Tuesday, July 26, 2011
You can't watch television without seeing an ad for either an app, the cloud (a la Windows 7), or both.  As the tech industry lends itself to fads and quickly-passing trends, the latest of these are apps and the cloud. They're buzz words.  Important concepts?  Perhaps.  But the truth is that an app is just a software program, which we've had for decades, and the cloud is just a highly advanced model of terminal computing -- also in existence for decades.

What I find interesting, however, is not the trendiness of these terms (that's to be expected in the tech sector) but how the two hottest buzz-words in tech today are actually diametrically opposed.  Let's look closer.

Apps.  As more and more people are carrying high-powered computing devices in their pockets that we foolishly still call "phones", the software world has capitalized on the sudden spike in the shear number of devices capable of computing.  And, if it's capable of computing, surely there is something it should compute.  Whether it's a personal finance app, a business management app, or just sling-shotting birds at pigs, consumers and businesses alike have bought into the idea that they must use the computing power that's in their pockets.

Cloud.  Ironically, cloud computing is quite the opposite.  Exactly the opposite, in fact.  Cloud computing is more than just storing data in a shared location.  It's using the supercomputing power of mega-servers to run applications instead of the computing power of an individual device -- be it a desktop computer or a handheld "phone."  Business solutions like hosted word processing, hosted phone systems, and hosted CRM software all offer one simple advantage to the customer: no need for computing on your end. 

So who will win?  Will we continue to distribute computing needs to client-applications, or will broadband connections serve the computers of the future much like IDE cables have in the past?  It's a race: which can grow faster, the computing power of the small device or the bandwidth available to cloud terminals? 

Labels: apps. ter, Bandwidth, Broadband, omals. cloud computing

posted by Unknown at 11:36 AM Link to this Article  0 Comments

Thursday, July 21, 2011
Governor Peter Shumlin and regional electric and telecom utility officials announced an agreement Wednesday that they said would give Vermont residents and businesses more control over energy consumption, expand access to broadband and create jobs.  The agreement between Green Mountain Power, Central Vermont Public Service Corp., and Vermont Telephone Company calls for deployment of "smart grid" technology, in which information about electrical usage will be transmitted over a newly expanded broadband Internet system serving the state. Conversely, it also will enable VTel to deploy broadband Internet access to a territory about 20 to 25 percent larger thanks to the new access to utility customers.

So what exactly is "smart grid" and how does it affect your business?

Smart Grid refers to a power grid that actually meters and reports on energy demands in real-time and then, by virtue of it's integration with the telecom grid (that's the smart part), relays that real-time data back to subscribers.  In essence, it's having the ability to know how fast that little dial is turning on every meter on your block just by watching the gauge on your computer screen.

But whose going to care?  Admittedly, it's not all that entertaining to monitor energy consumption on my block or in my neighborhood like watching the thermometer rise in the morning.  But appliances and other technologies might be configured to do so.  For example, a server could be configured to run it's nightly back-up, but only when the overall grid demand has dropped below a safe level. 

Energy is about to be traded as a commodity with real-time, minute-by-minute price fluctuation depending on the good ole staples of supply and demand.  When the smart grid says demand is low, the price for a kWh goes down.  When the smart grid says demand is high, the price goes up.  And with smart grids come smart applications. 

Imagine a laptop that intelligently switches to battery power during hours of high-demand and then back to AC input for a recharge once demand has dropped.  That's just one computer.  Now imagine a power system for entire offices with the similar concept in place for dozens of computers.  Energy costs for large offices could be trimmed significantly. 

How would you use smart grid information if it were available in your area?

Labels: smart grid

posted by Unknown at 5:48 AM Link to this Article  0 Comments

Tuesday, July 12, 2011
It's been threatened and squawked about for some time now, but pay-per-byte broadband services have been largely stayed by consumer uprising.  And rightly so.  The demand of the marketplace is what should guide product development and pricing.  But, for a moment, lets consider the benefits to broadband consumers of pay-per-byte programs.

1. It could save you money.  That's right!  It is entirely possible that, if priced fairly, some mobile broadband users would find that they use far less than the fair usage of their plan. Of course, those who are opposed to this pricing model are not likely in this category, so let's move on.
2. It would drive demand for WiFi once again.  With a more bandwidth-conscious consumer, there will be again a demand for WiFi meshes and hotspots.  The development of these projects have stalled recently due to the ubiquitous coverage of wireless broadband, but if consumers were asked to pay for their usage, they would quickly look for more cost-effective solutions, demanding WiFi infrastructure once again.
3. It would speed up the Internet.  No seriously!  If there is a cost to download senseless data, random videos, huge apps, and music then traffic would shrink -- at least, the clutter would shrink.  It's kind of like toll roads.  Their generally faster to travel because fewer people get on them.  Only those who are serious about transit will pay for the access to the freeway.  
4. It would make broadband efficiency a central topic.  When oil reserves seemed limitless, we built cars that required a gallon of gasoline to travel just 7 or 10 miles.  As petroleum has become more precious, it's forced car designers to become more efficient.  Software today is designed with the premise that bandwidth is limitless, and thus patches, updates, frequent API calls, back-and-forth syncing, etc. are used without any discretion -- resulting in a slower user experience. 

In the end, the key is determining a fair price.  Proposals for the per-byte costs have been met with resistance because they don't seem to fairly equate the value of the byte with the dollars asked.  But, if the supply and demand can meet at a reasonable price, then maybe (juuuuust maybe) pay-per-byte could have positive impacts on the technology industry.  

Labels: Broadband Speed, Economy, Fixed Wireless Broadband

posted by Unknown at 9:11 AM Link to this Article  0 Comments

Tuesday, July 5, 2011
My Google Reader on the keyword "broadband" was flooded today with headlines about one story: Adaptrum's white space technology was unveiled in the UK and... drum roll please... IT WORKED!  Great.  So what does that mean?

First of all, what is White Space spectrum?
Imagine that TV channels are like those people who inherently shout every time they're on a cell phone as though they were still using one of the giant gray bricks from back in the 80's.  In a large room, if 5 or 6 of these people are all trying to have a conversation at one time, they will need to spread out.  One loud mouth can't chat on his cell phone right next to another.  And when they spread out, they leave unfilled space between them.  Then, in walks you: the super-cool guy wearing your bluetooth headset and talking at a normal volume.  You can walk freely in and among these other loudmouths without disturbing their conversation, nor them disturbing yours.  You're walking in the white space. 

When the FCC licenses channels, such as TV channels, they don't abut them one after another.  This is why I grew up watching a TV that utterly confused a young kid trying to learn to count.  We started at 4, then 6, then 8, then 13, 18, 23, 40, and 59.  What's up with that?  The FCC has to leave un-used white space between these loud channels so as to avoid interference.

What is so revolutionary?
That's great, but this spectrum has been here for decades.  What has Adatprum done that's so new?  For starters, they have made a solution that navigates the dynamic nature of white space.  Transmitters are typically provisioned for one specific spectrum.  Adaptrum scans the local channels (just like your TV would when you first plug it in) and finds the safe white spaces where it can transmit.

More than that, though, it has gotten the FCC's approval to use these white spaces without licensing.  Among the unseen costs of your wireless broadband are the fees that carriers have to pay to the FCC for the rights to exclusively own their spectrum.  Because Adaptrum is programmed to "play nice" with existing broadcasters, they've finagled a way to not have to pay those fees to use a given frequency.

Where can it be used?
There's lots of talk about this becoming the next generation of wireless broadband spectrum.  But, to be honest, we are years if not decades from that reality.  The major providers have a lot of testing, integrating, and provisioning to do before white spaces could be added to the till for wireless spectrum on a national level. 

Where this technology may see commercialization (Adaptrum is, after-all, a venture-funded startup) in the near future is in local Wi-Fi meshes in communities, neighborhoods, or on campuses like universities or corporate campuses spanning multiple buildings. 

Labels: Adaptrum, FCC, spectrum, white space, Wi-Fi

posted by Unknown at 11:22 AM Link to this Article  0 Comments