New research shows that younger people like to use use their mobile device as a second window into their online lives and personal computer. It’s not just the young. Go to any office park eatery at noon and you’ll see lots of smart phones and crackberries getting a workout from middle aged as well as youthful users.

A report from In-Stat points out that millennials, the generation aged 8 to 27, use their mobile phones to access their social networks wherever they are.

This is great news for a variety of companies attempting to bring PC content to the mobile. As content is pulled to mobile devices, publishers will pay to make sure it arrives in a readable format and quickly enough to satiate user demand, meaning content delivery networks, providers of transcoding services and services that render PC content accessible to mobile phones could benefit. (GigaOm)

Now, here’s an idea: Build devices to use an open pipe (Clearwire?). The open source handsets you will use have VPN capability, with VoIP and unified messaging. It all fits neatly only one screen with a single interface. If you have a Gmail account, you already unified messaging capabilities with single login. Just do a handset interface. No need to leave the “phone mode” and hop over to the “internet mode” or “text mode”. No trying to keep track of the various nickel and dime and dollar charges for each, you just rent the pipe and you use it for whatever app you like. It could happen in the next year on Wimax or something like it. If however, we rely only on AT&T and Verizon , it will only happen in time for the next generation to use it.

it looks like they need to get a heavier gauge of aluminum for the tin-foil hats down in Santa Fe. Yes folks there is a group of people in that town that are filing a complaint against the deployment of WiFi i public places. They are considering a ADA attack. –

A group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they’re allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings.

Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones.

“I get chest pain and it doesn’t go away right away,” he said.

Firstenberg and dozens of other electro-sensitive people in Santa Fe claim that putting up Wi-Fi in public places is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Time for Alcoa to send down another shipment.

Linky.

While fiber is the future proof network that more countries are adopting, world DSL speeds and prices are up. DSL is the last mile of choice for the US Telcos and other less developed places. The improved DSL speed, however is largely due to improvements south of the equator.

The big change came as a result of big boosts provides by Latin American carriers, who boosted residential speeds by 36% to 2.74 Mbps. Telecom Argentina and Telefonica del Peru were two carriers that boosted speeds. In comparison, the prices for FTTx and cable tariffs have not changed much. (Gigaom)

If we wait for Argentina and Peru pass us, will it be enough to convince US law makers that a duopoly is not a competitive environment that best serves the needs of our population? Could be. So far, not one of the remaining Presidential candidates has addressed this issue outside of taking a position on misleading “net neutrality” legislation. Any net neutrality legislation first assumes the presence an anti competitive market and then does nothing to make it more competitive. If adopted, a government bureaucrat will establish how much of what we will have at what cost fro the same old duopoly. Think I’m wrong? Let me remind you this is the same bureaucracy that thinks ISDN is broadband. It is far better to first undo the duopoly before going down that path.

My career in IT started pre-Internet so I have seen much of the history unfold with a near 50 yard line seats. But I have to ask does Microsoft really ‘get’ the Internet. This discourse pops up from time to time on the tech blogs. But now I have detected three events that tend to indicate a trend.

But do I need to remind folks we have sort of been here before? When the ‘Net burst on the scenes in the late ’80’s it was novel and a user supported affair. But it was not long before the NCSA browser was adopted by Netscape and off to the races. For well on 18 months Netscape had free reign in the marketplace with Microsoft sitting on the sidelines oblivious to the paradigm shift. Eventually they recognized the threat and developed IE.

Now? Well its what Microsoft is doing rather than not doing this time. –

A) The Yahoo non-assimilation. We have covered the Yahoo - Microsoft dance several posts. I won’t elaborate too much. Then rumors floated of a possible Microsoft - FaceBook match up. All these moves appear to be an effort to develop a ‘Net income producing presence separate from the desktop metaphor.
 
B) Shutting down the book search engine effort. We then get this from the blog Google Operating System.

“Given the evolution of the Web and our strategy, we believe the next generation of search is about the development of an underlying, sustainable business model for the search engine, consumer, and content partner. For example, this past Wednesday we announced our strategy to focus on verticals with high commercial intent, such as travel, and offer users cash back on their purchases from our advertisers.”  

In other words, the book search engine didn’t make enough money and Microsoft decided it’s better to focus on areas that are more profitable. Instead of improving their search engine with valuable content from books and offering better search results, Microsoft chose to make decisions based on the short-term profits.

C) Removing unpopular XBox games from the download site. Then from Wired we have this —

What on Earth is Microsoft thinking?

Consider the case of Asteroids Deluxe, above. Maybe it’s not the most popular game on Xbox Live Arcade, but surely there are some people out there who want to play a high-def version of Atari’s classic shooter, right? Last I checked, that was the whole point of digital delivery: You don’t have to only publish the hits. Zero cost of goods and just-in-time inventory means that you can sell a little of a lot of different things.

So why is Asteroids Deluxe in danger of being yanked from the Xbox Live catalogue?

Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten told Next Generation this week that Microsoft will soon begin to delete some Xbox Live Arcade games from the service. The rationale is, to put it nicely, paper-thin: To “focus on quality over quantity” and “make it easier to find the games you are looking for.”

That is, Microsoft is going to reduce digital download games choices. That would be like iTunes dropping ‘By the Dock of the Bay’ because Sam Cooke only sells 2 tunes a day. But that is what Microsoft is preparing to do.

So what do all these events have in common? Short quarter thinking. Its the only thing that makes any sense. But let me lay the ground work for why.

Consider the games reduction. It makes no sense. The sunk cost for housing the games for download has already been paid. So even if a game only does 5-6 sales a week it is by this point nearly pure profit both for Microsoft and the game developer for their royalty payment. I would recommend the book the ‘Long Tail’ by Chris Anderson for a full explanation. But non-physical goods to do not incur warehousing costs like physical products so their retention does not impact the bottom line. Then we have Microsoft backing out of the book search concept. Ok granted it takes expense to keep feeding the machine but as a competitive move for LiveSearch its a bad move. It leaves the the concept totally to Amazon and Google. That indicates a brand retreat to consumer. Finally we have the Yahoo deal. It is interesting that Microsoft felt compelled to buy a revenue stream when there were supposed to be constructing one with LiveSearch. Now I will grant that sometimes it is cheaper to buy into a market than build your presence in that market from the bottom up. The Yahoo thing had a aura of desperation to it. It never made sense to me that Microsoft was going to battle the boardroom without the backing of the institutional investors first.

The conclusions? –

• Microsoft’s acumen outside the desktop/server environment lacks insight and in many cases is too much ‘me too’ in scope.
• Its ability to generate revenue is below that of its competitors. That is evidenced as part of the first bullet point.
• Microsoft’s pull back over these markets and its move to buy market may indicate a revenue shortfall and likely short term bad quarters for the giant for the balance of the year.
• Unable to get these revenue streams to a break even point Microsoft faces some tough choices. Couple that with all is not well in the desktop arena regardless of the rosy Vista projections. The Windows margins have been shrinking for two quarters now.

The bottom line? Is Microsoft the next Novell, like Novell was in 1995 having been speared by the Microsoft juggernaut in the server market? Wish I could ask THE question — “Bill did you know 3 years ago when you handed the COO job to Balmer that the franchise was running out of steam in the marketplace?”

I’ll put the crystal ball down now. Anyone have any other explanation for the events I have just outlined? I am all ears!

Yep an update to a ‘Chicken in every pot’, especially considering that chicken wraps are $3.99 at any Taco Bueno. But Hop-On, who we know nothing about is touting a good no frills $10 phone. Not Reman, new. From their presser –

IRVINE, Calif., May 23,2008 — Hop-On, Inc. (Pink Sheets: HPNN) today announces that its GSM cell phone, the Hop1800, is now available in the United States for $10 USD, and worldwide. One of the new breed of ultra convenient cell phones, the pre-paid HOP1800 is ideal as a backup cell phone, when traveling abroad, or for anyone looking for a super affordable cell phone that does one thing extremely well: make phone calls.

“Though the iPhone is an amazing device, I challenge anyone to make a call faster than with the HOP1800,” says Hop-On CEO Peter Michaels. “With the cost of living and roaming fees going though the roof, the HOP1800 is also the perfect iPhone traveling companion. Just buy a local SIM card and you can use the HOP1800 with over 40 domestic wireless carriers,” Michaels said.

Both HOP1800 phones, one a Dual-band 850/1900MHz or the 900/1800MHz for Europe and Asia, weigh a scant 77 grams, offers 4 hours of talk time, 150 hours of standby time and polyphonic ring tones. Though low in cost, the HOP1800 uses reliable Infineon chip sets for excellent audio quality, reception and call stability.

At a $10 price point in the US retail and convenient stores, the HOP1800 could be considered disposable, but the company offers a $5 rebate for returning the phone to encourage recycling the phone to “Keep it Green”.

Keeping it simple
The HOP1800 is a study in simplicity. There is no display. A tactile numeric keypad with Braille markings, offers reassuring buttons that touch screen cell phone users are longing for. Being a pre-paid cell phone, no contracts are required so you can be up and talking in seconds. The HOP1800 can be used with over 40 US carriers including AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile as well as through Hop-On’s own low cost Graffiti Wirelesstm network.

Co-Branding Opportunities
The HOP1800 is now available to retailers such as drug and convenience stores, big box retailers and to businesses looking for a unique branding opportunity. Hop-on can imprint sport teams or corporate logos on the HOP1800, making it one of the most unique – and useful – premiums available. “Instead of another coffee mug, offering a branded cell phone is a memorable branding opportunity that will literally keep you in touch with your customers. What would be a better way for companies, such as insurance brokers to give to their customers, handy in case of an accident!” adds Michaels.

Ok, so now add a vid display for $25 and $10 for memory for iTune storage and you have a $45 phone that most folks [yes even teenagers] could live with. Still, it shows the mind games being played at the retail level by the various carriers.

Linky.

So much of the discussion has been focused on file sharing that one of the biggest and still growing problems confronted by every netizen and enterprise is Spam. The unsolicited commercial message continues to run rampant clogging the systems and dogging the productivity of those who have to moderate it. While the RIAA and MPAA aren’t losing fortunes here, the real cost of Spam to all enterprise dwarfs the real or imagined cost of piracy. Don’t think it’s a serious challenge? This blog routinely receives as many as 1000 spam posts daily pitching the usual collection male enhancement drugs, biz opps, investment advice and porn. Fortunately, we have tools that filter most Spam, but real time that could be used productively is lost to dealing messages that get past the filters every day.

Bloggers like us are not alone in losing to Spammers. Craigs List, the popular free online classifieds site, is fighting an uphill battle against the spammers. In some categories, they are losing the fight.

Spam on Craigslist has been a minor nuisance for years. Not any more. This year, the spammers started winning and are taking over Craigslist. Here’s how they did it. Craigslist tries to stop spamming by checking for duplicate submissions. They check for excessive posts from a single IP address. They require users to register with a valid E-mail address. They added a CAPTCHA to stop automated posting tools. And users can flag postings they recognize as spam.

Several commercial products are now available to overcome those little obstacles to bulk posting. A tool called CL Auto Posting Tool is one such product. It not only posts to Craigslist automatically, it has built-in strategies to overcome each Craigslist anti-spam mechanism.

Random text is added to each spam message to fool Craigslist’s duplicate message detector. IP proxy sites are used to post from a wide range of IP addresses. E-mail addresses for reply are Gmail accounts conveniently created by Jiffy Gmail Creator (”Who Else Wants to Create Unlimited Gmail Accounts in Seconds Flat Without Breaking a Sweat?”) An OCR system reads the obscured text in the CAPTCHA. Automatic monitoring detects when a posting has been flagged as spam and reposts it.

More on The forgotten net traffic problem: Spam

The life we lead in this country was not born without sacrifice. For all Veterans a hearty thanks; this is Your Weekend.

Thank You.

Thanks to Harlan Reynolds, Instapundit for the picture.

Rarely do I agree with the editorial positions taken by the NYT. But this article is so ’spot on’ that I feel like I ought to hire the writer. Yes its about cable rates and iterates what we here at ThirdPipe have been railing against since the beginning — rottern service, incompetent personnel, clueless management and ever rising prices.

Read it again.

RCR. It appears that the FCC may auction off an AWS III frequency — 2155-2180 MHz. Its only 25mhz of bandwidth but it maybe enough to make things interesting. –

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin scheduled a vote on rules for another major spectrum auction, one that would encompass 25 megahertz in the 2155-2180 MHz advanced wireless services band and require the winning bidder to offer free broadband service under an aggressive build-out schedule.

“We’ve had a variety of proposals that had come into the commission originally where some people wanted us to give them the spectrum,” said Martin in a briefing with reporters. The FCC chief said a vote may be held at the agency’s upcoming June 12 meeting, but added it is possible the measure could be approved before that date.

Martin said that a licensee of the 2155-2180 MHz spectrum (referred to as the AWS III band) would have to provide a free service tier, and would have to reach 50% of the population in four years and 95% of the population by the end of the license term.

Martin also said the agency will initiate a separate rulemaking on what to do with other AWS frequencies.

The FCC earlier this year auctioned 62 megahertz of 700 MHz spectrum, raising almost $20 billion.

It is unclear whether the FCC would hold the AWS III auction later this year, and if that auction will affect the agency’s plans to re-auction of the 700 MHz D Block. The D Block — whose rules currently call for a public safety-private sector partnership via a national license — was not claimed in the 700 MHz auction because no bidder met the $1.3 billion reserve price.

There is both questions and opportunity here.

Questions –

• Who the h@^^ would be crazy enough to go into a commercial venture that requires a free service tier. Nobody would want anything but that.
• Considering those facts who would be crazy enough to do the build out?
• What would be the restrictions? At only 25mhz bandwidth you aren’t going to do much beyond messaging and digital transport. Video would be a bandwidth buster.

Opportunities –

• Were a consortium of ARRL, Microsoft, Intel and GE to bid or get abeyance from the FCC a great deal of good good could be made. Subchannels of bandwidth could be offered for Ham technical use, Medical systems, and data transport.
• Might make a viable baseline for the white space battle so that the whole legal issue could be avoided with the legacy network people.
• Let a nonprofit handle the appropriate licensing issues for certain subbands.

FCC you hearing us? Do it. But don’t auction it off, make it the ‘public commons’.

Linky.

A piece by Ken Gross was just published on PC World. To his credit, he does call for faster depreciation of infrastructure and recognizes that DSL does not constitute world class service. Then he mentions the failure of deregulation in terms of the telcos. The final deregulation of the telcos was not deregulation, rather it was the grant of a monopoly mislabeled is deregulation. Then he loses his way, quoting Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF is a front group sock puppet for the telcos) calling for a huge government funded program to implement universal connectivity in the 100MBPS range. He goes further:

In addition, U.S. residents have to decide what they want: fast broadband or broadband competition, Atkinson said. Part of the problem with the debate about broadband in the U.S. is that many groups have conflicting goals, with many consumer groups pushing for more competition, he said.

More competition is “completely incompatible” with super fast speeds, he added. Building competing broadband networks is an inefficient way to get faster networks, Atkinson said.

“This is not the widget industry,” he added. “Competition works well in the widget industry because the fixed costs are fairly low.”

U.S. policies should instead focus on rollout and speed, Atkinson added. “The goal should be to get as much broadband to as many people as possible,” he said. (PC World)

Look at the markets that have 100MBPS service, they all have one unique condition: robust competition. The telcos and cable operators have repeatedly demonstrated they will compete and build lots of speed when they have to (Verizon FIOS areas are the ones who get DOCSIS 3 cable). The call for public financing of infrastructure is nothing more than another naked money grab by the telcos and the cable guys. Add a few more competitors to the mix, and the condition will intensify. Wireless changes the landscape for rural areas, but we still have a spectrum licensing policy that discourages competitive activity.

We need a wild west marketplace, the more chaotic, the better. The first step is to reinstate local loop unbundling until there are 5+ 100MBPS+ different pipes available to any user. The second is to award right of way for FTTH deployment to the first party willing to build now, and they must share the loop. In fact, it may make sense to require the loop itself to be a dumb pipe.

I am not totally opposed to a government assisted build out as a last resort. I only look at how well the interstate highway system is maintained (or actually not maintained) and the USF’s complete failure to deliver broadband in rural America how the feds will do any better burying and operating fiber.The last resort solution of a government built pipe should be one that is leased to all who want to offer service on it, not handing more money to a duopoly.