Author Archive for Raj Dash

I'm a publisher writer, author, composer, trained cook, and an addicted blogger.

Tumblr: Twitter Alternative? Not Really

Tumblr: Twitter Alternative? Not Really

If you’ve been following the micro-blogging service Twitter and it’s 140 character limit isn’t quite what you want, you might consider Tumblr. Tumblr equates themselves with a “scrapbook”, provided you consider weblogs to be “journals”.
However you can’t really call Tumblr a precise alternative for a number of reasons. One is that you can give the [...]

New Tubetorial Video Tutorial Series

Ever wanted to know how to do something software-related and wished there was a tutorial? Better yet, a video tutorial, and free at that? Well Tubetorial, which has been known for some great tutorials when Chris Pearson and Brian Clark created and ran it, is currently under the banner of SplashPress, who also own Performancing, [...]

Can Print Media Survive?

The Mon Apr 2, 2007, print issue of InfoWorld magazine (which arrived a week late) has “Final Print Issue” splashed across the top right corner of the cover. It’s official. After 29 years and nearly 1400 issues, they’re folding the print edition and putting their efforts into their website.
Now I don’t know InfoWorld’s financial situation. [...]

You’ve Got VoIPMail – Online Dating Steps Up One Level

The online dating scene, if you didn’t already know, is a multi-billion dollar industry and has been popular for quite some time. It hasn’t hurt to have films like 1998’s You’ve Got Mail, with Megan Ryan and Tom Hanks. While the movie itself goes well beyond online dating, it makes up a core aspect of [...]

Sightspeed vs Skype IMs: Free VoIP Video Calling

Text messaging, instant messaging, and VoIP are all pretty hot ways to communicate these days. So a few weeks back, Technopedia’s editor, Abhinav, asked me to review the Gaim and Trillian IM (Instant Messaging) clients. Both are pretty cool, are skinnable, and support a number of other clients including MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, [...]

Emergency Calling Solutions For VoIP Phones

VoIP phone service has arguably become of huge interest to the general populace, despite the problems Vonage has been having in the stock market lately. They’re the first VoIP-related company to go IPO, but they won’t be the last. Despite the popularity of VoIP service and softphone client software such as Skype, one of the [...]

Vonage Founder Is The Half-Billion Dollar Man

Despite the current problems of Vonage, the VoIP service provider, and two class-action lawsuits, their chairman and founder, Jeffrey Citron is the half-billion dollar man. At least on paper. He put in $80+Mln before the Vonage IPO, which bought him nearly 50 mln shares at $1.71. Let’s see. I’m rounding, but since Vonage (NYSE: VG) closed [...]

5 More Wireless Tech Inventions That Don’t Exist Yet

In a previous post, I talked about 5 wireless tech inventions that don’t exist yet. Some were serious, some fun, and some nonsense, as one reader pointed out in the comments. Here are five more ideas that use one or more forms of wireless technology that some designer/ inventor might just be dreaming up. Feel [...]

Careers In The RFID Industry

With the emerging of applications using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) wireless technology, there are expected to be many career opportunities over the next decade. Here are three primary areas where jobs will be created:

Manufacturing of RFID technologies, such as RF tags, antennas, smartcards, readers.
Design of RFID-based applications to a whole host of industries and methodologies, [...]

Netgear Inc VoIP Skype Wi-Fi Phone

Mad Money TV show host Jim Cramer (on CNBC broadcasting) is promoting Netgear Inc. (NYSE: NTGR) as the phone that could make VoIP actually work. In addition to wireless routers, Netgear makes the “Skype WiFi Phone” which allows you to make free calls to other Skype users around the world.

5 Wireless Tech Inventions That Don’t Exist Yet

With all the latest wireless technologies (RFID, Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi) available these days, it’s interesting to imagine how they might be combined into new applications with consumer electronics to create hybrid uses. Some of the ideas in the list below are serious, some just for fun. It’s not so much the wireless technology nor the [...]

We Are The Robots – Tracking Human Beings With RFID Technology

[Warning: Sensitive material ahead.] For over 20 years now, there has been a loose group of people in the United States who, if they have their way, will influence the government into using RFID (Radio Frequency IDentificaton) technology to track human beings. The little I know of this group comes from one of my college [...]

No Change For The Bus? Just Smile And Wave – RFID + GPS Meets Public Transit

Back in early 1982, Ottawa (Canada’s capital) city’s transit system was trying out a new service whereby you could call a phone number and find out when the next bus for your stop (coded with a unique number) would be arriving. The way the system worked was that you called a unique phone number for [...]

Tired Of A Half Percent On Savings Accounts?

In Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, a group of Chinese-American immigrant women form a bond. And a bank account. Pooling their money together during Mahjong games, they lend it out to someone in their group, should they need it. The idea is brilliant, and the idea of women pooling together money has been [...]

Viruses Worm Their Way Into RFID Technology

Now that the public version of the Internet is over 10 years old, most Internet-savvy people are aware of the threats of computer viruses, worms, trojan attacks, and to a lesser degree, phishing. But while it’s understandable that fraud can be commited with these means (mostly using email as a carrier), it comes as a [...]