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Thursday, December 20, 2007
A tale of 2 EComms....
I largely concur with the notion that "The first wave of consumer VoIP has had only a minor impact" . It certainly seems to me that the current 'killer app' for VoIP is straightforward PSTN replacement (eg in France as part of triple-play offers). I see the same thing being the driver in the mobile domain - the long-term, slow, replacement of circuit-switched cellular with all-IP equivalents.
Sure, there's some high-profile movement around Skype, Vonage, Truphone and all the rest. But to be honest, that's still a very small sliver of the overall telecoms marketplace, with the possible exception of international call traffic.
I've been talking to a lot of people recently about 'non-telephony VoIP', aka voice mashups, or application-embedded VoIP. I'm expecting this to become a lot more important in a qualitative sense in 2008-9, albeit rather hard to measure quantitatively.
EComm should enable a bit more flesh to be put on the bones of this concept. If you're interested in going, let me know and I can sort you out with a discount code.
On a tangential note, I see there's another synonymously-named event later next year. It appears to owe much to the dubious efforts of London's tyrannical mayor, Ken Livingstone and assorted other misanthropic individuals, to enforce (and I'm laughing at the irony here) "mobility management" policies on his electorate.
Make sure you book tickets to the right one.....
So how did I do with my predictions?
1) Increased focus on manufacturers selling multiple "diverged" devices to users
Implicitly, yes this has definitely happened. I've heard a lot less "oh, you only need one device" nonsense. Although my friends over at Forum Oxford still like to imagine mobile phones taking over from laptops, GPS devices, iPods, toasters etc.
2) A lot of noise about VoIP over 3G.
Yes. But, er, mostly from me. While a lot of times I'll be critical of a technology concept, or at least say "Yes great idea, but it's not as easy as it looks", this is definitely one area where I think the market is vastly underestimating the importance and potential.
(btw - as an Xmas bonus, I'm offering a 10% discount for any blog readers who order the report before Dec 31st 2007. Email "information AT disruptive-analysis.com" for details)
3) Emergence of corporate-focused MVNOs
Yes, although they haven't quite set the world on fire yet. BT, iPass and newcomers like IIJ in Japan.
4) Continued uptake of various dual-mode services & handsets, but they won't change the world
Yes, indisputably.
5) Spectrum lobbying noise, regulation momentum and lawsuits ratchet up several notches.
Yes - WiMAX as 3G, 900MHz refarming, ITU World Radio Congress, US 700MHz, 2.5GHz.....
6) IMS confounds both its critics and its evangelists, but needs to improve integration ASAP
Yep. It's not slunk away into a corner & died, and certainly hasn't taken over the world either. But a new, rather humbler version of IMS is taking its role as part of the future landscape. IMS proxies and convergence boxes mean that it's integrating better, while we're slowly progressing on the IMS handset front.
7) Navigation becomes rather more important on mobiles. Mobile search doesn't.
Yes. There's a reason Nokia spent $8bn on Navteq & everyone on a BlackBerry loves Google Maps. But there's not been much movement in special mobile-optimised seach engines. Just give me proper Google.com search please.
8) The City WiFi bubble bursts
Yes. At best, it's wireless for bus shelters & traffic wardens. Yawn. At worst, it's a negligent waste of taxpayers' money by bored local government IT drones seduced by glossy marketing BS about 'digital inclusion'.
9) Flat-rate data becomes the norm, with browsing the killer app, driven by high-res screens
Yes. Although I missed that it was also driven by cheap USB modems for PCs. Laptops are the new smartphones.
10) No, No, No, No, No
Mobile IM won't replace SMS - true
Laptops with built-in HSDPA won't sell much (and even where they do, the cellular bit won't be activated by most owners). - true, it's all about USB dongles
WiMAX will get a few more major operator advocates, but still won't be seen as a threat to "normal cellular". - True
Mobile TV won't make much headway. - True.
Web 2.0 stuff like social networking really won't be a big deal in mobile outside Japan, Korea & maybe the US, unless carriers work out a way to give decent Internet access & capable devices to prepay users. - OK, maybe I underestimated this a bit, but there's still not that many people checking FaceBook on their phones, or Twittering.
Oh, and maybe Apple's Phone won't play music at all, but will be "just a phone". - Cough. OK I'll hold my hands up.... that was a bit tongue in cheek anyway, but still wrong.
I'll leave the 2008 predictions for another day......
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Handset subsidy.... or loan?
Roughly speaking, that's perhaps 400m of the world's phones sold annually that are subsidised / bundled, at perhaps an average $60 each. The exact numbers are unimportant for this discussion.
Most of these are 'locked in' to contracts of typically 12-24 months. So in other words there's probably >$30bn of subsidised handsets in users' hands at any point in time.
This begs a couple of questions:
1) If you look at the relative price of similar subsidised / unsubsidised contracts+phone combinations (for example looking at markets like Italy or Finland for which subsidy is unusual or illegal), what's the implicit cost to the consumer of financing their handset purchase? What's the APR (annual percentage rate) on that loan? And if it's higher than normal retail financing (say in comparison with an electronics retailer) is there a market opportunity for 3rd-party "phone loans" at cheaper rates?
2) Should mobile operators be forced by regulators (telecom and/or banking) to either unbundle phone+finance+subscription, or at least quote an implicit APR on the financing?
3) Do mobile operators really want to be in the consumer credit business at the moment? And how do they quantify their exposure to credit risk?
3GSM in Barcelona...
First of all, go to a mirror and watch your lips as you say "M..... W..... C....". Then do it again with "3... G... S.... M". Acronyms with W's in the middle are quite literally a mouthful.
Now, what does that tell you about the priority placed on "user experience" among the networks part of the mobile industry?
I must have already had 10 conversations which have gone "Yeah, I'll be at 3GS... er.... I mean Mobile Congress W..... er... World Mobile Co.... er....... in Barcelona"
Then there's the completely unaffiliated event I attended in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago, called Mobility World Congress. Or have I got them the wrong way around?
I'll still be calling it 3GSM, and I encourage everyone else to do the same. It's memorable, its pronounceable and it's uniquely differentiated. If I really fancy winding people up, I might say 4GSM, which would have been a much better re-brand.
Unless anyone has any new clever ideasfor turning MWC into a nicely-enunciated word? "MoWK" perhaps? Or maybe said as if it was an air-kiss "Oh dahling, are you going to be at mwoc this year?"
A New Years resolution
Sure, I have this blog, but that's more because I like writing and it's of direct commercial benefit to my business. I don't have a personal blog, apart from my issue-specific (and very occasional) environmental one. And I'll use SkypeOut on a PC to make long international calls (but over WiFi, usually, so I get points for that....)
But I don't use Twitter, I use IM maybe twice a month, rarely update my FaceBook page apart from my status, I send MMS's once a month, eschew all forms of video communication and collaboration technology and so on. I've recently received some invitations to yet another social network (Spock) and winced.
Even my two main mobile phones are more than 18 months old. And although one is a smartphone, I never download applications to it.
So as a New Year's Resolution, I'm going to consciously become a bit geekier. I'll probably get a quarantined plain-vanilla Symbian or Windows phones that I can install software on, and wipe clean or reflash when I need to do. Time permitting, I'll try and play around with the latest gee-whiz social or business communication tool. I'll upgrade my normal phones and probably get one of 3's new prepay USB HSDPA modems as well. And I'll look out for interesting things like mobile voice mashups to play with.
I might even tart up this blog & the main Disruptive Analysis site, with some of the latest, trendiest blogging furniture & widgets. (But not that awful link-prevew window thing which I detest).
I'll give it 3 months initially... which coincidentally takes me up to Lee Dryburgh's ultracool eComm 2008 conference, more on which to follow in another post. Hopefully it'll mean that (a) I'll retain some vague credibility among people I meet at the event, and (b) I won't be wandering around like a total cynic saying 'are real people honestly going to use that when they could just use SMS?"
Now, I just have to find some new friends who actually care about any of this stuff to talk to....
Monday, December 17, 2007
Whatever happened to BT Fusion?
Not impressive, I'm afraid.....
Let's see - I'm one of BT's 2m or so Broadband customers, with a Home Hub gateway, so I'm privileged enough to be entitled to Fusion. If I decided to get a new phone today, I could get:
a) A humdrum Nokia 6136, ancient Motorola A910, or slightly-better Samsung P260 for £19 a month over 18 months, with 100 minutes calling (or 400 when at home in range of Fusion) from BT
b) A quite nice 3G SonyEricsson K800i, with 500 mix/match minutes or SMS, for £18 a month over 18 months, on 3 UK . Which also comes with free IM, Skype calling (!) and an extra 300 on-net 3-to-3 minutes.
Unless I had absolutely shocking indoor coverage.... why on earth would I pick (a)? And if wasn't a BT Broadband subscriber, I wouldn't even have the choice.
I'm not surprised that there hasn't been a recent update on subscriber numbers.
I wonder if BT is going to go the same way as Telecom Italia, and bin its UMA dual-mode service and wait around a bit longer for a SIP/IMS version as it gets 21CN up and running. Or maybe it will (finally) make some use of its low-power GSM spectrum licence and do something fun with femtocells (there are some 2G femtos about....)
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Cisco & IMS - it's about coherence, not seamlessness
I've long shuddered at the mere mention of the hideous word 'seamless'. My general rule is that any presentation at a conference loses several credibility points if it includes it, and in the case of companies embracing it as a major element in product names or branding (eg Motorola) it's much worse.
Responding to a question about blending mobile video services with IPTV, one of Cisco's execs came out with the fantastic line that they are "aiming for a coherent experience, not a seamless experience". In other words - the application needs to be similar, but bearer- and device-aware. He used the example of Outlook on a PC bs a BlackBerry. It's obviously the same underlying application, but presented in a coherent way to give an optimum, context-based user experience, rather than being truly seamless or identical.
I'm so stealing the word 'coherence' when talking about convergence & fixed/mobile applications....
Video... so just how important is it really?
The collaboration theme fits into Cisco's acquisition of WebEx. It put up some fairly persuasive examples & demos of this yesterday - talking up the potential to improve productivity in large businesses. It also eats its own dogfood in realigning its own business processes around interactive, collaborative teams.
While I personally detest using the type of online presentation tools that's one of the more familiar faces of WebEx (just send me the Powerpoint by email, please, and talk it through on the phone), I can certainly appreciate the benefits for internal corporate collaboration for large businesses. There's also a lot of cool Web 2.0 stuff they're talking about like Wikis, blogs etc. Basically Intranet 2.0 stuff, which makes a lot of sense (eg submitting business opportunity suggestions & getting them rated / favourited).
The video message is a little less clear. Despite attempts to claim "no, it's not just about driving IP traffic up the curve & selling more routers" I'm really unconvinced. Obviously, IP video is important in IPTV (hence Cisco's Scientific Atlanta acquisition). And Cisco's high-def Telepresence corporate videoconferencing gear is very impressive. And lastly there is a lot of sense in networking up CCTV cameras via IP.
But I simply do not buy the argument that video-based communications will become pervasive, and will be used in a large percentage of total person-to-person interactions. This is actually a bit reminiscent of Ericsson's attempts to shoehorn video into mobile handsets, either in the past through the useless H324 videotelephony approach, and again now now with the over-complex IMS Multimedia Telephony standard.
My belief is that each individual's (or company's) communications will become fragmented. Sure, certain business-to-business sales calls, or internal product planning meetings, among technology-savvy (and technology-happy) people will benefit from telepresence. But other instances will not - if I'm in a cab late for a meeting, I'll use SMS. I can see almost no business reason for me to use video - for me personally, it adds little beyond voice, and I much prefer face-to-face meetings with my clients for a host of reasons. Mobile video for business is an even more unlikely proposition, unless I'm sitting in an airport watching YouTube or maybe a business webcast on my PC.
The irony is that increasing mobility of employees works precisely against the use of video in the enterprise. It is inceasingly likely that one party in a given call will be driving, walking, out of coverage, roaming, using an incompatible phone, in a different timezone and so on.
Of course, Cisco doesn't have a major presence in mobile devices & cellular networks, so in an ideal world perhaps Cisco would actually like people to get back to their desks and offices, and be connected with a big fat LAN. Given their comments about the travel savings associated with telepresence, it wouldn't surprise me to see a green argument expounded in the future, about the "evils" of corporate mobility.
In fact, I see this as emblematic of a much wider long-term battle between the world's too most important communications technologies - 3GPP GSM/UMTS cellular vs. Ethernet. I think that's another theme for 2008, although I don't expect too many people to admit it openly.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Depersonalising mobile
I regularly hear that one of the unique aspects of mobile communications is 'personalisation'. You are identifiable by a number, you have a private, non-shared, customised device with your favourite ringtone & colour scheme, and you are 'owned' and identified by your service provider.
In general, I agree - but will this always be the case?
I'm just wondering out loud, but perhaps there might be scenarios which 'depersonalise' the mobile. It's certainly not common now, but it's dependent on social dynamics & fashion, so it might change. Some possible scenarios that could muddy the waters:
- Phones shared ad-hoc among friends (eg teenagers 'swapping identities' as apparently sometimes already happens with IM or MySpace)
- Mobile numbers being allocated to shared (non-phone) devices like PCs, web tablets, consumer electronics
- Secondhand mobile phones
- Swapped prepay SIM cards
- Maybe it becomes cool to have a new phone / number every week so they get passed around
- Use of non-operator SMS-replacement clients could mean that you could 'sign in' from any phone
.... and so on.
Maybe there are specific 'depersonalisation' opportunities.... if you could automate number portability via a web interface, and couple it to ways to move your personal phonebook & profile, you could switch seamlessly between operators or phones.
You could rent an appropriately stylish phone to match your outfit for the day, then give it back & revert to your normal one. You could temporarily switch to another operator for the duration of the Olympics, if they had exclusive Mobile TV rights. You could try out all the operators in your country to find which one has the best overall coverage during the course of your day.
And maybe sharing phones could reduce the environmental impact of producing a billion handsets a year?
To be honest, this is all totally speculative on my part. I'm just musing. But it occurs to me that there would be quite a lot of business models exposed if we ever saw mass depersonalisation of mobile phones / numbers for some reason.
And look at other markets. In theory, cars (and registrations) are very personal. Yet people regularly rent cars, use taxis, lend cars to friends/family - and, recently, you have innovations like the shared City Car clubs.
I'll keep a close eye out during 2008... remember where you first heard 'mobile de-personalisation"...
Saturday, December 08, 2007
So what has been the 'device of the year' in 2007?
- For FMC and VoIP: I'd nominate the Nokia N95 for its relevance in driving assorted top-end features like WLAN and good-quality Naked SIP support into the mass marketplace - especially from the point of view of Mobile VoIP. And of course the 5MP camera and GPS, and more recently its 8GB version have also been major catalysts driving the initial sale of the device to customers. The E65 has also escaped from its original intended market of the enterprise, and become an important part of the SIP-based FMC landscape, and the 3 Skypephone (made by Amoi) is cool as well.
- For user experience & changing perceptions: The Apple iPhone has lived up to its hype. I have to confess I was a skeptic initially, but having played with a few and listened to lots of owners, I'm pretty impressed. It's certainly forced the rest of the handset industry to sit up and pay attention. And its forced the operators to ask themselves hard questions about whether they can really do cool UIs themselves - and given them another concrete reality check that consumer like hardware rather than services. And above all, it has that ineffable "Oooh I want one of those" quality.
- For driving data services and defining mobile broadband: It's got to be the Huawei family of USB-connected 3G modems. They've facilitated the adoption of mobile data by consumers as well as business users, and illustrated perfectly why 3G-embedded PCs are niche products. Why would you want to have an operator-customised (and possibly locked-down) laptop, when you can get a proper unmolested one and just add a separate plug-and-play connectivity device? Laptops last longer than mobile contracts, so the user wants the ability to switch providers (or rent a local modem when travelling to avoid roaming charges). Lastly, they're better for operators too - they really don't want to put 500 different types of PC through their testing labs, when they can just test 3 external modems instead. And they're (finally) driving 3G data revenues - laptops are the best devices for getting 'the real Internet' when you're mobile. According to a presentation I saw last week, the Huawei devices are the current top-selling 'phones' in Sweden.
Friday, December 07, 2007
So what do you want in your phone for Xmas?
- Truphone is advocating getting smartphones (ideally with WiFi, but at least "Internet ready")
- SanDisk is exhorting customers to "discover their slots'
The issue I see is that the SanDisk argument (sideloading of micro-SD cards) is indisputably usable without incurring extra operator charges, while the "Internet-ready" approach typically means paying out for a data plan (albeit with the potential to save money via using VoIP as well) unless you just use local WiFi.
In an ideal world, your Internet-ready phone would also have a 'no cost' win by enabling efficient sideloading as well - it would be 'PC ready' for connection via USB cable, or better still WiFi. But many people still balk at the clunkiness of PC-phone connectivity, and instead turn to memory cards. This ties in with my recent comment about the lack of cool "local" apps for WiFi phones.
SanDisk's marketing is also a manifestation of another long-term trend - the much steeper price/performance curve of storage, compared with other computing metrics like processing power, network capacity or battery power density. Brough Turner has had a couple of fascinating blog posts recently on this. The long and short of it is that, if your application doesn't need to be realtime, memory wins out over wireless networks.
The world's highest-capacity form of data transport between two cities is a truck full of flash memory. Lousy latency, but awesome bandwidth. Luckily for Truphone & peers, latency is rather more of an issue for VoIP than it is for content....
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Multiple device ownership - crunching some numbers
Vodafone occasionally tries to estimate the level of multiple SIM ownership in its markets, and I commented on a survey on the UK market recently which seemed to suggest 1.6 SIMs per person, but definitions seemed questionable, eg with penetration of phones among children.
I thought I'd try and come up with some slightly harder numbers.
The UK has 70m SIM registrations at the moment, and 60.8m people, with a demographic breakdown given here. Last year, Carphone Warehouse did some analysis of mobile penetration among children up to age 12, while Ofcom has some great research (figs 15 & 16) on the proportion of adults who personally use mobile phones.
This yields the data that 86% of people >15 years old are active users. This is heavily skewed by older people - only 52% of over-75s use mobile in the UK. Among children, from the CPW study there is near-zero penetration among 8-year olds & below, 20% @ 9, 50% @ 10, 70% at 11 and 90% at 12. Given the other data it seems reasonable for me to assume that about 93% of 13 & 14 year-olds are users. The youth data is a year old, so might have shifted slightly, but it's a good starting point.
Multiplying this all through by the population stats gives me:
Total UK Mobile Users = 46.4m individuals - ie 76% of the total population.
Total UK non-users = 14.5m (mostly young kids & seniors)
I'd estimate 1-1.5m SIMs are used in non-personal M2M applications (EPOS terminals, vending machines, wireless routers etc, but excluding laptops & PDAs which are personal devices).
So.... 69m personal mobile subscriptions among 46m active mobile users =
1.46 Mobile Subs / Active User in the UK.
This excludes UK citizens who have international SIMs as well (although probably some of the UK SIMs go abroad too).
What remains slightly unclear is the mix of people with 1SIM+Multiple Devices vs. Multiple SIMs+single device. ie the ratio between active subs/person and active phones/person. Travellers often put local SIMs into a single phone when abroad, but users who like phones for fashion reasons may swap a single SIM among multiple devices.
What this all categorically tells me is that the "one mobile device" philosophy is completely inapplicable in the UK. My rough estimates are
Zero Subs = 24% of all UK individuals
1 sub = 49%
2 subs = 17%
3 subs = 7%
4+ subs = 3%
Bottom line = a majority (51%) of the total UK population either has zero mobile subscriptions, or multiple. People with just a single active SIM are actually in the minority (49%).
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
A misconception - 1 SIM = 1 Identified User
I'd urge caution on this. The world is not as simple as you think.
Some of the problems:
- People have multiple SIMs, and multiple devices. While this doesn't apply to everyone, a growing fraction of individual users will fall into this category. I'd expect far more people to have 2 SIMs than 2 nationalities/passports.
- A few people have no phone/SIM and no inclination to change. Some form of 'digital inclusion' policy would be needed for the cellular refuseniks.
- *EDIT* - also see my more recent post where I try to quantify the two factors above
- Many countries still have anonymous prepaid SIMs. While some countries like Italy & Thailand force SIM purchasers to register their ID, that's a far from uniform situation. I've bought loads of SIMs over the years with total anonymity. And I'll bet that black markets exist even in countries where registration is mandatory.
- Just because a SIM is registered to an individual, that doesn't mean they're the user. A speaker from India yesterday said that SIMs are usually registered to a head-of-household, rather than the actual user.
- No idea what happens with legal responsibility & identity with children with SIM cards, but I'll bet it's complex and variable per-country
- Plenty of SIMs are used by machines, not people. How do you know if it's actually a vending machine that's sending a message, or someone hooked up via a PC?
- Some phones or other devices are shared between multiple people (eg in 'pooled' devices in businesses, cellular fixed phones, or phones for a whole village in emerging markets)
- There is some evidence that young people swap phones (& SIMs) amongst each other in social groups. This could be because of the dynamics of who has prepay credit among friends, for example, or in situations where an operator doesn't offer x-network minutes and it makes sense to use someone else's phone to save money.
The last point is perhaps the most crucial. The whole idea of one SIM = one person it hugely exposed to the risk of social dynamics and fashions. It only needs one group of teenagers to come up with a 'killer app' for phone-sharing or swapping (maybe it becomes cool to have a new number every week), you get viral adoption around the world in a couple of months, and the whole identity/SIM linkage falls apart.
Ironically, the use of Internet access on mobile devices exacerbates this risk, as potentially users can sign into Yahoo/Google/Skype/Truphone/Fring from any device rather than their 'official' phone & SIM.
E-Mobile - cellular VoIP and subsidised DSL
One of yesterday's speakers was from E-Mobile, Japan's new 4th operator, of which I have to confess I'd been fairly unaware until recently. It's affiliated to E-Access, an established fixed broadband operator with about 2m DSL subscribers.
E-Mobile's main offering is flatrate HSDPA - at around $45 a month. Interestingly, it comes with the offer of a 'free' DSL line for customers to use at home (and which would offload some traffic from the cellular network). Although some companies like Carphone Warehouse have given away 'free broadband' before, this is the first time I've heard it being done more for the reason of macrocellular offload economics, rather than simple bundling.
This has some significant implications for future femtocell business models - the current working assumption is that the user should be "happy" to pay for their own indoor-wireless backhaul when their phone is on the femtocell. That assumption may be a bit too optimistic:
- If the broadband is supplied by a separate company to the mobile operator, they may well view cellular femto traffic as being as undesirable as P2P when running on 'their pipes' . They may try to extract some form of rent from 'over the top femto operators' in the name of QoS - especially as those femto operators are likely to be mandated to provide emergency services access. It's easy to imagine femto traffic being 'traffic shaped', especially if it's being used for high-speed data. (I've heard some fairly fanciful notions of femto-HSPA being positioned as a replacement for WiFi in-home, but I'll address that in another post)
- If the broadband is provided by the same company that runs the femtos (triple/quadplay), then they are at risk from competitive pitches like E-Mobile's. "We've sold you a personal mobile broadband service, but we'll reward you for using DSL at home by giving it to you for free, as it saves us money"
VoIPo3G would probably be made easier in Japan than many other countries, because of the lack of need for SMS or prepaid billing support. There is also ample scope for tariff arbitrage - apparently mobile voice charges in Japan are amongst the highest in the world - the presenter suggested 40c per minute is typical, which goes some way to explain why data services like email are so widely used instead.
It is already offering a partner-based VoIPo3G service in conjunction with Jajah, on its mobile data PDAs.
It's also apparently launching a mobile voice service early in 2008. Although details are not available yet, I suspect that it might turn out to be a full mobile VoIP service using HSDPA+HSUPA. It has a roaming deal with DoCoMo outside its own coverage area,
Monday, December 03, 2007
Femtocell - who coined the term and when?
PicoChip can claim a Feb 2006 use of the term.
I first had a mention in my blog from Nov 2005. I'm pretty sure I didn't invent the term, though - but I'm struggling to remember who I first heard it from. It might have been a presenter from O2 at a wVoIP conference in Brussels in late 2005.
Anyone got any prior claims?
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Is there such a thing as a 'vanilla' IMS handset?
A thought occurred to me, however. There is also now a definite move towards the sale of open, 'vanilla' handsets, both through established non-operator channels like Expansys and Nokia's own stores, but also catalysed by shifts like Verizon's new openness policy.
How will these vanilla devices be configured to access a given operator's IMS? What needs to be provisioned, downloaded, set up? Can this be automated? Can there be a 'native IMS client' which will automatically register work with anyone's IMS infrastructure, or is this too much of an interoperability headache? Presumably, this would only work with the core set of IMS applications (IM, presence, videoshare, PoC etc) as it presumably wouldn't be possible to download an arbitrary 'cool, differentiated, operator IMS app' to an arbitrary IMS handset framework.
I guess a similar situation will occur when roaming with an operator-provided IMS phone onto a foreign (non-affiliated) operator's network.
Sorry, I don't have any answers for this one at present, but it's something I'll see if I can check up on soon.
Handset privacy - any rules or standards?
It got me thinking about the software on my mobile handsets - what applications have the automatic right to access the microphone and/or cameras? Obviously the main phone dialler, any obvious speech-based functions, and the videotelephony app, and any VoIP clients... but what else? And how do I control it?
Now I know there have been a few stories about the potential for security services to covertly switch on phones' microphones, but that's a little separate. I'm thinking about other applications - either mainstream multimedia apps, or perhaps malware. Maybe I'm just being paranoid.
As far as I know, there aren't any standards about this which span different handset smartphone OS's, or even more locked-down featurephones. As a user, I have no direct knowledge of when the mike or camera is "live". Maybe there should be the equivalent of a TV camera's red 'recording' light? I guess that organisations like the OMTP might be the best-suited to standardise something like this.
I suspect that any really intrusive always-on audio/video spyware would have a noticeable impact on battery life, but imagine a piece of software that just recorded what you said for the 30 seconds after the end of a phone call.
"Great! another customer paying full price! What a sucker"
"OMG, he just asked my on a date!"
"It's OK, my wife thinks I'm in a meeting"
"Yeah, that geezer's got a garage full of moody kettles"
"Jeez that was a tough briefing. Bloody know-it-all analysts"
I'm currently sitting in a hotel room, so I can't check & see if a Windows or Symbian device has a privacy menu which enables you to force applications "to always ask for permission" to use the mike or camera, but I can't remember seeing one, and I suspect that 99% of normal users would never find it anyway.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Mobile payments for car parking - awful user experience
It sucks. Totally. Wearing my "mobile user" hat rather than my "analyst" hat, this was my first and hopefully last real-world encounter with mobile payments.
Basically, London's Westminster Council is fed up with people vandalising or stealing coins from parking meters, so it wants to reduce its amount of on-street payment equipment. Laudable & understandable on the face of it, but that's the only positive.
The system they've chose is for users to either phone or text the reference number of the parking bay and the length of time they want to stay. But the payment mechanism is via debit or credit card - and the first time you park, you have to call into an IVR system to set this up (or do it on the web if you're organised enough to sort it out before driving), and your car registration.
The first problem is the number - an 0870 premium-rate one, which isn't included in most mobile call packages, and which therefore costs an unknown extra amount to call. The second problem is being certain that some phisher hasn't swapped the signs over - how do I know that it's the correct IVR system, and not one that someone's set up to capture credit card details? The third thing is that I don't know who else is involved in running the system, and I really don't want to have my credit card # on file with the council - let's face it, local government authorities aren't always the most trustworthy institutions.
Once you're set up on the system, the next time you just have to SMS the location code, length of time and credit-card validation number. Which assumes you remember which card you've registered with, of course.
All of this must be a triple nightmare if you're a tourist using roaming, or if you use hire/share car systems with a different registration every time.
Then I thought "why on earth aren't they using premium SMS or some other mechanism that doesn't need a credit card to be set up?".
My first thought was that the council (quite reasonably) didn't want to involve mobile operators taking a cut of their revenues. As the end user, I certainly don't want to pay any more for subsidising my own inconvenience - it's much easier & quicker to put coins in a meter than faff around with texting. And I really don't want parking fees appearing on my mobile bill anyway.
Then another thought struck me - credit risk and complexity of integration with prepay billing. I seem to remember reading that the average prepay user only has £5-10 credit on average at any point in time - yet parking is £3 an hour up to a maximum of 4 hours. Given the high proportion of prepay users in the UK, this would mean many users having to first top up their account, before paying for parking - clearly nonsensical.
It also raises the issue of whether the whole amount is debited upfront, or drip-fed over the period of parking.
NFC approaches wouldn't work either - it would still need some equipment on the street to scan & print a ticket. And then you might just as well have a debit-card reader in it too, for people without NFC phones.
All in all, I reckon the most convenient form of mobile payment for parking remains the coin. It works, it's quick and there's no need to pay anyone else trying to shoehorn themselves in the value chain.
I'm not the only person who reckons the system's rubbish either. The UK's next-but-one Prime Minister has also experienced the same problem
On the bright side, all this confusion will probably lead to more parking fines & cars being towed. Given I'm also a Westminster resident, the extra cash should help lower my taxes.....


text:
LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
Looking to keep track of all the various projects in development? Click here to visit our newly branded "Devwatch" section. There visitors can view our listings by network, genre, studio and even development stage (ordered to pilot, cast-contingent, script, etc.). It's updated every day!
AMERICAN CRIME (FOX) - The Jerry Bruckheimer-produced drama project has been given the green light to produce a pilot. Tyler Bensigner ("Cold Case") is behind the hour, which revolves around a team of media-savvy defense attorneys who handle high-profile cases. Feature director David McNally ("Coyote Ugly") is directing the Warner Bros. Television-based project and will executive produce along with Bruckheimer, Bensinger and Jerry Bruckheimer Television's Jonathan Littman.
FLIGHT 93 (A&E) - A whopping 5.9 million viewers tuned into the original movie's premiere on Monday, making it the highest-rated program in the 22-year history of the network. Said broadcast also hit network highs among adults 25-54 (2.9 million), 18-49 (2.7 million) and 18-34 (1.0 million).
HIM & US (ABC) - Anthony Stewart Head ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") has been tapped for the lead role in the comedy pilot, about an over-the-hill gay British rock star (Head) and his relationship with his long-time manager and the rest of his colorful entourage. Head joins the previously cast Ashley Williams in the Touchstone Television/Edelstein Co.-based half-hour, which comes from executive producers Cindy Chupack, Michael Edelstein, Bob Halley, Elton John and Bruce Roberts. Charles Shyer will direct the single-camera project from a script by Chupack.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE LAW (CBS) - Joshua Jackson ("Dawson's Creek") is the first to be cast in the drama pilot, about a group of smart legal associates trying to make partner at a powerful Washington, D.C.-based law firm while dealing with a host of moral, ethical and legal challenges. Jackson will play Mark Clayton, a first-year associate at the firm whose career takes an unexpected turn when he is assigned the case of a death row inmate. In addition, Danny Cannon ("C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation") is on board to direct the hour, which comes from "C.S.I." showrunner Carol Mendelsohn and CBS Paramount Network Television.
NINE LIVES (ABC) - Jessica Collins ("Tru Calling") is understood to have joined the cast of the drama pilot, about the lives of nine strangers who share a bond after experiencing a 52-hour hostage crisis. She joins the previously cast Chi McBride in the Warner Bros. Television-based hour. No specifics about her character were given. In addition, Emmy-winner Alex Graves ("The West Wing") has signed on to direct the project (not Rodrigo Garcia as previously reported), which comes from creators Hank Steinberg and K.J. Steinberg.
SOUTHERN COMFORT (FOX) - Greg Yaitanes, who's helmed the pilot to FOX's "Bones" last season, has signed on to direct the drama pilot, an ensemble crime drama about the wife of a mob boss who's thrust into running their Biloxi, Mississippi-based organized crime operation. He'll also serve as an executive producer on the 20th Century Fox Television-based project along with Joe Gayton, Tony Gayton and Ken Topolsky. Yaitanes signed a one-year holding deal to direct pilots for the network back in July (read the story).
STUDIO 7 ON THE SUNSET STRIP (NBC) - Timothy Busfield ("The West Wing") and stage actor Michael Stuhlberg ("The Pillowman") are the latest additions to the drama project, about the lives of those that work on a long-running "SNL"-esque sketch-comedy show based in Los Angeles. Details on their respective characters weren't released. The duo join the previously cast D.L. Hughley, Steven Weber and Matthew Perry in the Warner Bros. Television/Shoe Money Productions-based project, which comes from Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme.
UGLY BETTY (ABC) - Richard Shepard ("The Matador") is set to direct the drama pilot, about an unattractive but efficient secretary (America Ferrera) at a fashion magazine. Shepard, who helmed the pilot for "Criminal Minds" during the past development season, will work from a script by Silvio Horta. Touchstone Television is behind the hour, which is executive produced by Horta, Reveille's Ben Silverman and Ventanarosa's Salma Hayek and Jose Tamez.
UNTITLED DONAL LOGUE PROJECT (ABC) - The Donal Logue-led comedy pilot, about a pair of working class guys who resolve to rob a celebrity, has been given the go-ahead to produce a pilot. "Ed" creator Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman are behind the Touchstone Television-based half-hour, which Burnett will direct from a script by the duo. Logue himself will also serve as a producer on the project, which is set to begin production next month in New York.
UNTITLED SHANA GOLDBERG-MEEHAN PROJECT (ABC) - Shana Goldberg-Meehan's ("Friends") comedy project, about two sisters with very different childhoods - one was born while their parents were poor, the other after they struck it rich - who come to live together, has been given a cast-contingent pilot order. Goldberg-Meehan wrote the pilot script and will executive produce for Warner Bros. Television.
UNTITLED TINA FEY PROJECT (NBC) - Jack McBrayer ("Arrested Development") and Rachel Dratch ("Saturday Night Live") have both reportedly joined the cast of the comedy pilot, about the head writer of a variety show (Tina Fey) who has to manage her relationships with the show's volatile star and executive producer. McBrayer will play Kenneth, who's described in the casting notice as: "20s. A bright and chirpy Clay Aiken-type who works as an NBC page, (giving tours to visitors) and takes his job very seriously." Dratch's role however wasn't specified. The pair join the previously cast Tracy Morgan. Fey, JoAnn Alfano, Lorne Michaels and David Miner are the executive producers of the pilot, which comes from Michaels' NBC Universal Television-based Broadway Video.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Green, Jeffrey Collection
[Jenkins, Edmund Thornton, 1894-1926]; [Jenkins Orphanage Bands] The Jeffrey Green Collection consists of nearly 50 items of Edmund Thornton Jenkins from 1914-1925 and his educational, musical and political life in London and Paris, and the Jenkins Orphanage Bands. The collection includes photographs (taken by Jenkins of Eloise Harleston Jenkins, 1924 and others; Baptist church in North London, 1914; Jenkins Band 1914 London tour, Anglo-American Exposition; Queens Dance Orchestra, 1921; Jenkins with Benjamin Brawley/Morehouse, Robert Nathaniel Dett/Hampton, 1923); articles (Storyville, 1987 and others), postcards (Kursaal in Ostende where Charlestonia was performed, 1925; "Master and Man," 1914, courtesy Rainer Lotz, Bonn Germany); programs (Coleridge-Taylor program performing Charlestonia, 1919; Coterie of Friends, 1923 with J.P. Johnson, Will Vodery, Florence Mills and others; Southern Syncopated Orchestra, 1921); letters (from Benjamin Brawley to Jenkins, 1919; from Agatha and Percy Chen to Jenkins, 1922); leaflets (The Cameroons, 1916 by William Hughes/Congo Institute, North Wales); newsletters (The Academite with Jenkins as editor, 1919); and books (Archer, first edition,1910). Gift of Jeffrey Green (select materials, courtesy of Rainer Lotz), 2005.
Jim Alexander Photograph Collection
Atlanta-based documentary photographer donated three original and framed photographs to CJI. They include Freddie Green with the Count Basie Orchestra (Atlanta, GA, 1981 and 1986), and Duke Ellington with Cat Anderson (New Haven, CT, 1972). Gift of Jim Alexander, 2005.
Emmanuel Abdul-Rahim Collection
The collection of Emmanuel Abdul-Rahim consists of three items: a film with Abdul-Rahim and the Duke Ellington Orchestra; a Duke Ellington Orchestra suitcase Abdul-Rahim carried on the road with the orchestra; and the Duke Ellington Orchestra jacket that Rufus "Speedy" Jones and Abdul-Rahim wore as percussionists in the orchestra. Gift of Emmanuel Abdul-Rahim, 2005.
St. Julian Bennett Dash (1916-1974) Collection
CJI's largest collection — The St. Julian Bennett Dash Collection, consists of over 60 photographs and manuscripts of the musical career of Dash as an Avery graduate (1934) and tenor saxophonist for Erskine Hawkins. Photographs include those of himself on tenor sax, his family, Dash with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra (Savoy, 1956), and images of album covers (recordings with Erskine Hawkins, 1939-40, Coleman Hawkins, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Jay McShann, the Julian Dash Quintet, and the RCA Victor LPM featuring "Tuxedo Junction"). Manuscripts include numerous music reviews (Down Beat, Hot-Club du France, 1970, High Fidelity Magazine, 1971 and 1969 with Jimmy Rushing All Stars, New York Times with Jimmy Rushing, 1969, Saturday Review by Stanley Dance, 1970); articles ("We the People," the newsletter of Merrill Lynch with Dash and Tommy Benford); musical score of "Tuxedo Junction;" funeral programs, notices and obituary, letters (to Dash from John McCray, 1969), flyers, and programs. Gift of the Dash Family (Roger, John Thompson and Ernest Dash), 2004.
Robert S. Cathcart, Jr. (1909-1992) Collection
The Robert S. Cathcart, Jr. collection consists of 97 items of sheet music, CD recordings, photographs, manuscripts including letters and newspaper articles, and a musical of Cathcart's songwriting career in Charleston and in collaboration with others. There are 7 published songs by Cathcart as sole or co-author included as sheet music; 40 songs in "Songs By Bobby Cathcart" written entirely by Cathcart and registered with the U.S. Copyright Office on November 6, 2009 by son, Paul Cathcart; copy of "Lowcountry," a musical conceived by Cathcart and written by Ernest Travis using 7 of Cathcart's published songs; 3 photographs of Cathcart (possibly age 35-40), young Cathcart (possibly age 9-11), and one with Cathcart (left), Fud Livingston (center at piano), and Dorothy "Doty" Beall (right); 1 South Carolina Magazine, April 1948. Recordings and sheet music also include songs composed in collaboration with others including Fud Livingston and Hank Fort. The musical ("Lowcountry") contains a synopsis, January 14, 1947 letter to the directors of the Charleston Challenges Bureau proposing the production of the musical, the 28-page musical, a letter from Ernest Travis to Cathcart, and letters from Travis to Mayor J. Palmer Gaillard and Senator Ernest F. Hollings. 3 biographies of Cathcart are included that provide a description of Cathcart's family and musical career, as well as a description of "Lowcountry.
James Lee Jamerson (1936-1983) Collection
The James Jamerson Collection consists of nearly 60 items of family and career photographs in Charleston, Detroit, and Los Angeles including Jamerson's early jazz career and his Motown career with Stevie Wonder, the Funk Brothers, Gladys Knight, Jackie Wilson, Martha Reeves, Jamerson's family, and of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame plaque in tribute to Jamerson; Library of Congress Music Division program with signed autographs from the Funk Brothers honoring Jamerson; numerous Motown and other recordings with Jamerson as bassist; numerous articles about Jamerson in trade publications including Guitar Player, Bass Player and the Detroit Free Press, several books including Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson; a DVD ("Standing in the Shadows of Motown"); Jamerson paraphernalia, bass transcription of "Please Return Your Love To Me," and funeral programs (Detroit and Los Angeles) and obituary. Gift of Anthony and Felix McKnight, Bob Lee and Allan Slutsky, 2003.
Elizabeth Carter Prioleau (1919-2006) Collection
The Elizabeth Carter Prioleau Collection consists of three items: a June 24, 1941 exit document of the Jenkins Orphanage Institute for Wilbur Carter (Prioleau's brother) on Jenkins Orphanage letterhead; an original photograph of the Jenkins Orphanage Band, 1920s (with Wilbur Carter on trumpet); and an original photograph of Wilbur Carter on trumpet with unidentified man, [n.d.]. Gift of Elizabeth Carter Prioleau, 2003.
Rachel Dowling Collection
The Rachel Dowling Collection consists of four photographs. They are of the Shuffle Along Orchestra given to William Lawrence from Eubie Blake (October 1921); 14 unidentified children and adults (possibly early 1900s Jenkins Orphanage photograph); 4 unidentified adult men with Jenkins administrator, John Dowling; and 13 unidentified adult women and men with Jenkins administrator, John Dowling (possible graduation ceremony). Gift of Rachel Dowling, 2003.
- Musical score of "Ballin' the Jack" (Fox Trot, 1913) by Charlestonian and vaudevillian, Chris Smith (1879-1949) and James Reese Europe. Gift of Jack McCray, 2006.
- Original broadside [unknown] with photographs of Willie Smith, Jimmie Lunceford and James (Trummy) Young autographed by Smith (June 28, 1931). Gift of Cynthia McCottry Smith, 2005.
- Framed obituary of Freddie Green. Courtesy of Jesse Thrower, 2004.
- Transcript of Record: State of South Carolina, In the Supreme Court – Appeal from Charleston County, Hon. John S. Wilson, Judge – Lucinda Wigg, Respondent and John H. Pinckney, Respondent against Orphan Aid Society, Appellant (transcript of Reverend Daniel Joseph Jenkins' testimony). Gift of Gary Towles, 2004.
- Plantation Echoes (A Three Act All Negro Dramatic Musical Production) – April 16, 1936. Gift of Gary Towles, 2004.
- 2 manuscripts by Vincent Plush – "Charlestonia [1917]: Reconstructed and orchestrated from the composer's mss sketches" (unpublished), October 16, 1996 and "Edmund Thornton Jenkins, An Evaluation: Report (unpublished) on Visit to Chicago," December 1995. Gift of Vincent Plush, 2003.
- Program from Porgy and Bess presented by the South Carolina Tricentennial Commission and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Association, [1970]. Gift of James Edwards, 2003.
- Copy of flyer – Alston Graded School Groundbreaking, Summerville, SC, October 18, 1910 (with music by the Jenkins Orphanage Band). Courtesy of the Post and Courier, 2004.
- Promotional material for "Better Late Than Never" by Joey Morant, 2003.
- Numerous photographs of CJI's Public Programs (including conference presentation for the African American Jazz Caucus, an affiliate of the International Association for Jazz Education, 2006) from 2002-present. CJI Archives.
- An original and framed photograph of Jack White with Freddie Green and Count Basie. Gift of Jack White, 2004.
- Two photographs of Joey Morant with Merv Griffin and Paul McCartney. Gift of Joey Morant, 2003.
- Jenkins Orphanage Band photograph, probably 1931-1937 (with John and Sarah Dowling, William Lawrence, William Leroy Blake, Sr., and Bobby Johnson, brother of the donors. Gift of Catherine Braxton and Rebecca Campbell, 2003.
Original Work (Art/Music/Photographs)
- "CJ," an original oil on canvas by Jahsun, 2006 (gift to CJI). Charleston Jazz Initiative
- Hand-designed flower pot with signatures of CJI presenters and band, African American Jazz Caucus, an affiliate of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) Conference, New York City, 2006. Gift of Clifford and Marlene Gaillard, 2006.
- "Baby James," a CJI-inspired original oil on canvas by John Carroll Doyle, 2005.
- An original photograph of Jabbo Smith and Joey Morant at the Garden Theatre, Charleston, 1986. Gift of Wendell Johnson, 2005.
- 350 photographs of CJI's Return to the Source 2005 (official launch), June 2-4, 2005. Courtesy of Jim Alexander and Tony Bell, Documentary Photographers, 2005.
- Music score of original composition – "Brother Blake" by jazz percussionist, Quentin Baxter, "Brother Blake" – a commission for the official launch of CJI. Gift of Quentin Baxter, 2005.
- An original and framed photograph by documentary photographer, Jim Alexander of the Duke Ellington Orchestra with Rufus "Speedy" Jones (20" x 23"), New Haven, CT, 1972. Gift of Muriel Potts, 2005.
- 2 Quilts of James Jamerson and the Jenkins Orphanage by Dorothy Montgomery, 2004 (gift to CJI).
Audiotapes/CD Recordings
- Audio recordings from Cliff Smalls, 2006.
- Arthur Briggs: Hot Trumpet in Europe, 1927/1933 – Jazz Archives – No. 10 – EPM Remastering 1995 – Paris, France. Gift of Jack McCray, 2003.
- Lieut. Jim Europe's 369th U.S. Infantry "Hell Fighters" Band: The Complete Recordings, 1996 – Memphis Archives – MA7020 – Memphis, TN. Features Lieut. Noble Sissle, Vocals; Eugene Mikell, Assistant Conductor; Eubie Blake, Civilian Liaison; Herb Flemming and Amos Gillard,
- Trombones; Herbert Wright and Stephen Wright, Percussion. Gift of Jack McCray, 2003.
- Videos and DVDs of CJI's Public Programs (including conference presentation for the African American Jazz Caucus, an affiliate of the International Association for Jazz Education, 2006) from 2002-present. CJI Archives.
- Newsfilm Clips of Jenkins Orphanage Band 1926 (silent) and other outtakes – University of South Carolina Newsfilm Archive. Gift of Julie Hubbert and USC Newsfilm Archive, 2005.
- Video on the making of "Baby James" – 48" x 36", Oil on Canvas by John Carroll Doyle. Gift of John Carroll Doyle, 2005.
- Fox Movietone Newsreel Outtakes: Jenkins Orphanage Band 1928 (sound) – Movietone outs for Jenkins Orphanage – University of South Carolina Newsfilm Archive. Gift of Julie Hubbert and USC Newsfilm Archive, 2004.
- Autographed program by Dianne Reeves from Spoleto's Wachovia Jazz Series, 2005.
- Autographed program by symposium presenters from CJI 's Return to the Source 2005.
- Brick from Jenkins Orphanage (1930s). Gift of Rachel Dowling, 2005.
- Jenkins Orphanage T-Shirt. Gift of Marion Joyce Trescott , 2003.
Related Archival Collections and Source Materials Elsewhere
- Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, College of Charleston
- Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University
- Jazz-Institut, Darmstadt, Germany
- South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston
- South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina
- South Carolina Educational Television video of Jenkins Orphanage Bands, 1996, Beryl Dakers, Producer


text:
By Len Lazarick
Legislative leaders took a new approach to setting budget targets Tuesday, telling the governor and lawmakers that they wanted to see the persistent $2 billion structural deficit cut by a third next year, meaning a $670 million real reduction in general fund spending.
The Spending Affordability Committee, made up of 21 fiscal leaders in the General Assembly, abandoned setting a percentage target for budget growth as they had for the last 28 years — a target sometimes disregarded by governors.
"We've been using non-structural solutions to balance the budget," Warren Deschenaux, the legislature's fiscal policy chief, told the lawmakers. The state has been using one-time things like transfers of special funds and federal stimulus dollars to balance the books.
"We've been doing that and doing that and doing that," Deschenaux said. "The goal is to do less of that and less of that and less of that."
Maryland's constitution requires the governor to submit and the legislature to pass a budget where revenues exceed spending. A structural deficit occurs when spending mandated by formulas, contracts or higher prices outstrips the revenues actually coming in.
The Department of Legislative Services has estimated that two-thirds of the General Fund budget is driven by mandates, which the legislature must consistently reduce to keep the budget in check.
The biggest mandate, the massive increase in public school funding commonly called Thornton aid, was passed in 2002 without a funding source. This mandated aid helped create "structural deficits" in following years.
The deficits were supposed to be cured by $1.4 billion in tax increases passed in a 2007 special session – just as the recession was about to begin.
Republicans on the Spending Affordability Committee pressed for reducing the entire structural deficit in the fiscal 2012 budget they will get from Gov. Martin O'Malley in January. "We should take the leadership role that we were elected to take," said House GOP leader Tony O'Donnell.
But Democrats insisted that was too drastic.
Sen. Richard Madaleno, a Montgomery County Democrat who proposed the one-third reduction in the deficits, compared the need to cut the deficits to a New Year's resolution to lose weight.
"I can say, 'I'm going to lose 100 pounds,' but I know that's not going to happen," he said. Reducing the structural spending by a third each year was a more realistic goal, he said.
Sen. Ed Kasemeyer, chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, said, "We need a reasonable short term plan to get us out of this mess."
Senate President Mike Miller said all the cuts necessary were "going to be very difficult to swallow." Miller had a budget meeting with O'Malley on Monday.
"He was not in a happy mood," Miller said. "He told us he's going to cut education."
Senate Minority Leader Allan Kittleman said the committee should be honest and say that general fund spending would actually go up 10% as state taxpayer dollars are used to fill the loss in federal funds.
Del. John Bohanan, a St. Mary's Democrat who chairs the affordability panel, said the new approach to spending limits "puts real teeth in what used to be guidelines."
The committee also rejected O'Donnell's proposal to cut the state government workforce by 1%, rather than just the 500 positions the legislature ordered cut in this year's budget.
Democrats argued that O'Malley plan to offer buyouts to workers should be allowed to run its course.


text:
The domain within your query sequence starts at position 284 and ends at position 539; the E-value for the MFS_1 domain shown below is 6.8e-18.
PFAM accession number: | PF07690 |
Interpro abstract (IPR011701): | Among the different families of transporter, only two occur ubiquitously in all classifications of organisms. These are the ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC) superfamily and the Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS). The MFS transporters are single-polypeptide secondary carriers capable only of transporting small solutes in response to chemiosmotic ion gradients [ (PUBMED:9529885) (PUBMED:9868370) ]. The major facilitator superfamily (MFS) of membrane proteins represents the largest family of secondary transporters with members from Archaea to Homo sapiens. MFS proteins target a wide spectrum of substrates, including ions, carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids and peptides, nucleosides and other small molecules in both directions across the membrane, in many instances catalysing active transport by transducing the energy stored in an proton electrochemical gradient into a concentration gradient of substrate [ (PUBMED:23530251) ]. One remarkable characteristic of the MFS is the high sequence variety within the superfamily. The sequences identity ranges around 12-18% but regions of functional similarity (e.g., substrate- or H-binding sites) align for only very closely related MFS transporters. A hydrophobic amino acid content of 60-70% of most MFS members, high alfa-helix content and an inherent symmetry of the proteins with regard to helix kinks and bends provides nonspecific overlapping of residues and probably accounts for the reported similarities. MFS is subgrouped into 74 subfamilies based on phylogenetic analysis, postulated substrate specificity and expected transport mode (Madej M.G, Advances in Biology, Hindawi, Volume 2014, Article ID 523591:1-20). |
GO process: | transmembrane transport (GO:0055085) |
GO function: | transmembrane transporter activity (GO:0022857) |
This is a PFAM domain. For full annotation and more information, please see the PFAM entry MFS_1


text: Good morning, I'm Sarah McCammon with an appreciation for Ron Popeil, the pioneering TV pitchman. He died yesterday at age 86. Popeil was the voice of infomercials for things like the Veg-O-Matic and the Pocket Fisherman. He popularized the genre with memorable phrases like, but wait, there's more. He was often parodied, but clearly had a good sense of humor about it, playing himself in shows like "The Simpsons" and "King Of The Hill." It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
SANAA (Reuters) - The death toll from Saturday's Saudi-led airstrike on the central Yemeni city of Taiz rose to 80 people with at least 150 people injured, local medical sources said.
The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency earlier on Saturday reported the strike on Taiz had killed 55 people but said the casualty figure was expected to rise.
A coalition of Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, has been bombarding Iran-allied Houthi forces in Yemen since late March in a bid to reinstate President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh.
The Saba agency had quoted a local source in Taiz as saying that the bombing early on Saturday morning had targeted the Mokha area inhabited mostly by engineers and workers of a power station and some displaced families.
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Saudi-led warplanes hit Yemen's Taiz, killing 80 civilians
Saudi-led warplanes hit Yemen's Taiz, killing 80 civilians
Saudi Arabia|Yemen|
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text:
Car Accessories for Hyundai IONIQ
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text:
There are cases where an object must be stored in a place that can be accessed by different parts of an application. For example, an application may store information about the user that is currently logged in, or a selection that the user has made and that affects different parts of the application. But there are also instances that should be shared between all users, for example actual whether data in a flight control system, or a cache for results of frequent calculations.
When storing those data in RAP, it's important to take into account that the Java VM and the file system are shared by multiple users and perhaps even different RAP applications. Thus, the classical Singleton approach should not be used in RAP. When there are multiple users and applications, data must be stored in a place that is suitable for its scope. RAP provides basic data stores for the different scopes.
Especially when an application must handle a lot of parallel user sessions, it's crucial to limit the memory and CPU cycles consumed by a single UI session. Depending on the application, it may be a good idea to share instances of objects that are not user-specific between all users instead of creating an equivalent instance for every single UI session.
An application can store those shared objects as attributes in the ApplicationContext. This makes them accessible for all UI sessions within the application. But in contrast to singletons, the objects won't be available in a different application. When the application is stopped, the application context is cleared and the shared instances can be cleaned up by the garbage collector.
Some shared information are only valid for the current instance of the entrypoint, i.e. the current UI session. As an example, in a call center application, the customer record that is currently selected is only valid for the current UI session. At the same time, another agent is talking to another customer.
Those objects can be stored as attributes in the UISession. The attributes of a UI session will be cleaned up when the UISession ends.
When a user reloads the page in the browser or switches to another entrypoint, a new UI session is created. All information that was stored in the previous UISession is lost. But it's still the same user. Most applications will remember the user and not ask for a login again.
As usual in web applications, information about the current user should be stored in the HttpSession. RAP applications can access the HttpSession using UISession#getHttpSession().
Some applications allow their users to do certain customizations such as choosing between metric vs. imperial units. Those user settings should be preserved for a longer period of time. RAP provides a simple persistent store for this kind of settings, the SettingStore. The setting store identifies a returning user by means of a cookie. The default implementation stores settings in Java .properties files on disk, but the mechanism also allows for custom implementations:
public class SimpleConfiguration implements ApplicationConfiguration { public void configure( Application application ) { ... application.setSettingStoreFactory( new MyDatabaseSettingStoreFactory() ); ... } }
An instance can be obtained from RWT.getSettingStore(). In contrast to the other stores, the setting store can only keep strings, not arbitrary objects.
Note that the settings store relies on cookies, which may be deleted or disabled by the user. It is also possible to identify the user by any other means and use the method loadById to initialize the setting store from preserved data.
public class MyDatabaseSettingStoreFactory implements SettingStoreFactory { public SettingStore createSettingStore( String storeId ) { SettingStore result = new MyDatabaseSettingStore(); try { result.loadById( storeId ); } catch( Exception exception ) { // exception handling } return result; } }
Interface / Instance | Scope | used for | life span |
ApplicationContext RWT.getApplicationContext() |
application | instances shared between all users of an application | entire lifetime of the application, cleared when application is stopped |
UISession RWT.getUISession() |
UI session | instances specific to the current UI session | execution of a single entrypoint instance, cleared when UI session expires |
HttpSession (Servlet API) RWT.getUISession() .getHttpSession() |
user | user-specific information | Http session, cleared on session timeout |
SettingStore RWT.getSettingStore() |
user (persistent) | Persistent user settings (Strings) | never, cookie lasts 3 month by default |
All these data stores have at least the three methods setAttribute, getAttribute and removeAttribute.
Please keep in mind that these data stores keep data in memory and are not suited for large or sensitive data structures.
A reference to any of these data stores can only be obtained in the the context of a UISession. That is, they are directly accessible from a UI thread, but background threads need to execute code in the context of a UI session (see Threads in RAP).


text:
Afghan Khan (Red) (125841)
Price includes VAT. Free UK\NI delivery
Afghanistan is one of the leading producers of handmade rugs in the world. Afghan rugs are genuine, charming and usually phenomenally inexpensive. One of the most exotic and distinctive of all oriental rugs is the Shindand and Adraskan (named after local Afghan villages) woven in the Hairat area in western Afghanistan. Strangely elongated human and animal figures are their signature look. Most of the weavers in Afghanistan are the Ersari Turkman. But other smaller group such as Chub Bash and Kizil Ayaks are also in the line of weaving rugs. In addition Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and Arabs label their rug according to their ethic group. Various and other natural dyes are used to produce the rich colours. As a chemical colour they use copper sulphate, ferrous sulphate, or tin and urine. Tribal rugs are almost always done on the horizontal or ground loom. This is due to the fact the nomads rarely remain in one location for more then two months. A Turkman woman will usually take at least six month to finish a rug 6 feet by 4 feet. The loom there fore can be set up and taken down four to six times before a rug or kelim is finished colour of Afghan rugs are mainly Reds (Madder-root of modern plant- ranges from reds to Orange and Purple. FREE DELIVERY ON THIS RUG within UK mainland.
- 100% Wool
Field Colour:
- Red,Black,Orange & Beige
- natural
- Afghan
Sub Style:
- Khan
- Wool
- Wool


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Now, here are the sketches based off of these pocket pages I created. I used an app called Bamboo for this sketch, so mind the basic-ness of it, it really is a SKETCH. They are 6x8 in size, but you can of course create any size. The second page is using a full scrap layout. I love inserting full page scrapbook layouts in my pocket pages.
Make sure you share your pocket pages with us in the Citrus Twist Gallery or onto our Facebook page!
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
Karen x


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By: Ayatullah Makarim Shirazi & Ayatullah Ja'far Subhani
Question: Sometime dream scrolls are prohibited by the caretakers of the Prophet's shrine. These scrolls prohibit people to commit sinful acts and in addition to this it also informs about the progeny of the Prophet (s.a.) that the reappearance of Imam-e-Zamana ('a) is going to be within a year. Is there any truth about such publications?
Answer: Unfortunately the above evil act is being done by the enemies of Islam since many years. Every year the caretakers of the Prophet's shrine see a new dream while they do not have any personal merit. They issue a new date for the reappearance of Imam-e-Zamana ('a). When the dream is proved wrong they see another dream.
Apparently these falsifiers of dreams, on the basis of their defective beliefs intend to create doubts in the reappearance of Imam-e-Zamana ('a) so that simple-minded people are influenced by this propaganda. But they are ignorant of the fact that Muslims (however simple minded people they may be) never pay attention to these concocted things. In any case even if someone really has such dreams, it is certainly not reliable from the religious point of view.


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