Integrated Solutions - Give VoIP Some Elbow Room: "You're not ready for VoIP if your data infrastructure can't support the high-level QoS (quality of service) required for voice transmissions. 'If you haven't properly tuned the network, you'll get choppy calls, echo, and garbled voices,' says Sheridan. According to Blanco, end users need to remind themselves that IP-based telephony is dependent on network stability. 'While IP devices have come a long way in terms of quality and reliability, they are still susceptible to network outages and virus attacks, just as your PCs are."

Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog: "LG KG800
READ MORE: Asia, Cellphones, KG800, LG, MP3
Look lady, it's 7PM and I haven't eaten all day so I know how you feel, but that phone isn't edible. But it does look sweet and creamy, what with its black glossy finish, 128 MB of storage, slide-out keypad, 172x226 screen, MP3/AAC/WMA support and 2 megapixel camera.
I'm not sure about that last part, since my Chinese is rusty and both Babelfish and Google translate aren't working for this page. Oh god, the shame. All those wasted years as a child spent learning Chinese only to have it fail me now when it's most needed, translating copy for an Asia-only phone. I'll do better!
Update: Reader Joe informs us this is available in the UK, so it's not Asia-only.
Black & Sweet! LG KG800 [phonedaily (Chinese)]"

Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog: "More Profs Ban Laptops in Class
READ MORE: Ban, Classroom, Laptops, School, University
Intern Travis here. As an avid classroom laptop user at my humble university I am intrigued by the latest news of professors banning laptops in the classroom. Some professors supporting the ban include June Entman at the University of Memphis and Charles Mooney at the University of Pennsylvania�XMooney has had a ban on laptops going on two years.
What's to blame? Poker, of course. Well, poker along with other sorts of attention-distracting activities such as surfing, IM'ing or even�Xahem�Xblogging. Entman said that laptops in the classroom were turning students into stenographers and inhibiting classroom discussion. Her students filed a complaint that was quickly dismissed.
I kind of agree with Entman. With universities across the nation getting wireless access everywhere, these distractions could definitely be a problem in some of the more boring...sorry, gotta jet�Xmy geology professor is yelling at me.
More Professors Ban Laptops in Class [Yahoo! News]"

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things: "Hollywood movies: 10 years' worth of dumb Internet depictions
The Wall Street Journal's published a roundup of all the clunky howlers in Hollywood movies' portrayal of the Internet:
In 1995's 'The Net,' a software engineer played by Sandra Bullock has online discussions with her buddies on 'Cyber Chat,' a cartoonish chat program. The movie was one of the first to capitalize on privacy and identity fears related to the Internet. Ms. Bullock's character finds herself hunted by the authorities after a terrorist uses his laptop to tamper with everything from her apartment lease to her police record. In one scene, she says, 'Just think about it. Our whole world is sitting there on a computer. It's in the computer. Everything. Your DMV records, your Social Security, your credit cards, your medical history, it's all right there.'
'It was Hollywood's attempt to borrow from the aura that anything Internet had at the time,' said Carl Goodman, deputy director of the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, N.Y. The tension that the movie evokes is hard to appreciate 11 years later, since viewers now know the Internet couldn't cause those catastrophic scenarios, he added. 'Maybe 'The Net' was never any good, but it certainly isn't any good today.' "