The FCC Approves Initial Ultrawideband (UWB) Standards: UWB is a very, very clever idea. Instead of using swaths of spectrum at low or high power,even rotating frequencies and jumping, you use incredibly short-duration high-power pulses across broad swaths of bandwidth that a similarly synchronized device interprets. You can use existing spectrum without (proponents hope testing will bear out) interference because existing devices rely on, would be affect or damaged by, or listen to a different pattern. By the time a pulse would pass, existing equipment wouldn't even tick over. Because of the broad amount of spectrum that could be reused, even many times in the same physical area, UWB might ultimately replace a number of existing technologies across a broad swath of consumer, scientific, medical, and military purposes. Here's a highly technical article on it from EE Times.

7:33:58 PM    comment   

Look, Vinod and others are calling a corporation a giant spreadsheet and that people need to build "macros" to tie together all of this information in useful ways.  Now, there two approaches, a centralized approach that relies on expensive middleware (Tibco and KnowNow) where only a couple information gurus are in control and a decentralized desktop approach where inviduals can build the "macros" themselves (Radio).  Your choice.  Obviously, I think that the decentralized model is the appropriate one.  It scales better.  It allows organic growth.  It allows individuals to push the envelope of what is possible. 

Further, the decentralized approach enables not only central system to desktop use -- it also enables desktop to desktop data transfer.  Nice!  This is exactly what Dave unleashed with DIY (do it yourself) Web services. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Yes, but it also scares the shit out of corporate IT as they want everything centralized. Furthermore, Tibco and other large software packages are more amenable to outsourcing.
7:31:27 PM    comment   

1) Web Services that pull specific information from corporate apps  (financials, supply stats, and sales).  The interface needs to be easy-to-use (a simple Web form that allows people to select the data they want to see), distributed (so it can scale), and easily shared.

2) Information on what people are doing.  This is data drawn from personal Weblogs; Real-time information on what people in the trenches are thinking and doing.  The interface is a simple RSS subscription or reading a personal Weblog.

The system that makes this possible should sit on the destkop.  Run in the browser and connect via SOAP or XML-RPC.  Sound familiar? [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
5:21:05 PM    comment   

David Pogue, Circuits's regular columnist, covers the bewildering pricing plans that include some of the variety of cell data services. Jeffrey Selingo offers accounts of the irritations with cell phone use and customer service.

5:16:08 PM    comment   

Katie Hafner wrote about the current generation of cell-data services, including the initial 3G versions. She concludes ably, But as is often the case with marketing carts that precede the technological horse, the bottom line is: Buy into 3G now and you are buying a promise. Wait another year or two and you are more likely to be buying the real thing.

5:13:23 PM    comment   

I guess I'll be with you for a long, long time...
5:08:17 PM    comment   

CNET reports on Walter Hewlett's response to the HP Board's famous "musician and academic" slam: "You seek to discredit Walter Hewlett, questioning his right to speak up as a director and shareholder--a strange assertion in light of the recent events at Enron," Gaither wrote in the letter. "A director and shareholder should speak out concerning a matter submitted for shareholder approval if he believes the transaction is not in the best interests of the shareholders, and indeed, that it might jeopardize the future of this great company."

Walter also spoke up regarding today's earnings announcement, saying "I am pleased to see Hewlett-Packard continue (sic) to perform well. These results further confirm that Hewlett-Packard does not need to acquire Compaq." Again I think that this article shows a pro-Carly bias on CRN's part. First, they fail to mention the part about today's earnings report that warned of extra expenses for things like advertising to the shareholders to support the merger. And the "sic" in the above quote was added by CRN, who apparently thought that "continue" was bad grammar and took pleasure in portraying Walter to be sloppy. However, the use of "continue" is perfectly legitimate, and is in fact more appropriate than "continues" in this context.

I am sure that much of the "controversy" of the merger is just sensationalizing by the press, and perhaps CRN is presenting a more balanced view than any of the other journals. But they sure seem to be avoiding the hard questions. [Better Living Through Software]
11:25:48 AM    comment