Smile, it makes people nervous.

Today on a conference call, while waiting for everybody to join:

(1) Did you hear, Verizon is buying Yahoo?
(2) [Pause] Why!?
(1) Who knows. Maybe they wanted a portal?
(3) You can build a portal from scratch for cheaper.
(1) True. But there are dedicated Yahoo users, maybe Verizon wanted something with built-in community?
(3) I don't think those three people are worth 4.8 billion dollars.

Amazon just bought Goodreads.

Those of you who use Instagram might want to check out their new terms of service which now state that they own the rights to photos posted using the service and can sell them to advertisers without user's consent and with no compensation:

''You agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.''

Governor Chris Christie ordered rationing of gasoline sales in 12 New Jersey counties to ease the misery of motorists waiting in miles-long lines for gasoline after Hurricane Sandy.

The so-called odd-even system is based on the last numeral of a vehicle’s license plate, according to a statement from his office late today. Drivers with odd numbered-plates can buy fuel on odd-numbered days, starting tomorrow, Nov. 3.

I wonder what are people with vanity plates with no numerals supposed to do, though?

N. got back to NY from DC today and thankfully discovered that the tank in our car was full (the car has been in LI at his folks' all this time). We had to figure the optimal trajectory for him, to spend the least amount of gas while fulfilling all his familial obligations, in case the situation didn't improve over the next week. Not that either of us will be in NY next week.

The other day Google revealed to the whole network engineering community how they cobbled together conceptually new switch to interconnect their data centers. Networking community acted cool and pretended it wasn't dying of envy.

We got an honorable mention even though we didn't have to solder our own switches.

I am overfed, overworked and oversocialized. And tomorrow I am heading from one gathering of geeks to another.

I saw two references to a recent article in The New York Times and subject struck me as interesting enough to actually go and read it. "How Companies Learn Your Secrets" uses Target's effort to identify its pregnant customers, Target coyly refers to them as 'guests', to talk about habit forming. It's fascinating to read about "the loop of cue, routine, reward" and how one can form or break a habit by identifying each stage and consciously acting to reinforce or change it. Large companies had learned about these behavioral patterns some years ago and have been using them to affect our shopping routines ever since. What I found most interesting, though, was that it's assumed that customers would react negatively if they found out about this practice. Basically, it's taken as a given that people would take offense at the spying and lash out, i.e. not buy the product or stop frequenting a store caught in this behavior.

I must be a complete freak but I like the idea of being profiled as long as it's to our mutual benefit. For instance, if a store after studying my buying habits starts offering me coupons for the exact products I always buy or, better yet, figures out the frequency with which I run out of certain products, packs them up, delivers them to my door and (hell, why not, since we are in a full dream mode at this point) comes and unpacks them, I will remain loyal to the day they go out of business. And I am very easy to profile, I always buy exact same things. If a particular store doesn't have my preferred items, I would go out of my way to another store instead of buying a substitute. If General Mills ever stops making my favorite cereal, I will probably have a nervous breakdown. The problem I have is with the stores that go the other route instead. Take for instance Stop&Shop. They do figure out what you buy and then give you coupons for those things but of different brands in - vain, in my case, - hopes that you might give them a try. It might even be more pernicious than that and they pretend to give you discounts knowing full well they are useless and will not be used. Completely annoying either way.

So, yeah, as long as it makes my life easier, I am all for behavioral profiling, they don't even have to put lawn mowers in my ad booklets. Of course, there is no conveniently situated Target around here.

Siftables, small computer blocks that can sense proximity to each other and react accordingly, originally developed by MIT Media Lab, are now available as a product from a start-up company Sifteo. They demoed it at CES where their early access offering was sold out even before the show opened up. Seems like a cool little toy.

Analysts are expecting Apple to follow in Google's footsteps and have the next generation iPhones and iPads include near-field communication (NFC) technology. That will allow them to be used as swipe-to-pay devices, eliminating the need to carry around credit cards, coupons, etc. Provided you want to trust that kind of information to your phone, of course. It all might line up pretty nicely with the joint venture by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless that was announced last year called Isis. Isis is going to be a "nationwide mobile commerce network" that will utilize NFC to facilitate various transactions. It should go operational sometime next year.

NFC has been around for a while and it's already being used, in Japan, for instance, to pay for purchases using a phone. I think previously the idea was, when you pay with the phone you see the charge on your phone bill, but now the paradigm seems to be changing. There is no guarantee Apple will also partner with Isis, they might just not surprise anybody and build their own competing service.

In another bit of related news, Verizon Wireless is going to offer a $30 unlimited data plan with their new iPhone due in stores Feb 10.

Yep, it's official. CDMA iPhone will be available on Verizon, you can pre-order starting Feb 3 and buy in stores on Feb 10. One major difference from the currently existing iPhones, besides the CDMA antenna, of course, is the 5 device WiFi hotspot capability.

Keep in mind, that on CDMA network, if you use the phone, you lose your data connection, unless you stick to an over-the-top VoIP client.

Verizon is finally launching its 4G network. To be more accurate, they are branding it 4G, even though it does not meet ITU's definition of the standard (that would require a minimum of 100Mbps down speeds, for starters), nor do any of the other commercially available "4G" networks, as far as I know. Anyhow, starting today you can buy an LTE USB modem for use on the Verizon network. There are two devices available at the moment, discounted to $49.99 with a 2 year contract and after a $50 rebate. They come with two data plan options: 5GB for $50 and 10GB for $80. Each additional gig will cost you $10. Network itself will be available in a number of major cities on both coasts and in between and in at least 38 major airports. Promised data rates are 5Mbps-12Mbps down and 2Mbps-5Mbps up under load conditions. Both devices are also backward compatible with the existing 3G EV-DO network.

Smart phones that can make use of VZ LTE should start popping up mid next year. No word on iPhone yet, but I am now suspecting we won't see one at VZ until an LTE one comes out (mmm.. 2012?) but don't quote me on it :) I am more partial to Android anyway, so don't much care. I do care for the MiFi and will wait to upgrade to LTE until an equivalent device becomes available.