The RIM Blackberry is a pretty good mobile handset which mostly is a perfectionism of what it does. Though there are some obvious drawbacks of the architecture. One is the Blackberry Information Service, which does provide security, but on the flip side it also enables the service providers to overcharge the dataplans and being an expensive single brand technology it also stands out as a market entry barrier to RIM.

In Denmark, where I live, the only mentionable users of BBs is a handful of companies, being the only three of the four network operators having BB BIS plans and only one of these sell it for non-business users and they charge 23$ a month for 100 MB of data.

The standard guide:

1. Download and install update to computer
2. Delete vendor.xml
3. Boot desktop manager (latest version)
4. Connect 9700
5. Find the button to try search for updates.

Then you’ll properly experience it saying you can’t because you haven’t got a service plan. So now you need these extra steps.

1. Take a backup of your device using Desktop Manager
2. Disconnect your device
3. Remove the battery (keep the battery ready to reinsert)
4. Reconnect it back to your PC3.

Desktop Manager should now show you a prompt to where one of the three buttons says “Update” the device, hit that button and follow the screens.

1. Follow the prompts and keep an eye of Desktop Manager
2. When you see “Reconnecting to JVM” reinsert the battery
3. It will after a while reboot and maybe display an error on the phone screen during reboot (2-3 sec), however it started loading the applications onto the phone afterwards, so I think its normal.
4. Once the update has completed select “Application” on the left hand side of Desktop manager > When the list is displayed select all the required components – components such as language options
5. Press Apply – the phone reboots and all is great! Notice the speedier reboot J

An area of technology I’ve been watching closely is the video conferencing. It comes with my involvement in a couple of non-profit organisations where travel expenses are a natural enemy and the volunteer side of engagement sometimes makes it difficult to maintain a close coordination. When I first researched the market, 2-3 years ago, I had an offer of 400.000 DKK for a single multipoint and three single point communication units. This was of cause including a communication unit, camera, microphone and TV. This was at the time the lowest low budget units conceivable, which was Lifesize – only a mere 40.000 DKK (7.500 $) a unit. At the time I also considered looking into used equipment with older standards. At the time Polycom and Tandberg both had obsolete equipment delivering H.323 communication over a double ISDN connection which would for our initiating use prove sufficient. It was however difficult finding used equipment – now I think it was because the technology moved to rapidly to become implemented in organisations and deemed obsolete.

Well the frontier has defiantly moved a great distance to the point where technology is almost available to the man on the street.

The three drivers of this technology:

• Internet capability has greatly improved. Almost every teenager is running around with a 5 Mbit internet connection in his or her pocket. This relieves the development of technologies from bandwidth restrictions.
• Cost of technology has greatly improved with first Skype being a free service and hardware prices naturally being driven to the ground.
• The scope of technology use has been a great benefit to the video technology. Where first Skype was a standalone application with a separate webcam and separate microphone, it is today included in computer to facilitate “business communication” and also included in multimedia products such as Blueray players and social platforms as Facebook and G+ and so forth.

The technology facilitating the man on the street for video conferencing is primarily the (partially free) video services by Google and Skype.

Skype has been implemented in Samsung and Sony Hifi products such as TVs and Blue Ray players. The offer a great cheap access to video calling from a 1000 DKK (199$) which is kind of cheap when you think about it, though it is not multipoint but I look forward to that changed in the future.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/01/skypes-living-room-invasion-continues-coming-on-sony-blu-ray-players.ars

Skype offers multipoint communication on their standalone application, which is beautifully illustrated by this fantastic promotional video. But don’t let you be tricked by the lovely tune – it is not free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqd7ds2mEbY&feature=related

G+ have introduced videoconferencing as a native service in the Hangout feature which is pretty effective when participants having a G+ account and large bandwidth (reducing lag). The video is Lifehacker.com demonstrating how it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLf9jzFvkTA

And finally in this blog post, there is a new contester on the scene bringing video over IP technology to the man on the street. Biscotti are promising to release a box in two weeks’ time, which brings High Definition video point to point communication to your TV. They seem to utilize the Google Talk protocol rather than Skype, which gives access to communication with Android devices and everyone using a Google account. It does sound pretty neat. The box is small and seems pretty simple in usage. However there are two issues that annoy me. 1. They have yet to release a demo video displaying how well it works. 2. The box ONLY utilizes wireless connection, which in my book is a bad idea when trying to deliver quality video and voice of a network.

http://www.biscotti.com/buy/biscotti-tv-phone.html/#5

I’m still excited on the development of the technology and I’m defiantly looking forward to the future products.

Tags: Android, Biscotti TV Phone, conference, G+ Hangout, H.323, Skype, video, video conferencing, VoIP

Kender du Erich von Dänichen? Han er skaber af en masse teorier om, at religion stammer fra observationer af Aliens og han ser “beviser” for dette over det hele. Samtidig samler han hele verdens “uforklarligheder” i en samlet religion – og lige præcis religion er et keyword, for han gør hans arkæologisk profession til en religion, selvom man ikke lige kan kalde ham arkæolog da han ikke arbejder videnskabeligt. Dette gøres igennem en god blanding af referater til Biblen, diverse billeder og fortolkninger af diverse artefakter. Han siger på et tidspunkt i filmen at han har brugt 40 år på at samle data – Yup, 40 års Cherry Picking af beviser giver på et tidspunkt en meget interessant historie, en forkert og videnskabelig ukorrekt, men meget sjov historie.

Well her er en video der er sjov, hvertfald det meste af vejen. Men er du lidt svagt til sinds, bør du nok lige se Shermers – Baloney detection kit først:

Og nu dokumentaren fra History – pas på, journalisten er ikke så kritisk til teorierne.

Tags: baloney, cherry picking, Erich von Dänichen, mysterier, religion, ufo

Personligt har jeg ofte haft det svært med metode og videnskabsteori. Det har altid været sidste fag man frivilligt ville vælge på universitetet da det har haft en ikke så fagrelevant vinkel. Og man har altid følt det var lidt spildt når man fyldte den ene side efter den anden med metodiske overvejelser og beskrivelser af fremgangsmåden der ikke bidrog aktivt til løsningen af problemet. Men efterhånden, når alt kommer til alt er det den kritiske tanke der virkelig udgør videnskaben. Og selvom jeg idag er beskæftiget med informationsteknologi og ledelse, finder jeg det relevant på et større plan end bare relateret til akademi. Derfor synes jeg også at hele verden burde se Michael Shermers: balony detection kit, som den lille videnskabsteori 1 2 3.

Tags: livet, metode, Michael Shermer, skeptisk, videnskab, videnskabsteori

Det er så let i dette land at have en mening om alting og ingenting i mellem himmel og jord. Vi har så mange meninger og har så let ved at udtrykke den, at evidensen drukner i strømmen af meningsløse meninger. Er jeg den eneste der føler at den offentlige debat er afsporet af meningsløse meninger uden saglige begrundelser?