Demo Bikers

There will surely be a lot of very interesting technology at Demo 2004 next week. I One of these years I am going to ride my motorcycle out to Phoenix for the conference. Would sure be nice to be able to ride in warm weather. It actually got up to forty degrees in New England today and the sky was blue. I couldn't resist going for a ride so I put on the Widder electric chaps, gloves and vest, and headed out. It was very nice. Motorcycling in the winter is not a new experience this winter has been particularly challenging. A few weeks ago, the Harley-Davidson Fatboy hesitated in the six degree temperature even though it is fuel-injected but it does start fairly easily and runs very well in the cold. After returning home from the ride, the AWID tag on the front fork of the bike was detected and the proper garage door opened. Hoping to run into some fellow bikers and talk about gadgets at Demo. I am also looking forward to meeting the panelists for the blogging panel.

Conferences February 13, 2004 05:03 PM

Hello? (Long Distance - Part 8)

Rupert Goodwin over at ZDNet UK in London poked a little fun at me in Rupert Goodwins' Diary. His story, dated 10/2/2004, isn't really from October like it looks. Not only do they drive on the wrong side of the road over there, but they also put their months and days backwards. Sorry Rupert, I couldn't resist. Rupert was actually very kind to me in his story which correctly pointed out that sometimes technology fails at the most embarrassing times. In this case, I was talking to his colleague, Munir Kotadia, who wanted to discuss my views about network security, Windows, Linux, Opera, and other Internet technology related topics. Munir had sent me an email and asked if we could talk. I called him in London using my packet8.net IP phone. It is generally highly reliable -- had a flawless and high quality call with Oslo, Norway this morning -- but not always. Sometimes there is a pause. Not exactly sure why. The path from the Radio Shack cordless phone to the packet8 MTA to my LAN to my hub to my cable modem to Comcast to their router to the Internet to who knows how many hops across the Net to London to a PBX to Munir's phone has a lot of possible points of failure. Possible, but not likely, it could even have been Munir's phone. (read more)

Internet Technology February 13, 2004 02:12 PM