National Bureau of Statistics of China, has release some figures about telephone usage in China. Figures are self explanatory and may give some Vertigo to European operators.

In end of March 2008 they were 574 millions cellphone users in China (+94 mio in 2007), a 20% increase compared to last year. It also mean that 40% of the Chinese population own a cellphone.

The NBS reveals that in March 08, 58 billions SMS were sent (nearly 700 billions/year !)

28% of Chinese population (361 millions) uses a fixed telephone, but landline operators are losing customers (minus 4 millions for the 1sr quarter 08) as calls from mobile phones are cheaper than through landlines.

China Mobile, the first Chinese mobile phone operator has 377 millions customers at end of January (+22.6%) while Unicom China only has 181 millions customers.

Passengers will no longer be able to pack loose lithium batteries in checked luggage beginning January 1, 2008 as new federal safety rules take effect. The new regulation, designed to reduce the risk of lithium battery fires, will continue to allow lithium batteries in checked baggage if they are installed in electronic devices, or in carry-on baggage if stored in plastic bags.

Common consumer electronics such as travel cameras, cell phones, and most laptop computers are still allowed in carry-on and checked luggage.  However, the rule limits individuals to bringing only two extended-life spare rechargeable lithium batteries, such as laptop and professional audio/video/camera equipment lithium batteries in carry-on baggage

The following quantity limits apply to both your spare and installed batteries. The limits are expressed in grams of “equivalent lithium content.” 8 grams of equivalent lithium content is approximately 100 watt-hours. 25 grams is approximately 300 watt-hours:

• Under the new rules, you can bring batteries with up to 8-gram equivalent lithium content. All lithium ion batteries in cell phones are below 8 gram equivalent lithium content. Nearly all laptop computers also are below this quantity threshold.

• You can also bring up to two spare batteries with an aggregate equivalent lithium content of up to 25 grams, in addition to any batteries that fall below the 8-gram threshold. Examples of two types of lithium ion batteries with equivalent lithium content over 8 grams but below 25 are shown below.
• For a lithium metal battery, whether installed in a device or carried as a spare, the limit on lithium content is 2 grams of lithium metal per battery.
• Almost all consumer-type lithium metal batteries are below 2 grams of lithium metal. But if you are unsure, contact the manufacturer!

Indeed this regulation will first be applicable on US registered aircrafts but as usual we may see this new regulation applicable on all International flights. 

Usually all electrical devices, including batteries, are subject to safety certification so either their are considered to be safe or manufacturer has to review quality and safety of its products. 

I really wonder on which basis these new rules are made from. Did anyone saw any incident statistics, reports etc.. (apart Sony made laptop batteries) or is it just one additional constraints air travel passengers will have to deal with.

After lighters and matches in 06, liquids in 07, 08 will add batteries to the restriction list.

All details are here as well as the complete list of items with air travel restrictions

I found the article below on "The Register" site and asked myself the following question: 

If connecting to Internet using an open and unsecured wifi access point is considered as a crime, why authorities do not apply the same principle to other services (mainly electricity and water) we often use without any formal agreement of the owner ?

 " More than half of computer users have illegally stolen Wi-Fi connections, according to The Times – but only 11 alleged offenders have been arrested in the UK, as the police seem to think those deploying Wi-Fi should be more careful about securing their connections.

The data was collected from a "Have Your Say" survey on the website of security-specialist Sophos: apparently 54 per cent of the 560 people who responded admitted nicking bandwidth from insecure Wi-Fi routers.

This might say more about Sophos customers than the general population, and extrapolating the results to every computer user in the country is probably a crime against statistics: so that's exactly what The Times has done.

…

Anyone caught stealing a Wi-Fi connection can be fined up to a grand, even if it's left unsecured, so make sure you ask nicely next time you're looking to log on, and if the person next to you has never stolen a Wi-Fi connection then we have to assume that you have. "

What is your opinion about accessing open wifi ? Do you think it is a crime ?

Source: The Register

Since few days now, iMinR is tracking what's going on this website.

This new service of “measurement of personalized audience” as its creator, Stéphane Guérin, indicates it on his Internet site. The iMinR statistics service makes possible to discover more about visitors of a site in general and, as from now on, this one in particular.

Among statistics provided on the free account version of iMinR we can find :

• Visitors (IP address)
• Visits (per hour, per day,)
• Pages viewed (url, title)Pages vues (url & titre)
• Geographical information (Country, Region, City)
• Web Origin (domain and url)
• Search Engine
• Query String
• Keywords
• Incoming and Outgoing points
• Global duration of the visit
• Time duration per page
• Click stream
• Frequent paths
• Client configuration(browser, operating system, resolution, language, etc..)

About the installation, well it's definitively too easy. You either have to add the provided line of code in your footer's page (also available for secured pages) or, if you are using WordPress, to install, activate and configure the iMinr plugin and that's it.

No update, no maintenance and training required. iMinR is adapted to sites using AJAX and the 100% javascript invisible (free account users are requested to add iMinR logo on their web site) marker works with any HTML pages (PHP, ASP, etc..).

Real time reports can be personalized according your needs and are accessible either on a web page;  using a javascript function or simply from the iMinR web site.

Today the beta 2 version has been released but so far the interface is exclusively available in French. I have not asked, but the English version should follow no ?

To know more about, check the demonstration page.

Business week publishes an interesting research made by Forrester Research about US user's participation on Internet.

Today Web 2.0 requires an active participation from these who were not long time ago only passive Internet viewer. 

Click on image for full size

Source: Business Week 

I don't want to be perceived as a basic anti-american person, but if the guys they interview on this video are so called "sampling frame" of the average american people, they, and we, have serious problems as they may be totally unable to understand why less and less people like them (or rather the policy conducted by their elected government and what/who is really behind).

I wonder how come they have so little knowledge about geography, History and above all, what's going on these days around the world. They still have plenty good news papers such the New-York Times or the Washington Post which are far better than any TV channel and in particular Fox News.

Scary no ?