Archive for February, 2008

High Definition (radio program) - program

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

High Definition is a Canadian radio program, which debuted on February 4, 2006 on the CBC Radio One network.

The series, hosted by Don McKellar, examines and analyzes television’s role in modern popular culture. It airs in a time slot previously occupied by O’Reilly on Advertising, a program which offered a similar perspective on advertising.

Conceived and scheduled as an eight-episode series, the CBC may also extend its run if the program proves popular.

Links

WengoPhone - voip

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

WengoPhone is a free software SIP compliant VoIP client developed by the OpenWengo community under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It allows users to speak to other users of SIP compliant VoIP software at no cost. It also allows users to call landlines, cellphones, send SMS and make video calls. None of these functionalities are tied to a particular SIP provider and can be used with any provider available on the market, unlike proprietary software such as Skype and others.


History

WengoPhone’s development started on September 2004. The first published version was released as 0.949. Classic has gone through a number of different releases, up to 0.99 RC8.

WengoPhone NG’s development started at the end of the year 2005. Its first release is planned for the end of March 2006.

A WengoPhone Firefox extension has also been published, which is available on Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.


Calls

PC-to-PC calls are Hi-Fi quality and use several codecs such as ILBC, AMR-WB, PCMA, PCMU, AMR and GSM. It is possible to start a conversation with other users of the same software or any other software that is SIP compliant such as Gizmo. WengoPhone also allows users to make video calls using ffmpeg.

Concerning calls to landlines, the default server configuration is the one from Wengo which is the primary sponsor of the OpenWengo project. It is however possible to use other servers. This provides users an economic advantage as they can choose the SIP provider according to how much they charge per minute and not according to the software they use.

Since version 2.1 WengoPhone can now also be used with any SIP provider. [1]


Protocol

The protocol being used is standard SIP.


User interface

The GUI is very similar to the one of other VoIP softphones such as Gizmo or Skype. From the main GUI, one can access through tabs the contact list, the list of calls but also the user SIP account. Technically it is based on Qt/[[C++]].


Particularities

Particularities of the WengoPhone are:

  • SIP compliance
  • Provider agnostic
  • Allows users to send SMS to France
  • NAT traversal
  • Cross-platform
  • Audio smileys
  • Qt-based GUI


Limitations

The main criticisms of the WengoPhone are:

  • it uses SIP SIMPLE as its protocol for text messaging; this is not often used by other softphones, which prefer XMPP.
  • Lack of true privacy features such as encryption. A beta AES-128 encryption using SRTP is available since 2.1 version of WengoPhone.
  • Needs a broadband connection, unusable on dial-up connections (unlike Skype)
  • Does not support older versions of Windows like Windows 98 and Millennium


Future

The new version of WengoPhone labeled NG is to fix many of these limitations. The NG version will be GUI agnostic and support other protocols for text messaging. It will also offer an API for developers to build application on top of it. It should be available by mid 2006. The first version of it is already available through a firefox extension [2], though the NG version will be available with a Qt interface.


See also

  • Comparison of VoIP software
  • Ekiga
  • List of Firefox extensions
  • SIP Communicator
  • Wengo SIP Service


External links

  • Product home page

Links

Deutsche Bundespost - such as Deutsche

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

The Deutsche Bundespost (German federal post office) was created in 1947 as a successor to the Reichspost (German imperial post office). Between 1947 and 1950 the enterprise was called Deutsche Post (German post office). Until 1989 the Deutsche Bundespost was a national company.

The Bundespost was developed according to a three-stage principle common in public administration in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The upper stage consisted of the federal ministry for the post office and telecommunication system. The middle stage consisted of regional directorates and national post office management in West Berlin, with certain central bureaucracies (post office technical central office, telecommunication engineering central office, postal administration social office, and post offices) on an equal footing. Finally, the lower stage consisted of the actual post offices, postal giro (akin to a checking account)and savings bank offices, and telecommunication offices.

The legal basis for the administrative activity of the Bundespost was the postal administration law (Postverwaltungsgesetz, abbreviated PostVwG). A central goal of public administrative policy after 1924 was financial self-sufficiency. Political goals, however, often superseded this goal. According to the PostVwG, the federal postal system was to be administered “according to the principles of the policy of the FRG, in particular trade, economic, financial and social policies” and “the interests of the German national economy.”

The Deutsche Bundespost was the largest employer in the Federal Republic. In 1985 it employed 543,200 people.

In the first post office reform (July 1, 1989), the Bundespost was divided into three divisions (also called public enterprises):

  • Deutsche Bundespost Postdienst - postal service
  • Deutsche Bundespost Telekom - communications service
  • Deutsche Bundespost Postbank - postal bank

The central authorities remained as described above. The divisions were later privatized in the second post office reform (January 1, 1995), resulting in the creation of the following:

  • Deutsche Post AG from the postal service
  • Deutsche Telekom AG from the communications service
  • Deutsche Postbank AG from the postal bank

The federal ministry for post office and telecommunications (Bundesministerium für Post und Telekommunikation) retained oversight responsibility for postal services and telecommunications. After the dissolution of that ministry on 1 January 1998, those tasks were taken over by a new federal network regulatory agency (Bundesnetzagentur, formerly “RegTP”)under the federal ministry for economics and technology. Other functions (such as the issuance of postage stamps) were taken over by the federal ministry of finance. Some telecommunications functions (including BOS radio) were turned over to the federal ministry of the interior.

For certain official and legal purposes (including certain financial, medical and other services for former postal civil servants), a “federal institution for posts and telecommunications” (Bundesanstalt für Post und Telekommunikation) was created.

Links

Public road - Public

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

A public road is a road that is open to common use by the general population.

In the United States, the majority of paved roads are public, and traffic laws apply to them, for instance:

  • speed limits
  • drunk driving laws
  • depending on the state, bicycles and pedestrians cannot be banned unless the road is limited access

Public roads can be set aside in several ways:

  • common law, due to being used by the public for a certain amount of time with no obstruction
  • dedication by plat
  • easement or deed to the applicable jurisdiction


See also

  • private highway

Links

Common Body of Knowledge - Security

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

The Common Body of Knowledge (CBK) is a compilation of information and best practices for international Information Security professionals, comprising 10 security domains:

  • Access Control
  • Application Security
  • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
  • Cryptography
  • Information Security and Risk Management
  • Legal, Regulations, Compliance and Investigations
  • Operations Security
  • Physical (Environmental) Security
  • Security Architecture and Design
  • Telecommunications and Network Security

The CBK is developed and maintained by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC)2, and is the official basis of CISSP certification tests.

Links

Peter Wilt - early 2005 to bring

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Peter Wilt (born in McHenry, Illinois), is a soccer executive who was the first President and General Manager of the Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer, and is currently part of the effort to bring an expansion MLS franchise to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wilt is most known for his work with the Chicago Fire, where he gained a reputation for being a fan-friendly businessman in the soccer world.

Wilt regularly answered questions from fans through the BigSoccer Internet message boards.

In 2005, Wilt left the Fire after Anschutz Entertainment Group, the team’s owner, replaced him with John Guppy. In 2006, he became the chief executive officer of Milwaukee Professional Soccer, a group bidding to bring an MLS franchise to Milwaukee.


References


External links

  • October 2004 Interview
  • “Chicagoist” news story about Wilt’s dismissal as General Manager
  • Milwaukee Pro Soccer profile

Links

VocalTec - VocalTec

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

VocalTec Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:VOCL), is an Israeli telecom equipment provider. The company was founded in 1989 by Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty, who invented and patented the first Voice over IP audio transceiver. VocalTec continues to be a leading VoIP company, with major customers such as Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia.

VocalTec released the first ever Internet VoIP program in February 1995. The company went public during 1996, and in 2005, completed a business combination with Tdsoft, a provider of VoIP gateways.

Today VocalTec specializes in providing carrier-class multimedia and voice-over-IP solutions for communication service providers. The company offers a wide portfolio of solutions enabling the flexible deployment of VoIP next generation networks.


References

  • VocalTec official site

Links

Dispersion-limited operation - Communications

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

A dispersion-limited operation is an operation of a communications link in which signal waveform degradation attributable to the dispersive effects of the communications medium is the dominant mechanism that limits link performance. The dispersion is the filter-like effect that a link has on the signal, due to the different propagation speeds of the eigenmodes of the link. Practically, this means that the waveform at the input will be different from the waveform at the output of the link.

Note that the amount of allowable degradation is dependent on the quality of the receiver. Note also that in fiber optic communications, dispersion-limited operation is often confused with distortion-limited operation.


References

  • Federal Standard 1037C
  • MIL-STD-188

Links

Internet dynamics - ever Internet

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

The Internet has a large and growing number of users that have created a distinct culture, Internet Dynamics. For examples see Netiquette, Internet friendship, Internet romance, Trolls and trolling, Flaming, Cybering, Hacktivism, Internet humor, Internet slang, Internet art, PSTN.

In the academic world, Sherry Turkle and David Gelernter are just two of the many researchers who investigate the effects of the Internet on individuals.

Links

  • The VoIP Weblog Today's New York Times has an interesting story on the impact VoIP services have had on the traditional phone companies. Basically, VoIP services like
  • I-voip Skype Phones, USB Phones, Skype Phone, Skype Headset, IP Phones, VoIP Routers, Fritzbox, Wifi Phones, VoIP handsets, Cordless Dualphones, VoIP service
  • VoIP Industry News | Telephony Online Telephony Magazine

Great Masterwort - with major

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Great Masterwort (Astrantia major) is a plant of the family Apiaceae. A native of Europe and western Asia, it was introduced into the British Isles and is well established in various localities. Its types include “Ruby Cloud”, “Rubra”, “Snow Star”, “Sunningdale Variegated”, “Lars” and “Rosea”.

Links

  • Locating Info On The Net For Voip Info on a few of the sites for voip now available on the internet, and how to find out more.
  • VoIP Over the years China VoIP Conference has addressed the evolution of the telecom business from PSTN to IP. Today, the telecom business is in the process of
  • Voice over IP - Whirlpool Broadband Forums READ THIS: VoIP Providers / Hardware Manufacturers [closed], 0, 6102, Corey .. QoS and voip, not working too well

Intelsat I - in early

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Intelsat I (nicknamed Early Bird for the proverb “The early bird catches the worm”) was the first (commercial) communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, on April 6, 1965. It was built by the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company (later Hughes Space and Communications Company, and now Boeing Satellite Systems) for COMSAT, which activated it on June 28. It was based on the satellite that Hughes had built for NASA to demonstrate that communications via synchronous-orbit satellite were feasible.

Originally slated to operate for eighteen months, Early Bird was in active service for four years, being deactivated in January 1969, although it was briefly activated in June of that year to serve the Apollo 11 flight when the Atlantic Intelsat satellite failed. It was deactivated again in August 1969 and has been inactive since that time (except for a brief reactivation in 1990 to commemorate its 25th launch anniversary), although it remains in orbit.

The Early Bird satellite was the first to provide direct and nearly instantaneous contact between Europe and North America, handling television, telephone, and telefacsimile transmissions. It was fairly small, measuring nearly 2.5 × 2.0 feet (76×61 cm) and weighing 76 pounds (34.5 kg).

Early Bird was one of the satellites used in the then record-breaking broadcast of Our World.


See also

  • Syncom, the first geosynchronous and geostationary satellites


References


External links

  • Early Bird at boeing.com

Links

List of private security agencies - security vendors providers and

Monday, February 25th, 2008

This is a partial list of private Security solution providers


Canada

  • Intercon Security

  • Denmark

    • Dansikring A/S


    Singapore

    Asia Risk Solutions (BARS) - maritime sector


    Sweden

    • Securitas


    Switzerland

    • Protectas AG


    United States

    • Wackenhut
    • Inter-Con Security Systems, Inc.
    • Blackwater USA
    • Command Security
    • Triple Canopy
    • Dyncorp aka Dynacorp
    • Universal Security
    • MVM, Inc.
    • Pathfinder Security Services

    Links

    • Understanding VOIP If you are new to VOIP, here is a description of how this new technology works.
    • Inside IT: Trouble on the line | Technology | The Guardian VoIP customers around the world are discovering that their calls cannot be connected because telecom companies are blocking the movement of such traffic
    • AT&T: VoIP VoIP from AT&T converts your voice into data and uses your high speed Internet connection to send and receive calls. Connect your home or business with VoIP
    • VoIP Forum VoIP Forum discussed hot VoIP topics, interesting VoIP news including Skype Vonage.

    Vino - desktop environment.

    Monday, February 25th, 2008

    Vino may mean:

    • the word for wine in the Italian, Spanish and many Slavic languages.
    • Mondovino, a 2004 documentary film
    • the nickname of professional cyclist, Alexander Vinokourov
    • Vino (cipher), an encryption algorithm
    • Vino (software), a remote administration tool of the GNOME desktop environment
    • In Tamil language the word “vino” means cheer or happiness.
    • NPC from pc game Gothic 2

    Links

    Tertiary education - education and awareness and

    Monday, February 25th, 2008

    Tertiary education, also referred to as third-stage, third level education, or higher education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, or gymnasium. Tertiary education is normally taken to include undergraduate and postgraduate education, as well as vocational education and training. Colleges and universities are the main institutions that provide tertiary education (sometimes known collectively as tertiary institutions).

    Tertiary education generally culminates in the receipt of certificates, diplomas,or academic degrees.


    See also

    • Education by country
    • List of colleges and universities by country

    Links

    SY Telecom - Telekom and Telecom

    Monday, February 25th, 2008

    SY Telecom (hangul:에스와이 텔레콤) is a Hands free and earphone manufacturer. It is headquartered in Incheon, Korea.


    Products

    • Made to Hands Free, Mobile phone Charger, FM Transmitter, Fixed Terminal Phone and Ear phone.


    Homepage

    • SY Telecom Hpmepage (in Korean)

    Links

    Socialist German Workers Youth - Deutsche Telekom

    Monday, February 25th, 2008

    Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterjugend (Socialist German Workers Youth) is a political youth organization in Germany. It is a marxist organization and related to Deutsche Kommunistische Partei (German Communist Party).

    SDAJ is a member of World Federation of Democratic Youth.


    External links

    • Web site o SDAJ
    • Web site of World Federation of Democratic Youth

    Links

    Practice-based research network - information security vendors providers

    Monday, February 25th, 2008

    A practice-based research network (PBRN) is a group of health care providers or medical clinics that are typically practicing in non-university based community environments that are networked for the purpose of examining and evauluating the health care processes that occur in real world practices. PBRNs are characterized by an organizational framework that transcends a single practice or study. They provide a “laboratory” for studying populations of patients and care providers in community-based settings.

    The majority of PBRNs are composed of primary care clinician such as family medicine, pediatrics, general internal medicine. There are 54 member PBRNs from the Federation of Practice-Based Research Networks, FPBRN which is the largest organization representing PBRNs.

    FPBRN membership

    Total Providers:10,912 Total Practices:3,593
    Total Patients served:11,654,256

    Percentage of providers per specialty group:

    Total providers 10,912

    Family Medicine Doctors 71.7%,
    Pediatricians 8.2%,
    Internal Medicine 8.3%,
    OB/GYN 1%,
    Other MD 2%,
    Nurse Practitioners 6%,
    Physician’s Assistants 2.4%,
    Dentists 0.4%

    Links

    VoIP spam - VoIP.

    Monday, February 25th, 2008

    VoIP spam is an as-yet non-existent problem which has nonetheless received a great deal of attention from marketers and the trade press. Some pundits have taken to referring to it as SPIT (for “Spam over Internet Telephony”).

    Voice over IP systems, like e-mail and other Internet applications, are susceptible to abuse by malicious parties who initiate unsolicited and unwanted communications. Telemarketers, prank callers, and other telephone system abusers are likely to target VoIP systems increasingly, particularly if VoIP tends to supplant conventional telephony.

    The underlying technology driving this threat is SIP (Session Initiation Protocol, IETF – Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 3261). This technology has received significant support from most major telecommunication vendors, and is showing signs of becoming the industry standard for voice, video and other interactive forms of communication such as instant messaging and gaming.

    Similar rules to today’s email systems that block unsolicited email will also prevent unsolicited voice and video communication. This can also be compared to the way today’s chat applications prevent unwanted users from viewing your availability or state of presence by using “privacy” options.

    SIP as the technology has been designed to support presence natively. This potentially means that incoming callers will know your availability before even attempting to call or make contact with you. So just like with e-mail today the benefits of communicating with trusted parties electronically far exceeds the pitfalls of e-mail spam, particularly when using preventative technologies to minimise the impact of the issue.


    Resources

    Hansen, Markus; Hansen, Marit; Moeller, Jan; Rohwer, Thomas; Tolkmit, Carsten, Waack, Henning: “Developing a Legally Compliant Reachability Management System as a Countermeasure against SPIT”, Third Annual VoIP Security Workshop, Berlin, June 2006.

    Links

    MoneySense - Communications Inc.

    Monday, February 25th, 2008

    MoneySense is a Canadian financial magazine owned by Rogers Communications.


    External links

    • Official site

    Links

    • VoIP for Business 2007 - Welcome to the essential business Welcome to the essential business communications experience! VoIP'08 will take place at The National Hall, Olympia, London, 9-10 April 2008.
    • MAKE: Blog: VoIP Archives Here's voice recognition and speech synthesis for playing Infocom games (like Zork) over the phone, this might be the coolest VoIP project ever - [via]
    • UK VoIP Provider VoIP UK Provider. Get a FREE VoIPtalk account and start making free calls with your VoIP Phone now! Free VoIP Service. Pay monthly Packages
    • VOIP: For Home And Business Use VOIP is a new communications technology that allows local calls from any location, find out how it can be useful for you.
    • My VoIP Provider - VoIP Services - My VoIP Provider - Compare, review and rank 175 Broadband Phone and PC to Phone VoIP services (Voice over IP). Free VoIP rate search engine and VoIP
    • VoIP | Overview Making phone calls over the Internet could save you

    BT Fusion - state of VoIP

    Monday, February 25th, 2008

    BT Fusion is a telecommunications product available from BT in the United Kingdom. It “fuses” together mobile telephony and, from the user’s point of view, conventional landline telephony. In fact, the fixed portion of the link is provided by a Voice over IP implementation using the domestic ADSL service. The BT Fusion service is compatible with the BT Home Hub.

    The premise of the service is that it can reduce mobile phone costs by not using the mobile network when the user is at home. The same phone is used (currently a modified version of the Motorola RAZR V3 is offered), but if the phone is within range of a special base station installed in the user’s home then incoming and outgoing calls will be routed through that base station instead of the mobile network. This link between the phone and base station is carried over Bluetooth. (BT Fusion is now available using Wifi technology, thus allowing discounts not only at home but over BT Openzone Wifi hotspots)

    From the base station, at-home calls are connected to the phone network using an ADSL broadband connection; only those with BT Broadband connections are eligible for the service. Voice over IP protocols are used to transmit the call, but this is intended to remain largely unnoticed from the user’s point of view. In particular, the charges for calls made over the “home” part of a BT Fusion system are essentially the same as landline call charges.

    Some commentators have criticised the service as expensive and a “solution in search of a problem”. In particular, they have pointed to free or cheaper-than-landline IP phone systems like Skype. The appeal of BT Fusion, however, is likely to be in its simplicity of operation, something often overlooked by technically-minded reviewers.


    External links

    • BT site
    • “BT ‘BluePhone’ Fusion is better than Skype because…?”, The Register, 15th June 2005

    Links