Analogies are like soufflés - they all collapse eventually. Food can be delicious, but certain foods can cause people physical pain or, in some cases, death. In most parts of the civilised world, governments have food safety laws. They mandate how to properly prepare, store, label, and serve food. In the UK, the laws are onerous for a large food manufacturers because we recognise that introducing pathogens into the supply-chain could cause mass harm. But even small food shops are subject to …
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Here's a little telephony mystery for you - can you find out how much your phone provider charges for 056 calls? (Skip the background and jump to the survey) Background Way back in the mists of time - 2004 - Ofcom decreed that "Voice over Broadband" was going to be the next big thing. VoB (which is like VoIP, but specifically tied to a broadband line) would receive the prefix 056. In that document, they suggested a price cap of 5 pence per minute - considerably lower than other services -…
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As part of the Parliament and Internet Conference, there was a panel discussion about 4G networks. These are my notes on the session. I've applied the Chatham House Rule - mostly because I can't remember who said what, rather than any backroom skulduggery. Any errors are mine and mine alone. Neither Vodafone nor EE have signed up to the Network Neutrality pledge. O2 have. (Disclaimer, I work for Telefonica, these thoughts are my own.) The Open Internet Code of Practice is the Government’s n…
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You cannot fail to have noticed that in most American films and TV shows, all the phone numbers start 555. This is a reserved number in the North American Numbering Plan. It means that it's a number which will never connect to a real person or service. So you can avoid the situation where a number is spoken on a show, or in a song, and everyone tries to call it - much to the annoyance of the owner of the number. That's the US - did you know the UK also has a similar set of reserved numbers? …
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As Shakespeare said... "[Blog posts are] a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Today Ofcom published the responses it had for its consultation on plans for the BBC to encrypt its HD broadcasts. The blogosphere went nuts! DRM? Not on our watch. Boing Boing mobilised its army of commentators, the BBC published two blog posts which quickly filled up with comments, Facebook statuses were updated and all these links were retweeted until our fingers were worn to …
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