One of my 2005 VoIP Predictions seems to be a step closer to becoming reality. I wrote:
____________________________________________

8) Cities become their own phone companies
You will start to see more cities not only offering high-speed wireless broadband using WiMAX and other high-speed wireless technologies, but you will start to see cities offering their own phone services as well. Just think of the loyalty they can build! If I have my choice between paying a private VoIP company based in New Jersey versus paying my local town, heck I'll give the money to my local town.

While DSL technology has steadily improved resulting in an increased distance from the CO and increased bandwidth, for instance, ADSL2+ has 25Mbps downstream, the news about coax cable improving its throughput has been notably absent - until now. The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) is announcing the successful results of its large-scale field trial at the National Show (see release below).

Conducted by MoCA's founders in 15 cities, the trial validated performance of 100 Mbps in real world condition over typical coax cable. Most highspeed broadband solutions over coax solutions, such as Charter's High Speed Internet max out at 3Mbps or roughly 33X times slower than MoCA. These results evidence MoCA's capabilities as both the highest-speed technology for home networking, and according to MoCA's founders, the only technology field-proven to be capable of transporting multiple HDTV streams.

MoCA's founders are Comcast, EchoStar, Entropic Communications, Motorola, Cisco/Linksys, Panasonic, Radio Shack, and Toshiba.

Here's the release:

MoCA Concludes Successful Field Trials for Home Networking of Digital Entertainment Using Coax

-- Large-scale tests validate performance of 100 Mbps in real world conditions

San Francisco, CA-April 4, 2005- Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) today announced a major step forward with the completion of successful field trials of the core technology to provide networking of digital home entertainment throughout the home on existing coax cabling in cable homes at NCTA - The National Show (Booth 6490 - CableNET).

Now here's a scary thought. This website: "www.RFID2VIN.com" proposes the use of RFID chips that would be left at the scene of "hit and run" accidents. According to their email to me, these unique identifiers would then act as a sort of "automotive DNA," providing the registration information for that particular vehicle.

I perused their website very quickly (could use a web designer IMO) and it appears this involves embedding RFIDs in the paint, bumpers, headlamps, etc. Then when you get into an accident, the RFIDs are dislodged and left at the scene which can be used to determine the car's position at the time of the accident to determine fault, as well as whose car it is in the event of a "hit and run".

I'm sure the ACLU will be all over this...

I'm playing around with some aggregation on my blog. I'm hoping to include excerpts of some interesting stories from outside news sources, blogs, etc.

You probably already noticed a few on my home page already. It took me a few days of some Perl coding - actually deciphering other people's Perl code, getting the proper modules installed into ActivePerl, drinking a few extra cups of coffee and diet Coke, and banging my head against the wall, but it finally works!

I still have some tweaking to do, but my goal is to bring important news information from outside sources into my blog.

According to CNN, it looks like my home state, Connecticut, is employing technology to snare car propery tax delinquents. City marshals in cash-strapped New Haven are armed with a tool called BootFinder that photographs auto license plates and instantly matches them against a tax scofflaw database. Once they have a match they tow the car away - doesn't matter if it's sitting in your driveway or a Walmart parking lot. I always pay my taxes, but this technology has some scary implications.

What really surprised me from the CNN article I read about this is, "Connecticut is among a handful of states where local governments levy annual fees, typically a few hundred dollars per vehicle, based on the value of residents' automobiles."

You mean to tell me that not all of the U.S.