Scanning Plates

I couldn't find it but I've seen where Los Angeles was trying out some equipment on police squad cars that would automatically can license plates. The software looks to see if there are any warrant hits, etc for the cars owner. So it didn't surprise me to see that San Francisco was using the same technology to hunt down people with too many outstanding parking tickets.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/27/BAGRON6E411.DTL

MySpace's Blog Technology

Does anyone know much about MySpace's blog technology? What are they running it on for servers? For coding? I'm curious since that component of MySpace seems to be where I have the most problems. I have quite a few errors but more often it has times when it runs incredibly slow and times out.

Bad, Bad H-P

I thought I'd follow up yesterday's post scolding Yahoo for their sketchy if not nefarious actions with their IM update with a scolding of HP today. I already wasn't happy with them in regrads to my notebook computer I got 2 years ago. I had some bad experiences with their customer support due to their inability to communicate simple things with me such as not informing me that they were going to schedule a UPS pick-up time for the computer, let alone asking me if that would work for me.

I logged onto their online store because none of the stores in my area carry the 135W power supply that I need for my laptop. It was annoying that when rejecting my credit card they gave me an order number and told me to call their 888 number & customer service could give me no more detail than "bank rejected it; call your bank" when actually in double checking it I used the wrong experation date. But that can happen anywhere these days.

H-P's big no,no was the option for having them send you the email equivalent of the sunday insert for Hewlitt-Packard. It was a minor bad that they defaulted to checking yes for that. But what was extra bad and down right slimey was when I hoped into my account to edit it, they defaulted to checking it yet again! I had unchecked it originally and it had properly saved all my other preferences except that one. Come on H-P, show your customers respect. If I told you no the first time, don't try to sneak one past me.

Bad, Bad Yahoo Messenger

I'm using Yahoo Messenger for IM at my current contract. It gets to send out quick messages to folks and works well. Our Exchange servers are 2/3 a continent away and email can sometimes take 5+ minutes to be sent. This morning when I logged in I was prompted by Yahoo to update it. Not a problem. the new version has a smaller footprint and the upgrade went smoothly. But they violated a couple cardinal laws, at least in the eyes of many people. They automatically changed my default browsers homepage to their own. And they added the Yahoo toolbar. I can understand doing this if my settings were that I was already using them. But I wasn't. I associate actions like this with seedy types. You know the websites that you stumble across when you mistype a URL; the ones that ask or even attempt without asking to change your homepage. Is this a sign of how desperate Yahoo is for our business?

Software Bugs Produce Viagra

It's true. There was a bug in the software application that Scotland's health board uses. The e-Formulary system is meant to help doctors by selecting a list of most popular drugs when they write a prescription. But the system was selecting a generic version of Viagra instead of the anti-smoking drug that doctors intended to prescribe.

Passwords and MySpace

As you may know, MySpace was recently hacked. To be precise it was a phishing attack and they nabbed over 34,000 passwords. One of the good things about this is that the Bruce Schneier was able to get hold of the list. You can read more about it at WavLength. I just want to know how many people thought they were being clever using the password "blink182".

Skype, Skype, Skype Everywhere

There's something simple about Skype that I really like. They're about providing free (cheap when that's not possible) voice, chat and video communications. They're not doing it using open standards like SIP and it's not something that a lot of other players in the market aren't doing too. But they seemed to recognize early on that going after the market in Western Europe was the to amass users. It makes sense. Western Europe embraced the cell phone much faster than the US did because of their heavily regulated and expensive traditional phone services.

A group of companies including Skype today announced that their services will be available for a flat flee. This shouldn't surprise anyone as the the mobile industry is maturing, companies are consolidating. The service is becoming a commodity. And Skype comes into play because it's cheaper to use 3G (or WiFi) to get access to the Internet and route voice traffic over that rather than more traditional phone networks.

As much as I like Skype's approach to the market and their business, I still don't understand how they fit in with eBay. How do they fit in? Freely connecting sellers and buyers for cheap phone calls? Really? By that logic eBay should be buying a shipping company like FedEx or DHL. I'm still not sure what their vision is. Maybe what Meg Whitman just doesn't want to tell us they did it as a investment for the company. I can't blame her. Other than Warren Buffet Wall Street hasn't been kind to companies that try to act as both a company and an investment vehicle.

Video, Video

Looks like Microsoft is getting into serving up video on the internet with web site called SoapBox.

Home Energy

Mile High Tech takes a nice look at some of the home energy choices we have these days.

Microsoft's Social Networking

Social Networking Overload

I was suprised to see in the news today that Microsoft is rolling out a social networking web site called Wallop. I thought their stab in this arena was their MSN Spaces as part of their Windows Live push. I see it as a good move on their part. MSN Spaces is clunky. It has about as much sex appeal as a Ford Pinto. It may signal the importance they see in arena in having 2 different takes on the social networking site concept. Wallop so far is invite only. Although you can go to this site and email them asking them for an invitation.

Voice Over IP With Muni WiFi

One of the services this company is saying they will offer with their Minneapolis WiFi is VOIP. I'm at a bit of a loss on how they'll pull that one off. Maybe there is something not being reported correctly by the media. Or maybe there is something about the technology that I don't understand. I just don't understand how they can provide VOIP on this municipal WiFi network. My experience in coffee shops using Skype is that if the shop is using 802.11b, the 11MBS max standard, the quality of the call is pretty patchy. That's because I'm likely getting an actual bit rate down around 6 MBS. When I first moved into my new place and I was using open WiFi networks in my building (I'm on the 10^th floor so it's unlikely to be from anywhere else), I couldn't use Skype with most of them. The signal was strong enough to slowly get some data but trying to have a phone conversation didn't work. That's why I'm wondering how much VOIP service and at that of what quality they'll be able to offer.

http://www.startribune.com/10048/story/657227.html

Q How fast will the Wi-Fi network be?

A The city contract says the Wi-Fi network speed must be 1 million bits (1 megabit) per second for uploads and downloads. But the company that will build and operate the network, US Internet of Minnetonka, says actual speeds will range from 1 to 3 megabits.

More On Minneapolis WiFi

I don't understand why the politicos are gushing over WiFi. I don't think they understand the technology in relation to others. With the comments they are making, you would think they would pee their pants in shock if you told them that most all the cell phone providers off you the ability to wirelessly surf the internet from your lap top.

The article I'm refering to is here :
http://www.startribune.com/154/story/650966.html

Minneapolis WiFi

http://www.startribune.com/154/story/651527.html