A fascinating video talking about statistics and making them "live". Best statistic application ever!
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Ok, I'll fix the video thing later, a bit in a rush right now, just click here in the meantime : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w
L'une des choses que j'ai toujours voulu faire dans ce blog c'est pointer les differences entre systeme anglais et systeme francais, sans limitations de domaine. Les differences sont nombreuses, on le sait, et les documenter est toujours interessant. Un exemple frappant fu l'interview hier soir du directeur general de la BBC, sur la BBC, par un journaliste de la BBC. Pour ceux qui ne vivent pas en angleterre, une enquete interne a la BBC a decouvert que les concours pendant lesquels les auditeurs appellent des numeros surchargés dans l'espoir de gagner differents prix ne profitaient pas aux auditeurs mais etaient en fait distribués aux proches et ami des equipes de production. Le ton du journaliste et les questions directes n'auraient pas ete imaginables en France. Le journaliste en a meme ete a demande si cette crise ne remettait pas en question la credibilite de la chaine et par la meme de l'equipe dirigeante. Et donc si, a terme, le DG n'allait pas remettre sa demission? Je me souviens de la crise de la fausse interview de Castro par PPDA (je suis parti depuis longtemps, ca commence a se voir...) qui decridibilisait totalement TF1 (not a hard one sur le point de l'info, il est vrai). Difficile d'imaginer le meme scenario.
Enfin bref, mon propos n'etait originellement pas la. Je voulais faire reference a un bon post qui a ete ecrit pendant la crise du CPE et donc qui, bien que vieux de plus d'un an, explique clairement la periode d'essai des employés en UK.
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A very good application which shows where the GDP is spread in the world, not informative as there is no surprise but very nice.
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The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. Bertrand Russell
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I am not being very assiduous with my blogging fair to say but I thought this was tic enough and very very topical at the moment to actually blog it and justify, as much as possible, my Typepad subscription... Can not manage to embed it but highly recommend it, it's quite funny
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=f390265dcbb9e1f1da97a69637e921d39b6c99aa
Classic video from Japan, even down the English translation... Some clear spin on the capabilities (aroma phones???). I was having a conversation recently with someone who was hell bent on the need to have Excel and MS in his phone and the value of it and did not agree that this was only for a thin crust of the population and not the mass market. The focus of this video demonstrate the actual functions which will make phone more than just for voice, near field communication being amongst the top features imho (not excel...)
There is quite a lot of myth around GPS at the moment. Nothing wrong with it, it is standard with any technology to be misunderstood by the public at large but I am surprised not to see many comments about the lack of security of GPS in the more specialised arena. Anyway, a very quick search on Google for "GPS tampering" brings out loads of results. 234,000 to be exact (even if I don't believe that loads of them really deals with the issue).
Anyway, let assume someone wonders about how secure or unsecure GPS is. That someone is as I said more the exception than the norm. But the main misconception made at this point of the thought process is that because GPS is used by US military it is bound to be secure or tamper proof. The GPS data that the application (mobile or web) will be using is undoubtedly related to the object/person/animal I want to use the co-ordinate of. Unfortunately not.
GPS signals used by private sector or even a large portion (90%) of the federal government is unencrypted and unauthenticated. GPS for the public was never meant to by used for security or critical application yet they are used in such ways nowadays. They are even selling books about how to hack GPS.
There are four ways that these guys from Los Alamos National Laboratory (whose expertise I lean on for this note) have identified to interfere with GPS data:
1- Blocking, breaking off the antenna for example or shielding it. This is in a way on of the major usability issue of GPS, antenna has to have a good line of sight.
2- Jamming, by building a noisy RF transmitter around the antenna
3- Spoofing, using widely available GPS satellite simulators, this is the surreptitious way which the user may not be aware of
4- Physical attack. Not very surreptitious
The interesting part here is obviously point number 3 where the signal between the satellite and the device can be spoofed. The location presented to the device not being the real one. Satellite simulators are widely available and can be purchased or rented and many are highly user friendly. The Alamos guys even say that little expertise is needed in electronics, computer, rf etc... A small caveat around this as these people are not the best reference point in judging if something can be easily tackled by techno dummies. But still.
So from an application perspective, I suppose that using your GPS for a small mobile application is something which is not a problem. After all, if the data is tampered with for your, say, "find my nearest restaurant" application then you'll end up in a pizzeria rather than the curry place you were looking for. However, for a whole raft of other applications that are cropping up that are location dependant, GPS is far from being a reliable source. For a small taster, check GPS hack.
Whilst a solution that is using GSM network information and based on a SIM is less likely to be hacked into (no data available on this yet), I wonder how tamper proof A-GPS will be as it is in essence a mix of satellite based and network based technology.
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I came across an interesting paper put together by the OECD dealing with FMC. They include FMS as a part of FMC which is both debatable and understandable.
Many interesting facts, the report is 50 pages long so I detail here what caught my attention and which I was not aware of and add any related / relevant comment:
+ FMC solutions are not new. BT launched Onephone service in 1999, a DECT based service which eventually evolved in BT Fusion.
+ The first home zone service launched in Europe was not by O2 Germany as I thought but by Sonofon in Denmark in 1997. The service was called UnoFon
+ FMS in France has been more prevalent than in the UK, though both share of fixed and mobile traffic in each country is at the same level, more or less 48% of mobile. I would have thought that the substitution in UK would be more prevallent due to the aggressive competition in the mobile market but I suppose the lack of competition in the fixed market in France was more of a driver for user to go towards more mobile usage
+ At the time of producing their report, there are 20 UMA trials underway, 10 of which in Europe. I think this is conservative, I would have thought the interest in the UMA services would be higher?
+ Vodafone asked BT to provide the portability of geographic numbers from fixed to mobile. Ofcom determine that BT had no obligation but intends to modify the portability and numbering plan to facilitate the inter-platform voice competition. This would be a similar move to the one which was initiated by the Irish regulator Comreg in Ireland end of last year and finalised this year. The key decision is to open the geographic number base to mobile operators in certain circumstances (i.e.: home zone services). This type of product is seen as having the potential to increase competition in the market place and opening new opportunities for more flexible services to the benefit of end users. It is also important to note that the Italian regulator is also looking into that space, after TIM complained VF Italy Casa service was planning to use the geographic numbers. The regulator main issue was that with a home zone service based on Cell-ID, the mobile operator could not guarantee a sufficiently high correlation between the physical home and the home zone service, putting the fixed operator in a disadvantageous position
+ Since FMC services will lead to bundle prices to the benefit of end users, that price regulation are here to address SMP (no yet existant in pure FMC space), price regulation would be inappropriate. But price surveillance should be maintained as exisiting player with existing SMP in fixed or mobile can apply distorting influence/forces. The Italian regulator AGCOM only permitted bundling of services that could be bought separately by consumers
+There are also some interesting review of the live services for major countries as part of the annex
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Currently travelling on the train between London and Brighton. I did know about the T-Mobile coverage on that link but never tested it. This is now done and I have to say, it is a very good service, not patchy at all. I am impressed.
UPDATE: Classic. The virtual ink on that note was barely dry that the connection went down. That coincided with the train having left the built up area of greater London. And I could not get a proper service for the reminder of the journey (which was around 75% of the time). So not that impressed actually.
Interestingly, before loosing the connection, I had the time to check some of my rss feeds and was reading Dean Bubley's post about his experience of using on of T-Mobile wifi hotspot when his Google pages were displayed in German. Well... Clearly something I could relate to as this is the exact same experience I had. Because I was using T-Mobile, the service thought I was German. Doooh... So, basic connectivity and advanced context are both aspects of the service which T-Mobile need to work on.
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Seeker Wireless is a start-up which has developed an innovative technology serving mobile operators needs. To respond to the success of our home zone / location service and support our current growth, we are recruiting a pre-sales technical person. If you know someone who fit the description feel free to comment and contact me.
Description:
* Strong technical background, connectivity, SMS, Oracle, Software development
* Have run technology hands on trials and can provide detailed technical support
* Have had earlier detailed technical experience around mobile networks
* Experience in mobile networks either on the core or the IT side is definitely necessary. Have to be comfortable with unix based systems and the associated networking technologies
* Knowledge of the technology on the handset side is a plus
* Good customer facing skills
* Good control of English, additional European language(s) a plus
Start-up experience would be a strong advantage, we need someone who can deal with uncertainty, changing environment, be pro-active without day-to-day supervision, hit the ground and run.
The commercial team is based in London but most of our customers and prospects are today in the EMEA region so a fair amount of travelling would be required and people living outside London not willing to relocate would be undoubtedly considered.
I came across an interesting piece of public research from Analysys that focuses on Fixed to Mobile substitution, aka as FMS. The graph below describes the rising share of mobile calls as a percentage of the total calls.
But what is interesting is that they specify that there is a fairly wide spread across the European region, ranging from 18% in Germany to 70% in Finland. That is the surprising part. Germany is THE country of FMS, with O2, Vodafone and T-Mobile having launched home zone solution. Their figures are from Q1 2006, so I would expect that in Q1 2007, that percentage has shot up. Also, only 35% of voice calls are originated from a mobile network, this clearly showing that FMS has a lot of potential for growth.
Yet another report that claims that FMC is not getting as much interest as the industry hype would suggest. This one (brief highlight from consulting paid-for report) is interesting as it it focuses on the interest of businesses for FMC solution. I will put a slight caveat as it focuses on US market and the dynamics between US and EU market are not exactly like for like though general trends such as Wi-Fi being only use for data and not voice is something which is quite "market agnostic".
In the consumer segment, we have already seen the failure of FMC solution in a market where simple FMS solutions exist. In effect, in Germany T-Mobile pulled the plug on its T-One solution which was competing against the Home Zone solutions of Vodafone ZuHause, BT Genion and TMobile @Home. This clearly shows that when consumers have the choice between a user friendly, simple voice solution such as Home Zone and a complex solution that mixes Wi-Fi, UMA, Bluetooth, GSM, etc... there is no doubt about which ones is going to make market inroads.
Again, I believe that usability (at the right price point of course) is key to ensure the success of any new service based on technology. Therefore, mixing too many technology hoping "soccer mom" i.e. lambda users will be able to deal with them is laudable but very ambitious in my views.
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Seeker Wireless is presenting at Mobile Monday next week in London. This is the second Mobile Monday event that focuses on location after Mobile Monday Munich and is, I believe, yet another proof that location is on the industry agenda. For those who have been in the mobile space for awhile, i.e. at least since the back end of last century, location often means high expectations but a difficult technology and therefore under delivery on the big promises. At the end of the nineties, beginning of the noughties (note: some people spell it naughties but I fear this might drive the wrong traffic to this blog), there was a lot of hype about location services. However, Cell-ID technology did not have the necessary accuracy to enable applications, latency was very high and the cost model behind delivering a time and location relevant message to a user was very high. This was due to a necessary polling by the device to know where the user was. At a few euro cents for each poll the location intelligence was very costly to acquire. Now, Tom Tom is bringing location to the mass market in a similar way that Skype brought VoIP to the mass, i.e.: by delivering an easy solution to use. So VoIP was a confidential acronym back in 2003/2004 and is now a mainstream term. As we know, this has been a wake up call to the fixed operators and there are now number of VoIP offers on the back of ADSL subscriptions. Tom Tom with its simple GPS based device brought location solution to the mainstream. And there is consequently a renewed interest from users about location solution which the mobile industry is trying to and has to sustain. However, mobile operators still need to find a cost effective, accurate and reliable enough solution to replace Cell-ID today while waiting for ubiquitous penetration of A-GPS handsets. And this is where Seeker is... More info at Mobile Monday London on the 16th of April...
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Ou pour l'Eurovision, France nul point...
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Blyk is riding the PR wave. Whether you believe in their model or not is a matter for another conversation, but clearly their ad based model, MVNO deal with Orange, thie well connected heads (especially in Nokia) and their recent deal with Nokia Siemens (did not expect Alcatel Lucent to get this one tbh) are making some good noise.
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