2006 30
FON Improves WiFi Log On
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
What would you think if each time you turn on your GSM/CDMA mobile you had to choose and setup the antenna you are loging in? Well that ease of use that allows our grandmothers to use the mobile is what FON is bringing to ALL wireless devices, Game Consoles, MP3 players, Wireless Phones, you name it…
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2006 30
Entrepreneurs and Priests
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
Today Expansion, Spain´s equivalent of the Financial Times, has a poll among university students whose results I found surprising. In general, I believe that somehow I can understand and predict how people in Spain think. Here, had I been confronted with the questions beforehand, I would have failed miserably. Students are asked to rank ocupations from the most trusted to the least trusted.
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2006 30
Eric Baker of Viagogo
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
I had dinner twice last night in London. One was organized Goldman Sachs, who represented me during Ya.com’s sale to T-Online, and the other by my partners, in FON Index Ventures.
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2006 29
Christina Domecq Introduces Spinvox
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
Met Christina Domecq for the first time this morning in London. We met at the lounge of One Aldwych, one of my favorite hotels in that city. Must say I was impressed by her company Spinvox and by her.
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2006 28
Design Barriers China vs Europe
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
This is how most people download Skype in Europe. Now this is how most people download Skype in Taiwan one of the countries with the highest Skype density in the world.
As we go global with FON and prepare for our 2007 look, a look that will go from emphasizing the FON revolution as we do now, to emphasizing the FON community features, we are running into difficulties with the way Chinese people show their web sites. Take a look at PC Home one of the most popular web sites in Taiwan and compare it say with Yahoo, one of the most popular in the world. When I do this I see a stylistic barrier, I see a clear difference in how web sites are designed for Chinese people compared to Americans or Europeans.
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2006 28
Blanquefort Becomes First FONero Town In The World
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Blanquefort, a beautiful small town near Bordeaux has become the first FONero town in the world.
2006 28
Time For The Secular To Rise
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
I am of Jewish origin, proud of my heritage but non religious. I am a secular person. Religion plays no significant role in my life. Judaism to me is interesting as a historical phenomenon, as a culture, but not as a religion. I don´t pray, I don´t listen to religious speeches, I believe that God, as portrayed by religion, most likely does not exist, and even if there is some all powerful being above us, that it is unlikely to be say protestant, or Jewish, or any other religion in particular.
Now for people like me, who see the world through secular eyes, there are basically two kinds of religious people. One who are easy to deal with and others who are not. On the easy side there are the people who are religious and keep it to themselves. They believe in God, go to church and pray at night, but they don´t proselytize nor see society and politics through their religious convictions. With them (including friends and family members) I have a positive relationship. I understand that faith makes them feel better. I see the positive effects of religion in their lives, but they believe, I don´t, and we get along very well.
Now there is another kind of religious people who I do have a problem with: the ones who are trying to make the rest of society behave as they do. Of course, I believe in their right to practice in any way they want, including (as opposed to the French regulations) wearing any types of clothes. But when they want me to behave differently because of their views… When they want me, say, not to shop on a Sunday because that´s when people should be in Church, I have a problem with that. And that is a very small problem compared to bigger ones, such as people who are willing to kill me because I am an infidel, or protestants and Catholics killing each other for reasons that are practically impossible to understand to me (I never really understood how Protestants were so different from Catholics).
I wish religious people somehow made the effort needed to understand how bizarre the world of religion in politics looks to a secular person. There are so many issues that they stand for that are just awkward to people like me: creationism, a theory that no university would dare to teach, is just voodoo; anti abortion terrorism inspired by religion seems pure madness; campaigns against contraceptives by the Catholic church in Latin America appear as foolish policy in a world of expanding poverty; or, as a Jew, I can´t understand people who don´t want me to eat certain foods, nor turn lights on on a Saturday and who believe I am somehow a traitor to their cause for not insisting that my son has a bar mitzvah.
2006 27
Corporate Fidelity, Europe vs America
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
Building companies and living on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, I have learned that there are many things that distinguish Europe and America at all levels. Here´s a random list:
-America has more murders, Europe has more suicides.
-Americans mostly love guns, Europeans mostly hate and regulate guns.
-Americans are mostly religious, Europeans are mostly non religious.
-Americans believe in equal opportunity, Europeans believe in equal outcomes.
-Europeans believe in the rule of law, Americans believe in the rule of lawyers.
-Americans believe in the individual, Europeans believe in the collective.
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2006 27
FONeros Maps
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
The map shown in the first image is of a district in the center of Madrid scattered with FON access points (green), as well as FONeros who have already registered and will become active in the near future (orange). The stars represent FON access points that have been personalized by their users.
Martin Varsavsky wrote:
> The idea is this, let´s say you are my son Tom, playing with the PSP
> and u go to the kitchen where there is one fonspot from your bedroom
> where there´s another one, and u r playing a wifi multiplayer game…. how
> can u disconnect from the bedroom fonspot and enter the kitchen
> fonspot without interrupting the game?
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