Broadband access to the home, change is needed now.

There needs to be a better model of access to the home. With the potential that IP-based services offer, it's a shame to have only one service provider – or two, if you're lucky, that ultimately dictate broadband access policies for your home. What are annoying issues with my provider today will become paramount tomorrow. Small issues such as IP address assignment, hosting restrictions (for those that think a server might actually play a role in the home), and of course cost and reliability guarantees. Can I trust my broadband service provider (in my case, Comcast) to do the right thing by me when it comes time to expand services in my home? Today, there are policies, mostly not enforced, that restrict the number of PCs, the types of devices - such as routers, etc., that you can have installed and 'officially' supported. Since the policies are only randomly enforced they produce little conflict today. As more and more services are enabled through IP communication and more home media and home automation solutions are brought to market, will your broadband provider do the right then? It seems we have to trust that they will give the trajectory of the market and the regulatory bodies governing this critical piece of infrastructure.

In an article silicon.com - Q&A: Vint Cerf on VoIP: Vint Cerf talks about VoIP but also argues this same point:

"The Bells' fibre to the home initiative dredges up some pretty complex regulatory issues, correct?
I haven't been a very happy camper about the regulatory positions taken on this. These new networks all ought to be openly accessible to any ISP for a reasonable price. If that were the policy, then every customer, business or consumer would have a choice of ISPs over those broadband facilities. Under the current situation, there's almost no choice. So that's a far more restrictive environment than we had with dial-up. Broadband shouldn't be any different, but it is based on my current understanding of the triennial review by the Federal Communications Commission. I've been arguing we should really open up all these broadband facilities. "

Replay Radio - Internet Radio Recorder

Replay Radio - Internet Radio Recorder: "Replay Radio is an incredibly easy way to record radio broadcasts. Just pick your favorite radio show, or select a station and a time range, and Replay Radio records it for you. It's like a VCR for the radio. Now you can listen to your favorite radio shows whenever and wherever you like! (Click here for a screenshot tour.) "

Haven't tried this but it could be an interesting gadget for quick radio listening - although I wish Gotuit Audio would emerge into product mode!

Fast Company | The New Normal

Fast Company | The New Normal: "Here's the 'normal' part of the New Normal. If there's anything you need to understand about this environment, it's that the time scale has returned to a more rational level. Internet time measured everything in days or weeks. New Normal time is measured in years (probably not 3; more like 5 to 7, or even 10)."

An interesting Q&A with Roger McNamee (founder of Silver Lake Partners) with lots of sage advice for entrepreneurs based on his view of the economy and tech market.

Ananova - £150,000 for 'ultimate boy's toy'

Ananova - £150,000 for 'ultimate boy's toy': "The ultimate 'boy's toy' - a high-speed land and water vehicle - has been launched on the River Thames."

It's the kind of vehicle I would buy if I built my house where it didn't belong (you know, homes in designated flood zone and costal water homes).

AT&T to offer DSL in more areas | CNET News.com

AT&T to offer DSL in more areas | CNET News.com: "The telecommunications giant on Thursday said it would offer digital subscriber line (DSL) service to customers in Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey. The expansion builds on an announcement in July, when AT&T began offering DSL to customers in New York.
In each of these areas, pricing for the DSL service will be $19.95 for the first three months, and then $39.95 every month after. AT&T will offer a plan with faster download speeds for $49.95 a month as well. The charges are in addition to the normal cost of the phone service. All services will be offered through a partnership to resell DSL lines offered by Covad Communications. "

Somehow I think I'll still be an island floating outside the reasonable CO radius...but I can hope (2 years and counting on the Verizon 'call list' when they get DSL near my house)

Big Blue's New Experiments in Real-Time Communications

Big Blue's New Experiments in Real-Time Communications: "One early, yet promising project at the company is known as Socializer. It's a prototype of an open, distributed, peer-to-peer platform with capabilities including chatting, file transfers, application sharing and broadcasting and discovery of services.
Socializer users can create profiles and exchange personal information with others, and in finding others with whom to collaborate, can search and filter by profile information.

Socializer users can create profiles and exchange personal information with others, and in finding others with whom to collaborate, can search and filter by profile information. "

It's nice to hear IBM thinking about new ways to collaborate but I suspect it's going to take more than skunk-work projects to continue the necessary advances...

Tivo and the supposed first mover advantage

First Mover Disadvantage: Forbes Online has an article this morning that discusses TiVo and the slower than expected adoption rate of the device given all of the praise:
'That's really remarkable,' says Adi Kishore, a media and entertainment analyst for the Yankee Group in Boston. 'I can't think of any product that has had the satisfaction levels it has had but has been as sluggish in terms of the growth of the market. It's certainly unusual for a product to have this kind of enthusiasm from the community that's using it without being able to tip over and really become a mass-market phenomenon.'
Currently, TiVo, which hit the market more than four years ago, serves fewer than 800,000 subscribers. Only about 1% of America's households employ TiVo or similar digital video-recording products, according to the Consumer Electronic Association. By comparison, market penetration for DVD players has hit 41% and is rising, making it one of the most rapidly embraced products in history.
The article goes on to argue that TiVo suffers from a first mover disadvantage: it's a product that will create a market but only appeal to early adopters who will quickly churn out to the next greatest thing. There is no doubt that TiVo has had to create this market itself and suffers from the same arrows in the back that have taken many pioneers down.
But to me, TiVo suffers from another great entrepreneurial problem -- it's a feature, not a product. I have the bundled DirecTV/TiVo and it works beautifu"

Two intereting points here via VentureBlog: The first is the reality of what it takes to be a feature vs a product; the second is that I was recently told only scouts take arrows in the back - pioneers take them in the chest ;)

Google Toolbar 'BlogThis' Rankles Rivals

Google Toolbar 'BlogThis' Rankles Rivals: "Search technology powerhouse Google has released a new beta of its popular Internet Explorer toolbar, adding bells and whistles for surfers. But the integration of a 'BlogThis' feature isn't sitting well with some blog software firms.
Just months after its acquisition of the Blogger 'push-button' Web publishing platform, Google has added a 'BlogThis' feature in version 2.0 of the toolbar. But because it's exclusive to Blogger users, rival firms are worried Google might use its wild popularity to sideline the competition.
'BlogThis' automatically connects to Blogger accounts to let uses create a Weblog post pointing to the page on the browser. But, that exclusivity means users of rival blogging software -- like Radio UserLand and Six Apart's Movable Type -- have been shut out completely.
UserLand CEO Dave Winer posted a mock blogger image Thursday, chiding Google for missing an opportunity to be generous to the Weblogging community."

[SAD] oops, I'm sorry I didn't know that businesses were supposed to be generous. It does demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of concentrated power. Since Microsoft, supposedly, is focusing their sights on Google it will be interesting to see how Google uses its dominant position to squelch those nipping at its ankles.

Microsoft Unveils Collaborative Development Environment

Microsoft Unveils Collaborative Development Environment: "Moving to create a collaborative environment for .NET developers similar to what SourceForge offers for open source, Microsoft (Quote, Company Info) last week opened the doors to GotDotNet Workspace 1.0.
GotDotNet is Microsoft's community site related to its Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN). 'GotDotNet's focus is definitely on community features and content driven by the community,' Katherine Lagana, MSDN team, general manager of GotDotNet, told internetnews.com.
Workspace is an online collaborative development environment where .NET developers can create, host and manage projects throughout the project lifecycle.
...
While many of the features of Workspace are similar to those offered through Microsoft's Sharepoint Services, Lagana said Workspace is not based on Sharepoint Services. "The origins are different," she said. "We're focused on hardcore coders who want to access each other across companies and continents. Sharepoint is targeted at all audiences. Workspace is dedicated to the developer."

[SAD] The model, whether it is competing against the open source world or just prep work for the larger outsourcing world, is a good one overall.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Tools reveal secret life of documents

BBC NEWS | Technology | Tools reveal secret life of documents: "Every time you write or edit these files you leave a trail of information revealing what you did and when you did it.
Even if you turn off the change tracking options in popular word processing packages, background tasks keep a minimal log of what happened when. "

"Mr Murfitt from Mekon said many firms were now looking at installing systems that make it easier to collaborate on documents and that log who did what. He said banking and legal regulators imposed strict working practices on firms that force them to record the life histories of documents that result in new products or are involved in court cases."

Microsoft offers free e-book downloads | CNET News.com

Microsoft offers free e-book downloads | CNET News.com: "In a move aimed at bolstering the use of its Microsoft Reader program, the software giant announced on Wednesday that it would offer free downloads of e-book bestsellers over a 20-week period. "

"As part of the five-month promotion, users can download three e-books a week from Microsoft's Web site via a Pocket PC, a Tablet PC, a laptop or a desktop. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, and Fear Itself by Walter Mosley are among the titles offered."

[SAD] Hmm, three books a week for 5 months - OK, I'll give it a try!

Venture Capital: Dashboard device helps navigate road jams

[SAD] and then there is the ostrich approach to new advances...

"Metro Networks, which provides traffic information to most of Seattle's TV and radio stations, is not using the TrafficGauge system for its daily reports, general manager Gary Taylor said. With three airplanes and a helicopter, Taylor said, his company's reports provide much more detail than anything a commuter would receive over a hand-held device."

[SAD] I don't want to go out on a ledge, but I suspect media and computers might merge some day, even in the car!

NET Act: 17 U.S.C. and 18 U.S.C. as amended (redlined)

[SAD] For those curious Kazza, et al, users who want to know what laws they are violating...I suspect this will be one of the least read entries in the blog! ;-)

Business 2.0 - Web Article - Can't Get to That Meeting? Send a Bot.

Business 2.0 - Web Article - Can't Get to That Meeting? Send a [ro]Bot. HP Labs recently invited a bunch of journalists to check out the company's latest experiment, a robotic meeting surrogate that turns teleconferencing into telepresence. The idea is that if you have to attend a remote meeting, you virtually "inhabit" the surrogate bot and send it in your place (one assumes that the bot would already be at or near the meeting location). After all, if the military can separate its pilots from its airplanes with a remote-control link, why can't the ordinary business traveler separate his body from the conference room?

WSJ.com - Nullsoft Founder Frankel Says He Intends to Resign

WSJ.com - Nullsoft Founder Frankel Says He Intends to Resign Justin Frankel, 24, announced his intentions late Monday on his Web site, less than a week after a file-sharing program called Waste was posted and then pulled from the Nullsoft Web site.
"The company controls the most effective means of self-expression I have," he said in his Web log. "This is unacceptable to me as an individual, therefore I must leav (sic). I don't know when it will be, but I'm not going to last much longer."

File-Sharing Program Slips Out of AOL Offices

File-Sharing Program Slips Out of AOL Offices Whatever Mr. Frankel's cause, AOL was anything but enthusiastic. Less than 24 hours after the new program was released, the company pulled it from the Nullosft site. On Friday evening, it posted a stern warning informing anyone who had obtained a copy that the release had not been authorized.
"You acquired no lawful rights to the software and must destroy any and all copies of the software, including by deleting it from your computer," the notice reads. "Any license that you may believe you acquired with the software is void, revoked and terminated."

I bet this will be the last time nullsoft will 'slip' anything out the door. What's interesting is there was a lot of talk about 'Waste' prior to the release...so it's amazing they were able to leak it out in the first place...

Wired News: So Much for the Freelance Economy

Wired News: So Much for the Freelance Economy The trend suggests that predictions of an economy run by freelancers -- such as those made by Daniel Pink in his book Free Agent Nation, and by MIT's Thomas Malone and Robert Laubacher in their 1998 paper, "The Dawn of the E-Lance Economy" -- were shortsighted.
In 2000, research firm EPIC/MRA of Lansing, Michigan, estimated that 41 percent of all Americans would be private contractors by 2010. But today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that self-employment numbers have not grown at all over the past four years.

Amazon.com Web Services Announces Trio of Milestones - New Tool Kit, Enhanced Web Site and 25,000 Developers in the Program

Amazon.com Web Services Announces Trio of Milestones - New Tool Kit, Enhanced Web Site and 25,000 Developers in the Program "Software Development Kit 3.0 is our best offering to third-parties to date," said Colin Bryar, Amazon.com Director of Web Services and Associates. "We are confident that the rich features available in the new offering and the robust Web site for developers will allow developers to create innovative applications that leverage the Amazon.com platform for merchandising products."

The third party developer program and general web services model showing its usefulness across many markets - shopping, auctions, search, etc.

NapaNews.com | Being tech savvy part of life for Silicon Valley youth

NapaNews.com | Being tech savvy part of life for Silicon Valley youth Instant messaging rules the digital conversation landscape, the survey found. Two-thirds of those online use it, while 40 percent spend time in chat rooms or post to message boards.

The report, Where Next For Mobile Messaging? Driving revenues profitably and controlling cannibalisation, forecasts revenues growing from USD31 billion in 2002 (USD13 billion in Western Europe) to USD69 billion by 2007 (USD25 billion in Western Europe), provided that operators take immediate action to drive service growth and control cannibalisation of existing revenues. Total messaging volumes, comprising SMS, MMS and mobile instant messaging/email, are forecast to quadruple from 670 billion in 2002 (131 billion in Western Europe) to 2600 billion in 2007 (607 billion in Western Europe). (Charts available to journalists on request.)
...
"Buddy lists, presence information and integration with fixed network services make mobile instant messaging a potentially attractive service for many. Some mobile instant messaging and email services are being priced at a substantially lower level than SMS. There is a real risk of these services cannibalising existing revenues, and an even greater threat from third-party competitive services."