chrisgreen.co.uk

Spurred on by a Twitter I got a while ago from Drew, I’ve finally signed up for an account at Jaiku.

Jaiku is a handy web site that aggregates RSS feeds from all your RSS-aware accounts and sites into one Twitter-like web site and RSS feed. Very useful indeed.

My Jaiku page is: http://commodore.jaiku.com/

Interesting research project carried out by IT PRO’s sister title Micro Mart that shows just how many British politicians, including many household names, ignore email from the very people they are paid and elected to represent.

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Ok, another recent request for help in the form of a comment, this time about the Sidekick 3 Blackberry killer, so here goes:

Okay im very confused, i want a sidekick 3 however i was under the impression it wasn’t out in the UK…
Therefore where can i purchase one? I was brousing them on Ebay and people were claiming their US sidekick worked which i can’t see possible, also some people were saying that their sidekick is a UK version, but how is the buyer supposed to know that is realy is!?
Anyway what i am trying to say it, where on earth, no.. where in the UK can i buy one!!?!?!?!?!
Thanks
Emma

Hi Emma

I am afraid that T-Mobile UK has made a complete balls-up of the Sidekick 3 launch in Britain.

The Sidekick 3 was launched here just before Christmas, a few weeks after the Sidekick 2 was discontinued. This launch was done with no promotion and no presence on the T-Mobile UK web site. Suffice to say it bombed and the product was quietly discontinued three months ago.

Unfortunately, nobody bothered to tell T-Mobile’s UK PR company, which was still sending Sidekick 3 devices out to journalists such as me in good faith right up until a couple of weeks ago, when we discovered just in the nick of time that the product hadbeen dumped, saving us the embarassment of running a review in two magazines for a product that was no longer on sale.

As I have previously mentioned on this blog, a US Sidekick 3 WILL NOT accept a T-Mobile UK SIM card. Be careful what you buy on eBay.

I recently received a comment on an old post I made about the FON WiFi hotspot service and my FON Router, asking for installation advice. I thought the following might be a useful post in its own right:

Hello,
I read your posting about the fon router with interest.
In the article you say that you connected the fon router to your existing LAN and that it was easy to install.
Did you manage to install the FON Linksys router behind another router?
I have a 3Com router which gives all my computers a 192.1.168.x address.
But I’m not sure how to conigure the linksys router in order for it to recieve the internet LAN.
Should I connect the LAN cable from the 3Com router to the WAN port on the Linksys router or to one of the four others LAN ports.
Thanks
Sven

Hi Sven

Yes, I did install the Linksys FON router behind my existing Airlink 101 Router. All you need to do is make sure the two routers are using different IP address ranges (I use 192.168.0.x on the Airlink and something different on the FON router). The IP address range can be easily changed by logging into the web-based admin console of the router (you will need to do this via a wired connection - a handy security feature).

All you then need to do is connect an Ethernet cable to one of the spare LAN ports on your main router, and connect it to the WAN port on the FON Linksys router. It really is that simple.

As a side note, FON recently contacted me offering me a free La Fonera router (the custom-built low-cost FON router the the company has put into production) to replace the Linksys as even FON has come to the conclusion that the Linksys router is rubbish. The Linksys FON router is bigger than it needs to be, uses more power than is needed, gets very hot at crashes - a lot. In contrast the La Fonera is very small, uses a small amount of power, auto updates with new firmware etc as needed and is very stable so far. However, unlike the Linksys router which is a 4-port 10/100 LAN router as well as being wireless, the La Fonera does not have the 4-port switch built-in, just a WAN port so all connections to it will need to be wireless. It does however broadcast two SSIDs, one for the public FON network and the other a WPA protected private wireless network.

I’m at the HP Technology@Work conference this morning and fired up the Slingbox to catch the news. Have just heard the very sad news that Alan Ball, the youngest member of the 1966 World Cup winning squad has passed away after a sudden heart attack.

Very sad indeed, as there are so few of that team still with us. I had the good fortune to meet Alan Ball at a charity football event a few years ago, without doubt one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Very funny, very friendly, a good commentator and a completely genuine person. He will be missed.

Just a quick update for the moment to let everyone know I do not have any more Joost invites to give away. I’ve been inundated with requests, mostly from people I don’t know, and I’ve now exhausted my curren pile of invites.

I will post a new entry as and when I have some more. In the meantime, please stop asking.

Thanks!

For those in the know, I was on CNBC this morning talking about the Apple-EMI deal to offer DRM-free music content via iTunes, as well as talking about the EU investigation into territorial access to iTunes and similar services.

Most importantly, I was there to ‘eat my hat’, as I claimed I would do if, as happened, Apple announced plans to offer DRM-free content via the iTunes service. It’s an interesting bit of discussion, and pretty funny as well.

Mind you, I do stand by one comment I made - I remain convinced that it will be commercial suicide, not only for Apple and EMI, which both stand to lose a money as and when sales of EMI digital content declines because early downloads will leak onto file-sharing services and spread through casual piracy in the same way (if not moreso) as CD-based content does, but also the artists who woll miss out on royalty revenue, unless EMI (or Apple) has offered to indemnify them against potential losses? I’d love an answer to that one, but neither EMI or Apple will answer that particular question.

As always, those nice people over at CNBC have put the video online (better be quick as it goes pay-per-view after a day or so) and you can watch it by clicking here.

I’ve just posted a blog over at IT PRO outlining some of my thoughts and concerns following Apple and EMI’s announcement that they will start offering EMI music content DRM-free from next month.

It’s a win-win for consumers, who will no longer be tied into the iTunes-iPod duopoly, but also for those with a tendency to pirate content, be it casual piracy, commercial or malicious.

Have a read, let me know what you think.