NetSuds Monthly Report

4.6 VoIP Happens for Minnesota Dept. of Labor

Three years and $435,000 after a cash-strapped Minnesota state agency deployed IP phones, officials are sold on voice over IP. For one thing, it has halved its phone bill. http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/efZL0Bcgog0Glu0COkI0AJ

Companies Making Room For VoIP http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/efZL0Bcgog0Glu0COkJ0AK

4.7 Ripe For An Internet Solution

This database search is just "asking" for an Internet solution. Can anyone say why we still need to use the US mail?

http://www.dps.state.mn.us/bca/CJIS/documents/Page-3.html

4.8 FireFox or Internet Explorer?

From the March 25 InfoWorld email newsletter - www.infoworld.com. I downloaded FireFox and now use both IE and FireFox. So far, Firefox is more stable and faster. Browser War Part II.

Firefox fills the IE void
Microsoft has abandoned IE. So stop complaining and choose a better browser

By Jon Udell March 19, 2004

In January 2004, 94.8 percent of Web surfers used Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, according to the Web analytics research company OneStat.com. Not me, though. For many months I’ve been using a Mozilla-based browser that can’t seem to settle on a name: Phoenix, Firebird, now Firefox. Identity crisis notwithstanding, it rocks.

Trust me on this — I’m no knee-jerk open source bigot. During Mozilla’s long nuclear winter, I stuck with IE because I wasn’t willing to live with compromises. Then the tables turned. Suddenly, IE was the compromise I could not live with. Bugs didn’t get fixed. Standards support didn’t improve. New features didn’t appear. And the last vestige of cross-platform ambition evaporated when IE for the Mac was killed last year. The message is clear: Internet Explorer is dead in the water.

Ironically, although Microsoft cited competition with Apple’s Safari as the reason for killing IE for the Mac, I’ve abandoned Safari on OS X for the same reason I’ve abandoned IE on Windows. Firefox does more, it’s moving faster, and — here’s the kicker — it runs identically on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

On each of these platforms, I enjoy a state-of-the-art end-user experience. Tabbed browsing, search plug-ins, and pop-up blocking are the headline features. But there are wonderful small touches, too. My favorite is “Find as You Type,” a built-in incremental search that finds text on the current page as soon as you start typing it.

I’ve also come to rely on a bevy of features for power users and developers. The LiveHTTPHeaders extension, which opens a window onto the HTTP protocol, is an invaluable aid to integration chores. The DOM Inspector, now included in Firefox, reveals the internal HTML, CSS, and JavaScript structure of a Web page. Using Firefox’s XML capabilities, I’ve built browser-based applications that fetch, transform, and search XML payloads.

During Mozilla’s tortuous years of incubation, the project’s goals were contentiously debated. Some wanted to focus on producing a fast, reliable, standards-compliant browser. Others sought to create a cross-platform toolkit for rich Internet applications. The first goal has been achieved, and the second is within reach — a fact that Microsoft (and others) would rather you didn’t notice.

The future of “great Windows applications,” we’re told, lies with Longhorn’s next-generation presentation subsystem, Avalon, which will reboot software development sometime in the latter half of this decade. Of course, even Microsoft can’t wait until then. Consider InfoPath. It’s a great Windows application and a rich Internet client that had to ship in 2003. Its foundation is none other than Internet Explorer — or rather, the suite of components and Internet standards on which Internet Explorer depends. Could InfoPath have been built on a Mozilla foundation instead? You bet. And the result wouldn’t just be a great Windows application. It would be a great application, period.

As a development platform, Mozilla’s reach still exceeds its grasp. Its XUL (XML User-interface Language) technology, for example, isn’t as polished as the Macromedia Flex markup language or Avalon’s XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language).

IE is arguably good enough for the 95 percent who continue to use it for basic browsing. But browser-based rich Internet software isn’t nearly as good as it could be. If you build it, they will come.

Jon Udell is lead analyst of the InfoWorld Test Center.

4.9 NanoTech Day at the UofM

Are you a legitimate angel investor, investment banker or venture capitalist? A technologist with technical interests in nanotechnology? If you are a member of either of these two interest groups, the UofM has a free program to introduce you to nanotechnology research at the UofM.

Date:    May 14, 2004
Where: UofM Walter Library
What:   8 am, Technical sessions conducted by the 32 faculty members working on nanotechnology
What:   1 pm, Investment Community Workshop for investors only conducted by select nanotechnology faculty.
What:   4 pm, Tours of nanotechnology facilities on campus
What:   5 pm, Reception for all involved in any of the above.
How:    RSVP to Marie at marie007@umn.edu.

If you have any questions, contact Dick Sommerstad at 612.625.8352.

4.10 orkut: The eBay of Social Networking

From NetSudser Jeff Pulver - jeff@pulver.com.

I first discovered orkut in early February and it took me a couple of weeks to warm up to it...mostly because of the fact that I've been so busy, going to another website to engage in "social networking" was not high on my priority list.

But as I started to explore orkut and started to observe its growing feature set, I realized that in some ways, orkut, could turn out to be: "the eBay of Social Networking."

At the moment, the orkut network is closed. When you click on the link on their home page 'join orkut' you get to a page which says: "orkut is unique, because it's an organically growing network of trusted friends. That way we won't grow too large, too quickly and everyone will have at least one person to vouch for them."

While I enjoy using LinkedIn for some of my business social networking, I find myself doing "community development" using orkut. One has to be careful using orkut, as if you build your network too fast, you may be "orkut'ed" and have your account suspended. To date this has happened to me twice for reasons which I don't understand, but thanks to Orkut Buyukkokten, my account was quickly restored.

If you are already on orkut, you are invited to join two communities which I'm currently supporting - Free World Dialup, <http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=12029> and pulver.com <http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=27240>.

As a reader of the Pulver Report, if you are not already a member of orkut and if you would like to give orkut a try, please send email to: jeffp@pulver.com with the subject: "orkut invite" and when I have a chance, I will send an invite.

4.11 Citizens For Local Phone Service

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dennis Egan

March 3, 2004 612-325-1330

St. Paul, MN – Consumers and telephone competition received a major setback in the wake of a federal circuit court decision to overturn the Federal Communications Commissions’ rules to promote telephone competition, according to Citizens For Local Phone Choice.

“The DC Circuit court sided with the telephone monopolies and essentially turned its back on competition and consumers nationwide,” said Dennis Egan, executive director of Citizens For Local Phone Choice. “The decision to free telephone giants like Qwest from their legal obligation to share the public telephone network with competitors is a serious disappointment.”

More than 17 million Americans have the benefit of competition under the existing FCC rules, according to Egan. Recent studies show that consumers nationwide save $10 billion a year in lower phones bills because of competition. Small businesses saved $4.4 billion in 2003 from expanded competition. These savings could skyrocket to more than $6 billion if policymakers maintain policies necessary to sustain competition.

“Now, those savings and the benefits of competition are in jeopardy because the court chose Telephone Giants over consumer interests,” he said. “We can all expect to see higher phone bills if fledging competition dwindles out completely.”

An appeal to the Supreme Court is expected to uphold the FCC rules to promote competition.

Citizens for Local Phone Choice is a consumer advocacy group whose mission is to facilitate research, develop and exchange data and information involving local telecommunications options in the state of Minnesota. The coalition’s members include business owners and consumers statewide. The coalition has participated in several public forums and has had numerous interceptions with both state legislative and congressional candidates and members. Further, CLPC has built successful relationships with key influencers statewide.

4.12 Google Redesigns, Adds New Services

From Ziff-Davis' What's New Now - www.ziffdavis.com

I'm not a huge fan of Google's redesign -- I think it blurs the lines between real search results and sponsored links. The upside to the shake-up, however, is two new projects from Google Labs. What's Google Labs? Apparently, each engineer over there has to spend a day or so a week on some personal "project," to advance search. Google's search bar, the e-commerce search capability tool "Froogle," and other strokes of genius all came from the Labs' pet projects. Well, now there are two cool new services to help you customize and get more out of Google. Our story shows what they do and explains how they can help.

Cool New Google Tools: http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-154-1-1-527686-7351-1