If you’re a serial texter then you should be aware that you could do yourself some serious damage if you don’t cut down on the old SMS.
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, who seems to revel in telling us that just about everything we like doing will end up causing serious bodily harm, has recently released a report detailing the possible long-term effects.
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Last month, I posted how cool it was that Republican Congressman John Culberson was really using Twitter to communicate with people. It was a great use of the technology. However, today he’s been using Twitter to ignite a totally misguided partisan war, pretending (falsely) that Democrats are trying to prevent him from using Twitter. First, he announced on Twitter that “the Dems are trying to censor Congressmen’s ability to use Twitter” claiming that “They want to require prior approval of all posts to any public social media/internet/www site by any member of Congress!!!” Fascinating, and troubling, if true, but it’s not actually true.
The actual issue is one that we discussed a few months back. Existing House rules actually forbid members of Congress from posting “official communications” on other sites. This was first noticed by a first-term Congressman who was worried that posting videos on YouTube violated this rule. Other Congressional Reps told him to not worry about it as everyone ignored that rule, and no one would get in trouble for using various social media sites such as YouTube. However, that Congressman pushed forward, and eventually got Congress to act. Of course, rather than fixing the real problem (preventing Reps from posting on social media sites), they simply asked YouTube to allow Reps to post videos in a “non-commercial manner.” YouTube agreed, and that was that.
However, the existing rules still stood. Culberson’s complaint stems for a letter (pdf) sent by Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano, suggesting that the rules actually be changed to be loosened to deal with this situation and make it easier to post content on various social media sites. Culberson, however, bizarrely claims that this is the Democrats trying to limit what he can say on Twitter. But that’s actually not at all what the letter states. The problem isn’t this letter, but the existing rules that are already in place. In fact, based on the letter, it would appear that this would make it possible for Congressional Reps to Twitter, so long as their bio made it clear they were Reps.
A bunch of people tried to understand this, and even I asked him to clarify why the problem was with this new letter, as opposed to the existing rules. His response did not address the question at all — but rather was the identical response he sent to dozens of people who questioned his claims. He notes that based on the letter, each Twitter message must meet “existing content rules and regulations.” Indeed, but the problem is that’s already true based on those existing content rules and regulations. The problem isn’t this new effort, but those existing rules and regulations, which mean that his existing Twitter messages violated the rules.
It’s really disappointing to see someone who had embraced the technology use it to try to whip up Twitter users into a frenzy, while misleading them to do so — and then not using the tools to respond to actual criticisms. The problem here is that the existing rules for Reps is problematic. It’s not this new effort to loosen the rules, other than in the fact that the loosening of the rules might not go far enough. That’s not, as Culberson claims, an attempt to censor him on Twitter, but simply an attempt to loosen the rules with a focus on YouTube and (most likely) with an ignorance of the fact that Twitter even exists.
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First off, before we get into the details here, I’ll state upfront that I have not yet decided who to support in this year’s Presidential election. I’m neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I’ve seen plans from both sides that I find problematic. Still, it bugs me when I see plans from either side mischaracterized, and I believe that’s the case with this somewhat mocking criticism of McCain’s “jobs plan” as being “the eBay model” (sent in by reader Rose M. Welch). At issue, is the fact that McCain has repeatedly referred to the 1.3 million people around the globe who “make a living off EBay.”
As the article notes, the figure is clearly exaggerated. However, many of the other criticisms of what McCain says seems misguided. It seems like a stretch for anyone to think that McCain is suggesting that people will find jobs selling on eBay. Rather, he’s using the example of eBay to note that innovation leads to new ways for people to make money — using the rise of the ecosystem around eBay as an example — not as the definitive method for creating jobs. And, on that, he’s correct. Continued innovation does tend to lead to job growth.
The second part of the criticism that seems incredibly unfounded, is the assertion by a few economists that eBay is just a business model for moving junk around, and that it doesn’t add anything to the GDP. This is simply incorrect, and it’s really strange that prominent economists would make such an assertion. eBay is about making an efficient market. Plenty of people use it to sell new products, rather than just “junk.” And, many of the people who use eBay to “make a living” do so by adding value to products which they then resell. That does add to GDP. eBay is about a lot more than just moving around junk. In fact, a rather large percentage of our GDP is based on taking already built goods, adding value to them and reselling them. To pretend this doesn’t happen on eBay is simply incorrect.
Now, before anyone thinks that this means I support McCain’s economic positions, I don’t. I think his continued disdain for basic economics, and his seeming assumption that economics can be handled by someone else is problematic. And, of course, his proposed gas tax holiday is just downright nutty.
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It seems that whenever we write about various bands embracing new business models, one of the criticisms raised is this idea that we’re somehow expecting musicians to also become businessmen to embrace these new models. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, we’ve pointed out that this is exactly the space on which record labels should be focused: helping musicians embrace these new business models, helping to handle the business and the technology, while the musicians focus on the music. Unfortunately, most major record labels still haven’t figured this out, due to either legacy issues and contracts, an unwillingness to let go of old business models, or simple cluelessness.
Of course, the longer the major labels take to realize that this is where the market is headed, the bigger the opportunities there are for others to come in and fill that “enablement” gap. There are going to be more and more interesting startups entering the space. One that’s starting to get some buzz is TopSpin, which just revealed its business late last week. TopSpin got some press a few months back by getting Yahoo Music boss Ian Rogers to join as CEO. We’ve written about some of Rogers’ cogent writings on the music business before.
TopSpin isn’t a record label, but it wants to basically enable all sorts of internet-based business models to work for musicians so that they can focus on making music. From the sound of it, that involves plenty of backend infrastructure, as well as front-end components, so that musicians can easily pick and choose custom, scaleable business models for their website with little effort. The company already has a nice headstart (and even some high profile customers). What may be most interesting, however, is to see how the business model opportunities evolve over time, as TopSpin may grow to have the best understanding of what business models really work, depending on what the circumstances are for the band. That could be incredibly powerful data by itself.
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Net law professor Michael Geist takes a look at US criticisms of the way much of the world handles intellectual property.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s cellular operators estimate
Chinese customers will send around 14 billion Lunar New Year
text messages on their mobile phones during the week-long
holiday, the Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
Yes, I too spoke into a plastic watch strapped to my wrist, pretending to be Action Man and James Bond, thwarting the evil world domination plans of my six-year old brother. I was a kid of course, but there is something inherently spy-like and cool about being able to communicate via your wrist. Stick that in your iPhone.
We have covered the M300 Watch Phone in the past but the fantasy is set to be come a reality next month. Australian makers, SMS Technology, showed it off at the 3GSM show this week and announced that first shipments will start in March to South Africa. It added:
“We are currently finalizing agreements in Australia, UK, Denmark, Russia, Canada, Spain, Italy, USA and South America and will announce the release dates in due course over the coming week.â€
It will come over 80 hours standby time, full SMS functionality, Bluetooth, dial-up networking, games, MP3 player, 64 MB of internal memory, USB connectivity, 99-number memory storage and 40 embedded real tones. It will cost around [currency conversion warning!] £300.
Full specs and another pic after the jump.-Martin Lynch
The M300 Watch Phone
Main chipset: MTK
Memory: 64MB
Features:
Voice Bluetooth
MP3 Player
Internal antenna
USB Port for connection to Personal computer
40 embedded true tones
Emergency Call Button
Fully Functional 99 number memory Phonebook
GSM SIM Card
External Speaker Phone
Fully Functional SMS capabilities
Wireless Bluetooth Data Transfer
Bluetooth Dial Up Networking (DUN)
Talktime: 200 min
Standby: 80 Hours
Mode: GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 MHz Tri mode (HW)
GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 MHz Tri mode (SW)
Dimensions: 43 x 56 x 14.8 mm (with 500mA Battery)
Weight: 45g
Phone Color: Pastel Blue & Pink, Baby Blue & Pink, Navy Blue,
Electric Blue, Red, Yellow, Black and Grey
Display: Color OLED Screen 1.01 inches
Travel Adaptor (USB Internal charging type) Wireless USB Charger
[More]
You might have heard of the teen-repellent noisemaker a store owner employed in his parking lot here in the UK - not to mention being used by kids in class to secretly SMS each other - and now that squealing device that supposedly makes an extremely annoying racket that only teens can hear has found its way to the United States. The device has been named Kids Be Gone, as if paying customers with more disposable income than any generation of youth in history are some kind of plague.
Called by cops in England “the most effective tool in our fight against antisocial behavior,” now stateside retailers can also unfairly discriminate against those aged 20 and younger. Because of age-related hearing loss that starts at about age 20, this thing really does sound obnoxious just to those people under that age. But what about babies? And dogs?
How will you know when one of these repellant boxes is installed? Just look for this cheap-looking gray speaker, and teens fleeing the scene. Just what we need: more noise. – Charlie White
Product Page [Kids Be Gone]
While I find it difficult locating socks in the morning, the French are out hunting down new planets. The latest in space telescopes was just launched from Kazakhstan and has been designed to search out new planets.
The Corot telescope will sit 827km above out little blue and green spinning ball and monitor the heavens for over two years. It will keep tabs on 120,000 stars, checking for any changes in brightness levels that would indicate a planet passing them.
“ESA has been working for a long time towards the detection of Earth-like worlds around other stars,’ noted Sergio Volonte, Head of the Science Planning and Community Coordination Office at ESA. ‘COROT is an important first step in this direction and helps to pave the way for ESA’s future flagship mission, Darwin, dedicated to the direct detection of Earth-like worlds and their atmospheres to search for signs of life.â€
You can keep track of the latest findings here, although holding your breath is not advised.-Martin Lynch
If this isn’t a sign that we’re getting way too lazy, then I don’t know what is. European phone carrier Orange France has teamed up with YCD Multimedia to create the SMS Jukebox. After making its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, the jukebox is being rolled out in bars, cafes, and restaurants throughout France. Customers find a music “menu” on their table and after selecting the song(s) they want, text in the code. As much as I text (and believe me, I text a lot) I prefer the old fashioned way of walking up to the jukebox and manually selecting the songs I wanna hear.
SMS Jukebox [via The Red Ferret Journal]