Long Distance - Part 5

There has been a lot of interest and feedback from readers about the recent patrickWeb stories about "long distance". Most are saying, "where can I get it?", but others are saying "not so fast". This is understandable given that we are beginning to go through a very disruptive period with regard to telephony. We are 5% of the way into what is in store for us.  One concern was raised by Tony Paulson who pointed out that 911 service is not available via the new SIP services. Another issue is being able to retain your existing phone number and avoid having to have two phone systems in your home -- one connected to the local phone company and another plugged into your cable or DSL router. Thanks to Bob Ishida in Tokyo for telling me about how Yahoo! Japan Broadband has solved both of these problems in Japan.  (read more)

Internet Technology October 30, 2003 01:38 PM

Linux on the Desktop - Part 1

The introduction of the new version of Microsoft Office has me thinking a lot about Linux for my desktop. Microsoft has performed many technical fetes in their software. Many of the features in Windows XP and Office are impressive and many are even intuitive and easy to use. However, many features are not intuitive or easy and worse yet impose decisions upon the user and at times border on harassment. We all have our favorite examples of Windows/Office frustrations and I won't bore you with mine. Microsoft is taking security issues seriously but I believe that they believe that the answer to achieving better security is to make the world "windows everywhere". I feel the noose tightening. One path to freedom is Linux. More and more servers at the world's e-businesses are running Linux and the open source community continues to make major progress on scaleability, reliability, and manageability. The desktop is another story. Microsoft dominates the desktop more strongly than any product in any market that I am aware of. I decided to begin the journey toward Linux for my desktop, to learn more about Linux, and see how far I can get. I'll be writing about my experiences here on patrickWeb. At IBM, there are thousands of desktop Linux users, but I would have to say that they are not average users by any means. I have confidence in the future of desktop Linux, but I do have some questinos and I intend to explore them -- and also learn from the experience of others. (read more).

Personal Computing October 29, 2003 10:20 PM

Do You Remember When?

It doesn't seem possible, but this weekend marked the fortieth reunion for the Class of 1963 of Salem High School in Salem, New Jersey. It was really nice to see my former classmates and renew fond memories of our shared past. Salem is a rural area of southern New Jersey and the high school is small. Consensus was that our graduating class was approximately 130 students. The organizing committee sent out an information form and just 51 filled them out. They were then compiled into a nicely done program booklet. It was nostalgic and interesting to read the forms.  (read more)

Conferences , People October 26, 2003 11:49 PM

Nothing Cold about Internet Connectivity In Iceland

Reykjavik, Iceland may soon become the first city in which every home is connected to the Internet with fiber optic cable. While many in the world still have analog dial-up connections or no connections, Reykjavik is about to take a quantum leap. According to Gudjon Mar Gudjonsson, a consultant in the broadband industry who lives there, the icy capital city of Iceland has an unsurpassed fiber infrastructure. Apparently, the city's utility company and the formerly state owned telecom operator are competing to build what may be the world's first city with "Fiber-To-The-Home " for every one of it's households. The full story will be presented at a conference -- Digital Reykjavik -- sometime before yearend. Gudjon saysthis time of the year is a wonderful time to visit our Iceland. You can check the forcast below.

Weather forecast for Iceland
patrickWeb stories about Internet Technology

Internet Technology October 23, 2003 06:28 PM

What Goes Around, Comes Around

"What Goes Around, Comes Around" is an old saying. Blogging is making it more real than ever. On August 15 I published a short story about ENUM. A week or so ago, Ali Farshchian at CircleID wrote and asked if I would mind if they were to republish the story. I was happy to share the story and so it appeared in new clothing on CircleID a couple of days ago. Michael at slashdot.org posted an excerpt of the story this morning on slashdot. Later in the day the ITU (International Telecommunicatoins Union) posted an excerpt of the slashdot excerpt! What Goes Around Comes Around.  (read more)

Blogging October 20, 2003 08:36 PM

Who Knows Who Knows

I have been fortunate over the years to have spent a lot of time with journalists. I consider them colleagues and have been able to maintain contact during my "e-tirement". Journalists are very focused on the issues and talking with them keeps me on my toes! They ask tough questions that really make me think. The In The News page lists the stories that refer to the conversations I have had. The primary way I communicate is through the weblog which you are reading. Occasionally, an editor will read one of my stories and ask to "re-print" it on their site. I always agree to do this assuming the appropriate cross links. The most recent case was the story about convergence. It has just been "re-printed" in CircleID. CircleID Network describes itself as a "unique collaborative hub that shares the control of its content with the community it serves". They have an interesting model. (read more)

Blogging October 19, 2003 05:19 PM

Energetic Music to Love

The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra gave the first concert of it's 2003-2004 season. Entitled Energetic Music to Love, the opening concert started with a short, lively seductive theme from a "secret marriage" by Domenico Cimarosa.Then, Aaron Rosand, considered by many to be the supreme master of the violin, thrilled the audience with his stunning performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D. Maestro Sidney Rothstein used the power and beauty of the Brahms Symphony No. 1 to end the opening concert with high momentum toward the concerts to come.

Classical Net
Favorite Concerts page

Music October 19, 2003 10:29 AM

The Face

Dean Koontz has written more than forty novels and many have been #1 bestsellers. In addition to being prolific, he is incredibly creative and imaginative. HIs most recent novel, The Face, is incredibly imaginative, exciting, and at times gripping. It is about a deranged professor who is seeking anarchy. Part of his plan is to kidnap and torture the son of a famous movie star. The intricacies of the plot would be hard to imagine, but not for Dean Koontz. One of the characters in the story gets killed but then disappears from the morgue and reappears in various scenarios. (read more)

Favorites October 18, 2003 05:40 PM

Airline Woes

I look forward to the day when I can write a story about how great airline websites are. It is true that airlines have a complicated business and are under enormous financial pressures -- that is why I have tried to be understanding about some of the frustrating experiences that I have had. My level of sympathy dropped yesterday when I received a letter from American Airlines saying my Admirals Club membership was coming up for renewal. It didn't bother me that they now charge $10 per baggage tag instead of giving you a free set every year. People don't need a new set every year -- and some people belong to more than one airline club and get more than one set per year. Giving away fancy luggage tags annually was a bad business policy all along. I don't even mind the new $50 late registration fee. Some people probably let their membership lapse and then renew it the next time they need to visit a club, thereby saving money for the intervening period. It is not unreasonable for the airline to impose a fee in this case. What I do mind is the method of renewal.  (read more)

e-Business October 16, 2003 06:30 PM

Blooming Grove

Columbus Day was an incredibly beautiful one -- blue sky, warm but not too hot, and a nice breeze. The Blooming Grove Hiking Trail was our destination in pursuit of the Blooming Grove Hiking Trail geocache. The trail was in the Delaware State Forest in Northeast Pennsylvania. The cache was a relatively new one, having just been placed on 9/21/2003. The terrain was mostly flat but very rocky. There were a couple of streams to cross. The cache was well protected in an ammo can and had many things in it including a bungee cord, playing cards, slinky, 12 pc bit set, flash light, 4-pak AA batteries, nail file, disposable camera, Handi-wipes, bug repellents, and the geocache log book. We left a repelling clip and took the nail file. It would have been nice to hike the whole trail system at Blooming Grove but time did not permit. Mainly because we got lost.  (read more).

Hiking October 14, 2003 10:47 PM

WD-40 Origin

Thanks to Chris Forbes at Knovel Corporation for explaining what the 40 in WD-40 means. He says, "It took them 40 attempts to get the water displacing formula worked out". Chris also says that the name came from "Water Displacement perfected on the 40th try". They obviously did a really good job because the original secret formula for WD-40 is still in use after fifty years. I always have a few cans around the shop.

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Gadgets October 12, 2003 11:11 AM

WD-40 and eBill

WD-40 is celebrating their 50th year. I am not sure how many people know about WD-40. Probably millions have seen the brand but not actually used it. If you like to tinker around in your garage or basement, you likely know
WD-40 well, as I do. In 1953, three technicians had the vision that a product could be created to prevent rust and degrease mechanical parts -- WD stands for "Water Displacement". I don't know what the 40 stands for. They have a great Web site at www.wd40.com and it shows how *any* product can have a useful website if they put their mind to it. Then there is the SBC website.  (read more)

SBC Communications is a different story. I am sure they want to be an on demand e-business but they have a very long way to go. Part of the problem is genetic. Their website says "if you need to make a payment immediately, please call us". You can't take "call" out of a phone company. The website goes on to say "To pay online, you must enroll in the SBC eBill service". The process to enroll is actually straightforward and efficient. Then it tells you "Once you've activated, either online or offline, you're done. You will receive an enrollment confirmation email in two to five days . After that, you will be able to view, print, and pay your bill in approximately 1-2 months, depending on your billing cycle. This is the tip-off that there are a lot of systems that are not yet integrated. They aren't alone.

e-Business October 10, 2003 10:38 PM

Skyline Wilderness Park

The Magellan SporTrak Color GPS receiver said that the geocache at Skyline Wilderness Park in Napa Valley, California was 2,562 miles from home. The park is a private sector operation and the land is leased from the State. The Park is open to hikers, bicyclists and horseback riders. There are a large number of trails but they are not particularly well marked. The trail map isn't very good either. The California Native Plant Society has an area where they cultivate native plants. The Martha Walker Gardens is known all over the State and is a popular place for school groups to visit. Signs at the trailhead warned of rattlesnakes and mountain lions, but the only signs of wildlife we saw were some wild turkeys, newts on the ground, and plenty of evidence of horseback riders. The cache was easy to find but it was a good workout to get to the higher altitude was it was located. The ziploc bag needs replaced with an ammo can. (photo gallery)

Hiking October 7, 2003 11:08 PM

Favorite Places

In 1995, when I first launched patrickWeb (then it was ibm.com/patrick), one of my goals was to share links to web sites I had found interesting. There was no Google back then and most people did not know about Yahoo!. Whenever I ran into an a site I thought would be of interest to my friends and colleagues I would add to a list which I called my "favorite places". Initially it was "my top ten links". Then it became my "my top 50". When the list got to 100 I decided it was time to reorganize the approach. Using Lotus Domino made it very easy to create categories and sub-categories. I was able to easily add a new link and put it in multiple categories if appropriate. I recently considered eliminating the "favorite places" section of patrickWeb but nostalgia took over.  (read more)

Favorites October 5, 2003 01:42 PM

Frequent Penalty Program

It seems as though I am having difficulty with every airline website. They have such a complicated business and are under such enormous financial pressures that it is hard to be too critical. They are actually making great progress -- albeit a long way to go to become on demand e-businesses. What is an on-demand e-business? Very simple. A business that allows you to engage with them whenever you want from wherever you are with whatever kind of communications link you have and to do what you need to do with simplicity and productivity. Another way to say it is that an on demand e-business simplifies your life and saves you time. Easy to say. Hard to do. I continue to say that we are just five percent of the way there. After my latest experience with United Airlines, I wonder if that is an overstatement.   (read more)

e-Business October 3, 2003 01:57 PM

Ludvig Van Beethoven

Ingrid Schwaegermann has developed a great web site about Ludwig Van Beethoven. It is quite comprehensive with a biography section, a picture gallery, musician's comments and stories about Beethoven's works. The site is available in English and German.

Speaking of Beethoven, my friend and maestro Sidney Rothstein told me about an interesting technology deployment involving the great composer. It has to do with handheld devices. The Samsung i330 has a browser built in but I rarely use it. Most people don't want to "surf the web" on a handheld device. This will change as device displays continue to get better and content creators get more creative in how to display their information, but in the meantime there are many other useful things that handhelds can do -- including displaying program notes during a live concert.  (read more)

Music October 1, 2003 09:35 PM

Music

I have been thinking for a long time about writing something about music. Other than my wife and family I can't think of anything I love more than music. I like all kinds but Classical music is my favorite. If I have my choice I listen to it from my first waking moment of the day to my last. Whenever I am at my computer at home there is classical music in the background. Most times this would be WQXR (New York) but on Sunday mornings I especially love to listen to Baroque music from WSHU (Fairfield, Connecticut). When travelling I listen to WCLV (Cleveland, Ohio) using the player from RealNetworks. I have to admit that I was so impressed with the ability of the Internet recently when I was able to listen to WCLV while I was more than 10,000 miles away in Australia! (read more)

Music October 1, 2003 08:01 PM