When I decided to write a book about my high tech journey, I had several objectives. One of those was to document the creation of residential broadband in which I played a leadership role. I wanted to tell my personal story, but I also wanted to make sure that the people who contributed to its … Continue reading
Category Archives: broadband
about business / Avram's Past / broadband / Business Managment / Intel / Microsoft / Venture Capital
My book in the making
Below is a description of sorts about I book I am working on. It is actually a great deal of work as I have to conduct a lot of research and assure its accuracy. Now, I need some feedback. I am concerned that the companies, people and events may not be relevant to today’s readers. … Continue reading
Jean-Patrick Grumberg interviews Avram Miller on Net Neutrality
Periodically, my friend, Jean-Patrick Grumberg and I get together at a Cafe to chat. Jean-Patrick likes to work articles that he publishes on very successful French blog while having breakfast. I join him on occasions, but I just have coffee since I get up much earlier than he does (or maybe anyone else) and would … Continue reading
Mixed emotions about the potential acquisition of Time Warner Cable by Comcast
So I while I am proud that my old friends at Comcast have done so well, I will be disappointed if Comcast ends up with the Time Warner Cable business. I would have preferred that Google, Apple, Microsoft or even Intel would have bought it. Then the model could be changed because they would aggressively adopt new forms of content programing and commerce Continue reading
The I-Pad and the Information Furnace-1994
Gizmodo recently posted about an Associate Press article that ran in June 1994 in which I describe a number of things including the Information Furnace and the I-Pad. This post has been moving around in the world of iPad blogs and there are a number of comments. Rather than reply to them on the various blogs, I thought I would do that here and link to my post on a few of those blogs.
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The end of Network Neutrality
My friend, Robert X. Cringley, wrote an excellent blog post on Net Neutrality which you can read here. I have a few thoughts I would like to share about this topic. The concept of Net Neutrality simply put, is that the supplier of broadband cannot enter into a separate arrangement to provide better services for … Continue reading
Rejected by Wikipedia
If you are a regular reader of this blog you will realized that at the age of 68, I am beginning to be concerned about legacy issues. It was been concerning to me that I have no Wikipedia entry about me because Wikipedia will have a long self live (certainly longer than I will have). So I asked a friend who is also a write to submit an entry for me on Wikipedia. We worked on a draft which he actually toned down. My first draft was actually in my opinion the most interesting because it was written more like a story then an encyclopedia. I wanted the entry to focus on what I think are my three major achievements, playing a principle role in laying the foundation for today’s consumer internet, founding Intel Capital which became the most successful Corp. Venture group and one of the must successful venture activities in the world and having accomplished this an more without ever having gone to University.
If you are a regular reader of this blog you will realized that at the age of 68, I am beginning to be concerned about legacy issues. It was been concerning to me that I have no Wikipedia entry about me because Wikipedia will have a long self live (certainly longer than I will have). So I asked a friend who is also a write to submit an entry for me on Wikipedia. We worked on a draft which he actually toned down. My first draft was actually in my opinion the most interesting because it was written more like a story then an encyclopedia. I wanted the entry to focus on what I think are my three major achievements, playing a principle role in laying the foundation for today’s consumer internet, founding Intel Capital which became the most successful Corp. Venture group and one of the must successful venture activities in the world and having accomplished this an more without ever having gone to University.
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Avram's Past / broadband / Government / Intel / Old Media / Technology
Avram’s Congressional Testimony on HDTV 1998
The House Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection convened a 2 1/2 hour meeting to discuss HDTV standards and deployment issues on April 24, 1998. I was invited to give testimony. The panel was made up of a large group of executives representing the consumer electronics, the television broadcast and the cable industries. In addition there were two representatives from the computer industry, Bob Stearns from Compaq and me, from Intel. The chair was Billy Tamzin, a republican who later went on to make a fortune as a lobbyist. The ranking member from the democrats was Ed Markey (now running for the Senate in MA). Stearns and I had a couple of objectives. While most of the panel saw a TV, we saw a Monitor. We understood that with that if we could achieve high resolution and progressive scan, the HDTV set of the future could serve as a monitor for computers. Just like the CD and DVD, the consumer industry do the R&D and and manufacturing of important and innovative products which the computer industry would “highjack” for its own use. Everyone one on the panel had their own agenda and often it was a secret agenda. Continue reading
The birth of Intel Capital
Intel Capital was named the number one venture capital “firm” for 2012 by PrivCo.
I feel proud of this accomplishment because I consider myself a co-founder of Intel Capital along with Les Vadasz. But then again, it is a bit difficult to accept that Intel Capital could be so successful without me 🙂
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Smart TV 1995: sponsored by the Software Publishers Association whose motto at the time was “Don’t copy that floppy”.
PBS had a television show called the Computer Chronicles which ran from 1981-2002.
There is a particularly interesting episode and one that relates to my recent post “When Technologies Collide”. The title of the episode is Smart TV 95 and it was recorded in 1995. It is a pretty amazing piece of history which was captured by the Internet Archieves. It is about 25 minutes long and is worthwhile watching especially for those interested in Interactive TV.
I comment about about this show in which I am interviewed as well as speculate about the future of Interactive Television.
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