Technology Futures

The state of California has put together an extensive plan to review every voting system in use in the state. The work will use several groups of indepedent scientists with excellent credentials who will review both electronic voting systems and other, older voting systems, including paper-based balloting.

The cable industry is showing off their next generation broadband cable modems, which promise much faster speeds. The cable companies are under some pressure from the fiber rollouts of the phone companies.

There are some problems, however. The new technology continues to rely on copper to the home, and in fact, the "new" technology simply involves using four TV channels instead of two to carry broadband data. It is still a hybrid system that uses a fifty year old cable TV design to carry data. It's main advantage is that it is cheap to upgrade.

Here is an interesting idea that could put an end to phishing. Everyone has received those emails claiming to be from some well known bank, urging you to log in immediately to update your bank information. The URLs look like legitimate Web sites, but belong to crooks who want to capture your account information so they can empty your bank account.

This New York Times article (registration required, link may disappear) says that schools that give laptops to students have been wasting their money. This was entirely predictable, because just putting technology "stuff" in the classroom was never going to change anything.

HughesNet has rolled out new lower pricing for their satellite broadband service. The dilemma in rural areas is how to help residents and businesses get something better than dial up access when DSL or cable service is not an option, and the one to four year timeframe needed to bring fiber to rural homes may be too long.

If you like to believe everything vendors tell you, WiMax will solve all our broadband problems, give us younger looking skin, and get rid of grey hair.

WiMax has been lurking for ages, a technology that has been "just a few months away" for at least three years. But it takes a long time to bring an entirely new wireless technology to market, with extensive testing required to make sure the systems don't interfere with other wireless systems, among other issues.

This article notes that the number of cellphone calls has declined in the UK for the first time ever, suggesting that the "newbie" period for cellphones is over. Since 1993, I have been able to observe the "newbie" phenomenon firsthand as new systems and technology are embraced by the public, and in fact, it is a well known process that is often ignored, strangely enough, by many in the IT business, who want to believe in endless growth and by extension, endless profits.

This editorial from the LA Times discusses rumblings from the FCC that the agency may try to regulate "violence" on television, and may try to extend the agency's control to cable and satellite broadcasting--entirely new for the FCC.

The FCC has announced that the agency will take another look at broadband, meaning the Federal Communications Commission might actually revise the definition of broadband to something that is actually meaningful, rather than the current 256 kilobits, or in shorthand, "...a little faster than dial up."

India has announced an ambitious plan to provide free wireless broadband throughout the country.

It is not at all clear that "free broadband" is sustainable. The longstanding problems with free services (in any market, not just broadband) include market distortion and low quality service.

It is spring, and around the country, many communities are starting water, sewer, and road projects of one kind or another. On the way back and forth to a project Design Nine is working on, I pass a water line project--a couple of miles of new water line along a major artery and business corridor, and the main route between two communities.

An Apple blog reports on a Gartner Research study of computer sales. While growth of PC sales has been an anemic 2.6%, sales of Macs over the last six months have been increasing at a rate of 30%.

The tragedy here in Blacksburg earlier this week highlights the dark side and the bright side of technology and the Internet, and is a useful reminder that technology is neither good nor bad--how people use it--for good or for evil--determines its value at any point in time.

Unfortunately, the horrific murders here in Blacksburg yesterday highlighted yet again the technical superiority of the Internet during emergencies. For most of the day, it was difficult to make a phone call on a landline or cellphone, with most calls being greeted with "All circuites are busy." But the local public and private Internet networks kept chugging away, providing students and parents a way to connect. Instant messaging also proved important, and the Internet is used as a gateway between different cellphone messaging services.

The blow up over Imus' idiotic remarks and a raging debate among bloggers about the need for civility online may just be the tipping point for a long overdue honest appraisal of the lack of civility in our social discourse. There is no question that over the past decade, the way we speak to each other and the language that we use has been coarsened to the point that sometimes I think we need to cover our ears.

There are several stories about blogging making the rounds of the news sites, as well as an ongoing discussion in the business world about employee blogging.

Item One: Katie Couric is in the news because she tried to pass off a producer's made up story as her own thoughts. Couric is supposedly blogging, but as it turns out, other people write her blog. And those other people, as it turns out, did not have much to say either so they were cribbing from the Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal (page B5) reports today that the number of workers who have to commute 90 minutes or more each way to work has doubled since 1990. That adds up to three hours or more in the car every day. It takes a toll on job satisfaction, personal life, and family life.

Hard on the heels of the release of the $300 Apple TV device, Apple has announced partnerships with Sony and Ikea today. Sometime in June, Sony will release an Apple/Sony flat screen television with the Apple TV completely integrated.

Apple TV is a small multimedia management device that allows users to send movies, TV shows, music, and pictures wirelessly from their computer to the Apple TV box, which is normally connected to a flat screen TV (it also works with tube-style televisions, but Apple is not promoting this feature).

New Mexico's long term vision to dominate commercial space activities in the U.S. continues to mature. The New Mexico legislature has approved $30 million to fund further development of Spaceport America, and the venture already has a $27 million lease signed with Virgin Atlantic. Virgin plans to base its U.S. commercial space operations there, with tourist flights starting before the end of this decade.

Slashdot reports that the FCC is still studying net neutrality. The problem is, there really is not anything to study. Big carriers are playing all sorts of games with traffic to favor their own services (e.g. VoIP) over the services of competitors (e.g. Vonage, Skype). Google is buying fiber because it knows it cannot rely on others to carry bandwidth-intensive video traffic.