're designed to answer the question of how to make cell phones less disruptive in social situations.
Personally, I like the electro-shock phone...
Mitch Kapor has Software Pioneer Quits Board of Groove
Mitchell D. Kapor, a personal computer industry software pioneer and a civil liberties activist, has resigned from the board of Groove Networks after learning that the company's software was being used by the Pentagon as part of its development of a domestic surveillance system.
According to Yahoo!News, McDonald's is going to offer wireless internet
Would you like super-sized Internet access with that burger and fries? In a further sign of the spread of wireless Internet technology, McDonald's restaurants in three U.S. cities will offer one hour of free high-speed access to anyone who buys a combination meal.
After an hour, you can buy additional time for $3.00 per hour or...buy more food.
Borders will also be offereing wireless access in 400 of their stores and Toshiba and Intel say they'll be setting up wireless 'hot spots' in coffee shops, hotels and convenience stores across the US.
...via BoingBoing
Via Gizmodo, a Bluetooth enabled pen that allows you to save what you write as you write it.
Ray Mathews has a new weblog that's looking at RSS in Government.
He's already got an interesting post about RSS in Government: Four Models for Aggregating and Publishing RSS Headlines:
The State of Utah is reviewing options for creating, aggregating, and publishing news from state agencies. The decision of which technology to use to create RSS feeds can be made independent to the decision regarding a technology for aggregating and publishing (parsing) the feeds. I'll address the later first and write about the creation/CMS end tomorrow. There seems to me to be at least four models for aggregating and publishing RSS headlines. This lengthy article describes these four models with examples of each.....More
Joel on Software has an article on Building Communities with Software
The article discusses some of the community software currently available and the effect these different implementations have on the community that's formed. USENET, Slashdot, and IRC each have specific issues that characterize their interactions.
Joel's primary axiom of online communities?
Small software implementation details result in big differences in the way the community develops, behaves, and feels.
For example:
IRC users organize themselves around bot warfare because the software doesn't let you reserve a channel. Usenet threads are massively redundant because the original Usenet reader, "rn," designed for 300 baud modems, never shows you old posts, only new ones, so if you want to nitpick about something someone said, you had to quote them or your nitpick won't make sense.
He then goes on to discuss what he has found that does work, what doesn't work as well and why.
Sometimes in communities it's not so much a matter of what works or doesn't (which Joel also mentions) but what kind of community you want and what's the best way to get it. It's often a question of matching up the community with the software and going forward from there.
On March 1st and 2nd, Stanford Law School hosted a conference on Spectrum Policy: Property or Commons?
Spectrum policy is undergoing a fundamental reorientation in the United States and elsewhere. An emerging consensus holds that the traditional system of governmentally-allocated spectrum rights inhibits innovation and competition. The central question now facing policy makers is what form of spectrum management should replace the existing system.
Lots of bloggers at the conference. Links to their takes on the conference can be found on the conference main page.