A Journey to the Levant
Encountered the attached ad in the Economist a few weeks ago. I have finally found the time to scan and post it.
I found it kind of funny. Also checked their website, and it turns out you need to be a UK citizen to apply.
“There are three strangers in the room that you need on your side. How do you get them to warm to you?”
Some photos I took in the Venetian Macau about a week ago.
Room:
Finally, I could find Enoki mushrooms in Israel. The downside is it is imported from China.
Tekoa farms import it; not sure if regularly, and the taste… not bad, but less tasty than Japan.
An interesting article claiming that Sprint’s WiMAX (Xohm) is doomed to fail.
Excerpt:
“Like EarthLink, Sprint is targeting incumbent cable and DSL providers with its service. The big difference is that it’s also offering mobility. But because there are only a handful of devices that support WiMax today, most people subscribing to the service will likely only be as mobile as they can be with an air card plugged into their laptop. In other words, they probably won’t be walking around town surfing the Net. Instead, if they aren’t at home, they’ll be parked in a coffee shop or library where Wi-Fi is typically already available.
And even though Sprint is competing directly with fixed broadband providers, it is not offering customers a huge discount. The home service, which requires users buy a $79 WiMax modem, costs $25 initially, but will eventually be priced at $35 per month. It’s also offering a mobile only service, which requires users buy a $59 WiMax wireless card for their laptop. This service starts at $30 and will increase to $45 after six months. The combination service, which allows users to share their bandwidth with other users at home and also offers mobility, will initially cost $50 a month. But the price is expected to eventually jump to $65 a month.”
KDDI will launch in November a new product and service called au Box.
More information can be found in Asiajin (BTW, a great Blog) and KDDI website.
The Box is a Motorola CPE, supposedly based on KreaTV Open Software Platform.
Searched for more info in Motorola website, looking for “Open Software”, but failed to do it. Is it really open?
Although not officially launched, Chicago has a live Xohm (Mobile WiMAX) network.
The following blog shows a live video of Mobile WiMAX using Motorola USB device and a CPE with WiMAX and VoIP.
Sprint has launched the Xohm network in Baltimore.
For information on service plans, modems and more you can refer to Xohm .
It appears that only two modems are available now,
1) For home usage, Zyxel CPE – price – 80$ (excluding taxes) with 27dbm max power and 5dbi antennas.
2) On the Go – Samsung express card – 60$, only Windows support!
A USB from Samsung will be available soon.
I will follow-up this story in the next few months; A quick search in youtube didn’t return something significant, technorati produces more infromation; More than 100 Blog entries today, including Engadget.
Just go a Nokia E71 (white one), which people claim it has the “Oligarch look”. Extremely happy with it, as it connects very well to the internet, Browser is good and has a decent music player; Already synchronized to my Exchange Server,but still could not get the GPS to properly work, but I am sure it will.
So happy I didn’t fall into the iPhone trap, i.e. having something really cool, that doesn’t really fit my needs.
A quick search found a similar (more lengthy) review by Joel (Joel on Software). He also likes it – Link.
While waiting for my flight in Hong Kong Airport, I have decided to search Google for the term “Sassoon Hong Kong”. To my surprise the first link returned is an article on the Sassoon family and Opium drug trade.
Now, it is true that Sassoon family was involved in that, and it should be condemned, but the article “smells” of Anti-Semitism and belongs to White Nationalist (Racist GRoup). Quite appalling!
How do I complain to Google about this? – Link is not provided as I do not want to promote them.
I am attending the WiMAX Forum Member conference in Macau, held in the amazing Ventian hotel.
Will post some photos in the near future. This place is busy! and definitely not for me. Superb room and facilities, great service, Casino I don’t use and nowhere else to go.