Edward Flaherty: Digital Issues

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:21:09 GMT

3G routers the ticket to the mobile office.

Get on board

Quocirca's changing channels Despite all the fuss a few years ago when 3G networks first became available, the take up of 3G services across Europe has been slow, the UK and Italy being the most advanced. Two of the main reasons for this were a lack of coverage (in the early days) and lack of need.âo[oe]

[The Register]

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:19:09 GMT

Creative Commons Filmmaking Remixes Modern Cinema. mjeppsen writes, "Filmmaking experiment A Swarm Of Angels aims to create and distribute the first collaborative film released under a Creative Commons license. The project is using community participation and funding to make a film that would traditionally cost $3–4 million for a mere $1.75 million. The entire filmmaking process will be collaborative, from Wiki-based script creation to community voting on creative and marketing decisions. Is this just a scheme by the filmmakers to get funding for a pet project, or is it Hollywood's worst nightmare? More importantly, can 'open-source films' develop into a sustainable financial model?"

[Slashdot]

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:16:49 GMT

Cisco CEO preaches networks, collaboration.

(InfoWorld) - John Chambers, the chief executive officer of networking giant Cisco Systems, was in fine evangelical mode Tuesday, laying out his company's vision of a future where intelligent networks power IT and collaboration is the key driver for businesses.

"My role is to challenge your thought process," Chambers told attendees at his keynote address at Oracle's OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. The executive disdained the stage and continually paced through the audience, occasionally posing direct questions to individuals, notably: "Am I making you uncomfortable yet?"

Chambers' take is that many IT vendors and customers have gotten overly comfortable with current systems and are nervous about change. But he maintains that major change is needed for companies, including his own, to remain globally competitive.

Such change may well feel strange as, according to Chambers, more and more intelligence, previously part of applications, middleware and operating systems, will reside instead in the network. At the same time, storage and applications will be completely virtualized. Users won't know where the application they're deploying resides. The network will be able to connect any device's screen to any application an individual is authorized to access.

The added intelligence in the network will mean that users will be able to communicate with each other in the format they each prefer with the network making the necessary translations.

At the same time, organizations will need to change their business processes and move from having a command-and-control focus on individual silos of expertise such as financials and human resources to enabling collaboration and communication across the entire company.

Cisco has been working at bringing such change to its internal operations, he said, and, at first, it was a painful process. "We lost huge productivity in our first two years," he said, but now having put collaboration at the heart of its decision-making process, the company is able to be much more nimble.

Chambers then conducted a lengthy and lively demonstration of how a baseball fan's appreciation of going to a game might change in the future, thanks to intelligent networks.

The individual would gain entry to the ballpark via an e-ticket on their smart phone. Digital signs inside the ballpark, if authorized by the smart phone, could display advertising tailored to the person's likes. Once in the game, the individual could use their wireless-enabled ultramobile PC to keep score on the device's electronic scorecard or hit its instant replay icon to view a contentious play.

Restaurants at the ballpark could use Cisco's newly announced TelePresence videoconferencing system to show the game on huge screens and allow diners to contact remote friends to watch along with them.

Cisco launched TelePresence Monday as a way to make virtual business meetings more like real life. The system uses huge screens to project life-sized high-definition video images of conference participants whose voices seem to come from their on-screen location.

Using TelePresence will save Cisco $120 million in travel costs next year, Chambers estimated, and reduce the company's carbon emissions by 10 percent.

By China_Martens@idg.com (China Martens). [InfoWorld: Top News]

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:47:15 GMT

Where do you want to go today?.

I had an exceptionally unpleasant experience installing Windows on my ThinkPad yesterday. I answered all the questions it asked, entered the long registration string from the back of the package, but then the OS refused to boot, saying that I had installed it too many times. I could re-enter the number (which I tried, same result) or call a phone number. So I called. On the other end of the line was a robot, of course I was talking to the same piece of software that already said no, so it wasn't a surprise when I got the same result. You've installed the software too many times. So I hit the O button on my phone. Nothing happened. I hit it again, and again. Finally a voice with an Indian accent comes on the phone mumbling so I can't make out what he's saying. I guess that he wants me to read him the number, so I did, and this seemed to make him happy until I got about half way through it, then the line went dead, and a minute or so later another Indian voice comes on saying "How can I help you sir?" So I explain, again, he responds, not mumbling, and we get through it, and no surprise, it doesn't work. He says that I've installed it on too many computers. I explain for the third time that I paid for the software, got it just that day, installed it on exactly one computer (which I might add, already had a valid Windows license, so they got paid twice for this machine). I guess there was something in my voice that sounded sincere, and they give the guys in India some discretion because he gave me a number, that I entered, it worked, and the software is running. Needless to say if the computer needs a fresh install of the OS I'm surely hosed.

[Scripting News]

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:44:21 GMT

New White Paper: GIS and Business Intelligence: The Geographic Advantage. This white paper describes the purpose and benefits of both GIS and BI, the technological advancements that have fostered their integration, and the synergistic benefits of integrated applications that can benefit the entire organization without disrupting existing IT environments. [ESRI.com - News]

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:43:16 GMT

MIT on Comics and Micropayments. Snotty Pippen writes "Henry Jenkins, Chair of MIT's Comparative Media Department, has posted 'Comics and Micropayments: An Interview with Todd Allen.' Todd Allen is a professor/consultant with a book on the business of comics. The two discuss a number of online business models and web comics, ranging from the print-to-web migrants like Girl Genius and Finder to the print-to-web download of Flying Friar; the long tail as a driving source for reprints & back-issues; and PayPal's effect on micropayments. All-in-all, a fairly comprehensive round-up of the industry." [Slashdot]

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:41:59 GMT

Cable VoIP Sounds Better Than Some Landlines. A. G. Bell writes "A recent study that looked at the quality of phone calls came up with some surprising results. Ars Technica reports that while 'traditional' VoIP call quality lagged behind landlines, service from cable ISPs was much better because of their use of PacketCable: 'VoIP from the cable companies actually surpassed the traditional phone network in reliability, meaning that the service was more often available and connected calls without dropping them. Cable providers also led the way in audio quality; the top firm in Keynote's study actually turned in an MOS of 4.24, above most real phone networks.'" [Slashdot]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:56:26 GMT

50 years of the hard drive.

Amazing, but ...

Comment This week I attended an event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View that celebrated the golden anniversary of the IBM RAMAC 305, the first hard disk drive storage system.[base ']Ä¶

[The Register]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:51:09 GMT

Daleks prepare invasion of Google Earth.

Interdimensional portal menaces Netherlands

Our Dutch readers, and particularly those living in Hilversum, are hereby warned that they should immediately arm themselves with pulse plasma rifles and prepare to defend their homeland from interdimensional attack:[base ']Ä¶

[The Register]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:47:34 GMT

And just where is VectorWorks heading?

VectorWorks Adds Location Planning Module (Nemetschek NA).

Nemetschek North America Releases Location Planning Module for VectorWorks

From: Nemetschek NA
Type: Press Release

[CADwire.net - AEC CAD industry news]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:45:42 GMT

Animation Module for VectorWorks Available (Architosh).

AnimationWorks 1.1 Animation Module for VectorWorks

From: Architosh
Type: News Report

[CADwire.net - AEC CAD industry news]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:44:47 GMT

With BitRocket and now Xtorrent, OS X BitTorrent clients must be in season. [Hack the Planet]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:41:39 GMT

Mobiles put the web in your hands. BBC Click investigates the new ways phone companies are trying to get us to access the net through our mobiles. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:26:02 GMT

A Visual Walkthrough of New Features in Vim 7.0. An anonymous reader writes "Anybody who has used Linux or any other OS would be aware of the very powerful and feature rich text editor Vi. This interesting article takes a visual look at some of the new features in the latest version of Vim 7.0 ó a Vi clone created by Bram Moolenaar. From the article: 'Just for once, I wouldn't mind siding with the beast if that is what it takes to use Vi. The modern avatar of Vi is Vim ó the free editor created by Bram Moolenaar. Riding from strength to strength, this editor in its 7th version is a powerhouse as far as an editor is concerned. When ever I use Vim (or GVim for that matter), it gives me the impression of the Beauty and the Beast'"

[Slashdot]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:21:54 GMT

Beck and Andres on Extreme Programming. narramissic writes "In recent years, Extreme Programming (XP) has come of age. Its principles of transparency, trust and accountability represent a change of context that is good not only for software development but for everyone involved in the process. In this interview, Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres, co-authors of 'Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change' discuss how XP makes improvement possible."

[Slashdot]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:18:28 GMT

YouTube offers "several RSS feeds for categorized groups of videos (such as recently uploaded, top viewed etc) as well as customized feeds for users and tags." [Scripting News]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:15:53 GMT

More public participation

Building Web Sites With PHP-Nuke.

Community websites explained

Building a configurable, flexible and highly interactive community web site from scratch is no mean feat. Get the technical implementation right and you might have a vibrant and active community coalesce around your site. Get it wrong and you[base ']Äôre left with dead web real-estate that[base ']Äôs dressed right but is going nowhere. However, thanks to PHP-Nuke, most of the hard work has been done up front. And, for the would-be community site developer who doesn[base ']Äôt have the time to read manuals, Packt Publishing has even taken the hard work out of figuring what to do post-installation.[base ']Ä¶

[The Register]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:13:49 GMT

Public participation user interface?

Gefen 4x4 HDMI Matrix audio-visual interconnect.

Multiple input, multiple output

Review Gefen has announced an HDMI four-by-four crossover unit. Though it can be used as a straightforward HDMI switch for linking multiple players to a single display, it's actually more advanced than that: any of the four inputs can be switched to any of the four outputs...[base ']Ä¶

[The Register]

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:10:18 GMT

What's wrong with this landscape?

Sparkplug 9: "Pope says Islam is violent. Islamics react with violence. Pope apologizes." [Scripting News]

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 22:01:48 GMT

YouTube Growing ... Like Cancer?. PreacherTom writes "The success of YouTube has been staggering: they currently field 100 million videos per day and have attracted the attention of influential people like Bill Gates, who may be planning his own video hosting service. However, growth does not always equal profitability. Incorporation of ads risks their very base. If that were not enough, like Kazaa, they struggle with the Damocles' Sword of Litigation hanging over their head each day while bandwidth and server costs continue to rise. Is this phenomenal growth only rapidly killing our favorite video warehouse?" From the BusinessWeek article: "YouTube could easily alienate its users by overwhelming them with ads. And the startup has to figure out how to attract a broader group of marketers by filtering more for copyrighted or offensive videos and by creating more channels of similar content. Aware of the risks, YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are moving slowly to ramp up advertising. They have been wary of asking viewers to sit through a 30-second ad before a two- to three-minute clip. Instead, YouTube is developing new formats, like ones rolled out in August that let marketers build their own video channels or pay to place a video on YouTube's popular front page."

[Slashdot]

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:57:33 GMT

New Generation 2006 of Allplan (AECCafe.com).

Nemetschek Presents New Integrated Solution for Layout, Component-Oriented Design, Visualization, and Construction Costing

From: AECCafe.com
Type: Press Release

[CADwire.net - AEC CAD industry news]

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:54:38 GMT

Autodesk Sponsors Venice Biennale (Autodesk).

Autodesk Sponsors US Architecture Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia

From: Autodesk
Type: Press Release

[CADwire.net - AEC CAD industry news]

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:50:58 GMT

An October 2006 article in Landscape Architecture Magazine will feature a 3D Wiki as a design tool in a virtual world.

Veni, Vidi, Wiki. You've heard of Wikipedia. But are wikis more than just encyclopedias? A wiki-written article answers the question with a bold "Yes." By Ryan Singel. Plus: The Wonderful Wiki Sidebar. [Wired News: Top Stories]

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:46:29 GMT

Top prize for 'light' inventor. A Japanese scientist who invented a sustainable form of light is awarded the Millennium Technology Prize. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:45:26 GMT

Mobile startups flourish in Stockholm suburb.

(InfoWorld) - If your mobile phone starts morphing into an interactive subway schedule, the menu of a nearby restaurant or a medical diagnostic instrument, a suburb of Stockholm that's home to a cluster of innovative tech companies may be responsible.

By Juris_Kaza@idg.com (Juris Kaza). [InfoWorld: Top News]