TECHNOLOGY: ENUM won’t be implemented by the vested ISPs

Saturday, January 23, 2010

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/01/enum-dragging-telephone-numbers-into-the-internet-age.ars/2

ENUM: Dragging telephone numbers into the Internet Age

E-mail, IM, Facebook, phones—what if all of these ways to reach you over a network could be condensed into a single, unique number? The ENUM proposal aims to do just that, by giving everyone a single phone number that maps to all of their identifiers. Here’s how it works, and why it isn’t already widely used.

By Rudolf van der Berg | Last updated January 13, 2010 11:30 PM

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The main issue is that the ENUM standard (RFC 3761) demands that ENUM is a public service and that the control of the telephone number lies in the hands of the end-user. For this reason, it’s known as “Public-” or “User ENUM.” This is all in line with the Internet’s user- and endpoint-centric creed. This becomes quite clear if you read, for instance, the documentation of Nominet, which controls the UK’s ENUM registry (the +44 registry). It explicitly states that users can bypass their communications provider when they register in the ENUM registry. A significant amount of money is made by today’s telephony providers (be they traditional providers or ISPs providing VoIP bundled with Internet access). Telephony providers see User ENUM as a threat to their bottom line and are therefore not keen on introducing the technology nationally.

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The inet was driven by motivated individuals, not gooferments, not ISPs, not companies.

We need to get back to the fast innovation cycle of the old inet!

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TECHNOLOGY: Paywalls

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

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it’s been our experience that, quite often, papers initially made available for free online will eventually disappear behind the pay wall at some point. So if we post something you think you might want to reread or use in the future, grab a copy of the full text as soon as you see it. No telling how long it will remain freely available.

*** end quote ***

It’s a shame that has to happen. If it’s not “pay” to start with, then why “pay” after a time.

Unfortunately, the inet isn’t a library. And, as I find out more and more, Google ain’t that good!

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TECHNOLOGY: Lost camera

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Recently I lost my camera. Argh!

Fell out of my pocket in cab.

My fault.

But it had no way to identify itself to a finder who might be interested in returning it.

The product design should have a place for a name or phone number. Maybe it should have a sensor to alert me that it was “leaving”. Or the ability to “phone home”?

Argh!

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John Edward OConnor

or maybe just use one of those address labels every charity ion the world sends you trying to guilt you into a donation?

Do you really need a technical solution where glue and paper will work? :)

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No good place on the old or new camera to put one. And, they wipe off over time. (I’ve tried it on other things. Like cars and toys.) Same the maker doesn’t do serial number registration and retrieval services. Give a token to the finder; modest recovery fee to the owner? Like an extended warranty against loss?

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TECHNOLOGY: Crapy User Interface “design”

Saturday, January 2, 2010

http://www.macworld.com/article/145309/2009/12/10_technologies.html?lsrc=rss_main

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10. Redundant registration

Many Web sites offer some form of registration, which typically ask you to add your personal contact information and specify a username and password.

Why do some sites require me to enter my e-mail address or my password twice? They’re going to verify all this anyway. Why do I have to enter city, state and ZIP code, when the ZIP code already knows the city and state, and vice versa.

Bad, redundant and obsolete technologies make life needlessly complex, expensive, irritating and ugly. Let’s get rid of them.

*** end quote ***

Agreed!

State and zip are my particular “favorite”!

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TECHNOLOGY: Potential microRNAs breast cancer blood test

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-breast-cancer-breakthrough-could-spell-end-to-mammograms-79914347.html

Irish breast cancer breakthrough could end mammograms
Major cancer discovery from team at Galway University
By ANTOINETTE KELLY, IrishCentral.com
Published Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 1:50 PM
Updated Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 4:24 PM

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Irish scientists may have found an alternative to the dreaded mammogram in a bid to reduce the incidence of breast cancer.

Researchers from the National University of Ireland Galway have identified a new blood test that can act as an “early warning” system.

The test, which is being discussed as a potential replacement for mammograms, can alert doctors if the disease is recurring.

*** and ***

The study found a link between breast cancer and substances called microRNAs which are found in the blood of patients with breast cancer.

Professor Michael Kerin, who led the team, said there was good reason for optimism.

“This early work suggests a combination of mir195 and Let7a (two specific types of microRNA) are sensitive markers for the presence of breast cancers in over 90 percent of cases,” he said. “This raises the possibility of their use in screening for breast cancer.”

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Recent gooferment “pronouncements” about cancer screening was suspect. Suspect that they were looking at the cost as opposed to the benefits. Here may be an opportunity to satisfy both conflicting priorities.

The value of human life can’t be reduced into dollars and sense.

Sorry. Apologies to all the accountants and gooferment bureaucrats, but your wrong. Heartlessly wrong.

When people buy their own health care, they make a very tough “value” judgement.

I’ve seen “old people” and “terminally ill” people make the tough decisions easily. When we insert an insurance company or Medicare welfare into the process, people don’t see the costs as impacting their legacy and their families.

So substituting a potentially cheaper and more accurate chemistry test is a real winner.

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TECHNOLOGY: Digital dirt

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09text.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Text Messages: Digital Lipstick on the Collar
By LAURA M. HOLSON
Published: December 8, 2009

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Robert Stephan Cohen, the lawyer who represented Christie Brinkley in her divorce from Peter Cook, said a spouse’s finding out about a cheating partner by reading their personal text messages would have a profound effect on how such cases were played out, both in court and among friends and family. Mr. Cohen predicted that the battles in even the most routine divorces would become uglier with more text messages as evidence.

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People really don’t understand the technology they are using. Nor, do they understand the implications of an “eternal love letter”.

And, in a corporate setting, it’s even worse. Why aren’t they REQUIRED to preserve email forever.

The “digital dirt”, created voluntarily, CAN come back to haunt you.

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TECHNOLOGY: Driverless cars

Saturday, November 21, 2009

http://www.impactlab.com/2009/11/19/audi-autonomous-tts-driverless-sports-car/

November 19th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Audi Autonomous TTS – Driverless Sports Car

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It could also help with the more mundane aspects of driving. With the Autonomous TTS, you could let your car go find its own parking space in the garage. “The technology could return time to the cars’ owners by taking care of routine driving chores, such as winding through a parking garage to an assigned spot each morning,” Audi says.  

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Neat!

Perfect for Iowa driving.

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SERVICE: Meme – Yahoo’s Twitter

Thursday, October 29, 2009

http://meme.yahoo.com/home/

Meme – Yahoo’s Improvement on Twitter

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I don’t care for the name. Meme, like gene, is supposed to represent a defining concept. Paradigm is perception. Meme is the mental construction that we can share. (A meme can be “wrong” like government. But it’s something (an idea) we can exchange and understand. I think Yahoo has muddled the pond. IMHO!

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TECHNOLOGY: Nuke power from Japan?

Thursday, October 29, 2009

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.314f8f63df41800c448cd89e0a88dd31.331&show_article=1

Japanese firms to develop small nuclear reactors

Oct 24 01:08 AM US/Eastern

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Japan’s major nuclear reactor manufacturers have begun developing small nuclear power systems for both developed and emerging countries, a report said on Saturday.

Toshiba Corp. is developing an ultra-compact reactor with an output of about 10,000 kilowatts and has started procedures for approval in the United States, the Nikkei business daily said.

The new reactor, the Toshiba 4S, is designed to minimise the need for monitoring and maintenance, with an automatic shutdown function to ensure safety in case of problems, the newspaper said.

Toshiba plans to market the reactor first in the United States, while foreseeing demand from emerging countries in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe as well as in Africa, it said.

*** end quote ***

For America’s “lost generation” of nuke engineers, I’m sure the approval of this will really put a knot in their shorts.

At one time, America “owned” the nuclear engineering niche.

France gets 80% of its power from nukes; we get near zero.

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: QIPIT down

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Thanks for signing up for the Qipit online service, the company that specializes in high quality mobile copy solutions. We are making a change in the focus of the company toward the development of smart phone applications and technology for the enterprise. In fact, our first application Qipit White, is available now for the iPhone, with more applications and platforms to follow. Starting this past Wednesday (October 21, 2009), the Qipit online mobile copy service stopped accepting new user registrations.

What this means to you?

As an existing user, you can still use the service as normal until November 9, 2009, at which time the ability to create new copies (using Web upload, our facebook applications, Shozu, copy@qipit.com, and color@qipit.com) and to share (by sending faxes and emails) will be discontinued. On December 6, 2009, the service will be completely taken offline. We encourage users to download all of the information you would like to keep, prior to this date. After the service is taken offline, your information will no longer be available.

As we say goodbye to Qipit the online service, Qipit will live on in a series of smart phone applications and as a technology for the enterprise. Back in September we launched our first smart phone application, Qipit White, for the iPhone, it shares much of the same functionality of the online service, but works much faster! We will continue to support Qipit White and future applications based on the technology behind Qipit for the iPhone, Android and other smart phone platforms. Be sure to keep an eye on http://www.qipit.com and the Qipit Blog for the latest news on new applications.

You can read more about the changes at Qipit at our blog. Please feel free to share your thoughts and farewells to the Qipit online service.

Many thanks,

~ the Qipit team

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