SkypeOut Goes Free

Skype has just announced free calls to all landlines and mobile phones within the US and Canada. This is promotion goes until December 31, 2006.

One wonders how Skype, now part of eBay is going to make any money and how others will react to this news. You still need a PC or PDA with WiFi to access the network, but new devices such as Polycom's Communicator and numerous USB handsets make things a whole lot easier. Add in Skype's conferencing features, call forwarding, voice messaging, Skypecasts, and buddy lists and you have a whole lot of communications capabilities in one spot.

Now you just have to fight with your ISP to allow unfettered access to Skype. Reports are coming in from all over Canada and the USA that users are being restricted or totally locked out of Skype access. My message to the ISPs -> get over it.

Flood maps show impact of rising ocean levels

An interesting site is available that shows the impact of various increases in the sea level. Flood Maps is a mashup of Google maps and elevation data from NASA. It lets you adjust the amount of increase in the sea level.

Here's the view of a 2 meter rise in the Vancouver area.

Airlines Try Smarter Boarding

Do you dread the airline boarding routine where passengers wait to be called to board in an orderly manner, yet inside the plane there are still multiple passenger interference points.

Wired News: Airlines Try Smarter Boarding reports on the analysis and implementation of various boarding systems that can reduce the interference among passengers and reduce turnaround time at the gate. With names such as reverse pyramid, "Wilma" and "rotating zone" these systems try to reduce the time it takes to get everyone onto the plane, bags stowed and underway.

Check out the graphic which has a visual animation of the various systems.

Gone in 20 Minutes: using laptops to steal cars

Leftlane News reports that all is not well in the world of high-tech gadgetary in cars. It looks like thieves are using laptops to crack the wireless code that controls the keyless entry systems for cars.

I'm glad my car still uses a good old key.

Better late than never

It looks like Gartner group is being taken to task again for finally coming up with their statements on something that was so obvious to all.
Whatever you do, get on the bandwagon makes reference to the large amounts of money spent by large enterprises on their research.