Category World

The EU Patents review process restarts…

Well, go there and read this. Apparently : Brussels, 2 February 2005 – The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (JURI) has decided with a large majority to ask the Commission for a renewed referral of the software patents directive. With only two or three votes against and one abstention, the resolution had overwhelming […]

The Imperial Institute

Once upon a time, in the place of the ‘South Kensington Campus of Imperial College London’ stood an architectural masterpiece known as ‘The Imperial Institute’. A small, yet quite revealing, sample of that work still remains in the form of the 85 metre Queen’s Tower, rising high above the ‘backyard’ of Imperial College, currently a […]

Galileo Global Positioning threatened by the US Military?

I just read this article in The Register regarding the potential effect/degradation of the Galileo Global Positioning System by the US Military; apparently they are not that happy about its 1m resolution that is to be publicly available. I sincerely hope that no such demands are accepted by the EU. Galileo is a fantastic project and it's utility to Europeans and everyone else is paramount, both in civilian and military contexts. Unfortunately, I can see how the US military is concerned about this and how they will use their military and political muscle/influence to 'convince' the EU that Galileo should be degraded to a toy-GPS.

ADSL in Greece revisited once again.

I was just about ready to go to bed when I read this transcript from a session in the Greek Parliament regarding ADSL. (it is in Greek). I thought it is time to revisit the subject. I’ve got ADSL in Greece since this summer when it was announced. I can safely say that for as […]

Sweden not joining the Euro — what does it mean?

One day after the referendum took place in Sweden, anti-Euro campaigners all over the UK express their satisfaction and assure everyone that the UK should and will not adopt the Euro for years to come. But what does this mean for the UK and what does it mean for Europe? Reading the opinions and polls […]

DRM, privacy, the way the net is turning out to be!

Well, I have managed to correlate several – seemingly unrelated – things again to my own surprise. Think for a sec. about the way the unipolar governing of the world by — currently — the US, personal freedom/privacy, the power provided to the world by electronics and computing. I just watched Colossus: The Forbin Project, […]

DSL, connectivity, progress: things not happening in Greece

It is not the first time I am writing about my frustration with internet connectivity in Greece. In a country such as Greece, with more than 60% of its land being in the form of islands or mountainous terrain, making human communication and transportation difficult, one would think that advanced telecoms would be available to […]

ADSL and broadband in Greece. How far behind are we?

I am in my room in Madrid in a hotel that provides free ADSL to each and every one of its rooms. I must admit I was impressed. Downloading files, checking email and surfing was generally a pleasure with transfer rates ranging between 16 – 55KB/s (something pretty impressive considering at least one other person […]