Thursday, May 23, 2002

Level 3 has forecast this sort of thing! New tech eats into traditional telecom. Don't blame the economy, analysts say. Blame the "cannibalization" effect, when a new technology chews away at a company's older business. [CNET News.com] 7:21:25 PM     Comments[]

Energy - a new posting category In the next several weeks, I'm going to be doing some research into alternative energy sources. I once worked in this field, and I continue to find it intriguing. I'm not a 'green' advocate, but I like good engineering. Good engineering and design always seems to have as one of its attributes an attention to the by-products of the engineered system. I'm an engineer by training, though I've used my engineering degree as a model for problem-solving more so than in some specific field of engineering. I hope to provide a bit of insight into various types of energy research and development. Included will be: fuel cells resource recovery and incineration technology wind technologies ethanol modern battery technology turbines and small generators active and passive solar alternatives ...and others In my recent trips to east Tennessee, I spent a bit of time in Oak Ridge. Yes, security is dramatically beefed up there. But, the mountains in the surrounding area are full of companies doing interesting things with alternative energy sources that will provide serious benefits. Here's where I draw the line. Short of a dire national emergency, I don't advocate government subsidies, investment or development of alternative energy. I believe the needs and wants of people coupled with the price of traditional energy will drive development. When a Duracell battery can run my laptop for as long as I need it to run on batteries, laptop manufacturers will switch. When ethanol can truly power a class of motors that we need, ethanol will become popular regardless of BigOil or BigCarCo lobbying. So, this won't be a place for griping and grousing about what the government did or didn't do or what some BigCo did or didn't do to stifle or promote a given form of alternative energy. Rather, this will be about the engineering and (potential) investment opportunities that might begin to come into their own in the coming years. THIS WILL NOT BE A PLACE TO HYPE COMPANIES FOR INVESTMENT!!! 4:31:24 PM     Comments[]

Great, but what about this? Washington Post: Visions Of a Wild and Wireless Future. To get a few clues as to what may come, I went out this week to a little brick office park in Reston to talk with Kahn, co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocols, the language that is the foundation of the Internet. [Tomalak's Realm] 4:05:10 PM     Comments[]

Old Wisdom Dollar Cost Averaging. Learn about a disciplined investing strategy for all seasons. [The Motley Fool] 3:49:16 PM     Comments[]

<FACETIOUS>Everybody knows that no telecom company will ever install another circuit, upgrade its existing circuits in any way or need any additional capacity at any point in the future! No IP network will ever generate enough revenue to survive. No customer will ever want any service of any type from any telecom provider - wireless or otherwise - ever again. So, remember as you consider your investments that telecoms with revenues, profits and cash flow are just like every dot.com that failed! </FACETIOUS> Ciena's revenue plunged 80% and the telecom-equipment maker warned that it doesn't expect any improvement in the current quarter. Its loss widened. [Wall Street Journal] 3:47:00 PM     Comments[]

Inquiring Minds Want to Know... where I've been the past four days. I've been to the mountains of eastern Tennessee to see my eldest daughter graduate from college (can you brag in your own weblog? - Yes!) with honors in a double major of Math and Music. We moved her home to Memphis for a few weeks on Monday. She'll leave for Australia on June 17 to be gone six months! Math in Daily Life: "When you buy a car, follow a recipe, or decorate your home, you're using math principles. People have been using these same principles for thousands—even millions—of years, across countries and continents. Whether you're sailing a boat off the coast of Japan or building a house in Peru, you're using math to get things done." [From the Desktop of Dane Carlson] Then, on Tuesday, we drove from Memphis to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Our middle daugher will be there for the next three months working at a resort and conference center for church youth groups. We returned yesterday. That's three consecutive days of about 450 miles each day. Road trips aren't what they use to be! Finally, daughter number three leaves on June 9th for Kansas City. She's a professional ballet dancer, and will dance in Kansas City this summer. I don't like anything about the 'empty nest' notion! 3:36:31 PM     Comments[]

Back to Netscape? There appears to be a new version of Netscape available. Can Netscape win back any market share? I don't know. It will have to be much better than anything I have to get me to move back. [Matt Brown's Dreamweaver Blog] 3:23:59 PM     Comments[]

IBM has hovered around $83 or $84 per share IBM has started sending out layoff notices to staff, including some 1,000 workers in its server group, a labor group said. The job cuts were expected. [Wall Street Journal] 3:19:42 PM     Comments[]

I'm still shopping! After talking with Doc this morning, I want a comparative review of laptops for blogging conferences. What's the ideal computer for real-time weblogs? I found the Sony Vaio wasn't really the right laptop. Doc says the Apple TiBook is wide, and that makes a big difference. Lots of screen real estate, it spreads out on the lap more easily than a smaller computer.   [Scripting News] 3:02:09 PM     Comments[]

© Copyright 2002 Steve Pilgrim.