This seems to be an emerging conflict that doesn't have an easy solution. I haven't really seen a full blown comparison of the options, but it would be interesting.
Network World gives a small treatment (very small) but you can start to see the conflicts, the issues and the players as each side is trying to get its stance and arguments straight.
Certainly where existing cellular technology can be upgraded, it would seem to have a good argument. But as municipal wireless networks become more prominent, does that start to change the economics? Is it one or the other?
Oh this should be interesting...
Kipp
Thursday, March 16, 2006
FCC and Google
Funny, I recently had a conversation with Andrew McLaughlin regarding the reserach I've been doing in Africa on regional telecom regulation and Internet interconnection. A very insightful fellow that added quite a bit of value to my research.
Well, he is the general counsel for Google and he recently showed up on one of my news feeds when he 'groused' about the FCC.
Om Malik pointed it out, with the original story on Light Reading.
I gotta tend to agree, the FCC hasn't had the best record, but then we usually only hear about the things they screw up, there has to be some good stuff in there somewhere, right? I just can't imagine good coming out of this 'QOS' charge that appears to me as nothing more than a tax, a troll, a burden, a leech on a growing buisness that the big boys want to latch onto.
Kipp
Well, he is the general counsel for Google and he recently showed up on one of my news feeds when he 'groused' about the FCC.
Om Malik pointed it out, with the original story on Light Reading.
I gotta tend to agree, the FCC hasn't had the best record, but then we usually only hear about the things they screw up, there has to be some good stuff in there somewhere, right? I just can't imagine good coming out of this 'QOS' charge that appears to me as nothing more than a tax, a troll, a burden, a leech on a growing buisness that the big boys want to latch onto.
Kipp
Monday, March 13, 2006
Political edge
A recent article about a speech that Sandra Day O'Connor purportedly made caused me a bit of pause. A couple of recent items stand out for me that make coincidence more like a trend in my mind:
Kipp
- This speech coming from a Republican -- and one who was responsible for upholding our Constitution
- Oddly inconsistent behavior wrt Dubai ports deal
- Wire tapping debacle
- Education and Research
- A recent seminar in which Dr. Judith Curry, Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, discussed the current administration's crack-down on science from her perspective. In particular, the US is seen as
completely out of touch when it comes to the issue of global warming. In some cases, we won't allow our scientists (within gov't control) to travel to international conferences on the subject. Here's a kicker. When W set up an advisory team on the issue, 1 of 3 out of the group was a novelist. Now, Michael Crichton is quite intelligent, a good novelist with in-depth research, and is certainly entitled to his knowledgeable opinions. But, given the depth of experience and knowledgeable actual scientists who have dedicated their lives to this issue, I find it hard to believe that he actually represented 33% of our highest qualified people on the topic... - Recent trends in education to reduce, subsume, confuse people about evolution are alarming at a minimum. Here in Georgia, we have major issues, with a county not more than 2 miles away (Cobb) trying to change science into religion. It seems that the courts are upholding their end by striking these down, but it's scary how often they have to do it.
- Stem cell research...need I say more?
- Funding -- I don't know enough of the details on education and research funding, but I do know that both are areas I'd like to see more focus on. Our research institutions must spend a large chunk of their productive time hunting down funding (at less than 10% funding rate from key funding sources such as NSF). We must lose a large amount of productivity due to this institutional behavior.
- Continued reduction in information available via Freedom of Information Act
- Indefinite detention in Guantanoamo Bay (seems to go against our constitution)
- Iraq war (a person could point to a number of things here from pre-war build up, planning, execution, post-war, etc.)
Kipp
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Municipal Wireless
The growth of municipal wireless in the US is a rather interesting development on many levels. You've got the policy side, the competition side, the technical side, the business model side, the services side, and the consumer side. How all these interact and play out in the US should make for some nice fireworks.
And it's not just the big cities that are getting into the fray. An organization in Vermont and New Hampshire is working to use wireless technologies to get to places that the traditional phone and cable companies won't reach with broadband. As they declare it, Cloud Alliance is the "Dirt Road Wireless" company.
Some folk believe this is just the beginning of the muni wireless boom -- well yeah, it's barely been actually deployed with some 320 cities that have or are planning on deploying broadband wireless networks in 2006. According to Demographia, there are about 1300 cities in the US with population over 25,000 people. And the Yankee Group projects spending on these networks to reach $400 million in 2007 (up from some $171 million this year) according to an article in Network World.
Beyond the US borders, though, wireless networks have some great potential to impact the reach of the Interenet in developing countries. How this can be realized is a much greater challenge than deployment in the US where the consumer base has such a large base with both the technical means (computing devices) and the financial wherewithal to take advantage of the network connectivity and services offered via the network.
I believe this is fertile ground for me to continue my research in wireless networking, policy, international development, and location based services. I'm meeting with Abe Kani, the CIO of Atlanta next week to discuss these topics and more. I'll let you know how that meeting goes and as I (hopefully) gain focus around these ideas.
And it's not just the big cities that are getting into the fray. An organization in Vermont and New Hampshire is working to use wireless technologies to get to places that the traditional phone and cable companies won't reach with broadband. As they declare it, Cloud Alliance is the "Dirt Road Wireless" company.
Some folk believe this is just the beginning of the muni wireless boom -- well yeah, it's barely been actually deployed with some 320 cities that have or are planning on deploying broadband wireless networks in 2006. According to Demographia, there are about 1300 cities in the US with population over 25,000 people. And the Yankee Group projects spending on these networks to reach $400 million in 2007 (up from some $171 million this year) according to an article in Network World.
Beyond the US borders, though, wireless networks have some great potential to impact the reach of the Interenet in developing countries. How this can be realized is a much greater challenge than deployment in the US where the consumer base has such a large base with both the technical means (computing devices) and the financial wherewithal to take advantage of the network connectivity and services offered via the network.
I believe this is fertile ground for me to continue my research in wireless networking, policy, international development, and location based services. I'm meeting with Abe Kani, the CIO of Atlanta next week to discuss these topics and more. I'll let you know how that meeting goes and as I (hopefully) gain focus around these ideas.
Spring
It appears that Spring has sprung in Atlanta. It should get up to 77 degrees today, the trees are blooming, and Spring Soccer has kicked off for both girls. We may even make it to the lake today to help put the neighbor's boat back in the water for the first time this year!
Spring breaks are right around the corner which I hope will give me some time to catch up and maybe finish last semester's work!
Problem is, spring weather makes it really hard to focus on work/school!
Spring breaks are right around the corner which I hope will give me some time to catch up and maybe finish last semester's work!
Problem is, spring weather makes it really hard to focus on work/school!
Friday, February 24, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Auxillary Google Services
I'm sure these are not new thoughts, but I'll throw them out anyway...
As I think about all of the information that Google (and others) get during their crawling, I'm thinking they could offer some business services with little additional expense on their side.
In particular, if you think about a company's web site, people spend money on several things:
- Content creation and translation
- Format and HTML conformance
- Web search optimization
- link/site structure
- syntax and spelling
So, how could Google help out? They could offer:
1) multi-lingual output
2) format and structure verification
3) search optimization/recommendations
4) link analysis - in this case, they could provide reports/analysis of in AND out links to a company's site
5) syntax and spelling checks across the scanned content
6) plagurism checks (notify me if my content shows up someplace else)
Essentially, this turns the process from a passive service to an active service, completing the feedback loop and creating an anti-entropy mechanism (btw, these are my favorites) in the process. The end result could be an improved web (content and structure). Google could offer the service at a relatively low rate, as the majority of the work is already being done. Companies would not have to individually invest in these processes, potentially saving money and improving their end users' experience on their sites...
Kipp
As I think about all of the information that Google (and others) get during their crawling, I'm thinking they could offer some business services with little additional expense on their side.
In particular, if you think about a company's web site, people spend money on several things:
- Content creation and translation
- Format and HTML conformance
- Web search optimization
- link/site structure
- syntax and spelling
So, how could Google help out? They could offer:
1) multi-lingual output
2) format and structure verification
3) search optimization/recommendations
4) link analysis - in this case, they could provide reports/analysis of in AND out links to a company's site
5) syntax and spelling checks across the scanned content
6) plagurism checks (notify me if my content shows up someplace else)
Essentially, this turns the process from a passive service to an active service, completing the feedback loop and creating an anti-entropy mechanism (btw, these are my favorites) in the process. The end result could be an improved web (content and structure). Google could offer the service at a relatively low rate, as the majority of the work is already being done. Companies would not have to individually invest in these processes, potentially saving money and improving their end users' experience on their sites...
Kipp
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
RSS discovery and spam
A friend of mine (Mitchell Friedman) was chatting with me this morning about auto-discovery of rss feeds, which is a cool idea.
A couple of items he relayed:
I find the topic fascinating...if somewhat troubling at times...
Kipp
A couple of items he relayed:
- You can add a 'link' tag to your html that allows discovery of feeds for a given page. For example, my blog now has this embedded link: <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://kippsterblaster.blogspot.com/atom.xml">
- For more on the link tag, check out this site
- This dude Jermey Zawodny has a RSS Auto-Discovery 2.0 proposal on his blog
- Those tricky spammers are at it in RSS, known RSS spam:
- the best one was a list of recent patents as far as I could tell so the headline was real. and the summary was real - that is they seemed to be recent patents...but the link was spam
- so now spammers can have mix and match legitimate content on the site with subversive content in one or the other or both.
- and since the rss community is one big wheel of interlinking content/sites with hub sites like sindic8 -- interesting arena for the spammers to attack
- and this is on top of the blog spam that has been and continues to be prevalent
I find the topic fascinating...if somewhat troubling at times...
Kipp
Monday, February 13, 2006
Holy cow this is cool!
In the words of my buddy John Brothers:
Wow. This is a future with potential.
This dude Vic Divecha found a really amazing demo that is a bit reminiscent of some movie scenes in the recent past.
I GOTTA get me one!
Wow. This is a future with potential.
This dude Vic Divecha found a really amazing demo that is a bit reminiscent of some movie scenes in the recent past.
I GOTTA get me one!
Friday, February 03, 2006
More Mud on the Tires
You've seen the flickr, now see the movie.
P.S. you'll likely have to download the entire thing since I'm too cheap to actually have a hosting service!
P.S. you'll likely have to download the entire thing since I'm too cheap to actually have a hosting service!
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Careers in IT?
A former colleague of mine recently posed this regarding a soon to graduate daughter:
My response was:
As to your career question, I would be very emphatic about the positive possibilities in the field. I'd probably take a bit different approach, as I think we are entering a bit different era than the one you reminisce about (referring to the 'glory days' where you could just sit around and write code...).
In particular, computing has truly moved from being a purpose in and of itself - other than in a small subset of the research community. This is not all bad, it just means computing is now, even more so, a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself. This may seem blasphemous to some or maybe even trite, but I really think it has changed.
It does seem harder to find the 'sit in a closet and code' jobs. I would suggest that people with other skills in combination with computing are the hot commodity in the future. And that other skill can be in a whole variety of areas -- business, project, management, etc. But even that is missing what I think is the big push.
I would (and have) recommended that people entering the field take a look at not only computing but combining computing with another passion (unless that is your only passion and you are a guru, and not a self-described guru, but a true genius). For example, take somebody who loves dealing with the environment -- combine that with computing and do environmental modeling, or sensor networks to monitor environments. Somebody who loves photography can marry computing and photography via the digital media and communications networks to create and extend the capabilities. etc.
Computing is so embedded in what we do and is doing so much to enable other fields to go beyond their present state that not knowing computing (and that's not HTML), algorithms, programming, data structures, etc. is going to be a deficit in the future, at least for the advancing jobs and careers.
Would I tell somebody to go into computer science to become a programmer? No, but then that's never been me since I'm not that good at pure programming. But would I tell somebody to go into computer science? Absolutely and I hope my daughters heed at least some of my advice (of course things may change in the next 10 years that I don't anticipate).
Lastly, I think there are many opportunities with companies that do respect and build on experience of people, I don't think that's a lost art, just precious when you find it. I'd hate to paint the world with such a broad brush. The world is a very large place -- which brings me to my last point. I would very much impress on young people (and old people like me) the value of an international, global view. I would highly recommend anybody looking into the future and planning their career to consider the international aspects of their chosen career. Not only from the perspective that can be gained, but also from the flexibility that it can create for future opportunities, cause even though the world is large, ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is making it much smaller and so very interdependent.
some friends were pondering their future career paths. One young fellow has a strong interest in computers and asked me about the IT field. I would really be interested in how others would respond.
My response was:
As to your career question, I would be very emphatic about the positive possibilities in the field. I'd probably take a bit different approach, as I think we are entering a bit different era than the one you reminisce about (referring to the 'glory days' where you could just sit around and write code...).
In particular, computing has truly moved from being a purpose in and of itself - other than in a small subset of the research community. This is not all bad, it just means computing is now, even more so, a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself. This may seem blasphemous to some or maybe even trite, but I really think it has changed.
It does seem harder to find the 'sit in a closet and code' jobs. I would suggest that people with other skills in combination with computing are the hot commodity in the future. And that other skill can be in a whole variety of areas -- business, project, management, etc. But even that is missing what I think is the big push.
I would (and have) recommended that people entering the field take a look at not only computing but combining computing with another passion (unless that is your only passion and you are a guru, and not a self-described guru, but a true genius). For example, take somebody who loves dealing with the environment -- combine that with computing and do environmental modeling, or sensor networks to monitor environments. Somebody who loves photography can marry computing and photography via the digital media and communications networks to create and extend the capabilities. etc.
Computing is so embedded in what we do and is doing so much to enable other fields to go beyond their present state that not knowing computing (and that's not HTML), algorithms, programming, data structures, etc. is going to be a deficit in the future, at least for the advancing jobs and careers.
Would I tell somebody to go into computer science to become a programmer? No, but then that's never been me since I'm not that good at pure programming. But would I tell somebody to go into computer science? Absolutely and I hope my daughters heed at least some of my advice (of course things may change in the next 10 years that I don't anticipate).
Lastly, I think there are many opportunities with companies that do respect and build on experience of people, I don't think that's a lost art, just precious when you find it. I'd hate to paint the world with such a broad brush. The world is a very large place -- which brings me to my last point. I would very much impress on young people (and old people like me) the value of an international, global view. I would highly recommend anybody looking into the future and planning their career to consider the international aspects of their chosen career. Not only from the perspective that can be gained, but also from the flexibility that it can create for future opportunities, cause even though the world is large, ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is making it much smaller and so very interdependent.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
TwoGirls - Mosaic
Here's a fun one for you (at least it was for me!). I discovered some software (MacOSaiX) that is really cool -- yeah it has probably been around for awhile, but I'm slow!
This mosaic is of my daughters, the original is below.
These 625 images are all from the last year or so (Greg's armpit is part of Laney's face, Abuja, soccer, Thanksgiving, Christmas, friends, family, lake, river, nebraska, nascar, football...etc. make up the rest).
I shrunk this one down, the original is 12.6MB and wouldn't upload to flickr...
The software also lets you pull images from other sources (e.g. Google Images) to make mosaics...very cool.
This mosaic is of my daughters, the original is below.
These 625 images are all from the last year or so (Greg's armpit is part of Laney's face, Abuja, soccer, Thanksgiving, Christmas, friends, family, lake, river, nebraska, nascar, football...etc. make up the rest).
I shrunk this one down, the original is 12.6MB and wouldn't upload to flickr...
The software also lets you pull images from other sources (e.g. Google Images) to make mosaics...very cool.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
moblog
I wanted to test this moblog thing...
This is a picture of the farm which my ancestors homesteaded back in
the day in southwest Nebraska. Picture was taken Thanksgiving 2005,
the farm house is off to the right, but the land is no longer owned
by my family (only the few acres around the house).
This is a picture of the farm which my ancestors homesteaded back in
the day in southwest Nebraska. Picture was taken Thanksgiving 2005,
the farm house is off to the right, but the land is no longer owned
by my family (only the few acres around the house).
Game Theory
I caught a presentation from a professor (Dr. Marco Castillo) who does research in Public Policy at Georgia Tech. He recently applied game theory to model war crimes/abuses in Peru to look at the behaviors and motivations and see if he can determine the types of discrimination that took place.
Very interesting talk, both the subject and the idea of using game theory to explore the motivations and behaviors.
It got me to thinking (which is rather scary) that I could apply game theory to the development of IXPs in developing nations. If I can model the participants, their motivations and the externalities, perhaps there is a way to better model the path to moving IXP creation forward faster...
The network effect of the Internet has impact both on the usefulness and value to end users, but also on the cost/benefit for providers -- perhaps this is the area that ISP providers are not groking -- the trust issue seems to be an overriding inhibitor to interconnections even though the evidence seems clear that it is in everybody's best interest to move forward.
I need to learn more about game theory and how to apply it to such a 'coordination' game...
Very interesting talk, both the subject and the idea of using game theory to explore the motivations and behaviors.
It got me to thinking (which is rather scary) that I could apply game theory to the development of IXPs in developing nations. If I can model the participants, their motivations and the externalities, perhaps there is a way to better model the path to moving IXP creation forward faster...
The network effect of the Internet has impact both on the usefulness and value to end users, but also on the cost/benefit for providers -- perhaps this is the area that ISP providers are not groking -- the trust issue seems to be an overriding inhibitor to interconnections even though the evidence seems clear that it is in everybody's best interest to move forward.
I need to learn more about game theory and how to apply it to such a 'coordination' game...
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Bolivia
I'm still knee deep in Africa, working through the issues regarding the regional IXP and Internet access in the region.
In fact, I spent some time on Friday talking to both Risa's and Laney's classes about the trip. Okay, I didn't gain much additional insight into IXP's, but it was fun and I was happy to be able to share some information about another part of the world to a bunch of kindergarteners and third graders. The third graders really liked the goat head story!
I have expanded my world interest and am now in a course on Latin American Democracy/Politics. Yeah, I know, Africa isn't enough, I needed another continent to worry about!
Latin America has some very interesting things going on these days. A bunch of new leaders are moving into position, and most of them are leftist leaning socialist tending folk.
Most interesting, especially today, is Bolivia. Evo Morales was inaugurated as the President of Bolivia after a rehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifsounding democratic election in which he earned some 54% of the popular vote.
A bit of information about Evo can be found all over the net...but I like wikipedia. Some great information about who attended this event on MABB's blog. A great blog with commentary/translation/dictation of the ceremony today. An additional link to a great photostream from the trip Evo made yesterday.
Amazing cast of characters, and although Castro didn't attend the event, he did send his Vice-President, Carlos Lage...
In fact, I spent some time on Friday talking to both Risa's and Laney's classes about the trip. Okay, I didn't gain much additional insight into IXP's, but it was fun and I was happy to be able to share some information about another part of the world to a bunch of kindergarteners and third graders. The third graders really liked the goat head story!
I have expanded my world interest and am now in a course on Latin American Democracy/Politics. Yeah, I know, Africa isn't enough, I needed another continent to worry about!
Latin America has some very interesting things going on these days. A bunch of new leaders are moving into position, and most of them are leftist leaning socialist tending folk.
Most interesting, especially today, is Bolivia. Evo Morales was inaugurated as the President of Bolivia after a rehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifsounding democratic election in which he earned some 54% of the popular vote.
A bit of information about Evo can be found all over the net...but I like wikipedia. Some great information about who attended this event on MABB's blog. A great blog with commentary/translation/dictation of the ceremony today. An additional link to a great photostream from the trip Evo made yesterday.
Amazing cast of characters, and although Castro didn't attend the event, he did send his Vice-President, Carlos Lage...
Friday, January 20, 2006
24
Okay, just a quick trip into the world of a geek...
For those of you who watch 24 (you know, the show with Jack Bauer)...well we watched the 10:00-11:00 episode for the new Day 5 season. Of course it was on Tivo, so when Jack sent an image of the terrorist to Chloe so that she could analyze the detonator on the dude's vest and reprogram Jack's phone to the detonation frequency...
Well, upon closer inspection, the email address he sent it to was co'brian@CTUGOV.net and the image was 106KB...
Not satisfied with that, I did a whois on the domain (there is no website for the domain), and found that it is registered to:
Twentieth Century Fox
21050 lassen St.
chatsworth, CA 91311
US
Domain Name: CTUGOV.NET
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Twentieth Century Fox rrgprops@yahoo.com
21050 lassen St.
chatsworth, CA 91311
US
818 717 5444
Record expires on 14-Oct-2008.
Record created on 14-Oct-2005.
I decided to play along, sent an email to Chloe and cc'd rrgprops@yahoo.com. I actually got a response:
thanks for the response, a lot more to come
Randy G.
--- Kipp Jones wrote:
> Chloe,
>
> Good work on identifying the detonator on that vest...amazing image processing on a 106KB image that Jack sent, that is some enhancement you've got going on!
>
> Kipp
Anyway, fun to play with the media interactions...thus ends your quick journey into my life!
For those of you who watch 24 (you know, the show with Jack Bauer)...well we watched the 10:00-11:00 episode for the new Day 5 season. Of course it was on Tivo, so when Jack sent an image of the terrorist to Chloe so that she could analyze the detonator on the dude's vest and reprogram Jack's phone to the detonation frequency...
Well, upon closer inspection, the email address he sent it to was co'brian@CTUGOV.net and the image was 106KB...
Not satisfied with that, I did a whois on the domain (there is no website for the domain), and found that it is registered to:
Twentieth Century Fox
21050 lassen St.
chatsworth, CA 91311
US
Domain Name: CTUGOV.NET
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Twentieth Century Fox rrgprops@yahoo.com
21050 lassen St.
chatsworth, CA 91311
US
818 717 5444
Record expires on 14-Oct-2008.
Record created on 14-Oct-2005.
I decided to play along, sent an email to Chloe and cc'd rrgprops@yahoo.com. I actually got a response:
thanks for the response, a lot more to come
Randy G.
--- Kipp Jones
> Chloe,
>
> Good work on identifying the detonator on that vest...amazing image processing on a 106KB image that Jack sent, that is some enhancement you've got going on!
>
> Kipp
Anyway, fun to play with the media interactions...thus ends your quick journey into my life!
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Mud on the Tires
Personally, I think it's time to trade in the TrailBlazer -- clearly we need a 4-wheel drive!
Yesterday, Pam wanted to see why one would want 4-wheel drive and tested the TrailBlazer (rather ironic name, since there was clearly no blazing going on here!) in some Georgia Clay.
Sometimes, you should just listen to music and not try to act it out :-)
Kipp
Yesterday, Pam wanted to see why one would want 4-wheel drive and tested the TrailBlazer (rather ironic name, since there was clearly no blazing going on here!) in some Georgia Clay.
Sometimes, you should just listen to music and not try to act it out :-)
Kipp
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Wireless IXP
There appears to be a dearth of information related to formulating an IXP using wireless technologies. This is not surprising given the fact that wireless technology has only recently become robust and cost effective enough to be used for local loop and backhaul activity.
There are several interesting areas around this subject in which to sink your teeth into. Wireless technology options (canopy, wimax, other), spectrum management, mast creation, salt water issues, signal propagation, privacy and security assurances, finacial models, etc.
I'll be building off of some great work that has gone on in the last 10 years regarding IXPs and extending it to include a wireless angle.
There are several interesting areas around this subject in which to sink your teeth into. Wireless technology options (canopy, wimax, other), spectrum management, mast creation, salt water issues, signal propagation, privacy and security assurances, finacial models, etc.
I'll be building off of some great work that has gone on in the last 10 years regarding IXPs and extending it to include a wireless angle.
Broadcast coverage
So, the local 11Alive (WXIA-TV Atlanta, NBC) did a small piece on our Georgia Tech course and the 5 teams that traveled around the world. Donna Lowry was the reporter, we spent over 90 minutes recording the material that squashed down to the 1.5 minute piece, but I'm happy that the program got the air time.
The story is online along with the video .
Beyond the news coverage, it was great to hear the different stories from the other members of the team. Some really great stories about experiences in the various lands, the people, the technology, the issues, and the possibilities. A lot of people talked about going on to do more work in this area -- one of the key outcomes of the class if you ask me.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
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