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Robots Help the Elderly

In Norway a shortage of help will force the country to try using robots to help care for the elderly.

Two employee groups have teamed up to see how robots and other hi-tech gadgets can be developed to help care for them.

"Technology will contribute to resolve part of the challenge with employees in the health care sector," Olav Ulleren, head of a group representing Norwegian municipalities, told Reuters. "It could also help people live longer in their own homes."

Ulleren said robots and other devices could do housework like washing clothes and dishes and cleaning the floor.

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VoIP Inc. Shuts Some Services

Russell Shaw explains that VoIP Inc. will be shutting its network operations and call termination businesses. This was to be expected after Shawn Lewis left the company IMHO.

According to Shaw:

The company will recast itself as a pay-to-click services provider. Deals with Google and eBay are now in force.

More from Fierce Markets.

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Google Buying Plaxo?

Another day, another Google purchase rumor. This time it is Plaxo, the company that stores online business contact details. This company recently launched something called Pulse which allows you to decide if someone is a business or personal contact.

I can tell you from personal experience that I absolutely despise the frequent e-mails I get from the company asking me to connect with people. It isn't that I don't want to connect, it is just that getting dozens of e-mails I don't ask for in a week can get annoying.

Especially since there are just so many social networking sites popping up each week.

Hey Plaxo... How about sending these to me every few weeks instead?

But I digress. According to Wired, Google is the buyer and $200 million is the price.

I think this acquisition makes sense for Google as the name Plaxo sounds a lot like bebo which Google was rumored to be buying just yesterday. ;)

One thing that adds value to Plaxo is the fact that the company has begun to leverage its technology to allow service providers to improve the quality of their directories. As you may remember, at CES the company announced in conjunction with Comcast that they will be powering the address book for Comcast. This address book information transcends the service and syncs with the DECT phone provided by Comcast.

There is an opportunity for the company to replicate this success with other cable companies and even AT&T, Verizon and others.

Now it seems Google may be the proud owners of this site and well on their way to organizing the world's business cards. ;)

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Angelina Jolie Computer Illiterate

I feel I need to somehow undo the psychological damage of the obesity image from a recent blog by telling you that Angelina Jolie has made tech news. She has stated publicly that she does not know how to turn on a computer.

Normally this would not be news but it seems like every blogger and writer online wants the opportunity to mention "Angie" in their blogs. Perhaps some of us might even post a nice picture of the Hollywood starlet.

Oh, and by the way... Many of the sites mentioning the news seem shocked that "Lara Croft" would be computer unsavvy. After all, she used a bluetooth headset before most people even had one. At least on the silver screen. As "Mrs. Smith" in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, she was computer savvy as well and even used a computer with enhanced memory.

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Open Source in South America

I was pretty blown away at just how much South American traffic there was at the recent ITEXPO a few weeks back. Much of this traffic was in the booths of companies who focus on the open source space. Digium and Fonality were just a few of the companies who saw this traffic in their booths.

I was reminded about how much open source interest there is in South America when I saw the news that Sangoma is partnering with Ft. Lauderdale based XmarteK to increase its distribution throughout Latin America.

Sangoma President and CEO David Mandelstam said Sangoma “will be supporting XmarteK with road shows in various Latin American countries where the objective will be to build a strong customer base that will help us to effectively serve the Latin American market.”

This just shows that open source is an attention-getter, regardless of language or culture.

More

See also:

Sangoma Interview
Sangoma: From Open Source to Unified Communications

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The Skinny on Obesity Laws

I am so sorry to get off the communications/technology bandwagon and instead talk about obesity but i just couldn't help but mention that in Mississippi there are some thoughts that a law banning restaurants from serving obese people would be a good idea.

Actually, come to think of it, making it difficult allow for heavy people to eat would indeed probably increase their chances of losing weight. Imagine if you had to cook everything you ate.

Perhaps this needs to be extended to deliveries as well.

Here is an excerpt from an article on the matter:

State Rep. John Read, a Republican who is one of the bill's three authors, says he wasn't trying to offend anybody and never even expected the plan to become law.

"I was trying to shed a little light on the No. 1 problem in Mississippi," he says. The state has the highest obesity rate in the USA.

Incidentally, tomorrow there is a weigh in for TMC's biggest loser competition to see who can lose the most weight by May. I haven't formally joined the contest but if I do tomorrow, I think I may have to blog about it to keep myself on track.

It would be nice if local restaurants would deny me service till the contest is over.

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One Cable Cut Explained

Great news... An anchor did cut one of the undersea cables in the middle east meaning there is one less chance for the conspiracy theory some are espousing. What happened to the other four cables is still a mystery however. Here are the details.

See also:

• Cables Fixed by Weekend
• A Cut Cable a Day
• Undersea Cable Cuts

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Keating Abuzz with Polycom Compliments

Thank you Polycom for eliminating that annoying "buzz" heard so often on conference calls. Caused by a proliferation of wireless devices, there is nothing more annoying in a conference call setting or a keynote speech at a trade show I might add.

Here is an excerpt of an interview that Tom Keating had with Polycom CTO Jeff Rodman:

“RF interference is nothing new, but our awareness of it is at an all-time high, as more and more business is conducted over virtual forms of communications such as voice and video conferencing, and as the popularity of smartphones increases. Now customers can bring their smartphones into the conference room and not cause any interference on the conference call.” He continued, “As the pioneer in voice conferencing, Polycom took the lead in developing solutions that stop the ‘buzz’ and offer the best quality audio available in the industry. Polycom’s industry-leading voice quality, coupled with the new RF shielding and isolation technologies, are now shipping worldwide, helping people be more productive throughout the global workplace.”

For more information on Polycom and the company's interest in HD Voice, be sure to check out the company's HD Voice Global Online Community on TMCnet.

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Intel Core 2 Duo Lawsuit

Although there are daily patent disputes in the tech field and I don't cover them all. I did think however that the patent claim against Intel brought by the University of Wisconsin covering the Core 2 Duo processor is worthy of mention as it pits a major tech giant against a University.

Specifically The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation or WARF is involved in the suit.

Here is an excerpt from WARF's site:

WARF filed this complaint to ensure that the interests of the UW-Madison and its inventors are protected and that WARF receives the compensation to which it is entitled for Intel's unlicensed use of the invention. This compensation will be used to advance continued research at the university. The foundation's complaint identifies the Intel CoreTM 2 Duo microarchitecture as infringing WARF's United States Patent No. 5,781,752, entitled "Table Based Data Speculation Circuit for Parallel Processing Computer."

The technology, patented in 1998, was developed by four researchers at the UW-Madison, including Professor Gurindar Sohi, currently the chair of the university's Computer Science Department. Intel has aggressively marketed the benefits of this invention as a feature of its Core 2 technology. "The technology significantly enhances opportunities for instruction level parallelism in modern processors, thereby increasing their execution speed," states Michael Falk, WARF general counsel.

The WARF patent discloses and claims a data speculation circuit that facilitates the advanced execution of instructions before other instructions on which they may be data dependent, resulting in improved execution efficiency and speed. "The technology of the UW-Madison researchers has been widely recognized in the field of computer architecture as a pioneering invention," states Falk.

According to Falk, WARF contacted Intel in 2001, and made repeated attempts, including meeting face-to-face with company representatives, to offer legal licensing opportunities for the technology.

"We are disappointed with Intel's lack of response in resolving this matter, and while we were not anxious to use the courts to enforce our patent rights, we have no other recourse given our duty to protect the intellectual property of our inventors and the university."

Details from engadget and the University of Wisconsin.

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Gphone Spotted Soon

In a few days a bunch of reporters will be viewing the first Google Gphone and sharing their thoughts with the public. Unfortunately I will not be at the Mobile World Congress so I won't see this phone in person next week. Gary Krakow will be there and discusses some of what he expects to see in this article.

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A2 goes Mach 5

One hopes that one day soon I will fly in the new "Son of Concord" concept from Reaction Engines Limited in Oxfordshire in the UK. Liquid hydrogen powered engines will allow up to 300 passengers to reach speeds of Mach 5 or for the laymen that is 3,4000 MPH!

That is around 7 times faster than the speed of today's jets.

This is no typo and I am sure right now, Terry Matthews is looking to upgrade his corporate jet.

To reach Mach 3 the plane initially generates thrust through engines similar to those used in conventional jet aircraft.

But beyond Mach 3, a specialist unit pre-cools the super-heated air generated by flying at high speeds before it enters the turbines, preventing the engines from melting.

Previously, engineers have failed to design a system capable of operating at such extreme temperatures.

If built, the cost of a ticket on the A2 - which will cruise at an altitude of 100,000ft (30,480m) - from Europe to Australia is estimated to be around £2,000 or just under $4,000.

Because it is fueled by liquid hydrogen, the aircraft only produces water vapor and nitrous oxide as exhaust and has a negligible carbon footprint.

Despite its length, the aircraft will also be able to land on current international airport runways.

Mr Bond, managing director of Reaction Engines Ltd, said that from a standing start and with the requisite political will, the plane could be flying commercially within 15 years.

My question is... How can we speed development of this thing up. I would really like to fly this plane on business and not in retirement.

Well, at least my kids will get to enjoy faster and better air travel. As for me... I am happy these days to find a flight that will give me some pretzels or a pillow.

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IPTV Community

Be sure to check out the new IPTV Global Online Community on TMCNet which consists of articles on IPTV Technology, Programming News, and IPTV Deployments.

A few articles of note are RealNetworks offering Envivio 4Caster Hardware, an article on targeted IPTV advertising and Dreampark Delivering IPTV Middleware in Spain.

Be sure to bookmark the page and come back throughout each day for frequent updates.

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Cables Fixed by Weekend

It looks like the undersea cables will be fixed by the weekend. Here are some details from Reuters and the AP.

Here is an excerpt from the AP story:

The two unusual incidents slowed businesses and hampered personal Internet usage in the Middle East and India. Governments in the region appeared to operate normally, apparently because they switched to backup satellite systems.

The FLAG spokesman said the company was still trying to determine how the cables were cut. He declined to comment on whether the two incidents were somehow linked but said he didn't believe the company was deliberately targeted.

There has been widespread speculation the cuts were caused by ships' anchors dragging along the bottom of the sea in stormy weather. But Egypt's telecommunication ministry said Sunday no ships were registered near the location when the first two cables were cut.

FLAG said the repair on those two cuts will be completed within six to seven days. The two cables were identified as being owned by FLAG and SEA-ME-WE 4, or South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 cable, owned by a consortium of 16 international telecommunication companies.

The company has said it was able to fully restore circuits to some customers and switch others to alternative routes.

What I still wonder is why these cables were all cut around the same time. What laws of probability allow this to be a coincidence and yet I still haven't hit the Lotto jackpot?

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Aerophone In-Flight Calling

A company called Aerophone has recently announced that they will be using picocell technology connected to transceivers to allow passengers to use their cellphones to talk while in-flight. According tot he company, the system will not have a negative effect on aircraft electronic systems.

According to Henry Shabat, CEO of Aerophone, the system supports all wavebands and requires neither the prior written registration of the passengers nor a particular billing system. The call costs of US$ 1.60 US dollars (about 1 euro) per minute are invoiced via the normal mobile telephone bill.

In small aircraft, the mobile telephone calls from the aircraft are transferred to the satellite system. They can thereby relay up to 24 calls simultaneously to terrestrial telephone networks via several receiving stations and gateways. In larger aircraft an additional transceiver for the Ku band (10.7 to 17.8 GHz) is installed, which then allows up to 96 calls simultaneously. Since the bandwidth for the connections is limited, Shabat says that presently only telephone calls and communication via short messages are realizable.

The company further says it will install its equipment on airlines free of charge and will look to a revenue share agreement on the minutes instead.

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