Wall Street analysts are an odd bunch. They try to fit companies into neat little cookie cutter profiles and insist you make yourself fit into one - even if you don’t fit. It makes your company easier to analyze and market to investors. Chances are you’ll fail if you try to fit their profile no matter how hard you try, so it may be better to resist and let them trash you now rather than have them blame you for inevitable failure later.

Qwest had their meeting with said analysts today. Analysts want to know what Qwest will do to look more like the AT&T Death Star or Darth Verizon with triple play and now saturated wireless. Sticking to plan, Qwest Chairman Ed Mueller told them that the future is a big dumb pipe and that they would do wireless and pay TV through partnerships:

“The line that comes into the home is a connection, and not a telephone number,” says Mueller, “and that’s important” in order to not be simply pushed aside by cellular offerings and fiber-optics.

The company expects it will pass 1.5 million homes with its fiber-to-the-node lines by the end of this year. The company says this could add 1 percentage point to revenue growth in the second year of the initiative, and Mueller thinks Qwest can increase its share of consumer broadband in its markets from 32% currently to 45%, without specifying a time frame.

More on Qwest to analyasts: The future is a big dumb pipe. Get used to it!

Will Ready Killowatt ever morph into Ready Gigbit? That’s a question for the people who own and manage the power lines. As for what level of access they can provide if they chose to, the possible bandwidth has increased by 100% in the last few months. Now there is a second player in addition to DS2 entering the 400MBPS chip market:

Powerline networking specialist Devolo will next month demo an Ethernet-over-the-mains prototype capable of delivering up to 400Mb/s bandwidth.

Devolo’s keeping mum about the details until it shows the kit off at the CeBIT show in Hannover. We suspect the unit essentially comprises two separate 200Mb/s HomePlug AV that sit between the mains power cables and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

By pairing the 200Mb/s adaptors, Devolo essentially doubles the available bandwidth. Just as 200Mb/s powerline Ethernet doesn’t deliver that perfect-world throughoput, so the 400Mb/s units only deliver real-world speeds of up to 180Mb/s, Devolo admitted.

But that’s still double what at 200Mb/s unit can provide and sufficient, the company claimed, for five HD video streams to be routed over the network simultaneously. (from the Register)

We’ve reported a few announcements about service roll out’s using BPL. To date, I can find no evidence of any wide availability of BPL access. It’s conceptually a natural in the wire line access business. Are any readers BPL wsubscribers? If so, please comment or email. Email is thirdpipe@gmail.com or you can comment by registering and logging in.

If you are a regular reader, you’ve seen a number of rants from all parties here on Third Pipe demanding change at the FCC. We’re skeptical of “net neutrality” legislation that keeps resurfacing in Congress because it always extends the reach of the feds who are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Broadband needs to become an ecosystem rather than the heavily regulated and by virtue of regulation protected duopoly that exists today. In an ecosystem, the customer choses the winners and losers. In the regulated environment, the nanny state makes the selection for us. We prefer to make our own choices thank you.

In a post on Cnet today, the Free State Foundation’s Randolph May goes a step further than the usual Third Pipe position, convincingly arguing that regulation of all electronic media needs to end:

So what to do? The existing Communications Act, which ties regulatory activity to outmoded techno-functional regulatory constructs, should be replaced by a statute tying regulation firmly to marketplace realities. What would then matter would not be whether a service is classified as “telecommunications,” “cable,” “broadcasting,” “mobile,” and so forth, but whether services face marketplace competition.

At the very least, I’m now convinced that the regulation debate does need to extend to all electronic media. It’s a good read, worthy of your consideration. I’ll be spending time contemplating Mr. May’s position, you should too.

If adobe gets their way, developers with focusing their energies AIR instead of Windows or Mac. There is no stopping the move of apps to the cloud. What is still lacking with all of them is the ability to work without a broadband connection. AIR may very solve that problem while giving developers a platform to rapidly deploy online apps as well.

Adobe sees AIR as a major advance that builds on its Flash multimedia software. Flash is the engine behind Web animations, e-commerce sites and many streaming videos. It is, the company says, the most ubiquitous software on earth, residing on almost all Internet-connected personal computers.

But most people may never know AIR is there. Applications will look and run the same whether the user is at his desk or his portable computer, and soon when using a mobile device or at an Internet kiosk. Applications will increasingly be built with routine access to all the Web’s information, and a user’s files will be accessible whether at home or traveling.

AIR is intended to help software developers create applications that exist in part on a user’s PC or smartphone and in part on servers reachable through the Internet.

To computer users, the applications will look like any others on their device, represented by an icon. The AIR applications can mimic the functions of a Web browser but do not require a Web browser to run.

The first commercial release of AIR takes place on Monday, but dozens of applications have been built around a test or beta version. (from the New York Times)

In a seperate announcement, an app called Shiftd built on AIR was released in beta today:

Today, in conjunction with the 1.0 release of Adobe AIR, the digital labs of the New York Times Co. is releasing an application in public beta called ShifD. An early version of the app won a Yahoo Hack Day last June. It is designed to let users easily shift notes, links, and addresses between their computers and their mobile phones.

Instead of e-mailing yourself notes to remind yourself to do something or links to stories you want to read, you put them into ShifD and create a feed that is automatically available on your mobile phone. You can use a standalone Adobe Air app on your desktop or a regular Web browser. On your mobile phone, ShifD supports most mobile Web browsers, and is also offering customized versions for the iPhone and the Blackberry. You can enter notes back into your SHifD account from you mobile phone by texting to “SHIFD”.

Building on their Flash franchise, Adobe may have found critical mass to become dominant in the cloud. It will be interesting to see if the open source community can improve on the concept.

Depending on who you read, IC technology has maybe 30 years before it reaches the point that quantum physics prevents any further shrinkage of the number of transistors per micrometer of substrate surface. But it appears that there might be an alternative that is being developed in the nanotechnology world. —

Harnessing the electrical and mechanical properties of the carbon nanotube, a team of researchers has crafted a working radio from a single fiber of that material.

Fixed between two electrodes, the vibrating tube successfully performed the four critical roles of a radio–antenna, tunable filter, amplifier and demodulator–to tune in a radio signal generated in the room and play it back through an attached speaker.

Functional across a bandwidth widely used for commercial radio, the tiny device could have applications far beyond novelty, from radio-controlled devices that could flow in the human bloodstream to highly efficient, miniscule, cell phone devices.

Developed at the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems, a research team led by Alex Zettl of the University of California at Berkeley announced the findings online on Oct. 31, 2007 (http://pubs.acs.org/journals/nalefd/index.html). The findings are scheduled to be printed in Nano Letters in November. Over the past century, radio has shrunken dramatically from the wooden “cathedral ” style radios of the 1930s to the pocket-sized transistor radios of the 1950s and more recently to the…
Click here for more information.

“This breakthrough is a perfect example of how the unique behavior of matter in the nanoworld enables startling new technologies,” says Bruce Kramer, a senior advisor for engineering at NSF and the officer overseeing the center’s work. “The key functions of a radio, the quintessential device that heralded the electronic age, have now been radically miniaturized using the mechanical vibration of a single carbon nanotube.”

Sounds like to me that a minimum the ‘magic dust’ that the DoD has wanted for tracking insurgents maybe close at hand.

Linky.

We talk alot about the ‘ThirdPipe’ here. That ubiquitous high bandwith presence that is everywhere and preferably wireless.But maybe its tiime we show you why you need it. in cruising the Web today I ran across this site. They did a nice rundown of office suites online.

Office suites you say? I got MS Office now and I ocassionally use Google Docs Dog so what’s the big deal. Well none in a sense. For an individual we highly recommend Google Docs. It has most of the features anyone would want. The fact there is nothing to buy is a plus. We use it heavily. [PS. If you haven't tried Google Notebook, get it. It is a labor savor on the 'Net.]
More on You Want Your ThirdPipe Because…

Lucas, Speilberg and thier likes are quickly adopting new 3D technology the next natural extension of digital film making. We’ll see it in the movie houses next year. Look for it to translate into consumer home theater products within the decade.

Movie studios are bracing for a storage explosion tied to the launch of new 3D technologies that could revolutionize film-making, writes James Rogers over at Byte and Switch.

Stereoscopic 3D, a high-def version of the filming method that provides a three-dimensional view of objects and landscapes, will give the animation industry a run for its storage money.

Dreamworks is already planning its first stereoscopic 3D release, a movie called Monsters v Aliens, which is scheduled for release in the summer of 2009. This will be followed by another stereoscopic offering, called How to Train Your Dragon. (from Contentinople)

It takes double the bit rate to render a 3D image, lots of processing power and storage. Processing power and storage are already up to snuff and are getting better / faster / cheaper every day. If it’s to be on the IP network, there must be more bandwidth to the consumer. Another reason why US access providers must build to the minimum new world standard of 100MBPS to the customer if we are to remain relevant in the connected modern world. If the Death Star and Darth V won’t provide, perhaps it’s an opening for a third pipe. We want our 3D TVoIP!

Well anyone that reads this blog knows that Time-Warner, Comcast and Charter all jockey and trade territory in what they perceive as tactical business advantage. But you know, you should not in making these deals cut the customer off from service. Really does not endear one to the customer base. Comcast sees it differently I guess.

Read the gory details at saschameinrath.com

Absolutely disgusting

We here at ThirdPipe have reported on the Nokia 8xx series tablet device at least three times before. Well it looks like Nokia is taking some clues from what is happening in the rest of the world vis a vis WiMax usage –

Just when you think Nokia doesn’t have any more tricks up its sleeve — wham! the WiMAX-equipped N830 internet tablet gets all up in your section (maybe). According to a sweet, sweet photo which appeared in Best Buy’s February Mobile Buyer’s Guide, the Finnish giant is preparing to unleash a new version of its popular N810 tablet, and it seems like this could be the rumored WiMAX device that we’ve heard whispers about. Of course, this could also just be a new paint job and refreshed number — though something in our heart tells us that ain’t the case. Word on the street is that we’ll know what’s up come CTIA. In the meantime, feel free to zoom, zoom, and zoom some more on this picture, and check out the full page of the brochure after the break.

What’s left? Well a minor nit, but how about a wireless ear bud to work with this device so you can do Skype/VoIP. That would complete its role as a all-in-one compute-communication device. This new model is good news as it indicates that Nokia has a market share with this unit. So there definitely is a market for it.

Linky.

Well a commentator over at Public Knowledge says –

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Monday hearing in Cambridge, Mass., will be a reality check about how control of the Internet can be accomplished, by whom, and what the consequences will be.

Commissioners will have the chance to question, in public, representatives of businesses that could be affected by Comcast’s throttling of BitTorrent and to make Comcast defend itself in the face of live criticism from those who know the Internet best. Comcast and the FCC will have to tell David Reed, who originated the “end to end” architecture idea for the Internet why it’s better to have Comcast and other network operators take control, rather than users and content suppliers. BitTorrent will note how the technology is going mainstream, used by such respectable customers as NASA.

We can certainly hope that it is the case. A little blood letting is always good for the tyrant(s). But I suspect that this will be more of a talking head kind of affair. Why? Well consider two facts –

1) The two antagonists Comcast vs Bittorret are on two seperate panels between 2 time intervals. You would really want the have those two representative on the panel at the same time.

2) Bittorrent is not a carrier but a tool. So how does that fit in a discussion from the FCC view as it relates to network management. Bittorrent is not a practice but the cause for having one. Bittorrent will not manage the network. Also keep in mind that Bittorrent is already making moves to defeat the current network mgt tools deployed by Comcast.

Mr. Brodsky, wish this was going to be an a ‘effective’ meeting but I am afraid it is going to be a droll CYA type discussion. The speaker alignment swages against it.

Linky.