Google "Glass Explorer"

"Humanity pending confirmation; to date, no real persons have ever been known to wear and/or enjoy Google Glass." 

- from a post at Seattlish.

Well..... sort of...... key phrase here is to date. If you follow tech at all you've heard about the self proclaimed  "Glass Explorer" who got kicked out of the Seattle Lost Lake Cafe for refusing to either remove or turn off his Google Glass headset or leave the restaurant. Well, the "Explorer" ended up leaving and then posting a Facebook note complaint requesting 

“an explanation, apology, clarification, and if the staff member was in the wrong and lost the owner money last night and also future income as well, that this income be deducted from her pay or her termination.”

As much as I enjoy new technology - I really don't see the need in a public restaurant to keep your Glass going. Can I see a use for a Glass type product - of course - lots. Would love to have a pair on while fishing for example. But sitting in a restaurant wearing one..... nah. Don't even want to think about someone walking into a public restroom with one on. 

We all carry phones with cameras now. If you want to take a picture or video of your food in a restaurant use your phone.

Looking forward to my next Seattle visit and dining at the Glass free Lost Lake.

Google Hummingbird - the Beginning of Latent Search

Most of us have had a chance to experiment with Siri on an iPhone or some of the Voice Assistants on an Android mobile device. You may not have experimented with something Google rolled over the past few weeks code named Humingbird though. It's a major new core algorithm for Google that allows users to use conversational speech for searching. I'm amazed at how under the radar this has been. Different terms are being tossed around for this including "latent", "conversational" and "abstract" - here's a quick 2 minute video I recorded demonstrating how it works.


We're so used to searching on keywords it's second nature. Larry Kim from Wordstream refers to keyword searches as "Caveman English".  Hummingbird is probably the biggest change in Google's search technology since 2001. It's similar to Facebook's Graph Search, allowing users to use more abstract or latent language when searching - the same kinds of things we do when having a conversation with another person.

It's also something Google has to do to stay competitive. Both Facebook and Siri use Microsoft's Bing for searching with Apple just switching from Google to Bing with iOS7. Current estimates put Google's search market share at around 70% with many referring to the company as a search business that also does experiments.

If Apple gets Siri fixed up and Facebook also fixes up Graph Search, Google could pretty rapidly lose search market share. Facebook has to be a huge concern right now - recent comScore reports that analyze Americans’ surfing patterns found people are spending more time on Facebook than Google. If Facebook can get their search act together (it's pretty bad right now) lookout.

Right now, Google's Voice Search sure feels pretty natural to me - grab the latest version of the Chrome browser and give it a try.

Facebook Will Need Its Own Operating System

Gabby came home today for a little while and she had her Chromebook with her. If you haven't seen one yet - it's a pretty cool little notebook running Google's Chrome operating system. It boots up in about three seconds and has a battery that lasts over 8 hours. Everything is stored in the cloud so everything is accessible with a web connection. Pretty nice for a first generation device.

It got me thinking - Facebook does not have a mobile operating system (or any operating system for that matter). Apple does, Microsoft does and Google now has more than one. Poking around on the web I found an interesting report from ABI Research titled Mobile Social Networking. Here's some quotes from that report:

The number of people accessing social networks from mobile phones will exceed 550 million in 2011, and that figure will more than triple to over 1.7 billion by the end of 2016. 

For Facebook, the growing importance of mobile is both an opportunity and a serious strategic challenge. On one hand, mobile allows the world’s leading social network to engage with millions of new consumers, but on the other hand its ability to make money from mobile users remains untested. 

Senior analyst Aapo Markkanen is also quoted in the report saying, "A huge problem for Facebook is that while on the web it is a platform, on mobile it’s just another application. To strengthen its hand in the short term we expect Facebook to aggressively take advantage of HTML5, but in the longer term it should absolutely become a mobile operating system of its own."

Facebook is lagging. Google+ is tied in very tightly with Android and Chrome already. Twitter is going to be built into Apple's iOS 5. Practice director Dan Shey is also quoted saying, “The interesting aspect in Apple’s and Twitter’s partnership is how it can provide iPhone users with a verifiable social identity for websites and apps. That gives developers a lot of scope to innovate in areas such as authentication, personalization and advertising. It’s a hint of things to come.”

What's DNS And Why is Google Doing It?

Yesterday, Google announced a public Domain Name Service (DNS) resolver called Google Public DNS. What's DNS? You may not be familar it but it is something you use every time you use the Internet. I like to describe DNS as a telephone book look-up service (sort of like directory service) provided typically by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Here's an example of how it works.

At home, my ISP is Comcast and I pay them every month for Internet access. I get a broadband connection (cable modem), an Internet Protocol (IP) address (think of an IP address like a telephone number - it uniquely identifies you on the web and allows you to send and receive information), a gateway connection to the World Wide Web and access to Comcast DNS servers. All pieces are important in my every day use of the web:

• If I don't have a physical connection I can't access the web.
• If I don't have an IP address I can't access the web.
• If I don't have a connection (or gateway) into the World Wide Web I can't access any content outside of my own home network.
• If I don't have DNS I can't use names or URLs to access web content.

Let's take a closer look at how DNS works. Let's say I launch my web browser and in the address bar type the URL (or name) of our Center website www.ictcenter.org. How does the site end up appearing on my screen? Our www.ictcenter.org URL is registered which means we've paid a sponsoring registrar (in our case it is godaddy.com) to create a domain name registration record. Included in the record is our URL (www.ictcenter.org) and the IP address of the server our website is loaded at. This URL and IP address information gets distributed across the World Wide Web to DNS servers. Now, when I'm home on my Comcast connection and I type www.ictcenter.org in my browser address bar, here's what happens:

A query is made from my computer to the Comcast DNS server my connection is assigned to. The DNS server looks up the IP address of the server hosting www.ictcenter.org and that IP address is returned to my browser. My browser is directed to the IP address and it accesses the server, pulling down the site content. On an average day a user will access DNS servers hundreds of times, all transparently. It's a service that makes the web a lot more convenient - users only need to remember domain names and not much harder to remember IP addresses.

So, what is Google doing? Basically they are offering a competing DNS service. Users can access Google servers for DNS information and bypass ISP DNS servers if they want. It's free from Google and there are instructions on how to make the DNS server swap on the Google Code Blog.

So, why is Google launching this service? According to their announcement page it's to make make users' web-surfing experiences faster, safer and more reliable. Now, in the past ISPs have had some major DNS server meltdown problems. In defense of the ISPs things have gotten a lot better over the past few years.

Sounds great another option and maybe even a backup. Now - is bypassing ISP DNS servers something new? Not really - there are other competing DNS options similar to what Google is doing - on of the more popular ones is OpenDNS.

What's the deal here - If I'm an ISP and Google (or someone else) wants to handle DNS for my customers it sounds pretty good. I don't have to worry about maintaining DNS server hardware and keeping them updated - Google can do it for me.

But - is it really a pretty good deal for the ISPs? No - not really.

Why? Have you ever typed in an incorrect or non-existent URL? A year or so ago you would likely get some kind of server not found message in your browser. Today, depending on your ISP, you may get something called DNS redirection advertising and end up seeing a bunch of linked ads. These ads provide a new revenue stream to the ISPs so most of them are doing it. As an example, try clicking this non-existent URL www.vojrrtjbfb.com Most ISPs and OpenDNS will end up taking you to a page of linked ads.

Now to be fair to the ISPs - with Comcast it's real easy to opt-out of redirection advertising by logging in to your customer portal and clicking a single option to immediately turn it off. Most ISPs do provide a similar opt-out option.

Will Google (fundamentally an ad company) eventually turn bad typing skills into revenue with their Publc DNS service? Maybe and maybe not. It will be interesting to watch.

How Do Twitter, Google And Facebook Compare?

This video from Rocketboom provides an interesting perspective.

Google Flags Themselves As Malicious!

Yesterday (Saturday, January 31, 2009) between 9:30 and 10:25 a.m. ET, Google search was doing some pretty weird stuff. Every search result was flagged with the message "This site may harm your computer". Google was even flagging their own site! Here's a screen shot my daughter Gabby sent me of a Google search on the word "google" (click on images for a full screen view):


Clicking on any link in your search resulted in this Forbidden message Gabby also captured and sent to me.


What happened? Here's an explanation from the Official Google Blog:

.... Very simply, human error. Google flags search results with the message "This site may harm your computer" if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously. We do this to protect our users against visiting sites that could harm their computers. We maintain a list of such sites through both manual and automated methods. We work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to come up with criteria for maintaining this list, and to provide simple processes for webmasters to remove their site from the list.

We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file. Since we push these updates in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing between 6:27 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. and began disappearing between 7:10 and 7:25 a.m., so the duration of the problem for any particular user was approximately 40 minutes.

Good for a few laughs on a Saturday morning in my house but..... it certainly makes me wonder about how much potential business was lost and really makes me think about the vulnerability of the web.

Thanks for the screen shots Gabby!

Seven Risks of Cloud Computing

Networld Word has a good summary of a June 2008 study done by Gartner titled “Assessing the Security Risks of Cloud Computing.” Gartner defines cloud computing as a type of computing in which “massively scalable IT-enabled capabilities are delivered ‘as a service’ to external customers using Internet technologies.”

Wikipedia has a more detailed definition of cloud computing:

Cloud computing refers to computing resources being accessed which are typically owned and operated by a third-party provider on a consolidated basis in Data Center locations. Consumers of cloud computing services purchase computing capacity on-demand and are not concerned with the underlying technologies used to achieve the increase in server capability.

The most common cloud computing platforms include Amazon’s EC2 service and Google’s Google App Engine.

I've become a pretty big fan of Google Docs which is a cloud application - it's what I use to type up my blogs and lots of other content. It's convenient because I can access my documents from just about any device connected to the Internet. I also don't have to worry about backing my content up, having a computer stolen with my work on it, etc. However, I've always been a little concerned about storing anything with personal information on a server anyone can try and access from anywhere in the world. There are other concerns too - here's the Gartner list as reported by Networld World:

1. Privileged user access. Sensitive data processed outside the enterprise brings with it an inherent level of risk, because outsourced services bypass the “physical, logical and personnel controls” IT shops exert over in-house programs.
2. Regulatory compliance. Customers are ultimately responsible for the security and integrity of their own data, even when it is held by a service provider. Traditional service providers are subjected to external audits and security certifications.
3. Data location. When you use the cloud, you probably won’t know exactly where your data is hosted. In fact, you might not even know what country it will be stored in.
4. Data segregation. Data in the cloud is typically in a shared environment alongside data from other customers. Encryption is effective but isn’t a cure-all.
5. Recovery. Even if you don’t know where your data is, a cloud provider should tell you what will happen to your data and service in case of a disaster.
6. Investigative support. Investigating inappropriate or illegal activity may be impossible in cloud computing.
7. Long-term viability. Ideally, your cloud computing provider will never go broke or get acquired and swallowed up by a larger company.

You can read the full Network World article titled "Gartner: Seven cloud-computing security risks" here.

Microsoft Yahoo Round Two?

According to the New York Times, Microsoft has proposed a complex new collaborative deal with Yahoo that would not involve a full takeover of Yahoo by Microsoft. Microsoft had made an offer of $47.5 billion to outright take over Yahoo that was withdrawn a couple of weeks ago.

From the New York Times piece and in a statement released by Microsoft today - the company said it was “considering and has raised with Yahoo an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo.” Microsoft provided no additional details.

Here's more from the New York Times:

“Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo or Microsoft or with other third parties,” the company said.

It looks like Microsoft is scrambling, trying to head off a partnership deal currently in the works between Yahoo and Google, expected to be announced as early as this week.

Read the full New York Times piece here.

WiMax Sprint / Clearwire / Comcast / Time Warner Deal Announced

Earlier this week I wrote about it and yesterday Sprint Nextel and Clearwire Corporation announced the combination of wireless broadband divisions to form a single $14.5 billion company that will keep the name Clearwire. Also participating and throwing in a combined $3.2 billion are Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Trilogy Equity Partners. Trilogy is run by John Stanton, a wireless veteran who made billions when he sold VoiceStream and Western Wireless.

Back in 2006, Mike Q and I did a podcast on WiMax, Clearwire and Clearwire's Founder Chairman Craig McCaw. Here's what we said about Clearwire back in September 2006:

Craig McCaw is a visionary, who has had an uncanny ability to predict the future of technology. WiMAX has the potential to do for broadband access what cell phones have done for telephony - replacing cable and DSL services, providing universal Internet access just about anywhere - especially for suburban and rural blackout areas.

Just like in the early 1980's Clearwire's Craig O. McCaw has been buying up licensed radio spectrum. You may not have heard of Craig but in the early 80's he recognized local cell permits being sold by the the FCC were greatly undervalued and he started bidding cellular phone licenses. He did his buying under the radar screen of the telcos and, by the time they recognized what he was doing it was basically too late - Craig had already purchased and owned licenses in most of the major markets.

Today - Clearwire, under Craig's direction, has quietly purchased enough licensed radio spectrum to build a national WiMAX network.

Craig McCaw and Clearwire have the spectrum, the money, the partners, superior wireless broadband technology when compared to services like 3G and the experience to make this work..... think about it..... Intel makes the WiMax radio components for computers, Google creates applications that can use WiMax services, Comcast, Time Warner and Brighthouse bundle WiMax products and services and market to their customers.... ..

According to an AP post yesterday:

The new company plans to make its service available to 120 million to 140 million people in the U.S. by the end of 2010, although company officials acknowledged they'll need to raise or borrow up to $2.3 billion more to make that happen. Alternatively, they said they could shrink the size of the network.

The deal has been approved by all companies but still must be approved by Clearwire shareholders and regulators. It is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

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To read show notes and listen to Mike Q and my 17 minute and 20 second podcast (Sept 2006) titled WiMax - Why Not?, click here. Listen to it directly in your web browser by clicking here. If you have iTunes installed you can subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.

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Google Docs Goes Offline

Google Docs is one of my favorite Google applications - I use daily to write things like this blog. One big disadvantage is you need to be connected to the Internet to use it. Well - that has changed.

According to the Official Google Blog, posted yesterday...... starting today and over the coming weeks we're rolling out offline editing access to word processing documents to Google Docs users. You no longer need an Internet connection when inspiration strikes. Whether you're working on an airplane or in a cafe, you can automatically access all your docs on your own computer.

Here's a video from Google demonstrating how it works:



I'm actually now looking forward to my next flight!

Google's Trans-Pacific Fiber Optic Cable Project

Last week, on February 26, Google and 5 other international companies announced the Unity consortium. This group has agreed to run a 5 pair, 10,000 kilometer fiber optic communications cable connecting the United States and Japan. According to a Google press release, each fiber pair will be capable of handling up to 960 Gigabits pers second (Gbps) and the cable system will allow expansion up to eight fiber pairs.

At 5 pairs: (5 pairs)*(960 Gbps/pair) = (5 pairs)*(960x10⁹ bps) = 4.8 x 10¹² bps = 4.8 Terabits per second (Tbps)

At 8 pairs: (8 pairs)*(960 Gbps/pair) = (8 pairs)*(960x10⁹ bps) = 7.68 x 10¹² bps = 7.68 Terabits per second (Tbps)

The Unity consortium companies are:

Bharti Airtel - India's leading integrated telecommunications services provider.

Global Transit - A South Asian IP Transit network provider

Google - You know who they are!

KDDI - A Japanese information and communications company offering all communications services, from fixed to mobile.

Pacnet - An Asian company that owns and operates EAC-C2C, Asia's largest privately-owned submarine cable network at 36,800 km with design capacity of 10.24 Tbps.

SingTel - Asia's leading communications group providing a portfolio of services including voice and data services over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms.

By partnering with the providers, Google will be extending it's reach into the Asian markets - combined Bharti Airtel and SingTel have over 232 million mobile and landline customers. In addition, the system will connect into other Asian cable systems and reach more customers. Here's more from the google press release:

According to the TeleGeography Global Bandwidth Report, 2007, Trans-Pacific bandwidth demand has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 63.7 percent between 2002 and 2007. It is expected to continue to grow strongly from 2008 to 2013, with total demand for capacity doubling roughly every two years.

It's interesting to see competing Asian market providers partnering in a system within a system, with each having ownership and management of individual fiber pairs - a testament to the power and influence Google has.

NEC Corporation and Tyco Telecommunications will build and install the system with completion by the first quarter of 2010.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! - Some Questions and Some Options

On Sunday. February 3, 2008 (yes, Super Bowl Sunday) David Drummond, Google's Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer published Yahoo! and the future of the Internet on the Official Google Blog page.

Drummond, never one to hold back, raises some questions regarding Microsoft's Yahoo! offer. He starts by saying the openness of the Internet is what made Google -- and Yahoo! -- possible. And goes on to say that, because of the openness, good ideas spread quickly and users benefit from the constant innovation an open system provides. According to Drummond, this is what has made the Internet a popular and exciting place. He also asks a few questions:

Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?

Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet?

Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services?

Three very interesting questions depending on your position, perspective and opinion. Personally, I am amazed with Google's innovation - I use and encourage others to use their applications and would hate to see things slow down. Read Drummond's complete post (it's short) if you can.

Let's look at where Yahoo! is on this. The company has not had a good history with either Microsoft or Google and the offer has put them in a difficult spot. Most experts are saying if Yahoo! does not take the deal with Microsoft the company will have to form some kind of partnership with Google - most likely agreeing to have Google run their search engine and take revenue generated from ad clicks. Another option for Yahoo! would be to go private with a leveraged buyout. In an Associated Press Article titled Microsoft bid backs Yahoo into a corner , Stifel Nicolaus analyst George Askew is quoted, saying this option (leveraged buyout) would involve Yahoo! going into about $20 Billion of debt and having to layoff approximately 4,500 (31%) of their current employees. Neither of these appears to be a good option for Yahoo!

Where's Microsoft on this? They want Yahoo! to the point where the company may end up raising the bid on the current $41 Billion offer. Microsoft also may be financing a portion of the deal if it goes through which would be the first time the company has taken a loan to buy a another company.

Yahoo! may not have any other options at this time - other companies that may have the money (Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, etc.) do not appear to be interested at this time...... In the same AP Article, investment banker Peter Falvey from Revolution Partners is quoted:

At the end of the day, I don't think they (Yahoo!) are going to be able to turn down Microsoft.

Yahoo!'s board has a difficult decision to make.

Some Quick Thoughts About Microsoft's Offer to Buy Yahoo!

By now most have heard about Microsoft's proposal toYahoo!'s board of directors to buy Yahoo! at $31 per share (Yahoo! closed yesterday at $19.18). Here's a piece from the letter Steve Ballmer sent to the Yahoo! board:

Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers. Synergies of this combination fall into four areas:

-- Scale economics:  This combination enables synergies related to scale
 economics of the advertising platform where today there is only one
 competitor at scale.  This includes synergies across both search and
 non-search related advertising that will strengthen the value
 proposition to both advertisers and publishers.  Additionally, the
 combination allows us to consolidate capital spending.

-- Expanded R&D capacity:  The combined talent of our engineering
 resources can be focused on R&D priorities such as a single search
 index and single advertising platform.  Together we can unleash new
 levels of innovation, delivering enhanced user experiences,
 breakthroughs in search, and new advertising platform capabilities.
 Many of these breakthroughs are a function of an engineering scale that
 today neither of our companies has on its own.

-- Operational efficiencies:  Eliminating redundant infrastructure and
 duplicative operating costs will improve the financial performance of
 the combined entity.

-- Emerging user experiences:  Our combined ability to focus engineering
 resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video,
 mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms is
 greatly enhanced.

There's been rumors of this merger for the past couple of years so it comes as no big surprise to many. It's also no secret this is a direct move to try and head off Google. Each Yahoo shareholder will be able to choose whether to receive consideration in cash or in Microsoft common stock.

Microsoft is ready to move fast on this - we'll see what Yahoo does.

Google Becomes a "Telephone Company"

Today the 700 MHz C-Block 50 state package auction closed over $4.7 billion, passing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reserve price of $4.6 billion. Passing the $4.6 billion mark is important because it assures this piece of spectrum will be sold under the current rules. This means the winning bidder will have to let devices from other carriers use the network.

Most believe the two companies bidding on this piece of spectrum are Google and Verizon. Regardless of who actually wins the bid - Verizon, Google or another company, Google will have access to the spectrum for their Android project. Android is what Google is calling the first complete, open, and free mobile platform, part of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies who have come together to accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience.

The Open Handset Alliance group is committed to commercially deploy handsets and services using the Android Platform in the second half of 2008.

If the minimum bid of $4.6 billion had not been met, the FCC would have gone back, re-worked the rules, likely removing the open access piece, and then would have re-auctioned the C-Block. With the open access rule now locked in place, the success of Android is almost certain.

A day in history - January 31, 2008 - Google becomes a "telephone company".

An iPhone For A Day Experiment

On Friday I went to New York City for a National Science Foundation sponsored Ethics in Research Workshop held at Borough of Manhattan Community College. The workshop was excellent, with a focus on research integrity and institutional review boards (IRBs) at the community college level.

Over the past ten years I've got into the habit of carrying a notebook computer with me just about everywhere I go. Our campus uses GroupWise for email and I've got the client installed on my notebook. I can usually find wireless access and end up pulling email off locally. I can then answer, create, etc email without a network connection. The next time I get access to a web connection I can send out the email I have queued up and retrieve new email. It works but can get a little frustrating when I need to get to something and cannot fund a connection. I've considered buying a wireless broadband card from Sprint, Verizon or AT&T but have resisted.

Friday was just a day trip for me so I figured I'd try a little experiment and just take the iPhone. One of my biggest concerns was accessing my campus account. IMAP and POP access are turned off and I cannot access directly using the iPhone email app. This left me with a few options:

1. Have all GroupWise email forwarded or delegated to my gmail account which I have setup on the iPhone. I would end up getting all my email this way but it is difficult to reply to messages because I have to retype addresses (the iPhone still does not copy and paste)
2. Use the GroupWise web interface in Safari on the iPhone. In a pinch this works but it is time consuming and not very efficient.
3. Setup an auto-reply in GroupWise saying something along the lines of "I will not have access to this account today - if you need to contact me immediately send me a message at gordonfsnyder@gmail.com"

I opted for #3 and it worked out well - I did actually get one person who had a time sensitive issue and ended up forwarding to my gmail account. It's a solution that works for me right now but I do wish our campus would turn IMAP on so I could start collecting all campus email on the iPhone.

Regarding the iPhone iteself, the biggest issue I had was battery life. I was careful to turn the WiFi radio off in areas where I did not have access to save power and I did not use my bluetooth headset (Bluetooth on the iPhone was turned off). Even so I only got a little over 4 hours of common use (voice, email and web browsing) before I had only 10% of the battery left. Mike Q was at the same conference and had just about identical results with his iPhone. The next time I travel with just the iPhone I'll be sure to bring my charger with me and plug in whenever I get a chance.

I was really impressed with the enhanced map application that came with the iPhone 1.1.3 firmware upgrade released last week. The map application now uses Google Maps at My Location, which finds where you are based on the cell antennas your phone is accessing. You don't have to have an iPhone to use Google Maps at My Locatiion - it is available for most web-enabled mobile phones. It's not as accurate as a GPS but is close with the added advantage of working indoors. With the number of antennas in Manhattan, the location finder was extremely accurate.

Overall my iPhone for a day experiment was a successful one. My biggest concern is the battery life - Apple claims we should be getting approximately 6 hours of battery life so both Mike Q and I are questioning our batteries and will be checking with Apple.

My 2008 Top 12 Prediction List

2007 was a busy year and things do not look like they will slow down in 2008. Here's my personal top 12 predictions for the year in no particular order:

1. Apple announces new 3G iPhone at MacWorld. 3G service will be switchable to conserve battery. New iPhone will also have at least internal storage with SD Card slot.
2. First generation Google Phone will be OK but just OK as the bugs get worked out. However.......... just wait for the second generation!
3. Patriots go undefeated and win Super Bowl - how can I resist this one?!
4. Verizon northern states (Maine, Vermont and New Hamshire) sale to Fairpoint Communications is halted by one of the 3 states.
5. Google wins 700 MHz spectrum auction. First Google "telephone" trucks appear on Bay area highways.
6. Celtics win NBA championship - this one is a stretch!
7. Verizon offers 100 Mbps symmetrical data service to FiOS customers
8. Google Docs, Spreadsheet and Presenter webware become available offline.
9. Microsoft goes on buying and marketing spree in an effort to keep up with Google's webware applications.
10. Red Sox win American League pennant but are upset in the World Series.
11. Comcast launches DOCSIS 3.0 100 Mbps data service to compete with Verizon's 100 Mbps FiOS service.
12. Video and image search will go mainstream..... watch for my video podcast interview with Atalasoft President Bill Bither coming soon - it's been shot and is being edited now!

As much as I love hockey I'll skip the Bruins this year....... Looking at these 12 - minus the Sox, Patriots and the Celtics - the web has become the development platform of choice with high bandwidth access and availability required on any connected device......... You ain't developin' if it won't run in a web browser!

Happy New Year!

FCC 700 MHz Auction Update

Yesterday the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published a list of 96 accepted and 170 incomplete applications for the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction. Google is by far the biggest name on the accepted list. Both AT&T and Verizon currently have a status of Incomplete but are expected to bid. Also currently on the incomplete list are cable company Cox Communications, cell phone technology company Qualcomm and oil company Chevron.

Google is probably the most interesting bidder - a couple of years ago I wrote about Google purchasing $100M of dark fiber here. At the time I was speculating on the company setting up a free national WiFi network.

Recently, I also wrote about the Google Phone.......

Let's think about this...... fiber, WiFi, phones....... Many think, if Google wins the auction, they will sub network construction out to a company experienced in building out wireless networks - examples would be a Verizon or AT&T. I'm have second thoughts and am wondering if we will be seeing telco service trucks driving around with ladders on the roof and a Google decal on the side.

All applications must be completed by January fourth to participate in the auction. A mock auction will be held on January 22 and the real auction held on January 24. Stay tuned.

Going Green: Metcalfe's Law and the Enernet

Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet, founder of 3Com and now with Polaris Venture Partners is interviewed by Tara Seals in the December 2007 issue of xchange magazine in an excellent article titled Telecom's 40 Shades of Green. In the article Metcalfe describes what he calls the Enernet, a standardized, networked web for the distribution of energy, much as the Internet distributes information.

Seals refers to Metcalfe’s Law in the article, which Metcalfe first used to describe Ethernet systems, and discusses how it applies to alternative energy systems using sources like solar, wind or bio-fuel. Here's a quote from the article describing Metcalfe's law:

Metcalfe’s Law says that the value of a telecom network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system; the more distributed users there are on the system, the greater the value of the network and of those endpoints themselves. In other words, it describes a blueprint for an explosion of growth, and explains many networking phenomena we have today, from the Web to social networking. Standards+Metcalfe’s Law = efficient, sustainable, viral, organic networking growth.

Solis Energy is mentioned early in the article - you've probably seen Solis or Solis-like solar generators driving along highways or along airport runways. The companies Solar Power Plant (SPP) series are designed for low wattage telecommunications devices like wireless access points, cameras and security systems. Equipment can be powered directly by 12, 24 or 48 volts DC, by Power over Ethernet (POE) or inverter supplied AC. The company claims, with the right product selection, continuous power for 7 days without sunlight. There are also Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) modules for Solis SPPs that allow status monitoring of temperature, battery, load and photo-voltaic power.

On a much larger scale, Google has installed the largest corporate panel solar panel installation in the U.S. at the Mountain View, CA Googleplex. To date. 9,212 solar panels have been installed on eight buildings and two carports. The system installation company, EI Solutions, has a great fly-over video linked here. Additional panels will be installed to complete the 1,600 kilowatt project. Google has a site up on the web (linked here) that charts energy production for the project.

New York Times on Free Speech in China

On December 2, the New York Times published an editorial titled Yahoo Betrays Free Speech. The piece discussed how Yahoo helped the Chinese government find the identities of two Chinese journalists who both received ten years in jail for "disseminating pro-democracy writings".

Here's a quote from the editorial:

Yahoo’s collaboration is appalling, and Yahoo is not the only American company helping the Chinese government repress its people. Microsoft shut down a blogger at Beijing’s request. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft censor searches in China. Cisco Systems provided hardware used by Beijing to censor and monitor the Internet.

You may have seen the following YouTube piece on the Yahoo settlement (or something similar) last month:



I encourage you to read the New York Times editorial and watch the video clip - good classroom material for discussion from political, legal, business/financial and even technological (how do they do that?) perspectives.

Google Launches Cell Phone Map Location Application

Yesterday Google launched a new beta application called Google Maps with My Location (My Location). According to Google, the downloaded application runs on most web-enabled mobile phones. Once installed, My Location determines exactly where you are located using GPS if you have a GPS enabled phone. If you don't have a GPS enabled phone, My Location uses cell tower triangulation to indicate your location with 1000 meters.

Here's a bit of a bonus - remember - GPS services are not available indoors but cell phone services are. This means, using cell phone signal triangulation, My Location can find your location when you are indoors!

My Location is still in Beta and, according to the Google My Location site, "is available for most web-enabled mobile phones, including Java, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Nokia/Symbian devices."

Here's a YouTube video demonstrating how the service works:



It will be interesting to see if Apple incorporates My Location into the iPhone Google Map application.