Robert Scoble  writes about whether having a decent WiFi connection at a conference is  something that important  and concludes that if you can afford the $3500 price tag to get in, you can also afford an $80 a month Verizon mobile data plan.  Ethan Kaplan thinks it is important , and I agree, but for different motives. What Robe…

Two days ago, I posted a comment in reply to Martin Varsavsky’s post, Fabricar vs Crear, as the first comment asked Martin to look at a particular thread in FON’s forums. The comment was critical of the way things are going at FON, here is a translation of it: Martin, I see that you are traveling a lot and promoting FON. But you s…

Ars Technica reports  that Microsoft is being sued by a company named  PalTalk , which has two patents on a “Server-group messaging system for interactive applications”, original patent filings  here  and  here . If you read through the patents, it becomes evident that they cover a hugely broad number of messaging systems, whether…

A few days ago, while looking for a new mouse, I stumbled upon a game controller, which consists of a seat and a wheel styled in  Formula 1 fashion . Right now,  Fernando Alonso  is looking like the candidate to win this year’s World Championship with Renault, and so he has become a coveted prize for any advertiser worth anything.…

Reading  The Daily WTF  today, a neat site that posts screw-ups made by programmers and tech management, I noticed the owner mentions his new company,  HiddenNetwork.com . What strikes me is that they are targeting bloggers straight on, paying them to run a JavaScript banner that links to job offers, paid for by the employers look…

Reading with interest the  flurry  of  posts  about Google’s purchase of YouTube for around $1.6 billion, it seems the main worry right now is that since Google is a very rich company ($131 billion caps!), the lawsuits for copyright violations will start raining faster than you can say MPAA. Mark Cuban  is particularly pessimistic…

Today is my last day as a  Fonero , which is the way people registered in  FON’s network  are called (IMHO a rather ugly name). Why this decision? There are a number of reasons, and I have chosen to simply make a list.   The most important reason is that I have taken a position at a company that makes it unethical for me to contin…

This was seen  on a Boeing 767 while en route from Las Vegas to Atlanta, the flight being operated by Delta. Apparently, many people were having problems with their purchased movies, and so the crew decided to reset the system, provoking a nicely familiar sight. Now we could all start making jokes about mapping the plane, or tryin…

It’s coming back, but this time, it’s a 2.0 bubble. We will not likely see hundreds of millions of dollars burning in bottomless pits, as VCs are being more rational about their release of funds, but no doubt a good many companies jumping on the bandwagon will not survive. Take social networks - there are a myriad of them appearin…

According to international safety regulations, flammable sprays are not allowed onboard aircraft (albeit agencies such as the TSA allow toiletries in small quantities), just as dangerous chemicals, explosives, live ammunition, and a whole bunch of other nasty stuff. This guy had the right to take away my little piece of odor-fight…

Last week I had to go to Romania for a meeting with a team of coders, landing at Cluj-Napoca on Tuesday. Scheduled to return on Wednesday, I duly turned up at the airport by 08:00, joining the long line leading to the security checkpoint. Wait. A  long  line? We’re talking about an airport with a single runway,  one  transfer bus…

Today I decided to attempt a second round at configuring the router  FON  sent me a few days ago since my first out-of-the-box experience hadn’t been that good. Emails to tech support unanswered, which seems to  be   an   endemic   problem ,  as   can   be   seen   on   FON’s   forums , I finally gave up. After plugging in the W…