Technology and Science

Terayon inserts ads into MPEG-4 IPTV streams

November 9, 2005

Terayon Communication Systems, Inc. a provider of digital video networking applications and home access solutions, today announced what they claim is the industry's first 'telco-optimized' solution that allows telecommunication service providers to create new advertising revenue streams to support their ambitious rollout of IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) services.

At its booth at the TelcoTV Conference & Expo, Terayon demonstrated how its new DM 6400-IPTV Network CherryPicker enables telecommunication carriers to seamlessly insert local advertisements into MPEG-4/AVC encoded digital video, the format most carriers have selected for their digital video service offerings. U.S. cable operators alone earned more than $4.3 billion in local advertising revenues in 2004 according to Kagan Associates.

In addition to advertising, telco carriers can also use the DM 6400-IPTV for other important digital video applications. These include the aggregation of programming content from multiple sources, grooming customized channel line-ups by 'cherry picking' programs from multiple programming sources, supporting payload-aware program redundancy and emergency alert system (EAS) messaging.

Yes, but more importantly can I TiVo past these commercials?

Posted in Technology and Science

The fracturing of the Internet Part II

November 7, 2005

Last month I griped about the fracturing of the Internet and how the U.N. - specifically countries like China, Cuba, and Iran - wanted to wrestle control from the U.S. from overseeing the Internet. Well, a U.S.

Posted in Technology and Science

Cablevision High Speed Internet upgrade

November 7, 2005

Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) today announced that it is leveraging the capacity of its fiber network to introduce two new Optimum Online premium tiers that will increase the speed of its Internet products to up to 50 Mbps. Cablevision is also increasing the speed of its Optimum Online service to all customers, from its current speeds of 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) downstream and 1 Mbps upstream to 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps up at no additional cost.

According to Cablevision, "The introduction of these new speed tiers completes the continuum between Cablevision's cornerstone Optimum Online consumer service and the Metro Ethernet services offered to large businesses by the company's Optimum Lightpath division, allowing Cablevision to offer a full range of data and Internet services that meet any possible level of need in the home or at work."

Cablevision will begin to deploy the new speeds and service levels immediately, with the accelerated Optimum Online service and Optimum Online Boost available across the company's entire service area by the middle of 2006. Optimum Online Ultra is already available across the company's entire service area. Customers will be updated directly regarding availability in their specific areas.

Damn, and I used to have Cablevision service when I lived in Norwalk, but I moved and now I have Charter, which gives me a decent 3Mbps downstream but until recently only 128Kbps upstream (it's now 256Kbps). Heck, my Vonage line uses about 90kbps when in use leaving only 38kbps left for any VPN access, uploading files to work, P2P usage, etc.

Posted in Technology and Science

Share USB devices over IP network

November 4, 2005

Ever want to share a USB device on your local area network or even across the Internet? With the proliferation of USB devices such as USB flash drives, scanners, cameras, USB HIDs, printers, etc. being able to "network-enable" these devices is a nice capability to have.

Sure, Silex and Keyspan offer hardware-based solutions to share your USB devices, but what if you're looking for a software-based USB-sharing solution? Well, look no further than IntelliDriver's USB@nywhere software solution.

Posted in Technology and Science

Newspapers are a dying breed

November 1, 2005

Newspapers are continuing their downward spiral of advertising revenue due to increasing pressure from online news sources, including blogs, according to MediaPost which quotes a WallStreet report.

IT'S OFFICIAL: 2005 WILL BE the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren't looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm's report on newspaper publishing. "Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period," says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is "very unlikely." more...

Newspapers are the least visually pleasing of any news media since there is little if any color and they aren't interactive. The days of Al Bundy carrying his trusty newspaper to the "john" are over my friend -- and I say this a good thing.

Posted in Technology and Science

AskMeNow Launches

October 31, 2005

AskMeNow's AskAnything service is designed to answer just about any question for which the answer can be found on the Internet. The product reminds me of the TellMe service, which leverages the Internet and telephone network underneath a speech user interface. According to TellMe, over two million callers use their applications to obtain customer service, connect to a directory assistance listing, or check the latest sports scores.

AskMeNow appears to be a bit different in that it doesn't leverage speech recognition as far as I can tell. I believe they use customer agents to process your questions and send you back the results.

Posted in Technology and Science

HDTV is growing

October 31, 2005

According to Park Associates, HDTV sales in the U.S. will grow 71% by 2009. Gee, you couldn't fool me. I have a 65" Mitsubishi television at home and my cable provider (Charter) still only offers me 4 HDTV channels via their set-top box.

Posted in Technology and Science

Broadband choices in America

October 17, 2005

America - land of the free, home of the brave? Not when it comes to broadband choices! The Channel Changer, a blog all about "communication competition", has an interesting post on Sen. John Sununu and pondering why Sununu, a technology proponent hasn't signed onto the controversial bill written by Sen. John Ensign, titled "Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act of 2005" which aims to allow for free open competition in the broadband sector. Go check it out....

Posted in Technology and Science

Palm TX and Palm Z22 handhelds

October 12, 2005

Palm launched their TX and the Z22 handhelds today. The Palm Z22 is an especially affordable PDA at just under the $100 mark ($99). (The Palm TX is $299.) It also appears that Palm dropped the names Zire and Tungsten. The Palm TX is targeted at mobile professionals and includes a large display, integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Posted in Technology and Science

The fracturing of the Internet

October 7, 2005

Sadly, the fracturing of the Internet has begun.

First, we have Level 3 and Cogent Communications, two major Internet backbone providers bickering - they've cut off peering Internet traffic to each other. From ZDNet:

Two major Internet backbone companies are feuding, potentially cutting off significant swaths of the Internet for some of each other's customers.

On Wednesday, network company Level 3 Communications cut off its direct "peering" connections to another big network company called Cogent Communications. That technical action means that some customers on each company's network now will find it impossible, or slower, to get to Web sites on the other company's network. more...

Then you have instances of ISPs blocking VoIP traffic.

Posted in Technology and Science

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