The step after that is technical obstructionism -- traffic shaping and other techniques to disadvantage the Yahoos and the Googles. That's where those shipping container data centers come in. Parked at the peering point, sitting on the same SONET ring as the local telephone company, Google will have done as much as it possibly can to reduce any network disadvantage. By leveraging its own fiber backbone Google not only further avoids such interference, it has a chance to gain a step or two through better routing or more generous backbone provisioning. What's stored IN the data centers is important, but how they are CONNECTED is equally important.

Already happening!

I, Cringely - The Sweet Spot

A federation is an association of organizations that use a common set of attributes, practices, and policies to exchange information about their users and resources in order to enable secure, authenticated collaborations and transactions. In a sense, a federation is like a village, but it is not geographically defined. In Internet2, we now have global federations of scientists, artists, and students working on joint projects. I believe that in the future, trusted communities and federations will enable Internet users to receive only the information they want, and because communication must be authenticated, all unwanted information can be easily traced back to its true source, eliminating the anonymity of spammers and scammers.

Indeed. Trust, reputation, and credibility will be the keys to greasing the wheels of everything. Unfortunately, I don't see them gaining traction without weakening privacy and liberty.

Next-Generation Networks

Apple's Mac mini will be reborn as the digital hub centerpiece it was originally conceived to be, Think Secret sources have disclosed. The new Mac mini project, code-named Kaleidoscope, will feature an Intel processor and include both Front Row 2.0 and TiVo-like DVR functionality.

Please be true.
Please be true.
Please be true.
Please be true.
Please be true.

Reborn Mac mini set to take over the living room

From this base, a small group of determined geeks is using solar- and pedal-powered voice-over-internet-protocol phones and Wi-Fi to bring local, national and international dialing to remote areas of the world, beginning with a few villages in western Uganda where nothing resembling a telephone system has ever existed.

This says two things to me. First, you have a situation where underdeveloped areas of the world can literally leap frog the first world in a few short years. It's very conceivable that these kinds of deployments will become commonplace and will enable tremendous development to happen in these remote areas in a short period of time.

The second thing it says to me is that the $48B market cap of a company like Bellsouth is absolutely ridiculous. Bellsouth isn't worth even a tenth of that if you can put together this kind of infrastructure with off the shelf parts, relatively little cost, and some elbow grease. Sure, things like provisioning, billing, E911 service and network management are not cheap or easy things. But what's that worth? Maybe $500M. Considering that most of Bellsouth's customer base is in highly rural areas, areas that are usually subsidized from urban customers and taxes, it totally makes sense that you could disrupt this entire business model with relatively small capital outlay.

Yes, I'm thinking about doing that again.

VOIP Phones Give Villagers a Buzz

In a little over a year the amount of traffic flowing across Linx has risen from approximately 30 gigabits per second to more than 67 Gbit/s. In 2000 it was barely hitting 5 Gbit/s, the equivalent of a DVD film every 10 seconds.

It was bound to happen, but still, when you dig out the projections of net traffic growth from 1997 and compare them to today's numbers, we're spot on. No one was really smoking that much crack.

Maturing net growing more slowly

“When power’s out, the first 24 hours can be crucial to saving lives,” says Lyon. “If the system is already in place, and if a disaster strikes and takes out power, our network will still be operational. They are also very portable, so if FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] has a supply of them, they can move into an area that has lost power and set it up very quickly, mobilize search and rescue, do resource management. The infrastructure would already be in place, it could be functioning with VoIP all the time. For instance, the tsunami area… it would have made a major difference in that area. There are smaller examples all over the world.”

BRILLIANT!

Boulder Gets Solar-Powered Wi-Fi

Technology evolves. Good technologies and products usually survive; poor ones usually go extinct. But not all of the technologies and tech products that have swirled down the drain of the tech gene pool deserved their fate. Here are some big, and some small, ideas that we thought we'd have with us forever, but that unfortunately have gone the way of the dodo.

Some of this list is fluff, but they hit the nail on the head for a few items (#1, 4, and 5, plus the hint that's burried in #2, 3, and 6)

Top 10 tech we miss

In the past Microsoft's approach to standards was simple, and went by the mantra "embrace and extend".
...
So what would it mean for Microsoft to try to "embrace and extend" Linux? It might go something like this.

I've been saying this all along. The best way (only?) for MS to eliminate the Linux threat is to 'embrace and extend' it. Just like they did for the browser and Internet technologies abroad (SMTP, etc). The more that they play the game and use their considerable resources to extend it, the more they will disintermediate the Linux cycle.

It's a bit more of a leap of faith, since MS has primarily accumulated power from hiding their IP. But by exposing some of your IP, you'll be able to quickly become the leading and most powerful open source player in the galaxy. This position will undermine almost every other oss project that you have an alternative to, and therefore you will dominate this market as well.

I seriously thought they would've done this by now, but this miscalculation on their part might become the beginning of the end for them.

Opening up challenges to Microsoft

In so stating, I thank those researchers who are genuinely motivated by the public good, most of whom never get the headlines of their more notorious brethren. I also acknowledge that the vendor community needs to improve the quality of commercial software so we have far fewer vulnerabilities.

I found this timely, given the current circumstances. I think she makes valid points, but it's kinda like decrying teenagers for being poor drivers. Duh! Not everyone is going to have the same level of professionalism and decorum. I think in the current Cisco case, Michael covered his bases well and with integrity. For that, he should not be vilified.

When security researchers become the problem

The networking giant and Internet Security Systems jointly filed a request Wednesday for a temporary restraining order against Michael Lynn and the organizers of the Black Hat security conference.

We may need to start a legal defense fund for Michael.

The thing that really gets me about these occurances, is how is this not equivalent to whistle blowing? I mean, if this was a disease or a terrorist threat that you had discovered and you published it or exposed it, you'd be lauded as a hero. But because there's technology involved, then you're a target and a criminal.

Cisco hits back at flaw researcher