We noted in passing the loss of Bell Labs basic research in the sciences. So now along comes a former Cisco CTO to do the Long Kentucky Road speil as well —

America is facing an innovation crisis. To fix it, corporations need to find new ways of funding fundamental research into physics and environmental sciences.

That’s the argument made by Judy Estrin, former Cisco CTO and author of the new book Closing the Innovation Gap.

Eatrin says Bell Labs’ decision to discontinue basic science research is just a continuation of a trend that started in the 1970s and 1980s when corporate America, under pressure from Japanese competitors, started cutting back on long-term research.

“Corporations focused on efficiencies and productivity started to make research more short term and tailored to the company’s needs,” says Estrin in an interview with Wired.com, “with the result that most research done at corporations now is applied research.”

What I think is a little rich is the ‘pot - kettle’ meme of this piece. Cisco is notorious for being a below the belt competitor. The ramifications of that is R&D efforts of now dead former competitors never see the light of day. Want to pop the cork on R&D? Make it a 100% write off, dollar for dollar. Whether its grants to universities or done in-house.

Linky.

We have noted before issues with both FIOS and uVerse installations. Well here we go again. –

The state Public Service Commission has found that more than half of Verizon FiOS installations inspected on Long Island violated national electric standards, raising potential safety concerns and prompting Verizon to offer customer credits.

Of 92 installations in Nassau, 64 had violations related to grounding, according to an April audit by commission staff. No Suffolk locations were audited then.

In an October 2007 audit there were 62 code violations out of 113 installations inspected in Nassau. Of 19 installations in Suffolk, 12 had similar code violations.

Fiber-optic cables, which Verizon says carry more information and provide a better signal than copper-wire phone lines, are made of glass and do not conduct electricity. The service uses a home’s power source to convert laser-generated light pulses to electrical communications signals.

Ok. The fiber optic does not carry any current. But the various components that are part of the FIOS install DO. So my question would be this one — How does Verizon get away with not having personnel that are licensed electrical contractors? If they are adding new wall outlets that would be a minimum requirement per State law.

Linky.

Asterisk is the dominant open source PBX replacement. Using commodity hardware, it enables even the smallest enterprise to own and control their own voice communications platform.

The TWIT network’s FLOSS Weekly recently featured an interview with Digium / Asterisk’s  Mark Spencer. Even if you are familiar with Asterisk, this show is worth an hour of your time.

 FLOSS: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tree huggers take note: most forms of information on pulp are on the way out. One of the first to go was the encyclopedia, and the daily news printed on dead trees may be next. Another printed information media is in danger: The map.

Apparently, the head of the British Cartographic Society is no fan of Google Maps. She’s complaining that Google Maps doesn’t include the additional geographic information that makes maps so great, claiming:

“We’re in real danger of losing what makes maps so unique, giving us a feel for a place even if we’ve never been there.”

Except, that’s not quite true. After all, Google Maps allows all sorts of overlays and additional info. With Google Maps you can also get the satellite view, which is likely to give you a much greater feel for a place than a map. And, of course, many areas have the “Street View” feature as well — again, providing a much greater feel for a place you’ve never been. As for certain landmarks and such not being added to Google Maps, more seem to be added every day, and with Google letting people add their own information to maps as well, it’s only going to get better and better.(Techdirt)

Information wants to be free and unfiltered. Pulp media is dying because it is filtered and non interactive. This trend does not mean an end for tech savvy  cartographers any more than it meant an end for tech savvy journalists. There is a giant opportunity for them to build mash ups using Google’s unfiltered data combined with their knowledge to create something compelling.

In a continuing sign of the death knell of pulp news services, the Sacremento Bee is offering early buyouts to all employees. Thats an attempt to reduce a forced RIF. But you can be assued that this too will come to be. –

The Bee offered voluntary buyouts to the majority of its full-time employees Monday as its advertising slump continues and the newspaper scrambles for additional ways to cut costs.

The buyouts came two months after The Bee eliminated 86 jobs as part of an across-the-board layoff ordered by its parent, The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento. A companywide wage freeze was imposed by McClatchy two weeks ago. In July, The Bee unveiled a smaller print format, another way to save money.

But the economic downturn has deepened, and The Bee, like other papers, is still experiencing declining revenue.

“It’s about continually looking at your work force and looking at your economic projections and trying to bring those in line,” said Publisher and President Cheryl Dell. “We thought that we had that two months ago, but with the worsening economy we just need to do more.”

She cited recent bankruptcies of several key advertisers, including Room Source, Linens N Things and Mervyns.

Dell said more layoffs are possible if there aren’t enough buyouts. Yet some applications for buyouts may be rejected if there are too many takers.

The blogger consortiums need to start solidifying their positions in preparation for the collapse of the pulp space. They need to get agreements in place with AP and Reuters now. When those two are king of the hill after the collapse, they will be increasing their rates.

Woes for NYT as well here.

More here.

Tivo was a high flier just 4 years ago. Any household would be considered passe’ if they didn’t have the service. That of course is the rub. As a standalone service its not as attractive as with a content supplier, which they are not currently aligned. –

Lots of people are leaving TiVo. We’ll find out roughly how many when the company reports second-quarter results this afternoon. By a couple estimates, TiVo lost anywhere from 100,000 to 142,000 subscribers last quarter alone, which leaves the company with a subscriber base of around 3.7 million.

[UPDATE: Turns out the company lost a bit more -- the total subscriber base is now 3.6 million.]

Here’s the thing: People aren’t leaving just because they don’t watch TV anymore, nor are they leaving because of the economy — it’s because of a relationship gone awry. When one of TiVo’s most important distribution partners — DirecTV — rolled out its own digital recording service a couple years ago, TiVo was pretty much left in the dust.

It’s clearly not good for the business, but it’s not detrimental — or so says Mark Harding, an analyst with Maxim Group. Harding argues that as TiVo evolves into more of a licensing company, the old 20th century set-top box business matters less and less.

Another issue for Tivo is that there are roll your own HTPC’s that not only do the Tivo function but also provide full support for other functions as well. They are definately between a rock and a hard place.

Linky.

If you get one of those nasty RIAA letters for paying up for infringement and you decide to fight it you have some work to do. Nor is it legal work I am talking about either. You have a technical task as well. Here’s what you need to do in a nutshell —

• Buy yourself another hard drive immediately.
• Clone the original HD to the new drive.
• In the presence of a third party or notary or alternately somebody like Geeks. You need someone who will certify that they observed you removing the HD and placing it under seal.
• Place the hard drive under seal and give it to your lawyer.
• Install the new HD as your new boot drive.

What you WILL NOT DO is reformat the drive in question. That could be construed as evidence tampering. An offense in its own right. For more on this go here.

Take heed.

Funny thing about that headline? Both events are happening in the same company. Novell had a huge 3Q loss while its Linux efforts continue to gain traction. –

Nowhere is this clearer than in Novell’s Linux revenue, which soared 30 percent, year over year, to $31 million for the quarter. Novell invoiced a total of $51 million in Linux bookings in the quarter, up 36 percent year over year. Novell’s Linux revenue is growing faster than the market, which IDC pegs at 19.7 percent CAGR from 2008 to 2010.

Where is much of it coming from? Unfortunately, Microsoft, but some signs suggest that Novell is increasingly standing on its own in the Linux market, rather than relying on Microsoft to peddle SUSE Linux (which it has no long-term incentive to do).

Novell has invoiced Microsoft for 73 percent of the original $240 million investment. There’s now another $100 million to burn down, which I expect Microsoft to continue renewing as it attempts to chip away at Red Hat’s leadership position in the Linux market. Microsoft will fail at this game, but perhaps it will take a billion dollars to realize this–or maybe a further weakening in the Windows server market vis-a-vis Linux.

Linky.

Yep, and Ole Mr. Jefferson if we can revive him. Betsy Schiffman, wrote an article that is a pitch of the same things we have been saying here for quite some time. Assess, Adjust and Engage –

“If you’re a business whose content is easily distributed and stolen digitally, you have to figure out ways to engage your [audience] on a deeper level — figure out how to get them to your site, offer them extras on a DVD, or benefits that are only available through purchase,” says Aaron Dignan, founding partner of Undercurrent, a new media consultancy. “Unfortunately, I think that takes a bit more thinking and work and sometimes that’s too much for content providers or copyright holders to go through.”

The whole piece is here.

Betsy if you have the time come on over, we’ve been blowing the same horn for over a year here on similar topics.

While Comcast forges ahead implementing DOCSIS 3.0 to counter Verizon’s FIOS in certain markets, they are also imposing limits on “unlimited” service. Since there is already limits on downloads imposed by the metered maximum download speed and certain network management practices, I see something more sinister at work. The big broadcast networks are already setting up shop online, and traditional cable content providers are following suit. Those who consume their media via TVoIP are less likely subscribe to pay TV. Those who are consuming more media via TVoIP are likely to be using more bandwidth than those who do not, which is a doubly annoying trend in the eyes of the cable guy.

“The intent appears to be to go after the people who consistently download far more than the typical user without hurting those who may have a really big month infrequently,” says an insider familiar with the project, who prefers to remain anonymous. “As far as I am aware, uploads are not affected, at least not initially.” According to this source, the new system should only impact some 14,000 customers out of Comcast’s 14.1 million users (i.e. the top 0.1%).

While we won’t be sure this is still the case until we see Comcast’s plan, the original source indicated that Comcast was hoping to give customers one “freebie” every twelve months in regards to the cap. In other words, you’d be able to consume more than 250GB once a year, but consecutive months with violations would result in you paying an overage penalty. Obviously there’s lots of questions here, not least of which are whether Comcast’s own content counts against the cap, or whether customers will be provided with a usage meter.  (DSL Reports)

If you are a Comcast subscriber, it’s time to flee to another provider. Failure to do so will only encourage the rest of the duopoly’s players to copy the bandwidth cap.