This Weekend’s Smathering of Stuff
I have a little to say about a lot of things, so bear with me.
Cingular can no longer find friends: This article talks about Cingular terminating their “Location Based Services” on the old AT&T Wireless network. The “find nearby” and “find friend” feature was way cool the few times I used it (prior to migrating from AT&T Wireless), but apparently Cingular’s network can’t handle it. If they actually marketed it effectively, it would be a really useful “data” service, unlike most of the crap Cingular and the other carriers try and foist on us.
August Jackson discovers “Layer 8 and 9″ problems: Having worked in IT for a long time, I’ve heard of Layer 8 and 9 problems. I’m not sure how you can be an IT weenie without having heard the phrase “Layer 8″ at least once. Meanwhile, someone has actually taken a serious approach to extending the OSI 7-Layer model to a 10 Layer model, and layers 8 thru 10 aren’t political.
Nokia’s Network Tycoon: Ever thought you could run a network better than whomever you use? Here’s your chance. It took me a few tries before I was able to make it for 36 months and I couldn’t turn a profit in any of the months. Looks more challenging than I think…
Proof I talked with Alec Sanders: As I blogged earlier, I had talked to Alec Saunders. The proof is in his blog entry. He does like my virtual Becky concept. Hopefully it gets implemented better than the voice front-end Sprint used to employ on their customer service line for Sprint PCS.
A way to integrate Gizmo Project and PhoneGnome: Really this talks about how, if Skype actually employed open standards, they could easily integrate with PhoneGnome and increase their usage. Meanwhile, because Gizmo employs open standards, integrating with PhoneGnome is a snap.
Snowboarding movie filmed with a Nokia N90: Something I picked up from Andy Abramson’s Nokia N90 blog. While there was some obvious post-production on the video–namely the addition of a music track and some words on the screen, the quality of the video itself is pretty damn good for a little phone. I have got to get me one of those…
Making fun of the Wikipedia Scandal: This comic on Penny Arcade pretty much sums up the whole Wikipedia fiasco in a nutshell. Funny, if because of who they used to illustrate the point.
Qwest taking on Comcast in the VoIP space: Last I checked, Qwest’s VoIP service was a bit more pricey since they don’t include long distance, and their rates are about as good as they are on a conventional landline, which is to say they suck ass. While I haven’t compared it to Comcast, I don’t think I need to. They both aren’t the low-price leaders.
SIPphone cares: Another one from Alec Sanders, this time about his experience with SIPphone’s support. Andy’s also said good things about SIPphone’s responsiveness to issues, but then again both them are a bit more well-connected than I am. 
That being said, I blogged about problems with the Linux version of the SIPphone client. I got a response on my blog from someone at SIPphone saying “hey we fixed it.” That made me feel special. 
