24 fan phone

The teevee show 24 had a little scene a while back where a dead girl’s cell phone rang and the camera showed it was a call from “Mom”. The production crew couldn’t figure out how to display “Mom” without a real phone number below it, so they placed a call from the show’s production manager’s … Continue reading “24 fan phone”

The teevee show 24 had a little scene a while back where a dead girl’s cell phone rang and the camera showed it was a call from “Mom”. The production crew couldn’t figure out how to display “Mom” without a real phone number below it, so they placed a call from the show’s production manager’s phone, at 310-597-3781, and that went out on the air, just for a split second. But it was long enough for fans with Tivos to snag it and start calling. The number was posted to some fan sites, and they got something like 50,000 calls straight away. The show decided they had a phenomenon on their hands, so they pass the phone around to different cast and crew members to answer fan calls and chat away.

So if you’re a 24 fan and want to talk to an insider, there you go, dial away.

FCC ruling expected

Excellent business journalist Dana Blankenhorn says a ruling is expected from the FCC real soon now that will clarify MBOA’s legal status. The main issues is that MBOA uses frequency hopping to reduce emissions in each frequency band by lower duty cycle. The FCC has a hard time measuring frequency hoppers because they have clunky … Continue reading “FCC ruling expected”

Excellent business journalist Dana Blankenhorn says a ruling is expected from the FCC real soon now that will clarify MBOA’s legal status. The main issues is that MBOA uses frequency hopping to reduce emissions in each frequency band by lower duty cycle. The FCC has a hard time measuring frequency hoppers because they have clunky equipment, so they request FH be turned off for emission measurement purposes. This is trouble for MBOA because they only do FH in the first place to please the FCC. So it goes ’round and ’round.

The MBOA system is better than the Freescale DS-UWB because it can be tailored to operate in different regulatory domains where various services have to be avoided by the UWB transmitter – it divides spectrum up into chunks that can be enabled or disabled. DS-UWB is all-or-nothing, a simper design but illegal outside the US.

If the FCC requires MBOA to turn off FH and flunks them on account of it, we can look forward to a world where there is one UWB standard for the US and another for the rest of the world.

That would not be cool, of course.

No terrorists in the White House this year

Bill Clinton was the first American president to welcome Irish terrorist Gerry Adams to the White House, starting a tradition that even President Bush honored for a time, but not this year: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush (news – web sites) will mark St. Patrick’s Day this year without inviting Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams … Continue reading “No terrorists in the White House this year”

Bill Clinton was the first American president to welcome Irish terrorist Gerry Adams to the White House, starting a tradition that even President Bush honored for a time, but not this year:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush (news – web sites) will mark St. Patrick’s Day this year without inviting Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams or other Northern Ireland political parties, a senior Bush administration official said on Friday.

The White House announced Bush will welcome Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern to the traditional March 17 “Shamrock Ceremony” and that afterward, Bush will greet civil society leaders from Northern Ireland who are “working to promote peace and tolerance in their community.”

The White House statement made no mention of Northern Ireland political parties, which have participated in the ceremony in recent years.

The senior administration official said the White House decided against inviting leaders of Northern Ireland’s political parties, including Adams, for the traditional St. Patrick’s Day reception.

“We are disappointed by the December failure of the Northern Ireland political parties to reach a settlement agreement,” the official said.

One factor in this long overdue sobering-up was a finding by a joint Irish/British government panel that Adams has continued to be involved with the terrorist IRA after pretending to be separated from it:

The report published today on the IMC Web site includes the theft among several crimes it blames on the IRA. The allegations may further hamper efforts to restore the power-sharing government that brought the province’s Roman Catholics and Protestants together under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

“Sinn Fein cannot be regarded as committed to non-violence and exclusively peaceful and democratic means, so long as its links to Provisional IRA remain,” the panel said in the report, referring to the mainstream republican armed group. “Some of its senior members, who are also senior members of Provisional IRA, were involved in sanctioning the series of robberies.”

The commission said it would have recommended expelling Sinn Fein, which has close historic links to the IRA, from the assembly for an undisclosed period had the body been sitting. The report didn’t identify the Sinn Fein members suspected of a role in the crimes.

It’s time to stop pretending that Adams is anything but a rank terrorist, to prosecute him for his crimes, and to sanction any American politician who supports him, including Republican Peter King and Democrats Tom Hayden and Teddy Kennedy.

And of course he should never have a visa to enter the US (unless we plan to arrest him.) Drop the State Department a note to that effect, like this one:

Our country is engaged in a global war on terrorism, yet notorious terrorist Gerry Adams is routinely admitted to our country and feted by politicians from Peter King on the right to Teddy Kennedy and Tom Hayden on the left. Some cities, such as Oakland, CA, have honored him by naming streets after him.

This is wrong. Adams is a brutal murderer of innocent people, including school children. He should not be admitted to this country, and his supporters should not be allowed to raise money for his filthy terrorist organization.

The President made a very strong and constructive step in canceling the Clinton era tradition of inviting this piece of human scum to the White House for St. Patrick’s Day. Please follow up by making it clear that the United States has zero tolerance for terrorists of all kinds by refusing him a visa.

Thank you.

Absolutely Outrageous

The religious fanatic who masterminded the Bali bombing got off with a slap of the wrist: Bashir was sentenced to two-and-a-half years jail yesterday after a court in Jakarta found him guilty of conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. This is absolutely outrageous. I’ll never spend in dime … Continue reading “Absolutely Outrageous”

The religious fanatic who masterminded the Bali bombing got off with a slap of the wrist:

Bashir was sentenced to two-and-a-half years jail yesterday after a court in Jakarta found him guilty of conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

This is absolutely outrageous. I’ll never spend in dime in Indonesia for the rest of my life.

Link Roger Simon and Belmont Club.

Thank you Monty Python

From the Times of London: “All right, all right. But apart from liberating 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan, undermining dictatorships throughout the Arab world, spreading freedom and self-determination in the broader Middle East and moving the Palestinians and the Israelis towards a real chance of ending their centuries-long war, what have the Americans … Continue reading “Thank you Monty Python”

From the Times of London:

“All right, all right. But apart from liberating 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan, undermining dictatorships throughout the Arab world, spreading freedom and self-determination in the broader Middle East and moving the Palestinians and the Israelis towards a real chance of ending their centuries-long war, what have the Americans ever done for us?”

Heh heh heh.

UWB Merger

Here are some handy links on the Wi-Media/MBOA merger we mentioned yesterday: MBOA, WiMedia tie UWB knot (by Patrick Mannion) EE Times Comms Design Alliance Simplifies Ultrawideband Debate (by Mark Hachman) eWeek Extreme Tech “Ultrawideband Groups Merge” (by Eric Griffith) Internet News.com Wi-Fi Planet DevX News Ultrawideband partners merge (by Rupert Goodwins) ZDNet UK ZDNet … Continue reading “UWB Merger”

Here are some handy links on the Wi-Media/MBOA merger we mentioned yesterday:

MBOA, WiMedia tie UWB knot (by Patrick Mannion)

EE Times

Comms Design

Alliance Simplifies Ultrawideband Debate (by Mark Hachman)

eWeek

Extreme Tech

“Ultrawideband Groups Merge” (by Eric Griffith)

Internet News.com

Wi-Fi Planet

DevX News

Ultrawideband partners merge (by Rupert Goodwins)

ZDNet UK

ZDNet UK via Yahoo UK & Ireland News

“Ultra-Wideband Trade Groups Merge”

TelecomWeb

“WiMedia Alliance and MBOA-SIG Merge”

Yahoo Finance

Wireless IQ

Wireless Design Online

RF Globalnet

“Alereon Voices Support for WiMedia and MBOA Merger” (Alereon)

Yahoo Finance

Internet Telephony Magazine

Wireless IQ

Ultra-Wideband Wireless Products Move a Step Closer to Market Availability with Completion of Key Specifications (Intel)

Yahoo Finance

IT Pronto

Ultra-Wideband Wireless Closer (Intel) by Chris Roper

ign.com

“Intel Drives UWB Spec” (Intel)

Unstrung.com

Wi-Fi Networking News scoops the world

Glenn Fleishmann’s Wi-Fi Networking News scoops the MSM on the merger of the two leading UWB organizations: The two leading industry groups for ultrawideband merge: The Multi-Band OFDM Alliance and the WiMedia Alliance are merging their two groups to align goals more fully and reduce the number of acronyms and institutions. The two groups have … Continue reading “Wi-Fi Networking News scoops the world”

Glenn Fleishmann’s Wi-Fi Networking News scoops the MSM on the merger of the two leading UWB organizations:

The two leading industry groups for ultrawideband merge: The Multi-Band OFDM Alliance and the WiMedia Alliance are merging their two groups to align goals more fully and reduce the number of acronyms and institutions. The two groups have very similar general technology goals for UWB, and this leaves Motorola and Freescale even more in the lurch as the personal area networking (PAN) focus of WiMedia and the consumer electronics focus of MBOA come together.

While WiMedia and MBOA have been working together for a while, the formal merger leaves no doubt as to what the dominant UWB standard will be: Motorola/Freescale is out in the cold. While there are still some issues with the FCC’s stance on MBOA – no statement has been issued from the government so far – there’s little doubt that the MBOA’s approach is both technically superior and more widely supported, so the big buildout can commence without IEEE 802.15.3a endorsement.

And it has, if the demo of Wireless USB at the Intel conference is any guide.

Google Ad Sense

I’m trying out Google Ad Sense to see if can generate a little more revenue from this blog, and my first impression is that it’s pretty weird. For openers, the e-mail that Google sent me saying I was approved for the program was classified by Gmail as spam. This is what they mean by “the … Continue reading “Google Ad Sense”

I’m trying out Google Ad Sense to see if can generate a little more revenue from this blog, and my first impression is that it’s pretty weird. For openers, the e-mail that Google sent me saying I was approved for the program was classified by Gmail as spam. This is what they mean by “the left hand not knowing whose nose the right hand is picking.”

And for another, Google selects a completely different set of ads for this blog depending on whether it’s accessed from mossback.org or from bennett.com/blog; same blog, different URLs; one thinks I’m a liberal and the other a conservative. They’re both half right.

Apparently we’re seeing some of the fruits of machine “intelligence” at work.

The arrogant Juan Cole

Has this Juan Cole idiot every made a correct prediction about anything in the Middle East or West Asia? Last time I checked he hadn’t, which makes his credential-preening bitch-fight with Jonah Goldberg all the more pathetic. (…and I say this as someone who has lived in an Arab country and another couple Muslim countries, … Continue reading “The arrogant Juan Cole”

Has this Juan Cole idiot every made a correct prediction about anything in the Middle East or West Asia? Last time I checked he hadn’t, which makes his credential-preening bitch-fight with Jonah Goldberg all the more pathetic.

(…and I say this as someone who has lived in an Arab country and another couple Muslim countries, learned Arabic and a few other languages, and read extensively about the Middle East and stuff, of course.)

If you want sober and informed comment about the situation in Iraq these days you could do a lot worse than turn to Tom Friedman (a man who knows Arabic, has lived in the Middle East, read books, etc, etc). Friedman has some pointed criticism of people like the arrogant Dr. Cole in his election column:

But wait – not everyone is wearing a smiley face after the Iraqi elections, and that is good, considering who is unhappy. Let’s start with the mullahs in Iran. Those who think that a Shiite-led government in Iraq is going to be the puppet of Iran’s Shiite ayatollahs are so wrong. It is the ayatollahs in Iran who are terrified today. You see, the Iranian mullahs and their diplomats like to peddle the notion that they have their own form of democracy: “Islamic democracy.” But this is a fraud, and the people who know best that it’s a fraud are the ayatollahs and the Iranian people.

When any Iranian reform candidate who wants to run can be vetoed by unelected ayatollahs, and any Iranian newspaper can be shut by the same theocrats, that is not democracy. You can call that whatever you want, but not democracy. They don’t allow bikinis at nudist colonies and they don’t serve steak at vegetarian restaurants, and theocrats don’t veto candidates in real democracies. The Iraqi Shiites just gave every Iranian Shiite next door a demonstration of what real “Islamic” democracy is: it’s when Muslims vote for anyone they want. I just want to be around for Iran’s next election, when the ayatollahs try to veto reform candidates and Iranian Shiites ask, Why can’t we vote for anyone, like Iraqi Shiites did? Oh, boy, that’s going to be pay-per-view.

The trouble with people like Cole isn’t their lack of education, it’s their inability to see events outside the US in their native context. The war in Iraq is no longer about George W. Bush, if it ever was. It’s about the Iraqi people and their aspirations for self-rule and the forces of fascism and repression that would deny that to them. For all his training, Cole has unfortunately decided to ally himself and his aspirations with the Iranian mullahs instead of with the Iraqi people.