Connecting the Dots

Broadband Providers: "Let's cut 'em off at the pass!"

Even the most naive and casual observer can see that the threat from services like Hulu; both Apple's TV and movie offerings within iTunes; Joost; and the accelerating number of media center software offerings (providing access to ANY video on the internet), pose a huge threat to the cable companies and other broadband providers.

They are all clearly trying to get out ahead of the user market (and the maturity of video provider business models as well as the open source media center software) and put caps in place before wider adoption occurs.

As a tail-end baby boomer with enough of a geek nature to be involved far too deeply in the 'net, web and social media in my business, I realize I'm atypical within my demographic on how I, and as a result my family, use our Comcast broadband connection. With Comcast's 50mbps down/10mbps up DOCSIS 3 setup in my office (Note: we were one of two companies in their Minnesota rollout of this new technology) and 16mbps down/2mbps up at home, I'm dealing daily in video, photos, moving around large Zip files, screensharing, personal publishing, and numerous other online activities. These activities are mission critical to our small business, my wife's and my client interactions, as well as family activities and connecting with others. 

Comcast, one of the largest providers in this space, directly affects all aspects of our digital lives. With my family and my current and increasing use of the internet for an every expanding array of online activities (Skype calling; my son's video gaming; Flickr and Vimeo for photo/video sharing; online backup of our computers; use of our new Mac mini media center), we are certain to end up violating Comcast's draconian 250GB bandwidth caps (er, I mean, Network Management Policy).

The kicker? According to Comcast's executive escalation group, I can't even pay them more for higher tiers of service with no cap or, as one representative told me in March, "...the cap is the cap, regardless of the tier of service."

Did you know that, in Comcast's case, they can simply cut you off for exceeding that 250GB cap with no warning and that their promised metering tools are still missing in action?

Then I read this recently about Time Warner's laughingly low caps and realized that, if Time Warner gains traction with this approach, Comcast will follow suit and we'll all have to watch and do whatever these providers allow us to do online.

Taking Risks: The Most Important Thing You Can Do

Though I watch little broadcast television, I was well aware of Steve Wozniak's recent appearance on Dancing With the Stars on ABC, but the whole reality TV show genre is one I find revolting as "nasty" (or the possibility thereof) is the way the judges ensure they rile up the crowd and get people to tune in and turn their attention to their little program. 

Early this morning, I came across this post from Laughing Squid that had the video of Woz's appearance embedded within it. Watching it, I was well aware that a 59 year old geek whose gained a few pounds over the years (and man, can I ever relate!) is not particularly svelte nor adept at cutting a rug.

Though two of the judges were fairly complimentary -- and supportive of the risk Woz took to be out there -- one of the judges (Bruno Tonioli, whose contribution to the world is being a "top choreographer"...whoopee) made a crack about his dance that it was, "...like a teletubbie going mad."

What an asshole. The kicker, however, is that it doesn't matter because...

CNN Hologram: "Cheesy Tech" That Added No Value

While I'm a huge fan of taking technology risks, trying stuff out and moving forward on cutting edge innovation, sometimes it's so obvious that something adds no value, is done just for eye candy effect, and is laughingly cheesy that it has to be called out (and I'll wager Saturday Night Live will be bring us a skit on this just like they did with this one about the giant touch screen maps, another eye candy technology that's actually pretty useful for "what if's" and other analysis on the fly).

CNN's bringing in Jessica Yellin via hologram is last night's best "cheesy tech" example and is the antithesis of applying technology in a useful manner. When a TV screen cutaway is perfectly acceptable -- and when some hologram thingy is so new and useless that it makes whatever is coming out of the person's mouth irrelevant -- that's a no value addition.

Here's a brief snippet with Ms. Yellin describing the (clearly expensive) 35 HiDef cameras that had to be used to deliver her holographic presence: