ICANN (the people who regulate domain names and web site extensions, like dotcom and dotinfo) has passed what it's calling the "Internationalized Domain Name Fast Track Process", which will allow a long list of non-latin alphabet characters to be used as domain extensions.

This means you could be doing business globally with sites ending in Chinese or Farsi or Arabic characters, for example.

I guess the West is getting some of its own back in this decision in all fairness.

For purely selfish reasons, I dread this (I have no idea how to type in Japanese characters).

I'm sure that I'm not alone in this.

Here's what I predict will happen:

- Any web site that does business with Westerners will have an all Latin alphabet address that redirects to their site anyway.

- This goes into effect sometime next year. Google will undoubtedly have something in beta by then to translate extensions into the Latin alphabet.

- Microsoft Office won't have alternative alphabets in its font offerings. But it will still have Wing Dings, which is of no use to anyone.

Uh, huh! I don't have to see you to know there are a lot of hands shooting up right now.

Bad news if you're a Sprint customer. Sprint announced this week it will no longer allow its customers to tether their way online with their smartphones. From now on, you'll have to use a special Sprint dongle and get yourself a separate data plan (No, you're not wrong. You are being turned upside down by your ankles while your carrier shakes you down for more cash).

Eeeee-vil!

That's just wrong as my best friend, Zelda, would say.

You can bet the other carriers will be right on their heels with this one.

I got one word to say: netbook.

That's what this is about.

Let me harkin back to a posting of mine from earlier this month, "Will Telcos Kill The Netbook?"

I made the prediction that the telcos are aiming to co-opt the netbook business with their own business model that is not so user-friendly.

It's already happening.

I bought my netbook for $330 this summer, competitively priced to undersell the larger, more powerful laptops. I fear these days are dwindling. It appears the phone carriers are hoping to sell netbooks like mobile phones with a monthly data plan and a two-year contractual commitment (plus whatever extras they can sell you).

Of course, in order for this to work, they need to make sure you can't use your smartphone to get your netbook online,

This would be like your cable television provider making you get separate accounts for every television in your house with cable access (instead of a nominal monthly fee on the same bill for each additional outlet).

This would be like your electric company making you set up a separate account for every plug in your house.

This would be like the water company making you set up a separate account for every faucet, washer and dishwasher hook-up in your house.

This would be like your electric company no longer allowing you to power small appliances with a handful of Duracell batteries. Instead you would have to use a proprietary battery of theirs set up under a separate account with a monthly basic fee that is double your basic electric bill fees,

Not much will be said about this up front. Trust me, there's going to come a time when the consumer catches on and realizes what a shameles stick-up this is.

We pay for Internet access at home. Businesses pay for it at work. We pay for Internet access on our mobile devices. Now Sprint wants you to pay separately for netbook access.

Monthly Internet access should not look like a car payment.

People use the Internet on the move across multiple devices. People should not be forced to pay for separate data plans for every location and device they use to go online.

I wish I were a Sprint customer so I could dump them in protest.

Uh, huh! I don't have to see you to know there are a lot of hands shooting up right now.

Bad news if you're a Sprint customer. Sprint announced this week it will no longer allow its customers to tether their way online with their smartphones. From now on, you'll have to use a special Sprint dongle and get yourself a separate data plan (No, you're not wrong. You are being turned upside down by your ankles while your carrier shakes you down for more cash).

Eeeee-vil!

That's just wrong as my best friend, Zelda, would say.

You can bet the other carriers will be right on their heels with this one.

I got one word to say: netbook.

That's what this is about.

Let me harkin back to a posting of mine from earlier this month, "Will Telcos Kill The Netbook?"

I made the prediction that the telcos are aiming to co-opt the netbook business with their own business model that is not so user-friendly.

It's already happening.

I bought my netbook for $330 this summer, competitively priced to undersell the larger, more powerful laptops. I fear these days are dwindling. It appears the phone carriers are hoping to sell netbooks like mobile phones with a monthly data plan and a two-year contractual commitment (plus whatever extras they can sell you).

Of course, in order for this to work, they need to make sure you can't use your smartphone to get your netbook online,

This would be like your cable television provider making you get separate accounts for every television in your house with cable access (instead of a nominal monthly fee on the same bill for each additional outlet).

This would be like your electric company making you set up a separate account for every plug in your house.

This would be like the water company making you set up a separate account for every faucet, washer and dishwasher hook-up in your house.

This would be like your electric company no longer allowing you to power small appliances with a handful of Duracell batteries. Instead you would have to use a proprietary battery of theirs set up under a separate account with a monthly basic fee that is double your basic electric bill fees,

Not much will be said about this up front. Trust me, there's going to come a time when the consumer catches on and realizes what a shameles stick-up this is.

We pay for Internet access at home. Businesses pay for it at work. We pay for Internet access on our mobile devices. Now Sprint wants you to pay separately for netbook access.

Monthly Internet access should not look like a car payment.

People use the Internet on the move across multiple devices. People should not be forced to pay for separate data plans for every location and device they use to go online.

I wish I were a Sprint customer so I could dump them in protest.

So what have our biggest advances in AI and robotics actually been? I did a little research on the web (and YouTube) to gather some examples.

Robots on the Battlefield

Peter W. Singer just published “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century,” which focuses on how military forces from 44 different countries are already taking advantage of this kind of technology. You can watch an interview where Singer discusses his work on YouTube (below).

What does this kind of technology mean for the future of warfare?

Related links:

The U.S. Military's New Warriors: Robots and a superman exoskeleton.

Boston Dynamics BIGDOG Robot

Curt works for Journyx, a time and project management solutions company.

That's happy as in for AT&T, not so for their customers who suffer through dropped calls and out of service time (see my blog posting earlier this month, "Smartphones and Dumb Carriers".

AT&T by its own admission can't scale up its 3G network fast enough. A big part of the problem is dealing with so many local bureaucrats and each municipal fiefdom's own unique maze to get approval to add equipment in public areas.

While all this hashes out, one make-do solution appears to be all those AT&T hotspots. There are now more than 20,000 of them in the United States.

On AT&T's end, WiFi through a hotspot is much easier and cheaper

Customers seem to be catching on, as well. AT&T's own 3rd quarter report on hotspot usage shows there were more than 25 million WiFI sessions at AT&T hotspots. That's up from 15 million sessions in just the previous quarter of this year.

In other news:

Microsoft announced this week that it will retire MSN Direct on January 1st, 2012. Question: does this have anything to do with Mayan prophecy?

Oh, sorry, you have some real questions about this? Chances are you will find answers in the following FAQ at the MSN Direct site.

I think this is just completely fascinating. We are all going this way already, whether we know it or not - an increasing percentage of your life is digitally available. The trick is getting Big Brother to work for you instead of against you. How can you be sure all this data is solely under your own control at your own discretion.

Imagine using this sort of data to automatically fill out your timesheet, for example. As long as it's your data - controlled by you - and you have the right to edit and control the timesheet before submittal, then it can only help your day.

Curt Finch writes for a project management blog as well.

Wow! Microsoft has announced that it will be opening up it's .pst file format (i.e. Outloook files) next year and allowing third party developers free use.

Yup, you read right; Microsoft Outlook is going open source.

It is unclear whether this will only be for the 2010 version or previous versions, as well.

At first blush, you might wonder why Microsoft is giving away the store. Let's think this through, however.

First of all, Microsoft doesn't do anything unless it's good for Microsoft (businesses do have that tendency, don't they?).

There's no doubt that this will cost Microsoft some business. This will allow other e-mail vendors (Google and Mozilla come to mind immediately, but there are countless others) to make it a lot easier to steal Outlook clients. That's because it will be possible to switch and save old data from the previous Outlook account.

That's surface stuff, however

What bits of market share it loses to other e-mail competitors, it will more than save by keeping much more important enterprise and small business clients happy.

Here's how:

- This will make it possible to develop tools to scan Outlook files for viruses and data mine for specific information (especially helpful for compliance and e-Discovery in legal matters),

- This means companies will be able to data port ,pst files to the "Cloud" and not require Outlook to access them. (That's the biggie right there!).

Microsoft, I believe, made a Hobson's choice. In order for Outlook to survive the long haul, it has to interoperate with other applications, specifically the applications of thier customer's choice.

This is the paradox of open source software, itself; the more you give it away, the more you get back by making it a more robust tool. Stand-alone tools are less and less robust in today's environment. It looks like Microsoft is finally figuring that out

That, or they're just trying to throw a bone to the European Union's investigation into other interoperability issues.

Thanks to my faithful blog reader, Matt P., for the heads up about the new and improved Mac Mini Server offerings and raising the question whether this is better bang for the buck than Windows for a small business.

Hmm...

Here's what Apple has done to make the Mac Mini a more attractive server (at the $999 price):

- They are throwing in the OSX Snow Leopard Server at no extra charge, which would otherwise cost you $499 off the shelf.

- Did I mention Snow Leopard includes unlimited clients. With a Windows server package, it's priced in increments. 10 client access licenses cost about $1200; 25 cost $3999.

- At $999, it also includes two 500GB hard drives.

- The Mac Mini is about two inches high and six and a half inches wide. What would you do with all that extra rack space?

- The Mac Mini uses less power than the typical PC server. Think about the savings on your electric bill!

Keep in mind:

- Windows Small Business Server edition is limited to 75 users. If your business needs more than that, you'll have to bump up to the Enterprise version. 100 users would cost around $20,000 just to give you some perspective

- You can't put more than one Windows Small Business server on the same network You HAVE to upgrade to the far more expensive full enterprise version if you need to scale up from there.

- You CAN string together as many Mac Mini Servers as you want on the same network.

- The Mac Mini Server is poised to get a boost from the iPhone. Business types are flocking to the iPhone. The Mac Mini Server throws in collaboration tools like Wikis to work seamlessly with the iPhone. More importantly, it offers security features for users tapping into their company e-mail,etc from their iPhone.

Like I said; hmmm...

Business Week reports that book publishers are learning to love the web because they have no choice. They have resorted to new business practices in recent years, as evidenced by the popularity of electronic readers like the Amazon Kindle. Possible new tactics include “Netflix-like online book rentals, sales of individual chapters, and placement of ads alongside digital books.“

Anyone can be an author now (like for example, me). You do not have to convince a publishing company that you're going to sell a million copies, you can self publish, and get it on Amazon yourself.

Since it's easier to be an author now, there are lots more of them. Same is true for music. A colleague of mine has created a published a fine album without ever talking to a record label. It's on iTunes and every other online music store.

Of course my book competes with millions instead of the few that Newton competed with and my buddy competes with an endless supply of musicians instead of just Bach and Mozart. Everyone's A.D.D. and only the consumer wins - if he can navigate the endless choices he faces.

Curt's company has software that helps the accidental project manager.

Here is a link to a must-read on the subject from Mark McDonald at Gartner, "The Ten Trends You Have To Watch: And What They Mean For IT".

Here are some of McDonalds most interesting points (but in my words, of course):

- Consumers and workers (don't forget, these are generally the same people) have gone through hell in this economic meltdown and their faith in business is a bit broken right now. Rebuilding trust requires communication and good, consistent communication is going to require some fancy footwork from IT.

- Globalism is not the new black. It's the new goat, in fact. Public sentiment and grumblings for more protectionism are suddenly in vogue. What does this mean for your global, one world market place taking place in cyberspace?

- Your business plan is a rough draft again. Industries are having to redefine themselves on the fly, identifying new markets and hustling up new products to serve their changing needs. You better have some efficient technologies in place to help you navigate.

- If you haven't invested in pricing analytics tools, think about doing so now. How exactly do you charge for products and services in such a volatile economy? If you don't hit the sweet spot between too high and too low, make no mistake - you're dead! Pricing is not something you set and forget. It's a moving target that has to be monitored, constantly.

- Consumers are not consuming the way they used to. What kind of technologies are you using to manage the volatility of consumption and distribution?

Let's hope your IT staff are MVP material.

It's Microsoft people. No matter how you put it the same people who designed, coded, and tested Vista were the same ones who designed, coded, and tested Windows 7.

- From Jupsdgreat

True words, J. Even Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, was tamping down the hype earlier this week. Unbelievably he reminded us all that Vista got decent early reviews from the beta testers, etc. before it's launch. At the time, there was no indication it would bomb (not his words, those are mine) and look what happened.

Ruth Seeley.. Busted on my numbering thing. Hehehehehe! Now you all know. I was not a math major. Good thing, no? I remember those $700 microwaves back in the 70's. All that and could cook your liver if you stood in front of the leaks too long.

Regarding my prediction of Windows 7 selling like hotcakes, Vulpine disagrees:

While Microsoft is going to see a huge first week or so, this is mostly due to preorders that started over 4 months ago. Once these preorders are shipped, I expect sales of Win7 to drop drastically and level out somewhere just above the sales rate of Win7-equipped hardware, including said hardware.

Interesting scenario, Vulpine. You may be right. Let's see if the pre-order rush has a dead cat bounce afterwards.

And Matt I think you make a very good point that Windows 7 just might not have enough of a hook to rope in consumers.

It will be interesting to see if anyone cares. A launch of an OS that people are not likely to feel safe loading up on day one in new stores that don't have a clear purpose.

I also think eight years of Windows XP may be a hard habit to break, because after all "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". We've all gotten by this longh. We've learned what's the rush to upgrade.

Have a great weekend and we'll get back to business on Monday.