The Rigged-Up Net

NYT Reviews VoIP: Vonage, Packet8, VoicePulse

“The New York Times Technology section reviews VoIP services Vonage, VoicePulse and Packet8. A second article rounds up the competition including VoIP start-ups, cable companies and traditional telcos. The review primarily focuses on Vonage and it’s an enlightening review particularly because the reporter isn’t a techie. Most interesting is the comment from Vonage’s CEO Jeffrey Citron: ‘We’re not that happy with the level of service today.’ The outcome of the review and CEO’s comments really do indicate that VoIP is still at the bleeding edge – and not for the average consumer – but the technology is maturing quickly. It will be interesting to see if the telcos do any better with their QoS (quality of service) – which has historically been a critical differentiating factor and competitive advantage – when they introduce their VoIP services in 2004.”

Splurge in gift-wrap knows no bounds

The gift cost a modest $20. The packaging? A whopping $60, thanks to some pricey fabric.

Cohabiting boosts men’s mental health

However, where men recover from serial break-ups, women fare much worse. In fact it may be much better for a woman’s mental health to stay single than to have loved and lost, suggests the study by Michaela Benzeval at Queen Mary, University of London and colleagues.

Silver cars are the safest on the road

Silver cars are much less likely to be involved in a serious crash than cars of other colours, suggests a new study of over 1000 cars.

Sun drives the final nail in Cobalt’s coffin

Sun’s massive 2001 purchase price for server appliance maker Cobalt Networks seems a tad silly with the entire product line being sent out to pasture. Thanks to a tip, The Reg has uncovered Sun’s decision to end-of-life every Cobalt product, including the elegant Qube and RaQ systems, with no replacements planned. And with Cobalt’s demise ends a couple of eras – one of dot-com hype driven investments and another marking the death of the server appliance.

‘Humanised’ organs can be grown in animals

It’s bad news, says your doctor. Your liver is failing. So he extracts stem cells from your bone marrow and injects them into a sheep fetus while it is still in the womb. When the sheep is born, much of the animal’s liver will consist of your own cells – ready to be harvested and given back to you.

Fighting Cancer With The Common Cold?

“After 30 years of work, Saint Louis University researchers have genetically engineered a common cold virus to fight cancerous cells while leaving unaffected healthy ones. They received a patent for this research and clinical tests on humans will start soon, according to this news release. Dr. William Wold, chair of the department of molecular microbiology and immunology, received the patent No. 6,627,190 for his work. Preclinical testing has already been done so clinical trials should start soon. We can only hope they will be successful. This overview contains many more details and references about this potential cure for all kinds of cancer. [Note: this is a very different project from the one mentioned by a previous Slashdot post.]”

I aquired a brand new Pets.com Sock Puppet today. Whoopee!

Did you know that the voice of the sock puppet was Michael Ian Black? He used to be on the MTV show The State… in fact, you can see a clip of him from The State here. Now he’s the weirdo that works in the bowling alley in Ed.

Previously best known as the voice and puppeteer of the ubiquitous canine Pets.com sock puppet, Michael Ian Black returns for a third season as Stuckeybowl’s quirky manager Phil in NBC’s humorous drama “Ed.” Read more here

Also, I managed to track down the Sock Puppet Fan Club website. There’s a full mirror of all the commercials there. The Xmas one is pretty festive, but my favorite is the Deliveries version.

Old labels just don’t stick in 21st century

Marketing experts have caught on to this and other dramatic changes in American life since 1990: record immigration, aging, suburban sprawl and rising numbers of singles, single parents and households without kids.

What’s better than low carbs, Smirnoff asks? No carbs

Spirits marketers have already put the squeeze on beermakers this year by stealing market share — volume is up 2.4% vs. 1% for beers. Now, Diageo’s Smirnoff, the world’s top-selling premium vodka, is looking to extend that momentum by riding the Atkins low-carb diet craze.

Volvo teams up to build what women want

About 100 women at Volvo are doing something no one in the auto industry has ever done. They are designing a car for affluent, independent women. And it’s definitely not pink.

Interview: Rackspace Co-chairman Morris Miller Hosting

Morris Miller joined Rackspace Managed Hosting in 1998 as chief operating officer, and now serves as Managing Director as well as co-chairman along with Graham Weston. Miller’s primary focus is on corporate strategy, business development and M&A activity. He recently shared his thinking on key issue affecting Rackspace and the hosting industry.

The Life of a Spammer

“The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an interesting article today about the life of a “small time” spammer. It is interesting to note that even a religiously zealous grandmother can mire our inboxes with junk.” That’s Flo Fox, of Slidell, LA.

Microsoft wants non-standard media for Xbox 2?

A job advertisement posted on Microsoft’s careers website suggests that the company may be considering moving to a proprietary disc format for its next console, in an effort to make piracy on the device more difficult.

We Are All Nerds Now

“The Guardian has a good review of something close to all of our hearts. We are all nerds now discusses how the popularity of the internet, video gaming, comic-book movies (Spider-Man, Hulk), the sci-fi epics (The Matrix, Star Wars) and the wizard fantasy (Harry Potter), not to mention The Lord of the Rings has made nerds, and nerdish behaviour, cool.”

Drug treatment for Ebola shows promise

A potential treatment to combat infection with the deadly Ebola virus has shown promising results in a study of monkeys.

SUVs double pedestrians’ risk of death

Someone struck by a large sports utility vehicle is more than twice as likely to die as someone hit by a saloon car travelling at the same speed. The finding by American researchers will add further weight to calls for SUVs ? sporty vehicles with a high, blunt-fronted body atop a broad chassis ? to be made safer.

Now you can play Pac-Man and Space Invaders within Excel with these files. Man, some people are so bored with their daily lives. 🙂

Why do the entry doors to most homes open inward, while in most public buildings, the entry doors open outward?

The basic doorway in your home has a very simple structure: A large board is attached to a frame using a few “pin” hinges. This design has a number of advantages — it is easy to build, easy to install and easy to repair. Of course, it is also very easy to disassemble — removing the hinge pins completely detaches the door from the frame.

Light ‘frozen’ in its tracks

A pulse of light has been stopped in its tracks with all its photons intact, reveal US physicists.

This guy takes his son to virtually every Apple Store grand opening… what a weird hobby…

http://www.ifoapplestore.com/

The bone phone #

Sanyo says they’re going to launch the first cellphone with a bone-conduction speaker that can vibrate the sound directly into your skull rather. The idea is that you’ll use the TS41 and its Sonic Speaker in places where it’s too loud to hold a normal conversation, though, as Dottocomu notes, it does require you to hold the phone someplace against your skull rather than your ear, something that might take a lot of getting used to. We’re curious to see how well it works, but we’re pretty sure we don’t want to start intentionally vibrating our skull on a regular basis, either.

‘Poke your camera phone’s eye out’ – analyst

The Meta Group has warned companies to have a corporate policy that limits cameraphones being used on premises.

Sun sets Solaris x86 free

Almost two years after it went on hiatus, Sun Microsystems’ Solaris x86 has come back in full form with free downloads of the operating system becoming available once again, The Register has discovered.

I was walking through the grocery store today and a friend of mine stopped me and congratulated me for being in the San Antonio Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list… go figure!

Here are scans of it… page 1 and page 2

This is really cool, I suggest you watch the video demo of it…

Simon Phipps Looks At ‘Looking Glass’

“Simon Phipps, chief technology evangelist for Sun Microsystems, describes his experiences using Project Looking Glass, Sun’s prototype three-dimensional computer desktop, in this post on his weblog. He mentions a couple of demo videos too.”

Vonage drops Cisco VoIP adapter

Broadband telephone service provider Vonage said Monday that it has replaced Cisco Systems with Motorola as its exclusive telephone adapter supplier.

Starting March 12, 2005, there’s a new SAT:

• New essay and grammar section
• Elimination of analogies
• More advanced math
• A total potential score of 2400 (versus 1600)
• A half hour increase in the testing time
• An increase in cost to take the test

You can read more about it at the Princeton Review website.

Friday’s puts low-carb Atkins on menu

Thank God it’s low-carb. T.G.I. Friday’s, the casual dining chain known for its flavor-laden but often-fattening foods, on Friday will announce a deal with an unlikely partner: Atkins (yes, the diet Atkins).

Fossilised crustacean boasts oldest penis

The well-endowed fossilised creature has organs (circled) strikingly similar to modern ostracods (Image: Science)
A newly discovered 425 million-year-old fossil boasts a lurid claim to fame – it has the oldest penis on record.

Vonage is amazing…

I dialed up with my USR Courier v.Everything modem and connected to the local Earthlink POP and saw the following:

        CONNECT 49333/ARQ/V90/LAPM/V42BIS

Thats just nuts. I’m so impressed with Vonage. I’m definitely getting rid of my SBC phoneline.

Take a look at this picture…

So, what did you see?

Research has shown that young children cannot identify the intimate couple because they do not have prior memory associated with such scenario.

What they will see are the nine dolphins.

I’m formally requesting a favor from my readers!

I was hoping you could take a few minutes to help support Rackspace on an award for which we’ve been nominated. We’re trying to win a spot as one of Fast Company Magazine’s Fast 50 companies. We’ve submitted an entry and need help from some of our friends to post supportive comments about the company (it seems the more comments posted, the better shot you have at winning.) Below is a link to our entry and instructions on how to post a comment. We’d really appreciate it if you could help us out! Thanks in advance.

http://www.fastcompany.com/fast50_04/profile/?bryce1281

Testing the Three-Click Rule

In a recent client meeting, a high-ranking executive told us that every piece of content should take no more than three clicks to access. We knew exactly what he was talking about: we’ve heard the Three-Click Rule many times before. This unquestioned rule of web design has been around nearly as long as the web itself.

Public Rates Nursing as Most Honest and Ethical Profession

Nurses top Gallup’s annual survey on the honesty and ethics of various professions, followed by other medical professionals like doctors, veterinarians, pharmacists, and dentists. Car salesmen, HMO managers, insurance salesmen, and advertising practitioners are rated as the least honest and ethical. Overall, there has been little change in the public’s rating of the honesty and ethics of professions over the past year. The public’s image of the clergy has partially recovered from last year’s child sexual abuse scandals, while the images of business executives and stockbrokers remain slightly lower than they were before the recent wave of business scandals.

Xbox deflects real bullets

Irate Marylander shoots his roommates’ console, but the 9mm round fails to penetrate its casing.

Breaking the Gigapixel Barrier

Introduction. This page contains what I believe to be one of the highest resolution, most detailed stitched digital images ever created. It is the view from Bryce Point in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. It consists of 196 separate photographs taken with a 6 megapixel digital camera, and then stitched together into one seamless composite. The final image is 40,784 x 26,800 pixels in size, and contains about 1.09 billion pixels…a little more than one gigapixel. I have been unable to find any record of a higher resolution photographic (i.e. non-scientific) digital image that has been created without resizing a smaller, lower resolution image or using an interpolated image.

Largest prime number ever is found

A 26-year-old graduate student in the US has made mathematical history by discovering the largest known prime number.

Review: ColorWare

Custom paint jobs are now available for your iBook and iPod.

Woohoo! I can run Linux on my Toshiibia e740 PocketPC… fun, fun,fun!

http://www.mnementh.co.uk/e7xx/