Modular by Design — Telephony
August 12, 2004
Another area where the modular approach is starting to have an impact is in the telephone service arena. Traditionally, telephone service was offered on a land line and was divided into local service, long distance, and extra features like caller ID, call forwarding, etc… The model was predicated on the concept of one device (the phone) receiving […]
E-voting and the Open Source community
July 23, 2004
Today’s New York Times has an editorial that puts together a rough set of requirements for E-voting machines: Physical security for electronic systems Rigorous testing of electronic machines Properly trained poll workers, and rapid-response teams on Election Day Public records at the precinct level The option to vote non-electronically Independent security experts Transparency in electronic voting Looking […]
Quick Notes on my Firenze trip
June 3, 2004
After a wonderful trip in Italy, I am now back in New York. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was in Firenze, Italy for the past couple of weeks, enjoying great art, great wine and great food. Just some quick thoughts in no particular order… Europe and the United States are now moving forward on two different paths […]
Blowing Bubbles
January 30, 2004
The new meme in the mainstream media is that the Internet is responsible for Dean’s implosion as a candidate. However, with the benefit of hindsight, was the Internet buzz of the 90s a real bubble or was the bubble something not necessarily net-related? Historical perspective Every time a major change happens in technology, the stock market goes through […]
Number Portability FAQ
November 24, 2003
Today is a great day in the USA. Wireless Number Portability has arrived! I wrote about this last year and am glad that we have finally arrived to the point where number portability is now doable. So what is number portability? Well, effective today, you can change mobile phone provider without having to worry about changing your […]
Dean Campaign names internet brain trust
September 30, 2003
In yet another change highlighting the Internet influence on politics, the Dean campaign has unveiled a set of Internet principles and named a very impressive slate of net advisers. I hope that this will help the group formulate a set of policies relating to technology and make technology in general and the net in particular an issue during […]
Two Years
September 11, 2003
9/11 @ 2
Counterstrike on Spam
September 2, 2003
Paul Graham highlighted an interesting concept in fighting off spammers. The basic idea is to make anti-spam tools do a counter strike in sites promoted by spammers. The basic idea is that a blacklist would be created to include repeat offenders. When a spam is seen, the server would check the blacklist to see if the site is […]
Back from the Black-out
August 18, 2003
Some people will say that the black-out was no big deal and for most, it wasn’t but it belied a number of critical issues. Today, less than 24 hours after our electricity was restored (for the record, 28th street between Lexington and 3rd Avenue got its electricity back on Friday at 9:45pm), I am thinking about some […]
Divide by Zero
April 21, 2003
Mac-a-ronies does a good roundup on the digital divide questions raised by the recent Pew Internet Trust study. I suspect those of us who have been online for a long time can hardly fathom why people would get online and then eventually leave. After all, what’s not to love about the Internet? I could go on an rehash the […]
