From Ross Rader's Random Bytes blog, here is an interesting way to make a major splash on a weblog by adding voice to it.  Ross was excited about this new functionality from Audioblog.com (he actually tried giving a demo during his talk about blogs at VON Canada last week, but the computer system was not equipped with multimedia). He signed up for the account ($5/month) and showed it around at his workplace as well, where his boss (Elliot Noss) also testdrove the system: 

I copied the above from his site, since I was curious to see how it worked, and now, I am pretty impressed with the quality (I wonder if they are using some sort of wideband CODEC like G.722, since the voice quality is pretty good).

Pulver.com held its first ever edition of the VON show in Canada this past week.  Having attended US editions of the show that counted with heavyweights such as Henry Sinnreich (the father of SIP), Robert Pepper (Chief of Policy Development of the FCC), Eugene Roman (Group President for Bell Canada), Christopher Fine (VP, Global Investment Research Division for Goldman Sachs), and others, I would have to admit that the first VON Canada was a bit thin on high impact speakers.

However, to be fair to Jeff Pulver, Carl Ford, and the rest of the crew, it was still an amazing feat to accomplish what they did in such a short period of time (I counted less than 7 calendar weeks since the end of Spring VON, held in San Jose, which was a major success).  Moreover, they also needed to overcome the wait-and-see cautious approach predominant within the Canadian telecom industry.  The reason for that is the pending outcome of the CRTC ruling on VoIP, which has been discussed at length here and in other forums, such as Jeff's own blog.  I suspect this reluctance in making public statements regarding VoIP definitely overhung a bit this show. 

This past week went by quickly, but a lot of my time was spent at VON Canada, Jeff Pulver's famous conference which held its first ever Canadian edition of the show (more about interesting happenings at this event in another entry).  Hence, Technology Futurist could not keep up with the flurry of activity during this eventful week.

One noteworthy development was Bill Gates' comments on blogging technology this part Thursday.  In his keynote speech delivered at the 2004 Microsoft CEO Summit, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told some of the world's biggest moguls about the blog phenomenon.  The annual gathering at the Microsoft Redmond campus brings together distinguished business leaders such as Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Michael Dell, Barry Diller, Carly Fiorina, Gerald Grinstein and Stephen Riggio, among others.

SpaceShipOne, a privately financed passenger carrying sub-orbital RLV (Reusable Launch Vehicle) flew its third powered flight this past Thursday over the Mojave Desert in California.  The vehicle reached an altitude of roughly 65 kilometers during the flight, the highest peak achieved to date.  Some observers believe that Spaceship one will be ready for sub-orbital flights later this summer.   

Giant silicon vendor Intel (NYSE: INTC) introduced last Monday in San Francisco a line of three enhanced Pentium M processors geared towards laptop computers.  What's new about this product family is that it is built with a 90-nanometer production process instead of the 130-nanometer process used in older Pentium M devices.  This new technology enables Intel to achieve better economies of scale.  The new chipset family also allows Intel to create chips consuming less power while offering greater performance. 

When ordering quantities in bulk (i.e. 1,000 or more), the processors cost about $294 (for the M 735), $423(for the 745) and $637 (for the M 775).  According to a CNET article, Intel had originally planned the launch to be in February, but a glitch postponed that until this past Monday.  The Pentium M processor is code-named Dothan.

The San Francisco Chronicle released on Monday its annual Chronicle 200 list of the top 200 Bay Area companies.  The list, compiled with the help of FactSet Research Systems is pretty comprehensive, including information such as market cap, sales, and profits, among other data points.

The 2003 results that were just in, show an encouraging sign: the top 200 Bay Area companies amassed $32.7 billion worth of profits in 2003, versus a combined loss of $8.8 billion in 2002.  As a result, their market cap increased by roughly 60 percent.

Many hi-tech companies from areas such as biotechnology, computing and the Internet, were strong performers in 2003.  The criteria that the Chronicle uses to measure performance is: revenue growth, profit growth, market cap and return to investors.  The region's economic diversity is illustrated by a sample of these top 2003 performers, which include the likes of SanDisk (memory cards), Genetech (biopharmaceuticals), Juniper Networks (networking equipment), AMD (microchips) and Yahoo!, among others.

Breaking news from Reuters in Europe confirms that German police have caught an 18-year old man suspected of being the author of the Sasser virus.  What made Sasser unique was the fact that it was a worm virus not transmitted in the usual ways such as e-mail, MS Office documents, pif or exe file attachments. 

Rather, Sasser was a network-aware worm that exploits a known Microsoft vulnerability and programmed to spread and knock out computer networks, without necessarily stealing information from machines it infected.  The virus spread itself by scanning randomly chosen IP addresses and checking for machines running Microsoft operating systems such as Windows 2000 and XP that have not been patched to secure the TCP ports being attacked.

During the NCTA 2004 National Show, held earlier this week in New Orleans, VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) introduced its MSO-IP Connect VoIP routing service.  The NCTA (National Cable & Telecommunications Association) is the main trade association of the American cable TV industry.  The NCTA National Show is an annual trade event which serves as a national showcase for the cable industry's newest innovations, including technologies such as voice over cable (local telephone service), HDTV, iTV, etc. 

The VeriSign launch is significant because it represents a glimpse into the future of voice over cable - many other players are expected to follow suit.  Using ENUM technology, the company offers to interconnect the broadband IP networks of cable service providers, thereby enabling subscriber-to-subscriber calls to remain on the cable network and never actually traverse the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).

News from Europe today revealed that Finnish wireless telecom equipment vendor Nokia (NYSE:NOK) has decided to pull out of the WiMAX Forum.  The WiMAX Forum is an industry alliance geared towards certifying interoperability and promoting development of WiMAX products and technologies. 

Nokia chose not to renew its membership dues with the organization, and although that was downplayed by some other WiMAX Forum participants, it was nevertheless a bit surprising, since Nokia was one of the original founding members.

Despite the active involvement by some powerhouses like Intel (NYSE: INTC), which have pledged to develop WiMAX silicon, a lot of work remains to be solved by the IEEE 802.16 committee that has been working on the WiMAX standard.  One issue being worked on is the ability to roam freely between cells and to maintain online access while in motion (a sub-committee, 802.16e is focused on solving the problem).

Chipset manufacturer Broadcom is bundling software with its WLAN silicon that will automatically configure and turn on security features, easing a lot of end-user headaches. 

Despite the progresses made in wireless LAN security technology, rogue access points and other hacking techniques to get unauthorized access to 802.11 networks still are one of the top restraints for growth in the WLAN market. 

As soon as Broadcom's SecureEZSetup software on the client senses a new wireless AP (Access Point), it launches a wizard that automatically sets up security and reboots the AP on secure mode.  The security protocol used is WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)   more »

For those of you tracking down the latest Google developments, there is a blog fully devoted to the most popular search engine on the Internet: Google Weblog.  There, you can find the most recent information, including some gossip from a Google temp worker. 

The above report was mentioned in a news story that appeared on Investor's Business Daily Internet site, Investors.com.  There has been a lot of articles since Google decided to go public with its IPO decision via its SEC filing.  The company is seeking US$2.7 billion with help from Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley.

It has been also reported that the above Wall Street firms will be using a Dutch-style auction, similar to the type pioneered by San Francisco-based W.R. Hambrecht.

Technology Review has an interesting interview with Michael Moritz, general partner at Sequoia Capital, a star VC (Venture Capital) firm based in Menlo Park, CA.

The interview offers fascinating insights in the exciting VC world, including the difficulties in making the right bets in startup companies.  As Mr. Moritz puts it, "The venture business is the ultimate humbling experience".  It is fascinating to hear this statement come from a gentleman who has enjoyed a lot of success by investing in companies such as Yahoo! and Google.

In a previous article, I mentioned the DNA computer research carried out by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. As a follow-up, Nature, a distinguished British scientific journal, had a story about how a DNA computer can be used in to fight cancer in its April 29 issue.