IEEE

For some years now I have been an IEEE member.
I have joined this organization for several reasons - the main one being access to latest "trustworthy"  information and research.
This year I decided to give up IEEE. Last year I was roughly paying about  42 USD for one year membership (no printed material) but this year the offer was advertised at 50 USD. When I tried to renew my membership I discovered that the charge was in fact 63 USD (50 Electronic subscription + 13 local chapter). In fact 50% more than last year... For what? Spectrum digital edition and access to a web site? A local chapter that is almost inexistent in my country?
IEEE is a great organization and they have been influential in all aspects of engineering in the last 50 years - but they are growing more expensive year after year... That's a pitty.

Add Delivery Platform

It is a week since I have had my first Android phone. My Nokia E51's battery is dead and buried so I have taken the bod decision to go for a touch phone.

The new phone is a HTC Wildfire because of its dimensions - the other choice was a Desire but despite its richer features its size overwhelmed me.

The touch experience was not so good for me. What I have is not a phone but a gadget with a phone emulator...

The gadget is not really a standalone gadget but rather an add delivery platform for Google who found a smarter way to reach me with its adds. The phone, multimedia and gaming are just add-ons on the ADP.

Technically the phone is okay for a budget one (QVGA, no GPU are the main drawbacks), the software is somehow usable - but after a quick look under the hood (infamous ps axww) I found lots of apps running without any reason. In conclusion not really impressed... The feeling of calling somebody on the Android phone is quite weird - it cannot compare with the material touch of my old phone's keys. The GPS on the other hand is awesome - fast and extremely accurate.

My verdict for Android *****

Multi headed dragon

The multinationals with a dash in name (especially the ones that gained the dash through a merger) are like a multiheaded dragon. They look fierce, impressive and aggressive from the outside but they are schizophrenic and divided on the inside.Each head has its own mind and feels that he has its own stomach...