Hill Associates - Living in a connected world

tHAWT Episode #135: End of year crystal balling with the boss

msteinberg — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:56:00 GMT

Since Mark had our President/CEO Paul on the line in this week's episode, they decided to discuss the outlook for the telecom industry going in to the New Year. They started off by picking up on the discussion Mark had with Trevor last week, but focused more on some of the potential technologies such as LTE and femtocells, and whether there is a true monetization model for cable getting in to the wireless arena. Under the category of "and now for something completely different," they also talked about Tom Freidman’s Car 2.0 concepts and what’s happening “down under.” Here are the links that they used in their wide ranging discussion:

Telecom revenue will grow despite recession

Surviving the recession

Online video views surge 45% year-over-year

Verizon and AT&T aim for LTE deployments in 2009 leveraging femtocells

Being a softie in these tough times

Will Cable's foray in to wireless be a dropped call?

More get on-board with Google's Android

What happens if Nortel files bankruptcy?

Tom Freidman's Op-Ed article on Car 2.0

Proposed web filtering in Australia

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_121208.mp3[/mp3]

You can visit our tHAWT archive here. You can register for our tHAWT podcast series via RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregater:http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldThawt

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tHAWT Episode #134: FCC want free as in beer Internet access

thindson — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:03:00 GMT

We are back after our little break over thanksgiving and for this week we have Mark and myself picking up on a few things that have occurred over the last couple of weeks. One thing of note is that it appears the the FCC chairman Kevin Martin is determined to get us some free wireless Internet access, but strangely enough it seems that not to many others are happy about that. Also Bittorrent seems to have decided to fight back against the throttling that can occur using TCP and is looking to use the far less behaved UDP as a transport protocol. Could be interesting. The following are the links that we used.

Martin (FCC) wants free web
Telecos drafting a broadcast strategy
Telecom growth in its future according to Insight Research
P2P traffic being overtaken Video
Bittorent to change from TCP to UDP
100Mbps for Verizon FiOS
40Gbps Ethernet growth
TCP/IP over bongos
Apple's app store booming
A breathalizer for your iPhone

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_120508.mp3[/mp3]

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tHAWT Episode #133: We need a lot more buoys

thindson — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:16:00 GMT

In this episode we have Mark, Michel, and I connected, as usual, using Skype. At one point Michel suggested that if we are going to go to Wi-Fi mesh networks everywhere then we would need lots of buoys, which is where the title of this episode came from. However, when I went to post this episode, I did a quick search for buoy and found that there are a lot of data buoys out there already. With that little tid bit aside there were quite a bit of other discussions, based on the links below.

Obama phone records viewed without authorisation
Verizon BlackBerry Storm launched
More carriers looking at Femtos
Wi-Fi mesh nodes solar powered
Xobni gets new features
Senator wants cheaper basic cable
Check out this DTV how-to video (a must see)
Digital Universe, EMC's track on digital data
Online storage set to take off

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_112108.mp3[/mp3]

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tHAWT Episode #132: Who will build a white space network?

thindson — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:28:00 GMT

In this episode, Mark, Dave, and I begin by discussing the prospect of, now that the FCC has approved the use of white space for free Internet access, who is going to invest in building the network to deliver it? This very good article in the Economist prompted the discussion. Other links discussed are below.

Boarding passes on your cell phone
Google tracks flu based on searches You can check out their map here
Digital TV is almost here and FCC just approved a workaround for signal coverage issues
Key notes at the TelcoTV08 conference would indicate the Telcos are the innovators
Alaska in the news this time for WiMAX, not a politician for a change
Cisco lets us know what the marketing hype was about, a fast router (nice video)
Broadband over powerlines back in the news with IBM in the fray
Here is that old Pacific Bell DSL commercial that is very anti-cable (Cable Hog)
Internet thieves going for business secrets, personal data theft not profitable with all the competition
Oh, and not that it is news (well only for Dave and Mark), Slingbox does support mobile devices

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_111408.mp3[/mp3]

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tHAWT Episode #131: Getting busy with the FCC

thindson — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:08:00 GMT

This episode falls after a very important day for the U.S. with the election of Barack Obama as President. Michel, Mark, and I spend a little time discussing some of this; however, we do discuss a number of other topics also covered in the following links.

AT&T tiered broadband
AT&T subsidizing 3G enabled laptops
FCC approves wireless mergers
T-Mobile: LTE and HSPA
FCC: White space approval
AT&T gets wayport
FCC probes TV costs
Obama and tech, opinion
Obama and tech, policy
Obama and security

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_110708.mp3[/mp3]

And if you want to participate in identifying items for our discussion use the key word tHAWT to tag in del.icio.us You can look at what has been tagged by going to del.icio.us/tag/thawt

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PodSnacks: IEEE 802.11g (54 Mbps)

mgilbert — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Today we'll continue our series looking at four of the transmission options for Wi-Fi wireless LANs by looking at IEEE 802.11g. This is the most commonly found Wi-Fi transmission rate today. As I prepared this snack for posting, I realized that Mark made some references in it to the older IEEE 802.11a standard, which you haven't seen yet. I elected to start with 802.11b and 802.11g because they are the most relevant of the four. However, we'll fill in the missing piece and look at 802.11a tomorrow. Although there are several technical differences between 802.11b and 802.11g, the most important one to most users is speed: 802.11g has a raw upper transmission rate of 54 Mbps and remains backwards compatible with 802.11b. Mark explains it to you in today's snack!

As always, you can listen to (or download) today's PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://podcast.hill-vt.com/podsnacks/2007q3/802.11g.mp3[/mp3]

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

tHAWT Episode #130: Halloween tier 1 spat

thindson — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 22:20:00 GMT

In this "Halloween" episode Mark and I discuss some third quarter numbers and a spat that cropped up between Sprint and Cogent, of course not before talking about some topical aspects of Halloween and the election.

Techie Halloween costumes
Tech questions to the candidates
A CTO for USA
Google labs search to compare candidates
Verizon reports more growth
Qwest profits fall
Sprint to keep push-to-talk
Verizon-Alltel crosses off another step
Comcast sees AT&T as bigger threat
Sprint and Cogent not passing traffic
Internet Health Report page
Telcos losing ground to cable

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_103108.mp3[/mp3]

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PodSnacks: IEEE 802.11b (11 Mbps)

mgilbert — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Today we'll begin a series looking at four of the transmission options for Wi-Fi wireless LANs. Our first options is IEEE 802.11b. Although this is an older form of Wi-Fi, it is still broadly found in public hot spots. With its upper speed of 11 Mbps, it can handle most of the applications we want to run. However, if you think you're actually getting 11 Mbps of throughput when your link connects at that speed, you might want to listen to Mark explain why that is not the case.

As always, you can listen to (or download) today's PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://podcast.hill-vt.com/podsnacks/2007q3/802.11b.mp3[/mp3]

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

PodSnacks: Remote Call Forwarding (RCF)

mgilbert — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Back to voice, and today we talk about a service that I recently had develop material on so I could add it to a course I'm preparing. So you might as well get the benefit of some of my work. The topic is remote call forwarding (RCF), and I'll explain it to you in today's PodSnack.

As always, you can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://podcast.hill-vt.com/podsnacks/2008q4/rcf.mp3[/mp3]

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

PodSnacks: Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security (FCAPS) Management

mgilbert — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:00:00 GMT

And now for something completely different! Our topic today is network management. Managing a network, especially a large one, is a complex activity. It can, however, be thought of as a collection of five basic management domains, which can be described with the acronym FCAPS. The letters stand for fault, configuration, accounting, performance and security. Today, Dave will quickly walk you through the list of five and explain what each term means and give a few examples of the kinds of things that fall in that particular domain.

As always, you can listen to (or download) today's PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://podcast.hill-vt.com/podsnacks/2007q3/fcaps.mp3[/mp3]

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

PodSnacks: Local Loop

mgilbert — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Today we shift to the world of the voice and talk about a component of the PSTN that has changed significantly since the days of Bell and Watson: the local loop. I don't have a lot of time to write more, so if you're interested, give a listen and I'll give you my explanation.

As always, you can listen to (or download) the PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://podcast.hill-vt.com/podsnacks/2008q4/local_loop.mp3[/mp3]

PodSnacks: Internet Service Provider (ISP)

mgilbert — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Since we've been talking about various Internet-related concepts, and since this question came up in my class last week, I thought I'd tackle the term Internet service provider (ISP). Most of us probably know what this is and, if we don't, the term is pretty self descriptive. But we also talk about ISPs in various tiers (e.g., Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3). This is somewhat confusing to people these days, so I'll focus on it a bit in today's PodSnack.

As always, you can listen to (or download) today's PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://podcast.hill-vt.com/podsnacks/2007q3/isp.mp3[/mp3]

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.

tHAWT Episode #129: iPhone/iPod Touch Makes a Difference

thindson — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:10:00 GMT

In this episode, Dave and Mark got together over Skype. The Apple iPhone/iPod touch was a driving factor for a couple of stories, providing lots of cool apps for the freshmen of Abiliene Christian University and the fact that the iPhone is so successful for AT&T that it is costing them almost a billion dollars. Below are the links discussed.

iPhone/iPod for Abiliene Christian University
Success of iPhone costs AT&T
AT&T 3rd quarter results
Level 3 results
DOCSIS 3.0 for Comcast
AT&T's NextGen IP backbone
More carrier Ethernet for Verizon

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_102408.mp3[/mp3]

And if you want to participate in identifying items for our discussion use the key word tHAWT to tag in del.icio.us You can look at what has been tagged by going to del.icio.us/tag/thawt

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The 2008 Global State of Information Security Report Is Out

msteinberg — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:10:00 GMT

Every year (for the past six), CSO magazine puts out its annual report on the global state of information security. For anyone that tracks this most important trend in our industry--and still highest on the customer's mind--this is a great report.

The new 2008 report finds that respondents are throwing more money at security challenges. The report noted that security budgets are averaging $1.7 million. Of those surveyed, an optimistic 44 percent said their InfoSec spending would increase this year, while 4 percent expected a decrease.

Where will the money go? Top priorities in the coming year include hiring information security consultants and hiring a chief information security officer. Respondents also plan to develop security procedures for handheld devices and create an identity management strategy. They expect to invest in technologies, including biometrics, to tighten access to sensitive data, as well as in data-leakage prevention and security event correlation tools to start analyzing what works and what doesn't on which kinds of security problems.

I have spoken several times this year on security in the mobile workspace environment. Look for a new ExperTech on the topic next year.

For other references about security on our website, see the links below.

Security References Tech Topic page, focusing on PCI, including a five-part series of podcasts
One of the more than 80 references on blog about security

PodSnacks: Primary Rate Interface (PRI)

mgilbert — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:00:00 GMT

The other day, Peter gave us the low-down on the Basic Rate Interface (BRI). This is only one of two ISDN interface options. The other one is the Primary Rate Interface (PRI). In North America, the PRI is provisioned over a T-1. Like the BRI, the PRI supports a mixture of B-channels and a D-channel. Most commonly, it is configured as 23B+D, but it can also be configured as 24B. The interface is most commonly found being used to support PBX trunking, or connection to the Internet. Tune in to today's snack as Peter explains it to you.

As always, you can listen to (or download) today's PodSnack by clicking here, or you can use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://podcast.hill-vt.com/podsnacks/2007q3/pri.mp3[/mp3]

If you have an idea or request for a PodSnack topic, send it to podsnacks@hill.com! You can get a complete list of our PodSnacks here. You can register for our PodSnack series by RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregator: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldPodsnacks.