Blog

We’ve super-sized a generation by feeding them at FFHR’s (Fast Food Hamburger Restaurants).  We’ve told them that what they are eating is called a hamburger.  So, should we be surprised if they do not recognize ground sirloin on a sourdough bun as the same food-stuff?  Or, if they do recognize the genus (hamburger), should we Continue Reading →

The Wall Street Journal reports that SBC, the nation’s second-largest phone company, plans to start charging $14.95 a month for new customers — making broadband service less expensive than some dial-up plans. Is this a loss-leader or a portent of things to come?  If SBC is just torturing their competition to create churn, this is Continue Reading →

Verizon and SBC lost a major legislative battle in Texas this week.  They had hoped that they could strike a deal with the state of Texas to roll out their IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) services.  Instead, they will have to do what the cable companies had to do years ago — negotiate municipality by municipality.  Continue Reading →

Remember Razzles?  Back when I was a kid (when the Earth was cooling), they had a wonderful advertising campaign that asked the question: “…is it a gum or a candy?” Razzles were truly unusual.  They were a bizarre cross between a sucking candy and chewing gum.  Nobody knew how to describe them, so the advertising Continue Reading →

Dave Burstein, the Editor of DSLPrime, told a room full of people about Google’s Video service yesterday.  He was not casual in his delivery.  He said, and I paraphrase — they (Google) will host and serve your video free of charge, the higher the resolution, the better. I must have been on an other planet Continue Reading →

Right now in a server farm very, very close … Episode 1 … MyWars (MUSIC: Gigantic John Williams theme). It is the time of the rebellion and the ever-evolving semi-rich content sites of Yahoo! are under attack by the ever-evolving semi-rich data sites of Google.  There is no good or evil … only war. Just Continue Reading →

An old friend of mine sent me an email a few days ago that went something like this … “Maybe you can help me out.  I’m looking for sponsors for our Podcast show.” One has to be a friend to have a friend, so I dutifully visited his website and listened to a few of Continue Reading →

I was delighted to moderate a panel discussion at Streaming Media East yesterday entitled, Enabling Open-Architecture-Based IPTV Services.  This is an eclectic subject — even for me. My fellow panelists included Peggy Dau, Solution Portfolio Manager Digital Content Distribution NSP Broadband & Media Solutions for HP; Hamilton Altstatt, Director Research & Development, Idealab and the Continue Reading →

The British aren’t coming … they’re here!  The BBC will move a step closer to delivering what it calls “iTunes for the broadcast industry” later this year, launching a public trial of iMP, which allows viewers to download any show from the previous week that they may have missed. Some of us call this a Continue Reading →

According to Michael Starr at the New York Post, Good Morning America (GMA) ABC New’s (now very, very competitive morning show) will start broadcasting in HD (High Definition Television) this fall.  If all goes as planned, they will shoot the studio segments in HD and upconvert SD (Standard Definition Television) footage from other sources to Continue Reading →