Mr Blog Entry - 10/27/2004: BT appears to be blocking third-party VoIP

He claims that BT is blocking port 5060 for (A)DSL customers. This is the port normally used for SIP based VoIP.

Anyone from BT care to comment? [from: JB Ecademy]

The coolest websites around right now. Check em out.

del.icio.us
Flickr
last.fm

del.icio.us is a social bookmark manager. Instead of trying to manage your own bookmarks and browser history into folders and drowning in too much information, try del.icio.us instead. When you bookmark something, you can add a bit of free form text but most importantly add some free form tags. When you come to look at your list of bookmarks you can search and sort them by tag as well as by history. What makes it interesting is that del.icio.us groups everyone's bookmarks so you can see all the posts people have made with the same tags. Here's the stream of bookmarks tagged with Japan. And you can see other people who have tagged the same web page as you. There's lots of RSS feeds and other ways to cut the data and the system is open enough that there's a ton of helper apps appearing as well. See this for more. Soooo del.icio.us people can%u2019t stand it! - The Social Software Weblog - socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com

So now instead of trying to build a brittle hierarchy that is always wrong like DMOZ or Yahoo, we're building a big connected tag space. So now apply it to photographs.Which is where Flickr comes in. Flickr makes it really easy to post your digital photos to the web. Just like del.icio.us when you post a photo, you can add free form text to describe it and free form tags to categorise it. Want to see a constant stream of photos tagged with "Japan"? just go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/japan/ Again, there's an open API, lots of RSS and people are starting to build extensions.

Which brings us to Music. Last.fm watches what you listen to via all the common PC based music players like Winamp and Windows Media Player. From this it builds a profile of what you like. And crucially you don't have to rate music or tag lots of songs, you just have to listen to music. Now it's got lots of profile information it can find people with similar tastes to you. And having found them, you can then listen to a radio station that selects tracks that have been listened to by people like you. You get the randomness of people's listening habits with the filter that overall theyre a good match to you. There's also the sort of things you'd expect of recommendations, links to Amazon, samples and a music library. And again there's an open API and RSS. Which means that last.fm didn't have to write all the plugins for all the music players, that got done by the community. And crucially and like the other two systems, you don't have to search through a fixed category hierarchy that doesn't make sense. The "Similar Artists" and "Similar People" lists are built by what people actually listen to, not some arbitrary label like "Downbeat Ambient".

What's common about all these systems is that on one level they answer a personal need. A better bookmark system. An easy way to post photos to the web. A music recommendation system with no effort. But because they aggregate social behaviour, they add value that wouldn't have been possible with just an individual's actions. And because they are open and explicit they're creating feedback loops that add more value. And the open APIs are leading to a community of developers enhancing and adding to the basic structures. [from: JB Ecademy]

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What's up with this? http://www.georgewbush.com/ gives Access Denied. You don't have permission to access "http://www.georgewbush.com/" on this server.

So try this. Google search for "George W Bush" and hit "I'm Feel Lucky". That takes you to the same place.

Then there's the blog at http://www.georgewbush.com/blog/ Access denied.

Is this some weird thing where I'm not allowed because I'm in Europe? Or is it genuinely damaged? [from: JB Ecademy]

It seems that there's a routing problem (probably) in NTL which is preventing people from accessing Ecademy if they are using NTL as their ISP. I'm escalating this through both NTL and Globix (our provider).

Apologies for the break in service. [from: JB Ecademy]

Links: Locative Media [from: del.icio.us]

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, but he had something bigger in mind all along. He tells TR how his 15 years of work on the "Semantic Web" are finally paying off. [from: del.icio.us]

Is Marc Canter, the new Dave Winer?

Here's one for the logistics specialists among you.

How do you do just in time manufacturing and shipping when your manufacturing is happening in Asia and the Far East, but your customers are in Europe and America?

Are we stuck with the current systems of having large numbers of middlemen involved in getting the goods in bulk from China to distributors and then retailers in the US?

It seems to me that there's a huge prize for anyone who can work out how to cut the middlemen out and ship direct from the manufacturer to the customer's door. [from: JB Ecademy]

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Tremendous rant on the Inquirer

Until they can answer the question, they are doomed to failure. Can anyone in the DLNA answer it?

Here it is again: "Why would a consumer want to buy something that has more restrictions and less functionality for more money than current solutions?"

I just wish one of you spineless but very rich companies had the balls to stand up and do the right thing for the consumer. Fat chance, but I thought I'd ask.

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Audioscrobbler :: Forums :: Official News and Announcements :: We're Hiring. Job Spec

One of the coolest web sites on the planet is looking for a developer. www.audioscrobbler.com, last.fm

And they're based in London. [from: JB Ecademy]

Wi-Fi Coverage To Get Boost | NetStumbler.com : In a move designed in part to combat its low-cost, consumer-focused image, the Deutsche Telekom arm said on Thursday it had tied up with BT Openzone to give customers access to 1,900 Wi-Fi local wireless network access points, known as hotspots.

Those numbers don't make sense given The Cloud's coverage and I think they should be much bigger. But if OpenZone customers can use T-Mobile hotspots and vice versa, that has to be a good thing for both parties. And at least in the UK it begins to make more sense to pay a a subscription rather than pay as you go.

But it's all still too expensive so I will route round it as usual. Like at the Ecademy event in the Marriott Marble Arch where I avoided STSC's extortionate rates by pointing a small antenna out the window and leaching off somebody's free AP. [from: JB Ecademy]

It's coming down to the wire.

Vote for Kerry.

Not because Kerry would make a better President than Bush. He might not.

Not because Bush is a bumbling idiot. Bush isn't actually that stupid and does have some redeeming traits.

Not because Kerry won the debates. He did well, but not that well. And it's no reason to elect the most powerful person in the world if you just do it on the basis of 3 bits of theatre.

Not because unemployment is up, poverty is up, imports are up, gas prices are up and the USA is in real danger of slipping into a period of high inflation and all that happened on the Bush watch. That may not be Bush's fault and would probably have happened anyway.

Not because American foreign policy is becoming increasingly absurd. Do you really think that it will change dramatically if Kerry gets in?

Not because Bush lied about the reasons for going into Iraq. That's realpolitique and Kerry probably would have done the same.

Not because the Bush administration looked the other way in the run up to 9/11 and ignored the warning signs. What should or could they have done even if they hadn't taken their eye off the ball?

Not because Iraq is turning to hell in a hand basket. What's Kerry going to do that won't take 4 years?

Not because Bush being defeated will hasten Blair's demise. You shouldn't vote for someone because it will change politics in another country.

But because it will keep these people out of power for 4 years.
Dick Cheney
Richard Perle
Paul Wolfowitz
Donald Rumsfeld
Condoleeza Rice

They're the really dangerous ones. Bush is just the figurehead. Some of them have been playing this game for 30 years now. It's time to stop them.

Marc's Voice: Transparency and sponsorship in the blogosphere

Give me money. If I like your product I'll promote it everywhere I can. I'll write blogs about it both here and elsewhere. I'll mention it on mailing lists. I'll post about it on other people's blogs in the comments. I'll mention it in forums I belong to. I'll promote it to people I meet at networking events.

Just give me money and I'll do all these things.

But I have to like the product.

And you have to "not be evil".
[from: JB Ecademy]