India to send world’s last telegram. Stop.  — CSM

The state-run telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has decided to discontinue the 160-year-old telegram service from July 15, in India once a source of quick and urgent communication.

Excerpt:

Cherry Capital Connection needs your participation to complete our efforts to bring High Speed Internet Access to all households in Antrim County.

The current network neighborhoods being worked on are:

Atwood, East Jordan, Cedar, Glen Arbor, Maple City, Northport, Boyne City, Hayes Township, Mackinaw City, Cross Village, Boyne Highlands, Cheboygan and Gaylord areas

Have you called? 855-674-4159

Complete Newsletter

Antrim County to be Awarded Certification as a Connected Community

 Bellaire, MI – On Thursday, April 18, Antrim County will be certified as a “Connected” community. County representatives will release a Technology Action Plan that will include results of a months-long assessment undertaken by the Antrim County Community Engagement Team.

The Antrim County Technology Action Plan contains specific recommendations of projects to expand digital literacy, build awareness for the benefits of broadband, and assistbusinesses with websites and social media, and improving the online presence of local governments, among others. Achieving status of Connected certification affords a community an avenue to discuss its success and pursue opportunities as a recognized, technologically advanced community.

Who

• Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) Robin Ancona, director, Telecommunications Division
• Antrim County Community Engagement Team
• Connect Michigan

What
Connected Community certification and Technology Action Plan release

When/Where
Wednesday, April 18, 2013, 10 AM
Antrim County Building, Commission Chambers

205 East Cayuga Street
Bellaire, MI 49615

OK, I admit it. When it comes to texting, I’m a geezer. Not only do I have slow thumbs and dysfunctional vision, but I don’t know the rules of texting. It appears that I am not alone.

One student noted that his dad texts like a junior-high-school airhead. His dad, it appears, doesn’t yet have control of the stylistic choices that constitute ‘sophisticated texting.’ For several semesters now, I have asked students to compile with me a list of EMC etiquette rules, and I am struck by how detailed, creative, and consistent the rules are. Anyone who says that text language is chaotic isn’t paying enough attention to the system of rules that users have developed to move real-time conversation into written form. [Chronicle of Higher Education] – Quoted in The Week

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A car that tells your insurance company how you’re driving. A bathroom scale that lets you chart your weight on the Web. And a meter that warns your air conditioner when electricity gets more expensive.

Welcome to the next phase of the wireless revolution.

The first wave of wireless was all about getting people to talk to each other on cellphones. The second will be getting things to talk to each other, with no humans in between. So-called machine-to-machine communication is getting a lot of buzz at this year’s wireless trade show. Some experts believe these connections will outgrow the traditional phone business in less than a decade.

“I see a whole set of industries, from energy to cars to health to logistics and transportation, being totally redesigned,” said Vittorio Colao, the CEO of Vodafone Group PLC, in a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The British cellphone company has vast international interests, including its 45 percent ownership stake in Verizon Wireless…

– Jack Unger – President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc. Author (2003) – “Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks” Serving the WISP Community since 1993 www.ask-wi.com 760-678-5033 junger@ask-wi.com

Sources: Email from Tim Maylone, President of Cherry Capital Connection, and Manufacturing.net News

As snow fell across the northeast over the weekend, Brian Maffitt of Chestnut Ridge, New York, had a brilliant idea: Project a movie, with the falling flakes as his screen. He set up his camera (a  Canon EOS 7D)  at his upstairs window where a pine tree ensured a dark backdrop, and started filming.   The Atlantic

Augmented reality for cattle:

In Las Cruces, New Mexico, Venue [a portable-media project] met with Dean M. Anderson, a USDA scientist whose research into virtual fencing promises equally radical transformation — this time by removing the mile upon mile of barbed wire stretched across the landscape. As seems to be the case in fencing, a relatively straightforward technological innovation — GPS-equipped free-range cows that can be nudged back within virtual bounds by ear-mounted stimulus-delivery devices — has implications that could profoundly reshape our relationships with domesticated animals, each other, and the landscape.      The Atlantic

Could this work for crowd control? Perhaps your GPS-enabled cell phone will nudge you away from restricted areas. Somewhat disconcerting….

First time I’ve seen a photo that really shows the size:    CSM

Notable scholars Huw Price, Jaan Tallinn and Martin Rees have founded this new organization in Cambridge. Here’s what they study:

By “existential risks” (E.R.) we mean, roughly, catastrophic risks to our species that are “our fault,” in the sense that they arise from human technologies. These are not the only catastrophic risks we humans face, of course: asteroid impacts and extreme volcanic events could wipe us out, for example. But in comparison with possible technological risks, these natural risks are comparatively well studied and, arguably, comparatively minor (the major source of uncertainty being on the technological side). So the greatest need, in our view, is to pay a lot more attention to these technological risks.      NYT        Centre’s Web Site

They must be fans of The Terminator movies.