Latest News from Bill Ray

Monster Hunting Yacht Charter

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 14:00:00 EDT

The Highlands of Scotland might not be the most obvious place to take a yacht, but a combination of sea-canals and the largest body of water in the UK make it a surprisingly accessible destination for all but the largest yacht, with a history which still echoes today and some of the most spectacular landscapes in the world.

GPS

Sat, 04 Feb 2006 12:00:00 EST

Back in 1957, US scientists tracking the first Russian satellite, Sputnik, noticed that they could use the Doppler effect to work out exactly how far away it was. Since they knew where they were they could use that information to work out where the satellite was, and from there it?s a small step to realizing that if you know where the satellite is then you can work out where you are. It wasn?t until 1978 that the US launched the first experimental Earth-positioning satellite, and it was 1993 before the array of 24 satellites, which were needed for accuracy and global coverage, were ready for use. Now, in 2006, we can finally use this multibillion-dollar plethora of technology to calculate how far we jogged this morning and the best route to the liquor store, with the US government spending $400 million a year to keep our jogging records accurate!

Mobile Style

Thu, 14 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EDT

Almost everyone has a mobile phone, but not everyone has one of these models. Available bejeweled, or in gold or platinum, they can top $40,000.

Getting the Whole Picture

Wed, 06 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Is it possible to get an entire film onto a mobile phone or PDA? Would it be a practical viewing experience? We started with a DVD, then used only free software in an attempt to view the film on a Nokia 3650 handset, a Microsoft Pocket PC device, and a PalmPilot.

Who Would You Trust?

Thu, 20 May 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Everyone is looking for our trust at the moment. Schemes for digitally signing applications seem to be popping up like gophers across the mobile landscape, each of them confident that we'll place our trust in their authority. Microsoft, of course, has been trying to convince us to only trust applications and drivers signed by them on our desktops.

Making Money from the Mobile Revolution

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 00:00:00 EST

Mobile phones are the success story of the last five years. While budgets are cut across the IT industry and companies are increasingly looking to do more with what they've got, mobile technologies continue to buck the trend and investment in wireless infrastructure and devices increases year-on-year.

What Is the 'Wired Advantage'?

Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 EST

It was quite a wireless Christmas in 2003, with wireless speakers; a wireless headset that's (apparently) all done with magnets; a wireless thermometer (so we can tell the temperature outside without leaving the house - very important here in the Highlands); and even a round flying thing that uses infrared for its remote control (yes, you do have to point the remote at it, which is half the fun).

A Game in the Hand? - WBT talks to Spiffcode and Handmark about mobile-game development

Mon, 29 Dec 2003 10:09:35 EST

Gaming on the move has always been the poor cousin of console and desktop gaming, generally limited to the various incarnations of Solitaire or basic puzzle games. It wasn't until Nintendo's GameBoy that companies started to take handheld games seriously.

Over-the-Rainbow Promises of Mobile Entertainment - Security remains an issue

Mon, 29 Dec 2003 09:52:14 EST

Now that I've got my satellite uplink working, it's time for some luxuries here in Scotland, the first of which will be central heating. Coal is not the fuel of the future, and going out every morning to fill the scuttle isn't something I'll miss. First to arrive is an oil tank - our fuel still had to be stored on-site - and with it, what appears to be an electricity plug with an aerial on top.

You Can Take It with You!

Tue, 25 Nov 2003 12:45:11 EST

Any day now (November 24) you'll be able to change your mobile phone network and take your number with you, something that Europeans have been doing for awhile. The networks hate it. As long as you were tied to your number you were tied to their network, and changing networks might mean changing everything from Web sites to business cards, so most people didn't bother.

Games Without Frontiers

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 13:08:09 EST

The games industry is a horrible place to find yourself, long hours working on projects that might just be the next big thing, but probably won't be. Very little recognition and not much money for the developers who can spend several years working on the same title, only to have the project pulled when a competitor comes out with something too similar or the customer's insane demands go too far.

Going Completely Wireless...

Tue, 23 Sep 2003 15:39:52 EDT

I've recently moved house, never an easy process, and made less so when the place you're moving to is not so much off-the-beaten-track as off-the-untrodden-footpath.

Putting on the Squeeze

Wed, 20 Aug 2003 12:52:27 EDT

Mobile telephony is a very competitive industry, as we all know. But how many people realize that the model of device manufacturers competing against each other while the carriers vie for customers is about to be turned upside down, and that some companies are about to find out that next year's competition is today's biggest customer?

The Skeptic

Mon, 28 Jul 2003 11:43:00 EDT

We hear that Vivato has raised $44.5 million for their wireless infrastructure business. It's nice to know someone's got the cash!

3 Views of Wi-Fi: The Skeptic The Visionary The Historian

Mon, 28 Jul 2003 11:40:00 EDT

Wi-Fi has never been in the news as much as it is now, far beyond the few techies and hobbyists who first showed what was possible. Wi-Fi is hitting the headlines now, more than ever before, mainly because it's starting to attract real money.

Unlimited Encryption on Limited Devices

Fri, 01 Nov 2002 00:00:00 EST

I have the dubious honor of having written one of the very first implementations of the RSA cryptographic algorithm in Java some years ago, and very badly I wrote it too.

Whole House Audio from the Palm of Your Hand

Tue, 01 Oct 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Parts 1 and 2 of this series (JDJ, Vol. 7, issues 6 and 9) demonstrated how I developed a remote control MP3 player by using a Bluetooth connection from my handheld (a Compaq iPaq) and employing a client and a server written in Java.

Whole House Audio from the Palm of Your Hand - Part 2 of 3

Sun, 01 Sep 2002 00:00:00 EDT

In Part 1 of this series (JDJ, Vol. 7, issue 6), I showed how I developed an MP3 player in Java, and then added the ability to control that player from a wireless handheld device using a PersonalJava application.

Whole House Audio from the Palm of Your Hand

Sat, 01 Jun 2002 00:00:00 EDT

In this business we often talk about how easy it is to get computers to talk to each other; computers without networks are almost inconceivable. Despite being standardized as little as five years ago, we now expect them all to play nicely together.> Even in the home, a CAT-5 connection isn't too remarkable, but mobile devices still spend most of their time in lonely isolation.

Wireless Incompatibility

Wed, 22 Aug 2001 00:00:00 EDT

I'm looking at my huge field of corn, millions of ears ready for harvest, every one genetically engineered to be identical. From the root structure to the tips, every stalk's the same, and offers the maximum yield made possible by modern science. But enhancing production is only part of what the breaking of the genetic code can offer me. Should the need arise, I can release specially modified viruses into my field, allowing each infection to make minute alterations to the DNA of the crop, updating my harvest. In this way I can provide protection against unforeseen pathogens, and modify the very blueprint of my harvest to suit climate or market conditions.

So, Who are You Anyway?

Mon, 16 Jul 2001 00:00:00 EDT

Wireless and mobile networks have the potential to provide new levels of security and confidence, as long as we design them that way. With open networks, the responsibility for creating a secure environment must fall to whoever deploys the application, not the network itself. Every day, we're using cryptography that would have been unthinkable, not to mention illegal in many countries, five years ago.

21st Century Wireless Tools: Working in a Networked World…

Mon, 16 Jul 2001 00:00:00 EDT

Companies are always risking their business, betting on what will be happening next year, and how they can make money out of it. The trick is to get it right. We all know that we work in a fast-moving industry. Even before wireless communications raced ahead, the IT field was already moving too quickly for most industry commentators - fast enough in fact to make a fool of anyone rash enough to try to predict future developments.

Why Combined PDA/Mobile Devices Are Stupid

Thu, 07 Jun 2001 10:27:00 EDT

While walking through London the other day, I noticed an advertisement for a mobile phone. Nothing unusual about that, except that the mundane practice of making phone calls seemed insulting to a device such as this. Its gamut of features included the ability to listen to music courtesy of a built-in MP3 player, take photographs with its camera, and even shoot (admittedly very short) movies! I was surprised to see it didn't offer tea-making facilities, but consoled myself with the thought that it was only a matter of time.

Bluetooth Revealed & The McGraw-Hill Illustrated Telecom Dictionary

Wed, 02 May 2001 13:06:00 EDT

Bluetooth is a new protocol designed to replace the tangle of wires that seems to accompany all technical advances. Operating over radio, it's not limited to line-of-sight and is destined for everything from keyboard connections to wireless Internet surfing. Clearly a standard was necessary to achieve the ubiquity it needed. Thus the Bluetooth Special Internet Group (SIG) was born to define this new standard in communications.

Wirelessly Insecure

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Ethernet has been with us for a while now, and setting up a network has passed from an arcane art to something most users are happy to do at home. Home-networking kits and improved operating systems (to be fair, I'm mainly referring to Microsoft Windows here) has made the process more or less idiot-proof, and even company networks just aren't very complicated any more.

Playing the Smart Card

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Cryptography is a wonderful thing. Long keys and well-designed algorithms mean that even the most determined government is unlikely to be able to break your encrypted messages. However, every encryption system has one weak point: Where and how do you store your keys? Most encryption software will store your keys on your hard disk (if your device has one) or somewhere safe in memory, carefully encrypted so no one can read it.

Pandora's Box

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

When Pandora was given gifts from the gods, she had many wonderful things, but she also had a box that she was told never to open. The box contained all the bad things in the world, and as long as it stayed closed, the world was a wonderful place full of joy and happiness. But Pandora's curiosity got the better of her, and she couldn't resist opening it just a little to see what was inside.

Q & A: Sun's New Testing Tool for OEMs and Java Service Providers

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

(February 28, 2003) - Bill Ray, editor-in-chief of Wireless Business & Technology, talks to Eric Chu, Group Marketing Manager, J2ME Platform, Sun Microsystems, Inc., about the recently announced Java Device Test Suite. WBT: Who will the test suite be made available to? Licensees, operators? It would be really good for someone like O2 to have access to such tests. Chu: Both: the test suite will be made available to any Java (CLDC/MIDP) Device manufacturers and operators launching Java-based services.

Culture Matters

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Successful products and services may rely more on where and when, rather than how, they are launched. It's very fashionable to talk of globalization and the world market, but the reality is that public acceptance of new products depends more on cultural factors than the use of the latest technology. No killer application is going anywhere without mass acceptance, and no society is going to accept a new way of communication unless it fits in with their cultural lifestyle.

Making Money from Messages

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Short Message Service (SMS) has been the unpredicted golden goose of mobile telephone networks, with more than a billion messages flying through the airwaves every month over the GSM network alone. Even at a few cents a message it's not difficult to see how SMS might be the solution to the growing debt problem faced by companies that massively overbid for 3G licenses... at least until 3G starts to make some money.

Playing Games on Handhelds

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Mobile games are often seen as the killer application for 3G phones, not to mention the driving force behind advances in hardware and device architecture (as games have been on desktop systems for years). But while devices specifically designed for mobile gaming, such as the Nintendo Gameboy, have their place, the market for games on multifunction devices, such as PDAs and phones, is still largely unproven.

The Truth About Bluetooth

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Bluetooth and Wireless Ethernet can happily coexist, at the same time, in the same space, and sharing the same frequency.

BREWing Up a Storm

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Sun recently made what appeared to be a small announcement, that QUALCOMM would be distributing a J2ME implementation for their mobile phone handsets, but it's a small announcement that belies its importance in the mobile phone world. While most phone manufacturers, particularly in Europe, have embraced Java, QUALCOMM has always maintained that their proprietary BREW platform was preferable at least in terms of stability and security.

Wi-Fi with Your Big Mac, Sir?

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

IBM thinks what you need with your Big Mac is Wi-Fi connectivity, so they are deploying access points in McDonald's restaurants across the U.S., starting in New York City. This is being done under the Cometa brand, the alliance between IBM, AT&T, and Intel on the technical side, with 3i and Apex providing the finance. Always keen to combine fast food with fast-network access, WBT's Editor-in-Chief, Bill Ray, tracked down Dean Douglas, VP for the Telecommunications Industry, IBM Global Services, to talk about Wi-Fi, burgers, and the problems of cleaning ThinkPads…

Sinking Without a Trace

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Right now mention Java on mobile phones and most people think of something fun, with potential for the future. Games and puzzles are the order of the day, with the power and versatility of Java reduced to entertaining businesspeople on the train. But Java has much more to offer, and soon we're going to see it bursting out from its Sand Box to take on the world.

A Witty Walk Through the Wireless Stacks…

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Setting out to start programming a new wireless device is never easy. A lack of documentation and badly thought-out development environments, conspiring with a prepubescent developer community, ensure that the information you need is always somewhere else. But things are changing; as fast as authors can get the words down, publishers are rushing to fill the gaps and provide comprehensive and affordable guidance.

Who's Calling?

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Drug dealers love digital mobile telephones. It's not just being able to stay in touch with customers and suppliers on the move, nor the advantages of instantaneous communications in a very competitive industry. Drug dealers love digital mobile telephones for the security they offer - security and anonymity.

When Is a Phone Not a Phone?

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

Nokia has a lot resting on the 7650. Despite the almost immediate announcement of the 3650, the 7650 is in the shops now, and represents the first steps away from the core mobile telephone functionality Nokia has provided in the past. The 7650 is the first device to use the Series 60 platform, which is owned by Nokia, but available for license, so it provides an opportunity to see how Nokia views the future.

Opening the Door to M-Commerce

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 EST

A secure mobile payment system is essential if m-commerce is to reach its potential. The most-popular method used credit cards has failed in this area, and fallen prey to astronomical levels of fraud and theft. Now, Paybox, a relatively new company with an authorization system that tracks transactions every step of the way, is taking on players such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

Q & A: Sun's New Testing Tool for OEMs and Java Service ProvidersNew product will ensure the quality of Java devices by testing

Thu, 30 Nov 1995 00:00:00 EST