Analog Signals Beyond the Local Loop

Analog transmission works fine for voice transmission on the local loop and the existing copper pairs coming into our homes will exist in some parts of the United States for a number of years. Several companies have been working towards converting the copper twisted pair local loop to fiber. In addition several cable television companies are now offering dial tone to their customers. 

Let’s continue our focus on the telcos and look at what happens to our analog voice transmission when it gets to the telephone company Central Office (CO). 

Local Loop and CO

Our analog voice signal is converted to a digital signal by a device called a CODEC (short for Coder/Decoder) and is then multiplexed, or combined, with other converted analog signals coming from other telephones or analog modems being served by the same CO. Once multiplexed, the calls are then sent out of the CO along their way on a higher bandwidth transmission medium such as fiber or microwave.

I'll write about CODECs in my next post and multiplexing in a future post.

IPv6 Tutorial with Sam Bowne Part 1 of 4

In December at the Convergence Technology Center's Winter Retreat at Collin College in Frisco Texas, John had the chance to shoot an IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) workshop given by Sam Bowne, from City College of San Francisco. Here's the 35 minute and 47 second Part 1 of the 4 part series.

Excellent!

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This video is also posted as a Podcast. You can watch as a stream and/or download the mp4 for this episode and others at http://bit.ly/ICTPodcast

And.... if you have iTunes installed you can listen to and subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.

Community College Blogging: A Conversation with Dr Troy Swanson

On Thursday I had the pleasure of talking with Dr Troy Swanson, an Associate Professor / Teaching and Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, IL. In December Troy completed his PhD in Community College Leadership at Old Dominion University. His dissertation is titled The Administration of Community College Blogs: Considering Control and Adaptability in Loosely Coupled Systems. In the podcast, Troy discusses some of his findings.

Here’s some dissertation background from Troy:

Web 2.0 technologies present an unlimited potential for outreach to the public by college employees. This presents a conundrum for community college administrators that David Weinberger calls "the conundrum of control." This conundrum is that organizations need to find a way to organize people around technology to ensure that it is used to further the organization’s mission. Yet, in terms of 2.0 technologies, the more controls that are put in place, the less useful the tools become.

There is also a second conundrum around technology that challenges mangers. This is that the more controls that are in place around a technology, the easier it is to communicate and transfer that technology across the organization. But, the more difficult it is for organization members to adapt the technology to meet new needs.

As one of oldest form of 2.0 technology, the management of blogs presents lessons that we can use for other, newer, 2.0 technologies.

I interviewed administrators and blog authors at community colleges across the US to see how colleges were managing their blogs. The focus was on administrative blogs as opposed to course-related or faculty blogs that discussed their research.  The larger purpose of the study was to see how easily the technology could adapt to new needs and whether campuses were restricting the use of blogs. What kinds of guidance were campus leaders giving to bloggers who were representing the college?

The study’s findings offer a peak into how the administrative structures of community colleges impact technology and Web 2.0. Listen to the 30 minute and 40 second podcast in your browser by clicking the play button below.

  

Here's how to contact Troy:

Troy’s Email: swanson@morainevalley.edu
Troy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/t_swanson
Moraine Valley Library Link (includes blogs, podcasts, Facebook, etc): http://www.morainevalley.edu/library/

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If you have iTunes installed you can listen to and subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.

Anonymous, Barr, Stuxnet and Soliciting Hackers Podcast [29:20]

Today, Mike Q and I recorded another podcast with Sam Bowne from City College of San Francisco about how Aaron Barr tracked down Anonymous and paid a heavy price, Stuxnet, The Jester and how U.S. Chamber lobbyists solicited and used hackers. 

You can listen to the 29 minute and 20 second podcast in your browser by clicking the play button below:

Here's the links we refer to in the show:

How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

http://goo.gl/5Gkyy 

US Chamber's Lobbyists Solicited Hackers To Sabotage Unions, Smear Chamber's Political Opponents

http://goo.gl/zI9gp 

US Chamber's Lobbyists Solicited Firm To Investigate Opponents' Families, Children

http://goo.gl/uyWB8

If you have iTunes installed you can listen to and subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.

Maximizing Your Twitter Experience - 10 Quick Tips Podcast

Last Thursday (12/2/10) evening , Mike Q and I recorded a podcast titlted Maximizing Your Twitter Experience - 10 Quick Tips. We also discuss some recent technology updates including:

• The FCC and net neutrality
• The iPad and Macbook Air
• The Rockmelt Browser that integrates social media into your browser.
• Tim Wu's book The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
• The London School of Business and Finance Global M.B.A. - they are offering an MBA through a Facebook application

You can listen to the 36.5 minute podcast in your browser by clicking the play button below:

If you have iTunes installed you can listen to and subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.

State of the Internet Industry

Yesterday, at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker gave an incredibly paced presentation on the state of the Internet industry. Here’s some highlights from her presentation compiled by Ben Parr at Mashable:

• 46% of Internet users live in five countries: the USA, Russia, Brazil, China and India.
• There are 670 million 3G subscribers worldwide, 136.6 million in the U.S. and 106.3 million in Japan.
• iOS devices reached 120 million subscribers in 13 quarters, far faster than Netscape, AOL or NTT docomo’s growth rates.
• Nokia and Symbian used to own 62% of the smartphone market (units shipped). Now it’s only 37%, mostly due to Android and iOS.
• The average CPM for social networking sites is at only $0.55. Meeker thinks this will increase and normalize in the next few years. She also believes that inventory on Facebook is one of the most under-monetized assets on the web.
• It took e-commerce 15 years to get to 5% of retail. Morgan Stanley predicts mobile should get to that same level in five years.
• Streaming video is up to 37% of of Internet traffic during traditional “TV hours.” Netflix is the biggest contributor to this, followed by YouTube.
• Seven of the companies that were in the top 15 publicly traded Internet companies in 2004 are not in that list in 2010.
• Interest payments and entitlement spending is projected to exceed government revenue by 2025. In other words, the U.S. government is facing a real financial crisis soon.

Here’s an embed of Mary's presentation:

Internet Trends Presentation -

Changing Times: Computers, Communications and Coca-Cola

I've been a developer, programmer, consultant, instructor, and consumer of personal computers and applications since the early days of CPM (pre-DOS). My early work started around January 1982 with the IBM PC on the connectivity and coding side, developing communications and custom business applications. Device-to-device communications was slow, commonly running at around 115 Kbps. I used to say I could make any computing device talk to any other computing device - just give me some cable, connectors, a few basic tools, an RS-232 Protocol Analyzer, breakout box, some paper clips to use as jumpers for cable configuration, and lots of Coca-Cola!

Times have changed - when I started almost 30 years ago, technicians typically drove commercial style vans full of tools and parts. Today a friend has a computer technology business where the technicians drive Mini Coopers. He's got one SUV to lug around bigger stuff but it does not see much road time. Times have really changed.

My current interest and technical focus is on connectivity (copper, optical and wireless), converged network (voice, video and data) services, end device hardware, operating systems and applications (that someone else has written!). Basically TCP/IP, Ethernet and everything involved in moving information securely, dependably and reliably from one device to another.

I still do take a thing or two apart these days though. Most recently I changed an iPod battery using a blow drier (to melt the glue holding device together) and guitar pick (get the thinnest picks you can find). Taking apart an iPad (why would anyone want to?) is not much different - here's a video from DirectFix.com showing how.

The days of vans full of technician tools, desktop type computers and field swappable components are either gone or rapidly going away. Some things do stay the same though - I'm still hooked on the Coca-Cola.