Comments for Poulos Ponderings

Comment on Can the big boys play keep Apple at bay? by Tweets that mention Can the big boys play keep Apple at bay? | Poulos Ponderings -- Topsy.com

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:35:12 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jonathan Jensen, Tony Poulos. Tony Poulos said: Can the big boys play keep Apple at bay? NFC winner may not be banks or telcos! http://bit.ly/cQqau9 [...]

Comment on Privacy vs Protection at what price? by Eric Priezkalns

Eric Priezkalns — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:55:46 +0000

Tony,

I couldn’t agree more. It’s refreshing to hear somebody in the industry talking about how governments hide behind communications businesses, getting them to do their dirty work whilst making the poor old customer pay for the privilege of being spied on!

CSPs could learn a trick about lobbying from the anti-tax brigade or the airline industry. Tell people simple metrics – like how many days a year they spend working just to pay their taxes – and you can sway public opinion. Airlines make it clear how much of your ticket is spent on various taxes. People are in favour of all sorts of things, so long as the cost is never mentioned. Mention the cost, and attitudes change. Why not treat customers of CSPs with the same respect? Treat them like adults and tell them how much of their bill goes to paying for regulations. Then we might see a lot more consumers taking the side of CSPs and lobbying politicians against the endless growth in regulation.

Comment on You’ve been a very naughty boy! by Debbie Burkett

Debbie Burkett — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:19:57 +0000

Hi Tony:

As usual, you present an interesting subject to ponder. The pressure isn’t just on the CSPs. Almost every service provider (hosting, internet, health care, retailers, and so on) will endure costs associate with some form of security or user privacy regulation. Those costs are past on to the users of their services. On the upside, we will see the rise of companies who will happily play the ‘big brother’ space. (Yeah, job creation!)

While the technologies in our lives today make this seem like a recent problem, this topic has been around for centuries and is fraught with ethical, financial and privacy concerns. George Washington, in response to demands of the people for the young government to address terrorism said, ‘…those that give up civil liberties in the name of freedom deserve neither.’ The difference today seems to be that individuals are so freaked out about ‘terrorism’ that they are handing willing governments the power to invade their privacy. While Google dashboard exemplifies a slick way to get people to agree to the monitoring of their actions knowing the data will be ‘stored’ long periods of time. Either method poses the same threat on our civil liberties and privacy. I’m not optimistic that we can do anything about it. Unfortunately George Orwell isn’t required reading in elementary school.

Comment on Going Green – and edible? by Matthew Clark

Matthew Clark — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:03:47 +0000

going green is always the best thing to do. it helps the environment a lot..-’

Comment on Nokia Superman’s sizzling start by Peter Coleman

Peter Coleman — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 07:43:25 +0000

Given that I am sending this from my Google phone I’d say he has his work cut out.

Comment on Banks ripping off merchants puts NFC at risk by Peter Coleman

Peter Coleman — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 07:37:31 +0000

Interestingly if retailers banded together to only accept cash the banks would very quickly come to the party. After all two things would happen, the banks don’t have enough cash in their ATM machines to meet such a demand and the fees they get now from merchants would not cover the cost of running the eftpos network. So why not encourage some retail consumer activism?

Comment on Mobile Advertising Millions – Myth or Magic? by Kaitlyn Rogers

Kaitlyn Rogers — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:16:33 +0000

Mobile advertising would continue to grow as more and more mobile phone users get hooked on texting and mobile browsing.”~`

Comment on Nokia Superman’s sizzling start by Dave Birch

Dave Birch — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:33:59 +0000

My son dropped his Sony Ericsson in the sea and ruined it, so I gave him my old N96 which he lost. He now has an LG candy bar that cost £4.99 (ie, $7).

Comment on Banks ripping off merchants puts NFC at risk by Dave Birch

Dave Birch — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:12:15 +0000

I don’t understand what the problem is. If I think Starbuck’s coffee is too expensive, I don’t buy it. I don’t go whining to the regulators asking them to set a limit on the price of coffee. If retailer thinks cards are too expensive, then he can stop taking them. End of.

The BRC says cash costs 2p and credit cards cost 40p? Fine. Then cut the cost of a cup of coffee by 2p and surcharge for ALL payment mechanisms.

http://digitaldebateblogs.typepad.com/digital_money/2010/06/tender-moments.html

Comment on Smart Meters not so smart by Kaustav Ghosh

Kaustav Ghosh — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:10:46 +0000

Very true !
But the utility companies must have done some pilots before rolling out these smart meters. While attending the smart metering and Billing America in San Diego earlier this year, most all utility companies acknowledged this as well. I think there has been a commission setup by the state in Texas to audit this metering process and certification of meters as well. This is being done by a third party auditor after a large number of customer complaints.
The matter of security in these networks is far more serious. In addition to people getting access to the meter and potentially switching on / off someone else’s meter, with the adoption of Zigbee based HAN ( Home Area Networks) there is a chance of people hacking into the network to get even insde the home network to get control of appliances, imagine some turning on your heaters when you are not at home.
The extension of expertise from the telecom world into the utilities is the key as the comms has already been through these challenges decades ago.
We at Connectiva as a comms solution provider are on that track as well.