Thursday, August 08, 2002

I've got to go buy a Tivo (or equivalent). Not because I need to watch more TV (I don't), but because one of my new projects is helping "a major consumer device company" design the service infrastructure for their next-generation PVR (personal video recorder). I've considered buying one for a while, but now it's (1) market research and (2) deductible. As a bonus, the project should be much fun. Doesn't get much better than this. PVRs are interesting beasts. They're at the nexus of computers, entertainment, media, advertising, digital rights, and networks. It's just too great an idea to hold back, in spite of the stranglehold the advertising model has on TV. So getting a chance to affect their evolution, for better or worse, will be worthwhile. 3:37:08 PM

If you still don't think 802.11 and wireless access has reached critical mass, take a look at this www.whizboat.com/ . You've gotta love it - a business that installs wireless access and service on boats off the east coast. Thanks to Ray Ozzie www.ozzie.net/blog/ for pointing this out. If all these 802.11 clients were configured as peering points, how strong would the resulting mobile mesh be? Move it to land, change to automobiles, and you've got the biggest, most robust data network in North America. I want one. 8:54:15 AM

I've been reading Bruce Sterling's science fiction forever (highly recommended and not well known: Dream Baby), and this rant www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2002/08/05/sterling.html?page=1 from the O'Reilly Open Source convention is a strange but accurate depiction of the software industry today. Read it if you've got time. 8:14:40 AM

© Copyright 2002 Jeff Nichols.