Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Guy Kawasaki's Truemors by the numbers post has generated a fair amount of comment from bloggers (nicely summarized by Rick Segal). His point, lost in all of the noise, is that you can prototype and build companies very quickly these days.  The results are frequently businesses that don't have high overheads, and thus don't require masses of revenues to succeed.  Think plentyoffish.com, and its ilk.

So, who cares if Truemors doesn't appeal to the Silicon Valley elite masses!  If it has appeal, can cover the minimal costs, and build steady traffic, it will be a steady source of income down the road.  A number of web developers are doing just this today. There's also a steady business building these new sites, doing the initial marketing to show the viability of the site, and then selling them off to others. 

Rob Hyndman picks up on the US Federal Appeals Court decision to toss out a recent FCC indecency ruling.  Hallelujah for free speech!  One wonders what George Carlin would think. 

Andy weighs in on the 911 / VoIP issue, noting that it's still not solved.  He proffers two solutions:

GPS chips in the routers - I know this is very 1984ish, but there would be very little question where the call came from (unless someone is using a VPN)

1-Area Code + 911–> This requires some smarts on the part of the caller but it would automatically route the call to a PSAP (Public Service Access Point) close to the location.

Unfortunately, neither are good solutions.  In order to benefit from a GPS chip planted in a router, it would need to have a clear line of sight to the sky.  I would imagine that most people keep their routers indoors.  And for area code + 911, there would still need to be a mechanism implemented that would allow precise location of the caller.

No, the best answer is in the telephone companies and cable companies databases already.  They already know the subscriber billing address, and the CO where the DSL modem is attached, or the location of the DSLAM.  Appropriate standards would force the physical address of the asset to be disclosed as opposed to the logical address (phone number, IP, etc).

It wouldn't be hard to conclude that the reason e911 doesn't work is because it's a convenient and politically popular argument against VoIP, rather than any technical issue. 

Andy pinged me yesterday with his road warrior's wish list.  He travels an awful lot more than I do, but even so, the first three of these struck a real chord:

1. Real Broadband–1.5 megs or more to my room symmetrically. Anything less and its no fun.

2. Wired and Wireless in Room Access- The ability to plug my travel router in so I can use multiple devices over the Internet connection such as a WiFi phone, dual mode phone, Nokia N800 Internet Tablet or a second PC when traveling with my wife to be.

3. Power Outlets near the bed and extra power outlets in the room to charge things like cell phones, digital cameras, iPods, GPS, etc.

Most hotels have lousy broadband, and just not enough power.  Travelling light doesn't mean carrying power strips for the extra electronics.