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Martyn Davies

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Principal Consultant, Weird Crater

154 points

An engineer by training, Martyn is a well-weathered professional with experience of many parts of the technology business from the R&D backroom through to the conference auditorium.

Jan. 10, 2012

Martyn Davies and 6 other people answered this question

Will VOIP survive beyond 2012?

Many of the “cheap call minutes” applications for mobile are not strictly “VoIP” applications, but rather use a strategy of making a conventional “in-bundle” call to a local point-of-presence, and from there the call is routed over a cheap international/long distance route to its destination. ... more

Information Technology

Dec. 22, 2011

Martyn Davies recommends this answer by Andrew Baker

What is the most jargon-laden area of technology?

Hmmm... Telecom... That's probably a fair bet.
I expect that information security is pretty heavily jargon laden as well, since it is cross discipline and must utilize some of the jargon of other elements of information technology.
One thing, though: Regardless of which industry we're talking about, ... more

Information Technology

Dec. 22, 2011

Martyn Davies recommends this answer by Andrew Baker

What are some IT-related acronyms that professionals should familiarize themselves with?

Every industry has its jargon, and it can be quite confusing to those outside the industry.
I think that the acronyms you need to know are dependent upon what you need to do and with whom you need to converse.
I could only present a list of ... more

Information Technology

Data Management

Technology Adoption

Oct. 21, 2011

Martyn Davies is now following Rob Enderle and 7 other people

Sept. 5, 2011

Martyn Davies and 3 other people answered this question at this roundtable

The Wireless Enterprise [9/21 @ 1 pm]

Can wireless LANs really serve all corporate communications and networking functions?

Wireless is increasingly used because it's so convenient. Office life is more and more dominated by nomadic devices (laptops, netbooks, tablets and smartphones), which near-universally have WiFi built-in. There is an expectation among users that they should be able to enrol and use any device ... more

Information Technology

Sept. 2, 2011

Martyn Davies recommends this answer by Contador Harrison

Steve Jobs has resigned. What do you think this means for the future of Apple?

Nikaido,It would be foolish to believe that Apple is a one-man company, though the firm’s desire to focus on its products and not its people means that Jobs’s team is not terribly well known.Apple’s innovations over the last decade are the result of the company’s ... more

Information Technology

Aug. 28, 2011

Martyn Davies recommends this answer by Erik Goldoff

Should Tim Cook's sexual orientation be entirely ignored or explicitly cited as diversity in action?

Personally I don't see any relevance to Tim Cook's sexual preferences with regards to leading Apple. When discussed in the context of technology leadership, his accomplishments and visions are what I care about.
Let the social machine deal with diversity and let the technical be about ... more

Human Resources

Sexual Orientation

Aug. 23, 2011

Martyn Davies and 4 other people answered this question

HP discontinues WebOS devices. Thoughts?

The loss of WebOS is fairly inconsequential. It's not an important platform (in influence or market share) in mobile, and the only tablet device, the HP TouchPad, has only been released for some weeks before being cancelled.
For tablets in particular, the only really useful device ... more

Information Technology

Hewlett-packard

Aug. 12, 2011

Martyn Davies recommends this answer by Rebecca Gill

Is arguing on the internet a bad idea?

Educated debates are good, but negative smear attacks are not. There is a fine line between expressing an opinion and just being nasty. I am 100% in favor of debates if they provide value.
I have had cases where I have tried to respond to a ... more

July 25, 2011

Martyn Davies and 1 other person answered this question

Apple beats out Nokia as top selling smartphone vendor. What is Nokia doing wrong?

Nokia’s OS strategy was a shambles, with Symbian creaking with old age, and the confusion of MeeGo being introduced alongside. The route to market for apps was uncertain, and the developer tools rudimentary. Apple brilliantly built on the MacOS tools they already had to deliver ... more

Information Technology

July 18, 2011

Martyn Davies and 4 other people answered this question

Are you concerned about the security of your voicemails?

Users should at the very least set a PIN, and not one of the easily guessable kind. However, entering PINs (especially of the non-'1111' kind) can be inconvenient on a mobile. and most people will never bother. Also the PIN is a rather inadequate security ... more

Information Technology

July 14, 2011

Martyn Davies and 1 other person answered this question

What value does HTML5 bring to developers? Are there any pitfalls?

HTML5 brings a lot of new functionality that allows web applications to be more standardized and less dependent on custom Javascript and plug-ins. For example, forms can have new input types like “tel” and “url” that allow specific types of data (here telephone numbers and ... more

Information Technology

July 8, 2011

Martyn Davies and 4 other people answered this question

Do you agree that unlimited data plans are not sustainable? What's good about tiered pricing models?

If you have scarcity in a resource then you can do one of two things: either ration it, or use market forces to limit demand for it.
In this case the resource is bandwidth. Up until now, cellcos have rationed it, which is a solution that ... more

Information Technology

July 7, 2011

Martyn Davies and 1 other person answered this question

Microsoft is going to monetize Skype through video ads. Thoughts?

People in mobile and the web have been talking for years about how to use video advertising to make money. There is of course an obvious precedent in TV advertising, which used advertising to great effect over many decades, at least until the advent of ... more

Information Technology

June 10, 2011

Martyn Davies and 2 other people answered this question

Will we eventually see Wi-Fi caps?

First of all, I should say that all companies offering internet access (by whatever access technology) are worried about the rate of growth of data. Since DSL and cable services arrived in the 90's, customers are used to flat-rate charging, but now large-scale downloads and ... more

Information Technology

March 31, 2011

Martyn Davies and 3 other people answered this question

Will IPv6 prove a boon to the spammers?

I cannot see that it makes any difference. Today spammers can function by abandoning IP addresses (IPv4) once they have become "tainted": that is, associated with spam and added to a database such as Spamhaus. With IPv6 this game does not change: Spamhaus can keep ... more

Information Technology

March 11, 2011

Martyn Davies and 14 other people answered this question

What information should you provide in your voice mail greeting?

At least 50% of callers will instantly hang up when they discover that you are not there. The remaining 50% only want reassurance that they called the right number, so you want a brief greeting (in your own voice) inviting them to leave a message. ... more

General Business

March 2, 2011

Martyn Davies and 15 other people answered this question

Do you think Facebook will end the era of Email? What makes Mark Zuckerberg think like that?

There is one thing that I find compelling about Facebook messages, which is that they are accompanied by your profile picture, and with one click the recipient can see your profile and remind themselves "who you are". I have sometimes used FB to send messages ... more

Mark Zuckerberg

Feb. 5, 2011

Martyn Davies recommends this answer by Jesse de Agustin

What are the viable presentation software alternatives to Powerpoint?

I think Prezi is really neat. www.prezi.com Prezi allows the presenter to zoom in and out and basically interact with the presentation - versus a typical powerpoint slide show that, if not approached with great attention and care risks of being a pedantic spell-out of ... more

Information Technology

Powerpoint Alternatives

Presentation Software

Feb. 1, 2011

Martyn Davies and 1 other person answered this question

What are the top requirements to consider when purchasing smartphones for your enterprise?

1. Battery Life
Battery life is always the most important thing. Big touch-screen phones have a great user experience, but the battery life is poor. If possible, choose smartphones with a removable battery so that a spare can be carried (for example the Nokia E series).
2. ... more

Information Technology

Mobile and Wireless

Jan. 27, 2011

Martyn Davies and 4 other people answered this question

When will Femtocells roll out widely in the US?

I am not sure that they ever will be rolled out widely.
Essentially a femtocell only patches up poor cellular coverage in a very small zone, typically a home. 3G technologies have made the coverage poorer for many cellcos, and the physics of high frequencies makes ... more

Information Technology

Mobile Wireless

Dec. 28, 2010

Martyn Davies is now following

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