Ion’s blog

The new Hypertag system coming into play allows mobile phone and connected PDA users to instantly access a web page by pointing their phone and clicking at a ‘tag’ located on a billboard poster or street sign. The Hypertag Platform comprises Tags, which are wireless transponders. These can be attached to virtually any object or surface, such as an advertising panel. Small and battery powered, these devices can be embedded into objects and behind paper or clear plastic.

Any mobile phone user with an open-architecture handset and infra-red port or Bluetooth will be able to Hypertag-enable their mobile phone by downloading a small software application. The Hypertag server manages what content is linked to each Tag. Any Tag owner can easily control and update what web page a consumer gets on their phone when they click at the Tag. Tag usage can also be monitored. The system can be used to deliver wireless web content over mobile phone networks and through wireless LANs. Great stuff!

The coffee-houses that sprang up across Europe, starting around 1650, functioned as information exchanges for writers, politicians, businessmen and scientists. Like today’s websites, weblogs and discussion boards, coffee-houses were lively and often unreliable sources of information that typically specialised in a particular topic or political viewpoint. They were outlets for a stream of newsletters, pamphlets, advertising free-sheets and broadsides. Depending on the interests of their customers, some coffee-houses displayed commodity prices, share prices and shipping lists, whereas others provided foreign newsletters filled with coffee-house gossip from abroad.

Rumours, news and gossip were also carried between coffee-houses by their patrons, and sometimes runners would flit from one coffee-house to another within a particular city to report major events such as the outbreak of a war or the death of a head of state. Coffee-houses were centres of scientific education, literary and philosophical speculation, commercial innovation and, sometimes, political fermentation. Collectively, Europe’s interconnected web of coffee-houses formed the internet of the Enlightenment era.

The great soberer

Coffee, the drink that fuelled this network, originated in the highlands of Ethiopia, where its beans were originally chewed rather than infused for their invigorating effects. It spread into the Islamic world during the 15th century, where it was embraced as an alternative to alcohol, which was forbidden (officially, at least) to Muslims. Coffee came to be regarded as the very antithesis of alcoholic drinks, sobering rather than intoxicating, stimulating mental activity and heightening perception rather than dulling the senses.

This reputation accompanied coffee as it spread into western Europe during the 17th century, at first as a medicine.

DRUNKEN texts have replaced snogging colleagues at work parties as the biggest embarrassment of the festive season.

The problem of texting under the influence is so common it has been given a name ”intexicated”.

Around 60 million texts are sent every day in December.

And research by phone giant Virgin Mobile said 15 million of them are sent by people who have had one too many.

Virgin said that twothirds of women who text while drunk send messages to former lovers and some text the wrong person.

A public relations officer in London sent a sexually explicit message to dad instead of boyfriend Dan after hitting the wrong button.

But aside from the relative merits of the many forms of Doom possible for the Dean campaign, one thing struck us strongly as we watched the good doctor listlessly strut his stuff in front of the stars and stripes.

This was not a giant striding onto the political stage, by any stretch of the imagination. This was a sincere but sad and sorry little man, tilting at windmills and earnestly exhorting his classmates to vote for him like a nerdy sophomore running for student council. The unfortunate fact is that neither Dean, nor any of the other hacks and shucksters we have seen, in person or on screen, is in the least bit inspirational.

What is wrong with a system that produced a cast of characters as drab and dubious as this one?

Does Howard Dean really exist? I am beginning to think he is the first figment of collective internet imagination to run for president. His internet presences–weblogs and a friendster account–are maintained by twentysomething volunteers. Perhaps this same hip group has found a way to animate the flesh of a stodgy, moderate democrat to reflect their shared insecurity, anger, and confusion?