I decided that this year I would write up my own ten predictions. I should also say that as a technologist in my core, I often see things happening much earlier that they really happen. It is sort of the opposite of the sign on your cars side mirror which reads “objects may appear further away then they actually are”. Continue reading
Category Archives: Old Media
Time to Channel Steve
As a reader of this blog, you probably know that Apple stock has lost almost 40% of it value from a high of $705 to low of $409, as of this morning. In just seven short months Apple has gone from the “wonder company” which might have become the first company with a trillion dollar … Continue reading
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
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
Joost: The Entrepreneur as a Brand
Joost, an internet video distribution site has gain an amazing amount of attention. Recently it raised more than 45 million dollars and has a valuation close to 200 million. Joost is in a closed beta (I have been using it for a while). The company owns no content, wires or towers. I doubt (but do not … Continue reading
Is user created content the next CB Radio
Check wikipedia for an interesting history of Citizen Band radio. It was an amazing phenomenon in which consumers chatted with each other. Even “chat rooms” developed. But it was not the CB radio but the cellular phone that survived and transformed all our lives (about a billion cell phones are sold a year). Now a … Continue reading
The end of major media companies
The major media companies are doomed. No one likes them and I am not even sure the like themselves but even more importantly their position in the media food chain in diminishing. There major asset has been their ability to control scare resources like distribution, money and advertising. But it is clear that the change … Continue reading
Two Thirds Done 