April 2006 Archives

Is simultaneous WiFi, EVDO, Bluetooth, GSM, VoIP on a cell phone just a pipe dream? One of the problems with cellphones today which currently support WiFi, Bluetooth, broadband data (e.g. EVDO), and a cellular wireless voice standard (3G, CDMA, GSM, etc.) is that today's cell phone devices typically only allow either the voice transmission or the data transmission to work, but not both at the same time.

For instance, Sprint's PPC-6700 Windows Mobile 5.0 device allows WiFi and EVDO (data transmission) to be active simultaneously, however if your phone rings (voice transmission), you drop the data transmission. It's one or the other. Some of it is a technology issue. That is, the chipsets used by the cellphones share the same antenna and can only transmit using one of the wireless standards. Other times, it has nothing to do with the technology - the service provider simply decides to block simultaneous voice & data transmission for the sole purpose of protecting their turf. Perfect example -  Rich Tehrani's Verizon XV6700 Windows Mobile 5.0 phone (Verizon's exact same model as the Sprint PPC-6700) is restricted to only one network at a time. If you turn on WiFi you can't even receive cellular calls. This forces users to stay in "voice" mode the majority of the time, otherwise you can't receive any phone calls.

One of the promising solutions to the problem is UMA or Unlicensed Mobile Access. UMA, will help those who have Wi-Fi routers overcome any poor coverage in their homes while simultaneously leveraging inexpensive VoIP/Internet calls instead of the more expensive cellular network calls. UMA works by tunneling cellular packets through the Internet when a WiFi connection is available and then reverting back to cellular towers when there is no WiFi. A back-end controller inside the network makes the switch on-the-fly.

As I mentioned, voice minutes over a Wi-Fi network is much less expensive than minutes on cellular networks because they leverage Wi-Fi's free unlicensed radio spectrum and the Internet and do not require a footprint of large cell towers. Indeed, UMA along with IMS (IP Multimedia System) are two technologies that promise to be huge in the next 6 months to a year. Side note: One of TMC's newest publications, IMS Magazine, tracks the IMS market - definitely worth checking out.

On a related note, Motorola is also looking to provide the ability to run data and voice simultaneouly.  Motorola has a partner called Homeland Integrated Security Systems that uses the Motorola iO200 iDEN modem to provide multiplexing of voice, data, and even GPS location on an iDEN network. They claim to be the first wireless GPS/Data/voice device with the ability to run data and voice at the same time.

Check out the release:

HOMELAND INTEGRATED SECURITY SYSTEMS' CYBER TRACKER FIRST GPS DEVICE TO RUN DATA AND VOICE SIMULTANEOUSLY Revolutionary Wireless GPS/Data Device First Location Based Device to Offer Multiplexing Ability

Homeland Integrated Security Systems (OTC:HISC) has recorded another "first" with its revolutionary Cyber Tracker.  The wireless GPS/Data device is the first location based device with the ability to run data and voice at the same time.  Traditional devices running data applications are not able to provide voice conversations simultaneously.

     Using the Motorola iO200 iDEN® modem, the Cyber Tracker is the first GPS device to provide multiplexing on an iDEN network.  The Motorola iO200 is an embedded module providing circuit/packet data connectivity, interconnect and dispatch calls. At only 2" x 2" square, the Motorola iO200 is smaller than other iDEN data devices, which require mounting with an external power source.  Modems to date have not allowed voice conversations to be placed while running a data application. Traditionally when someone is trying to reach an individual running a data application they receive a message "user busy in data". With the Cyber Tracker, the data transmission will be put on hold to allow the voice conversation to take place. Once the conversation has ended, the unit will send the stored data and resume normal operation.    

     "The ability of the Cyber Tracker to provide voice and data at the same time makes it invaluable to a variety of applications," said Frank Moody, CEO of Homeland Integrated Security Systems.  "This means someone using the Cyber Tracker as a wireless modem will still have the ability to have voice contact with the home office or dispatcher. Law enforcement, delivery services, emergency services and others will find this capability extremely important."

     The Cyber Tracker is currently the only portable, low cost device that supports Push to Talk, tracking and computer functions without utilizing a cellular phone.  The Cyber Tracker incorporates a single board design with the Motorola iO200 modem, the Intel X scale processor, and extended battery life along with exclusive Cyber Tracker technology. This allows the unit to work as a portable processing device, creating a product with no boundaries or wires at a reasonable cost. The Cyber Tracker's convenient rugged design (5" x 5" x 1") makes it applicable in a variety of situations where it is necessary to know the exact location of a person, vehicle or other object.

XO Communications today announced that it carried more than 2.9 billion minutes of voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) traffic across its nationwide IP network in the first quarter of 2006, a 32 percent increase over the previous quarter. 32% over the previous quarter? Wow! According to XO, "The increase was driven by greater deployment of XO’s VoIP solutions by businesses and service providers, demonstrating the increasing growth of delivering voice services over an all IP environment." One of their clients, is SunRocket, which is experiencing some fast growth of their own.

I wonder how Level 3 did this quarter in VoIP minutes growth vs. last quarter. What say you Skibare, the resident Level3 stock expert in the blogsphere?

I've spent the past two weeks installing and upgrading Movable Type on a test server before actual deployment. The pre-upgrade installation was Movable Type v2.661 and it ran on Windows IIS 6.0 with ActivePerl. The plans for the post-upgrade were Movable Type 3.2 running on Linux Fedore Core 4 or 5. I installed Fedora Core 5 beta on a Dell blade server, but had some issues which I believe to be related to the beta. So I went back to Fedora Core 4 and installed that instead. I installed MT 3.2 on a "clean" default Red Hat Fedora Core 4.0 system and successfully upgraded the MT 2.661 MySQL database which I copied from my production server to this new Linux server

While I got most of Movable Type 3.2 (MT 3.2) installed and functioning, I was having a weird problem whereby the default MT 3.2 plugins (nofollow, Template Refresh, and SpamLookup weren't displaying. I went into the Plugins screen and it says "No plugins with weblog-level configuration settings are installed". Also, the More Actions drop-down list was greyed out. Very odd. I checked my permissions on the Apache web server and made sure to set permissions to execute/read for .cgi scripts within the /var/www/cgi-bin/ directory by permoding chmod 755 *.cgi. After running this I was able to successfully run the MT 3.2 "check installation test script" with no errors, i.e.: http://beta.tmcnet.com/cgi-bin/mt-check.cgi

With no errors displaying, there wasn't much to Google search on or even post to the Movable Type Forums. Stumped and frustrated, I said "aw heck, I'll just open up all the permissions on the Linux server." chmod 777 EVERYTHING - hack me if you want, I don't care, I just want this damn thing to work! Still no dice. I was able to successful post into the MT 3.2 database, but the plugins weren't working. Another stange problem was in all likelihood is related to my other issues was that my MTInclude (macros) within my templates actually RENDER within the HTML source file - that is, my macro code displayed in my browser instead of doing variable substitution.

So I posted some stuff on the Movable Type forums, but didn't get much help. As a last resort, I contacted Movable Type technical support using their online trouble ticket system. (TMC has a paid license so we get free technical support.)  At first, their technical support was as stumped as I was. I even gave them root-level SSH access to my blog installation to check my installation and they weren't able to resolve it for over a week. Movable Type tech support mentioned that they had a couple other users with the same issue as me, but they didn't have a solution and that they'd get back to me.

I did some more research on my own and someone pointed out that SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) could be the culprit. While installing Fedora Core 4, SELinux was "checked" by default with a message saying something to the effect that it is highly recommended to ensure a higher degree of security for web servers. In case you don't know, SELinux is an implementation of mandatory access control (MAC) in the Linux kernel using the Linux Security Modules (LSM) framework. Standard Linux security is a discretionary access control model. Mandatory access control (MAC) gives admins full control over all interactions of software. Administratively defined policy closely controls user and process interactions with the system, and can provide protection from broken software or malware running as any user.

So while I did have SELinux enabled, I didn't think it was an issue since I figured SELinux by default sets up the correct "context-level" access permissions for the cgi-bin directory and the other Apache directories. My assumption was incorrect. Further, the Movable Type installation instructions for Linux do not mention anything about checking the SELinux permissions. They only mention file-level permissions and using the chmod command.

Movable Type tech support got back to me and asked:

Do you have SELinux enabled on this server? You can run "system-config-authentication" as root to verify that this is enabled. The settings of SELinux are what caused the plugins to not be seen by Movable Type.

In this file: /etc/selinux/targeted/contexts/files/file_contexts
there is this rule:
/var/www/cgi-bin(/.*)? system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_script_exec_t

That rule basically means that the /var/www/cgi-bin directory (and all subdirectories) have a "httpd_sys_script_exec_t" context. Meaning that CGI scripts can execute from this location.

In the case of the /var/www/cgi-bin/mt/plugins directory, each plugin directory (and the /var/www/cgi-bin/mt/plugins folder itself) should have a context type of httpd_sys_script_ro_t. This allows read-only file access to the directory and files and also execute permission.

To adjust the context for the plugins folder, use this command:
chcon -R -t httpd_sys_script_ro_t /path/to/mt/plugins

Sure enough, I did have this context type set for this directory. I ran the above chcon (change context) command on the MT plugins directory and this solved my plugins issue and all the other issues I was having. Learn something new every day. I asked Movable Type, "I used a default MT 3.2 install with a default Fedora 4.0 install, so I'm surprised you don't encounter this problem more regularly with others that also do a 'default' install. I was just wondering why this problem doesn't occur fairly regularly and make it into your FAQ or Troubleshooting guide?" They said they were going to add it to the Knowledge Base, so if you see it there, you know who to thank.  

While I was waiting for Movable Type technical support to get back to me, I decided to play around with upgrading the current Windows IIS 6.0 installation from MT 2.661 to MT 3.2. "If I can't get MT 3.2 to work on the Linux server at the moment, I may as well upgrade the Windows version," I thought to myself. For the most part, the installation was pretty seemless.

Many websites will tell you to export the Movable Type blogs one at a time to a text file and then import the blog entries into the new installation. This is the wrong way to upgrade for 3 reasons. First, you lose the unique entry_id for your entries. Your entry_ids, trackback IDs, and comment IDs will all be different, which will make any "manual" SQL massaging of the two databases impossible. Secondly, if you have multiple blogs, exporting each blog separately and then importing is a pain. Lastly, exporting blogs to a text file doesn't bring any of your customized templates over to the new blog nor any of the weblog configuration settings. So basically, you'd still have to copy/paste all the templates by hand, plus reconfigure all the weblog settings.

There is a much better way to upgrade - simply backup/copy the MT 2.661 database into a new database and then let Movable Type 3.2 upgrade the new database for you with all of your templates, blog entries, and configuration settings all intact.

Here are the steps to upgrade ANY version of Movable Type to the most recent version:

If you're using MySQL, backup the current MT database:

1) Backup SQL Database to a text file with .sql extension
mysqldump -u root -p[password] blogs > blogs.sql

2) Create NEW blog database called 'blogs'
mysql -u [user] -p[password]
create database blogs;
Exit;

3) Import SQL database to the newly created blog database
From command shell run this:
./mysql -h localhost -u [user] -p[password] blogs < blogs.sql

4) You may received this error: "Connection error: Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client"
MovableType doesn't support the new MySQL password hashing scheme. So you have to change it to the old password hashing algorithm. To do that, do the following:

5) Go back into MySQL:
mysql -u [user] -p[password]
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'bloguser'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'mypassword' WITH GRANT OPTION;
UPDATE mysql.user SET Password = OLD_PASSWORD('mypassword') WHERE User = 'bloguser';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
quit;

6) Create a new directory on your server for the MT 3.2 program files which you have downloaded. Label this new directory something like "mt32" and upload the MT distribution.

7) If your new directory is in cgi-bin, make sure you upload the mt-static directory outside of the cgi-bin, otherwise it will try and execute the files.
Make sure to upload the images in the mt-static directory as binary files and all other files as text.

8) Copy all your old plugins to the new plugin directory into the new MT directory.
Some plugins have needed files outside of the plugin directory, often directories within the extlib directory. Make sure to grab those as well. Plugin files can also be found in the php directory. Copy these from your old MT directory to the new MT directory to the same location. Make sure not to copy over plugins that exist in the new MT distribution since they are newer versions.

9) Rename mt-config-original.cgi to mt-config.cgi.
Compare your old mt.cfg settings to mt-config.cgi and copy the pertinent settings over to the new config file. Important to note that the database password is no longer stored in a separate file.
a) In mt-config.cgi specify the new cgi path location where you put your new MT files (i.e. http://beta.tmcnet.com/mt3/). Check the default encoding on the new config file (UTF-8). Make sure that it is consistent with the encoding you are already using.
b) Set the path for static files in the config file, i.e. StaticWebPath http://beta.tmcnet.com/mtstatic
c) If you have renamed the comment and trackback script files, change it accordingly.
d) Set permissions for CGI scripts: For Linux, set permissions of the cgi files to 755 and the mt-config.cgi to 644

10) Clear your browser cache before pointing to the new mt.cgi file.
Some users have experienced problems with cached Javascript files when attempting to access mt.cgi

11) Launch MovableType 3.2 for the first time by browsing to the new mt.cgi file.
This will automatically prompt you to upgrade the old database format (MT 2.661 in my case) to the new database format.

12) Rebuild all your blogs and see if you encounter any errors.
I recommend installing the PowerRebuild plugin which allows you to rebuild multiple blogs simultaneously.
a) Note #1: I had some issues with the Individual Archives mappings not importing from the old version. Thus, when I rebuilt, it used MT 3.2's default archive mapping to place the entries using locations and filenames I didn't want. I had to recreate the mappings for some of the blogs.
b) Note #2: I had some orphaned Trackback pings in a blog, so I was getting this error: "Can't call method "id" without a package or object reference at lib/MT/App/CMS.pm line 1230." When going to main page of the blog.
i.e. Main Page of a specific blog: http://[blogURL]/mt3/mt.cgi?__mode=menu&blog_id=1

Solution: Delete orphaned trackbacks from the MT interface.
Alternatively: install the MySQL ODBC driver, then go into Microsoft Access and delete all orphaned trackback pings within the mt_tbping table. I actually recommend install a MySQL ODBC driver anyway. Very useful to access the MT database directly.

13) (optional) Add these Regex (regular expressions) to your SpamLookup plugin:
/https?:\/\/[^\s\'"<>]*(?:online|poker|casino)[^\s\'"<>]*/i 2
/https?:\/\/[^\s\'"<>]*(?:blackjack|roulette|slots|craps|gambling)[^\s\'"<>]*/i 2
/https?:\/\/[^\s\'"<>]*(?:texas[\w\-_.]*hold[\w\-_.]*em)[^\s\'"<>]*/i 2

So now I have MT 3.2 successfully installed on Windows IIS 6.0. My next project is to attempt to migrate to the Red Hat Linux server I was playing around with. But that is a project for another day...

I hope this tutorial helps anyone looking to upgrade Movable Type. If it was helpful, drop me a line or post a comment.

Also, my other blog entry, Upgrading MovableType Berkeley to MySQL may be of help.

 

We ended last week with Disney news, and now we start this week with Disney news. Much chatter today (how about front page of the Wall Street Journal!) about Disney's plans to offer its TV shows free on the web. (More streaming video!)

Seems that top shows from the Disney Channel and ABC Family, like Desperate Housewives and Lost, will now be streaming to all kinds of other screens the day after these shows are broadcast. The good news -- the magic four letter word -- is that these shows are free, but the bad news -- you can't skip the commercials (sure someone will quickly find a way around that).

Seems like this was how TV was when it first started -- you watch for free, but you must watch the commercials (or at least you have the chance to watch -- or not watch them.)

Let's see what the industry response will be tomorrow ...

Much chatter about Disney's announcement to enter the mobile phone service this week.

Targeted at 10- to 15-year-olds, Disney Mobile will be carried by Sprint Nextel -- a June launch is planned. Interesting that technology will enable parents to track whereabouts of their kids via GPS -- probably the last thing that these kids want on their cell phones.

How much longer before we find cell phones in our cereal boxes?

Mobile phone cases and PDA cases are big business. After you’ve dropped a few bucks on these gadgets, you need to protect them from scratches, drops and other potential end-of-life occurrences.

You may remember I’ve just moved from a Treo 600 to a Treo 650, but it seems that a lot companies that used to make cases for Palm products have dropped out of this space race.

After a lot research, I opted for a case from Krusell – the Horizontic with Multidap. Until a month ago, this was a company that (quite frankly) I had never heard of before. Let me tell you – this is one fine case. The Treo fits snugly into it, and it has both belt loops and clip for attaching it over your belt that really works quite nicely. (And I remember quite a few other cell phone holders with a belt clip that worked until you sat down and the phone went off on its own into another direction.) It looks good too.

Krusell is the patent holder of the unique Multidap carrying system, which allows the user to easily exchange different clips to the carrying case itself.  (Why different clips? How about a clip for mounting the phone in the car, on your bike, on your belt, etc.)

Krusell makes many other cases for many other products, too; the line spans cell phones, MP3 players, PDAs and digital cameras.

www.krusell.se

In the Globe and Mail today, news that Ghyslain "Star Wars Kid" Raza and parents have settled their lawsuit against school bullies who released the infamous video onto the interwebs. As Ghyslain Raza recalled, whenever he walked by his high school's common areas, other students would jump on tables and chant, "Star Wars Kid! Star Wars Kid!" There would be a commotion as they shouted and poked at him, trying to get a reaction. "It was simply unbearable," he said. I feel for the Star Wars Kid, but if anything I'd think he'd enjoy his fame. It just seems wrong for the Star Wars Kid to earn thousands of dollars at the expense of some classmates who were simply expressing their First Amendment right to free speech. Anyway, here's an excerpt:

Under questioning, Mr. Laflamme and Mr. Rheault conceded their role in spreading a video that Mr. Raza, then 15, had made of himself and left on a shelf in the school TV studio. Mr. Laflamme said he discovered the tape in April of 2003, when he took school equipment to film a varsity football game. He showed the tape to Mr. Rheault, who made a copy of it.

"I thought it'd be an interesting prank . . . I wanted Ghyslain to know what I knew of him, what I had seen," Mr. Laflamme said. "All I did was take the cassette, digitize it on the studio computer to pull a joke on Ghyslain. After that, I had nothing to do with it," Mr. Rheault said he later told the school principal after the controversy erupted.

He said that when a school counsellor confronted him about Mr. Raza's misfortunes, he replied, "It's no fun what happened here, but that's the problem with the Internet. Things travel fast."

Anybody out there into RuneScape?

Fascinating virtual medieval-type world with quests, interesting clothes and stuff to do on a daily basis played with an online gaming community of players who hone their skills in various areas. Site calls itself “a massive 3D multiplayer adventure, with monsters to kill, quests to complete, and treasure to win.” Has both free and pay-for-play levels (which is when it really gets interesting …)

In my house, seems to go really well with Green Day.

www.runescape.com

EQO Communications, developer of presence-enabled calling and instant messaging solutions and services, today announced EQO Mobile for Skype on the popular Palm TREO 650 and Motorola ROKR, SLVR, and RAZR handsets. EQO actually has been calling me for the past week to try and give me the news, but I've been preparing for a major upgrade of Movable Type from 2.661 to 3.2, so I neglected to call them back. Rich Tehrani told me their news this morning, so I figured the news was worth sharing. I was one of the first to discuss EQO back in February in a blog post worth checking out.

The announcement was made at the CTIA Wireless 2006 conference, and it brings the number of EQO-supported handset models to more than 45, including some of the most popular devices from Nokia, Motorola, Palm, and Sony-Ericsson.

EQO uses a combination of a phone-resident J2ME client and a presence-enabled Voice-over-IP (VoIP) signaling network to bridge online identity, VoIP calling, and Instant Messaging services to more than 200 million J2ME-capable mobile phone handsets already in use worldwide.

It’s interesting how the hottest of hot technologies gradually cools and fades away.

I’m thinking about this after visiting Best Buy to buy a cassette player for my elderly uncle who loves to listen to books on tape. Now Best Buy is a big store and after wandering around awhile, I had to ask a salesperson, who carefully directed me to the “Personal Audio” section. This single row of products featured a sparse selection of CD players – mostly Sony – and only one cassette player with headphones (also a Sony); lots of hanging space, not too many products. Just one cassette player! And only a couple of CD players!

Now we’re talking about two technologies that were once the reddest of red hot technologies – the mobile cassette player (which made the Gadgets Hall of Fame when Sony introduced the Walkman) – and the mobile CD player, which turned digital music into something that we could take with us wherever we wanted to go. It’s an ongoing equation: no Walkman = no CD player = no iPod. (See www.ieee-virtual-museum.org for a walk back in time.)

It’s hard to imagine and look into the future with any certainty – especially in consumer electronics and gadgets – but don’t be too surprised in a decade or two in the future that the iPod and other MP3 players will occupy that same lonely little area that cassette and CD players do today.

Only time will tell (and the voice of consumers, voting with our wallets) …

I remember when I was a kid the big thing was to get a stereo in your room and -- if you were really lucky -- your own phone. Now, by “your own phone,” I mean a telephone that was then called an extension phone – it had the same number as your parents’ number. (Forget about getting your own phone number …)

Today, my kids have enough communications devices that getting their own phone in their rooms doesn’t make any sense – they’ve got cell phones, text messaging, email, instant messaging on multiple devices. (Did I miss anything? Yes, I did; they can also make calls on that old “landline” telephone). Why would they want an extension phone? (Anybody remember how hot Princess phones were? Check out www.bellsystemmemorial.com for what phones used to look like -- wow!

The only benefit (maybe there is more than one) is that the home phone line is not tied up all night – remember all of those classic ‘60s family comedies like “The Patty Duke Show” and others where the teenage daughter never gets off of the phone all night and the parents go nuts because no one else can make or receive a call? (Is that a stereotype or what?)

What do you get a girl who has everything ...

Is it fair to think of an airplane as a giant gadget? Had this thought yesterday as I traveled back on a short (how about overnight) trip to Atlanta to meet with some of the engineers at Turner Entertainment and CNN and see and hear about the future of broadcast, content creation and content delivery firsthand.

Seems we had a little trouble on the Delta flight down – one of the landing gear doors won’t shut – wheels stayed down – so we had to land at JFK after taking off from LaGuardia (some of you know how silly it sounds to take off from one NYC airport and land at another).

Anyway, once on the ground, the maintenance crew swapped out a board (doesn’t that sound like computer hardware to you?) and then the pilot had to wait for his navigation system to be reset (doesn’t that sound like software to you?). Funny when the pilot said he was waiting for his Atari screen to be reset so he could get back into the air (doesn’t that sound like video gaming to you?).

So, is an airplane a giant gadget?

According to the NY Times, Microsoft has won a huge order for their Windows Mobile software - 500,000 handsets to be precise. Is this another nail in the coffin for Blackberry? Certainly seems that way. According to the NY Times article, "Microsoft expects to increase its mobile unit's sales to $1 billion in one to three years, from $337 million last year, and break the dominance of the Research In Motion BlackBerry wireless e-mail device. Sales of handsets with Windows are expected to double to 20 million in 2007 on the strength of corporate sales, Mr. Knook said."

Yeah, I'm thinking Blackberry is a sinking ship. Even, Rich Tehrani (my boss), a devout and supposedly loyal Blackberry user, has betrayed Blackberry by giving up his Blackberry to a coworker in favor of a Verizon XV6700 Windows Mobile 5.0 phone.

Microsoft declined to disclose the value of the Census Bureau contract for Windows Mobile devices, but it's important to note that they will be used to collect census information when the census employees go door-to-door for the 2010 census. I wonder how long it takes before conspiracy theories abound that Microsoft is embedding secret code into the system to taint the census results. Don't laugh, there are conspiracy theories about the Diebold electronic voting machines being rigged or at least hackable. Some of which is true, but a lot of it is conspirists gone wacko.

Several CEO heavyweights weigh in on the new pending House broadband bill and how it may affect network neutrality with the following letter... We should all call our Congressman and tell them how we feel about this issue - whether you are for or against it. This issue is too important to ignore and I'm afraid mightly lobbying efforts by the broadband providers could affect the competitive landscape of the Internet and give consumers less choice. I guess you know where I stand on this issue. In any event, here's the letter.

The Honorable Joe Barton
Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.20515

Dear Mr. Chairman:

We write to express our concern that the telecommunications legislation being considered by the Committee fails to preserve the longstanding openness of the Internet.Without critical changes, the legislation puts at risk consumer choice, American innovation and global competitiveness.

Until FCC decisions made last summer, consumers' ability to choose the content and services they want via their broadband connections was assured by regulatory safeguards.Innovators likewise have been able to use their ingenuity and knowledge of the marketplace to develop new and better online offerings.This "innovation without permission" has fueled phenomenal economic growth, productivity gains, and global leadership for our nation's high tech companies.

To preserve this environment, we urge the Committee to include language that directly addresses broadband network operators' ability to manipulate what consumers will see and do online.It is equally important to pass a bill that fleshes out these consumer freedoms via rules of the road that are both meaningful and readily enforceable.

We look forward to continuing to work with you and other Members of the Committee to protect millions of Americans' legitimate expectations in an open Internet, as well as the innovation and competitiveness that it creates.

Sincerely,
/s/ Jeff Bezos
Founder and CEO
Amazon.com

/s/ Meg Whitman
President and CEO
eBay Inc.

/s/ Eric Schmidt
Chief Executive Officer
Google Inc.

/s/ Barry Diller
Chairman and CEO
IAC/InterActiveCorp

/s/Steve Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corp.

/s/ Terry Semel
Chief Executive Officer
Yahoo!

Cc:Members of the Energy & Commerce Committee

Microsoft announced today that beginning in May, beta testers will have the opportunity to preview and provide feedback on Microsoft Speech Server 2007. Speech Server is Microsoft's IVR platform and provides the tools, run-time environment and services needed for developing speech-enabled telephony applications.

Some highlights from today's Speech Server 2007 announcement include:

• New development options with added support for VoiceXML and a new Speech Server API
• Native support for VoIP as well as SIP and RTP to enable better integration with existing telephony infrastructures
• Increased performance monitoring tools to track how callers are using the system
• Membership in the VoiceXML Forum

The full text of the release, along with quotes from industry companies and organizations, can be read here: