Standardize This! 10 Technology Messes That Need Fixing

http://www.pcworld.com/article/189257/standardize_this_10_technology_messes_that_need_fixing.html?tk=nl_llx_h_crawl

Standardize This! 10 Technology Messes That Need Fixing
Why should every mobile device in your house have a different charger? Why can’t a cell phone from one network work on every other system? These ten solutions would stop the madness.

Dan Tynan, PCWorld

Feb 15, 2010 8:00 pm
 
Enough with bickering cell phone technologies, messaging systems that won’t talk, incompatible file formats, and TV remotes that spread like kudzu across your coffee table. We’ve been dealing with some of these problems for more than a decade, and it’s time for things to improve.

Here are ten technologies that cry out for standardization–tomorrow if possible, though yesterday would be even better.

What tech do you want to see standardized? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

1. One World, One Plug

2. A Real Universal Remote

3. Virtual Instruments That Rock Around the Clock

4. A Single Data-File Format

5. Smarter Smartphone Batteries (and Keyboards)

6. Universal Avatars

7. Region-Free DVDs and Blu-ray Discs

8. Secure Security Software

9. IM Clients That Speak the Same Language

10. One Cell Network to Rule Them All

Imagine there’s no telecom; it’s easy if you try. No AT&T hell below us; above us only sky. Imagine endless spectrum, open to any device (oooh oooh, ooh-hoo-woo).

Yes, we are dreamers, but we’re not the only ones. Back in January 2008, when Google bid on the old analog TV spectrum at the FCC’s auctions, many people hoped the search giant would solve the headaches caused by rival cell technologies and control-freak telecoms by offering cheap, open, ubiquitous radio spectrum.

But Verizon and AT&T won most of those auctions, and an open cellular network has yet to emerge. We still hold out hope, though, that one day they’ll join us–and the world will speak as one.

When not whining about things he can’t have, Contributing Editor Dan Tynan tends his snark garden at his award-winning geek humor site, eSarcasm. (Note: Awards still pending.)

(Alan Spicer’s Note: Some of these things may not matter to us, depending on our age, but may matter to our children. Some of them really strike a “chord”, pardon the pun since one of the items in the list is about “Virtual Instruments” - especially when it comes to things being more “universal” like Remote Controls, Power Plugs, cellular service, etc. Especially the Cellular Service. But that one, cellular service, just might happen - at least to some extent - with LTE: Long Term Evolution, which promises to be the Next Generation … and a “Melting Pot” or “Convergence Point” where most of the cellular carriers will “Come together, right now…. over me” - to put even more pun to this articles musical connotations Sprint seems to be touting WiMax … and that’s fine, not sure if that’s just because they can *use someone elses stuff* and do 4G *right now*, or what. But it still does nothing towards the Covergence of Cellular Technologies to something where a single phone and or phone/data-Internet device can work on anyones network.

Anyway more at the link above. I’m open for comments on this if anyone wants - I’ll take comments on here or via email. I do feel like I have to sprinkle this comment in there myself … A wise man once said: Be careful what you ask for … you just might get it. To ask for One Cell Network to Rule Them All might not be a good idea. That’s the kind of things you end up with where there is a Monopoly. So how about Multiple Cell Phone Networks so “we” still have the Freedom of Choice on Price and Performance points, but cross-compatibility so that we could change carriers if we wanted to? But then again why doesn’t that happen already? Perhaps because there would be no way to lock us in to one carrier via contracts and term agreements. If they all used the same Technology Standard, and Phones were not Locked… then the Cell Carriers might have to differentiate themselves by “Quality” and I mean Quality all of the time. Not just when there’s no event happening or when you are in the middle of nowhere. We are so sold on subsidized Phone Equipment as well that we can’t jump ship either because we have to have that *cheap* [expensive] subsidized phone so we have to sign a contract.)

P.S. - Someone once said:

“The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from”

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBF_enUS255US256&q=The+great+thing+about+standards+is+there+are+so+many+of+them

—

73 de KA4UDX, Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://blog.marinetelecom.net - http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net - http://www.youtube.com/user/alanspicertelecom

+1 954 683 3426 - Email: communications (at) marinetelecom.net
 

This entry was posted on 18. February 2010 at 20:04 and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.