A message for our less creative programmers

Did you make a killing fixing decades old COBOL programs for Y2K? Were you planning to live off the cash, build up your Unix and C skills just in time for the fun that 2038 is sure to bring?

Well, why wait until then?! From 2005 :

… the Uniform Code Council (UCC) will no longer support the UPC-12 barcode standard that is almost universally used in North America. This is because the UCC, which controls company identification numbers that are part of the UPC-12 symbology is running out of numbers to fit in the 12-digit format.

The UCC has issued a joint recommendation with its European and Japanese counterparts to fix the problem using a 14-digit standard of the same symbology.

Quick, you still have time to swat up on Point of Sales systems!

via Adam Curry

[/technology] posted at 16:03 #

Skylinc - balloon based wireless broadband for rural Britain

It requires a directed dish so is not mobile, but it’s potential to offer 10MB/s anywhere should still shake up the broadband market.

The BBC have a piece but Skylinc’s website is much richer on info:

Each LIBRA super-cell has a MASSIVE coverage of 2,000 sq miles (equivalent coverage of up to 2,000 traditional wireless base stations)

87% of UK SME business locations will be accessible from only 18 LIBRA platforms

It looks like it was specifically developed to solve the problem of getting rural businesses online:

SkyLINC’s product development has been funded by UK Government Department of Trade and Industry grants and private US aerospace investment.

[/technology] posted at 15:21 #