August 2005 Archives

I haven't seen this story reported elsewhere, so I thought it was worth noting, particularly for the speech technology tie-in:

OC3 Entertainment's FaceFX Product to Use Fonix VoiceIn Technology

OC3 is the developer of FaceFX, a facial animation technology for game development. Integration of Fonix's VoiceIn technology will enable more realistic animation and add support for a number of languages. Besides adding realism to game characters, the technology will be used for enhancement of in-game voice chatting.

The press release, although interesting, doesn't give many details about what FaceFX does (maybe they were paying for PR copywriting on a per-word basis), but from OC3's Web site, I gather that the technology allows better synchronization between a character's audio track and the movements and expressions on the character's face. The site shows a good screen shot of the FaceFX user interface at:

http://www.oc3ent.com/images/facefx/preview_window.jpg

Good marketers show screen shots like this on their Web sites, IMHO. Good going, OC3! One thing further that would enhance the presentation would be an animated demo showing a character created with the technology. Oh, wait, now I see they do have a demo -- here's a link to a great movie showing two action-hero game characters acting out the old Abbott and Costello "Who's on First" routine -- it's a hoot:

http://www.oc3ent.com/WhosOnFirst.wmv

AB -- 8/31/05

On last night's Marketplace radio show (the evening business program from American Public Media), "VoIP" was the first news story covered, focusing on the expected Vonage IPO. This is an important business radio program for a large audience, and this is the first time I remember hearing them use VoIP as their top story. You can listen to the show (probably for the rest of today) at:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/

Later on you can probably hear it at their archive:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/index.html

Yesterday our stories on the topic were:

Vonage Reportedly Filing for IPO -- Johanne Torres

Vonage IPO: What It Means For VoIP -- Rich Tehrani

AB -- 8/26/06

Dialogic Communication Corporation (DCC) is announcing today that Avaya Inc. has chosen DCC's Communicator! NXT web-based software, which distributes messages in such situations as power and network problems, bad weather, office closures and disasters. Messages can go out via multiple devices, including phone, pager and Blackberry. The system is also able to track responses and produce reports.

DCC already had a relationship with Avaya as a member of the Avaya DeveloperConnection Program. DCC's announcement today emphasizes that its Communicator! NXT software interoperates with Avaya's own technologies, working "seamlessly with Avaya Communications Manager." This means that the DCC solution can also be used by other Avaya customers for their emergency notification and business continuity programs.

AB -- 8/19/05

I just received Radicati Market Stats and Industry Commentary, published by Radicati Group. This organization tracks trends in messaging and desktop security. I found the following stats interesting:

+ Radicati says that this year 61% of email traffic to European consumers is spam and that by 2009 that figure will rise to 76%.

+ Email fraud, the group says, is 3% of spam. This includes "messages and advertisements for non-existent products/services." Sounds low to me. That would mean 97% of spam is for real products?

+ Radicati believes that email messages sent and received by corporate users will average 125/day this year, rising to 1,164/day in 2009. Ouch -- that's a lot of email to manage!

+ The firm foresees the market for corporate desktop anti-spyware growing from 5.5 million clients in 2005 to 290 million clients in 2009.

AB -- 8/17/05

It's wonderful for us here at TMCnet to be the recipients of public relations efforts translated into English from other languages. Press releases can serve as a delightful means of cross-cultural education. This press release arrived today:

A member of United Fun Traders, J2ME games developer, HeroCraft launched new game 'Black Shark'

The announcement is sent out by United Fun Traders of St. Petersburg, Russia. United Fun Traders describes itself as a consortium with "a bulging portfolio of mobile products and services," providing marketing support for Russian mobile content developers. This particular release is sent out in behalf of developer HeroCraft in honor of the launch of its new game 'Black Shark.'

The release opens with the following evocation of nostalgia:

"In childhood everybody dreams to be an astronaut or pilot. Every pilot dreams to fly on one of the fastest and dangerous heavy armored modern helicopter -- K-50 'Black Shark.'"

Well now that I think about it, if I really try I can in fact reach back to a time in my childhood when such a prospect would have been appealing. It's not anything I'm proud of. The press release introduces us next to the game's scenario:

"Your objective is to demolish the military bases of the enraged terrorist organization 'Children of Danawa,' which, by some incomprehensible means, have run into possession of nuclear weapons."

Recognizing that this game is developed in Russia might make the source of these nuclear weapons somewhat more comprehensible.

And the release adds to the realism with:

"Ten secure military bases are ready to make a nuclear explosion. The lives of many people are in powerful arms and armored cabin of your war machine. Can you fight against endless enemies?"

That just about sums up my experience in the business world for the past 25 years.

Today's release continues with game instructions and frequent warnings not to let the enemy launch his nuclear missiles and closes with a word of encouragement:

"Good luck on the battlefield!"

Developer HeroCraft is headquartered in Kaliningrad, Russia. And to give you an idea what-all is included in the "bulging portfolio" of products, today's release gives a list of HeroCraft's other titles, which include:

"Airship Racing: Around The Globe," "Ball Rush," "Bikini Balls," "Black Shark," "Bubble Revolt," "Dragon and Dracula," "Dragon and Dracula Iceland Adventure," "Erotic Galaxy," "Governator: Unleashed Power," "Top Guy: Governator," "Kamikaze Quest: The God's Wind," "Robo,","Robo2," "Mummy and The Beauty," "Sky Corsairs."

AB -- 8/15/05

Here at TMCnet today we produced our weekly technology and communications podcast. With us as special guest was Aculab's David Duffett, tied in from Milton Keynes, UK.

Topics for this week's podcast included:

+ EasyVoIP, a free VoIP developer tool from Aculab and Pronexus.

+ The new Texas law that, if signed by the governor, will make it much easier for telecommunications companies like SBC and Verizon to deliver IPTV services in the state.

+ Qualcomm's purchase of Flarion, and what it could mean for WiMAX.

+ VoIPCheap, a provider offering free VoIP calling in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as inexpensive calling elsewhere -- just requires an easy download.

+ Beware the Jerk-O-Meter. How would you like it if your cell or VoIP phone could tell you whether your friend on the other end of the line is really listening and interested in your call?

Hope you'll visit our podcast page and listen to the mp3 version or subscribe to our podcast feed!

AB -- 8/12/05

I was complaining to my computer today (a lot of good that does), because it often seems to have something better to do than to help me with my work.

I kind of wish that, when my computer is busy with its own internal issues, a message would pop up on the screen:

"Sorry, I can't help you right now.
Please find something else to do
while I am taking care of my own problems."

AB -- 8/12/05

Tom Cross, TMCnet's Security and Emerging Technologies Columnist, sent me a link to a great Flash tutorial he created for his TECHtionary site, on the topic of E911. Try it out by clicking on the following link:

http://www.techtionaryna.com/techtip/wednesday1.swf

The tutorial is not in-depth, but it gives you a good idea what goes on when you make a 911 call. The fun part of the tutorial is that it shows a caller dialing 911 and the system identifying the caller's location by means of  the 14- or 16-character ALI (Automatic Location Indentifier) string. As E911 zeroes in on the location, the Flash animation zooms in on a map and a 3D rendering of the caller's neighborhood and building. Finally a cop car shows up at the door. Help has arrived!

AB -- 8/10/05

I just saw an interesting writeup from Tom Cross, TMCnet's Security and Emerging Technologies Columnist, about how his TECHtionary animations are used by companies as a resource for customer support.

I think these tutorials are a great educational resource and are one of the best uses of Flash that I am aware of. But the following quote from one of Tom's clients presents an application of TECHtionary that I wasn't really aware of previously:

"In regard to the enormous costs associated with customer support, it’s not the 1st call or even the 2nd call that causes support costs to skyrocket. It is the continuous changes in customer staff turnover, new-hires and increasingly non-English speaking employees that break-the-bank. Supporting all these types of customers rapidly evaporates profit. The TECHtionary Phoneset installation animations you have done on Cisco, ShoreTel, NEC, Polycomm and others save enormous amounts of time because support calls don’t come in one-at-a-time. We get large bursts of support calls forcing too many callers to end up in the queue with long wait times or leaving voice mail. The TECHtionary Phoneset animations provide a “pictionary” approach to many common support questions for customers who speak any language. This reduces the number and length of calls saving us thousands and gives us the ability to scale our business cost-effectively while maintaining even increasing customer satisfaction."

-- Comments from Mark Sharp, CEO, Vimenture -- A Master Agency for ICG, NGT, Qwest and others

You really have to see TECHtionary animations to get a sense of their value. Here are some great examples:

Animated Sales brochure example:
http://www.techtionaryna.com/infomercial/module3.swf

Virtual Product tutorial example:
http://www.techtionaryna.com/00/wifi-dualmode.swf

Animated User/installation manual example: http://www.techtionaryna.com/infomercial/module2.swf

Business process animation -- many examples:
http://www.techtionaryna.com/it/index_in.html

More information about Tom Cross and TECHtionary are available at:

http://www.techtionary.com

AB -- 8/8/05

Word is that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has freed telco DSL providers from the requirement to share their infrastructures with competitors. TMCnet has had confirmation from knowledgeable sources that it's a done deal, although as of this moment the FCC has not released a formal statement (at least to my knowledge). The commission's intent is to place DSL on the same regulatory footing as cable Internet service.

TMCnet's podcast from today included as a guest David Breckemeyer, former CTO of Earthlink, who commented on the issue. His feeling is that this ruling will not have a great effect on the capabilities of competitive providers such as Earthlink, since piggy-back DSL service is a negotiated business deal anyway, and providers will still be free to hammer out such deals as they have in the past.

TMCnet's regulatory reporter Ted Glanzer is less sanguine about the possibilities and will no doubt be commenting later today, as well as offering more in-depth reporting once the FCC releases an official statement on today's decision.

To follow coverage of the FCC DSL deregulation issue, please visit TMCnet throughout the rest of the day.

AB -- 8/5/05

Reports on attendance at TMC's VoIP Developer Conference, which opened this afternoon in San Francisco, give an idea of the intense interest in the technologies, strategies and tools for developing IP communications. According to reports, communications professionals are already packing out the show on its first day.

Greg Galitzine, editorial director of Internet Telephony magazine, writes in his VoIP blog:

"I just took a peek into the sessions, and I can tell you this -- they are indeed well attended. In fact one of the sessions is SRO, or standing room only. If this is a sign of things to come, the next three days are going to be gangbusters.  If you are in the area, you absolutely need to get down here."

And on his VoIP Blog, TMC President Rich Tehrani echoed Greg's excitement:

If you're one who thinks seeing is believing, here's a photo from one of today's conference sessions that shows how developers are squeezing in to sessions:

On TMCnet, we've already run several articles based on the show in the past couple of days. Following is a list:

Pronexus and Aculab Introduce EasiVoIP

Excel Switching Corp. Exec. To Present at VoIP Developer Conference & Expo, By Ted Glanzer

Why Come to the VoIP Developer Conference?, By Rich Tehrani

TowerStream, Vonage Form Alliance: Combine Voice, Broadband, By David Butcher

Empirix Unveils Voice Self-Serve App and VoIP Net Combo Tester, By Johanne Torres

Pannaway: Turning Copper and Fiber into Gold (Part II), By Ted Glanzer

VoIP Developer Conference Web site gives the conference schedule, list of speakers and exhibitors, other details. Rich Tehrani has some videos of the VoIP Developer event on his blog.

AB -- 8/2/05