For twenty years, Intel has tried to enter the set top box market. The company still does not have a strategy for success in my opinion. Continue reading
Category Archives: broadband
Life Blues: My reaction to Outlaw Blues by Jonathan Taplin
In reading Outlaw Blues by Jonathan Taplin, I realized how easily my life could have gone in a different direction. Maybe, if I liked the music better, I would have become part of the rock music scene. My management and leadership skills might have taken me on a path similar to Jonathan and eventually my creative side might have emerged as it did for him. I had a similar experience reading Holy Beggars by Aryae Coopersmith whom I recently met. In reading Aryae’s book, I realized that I could have easily continued to explore the spiritual side of myself and may have ended up in Israel as a Rabbi. But I fell in love with technology. By 1966, I was working at the Langley Porter Institute, UCSF Medical School, designing equipment for brainwave bio feedback. From that point on, I had a continuing connection to technology. Now I am back to studying music. Jonathan is a Professor at USC. Continue reading
Rob Glaser steps down: The end of an era
What ever you think of Real Networks (I love using its Rhapsody service myself) and what ever you think of Rob, we owe him much as one of the true pioneers of the Internet. Continue reading
You know you are old when your greatest contribution to the future is documenting the past
While I am still very much interested in the future, I have come to realize that I know a lot more about the past particularly with respect to technology. After all I was working with computer before most of the people that use them were born. For the last few years I have been working … Continue reading
Video and me
In 1966, when I was working on bio feedback (brain waves), my friend and colleague, Peter Harris, and I got the idea (actually I think it was Peter that had the idea) to see if we could put up letters on a screen. At that time we use an ASR-33 teletype as are main input … Continue reading
HomePlug Rules
I feel vindicated. Around 2002, I jointed the board of Current Group, the leader in Broadband over Powerline (the company provides both a set services and capabilities the will help power utilities mange the power grid which can provided dramatic improvements in reduction of both powerconsumption and green house gases emissions as well as a … Continue reading
Congestion ahead
I am having just been in NYC for a couple of board meetings (see I do work from time to time). Last week, I was in Tokyo which I am found of saying is like New York without the dirt and crime but that is not really fair. New York is like no other place in … Continue reading
Information Super Highway (Traffic Jam Ahead)
In the 90s, the Clinton/Gore adminstration spoke of building the Information Supper Highway. That is before we all realized that we had a highway, The Internet. In those days, I was busy building the on and off ramps by developing and investing in residential broadband. There is an interesting speech in 1996 by Reed Hundt … Continue reading
The information Furnace
Around 1994 I was speaking of the possibility of developing what I called the information furnace. I used the anology of central heating and said that the idea of having homes with multiple computers each having their own programs and disks was kind of like how the Brits heated their homes. I was … Continue reading
Smart Grid (benifit of BPL)
For the las four and a half years I have been on the board (and very active with) an amazing company called Current Technology Group. We use the same distribution system that brings electricity into your home to provided broadband services. Recently we entered into a business relationship with TXU (a major power utility) to provided … Continue reading