November 2006

The Truth about the GPL

November 22, 2006

The spat between Novell and Microsoft over patent licenses is generating plenty of comment in the blogosphere.  Microsoft apparently believes that it might finally have found a way to use its patent portfolio effectively against Linux, and Novell is saying “No-siree Steve, that’s not what we agreed!”.  And, of course, the open source community is [...]

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Whither Google Talk?

November 21, 2006

Or should that be wither GTalk?  Andrew Hanson, and VoIPNews have both reported that Google Talk is missing from the latest version of Google Pack, the all in one package of tools that Google downloads.  Moreover, Skype has apparently replaced it.  Indeed, GTalk is missing from the Google Tools download page as well (was it [...]

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Personalization is the Future

November 21, 2006

In The Race to Create a ‘Smart Google’, Fortune writer Jeffrey O’Brien explores the world of recommendation engines.  Notionally, these are software agents that watch user behaviour in different contexts, and make recommendations based on the learning they glean from these contexts.  They’ve been around for a long time.  Amazon’s recommendations are probably the most [...]

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Cancelling SunRocket… via EMail

November 20, 2006

Some time ago I activated a SunRocket account to trial the service using a temporary debit card.  The debit card ran out of funds, so they emailed me to let me know that the card was declined.  Since I was finished trialing the service, I asked them to cancel… via email.  And that’s when the fun started.  SunRocket has [...]

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A Little Slap and Tickle From Andy

November 20, 2006

Fans of puns will get a laugh from Andy Abramson’s AT&T Hooking WiMax is No Cheap Trick.  AT&T is rolling out WiMax in Pahrump, Nevada, home of Nevada’s infamous legal brothels.  Andy milks the joke for all it’s worth. 

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Privacy in a location, location, location world

November 20, 2006

Randall Strauss’s piece Cellphone as Tracker: X Marks Your Doubts raises some uniquely American concerns about privacy and location based services.  The Helio Drift, with Buddy Beacon, which allows you to signal your location to up to 25 of your closest friends, and loopt on Boost Mobile, which lets you use GPS to map your [...]

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Peanut Butter is De.licio.us

November 19, 2006

Sorry… couldn’t help myself on that headline. Yesterday morning, while having breakfast in Boston, I read the Journal’s front page story on Brad Garlinghouse’s Peanut Butter Manifesto.  My reaction at the time?  Meh… it’s another Silicon Valley “leak”…  perhaps I’m simply jaded, but strategic memos have been “leaking” out of Microsoft for years.  After a while, [...]

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Hullo Goes Offline

November 19, 2006

As of November 20th, the Hullo beta is over.  According to the email they sent yesterday, a new beta, and new Voice 2.0 applications will be coming online in the next few weeks.  Send mail to beta@hullo.com to participate! Dear hullo subscriber, We want to thank you for taking part in the beta of hullo.  [...]

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Sunrise Over Boston

November 18, 2006

The light was just right this morning as Howard and I sat eating breakfast on the 10th floor of the Logan Airport Hilton.  For the last few days, I’ve been carrying a Blackberry Pearl, which is equipped with a camera.  Even though it’s a lowly 1.3 megapixal camera, I was pretty pleased with this result. [...]

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Venture Law Lines: An Entrepreneurs "Must Read"

November 18, 2006

Over the last couple of months, Toronto lawyer Suzi Dingwall-Williams seems to have found a niche that the blogging world has overlooked.  Her blog, Venture Law Lines, dishes up a daily stew of practical advice for entrepreneurs in the area of law — employment, financing, investment, and so on.  Plus, she’s funny as hell. In [...]

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