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| There are great benefits to connectedness, but we haven't wrapped our minds around the costs. |
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| Topic: Telecom Industry |
11:58 pm EDT, Jun 28, 2004 |
At SuperComm last week, the big announcement was SBC Communications' plan to spend up to $6 billion stringing fiber-optic lines in its customers' neighborhoods. SBC is second in size only to Verizon, which recently announced its own service offering of fiber-to-the-premises, or FTTP. For investors, however, these big FTTP announcements should really be no big deal. That's because FTTP has proven no big deal for telecom suppliers, who are seeing ... well, no big deals. Phone companies are reeling from the plummeting price of their cash-cow franchise -- voice. FTTP will be largely a pipe dream for investors and suppliers, says Scott Cleland. The Big Fib About Fiber |
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| Topic: Telecom Industry |
11:51 pm EDT, Jun 28, 2004 |
When MCI emerged from bankruptcy in April, it had the makings of a fearsome competitor. Scant months into MCI's new life, the company's rivals are hardly quivering. "Everybody is doing Internet convergence. It's not a way to [solve] their problems." How did things get so dire? Even MCI's potential predators must be reevaluating. Can MCI Hold The Line? |
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Q&A With Nicholas Negroponte |
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| Topic: Tech Industry |
11:47 pm EDT, Jun 28, 2004 |
Where are we on the tech cycle? Key is the question of where do new ideas come from. Historically, four places: government labs, big corporations, startup companies, and research universities. Government labs are shrinking (in the US, at least). Big companies are looking closer term, and even the most technological companies spend less than 1% of sales on research. Startups have suffered the burst bubble. So this leaves universities somewhat alone. This isn't meant to be self-serving, but it plays nicely into the change in higher education -- it has to become more research university-oriented than just classroom affairs. Q&A With Nicholas Negroponte |
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| Topic: Tech Industry |
11:43 pm EDT, Jun 28, 2004 |
From the we-really-need-to-sell-advertising department: For nearly two decades, industry sages have heralded the coming age of converging digital technology. But it remained an empty slogan. Now, thanks to faster chips, broader bandwidth, and a common Internet standard, technologies are quickly merging. "Digitalization is creating products that can't be categorized as tech or consumer electronics. The walls are coming down." That sets up a collision of three massive industries: computers and software; consumer electronics; and communications. They all need help. The result is a Big Bang of convergence, and it's likely to produce the biggest explosion of innovation since the dawn of the Internet. Big Bang! |
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Coming Changes in Broadcast Industry |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
11:35 pm EDT, Jun 28, 2004 |
The unspoken secret, the elephant in the room, is that broadcast as we know it is circling the drain. And more capable, more powerful Internet access will amplify that sucking sound. Coming Changes in Broadcast Industry |
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Rise of the Stupid Network |
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| Topic: Telecom Industry |
11:33 pm EDT, Jun 28, 2004 |
Why the Intelligent Network was once a good idea, but isn't anymore. One telephone company nerd's odd perspective on the changing value proposition. The shift from scarcity to plenty is often the harbinger of new value propositions. Rise of the Stupid Network |
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The Paradox of the Best Network |
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| Topic: Telecom Industry |
11:31 pm EDT, Jun 28, 2004 |
Just a few short months ago, it seemed that humanity stood on the edge of a communications revolution. Now a grim face replaces yesterday's optimism. Something fundamental is at work. The situation has been shaped by a paradox inherent in the very nature of the new technology: The best network is the hardest one to make money running. This is the Paradox of the Best Network. The Paradox of the Best Network |
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The COOK Report On Internet | June-August 2004 |
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| Topic: Telecom Industry |
11:30 pm EDT, Jun 28, 2004 |
This three month issue explains why the prospects are dim for a full fledged recovery for telecom as long as the best effort paradigm remains as the only way of doing business. Some choice items include: Why the Hierarchical Peering Model Is Broken Telecom Bandwidth Provisioning Trapped in a Deflationary Spiral? The Network Is Not the Issue Korea and a Gigabit to the Doorstep Why Adding Bandwidth at One Link Just Shoves Congestion Elsewhere The COOK Report On Internet | June-August 2004 |
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A Guide to the Memos on Torture |
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| Topic: War on Terrorism |
10:39 am EDT, Jun 27, 2004 |
The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have disclosed memorandums that show a pattern in which Bush administration lawyers set about devising arguments to avoid constraints against mistreatment and torture of detainees. Administration officials responded by releasing hundreds of pages of previously classified documents related to the development of a policy on detainees. NYT offers a brief description of each memo along with a pointer to the full text. A Guide to the Memos on Torture |
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Aides Say Memo Backed Coercion for Qaeda Cases |
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| Topic: War on Terrorism |
10:37 am EDT, Jun 27, 2004 |
The Bybee memo was prepared after an internal debate within the government about the methods used to extract information from Abu Zubaydah, one of Osama bin Laden's top aides, after his capture in April 2002. The memo, which is dated Aug. 1, 2002, was a seminal legal document guiding the government's thinking on interrogation. The memo concluded that a coercive procedure could not be considered torture unless it caused pain equivalent to that accompanying "serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death." To be regarded as torture, the memo said, mental pain must also be caused by "threats of imminent death; threats of infliction of the kind of pain that would amount to physical torture; infliction of such physical pain as a means of psychological torture; use of drugs or other procedures designed to deeply disrupt the senses, or fundamentally alter an individual's personality; or threatening to do any of these things to a third party." Aides Say Memo Backed Coercion for Qaeda Cases |
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