MrBeck 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (28) comment rss

  • On the post: Instant Messaging Eating Into SMS Text Messaging

    MrBeck ( profile ), 01 May, 2008 @ 01:36pm

    SMS is "store and forward" not "instant"

    Seems to me that the fundamental difference is that SMS is a "store and forward" system. If you want to contact or provide info, an address for example, then SMS is simple and quick. When the recipient is off-line the SMS waits until they are alive again. You could call and leave voicemail, a pain in the a**, or you could constantly watch your IM contact list and wait for the contact to come on-line (assumes you really haven't got a life). With SMS it's fire and forget and you can send to a list of recipients just as easily as one. No contest.
    Beck

  • On the post: Grad Student Uses Twitter To Get Released From Egyptian Prison

    MrBeck ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2008 @ 09:47am

    How is this News?

    I don't get it. How is some guy sending a note to a few friends "news"? I mean "news" like a report writes for an article, not "news" like your mother writes in an email. Maybe my view of the world extends a bit further than yours.

  • On the post: Why Offer 3G Service At All If You Limit Speeds To Less Than 2.5G?

    MrBeck ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2008 @ 02:47am

    Re: That must be great...

    The reporter was to join a conference call with O2 but the reporter conferenced into the call early while the O2 PR folks were still discussing strategy, and too stupid to mute the phone.

    I've done the same thing with company conference calls and certainly heard stuff the other end did not want me to hear. In those cases it just gave me a negotiating advantage over people who deserved it.

  • On the post: Apple Trying To Sneak Safari Onto Windows Machines?

    MrBeck ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2008 @ 12:12pm

    I downloaded Safari but it just crashes

    Since I knew what Safari was I though I might have a look. So I checked the box and installed it. The only problem is, it doesn't work. Loads, paints a window, tries to fetch a page and generates a crash dialog box. It says it is writing a log but I can't find one, anyone know where it might write the log file?

    Probably not the best impression. It would help if when you push software, it works.

  • On the post: Is Twitter The Future Of News?

    MrBeck ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2008 @ 02:46am

    It's not journalism

    The reports may come in quickly but it's not journalism.

    I felt the earthquake and turned to the BBC for a report. What I got was hysterical "twitter". Nothing about the epicentre, the scale , the potential damage (the scale would forecast this). I did find out that, variously, people were frightened, had never felt anything like it, furniture moved and that there appears to be quite a few people awake at 1:00am.

    This was good compared to the Camden Town fire "reporting" which had all of Camden Town ablaze and people dying everywhere. News should be about responsibility and trust, the general public are typically neither.

  • On the post: Recounting Touch-Screen Elections In Ohio

    MrBeck ( profile ), 30 Nov, 2007 @ 08:39am

    Re: Re: One person who needs to lose their job...

    Clearly any use of the corrupted memory cards means that the audit is invalid if the card data is used (I only say corrupted since the audit is to prove it is not corrupted.)

    Statistically option b would represent the voting population assuming paper jams were not induced by voter selections (not that would be a great con).

    I vote option b as an audit with the provision that a study of the jammed votes be undertaken to determined the causes.

    I did this without a single day in office but with a clear understanding of the purpose of an audit, unlike J Brunner.

  • On the post: Vonage Settles AT&T Patent Suit; Anyone Else Want To Squeeze Free Money Out Of Vonage?

    MrBeck ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2007 @ 03:55am

    What about the "Others"?

    Now that Vonage has settled with the patent bearing telcos they should be set to take the market completely. The telco offerings are cheap (and worth every penny) but featureless. The "Other" VoIP operators haven't settled with the patent owners and will get screwed if they make any money or any headway in market share. This leaves Vonage with the only long term product which does more than make cheap calls. Look at the feature list that comes with the basic package. They could double the price (there's no competition) and it would still be a good deal to me.

    Disclaimer- I've been a happy Vonage customer since Aug 2005. As an example, I use the forwarding options to ring all of my US and UK mobiles and desk phones, I answer the one I can get to.

  • On the post: Walt Mossberg Pushing For Gov't Intervention In The Mobile Phone Market

    MrBeck ( profile ), 23 Oct, 2007 @ 02:10am

    Re: Re: the impact of no government intervention

    The US carriers built-out their 3G networks in the way European carriers built-out 2G a decade before. The European carriers are not pushed to build 3G at the same rate since the revenue is voice (2G) based and neither the US nor the European carriers have found a way to actually make money out of the 3G speeds.

    Regarding government intervention, if the carriers had not been so stupid to pay billions to gov't for 3G licence they would have had more money to actually build network but that doesn't equal profit since the gold app for 3G is yet to appear.

    Apple launched iPhone in the US because that is where its market is and where it's business model is legal. In Europe the handset competition is fierce (and not carrier constrained as in the US), the iPhone stands out for its hype not its innovation. The locked to carrier business model is illegal in some countries and legally reversible in most. Apple knows what it is doing. It chose to launch in a less mature, less competitive market, using a business model sustainable only in the US but more long term profit to Apple.