Geeks are new Super Cops July 28, 2007
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n not so distant future, geeks will moonlight for Punjab police as cyber crime fighters in the virtual world.
Disguised as friendly-neighbourhood-chatters, these nerds will take regular trips of the virtual world, searching for the cyber thugs, stalkers, criminals and paedophiles, and inform their police bosses when they hook a fish.
Besides scanning the virtual realms, these geeks-turned-police agents will also enter the chatrooms where paedophiles hang out and bust paedophilia rings.
Sounds too futuristic? Well, not at least for Punjab police that knows well that cyber crime is here and virtual criminals are here to stay.
Although crime in the virtual world, as far as Punjab is concerned, is almost non-existent, the police department keeping not so distant a future filled with cyber rogues in mind has made a list of proposals to tackle it effectively.
Apart from the setting up of a cyber cell, the panel has proposed to outsource nerds to do the job as “it is probably easier to train technology experts to become investigators, than vice-versa.”
And to do the job and do it well, the department will outsource computer experts, who besides acting as police agents, will also train cops who can’t tell a laptop from a PC.
ADGP (computer and telecommunication) SM Sharma said it was important to hire computer experts for the cyber cell who necessarily don’t have to be cops.
He said crime analysts would also be hired for doing a lot of IT related research work required for investigations and expert support from the outsource agencies could also be taken.
As per the proposal, the cell will be headed by SP (cyber crime) and will have ASP (cyber crime), DSP (pornography), DSP (hackers) among other officers for assistance.
But as one senior officer said, “Geeks will be the masters and act as the real super cops in the virtual world.
Amp’d is dead .. July 23, 2007
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I have blogged earlier about amp’d the high profile MVNO which will shut off its services this week. Ironically Amp’d launched a campaign “Try not to die, as Amp’d mobile is coming. Now Amp’d is dead itself.
There are lot of lessons to learn from Amp’d mobile story. That post is for someother day. 😀
Walled gardens might open up in US July 14, 2007
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You buy a cell phone, load any software you want on it, then choose your carrier. This vision of expanded consumer choices in the wireless world might be a little closer today than it has ever been, especially with reports that the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is circulating an “open platform” proposal for the upcoming auction of the 700-MHz band.
FCC Chair Kevin Martin said that “whoever wins this spectrum” will have to provide a “truly open broadband network — one that will open the door to a lot of innovative services to the consumer.”
He said an open network would mean a consumer could “use any wireless device and download any mobile broadband application, with no restrictions,” except for illegal or malicious software. Martin has sent or is about to send a draft proposal to his fellow commissioners.
Martin noted that, in some other countries, consumers usually take their unlocked devices with them when they change carriers, as opposed to in the U.S., where cell phones typically are locked for use only on a given carrier’s network.
Writing Tuesday on its public policy blog, Google Telecom and Media Counsel Richard Whitt applauded the reports of Martin’s proposal. Whitt, hired by Google a few months ago, formerly headed up MCI’s regulatory department.
Google, which said it has not decided whether it will participate in the auction, sent a letter to the FCC on Monday, according to Whitt, urging that winning bidders be required to adopt several types of “open platforms.”
A key part of open platforms, Google contends, is that consumers would be able to use any combination of devices, software applications, content, or services. In addition, the company maintains, resellers should be able “to acquire wireless services from a 700-MHz licensee on a wholesale basis,” and ISPs should be able to interconnect “at a technically feasible point” to a 700-MHz licensee’s wireless network.
However, Current Analysis analyst Bill Ho identified potential issues with these ideas, notingthat interconnection and the use of any device could require some uniform or encompassing technological standards, rather than the competing standards that now exist.
Gearing Up for Epic Sale
The auction for bandwidth, scheduled for later this year, is gearing up to be epic. The sale will include spectrum in the 700-MHz band that has been used for analog television since the beginning of that medium, as U.S. TV is going completely digital by mid-2009.
The 700-MHz spectrum is particularly valuable because it penetrates walls and various obstacles more effectively than other frequencies, and the FCC is now developing the rules for the auction.
A 108-MHz block of bandwidth will become available after the analog TV stations complete their transition. Of that 108 MHz, 60 MHz will be auctioned in January 2008, public safety officials will receive 24 MHz, and 24 MHz already has been sold.
Estimates indicate that the auction could yield $20 to $30 billion for the government
Mother of Portable Sound July 4, 2007
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The mother of portable sound.
Sony Walkman
Spear and Cellphone June 29, 2007
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African warriors got a new spear in the form of cellphone. Not much has changed in Africa. People still are herding goats and corws and live in stick huts with electricity and running water. They still wore red clothes which are more or less blankets. But now they have a new weapon a Nokia cell phone. And thts most expensive possession they got. Its a black and white text screeen phone which is good for voice and sms service. A watch is a luxry for them but they are ok with spending money on a cellphone.
They don’t yet have ring tones, games , video, etc on their cell phone. What kid of ringtones will be popular there. Maybe jungle tones. :D.
God Bless Africa !!!
Indian coins are getting smuggled June 28, 2007
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Millions of Indian coins are being smuggled into neighbouring Bangladesh and turned into razor blades. And that’s creating an acute shortage of coins in many parts of India.
Police in Calcutta say that the recent arrest of a grocer highlights the extent of the problem. They seized what they said was a huge coin-melting unit which he was operating in a run-down shack.
The grocer confessed to melting down tens of thousands of Indian coins into razor blades which were then smuggled into Bangladesh.
“Our one rupee coin is in fact worth 35 rupees, because five to seven bladed can be made out of it,” .
LG Unveils Google Phone For Europe June 26, 2007
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The Google phone will be hitting European markets this week and will be priced between $300 and $400.
“LG Electronics, the world’s fifth-largest cell phone maker, unveiled a new model Wednesday, which offers the full services of Google, the global No. 1 search engine.”
LG said the handset, dubbed LG-KU580, will hit European markets including Italy and France this week with a price tag of somewhere between $300 and $400.
* Simlar sleek design to LG “chocolate phone”
* $300 – $400
* Google search hot key
* first time all 3 google major applications, search, email and maps,
incorporated into phone
* MP3 player
* 2 megapixel camera
* Video phone
* Bluetooth
iPhone – iLaunch – iJune 29th June 4, 2007
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Apple iphone is getting shipped on 29th June. Yayyy !! Now after all the yayys and yoos lets get back to some hard talk. Apple is riding high on the success of ipod success. Suddenly its hogging limelight everywhere. But food for thought here is – Will Apple be able to capture the market with iphone, surely it has captured the imagination of people with it.
When ipod was launched. It was a virgin market, begging to get plundered. I am not aware of any great mp3 players from big electronics players that were marketed and packaged like ipod. So ipod cashed on its FMA. It was a cool product and Apple was also able to deliver ipod upgrades which were again lapped up by people. Besides there was iTunes. I don’t want to get started here on microchunking of the content. Blah! Blah !!
Back to cellphones. Today Motorola which invented cellphone reports quarterly losses. What’s going on here !!. Tomi Ahonen a veteran has asked some tough questions. Apple will end up delivering on its 10 million target, but only barely, and in so doing, it will take a huge hit to its profitability – this is a damned hard market to be in. The world’s largest engineering company, Siemens, quit handsets. Europe’s largest home electronics giant, Philips, quit handsets. The world’s largest telecom’s maker Ericsson found it can’t continue in the handset business by itself. The world’s largest home electronics giant Sony also found it can’t sustain its handset business by itself and joined with Ericsson.
And now Apple is rushing in. I don’t doubt their ability to do cool and innovative products, but this is a bloodbath industry and it moves at vastly higher speeds than Apple has ever seen in the Mac/PC or iPod business.
Its not going to be an easy JOB Mr. Steve.
360 million dollars not enough for Amp’d June 3, 2007
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Yep. Amp’d which has raised $360 million in venture capital has filled for bankruptcy. Sounds weird isn’t it. There debt was much larger than their assets and it was the sensible thing to do.
Now this development raises some questions on the business model of MVNO. As this is not the first high profile MVNO who has bitten dust. We all remember Cool.Prepaid and ESPN mobile. Helio which is still braving in the middle, all eyes are on it as how long the party will continue.
There were some stories earlier that Apple is coming up with its own MVNO. There was lots of hoopla around Disney mobile which never saw the light of the day. The main arguments that is used is if Virgin Mobile in UK is successful why can’t others be. Well ! Well !! Virgin mobile has given part of action i.e. equity to its operators. So they will make sure that its never out of business.
Sure you can lease capacity on a carrier’s network, set-up shop and market the hell out of your MVNO, but in the end you are beholden to the carrier. Where have we heard this before? In the wired phone business of course! before some dude came-up with the term MVNO, there were hundreds of resellers who would buy wholesale and sell retail. They had razor thin margins and their existence depended on the largesse of the large phone companies. MVNOs are exactly the same, and are very dependent on the carriers that own the spectrum.
So lets wait to see how this market plays out…..
THE 100 OLDEST CURRENTLY-REGISTERED .COM DOMAINS May 30, 2007
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Rank Create date Domain name
1. 15-Mar-1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
2. 24-Apr-1985 BBN.COM
3. 24-May-1985 THINK.COM
4. 11-Jul-1985 MCC.COM
5. 30-Sep-1985 DEC.COM
6. 07-Nov-1985 NORTHROP.COM
7. 09-Jan-1986 XEROX.COM
8. 17-Jan-1986 SRI.COM
9. 03-Mar-1986 HP.COM
10. 05-Mar-1986 BELLCORE.COM
11= 19-Mar-1986 IBM.COM
11= 19-Mar-1986 SUN.COM
13= 25-Mar-1986 INTEL.COM
13= 25-Mar-1986 TI.COM
15. 25-Apr-1986 ATT.COM
16= 08-May-1986 GMR.COM
16= 08-May-1986 TEK.COM
18= 10-Jul-1986 FMC.COM
18= 10-Jul-1986 UB.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 BELL-ATL.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 GE.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 GREBYN.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 ISC.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 NSC.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 STARGATE.COM
26. 02-Sep-1986 BOEING.COM
27. 18-Sep-1986 ITCORP.COM
28. 29-Sep-1986 SIEMENS.COM
29. 18-Oct-1986 PYRAMID.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 ALPHACDC.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 BDM.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 FLUKE.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 INMET.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 KESMAI.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 MENTOR.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 NEC.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 RAY.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 ROSEMOUNT.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 VORTEX.COM
40= 05-Nov-1986 ALCOA.COM
40= 05-Nov-1986 GTE.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 ADOBE.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 AMD.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 DAS.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 DATA-IO.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 OCTOPUS.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 PORTAL.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 TELTONE.COM
42= 11-Dec-1986 3COM.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 AMDAHL.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 CCUR.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 CI.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 CONVERGENT.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 DG.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 PEREGRINE.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 QUAD.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 SQ.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 TANDY.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 TTI.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 UNISYS.COM
61= 19-Jan-1987 CGI.COM
61= 19-Jan-1987 CTS.COM
61= 19-Jan-1987 SPDCC.COM
64. 19-Feb-1987 APPLE.COM
65= 04-Mar-1987 NMA.COM
65= 04-Mar-1987 PRIME.COM
67. 04-Apr-1987 PHILIPS.COM
68= 23-Apr-1987 DATACUBE.COM
68= 23-Apr-1987 KAI.COM
68= 23-Apr-1987 TIC.COM
68= 23-Apr-1987 VINE.COM
72. 30-Apr-1987 NCR.COM
73= 14-May-1987 CISCO.COM
73= 14-May-1987 RDL.COM
75. 20-May-1987 SLB.COM
76= 27-May-1987 PARCPLACE.COM
76= 27-May-1987 UTC.COM
78. 26-Jun-1987 IDE.COM
79. 09-Jul-1987 TRW.COM
80. 13-Jul-1987 UNIPRESS.COM
81= 27-Jul-1987 DUPONT.COM
81= 27-Jul-1987 LOCKHEED.COM
83. 28-Jul-1987 ROSETTA.COM
84. 18-Aug-1987 TOAD.COM
85. 31-Aug-1987 QUICK.COM
86= 03-Sep-1987 ALLIED.COM
86= 03-Sep-1987 DSC.COM
86= 03-Sep-1987 SCO.COM
89= 22-Sep-1987 GENE.COM
89= 22-Sep-1987 KCCS.COM
89= 22-Sep-1987 SPECTRA.COM
89= 22-Sep-1987 WLK.COM
93. 30-Sep-1987 MENTAT.COM
94. 14-Oct-1987 WYSE.COM
95. 02-Nov-1987 CFG.COM
96. 09-Nov-1987 MARBLE.COM
97= 16-Nov-1987 CAYMAN.COM
97= 16-Nov-1987 ENTITY.COM
99. 24-Nov-1987 KSR.COM
100. 30-Nov-1987 NYNEXST.COM
This domain list was part of a 30-Nov-2004 blog entry
at Jottings.com entitled “My Kingdom for a Time Machine!”
HandyDandy:Playing Music Through Cellphone Keys May 29, 2007
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Geeks are busy hacking stocks these days May 22, 2007
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Geeks are busy these days playing around with the stocks of hot shot companies. Last 10 days were full of such scams. SEC is having a tough time finding out the real culprits as the news now snowballs in blogosphere and its difficult to point out the source.
That much we know from the mischievous email that was apparently sent out to Apple employees and that – naturally – quickly found its way into the tech-news cycle via the respected and highly trafficked tech site Engadget. The terse email said simply that the iPhone would be delayed to October from June and that the OS X Leopard operating software would not be released until January.
(Apple declined to offer any comment beyond reiterating that the email “wasn’t authentic” and that both the iPhone and Leopard are on track as previously announced.)
That was enough to cause Apple’s stock to tumble 5% from its morning high. Or close to 4-5 billion dollars of wealth was eroded.
Some who had shorted the stock would hve made a killing.
The real smart thing here was how the fake news was spread. It seems someone figured out how to send an email to Apple employees around the world, putting the familiar “Bullet News” in the from line (for Apple’s sake, one hopes this is not as simple as sending an email to “everyone@apple.com”).
So all you smart alecs. IT provides you a great way to play around with the stocks of big honchos. And while playing some serious money can be made. Its much rewarding than penny stuff as credit card fraud or looting atms. So time to rethink your priorities. 😀
13 year old Silicon Valley CEO of Elementeo May 21, 2007
Posted by rajAT in tiecon 2007.1 comment so far
Camera phone pioneer ponders the impact May 19, 2007
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The chilling sounds of gunfire on the Virginia Tech campus; the hateful taunts from Saddam Hussein‘s execution; the racist tirade of comedian Michael Richards. Those videos, all shot with cell phone cameras and seen by millions, are just a few recent examples of the power now at the fingertips of the masses. Even the man widely credited with inventing the camera phone in 1997 is awed by the cultural revolution he helped launch.
“It’s had a massive impact because it’s just so convenient,” said Philippe Kahn, a tech industry maverick whose other pioneering efforts include the founding of software maker Borland, an early Microsoft Corp. antagonist.
“There’s always a way to capture memories and share it,” he said. “You go to a restaurant, and there’s a birthday and suddenly everyone is getting their camera phones out. It’s amazing.”
If Kahn feels a bit like a proud father when he sees people holding up their cell phones to snap pictures, there’s good reason: He jury-rigged the first camera phone while his wife was in labor with their daughter.
“We were going to have a baby and I wanted to share the pictures with family and friends,” Kahn said, “and there was no easy way to do it.”
So as he sat in a maternity ward, he wrote a crude program on his laptop and sent an assistant to a RadioShack store to get a soldering iron, capacitors and other supplies to wire his digital camera to his cell phone. When Sophie was born, he sent her photo over a cellular connection to acquaintances around the globe.
A decade later, 41 percent of American households own a camera phone “and you can hardly find a phone without a camera anymore,” said Michael Cai, an industry analyst at Parks Associates.
Market researcher Gartner Inc. predicts that about 589 million cell phones will be sold with cameras in 2007, increasing to more than 1 billion worldwide by 2010.
Mix in the Internet’s vast reach and the growth of the YouTube generation, and the ubiquitous gadget’s influence only deepens and gets more complicated. So much so that the watchful eyes on all of us may no longer just be those of Big Brother.
“For the past decade, we’ve been under surveillance under these big black and white cameras on buildings and at 7-Eleven stores. But the candid camera is wielded by individuals now,” said Fred Turner, an assistant professor of communications at Stanford University who specializes in digital media and culture.
The contraption Kahn assembled in a Santa Cruz labor-and-delivery room in 1997 has evolved into a pocket-friendly phenomenon that has empowered both citizen journalists and personal paparazzi.
It has prompted lawsuits — a student sued campus police at UCLA for alleged excessive force after officers were caught on cell-phone video using a stun gun during his arrest; and been a catalyst for change — a government inquiry into police practices ensued in Malaysia after a cell-phone video revealed a woman detainee being forced to do squats while naked.
On another scale, parents use cell-phone slideshows — not wallet photos — to show off pictures of their children, while adolescents document their rites of passage with cell phone cameras and instantly share the images.
Kahn, 55, is well aware of how the camera phone has since been put to negative uses: sneaky shots up women’s skirts, or the violent trend of “happy slapping” in Europe where youths provoke a fight or assault, capture the incident on camera and then spread the images on the Web or between mobile phones.
But he likes to focus on the technology’s benefits. It’s been a handy tool that has led to vindication for victims or validation for vigilantes.
Kahn also thinks the evolution of the camera phone has only just begun.
He wouldn’t discuss details of his newest startup, Fullpower Technologies Inc., which is in stealth mode working on the “convergence of life sciences and wireless,” according to its Web site.
But, Kahn said, it will, among other things, “help make camera phones better.”
Dream On ! 