Interesting links (2010-08-01)

Some of the interesting things I’ve stumbled across lately (mostly thanks to my Twitter friends):

Sorcerer's Apprentice Syndrome: this is what happens to sloppily designed protocols. Interestingly, my Msc thesis was a purely academic approach to testing protocol correctness. I decided to use X.25 as the example (and of course it worked); this one would be really fun.

Do Not Social Engineer Yourself out of Clients or your Job! If you’re Twitter happy and think it’s a good idea to pollute everyone’s feed with your locations (are you listening @icemarkom?) think twice – you could actually leak sensitive client information.

KPN to stop offering 'free' mobiles. This one is a year old and it took me a while to dig it out. A no-nonsense approach to loss-making residential customers that I will not comment; I can live without yet another shill label for a few days.

4 comments:

  1. The title has a typo. ;)
  2. Now it's official. I'm a GONER living in the past :-E

    http://etherealmind.com/network-dictionary-goners/
  3. Me? I don't have sensitive clients :-).
  4. Free devices are unsustainable without contracts (ie. prepaid) in a world where provider locks can be defeated for $2-20 USD. Every one they sell is likely to be a loss leader and may not even end up generating revenue for them if it is unlocked and used on another carrier.

    On the one hand, I like the idea of no handset subsidies because it reduces the need for contracts and gives lower prices because the carrier isn't put a financing charge into the monthly plan. On the other hand, loyalty is important to running a good carrier and customers are now addicted to heavily subsidized devices, so they will not go away. In fact, for most carriers, there is no incentive to bring your own device; they don't offer you a price break and in fact you may pay more for certain rate plans.
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