[nycwireless] Google: Mobile Product Search, please!

2005-11-04 Thread nycwgen

Re: Google: Mobile Product Search, please!

Thanks Ami!

[http://www.slifter.com/ ] did work for an ISBN.  It returned an online 
merchant and price, and it was formatted cleanly for the PDA. 

CNET, Google, Amazon, and others should jump on this.

It leads to advertising revenue.  Imagine you're trying to sell advertising.  
You could say to a retailer:

"Hey, I have a mobile user right now looking for a Linksys Router.  WRT54g.  
He's out and about. Would you be willing to offer him a $10 discount to walk 
over to your Radio Shack at 23rd and 7th?"  

Whammo, banner ad on the top of the display.  There just needs to be a 
mechanism to redeem the coupon (SMS message, email message) at the store. 

More than once I've been willing to walk across the street (or the mall) for a 
better deal on a product. 

Rob

--
NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/
Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/
Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/


[nycwireless] WifiDog, OpenWRT, and the Linksys "L" model

2005-11-04 Thread nycwgen

WifiDog, OpenWRT, and the Linksys "L" model
If you've been keeping up with the WifiDog rollout, you'll already know the 
problem with the latest hardware version of the Linksys WRT54G--v5, generally 
identifiable as having a serial number starting CDFB:  

* It's not the same hardware as earlier versions
* It won't run OpenWRT
* It's no fun to play with.  

This is way Linksys seems to be planning to go (closed firmware).  However, 
word is that Linksys will be selling an "L" version  that is still modifiable.  
It's available in Europe right now, and at least one US vendor is ready to take 
online orders for it  
([http://www.shopblt.com/catalog/01200U02U0410_BH54784P.shtml ]). CAVEAT EMPTOR.

The rumors continue.  Generally availability in the US is said to be __Nov. 
5__.  We'll see. 

In any case, don't buy the v5 (CDFB), and stay tuned for more info!

Rob

--
NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/
Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/
Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/


[nycwireless] Fwd: SBC's CEO: This Man Must Be Stopped

2005-11-04 Thread Joe Plotkin

The Biggest Threat to the Internet
By David Coursey
November 3, 2005

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1881338,00.asp

an excerpt:
No, Mr. Whitacre, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Vonage, and the whole rest of 
the Internet isn't nuts, you are. Worse, you're the nut who is 
running our country's largest telecom provider.


A truly great, great piece!!

> Joe
--

===
Joe Plotkin
DSL/Marketing
Bway.net - NYC's Best Internet
===
Bway.net
Note --> new address:
568 Broadway Suite 404
New York, NY  10012

vox: 212.982.9800
Boston: 617.848.0416
fax:  212.982.5499
efax: 772.365.5877
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
DSL info: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web: http://www.bway.net
===
Fight the Monopoly!
http://www.TeleTruth.org
===
--
NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/
Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/
Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/


RE: [nycwireless] Fwd: SBC's CEO: This Man Must Be Stopped

2005-11-04 Thread Rosenstrauch, David


> The Biggest Threat to the Internet
> By David Coursey
> November 3, 2005
> 
> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1881338,00.asp
> 
> an excerpt:
> No, Mr. Whitacre, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Vonage, and the whole rest of 
> the Internet isn't nuts, you are. Worse, you're the nut who is 
> running our country's largest telecom provider.
> 
> A truly great, great piece!!
> 
> > Joe


I agree that Whitacre is off his rocker to think up a plan like this.  But that 
aside, I'm not sure I see what the fuss is actually about.  I mean, all this 
sounds like to me is an incredibly stupid plan by SBC whose net result will be 
to hand all of its broadband customers over to their competitors!

First off, his reasoning is absurd:

"How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. 
Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what *THEY* [emphasis mine] would 
like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that"

By "they", he means Google, Vonage, etc.  But he's mistaken.  The real "they" 
is his customer base - SBC's broadband customers.  And that real "they" is not 
trying to use his pipes for free.  They are paying to use his pipes.  And they 
expect to receive the service that they're paying for.  If SBC decides to block 
access to Google, Vonage, etc. unless those companies pay up, then it seems to 
me that he's not delivering to his customers the service that they're paying 
him for.  That may or may not be a breach of contract, as SBC might be able to 
tweak their TOS sufficiently to somehow make this allowable.  But I doubt very 
much that he'll have many customers left if he does this.  Who would continue 
paying for an ISP that blocks some of the most popular sites on the Internet?

The only way he could pull this off is if he were to collude with other large 
provides and try to do this as an oligopoly.  But that's not likely to succeed 
for 2 reasons:

1) I think that this would likely attract a good deal of unwelcome government 
and/or regulatory attention

2) there's no way that he could possibly muster up enough collusion amongst the 
large providers to be able to pull this off.  The broadband business is highly 
competitive with every provider dying to get as many broadband customers in as 
possible so that they can make money off of them with high margin stuff like 
video-on-demand and other special "content" services (e.g., special deals they 
might strike with Disney or something).  Plus, barriers to customer switching 
from one provider to another are pretty low.  So with all the broadband 
companies itching to grab more customers (from competitor cable and DSL 
companies to numerous other mid to large regional and national DSL companies) I 
imagine they'd all react like "Yes!  Please, do this ... so that we can feast 
on your customer base!".

As far as Google and Vonage and the rest.  It seems to me that he's basically 
just trying to get them scared enough that maybe they'll pay him some money.  
But if I was them, I would just sit tight, not pay him a cent and wait for this 
whole joke to blow over.  I mean, can you imagine?  SBC cutting off Google?!?!? 
 Their (SBC's) customers would scream bloody murder - and Google must surely be 
able to see that!


So IMO the story sounds scary on the surface, but I think if people give this 
another look, it's just foolish saber rattling.

Agree/disagree?

DR

==
Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications 
disclaimer: 

http://www.csfb.com/legal_terms/disclaimer_external_email.shtml

==

--
NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/
Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/
Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/


Re: [nycwireless] Fwd: SBC's CEO: This Man Must Be Stopped

2005-11-04 Thread jh

Rosenstrauch, David wrote:



The Biggest Threat to the Internet By David Coursey November 3,
2005

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1881338,00.asp

an excerpt: No, Mr. Whitacre, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Vonage, and the
whole rest of the Internet isn't nuts, you are. Worse, you're the
nut who is running our country's largest telecom provider.





So IMO the story sounds scary on the surface, but I think if people
give this another look, it's just foolish saber rattling.

Here's the part I don't get: the ISPs benefit tremendously from not 
knowing what the packets are, and where they're coming from. This 
"ignorance" allows them a very powerful legal safe harbor.


The moment that they can demonstrate that they can pick out Google http 
traffic, or Vonage VOIP traffic - they'll be sued and busted for also 
carrying kiddie-porn packets and pirate audio/video packets.


So, totally silly stuff.

jh
--
NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/
Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/
Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/