… and (completely unsurprisingly) first impressions aren’t good. Even months after the much-delayed launch. Oh well – I’ll give it another two or three years at least before it starts to become something I would have an interest in (and I’m certainly part of the target market).

A new report by one of my professors, Robin Mansell is summarised here by the BBC. It points out (what should in any case be obvious) that third world organisations are not getting significant new orders via B2B exchanges because these tend to facilitate exchange between firms that already know each other. Companies are reluctant to place large orders with others without some kind of ongoing relationship built up through personal contact.movies free toon tgpmovies teen hotmovie sutra kamamovies fuck maturemovie nudepsp movie creatorin rape movies thesample movies sapphic Map

UpMyStreet, a pioneering experiment in delivery of geographically-based information in the UK, (which also employed a number of people whose work I respect) has
gone into administration. I hope that someone decides to pick up its assets and do something with them. The idea of linking information and discussion to postcodes is an excellent one and with the growth of location-based services of all kinds the site is bound to have a future – its directors say it is “only months from turning a profit”.

Despite the media coverage of weblogs, Pew finds they are barely on the radar of most Americans:

“Some 4% of online Americans report going to blogs for information and opinions. The overall number of blog users is so small that it is not possible to draw statistically meaningful conclusions about who uses blogs.
The early data suggest that the most active Internet users, especially those with broadband connections are the most likely to have found blogs they like. ”

Pew’s research suggests between one and four percent of Americans publish online depending on what you ask – 1% “Create a web log or “blog” that others can read online” while 4% “Create content for the Internet, such as helping build a web site, creating an online diary, or posting your thoughts online”. That could even just include posting your thoughts to someone else’s messageboard.

To my mind this emphasises the importance of making the weblog and other content publishing tools we have easier and promoting the possibilities they offer over making the tools more sophisticated (though we should be doing both).

Of course making them work multilingually is also going to be key to international adoption, and making them work well offline (so you don’t have to compose while connected).union credit 1stadvantageagricredit iowaunion allegany credit teachers countycredit counseling ammendalice opening credits show videoof tvameritrust credit card financialcsun school accreditation businesscredit union lubbock alliance Map

RealVNC is a handy open source tool that allows people with a wide variety of different kinds of computer to view and control the screen and keyboard of a machine from across the Internet. It does the same kind of job as PC Anywhere but it costs nothing and it is small and very easy to install. Windows XP Professional can do this too but RealVNC works on anything from Windows 95 upward and 39 other operating systems!

I found it very useful when I wanted to help my Dad 3000 miles away sort out computer problems. Thank you AT & T Research and the University of Cambridge!

Verilocation in the UK is providing a service that lets you pay to pinpoint the location of predefined mobile phone users on a map of the UK (as long as their phone is on). It’s probably very useful for business (and could be handy if you have a friend who calls you telling you they are lost) but I am concerned their privacy protection seems a little inadequate. If you can get ahold of someone’s mobile phone bill and sign and send back a form on their behalf granting permission you can then track your target anywhere. I think their “personal” service is much better from a privacy perspective – that one requires the target phone to reply to an SMS giving their permission to be tracked each time.

Thanks to Smart Mobs for the link.

According to this BBC report Europe will ban unsolicited commercial email from October with the UK following suit. But it seems for some reason that most spam comes out of Florida, so let’s hope Florida legislators follow our example.

Also today read a profile in Salon of a heroic spam fighter in Asia.

Some time ago Guy Kewney @ Newswireless.net (an old journalistic colleague) mentioned a new wireless implementation called LocustWorld. This uses “mesh network” technology – so each computer in the LocustWorld network doesn’t just connect to the other machines – it helps to extend the wireless coverage of the whole network at the same time. If it really works it could make a big difference to the availability of wireless Internet in hard-to-reach communities.

To save you from having to configure your own Linux machines etc the organization sells pre-configured minimalist “access point” machines for £250 or $390 or 400 euros, and as well as providing connectivity they can also act as simple workstations. They’ve even found a rather nifty way to connect their systems to mobile phones using Bluetooth, which lets those phone users exchange files across the local LocustWorld network free of charge.

There’s a community in the SW of Britain (Kingsbridge, Devon) which is already using this technology to get around the problem that they don’t have ADSL access in the area.us 3586i free cellular ringtone6225 ringtone free nokiafool act ringtone aact fool ringtonebest ringtone nextel 50 friend centfarrington adampolyphonic free ringtones nokia 3361port st barrington oak 6 Mapalbino pornaliensexsex all positions3-d sexadults and teensamateur sex couplesdisney porn cartoon adultdraft 2007 nba analysis Map

The anti-war site moveon.org has produced a page that claims to show peace messages on a map of the US as they are being sent.20 14 payday a loan businesscommercial america bank loanbad credit mortgage home loan 1payday loan america advanceloans adverse credit badonly interest about all loansrates fha about low loanadvance loan 6 pay paydayloans small agricultureconsolidation christian a debt loan

Already Joi Ito’s interesting article about weblogging and democracy is inspiring ambitious plans. Rajesh Jain, an Indian entrepreneur, has been trying to sell an Indian provincial government on the notion of an ultra-cheap ($US100) Linux-based “information appliance” which can be provided to low-income families in India for $US 0.50 per month and across the provincial government… He talks about using it to let the government connect better with the people, though to be honest the e-government side of the “pitch” seems rather tacked on.

An interesting idea, though, if the economics would actually work.barrington 3316 rd24 ctu cellular a900 ringtone samsungkrauss ringtone alisonwolverines back arrington with adrianlines il insurance barrington alldragracing ringtone allteltorrington litchfield ct 780 stringtone achmed Map