CEDX

Jeff says what I've been thinking for a while

Catching up on my blog reading, I noticed that Jeff Pulver, trendsetter/spotter of things that you can packetize and transport, posts in his blog something that I've been thinking for a while and talked about with he and Chris Brogan on their first live show from the Pulver.tv studios a couple weeks ago.  I'm sure somebody's working on a box like Apple TV, but for uncool folks like me that still don't own iPods or Macs.  What I see coming is a device that looks like a linksys router, but has an IR port for a remote, and HDMI out for connecting to your HDTV ( again, I am one of the bereft ).  This box will have an onscreen interface that can add and subtract RSS feeds ( channels ) with that IR remote and perhaps a USB or firewire connection to a honking disk array for storing the shows that it pulls off the web.  When this device comes along, then there will be true TV disruption like there is in the telephony sector.  Perhaps it will be a Control4 module... The distributors that thrive will embrace this trend, and also control access to content that is time-sensitive like sports and news.    In our neck of the woods, Cablevision is the best positioned to survive, owing to their ownership of the Garden, Knicks and Rangers.  Even though I was named for two of the original Mets ( Craig Anderson and Roger Craig ), I don't care much about baseball.  I am, however, a rabid Ranger fan, currently lamenting the end of their season. ( curse you Chris Drury )  These niches will still be able to be controlled, and perhaps when there is true distribution disruption, you will see more niche sports leagues spring up, able to attract and keep a fan base, because distribution of their content will not be bottlenecked anymore.

Go Rams!

As I arrived for my regular Sunday night Men's Intramurals league game, at The Rinx, I saw two different teams in our league take to the ice, and I said, Crap!  I missed my game, but then I saw a bunch of players come out of the locker rooms, and it turned out that the MCHC Hockey League Championship game had just finished after overtime, and the boys from my Alma Mater, Fordham, had just beaten Albany, 3-2 to capture their first MCHC title.  Even though it's only a club sport, it was great to see the Rams come out on top.  Which of course turned out better than my game, where we were blanked 5-0.  John looked like Henrik Lundquist out there.

C-SPAN Wireless ISP Nuggets

I was watching C-SPAN tonight, and they were showing a Senate Commerce Committee hearing from July of this year on the DTV transition.  Two of the witnesses testifying were Gene Kimmelman from Consumer's Union, and Michael Calabrese from the New America Foundation (NAF).  As a TV watcher, I could care less about how I watch what the big broadcasters put out, it's mostly dreck in my opinon. The only thing I really pay attention to on TV is hockey, which most people think is dreck. So, we're even, me and most people.

As a wireless ISP and broadband consumer, however, I was intently listening to, and passionate about their plea to the Commerce Committee to keep some of that analog TV spectrum in the 700 MHz range open for unlicensed communications, so that we could get a real third pipe into the home, ( and the car ) and have that pipe be accessible by small entrepreneurs like myself, instead of it being totally controlled by super-deep pocketed spectrum buyers.  The Wireless Future program at NAF looks like a good vehicle for making that happen.  I am not optimistic that it will happen, because our governments at most levels seem to be purchased by the large corporations that operate in this country, and I'm sure that they don't want this particular door to open.

Assemble the Fleet!

The next wave of Hampton Jitney Wi-RANs has been launched.  Our primary target for this service has been the Manhattan to the Hamptons market, but  Hampton Jitney runs special NASCAR race tours, so our Wi-Fi really roams, and we get to kick the tires on the nation's networks.  Last week, a tour went to Bristol, Tennessee for a race, and folks were surfing the web on that really long ride.

If you're on any of the following twelve buses, you're connected with Wi-RAN:

                       

51
56
62
66
67
68
75
76
83
84
86
89

Twelve down, and twenty-four to go!