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The Disposable Laptop

If you think the disposable computer is a silly concept, you better not read this article from the New York Times about how the former CTO of the one laptop per child (OLPC) initiative is looking to make a -- get this -- $75 computer. The OLPC goal was a $100 computer but it ended up costing $200 instead.

Certainly, ideas like this have to keep Michael Dell up at night.

Pixel Qi is the company behind this idea and Mary Lou Jepsen s the former OLPC CTO. I remember paying about $15 for a disposable camera on a vacation a few years back... I wonder how much a disposable computer would be worth to me.

Sadly, the disposable computer idea is not very green -- but that doesn't mean it won't happen. Last I checked, Hummer still sells cars. Sure not as many as five years ago but they still sell.

A natural place where these cheap computers could come in handy is at airports since the way things are going with the new battery rules, it could be a matter of time before we can even bring a laptop with us through security. I already feel like a criminal for carrying a laptop in my bag.

Is it a stretch to think we can just buy new laptops after we get to our destinations and just plug a memory stick into them for personalization purposes? In fact with a fast enough internet connection we may not even need any personalization on memory sticks since everything could be SaaS.

This idea may seem silly today but I am sure it will have legs at an airport near you in 2010.

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AT&T to Filter Web Traffic?

It is very scary to read an article on the New York Times website about AT&T openly admitting the fact they may be soon filtering internet traffic. I can think of no scarier thing and there should be no need for it at all. The reason for this change in policy is said to be copyright filtering. As the head of a major media company I find this to be a noble cause but there has to be another way of doing it besides looking through all my packets and determining which packets are on the good and bad list.

As always the concern is where this behavior will lead us. Today it is copyrighted material, tomorrow, who knows what my ISP may decide I shouldn't send or receive.

This is bad news for all Net users.

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Ranch Networks Gone

I've been out to visit Ranch Networks a few times in the past few years and my first visit was interesting as the company didn't seem 100% sure of what direcion to take their products in. They had talented engineers but the strategy wasn't clear to me or them.

A few years later the company switched their strategy to providing security for the Asterisk space. This seemed to me like a can't miss market. But frankly I haven't been in very close touch with company execs for a while.

I received an e-mail today from a past team member who asked me if the campany was gone because their website is dead. I queried my internal database and it does seem like their phone numbers have been dead for a number of months.

I haven't heard a single negative thing about the company so this news comes as a bit of a surpise.

If you have additional information feel free to add to this post.

Update: Here are some thoughts from a reliable, anonymous source:

Ranch had their funding pulled and is basically out of businesses.  They closed their doors and let everyone go about a year ago. They spent their time chasing one large deal (3Com) who wanted to use any available financial resources on their recent acquisitions (so I was told). Ram Ayyakad, their CEO has been trying to sell the technology, but can’t seem to gain much interest.  They still believe they have something that is valuable.
 

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Toshiba SIP Trunking

Toshiba has joined the SIP trunking party with an announcement that their Strata CIX family of IP PBXs will support Session Initiation Protocol. The company will have nationwide support for SIP trunking and this should be great news for past and current Toshiba customers.

Using SIP trunking, companies eliminate the need to have separate voice and data lines and can cut costs, increase flexibility and as a bonus increase call quality.

In addition to SIP Trunks, Toshiba's MIPU cards also support IP stations, SIP stations, Strata Net channels, and applications.

Toshiba's SIP Trunking capabilities are available on two IP interface units: Toshiba's MIPU16 and MIPU24 support 16 ports and 24 channels, respectively. Both are compatible with BeyondVoice with SIPconnect from Cbeyond and VoIPZone from ABS. The MIPU interface units are now available from authorized Toshiba dealers.

This news is also good for Cbeyond as Toshiba is obsessed with call quality. If they endorse Cbeyond, it should be taken as a very positive sign for Cbeyond customers and investors.

To learn more about SIP Trunking be sure to come to ITEXPO in two weeks to attend a free course on the topic or get certified in building enhanced SIP services.

Thanks to partners Ingate, Dialogic the SIP Forum and others for helping TMC provide leading-edge educational content to a worldwide audience.

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Pocket Internet

I beleive there needs to be a slew of devices allowing us to have web browsing on the go. Something smaller than a laptop and larger than a smartphone is needed. The Wall Street Journal has some interesting points about this topoc in an article titled Full Web Access in Your Pocket?

As you know I am a fan of the Nokia N800 and I wish it was on a 3G network. this would make it infinately useful.

What excites me about the WSJ article however is the statistic cited regarding Japan where cellphone internet access is commonplace... 88% of consumers surveyed there say they are dissatisfied with the experiance.

While the iPhone is a really good compromise, I still think something with a larger screen would be very useful to many of us.

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