The significance of new giant solid-state hard drives is probably higher than many readers imagine.

I used to work at Oracle from ‘97 to ‘01 as a server technology specialist, mostly poking around high availability and very big transaction systems. Databases like Oracle perform two main functions:

- They manage concurrent access to data from contending users.
- They ration out I/O, and abstract that process away from users.

The rest is just features,... ... continue reading.....

Awesome comes to mind. Exceptional. Professional. Skype opened a new site on March 29th. It is a new place for the Skype Developer Ecosystem to find out what's happening. Go there now.

Well done Skype!

I'm looking for the Skype world record holder. The person that has amassed the most Skype buddies on his buddylist. I know of one person that has more than 1000 and more than a few with 300 to 500. However I'm looking for you if you have more than 1000. I'd like to hear your stories about your buddylist and how it came into being. I'm not looking for a solution that is a "Skype... ... continue reading.....

Buddylist NDA. I've always thought that what I shared via my buddylist "presence" "mood messages" was between me and my buddies. Now that is not always the case. There's an "unofficial" Skype Plug-in that's getting a little testing on the side. A couple of my favorite Skypers are involved. Kevin Delaney and Jaanus Kase. Moodgeist is their project and sets a dangerous precedent. To my knowledge this is the first time the... ... continue reading.....

SkypeAttendant is a test program that demonstrates a simple IVR system for Skype. Like many companies you can request an extention and then be directed there. This demo is important for it shows the power that will exist on your desktop when Skype finally enables "call transfer" in the API. It's a wait-listed API item. We still don't know when it is coming. When it does, it is a game changer.

SkypeAttendant is a...

I thought Lycos was a search engine. Now it seems they are in the phone business. In a deal that has been structured with Globe7 the Lycos Phone Beta is now available. What's intriguing about this deal is the opportunity to "earn" free talk time through partner offers. Then one look at them put me off. Overall we have another clumsy VoIP client. Sound quality is narrow band, and the usual SIP issues... ... continue reading.....

Two related bits of pundutry out there that illustrate my belief that success in network operation comes from innovation in funding and pricing models.

First, the prolific Mr Frankston:

Instead of having the strange phenomenon of carriers spending billions and then arguing that they deserve to be paid we’d have them bidding on contracts to install and/or maintain connectivity to a marketplace that is buying capacity and making it available so value can be...

Thoughts for the day:

- In physical transport (atoms), we found that there was a complex business called “logistics” which is where the profit is; “trucking” is just a small function of logistics. With data networks (bits), it’s the exact opposite; there once was a complex “bit management” industry called telecom. This is slowly, painfully fading away. It’ll get replaced by a simpler industry that just teleports bits over geographic distance. We don’t have a... ... continue reading.....

My Polish Skype buddy Andrew sends me a text message from his laptop. Embedded in his chat message, “Is this legal? Am I stealing WiFi from this hotel?” This was last summer. Andrew is sitting on a park bench, in the dark, beside a hotel somewhere in the middle of UK. He had landed a summer job in the UK.

The brilliant, but untrained lawyer inside me spoke very authoritatively of the possible tort.... ... continue reading.....

Promise you won’t tell? Really?

It’s been quite nice being away from family duty on a business trip to Paris and London for two nights.

Ssssshh. It’s just a secret between you and me, OK? I’ve always wanted to try out the Eurostar train from Paris to London, and it’s certainly quick. Although someone needs to buy them a few sponges to clean the windows a bit.

Anyhow, I passed through London’s Kings Cross station... ... continue reading.....

Whilst I'm neatly balanced between flu and pharmaceuticals and enjoying some fading lucidity, one parting thought for today.

I can't name my accomplice, 'cos it busts his girl's privacy without her permission. But he tells me that his tweenage daughter has taken to a new form of social communications media (reproduced with permission, though):

one little strange thing my daughter and her friends do with skype is they put their best friend's picture instead...

The adage, “Use your own products”, may be followed by USRobotics. A couple of weeks ago (March 15) USR introduced the USR9620 ATA (Analog Phone Adapter) at CEBit in Germany.

Today they announced something more impressive: the ability for a USRobotics’ customers to call Customer Support via Skype instead of a landline telephones or SkypeOut. This is the USR Support page:

Here is the proof. Thanks to Jean Mercier in Belgium who is GMT+2. The event happened 30 minutes later on my screen. "You are always late in Canada", says Jean.

Five million was passed Jan 20, 2006. And four million on October 20, 2005. The cycle time was about 90 days. Now it is 66 days as pointed out by a reader aaytch. Thanks! That is a... ... continue reading.....

• Andy: Skype, Zennstrom, Friis Et Al Sued for RICO Violations. These laws are commonly used by law enforcement to seize cars, houses, cash and other profits from illegal activity. Could this be why Niklas Zennstrom never travels to the USA?
  
• TechCrunch previews SKY-click call center for Skype.
• N-Yoshi points out that Skype just crossed the 276 million downloads mark today (chart) and we may have missed moment when the Skype network...

What have people typed in their Skype mood indicator lately? Ask Moodgeist:

Anchor Porter vs. Guiness 3 hours, 29 minutes ago
eBay research labs in San Jose 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
totally board 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
How can my speech be free is yours is so expensive? 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
Mehed, aitab tööst ! Hakkame laulma ! 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
Parik 3 hours, 35 minutes...

Three things about the new Yahoo messenger beta that’s desperately struggling to reach parity with Skype by adding PSTN in and out services and the same wideband GIPS codec for PC-to-PC use. Two bad, one good.

Number one. Telling me my ordinary, standard Firefox-on-XP setup doesn’t meet your all-Microsoft standards doesn’t endear you to anyone:

I had the pleasure in January of briefly visiting Seattle to see my old friend and mentor, David Anderson. On the Saturday I went with him and his elder daughter for a toddle around the canal locks in Ballard, followed by a coffee (what else?) at a local cafe. As David pointed out, this cafe specialises in cupcakes, thus differentiating itself from the ubiquitous Starbucks and Tullys — a “plus one” marketing... ... continue reading.....

The CEBit trade show is possibly the largest consumer electronics trade show in the world. This year it was attended by 450,000 people. You would think Skype would be there, wouldn't you? There were lots of Skype posters, Skype devices, and the Skype application was loaded on all the PC’s in the visitors lounge. BUT NO SKYPE! NO SKYPE STAFF.

It took me three-days to visit ‘Hall 12’ and ‘Hall 13’. This... ... continue reading.....

Put this on your "must read" list: "An Experimental Study of the Skype Peer-to-Peer VoIP System " if you ever wondered about supernodes.

Abstract:

Despite its popularity, relatively little is known about the traffic characteristics of the Skype VoIP system and how they differ from other P2P systems. We describe an experimental study of Skype VoIP traffic conducted over a five month period, where over 82 million datapoints were collected regarding the population of...

Bob Frankston writes on "Skype as the Future of the Connectivity". He links to a paper ("Silver Needle in the Skype") that is going round from another set of researchers who try to figure out how it all works.

Bob writes:

Skype’s encrypted communications is vital because it allows connectivity without having to trust intermediaries and, even better — it frustrates attempts to block the traffic even if some corporate...

I'm with you, Doc. Dave Winer changed my life. It was a type of leadership by example. His blogging, his design principles, the extended conversation and subtle experiments that led to innovation; all in public. He took abstractions about conversation and personal publishing and made them real. He shared tools that let others experiment along with him and share that trip.

There have been warning signs for two years. The whole "we'll... ... continue reading.....

I’ve long described the Net as a “consumer suplus engine” to anyone who’ll listen. It takes previously bundled billable services like voice telephony, strips out the service from the connectivity components, and stops you being over-charged for the service because of lack of competition on the connectivity.

Anyhow, here’s the verbatim quote from Paul Kedrosky, who has found an academic paper that puts the numbers to what’s obvious to everyone:

Only about 0.2% of...

I'm always interested in how profiles and data will converge and who they will benefit. Is this the darker side of eBay vendors enabled with Skype? Many of you may have seen it. If you haven't it is really very funny. Click to Play




So how close to the truth is it?

Marc Canter has an unmissable statistic:

Did you know that 45% of all of eBay’s listings come in through their APIs?

As you might remember, at Sprint we were trying to open up the wireless side into an open technology and business platform. It failed, mostly for lack of a cultural imperative to drive in that direction.

Ebay’s business comprises two stages: someone lists an item (eBay gets paid for this), and... ... continue reading.....

I still can't believe there isn't a completely open market for Skype customization. The local futbol team should be able to distribute logos and the team song from their site, and it should either be... ... continue reading.....