The Internet Is Broken

The cover story of Technology Review has been divided into three parts for presentation online. This is part 1.
The Net's basic flaws cost firms billions, impede innovation, and threaten national security. It's time for a clean-slate approach.
Part 2: We can't keep patching the Internet’s security holes. Now computer scientists are proposing an entirely new architecture.
Part 3: Researchers are working to make the Internet smarter -- but that could make it even slower, warn experts like Google's Vinton Cerf.
Source: David Talbot, for MIT Technology Review, December 2005/January 2006 print issue

Wikipedia alternative aims to be 'PBS of the Web'

A new online information service launching in early 2006 aims to build on the model of free online encyclopedia Wikipedia by inviting acknowledged experts in a range of subjects to review material contributed by the general public.
Called Digital Universe, the project is the brainchild of, among others, USWeb founder Joe Firmage and Larry Sanger, one of Wikipedia's earliest creators.
Source: Daniel Terdiman, CNET News.com, December 19, 2005

New media will get Emmy of their own

The New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will announce today that it is creating an award for Outstanding Achievement in Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms.
The award will recognize excellence in entertainment programming created specifically for viewing online or via cellphone, Ipod or video-on-demand.
Source: Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2005

Reuters video to get mass distribution

International news agency Reuters is launching a pilot program on Tuesday that will allow blogs, news organizations and other online publishers to show Reuters news video on their Web sites.
Source: Elinor Mills, CNET News.com, December 20, 2005

Use Google As A Free (Almost Perfect) Proxy

The trick is to ask Google to translate a forbidden site from English TO English.
Simply type in your browser address bar: http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=www.forbiddensite.com.
Source: David Ponce, OhGizmo!, December 21, 2005

New airline navigation system is displayed

Until now, an autopilot could only fly a plane in a straight line or around a gentle curve. But the one shown off Tuesday by the Federal Aviation Administration was following a path as sinuous as the river beneath.
But now at National, and a handful of other airports around the country, autopilots can fly planes safely over terrain that no one on board can see, including around mountains. Use of the new system is expected to cut the number of times that airplanes have to divert because of weather.
Source: Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times, via CNET News.com, December 21, 2005

New biometrics software looks for sweat

Sweaty hands might make you unpopular as a dance partner, but they could someday prevent hackers from getting into your bank account.
Source: Michael Kanellos, CNET News.com, December 21, 2005

Looks like CNN, sounds like geek speak

Welcome to the Internet Security News Network, broadcast online rather than through the airwaves and defined by its proud motto, ``We deliver tomorrow's Internet security news today.''
AT&T launched the 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week video service last week to a select audience of several thousand network security administrators at companies that buy AT&T communication services.
Source: Mike Langberg, San Jose Mercury News, December 21, 2005

See you next week...

Links: short version, long version

No need to be on-line - works on any GSM network via your own PC or laptop.

Thanks Ken.

The system incorporates the know-how for judging people's personality types, which is provided by a psychology research organization. When analyzing customer data, the system also provides information about customers' personality and "stars" based on their birthdates. Sales agents use this information to adapt their interactions with the customers. Or, sales agents who are highly compatible with the customer go talk with him/her.

The company's goal is to sell 200 systems in three years.

[via RFID in Japan]

And government ministers believe that new technology can also be harnessed to help elderly people live independently for longer.

A system being used by a thousand patients in the UK deploys mobile phone technology to help patients with diabetes monitor their blood glucose levels. The information gets sent straight back to their GP for immediate analysis.

It has been developed by Lionel Tarassenko, at Oxford University, who said: "Even if they've never used a mobile phone before, we find that if people are motivated to bring their diabetes under control, this technology really works for them."

Tarassenko is hoping to get the number of users up to 10,000 next year. "It costs a staggering six billion pounds a year for the NHS to support people with the complications of poorly managed diabetes - they may go blind or have lower limb problems, requiring amputation. The government is keen to try to do something about these problems - they have begun various initiatives to encourage people to self-manage their condition."

Related: The diabetes phone.

San Francisco Issues RFP To Create Wi-Fi Network

Real-time texting for deaf people

It all starts with the NORAD radar system called the North Warning System. This powerful radar system has 47 installations strung across Canada's North and Alaska. NORAD makes a point of checking the radar closely for indications of Santa Claus leaving the North Pole on Christmas Eve.

The moment our radar tells us that Santa has lifted off, we begin to use the same satellites that we use in providing warning of possible missile launches aimed at North America. These satellites are located in a geo-synchronous orbit (that's a cool phrase meaning that the satellite is always fixed over the same spot on the Earth) at 22,300 miles above the Earth. The satellites have infrared sensors, meaning they can see heat. When a rocket or missile is launched, a tremendous amount of heat is produced - enough for the satellites to see them. Rudolph's nose gives off an infrared signature similar to a missile launch. . . .

The beauty of the new technologies being born on the web — podcasts, blogs, video blogs, social networking sites — is that they put us in charge. The gap between the creator and the consumer is shrinking as we generate our own content and trade ideas between ourselves more freely. Not only to we have more control over what we're listening to and reading, but it's up to us to create it as well.

via WIRED News

A Blue Springs woman was taken to a hospital emergency room early today after a cell phone became lodged in her throat.

The woman was in an argument with a boyfriend when the incident occurred, said Sgt. Steve Decker of the Blue Springs Police Department.

Decker said police were told that the woman tried to swallow the telephone because she didn't want the boyfriend to have it. However the case is under investigation.

(via Drudge)

This week, we asked for writers to nominate their best writing of 2005, so it's well worth a visit.

I selected one of Howard's posts from SmartMobs (sorry everyone else, but it seemed fitting). I also asked Carlo, ex-editor of now defunct The Feature and my writing partner at MobHappy, to choose the best post from The Feature too, as a last in memoriam. By co-incidence, he chose exactly the same post as the one I had selected from here.

So Howard scored a double whammy - head on over to find out which one it was. That and many others are more than worth the click.

Happy Holidays.

Russell

The CellFlix Film Festival is a film contest for movies made with cellular phone cameras.

From the Ithaca College press release:

The "CellFlix" film festival asks contestants to utilize their creative talent with the idea that bigger isn't necessarily better.

"Less really is more," says Dianne Lynch, dean of the Park School. "How do we grab our viewers' attention, communicate an idea or message, produce compelling images, and tell great stories--all in 20 or 30 seconds? It can be done. And high school and college students are the ones who are going to teach the rest of us how to do it."

By 2008, an estimated 20 percent of cell phones will be considered "smart" phones with extra features such as video cameras, according to a report by The Gartner Group. "Youth are leading the transition to a fully wired and mobile nation," according to a study from the Pew/Internet & American Life Project released in July. The study found that 45 percent of the U.S. teens surveyed already have their own cell phone and states that, for American teenagers, "the internet and cell phones have become a central force that fuels the rhythm of daily life."

Content creators and major media companies have taken notice. MTV recently launched "Head and Body," a series of eight programs created exclusively for cell phone users. According to "Fortune" magazine, MTV has already sold $100 million worth of music videos, advertising, and animation to mobile phone users around the world.

]]> http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/12/23/cell_phone_film.html http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/12/23/cell_phone_film.html Shibuya Epiphany Fri, 23 Dec 2005 10:36:50 -0800 (Thanks, Garsett!)

Canadian professor Michael Geist cites a case in Canada that points out the dangers of enclosure that threaten the usefulness of the Internet to those who don't control Internet access:

Internet service providers always seem to get the first call when a problem arises on the internet. Lawmakers want them to assist with investigations into cybercrime, parents want them to filter out harmful content, consumers want them to stop spam, and copyright holders want them to curtail infringement. Despite the urge to hold ISPs accountable for such activities, the ISP community has been remarkably successful in maintaining a position of neutrality—the digital successor (in spirit and often in fact) to the common carrier phone company.

Adopting a neutral approach has always required strict adherence to one cardinal rule: that ISPs transport bits of data without discrimination, preference, or regard for content.

The danger in veering away from that rule became apparent in a recent Canadian incident involving Telus. Canada’s second largest telecommunications company actively blocked access to Voices for Change, a website supporting the Telecommunications Workers Union. Telus has been embroiled in a contentious labor dispute with the union, yet its decision to unilaterally block subscriber access to the site was unprecedented.

The company argued that the site contained confidential proprietary information and that photographs on the site raised privacy and security issues for certain of its employees. Nevertheless, the blockage of the site was completely ineffective since it remained available to anyone outside the Telus network. Moreover, those within the Telus network could access the site with a bit of creative internet surfing.

]]> http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/12/23/enclosing_the_i.html http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/12/23/enclosing_the_i.html Always-On Panopticon...or Cooperation Amplifier Fri, 23 Dec 2005 09:41:34 -0800 Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have developed a new form of 'wavy' silicon which could be used to build bendable electronic devices on rubber substrates. This could lead to bendable sensors for integration into artificial muscles and conformable skins for integrated robotic sensors.

Links: short version, long version

]]> http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/12/23/the_next_silico.html http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/12/23/the_next_silico.html The Era of Sentient Things Fri, 23 Dec 2005 00:16:26 -0800 USAToday reports "at least 18 states have launched websites to post the names of people and businesses that owe back taxes.Maryland calls its website "Caught in the Web." In South Carolina, it's "Debtor's Corner." Wisconsin on Jan. 3 will launch "website of Shame."Advocates of so-called Internet shaming say it's an inexpensive way to capture millions of dollars at a time when many states have tight budgets and seek politically viable ways to find more revenue."Raising taxes is a very radioactive strategy," says Sujit CanagaRetna, a fiscal analyst with the Council of State Governments,a non-partisan group that provides policy information to states."This is another way to bring in more (of) what is owed to the state in an innovative way that has proven to be fairly successful. It's gathering more popularity across the country."Georgia's online delinquent tax list has collected at least $19.6 million since it went up in February 2004.Colorado's website has raked in $11 million.Kansas went online in March."

Latest tax tool:'Internet shaming'

]]> http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/12/22/tax_name_and_sh.html http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/12/22/tax_name_and_sh.html The Evolution of Reputation Thu, 22 Dec 2005 21:33:05 -0800