By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this Halloween morning, and
the music is not “The Monster Mash,” but the scariest song First CoffeeSM
has on any CD: Barbra Streisand lumbering her way through “People (Who
Need $22,000 A Year To Keep Their Lawns Green While Lecturing Other People
On The Need To Cut Back On Waste):”
Nokia is announcing what they’re calling “the world’s first commercial service
management solution for DVB-H services, the Nokia Mobile Broadcast Solution
3.0.”
The Nokia MBS 3.0 supports the broadcasting of different
types of digital content such as live TV, radio and video clips over DVB-H
networks to mobile devices. The key features of the MBS 3.0 include the
Electronic Service Guide, a consumer interface in the mobile device for
searching available services, setting alerts for upcoming programs and for the
viewing selection.
The MBS 3.0 is based on open standards such as DVB-H. It
fully implements the Open Air Interface 1.0 implementation guidelines, which Nokia published in August 2005. The
Open Air Interface specifies how mobile TV devices connect with the DVB-H
network and the servers of the overall mobile TV service infrastructure. The
OAI specification was published to enable multivendor interoperability in the
mobile TV industry.
…
Applied Wave Research, Inc., a vendor of high-frequency
electronic design automation tools, has announced that its Visual System
Simulator software now provides a WiMAX
broadband fixed-wireless option for the design of WiMAX-certified broadband
wireless access products.
It meets the IEEE standard 802.16-2004 Wireless MAN-OFDM PHY
specifications, and includes all the bit level functions, framing,
randomization, RS-CC coding, interleaving, modulation, pilot, channelization,
and bandwidth options for uplink and downlink operations.
WiMAX capability and interoperability in BWA communications products lets
network operators deliver broadband data, voice, and video services to both
residential and business customers. The standard, which delivers
point-to-multipoint connectivity, is backed by over 220 communications
equipment companies.
…
PMC-Sierra, Inc., a vendor of broadband
communications and storage semiconductors, has announced that it has entered
into a definitive agreement with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Silver
Lake Partners to acquire the storage
semiconductor business of Agilent Technologies for approximately $425
million in cash.
The storage semiconductor business is part of Agilent’s
Semiconductor Products Group, which KKR and Silver Lake Partners are in the
process of acquiring.
The acquisition of this business strengthens PMC-Sierra’s position in the
storage semiconductor market. The storage semiconductor business of Agilent’s
Semiconductor Products Group (SPG) is a long-term technology leader in Fibre
Channel protocol controllers with its Tachyon product line and is developing
next-generation multi-protocol controllers supporting Fibre Channel and
SAS/SATA/iSCSI storage systems, as well as other storage-related products. When
closed, the acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive for PMC-Sierra.
…
Business Objects, a provider of business
intelligence products, has announced that the Juneau, Alaska Police Department has standardized on Business Objects
to improve reporting and information management, gain deeper insight into
emergency dispatch activities, and facilitate coordination with the court
system and federal agencies.
The police use Crystal Reports for secure access to current
information, as well as keeping sensitive departmental information private and
secure according to HIPAA regulations.
Crystal Reports lets the department track, understand, and manage all emergency
calls and ongoing cases. Administrators, officers and dispatchers use it to
analyze crime and incident patterns, and provide information to the City
Manager and Assembly, the court system, and federal agencies.
The Juneau Police Department can track any metric they wish
– for example, they have developed a set of reports related to the encroachment
of bears into residential and business districts, tracking the number and type
of bear incidents and sharing that information with the Fish and Game
Department and city government.
The Uniform Crime Reporting required by the federal government is done a lot
quicker these days, the department reports, and improved oversight of police
activities, such as assessing officers’ performance based on criteria such as
time in the field, the number of calls responded to, the number of citations
and warnings issued, and the disposition of incidents is easier.
…
First CoffeeSM wasn’t aware that there was an anti-money laundering product sector
out there, but evidently there is, as The Association of Bank Compliance
Officers of the Philippines, facilitated by the Bankers Association of the
Philippines, has selected LogicaCMG and NetEconomy as the preferred
suppliers to develop the first national anti-money laundering system in the Philippines.
…
First CoffeeSM appreciates robust, muscular approaches to financial reform as much as the next guy, and
can appreciate the feelings behind Iranian hard-line President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad’s idea, echoing a sentiment heard presented to the
latest cabinet meeting in Tehran, that “if
we were permitted to hang two or three persons, the problems with the stock exchange
would be solved for ever.”
Ahmadinejad was addressing a cabinet meeting held to discuss
the “rapidly deteriorating situation at the Tehran Stock Exchange,” the daily Ruznet reported on Sunday, according to
an unattributed news article published on Little
Green Footballs.
“Ministers and experts disagreed with all the different
views and proposals raised at the meeting, which came to an end without any
concrete results. Tempers flew high and participants shouted at each other
during the discussion, according to the daily,” the article said.
Ahmadinejad, one of the pro-Khomeini terrorists who kept dozens
of Americans hostage for over a year in the 1979 raid on the American embassy
in Tehran, is “frustrated with the inability of his economic advisers and
experts to come up with any solution,” telling them the only way out of the
current stock exchange and financial market problems was to “frighten” speculators
by hanging two or three of them.
First CoffeeSM wonders how long it will be before
Ahmadinejad threatens to hang his economic advisers and experts, or wipe them
off the map.
The ultra-Islamist president first sent jitters through the
country’s markets when he said on the eve of the presidential elections in June
that “stock exchange activities are a kind of gambling and we are against them,”
the article reported.
The Iranian economy has been moribund for years,
unemployment is around 20 percent, so hey, might as well test the efficacy of
threatened hangings. First CoffeeSM isn’t optimistic, however, and suggests
the one solution that’s never failed: Ditch the central control and
Soviet-style Five Year Plans in favor of free-market capitalism with protection
of intellectual and personal property rights. Your economy will thrive.
…
Great new book out, Peter Schweizer’s Do
As I Say (Not As I Do), a study of hypocrisy. Examples include
avowed pro-union filmmaker Michael Moore
outsourcing his post-production film work to Canada to avoid paying
American union wages, pro-union loudmouth Nanci
Pelosi using non-union labor on her Napa Valley Vineyard, avowed
anti-racism filmmaker Michael Moore
hiring very few minorities, violently anti-military Noam Chomsky making millions off Pentagon contracts, avowed
anti-stock market, anti-Iraq War loudmouth Michael
Moore maintaining a large investment portfolio that includes Halliburton and
profits from the Iraq War… a great read.
If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/
for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored
content.