Unwired

I'm moving.

2009-01-17T21:00:00.005Z

After a template change messed up this blogs layout I have decided it is time for a move to Wordpress.

This blog will stay up until the wordpress blog is fully active at which stage I will delete it and setup a re-direct.
Thank you for your attention!

What did Twitter do for you in 2008?

2008-12-24T13:07:00.006Z

Like many others that I know I have become a heavy Twitter user in 2008. Honesty requires me to say that I like the structured discussions on Jaiku more but Twitter wins out due to user density.
My twitter use is almost 24/7 and spans my professional & private life. I spew comments, thoughts, observations and questions into the Twitterverse.
There are a lot of ongoing discussions on what Twitters business model is. In my opinion nobody knows and most of us are still feeling our way in the unknown darkness of micro-blogging. For the moment Twitters value is best measured by individual benefits.
So what does it do for me? Does Twitter actually have any real benefit for me?
The best way to measure this is to list what it has added to my day-to-day life & work:

- I have connected to a lot of people that I either never met or never would have met if it wasn't for Twitter.
- I have engaged directly with people that I otherwise would not have had a chance to speak to. Forget 6 degrees of separation, Twitter creates a universe of 1 degree of separation or less.
- Because of one of my Twitter contacts I am now the owner of a horse (with another one to follow). yes, that's right, a real life, non-virtual benefit!
- I have used Twitter as a tool to directly engage with end-users of one of AirAppz's service and have seen others do the same.
- Twitter has made me aware of breaking news long before the traditional media has caught on.
- Twitter DM's have taken over from email as my preferred method of contacting (or pinging) a contact. Replies are much faster.
- And off course I have taken part or followed lots & lots of excellent discussions or exchanges of opinion on Twitter.

Off course there is lots more but the above highlights the most important benefits twitter has had for me.
I would love to hear what benefits Twitter has had to you so please post a comment!

Wifi in hospitals.

2008-12-15T17:19:00.007Z

Throughout the last few years I have sat in quite a few meetings discussing public wifi access in hospitals. I have also read quite a few reports on this subject. Still there are very few hospitals offering public wifi access to their patients and if they do it is limited to recreation rooms or the likes.
I do not see why. Patients are generally "forcibly" tied the to hospital location. Having Internet access will go a long way to making their stay more enjoyable and productive.
I find it especially lacking that children's' wards do not have this type of access.
I am at the point now where I will install wifi in the first (Irish) children's hospital ward to contact me. For Free!
Yes, they will have to provide their own Internet connectivity but I will supply, install and configure the wifi part at no costs.
So if you work in a children's hospital ward or know someone who does please point them at this post and tell them to contact me.

Update: While I have so far not been contacted by any hospitals I have had some interesting chats about my "initiative" with a few people. While my idea in itself is good and helpfull it would be great if there would be some way of getting a complete "package" together consisting of wifi connectivity, laptops, video conferencing hardware etc. So here's a callout to anyone who can has any contact that work with any of the laptop manufacturers or distributors as well as suppliers of video conferencing facilities etc. Please send them a link to this post or tell them to contact me.
And if you don't have any contacts in those areas you can still help by generating publicity; forward a link to here to your friends, write about it on your blog or Twitter about it!

Happy Christmas!

2008-12-13T14:45:00.004Z

Inspired by Pat Phelan's generosity I've decided to also get in the Christmas spirit and give away a Christmas gift.
I'm giving away two Buffalo Technology WHR-G54S wifi routers. Not only can you win one for yourself but I will also give one to a primary school of your choice. Schools are generally very badly served in the IT area and this would be a good way to help them a bit.
Now while this router is a great piece of kit in itself we've improved it by flashing the router with DD-WRT firmware.
This firmware gives the router a shot of steroids by greatly enhancing the capabilities:
* 13 languages
* 802.1x Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)
* Access Restrictions
* Ad Hoc
* Afterburner
* Client Isolation Mode
* Client Mode (supports multiple connected clients)
* DHCP Forwarder (udhcp)
* DHCP Server (udhcp or Dnsmasq)
* DNS Forwarder (Dnsmasq)
* DMZ
* Dynamic DNS (DynDNS, easyDNS, FreeDNS, No-IP, TZO, ZoneEdit, custom, and
others)
* Hotspot Portal (Sputnik Agent ,Chillispot)
* IPv6
* JFFS2 (JFFS2)
* MMC/SD Card Support (hardware modification required)
* NTP
* ntop Remote Statistic (ntop)
* OpenVPN Client & Server (only in -vpn build of the firmware)
* Port Triggering
* Port Forwarding
* PPTP VPN Server & Client
* QoS Bandwidth Management
* QoS L7 Packet Classifier (l7-filter)
* RFlow
* Routing (BIRD)
* Samba FS Automount
* Syslog
* Rx Antenna
* Tx Antenna
* Show Status of Wireless Clients and WDS with System Uptime/Processor
Utilization
* Site Survey
* SNMP
* SSH server & client (dropbear)
* Startup, Firewall, and Shutdown scripts (startup script)
* Static DHCP
* Style (Changeable GUI; v.23)
* Supports New Devices (WRT54G V3, V3.1, V4, V5 and WRT54GS V2.1, V3, V4)
* Telnet server & client
* Transmit Power Adjustment (0-251mW, default is 28mW, 100mW is safe)
* UPnP
* USB
* VLAN
* WOL (Wake On Lan) (WOL)
* WDS Connection Watchdog
* WDS Repeater Mode
* Wireless MAC Address Cloning
* Wireless MAC Filter
* WMM (Wi-Fi MultiMedia)
* WPA over WDS
* WPA/TKIP with AES
* WPA2
* Xbox Kaid (Kai Engine)

Anyway, just post a comment on this post and I will randomly pick one comment next week.

LeWeb: another disconnected conference...

2008-12-10T12:38:00.006Z

All the net & web heads of the world seem to have gathered at "Le Web" 09 in Paris. While I think that conferences like this are great for people to meet in realtime and for start-ups to showcase their products I am again disgusted by the reports coming from Paris on the disfunctional wifi at the conference.
Feedback through Twitter indicates that the wifi is more down than up. This is not the first time as the wifi at last years events was innitially just as bad. It is also not the only technology conference with lacking connectivity. TechCrunch had similar problems and it seems to be the norm that working wifi is more a sporadic luxury than an essential service at most conferences.

As a someone who has been working as a wifi provider for nearly 10 years now this disgusts me. It is not rocket science! What's needed is for someone knowledgeable to carry out a site survey and to use the results of this to work out a radio-plan. Take in consideration all possible sources of interference, the network load (i.e. amount of bandwidth needed) and make sure that you implement correct channel management and you should be OK. Coverage area and number of users can just be plugged into this matrix as it is scaleable.
Provide a number off VLAN's for the different access groups (attendees, conference staff, press etc.) and don't forget to add redundancy.
Yes, you need to do some prior planning and preparation but so do all others areas of organising conferences.

What is also amazing is the amounts of money alledgedly paid out for this. Rumour has it that the sum off 100k(euro) changed hands for this years Le Web wifi connectivity. Has anyone ever looked at what this really costs or is it just sponsors money wasted?

I have offered our services to the organisers of these events via Twitter and other channels before (without any feedback) and will do it again. We can provide working wifi at any event at a cost well below the one mentioned above. I will also provide a guarantee that it will work. On top of that I will talk to anyone organising an event and explain to them what to look out for when organising wifi connectivity.

Really people, crappy wifi at a technology event is just a very poor show.....

802.11n: Is it alphabet soup?

2008-12-09T11:48:00.003Z

One of my favorite wireless blogs is "The Ruckus Room" written by Ruckus Wireless's PR guy.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Today he has written a good piece about the problems with the 802.11n standard:
"The biggest problem with 802.11n systems today is lack of consistency of performance. There's no getting around it.

Under certain conditions 802.11n devices yield tremendous performance gains over older .11g/.11a systems (and these are the numbers vendors typically quote), but under a wide variety of conditions that are typically encountered in real world deployments their performance suffers.

Inconsistent performance of .11n is one of the huge unspoken problems in the Wi-Fi industry. No one wants to talk about it since most vendors don’t have adequate means to address the problem."

Read more here.

Flipping the finger to VC money.

2008-12-09T11:39:00.002Z

Even though it seems that every and all start-ups are chasing the VC dollar it seems that there are good reasons NOT to do so.
Tom Foremski lists 7 reasons not to go looking for VC money and why it makes sense not to do so:

-If you start by selling your concept to potential prospects (rather than stock to VCs), you will either end up with initial customers or a conviction that your idea won't work. Why raise money and then find out which one it will be?

-Raising money takes time away from understanding your market and potential customers. Often more time than it would take to just go sell something to a customer. Let your customers fund your business through product orders.

-Adding VCs to the mix early gives you an additional set of masters you must serve in addition to your customers. It is always hard to serve two masters, especially in a startup.

-With no money you can't make a fatal mistake. This is a blessing. Without VC money, you are forced to figure out how to extract funds from your customers for value you deliver. Ultimately that is the only thing that really matters.

-Money removes spending discipline. If you have the money you will spend it - whether you have figured out your business model and market or not. -Raising VC money determines your exit strategy. You will either sell the business or take it public. What if you end up with a very profitable, modest sized business that you want to just run? That is no longer an option once you raise VC money.

-You sell your precious equity very dearly before you have a proven business model. This is the worst time to raise money from a valuation perspective. I know this is a contrarian view. And some of you are saying that might be fine for a small company.

-Don't forget Dell, HP, Microsoft all originally started without VC funding; you can build a big business with bootstrapping and without VC money.

I can't say I disagree completely with him...

I won't eat my hat (but I might just look up a few recipes...)

2008-12-05T12:47:00.005Z

I have been openly critical of Enterprise Ireland in the past. However I had a meeting with my EI development advisor last week that was a breath of fresh air.
We sat down and he went trough my business with a fine tooth comb. No punches were pulled and we had a very frank exchange of views.
He pointed out where they could offer me support and how.
He told me how I could (and should) improve the business etc.
In short he did exactly what I would expect from an EI development advisor to do.
I have a feeling that our working relationship will improve greatly!

Codes of practice, slow broadband and fast 3G...

2008-12-05T10:58:00.006Z

OFCOM has drafted a voluntary Code of Practice for ISP's. This is an excellent innitiative in my opinion and something that we could do with in Ireland. It's mainstay is that ISP's have to communicate clearer to their customers what speeds they will actually be getting for their money. Currently most, if not all, ISP's juggle theoretical speeds to dazzle customers but apart from business users nobody is really getting the speeds advertised. The Code of Practice states:
1. headline or advertised speed - This is the speed that ISPs use to describe the packages that they offer to consumers. They are often described as ‘up to’ speeds but these are often only a guide as to the speed an ISP can provide and at what price.
2. access line speed - This refers to the maximum speed of the data connection between the broadband modem and the local exchange or cable head end. This constitutes the maximum speed a consumer will be able to experience.
3. actual throughput speed - This is the actual speed that a consumer experiences at a particular time when they are connected to the internet. This figure is often dependent on factors such as the ISP’s network, its traffic shaping and management policy, the number of subscribers sharing the network at the same time and the number of people accessing a particular website.
4. average throughput speed – This is an average of actual throughput speed for each different broadband product offered by an ISP.

There's a lot more worth reading. I suggest that you download an copy and email it to your ISP's customer service desk. One fault in the Code is that it only applies to fixed line broadband providers. I think that a similar code for Wireless ISP's is even more needed. The business practices in this part of the industry need even more "streamlining".

Another interesting read is PCMag's survey of broadband speeds in the USA. It gives a good overview of what speeds are being delivered by the different "broadband" technologies:
"In the modern world of Internet service, two things go without saying: Fiber optic service is dramatically faster, and satellite service is substantially slower. Our results support these shocking statements. Among satellite services, including industry leader HughesNet and competitors like WildBlue, SurfSpeeds averaged just 145 kilobits per second (Kbps). Taken as a whole, DSL and cable connections were more than five times as fast. And fiber optic connections, including the well-publicized Verizon FiOS and lesser-known regional carriers like Utah's Mstar and New Mexico's CityLink Fiber, were 152 percent faster than that." However the most surprising bit is that the fastest provider is Surfspeeds with an average speed of just 724 Kbps. Not exactly broadband is it now?!
Anyway, go read the article, it puts everything into perspective.

Lastly here's an blog post about 3G speeds generated in an almost lab environment. Maximum speeds reached where of 5.76 MBit/s. The test were performed on the Hanover exibition ground, where both T-Mobile and Vodafone have upgraded their 3G network and their base station backhaul to support these speeds. It again illustrates the difference between theoretical and actual speeds.

WiFi still on the increase...

2008-12-04T13:55:00.002Z

In spite of all the recent comments that wifi would lose out to wimax & 3G recent figures clearly indicate that the number of users as well as the actual usage is increasing (and not by single digits either).
British Telecom (BT) reports that between April and September 2008, customers spent twice as much time on its WiFi networks as in the preceding six months. People spent more than a million minutes a day on the average on BT OpenZone and BT FON networks.
Also Icomera, who specialises in wifi access on public transport systems reports a staggering 272% increase in this type of service.
The actual figure are impressive:
* By the end of October 2008, over one million passengers had used Wi-Fi services in trains, buses and ferries, approximately 3.72 million times, a 272% increase over the past year. Among Icomera’s customers are large transport operators such as Arriva, First Group, National Express, Stagecoach and Go-Ahead.
* Average Wi-Fi session on trains: 83 minutes
* Average Wi-Fi session on buses: 30 minutes
* Average number of sessions per week: 50,000

Choo-choo train....

2008-12-03T10:28:00.003Z

I have blogged on the topic of wifi on trains at the start of this year (here, here and here). The posts centered about the lack of wifi on Irish Trains and the apparent unwillingness by Irish Rail to even consider offering this service. All this culminated in a discussion between Barry Kenny (Irish Rail spokesman) and myself on the “Last Word” show on TodayFM. During this discussion I made the offer to Irish Rail to install a wifi service on their trains at no expense to Irish Rail. Even though he clearly wasn’t happy with my offer Mr.Kenny agreed to meet with me in order to discuss this.

Due to a strike by Irish Rail staff the actual broadcasting of this discussion was delayed by several weeks and I decided not to chase Irish Rail up in regards to this offer unless I didn't hear from them after the broadcast. The broadcast came and went without a word from Irish Rail. It took several emails and calls from my side and eventually a press release before I received a reply from them. The matter was passed on to Paul O’Kelly their “Corporate & e-marketing” manager. I contacted Mr. O’Kelly to arrange a meeting during which we could discuss our offer and their requirements/parameters for such a service. After a few weeks of emails to-and-fro I was told that they were not willing to meet me unless I submitted a complete proposal for a wifi service. I replied by outlining that we were offering them to take a 3 million+ cost of their hands and that it was ridiculous to expect us to submit a complete proposal without actual having met and discussed their parameters for such a service. Obviously there would be requirements specific to Irish Rail that would needed to be met so preparing such a proposal without this information would be non-sensical and would doom the project to failure before it even started...

Irish Rail obviously saw the logic in this and forwarded technical information and requirements allowing us to start work on a proposal. I also arranged a meeting with Mr.O’Kelly to discuss our proposal further. During the meeting we discussed the deployment & benefits of a train-wide wifi network and the structure under which we could offer this to Irish Rail. Even though there were no costs involved in our proposal for Irish Rail he kept insisting that the provision of this service would have to be out out to tender. After some more prodding I was told that there was also another possibility whereby we would pay Irish Rail for the right to provide the service (i.e. similar to arrangements that they have with vending machine owners etc.) through this construction we could (legally) avoid the tender process. We agreed that I would consider both options and would contact him over the next few weeks to make clear which option we would prefer to take and also to receive further information needed to prepare full technical project specifications.

After we had considered the two options and explored the pros and cons of both I emailed Mr. O'Kelly some weeks later to let him know that we preferred the option whereby we would pay Irish Rail a fee in order to be allowed to provide a wifi service on their trains. I also included a list of questions. His reply took weeks to arrive (via email). I was informed that after internal decision they had made the decision that the provision of wifi services would be put out to tender and that they were preparing the tender document.
A bit of a disappointment but I asked him to please keep me up to date on the tender process. Weeks later I had still not received a reply or an update so I emailed him again. No reply...
Last week, weeks later again, I sent him another email politely asking for an update. As expected I also still have to receive a reply to that email.
As none of my emails have bounced back I assume that he has received them.

It is becoming clear to me that in spite of being offered the service at NO COST Irish Rail is still not interested and hopes that I will just go away if they ignore me often and long enough. Fact is that this won't happen! There is a need for this service along with a clear benefit for Irish Rail (increased ticket sales, more satisfied customers, improved internal & external communication). I still have to come across someone who does not see the benefit in the provision of this service. The fact that a state-owned body (i.e. paid for by the tax-payer) willfully ignores the need for this service even when they would not incur any capital expenses in providing this is un-acceptable. Taking weeks to reply to an email or not replying at all indicates a lack of respect and is unprofessional to say the least...

Investing for the masses (recession beater)!

2008-11-25T20:27:00.011Z

Over the last five years or so I have "risen" from the level where you started a business with your own money and made sure that it financed itself to a level whereby most of my current ventures have been at least partly funded by outside investors. Anyone with a passing knowledge of this business knows what it entails: you come up with an idea, do your research, write your business-plan, develop your product/service and then you do the big song & dance with either a private investor or a VC (a good insight can be found here). Banks will generally not come into the picture if you're a start-up. The result of all this is hopefully a sizable investment that will allow you to expand your team, bring your product to completion stage and to go out and sell it resulting in revenue.
One of the side-effects is also that smaller investors generally don't get a look-in (unless at seed/angel stage). Funding seems to have moved to larger amounts, even in first round funding, resulting in a declining angel investor culture.
The angel/seed investor culture in Ireland is almost non-existent due to a lack of interest and opportunities.
It also means that smaller investors are left with no other opportunities than to invest their cash via the institutionalised route (funds etc.) or to set up an account with a broker and invest in mostly established companies. No real "exciting" opportunities.
This has got me thinking; I think that it's time to change this situation.
I have two ventures starting up in the next few weeks, they're relatively small start-ups with good potential. Both are technology based; one is a security service and the other operates in the communications sector. Both however require a start-up investment.
It would be great if a culture existed through which I could open this opportunity to anybody who is interested in investing. It wouldn't be targeted at high net worth individuals but at people with some "spare" cash who would like to invest in the right early stage company and profit from the potentially high margins (mind that your investment could also crash & burn). There would be a minimum investment of something like a 1000 euro. In exchange the investor would get equity in the company. They would also get the option to purchase shares at preferential rates in any future offerings. Personally I would prefer to raise my funding through a number of smaller investors rather than one large investor. As a rule of thumb larger investors are using other peoples money (pensionfunds most likely) and will play a different game than private inventors. They will generally look for a quicker exit and want more involvement. From an entrepreneurs viewpoint private investors are easier to deal with.
I am going to spend some time thinking about this "concept" over the next few weeks in order to establish it's feasibility.
Comments & suggestions are very welcome!

What way forward for broadband...

2008-10-17T18:29:00.006+01:00

I spent the afternoon of September 30th in Dublin Castle at the "invitation" of minister Eamonn Ryan. The occasion were the "Next Generation Broadband Forum Consultative Forum" aimed at formulating the long term policies in this area. This was an interesting and relatively new approach by the government that actually showed an interest in the opinion of people in the "broadband industry", the interest groups and the "average users".
The event was taking place in a large conference room with about 14 tables with 6-8 people per table. I shared a table with Sean Galagher, Antoin O Lachtnain, Damian Callan (blogger), Aebhric Mc Gibney (Director of Policy & Communications Dublin Chamber of Commerce) and a few others.
The afternoon was very tightly organised with specific topics to be discussed by each table. Each topic was given 30 minutes after which the table "moderator" would present the tables conclusions to the room.
Topics to be discussed were:
- "What broadband do we use"
- "How will Next Generation Broadband be delivered"

The discussions were very frank and some very valid points were raised. The general consensus was that the current approach does not work and that a change of direction is badly needed. Also the term "joined up thinking" was used often targeted at different departments and private sector operators actually working and thinking together. We also had a very good discussions about how broadband is used and what speeds and capacities will be needed towards 2010 and 2015. It was surprising to find out that by most people Youtube was still seen as a "new technology" and an example of future broadband use. Very few (if anybody) had heard of Qik, Seesmic, Vimeo or other video based applications. My Twittering of the discussions also raised some eyebrows.
One point that was raised by our table is that we should look at "untethered broadband service" meaning not just broadband into residential or business premises but also broadband to mobile devices and in public spaces. Also Broadband is not just an economic force but also a social & demographic driver and should be recognised as such. The provision of a widely available broadband service will change the make-up, quality and spread of our society.
As for required speeds we put forward 10Mbps by 2010 and 100Mbps by 2020 as an indication of what would be needed. However it was also agreed that quantity was as important as quality. This in relation to issues such as contention ratios and synchronous upload and download speeds.
Something that became apparent from the other tables' conclusions was that the private sector has no interest in rolling out broadband in areas currently not serviced without a guarantee of revenue.

The round table discussions ended at 3:20 at which time there was a well needed coffee break followed by a number of break-out sessions. I decided to participate in the session on "Models for open access" which looked like the one drawing the most people.
There were people from all the telcos, Comreg and some government departments. Initially the discussion was full of woolly talking with now specifics about the specifics of open access. I quickly dragged it back into reality by actually asking the group "what the open access should be to" i.e. privately owned or publicly owned infrastructure. Thus raised a lot of hackles as most incumbents did not want to build an infra-structure in unserved areas but also did not want to the government to intervene in the market. A director from Smart Telecom actually made a statement that their market research had shown that "SME's did not want broadband" and that the should only be government support for (privately owned) companies to supply broadband to multi-nationals and large corporates (he forgot to mention that this is exactly the market that Smart is targeting). Besides utterly stupid, his statement is indicative of the thinking within the industry. Everyone wants to run a closed shop with as only target immediate ROI and a serious lack of long term vision is prevalent.
I was pleasantly surprised to notice that there was a certain level of agreement with or at least interest in) my opinion from both the people from the various government departments as well as Comreg. I put forward that the recent & current as failed miserably and that a drastic change of policy and thinking is needed.
Privately owned companies clearly have no interested in rolling out broadband in underserved areas as there is no profit to be made. While it shows a lack of vision it is understandable as they are only looking at their bottom line.
What is needed in Ireland is a completely new broadband infrastructure. The current infra-structure could not support a sufficient broadband service even if we wanted it.
What is needed is a government owned broadband (fiber) network that will bring fast backhaul connectivity into every community. This infra-structure should be opened up to everyone on a fee paid basis and run by either a government body or a private operator for the government. As long as they do a better job than E-net.
Last mile delivery of broadband should be left to the private sector but this backhaul infra-structure opens up the market and will make service delivery in 90% of the country an achievable target. Obviously my complete proposal on this is ever so slightly more elaborate and detailed than just that but it surmises it nicely.
As you can imagine this proposal did not go down well with the telcos. Because "jayzus didn't they go and spend buckets of money to bring us into the broadband heaven that we are in"....
After this frank exchange of opinion there were 20 minutes for all the breakout session to present their opinions and conclusions. Unfortunately the minister was no longer present as he was needed in the Dail to assist in dealing with some "financial problems".
This was followed by a brief "thank you" from the organisers which ended the day.
I must say that I was impressed by the overall level of the discussions and the frank exchanges of opinion and I hope that all the views and opinions will be considered by the minister and his department when they draw up there long term policies.

Big Bang for dummies...

2008-09-10T17:12:00.002+01:00

There's been a lot of talk about the Large Hadron Collider recently. Most of it was about the world ending when it was switched on.
However most people did not really seem to understand what the thing really did.
Let the CERN staff explain it to you:

Arrrghhhhh - its wifi, not rocket science, sort it out Techcrunch

2008-09-09T21:07:00.006+01:00

The title of this post is one of the many Twitter messages over the last few days complaining over the bad quality of the wifi access at the TechCrunch50 event. I am really surprised and slightly disgusted by this. As far as I can recall last year there was either no wifi access or it was plagued by problems.
Really guys, it's not *that* hard. You just need someone in charge of the wifi who knows what they're doing.
You need to consider signal propagation paths, interference, reflection, channel management and roaming. And that's the wireless part.
Connect that to managed switches and sufficient backhaul and Bob's yer uncle...
Not that TC50 is the only conference that suffers from bad wifi. Most technology conferences are marked by dire connectivity.
I have repeatedly made the offer via Twitter but want to repeat it here; if TechCrunch wants someone to supply them with working public wifi access at their next event all they need to do is contact me.
And no, I am NOT boasting. Those that have used wifi services supplied by me/Airappz can testify that it works.
So there you go; if TC (or you) need wifi for an event or public location feel free to contact me...

Apple "news"...

2008-09-09T17:10:00.003+01:00

With the recent launches of the iphone one would imagine that there would some sensational news coming from Apple's upcoming "Let's Rock" event.
Not really...
According to AppleInsider the biggest rumours are about: "a new version of the iPod shuffle will be made available in 5 colors, while an update to the iPod classic will arrive in just two colors -- black and silver as the options exist today. The iPod touch will not be offered with a color choice and look very similar to today's model."

But that's not all!!

"information passed on to MacRumors earlier this morning indicates the three new colors for the nano will include Purple, Yellow, and Orange. The nano is expected to be available in 8GB and 16GB models, while the iPod touch remains 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities"

So new colours and more space?! That's it?!
For a company which consistently has been at the forefront of innovative design this would be a lack-lustre show.
Are they suffering from the fiasco that is the iphone?
I hope not.
Let's see what the event will bring us....

Looking for a coder/programmer...

2008-09-09T12:05:00.008+01:00

I am looking for someone who can write/code a tool for me that can do the following;

- Measure backhaul throughput (upload, download, ping times) at preset intervals.
- Take a GPS reading.
- Tag the throughput reading with the GPS reading.
- Export the above in a format that can be used with Google maps.

Anyone?

Wardriving & why public wifi should be free...

2008-09-05T16:49:00.002+01:00

Classic!

2008-09-05T15:19:00.002+01:00

"What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama?"

"One is a well turned-out, good-looking, and let's be honest, pretty sexy piece of eye-candy.

"The other kills her own food."

I think that the woman is the best thing that has come to international politics in a long time.

Gissajob!

2008-09-04T23:07:00.002+01:00

Oisin O'Connor forwarded an interesting vacancy on to me via email thinking that I might know someone that would be interested and qualified for this position.
Rather than just contacting those people that I deemed qualified I decided to put the full vacancy up here. Contact details will be at the end of the post:

Title: Managing Director for Leading Digital Media Technology Company

Decription:
Managing Director for a Digital Media Technology Company in Limerick, Ireland

DavenportMajor Executive Search has been retained to recruit the Managing Director, DTS Licensing Limited (DLL), for DTS, Inc. (www.dts.com).
DTS, Inc. (NASDAQ: DTSI) is a digital technology company dedicated to delivering the ultimate entertainment experience. DTS decoders are in virtually every major brand of 5.1-channel surround processor, and there are hundreds of millions of DTS-licensed consumer electronics products available worldwide. A pioneer in multi-channel audio, DTS technology is in home theatre, car audio, PC and game console products, as well as DVD-Video, HD DVD, Blu-ray Disc and Surround Music software. Founded in 1993, DTS is headquartered in Agoura Hills, California and has offices in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and China.
Located in Ireland and reporting to the Senior Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Division, this is a prestigious position requiring a minimum of fifteen years of proven and progressively responsible experience in a global company within the Mobile Consumer Market: Digital Media, Wireless Communications, Broadband Infrastructure, Consumer Electronics, IT, PC or Automotive industry segment. This individual will be responsible for worldwide licensing processes, agreements and administration as well as the Managing Director functions for all European operations. Their depth of experience will include:
• Progressively increased responsibility in the areas of Product Management, Strategic Marketing or Business Development. Prior Intellectual Property Licensing experience is a significant plus
• Prior experience as a Managing Director or General Manager in Europe is preferred. Experience working for a U.S. multi-national company is required.
• Ability to leverage technical background and strategic marketing skills for successful client relationships.
• Experience in P&L management.
• Exceptional financial analysis and analytical skills.
• In-depth knowledge of licensing programs and processes with an understanding of “ingredient” technology and how it is licensed.
• Experience working internationally.
• BS Engineering, or equivalent

Any suggestions of strong potential candidates will be appreciated and all referrals held in strict confidence. We feel this will be a tremendous opportunity for the right individual. Thank you very much for your help.

Best regards,

Lynn Alderete
Executive Recruiter
DavenportMajor Executive Search
12770 High Bluff Drive, Suite 320
San Diego, CA 92130
858-273-1602
lynn@davenportmajor.com
www.davenportmajor.com

Limerick Open Coffee Club...

2008-09-04T19:27:00.006+01:00

Seeing that there was only a horrible Yahoo Groups page I have taken it upon myself to start developing the Limerick Open Coffee Club website.
I will be fitting the development in between my other activities so it will probably be an ongoing work in progress.
Your contributions, suggestions & comments are welcome: http://opencoffeeclublimerick.com/

Enterprise Ireland International Markets Week.

2008-09-04T15:34:00.005+01:00

I might sound like a PR person for Enterprise Ireland but I received another email from them about an interesting event taking place on 13-16 October 2008.
It's called the "International Markets Week" and offers an opportunity for people from Irish companies to get in direct contact with EI representatives from their foreign offices.
Full details are as follows:

We are pleased to give you details of International Markets Week which takes place this year during week commencing 13 October. Attached please find a brochure for this event. Full details are also on our website.
The focus of International Markets Week is to identify how Enterprise Ireland can assist your company in generating export sales.

Our overseas-based marketing staff will be in Ireland to meet with you on an individual basis to discuss your company’s international growth strategy. Your Development Adviser will also attend these meetings to agree joint action plans for the future.

Venues
We are holding meetings in two locations during International Markets Week; in Shannon on Monday 13 and in Dublin on Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 October.

Monday 13 October:
Enterprise Ireland, Westpark, Shannon, Co. Clare

Tuesday 14 – Thursday 16 October:
RDS, Shelbourne Hall, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

You can register for meetings here. A member of the team will contact you to confirm your meetings.

There is no participation fee for this Enterprise Ireland event.

We believe International Markets Week will be of great benefit to your company and we look forward to receiving your registration as soon as possible. If you require assistance or have any queries, please contact us at:

International Markets Week Desk
Tel: 01 2300943 | email: internationalmarketsweek@enterprise-ireland.com

Google's "Chrome" browser is not all that shiny...

2008-09-02T21:21:00.005+01:00

When looking at the T&C for Google's new "Chrome" browser I something interesting.
For reference i have copied the complete T&C and printed the part that (11.1) I found dubious in bold:

Google Chrome Terms of Service

These Terms of Service apply to the executable code version of Google Chrome. Source code for Google Chrome is available free of charge under open source software license agreements at http://code.google.com/chromium/terms.html.

1. Your relationship with Google

1.1 Your use of Google’s products, software, services and web sites (referred to collectively as the “Services” in this document and excluding any services provided to you by Google under a separate written agreement) is subject to the terms of a legal agreement between you and Google. “Google” means Google Inc., whose principal place of business is at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States. This document explains how the agreement is made up, and sets out some of the terms of that agreement.

1.2 Unless otherwise agreed in writing with Google, your agreement with Google will always include, at a minimum, the terms and conditions set out in this document. These are referred to below as the “Universal Terms”. Open source software licenses for Google Chrome source code constitute separate written agreements. To the limited extent that the open source software licenses expressly supersede these Universal Terms, the open source licenses govern your agreement with Google for the use of Google Chrome or specific included components of Google Chrome.

1.3 Your agreement with Google will also include the terms of any Legal Notices applicable to the Services, in addition to the Universal Terms. All of these are referred to below as the “Additional Terms”. Where Additional Terms apply to a Service, these will be accessible for you to read either within, or through your use of, that Service.

1.4 The Universal Terms, together with the Additional Terms, form a legally binding agreement between you and Google in relation to your use of the Services. It is important that you take the time to read them carefully. Collectively, this legal agreement is referred to below as the “Terms”.

1.5 If there is any contradiction between what the Additional Terms say and what the Universal Terms say, then the Additional Terms shall take precedence in relation to that Service.

2. Accepting the Terms

2.1 In order to use the Services, you must first agree to the Terms. You may not use the Services if you do not accept the Terms.

2.2 You can accept the Terms by:

(A) clicking to accept or agree to the Terms, where this option is made available to you by Google in the user interface for any Service; or

(B) by actually using the Services. In this case, you understand and agree that Google will treat your use of the Services as acceptance of the Terms from that point onwards.

2.3 You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google, or (b) you are a person barred from receiving the Services under the laws of the United States or other countries including the country in which you are resident or from which you use the Services.

2.4 Before you continue, you should print off or save a local copy of the Universal Terms for your records.

3. Language of the Terms

3.1 Where Google has provided you with a translation of the English language version of the Terms, then you agree that the translation is provided for your convenience only and that the English language versions of the Terms will govern your relationship with Google.

3.2 If there is any contradiction between what the English language version of the Terms says and what a translation says, then the English language version shall take precedence.

4. Provision of the Services by Google

4.1 Google has subsidiaries and affiliated legal entities around the world (“Subsidiaries and Affiliates”). Sometimes, these companies will be providing the Services to you on behalf of Google itself. You acknowledge and agree that Subsidiaries and Affiliates will be entitled to provide the Services to you.

4.2 Google is constantly innovating in order to provide the best possible experience for its users. You acknowledge and agree that the form and nature of the Services which Google provides may change from time to time without prior notice to you.

4.3 As part of this continuing innovation, you acknowledge and agree that Google may stop (permanently or temporarily) providing the Services (or any features within the Services) to you or to users generally at Google’s sole discretion, without prior notice to you. You may stop using the Services at any time. You do not need to specifically inform Google when you stop using the Services.

4.4 You acknowledge and agree that if Google disables access to your account, you may be prevented from accessing the Services, your account details or any files or other content which is contained in your account.

4.5 You acknowledge and agree that while Google may not currently have set a fixed upper limit on the number of transmissions you may send or receive through the Services or on the amount of storage space used for the provision of any Service, such fixed upper limits may be set by Google at any time, at Google’s discretion.

5. Use of the Services by you

5.1 In order to access certain Services, you may be required to provide information about yourself (such as identification or contact details) as part of the registration process for the Service, or as part of your continued use of the Services. You agree that any registration information you give to Google will always be accurate, correct and up to date.

5.2 You agree to use the Services only for purposes that are permitted by (a) the Terms and (b) any applicable law, regulation or generally accepted practices or guidelines in the relevant jurisdictions (including any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the United States or other relevant countries).

5.3 You agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services by any means other than through the interface that is provided by Google, unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with Google. You specifically agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services through any automated means (including use of scripts or web crawlers) and shall ensure that you comply with the instructions set out in any robots.txt file present on the Services.

5.4 You agree that you will not engage in any activity that interferes with or disrupts the Services (or the servers and networks which are connected to the Services).

5.5 Unless you have been specifically permitted to do so in a separate agreement with Google, you agree that you will not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade or resell the Services for any purpose.

5.6 You agree that you are solely responsible for (and that Google has no responsibility to you or to any third party for) any breach of your obligations under the Terms and for the consequences (including any loss or damage which Google may suffer) of any such breach.

6. Your passwords and account security

6.1 You agree and understand that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of passwords associated with any account you use to access the Services.

6.2 Accordingly, you agree that you will be solely responsible to Google for all activities that occur under your account.

6.3 If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your password or of your account, you agree to notify Google immediately at http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=48601.

7. Privacy and your personal information

7.1 For information about Google’s data protection practices, please read Google’s privacy policy at http://www.google.com/privacy.html. This policy explains how Google treats your personal information, and protects your privacy, when you use the Services.

7.2 You agree to the use of your data in accordance with Google’s privacy policies.

8. Content in the Services

8.1 You understand that all information (such as data files, written text, computer software, music, audio files or other sounds, photographs, videos or other images) which you may have access to as part of, or through your use of, the Services are the sole responsibility of the person from which such content originated. All such information is referred to below as the “Content”.

8.2 You should be aware that Content presented to you as part of the Services, including but not limited to advertisements in the Services and sponsored Content within the Services may be protected by intellectual property rights which are owned by the sponsors or advertisers who provide that Content to Google (or by other persons or companies on their behalf). You may not modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on this Content (either in whole or in part) unless you have been specifically told that you may do so by Google or by the owners of that Content, in a separate agreement.

8.3 Google reserves the right (but shall have no obligation) to pre-screen, review, flag, filter, modify, refuse or remove any or all Content from any Service. For some of the Services, Google may provide tools to filter out explicit sexual content. These tools include the SafeSearch preference settings (see http://www.google.com/help/customize.html#safe). In addition, there are commercially available services and software to limit access to material that you may find objectionable.

8.4 You understand that by using the Services you may be exposed to Content that you may find offensive, indecent or objectionable and that, in this respect, you use the Services at your own risk.

8.5 You agree that you are solely responsible for (and that Google has no responsibility to you or to any third party for) any Content that you create, transmit or display while using the Services and for the consequences of your actions (including any loss or damage which Google may suffer) by doing so.

9. Proprietary rights

9.1 You acknowledge and agree that Google (or Google’s licensors) own all legal right, title and interest in and to the Services, including any intellectual property rights which subsist in the Services (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist). You further acknowledge that the Services may contain information which is designated confidential by Google and that you shall not disclose such information without Google’s prior written consent.

9.2 Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with Google, nothing in the Terms gives you a right to use any of Google’s trade names, trade marks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features.

9.3 If you have been given an explicit right to use any of these brand features in a separate written agreement with Google, then you agree that your use of such features shall be in compliance with that agreement, any applicable provisions of the Terms, and Google's brand feature use guidelines as updated from time to time. These guidelines can be viewed online at http://www.google.com/permissions/guidelines.html (or such other URL as Google may provide for this purpose from time to time).

9.4 Other than the limited license set forth in Section 11, Google acknowledges and agrees that it obtains no right, title or interest from you (or your licensors) under these Terms in or to any Content that you submit, post, transmit or display on, or through, the Services, including any intellectual property rights which subsist in that Content (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist). Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with Google, you agree that you are responsible for protecting and enforcing those rights and that Google has no obligation to do so on your behalf.

9.5 You agree that you shall not remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary rights notices (including copyright and trade mark notices) which may be affixed to or contained within the Services.

9.6 Unless you have been expressly authorized to do so in writing by Google, you agree that in using the Services, you will not use any trade mark, service mark, trade name, logo of any company or organization in a way that is likely or intended to cause confusion about the owner or authorized user of such marks, names or logos.

10. License from Google

10.1 Google gives you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and non-exclusive license to use the software provided to you by Google as part of the Services as provided to you by Google (referred to as the “Software” below). This license is for the sole purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit of the Services as provided by Google, in the manner permitted by the Terms.

10.2 You may not (and you may not permit anyone else to) copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of the Software or any part thereof, unless this is expressly permitted or required by law, or unless you have been specifically told that you may do so by Google, in writing.

10.3 Unless Google has given you specific written permission to do so, you may not assign (or grant a sub-license of) your rights to use the Software, grant a security interest in or over your rights to use the Software, or otherwise transfer any part of your rights to use the Software.

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

12. Software updates

12.1 The Software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the Services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the Services.

13. Ending your relationship with Google

13.1 The Terms will continue to apply until terminated by either you or Google as set out below.

13.2 If you want to terminate your legal agreement with Google, you may do so by (a) notifying Google at any time and (b) closing your accounts for all of the Services which you use, where Google has made this option available to you. Your notice should be sent, in writing, to Google’s address which is set out at the beginning of these Terms.

13.3 Google may at any time, terminate its legal agreement with you if:

(A) you have breached any provision of the Terms (or have acted in manner which clearly shows that you do not intend to, or are unable to comply with the provisions of the Terms); or

(B) Google is required to do so by law (for example, where the provision of the Services to you is, or becomes, unlawful); or

(C) the partner with whom Google offered the Services to you has terminated its relationship with Google or ceased to offer the Services to you; or

(D) Google is transitioning to no longer providing the Services to users in the country in which you are resident or from which you use the service; or

(E) the provision of the Services to you by Google is, in Google’s opinion, no longer commercially viable.

13.4 Nothing in this Section shall affect Google’s rights regarding provision of Services under Section 4 of the Terms.

13.5 When these Terms come to an end, all of the legal rights, obligations and liabilities that you and Google have benefited from, been subject to (or which have accrued over time whilst the Terms have been in force) or which are expressed to continue indefinitely, shall be unaffected by this cessation, and the provisions of paragraph 20.7 shall continue to apply to such rights, obligations and liabilities indefinitely.

14. EXCLUSION OF WARRANTIES

14.1 NOTHING IN THESE TERMS, INCLUDING SECTIONS 14 AND 15, SHALL EXCLUDE OR LIMIT GOOGLE’S WARRANTY OR LIABILITY FOR LOSSES WHICH MAY NOT BE LAWFULLY EXCLUDED OR LIMITED BY APPLICABLE LAW. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR LOSS OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE, BREACH OF CONTRACT OR BREACH OF IMPLIED TERMS, OR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, ONLY THE LIMITATIONS WHICH ARE LAWFUL IN YOUR JURISDICTION WILL APPLY TO YOU AND OUR LIABILITY WILL BE LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

14.2 YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND THAT THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND “AS AVAILABLE.”

14.3 IN PARTICULAR, GOOGLE, ITS SUBSIDIARIES AND AFFILIATES, AND ITS LICENSORS DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT TO YOU THAT:

(A) YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS,

(B) YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR FREE FROM ERROR,

(C) ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED BY YOU AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, AND

(D) THAT DEFECTS IN THE OPERATION OR FUNCTIONALITY OF ANY SOFTWARE PROVIDED TO YOU AS PART OF THE SERVICES WILL BE CORRECTED.

14.4 ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICES IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR OTHER DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL.

14.5 NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM GOOGLE OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICES SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THE TERMS.

14.6 GOOGLE FURTHER EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

15. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

15.1 SUBJECT TO OVERALL PROVISION IN PARAGRAPH 14.1 ABOVE, YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT GOOGLE, ITS SUBSIDIARIES AND AFFILIATES, AND ITS LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR:

(A) ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES WHICH MAY BE INCURRED BY YOU, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY.. THIS SHALL INCLUDE, BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO, ANY LOSS OF PROFIT (WHETHER INCURRED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY), ANY LOSS OF GOODWILL OR BUSINESS REPUTATION, ANY LOSS OF DATA SUFFERED, COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSS;

(B) ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE WHICH MAY BE INCURRED BY YOU, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OR DAMAGE AS A RESULT OF:

(I) ANY RELIANCE PLACED BY YOU ON THE COMPLETENESS, ACCURACY OR EXISTENCE OF ANY ADVERTISING, OR AS A RESULT OF ANY RELATIONSHIP OR TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND ANY ADVERTISER OR SPONSOR WHOSE ADVERTISING APPEARS ON THE SERVICES;

(II) ANY CHANGES WHICH GOOGLE MAY MAKE TO THE SERVICES, OR FOR ANY PERMANENT OR TEMPORARY CESSATION IN THE PROVISION OF THE SERVICES (OR ANY FEATURES WITHIN THE SERVICES);

(III) THE DELETION OF, CORRUPTION OF, OR FAILURE TO STORE, ANY CONTENT AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS DATA MAINTAINED OR TRANSMITTED BY OR THROUGH YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES;

(III) YOUR FAILURE TO PROVIDE GOOGLE WITH ACCURATE ACCOUNT INFORMATION;

(IV) YOUR FAILURE TO KEEP YOUR PASSWORD OR ACCOUNT DETAILS SECURE AND CONFIDENTIAL;

15.2 THE LIMITATIONS ON GOOGLE’S LIABILITY TO YOU IN PARAGRAPH 15.1 ABOVE SHALL APPLY WHETHER OR NOT GOOGLE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF OR SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH LOSSES ARISING.

16. Copyright and trade mark policies

16.1 It is Google’s policy to respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with applicable international intellectual property law (including, in the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and to terminating the accounts of repeat infringers. Details of Google’s policy can be found at http://www.google.com/dmca.html.

16.2 Google operates a trade mark complaints procedure in respect of Google’s advertising business, details of which can be found at http://www.google.com/tm_complaint.html.

17. Advertisements

17.1 Some of the Services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the Services, queries made through the Services or other information.

17.2 The manner, mode and extent of advertising by Google on the Services are subject to change without specific notice to you.

17.3 In consideration for Google granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Google may place such advertising on the Services.

18. Other content

18.1 The Services may include hyperlinks to other web sites or content or resources. Google may have no control over any web sites or resources which are provided by companies or persons other than Google.

18.2 You acknowledge and agree that Google is not responsible for the availability of any such external sites or resources, and does not endorse any advertising, products or other materials on or available from such web sites or resources.

18.3 You acknowledge and agree that Google is not liable for any loss or damage which may be incurred by you as a result of the availability of those external sites or resources, or as a result of any reliance placed by you on the completeness, accuracy or existence of any advertising, products or other materials on, or available from, such web sites or resources.

19. Changes to the Terms

19.1 Google may make changes to the Universal Terms or Additional Terms from time to time. When these changes are made, Google will make a new copy of the Universal Terms available at http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS?hl=en and any new Additional Terms will be made available to you from within, or through, the affected Services.

19.2 You understand and agree that if you use the Services after the date on which the Universal Terms or Additional Terms have changed, Google will treat your use as acceptance of the updated Universal Terms or Additional Terms.

20. General legal terms

20.1 Sometimes when you use the Services, you may (as a result of, or through your use of the Services) use a service or download a piece of software, or purchase goods, which are provided by another person or company. Your use of these other services, software or goods may be subject to separate terms between you and the company or person concerned. If so, the Terms do not affect your legal relationship with these other companies or individuals.

20.2 The Terms constitute the whole legal agreement between you and Google and govern your use of the Services (but excluding any services which Google may provide to you under a separate written agreement), and completely replace any prior agreements between you and Google in relation to the Services.

20.3 You agree that Google may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms, by email, regular mail, or postings on the Services.

20.4 You agree that if Google does not exercise or enforce any legal right or remedy which is contained in the Terms (or which Google has the benefit of under any applicable law), this will not be taken to be a formal waiver of Google’s rights and that those rights or remedies will still be available to Google.

20.5 If any court of law, having the jurisdiction to decide on this matter, rules that any provision of these Terms is invalid, then that provision will be removed from the Terms without affecting the rest of the Terms. The remaining provisions of the Terms will continue to be valid and enforceable.

20.6 You acknowledge and agree that each member of the group of companies of which Google is the parent shall be third party beneficiaries to the Terms and that such other companies shall be entitled to directly enforce, and rely upon, any provision of the Terms which confers a benefit on (or rights in favor of) them. Other than this, no other person or company shall be third party beneficiaries to the Terms.

20.7 The Terms, and your relationship with Google under the Terms, shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. You and Google agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the county of Santa Clara, California to resolve any legal matter arising from the Terms. Notwithstanding this, you agree that Google shall still be allowed to apply for injunctive remedies (or an equivalent type of urgent legal relief) in any jurisdiction.

August 15, 2008

Google, chrome, browser, privacy, copyright

Silicon valley delegation to visit Dublin...

2008-09-01T13:49:00.003+01:00

Read on Silicon Republic:

Senior Silicon Valley CEOs, as well as venture capitalists and community leaders, will come to Dublin in force this November to advise and bolster the efforts of flourishing Irish tech start-ups.

It emerged today that the California-based Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG), led by senior Valley-based Irish executives from companies like Cisco, Intel, Palm and Sling Media, will lead a delegation to Dublin.

The delegation, which will include two of Silicon Valley’s most prominent civic and industry leaders, Tom McEnery, former Mayor of San José, and Carl Guardino, president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, will meet with the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, at a special reception held in Áras an Uachtaráin.

While in Ireland, the Silicon Valley team will stage a series of workshops and networking events for a selection of promising Irish technology start-ups at Trinity College Dublin, from 18-19 November, 2008

The ITLG, an independent group of Irish-American technology executives in Silicon Valley, is committed to helping expand new opportunities for innovative Irish companies, as well as attracting new technology investments into Ireland.

The ITLG leadership team includes John Hartnett, senior vice-president of Palm; Conrad Burke, president and CEO of Innovalight; John Gilmore, chief operating officer of Sling Media; Rory McInerney, vice-president at Intel Corporation; and Barry O’Sullivan, senior vice-president at Cisco.

“The programme has been designed to bring very promising Irish technology start-ups into close contact with some of Silicon Valley’s most successful business leaders, entrepreneurs and financiers,” John Hartnett (pictured) said.

“We are particularly fortunate to have succeeded in attracting some of Silicon Valley’s leading investment banking and venture capital firms, as well as industry leaders from some of the world’s most successful technology companies,” he added.

I wonder if there is some opportunity to tie-in with the Paddysvalley trip from last year?
The original article can be found here.

Enterprise Week 2008 in the Midlands Region.

2008-09-01T13:27:00.003+01:00

I received an email this morning regarding a business event in the Irish Midlands that might be of interest to readers of this blog. Following is the content (verbatim):

From Monday 8th through to Friday 12th September, there will be a whole week dedicated to Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath. Over 50 seminars,clinics, tours and events are taking place throughout the Region during Midlands Enterprise Week 2008 which is being organised by the local County Enterprise Boards. These events are targeted at existing businesses and people thinking of setting up their own business in the Midlands.
Attached for your convenience is a summary of all the events broken down by county. If you feel the week may be of benefit to colleagues, family or friends we would ask you to pass on these details to participate in Enterprise Week. Thank you. If anybody would like more information or to book participation at an event they can visit
www.laoisententerprise.ie
www.longfordceb.ie
www.offalyceb.ie/enterprise-week-2008-page.html
www.westmeath-enterprise.ie

Co-working/techhub/start-up centers....

2008-08-12T15:56:00.006+01:00

Spurred on by posts on co-working.ie and a recent post on Techcrunch UK I've decided to get serious with my plans for a Co-working/techhub/start-up center.
While I have certain ideas on how I would like to setup & run such a center I need the input of potential users. I do not intend to run it for my own benefit so rather than just come up with a list of requirements myself I am looking for input from outside sources. What facilities would you like to see in such a center?
How should it be run/managed?
So there it is, let the discussion begin!
Please post suggestions in the comment section below...

I've been asked to provide some more parameters on my plans.
The idea is to have a facility that will provide office and/or work space for technology start-ups (NOT just IT), hot-desking facilities and "day-rental" offices. The building will include shared facilities and services such as central reception, meeting rooms, postal & courier services (delivery as well as collection), fast broadband access (wired & wireless), out-off hours access, security, storage facilities, furnished desks and offices, equipment leasing facilities (audio-visual & IT equipment) etc. etc.
The entry threshold will be relatively low and will be more about what you are doing instead of what you have done and how big your bank balance is.
Tennants/participants will be encouraged to take part in informal but regular brianstorming sessions where experiences can be shared, questions asked and answered and were everyone can share and "cross-polinate"...

Looking back through the smoke...

2008-07-29T12:41:00.004+01:00

The 1st Irish Open Coffee Club BBQ took place on July 16th. As the organiser of this event it is now time to sit back and look back on a very succesfull event.
About 100 attendees from all over the country (North & South), more than half a dozen excellent and varied talks, 5 excellent entries for the start-up competition and a very enjoyable BBQ in a beautifull setting can account for the success.
Apart from all the people that attended I owe a great big "Thank you!" to all the sponsors. It was inspiring to see how individuals and companies are willing to support a "new" event without demanding an instant return. I can only suggest that everybody has a look at the list of sponsors and think of them you have to make a purchase decision or need to outsource work.

All throughout the day there was a lot of informal networking between people that already knew each other and complete strangers. At the same time there were presentations taking place in the Terryglass Community Hall across the road. The topics were varied and the discussions and feedback were positive and valuable.
What was also good to find out that most of the networking & Open Coffee "virgins" found the day extremely valuable and most expressed an interest to attend future events.

I think the highlight of the day was the start-up competition where 5 entrepreneurs got the opportunity to pitch their idea to a panel of seasoned business people. The winner would receive a prize-pot that would help them to get their venture of the gound. Prizes included a laptop, software, web hosting, office space, consultancy service, web design vouchers etc..
I was delighted to see that in spite of it being an day with a high tech content that the winner of this competition was Daudi Kutta with his innovative sports bag design.

After the prizes were handed out everybody headed down to Terrryglass Quay for the BBQ. There were copious amounts of food thanks to Deborah Hadley from Spicendipity and Mrs. Bopp as well as drinks thanks to Britvic and Bubble Brothers. The day ended around 11 pm at which time I had just about enough energy to drag my tired body home for a well earned rest...

However the next one is already being planned!

photographs courtesy of Will Knott esq.

Midnight train to nowhere....

2008-07-29T11:42:00.009+01:00

It's been over two months now since I offered Irish Rail on national radio to install a public wifi service on all their trains at no cost to them. I made the offer during a conversation with Barry Kenny, Irish Rails' official spokesperson. I had to "push" him a little but he agreed to arrange a meeting to discuss my proposal. So far nothing has happened, nix, nada, zip....
The discussion was not broadcast until two weeks later due to Irish Rail being hit by a strike. Even though I heard nothing from them I decided to wait until after the broadcast before I contacted them. This just to make sure that they had the opportunity to discuss it internally and to contact me.
When I hadn't heard anything from them days after the broadcast and subsequent media exposure I decided to call Barry Kenny. He was amicable enough and promised to look into this and to talk to the people concerned. This led to me being contacted by Paul Kelly, Irish Rails' Corporate & eMarketing executive. He asked me to submit an outline of the proposal by email which I promptly did. It was also suggested that we should meet and I asked if we could meet in our Birr office. If both parties agreed to proceed with this we could have the next meeting in their Dublin office and vice versa. I did note at this stage that his emails were full off quotes such as "you should note we have had similar discussions with a number of suppliers previously dating back a number of years." and comments reminding me that a project like this would have to be put out to public tender. The latter is not true (as far as I am aware) as there are no costs to Irish Rail involved. Anyway, they seem to already be looking for reasons not to proceed with this.
I replied to their email outlining that the first meeting was simply to discuss both parties needs & requirements as well as the parameters for the project. Based on this we would decide if the project was viable and if so AirAppz would proceed with preparing a detailed proposal.
That was on June 20th...

When I had not received a reply by last week I emailed both Paul Kelly & Barry Kenny asking for an update. The response that I received was stunning.
I was told that they suspected that we had no detailed proposal. Well obviously, we have a workable solution, but we both parties need to meet to discuss and agree the parameters before we can even start working on a proposal. To prepare a proposal without any discussion with Irish Rail would just be sheer stupidity on our behalf and would condemn the project to failure from the start.
I was also told that they were: "not interested in exploratory talks unless you have a concrete technical proposal". Now I might be really thick here but how are we supposed to prepare a "concrete technical proposal" that has any chance of being accepted if we haven't even had "exploratory talks"?
Paul Kelly also made clear that any proposal "should be in line with our safety and operating environment". I understand this, but how about providing us with the details of this "safety and operating environment" so that we can make sure that our proposal falls within these guidelines?

This is just unbelievable; we make an offer that will increase Irish Rails' level of service, increase their revenue, increase the productivity of rail travellers etc. etc. All at no costs to Irish Rail. And what do they do? They dig up every excuse in the book NOT to proceed with this.
In the meantime rollouts of wifi services on public transport continues all over the planet.

I sent a reply last Thursday but have not heard from them since.
To be continued...

Domain name registration tomfoolery....

2008-07-18T14:36:00.003+01:00

While following Twitter yesterday I noticed that the ".me" domain name had gone on sale. It opened up some interesting opportunities so I went to a link provided on Twitter and attempted to register the domain "call.me".
To my delight the whois info on the registrars site indicated that it was still available. I proceeded to enter my details, payment info etc. and was asked to confirm the order details. Everything went through without a hitch and I was given an order confirmation. You can imagine how delighted I was.
As the MD of the registrar was on twitter I sent him a quick DM to let him know that I managed to register this domain.
To my amazement I received a very short reply telling me that this was actually a "premium domain", that I could not register it and that my payment would be refunded!
Now, those with legal knowledge would know that there are such things as offer, acceptance and consideration...
At no point during the registration process was there any mention of it being a premium domain. The payment was processed and the order was confirmed. That makes a binding contract/agreement as far as the law is concerned.
Now, the MD of this company is quite well know as a reasonable chap, his company has a good reputation and I do not want to be a complete arsehole if this mix-up is caused by a genuine mistake. However there are better ways that this could have been handled by them. I still have to receive "official" confirmation that my order has been cancelled. No further explanation or even a request if I was willing to purchase it at premium domain rates has been sent.
What I did notice however is that the domain has now been registered to a company with some eastern european address.
Am I being taken for a ride here?
The least that the registrar could have done is apologise for their mistake. If they ahd done so I would probably have accepted it and forgotten about the whole issue.
Their arrogance and dismissive approach to this is just plain old band mannered and shows a significant amount of arrogance...

Unlocking your Nokia N95..

2008-07-17T23:46:00.002+01:00

Last week I stumbled upon a Jaiku discussion describing how Vodafone had stopped locking phones to their network and that, when asked, Voda UK was providing unlock codes for N95's (and I presume also other phones). This meant that with a little key-stroking you could open your phoe to use with any sim card from any other network operator.
I bought a Nokia N95 a few months back and would love to be able to sue it with any sim-card that I wanted. I could for instance stick a MaxRoam sim in it when travelling abroad. But I suspected that, as usual, Voda Ireland would not be playing ball....

This made for an even bigger surprise when I received an email reply from Vodafone Ireland yesterday, replying to my request for an unlocking code.
The email contained exact instructions on how to unlock your phone. They worked and I am now the owner of an unlocked N95. Kudos to Vodafone for this!

The reply was as follows:
Dear Mr Bopp

Thank you for your request to obtain your unique Network Assignment
Code (ten-digit code shown below). As stated in the GSM Terms and
Conditions, your mobile phone currently operates on the Vodafone GSM
network only.

After following the instructions below, your Nokia phone will have
the capability to work on any other GSM network. Please follow the
instructions carefully:
Step 1 Power on your phone (enter your PIN code if requested to do
so)
Step 2 Key in ***********************
'SIM restriction off' will appear on the display of the phone. (p is
obtained by keying the star button 3 times, w is obtained by keying
the star button 4 times and + is obtained by keying the star button
twice, * is the star symbol and # is the hash symbol on your Nokia
phone). (This NAC code is applicable to the IMEI number
*************** & make & model of phone Nokia N95 as supplied by
you).

If this information is not correct do not attempt to proceed with the
unblocking procedure, please contact FreeFone 1907.

Your phone is now no longer assigned to the Vodafone GSM network and
you have the capability to operate your handset on any GSM network of
your choice. However, you must purchase a SIM card for the other
Network you wish to use.
Note: If the incorrect Vodafone Network Assignment Code is entered 5
times, the phone will be permanently blocked. In such an event, you
must then contact the helpdesk on 1907. We hope that you continue to
enjoy using the GSM service and we would appreciate any feedback you
have that may help improve the overall quality of our service.
If you have any further queries please contact us by email at
care@vodafone.ie or call us anytime on FreeFone 1907.

Yours sincerely

_______________________
****************
Vodafone customer care

The benefits of Internet "on-the-go"...

2008-06-06T18:51:00.010+01:00

In the recent weeks I have blogged about Internet access (or rather the lack off) on Irish trains on two occasions (here and here). One of the results of my posts was that i was contacted by the people behind the popular Irish radio-show "The Last Word" on Today FM. It was supposed to be a discussion between Barry Kenny, the spokesperson for Irish Rail, and myself. You can listen to it in this section of the show. Barry Kenny basically explained that Irish Rail would not install or offer public wifi access in Irish trains because of the costs involved and because there was no revenue benefit in it for them. When I replied that we would install and manage the service at no cost to Irish Rail he still wasn't very interested. Also in spite of agreeing to set up a meeting I still have not heard from them. However this issue is not over as we are working on several approaches to convince Irish Rail of the importance of this service.

In light of all this I came across a very interesting posts on DailyWireless.org today.
The CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association)an US based organisation ahs done research that has indicated that in the US being able to access the Internet on-the-go is expected to generate $860 billion in additional gross domestic product in the next decade! That's $86 billion per year....
Now I do not see why a these kind of statistics would not apply to Ireland. off course the figures would be lower but the revenue per capita would be the same.

The health care sector and small businesses are the big winners of wireless broadband deployments, says the CTIA. In 2005, productivity improvements due to use of mobile broadband solutions across the U.S. health care industry were valued at almost $6.9 billion. By 2016, that number will triple to $27.2 billion.
Al this contributes to my arguments in favour of putting wifi on Irish trains:
- Increased ticket sales for Irish rail.
- Increased services for passengers.
- Less traffic on Irish roads leasing to lower pollution and less accidents.
- Increased productivity of train travellers.

There are probably even more arguments but these four should really be enough to convince Irish rail...

Mobile subscriber usage patterns....

2008-06-06T18:44:00.001+01:00

This will need very little explanation but makes for very interesting reading...

Why municipal wireless networks are NOT failing...

2008-06-06T17:37:00.005+01:00

There has been a lot of publicity during the last 12 months on the subject of municipal wifi networks failing or not even getting of the ground. This has lead to a widespread belief that these types of networks are unworkable, overpriced and doomed to fail. Nothing is further from the truth.
The majority of networks that failed, failed because of either an in-ability to understand the technology used (in regards to performance, signal propagation, interference etc.), a lousy business model (unrealistic revenue forecasts, over reliance on third party content etc.) or a combination of both.
The lack of understanding of the technology quite often lead to the network either using not enough wireless nodes resulting in bad coverage, low throughput, high latency and other performance problems or to too many wireless nodes causing signal interference, "node hopping" etc. also resulting on performance problems. All this results in a dissatisfied user which in turn leads to bad publicity, falling revenue and investors losing confidence.
Lousy business models more often than not contained unrealistic user numbers and inflated revenue forecasts. Combine the two and you have a recipe for disaster.
Another contributor to these disasters is the fact that all these projects were put out to tender. The tender process more often than not leads to the opposite of it's goal. Instead of the best value supplier getting the deal it is quite often only the "big boys" that get a look in and more often than not this leads to less innovative and lower value (but higher costs) hardware being deployed.
I wont type up a list of failed networks but I am sure that Google will help you out if you want to find out more.
In spite of all the bad publicity that municipal wifi networks have been receiving in the printed and digital media stories are now emerging of networks that do seem to work.
Oklahoma City has recently completed what it claims to be the world’s largest city-owned municipal WiFi mesh network. The network covers 555 square miles with 95 percent coverage in urban areas and 95 percent coverage on main roads. Now that is an awfully big network! Before you all move to Oklahoma there is one "bad point": the city-wide network will be used only for public safety and municipal applications. It is not open to the public....
Apparently the network costs $5 million to build. For this they got 1,200 fixed WiFi nodes and 850 mobile WiFi nodes (in police cars and fire trucks) provided by Tropos Networks. Now that is an awful lot of money And while Tropos' products are certainly very good I am certain that this could have been completed on a lower budget.
I do however find it very interesting that they have deployed mobile nodes. This certainly makes sense but I do not think that this has ever been deployed on this scale.

Their decision to not make access to this network available for the public follows an opinion that I have had for some time; that "joe public" does not need coverage blanket wifi coverage. What he/she needs though is wifi access in areas where it is convenient to use. A city can provide wifi access in parks, libraries, public transport hubs in pedestrian areas etc. Areas with high traffic flow and little or no static users do not need wifi coverage. So you can create a municipal wifi network with blanket coverage that will only be used for public safety and municipal applications and use this network as a backbone to creating certain public wifi zones. You can even let these wifi zones be operated by private companies. The availability of power-points to recharge a "tired" laptop in these areas would also be a welcome plus...

Things you didn;t know about the Clearwire and Sprint "deal"...

2008-05-31T17:12:00.003+01:00

The sun is shining today and i'm feeling lazy so I am just going to shamelessly quote from this post on MuniWireless.com.

"1) The new Clearwire network will use the “mobile” version of WiMax.
There seems to be a lot of confusion around this point, mainly because the “old” Clearwire had been using a so-called “fixed” version of the wireless broadband technology in the networks it’s been building since 2004. The new networks (including those inherited from Sprint’s Xohm operations) will use equipment based on the newer, mobile standard, which supports cellular-like roaming. Clearwire had previously said it was upgrading its networks to Mobile WiMax anyway, so this is not a big change. But when the mobile gear goes live, it will offer a much different experience than previous WiMax deployments.

2) Despite its stated strategic direction toward the long-term evolution (LTE) 4G cellular technology, AT&T currently runs several commercial WiMax networks in the U.S., in Nevada, Alaska and other locations.
Right now there doesn’t seem to be too much to look into here, except for the fact that AT&T may be hedging its bets by keeping its toes wet in matters WiMax. This may be more important in the future, when WiMax standards at the 700 MHz level emerge.

3) There is more bandwidth currently available at WiMax’s main frequency than at the much-heralded 700 MHz band.
This point is a hard one to make, since most people talk about the characteristics of specific spectrum slices, like the ability of 700 MHz signals to penetrate building walls. But when it comes to being able to offer more bandwidth to more folks, the amount of available spectrum may matter more — and right now, there is about 198 MHz available at WiMax’s 2.5 GHz band, as opposed to 60 MHz that is being freed up at 700 MHz. So WiMax may be better able to scale to support more users.

4) WiMax mobile devices are already under development, and should be ready about the same time the Clearwire network launches.
There’s a bit of a trust factor involved here, but we are going on the research we did with Sprint, who said that they had more devices in their labs for testing than they had time to certify. And the debut of Nokia’s WiMax tablet at CTIA in April seems to show that device manufacturers are ahead of the curve here.

5) The new Clearwire will offer day-pass and casual-use billing, which is a departure from the past long-term contracts.
Because Clearwire doesn’t have to subsidize the costs of all the expected WiMax-enabled devices, it can offer ad hoc contracts without the worry or expense of paying for end-user equipment. While it may take a while for Wall Street to wrap its mind around “occasional ARPU,” the incremental adds should bolster, not detract from, a provider’s bottom line."

These are all very interesting insights into the US Wimax market. Seeing that Google, Comcast, Intel and Time Warner Cable are the main investors in this deal it could mean that their collective push will finally bring Wimax into play as a real consumer technology. Calculating the usual delay of in these type of developments hitting Europe we could look at similar developments here in 2010 (-ish)...

How to save a million dollars.....

2008-05-30T10:54:00.003+01:00

Maxroam today announced that it has saved it's customer an estimated 1 million dollars on call costs.
This is s great achievement for Pat Phelan and his team.
Maxroam offers you THE best way to save money on your calls while traveling abroad.
I am not going to quote chapter and verse from their website as you can read that yourself.
All I have to say is: use it and you will see!

More about wifi on Irish rail..

2008-05-23T20:39:00.006+01:00

I blogged about getting WiFi on Irish trains some time ago.
Since this blogpost it has become clear to me how much this type of service is in demand. I have spoken or been approached by several dozen people who agreed with the sentiment expressed in the blogpost. These people ranged from entrepreneurs and students to civil servants. All these people had one thing the in common: they were all willing to either pay more for a ticket or to use the train service more if WiFi internet access was available.
I was also approached by John Kennedy from Silicon republic who wrote on the subject.
Subsequently I was approached last Wednesday (May 21st) By Radio station Today FM who wanted to record a discussion between Barry Kelly (spokesperson for Irish rail) and myself for their "The Last Word" show.
I am not going to summarize the discussion as it has not yet been broadcast but what I can "reveal" is that Barry Kelly indicated that Irish Rails' main reason for not having WiFi on trains yet was that there was significant price-tag attached to this and that they had yet to see an proposal that showed a revenue benefit for them. When I then repeated my earlier offering of installing a public WiFi service on all Irish Trains at NO COST to Irish Rail Barry Kelly just repeated his previous statement. I then had to come straight out and ask him, seeing that I had just blown his argument out of the water, if he would at least meet me in order to discuss my proposal. he said he would but I have still not heard anything. I might just give them a call.

On another note; WiFi on trains continues to be a hot topic across the globe.Thalys launched their service around the same time as my previous blogpost.
TrainComms 2008 the world largest conference on Trains and communications is taking place in London on the 11th & 12th of June. WiFi aboard trains is their main theme for the conference.

There is also a good blog on Blog4IT on wifi on trains. Some quotes from the article:
"Major European, US and Asian operators are rapidly following the UK’s lead and introducing on-board, high-speed wireless Internet connections for their passengers."

"As Graham Wilde, CEO of BWCS, put it, “This year there has been an unprecedented number of new services and trials launched. From the West Coast of America, to India and Australia, we are seeing more interest than ever in these on-board WiFi systems.” He went on “train companies are fired up by a heady combination of introducing cost-saving applications for their own operations and adding new, income-generating, entertainment services for their passengers.”

The full article can be read here..

I think that it's time to put more pressure on Irish rail to provide this service. It will lead to increased ticket sales (especially for the premium rate ticket), will most likely also lead to an increased spend per traveler, it opens up a number of new avenues for information dissemination, improves communication etc.
It will also get people to get out of their car and into the train which in turn will lead to less congested roads and lower CO2 emissions.
Combine that with the fact that because of our offer it would not require any investment in infra-structure for Irish Rail and I really cannot see how they can refuse any longer. Can you?

Poll: WiFi on Irish Rail..

2008-05-14T12:48:00.001+01:00

Would you use WiFi internet access on irish Rail? ( polls)

Train-Fi.......

2008-05-14T11:08:00.006+01:00

There has been an ongoing discussion within the Irish blogger community recently on the subject of public wifi internet access on trains.
There is a growing demand for this type of service and the provision of it will certainly get more bums on train seats and off car seats. This in turn would lead to lower car usage resulting in lower carbon emisions, surely something that the government should support? I for one would be inclined to take the train rather than drive if it meant that I could sit and work while traveling.
Irish Rail doesn't think that this is a viable option and states the following in it's FAQ:

"Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) feels that it wouldn’t be in the public or the
company’s best interest to install the current wireless technologies on
its fleet for customer use due to the limited lifespan of said
technologies. Anything we install now is likely to be completely
redundant within five years.

We feel customers would be better supported by obtaining their own
wireless solutions, such as those provided by the mobile providers (3G
and GPRS/EDGE ).

IÉ is hoping that near-future new technologies such as WiMax and
other long range wireless tech will make the idea of onboard solutions
redundant. We will continue to monitor the speed of advance of such
technologies and if we deem that change is not occurring quickly enough
we may reconsider the situation."

Now this is clearly a cop-out. Not installing a service because it "is likely to be completely redundant within five years"? Nonsense, for one the market share of wifi-client devices is still growing year on year. These devices will still be around in five years time and people will still be using them.WiFi is still the most convenient and costs effective solution for mobile internet access and it will stay that way for a good while to come. Also not providing a service because it might need to be replaced by something else in five years time just doesn't make sense. The low cost of providing wifi access in trains puts it on par with such things as keeping the toilets clean. Now surely they will not stop cleaning the toilets just because it might have to be done again tomorrow?
Passing the buck to 3G and GPRS/EDGE services also shows to indicate that no reserach has been done to support this statement. Conor O'Neill recently documented the huge gaps in coverage for these services. Hoping for Wimax to solve the problem is like kneeling down and praying in front of an oncoming tsunami. It might make you feel better but it won't change reality. While Wimax is a very "good technology" it is not as good as the media has repeatedly hyped it up to be and it is still far, far away from becoming a consumer end technology. When Wimax networks would become more common in Ireland it would be a perfect backhaul medium for local WiFi networks in trains.

It is not like this hasn't been done before. Irish Rail clearly has not looked beyond the Irish sea when considering offering public WiFi access. This article in the International Herald Tribune gives a good overview of what has been happening in this field:

"Train operators across Britain and the Continent have been
accelerating the rollout of onboard Wi-Fi systems, allowing travelers
to prepare for meetings, download video clips or catch up on their
e-mail - sometimes while zipping through the countryside at 300
kilometers, or 190 miles, an hour.

While some railway companies see Wi-Fi as a new source of revenue
for themselves or for the technology companies that run the systems for
them, others see it as a service or marketing perk.

"It's a key tool that we use to compete with the airlines," said
John Gelson, spokesman for National Express East Coast, a British train
operator that has one of the largest on-the-go Wi-Fi systems, in 43
trains that ply a 950-kilometer route between London and Inverness,
Scotland, via Edinburgh."

There you go; in one fell statement. People want it, people will use it and it IS possible. Also it will increase the number of people using the train and these are also quite often the people purchasing first-class or premium price tickets. All this will lead to increased revenue for the Rail operator.
5 minutes of research shows that the following public transport operators are offering public WiFi access:

Isle of Wight Ferries
Some Stagecoach
services in Scotland
Certain bus routes in Wales
Scottish
Citylink routes
Glasgow flyer shuttles
Certian National Express
routes in the UK
Some trains & buses in Helsinki
GNER
trains across the UK
National Express East Coast (UK)
Deutsche Bahn (Germany)
Thalys, which runs high-speed trains linking Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne
SNCF (France)
Heathrow Express
Amtrak

All of these operators have successfully deployed public WiFi using a variety of backhaul methods (3G, satellite, wimax etc.).
The user demand is clearly illustrated by these comments on Twitter. People want it and if it's not available they are clearly annoyed. The increased availability of WiFi enabled phones, Internet laptops and small notebooks as well as the ever growing share of user generated Internet content only supports the argument.
Pratically it is no great feat to install WiFi networks on trains. The main issue is the backhaul connectivity and even for that there are a number of solutions. A combination of these through redundancy combined with content caching should overcome all but the most obscure of problems. Signal propagation within the train is also no big issue even in spite of the large amounts of metal surfaces causing interference. This can be overcome by a properly carried out site survey, a sufficient number of WiFi AP's/hotspots and proper radio-planning.

Another issue to consider is that this WiFi network, through the use of a captive portal solution, can be used for more than providing "plain vanilla" Internet access. The portal can be used to provide public service information, updates on travel times and delays, connecting trains (and other modes of public transport) destinations etc. It can also be used to offer VOIP services and as a means of communication for Irish Rail staff.

All this does not have to come at a huge cost to Irish Rail; I have stated before that (pending certain conditions) that AirAppz is offering to install a WiFi service in most, if not all trains throughout Ireland at NO COST to Irish Rail. The ball is in Irish Rails' court now....

Blogged with Flock

Why the Lisbon treaty needs to get the boot; part four.....

2008-05-11T13:10:00.003+01:00

Time for another post on this subject as the yes-voters seemed to have stepped up their campaign and are now resorting to smear-campaigning.
Rather than use my own arguments I will use this post to air the views of another opponent of the Lisbon treaty.
Former Labour MP Tony Benn recently sent a open letter to every Westminster MP highlighting urgent issues relating to the Lisbon treaty.
Following is the content of the letter:

Dear Member of Parliament,I am writing to ask you to make it possible for me - and every elector in Britain - to vote on the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum. For the Lisbon Treaty transfers important powers which belong to us, to others in Europe we do not elect, cannot remove, and who therefore do not have to listen to us in the way that MPs listen to their constituents.

Britain must work closely with its European neighbours, but if this cooperation is to succeed, the arrangements must be democratically approved by all the people of Europe.

There is a case for a fully federal Europe. But surely those who take that view should, as democrats, want to win a majority for it in a referendum. That is why this decision must be made by the British people as a whole, because it will affect us all irrevocably and the Lisbon Treaty can never be amended or repealed by any future government that we elect.

Moreover, if three-line whips are imposed, telling any MPs how they must vote, it could not then even be argued that parliament had decided the matter freely. For all these reasons I hope you yourself will feel able to vote for a referendum, thus safeguarding the rights of your electors.

Tony Benn

Think links...

2008-05-08T10:55:00.004+01:00

Stuff worth reading:

- Andrew Gill on walking the walk
- Gordon McDowell's VC-pitching skills
- Another reason to lock your keypad
- Another chapter in Apple book of how not to market a product
- Top 100 Telco blogs
- Worst WiFi hotels 2008
- Ruckus Wireless sues Netgear
- More nonsense about guns
- Twitterfone launches!
- Don't try to be smarter than your customers
- 1.4 Gb of stolen personal data
- Best service providers for startups

Interesting: EU approves use of public funds for broadband in Scotland.

2008-05-02T19:06:00.002+01:00

Read on MuniWireless:
The European Commission has allowed Scotland to use £3.4 million (€4.32 million) in public funds to bring broadband to remote areas of Scotland. EU state aid rules place restrictions on member states using public funds to subsidize the creation of broadband infrastructure or services that compete with private enterprise. However, in this case, the Commission concluded that public funding is necessary to bring broadband to users in remote areas of Scotland. Private service providers will have non-discriminatory access to the wholesale services if they decide to serve those remote areas.

I wonder if this will set a precedent that will break the EU's reluctance to approve this type of investments so far. Maybe Dublin's councillors should pay attention..

Using Twitter as a customer support tool.

2008-05-01T22:06:00.005+01:00

Most of you will be aware of Twitter, it's an SMS driven micro-blogging tool.
Messages are sent to a central number and are then displayed on the Twitter website. You can subscribe to other people's tweets, send direct messages, receive updates to your mobile, import your tweets into your blog etc.
It's a great way to throws short (140 character) messages into the public domain and start discussions or exchanges.
Recently I used Twitter for another purpose; we were providing public WiFi access at the IWTC conference in Dublin.
Part of the agreement was that we would also support the network during the conference.
Rather than permanently place someone on-site I decided to use a new approach to providing support. I knew that there would be a good few "twitterers" at the conference so I decided to communicate with them via Twitter to keep track of the networks performance and to correct any issues.
On one of the days we were alerted that the connectivity had dropped but very little other detail. I quickly put a message out on twitter seeing who at the conference was using the wifi access and in what areas. It was quickly determined that the issue was in the bar area. I logged into the network remotely, rebooted the wireless access point in question and put another message on twitter to see if the problem was solved. I had a response within a minute letting me know that everything was back up and running.
All this took less than 10 minutes and was done during my lunch from the kitchen table in my house!
It really shows the power of a medium like Twitter.

Interesting (but not surprising) iPhone usage stats.

2008-04-29T14:46:00.002+01:00

Courtesy of iSuppli.

I wonder is it's user or application driven....

Enterprise Ireland organises Pre-HPSU Information workshops

2008-04-29T14:12:00.006+01:00

Good news for budding entrepreneurs:
Enterprise Ireland has organised a number of workshop for people that are feeling the itch to start their own business. The workshops are primarily targeted at potential HPSU's.
"We will be running a series of short duration workshops on Entrepreneurship during May throughout the Mid-West Region to promote the notion of entrepreneurship as a career move/option. The workshops will be run over 2 consecutive evenings in Ennis, Nenagh and Tralee.

The workshop for North Tipperary will take place on the 21st/22nd May in the Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh from 7-9.30pm.

The workshops are aimed at individuals/graduates with a business idea which has the potential to be scaled significantly within 3years and be export driven. Following on from the workshops, individuals may have the opportunity to progress to either a more in-depth six week Enterprise Start programmes, a 12month Enterprise Platform programme and/or engage with an EI development advisor on an individual basis with a view to developing a full business plan.

On the first evening of each workshop we plan to give participants an overview of the business development process with a specific focus on the market for the product/service, defining the actual value proposition, conducting market research, market development etc. This will be followed by a case study from a local entrepreneur (Templemore man Jimmy Martin, www.AMCS.ie for the Nenagh event) who will outline his experience of setting up a high growth business. On the second night we will cover the funding supports available via EI and VC’s and we will also have an input from an entrepreneur on their experience of raising finance, funding the start-up etc. We are currently getting promotional material printed and will be placing ads in local newspapers and radio in advance of each event. I will send the brochures to you as soon as I get them, any help you could give in terms of promoting the event to any of your clients would be great and they would be most welcome to attend."

For more details contact:
Catherine Hogan
Senior Regional Development Executive
Enterprise Ireland
catherine.hogan-at-enterprise-ireland.com

Why the Lisbon treaty needs to get the boot; part three...

2008-04-28T16:17:00.003+01:00

Fresh of the press:
"Only 5% understand Lisbon Treaty"
Research carried out by the Referendum Commission showed that just 5% of voters understand what the Lisbon Treaty is about.

A sample of voters were asked earlier this month how well they understood the treaty.
62% of respondents said they did not understand it all.
18% said they did not understand it particularly well.
15% said they understood it to some extent.
Responding to questions from reporters, Chairman of the Referendum Commission, Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill, said they would not be drawn into any of the current arguments, as their role is to give a neutral explanation of what is in the treaty.
However, he said their interpretation of the taxation issue is that Ireland's veto remains unchanged.
He acknowledged that the treaty 'was not exactly holiday reading', however he said it was no more complicated than the Finance Bill published every year.
The commission confirmed the poll will take place on 12 June.
The commission is currently printing a 14-page explanation of the treaty which will be sent to every voting household in the coming weeks.

Why the Lisbon treaty needs to get the boot; part two...

2008-04-28T11:40:00.003+01:00

Following on from my previous post on this here's another reason why the Lisbon Treaty deserves a resounding "NO".
The "Lisbon Treaty Referendum website" outlines one of the changes to the way Europe would be governed if the treaty is ratified as following: "At present, each Member State nominates one member of the Commission. A new Commission will be appointed in 2009 for a five year term with one member from each Member State.

If the Treaty comes into force then two-thirds of the Member States will nominate a Commissioner in 2014. There are 27 Member States at present. So, if the number of Member States remains the same, there will be 18 Commissioners in the period 2014 – 2019.

The right to nominate a Commissioner will rotate among the Member States on an equal basis. This means that each Member State will nominate a member of the Commission for two out of every three Commissions (that is, 10 of every 15 year cycle). The precise details of how this will operate in practice have yet to be decided. One Commissioner will hold the position of the newly created High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy."

So let me get this right; voting yes for the Lisbon Treaty will result in 9 of the 27 member states having no representation on the European council at any given time? Hardly democratic is it now? Lets put this in perspective: If Ireland was governed like this it would mean that 33% of elected TD's would not have a seat in the Dail....
Also the inclusion of the following sentence hardly instills faith: "The precise details of how this will operate in practice have yet to be decided." So you can vote yes, but we are suitably vague on specifics so that we can fill in the blanks in whatever way suits us and still insist that you voted yes for it.
You would expect that for something this important they would have gone through the trouble of working out ALL the details before putting it to a vote.
It again proves my point that even the bean-counters that put this treaty together do not understand the full contents and implications of it. Either that or they are being suitably vague in an attempt to sucker us all into granting them more legislative powers without any restrictions or guidelines on how to apply these powers.
More to follow....

Geartip: Gomadic Windshield (car) mount for HTC Touch..

2008-04-25T13:53:00.003+01:00

I've been using PDA & phone based Sat-Nav devices since somewhere around 2002. In order to be able to view the device safely while driving I have used a long series of mounts and cradles. Dash-mount, windshield mount, vent mount, active holder, passive holder, you name it. All have managed at some point in time to come unstuck resulting in the PDA dropping into my lap (or worse into the footwell) while driving.
No more!
Some months ago I bought a Gomadic windshield mounted holder for my HTC Touch. I ordered it from the US for the very affordable price of $24.95. Peanuts at the current exchange rate. The device arrived in the post less than two weeks later and it has been in use ever since.
It attaches to the windshield using a suction cup, but this one has a screw attachment at the rear allowing you to tighten the hold on the windshield.
It has a long flexible neck that lets you "aim" the device in any direction that you would want to.
The device has so far failed to fall off the windshield in spite of the bumpy Irish roads. I have used it with the HTC Touch but it also holds a Cubic Telecom Pirelli phone or a clunky Nokia N95 in a tight grip.
In short I can strongly recommend this holder to anybody looking for a high quality, affordable holder for their PDA or phone!

A big thank you...

2008-04-25T12:15:00.005+01:00

My work brings me in contact with all kinds of people on a day to day basis. Every now and then one of these people that I meet distinguishes themselves by the going out of their way to help me. Seeing that I have met quite a few of these people over the last few months I would like to say a public "thank you" by means of this blog.

- Joe Drumgoole: Joe was generous enough to refer a business acquaintance to me recently. This person was in dire need for someone that could provide (working) wifi access at a big technology conference in Dublin. On top of this, when we provided a perfect service but the client refused to settle their invoice, Joe went out of his way to mediate on our behalf. We still haven't received payment but I Joe's effort was "beyond the call of duty" and he deserves a big thank you! I want to make clear that the client's behaviour should not reflect badly on Joe as he can not be held responsible for someone else's actions.
- Brendan Lally: Brendan has assisted me greatly with advise and research for my current venture. He is a goldmine of information and has proven to be the perfect person to bounce ideas of. His experience and knowledge enables him to have a very down to earth and no-nonsense view of the sometimes much hyped IT business. Enterprise Ireland could really uses someone with Brendan's knowledge and experience to assists Irish companies wanting to enter the US market.
- Alex Leonard: When Alex heard about the Open Coffee Club BBQ he promptly volunteered his skills and time to design the OCC BBQ website. Alex designed a top-class website in no time. On top of that he has proven himself to be a very likeable and easy-going person. I can strongly recommend him to anybody looking for a web designer.
- Pat Phelan: What can I say? Pat is just an all-round great guy who is always ready to help a fellow entrepreneur.

Why the Lisbon treaty needs to get the boot....

2008-04-23T18:56:00.004+01:00

The discussion on how people will vote over on James Corbett's blog has prompted me to blog on this subject myself.
Over the weeks leading up to the referendum I will put up posts that will indicate the stupidity and danger of this so-called treaty.
The treaty is all about giving more power to the bureaucrats that run the EU. These people have long ago given up actually managing the European Union as an entity and have instead decided to form a maze of work-groups, committees, think-tanks and other little sub-divisions. All that they do is regulate for the sake of regulating. Rules do not have to make sense as long as there is a rule (or in most cases several) to apply to a situation life in their civil servant fiefdoms is good...

The Sunday Times had an article on their frontpage recently that illustrates exactly the kind of lunatic ideas these people come up with:

Pipe down! Brussels slaps a noise order on heart of Scotland.
"THEIR high-pitched skirl has put fear into the hearts of Scotland’s enemies and sent sensitive tourists reaching for the cotton wool.
Now, however, the bagpipes are to be quietened by an edict from Brussels. From this month, pipers must adhere to strict volume limits or risk breaking European Union health and safety laws. Bands have been ordered to tone down or wear earplugs to limit noise exposure to 85 decibels. Typically, a pipe band played at full volume peaks at 122 decibels outdoors, noisier than the sound of either a nightclub or a chainsaw, which rises to 116 decibels. The prospect of more subdued bagpipes will be welcomed by some, but musicians have warned performances will suffer. Pipe majors claim it is virtually impossible to play quietly or to tune a band when the musicians are wearing earplugs, raising the prospect of a cacophony at showcase events such as the Edinburgh military tattoo.

The rules in effect limit practice without earplugs to about 15 minutes a day. While piping schools have begun issuing students with hearing protectors, pipe majors are preparing to make a stand. Ian Hughes, head of the RAF Leuchars band at an airbase in Fife, claimed the new legislation in effect outlawed bagpipe playing for the first time in more than 250 years.

The last time was after the Jacobite rising of 1745 and the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s clansmen at the battle of Culloden. “These limits are far too low. If we have to go with these regulations, pipe bands won’t exist,” said Hughes. “Every pipe band in the world will be above the maximum volume level.
“Bringing in a law making pipers wear ear protection means the playing of pipes is outlawed. Earplugs take away the clarity of the sound and create a problem if you’re trying to tune a band up to a certain standard.
“You can’t play the pipe quietly; they haven’t got a volume switch.”

The rules are part of the control of noise at work regulations, introduced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following a Brussels directive.
The rules cap weekly average noise exposure at 85 decibels, meaning periods of loud play need to be cancelled out by quiet periods. The idea is not to protect audiences at concerts but performers and other staff.
The new directive also affects rock and classical musicians. Classical orchestras are considering whether they may have to hold quiet rehearsals for music by composers such as Wagner or Verdi to offset the loudness of their concerts.

The loudest rock bands have included the Who, who in 1976 reached 126 decibels. They were beaten last year, however, by the Watford punk band Gallows, who hit 132.5 decibels.
Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, lead singer of Motorhead, the heavy metal band, said he would resist any attempt to force him to turn down the music.
“The essence of rock’n’roll is loud music,” he said. “How the hell can we be expected to enjoy ourselves if we’ve got to turn it down?”

“Audiences will see musicians in orchestras wearing earplugs in the future,” said Mark Pemberton, director of the Association of British Orchestras. “We are also looking at other ways of reducing noise such as putting acoustic screens between musicians.”
An HSE spokesman said: “If an employer discovers an employee has been exposed above the exposure defined in the regulations they must take action.”"

This proves my point exactly. Nobody benefits from these types of regulations. The musician do not need to be protected against themselves as they voluntarily play their instrument. The audience is attending voluntarily so they also do not need to be protected. It's just a case of suffocating the population with a big blanket of rules and regulations and creating a self perpetuating nanny state.
It would turn Europe into a bigger version of Belgium and believe me that is the last thing anybody needs...

Russia requires registration of all wifi devices.

2008-04-18T18:58:00.002+01:00

According to this post om "The Other Russia" new legislation proposed in Russia requires all wifi devices have to be registered. And that really means ALL devices apparently:
"Vladimir Karpov, the deputy director of the agency’s communications monitoring division, told the newspaper that wireless internet users must obtain permission to use the radio frequency involved in Wi-Fi transmitting, and must register any electronics that use Wi-Fi technology. Wifi hotspots, personal home networks, and even laptop computers, smart-phones and Wi-Fi enabled PDAs would be affected."
On top of that registration takes about 10 days and requires an amount off paperwork equivalent to the application for erecting a call-tower. And that's for a wifi client device only!
"Registering a Wi-Fi hotspot, on the other hand, would be more difficult. Anyone wishing to set up as much as a personal home-network would need to file a complete set of documents, as well as technological certifications. Networks in Moscow or St. Petersburg would also need approval from the Federal Security Guard Service (FSO) and the Federal Security Service (FSB)."
Now I agree that this type of legislation makes no sense whatsoever and has strong dictatorial overtones. However I also wonder what effect this will have on FON's announced expansion into Russia. One of the participants in FON's last round of funding was Coral Capital Management, a Minneapolis-based venture capital arm of Sistema, Russia´s leading telecommunications company. Now, I might be wrong, but I suspect that FON's expansion into Russia might be one of the conditions of Sistema's involvement. This new legislation would seriously hamper people who would be interested in using a Fonera and jeopardise the possible success of FON's expansion..

Open Coffee Club BBQ (Ireland) gets it's own site!

2008-04-16T14:25:00.003+01:00

The interest in the OpenCoffee BBQ in keeps growing so we have decided to give it it's own site/blog!
There is very little content there yet but together with Alex Leonard's help I am working hard to put up a nice them and more content over the next few days.

FON raises more money...

2008-04-13T18:31:00.006+01:00

But is it good news?
FON the Spanish company that wants all of us to share our broadband connection through wifi announced last week that they raised another $9.5 million in a C round.
Now while this might sound like good news I have my doubts.
Look at these facts:

- In February 2006 Google Inc., Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Skype Technologies SA invested $21.5 million in FON.
- Last year the same investors coughed up another $13 million.
- Now they announce an additional investment of $9.5 million led by Coral Capital Management, a Minneapolis-based venture capital arm of Sistema, Russia´s leading telecommunications company, and strategic partner British Telecom PLC.
- FON's CEO Martin Varsavsky announces this news in the same blog-post that mentions
tough markets, bad market conditions and having to spend less money.
- FON has reduced their burn rate from an innitial $1.5 million p/m but still manage to accumulate losses of $800K per month in the last half year.
- A lot of people that bought FON's cheap routers reflashed and put them to a different use or just unplugged them.

It has also become clear to me, through discussions with "Foneras", that the amount of traffic going through FON's voluntary network is relatively low. So that's a lot of routers shipped, hard cash spent on their back-end but relative low return (by the looks of it). I wonder if their progress is measured by revenue or profit?
Another point is why in this third round of funding has not been less interesting for Google Inc., Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Skype? Surely if their previous funding had led to favourable results they would not allow a number of outside investors to come in and get a slice of the pie. Especially seeing that this C round funding came at a premium to previous investment as stated here.
Now I can see why BT invested. BT recently entered in a big partnership with FON and that would end as a fiasco if FON would run out of funding. The other main investor is Coral Capital Management, a Minneapolis-based venture capital arm of Sistema (Russia´s leading telecommunications company). I just wonder if FON's announcment of an expansion into Russia is a condition for this investment...
They also announce the launch of the Fonera 2.0 (the fonera that uploads and downloads stuff to and from the internet while you are doing something else with your laptop). I just wonder what this "stuff" is and how happy Foneras are to have this happen...
Would it be that they are building a P2P network and will use spare capacity on your laptop or networks hard drives to store data?

Geartip: extend your laptop's wifi range..

2008-04-13T17:57:00.006+01:00

I've had a lot of requests over the years of people wondering how to extend the range in their laptop's built in wireless card.
While there are a lot of esoteric solutions there is one that In have tried and tested.
It's an external antenna that plugs into the radio inside your laptop and mounts neatly on the side of the laptop screen.
It's easy enough for someone with a bit of technical insight to install but it does require you to remove the casing of your laptop.
However, once installed it greatly improves the range of your laptop and also increases the throughput when connected to a wifi network.

SocNet discussion UL 10/04/08

2008-04-12T10:56:00.003+01:00

I spent some time at the University of Limerick yesterday attending the "Social Networking panel discussion". On the panel were Gabriela Avram, Bernard Goldbach, James Corbett and Micheal OhAodha.
The discussion was held in the very swanky Library boardroom which was filled to capacity. Different types of social (and business) networks were discussed as were the benefits and pitfalls.
Bernie was his usual eloquent self however he did have to mention his dog (again)...
Anyway, I decided that it was a good opportunity to hone my Qik skills and you can see the results below..

O2 (UK) is obviously run by a bunch of muppets...

2008-04-09T20:22:00.002+01:00

I came across this story via here, here, here and here...
O2 UK has admitted its 3G customers are limited to 128Kb/s connections, with business users being automatically upgraded to 384Kb/s if they are deemed to warrant it.
Higher speeds are possible but are apparently only issued arbitrarily to customer who warrant that speed (i.e. that pay an expensive monthly subscription).

Some O2 PR rep mistakenly called a reporter from "The Register" while still discussing how to respond to its story with a colleague. He referred to those wanting faster speeds as “a bunch of techie nerds”, and called anybody who’d want to leave the network a “muppet”...

Someone even did a speedtest on O2's network and came up with the following results:
GPRS 44kbit/sec
EDGE 145kbit/sec
3G 112kbit/sec
HSDPA 124kbit/sec
Yes, you're seeing it right, O2's EDGE service is faster than their HSDPA service. I wonder if that has anything to do with all those EDGE (but no HSDPA) iphones that O2 has sold?

This again proves my point that "conventional telco's" just do not understand the internet. They think that it is possible to squeeze internet based content through a piddly little connection that is little more than a dripping tap compared to "real" broadband such as DSL, cable, fibre, wifi & wimax.
The thing that is so very annoying about this is that there is such a huge market for proper 3G connectivity. There are lots of client devices available that can handle high bandwidth web based content and applications (N95 anyone?). And who would not want mobile broadband access on the go?
Due to tower density it could also fill in those gaps left by other connectivity methods (in rural areas and the like).
But noooooo....
128 Kb/s is what you;re going to get and if you want more you are a “techie nerd”...
Idiots!

Coming soon: 3D Barcamp.

2008-04-08T16:56:00.002+01:00

Another kick-ass event is coming to Limerick soon: 3D Barcamp!
It's an event organised by James Corbett, Gabriela Avram and Bernie Goldbach (the godfather of Irish interactive media).
Quote from the site:
3Dcamp will held in the Engineering Research Building at the University of Limerick on May 24th between 10-6pm. This themed Barcamp will focus on virtual worlds (Second Life, the Metaverse), mirror worlds (Google Earth and Virtual Earth), mapping mashups, GPS, Location based Services (LBSs), haptics (eg. Wiimote hacks), 3D modelling (Blender, Sketchup) and all things 3D. Essentially the internet beyond the 2D browser.

Everybody is welcome, from users to developers, interaction designers, sociologists, artists and business people.

I can strongly recommend that you register here and make sure that you get there in time!

OCC BBQ part two..

2008-04-07T14:45:00.002+01:00

I blogged about a proposed Open Coffee Club BBQ last week.
There has been a good level of interest and I've decided that a midweek in June or July would be the best date.
Rather than just pick a date I have decided to leave it to a public vote.
Below is a poll with the suggested dates. Let me know what dates suit you!

No such thing as a free lunch..

2008-04-04T19:03:00.002+01:00

I came across a very interesting and "on the money" blogpost today.
Hank Williams (no not that one!) writes about the culture of free, the addiction of scale and the lack of sustainability in a lot of "web 2.0" ventures.
There are a plethora of "companies" out there that really offer no more than a nice gimmicky idea or a handy service. Their product/service/idea/whatever in itself is not something that a sustainable business can be build on. the only way they can attract users is by offering it for free.
That way they chase users which calculates into hits to their site which in turn makes their site interesting real estates for advertisers.
So basically their whole business model is built around nothing more than a virtual billboard offering advertising spaces. They use their product/service/idea/whatever solely to attract viewers to these billboards.
According to Hank it is all VC driven. VC's will give certain start-ups funding but expect them to grow rapidly so that the VC can make a quick exit and keep their primary investors happy.
This does lead to a business model that is not sustainable in the long run. If you attract users/viewers to your site by offering a service/product for free they won't keep coming for ever. After a while they will move on tho whatever is the next big (free) thing and your exposure rate will drop and your advertisers will run with them. leaving you with a product that you have been offering for free and now have to start charging for in order to survive.
Now I am not saying that this will never work but it this model can be seen more and more. A lot of current web based business seems to display lots of bling but no business sense...

Nokia 6300i

2008-04-04T18:05:00.002+01:00

Nokia today announced the Nokia 6300i.
Now while this phone has none of the bells and whistles of the N95 it is still an interesting phone because Nokia describes it as a phone with WiFi for both web access AND VOIP calls. However it doesn't state anywhere is this is achieved via UMA or SIP (or both maybe)?
Anyway, have a look for yourself here.

Open Coffee Club BBQ.

2008-04-04T14:19:00.006+01:00

I've been harping on for months now about organising an OCC meeting somewhere closer to home. One of the locations that I have suggested was Terryglass, Co. Tipperary. It's not exactly the centre of the universe but it is in a great settings on the shores of Lough Derg within driving distance of Limerick, Galway etc.
Internet connectivity is also not a problem as I have installed a wifi hotspot in a local restaurant/pub with free public access.
There was never much interest until a few days ago when a discussion was started spanning both Twitter & Jaiku about alternative locations. I first mentioned that I wouldn't mind hosting an OCC meeting in the Technology centre in Birr, Co.Offaly where we have our offices. Then someone brought up my suggestion of Terryglass.
I chipped in with the mention of a suitable location and free wifi and things spun of from there.
Conor O'Neill mentioned planning it during the summer and having a OCC BBQ. An idea that was wlecomed by quite a few people!
As it turns out a friend of mine lives a few miles from Terryglass and he won the All-Ireland BBQ championships a few years back. I am sure that I can convince him to display the dark art of BBQ-ing Irish stylee.
So now it looks like we might be on to a good thing!
I am talking with some people in Terryglass today about venues and possible sponsorship. As some people might want to stay overnight I will also look into the accomodation options.
All we need to do now is pick a date....
Personally I think a mid-week date somewhere in June or July would be best. By avoiding the weekend we will possible have a bit more room to sit.
In order to get an idea of how many people would be interested I would appreciate it if anyone who thinks that they might like to attend would email me at evert-at-airappz.com
For those of you who are not familiar with Open Coffee Clubs I suggest that you have a look here.

Capturing "captive portals" and landing "landing pages"...

2008-04-01T13:35:00.002+01:00

It's giveaway time again.
AirAppz is carrying out some research into captive portals & landing pages being used by hotspot operators, Municipal wireless networks, WISP's etc.
So as we are up to or eyes testing hardware and software this might be a good opportunity to throw this out to the masses.
So what do we want you to do?
Send us screen-shots of captive portals and landing pages used by any wifi hotspot, muni wireless network, wisp or other wireless internet provider that you encounter.
Email the screen-shots as a jpg, gif or bmp file to captures@airappz.com before April 15th.
There are very few other rules or conditions
What will we do?
Well after the deadline expires (love that sentence) we will randomly pick one entry and that person will receive a Apple iPod Shuffle (4gb) for their efforts. The rest of you will just have to do with our eternal gratitude!
;-)

I would love to run one of these...

2008-03-10T10:28:00.003Z

On any of the Irish mobile "broadband" networks.
Alcatel-Lucent has announced the WNG which stands for "Wireless network Guardian".
According to Alcatel-Lucent: "The Alcatel-Lucent 9900 Wireless Network Guardian (WNG), generally available March 10, 2008, provides 3G, 4G, and WiMAX wireless networks operators with the granularity and real-time alarms they need to effectively address network congestion and optimize the delivery of IP-based services.
Invented by Bell Labs and incubated in its Alcatel-Lucent Ventures organization, the 9900 WNG is unique in the industry in providing a single solution for monitoring how IP data traffic and behaviors impact the network at its many layers including: RF airtime; channels on a base station; backhaul bandwidth; and network signaling - all in real time. This translates into greater satisfaction for the end user and optimized business models and network operations for the carrier.".
This could provide some great insight on how well those 3G & 4G service are delivered to the end-users, what the network load generated is and if they really warrant the ridiculously high fees charged...

Todays wireless news

2008-02-07T10:03:00.001Z

15:51 Mobile WiMAX: TDD Now, FDD Soon? tinyurl.com/3dnrkl #
15:52 MIT's CarTel: tinyurl.com/373mjl #
15:52 Mobile World Congress 2008: tinyurl.com/2urabr #
15:52 Belair Joins the Military: tinyurl.com/3asmrh #
15:53 DeviceScape 2.0: Phone-Fi Made Easy: tinyurl.com/2qknme #
15:53 Integrated RF-ID Tracking: tinyurl.com/2osbuc #
15:54 WiMAX: 100 million by 2014: tinyurl.com/2qh2az #
15:54 MobiComp: It's a feature, not a service - so bill it once only: tinyurl.com/2mp22m #
15:54 Turning Symbian Smartphones into Mini Wi-fi Hotspots: tinyurl.com/2sva7t #
15:55 Qualcomm and Huawei to Cooperate on Advanced UMTS Node B Receiver Technology: tinyurl.com/24kuyz #
15:55 Naval warfare center deploys high-performance Wi-Fi mesh: tinyurl.com/3aqslj #
15:56 WebCast: The future of muni wireless: tinyurl.com/yrcklq #
15:56 Hot spots warm up low-cost muni Wi-Fi options: tinyurl.com/ysncwb #
15:56 Wi-Fi Rail trial flowers in California's Bay Area: tinyurl.com/32fsvs #
15:57 Utah Backs off on Age Verification for Wi-Fi Bill: tinyurl.com/2vfvws #
15:57 Open Wireless Network Looms on Horizon: tinyurl.com/25nfzc #
16:02 Aruba Announces Explosion-Resistant APs: tinyurl.com/yrlozg #
16:08 Time Domain and AeroScout Release Combined Ultra Wideband/Wi-Fi Real-Time Location System: tinyurl.com/22kbfp #
16:12 New Mobile Advertising Alliance Launched: tinyurl.com/25up94 #
16:13 New Mobile Advertising Alliance Launched: tinyurl.com/25up94 #

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Todays wireless news

2008-02-05T10:04:00.000Z

15:59 Wireless Now Accounts For A Third Of Austria's Broadband Connections: tinyurl.com/2cb7jo #
15:59 Evolving ZigBee's Potential Still Unclear: tinyurl.com/yw66p5 #
15:59 MetroFi Needs $9m for Portland Network: tinyurl.com/23rct2 #
16:00 Cartoon Ethics on Wi-Fi:tinyurl.com/22wj4g #
16:00 NPR on Philadelphia's Wi-Fi Situation: tinyurl.com/2xpkuu #
16:00 Apple Lost Up to $400 Million in Revenues from Unlocked IPhones: tinyurl.com/2e8js4 #
16:00 Missing iPhones May Be in Hong Kong: tinyurl.com/yuq576 #
16:00 MAXroam Announces Quarterly Update; New Features: tinyurl.com/2o6kcb #
16:00 Wireless Minneapolis awards nine grants: tinyurl.com/264hdy #
16:00 Ypsilanti, MI, eyes Meraki to extend free Wi-Fi access: tinyurl.com/yu2esw #
16:01 A new slant on VoIPo3G - Circuit voice over mobile HSPA IP tunnels: tinyurl.com/yqe2ww #
16:01 700MHz: Open Access Triggered . . . We Have a Winner!: tinyurl.com/ywrksv #
16:01 Pogue on "Free Public Wi-Fi": tinyurl.com/ypakd6 #

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Todays wireless news

2008-02-02T10:02:00.001Z

13:21 Ever wanted your own Inflatable Deployable Satellite ? tinyurl.com/2jl5yr #
13:21 Capital Wi-Fi project to start: tinyurl.com/2xvp7a #
13:21 Cell phone directory rings alarm bells: tinyurl.com/26hgbn #
13:21 Review: Wi-Fi Messaging Devices Improve: tinyurl.com/266z92 #
13:22 Reserve Price Met for Important Licenses in 700 MHz Auction: tinyurl.com/365n6w #
13:22 Continental to Add Wi-Fi, Satellite TV to Some Planes: tinyurl.com/2dlozt #
13:22 What's the actual cost of sending SMS messages? tinyurl.com/2apd6r #
13:22 The first sub $100 3G Linux mobile handset from NXP and Purple Labs: tinyurl.com/3bc9fp #
13:22 Skyfire Could Represent the Future of Mobile Web Browsing: tinyurl.com/2ybwhc #
13:22 Sprint And Clearwire Back Together, Looking For Partners: tinyurl.com/2detxh #
13:22 Motorola ready to shed handset business: tinyurl.com/34n2oj #
13:23 Dubai Government tests receiving text payments: tinyurl.com/373pqb #
13:23 Successful Commuter Rail Trial in Bay Area May Lead to System-Wide Coverage: tinyurl.com/2hplcu #
13:23 Boston Commuters to Get Free Wi-Fi: tinyurl.com/2bsh4d #
13:23 Is Manilla the new HTC interface? tinyurl.com/3ayvo6 #
13:23 NextWave Wireless Prepares Mobile TV and TD-CDMA Base Station Demos for Mobile World Congress 2008:tinyurl.com/26nxa2 #
13:23 Philadelphia eyes life after EarthLink: tinyurl.com/yvh3my #
13:23 Annapolis readies wireless for public safety: tinyurl.com/3ydxsu #
13:23 Minneapolis muni Wi-Fi returns impressive performance: tinyurl.com/2lbld7 #
13:24 Location is Back: tinyurl.com/26qlrp #
13:24 Comstar to Build First Mobile WiMAX Network in Armenia: tinyurl.com/2blmf4 #
13:24 GPS Wireless 2008 Early Registration Deadline Approaches: tinyurl.com/38ecv7 #

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Todays wireless news

2008-01-30T10:06:00.001Z

12:28 Alvarion, Cisco and Nokia Selected to Collaborate with Monaco Telecom on Mobile WiMAX: tinyurl.com/yogal3 #
12:28 Mass Adoption of WiMAX in the US Still Faces Many Hurdles, Finds Maravedis Report: tinyurl.com/26vvy4 #
12:28 Faced with Various Challenges, the European Market for Femtocells is Not Quite There Yet!: tinyurl.com/yrc4wv #
12:28 Connecting: tinyurl.com/2en87l #
12:28 Boston commuters get Wi-Fi aboard train: tinyurl.com/2f4rm5 #
12:28 What phones does Android run on? "No G-Phone" says the video: tinyurl.com/yv7qjn #
12:28 Digital Trends 2008: tinyurl.com/2fy6a9 #
12:29 NY:MIEG Wireless Breakfast Followup: tinyurl.com/ywb96g #
12:29 Match Capital Partners launches; hunting for wireless, mobile internet companies: tinyurl.com/2g9978 #
12:29 Skyfire Mobile Browser Promises Quick Speeds And Full Support: tinyurl.com/ypwjt9 #
12:29 Wireless Charging Cell Phones: tinyurl.com/yoas39 #
12:31 Patent granted on smartphones, everyone sued: tinyurl.com/2f6ls3 #
12:31 Digital Movie Downloads in Denver Airport: tinyurl.com/24y9gb #
12:32 Empire State Building car zap mystery : tinyurl.com/2pdf6m #
12:32 County's wi-fi project getting nowhere fast: tinyurl.com/ynwuxl #
12:32 How long is too long? Local cafes have unwritten rules: tinyurl.com/2clpzt #
12:32 Worcester Train-Fi: New Commuter Rail Wi-Fi Pilot: tinyurl.com/3633y3 #
12:32 Wi-Fi Had a Strong Presence at CES: tinyurl.com/2y86dd #
12:33 SkyCross Unveils New Antenna Technology for Wireless Devices: tinyurl.com/27eezk #
12:33 WJ Communications Launches New Amplifiers for WiMAX Applications: tinyurl.com/2frkud #

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WiFi Salon shows the way forward.

2007-11-29T10:47:00.000Z

WiFi Salon operates the ParkWifi networks, a free public wifi network covering parks in NYC. They ahve now upgraded their network covering Washington Square Park. Instead of "just" offering WiFi Internet connectivity their network now supports VOIP, multimedia and gaming. Access is also built around a portal offering " localized content on the park and neighborhood".
This is very simmilar to the network that we are currently rolling out with AirAppz and it clearly illustrates the way forward for WiFi hotspots & hotzones.
more....

iPhone suffers from connectivity problems in the UK.

2007-11-28T11:26:00.000Z

Apple's iPhone European releases is running into one problem after another. After the law-suit in Germany it now seems that UK iPhone users are having trouble connecting their devices to their providers cellphone networks.
So let me get this right: Apple expects us to buy a device at a premium price, buy into an expensive long term subscription to a provider not of our choice, limit the number of apps that we can install on our phone (which has no decent video capabilities by the way) and now it turns out that the damn thing won't even connect to the providers network?! Only dedicated Apple fanboys would see that as a good thing.
Ooh and in case that you think this is all fabricated, anti-apple spin have a look at their own support forum.

Touchy, feely cellphones...

2007-11-28T11:20:00.000Z

Researchers at the Glasgow University have developed an interface for cellphones that lets you tell when their handset is running low on juice or laden with new messages simply by reaching into their bag or pocket and giving it a quick shake. The project is called "Shoogle" after a Scots-English word meaning to shake – being demonstrated.
Quote: "the new system uses a phone's speaker and vibrator to make a device feel and sound like it contains liquid when it is running out of power. The same technique can be used to indicate when new messages have arrived, by simulating the sense of balls rattling around inside a box."
This interface combined with the touch interface such as used on the iPhone or the HTC Touch would make a really interesting and user friendly device..

School District of Philadelphia deploys huge wifi network.

2007-11-28T10:28:00.000Z

The School District of Philadelphia a network consisting of more than 7,000 Meru Networks Radio Switches providing wireless Internet access at every school in the district. The project is a joint effort of Avaya and Meru Networks, which deployed more than 7,000 Meru Networks Radio Switches – the equivalent of 14,000 wireless access points and more than 28,000 radios. Avaya provides SDP with communications applications and services and was the system integrator for the project, along with H. J. Heinz Company.
more...

The Terminator strikes again.

2007-11-28T10:19:00.000Z

Some people might scoff at the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of California. However I suspect that their prejudice has stopped them from actually listening to Arnie's speeches and from looking at his policies.
"The Terminator" was the keynote speaker at Californian state broadband conference on Tuesday. While most of his speech centered more on utilities than broadband he made a a very important statement by likening bradband to utilities.
Quote: "Schwarzenegger struck a free market note on how best to accomplish that. "I've been pushing the (Public Utilities Commission) in becoming much more aggressive in pushing broadband," he said. "If we get more out of the way"--that is, if the government doesn't interfere--it will "move technololgy forward in a free way."
He also referred to a study from the Sacramento Regional Research Institute that estimated California could gain 1.8 million jobs a year--assuming that the broadband use of the state's population grew by 3.8 percentage points a year.
It suggest that quite a few governments (especially the Irish) take note...

Siemens announces SOHO Wimax devices.

2007-11-27T11:24:00.000Z

Siemens today announced a series of Wimax devices aimed at the SoHo and small enterprise user. There are 6 devices in total but the most feature rich is the Gigaset SX686 Wimax gateway. The gateway will connect to a Wimax backhaul and (true to it's name) serve as a gateway between the backhaul and your office network.
Following is a list of it's features:

* Based on IEEE 802.16-2005 and fully compliant to Wave 2 certification, including MIMO A and B and beamforming
* Fully self installing over the air or Web interface
* Supports TR-069 and OMA-DM
* Two internal antennas for receive, one for transmit (7-9 dBi)
* Integrated WLAN for wireless network connectivity, supporting WLAN handsets
* Convenient button to easily switch WLAN on or off
* 4 Ethernet ports
* 1 USB host to connect a printer or external hard drive
* Supports up to 6 SIP accounts for VoIP
* 2 FXS ports to connect analog phones or a fax machine
* PBX functionality (e.g., CLIP, call forwarding, conferencing) for up to 6 extensions
* Multiple connections enabled
* VLAN tagging based on TOS bits, MAC, IP, LAN/FXS ports, connections, management traffic
* Up to 20 Mbits
* Stateful inspection firewall
* Parental control and content filtering
* WEP, WPA/WPA2, MAC-filtering, WPS

Several things strike me as significant and interesting; The inclusions of PBX shows again that Wimax is a Telco product rather than an ISP product. It's a technology to expand the telco's network coverage and product coverage without having to put expensive cabling in place. Wimax let's them put up a tower (fairly) quickly and cheaply and achieve coverage in areas wehere they currently cannot offer a service of a compatible standard.
A second point that is worth noticing is the maximum throughput of 20 Mbits. What happened to the huge bandwidth possibilities as hyped in the media? I'm glad to see that at least some manufacturers have taken a realistic approach. The last significant point is the inclusion of Wifi in the gateway. They shows that the penetration of wifi devices is so significant that even Wimax device manufacturers cannot ignore it.
Lastly the inclusion of remote device management software is clearly an indication that this is a device aimed to be distributed by telcos rather than purchased by the end user.

Will Wi-Fi hot spots survive WiMax and 3G?

2007-11-15T10:59:00.002Z

David Haskins writes a very good article on the "threath" of Wimax and 3G network to WiFi hotspots.
he makes a few very valid points:
- WiFi will still be the most common way to connect for the forseeable future. Accesible & affordable Wimax and 3G are still a long way away.
- WiFi client devices still outnumber and other form of access by far.
- Providers will most likely start offering bundles of wifi, cellular & wireline access.
- WiFi hotspot operators will have to start offering services in the future that will differentiate them from their competitors.

This last point is very significant. WiFi hotspots, by virtue of their localised coverage, lend themselves very well for location based services & advertising. A wifi hotspot can serve a user with information and offers directly relating to the users environment. If you're in a city center it can tell you where the nearest bus-stop is, where to go for a quick lunch, what business or social groups are meeting where and when (Open Coffee Club anyone) etc...
It can also "push" discount vouchers at a user through a captive portal.
There is lots of opportunities here and room in the market for all technologies as long as the market is approached with an open mind.

Wireless industry news.

2007-11-09T11:08:00.000Z

- Sprint Nextel and Clearwire Terminate WiMAX Letter of Intent.
-Athens Suburb Argyroupolis goes live with first Muni Wi-Fi Network in Greece.
- Meritus Ventures hits the (rural) ground running.
- Highland mulls public internet service.
- Free WiFi in Downtown Concord.
- Clearwire Reports Third Quarter 2007 Results.

More wireless industry news!

2007-11-07T11:14:00.000Z

- Google announces mobile phone OS.
- Motorola starts Femto-cell test in Europe.
- Buffalo halts sale of 802.11a/g hardware in the US.
- WiFi? Why not?
- WiFi Philadelphia is fast becoming a reality.
- Is that a WiFi Detector T-Shirt or are you hacking me?
- Commercial WiMAX Deployments Expected to Increase 70-80% in 2008.
- Windows Mobile client eases WiFi roaming.
- Beanscene Offers Customers Free WiFi Access.
- Free public WiFi is alive and well in Miami Beach.
- Blackbbery Adds WiFi To Pearl.
- Huggable WiFi appliance; a new computer for Linux lovers.
- Tools measure Mobile WiMax.
- Music-Sharing Plans for London Underground.
- Atheros Breaks the Power Barrier.
- Sprint Nextel May Spin Off WiMax Division...or Not.
- Sonic.net equips Airport Express buses with Wi-Fi.
- Addison, Texas gets citywide Wi-Fi service.
- T-Mobile Frees Hotspots in Wildfire-Affected SoCal.
- RedMoon Inc. Replaces City-Wide Network with BelAir Networks Wireless Broadband Mesh.

Thumbs up!

2007-11-01T19:02:00.000Z

Someone send this to Eamon Ryan!
Some woman in the UK wanted broadband andd BT undertook 99 separate jobs requiring 50 telegraph poles and 6 miles of cable to supply it to her. Total costs to BT: £40,000.
Now that's what I call commitment!

And the winner is?

2007-10-25T12:05:00.000+01:00

I ran a "competition" just over a week ago looking for a new name for one of my current ventures. Feedback was innitially slwo but eventually a good number of suggestions were send in.
Most of these came from Ireland with a few from the UK, continental Europe and the US.
Offering a prize certainly increased the hits to my blog.
Getting mentions on a lot of other blogs resulted to a likewise increase in exposure (thanks guys!).
Anyway after much deliberation we have chosen a winner and as much as it gals me (because he seems to win a lot lately) the winner is Conor O'Neil.
Conor submitted a whole list of suggestions out of which "AirApps" was chosen as the best one.
The Ruckus wifi routers will be winging their way to Conor shortly!

Pardon my French...

2007-10-18T12:31:00.000+01:00

Apple seems to desperately want to hold on to their grip on the iPhone and their deals with the various providers (obviously to monetize the hell out of it) and while they are playing catch-up with the hacker and reverse engineering community they were dealt another blow in France.
Apparently (and I'm quoting Muniwireless here): "French law prohibits operators from bundling phones exclusively with their service so they can subsidize a phone and offer it at a lower price to a customer, but they must sell it (even at a higher price) to a customer if he or she wants."
I would have to research it but suspect that a number of other countries have similar laws and if anybody with knowledge of EU law reads this I would be interested to hear if there is any EU legislation in this area.

I sincerely hope that Apple see the light and stop this ridiculous behaviour. While I agree that buying a locked phone and hacking it is a grey area they should make an unlocked version of the phone available to the general public.

Wifi or Wimax (or both)?

2007-10-17T11:09:00.000+01:00

Some followers of my blog and people that know me personally will have an idea on my position in the whole Wifi versus Wimax debate. As far as I am concerned there is no "versus" argument for the foreseeable future and the two technologies will compliment each other for quite some time.
Today I noticed a post on one of the many mailinglists (remember those you feed-junkies?) that I subscribe to. It was made by Cor van de Water a very knowledgeable guy who happens to work for Proxim. Cor's post concured with my opinion but added an extra bit of technical insight. Rather than quote from the post I have asked Cor for permission to post the whole message, so here it goes:

"Mr Cohen describes very accurately something that we also see
happening: Many customers come to us with the requirement for a WiMAX certified product, especially when they are working from a greenfield situation.
We then explain what our WiMAX certified products can do and check with the customer if this fits their needs.
The amazing thing that develops every time is that the customer starts explaining their needs and it appears that this absolutely does not fit with what WiMAX can offer.
For example, they want ubiquitous mobile high-speed wireless access. That is 3 acronyms that do not combine in WiMAX, while they are the core of standard WiFi.
WiMAX is either mobile (802.16e) but that variant of the standard is so much optimized for range that the throughput severely suffers and the ubiquitous availability is questionable, because this standard competes head-on with 3G style cellphone standards.
The 2004 variant (802.16d) can achieve a decent throughput, especially in the non-standard 7 MHz mode, but is not mobile and is also not ubiquitous.
The only ubiquitous mobile wireless de-facto standard is WiFi.
It is so much a standard, that when you buy a new laptop it is not mentioned as a feature, because *every* laptop has WiFi.

So, then the customers make the step that, yes, they want WiMAX still as backbone, but they want to add WiFi access to capture the market of ubiquitous available client devices.

Next stumbling blocks then appear: how about the availability of frequencies, licenses or unlicensed operation of the backhauls and the throughput requirements on the backhaul network.
Suddenly the customer realizes that none of their clients will be interested in which technology is used for the backhaul of their data, just like you don't care how the cell phone company feeds their towers, as long as you can use your phone.

So, in the contracts that we typically see with major customers we rarely see the work WiMAX back, except with a qualifier such as WiMAX-alike or pre-WiMAX.
We would like to sell our WiMAX gear to more customers, and we indeed see interest and sell to some customers, but they are a niche in our big wireless market and my personal opinion is that WiMAX signed its death certificate when it decided to focus the 802.16e variant so much on range, to allow it to be used for multimedia handsets in the same market segment that is targeted by so many cellphone technologies, which have the power of installed base and upgrade path.
WiMAX has gone the opposite direction of the rest of the wireless market, in search of higher throughputs.

Now look at how WiFi has finally decided to triple the air speeds without consuming more spectrum by putting the 802.11n stake in the ground and going for products.
The additional benefit of 802.11n will be the increased range, simply by smart switching between either higher throughput or using the additional bandwidth and antenna polarization for redundancy.
Indeed, with WiFi speeds now being higher than Fast Ethernet when AP and client benefit from 802.11n, we see that WiMAX is severely lacking in providing the bandwidth, where it started with an advantage by originally providing 256QAM modulation in the 802.16d version, so it is now unacceptable as backhaul.

To make an even stronger case for license-exempt products, with the addition of 255 MHz more bandwidth in the 5.4 GHz band and the regular approval of more radios by the FCC that allow a selection of any frequency in the 5.3, 5.4 or 5.8 GHz band, a whopping 480 MHz of spectrum is available for outdoor use in the USA, products are available today and plentiful, with high throughput, built-in mobility and competitive prices.

We see that once our customers understand the many orders of magnitude difference between WiFi and WiMAX installed base and they realize that the backhaul technology is unimportant as long as it provides high throughput, low latency and where applicable mobility, QoS and other WiMAX-alike features, we see that they always select a non-WiMAX solution for their access network and a WiMAX-alike solution for their backhaul.

I realize this may be controversial and painful for some, but I simply do not see the big market for WiMAX in the form it has now."

Three is NOT the magic number...

2007-10-16T16:36:00.000+01:00

I posted last week that I was looking for suggestion for a new name for 802.EU. I even offered a prize of some really nice quality hardware for the best suggestion.
The blogpost got mentions in several blogs (thanks all, you know who you are).
You would think that this suggestions would come flooding in, right?
Wrong!!
Three suggestions is all I got.
Lots of hits on the post but only three people bothered to send in a suggestion.
I refuse to believe that the majority off the people that visited the blog were terminally shy or suffered from creative amnesia.
I mean, send in a suggestion; it does not have to be brilliant but you have the chance to win some nice hardware. As said the best suggestion will win, I might not even decide to use the name but we will select a winner out of all entries.
So come on people, fire up your creative grey matter and email me your suggestions!

And remember; all entries have to be in by 5pm GMT on October 18th!

What's in a name?

2007-10-10T11:50:00.000+01:00

My main venture at the moment is a company called 802.EU.
This venture's main product is a captive portal solution for use with wireless hotspots, hot-zones, municipal wireless networks & wisps. The portal consists of several modules displaying location based advertising, location based information and more. It also has several modules that offer a wide range of web-based applications include online backup, web based word-processing, spreadsheets, image manipulation, shared agendas etc. etc.
We've recently heard several comments that the name "802.EU" basically sucks. As we are early on in our development it is still not a huge undertaking to change the name.
Rather than have a few people in a room brainstorming I would like to hear what you people think. What would be a good name?
To make it interesting we will give a Ruckus Mediaflex WiFi router AND a Ruckus MetroFlex DZ router to the best suggestion.
For those of you that are not familiar with the Ruckus mediaflex products here's a bit of info from their website:

Ruckus MediaFlex NG
The First Fully Managed, In-Home Wireless Services Platform for Multimedia Distribution
The Ruckus MediaFlex NG is the first-of-its-kind wireless multimedia service platform that reliably distributes multimedia content over standard 802.11 Wi-Fi to every corner of the home.

The Ruckus MediaFlex NG combines innovative, patent-pending smart antenna and traffic management technologies to break down the barriers that have prevented a single Wi-Fi network from simultaneously supporting voice, video and data in the home.

Ruckus MetroFlex Dual Zone
High Performance Access Gateway and Wi-Fi Router
The Ruckus MetroFlex Dual Zone (DZ) is two products in one. It acts as a wireless access gateway, providing reliable connectivity to outdoor Wi-Fi networks, as well as an extended range indoor 802.11b/g access point.

The Ruckus MetroFlex DZ is the world’s first customer premise equipment specifically designed and optimized for broadband operators building large-scale metro Wi-Fi networks.

Patent-pending hardware and software let subscribers connect faster and more reliably to outdoor metro Wi-Fi networks – automatically optimizing around changing environmental conditions. Intelligent connection algorithms determine the fastest Wi-Fi mesh node with which to associate based on the highest data rates and best signal strength.

And before I forget; the deadline for your ideas is October 18th!

Nokia to release Wimax Internet tablet.

2007-10-05T19:23:00.000+01:00

According to Techworld Nokia will release a new version of it's N800 Internet tablet next year. This version will include Wimax connectivity.
This is an interesting development and it follows on the heels of Intel's announcement that it has teamed up with three laptop manufacturers in order to integrate dual radio chipsets ("old" 802.11b/g 70mW & 802.16e 730mW) in laptops from Q1 2008 onwards.
It will be interesting to see if this increase in Wimax clients will do for Wimax what it did for WiFi when the Centrino chipset was introduced.

Apple iPhone: The ultimate hacking device.

2007-10-05T13:26:00.000+01:00

Forget about hacking your own iPhone, how about hacking someone elses?!
Apparently every process on the iPhone runs as root giving them full privileges. That means that a vunerability in an application could result in a fully compromised system.
H.D. Moore describes the whole issue very detailed on the Metasploit blog.
A few quotes: "Every process runs as root. MobileSafari, MobileMail, even the Calculator, all run with full root privileges. Any security flaw in any iPhone application can lead to a complete system compromise. A rootkit takes on a whole new meaning when the attacker has access to the camera, microphone, contact list, and phone hardware. Couple this with "always-on" internet access over EDGE and you have a perfect spying device."

Lisa Vaas on eWeek.com also discussed the issue:

"The shellcode combined with the number of bugs present in the iPhone finally make mobile attacks a real threat," wrote Errata Chief Technology Officer David Maynor in a blog posting."

Charlie Miller—a researcher with Baltimore-based Independent Security Evaluators, and one of a trio who were first to unveil security issues with the iPhone and release iPhone "vibrate" shellcode at Black Hat 2007—told eWEEK in an interview that he wishes he'd been able to use Metasploit when he was writing exploits for the gadget back in July.

Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff and Joshua Mason created an exploit for the iPhone's Safari Web browser wherein they used an unmodified device to surf to a maliciously crafted drive-by download site. The site downloaded exploit code that forced the iPhone to make an outbound connection to a server controlled by the security firm. The researchers showed that a compromised device then could be forced to send out personal data, including SMS text messages, contact information, call history, voice mail information, passwords, e-mail messages and browsing history.

No news on whether Apple is aware of these issues and what their actions will be. Maybe they are too busy preventing people from unlocking their iPhones.....

Today's wireless news

2007-09-29T18:43:00.001+01:00

- Cubic telecom launches Maxroam (well done Pat!)
- FCC chairman tries to repeal "open access" provision for spectrum auction.
- Verizon Wireless applies "code of content".
- Moto demos mobile Wimax handoffs in Chicago.
- Nokia enters into Wimax partnership with intel.
- Apple "warns" iPhone hackers.
- Samsung launches Armani phone with "haptics".
- iPod touch owners get cheap wifi in the UK.
- South Norfolk (UK) gets WiFi cover.
- Tiny Linux SBC gains add-on WiFi radio.
- How wifi might work in San Fran.
- When broadband flows like a river.....
- London’s Wi-Fi Mile.
- Stakes high for Sprint in wireless gamble.
- Free WiFi is ‘hard model to get right'.
- Action in muni wireless is moving to applications.
- Microsoft's Wi-Fi bus gets people out of their cars.
- Rural America, still a broadband backwater.
- The City of Chicago's OEMC and IBM Launch Advanced Video Surveillance System.
- Archos 605 WiFi sticks it to the Apple Ipod Touch.
- European Commission split over telecom reform.
- Why municipal wireless networks have been such a flop.
- Singapore launches initiative to develop maritime infocomm technologies.

Thinking abut buying an iPhone? Think again.

2007-09-29T15:01:00.000+01:00

Besides the lack of UMTS/3G, video and low-res camera here’s another few reasons not to buy an iPhone.

Ireland's broadband status: again more waffle than action...

2007-09-29T14:31:00.001+01:00

Silicon Republic ran an “interesting article” some time ago describing all the good things that are being done to improve Irelands low level of broadband penetration. The article was another one that was long on praise for Eircom and the Irish government but short on fact and insight. The general gist of the article is that now that the availability of broadband is reaching acceptable levels in Ireland, providers are looking at offering speeds higher than the “entry-level” 1-2 Mbps DSL products. While higher speeds would be a great improvement it is nothing to boast about. Service providers in most other European countries offer much higher speeds at prices lower than what Irish people are expected to pay for the paltry 1-2 Mbps packages. Ebay’s MD was right when he dubbed these services “fraud-band” instead of broadband.

The article discusses comments made by the Irish government and several providers (but mainly quotes Eircom soundbites). However there is no insight from spokespeople for the various industries that are losing their competitive edge in a global marketplace due to a lack of broadband.

The current availability of broadband in Ireland can be summarised in a few short sentences: Several forms of broadband (DSL, cable, wifi/wimax, fibre etc.) are available in the major urban centres. If you live or work outside these areas your choice is limited to (maybe) DSL and mostly wifi and/or satellite. Large areas can still only get Internet access by dialup, a technology that is being axed in a lot of European countries due to lack of interest. New entrants in the broadband market mostly start by offering their services in the same urban centres that already being over-serviced by the existing operators. Large swathes of urban areas are only being serviced by WISP’s that have sprung from grass-roots initiatives. These are quite often under-funded and struggling to cope with the demand. The Irish government is doing squat to assist these companies while continuously pandering to Eircom.

The debate has now been shifted to so-called Next Generation Networks (NGN’s). This is just a spin-doctors attempt to divert the attention form the real problem. The current infra-structure is simply not able to provide broadband to most rural (and some urban) areas. Even if every exchange in the country was upgraded to allow DSL type services and opened up to allow LLU it would still be unable to provide the required level of connectivity. Why? Because of the miles and miles of rotten 7 corroded copper that runs from the exchanges to the end-user premises. Apparently the line-failure rate runs at 40% at the moment. Yes, that’s right: 40%!!

Eircom keeps using the number of users connected to enabled exchanges as the number of broadband enabled users but this is plain and utter non-sense. Theoretical figures don’t mean anything, we need to look at the real numbers.

The best thing that has happened to the Irish broadband market in the last 10 years is the establishment of the Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN’s). Large rings of fibre optic cable put in place around large urban centres, cities as well as large and medium sized towns. However the management of these networks was then contracted out to a company called E-Net who just sits on this huge assets rather than promoting the use of it. I recall asking one of their executives years ago how and who they planned to market these networks to. His answer was a surprised: “market? We’re only supposed to manage these networks”.....

Access to the MAN’s is only available by going through E-Net’s expensive and arduous application process.

So do I have any suggestions on how the current impasse can be solved? Off course I do!

If the MAN’s were made more accessible and affordable we would see a lot more smaller operators jumping into the market. Running fibre into rural phone exchanges and turning them into “mini-MAN’s” could turn them into jumping off points for more operators. If I wanted to bring broadband to the area I now live in I would need to put a backhaul into place running from a city over 50 miles away. If the local exchange had fibre running into it I would have provided broadband to the whole area years ago.

A quote that supports this point of view is by Dutch operator KPN’s vice-president John Quist: “One of the cornerstones of KPN’s plans is that in our network rebuilding we will make it a fully open network,” says Quist. “This means that it will be open to all service providers. All operators can use the NGN in the same way as our own service provider KPN Retail.”

What we don’t need is government interference in market pricing and service levels. Open up the market and let free-market economics work away at the crappy providers, high prices and low service levels.

Today's wireless news

2007-09-22T14:37:00.000+01:00

- Interesting whitepaper on using a wireless LAN as your primary network.
- Using an unlicensed spectrum does NOT mean less reliability.
- Is Google eying up UK spectrum?
- International standard on mobile phone chargers? Finally!!
- Phone companies look to add mobile phone inspired features to landlines phones.
- UK mobiles are highest text users in Europe.
- Cubic Telecom launched truly global phone at TechCrunch40 (but we all knew it was coming).
- What Do You Want In iPhone 2.0?
- Airspan Unveils Personal Mobile WiMAX Client.
- Intel to Debut WiFi/WiMax Chipset In 2008.
- Intel WiMax/satellite combo could bring Internet to remote regions.
- Digicel Deploying Alvarion WiMax Solution.
- What's Eating Citywide WiFi, Part 2.
- Americans are giving up friends, sex for Web life (not necessarily in that order).
- The internet is "dead and boring."
- Vodafone UK moves to HSPA.
- Telefonica O2 goes low in Germany.
- Industry gearing up for mobile ads push.
- Sprint launched Femtocell service in US.
- Finding Wi-Fi hotspots with the iPhone.
- Steve Jobs Encourages Wi-Fi Mooching (and Other Tales of Misunderstanding).

Nokia release UMA capable phone

2007-09-21T14:41:00.000+01:00

Nokia anounced that it will releases the 6301 in Q4 this year.
One of it's greatest features is UMA support. This allows seamless roaming (handover) between WiFi and GSM networks without call interuption. You could for instance innitiate a call through a wifi hotspot (or your own wifi network) and then, mid-call, move out of range of the wifi network and the phone will switch to a GSM network without dropping the call.
This off course requires operator support but the fact that Nokia is now offering a handset with UMA support will hopefully lead to more operators supporting this.
This can have a much greater impact on the mobile phone market than the iPhone.

The 6301 itself is a rather average phone but imagine a multi-media powerhouse such as the N95 with UMA support and you can see the possibilities.

iPhone does Germany.

2007-09-19T14:58:00.000+01:00

T-Mobile announces expansion of EDGE network.

The iPhone will be available in Germany from November 9th according to this article.In order to overcome the iPhone's glaring lack of 3G/UMTS compatibility T-Mobile has announced that it will expand it EDGE network.I am quite honesty shocked bit this last announcement.
Why not insist that Apple get of their high horse and make the iPhone 3G/UMTS compatible?!

European iPhone launch on Tuesday?

2007-09-16T16:11:00.000+01:00

Apple has announced a press conference on an "un-disclosed" matter in London for this coming Tuesday.

Could this be the much anticipated European launch of the iPhone?

Apple has signed deals with the following European providers:

- O2 in the UK

- Orange in France

- T-Mobile in Germany

I sincerely hope that they are smart enough to have made the European version of the iPhone 3G/UMTS compatible.

I've bought and sold an iPod on three separate occasions simply because I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

On all three off the occasions I ended up selling the iPod again because it just had no real use for me.

I would love to try out an iPhone and pitch it against my trusty Qtek 2020i...

Todays wireless news:

2007-09-14T17:39:00.000+01:00

- Virgin America to offer in flight wifi.
- US Feds sponsor free public WiFi.
- Apple launches I-tunes WiFi store.
- Official German government warning over use of WiFi.
- Archos launched possible iPod killer?

90% of Madrid's gay area covered by FON signal

2007-09-14T16:36:00.000+01:00

Here...
Insert non politically correct comment of choice.

War-driving or war-parking?

2007-09-13T17:40:00.000+01:00

It's nice to see muni-wifi networks being put to good use.
Not surprisingly the city of Westminster on London has decided to link CCTV cameras so that it can catch people parking without permits in a permit only area.

Vic Baylis, director of services at Westminster City Council. says: "The cameras can now recognize parking permits and their validity, the plate of the offending vehicle, and the parking restrictions on the road in question. They can also clock the time vehicles enter timed parking spaces. Images of every parking offense are collated and then viewed by a human operator for verification before parking tickets are dispatched."

I wonder is an access point running "fakeAP" would suffice to bring the network down?
Luckily they are also considering more useful applications:
"Other applications that the council is considering include giving staff mobile access to their data, enabling streetlamps so they can communicate when the bulb needs replacing, and connecting parking meters so the staff is informed when they are full or out of order"

Locked iPhone caused huge roaming bills.

2007-09-13T17:22:00.001+01:00

iPhone: $399, roaming: $800 - $3000

The iPhone Mark 1 will not be an international success, period.

Not only is it not compatible with 3G/UMTS networks, the fact that it's locked to one provider can lead to huge bills when roaming.

Consider yourself warned!

Orange gives dialup users the boot.

2007-09-13T17:12:00.000+01:00

Orange (an UK ISP) has decided to pull the plug on users of their "Pay as you go" dialup service.

The user number of this service has dropped form 1,497k to 915k over the last month and they are now being offered an upgrade to a DSL service for £3 more per month.

I wonder if all these users are on DSL "compatible" phonelines...

Also interesting to note is the policy that Orange takes to convince their users to switch.
here.

EU decision might break up incumbent telcos...

2007-09-01T13:38:00.000+01:00

Interesting article in the Financial Times:

Britain is sometimes embroiled in bruising battles in Brussels. But it finds itself singled out by the European Union's telecoms chief as a model pupil in the drive to boost broadband competition.
Viviane Reding, the EU media commissioner, this week cited the decision to split the networks and services division of BT of the UK as a potential template for other former state-run telecoms operators. Her suggestion goes to the heart of a debate on how to spur investment in new ultra-fast broadband networks to meet European business and consumer hunger for bandwidth.
EU broadband subscriptions have risen sharply since 2002. Nearly three in 10 households use the service and prices have fallen faster than the global average. So why suggest splitting
companies such as Deutsche Telekom or Telefónica?
In the British case, BT agreed in 2005 with national regulator Ofcom to create an independent unit responsible for giving rivals access to its networks. The division, which BT still owns, is obliged to treat competitors on the same basis as its own services. The split came after Ofcom felt competition was weak and that the UK was trailing the rest of the
EU in broadband adoption. Now, Ofcom says this "functional separation" is a reason behind a doubling of maximum broadband speeds in the UK. Rivals to BT say British broadband subscriptions are approaching the levels of the world-leading Nordic countries. Many younger telecoms operators in the EU relish the prospect of change. Stefano Parisi, the chief executive of Fastweb of Italy, says: "We fully support Ms Reding's position. More transparency and investment is needed." Still, EU officials insist that such a forced administrative division of operators would be a last resort if all other attempts to overcome a company's dominant market position had failed. Nevertheless, a number of question marks remain.
First, would a forced split of big operators hinder spending on new ultra-fast broadband networks? Critics say that it could reduce incentives for companies to build infrastructure. For example, Ms Reding is embroiled in a court case with Berlin over its decision to stop rivals from selling services on Deutsche Telekom's €3bn ($4bn, £2bn) new broadband infrastructure, amid a spat over how big operators guarantee a decent return on investments.
Second, a soon-to-be published European Commission study concedes that the experience of the UK model is "still rather limited". A third concern is that market conditions vary
widely across the EU. While the Italian watchdog is considering splitting Telecom Italia, the paper reveals that French and Dutch regulators question whether "functional separation" would work on their markets.
Big telecoms operators have hit out at Ms Reding's suggestion. Etno, their lobby group, says: "Consumer prices are consistently falling and markets are increasingly competitive.
Mandatory functional separation would entail a costly and lengthy reorganisation of major European companies, which is irreversible." Will this stop Ms Reding, as she seeks to push
through the biggest overhaul of the rules governing the EU's €289bn-a-year telecoms rulebook?
The limelight-loving Luxembourger was behind a contentious law to slash the cost of international mobile phone use, a move that enraged big operators. Now, she must convince her fellow 26 commissioners that her approach is right, before formally launching her plan. EU countries and the European parliament must also back it. No stranger to controversy, Ms Reding has a remarkably consistent method. The former journalist and ex-member of the European parliament is seen by some in the industry to use a "bomb-dropping" technique. First, she outlines outlandish ideas then waits for the air to clear before returning to the table to get a deal.

The coming months will reveal what effect her approach has on the EU's leading telecoms groups.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

To all the iPhone fanboys.

2007-08-29T17:11:00.000+01:00

You can't touch this!
(cue MCHammer)
;-)

Finally!! Google shows usage numbers on WiFi mesh network..

2007-08-29T14:34:00.000+01:00

Information on usage numbers of Municipal WiFi networks are extremely hard to come by. Operators and municipalities are eager to publish network coverage, money invested and projected benefits but very few information is available once the network is deployed and operational.
So it great to see Google publishing some info on their Mountain View network. I'll quote the essential numbers but you can read more about it here

- Google reported that the network now covers 12 square miles and counts 15,000 unique users each month.
- The company said its free muni Wi-Fi network comprises over 400 mesh routers and carries 300 gigabytes of data each day.
- The company said the network has seen traffic numbers grow around 10% each month.

While these figures are interesting and shed a small bit of light on the viability of the network I would really like to see information on the average session lenght per user, the increase (or decrease in users), the advertising revenue, usage by protocol (http, pop3, smtp, voip etc.). It would be great if Google could provide these.

What's also interesting is the calculations on average useage that can be made form these numbers. On average there seem to be 493 unique users per day, which means (on average) 1.2 user per router resulting in 0.6GB of data transfer per user. This would lead one to conclude that usage is relatively light and limited to email and some (light) browsing. It seems that there are no people leeching large amounts of data through the network. This would lead me to believe that the user demographic is largely mobile rather than residential.

E.

P.S. See here for a map of all routers.

Lots of work but little blogging...

2007-08-07T21:00:00.000+01:00

It has been months since I posted anything here but that doesn't mean that I have sitting back taking it easy.
During the last few months one of my companies has been ramping up rapidly.
The idea for this venture sprouted from two thoughts that have been in the back of my mind for some time.
1) The only valid way forward for WiFi hotspots & hotzone providers is by providing
added value services.
2) The current spate of web based applications and services based on user generated
content are ideal to be bundled and offered through a network of wireless hotspots
and hotzones.

802.EU is building a captive portal that will allow service providers (hotspot operators, WISP's, 3G network operators etc.) to offer an selection of services to their customers without having to invest in costly infra-structure. All they will need to do is purchase a portal application license and cherrypick the services & applications that suit their customer demographic best. I won't say much more than to "reveal" that we are putting together a prime offering of services and applications.
One of the great things is that it will all be platform and device neutral so that user can access the services that they subscribe to on any device and across any platfom/OS. On top of this the portal application will also have a module for location based advertising creating yet another revenue possibility.

We have also decided that the best way to prove than an idea is valid is by putting it out "in the wild". Therefore we have taken step of rolling out our own network of wireless hotspots. Not being one for small measures we have secured a partnership agreement with a large Irish telco. This agreement will mean that we will install and operate wifi hotspots (running our portal application) in a large number of locations where this telco already has other equipment in place. The exact numbers aren't fixed yet but it could be as high as 3000 locations across the country. As anybody with even a small knowledge of the industry will know that will put us squarely in the European top-10 of hotspot operators (by network size). Not bad seeing that this network was originally only planned as a "proof of concept".
The rollout will hopefully start in Q3 this year.

More to follow soon!

Broadband for the midlands...

2007-06-02T21:22:00.000+01:00

There were two articles in the Irish media last week bringing "news" regarding the follout of fiber backhaul in the midlands. The articles can be read here and here.
I wonder why this is being presented as news I do not know as it was common knowledge over year ago.
Anyway, for those interested I'll quote:

Contracts have been signed for the physical construction of Metropolitan Area Networks in Nenagh, Roscrea and Templemore, memembers of North Tipperary County Council have been informed.
The MAN contracts have recently been signed with The Clarke Group for the for the work and it is expected to commence the civils works in these towns in June . Construction is scheduled to last approximately 19 weeks.
In Nenagh, the MAN will be approximately 10.8km in length, in Roscrea it will be approximately 8.1km, and in Templemore it will be approximately 5.7km. The routes of the MANs will pass close to the main businesses, schools, government offices, the Eircom Exchange and business parks, Head of Information Services of North Tipperary County Council, Mr Gerard Lynch said.

E.