Batman & Luna on a Monday like this.

Número de familiares en el extranjero: 1. To happiness through Skype.

Enter Jajah.com. This VOIP solution takes a different approach to the VOIP idea that allows you to do away with the headsets and the fixed Broadband connection. Using Jajah you simply log into your account and type in two telephone numbers. The number your at right now (your land line or mobile) and the number you want to call. Jajah then calls you on your chosen phone before making the connection to the other person at the other end. Of course, this still requires you to have an Internet connection (although technically it doesn't need to be a broadband connection) before you make the call.

So what if your not at your computer. Well now they have introduced a new service, Jajah Direct, that doesn't require you to have any computer connection at all to make your calls. Once you have registered someone else's phone number with your Jajah account it gets assigned a number that is local to you. Next time you want to call your Auntie in London (or anywhere else for that matter) you just dial the local number Jajah has given you for her international number and you make the call at Jahah's rates. No Subscription required.

If you suddenly discover that you need to make an international call to someone who you haven't already set up a local number for, Jajah have got that covered too with JaJah Direct. Provided you have registered your telephone number with Jajah you can call a Jajah local number. Jajah recognises your telephone number and the account that it is assigned to and allows you to then enter the international number you want to call, again at Jajah rates. Once that call is completed you get a text message from Jajah with a unique local number to use next time you want to call that number.

So, that's all very well if you want to make cheap calls, what about those free international calls? Well, if the phone you are calling is also registered with JaJah then the call could be free. Calls between Jajah users within the USA are free (provided you don't pay for the call to the JaJah local number) and (for my purposes) calls to land line JaJah users in the UK are free. People in the U.K. can call my U.S. Cellphone or Land line free from their Land line provided they are JaJah members. Check the website rates for your particular circumstances.

So with the exception of setting up and funding your account, you can access VOIP call rates and never need an Internet connection.

There are some important things that should be noted..You do need to have credit in your Jajah account, but then you need to do that with other services like Skype. JaJah's rates appear to be slightly higher than other VOIP services but if your using it for occasional pay-as-you-go calls you can still save money. If your making regular calls it might be worthwhile paying a subscription for Skype to go and getting their lower call costs or getting the person you call to sign up for Jajah if you qualify for the free calls. Local numbers are currently very limited and only appear to be available for major cities so it may not work if your not in one of those cities and don't have a national calling plan on your cellphone. Hopefully JaJah will offer more local numbers in the future for those of us that don't live in one of the areas already offered.

I'm always interested to hear your thought and ideas. What VOIP do you use and why? Do you have any other ideas for saving money on phone calls? Please feel free to make any comments below.

The user interface for the conference call service is new, fresh, bright and cheery. It features a complete newly-designed user interface that doesn't look like other application. It's more like a dashboard, giving you control and access to everything. Audio conference calls also include some other features like:

• Caller visualization: listens name of the participant in real time as everyone joins, participates and leaves the call.

• Intuitive conference controls: Participants can access conference controls, like muting a particular line.

• Live chat: if any person is having a doubt in participating the conference call or the current features or the offers on conference calling then you can just log into the website and you can have the live support of the support team by which you can resolve any issue with ease.
• Connectivity: The participating caller's can log into the conference by dialing in the phone number and entering the personal PIN, which seamlessly connects callers to every call from anywhere.
• Recording of conference call: Moderators can record any call.

Have a question? Are you ready to bring forward-thinking conferencing solutions to your business? Get in touch. We look forward to serving all of your conferencing needs. Check with this for more information:

www.eagleconferencing.in

Since starting of audio conferencing services, technology has changed much in terms of conference calling. Previously it was like a max of 5 to ten people can participate in the conference calling but now the audio conference calling will enable to have conference with how many people we want. There is no limit to the number of users participating in the conference call.

For audio conferencing, you need some dial up numbers. These numbers can be either local or long distance numbers. These services offer methods that can handle the dial up on long distance; each of them works a little differently and you have many types of packages to sign up for. Some of them are:

• Flat Monthly Fee -Unlimited Usage

• Dial In Facility/Dial Out Facility

• Usage Based Billing Packages

With this type of services there is neither a need to reserve a call or to make an installation or to have any special equipment for it. Just a basic telephone line is enough either a mobile phone or a land line connection.

Are you ready to enhance the productivity of your business? We are pleased to offer guaranteed service, when you sign up! In addition, all our services are offered on a month-to-month basis, allowing you to have total freedom. Whenever you need us, we’re here to help.

At Eagle Conferencing, it’s the little things that separate us from the competition. Contact us for teleconferencing solutions that bring your business together.

Peki bu VOIP teknolojisinden faydalanmak icin bize neler lazim?

• Siradan bir bilgisayar - Isyerimizde kullandigimiz veya ikinci el siradan bir bilgisayar. Biraz daha teknik olursak: 1Ghz islemci ve 256 MbRam goruntulu konusma icin, 400 Mhz ve 128MbRam normal konsuma icin.. Ayrica WinXP ve uzeri isletim sistemi ve DirectX 9.0 da lazim.. 
• Internet Baglantisi - ADSL olmasi lazim kaliteli konusmalar icin. TTNET in sundugu herhangi bir paketi ihtiyaciniza gore satin alin.. Tavsiyem en ucuzunu alin yeter.
• VOIP Programi: Iste en onemli nokta burasi. Bence SKYPE iclerinde en iyisi ve en kullanislisi. Google`in GTALK ve Microsoft`un MSN Messenger gibi populer rakipleri olmasina ragmen bence SKYPE arayi baya acmis. Cep telefonlarina bile yuklenebiliyor. Guvenli iletisim ve her turlu firewall vs ile calisabiliyor. Cok daha iyi ses kalitesi var. Ayrica ucretli aramalara (sabit hat yada cep telefonu) acik ve ozellikle yurtdisi aramalarda cok dusuk fiyatlarla arama imkanlari sunuyor. Ancak Skype tan Skype olan baska yeri aradiginizda konusmak ucretsiz. Ama secim sizin ben olsam hepsini indirir denerdim :)

Skype in kullanimi cok basit yukledikten sonra kisisel bilgilerinizi giriyorsunuz. Sonra eklemek istediginiz isyeri ve musterilerin Skype numaralarini ekliyorsunuz. Basliyorsunuz konusmaya. MSN ve GTALK tada ayni durum gecerli hepsinin kullanimi neredeyse ayni isliyor.  Kesinlikle karmasik demeyin cunku gercekten cok kolay hepsini kullanmak. Hepsinide Turkce dil destegi var.

Linklerini de ekliyim...

SKYPE Download

GTALK Download

MSN Messenger  Download 

Umarim faydasi olur ve masraflardan biraz kisabilirsiniz. :)

Digital Crossroads is a radio program all about media literacy and media justice. Learn how technology politics affect free speech, journalism and your everyday life with headlines, clips and original interviews coming to you weekly, focusing on community media, grassroots activists, and government officials. Coverage including the February 2009 digital TV transition, media policies in Congress and at the FCC, privacy & surveillance, net neutrality, elections & voting, radio & recordings and international press freedom.

Today, a dramatic feature with two interviews and clip. In September I was in Austin, Texas and attended the major commercial radio lobby's trade show, held in the Austin Convention Center, which was also sheltering more than 1200 Hurricane Ike evacuees from Galveston. Listen to audio from the keynote speaker and an evacuee. Then hear analysis from Jim Ellinger, international community radio consultant based in Austin. Remember, change starts with you.
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ELECTIONS&VOTING_ McCain's tax cut benefits corporate media-

According to an analysis published October 4th on Think Progress Republican Presidential candidate John McCain's economic plan includes large tax cuts for corporations. The Center for American Progress Action Fund suggests McCain would create the largest deficit in 25 years by doubling President Bush's tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Think Progress points out recent criticism by cable channel Fox News of liberal American media companies' obvious and transparent agenda. However, McCain's tax cuts could net General Electric/NBC $25 million, News Corp/Fox $80 million, Viacom/CBS $190 million, Time Warner/CNN $500 million, and Walt Disney/ABC $640 million. America's five largest media corporations made worldwide profits of more than $36 billion in 2007.
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ELECTIONS&VOTING_ Counting every vote in Florida in 2008-

Kim Zetter wrote October 7th for Wired that the pivotal election battleground of Palm Beach County, Florida has twice flipped the winner in a local judicial race, revealing serious problems with the county's infrastructure one month before the presidential election. Some vote tabulation machines were literally unable to produce the same results twice. The story has more twists than all the lousy movies by the director of The Sixth Sense combined. An August 26th primary election was close enough to force a recount. Then more than 3,400 ballots mysteriously disappeared and a different winner was declared. After a prolonged hunt, the county found them, also turning up more than 200 different ballots that officials never knew were missing. The original winner was victorious. However, optical-scan tabulation machines made by Sequoia Voting Systems rejected about 12,000 ballots and officials found legitimate votes that were marked clearly and correctly and should have been read by the machines. Other ballots were not marked correctly, but still indicated a clear choice by the voter. The winner was the same, but his margin of victory had gone down from 115 to 58 votes. Incredibly, officials then discovered 159 ballots from 54 precincts that had not been tabulated. The story goes on and on. Palm Beach County was using new optical-scan machines that it recently purchased from Sequoia for $5.5 million to replace paperless touchscreen machines the county purchased in 2002, which were bought to replace punch card machines involved in the 2000 election debacle. Pamela Smith of VerifiedVoting.Org told Wired it's not enough to have paper ballots. Counties with optical scanners need robust testing and manual audits. Palm Beach Post reports the county has asked Sequoia to test all eight of its high-speed optical scanners before November 4th.
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PRIVACY&SURVEILLANCE_ Skype: We didn't know, and there are no security problems-

Veteran reporter Marguerite Reardon wrote October 3rd on CNET that Skype's president claims he was not aware Skype's Chinese partner TOM-Skype was logging and storing users' instant messages, when they were deemed offensive by the Chinese government. All ISPs in China are required to monitor communications, as Skype disclosed to users in 2006. A text filter blocks certain words in chat messages, including keywords related to Taiwanese independence, banned religious group Falon Gong and political opposition to the Chinese Communist Party. Researchers at University of Toronto's Citizen Lab published a report saying TOM-Skype is logging and capturing millions of records including personal information and contact details for any text chat and voice calls to TOM-Skype users, including from Skype users. Still, Skype president Josh Silverman insists "Skype-to-Skype communications are, and always have been, completely secure and private."
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PRIVACY&SURVEILLANCE_ NSA has repeatedly abused wiretaps, listening to Americans calling Americans

Mike Masnick reported October 9th on TechDirt that leaks are coming out highlighting NSA spying on Americans in the wake of Congress granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies for agreeing with the Bush administration's illegal warrantless wiretapping. Under General Michael Hayden's leadership the NSA created a domestic telephone call database, but Hayden stated conversations between Americans were not being intercepted. "We are narrowly focused and drilled on protecting the nation against al Qaeda and those organizations who are affiliated with it. It's not for the heck of it." In fact, according to ABC News, two separate "intercept operators" have come forward separately, saying they listened in on innocent calls between two Americans. Not only were calls between Americans listened to and recorded on a regular basis, highlights were sent around to other operators. One operator said that on a regular basis messages were forwarded because of "good phone sex" or "pillow talk".

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JOURNALISM&FREE SPEECH_ California passed anti-censorship journalism adviser bill-

Alberto Morales of Student Press Law Center wrote September 29th about a new bill signed into law by Governator Ahhnold Schwarzenegger in California that protects high school and college teachers, in addition to all other school employees, from being retaliated against because of student speech. State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) introduced Senate Bill 1370, building on other protective student journalism measures in California's Education Code. Yee said in a statement, "Allowing a school administration to censor in any way is contrary to the democratic process and the ability of a student newspaper to serve as the watchdog and bring sunshine to the actions of school administrators." Senator Lee continued, "It is quite disheartening to hear, that after we specifically prohibited prior restraint by administrators, that some are engaging in this type of nefarious activity and even firing quality teachers because of content in the student newspaper." Adam Keigwin, Yee's communications director, said "I would hope there are some legislators out there in other states who are listening and cutting and pasting our law into a bill of their own." California's Governator signed 163 bills, while vetoing 226 others all in the last weekend of September, once the state budget was finally passed.
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JOURNALISM&FREE SPEECH_ New Delhi journalist murdered-

Qatar's top-selling English daily newspaper Gulf Times reported October 4th that television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan was murdered. Described as honest and fearless by her former Kamla Nehru College journalism teacher Radhika Khanna, the young woman was found dead in her car around 3:30 in the morning after having returned home from work. The killing of the 25-year old woman, called by her former teacher a "sad reminder of the insecurity in our lives" has led to a 'Justice for Soumya' campaign organized by her colleagues at the Headlines Today news channel. A petition demanding justice was to be presented to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders, in addition to online social networking campaigns. At least 33 other journalists have been murdered in 2008, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Tune in next week to Digital Crossroads for Two Years Without Anna, Remembering the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

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Feature on National Association of Broadcasters Radio Show keynote lobbying against FCC localism mandate, a glimpse inside Hurricane Ike evacuation with my Ronald Taylor interview, and response from Jim Ellinger on the phone from Austin for an interview.

[September 17th I rode a bicycle up to the Austin Convention Center ready to report on the National Association of Broadcasters convention. Inside I discovered more than 1000 people provided temporary shelter by the City of Austin. FEMA was not at the Convention Center, though City of Austin staff were doing an excellent job coordinating.

Listen in for: audio from the NAB keynote address of David Rehr, interview clip of evacuee Ronald Taylor, and my October 3rd phone interview with Jim Ellinger, a community radio veteran who works with AMARC and runs Austin Airwaves.

Full audio of my conversation with Michael Jackson & Ronald Taylor and the phone interview with Jim Ellinger is coming soon right here. (Update soon! -Gavin)

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FCC&CONGRESS_ Digital Transition means white spaces could bridge digital divide-

Media activist Joshua Breitbart is the Policy Director for People's Production House in New York City. In a story he wrote called "Digital Gold up for Grabs" published Friday October 3rd in The Indypendent he says FCC certification of white space devices is the most significant step we could take toward closing the digital divide. The FCC auctioned most of the broadcast spectrum made available by the transition to digital television to Verizon and AT&T, but small white spaces in between active channels can be opened up for portable, low-power devices that could connect millions of new people to the Internet for less than what we now pay. The New York City Council Committee on Technology in Government held a hearing September 29th to consider a resolution urging the FCC to hold back from opening white space devices. Current license holders like TV broadcasters don't want to share the airwaves, claiming potential interference problems outweigh public interest concerns. Still, public interest groups including Free Press, Common Cause, Wireless Harlem and Ethos Group advocated for expanded access to the Internet, criticizing the resolution. For more explanation of white spaces, visit: Speak and Listen
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FCC&CONGRESS_ Defense Department's propaganda program finally investigated by FCC-

Editor and Publisher reported October 7th the Federal Communications Commission will investigate the Department of Defense propaganda program revealed in the New York Times in April of this year, to determine whether news networks or military analysts violated the Communications Act of 1934 and FCC rules. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein issued a statement confirming the agency's enforcement bureau sent letters to five TV networks and 19 former military officers. The DoD paid individuals referred to as "message force multipliers" instructed to deliver "administration themes and messages" to the public "in the form of their own opinions." Analysts even conveyed specific talking points to the public when they suspected the information was exaggerated or false. Network officials argued it was the analysts' responsibility to disclose any conflicts of interest. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Commerce Committee Chairman Congressman John Dingell wrote to the FCC to investigate whether the plan violated sponsorhip identification requirements. National Public Radio is the only news organization I know of to even address their internal vetting process. You can read my Op-Ed about the pentagon propaganda plan on Reclaim the Media HERE.

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[Digital Crossroads is produced in the studios at Boise Community Radio. Music by Ooah, Gabriel Teodros, Ernest Gonzales and The Tasteful Nudes. Next week, Two Years Without Anna- Remembering slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. ---Radioactive Gavin.]

{from usability post, via swissmiss}

Rewind 30 years. If you'd ask me what I wanted to be when I grow up in 1978, I would have said something like 'fireman', or 'astronaut' or 'policeman' or one of those types of professions. It has taken me nearly 40 years to get to this point, but, I am there. I have arrived. I am a grown-up.

The conference presented at is called Ulearn08 - a conference aimed at teachers (of which, I am one) who are into information and communication technologies (ICT). There are a myriad of people here in Christchurch from all around New Zealand (and the world for that matter) all looking at and predicting what will happen in the future of education in this great little nation, and the world.

So what is happening to the world. In one word: LOTS. Three things will define us (and when I say "us", I'm talking about the WHOLE of humanity - which is heaps, man) over the coming 10 years. Technology, sustainability, and community. These aren't in any order of importance AND they are all interconnected - intrinsically linked by children.

Children hold the key to our future. Those kids currently going through the education system on the crest of a gigantic wave... They have been born into a world of skype, facebook, mobile phones, blogs, txt, i-things and e-things.  Any child exiting the womb in the last 10 years has no idea what life is like without these wonderful new inventions/applications. Parents no longer need to lie awake in bed waiting for their youngster to come in from wherever, just a sly text can placate any feelings of angst.

What does this mean? Education has to change. The very nature of classrooms, bricks and mortar based schooling, is redundant. What's the point of getting kids to come to school if they can video conference with anyone in the world they like using skype. What is the point of teaching kids multiply fractions - something that is taught so often in schools, yet used so little in the read world (don't get me started on differential calculus - this I did through until my second year at university) - when they can just type 'how do you multiply fractions' into google if they ever need to do so. We must teach them HOW to learn not WHAT. Education needs to focus now on creating life-long learners who can adapt and change to any situation they find themselves.

How does sustainability fall into this argument? It is linked to my comment about fractions and/or differential calculus - sustainability is a real world problem. Consumption has outstripped resources - this is the current model of the world in which we live. Fair enough - but things run out eventually. The earth and what is has to offer is a finite resource. If we aim to teach through real world problems such as sustainability, students will find their education far more relevant to the real world.

How can they do this - through the idea of community. Creating links with the community within a school, the community the school is in, and the wider community - which now consists of the whole world thanks to the Internet.

My ideal classroom will have morning news that includes hooking up with at least one international class overseas via skype. Children would work together to solve real-life, realtime problems within the school, the local community and even around the world. This would make their education far more useful to them in the real world.

I must thank the likes of Tony Ryan as well as Will Richardson and Sheryl Nassbaum-Beach for opening my mind yet again for the need to be totally innovative in education during the next 5 years.

Boon x

[/caption]

Recently I encountered a problem with my machine running Vista 64bit Ultimate and freezing completely upon running skype. This happens with nearly all version of Skype (I say nearly, because I haven't had time to try every single version of Skype, but at least for the latest 3.8 and 4.0 beta 2 at the time of posting).

This has baffled me for around about 3 days, until I suddenly remembered a setting which I modifed while trying to install an unsigned driver.

The command was:

C:\>bcdedit -debug [on/off]

When the debug is ON, Skype will freeze and will NOT function properly. The logical solution is to turn this setting off and reboot afterwards before launching Skype:

C:\>bcdedit -debug off

You can check (to make sure) whether the debug setting is on or off by just typing:

C:\>bcdedit

This will present you with a list of settings and their values, the debug setting should be listed last.

FYI this is my system specifications:

• HP Pavilliion dv9700
• Vista Ultimate 64bit SP1
• 4GB Ram (2x2gb)
• GeForce 8600GS 

Hope this helps soneone out there, I certainly wished someone posted about this when I had the problem, that would save me a whole 3 days!! :)

When the money is tight budgets have to be cut and with 42% of the population making less than $25,000 a year these are the items to observe.

Landline Phones – Consumers with landline phones and cellular phones will cut the landline account and keep the cell. 

VOIP– Consumers with cell phones will drop those $25 a month fees for bundled cable VOIP or Vonage in favor of cell phone only or the $20 a year MagicJack VOIP or Skype.

Cell Phone Plans – Sprint’s SERO $30 a month plan including data and voice will look much better to those paying $60 - $100 a month

Cable TV – Consumers will move to internet video on the TV in a big way … dropping their $55 a month cable TV bill in favor of no bill. Media from the PC and the internet are going directly to the TV these days with the Popcorn Hour, Xbox, Netgear’s eva8000 Digital Entertainer, Sling and many others streaming Hulu and Netflix etc. … the internet is now a giant set of rabbit ears for your free TV.

Cable Internet - wait … before you say “HUH … nobody will be giving up broadband, but they will be giving up the $50 a month cable broadband bill with bandwidth cap in favor a $25 a month DSL bill with no cap (if they can get DSL their area). In fact more people will signup for DSL internet access just for the TV and shopping savings.

8 Cylinder Cars and Trucks – You can’t even give them away and 6 cylinders vehicles won’t fare much better. Carpooling and public transit have already seen a huge jump.  Gas mileage is now a factor in considering jobs.

Brick and mortar stores - The big box stores will do okay … online shopping will experience a massive boost because of the potential savings on tax, gas and price.  Amazon Prime membership will increase making it like a giant Costco with the convenience of home delivery at a cheaper price.  UPS and FedEx will be benefit.

Name Brand Food – Food is one of those items people can’t do without but they can change their buying habits. Many consumers won’t buy a name brand item now unless it is on sale at a price comparable to similar non brand name items. Store brands sales will increase. Luxury food items will gather dust on the shelves. Inexpensive items such as rice and pasta will fare well.

Meat – Chicken – Pork – Bacon – Ham occasionally are affordable … Beef is way too expensive – Seafood is excessively expensive.

Vegetables – Canned vegetables ok … and frozen vegetables if they are on sale – fresh vegetables are way too costly.

Grocery Items –$3.99 a gallon generic laundry detergent YES … Tide’s $15.99 a gallon laundry detergent HECK NO. In with generic toilet paper … out with Charmin (sorry Mr. Whipple).  Many products normally purchased as non food items at the grocery store will be bought at the local Dollar Tree store. (Shampoo, soap, toothpaste, baggies, aspirin, vitamins, cleaning liquids etc)

Clothing – Hello Goodwill – goodbye Macy’s.

Dining – Expect an exodus from dining out … especially for menu items over $10. McDonald’s dollar menu will thrive.

Big Stoves – No sale … existing stoves will sit unused. Energy prices will push consumers to more use of microwaves and toaster ovens.

Hot Water Heaters – A move to instant on hot water systems will bring a large energy saving. Those that do not upgrade to instant on will at least lower the thermostat to the minimum.

Window air Conditioners - Energy efficient windows units allow you to cool just the room you’re using instead of cooling the whole house with the central air. Anticipate a jump in programmable thermostats and zone systems for central units.

Tech Gadgets – The industry will thrive as consumers spend to save with technology advancements that reduce monthly bills (like cable TV and phone). Spending more time at home means more entertainment needs … benefiting PC sales, gaming, books, and software …

In other news, I need to probably start up on the 8 miles of walking per day again. I feel well fed, if you get my drift (but at least my pants still fit?).

Copyright © 2008 WrappedUpInBooksBlog. All rights reserved.

PS: For whoever keeps searching for Silverstein's Bakery in Toronto, you can literally just walk in off of the street. They're open daily from 8am or so until 6pm. As long as you're cool with them touching money AND your bread without washing their hands in between, you're a-ok. Best pumpernickel you'll ever have, guaranteed.

PPS: Whoever's looking for the vegan curry recipe: I'm making curry this week and I'll take down what I actually put in it to make it delicious. So hang tight!

PPPS: Whoever's looking for how many calories there are in Frosty Jack cider: don't drink that stuff.  It's garbage.  (Strongbow forever!)

[/caption]

As the economy falters and technology gets cheaper, voice and video conferencing become even more appealing.

Conference calls, the ever present enabler of virtual teams, are great.  They allow coworkers from around the world to work together more easily, aid flexible working hours across timezones and, in the consumer market, help families get together through apps like Skype.

Conference calls, the ever present confuser of global communications, can also be problematic.  They can result in mixed messages and confusion, often because you can't see the other participants who, (to make matters worse) could be muted or away from the phone.

Videoconferencing systems aim to alleviate this, normally with a screen mounted camera pointing at a room of participants.  Whilst this gives a picture, it can be a struggle to enjoy clear engagement with everyone in the room.  More sophisticated systems such as HP's Halo try to 'put' virtual participants in the same custom built room at significant cost - Halo installations start at $249,000 plus running expenses.

Cue the Microsoft Roundtable. This curious looking device aims to provide a more active videoconferencing experience at a reasonable price.

Fortunately it's the Roundtable doing the active bit, not you.  Whilst the base resembles a typical conference phone design with mics pointing in different directions, it's at the top that things get interesting.

Hiding under the dust cover are cameras pointing at angled mirrors.  This means that from a central location the Roundtable can get a good 360 view.  Better still, the cameras are motorized so they can be directed at individual participants.  Killer app?  The Roundtable can focus the screen image on whoever is talking.  Sweet.

In practise it works really well, operating as the daddy of all webcams when paired up with Office Communicator 2007 or the 2007 version of Office Live Meeting.  Speech and video over IP came through clearly on the occasions I've seen it in action and the directional cameras are an elegant solution to the 'everyone face the screen' problem.

It's still fairly expensive at $3000 but compared to air travel for a couple of team members it represents a collaboration upgrade to business class for the whole group.  So look out for this coming to a meeting room near your cubicle soon if your company can afford it.  Question is for the benefits it brings to virtual teamworking, can companies afford not to?

Neil Berman

www.theonbutton.com

STREAMING MEDIA

I actually have had a lot of opportunities to use streaming media. I am big baseball fan and used to travel 40 weeks/year when I worked as a Technical Trainer for an automotive parts company. At night, I would fire up the old laptop and tune into mlb.tv to keep up to date with my beloved Dodgers. As I write this now, I am logged in and watching Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel discuss the upcoming National League Championship Series with the Dodgers.

One of the great advantages of this form of technology is that it becomes possible to view live broadcasts and to pick up on a wide array of visual cues (in addition to the aural cues from an audio-only stream). One of the drawbacks is the amount of bandwith which is required to transmit this type of communication. We are on a T-1 line here so I am not experiencing any problems.

PODCASTING

I subscribe to a number of podcasts from a variety of publishers ranging from "The Accidental Creative" in order to get my creative juices flowing, to "Baseball HQ Radio" so that I can make sure that I have the most in-depth statistical baseball info to help me manage my Roto Baseball team from March till October every year.

While most of the podcasts that I subscribe to are "audio only" (as is Dr. Newberry's preference), I must also say that one of my favorite podcasts comes from the annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conferences. These are video podcasts which are usually no more than 20 minutes long, but are provocative, engaging and challenging (at times). If you have never seen any of them, I would really encourage you to check out the TED talks yourself here.

I love learning from people who make me "think." The TED speakers cut across a broad swath of industries and arenas. Cool stuff. Check it out.

FORUMS AND BULLETIN BOARDS

Like Dr. Newberry, I too remember the days when Bulletin Boards had their own dial-up connections for access. They've come a long way since those early days. One of the Bulletin Boards which I keep tabs on occasionally is the Dodger Fan Message Board on the Dodgers website. I typically log on to the board when trade rumors are flaring up or during Spring Training to get updates on what the fans are seeing during practice. In fact, one of great advantages of this type of media can also (at times) be it's most annoying feature: ANYONE can post a subject or an opinion. There are some people who live their lives on these boards and others who live to start "trouble" on these boards (affectionately known as "trolls"). On this particular board, it serves as a "Grand Central Station" (or clearinghouse) of information. It seems like every snippet of Dodger news that is heard on any radio program or on any podcast, is written about in any newspaper or on any blog, or is seen on any TV show gets talked about here.

THREADED DISCUSSIONS

Above is a Forum (ahem, "another" baseball forum, I AM A SELF-PROFESSED BASEBALL JUNKIE. I make no apologies ha ha) which uses threaded discussions. The third column displays the number of "Threads" and then the fourth column shows the number of "Posts" which have been left by contributors to those "threads." As you can see, a good "thread" in a passionate community can elicit an abundance of "posts."

SKYPE

I have been using Skype for several years now (I believe since 2004). I must profess that my use has waxed and waned in that time period. My primary use for the Skype has been to show my kids how to stay in touch with relatives in Brazil. When it comes to long-distance rates, it's pretty hard to beat "free." A real strength of this form of communication has emerged with the addition of the teleconferencing abilities that are now available with Skype. With the advent of teleconferencing, many of the glaring weakness of traditional "chat" have been done away with. Visual cues or feedback are a tremendous boost to communication.

INSTANT MESSAGING

Instant Messaging (or chatting) has been around for about eleven years for most people (thanks to AOL). It has gone thru many iterations and has served many uses (from the dubious to the practical). One of the great advantages to Instant Messaging (or IMing) is the ability to "privately" communicate things when in the presence of others. I have also found that it lends itself more easily to "multi-tasking" than picking up the phone anad making a call does.

One of the biggest weaknesses is the ease with which the "tone" of a conversation can be "lost in translation" while chatting. It can be challenging enough to adequately convey tone in written communication. Once you begin to use abbreviations (like LOL for "laugh out loud") and "leet," communication can be garbled quickly.

Of course, then there's my personal favorite OMGWTFBBQ!

We are still waiting on dates for his leave and I am still keeping my fingers crossed...he said it looks promising and that they haven't squashed it yet!  We'll see.    I hope that everyone has an amazing weekend!

-tinful

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TROIKA + GLOWLAB

the cloud

tetris + knight rider on office building windows

- starbucks has the largest wireless cloud in the world - they are now an entertainment channel
- doing the same with internet connection as they did with music cds
- war chalking / war driving
- hobo culture / signs / graffity to communicate and warn one another
- marks on buildings to let people know where free internet access is around the city
- notion of privacy of how much of your life is public and how much is private
- google is keeping track of every single search that we do
- web crawler and cyber squatters flipping internet domains

drift.relay in san jose by glowlab
"information wants to be free" = guiding moto of open source movement
book called "The Long Tale" - by Chris Anderson who is the editor of Wired Magazine
- digital content (sitting on a hard drive) versus brick and mortar inventory in a store
- there will be a market for my work
- eventually you will be able to buy the license to a piece of content that you have already paid for (cd, dvd, blue-ray, next gen...)
- digital has transformed everything
- google is the single largest data mining enterprise in the world - save every search until 2038

- google knol - is this the precursor of the CIC (Central Intelligence Corporation - Snow Crash)?
- knol = unit of knowledge - go and get information and if you want more, you can pay for it
- Google is giving you information that they THINK you may want
- civil liberties = main concern: aggregation of personal data in commercial databases
- government databases are subject to privacy act
- commercial databases fall outside of privacy act, and the use of contractors has transformed law enforcement
- ChoicePoint or Seisint, aggregate data from commercial transactions with public records (prescriptions, groceries, travel plans, criminal records)

- potential for abuse
- concentrated target for hackers, identty thieves and authorities otherwise constrained by privacy act
- Seisint compiled a list of 120,000 based of a "terrorist quotient", a profile they created including ethnicity and religious beliefs and handed it over to law enforcement
- Florida relied on ChoicePoint to identify convicted felons registered to vote - as many as 1 in 7 were wrongfully expunged from the voters list (voter margin in 2000 was 537 votes)

RFID - Radio Frequency Identification
- shock bracelets with EMD Technology (Electro-Muscular Disruption)

Privacy and Social Networks
Google's Value Proposition - "is to figure out what people want, but to read our minds, they need to know a lot about us"
- will pull ads containing certain keywords, but will not state what those keywords are
- handed over user-records of Orkut to Brazilian government for an investigation
(orkut is a social networking service which is run by Google and named after its creator, an employee of Google - Orkut Büyükkökten. The service states that it was designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships.)
- censored and constrained its Chinese search-engine to gain access to that market
- the Chinese government is in the process of saving SKYPE messages that pass through mainland China and now SKYPE has ended their relationship with their Chinese affiliate

Google Streets - recorded some random kid who saw the Google van drive by and he ended up wiping out on his bike
"Don't Be Evil"

Second Life Lawsuit
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/005816.html

The Worst of Real Made Virtual
- the covenant of Extropia
- A Declaration of the Rights of Avatars - by Ralph Koster

189 Satellites that don't officially exist (spy satellites CIA, KGB)
iridium satellite flashes - search when the satellite will flash on the web
- Russian town had 400 people show up in yellow raincoats and stood in the town square when the google satellite went overhead

The full script is at Here.

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