Archive for April, 2006

Via Slashdot: Apparently there is a new phishing scam afoot. This one sends an email message that claims some irregularity in you bank account and asks you call a number to clear up the issues. The phone call puts you in to a voice mail system that sound exactly like the bank’s system. Callers are asked to enter account information.

Be aware!

Broadband Over Power Lines is a concept that has been floating around for years. But problems with interference and other technical limitations have made it seem like vaporware. Apparantly recent advances  have  given BPL proponents a boost. Two power companies in California are now going to begin testing the technology. Unfortunately PG&E is not one of them.

This article from Cnet spells out the details. If it works, BPL could provide more competition for broadband services which should drive down prices. Additionally, BPL could be a viable alternative in rural areas that are not likely to see DSL or cable reach them any time soon.

Thanks to Gregg Foster for the news tip.

In a legislative defeat for the people (me) supporting Network Neutrality, an amendment sponosred by Mass. Representative Ed Markey was defeated in committee today. The Democratic sponosred amendment as was voted down by Republicans on the House Endergy and Commerce Committee. A new group formed to Save the Internet claims the amendment didn’t go far enough in protecting Net Neutrality anyway.

The Network Neutrality concept has gained a lot of support from many tech heavyweights such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Not suprisingly, at&t is in favor of a two tiered Internet.

This defeat doesn’t mean a great deal at this time. It will probably be a prolonged battle. A bill designed to protect Network Neutrality in a similar way is circulating in the Senate and has some bi-partisan support.

A couple weeks ago we held Broadband Forum II at the River Lodge in Fortuna. It’s a very nice facility. But it was chosen mainly because it had broadband access with a wireless network. We just couldn’t imagine having a conference about broadband in a facility that didn’t offer broadband to the guests and it was the only facility in Eureka or Fortuna that had such capability.

In a couple weeks my company will be participating in a conference with medical professionals from all over the county at the North Coast Inn. We didn’t organize the event, but those that did said the Inn boasts a complete conference facility. However, not only does the North Coast Inn not have wireless access, they don’t even have a broadband connection. As a result because we will be demoing a web site, we will need to build a mirror of the site on a laptop to assure fast and easy access during the demo.

What is it with our conference facilities here in the county? By this time to have only one facility that offers something so basic as broadband/wireless access is really pitiful. It’s such a low cost, high value service it just makes no sense.

Some good news has arrived. Baywood Country Club is undergoing renovations which will include a small conference room seating 20 people. But included in the renovations and upgrades will be WI-Fi access throughout the clubhouse, restaurant and bar areas. This means one more facility with amenities that are crucial for many events. Let’s hope this is a trend other facilities will emulate soon.

Another note, it seems neither the North Coast Inn nor Baywood Country Club have a web site. At least not that I could find. What the heck is that about?

In case you’re confused, there really are two Earth Days: One, held on the Spring Equinox, was started in 1970 and is recognized by the U.N.; the other, more popular in the U.S., and also first celebrated in 1970 is held on April 22. You can read about the two versions at Wikipedia. I think what’s most important is focusing on the health of the Earth today, and every day.

Of course there is the huge issue of global warming that seems to be moving ever slowly and inevitably like, well, like a glacier. Looked at up closely in our every day lives we can’t really see it moving. Looked at from a greater distance and over time we can see it moving toward us with increasing velocity and unstoppable force.

Reading about global warming does make it feel unstoppable, overwhelming. But is it? Are we already too late, past the tipping point? According to Elizabeth Kolbert who wrote an excellent 3 part series in the the New Yorker (unfortunately, no longer on line)  says in this interview, we can’t reverse global warming, but we “…can mitigate climate change by reducing emissions.”

So what can we do here on the North Coast to help mitigate the climage change? With gas well over $3.00 per gallon already here, one obvious action would be to drive less. Walk more, bicycle more, plan better.

We can also support efforts for the development of alternative energy sources. We can be more concientious about how we treat our waste. The Humboldt Recycler’s page by fellow blogger Fred Mangels provides a lot of resources for alternatives to just throwing things out.

You can also just get outside and enjoy the sun in this gorgeous world of ours to highten your appreciation and will to help save it. You might even do it this weekend in an organized way say, at Godwit Days.

According to the Times-Standard (have I said how much I hate the fact that the T-S moves its arcticles behind a fee based protected area after 14 days and that’s why I won’t link to them? I have? A few times? OK. I will stop…no maybe not) the Arcata City Council meetings are going to be available on the web, both live and in archived versions, starting with Wednesday night’s meeting. Terrific!

One catch, though. According to the article, to access the video, you need “…Windows 2000 or XP with 128 mb ram minimum, Windows Media Player 9 or newer, 1.2 MHz processor, sound card, and a high-speed Internet connection.” Wonderful. While I can understand the minimum processor speed, need for a sound card and a high speed connection, why have they settled on limiting access to Windows 2000 or XP? That leaves me out. I usually run Mac OS. And that certainly leaves out Linux users. What is it about this service that makes it necessary to provide the video in such a limited format? Is it tieing in the agendas with certain points in the video? Is it the search? I can’t imagine these capabilities are not available in other formats. Maybe the article got it wrong. But while the whole world is moving toward open standards and accessibility, if the article is correct, the City of Arcata has taken one step forward, and two steps back.

I did actually try this on my Mac (the Planning Commission was available Tuesday evening) and it did work. Though the feed kept stopping and starting so it was virtually unusable when I fist connected. However, as time went on, things smoothed out. So, what gives? Is the article wrong? I read the press release from the City and it said the same thing. Does the City not know what their system compatibilities are?

If you have a system other than Windows 2000 or XP, try it out. Let me know.

This is more of a personal post not really tech related, so be warned.

I just got done doing my Easter celebration. I went for a run with my dog while the moon was still shining over the bay and the sun was just starting rise. After so much foul weather the beautiful Spring morning in freshly scrubbed air felt sacred. But I was also listening to a discussion on my IPod from one of my favorite NPR programs Open Source Radio. My IPod lets me time shift lots of audio content. There. That’s my tech talk for today.

Specifically, I listened to a discussion of the book “What Jesus Meant” with the author Garry Wills and others. It was an ‘enlightening’ discussion and gave me a great deal to think about regarding Jesus and religion in general.

I am a recovering Catholic. That is, I was raised Catholic, attended catechism and Catholic summer school with the nuns (there was no regular Catholic school in the small town were I grew up). But for many years I have been among what polls have indicated is the small minority of people who do not consider themselves to be Christian in this country. I am surrounded, then by people who take the Christian faith seriously. My wife and daughter belong to a large evangelical church. Even so, I remain highly skeptical of organized religion of any kind.

On the other hand, I have always been highly curious about spirituality and the history of religion. I have read widely on a variety of Eastern and Western religions and spiritual practices. I’m not a scholar by any means. More of a dilettante. Regarding the Christian tradition, though, I have read enough about the history of the bible and the formation of the religion to understand how much human politics have muddied the waters in attempting to appreciate the teachings of Jesus.

But on days like this (not religious holidays, necessarily, just days where the world and my soul feel united if only for a few moments) I feel connected to something spiritual. I feel it physically and I feel a lifting and brightening of what I can only describe as spirit. And that is enough for me. Except for this post (which is highly uncharacterisitc for me) I do not talk about my spirituality with others, and feel highly uncomfortable with public displays of religious beliefs (as when I occasionally attend a church service).

So, this brings me roundabout back to the show on “What Jesus Meant” - and did not mean. According to Wills, Jesus was about transcendant spirituality. He was not about using religious affiliation as a political cudgel. And it is only in this private and transcendant tradition that can I feel a direct connection to Christ on this day that celebrates his personal transcendance.

Technorati Tags: easter jesus garry wills

While at&t representatives were making happy with us at last week’s Broadband Forum II, reports were circulating that the corporation was turning over data communications that traveled over its network to the National Security Agency. If the report is accurate,  what are we to make of this? Is at&t evil and violating our privacy and freedom of speech? Is at&t instead supporting our government in its war on terror? Is at&t the only backbone carrier coorporating with the NSA? And finally, if the NSA is involved in this broad net approach, doesn’t it run counter to President Bush’s assertion that his warrantless wiretaping policy does not include communications between citizens within the U.S.?

I’m not sure how useful my live blogging of Broadband Forum II was to people. I notice traffic has gone up quite a bit so I guess there is interest in the notes. But I wonder if the information provided out of context would mean a great deal to most people. Still, it was fun and could provide a record, at least for me, for reference in the future. We (meaning Morse Media) also video taped the entire first day. So, an even more complete record is also available. What will become of the video record is yet unclear.

I should note that Chris Crawford has written a pretty good summary of some the topics covered by BBF II on his blog at the Times-Standard site. Chris also hands out some wonderful praise to the Redwood Technology Consortium for its role in organizing BBF II and other activities as it has grown in stature and reach. Chris, it should be noted, was instrumental in pushing RTC from a small, somewhat insulated organization talking to itself, into a force for public change and awareness while serving on the board for several years. Additionally, I would like to thank Tina Nerat and Gregg Foster, both current RTC board members for putting so much time and effort in to getting this year’s Forum off the ground.

The Issues

I can only speak to Day One of the Forum since I was unable to attend Day Two which was a morning of workshops and discussion specifically targetting groups and individuals interested in deploying wireless solutions for rural areas and municipalities. But all reports was that Day Two was well attended and lively.

I won’t go in to details of the Forum, since it’s all available by reading the posts right here in this category. Start at the bottom of the page for the earliest post.

Instead, I would like to point out a few issues that caught my attention and raised some questions:

The Cost of Redundancy

One of the surprising pieces of information that came out of the Forum and in conversations afterward is that right-of-way fees expected to be charged by CalTrans could double the cost of building a second fiber line. Since there is no statue that requires CalTrans to charge these fess, nor any clear scale on which to base the amount of the fees, this policy seems obstructionist to economic development and technological advancement. Given the tax revenue that would be generated from economic expansion in the region once the redundant line is in place, it is also counterproductive and, I would think, counter to our current Governor’s vision for the state.

The plan that was engendered at the Forum was to organize a campaign to appeal directly to the Governor and, if need be, to address the issue in the Assembly.

Regional Technology Planning

Another idea that began to coalesce and gain some momentum at the Forum was the formation of a region-wide telecommunications infrastructure planning committee. This committee would be comprised of representatives from several counties and potentially municipalities. I have written about this concept in more detail here. Such a committee would be the ideal vehicle to push for elimination or at least reduction of right-of-way fees in laying a second fiber line. While this planning committee could accomplish many things if well-organized, often an issue like this is ideal for getting an enterprise off the ground. Let’s hope we don’t lose the momentum generated at the Forum.

at&t’s Take on Redundancy

I was happy to see at&t (formerly SBC) was well represented at the Forum. Much they had to say was news to me. Most important was they did reveal they had established radio signal backup in the event the fiber line goes down for some reason. This means, in the event of an emergency all telecommunications would not be cut off. It’s unclear to me what would be carried on those radio beams. Just voice or voice and data? Anyone know?

Even they acknowledged that while the radio signal is reassuring, it’s not a complete subsititute for redundant fiber. They noted they had done their own research into the feasibility of building another line, but they, too, discovered right-of-way and other fees and complication make the project too costly to sell to the parent company.

Wireless VS Redundancy

A great deal of time was spent with two WISP (Wireless Internet Services Providers) owners, Rick Kunze of ColusaNet and Marlon Schafer of Odessa Office Equipment & Wireless. They seemed to think spending the money on redundant fiber was less important than getting broadband deployed to more people with the resources we had. Maybe this was a self-serving point of view (don’t waste your money on redundant fiber because the chances of it breaking are very small, spend the money on what we do!). I’m not sure anyone was convinced. Especially if the redundant fiber as proposed by Susan Estrada was owned by an entity other than at&t. If so, the second line would not be just redundant but also an alternate solution. As Mark Geiger, Director of Network Operations for Cox (or Cebridge or whatever they will be called) said at one point during the Forum, an alternate fiber line would mean lower prices due to competition and he would be able to pass that on to consumers. He would be able to offer other services he feels are not possible now.

So, do we really need to choose between broadband (whether through wireless or other solutions) now and redundant fiber? I don’t think so. Given the low cost of the wireless solutions I think we can and should do both. And I think both should be undertaken as soon as possible.

Several years ago, a local realtor got some great publicity by trying to sell the town of Bridgeville on ebay. She did get a buyer off of ebay, although ultimately that deal fell through. But the publicity did garner a buyer in Bruce Krall from Orange County. Now, after some renovation, and some soaring property prices, the town is back on ebay with a starting price of $1.75 million, more than twice the orignial sales price. As of this posting there are no bids.

What’s interesting about this auction is that the seller is offering to donate some of the sale proceeds to the Humboldt Area Foundation. You can read the letter from Peter Pennekamp, Ex. Director of HAF regarding this donation promise.

Where are the customers? Are they in a valley? Are they in multi unit housing? The idea is to deploy the correct technology in a specific area.

How many will there likely be? Don’t believe surveys. If you get results, cut it in half. People lie.

What are the geographic limitations? Wireless allows lots of creative solutions. They believe DSL is dead. It will go the way of ISDN.

They aren’t talking about DSL, cable, wireless, satellite. They are talking about high speed Internet access that is technology independent. Use the right tools to solve the specific problem.

Are there any spectral limitations. Use the tools to see what the interference issues will be.

Research

• Are tehre NO other options
• Are poor existing options fixable
• What are typical realistic take rates
• What are realistic cell sizes
• How many customers per base station
• How many base stations are really needed
• Do you need a T-1 or more

One step at a Time

Why
what will broadband do for you
Who wants it
What do they have now

How
What is the best technology
How reliale
Spectrum check
Find ‘tower’ ideas
It doesn’t pay to buy in too big since the technology is changing so rapidly.

Most customers are interested in cheap.

More planning:

Beware the ‘triple play’
Determine what customers need (notice I didn’t say “want”)
Hire help or do it yourself
Where will you get bandwidth - wired, fiber, wireless
Competition, now and in future
One network, multiple networks

Q and A time. Early. Too hard to follow.

Biggest points:

Broadband supports the home based business more than it will serve as an attraction for businesses that might want to move here.

What Rick and Marlon are doing in their regions wouldn’t work here. Howeverer, they could figure out how to make something work. It’s called flexibility. Coming up with a different model. There may be multiple solutions for different regions.

Continuing:

Deployment

Start small
Test the plan
Build in options for future use
Build in options for competitors
Stick to the plan but be flexible if conditions change
Construct to the level of the customer base

We’re done. I am out of here.

Program has changed.

Getting rid of the right of way issues. Needs to be a regional approach. Maybe include Siskiyou county. Pending transportation bond does not include much money for no. california. So a strategy would include let’s focus on broadband and getting rid of the right of way costs.

There were three points in this brief presentation. I missed one of them. Maybe someone can fill this in.

Rick Kunze of ColusaNet and Marlon Schafer of Odessa Office Equipment & Wireles

“Build for 20 years out. If you build for 10 years out, technology will overtake you.”

Rick Kunze: 10 gig to the home sounds great, but I have customers whose computers can’t handle 1 gig. It’s sexy, but not realistic. There’s little out there that can feed you data at higher speeds. People are buying the cheapest computers they can find. If you understand what you are shopping for you buy higher quality. If you don’t understand the technology you buy the cheapest. So people buy cheap computers and then wonder why it doesn’t work and doesn’t move the Internet very fast.

10 years ago folks in Colusa had no idea what they might do with the Internet. Those same folks are now dependent on the Internet. No one knows wha they will be doing on the Network in 10 years, but they know now their lives will be further entwined with it.

Rick tells the story of volunteering, along with other wireless providers to set up a wifi network at an air force base full of storm vicitms. They were prevented from getting on the base while SBC layed land lines.

Marlon Schafer: Small local providers can set up a wireless network in a municipal area quickly and very inexpensively. They are going to talk about how to get started: Here’s their checklist:

• Why do you need it
• How much will construction costs be
• How much will operational costs be
• Where are the customers
• How many will there likely be
• What are the geographic limitations
• Are there any spectral limitations

Building a hybrid network: A little fiber here, a little fiber there, then let the wireless people fan it out. Wifi equipment is cheap and perfectly adequate for most people and businesses.

Several people voice their concerns in areas that are underserved: Weott, Eastern Humboldt. Rick and Marlon offer several possible solutions. This really sounds more like what will happen in tomorrows hands on sessions.

Security: There is no security on the Internet. There are devices that can track traffic, wired or wireless. Encryption shouldn’t be on the network. It’s on the end users, software based.

Operational costs: S*** happens. What will it cost to maintain/repair the network? Where will the money come from to cover it?

More questions from the audience: How do you deal with extreme conditions? What about security issues with towers in terms of vandalism?

A: No problems with security. Hardware stands up to extremes. It’s also cheap enough to replace if it breaks.

How do you build a muni wireless?

A: Don’t. Marlon’s opinion. It will create a nightmare of frequency interferences. Maybe not now. But in a few years there will be a rat’s nest of competing networks. Build a network above the town. Then put hotspots within the buildings where needed.

Taking a break. When we come back they will try and finish their presentation which has gotten a little bogged down in technical details raised by audience quesitons.

Tina Nerat - brief history of RTC and telecom issues over the last 4 years. Details later. Too fast.
Runnette Allans from at&t:

Our area articulates its needs as far as broadband more clearly than in any other region.
at&t will continue to evolve and merge and acquire and grow. However, it will never diminish its attention to smaller markets: Our people live here, our CO is here, our network is here.

Gary Mandella, John Thomson, Dave Edmonds from at&t to discusss the network diversity.

Gary Mandella: Since the fiber went in, at&t has diversified using two radio signals out of the area. If the fiber gets cut, we will not be isolated because of the radio signal backup. Those signals will stay in place until there is some fiber redundancy.
CENIC asked at&t looked at redunany over high powered lines. But right of way costs were prohibitive. But if together we (RTC, RCRA, etc.) approach the state to remove roadblocks, extra fees, hard to justify building a redundant fiber to the corporation.

Because of Katrina, at&t has 84 tractor trailers that can be deployed as backup central offices in the light of some catastrophe.

Since it’s been up, there haven’t been any failures on the fiber. (Not what I understood regarding circuit issues that caused the Cox network problems a few weeks ago. Maybe he means a total failure of the fiber as opposed to partial network problems).

Dave Edmonds: Have taken considerable steps to harden the existing fiber route and though there have been a dozen near misses, there have been no failures. I guess that what he meant. The fiber has stayed intact.

John Thoms(?): Covered what positive things have happened recently. Increased bandwidth to the schools. If a corp. moved in and wanted an OC 192, they could do it. Reasserted that at&t is not going anywhere. He is aware that bandwidth needs and technology is going to explode. And planning is underway. Expanding 6 DSL sites. DSlams going in to many rural areas. Hoping we can all work together as a community to keep moving ahead.

Very interrsting. These gentlemen brought up a lot of issues I was unaware of. Good to hear we are not so isolated.

Director of the Institute for Next Generation Internet

Impacts of Telecommunications on Quality of Life and the Economy

Where are we going in the future?

Globalization: Everything we do well in the Bay Area in terms of technology (e-anything) other countries think of as what they do in the global economy. How does that impact us, now? How does that impact the students we are training in these technologies?

In the Bay Area they are playing catch up in trying to bring together stakeholders around global economy and technology. Broadband Forum shows we are already on the road by bringing many of the stakeholders together in this room. (My comment: Of course, we need to keep the momentum going. I talked briefly to Rollin Richmond that RCRA should take the lead in forming multi-agency telecom committees).

What are the risks? Not just the opportunities. In California (forget the dichotomy of rural and urban) infrastructure (water, roads, power, telecommunications) are at risk of becoming sub-standard. Why are research centers investing in other countries? Why are they hedging their bets?

What is broadband? What are its uses?
We can’t be predictive about how the broadband will be used. Most experts were wrong about what has happened in the last 10 years. Trust that it will be used.

Every job is an ejob.

Think of all the different computational environments. Not just laptop computers: cell phones, gaming environments (world of warcraft).

We can’t do telemedicine unless you have reliable 50 Gigabit connection. Liability issues with diagnosis. Hi def imagery crucial.

Tokyo has 10 gb wireless.

Restrictive discussions on broadband are going to limit our ability to innovate.

AARP is trying to get people with gray hair to show up at the right places to say, ‘We need 10 GB to the home, now!”

Pacific rim countries, in spite of economic hard times, have invested in telecom infrastructure and that has begun to pay off. CA needs to focus on this to stay competitive.

Lots of questions:

What can we do in this state to leverage improved broadband? What are the killer apps? What could we do right now if we had an improved network? How can you connect supercharged urban cores with rural areas? Improved infrastructure is peanuts in cost in the overall scheme of things with a tremendous pay off.

Example Hi-Def teleconference between here and some education point in the Bay Area as a demo of what’s possible. Inexpensive to set up. Wow factor. Creating a vision of what’s possible.

‘World is Flat’ (Friedman book): Everything that is happening in that book is the result of infrastructure that was built 10 years ago. What is happening in CA now is what will shape the opportunities of the future.

Assume gigabit to the home.

Q&A

Are you involved in the wi-fi effort in SF.
A: Yes. What’s important? Can students in the Mission get access to the network? Not if Bif can check his email at Stonestown. (well Bif’s email could be very important too :-))
Google has changed the conversation by offering the wi-fi network for free. So, the telcos now have to scratch their head. Announcement of the network should happen soon.
In New Orleans a guy set up a wi-fi network at 400k down that became a lifeline. Bell South pushed through a bill that made it illegal to have anythinover 128k.

What do you know of Lifelong Learning Institute?
Working with A

Could there be a broadband initiative?
A: Yes. There is a bond on the boards. We need to have people show up and say we need 10gb pop in every community.

Missed the next queston.

What do you know of Google buying up dark fiber?
A: Prediction: If fiber to the home is (first mile) implemented, Google will provide the backbone for free.

Not sure of the question, but the answer was distributed computing for all kinds of apps because the computers are too slow, so using the distributed computing would allow faster rendering over the network while the computers catch up since the network is fast enough.