Thursday, March 20, 2003

Heading to PC Forum This weekend I'm heading to PC Forum, Esther Dyson's annual conference on computing, media and communications, among other themes.  I was happy to read in the conference program that "You’ll be joining a crowd of optimists".  I'll be doing my best to blog the event, so check back here Sunday-Monday-Tuesday for interesting tidbits. 4:45:46 PM    comment []

Internet 2.0 Last week I gave a talk at a Macromedia-focused developer conference (MX North), and rather than focus on micro-level technology issues I tried to put together a story and thesis about the state of the Internet and the opportunities it's presenting.  One of the things I'm doing in my new role at General Catalyst is trying to develop some investment thesis, looking at specific markets and converging opportunities.  I've started that process at a macro-level, and have to say that the macro-trends surrounding the Internet and related industries (media, communications, software) look extremely good.  I'm more optimistic about opportunities for innovation and growth than I was in the early 1990s when the commercial Internet entered its first generation.  More on this theme in the coming months. 4:42:04 PM    comment []

Vivato WiFi Switch: 33Mmps over 2.5 miles Vivato introduces outdoor switch at CTIA: In what will be a week of announcements from the cellular industyr's trade show in New Orleans, Vivato unveils its second product, an outdoor switch. Vivato claims four kilometers (2 1/2 miles) of outdoor coverage, as well as penetration of of exterior and interior walls of adjacent buildings. The outdoor switch differs from the indoor swtich by providing a ruggedized enclosure that can be mounted in environmentally challenging locations. They even have heat exchangers to keep the electronic from frying or freezing. The outdoor switch has three beams, like their previously announced but not yet shipping indoor switch. They offer 33 Mbps of Wi-Fi across those three beams (focused tracking Wi-Fi), although effective speeds may seem faster -- my analysis -- because of the lack of competition for spectrum among bursty users. A few beta users comment in the press release on the capacity, switching, and coverage. Imagine when it supports 802.11g and offers more beams. The unit's list price is $13,995, and it will appear in May through value-added resellers at the same time as the indoor switch. [via 80211b News] Continuing to track Vivato and mid-range WiFi coverage.  Look forward to deployments by the end of the year and broader commercial coverage. 3:44:17 PM    comment []

Cisco Acquires Linksys News.com reports on the acquisition of Linksys by Cisco.  From my perspective this is great news home networking, broadband and WiFi as Linksys will get additional critical mass and distribution, and clearly broader R&D leverage for other consumer networking products. 3:40:38 PM    comment []

News.com on RSS traction News.com ran this piece about growth in the use of RSS as a non-news format.  This is a theme many of us are tracking.  What will be the first truly broad killer app to use this? 3:36:00 PM    comment []

Grids and Economic Growth? Big names support grid computing Grid Computing Planet: "The seven companies have banded together to study the impact of Grid computing and Web services on enterprise performance, broadband use and U.S. economic growth. The Economic Strategy Institute study will be led by: David Dorman, CEO of AT&T; Jim Morgan, CEO of Applied Materials; Jamie Houghton, CEO of Corning; Jay Tenenbaum, Chairman of CommerceNet; Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's General Manager, e-business on demand; Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel; and Scott Kriens, CEO of Juniper Networks." [via Werblog]   Web services and broadband, yes.  Grids, no.  While grids hold lots of long-term promise, the immediate and direct impact of web services and broadband on economic growth seem much clearer.  Nonetheless, a powerful group of industry folks getting together to talk shop can't hurt. 9:32:56 AM    comment []