Robert Shaw: Serendipity

Wi-Fi in the Sky!

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 15:30:43 GMT

In a follow-up to my earlier piece, it's finally available: Lufthansa is now offering onboard wireless broadband service on scheduled flights. They've started with the popular Frankfurt - Washington D.C. (Dulles) run. Lufthansa's press release announcing the service is here.

2002 Top Ten Forecasting Follies

Sun, 29 Dec 2002 10:34:27 GMT

From Light Reading: 2002 Top Ten: Forecasting Follies. "We’ll soon be saying goodbye to 2002, and lots of people will be saying good riddance. It turned into an annus horribilis for many in the telecom industry...".

DigiPens Search for Write Market

Mon, 23 Dec 2002 10:52:05 GMT

DigiPens Search for Write Market. Some observers believe digital pens will make traditional writing on paper obsolete by 2020. A Swedish company is at the forefront of pushing the technology. Michael Stroud reports from Stockholm. [Wired News]

Internet Metering, Measurement and IPDR

Thu, 12 Dec 2002 10:24:02 GMT

"Sender-keeps-all" or "bill-and-keep" accounting mechanisms are simple accounting schemes common in the deployment of new telecommunication technologies. However, in asymmetric traffic environments or where highly diversified service offerings emerge (e.g. those requiring guaranteed bandwidth), these models tend to shift to revenue sharing mechanisms among operators and/or content providers. In some cases, this can lead to new market dynamics. One example is the success of NTT Docomo's i-mode service, which some argue is mostly related to its billing gateway technology, permitting revenue sharing and encouraging the growth of new external content providers.

Many previously "free" Internet services are shifting to subscription or metered-based schemes and there's a lot of standards activity underway focused on charging, accounting and cross-operator settlement schemes for IP-based networks. In the public switched telephone network (PSTN) world, which is focused on a single service, voice, accounting mechanisms are primarily built around call detail records (CDRs). In the IP-based world, the service offerings can be much wider (voice, email, web, streaming access), so the challenge has been to develop a more flexible format that can capture the relevant metrics for a wide range of service classes. An interesting development is the Internet Protocol Detail Record (IPDR).

ITU-T Study Group 3, who deal with tariff and accounting principles including related telecommunication economic and policy issues, are currently meeting at the ITU. At this meeting, the Internet Protocol Detail Record Organization (IPDR), has given an interesting presentation (PDF) on its latest activities, particularly with regard to the emerging Network Data Management Usage (NDM-U) specification. This is a development to keep an eye on in the future.

Blogging in Rio

Sat, 27 Jul 2002 21:48:43 GMT

It's a wonderful evening here in Rio de Janeiro and the view over the bay at Barra da Tijuca is stunning. I'm here to give a talk at II Rio Telecom. I plan to post a link to my talk after I give it on Tuesday.

Isochronous mesh networks

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 11:27:53 GMT

Talk about timely. CommsDesign has a recent piece on the development by Motorola of an "isochronous network, developed with input from Nintendo Co. Ltd., Sony Corp. and other game platform developers, [that] will be extended into other markets to serve as a "feeder" for future ad-hoc mesh-based piconets that use 802.11 wireless technology as their underlying infrastructure". Slashdot also has a related thread. Isochronous ad-hoc mesh-based piconets? Wow. This almost seems like it could have been generated by dack.com.

Doonesbury on Wi-Fi poaching

Mon, 22 Jul 2002 09:32:09 GMT

Doonesbury on Wi-Fi poaching.

Negroponte betting on Flip

Tue, 16 Jul 2002 15:59:14 GMT

Betting on Flip. Nicholas Negroponte is a digital pathfinder. And although some of his ideas died in the dotcom crash he's back with a new project. [Guardian Unlimited]

Dasher

Wed, 10 Jul 2002 11:35:06 GMT

In the search for the optimum input method where a keyboard is not practical (e.g., PDAs, mobile Internet handsets), there's been some novel research going on at the University of Cambridge. The Dasher project has produced an unusual text-entry interface driven by pointing gestures. A prototype version can be downloaded for a Pocket PC. There's work going on to produce an eye-tracking version which they hope would allow users to visually write text as fast as normal handwriting. It's also now an open source project at SourceForge.net.

SMS over TV?

Tue, 25 Jun 2002 21:18:20 GMT

From the covergence file: The Register is reporting on Coming soon: SMS TV. For readers in countries who aren't aware of the popularity of text messaging over mobile phones, NUA gives one example by reporting that, according to the Swedish regulator, PTS, Swedish mobile users sent over 1 billion SMS messages during 2001. [Only for statistics mavens: I always thought it'd be interesting to plot the growth of SMS messaging vis-à-vis Internet email traffic but I'm unaware of where to find any real good indicators on email traffic. Anyone who has an idea on how to estimate this is invited to contact me.]

Can't get away from home

Sun, 23 Jun 2002 22:13:35 GMT

Arrived at the hotel in Bucharest from Geneva and decided to have some dinner in the hotel. Egads, it's Swiss week and the restaurant has a guest chef from Geneva who's organized an entire week of Swiss specialities such as "roesti" (a Swiss fried potato cake). Not exactly what I had in mind.

Voltaire on censorship: plus ça change

Thu, 20 Jun 2002 10:23:36 GMT

About 10 years ago, I lived in Prévessin-Moëns, France, next to Voltaire's Château. On this day, June 20th 1733, Voltaire wrote this letter, reacting to the severity of French censorship of the press in the eighteenth century. He said, "Had there been a literary censorship in Rome, we should have had to-day neither Horace, Juvenal, nor the philosophical works of Cicero. If Milton, Dryden, Pope, and Locke had not been free, England would have had neither poets nor philosophers". Voltaire noted in his letter, "You say that the magistrates who regulate the literary custom-house complain that there are too many books." This reminds us, of course, of Emperor Joseph II's observation a few years later, 'Too many notes, my dear Mozart'. Plus ça change; plus c'est pareil...

The Myth of End-to-End Myths

Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:27:32 GMT

From the myth-bashing department: Reason has an interview with Larry Lessig. In this interview, he repeats his arguments from his book, The Future of Ideas, concerning his views on the importance of the "end-to-end design principle", repeating a common mantra of Internet techies, who argue that the Internet is obviously a superior design to the telephone network because "the intelligence is at the end nodes and not inside the network". These theories are blindly parroted and even applied to cyber-political theory, typically as variations of David S. Isenberg's stupid network theme. Showing that the populist view often does not bear scrutiny, in this posting back in March 2000 on the Cybertelecom-L mailing list (no archives), Fred Goldstein takes the opposite view and argues convincingly, that on the contrary, "The telephone network has even more content-neutrality than the Internet, because as a circuit-switched network, it has zero visibility of the bearer channels. Once the call's set up, bits is bits. No firewalls, censorware, caches, or other content-invasive intermediaries a la the Internet as people tend to see it nowadays. Thus the amount of intelligence in the Internet's switches (routers) is many orders of magnitude above what goes into a telephone switch, even a huge one."

Whoops, so much for the stupid network theory...

Telecom Outlook: First the Bad News, Then the Bad News

Tue, 18 Jun 2002 08:20:13 GMT

[New York Times: Technology]: Telecom Outlook: First the Bad News, Then the Bad News. In light of a wave of bad news last week, some analysts say the telecommunications industry's problems could become worse before they become better. "This confluence of negative news, combined with the languishing bankruptcy proceedings of Global Crossing and persistent concern over giants like WorldCom, have prompted some analysts to forecast a more severe crisis in the industry, which has already endured the erasing of an estimated $2 trillion in the market value of its constituent companies since the telecommunications slump began about two years ago."

The Madness of King George

Tue, 18 Jun 2002 08:10:19 GMT

George Gilder listened to the technology, and became guru of the telecosm. The markets listened to his newsletter, and followed him into the Global Crossing abyss. [Wired]. "None exemplifies Gilder's rise and fall more than Global Crossing, which filed for bankruptcy - the fourth-largest ever - in January. Even in a portfolio of flops, the scope and depth of this particular debacle stands out. ... I would've been willing to bet my house against it." In effect he did. Just a few years ago, he was the toast of Wall Street and commanded as much as $100,000 per speech. Now, he confesses, he's broke and has a lien against his home."

World Leaders must shape the direction of the 'Information Society'

Mon, 17 Jun 2002 16:06:09 GMT

ITU has issued a press release: World Leaders must shape the direction of the 'Information Society'; United Nations General Assembly told that 'global strategy' needed, in preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which will be held under the high patronage of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, with ITU taking the lead role in preparations. The first phase will be held in Geneva 10-12 December 2003 and the second phase in Tunis in 2005. "The transformation to the Information Society is every bit as profound as the movement from agrarian to industrial societies and just as in the past, such change has led to winners and losers. ' Some countries have prospered, while others have fallen behind,' Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, told the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. ' If we do not take any action. The gap between the information 'haves' and 'have nots' will continue to grow.'

Quantum Entanglement and Communications

Mon, 17 Jun 2002 07:37:45 GMT

The Australian has news about advances in quantum teleportation at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. Using a process known as quantum entanglement, the researchers have disassembled a laser at one end of an optical communications system and recreated a replica a metre away. "The applications of teleportation for computers and communications over the next decade are very exciting" says physicist Ping Koy Lam, leader of the project. Some web pages at ANU explain some of the background on quantum teleportation.

Ebone network gets last minute reprieve

Fri, 14 Jun 2002 23:04:26 GMT

Ebone staff have announced that they've got a two week reprieve to keep their network operations going.

More on KPNQwest bankruptcy and Ebone status

Fri, 14 Jun 2002 10:36:47 GMT

Update on KPNQwest bankruptcy on Total Telecom: Key European, U.S. groups to bid for parts of KPNQwest network. Update on Ebone: Since June 6, 2002, the employees of Ebone (part of KPNQwest) have occupied the European Network Operations Centre in Hoeilaart, Belgium and are maintaining the Ebone network on an unpaid basis. Their web site provides a running update on the state of things.

Kartoo's Graphical Search Engine Interface

Mon, 10 Jun 2002 17:40:47 GMT

The Kartoo graphical meta-search engine uses Flash to deliver graphical search results. You should give it a try...

KPNQWest Admins Keep Bankrupt Network Running

Fri, 07 Jun 2002 20:26:34 GMT

Slashdot is reporting in its article KPNQWest Admins Keep Bankrupt Network Running on how some dedicated staff are keeping the KPNQwest network running (but for how long?). See my earlier article on this: "KPNQwest Crisis and a lesson about Critical Network Infrastructure". Some of the NOC folks have got some web pages up to show they're doing their best.

Mozilla 1.0 Available

Wed, 05 Jun 2002 20:18:24 GMT

Slashdot is reporting that the open source web browser, Mozilla 1.0, has been officially released.

America's Technology Industry Increasingly Intertwined with Government

Wed, 05 Jun 2002 16:33:50 GMT

The Economist has a good piece on how the US high-tech industry is getting cosier with government and notes that the "free-wheeling, libertarian stance of the industry, always somewhat hypocritical, has been changing since the mid-1990s". Eli Noam pointed this out back in July 1997 in his wonderful opinion piece in the New York Times: An Unfettered Internet? Keep Dreaming.

KPNQwest Crisis and a lesson about Critical Network Infrastructure

Wed, 05 Jun 2002 15:08:43 GMT

Is there a bottom in the telecoms onslaught? The sudden collapse of KPNQwest, who operated a large pan-European data network carrying an estimated 25-30% of Europe's IP traffic is a hot topic of discussion on Total Telecom. The collapse is going to have an unknown impact on Internet infrastructure and connectivity within Europe and internationally. Ebone and GTS, who KPNQwest acquired only in March 2002, appear to be casualties.

The rapid collapse of KPNQwest provides an interesting lesson vis-à-vis contingency planning of critical network infrastructure. Besides the large numbers of customers who'll be left stranded or scrambling for new providers, KPNQwest's infrastructure provided DNS services (secondaries through ns.eu.net*) for a number of Internet country code top level domains (ccTLDs). Those ccTLDs may need to rapidly find out whether they have enough distributed secondaries if ns.eu.net vanishes. Update: RIPE NCC has made an agreement with KPNQwest to temporarily take over the hosting of ns.eu.net.

This reminds me that less than a year ago there was a partial unavailability of one of the Internet's master root name servers, namely c.root-servers.net, located in PSInet’s network infrastructure, when a large backbone provider, Cable & Wireless, disconnected PSINet's peering connections because they no longer met C&W’s requirements. The result was that C&W customers were unable to reach that root name server until the peering arrangement was reinstated.

*EUnet was acquired by Qwest in 1999 before KPNQwest was created.

Augmented Reality

Thu, 23 May 2002 01:16:04 GMT

Augmented Reality: What a great expression and what great possibilities. Check out what the researchers at the Wearable Computer Lab at the Advanced Computer Research Centre in the University of South Australia are doing. Although they're playing around with Quake (what else?), you can imagine where things will be going: we'll be able to digitally insert people into our current physical space and they'll be able to insert us. And I was just getting used to the unnverving experiences of people walking around talking into mobile phone headsets. During my trip here to Korea, so many people are wearing earpieces and chatting to invisible entities you think you're surrounded by secret service agents.