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In the wired world of the 21st century, it seems impossible to forget anything. A cartoon pops up on your computer screen reminding you that it's a friend's birthday. An exclamation mark surfaces on your palmtop alerting you to a looming project deadline. And yet you forget-your reading glasses, your coat when you are going to the cleaners, your receipts when you are driving 30 miles to see your tax lawyer. Such absent-mindedness may be frustrating to you, but to researchers and technology companies, it presents a potential market for memory aids, devices that will deliver reminders based not on calendar entries but where the user is at any given time. These devices will sound off when you walk by the refrigerator, for example, or the file cabinet, reminding you of the frozen lunch or the printouts you need to carry to work. To the scientists who are developing them, memory aids are much-needed appliances. But to critics, memory aids could be an example of innovation driving need, an overkill of sensors and sophistication to do the work of Post-its. Dr. Michael Beigl, a researcher at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, belongs to the former category. Beigl's creation, the MemoClip, is a device equipped with a computer and a small electronic display that can be pinned onto the user's shirt. As the user moves about the house or the office, the clip communicates with wireless transmitters installed at places like a kitchen or a conference room, providing constant updates on the user's whereabouts. The clip matches the user's location with the list of tasks that the user wants to remember. All of the reminders and a database of locations must be entered in advance into a computer. MemoClip beeps when the user is near any location associated with a particular task. The text of the appropriate reminder is called up on the display. Making a list of things to do is not the same as actually doing them. Dr. Edward Tenner, author of ''Why Things Bite Back'' (Alfred A. Knopf, 1996)-about technology's tendency to ''recomplicate'' life-fears that tracking and managing reminders delivered by electronic devices might simply be an added chore. The solution could lie in making the technology even more sophisticated. Dr. Anind K. Dey spent the past few years at the Georgia Institute of Technology thinking up combinations of specific contexts in which people need reminders. His prototype, called CybreMinder, allows a user to specify conditions under which to remember a task, like taking an umbrella to work if (a) it is cloudy and (b) someone else needs the car. The system does not require the user to wear a special device but requires a longer list of devices to be installed in the environment. CybreMinder receives information from temperature and location sensors, cameras and speech recognition units. It looks out for conditions listed by the user. The reminder is delivered via e-mail, a pop-up on the device closest to the user, or synthesised speech on the cell phone. What stands in the way of marketing memory aids, and many other mobile computing applications, is the infrastructure required. The technology needed to sense a person's location inside a building, for example, would have to be commercialised in a form that would be usable for such applications. ''We don't know when that will happen,'' says Beigl. Yudhijit Bhattacharjee C.2001 New York Times News Service LEGIT EXTORTION
When faced with a fatal situation, fearful financiers will do one of the two things: fight or flee. Fortunately for India's beleaguered financial sector, development institutions are opting for the former. ''Today, our survival depends more on recovery of old (bad) loans rather than on getting new businesses,'' admits a senior official at IFCI. Therefore, FIs who not long ago would have shuddered to take on powerful corporates are putting their foot down. In November, the mighty and venerable Tata Engineering was refused further investment by way of a rights subscription. Later, Vinay Rai of the debt-smothered Usha India was threatened with a loss of control in Koshika Telecom unless the company. Only months earlier, he had been ejected out of Malvika Steel, a company he promoted. Indeed, so activist have the FIs been that it prompts the original question: are these the same organisations, that, though a mix of indolence and inadequate norms allowed their non performing assets to pile up? Well, they are. With recovery becoming a priority, the FIs have their plans clearly drawn up. IFCI, for instance, is dividing bad loans into three categories: those arising from genuine, business-related problems; those of wilful defaulters; and those related to unviable or sick projects. As far as the second category is concerned, the FIs are upping their stake as part of the restructuring process in an effort to wrest management control. But with Rs 18,000 crore of NPAs floating about in the system, the FIs still have a long way to go. -Ashish Gupta It is no secret that ENRON is desperately trying to sell its Mumbai-based data centre. The company has invested some $18 million in it, part of which went into tiles imported from Italy to embellish the office. What is, however, a secret is that the business has perhaps the best employee-to-customer ratio. It has just two employees still hanging on. And the number of customers-you couldn't have guessed it-is two: Hungama.com and Pune-based Gateway Systems. In this scenario, the price that the business is likely to fetch is expected to be a small sum, but a big secret. It is déjà vu time. Once again, a state-owned TELCO is trying to launch cellular services and, once again, efforts have begun all around to stymie it. Anonymous letters are finding their way to scribes' desks, talking about ''a scam of enormous magnitude'' taking place as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd gears up to make its cellular foray. A similar thing had happened when Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd entered the wireless domain last year. There is, however, one thing that goes unnoticed in all this madness. Private operators are liable to pay a penalty if they are not able to start their services on time. Should the same parameter be applied in the case of PSUs? Or should they be given the benefit of time-consuming strategic processes? ILD
The pleasentest of them all is that the Department of Telecommunications has accepted every single recommendation made by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). And that, in a record three days. dot has always questioned each major economic conclusion of the new TRAI. Earlier, TRAI surprised everyone by recommending a low entry fee of Rs 25 crore, with an identical amount in bank guarantees. There will be no limit on the number of operators. And any company with a net worth of at least Rs 25 crore can apply for a licence. In contrast, the entry fee for domestic long distance services is Rs 100 crore, to be accompanied by a bank guarantee of Rs 400 crore. And the minimum net worth criterion is Rs 2,500 crore. At the press briefing to announce the government's decision, Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan explained the seeming anomaly: ''The entry fee should be linked to investments.'' ILD service can be launched by setting up gateways and forging agreements with global ILD providers. For DLD, an operator has to lay a nationwide network of optic fibre cables. However, there could well be some more surprises in the offing-not all of them pleasant. The fineprint of the licence agreement is still being worked out. Even though ILD operators have been allowed to use Voice Over Internet Protocol, they will have to separately obtain a licence for IP-based telephony, whose guidelines are also being formulated. One has to see whether Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), both owned by the government, will be allowed to enter the fray. This will need a reversal of the current policy that prevents telecom PSUs from competing against one another. What will be the impact of the government's decision on the valuation of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), whose disinvestment is underway? Will the strategic investor in VSNL be allowed to obtain a separate ILD licence? If yes, will that mean VSNL will get a stepmotherly treatment? With so many ponderables, it's hardly surprising that investors and operators are not exactly falling over each other to seek an ILD licence. Even AT&T, the mother of all ld companies, is keeping quiet and BT learns that it has ''no plans as of now''. -Suveen K. Sinha HANDS-FREE There must be something about the recession that makes people want to stay in touch with others all the time. What else can explain the rate at which cellular subscriptions have grown, especially these past two months? Airtel, for instance, exceeded its target of 4 lakh subscribers in Delhi by year-end in September itself. One reason for the boom (in the gloom) could be the introduction of Rs 300 pre-paid cards. That, says an executive with a cellular service provider, ''is finding favour among students, housewives, and small businessmen.'' Across the metros, customers using pre-paid cards account for almost 50 per cent of the total subscriber base. And encouraged by the recent drop of upto 20 per cent in airtime charges in non-metro circles, there's a mini connectivity boom happening there too. In these dark times, any good news is welcome. -Ashutosh Sinha
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In
keeping with the history of telecom deregulation in the country, the
opening up of international long distance telephony services-slated for
April 1 next year-has come with its own share of surprises. However, the
process does make a break from the past because some of the surprises are
actually pleasant.