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Sorry Galan fans, he is not returning to Bryant Park to keep it pigeon and chihuahua free. But maybe he will make a guest appearance at Central Park’s Falconry Extravaganza. Anyone missing the aerial hijinks of Galan and friends since their grounding won’t want to miss this event. Bringing a ratdog is optional, but might make for a more exciting show. Saturday October 18th, 12-4 PM - East Meadow

According to Gizmodo, Jeff Pulver’s Free World Dialup is working with Vonage to make their Wi-Fi phone compatible with the Vonage network. This would allow Free World Dialup users to make calls to any phone number anywhere they can get a Wi-Fi connection.

Starting October 3rd LimoLiner will begin luxury bus service from Midtown to Boston. Amenities include seat side power and Internet for your surfing pleasure, reclining leather seats and fresh flowers in the washroom. There is even a private room where you and nine of your colleagues can hold a “meeting before the meeting”. Ah yes, there’s nothing like a four hour meeting while bouncing down the highway to get you prepped for that important presentation. I’ll hand it to the folks at LimoLiner, they’re really trying to take some of the stigma away from bus travel. I’m surprised they didn’t mention the azure water in the toilet as being an “extra touch”. Perhaps they will be able to elevate coach travel to its former glory. Remember when Greyhound and Bonanza were associated with luxury rather than being mugged at the Port Authority? Neither do I. Do yourself a favor and take the train.

via Gothamist and Gawker

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of Segway scooters. A segway operating with low battery power might not remain upright and cause the rider to fall. Perhaps George W can blame his embarrassing fall on dead batteries.

via Gizmodo

Transport for London is rolling out a new smart card to replace the paper tickets currently in use. The Oyster uses RFID technology so one does not even need to take it out of their wallet to pay for their ride on the bus or tube. Riders can recharge their cards via phone or Internet as well as in the station. The new card also allows people to have more than one kind of ticket on the same card. The downside is that Transport for London has admitted that they will store the information about people’s movement around the system “for a number of years”. As one can imagine, civil rights organizations are expressing some concerns.

It seems that Transport for London should be able to respond to these concerns by anonymizing the individual’s information a bit. I think everyone can see the benefit of a card like this. For instance, if you loose your Oyster, you can get a new one and retain the tickets you have already purchased. Conversely, if one looses the $70 unlimited Metrocard they just bought, they have no choice but to buy another. Transport for London says they will use the information collected by the system for planning. If that is the case, then there is no need to link a trip someone took a year ago to the individual’s personal information. Unlinking personal information from the journey seems like it would yield all of the benefits of this new system without all the concerns about privacy.

via Slashdot

In Geek Eye for the Luddite Guys Fortune magazine gives $15,000 to the “Fab 3″ to outfit a low-tech family with all the latest gadgetry, in three days. There is no talk of a TV deal yet, but even if there were, I think it’s unlikely that the show could steal any of Queer Eye’s thunder.

via Slashdot

Talking Street offers a guided cell phone walking tour of the Lower East Side narrated by Jerry Stiller. Just download the map and call the toll free number. The tour, titled Birthplace of Dreams, is offered free of charge. This is an excellent idea, we will probably see a more of these popping up soon.

via Textually

Newsday reports that the Library Hotel in Manhattan is being sued for using the Dewey Decimal System. The hotel has classified each floor by a Dewey category and each room covers a certain topic. For instance, on the 3rd floor, room 300.003 is dedicated to Economics. Unfortunately for the hotel, the Online Computer Library System, owner of the rights to the Dewey system, has filed suit since the Library hotel has not paid a licencing fee to use the numbering system. The OCLC is seeking three times the hotel’s profits or three times the organization’s damages, whichever is greater. Considering that they only charge libraries $500 per year to use the system, these damages seem a bit excessive. Maybe the hotel could just offer a free Erotica Package as settlement.

via Slashdot

Wired reports that November’s mobile number portability is overshadowing the fact that customers will also be able to transfer their land line numbers to their mobile carriers.

via Textually

Time Warner Cable filed suit against Chelsea’s London Terrace Towers and iNYC Wireless claiming that they are illegally selling wireless access to Road Runner service to residents. Allegedly, the Road Runner signal from the super’s apartment was redistributed via Wi-Fi transmitters throughout the building. Time Warner Cable is seeking a court order to stop the redistribution of their signal and monetary damages from the ISP as well as the London Terrace co-op, superintendent and managing agent.

If Time Warner’s allegations are true, it would seem that iNYC Wireless needs to seriously rethink how they provision their Internet access. It would be interesting to know if they are paying for commercial service from Time Warner, or standard residential service. If it is in fact residential service, then this is a pretty flagrant act on the part of the ISP. But if they have commercial service, this could be an interesting case indeed. Either way, I doubt that the building had any knowledge of what was going on, but I’m sure this suit will be a hot topic at their next co-op meeting.

Update: Here is a Newsday story from earlier in the week.