Merrimack Tech News

Monday, August 15, 2011

Why Did Verizon Waste Time and Money on fiber?

I know hindsight is always 20/20 but I was wonder why Verizon never used all that wonderful copper to it’s advantage? The CEO came out last week and said that fiber is not as profitable to Verizon as the copper was. So let me ask this why didn’t Verizon get into competition with cable companies? It has the copper why didn’t it offer it’s own cable service over it’s own lines? It could have been miles ahead of the big boy’s like Comcast and Time Warner. I ask these questions because I got to thinking about this now at a time when Verizon faces a lawsuit challenging it’s very use of the fios technology since it lost a patent case last week. Why did Verizon waste the time and money to lay fiber down? When it could have used the existing copper lines on poles that it owns to offer customers another cable company choice. If you mix this in with the wireless division, then the Verizon might look something like the giant that Comcast is. Like I said earlier hindsight is always’ 20/20 but I feel the management team at Verizon screwed up royally, by wasting company assets on a venture that’s not as profitable, if it had merely offered extra services over existing infrastructure. Another point I’d like to make is even if the execs over at Verizon wanted to play with fiber they could have kept it in the back-end and improved network performance through the various switches routers that they use much like Comcast does now. Again hind sight is 20/20.

Today's Links and My Two Bits.

“Google to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion”
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/general/view.bg?&articleid=1358900&format=&page=1&listingType=tec#articleFull

“Super dirt promises big green$”
http://bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1358813&srvc=business&position=3

“Half of Cloud Clients to Change Privacy Policy by Q4.”
http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2011/08/research-firm-gartners-release.php

“Multicore Architectures for Cloud Computing. A Race not as open as it may appear”
http://www.glgroup.com/News/Multicore-Architectures-for-Cloud-Computing.-A-Race-not-as-open-as-it-may-appear-55079.html

“Turn Off Verizon's FiOS, ActiveVideo Says After Winning Suit”
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391034,00.asp

The Fritz!Box.
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/juha/7768

“Tencent launches an iTunes for Android.”
http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/08/13/tencent-android-assistant/

“Comcast center boosts customer service with fine-tuned cable boxes
Company officials hope Salem, N.H., plant will help cut complaints on equipment”
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/08/15/where_the_cable_box_goes_to_live_again/

“Next-Generation IT: Why We Need A Cloud Middleman”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2011/08/14/next-generation-it-why-we-need-a-cloud-middleman/

“ Who is driving cloud adoption?”
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/266875,pressure-systems-who-is-driving-cloud-adoption.aspx

“Move over, gigabit Ethernet: 10GB is trickling down to small and medium-sized businesses. Netgear says its new ProSafe 52-Port Gigabit Stackable Smart Switch (GS752TXS) is the first in its class to ship with four 10GB uplinks (as opposed to the gigabit connections that have been the norm up to now).”
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/237425/netgear_pushes_10gb_network_gear_for_midsize_businesses.html#tk.nl_snx_h_cbstories

“11 hard truths about HTML5”
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/081511-11-hard-truths-about.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_pm_2011-08-15

“Google lashes out at patent trolls with Motorola buy”
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/081511-google-patent-trolls.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_pm_2011-08-15

“Ten ways to protect your IT infrastructure”
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/general/31492-ten-ways-to-protect-your-it-infrastructure.html

“IBM Paints X64-Based BladeCenters Sky Blue With Clouds”
http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh081511-story09.html

“ McAfee selling iOS protection you already have”
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/beware-mcafee-selling-ios-protection-you-already-have-169626?source=IFWNLE_nlt_daily_2011-08-15

“A Brief History of UC&C, Part Two: The IP PBX”
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/converg/2011/081511convergence1.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_convergence_voip_2011-08-15

“Business Apps on the IPhone: Dos and Don'ts”
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/081111-business-apps-on-the-iphone.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_virtualization_2011-08-15

“Altaro ships Hyper-V backup solution for SMBs”
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/081211-altaro-ships-hyper-v-backup-solution.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_virtualization_2011-08-15

“Wireless "tattoo" monitors your health and could become electronic bandage”
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/wireless-tattoo-monitors-your-health-and-coul?source=NWWNLE_nlt_security_2011-08-15

“Who are you? Non? Anon?”
http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2011/081211-gibbs.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_security_2011-08-15

“Get control over your cross-platform identity management issues”
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/techexec/2011/081211bestpractices.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_it_best_practices_2011-08-15

“Picking up 750,000 cable subscribers in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, Time Warner Cable agreed Monday to buy Insight Communications Co. for $3 billion in cash.”
http://www.fiercecable.com/story/time-warner-cable-lands-insight-3b/2011-08-15?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

“A technology standard for delivering 3DTV content to both fixed terrestrial receivers and mobile devices will be in place within one year, the Advanced Television Systems Committee said Monday.”
http://www.fiercecable.com/story/atsc-develop-3d-tv-broadcast-standard/2011-08-15?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

“AB Calls on ICANN to Withdraw Controversial Plan for New Top-Level Domains”
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/15/iab-calls-on-icann-to-withdraw-controversial-plan-for-new-top-level-domains/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

“The (real) state of the cloud”
https://www.infoworld.com/t/cloud-computing/the-real-state-the-cloud-2011-169785?source=IFWNLE_nlt_cloud_2011-08-15

“Star Trek Theme Park to Open in 2014”( In Jordan.)
http://news.dice.com/2011/08/15/star-trek-theme-park-to-open-in-2014/
It’ll be cheaper than Disney world, and the weather is nicer in the winter. Hit the theme park then trek over to the Red Sea for some fun in the sun.

Surfs up!.......................................Eric

Friday, August 12, 2011

Friday's Big list of Links..

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

New Panasonic Toughbook Coming in September.

Panasonic announced today a new Toughbook with DVD player. It will have a 12 inch screen weigh in at 3 pounds, it will have HDMI and VGA ports, optional cable lock and also optional Bluetooth techology. It’s due to hit the market place in September. One other notable feature is the price. The Toughbook won’t come cheap at $2449.

For more on this rugged piece of hardware check out the press release.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110810005229/en

Eric

Sprint to offer McAfee Mobile Security Software on Select Android Phones.

Sprint and Mcafee announce a new offer to provide protection on select models of the Android platform that is connected to Sprints network. The software package includes McAfee’s Moblie Security and Family Protection, to better protect sensitive and personal data stored on the phones.

For more information on these these new services click on the following link.
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/template.NDM/news/industry/?javax.portlet.tpst=08c2aa13f2fe3d4dc1b6751ae1de75dd_ws_MX&javax.portlet.prp_08c2aa13f2fe3d4dc1b6751ae1de75dd_newsLang=en&javax.portlet.prp_08c2aa13f2fe3d4dc1b6751ae1de75dd_viewID=news_view_popup&javax.portlet.prp_08c2aa13f2fe3d4dc1b6751ae1de75dd_ndmHsc=v2*A1312887600000*B1313031224000*C1313060400000*DgroupByDate*G2*J2*M31263*N1009112*Ohide&javax.portlet.prp_08c2aa13f2fe3d4dc1b6751ae1de75dd_newsId=20110810005380&beanID=383539599&viewID=news_view_popup&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

Eric

Sixnet launches new Military grade switch. Think of the IBM Tough Book, But as a Switch.

Do you need a switch that’s rugged enough to survive in the harshest climates? Do you want military grade capability? Do you need 24 ethernet ports? If you said yes to any of these questions then Sixnet has just the switch for you. “ MIL-326 Layer 3 IP67 Ethernet switch, the latest addition to its military-rated switch portfolio. Featuring Layer 3 networking, the MIL-326 provides 24 ports of Gigabit Ethernet, military D38999 connectors and 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplinks to integrate high-performance connectivity with rugged reliability in harsh defense environments.”

To read more on this state of the art switch check out the rest of the story at the following link.
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/template.NDM/news/industry/?javax.portlet.tpst=08c2aa13f2fe3d4dc1b6751ae1de75dd_ws_MX&javax.portlet.prp_08c2aa13f2fe3d4dc1b6751ae1de75dd_newsLang=en&javax.portlet.prp_08c2aa13f2fe3d4dc1b6751ae1de75dd_viewID=news_view&javax.portlet.prp_08c2aa13f2fe3d4dc1b6751ae1de75dd_ndmHsc=v2*A1312887600000*B1313031224000*C1313060400000*DgroupByDate*J2*M31263*N1009112*Ohide&javax.portlet.prp_08c2aa13f2fe3d4dc1b6751ae1de75dd_newsId=20110810006159&beanID=383539599&viewID=news_view&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

Eric

Today's Links and My Two Bits.