I installed Google Local for Mobiles on my Sony Ericsson S710a a couple days ago. The best part about this service is that it is a 100kb Java program that actually installs in your cellphone. This means that you don’t need to use the browser or type in any obscure URLs when you need to find the nearest Indian restaurant!
It is noteworthy that this service is completely free of cost, unlike the $4 a month that Mapquest charges for a similar service. You can also look at satellite pictures of …

Lawyers love patents. Engineers crave patents. Businessmen have mixed feelings. Visionaries hate them.
Patents are an amazing concept. They give a new meaning to ideas and their conceptualization and ownership. I think the American intellectual property preservation/regulatory system is the mainstay of its hitherto tremendous technological lead, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit at the academic as well as corporate level.
Software patents have always been the cause of huge debates. Almost no academic personality likes them. Open source developers disdain them wholeheartedly, citing innovation stagnation as a reason to not enforce …

Just came across this gem of a piece on the Internet. It appears that BellSouth, one of the biggest ISPs in North America, is now looking at increasing its revenue by forging deals with web companies that would allow the latter to pay a premium to get increased throughput/QoS on BellSouth’s network. The article has done a good job of non-objectively citing the bad effects of such a paradigm move.
I have mixed feelings about this proposal. On the outset, it sounds rather unnecessary to me. Why would a large scale …

Remember my post about using GPS to catch criminals? Well, I talked about the possibility of using advanced technology to monitor vehicles in that post. Turns out that the UK is actually rolling out such a system. It is based on a technology known as Automatic Number Plate Recognition.
The system will maintain a central database containing information about all cars, and would be linked to various other TV channels, radio services, and surveillance systems. “The primary aims claimed for the system are tackling untaxed and uninsured vehicles, stolen cars and …

Check out http://www.rexfeatures.com/features/516925/ to see what the world’s ugliest car looks like!