Techdirt reopens the debate on having a central mobile phone directory.

a new study suggesting that 52% of users would opt-in to such a directory if it had some privacy protection (just what kind of protection is not described and could make a huge difference). 11% would opt-in even without privacy protection.

Of course, as Techdirt point out, the study was commissioned by a consultancy with a very vested interest.

To be honest, I can’t see what the fuss is about, provided you can opt out (go ex-directory) and privacy is rigorously enforced. As the mobile becomes the main contact number (the only contact number for many) it makes sense that people with a legitimate reason can find them.

What is odd is the proposal:

The folks behind it have done a very odd sort of agreement on this, suggesting they could make it “opt-in,” but that you will have to pay if you don’t want to be included. In other words, a new fee could simply start showing up on your bill, and the way to get rid of it, would be to give out your mobile phone number.

No, no, no. No. No. Silly and annoying.

Captain Kendall made history when on July 22 1910 when he sent the first-ever wireless telegraph that resulted in the capture of a criminal. He sent it from the ship, The Montrose, from a point 120 miles out to sea, west of Cornwall, England, to the White Star Company in Liverpool, it read:

Have strong suspicion that Crippen London Cellar Murderer and accomplice are among saloon passengers. Mustache taken off growing beard. Accomplice dressed as boy. Voice manner and build undoubtedly a girl. Both traveling as Mr. and Master Robinson. Kendall.

This led to the subsequent capture, trial and hanging of the notorious murderer.

Not quite so dramatic, but as important in its own way, Textually reports that an arrest has been made using Location Tracking GPS:

State police used Global Positioning System technology embedded in a cell phone to track down and arrest a man suspected of making 1-800 obscene phone calls to 911 operators over the past two months, reports 1490WBEX.

“He would call and use some dirty language and play a pornographic film in the background,” LaBelle said. “The telecommunications operator who took the call would have to listen to the grunting and groaning and whatever else that goes along with that entertainment.”

So think before you phone - you can be found.

Picture shows the infamous Dr Crippen being escorted off The Montrose. Thanks to The Crime Library for the info and pic.

I’ve been most remiss in failing to mention Seth Godin’s new initiative - Change This. I’m a great admirer of Seth and most of what he does and I think Change This is a worthy and interesting initiative - visionary even, but what would you expect?

The idea is that Change This is series of Manifesto’s written by a selection big names (eg Tom Peters, Seth himself, Scoble), not so big names and some with books to promote. The latter category is just as valid, incidentally, especially if they’re sharing a goodly part of the book free. The common element is that they all have a strong point of view, which is worth a lot in these days of fudge and sitting on the fence.

Tom Peters’ This I Believe is as brilliant as ever, especially if you haven’t come across his work and are a senior employee of Mega-Gigantic Corp. I confess it was a little disappointing for me, as he hasn’t really said very much that’s new (for him).

But with so much of the world still not getting the message, it’s still a great read.

There’s too many manifestos to cover in depth. Check them out.

But one I really liked is How to be a Boor by Elly Markson.

When I first went skiing, I took lessons, which seemed a good way of avoiding inflicting pain and death to myself and others. A pair of skis or a snow board on the wrong feet are lethal weapons.

So I was frankly amazed that you didn’t have to pass some simple exam before you were allowed a ski pass. Nothing heavy, just that you were basically competent.

I think the same applies to email - you need to understand the basic rules like NOT WRITING IN CAPS or passing virus warning hoaxes on to everyone in your address book. If you don’t know or don’t abide by these rules, your email licence should be removed and sharp objects inserted in painful places all over your body. Notice I’m not sitting on fences either
So, Elly’s manifesto should be required reading. Make your kids read it. Make those “Friends” who bombard you with bad jokes read it. And make those fools who send out virus warnings read it - no need for subtlety here, just send it to them.

And let’s make this digital world a better place.

Well done Seth and team.

I see that Scalado, the Swedish imaging specialist - as in camera phone image - has raised c $ 2 million.

Their main product currently seems to be PhotoTwister that

lets you make cool & twisted photos in a flash. Choose between a wide range of different warp filters, all with funny and hip effects. Give your dad a big belly, your sister enormous ears or your favorite pet a gigantic nose. Additionally you can add paint features to your photos that will transform your friend into a cartoon. Scalado PhotoTwister is very easy to use and shows your twisted warp photo in real-time.

But they have some more serious stuff too.

As you’ll know I think there’s huge opportunities in camera phone imaging and I’d say that they’re a much better bet than all the money that’s been piling into Java Games at the moment.

I featured these guys a while back, but since then The Mobile Phone Directory has been coming on in veritable leaps and bounds.

It’s a free resource for the mobile community - from the casually interested to the deeply techie, who needs the latest specs on handsets.

Check it out.

Firstly, welcome to my 100th BlogLines RSS subscriber - nice to have you on board, along with the original 99 of course!

Many people who read blogs are actually bloggers themselves, which means that many people who read this are (de facto) bloggers! In fact, if you read this and aren’t a blogger, drop me a comment below.

Based on that logic, I loved this comment on Business Blog Consulting via BigBlogCompany

A corporate blog is just like a personal blog, except you donít get to use the word “motherfucker.”

ó Mark Pilgram

On another blogging topic, there’s a nice article on how to get blogging on Simon’s World, which is great for newbies and more established bloggers alike. Scoble, you can stop reading now
Simon gives the 50 rules of blogging, some quirky, some sad, but all true in my experience. I especially liked Rule 14

14. There are some good ways to attract attention to yourself and your blog. These can be broken down into the following:
a) talk about your sexual experiences a lot. This works far better for women than men.
b) have something interesting and new to say. This works far better for those that understand the basics of English grammar.
c) quirky slice-of-life types who are actually quirky. This works far better for those that are interesting people in real life.
d) humour sites. This works far better for those that are funny.
e) niche sites. There may well be a strong readership for those interested in mountain goats. It helps if you talk about stuff you know about.
f) be an iconoclast. If you are controversial you are likely to generate debate and people will come back for another look. The important thing is to be coherent and have a rational body of thought rather than a series of random pronouncements.

And when preparing a list (like 50 things about blogging), rule 49 is useful too.

49. So sometimes a list needs padding to make it to a nice round number.

Seriously, it’s worth checking out.

Roll up, roll up.

For those of you who enjoyed reading my turn at hosting Carnival of the Capitalists last week, you might like to check out this week’s excellent selection of writing and musings at New Dog Old Trick.

Check out the blog while you’re there - some great stuff.

According to Reuters Vodafone and Nokia are joining forces to make java (J2ME) easier to use across a wider range of handsets.

At the moment consumers have a limited choice of Java programs such as games because it too expensive for operators and software makers to make the available on all handsets.

In reality, however, software developers need to make adjustments to cope with different screen sizes and other specifications. This accounts for 40 percent of the cost of initial software development, software companies have said.

Subtext - yes, it really is a bitch to develop and test.

“The initiative has received widespread support from leading representatives of the mobile industry, including Orange, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Sun and T-Mobile International ,” Vodafone and Nokia said in a statement.

“It is expected that a number of these companies will join Nokia and Vodafone to become members of the expert group for the specifications created by this initiative,” they added.

Phew, I’m glad Sun have pledged their support to their own platform. Though I’m still not convinced that they understand the power that they’re potentially sitting on.

According to Moco News our friends at Nokia have stopped calling phones errr…..phones. The new lexicon du jour is terminal

because, from their point of view, weíve already evolved away from the phone towards a converged device that combines things such as FM radio, digital camera, MP3 player.

I absolutely agree that we need a new word and that “phone” no longer hacks it. But Terminal? I don’t like it, I’m afraid - purely semantically really, as it’s a pretty ugly word.

Ditto Smartphone, PDA, WID (Wireless Integrated Device).

I haven’t got a better answer though. Any ideas anyone?

Or maybe “phone” will come to encapsulate all the things that it can actually do, not just the voice element.

The New York Times has an amusing silly-season story about iPods. Specifically how a bunch of people are convinced that it’s pre-programed to prefer certain tracks over others.

The evidence? Put your iPod on Shuffle and hear it for yourself.

Lucy Shaw, a social worker in New York, has stopped using Shuffle altogether. “It was totally not reading my moods,” she said. It would play upbeat music when she was feeling low, and dark, somber selections when she was feeling upbeat. Furthermore, she said, her device had a penchant for picking songs containing four minutes of dead air followed by a bonus track - like Roxy Music’s “More Than This” (the song to which Bill Murray sings karaoke in “Lost in Translation,” a bonus track on the film’s soundtrack album).

These people are not the only ones who think that iPods have minds of their own. IPod enthusiasts are throwing all manner of Shuffle conspiracy theories around on Internet message boards, ranging from the somewhat plausible to the absurd.

The truth, according to Apple, is much more boring:

if you listened on Shuffle to all 1,000 songs stored on an iPod Mini, you would theoretically never hear the same song twice, much the way you would never get two queens of hearts if you pulled cards from a single deck one by one. (Conversely, if you select Random on the iTunes Smart Playlist function, you might hear the same song twice in a row, though it is unlikely.)

But they would say that, wouldn’t they?

But in the week where Freshers at Duke University are all given their own branded iPods, is preprogramming prefs into iPods such a silly idea?

In the case of Duke, they could ensure that students must listen to recorded lectures before rapping along with 50 Cent.

Or music companies could even subsidise iPod purchases to people who are known to be cool music sneezers in the community.

In return, these people would need to listen to new tracks from breaking artists or commit to a certain amount of music purchases from a specific label or artist. It’s a little like operators subsidising handsets.

I’d like one please!