False Positives , Ian Irving's Adventures in Tech, Toronto (and HK), Sci and SciFi

Saturday, May 22, 2004

Is this the End of Long Distance as well as the End of Local?

Tim Bray writes about his experience getting VoIP Ongoing with his DSL setup.

and in a related post over on SlashDot....Voice Over IP Goes Global, The DNS Way

awehttam writes "A couple of geeks have setup a non-profit public DNS root designed to map phone numbers to Internet protocols. These days we're hearing lots about Skype, and Voice over IP. Asterisk - the open source PBX - is nearing its version 1.00 release, Free World Dialup has applied to run the .tel top level domain, Good old Bell's are migrating to native IP, private sector layer 2 clearing houses are exchanging bits between companies the like of Packet8, China Telecom, MIT and Harvard and even the various regulatory agencies are pondering just what to do about things. In the mean time, consumer SIP phones are dropping in price, and free and open source software is helping to drive a new generation of provide the services networks." Read on for more.

"You just knew the other shoe had to drop. E164.org let's people register their existing phone numbers, and aim various services including VoIP towards a URL on the Internet. Now you can have your calls sent to your Free World Dialup account, or routed to your home Asterisk PBX instead, possibly where you have a $20 card attached to your phone line letting you make and receive calls through both your regular phone line and the Internet. E164.org isn't just about VoIP though, it can also map phone numbers to Email addresses, Instant Messager URL's, or any other protocol that fits in the "foo://bar" scheme of the 'net. :)"


How close are we to the End of Long Distance as well as the End of Local?

Friday, May 21, 2004

Servertest 1.0.

Servertest 1.0. - from Dan Bricklin - lets you monitor how one or more web sites respond to requests for web pages over a long period of time, showing an indication of average response time and pattern of timeouts.

Written in Perl, and can run on most computer systems (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux),also available in source form for modification, enhancement, and redistribution (subject to a license).

Gates backs blogs & RSS for businesses

BBC NEWS | Technology | Gates backs blogs for businesses: "Blogs are good for business, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has said."

In a speech to an audience of chief executives, Mr Gates said the regularly updated journals, or blogs, could be a good way for firms to tell customers, staff and partners what they are doing.
....
Websites were a problem too, he added, because they demand that people visit them regularly to find out if anything has changed and require regular updating to avoid going stale.
....
These problems could be solved, said Mr Gates, by using blogs and Real Simple Syndication (RSS), that lets people know when a favourite journal is updated.


Well at least this will make it a bit easier to explain to the PHB "Why Blogs" / "Why RSS" (Cause Bill says they are a "GOOD THING"), even if to cause a rush of questions : What are Blogs/RSS, when can we get a Blog going (By which I mean I want it tomorrow), How do I read RSS (and get rid of all those funny angle brackets), I think it should be blue

This all comes under the category of : be careful what you wish for...


Thursday, May 20, 2004

Powered By CentrSource, We Drive Toronto

We Drive Toronto, Toronto GM Dealers website now "Powered by CentrSource"

27 Dealers now up, more too follow :

Laurie Williamson Pontiac Buick GMC Ltd
Pine View Pontiac Buick Ltd.

This joins Family Caregiver Magazine and their advertisers, plus several other fine companies listed under the Media Type CentrSource.

Many more to follow as momentum builds.....

Unwired Apartment Complex

Forever Geek : apartment complex unwired tells the story of adding wireless broadband to small apartment complex. Initial Research, A Better Solution, The Payoff, and the Future ("LaundryCam" anyone?)

Various wacky hijinks ensue, and in the end, no one goes to jail. Or they wouldn't have, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids and that darned dog!
Lots of other good content / Links at ForeverGeek

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Looking to add a RSS Feed

Via FeedBurner



Since Blogger / Google is NOT supporting RSS and is going with the pointless Atom format

Camera Phones Link World to Web

Update : Wired News Now has a piece on Camera-phone barcode reader