May 2008 Archives

With oil approaching $150 a barrel and consumers wallets emptying out way too fast, IT departments will need to get ready to support many more tele-workers (or remote workers). You would think at this point - with all the Green Think and the traffic congestion in most metro areas - that companies would have opted for tele-working by now. IBM is pushing for it. We have ways of monitoring people remotely (just look at an online Driving class). We also have collaboration suites, web conferencing, shared whiteboard, email and IM, and Blackberries. People are connected -- maybe too much.

This also brings up another matter. Employers aren't really paying you for 8 hours. They are paying you for the productivity you produce in 8 hours. Now this rules out people in call centers or customer service positions who are being paid to "be in a chair" for 8 hours at a shift. But I look at my last project where I was commuting to and from Chicago on the Sunday-Friday schedule, when a majority of my work could easily have been completed remotely. Just because the supervisors want people in Cubeville doesn't mean that's ultimately the best idea.

Talent Acquisition (and management and retention) are the largest obstacle for growth. There wouldn't be a fight to raise the number of H1B Visa's if skilled workers were plentiful and easy to find. It's tough to re-locate workers in a soft real estate market to. Jane can't move if she lost 20% value in her home.

Warren Buffett commented on the US economy stating that we were already in a Recession and that ”It will be deeper and last longer than many think.” Add a credit crisis, foreclosures, increased costs of living, less pay, no savings, dwindling home values, and the pot doesn't look to good. Employers will have to help employees out -- or else give big raises to keep employees commuting 46 minutes on average.

Creativity thinking will be needed. You would hazard that with broadband, Unified messaging, Web 2.0 apps, and SAAS, it shouldn't be that much of a stretch to have employees work from home a couple of days per week. But you better coordinate with your IT department because those are the guys who will have to make it happen (and work).

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) has ratified a new CALEA intercept standard for wireless ISPs. The new standard makes it possible for ISPs to comply with the lawful intercept requirements of CALEA without requiring a trusted third party (TTP) to deliver intercepts to law enforcement.

The new WISPA standard takes advantage of existing Open Source software such as tcpdump and OpenCALEA to intercept network traffic moving to and from a target. Capture files are stored on a server in PCAP format so law enforcement can pull the intercept files on demand. This store-and-forward approach is preferred by law enforcement because it does not allow packet loss, and it does not require law enforcement to have the facilities required to receive streaming intercepts.

The all-volunteer WISPA CALEA committee worked for nearly 18 months to deliver the new standard. The committee produced two versions of the standard: Version 1 provides the industry’s first safe harbor for ISPs with wireless access points (APs) that cannot disable NAT, and Version 2 supersedes Version 1 in 12 months and eliminates the “NAT exemption.”

The WCS also creates a new XML framework for reporting out-of-band (OOB) signaling. CALEA requires OOB events to be reported, so a new standard for reporting these events was required. OOB events cannot currently be delivered using off-the-shelf software tools, however open tools that support the WISPA XML framework are expected from a number of different vendors and Open Source projects soon.

WISPA’s new IP Network Access (IPNA) intercept standard can be freely downloaded from the WISPA Web site at http://www.wispa.org/calea/WCS/. In addition, WISPA has developed an implementation guide for service providers who need help implementing the new intercept standard. The guide can be downloaded on-line for $100 USD, and it will be available June 1st.

About WISPA

WISPA is an association of wireless Internet service providers and equipment vendors that work to promote the development, advancement and unification of the wireless Internet service provider industry.

Well, it looks like I will get to see a real live proxy fight up close. (Well, as close as the web will get me.) Carl Icahn has sent a letter to the Yahoo! Board about this actions and disappointment. Icahn has already bought 59M shares of Y! stock and wants to buy $2.5B -- then sell it to Microsoft for a quick buck.

Icahn is busy messing around with Motorola. He owns most of the debt at XO -- and won't allow a re-finance which would actually help XO. I understand that he is a Corporate Raider looking to make big buck as fast as possible, but how about helping America out, Carl? By screwing every company you touch, you aren't helping anyone but yourself.

Your kind has not helped the economy one bit. Have you ever actually built anything? Or do you just use companies as Arbitrage pawns for your hedge fund games?

At Wikipedia, these are the companies that Icahn has a hand in: "He has taken substantial or controlling positions in various corporations including: RJR Nabisco, TWA, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum, Western Union, Gulf & Western, Viacom, Uniroyal, Dan River, Marshall Field, E-II (Culligan and Samsonite), American Can, USX, Marvel Comics, Revlon, Imclone, Federal-Mogul, Fairmont Hotels, Kerr-McGee, Time Warner and Motorola." How many of those companies are doing well or still exist?

Icahn actually states that Microsoft could do more with Yahoo: "I and many of your shareholders strongly believe that a combination between Yahoo and Microsoft would form a dynamic company and more importantly would be a force strong enough to compete with Google on the Internet." Ha! Microsoft search, Ask.com, Infoseek, AltaVista, et al have all tried to make a dent, but most couldn't even make a dent in Yahoo let alone Google.

One reason: Google is simple and clean. Y! and MSN are cluttered portals with screaming ads. Another reason: Google is a verb. Yahoo never reached that status even when they were buying big media advertising.

Icahn's proposed board is a collection of pirates that have never run anything more than hedge funds. The exception is Mark Cuban, who made his fortune selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo before the bubble burst -- or Cuban would just be a footnote in history. So basically the new board will come in, buy up stock, sell it to MS at a premium, bank the mullah, and then watch Y! disappear. Sad.