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The telco sends me periodic statements about how many bonus points I have
collected. These can be redeemed (at a discount of 30:1 -- earn 1
point per crown spent on telephony/internet bills, nominal worth 3% when
you spend points, based on what the offered products are supposed to be worth
-- I figure the "real" value is perhaps half that). This is not quite
the "toaster to become/remain our customer", but it is an indication that
there is a growing awareness that customers are now "mobile", in the sense
that they can switch to other providers. In my opinion, this has infused
the main telco with a healthy focus on providing better services and better
customer care. The step to web-based customer configuration of services is
proceeding apace.
Reading some articles about experiments in cybertowns. Some of the
trends and predictions are interesting. Others trivial or laughable -- of
course, only in hindsight can one really tell which turn out to be which.
"Billions will be spent on extensive multilane superhighway systems, but
commuters will spend hours longer in queues..."
Every so often, futuristic predictions filmed in the 50s or 60s are shown
on TV, as part of the trend of sponsored informercials. You may have seen
some -- 30-60 second glimpses of famous inventors, moments of history, past
sports glories, visions voiced by researchers, and as noted past futuristic
predictions. Apart from anything else, these last should stand as reminders
that predictive visions tend to fall flat more often than not.
These informercials have become almost a plague, as far as that goes. Most
TV channels here now use them as fillers between programs. It's the multimedia
equivalent of when fact books turned into 1-2 page spreads of illustrated
article with some residual captions for those who still can be bothered to
read. I must admit to shuddering to think that such film-bites and one-stop
spreads may end up being the sum of what people know about WWII, the Apollo
program, the discovery of penicillin, and other significant events.
Unfortunately, the format is well-suited to CD-ROM encyclopedias. It gives
factoid a whole new meaning.
Hmm... (returning to the article) The statistics show Sweden
leading the Internet users list with a 44+ percent usage per capita. Number
2 is Canada (42.8%), followed by Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. The US weighs
in at 6th place with 38.1% (but in absolute numbers this is of course way
above the rest). Then we have another group of small countries: Norway,
Australia, Switzerland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore.
Clearly, we have a long way to go for a true World Wide Web.
(Funny, I thought Antarctica would have led the list, per capita, but then
again, the researchers are not indigenous, and the penguins there have not
yet started using Linux. Perhaps when kernel 3 comes with a fish module...?)
Sockets and access, alive, a-live oh... -- old Cockney
tune
Every so often/seldom I track the progress of a product being developed by
a company that used to be called Imagek. This was a filmcassette-like
device to insert in a standard 35mm system camera house, which would give
digital imaging. The company is now known as
Silicon Film Technologies,
Inc ,
and the product now has better resolution than in the prototype -- 1280 x
1024 pixels, at 36-bit color depth. >300 pictures per battery set, 24
lossless picture capacity. Still far too expensive at "<$800" however,
even given the accessories and software that come with it, but we'll see
once it has been on the market a while...
 The
e-film cassette
Now, an eval unit to play with in my Nikon... Mmm....
Here's a "duh" experience for you. A friend had upgraded to a new
computer, and after all the do-dah, YAWI (Win98SE), YAOI (Office), was getting
things into pretty decent shape. Came time to pick up the Outlook
pst file backed up from the old system. and copy over mail, contacts,
etc. Well, he gets this very helpful alert in Outlook when trying to open
the pst file that suggests he does not have authority or correct identity
to do so. Oops. We spend some time over the phone checking this, checking
that, trying to recall what his log-in ID on the old system had been. Nothing.
Much later it occurs to me that his backup copies had been made to CD. So
I phone up and ask if the file copy on HD is read-only. Yup, that
was it -- make it read/write and Outlook was happy to open it. But
sheesh, one would have expected a more helpful error message, right?
Ah well, another (dark) evening with rain. Dinner was (burp) good, and I'm
debating how much longer I should sit here...
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The
update-link (above) points to where I last added
some text, which should simplify your keeping up to speed. Of course, this
assumes I remember to move it, and you may still have to scroll back a bit
and see if I've updated more than once since you last visited, but that is
easily done.
