What They Don’t Teach You In School

What They Don’t Teach You In School
Posted By admin on March 27, 2007
Dr. Thomas J. Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, hasdedicated much of his life to studying what makesmillionaires successful. His research has revealed somevery unique insight into the mindset of the wealthy.
For example, he found that millionaires contributed theirsuccess to having strong social skills, having good mentors,developing persistence, having a supportive spouse, andworking in a career that they love to be the biggestfactors of success.
Having a high GPA in school was listed as one of the leastcontributing factors of their success. So while it may opensome doors, education is not what enables you to arrive atyour final destination.
As said by motivational speaker, Jim Rohn:
“A formal education will make you a living. Self-educationwill make you rich.”
With that said, we must question the true value of college.Is it really worth it? Well, I’ll leave that question forlater.
For now, I’d like to explore areas where are schools havefailed us. Yes, there are indeed some very simple factorsthat contribute strongly to your success. Unfortunately,they’re not being taught in the schools.
The first one is the concept of failure.
In school, kid’s learn that “failure” is a negative term.However, it is nothing of the sort. There has never been asingle successful person who hasn’t failed numerous times ontheir journey to success.
In fact, the most successful people in life are those whohave failed the most.
Edison ‘failed’ more than ten thousand times before hesucceeded in creating the light bulb. As said by ThomasEdison: “I have not failed 10,000 times. I havesuccessfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”
Here is my favorite failure story….
In 1832 he lost his job and was defeated for state legislature.In 1833 he failed in business.In 1835 his sweetheart died.In 1836 he had a nervous breakdown.In 1838 he was defeated for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.In 1843 he was defeated for nomination for Congress.In 1848 he lost renomination.In 1849 he was rejected for land officer.In 1854 he was defeated for U.S. Senate.In 1856 he was defeated for nomination for Vice President.In 1858 he was again defeated for U.S. Senate.In 1860 he was elected President: Mr. Abraham Lincoln.
My motto is: fail as quickly as possible.
Our world is changing. We are living in a global economy.You are no longer only competing against people living inthe United States. Because of the power of technology,we are now competing at a global level.
We are competing for jobs with those living in Japan, China,and India. These three countries are gaining incredibleeconomic power and are developing an excellent educationsystem.
You may be surprised to hear the many jobs that arecurrently being outsourced. It’s not just the factoryjobs and the call centers. Not at all….
All sorts of computer programming jobs are being outsourcedto India. The computer and technology field has literallybeen transformed by the extremely talented programmers inIndia.
Accounting is another major industry that is beginning to beoutsourced.
Here’s a fact that may surprise you though. Not only arecompanies sending jobs abroad, but they are also seeing a100 percent increase in productivity. The people in othercountries are working 100 times harder for the opportunityto have a job that we take for granted.
People in China and India are starving for your job. And inour new global economy, they can have it.
Most of American students who graduate from college feelentitled to a job. In India there are millions of eageryoung students fighting for relatively few jobs. If wedon’t continue to improve our skills, we’ll be sittingon the sidelines.
So, what’s the key to staying competitive?
You must learn to learn. The world is changing at anincredible pace. Almost everything you learn incollege will be outdated in a minimum of 5 years.That is, of course, unless you major in history.
You must keep up with the changes taking place inyour particular vocation to stay ahead of the curve.
Too many people believe that graduation is the end of theirlearning journey, when in reality it is only the beginning.We must be on a lifelong journey of learning, whether it befrom books, seminars, night classes, or home study courses.
What else is missing from our schools?
Finance!!!!
About 65 percent of college students who graduated in the2003-2004 school did so with lingering debts to pay off.
This doesn’t count the number of young people in debt due tocredit cards and it certainly doesn’t help that they havethese shiny plastic cards being sent to them almost weekly.How can they resist? Well, many don’t.
After they take the plunge, they are hit with high interestrates and hidden fees. The credit card companies know thatyoung students are not educated in the world of personalfinance and they have made them their number one target.
Our young people are not being taught how to invest andspend their money wisely. Success in life is often not inhow much money you make, but rather how you spend your money.
This is what we must teach students. This is a cornerstoneto living a successful life. However, instead students arelearning who won the War of 1812 and how to conjugate verbs.All good things to learn I’m sure but not of much use in thereal world.
Let’s teach them instead about investing in a Roth IRAaccount, a 401k, or the incredible value of compound interest.
Let’s teach our students the success principles thatactually make a difference in the real world.
Let’s teach them to be leaders.
Schools, for the most part, teach us to be good followers.They teach us how to follow directions and color inside thelines. Private schools, however, are often developing leaders.They are developing the students who will lead all of thosegood followers. Private schools are teaching their kids aboutthe importance of public speaking and how to be creative.
They don’t get a picture to color, they’re simply given a blanksheet of paper to let their minds wander on.
So, if you want to become a leader, you’re most likely going tohave to develop those skills outside of the classroom. Youcertainly won’t learn them in a textbook.
However, you can learn one of the greatest leadership skillsof all in an organization called Toastmasters. This is a club that can be found in cities across North Americathat teach people how to improve their public speaking andleadership skills.
And as you can probably imagine, public speaking is one ofthe most important qualities you must have as a leader. Youmust be able to motivate your employees, brief your superiors,and ultimately “sell yourself”.
If it were up to me, I would make public speaking a requiredclass in schools across the nation. Unfortunately, theyhaven’t asked me for my opinion yet.
One of the greatet lessons missing from our schoolsis goal setting.
Only three percent of people commit their goals to paper.These are the same people who find the greatest success inlife.
It has been said that just by writing your goal down youwill triple your results. By assigning a timeframe to yourgoal, you will then quintuple your commitment to the goaland the likelihood of achieving it.
Without a goal and a plan, we will never achieve all that wetruly want for our lives.
Every one of us has 168 hours a week to live our life to thefullest. However, if we examine our lives closely, most ofus will find that we have 30-40 hours during the week thatwe are wasting with television, the computer, and a numberof other distractions.
So many people go through life content with just beingaverage. They go through life just trying to get by. Theygo to work, come home, cook dinner, take care of the kids,and then go to bed in exhaustion.
Too many of us are running a rat race. We don’t know how toslow down and enjoy the moment.
However, when we live with goals, life becomes an adventure.Our life develops focus, meaning, and purpose. Without setgoals, we end up wherever life happens to take us, which isnever at a destination of our choosing.
Goals guide and direct our lives. They give us focus. Theygive us hope. And in the end, goals help us to reach a newlevel in life.
So, let’s teach our kids to make big goals. Let’s teach our kidsthe greatest keys to success. And then, if we have time, let’steach them who won the War of 1812.
The last thing that schools do not teach is how to figureout what you really want in life.
And to tell the truth, they could never teach you whatcareer endeavor is best for you anyway. This is a personaljourney that must be explored in the solitude of one’s mind.
However, our school years are the very best time to find outwhat we really want out of life. It is then that we have timeto truly figure out what it is we want to do with our lives.
Unfortunately, far too many people never take the time to dothis. If you have been in the workforce for any time at all,then you have met these types of people. They are the oneswho spend the whole week just looking forward to the weekend.Maybe you’re even one of those people yourself.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with getting a job thatpays the bills. The danger comes when you fall into aroutine, when you don’t have a plan, passion, or goal toshoot for.
It is then that the future looks very bleak for you.
Let’s not get stuck waiting for the weekend. Let’s find whatwe truly love to do in life and make it our vocation.
As said by Steve Jobs,
“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true foryour work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going tofill a large part of your life, and the only way to be trulysatisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And theonly way to do great work is to love what you do.”
The most successful people in life are doing work which theylike best. It is very hard to succeed at something you hate.On the other hand, it’s hard not to succeed when working atsomething you love.
Everyone has a definite purpose and a vision for their lifethat could enrich the lives of others. The key is tuninginto that purpose.
There is some one thing that you can do better than anyoneelse in the world could do it. Search until you find outwhat this particular line of endeavor is, make it theobject of your definite chief aim and commit your life toachieving it. In your search for the work for which you arebest fitted, it will be well if you bear in mind the factthat you will most likely attain the greatest success byfinding out what work you like best, for it is a well knownfact that a person generally best succeeds in the particularline of endeavor into which he or she can throw their wholeheart and soul.
A definite purpose is something that you must create foryourself. No one else will create it for you and it will notcreate itself. Therefore, let’s spend our school yearsexploring what we truly want out of life while we don’t haveto worry about the bills, the job, the kids, and the weekendthat never seems to come.
When we find work that we truly love to do, it is then thatwe can live a life full of passion and purpose.
I believe that Christian D. Larson said it best:
“When you work simply for yourself or for your own personalgain your mind will seldom rise above the limitations ofthe undeveloped personal life;
but when you are inspired by some great purpose, someextraordinary project, all your thoughts break bounds; yourmind transcends limitations; your consciousness expands inevery direction;
and you find yourself in a new world, a great world, awonderful world; dormant powers, faculties and talentsbecome alive,
and you discover yourself to be a larger man by far than youever dreamed yourself to be.”
– Christian D. Larson, Business Psychology, 1912
Education serves many wonderful purposes. I am a bigbeliever in education. However, I’m smart enough toknow that learning doesn’t stop at graduation.
I’m smart enough to know that today’s technology hasprovided us with unlimited learning opportunities. Asinhabitors of the 21st century, we have a world of knowledgeat our fingertips.
I still know that the most important lessons in life are notfound in a textbook.
Although the knowledge you learn in school is important, it’snot anything you couldn’t learn in a book. The overall experienceof college and the four-year commitment are of much greater value.
In the end, your success is still up to you.
And that, is what they don’t teach you in school…

Wireless USB is here

Wireless USB is here
Monday, July 23, 2007 at 9:19 AM PT No comments
The Wireless USB is here … finally. After all the talk about using low-power wireless connections that would replace the wired USB, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) today endorsed products from six companies - Dell, D-Link, IOGEAR and Lenovo. Most of these products will carry a “Wireless USB logo.” So far folks like myself have been using bluetooth-based devices to unclutter our desks (though it is a bit impossible.)
For More information: www.usb.org.

Hardware guys buying Software today

trends !! whr some1 sud plan to go
Hardware guys buying Software today

As the world becomes increasingly digital, and data continues to grow, the importance of software in managing it all is on an upswing. Hardware vendors, realizing that building specialized software isn't easy, and that is why they are busy opening up their check-books, looking to buy the software expertise. In fact, there were three such deals that hit the news wires today.
Of course, by now you may have already heard about HP buying Opsware for $1.6 billion in cash, because it would help sell HP's datacenter hardware. Hifn, a Los Gatos, CA.-based storage and security hardware company snapped up Siafu Software for an undisclosed amount. Aruba Networks, a wireless networking equipment maker bought Network Chemistry's wireless security business this morning, again for an undisclosed amount of money.
Bottomline: While Web 2.0 companies may get acquired by Google (or Yahoo), specialized software start-ups with products that enhance hardware will find buyers more often. Expect this trend to continue, and in fact gain momentum. -- - - - - Thanks & Regards,Praveen Karadiguddi

fring on the Sony Ericsson P990i

fring on the Sony Ericsson P990i
You can get fring on your Sony Ericsson P990i in 3 steps:
1. Check that you have the latest firmware. (Go to Main Menu / System Information. The latest firmware is R6D23). If you don’t have it, get it from Sony Ericsson. Go grab a cup of coffee - it will take about 15 minutes to install.2. Get an audio plug-in from fring here (takes about 5 seconds)3. Get fring via SMS as usual (fring should be up & running within about a minute as usual)
Sony Ericsson fringsters will enjoy the same fring functionality as the rest of us (except no history yet).
p.s for all those who have been asking us, fring doesn’t (yet) work on any other UIQ devices. Unfortunately the M600 and w950 won’t be compatible due to device limitations.

My comments : app works great on my P990, i have started speaking/chatting to my friends on skype/gtalk using my phone.. feel no need to switch on laptop to speak to friend :)

also twitter and sip adding is icing on top.
Killer app for P990 !! cheers SonyEricsson

Taj Mahal is one of New seven wonder of world

feel proud :)) and great

I love you India

Too Much Skype, Not Enough Product Planning

Too Much Skype, Not Enough Product Planning

Skype has launched a series of services that all seem to confuse, confound and basically befuddle.

First was Skype Unlimited--This means make all the Skype Out and Skype Forward calls you want from the USA to USA and Canada. Okay. This makes sense. One price flat rate calling. This makes your phone budget very predictable.

Then came Skype Pro--this adds unlimited calling and a bunch of bundled features, but it seems to be aimed at the NON-USA market first. It also seems to intrude on Skype Unlimited in some ways, but add some neat features at no cost. Bottom line is if have Pro you don't need Unlimited but if you have Unlimited you may still want Pro for some features.

Now there is Skype ToGo which requires Skype Pro. It looks like a clone of Mint Telecom except that it uses your Skype minutes. This is useful as a "minute stealing" defensive play. My guess is that Skype looked at Jajah and said, our customers are using that, so lets make up something simple that keeps things Skype. They also likely looked at MobiVox and saw some minutes being driven over that access gateway and said, we need to do more here.

What would have made sense would have been to just include Skype ToGO in Skype Pro and call it a day. For those who signed up for Skype Unlimited they should have been given Skype Pro for the balance of 2007. In 2008 they should be offered Skype Unlimited or Skype Unlimited Pro and that way they can decide which way ToGo.

End of the day, Skype keeps looking more and more like a phone company, albeit a 2.0 version. So where is the E911?

Trends the social use of handsets in India and China…

Emerging (Markets) Telephony

• listen

Tuesday June 5, 2007 8:57AM
by Imran Ali in News

Looks like Nokia’s heeding the research of staffer Jan Chipchase in their design of handsets for emerging markets.

Matt Web noted in his recent keynote at Reboot, that a new range of Nokia phones addresses the social use of handsets in India and China…

They’re for the emerging markets of India and China. There, the context of use of the mobile is the whole village.

• The phone tends to be shared by a family, so each one stores 5 distinct addressbooks
• There’s often one mobile per village, which is rented out. These home can have pre-set call time/cost limits, so make renting out easier. They come with a built in business model
• It turns out that after voice calls and texting, two major uses of a phone are as a clock, and as a torch. So there’s an external screen showing the time, and a torch built-in
• There’s a teaching mode
• And these phones are cheap. Like, 40 euros cheap

I’m impressed to see such a huge corporation building products in such a progressive way.

Well done Nokia :)

And finally eBay opens up, offers new APIs

Written by Om Malik
Monday, June 11, 2007 at 6:30 AM PT | No comments

You know Open Web (the trend formerly known as Web 2.0) has reached a point of maturity, when eBay, the auction giant decides to embrace it ethos. The company at the eBay Developer Conference in Boston announcedthat it has opened up its three core business units – eBay, PayPal and Skype to third party developers, hoping to catch some of the ‘open web’ magic. (This is something we had talked about earlier.)

EBay’s API offerings will give third party developers abilities to conduct searches, bids, alerts and a whole slew of other features from anywhere on the web. (Full list at the end of the post.)

The more interesting APIs however are coming from the PayPal group, which will enable mobile checkout. Similarly, Skype is going to be pushing something called Skype Extras, which are plug-ins written by independent third-party developers that let users expand Skype functionality and enrich their Skype conversations.

EBay’s moves, while welcome, show that the company is feeling the heat and losing ground to more “embrace-and-extend” services. As the web moves away from monolithic entities, eBay stands the risk of losing its core audience to social networks, blogs and other social media destinations.

The company’s decisions also indicate that it cannot be the solitary driver of innovation, and needs to tap into the web collective. EBay developers such as Unwired Buyer, Cooqy, and mpire are proof of what the developers can do for eBay.

eBay APIs announced today:

• eBay Shopping Web Services: a suite of faster, more responsive APIs that makes searching on eBay up to 16 times faster and allows developers to easily create buying applications
• eBay Bidding API: qualified developers can enable bidding on eBay from anywhere
• eBay Client Alerts: lightweight, near real-time alerts about platform activity
• New JavaScript and Flash Developer Centers: making it easier for JavaScript and Flash developers to access the eBay Web Services platform
• New Production Call Plan: access to API calls in the production environment raised from 10,000 per month to 150,000 per month, allowing new developers to rapidly scale up their applications.
• PayPal introduced a new suite of APIs, including Mobile Checkout, which allows developers to integrate any mobile website with the PayPal checkout process.
• PayPal introduced a new Name-Value Pair API that allows developers to integrate PayPal more easily and quickly into Web sites and applications, enhancing online commerce experiences and making PayPal more accessible to Web users everywhere.
• Skype Extras: are plug-ins written by independent third-party developers that let users expand Skype functionality and enrich their Skype conversations.
• Shopping.com announced plans for a re-architected API that will be available in Q3 2007, which will have a new easy-to-use interface, detailed documentation, and tools for faster implementations.

Innovate or Perish

Source :Innovate or Perish

Taking a clue from the oft-repeated notion of “publish or perish”, I talked of the need for “innovate or perish” in the Sun Technovate event in Mumbai, on the eve of Sun Founder & Chairman Scott McNealy’s second visit to India. There were nearly 200 CIO/CTO in the audience.
My pitch was simple; innovation is happening […]
-->
Taking a clue from the oft-repeated notion of “publish or perish”, I talked of the need for “innovate or perish” in the Sun Technovate event in Mumbai, on the eve of Sun Founder & Chairman Scott McNealy’s second visit to India. There were nearly 200 CIO/CTO in the audience.
My pitch was simple; innovation is happening all around in India, accelerating in the past 5 years, both inside and outside IT. It could be
Infosys Global Delivery ModelIttiam becoming the “world’s most preferred DSP IP supplier” within three years of starting in 2001 and retaining it for 3 years in a rowKashyap perfecting slowly but steadily the concept of “public toilet” through “Sulabh Sauchalay”Reliance launching Rs 777 Classic phonesRobosoft starting 700-seater Tech Park in sleepy Udupi (known only for low cost restaurants)HiCal Magnetics supplying components for NokiaCosmic Circuits re-designing low-end electronics items for ultra-low costlow cost eye surgery in Arvind Hospitalslow cost heart surgery in Narayana Hrudayalaorthe slew of low cost water purifiers.
Innovation is the only sustainable competitive advantage to serve the 5 billion people in the “bottom of the pyramid”; innovation provides 10-20 times (not percent) cost and time savings.
Naturally, without innovation India Inc cannot remain competitive in the long run

Reliance launches entry level phones at Rs 777

Reliance launches entry level phones at Rs 777
May 16th, 2007
It is interesting to see Reliance pursuing the low-cost, high elasticity market of offering new phones at Rs 777 virtually wiping out “second hand” phones in the low-end category. Such low cost option also reduces the entry barrier. It is interesting to remember the Rs 25,000 price point that the bulky Nokia 6610 had in 1996-1998 time frame; we have indeed come a long way.
Unfortunately the political establishment that talks of “aam admi” is so busy wasting money on all grandiose projects that do good neither to the Government nor to the citizens but never take a moment to celebrate the real benefits “aam admi” gets, thanks to technology. One hope to see a generation of politicians who will genuinely work for the common man and woman of India.

IMS dirty laundry

Source:http://www.oreillynet.com/etel/blog/2007/05/ims_dirty_laundry.html
We’ve talked about the controversies surrounding IMS here on ETel before (see Lee Dryburgh’s The IMS Debate for one interesting perspective). Brough Turner, one of the really smart guys out there in this field, has written up the notes from his recent talk about what he learned in porting his MyCaller ringback tones application from the Intelligent Network (IN) implementation to an “IMS” version. You may be surprised at what he found.

In Lessons Learned Implementing IMS, Brough really breaks down the details of where IMS is today, what it can offer, and some of the problems people will face in moving towards IMS. He presents a short and sweet executive summary of his findings, but the entire article is well worth a read.

For the impatient, here are the takeaways.

It’s very early days for IMS. Today’s “IMS” networks are combinations of SIP infrastructure with 3GPP Release 4 softswitch-controlled voice service.
IMS is about connection control, only. Only part of your application has to change. For MyCaller, ~90 percent of the software remains the same.
IMS enables multimedia ringback, i.e. video! So there is significant new functionality, versus today’s audio-only ringback.
Parallels with Intelligent Network are striking!
Most application–specific data remains outside of IMS. In particular, operators do not want to add data fields to their Home Subscriber Server (HSS).
Application–specific MRFs make sense. Operators tend to avoid sharing resources between diverse applications. And, for rich media, application–specific MRFs can be more cost-effective.
Operators await 3GPP Release 7. At least anecdotally, several operators have suggested that 3GPP Release 7 is the first complete, stable, and consistent version they will fully deploy.
And for more good analysis of the state of IMS and a deeper look at the R4 vs. R7 issue, check out Dean Bubbley’s response post, When is an IMS not an IMS?.

Will iPhone spark wireless wars?

Roy, a doorman for my apartment building, stopped me this morning to chit chat. Knowing my affection for all new mobile phones, I wasn’t surprised that he asked to play around with my Nokia N95. “Are you going to buy the iPhone?” he asked, seeking a second opinion since he has already made up his mind and is going to buy an iPhone.

Though he doesn’t have an iPod right now, he thinks an iPhone would give him two devices in one, despite the high price tag. He is seemingly undeterred by the questionable battery life. (One of the reasons why I have a more wait-and-see attitude towards this Apple device.) He isn’t the only one - as the interest in iPhone seems to be on an upswing.

Even if you disregard the rumors and fan sites - the population at large seems to have a considerable interest in the iPhone, indicated by the total search volume for keyword “iPhone.” According to Hitwise, a research group that tracks Internet traffic trends, iPhone related searches represent over 0.002% of total Internet searches per week for past three weeks, with iPhone release date and price being the specific information folks are looking for. (In comparison, MySpace was the #1 query and had 1.16% of the total search volume.) Just as an unscientific indicator the search volume is a good indicator of increasing commercial appeal of the device.

The big question, however, is how does iPhone impact the wireless market at large — and whether it will result in a market share shift, putting AT&T at an advantage.

AT&T is betting big on this device and is hoping to pull ahead of its rivals by riding the iPhone express. AT&T and Apple are going to be launching a big media blitz to promote the iPhone, and according to UBS Research, it will be a major reason why AT&T will be able to add approximately 2.8 million gross postpaid subscribers in the third and fourth quarters of 2007.

If Apple’s guidance of 10 million units in 18 months hits the target, UBS estimates that 2 million iPhones will be sold in the U.S. in the first six months of the launch. That works out to about 18% of AT&T’s post-paid additions and upgrades, UBS estimates. But these 2 million will have to come from somewhere - probably switchers from other wireless services.

At the end of Q1 2007, there were about 170 million postpaid wireless subscribers in the U.S., with Verizon the largest carrier (56 million) with AT&T at #2 with about 51 million, followed by Sprint (41 million) and T-Mobile bringing up the rear at 22 million. (These numbers don’t reflect wholesale and prepaid customers.)

So 2 million units don’t mean much in market share — a little 1.1% market share gain for AT&T in the first six months, but it is the residual impact that might cause the big upheaval in the wireless market.

There are some who believe that since iPhone isn’t going to get as much subsidy as other devices, AT&T can pass those subsidies to even further subsidize non-Apple phones, and making its service more attractive. That would be one way to capture the increased foot traffic to AT&T stores.

Will Verizon and Sprint take this lying down? Of course not, and will launch their own price subsidies, discount plans or whatever it takes to hang on to their subscribers. And whatever happens, consumers will come out ahead — nothing wrong with that. And even if Roy doesn’t end up buying the iPhone, he still might get a good deal somewhere else.

Six dang good reasons why you (probably) hate your cell phone provider

Six dang good reasons why you (probably) hate your cell phone provider
In the latest issue of Information Week, just out today, Elena Malykhina lists six reasons why you may hate your cellphone service.
I've been going down the list, and I gotta tellya: Elena is spot on with each reason.
Let's take it from the top:
Disabled features. Elena notes that Columbia University School of Law Prof. Tim Wu points some of these features as call timers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Advanced SMS, browsers, photo and sound file transfer, E-mail clients, and SIM card mobility. Yes, carriers work hard to get your business, but then what does that say that they disable features that would enable enhanced experiences? I think it is because they eventually want to debut their own features and nickel-and-dime you for them, rather than risk the success of third-party programs.
Phones "locked" to work on only one network. Once they have you, they have you. Sure doesn't speak well of any company that puts up electronic barriers to you leaving their lair.
"Walled garden" Internet access. Elena sees a deliberate inconsistency between the menu-driven wireless web content offered by most cell carriers, and the difficulty of accessing content from rival providers who haven't allied with that particular carriers. Sure, many advanced handset-based browserswill call up these rival sites, but not in versions optimized for mobile. Trying to view these sites often causes script-based lockups.
Unreliable service. Yup. Not only are there dead cell zones in my metro area (Portland, Oregon) but dead cell zones in my condo.
Incompatible products and services. Elena's referring to the fact that cell in the U.S. works with one of two basic standards: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) used by Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and Alltel; and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) used by AT&T and T-Mobile. "This compounds the problem of locked phones (see above), since a phone designed for one network may not work on another even if the carriers wanted that," Elena points out.
Cell phones generally can't be used as laptop modems even though it's technically feasible. This is most often accomplished by disabling the relevant Bluetooth technology that would let this happen. AT&T and SprintNextel will let you do this, but only for surcharged data plans. T-Mobile will let you do this, however.
Good on T-Mobile.

RFID tags to detect purloined school testsPosted

May 14th, 2007
RFID tags to detect purloined school testsPosted by Russell Shaw @ 8:32 am Categories: General, Security, News



The website ars technica reports that the UK-based Edexcel examination board has announced that the company will be adding electronic radio frequency identifier (RFID) tags to its GCSE (high school equivalency) and A-level (pre-university) exam papers.
These tags are going to be embedded in exam packages. These packages are delivered to schools and test centers in secure bags that are not to be opened until exams start.
Yet as I remember from my high college days, there were rich or well-connected students who tried to convince a lowly shipping clerk or fraternity brother in the mailroom to just take one exam out and photocopy it.
And I don't have to tell you how quickly those photocopies were distributed.
In this new RFID system, though, RFID tags will be able to detect if any of the bags have been opened prematurely and if exams have been taken from the bags.
I'd love to see this catch on in the U.S.

Microsoft’s (Beta!) VoIP Device Blitz

[Source : http://gigaom.com/2007/05/13/microsofts-beta-voip-device-blitz/#more-8984]
Microsoft’s (Beta!) VoIP Device Blitz
Written by Paul Kapustka Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 11:46 PM PT 2 comments
You can’t buy them yet, but if you are an enterprise IT exec who is kicking the tires on IP telephony offerings you might at least want to take a gander at the wide range of Microsoft-centric IP voice devices — phones, headsets, videocam monitors — being informally unveiled Monday at the Windows Hardware Engineering conference in Los Angeles.
All meant to work with the still-in-beta Office Communications Server software from Redmond, the VoIP device blitz from nine different vendors is Microsoft’s latest attempt to break into the corporate Voice over IP market, against established players like Avaya and Cisco.
While the devices — shown last week in pre-WinHEC press briefings in San Francisco — performed impressively in an all-Microsoft environment, many big questions remain, such as:
1) OCS still isn’t available, nor is pricing information;
2) Much of the functionality shown is already available from competitors; and
3) do you really want to trust your phone system to Microsoft software?
Despite our traditional skepticism of Microsoft’s commitment to communications, we should start out here by saying that the demo of phone systems cobbled together in a SF hotel basement last week all performed as planned, without any of the also traditional Microsoft demo glitches. VoIP phones rang crisp and clear, triggering on-screen synergy with Office Communicator, updating presence-based information for other Microsoft-based clients, etc., etc.
Impressive as it was for a Microsoft VoIP display, there wasn’t anything shown — customizable presence info, IM-to-voice-to-video call escalation — that isn’t already available from other IP players or even free offerings like Skype or Gizmo. So what’s the fuss?
For starters, the participation of tested device players — like Polycom, Plantronics, Samsung and LG/Nortel — shows that Microsoft has the pull to draw in trusted suppliers whose gear IT execs have likely already signed PO’s for. And by committing to a standards (SIP) based platform, Microsoft hopes to drive economies of scale to eventually sell itself as the low-priced alternative to Cisco’s Cadillac-priced offerings in the IP voice arena. (Again, no pricing yet from Microsoft. Trust them at your own peril.)
Certainly, toys like the USB Bluetooth headset (which Microsoft says will dual-home to VoIP and cellphones, a pledge that couldn’t be proven in the demo) from LG-Nortel will serve as momentary VoIP-candy, but there’s still a long road ahead of Microsoft in its attempts to A) convince enterprise IT that it’s serious about telephony and B) overcome products already in the market from playahs like Cisco and Avaya, not to mention the burgeoning open-source offerings in the Asterisk arena.
But while it’s easy to poke holes in Microsoft’s offerings — like, say, its five pre-configured “presence” states, which seem laughable next to the on-the-fly customizable “don’t bug me” field in Google’s Gtalk — it’s important to remember that people who buy Microsoft corporate software buy in the thousands, not by single downloads.
And with a host of interested device suppliers on its side, Microsoft might not be able to ignore its commitment to telephony any longer. Now all we need is pricing and availability to let the battle really begin.

VoIP’s “four obstacles”

Four obstacles to implementing VoIP
May 11, 2007
Source http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5102-1035-6183187.html
Takeaway: While VoIP's popularity continues to grow, it still has some obstacles to overcome before it becomes ubiquitous in corporate environments. Deb Shinder lists the four greatest obstacles and discusses how they undermine one of VoIP's biggest advantages -- the cost savings.
As the lower cost of calls -- particularly long distance and international calls -- attracts more and more companies, VoIP's popularity in the business world continues to grow. According to iLocus Research's annual report on the VoIP industry (which the company has been tracking since the late 1990s), the IP PBX market grew 52 percent from 2005 to 2006, and the number of worldwide voice over broadband (VoBB) subscribers (both consumer and business) almost doubled.
Those growth statistics are impressive, but a look at actual percentages tells a different story. Less than half of businesses use VoIP, and less than a quarter of small businesses do so. If cost savings are so dramatic, why haven't more companies -- especially small ones that don't have millions invested in their traditional phone systems -- made the switch?
In 2006, VoIP Magazine predicted that half of all small businesses and two-thirds of large businesses would be using VoIP by 2010 -- although not necessarily exclusively for all their telecommunications needs. To get there, VoIP providers are going to have to overcome the obstacles that have so far prevented many businesses from cutting the telco cord and moving to IP-based phone services. Let's explore some of these obstacles.
Reliability concerns
The performance of the long-established public switched telephone network (PSTN) has "spoiled" telephone users. While consumers and employees accept that computers sometimes go down, their expectations of the phone system are much higher. When they pick up the phone, they expect to get a dial tone. Users won't tolerate less than rock-solid reliability from their telephone systems.
Companies depend on the phones to stay in contact with customers, partners, and vendors -- as well as within the company for communication between employees. A phone outage can bring business to a halt -- or, at the least, slow it down considerably and cost the company big bucks.
VoIP is far more reliable than it was just a few years ago. However, there's still a perception of unreliability that providers must overcome before cautious managers will take the plunge.
And there's another aspect to reliability. The regular phone jacks in a building don't require electric service to work (although equipment such as PBX does). That means you can still have phone service during a power outage.
VoIP depends on both electrical power and Internet service. Interruption of either means losing phone service. You can ameliorate the problem by having redundant Internet connections and power backup such as a generator, but this adds to the cost.
Network quality of service
VoIP is far more sensitive to network "glitches" than data transmission is. If the network drops data packets, it just resends them. If the dropped packet results in an e-mail delayed by a few minutes, users likely won't even notice.
But if delays in transmission or dropped packets cause a disrupted phone call, you can bet the call participants will notice -- and complain. The data transmission process is much more transparent; because phone calls are real-time communications, problems are "in the face" of the users.
IP networks are subject to many variables, including:
Packet loss due to network congestion or corruption of the data
Variation in the amount of delay of packet delivery, which can result in poor voice quality
Packets arriving out of sequence, which can result in discarded packets and cause more delay and disruption
In addition, the analog-to-digital conversion process can affect VoIP call quality, causing users to experience unpleasant distortion or echo effects. Another culprit is signal level problems, which can cause excessive background noise that interferes with conversations.
To help prevent such problems, the IP network must support quality-of-service (QoS) mechanisms that allow administrators to give priority to VoIP packets. This means a VoIP network is more trouble to manage than a data network, and it requires a higher level of expertise -- or at least an additional skill set -- on the part of network administrators.
VoIP monitoring and management solutions are available that make it easier to optimize voice services, but that adds to the cost of deployment. It also negates some of the cost savings that motivate the move to VoIP in the first place.
Complexity and confusion
The complexity and unfamiliar terrain of VoIP communications presents another big obstacle for many companies. Network administrators well-versed in running a data network may not know much about how VoIP works, what equipment is necessary, or how to set up and maintain that equipment.
In addition, VoIP terminology quickly gets confusing -- media gateways, analog telephone adapter (ATA), audio response unit (ARU), interactive voice response (IVR), etc. Company managers and IT personnel hear about different VoIP protocols -- H.323, SIP, IAX -- and don't understand the differences or know which one they need.
Already overworked IT staffs may not be eager to undertake the task of learning a whole new specialty nor the added burden of ongoing maintenance of the components of a VoIP system. They may not be sure how to integrate the VoIP network into the existing data network.
Of course, there are answers to these problems. Consultants with the requisite knowledge can help set up a VoIP network, or companies can use hosted VoIP services to reduce both the complication and the upfront expenses of buying VoIP servers. However, once again, this ups the price tag of going to VoIP and eats into the cost savings that are one of VoIP's main advantages.
Security
Finally, reports on the security vulnerabilities of IP networks have bombarded companies, and the risk of intercepted calls and eavesdropping are a concern. In addition, providing another layer of vulnerability to a data network integrated with the VoIP network is also a worry.
While malicious users can tap traditional telephones, it's a fairly difficult process that usually requires physical access -- at least for anyone other than a government agency. Traditional phone communications travel over dedicated circuits controlled by one entity -- the phone company. But when VoIP packets go out there into the "Internet cloud," they go through numerous routers and servers at many different points.
Encryption and other security mechanisms can make VoIP as secure or even more secure than PSTN. But once again, it's perception that matters. (And, of course, extra security mechanisms mean extra cost.)
Summary
VoIP is gaining ground steadily. However, before it becomes ubiquitous, the technology needs to overcome some obstacles. VoIP providers must not only address the problems of reliability and quality of service, but they must also reduce the complexity and confusion inherent in implementing VoIP and address security concerns. And, at the same time, they must keep VoIP costs lower than the costs associated with traditional phone service.
Want more tips and tricks to help you plan or optimize your VoIP deployment? Automatically sign up for our free VoIP newsletter, delivered each Monday!
Deb Shinder is a technology consultant, trainer, and writer who has authored a number of books on computer operating systems, networking, and security. She currently specializes in security issues and Microsoft products, and she has received Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status in Windows Server Security.

I Asked myself what is IMPS

Answer was in WIKI asusual :)

IMPS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the mythological beings, see Imp.
For Star Wars fan film, see IMPS The Relentless.
IMPS stands for Instant Messaging and Presence Service. It is an OMA enabler for Instant Messaging and Presence. The Wireless Village consortium developed the first cut of the specifications. After Wireless Village was merged with OMA, its specs became OMA IMPS 1.0 specifications. IMPS is widely deployed but not necessarily marketed. Interworking between several operators IMPS platforms is being performed under a GSMA initiave that encourages interworking and deployment of Instant Messaging.
Vanilla terminals often have IMPS clients.
On Nokia, the chat client is accessed via the "My Presence" menu.
On Sony Ericsson, it's called "’My Friends".
On Motorola, it's called "IM". The phones' chat clients are generally designed to be provider neutral, so you have to put in the Wireless Village server settings.
If your phone doesn't have an inbuilt chat client, you might still be able to get a third-party chat application that runs on your phone's Symbian, Java ME, BREW, or other application environment. You need to get a chat client which is "Wireless Village compliant presence-enabled".
Note that it is still necessary for the operator to provide the IM service and/or one will have to connect to a third party server for connection with others for IM'ing

[edit] Compatible terminals
This is only a partial list. Many phones sold today support IMPS, especially phones from these manufacturers.
Nokia 3220, 6020, 6021, 6220, 6230, 6230i, 6630, 6820, 5140, 6810, 7200, 7260, 7270, 7610, 8800, E50, E60, E61, E62, E65, E70, N70, N72
Motorola V500, V600, E398, V3
Sony Ericsson K310, J300i, F500i, K300i, K310i, K500i, K510i, K600i, K610i, K700i, K750i, K790i, K800i, S700i, T206, T630, T637, V800, W550i, W800i, W810i, W850i, W900i, Z500A, Z800, Z1010
Siemens CX70, CX75, M65, SK65, S75
BenQ-Siemens S68

Great List of Open Source Telephony Projects

[Source:http://www.oreillynet.com/etel/blog/2007/04/great_list_of_open_source_tele.html]

Regular ETel readers know that we’re big on open source telephony around here. We regularly feature technical articles on open source telecom projects like Asterisk, FreeSWITCH, YATE, and OpenZoep, we like to discuss the issues around open source business models in our blogs, and O’Reilly Media has long been a champion and documenter for many of the most important open source projects. So I consider paying attention to open source telephony projects a major part of my “beat” as the editor of ETel, but even I was surprised at the depth represented in VoIP Now’s list of 74 Open Source VoIP Apps & Resources. Broken down by category, Jimmy Atkinson has collected what must be the most exhaustive list of open source telecom projects to date. I’m ashamed to admit there’s quite a few on this list I haven’t heard of. Thanks a lot for this Jimmy, now I’ve got my work cut out for me!

Research firm: cable VoIP nearly doubled in 2006

Source : http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=1559
Technology market research firm In-Stat has issued a new study that maintains that due to a big assist from VoIP, cable providers nearly doubled their number of telephone subscribers last year.
Of the 9.4 million cable telephone subscribers in North America, 6.6 million are VoIP users, In-Stat said.
In-Stat added that, with 42 percent of these cable VoIP users said they signed up for service in the last 12 months.
“In a growing number of markets around the world, cable TV operators consider telephony service to be an integral part of their telecommunications service bundle," analyst Mike Paxton said in a statement released with the findings.
In-Stat's study also says that worldwide cable telephony subscriptions jumped from 15.8 million in 2005 to more than 22 million last year. According to In-Stat, cable telephone service revenues are projected to reach $10.4 billion this year, up from $7.9 billion in 2006.

The VoIP wars begins

The VoIP wars: Praveen Karadiguddi
[ Source : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/18/voip_wars_head_for_ofcom/]
Truphone boss James Tagg says his fledgling company will ask Ofcom to intervene if mobile networks continue to cripple VoIP-capable handsets.
Another VoIP provider told us today that Orange has been crippling its E61 handsets for SIP telephony "for several weeks".
As we reported earlier today, Vodafone and Orange have released a version of the hot new Nokia N95 handset with the native VoIP capability disabled. See Truphone's video here.
Tagg said he'd be making a representation to the UK telecoms regulator in a week if questions hadn't been answered satisfactorily by Vodafone and Orange. "We will formally complain within a week if we haven't got some sort of answer out of them by other routes," he told us.
The two giants are clearly flouting EU law, he said. "We're being blocked at the network level and at the device level."
Adam Beaumont, managing director of rival SIP service AQL said his company wouldn't be making its own representation to Ofcom, but gave his full backing to Truphone's complaint.
Beaumont also revealed that Orange has been crippling its Nokia E61 handsets.
"The N95 doesn't surprise me," he told us. AQL had noticed that Orange-branded E61 phones were unable to make SIP calls for several weeks.
New start-ups such as Truphone and AQL allow users to use a WLAN-aware handset with built-in SIP support - such as the E61 and the new E65 - bypassing the network. Nokia has integrated SIP calling deeply into the phone, which makes for a seamless experience for the user and better power management. The launch of Nokia's E65 and N95 handsets, combined with the growing maturity of services such as AQL and Truphone, is taking VoIP from the enthusiast market into the mainstream.
"We've got other fish to fry, but we'll be backing the Truphone complaint," Beaumont said today. "There's going to be a lot of disappointed subscribers out there."
Both Tagg and Beaumont said Nokia would be far from pleased to see the operators disabling premium features from their phones.
"Nokia's built a great handset with the E65, and are completely behind SIP and VoIP. You're not going to buy a £700 handset unless it does something cool," said Tagg.
Beaumont said: "It opens up a another can of words, really. Nokia won't be very happy supplying a phone to the networks that then had its functionality limited. They create a beautiful handset, and there's a promise to the consumer, then they get one and find it doesn't do any of those things promised."
Why Truphone and AQL aren't like Skype
"You can use a completely separate client like Fring, but it's impossible to make SIP calls using the Nokia stuff," Tagg explained today.
"We've always taken the view that the SIP client must be deeply integrated into the phone, and that these separate clients are novelties. Fring is impressive, but it's hard to write a client that's nice to your battery, and people want to use the contact book and call log that are already in the phone."
Users can still buy an N95 with a SIM from a supplier such as Expansys, but they'll pay more upfront and not enjoy the airtime subsidy.
"They're just defending their voice revenues," said Beaumont. "They say they're not worried about VoIP but this shows they are. Why remove it, otherwise?"
Ofcom had not responded to our request for comment by press time.