While we were visiting in Victoria, we spent a nice Sunday afternoon at a car show in Victoria. Check out some pictures.
SkypeOut Goes Free
Skype has just announced free calls to all landlines and mobile phones within the US and Canada. This is promotion goes until December 31, 2006.
One wonders how Skype, now part of eBay is going to make any money and how others will react to this news. You still need a PC or PDA with WiFi to access the network, but new devices such as Polycom’s Communicator and numerous USB handsets make things a whole lot easier. Add in Skype’s conferencing features, call forwarding, voice messaging, Skypecasts, and buddy lists and you have a whole lot of communications capabilities in one spot.
Now you just have to fight with your ISP to allow unfettered access to Skype. Reports are coming in from all over Canada and the USA that users are being restricted or totally locked out of Skype access. My message to the ISPs -> get over it.
Flood maps show impact of rising ocean levels
An interesting site is available that shows the impact of various increases in the sea level. Flood Maps is a mashup of Google maps and elevation data from NASA. It lets you adjust the amount of increase in the sea level.
Airlines Try Smarter Boarding
Do you dread the airline boarding routine where passengers wait to be called to board in an orderly manner, yet inside the plane there are still multiple passenger interference points.
Wired News: Airlines Try Smarter Boarding reports on the analysis and implementation of various boarding systems that can reduce the interference among passengers and reduce turnaround time at the gate. With names such as reverse pyramid, “Wilma” and “rotating zone” these systems try to reduce the time it takes to get everyone onto the plane, bags stowed and underway.
Check out the graphic which has a visual animation of the various systems.