Keith Shirley

I read an article today that basically says from Jan 1 2008 the US Transportation and Security administration will be banning spare lithium batteries on flights. My first thought was the spare batteries that I carry for my laptop. I was only just beginning to look forward to being able to use mobile phones on the plane and now it looked like I can’t bring enough batteries for my toys business tools. When I read the article in more depth I realised that it’s might not be as bad as it sounds. In principle it only effects certain batteries BUT it’s going to mean that there is a danger of meeting a security person who is being overly strict and will confiscate them.  I know some places won’t go to the extra effort of checking the fine print and will just ban all of them.

It got me thinking about videoconferencing and whether the increased hassle with flying will push more people to use it. Video conferencing has been promised as the next big thing for decades now. I remember working on a big ISDN video phone about 13 years ago. It had one great feature – the camera was used via a two way mirror  -this meant you were looking directly at the person. I love the idea of video conferencing systems but on a small scale the way a normal camera is offset from where you are looking at makes me feel like the other person is being rude and not looking at me. It’s silly but disconcerting never the less. When you add the quality issues that are still there in lower end systems and I think it might be a while before they are accepted on the scale that is always predicted.

The telepresence systems from Polycom seem like a very good solution. I’ve only seem them in demos and not actually used them myself. However – having done conformance testing on Polycom systems a few years ago they were already very good then. If you have a big budget then I’d say that’s the kind of system to go for.

In general I’d say in many situations it’s better to have a simple video link rather than none at all. I’ve encouraged a lot of customers to just use Skype with a web cam. When talking to suppliers or customers it can be really useful to be able to hold up a product and give the impression of shape and size. Don’t rely on it for perfect colour or you could be in for a surprise. For businesses with people on the road it can brilliant. I’ve been able to help customers on numerous occasions when installing hardware or fixing cable issues just by them showing me the problem on the webcam. It’s really handy for old equipment which involve dip switches or jumpers.

More details on the new rules can be read on the US SafeTravel website.

I have a conflict of interest when it comes to the availability of strong mobile signals. I get increasingly frustrated when I can’t get a good signal. Even the times where I do get a good signal I sometimes get the impression that the voice quality is not all it should be. Now that I have the N95 and have started using the 3G functionality more an more I’m become even more impatient. On the other hand – I hate to see masts popping up in previously unspoilt areas and I would definitely not want one beside my house.

There is a potential solution to this problem – Picocells. Picocell’s could be considered to be like the access point you use for your normal wireless network but they are for mobile phones. They are basically mini GSM base stations. They would normally be used in an office block to provide a mini local phone network. There are two versions that I am familiar with – one connects to the main GSM network but the other connects to an IP network to get the calls back to the phone operator. It’s this second version that I think is going to become increasingly popular in the coming years. These picocells (and femtocells for smaller use such as at home) will allow a good phone connection to become available in places where there was no decent signal before. Many people have already switched to using only their mobile phone and having no fixed line to their homes. Increasing the signal quality within the house makes good sense. It’s even becoming more acceptable to only have mobile numbers for business use – as opposed to years ago where a mobile only number looked unprofessional.

The prices for picocells and femtocells are dropping quite rapidly so expect to see some of the phone operators offer you an Internet connection to your office with one if these in the package.

What about the health issues? Well I’m not a doctor but I’d prefer to be connecting to a very local base station than one further away. The mobile phones boost the signal strength when there is bad reception. For me this becomes most obvious if I leave the phone in the drawer over night  – the battery is almost flat by the morning……and I’m not even using it. I hate to think how strong the signal is when the phone has to transmit at full power and it’s beside my head. Having a local picocell would help prevent my brain being cooked for a little while longer.

There is an article today on SiliconRepublic titled  Carlow’s MANpower leads innovation. I was reading it early this morning so it took me a second to realise that MAN was Metropolitan Area Network. Basically it’s an article about the wireless network that is available around the centre of Carlow Town.

The article comments that this is three years ahead of Dublin’s plans. Well done Carlow. I did worry that this initiative was in danger of being forgotten about. There seems to have been very little fanfare about something which, as far as I’m concerned, is quite a big deal. I did see one or two small articles about it and I know that the Revenue did a presentation during Enterprise week but I still felt something was missing. I wonder how many businesses around town are aware that it’s there? I’m glad to read in the article that the Council are pushing on numerous levels to promote the project. I’d also like to see something like a sponsored student project for innovative ideas in a town where a full wireless coverage is available.

I had the opportunity to try and use the wireless network for the first time a few weeks ago. I say try because I couldn’t get in. I don’t think it  was directly the providers’ fault (there are multiple companies involved). During the payment stage my VISA card is flagged for a second level of authentication – the site for this second stage was not accessible. I’m presuming this was because it was not white-listed by the providers proxy rather than not really being accessible. As luck would have it I met Fergal Kearny from Aptus (one of the companies involved – the others I am aware of are Brisknet and e|Net) at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting a few days later. He listened to my complaints and promised to sort me out with some test tokens  – which he promptly did. I hope to try it again soon and be able to let you know if I was successful. I’ll also give the Visa another try.

Conal Henry, chief executive officer of e-net, made a comment for the article that he thinks there should be some element of free access for passing trade etc. I agree. In fact I would say that there should be a push for the petrol stations, cafes and restaurants on the main routes through town to provide some free short term access and encourage people to stop off for a break in Carlow.

Once again – Well done to all those involved in getting this running. It’s a brave step and I hope it works out.

I came across this geeky gift while looking for potential Christmas gifts for my clients.

It’s a desk clock that’s made out of an old hard disk and I’ll admit that for at least 20 seconds I was interested in the idea for it’s connection to the online backups that Shercom does. Then reality kicked in and I told myself not to be such a geek. I think it was the chunky screws on the bottom that put me off. I’ve seen clocks made from old Formula 1 parts and they were actually very good.

The clock is available from Etsy if you are interested.