2006 4
Alan Levy and his Blogtalkradio
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I met Alan Levy in the 80s when I was starting Urban Capital Corporation, my first company and he was my auditor working at Edward Isaacs, an accounting firm. When I started Viatel I convinced Alan to leave his accounting firm and join me. Alan had something very few accountants have and that is that he understood the source and use of the money he was accounting for, he was an entrepreneur hidden inside an accounting degree. Viatel was Alan´s last company and since he cashed out of a significant chunk of Viatel shares Alan has been a serial entrepreneur. I do recommend that you check out Alan´s latest venture, Blogtalkradio. What´s unique about Blogtalkradio is how two old, yet still extremely strong technologies, radio and telephones, are merged with the world of blogs and the internet. Ever dreamt of being a talk show radio host? Now you can.
2006 4
Is there an Internet for Women?
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Yesterday I spent two hours in a very interesting brainstorm at Oxygen Media. What makes Oxygen Media different is that it is a TV Network and Internet Site that is made by women and mainly targets women.
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2006 3
FON Home
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2006 30
NY Times breaks story of FON router with Skype Handset
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Today´s NY Times breaks the story of how FON plans to work with Skype. Basically what you see here is a FON Social Router inside the cradle and a WiFi handset that is Skype ready.
The picture appears printed in the paper edition of this story. What we designed here is the most social phone around because it not only works in YOUR cradle but it works in the cradle and social router of any other fonero (FON member who shares WiFi).
2006 30
Lebanese Lesbian anti war Demonstrator
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Lebanese Lesbian anti War on Flickr – Photo Sharing!
I just saw this woman demonstrating in Manhattan, near city hall. She and her friends had these signs on their back. Being a man, she made me feel ashamed of my gender. If there´s one horrible thing we as men are responsible for is war. Yes there are some women who go to war but there are very few. War nowadays is mostly young men being led by older men killing mostly innocent civilians, many times women and children.
When I was a teenager I once heard somebody say that wars were a conspiracy by old people to get rid of young people. While I know this vision is simplistic lately I see that wars seem to be a conspiracy of combatants to get rid of civilians on the other side. The Iraqi war has been like that with the United States conducting air bombardments knowing that in many cases civilians and not terrorists will bear the brunt and with terrorists targeting civilians either directly or indirectly. And now the same is true in the Israel/Lebanon war.
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2006 25
Fon Liberator
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Tired of tying up your laptop when uploading and downloading? Try the FON Liberator.
2006 25
FON and the Schools
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FON is a social movement to spread the benefits of information technology to as many corners of the world as possible. But a social movement is not enough without an important educational component. This is what I have already done with Educ.ar and Educar Chile. Now it is FON’s turn to look towards important educational channels for spreading its message. Thus, FON has signed an agreement with GenevaLogic, one of the world’s leading providers of educational classroom software. GenevaLogic has more than 50.000 installations running and will bundle FON Social Routers with their “Vision – software packet”. This way schools and their students (ie, in computer & physics classrooms and teachers lounges) will have WiFi access. The lack of Internet and information technology access will be immediately removed from these schools. Any school interested can have the Vision Software bundled with FON Social Routers and operate the routers as a BILL or as a LINUS.
Geneva Logic will also help FON to make 5 EUR FON Social Routers accessible for teachers and students and help to bundle orders and minimize shipping costs.
Peter, thank you for this! This is really great and should motivate many schools to become FON enabled and connected. We hope that universities will soon follow!
2006 25
Say No to Food
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When I studied in the States, at Columbia University in the 80s, the Reagan Administration had put out a huge campaign called “Say No To Drugs”. As I come to visit America in the 00’s, I can´t think of a better campaign to start than one that simply says “Say No To Food”.
My weight has fluctuated between 76kg and 80 kg over the last 10 years, but when I visit America coming from Spain, and stay for a while (this time for a month), I invariable gain weight.
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The FON community in Italy is growing: Elitel Telecom and FON have signed signed a memorandum of understanding by which Elitel will enable all its customers to become part of the FON community. This is great, as it’s our first ISP partnership in Italy and we are happy to welcome more partners to FON. Amongst others, Elitel will pre-install the FON software in all Wi-Fi CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) such as WiFi routers and Wi-Fi modems shipped to its customers.