The Node DB database of hotspots now includes commercial hotspots as well as community ones. The Wireless Node Database Project If you provide a hotspot whether commercial, non-profit or amateur make sure you add it to the database.

Here's the map for central London. [from: JB Wifi]

Dave Writes: "Sergey Brin from Google asked if there was a way to tap into the flow of changes on weblogs.com. There is. Lots of cool stuff has been built on changes.xml. It's updated every minute of every day. Then and now, competitor or not, it would be an honor to help Google find the newly changed weblogs"

There's a big thought in here but it's not necessarily the one Dave is considering. What if Google ran weblogs.com? What if they provided a SOAP, XML-RPC and CGI service that allowed websites to tell them "I've just updated, please index me" How fast do you think we'd all run to that and ping Google as well as weblogs.com? A start for this is clearly to route all blogger updates through to the indexing engine as I've previously suggested. But why not involve everyone in helping. And not just bloggers but all the news sites that update frequently as well.

The other side of this is to then make all that aggregated data available in the style of weblogs.com, technorati, blo.gs, Blogdex, Daypop. And it should be available as structured but raw data so that new services like these can grow up as people come up with new ways of exploiting it.

Which in turn is related to something I would love to see from Google, RSS formatted output from their search, news search and product search systems. [from: JB Ecademy]

US and Britain pound Iraqi defences in massive escalation of airstrikes

Let's not kid ourselves any more. Regardless of the UN inspectors process, the lack of UN agreement, dissent by western governments, dissent from the people, the lack of debate or anything else, we're already at war with Iraq. Now you can argue that previous UN resolutions allow the use of weapons to enforce the no fly zones. Or you can look at the results. But you can't avoid the fact that the USA has already started. [from: JB Ecademy]

There's a wonderful thread running at
YayHooray! Lite - General - ready.gov where people are adding captions and alterations to a set of US Gov graphics that are part of a guide to coping with Condition Red alerts and terrorist attacks. I particularly like this one.

Government Guide to Internet Acronyms:

R.O.F.L [from: JB Ecademy]

We are beginning to see more and more instances of the web and web techniques being applied to direct political action and hence democracy. This ranges from things like Faxyourmp to the Anti-War march organization.

Here's an attempt to re-write the Cluetrain Manifesto in a political context rather than a corporate one.

Networked democracies are beginning to self-organize faster than the politicians, companies, and clued-in marketing hacks that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, democracies are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business and political organizations.

The Doc has added to this and suggests replacing:-

We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings - and our reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it.

with:-

We are not interest groups or polls or trends or parties. We are citizens and our votes exceed your cynicism. Deal with it.
[from: JB Ecademy]

News: Intel makes a mesh of wireless networks

So here's Intel talking about mesh networks in the laboratory and some brave new futures. meanwhile Locustworld are doing mesh networking now using nothing more complicated than a PC, WiFi card and a customised Linux distro. [from: JB Wifi]

Do you use Outlook?[1]

Do you read News (and especially Ecademy Weblogs?)

Then you need NewsGator - the Outlook News Aggregator

[1] you fools!, whoops sorry
[from: JB Ecademy]

We need a mozilla sidebar that shows trails through the web. eg

People who viewed this page,
went here next:-
- URL1 1505
- URL2 723
- URL3 532

and came from here:-
- URL4 2323
- URL5 967
- URL6 375

This was inspired by Matt Jones, riffing on the implications of the Google acquisition of Blogger.com

GOOGLE ARE BUILDING THE MEMEX.
They've got one-to-one connections. Links. Now they've realised - like Ted Nelson - that the fundamental unit of the web isn't the link, but the trail. And the only place that's online is... weblogs. [from: JB Ecademy]

Omni Gives Away Wireless :

Omni Hotels in the USA have decided to give away WiFi access in all their hotels.

What makes it all possible is the relatively low cost of installing the wireless network. Even with a "fairly sophisticated site survey," said Sternitzke, it still is possible to do a wireless installation for about 70 percent less than the cost of a wired in-room solutions. On average, Core can roll out wireless in a hotel for about $70 a room. [from: JB Wifi]

Here comes the walkie-talkie cell phone - Computerworld this article is talking about US carriers starting to offer a walkie talkie function on cellphones. Can someone explain to me the tech behind this? Lots of people have asked over the years whther it was possible for cellphones to work peer to peer and communicate directly instead of going via a carrier's mast. Is that the idea here? Or is it about instant connections between phones but going via the carrier?

I have to say that direct connections in the style of walkie talkies would be really cool and would be very appealing to Teens.

Of course the last big question is whether this capability requires new phones or if it can somehow be bolted onto existing phones with a download. [from: JB Wifi]

Coming live from the Power Networking Lunchtime Event.

Note these are my words.

First up is Charles Cohen, (founder of Beenz). I have a funny memory of Beenz. At the height of the dotcom boom, I'm outside a Starbucks in the SOMA district of San Francisco. 3 kids with skateboards stopped me and pressed a Beenz postcard into my hands.

For most dotcom entrepreneurs the biggest audience they've had is in a courtroom. Beenz gave £10m back to the investors and avoided this infamy. When it failed there were no jobs for ex-entrepreneurs. Somebody said "why not write a book", but the last thing he wanted to do was to knife anyone in the back. Writing down 10 ideas and giving them to a publisher who said I'll have number 2. Which turned out to be "What happens when a corporate turns against itself". And then Enron happened! Anyway, publishers produce too many copies, in too short print runs and distribute through 3 channels. so it's a 98-2 rule where the publishers don't know what succeeds. So if you can afford it, do it, just don't expect anything back.

Next is David Taylor http://www.nakedleader.com.
The message is "Success could be anyone's. The conspiracy says success is hard and is for other people. Actually it's for anyone". Joke aside: What would have happened if an IT director had been running the Titanic? It would have missed the iceberg by 2 years.

I started reading books I'd bought. I decided that success is actually a formula. Every single book on success is full of hype. But underlying them all there is actually a simple answer.

If you want to achieve success, know where you are, know where you want to go to, know how to get there, and then do it.

If you do what you've always done, you'll stay where you've always been.

The people who get on are the people who celebrate and push harder when they hear the word "No".

Mike Southon 'The Beermat Entrepreneur',
If you want to write a book, get a proper author. cue Chris West. Approach friends and mentors first with the manuscript. Then approach the publishers.

Stick to your guns. If you know what you want to say, say it, and don't water it down. Some people will always disagree.

Right a book that people will want to read.

Create the network effect.

Very important to get the title right.

The meaning of life. What success brings you is freedom. Which brings us to Mike Fab'Gear.
- Have as much fun as you can
- Spread some good karma

Q&A?
- VCs are good for early stage, high growth. The big mistake in the late 90s was VCs investing in startups.
- Charles. Writing a book was a rest. Now I start companies
- Mike. The book is the best calling card I've got. There's no money in publishing. I make the money from consultancy
- David. Don't expect the publisher to do any marketing until you don't need it.
- David. What makes my heart sing. Emails from people who've read the book and have changed their life. Not having to commute to a corporate. Mike. Working from home instead of endless corporate travel. Charles. Helping entrepreneurs. note: Entrepreneurs wnat to change the world. VCs want to get 20 times return. That's the disconnect.
- Where's the technical recession going? Charles: Big mistake in the 90s was putting the technologists on the board. Of course technology will come back. Needs to be a tool for business not the business itself. Mike: There'll be another dislocation where a lot more normal people get the point. Tech will be back. It's just a question of timing.
- David: We've spent huge quantities of money on people. An organization's only asset is its people.
- Charles: My definition of failure is when you stop trying.
- Mike: A story about an entrepreneur who said, "I would have been nicer to people".
- David: Hope for strong reactions from people to your book, You want people to either love it or hate it.
[from: JB Ecademy]

Ed Daniels has written a great little piece for the Oxfordshire Ecademy - Forum on ways of using Ecademy.
You get back what you put in... It deserves a wider audience. [from: JB Ecademy]

silicon.com - UK gets 'virtually' free wireless hot spots : Sandwich bar chain Benugo has established wireless hot spots at two of its London stores, in partnership with wireless communications firm Broadscape.

When they make a purchase, customers will be given an access code that allows them to log into the wireless network for up to 30 minutes, letting them check email and surf the web.

The two stores are located at St Johns Street, Clerkenwell and at Berwick Street, Soho. Benugo hopes to boost trade at these outlets by offering this free high-speed wireless access to its customers.

Interesting approach to making a "free" service work. Make a purchase, get 30 minutes free access. [from: JB Wifi]

Slashdot | Joltage Powers Down : "Wi-Fi service provider Joltage sent a e-mail to subscribers that read "It is with regret that I am writing to inform you that Joltage will be discontinuing its Wi-Fi subscriber and provider services effective at the end of this month." This could have been very cool, but due to economy and lack of subscriber participation they are no longer able to finance their operations."

It seems that Joltage found that the market for hotspots growing too slowly for their model to work. that doesn't necessarily mean that the market as a whole won't work, but it probably does mean that any player planning this sort of distributed, franchise model needs deep pockets to get from here to profitability. [from: JB Wifi]

Starwood, Intel bring Wi-Fi to hotels :
Hotel chain Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and chipmaker Intel announced Wednesday an agreement to make wireless Internet access available in more than 150 Sheraton, Westing and W hotels in the United States.

Another major Hotel chain announces WiFi support for its guests targeted at business travellers with laptops. Presumably they'll be charging business rates as well.

Back in the dotcom days I stayed in the W in San Francisco. Great and very expensive hotel that had ethernet broadband (as well as a playstation and CD-Radio) in every room. WiFi is a natural fit and I'm almost surprised they haven't done it already. [from: JB Wifi]

You'd have to be completely cut off to miss the fact that at least 10m people worldwide marched against war over the last weekend.

So we've all registered our objection to a fighting and killing war lead by the USA and UK into Iraq.

But now what? Saddam is still there. The Iraqi people are still dying. From lack of food, lack of clean water, chemical weapon residues, depleted uranium residues, at the hands of Saddams henchmen, US bombs in the No-Fly zone and from internecine strife between the minorities.

It's time for the same people who marched to start coming up with alternatives that will make Iraq and the Middle East a better place.

"Make Tea Not War" was a great slogan, but tea won't help Iraq.

So how about an honest humanitarian aid program for Iraq. Drop the sanctions, and start pouring non-partisan, non-political aid into Iraq. Start bolstering the bourgeoisie with economic trade at a level below the government. I firmly believe that the only long term solution to dictatorship is the rise of a wealthy and educated middle class. Preventing that via economic isolation is a recipe for guaranteeing the perpetuation of the existing situation. If we're to have UN led sanctions they should be on the sale of weapons to Iraq not the sale of basic lifestuff. [from: JB Ecademy]

Silicon Valley - Dan Gillmor's eJournal - Google Buys Pyra: Blogging Goes Big-Time

Gosh. Pyra have done as much as anyone to promote blogging with their centralized tool blogger.com and their free blog hosting at blog*spot. Google brings some huge infrastructure and capacity to bear on providing all this as a service. But beyond that it's pretty hard to see what they gain.

I wonder what the deal was and what the Blogger crew made out of it. [from: JB Ecademy]

If you want to meet Thomas (or anyone else)
1) Go to their profile page.
2) Choose Meetings from the profile menu
3) Click on the day you want to meet on the calendar (Say Mon Mar 3)
4) Pick a slot when Thomas appears to be free and click on the "+" button.

Clearly you can navigate around the diary looking at day, week, month views or using the calendar in the top right to find that elusive free slot.

In writing this I found a couple of bugs that make this work rather better now. [from: JB Ecademy]

Reasons NOT to march tomorrow

1) You believe that bombing Iraq back to the stone age in a first strike attack on a sovereign nation, is the best way to stop an evil dictatorship with weapons of mass destruction and clear links to terrorist groups and that represents a clear and present danger to the western way of life. Regardless of the consequences.

Well if that's your belief, then fine.

2) You don't want to be associated with the groups organizing the march.

Well to quote a Labour party member. "The overwhelming majority of those taking part will be decent people who probably voted for us in the last election". The more ordinary decent people who turn up, the harder it will be for the media to spin the march into being just a few hard left, pro-palestinian loonies. March for "Capitalists against the war", "Skateboarders against the war", "Jews for Justice for Palestinians" or any one of hundreds of alternatives.

3) I want to watch the Rugby.

Oh come on! You've got a video recorder haven't you? Rugby is only a game, and like football, this is about life and death.

4) I live too far from London.

There are marches in 528 cities world wide. You can surely find somewhere nearer to you.

5) Someone's got to mind the kids.

Bring them with you. This isn't going to be violent. They'll have a great day out.

6) I'm afraid of crowds.

At the last march we meandered around side streets, crossing and re-crossing the official route. Take a tube to Tottenham Court road, Green park, Oxford Circus or Marble arch and just be on the outskirts. You probably will want to avoid the official rallying points at Gower St and Embankment

7) I'm working.

Take the day off and convince the boss to shut down and let everyone attend. Yes, but the cows will need milking. Well, you managed to walk on the countryside march didn't you? So it's ok to bomb Iraq just as long as you can go on killing foxes?

8) There'll be nowhere to park and I haven't got a congestion charge permit.

That's Monday! There are plenty of places to park on the outskirts of London near tube and rail stations.

9) I've never marched and I don't intend to start now.

Uh-huh. Just for once in your life how about standing up and being counted. Maybe you think that it won't make a difference? Well it probably won't but that's no reason not to try. Every little helps.

10) Blunkett has put us on Code Red and I'm scared that someone will shoot down an airliner that will plough into Hyde Park killing everyone there who hasn't already died from a Ricin attack on the tube system.

Yeah, right, whatever.

11) That many people will ruin the grass in Hyde Park and frighten the hedgehogs.

Collect some snails and slugs and send them to Tessa Jowell c/o The Department of Culture, Media and Sport who I'm sure will know what to do with them to aid our brave hedgehogs.

12) Between now and 12:30 tomorrow, Saddam Hussein goes into exile in Mauritania after a bloodless coup. The UN, USA, UK, France, Germany and Russia declare a 10 year multi billion dollar humanitarian aid program for Iraq in support of the new regime, funded from a windfall tax on oil profits. The interim government promises democratic elections in a month. All UN sanctions are lifted.

Then march in celebration instead of protest.

So what's your reason for not marching? [from: JB Ecademy]

Absolutely brilliant film from the Sundance online film festival. S-11 Redux It's a cut up of US media reporting.

In other "War" news, Joho The Blog has an open letter from Charlie Clements, a public health physician and a human rights advocate after a 10-day emergency mission to Iraq with other public health experts to assess the vulnerability of the civilian population to another war. [from: JB Ecademy]