Archive for September, 2007

Google’s X-Prize

Friday, September 14th, 2007

My senior year of High School I read the newly released book Longitude, which detailed the scientific quest for an accurate and durable method for determining longitude at sea. The prize: the equivalent of 12 million in today’s currency. I couldn’t help wonder why our scientific innovation wasn’t promoted in the same way. Sure, government and university grants are great for scientific progress but so is a little healthy competition and the prospect of massive wealth.

Imagine my excitment when I read about the X-Prize, announced at about the same time as the publication of Longitude. In 2004, the X Prize awarded its first prize of $10 million to Burt Rutan and Paul Allen for developing the first non-government, reusable manned spacecraft that was launced into space twice within two weeks.

The X-Prize Foundation lives, offering prizes for a number of contests from genome sequencing technology to building a 100-mpg vehicle.

Now, Google is getting into the game. The Google Lunar X-Prize will offer $20 million to the first team that constructs autonomous rovers that can land on the moon, travel at least three-tenths of a mile, and send video, images and data back to Earth. Google is running the project in conjunction with the X-Prize foundation. MSNBC has the details:

The first team to succeed would win $20 million – that is, if the job is done by 2012. After that, the prize drops to $15 million, and if no one is successful by the end of 2014, the money could be withdrawn. If a second team succeeds before the deadline, $5 million would be given as a runner-up prize. Another $5 million would be reserved for bonus tasks – for example, roving for longer distances, taking pictures of old lunar spacecraft, finding water ice or surviving the long lunar night.

The imagery and other data beamed back from the moon would be shared with the world via the Google Lunar X Prize’s Web site.

“By working with the Google team, we look forward to bringing this historic private space race into every home and classroom,” Peter Diamandis, chairman and chief executive officer of the California-based X Prize Foundation, said in a prepared statement. “We hope to ignite the imagination of children around the world.”

Watch the promotional video, find an extremely wealthy sponsor and some rocket scientists, then get to work, folks.

Nothing like reverting to early 18th Century contests to solve the technological challenges of the 21st Century and beyond.

DIY Friday: Burning Man

Friday, September 14th, 2007

When you think of Burning Man, a six-day festival held in the middle of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, you think of eccentric art—sculptures, paintings, artistic contraptions of all kind. Burning Man hits the limits of self-expression. Even more amazing, though, is Burning Man’s commitment to self-reliance. As one essayist puts it:

You’re here to survive. What happens to your brain and body when exposed to 107 degree heat, moisture wicking off your body and dehydrating you within minutes? You know and watch yourself. You drink water constantly and piss clear. You’ll want to reconsider drinking that alcohol (or taking those other substances) you brought with you — the mind-altering experience of Burning Man is its own drug. You slather yourself in sunblock before the sun’s rays turn up full blast. You bring enough food, water, and shelter because the elements of the new planet are harsh, and you will find no vending.

You’re here to create. Since nobody at Burning Man is a spectator, you’re here to build your own new world. You’ve built an egg for shelter, a suit made of light sticks, a car that looks like a shark’s fin. You’ve covered yourself in silver, you’re wearing a straw hat and a string of pearls, or maybe a skirt for the first time. You’re broadcasting Radio Free Burning Man — or another radio station.

But when 50,000 people descend onto a spot in the desert, they need energy — no matter how environmentally-conscious they may be. Enter solar power — there is plenty of that in the desert.

These folks may not be rocket scientists, but they sure have engineering prowess. While some shows, like the Control Burn fire act, use 650 gallons of fuel a night, there is some carbon-free entertainment out there. More demonstrated free energy, thanks to a trebuchet:

This year’s event was held August 27th through September 3rd, drawing almost 50,000 people around the theme “Green Man” (environment). Responding to this inspiration, Cooling Man is a project aiming to make “Black Rock City” carbon-neutral through carbon-offset purchases and energy reduction. For just a six-day event, it is pretty fascinating how much of a civilization is created.

Next year we will look into what sort of sat-coms they have — no landlines available in Black Rock City, I imagine.

Mission to Iapetus

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

After "a solid state power switch that was tripped due to a galactic cosmic ray hit", the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft went into safe mode earlier this week. It’s recovered since and the fly-by was very cool:

 

NASA’s JPL got a nice surprise, according to the AP via MSNBC, from Sir Arthur:

Mission controllers have since sent commands for Cassini to resume normal transmission, and scientists recovered all the data from the moon flyby despite a nearly 12-hour delay. The spacecraft was expected to be fully functional by week’s end.

Iapetus, the third-largest Saturnian moon, gained science fiction fame in Clarke’s mind-bending novel "2001: A Space Odyssey," that was developed in concert with Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 movie by the same name.

Clarke, who lives in Sri Lanka, surprised the Cassini team with a five-minute video played Tuesday during an internal meeting at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In it, Clarke told scientists he looked forward to viewing photos from the flyby.

Even before Clarke’s taped greeting, scientists waxed poetic about Cassini’s encounter with Iapetus and the fictional Discovery spaceship’s rendezvous with Japetus, as the Saturn moon is known in Clarke’s book.

We don’t have the video to show you, but we do have the transcript, via Emily Lakdawalla at Planetary Society:

Video greeting to NASA JPL to mark the Iapetus flyby of Cassini spacecraft: 10 September 2007

by Arthur C. Clarke

 

Hello! This is Arthur Clarke, joining you from my home in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

I’m delighted to be part of this event to mark Cassini’s flyby of Iapetus.

I send my greetings to all my friends – known and unknown – who are gathered for this important occasion.

I only wish I could be with you in person, but I’m now completely wheelchaired by Polio and have no plans to leave Sri Lanka again.

Thanks to the World Wide Web, I have been following the progress of Cassini-Huygens mission from the time it was launched several years ago. As you know, I have more than a passing interest in Saturn…

And I was really spooked in early 2005, when the Huygens probe returned sound recordings from the surface of Titan. This is exactly what I had described in my 1975 novel Imperial Earth, where my character is listening to the winds blowing over the desert plains overhead.

That was perhaps just a foretaste of things to come! On September 10, if everything goes according to plan, Cassini would give us our closest look at Iapetus – one of Saturn’s most interesting moons.

Half of Iapetus appears as dark as asphalt, and the other half is as bright as snow. When Giovanni Cassini discovered Iapetus in 1671, he could only see its bright side. We had a better glimpse when Voyager 2 flew past in August 1981 – but that was from almost a million kilometres away.

In contrast, Cassini is going to come within a little over one thousand kilometres of Iapetus.

This is a particularly exciting moment for fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey – because that’s where the lone astronaut Dave Bowman discovers the Saturn monolith, which turns out to be a gateway to the stars. Chapter 35 in the novel is titled ‘The Eye of Iapetus’, and it contains this passage:
"Iapetus was approaching so slowly that it scarcely seemed to move, and it was impossible to tell the exact moment when it made the subtle change from an astronomical body to a landscape, only fifty miles below. The faithful verniers gave their last spurts of thrust, then closed down forever. The ship was in its final orbit, completing a revolution every three hours at a mere eight hundred miles an hour – all the speed that was required in this feeble gravitation field."

After more than 40 years, I cannot remember why I placed the Saturn monolith on Iapetus. At that time, in the early days of the Space Age, earth-based telescopes couldn’t show much details of this celestial body. But I have always had a strange fascination for Saturn and its family of Moons. By the way, that ‘family’ has been growing at a very impressive rate. When Cassini was launched, we knew of 18 moons. I understand it is now 60 – and counting…I just can’t resist the temptation to say:

My God, it’s full of moons!

But in the movie, Stanley Kubrick decided to place all the actions at Jupiter, not Saturn. Why this change? Well, for one thing it made a more straightforward storyline. And more importantly, the special effects department couldn’t produce a Saturn that Stanley found convincing.

That was just as well…because if they had done so, the movie would have been badly dated by the Voyager missions, which showed Saturn’s rings to be far more implausible than anyone had ever imagined.

I have seen enough instances where Nature imitates art, so I’m going to keep my fingers crossed on what Cassini discovers at Iapetus.

I want to thank everyone associated with this mission and the overall Cassini-Huygens project. It may lack the glamour of manned spaceflight, but science projects are tremendously important for our understanding of the Solar System. And who knows, one day our survival on Earth might depend on what we discover out there…

This is Arthur Clarke, wishing you a successful flyby.

Images from Cassini-Huygens are continuously updated.

Com in Africa: A Changing Marketplace

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

Here at the Americom Business Network Blog, we’ve written about expanding telecom needs in Africa and about the role satcom plays in furthering the development of Africa’s oil reserves.

African development continues to be a hot topic in the world of sat- and tele-com, with a debate currently taking place about Telkom’s SAT-3 undersea cable and the countries it does (and doesn’t) serve: 

The biggest problem with Telkom’s SAT-3 undersea cable is that it never went bankrupt, said Johan Meyer, Telkom’s group executive for global capacity service.

Meyer, who has been intimately involved in the SAT-3 West Coast cable, which is SA’s primary undersea link for telecommunications and Internet connectivity with the rest of the world, said: “If SAT-3 had gone bankrupt, then we would have had a very different scenario to what we have today, and may even have found ourselves in a similar position to the North Atlantic cables.”

He was responding yesterday to comments made during a debate on pan-African connectivity at the Capacity Africa 2007 Conference, in Cape Town.

Wessel van der Vyver, GM of international business for Telecom Namibia, opened the discussion by saying that Telkom was one of the key impediments to his company lowering its own broadband and interconnectivity costs.

“Essentially, Nambia is a landlocked country in terms of undersea cable because SAT-3 lands in Angola and in SA. We were hoping to get a landing in Namibia, but this hasn’t happened.”

Later, Van der Vyver said Telecom Namibia was also “disappointed” that the proposed undersea cables being planned by the South African government’s new broadband infrastructure supplier, Infraco, was also ignoring his country.

“It would be a pity if another cable is built and it leaves us in the same situation.”

During the discussion, the lack of satellite capacity came under the spotlight.

Pedro Camacho, CEO and owner of Blue Sky Satellite Communications, said satellite capacity was at a premium, with a long waiting list.

Need some background on the SAT-3 cable? Look here:

SAT3/WASC/SAFE is a historic Achievement made possible by the participation of 36 nations, the majority of the landings are in African states. Together they have fully funded the undersea cable system costing more than US$600 million and will own and operate it for the next 25 years. This results in much of the revenue it generates being ploughed back into the continent. This is a major departure from the current scenario, where many African countries rely on foreign operators to route their international traffic which results in revenue generated in Africa, leaving Africa. 

Meanwhile, Telkom and HCI are expanding South Africa’s pay TV market:

South Africa’s communications authority granted fixed-line operator Telkom’s media unit, Telkom Media, and leisure and media group Hosken Consolidated Investments licences along with two smaller operators — On Digital Media and Walking on Water.

Entry of new operators is expected to stimulate the market, with more money being pushed to marketing pay-TV services, portfolio manager Khulekani Dlamini at Renaissance Specialist Fund Managers said.

Chief Executive Officer Nolo Letele of Naspers’ local pay-TV operation MultiChoice SA said the unit had been gearing up for competition.

"We will have to fight that much harder for the disposable rand in people’s pockets," Letele said after the announcement of the winning bidders.

With increasing demand continent-wide for better broadband, television, and voice connections, the communications landscape in Africa is sure to remain fluid for many years. We’ll keep you updated on the latest developments. 

Penn State and NASA Join in Education Program

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

If you see a shiny new Airstream trailer in front of your local school, it’s not necessarily because of classroom overcrowding: it’s likely part of the "NASA to the Schools, Penn State" program, a new 5-year cooperative program that’s putting the Big Ten athletic conference school forward as the face of NASA’s K-12 educational outreach.

 

EarthTimes.org reports: 

 The $27 million agreement comes under NASA’s Aerospace Education Services Program, one of the oldest National Aeronautics and Space Administration programs now in its 35th year.

Penn State took over Sept. 1 from Oklahoma State University.

"This is the only program in the United States that can put professional science educators on the ground in 50 states and territories," said Penn Sate Professor William Carlsen, director of the university’s Center for Science and the Schools.

The Penn State program will shift the existing emphasis from one-time school visits and short teacher seminars to university-based, space-oriented summer courses for teachers.

School visits will continue, but rather than emphasizing auditorium presentations, NASA education specialists will work closely with teachers and school administrators to infuse cutting-edge science content into extended instructional units, officials said.

Penn State’s Center for Science and the Schools website can be found here. They’ve got some innovative plans for curriculum development and teacher training:

A meeting at Cornell University with scientists who study Mars will kick off development of the first course for teachers. To supplement instruction by classroom teachers who have enrolled in summer courseware, the six Airstream “NASA to the Schools” vehicles will crisscross the country with a scaled-down version of a Martian Rover. Just like a real Rover, these half-pints will sport cameras that enable them to monitor their environment in 3-D. In a novel twist, the educational rovers will also have the capability of projecting images in 3-D using "GeoWall" technology, letting students see exactly what the Rovers saw on Mars.

NASA to the Schools will use many new instructional technologies, developing continuing education content for delivery through NASA’s Digital Learning Network. Education specialists will get in on the ground floor of new NASA projects to aid them in their continuing education components as well.

For a preview of what the tots might experience as part of their "Rover" education, check out this video of the latest Rover Flight Director’s report

Télécoms Sans Frontières Reconnects Areas Affected by Disaster

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

Last month’s devastating magnitude-8 earthquake in Peru killed more than 500 people and knocked down or damaged thousands of buildings in Peru’s southern desert cities of Ica and Pisco.

In the midst of such devastation, conditions are exacerbated by lack of communications with the outside world, as landlines are inevitably severed by falling debris.

That’s why satcom plays such a critical role in disaster recovery. In the days following the earthquake in Peru, engineers from Télécoms Sans Frontières leaped into action. The BBC reported on August 17th: 

The five-strong team will deploy satellite telephone and internet access in three centres – at Pisco, where the quake hit hardest, Ica and Chincha.

Julie Cazenave, who is leading the team, said: "There is a lot of confusion right now because there is little information from the areas hit."

The priority will be to establish telecoms at the airport in Pisco.

Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) is charity that works with the United Nations and the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) to restore communications in disaster-hit areas and the developing world.

"There are no power lines to charge phones. In the affected areas there are no landlines, no internet," said Ms Cazenave.

TSF was critical in reconnecting families that had lost track of each other following the quake:

The relief team from TSF’s Americas base, composed of 5 specialist in emergency communications transports satellite communication equipment (Inmarsat BGan terminals, RBGan, GAN M4 and Mini M) as well as computer equipment to provide internet connections, telephone lines and fax….

During a calling operation on Tuesday, Carmen Hernandez called her son who lives in Spain and testified on the violence of the quake:

"- Mom, where are you calling from? Your voice is trembling, are you sure everything is alright?

"Don’t worry, please keep talking, it’s so good to hear your voice. We’re lacking everything here but we’re alive. When you come back, you won’t recognize Pisco. I’m calling from a satellite phone, a free called offered by an international NGO. Don’t worry son, stay where you are."

The Peruvian earthquake isn’t the only recent natural disaster where TSF has lent a hand:

Still in operation in Pisco following the earthquake which stroke Peru, Télécoms Sans Frontières intervenes in the area of the RAAN (North Atlantic Autonomous Region) from its Latin America base taking care of the victims of the Felix Hurricane.

Tuesday, the Felix cyclone (category 5) devastated Northern Nicaragua, involving the increase of human losses and the number of disaster victims which could exceed 500 000 people. Facing this disaster, the President of Nicaragua invited the international community to provide a humanitarian aid for the victims.

From their base in Managua, 5 logisticians of Telecoms Sans Frontieres arrived on the ground by helicopter, providing assistance to the relief organizations and United Nations agencies by deploying communication centers in Puerto Cabezas. These installations include Inmarsat terminals, BGan, Gan M4, Minis M  and laptops. Efficient telecommunications infrastructure plays a crucial role ensuring the success of emergency coordination. Additional TSF centers will be installed in Sandy Bay and Waspan from today.

At the same time, the TSF teams will offer to each disaster affected family a free call to a relative, which could provide them psychological assistance as well as immediate response to their needs.

ITU has also played a critical role in restoring vital communications to Peru, deploying 50 satellite terminals in remote and underserved areas.

For more information on Télécoms Sans Frontières, click here

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Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

Apple’s Own TV Channel

Monday, September 10th, 2007

 

We’ve blogged about the spectrum auction coming up and we see many more interesting ways of how it could play out. Today, via Business Week, we might some day tune our iPhone or iPodTouch to a TV channel being broadcast using UHF frequencies:

Apple Eyes the Wireless Auction

Steve Jobs & Co. consider joining the FCC’s auction of wireless spectrum, and a win would give Apple many intriguing options—for the iPhone and more

by Peter Burrows

Talk of the government’s pending auction of valuable wireless spectrum has focused largely on one intriguing newcomer to the bidding: Google (GOOG). But another tech powerhouse has considered joining the bidding as well: Apple (AAPL).

Two sources tell BusinessWeek that Steve Jobs & Co. have studied the implications of joining the auction, which will be held Jan. 16. The winners will get rights to use the spectrum that analog TV broadcasters are handing back to the government in 2009, given their mandated move to digital television.

Dubbed "beachfront property" by the Federal Communications Commission, it’s the last swathe of wireless spectrum likely to become available that would have the attributes necessary for a new mainstream broadband network (BusinessWeek.com, 8/1/07). Signals at the 700Mhz spectrum, for example, could provide far faster Internet access than today’s cellular or even Wi-Fi networks, and the signals can easily pass through buildings and work glitch-free, even in lousy weather.

Risk for Apple’s Margins
At this point, says one of the sources, Apple is leaning against participating in the auction. It’s not the money. With nearly $14 billion in cash, the company can clearly afford the $4.6 billion minimum bid required by the government, and could probably come up with the $9 billion that’s expected to win a portion of the spectrum to be made available for a nationwide network. There will assuredly be stiff competition from phone companies and other potential bidders such as Google, DirecTV (DTV), and eBay (EBAY), which owns Skype’s Net calling software.

Rather, the risk for Apple is in entering the generally low-margin, hardscrabble world of running a massive-scale network. Rather than focus all of Apple’s entrepreneurial instincts on creating the next innovative gizmo, the company would be on the hook for the massive operational headaches that go with provisioning traffic, activating new subscribers, and fielding their angry calls when service glitches occur.

As with Google, becoming a network operator would drag down Apple’s margins—and could pose a cultural drag on an innovative company. And other than iTunes, Apple has not stood out for its Internet services. Only 1.7 million people pay the $99 annual fee for its .Mac service, disappointing given Apple’s success in so many other areas. "Even for companies like Google, the economics [of owning a network] are barely intelligible," says Amol Sarva, chief executive of Txtbl, a mobile e-mail company. "For Apple, this seems highly implausible."

iPhone Network Solution
Still, even the possibility of an Apple bid is intriguing. For starters, it would mean Apple would no longer need to rely on a phone company to deliver songs, TV shows, and other digital fare purchased at its iTunes Music Store. As it is, the major complaint of iPhone shoppers isn’t with the phone, but with the pokey Net access from Apple’s exclusive U.S. partner, AT&T (T).

If it owned its own spectrum, Apple could provide the network service itself, possibly for far less than the $1,440 iPhone owners must now fork out over the course of the cheapest two-year contract. For example, Apple could hold down costs by letting users choose a Net telephony program such as Skype rather than develop its own voice software, say analysts.

Apple might even be able to give away network service for free, and make its money off services such as iTunes and possibly by selling subscribers advertising space. "With the kind of cash position they have and the kind of push they just made into the handset space [with the iPhone, and now with the iPod touch, which also has Apple’s Safari Web browser built in], it makes a lot of sense for them," says one former Apple executive.

Major Strategy Change?
Indeed, cutting out the carrier would probably be in sync with Steve Jobs’ view of the world. Before striking the iPhone deal with AT&T, he publicly dissed phone companies as little more than "orifices"—good only for providing dumb pipes to deliver more innovative companies’ more innovative services.

"Apple is the most anti-carrier company there is," says the former Apple executive. "They’re probably already frustrated with AT&T. If they put a few billion behind this, they could build a kick-ass network." Indeed, on Sept. 5, Apple announced a new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store so consumers can buy songs at wireless hotspots, something they can’t do on AT&T’s network. And Jobs made a point of noting Wi-Fi is faster not only than the so-called 2.5G EDGE network, but also than 3G cellular networks.

The fact Jobs was interested enough to investigate bidding for the spectrum opens up the possibility of a major strategy change for Apple. Today, Apple’s approach is built on the idea of the PC—preferably a Mac—being the "hub of the digital lifestyle." If you want content on your iPod or iPhone, or on your TV via an Apple TV settop box, you download it to your PC or Mac, and then sync it with those other devices.

From Devices to Services
But if it had its own network, Apple could conceivably move to a "cloud computing" approach, where it would store customers’ files, music, movies, e-mails, and other content on servers in its own data centers, and dole it out directly to whatever device a customer is using at any given time. If you wanted to purchase the latest Pixar flick from iTunes, you wouldn’t need to schlep over to the Mac to do it; it could be delivered straight to the Apple TV—or even to an Apple TV at the ski house miles away from that Mac.

Taken to its extreme, some experts suggest Apple could one day move to making its money on selling such services, rather than on the devices themselves. "At some point, they’re going to tap out the percentage of people who still need to buy an iPod," says one telecom executive who requested anonymity. "Maybe their strategy is to get into the services business, and switch to getting nice, recurring revenues" from subscribers. Indeed, Apple has already changed its accounting for the Apple TV and for the iPhone. Rather than book revenue when the cash register rings, Apple books the sale over 24 months.

To be sure, Apple has given no hints of any such makeover of its hugely successful strategy. Still, most analysts think this Net-centric model of computing will dominate in the future. Following the success of Google, Yahoo! (YHOO), and others, Microsoft (MSFT) is already signaling it will follow suit. And Apple would have some unique advantages should it head in this direction, particularly the Mac OS. For starters, it’s based on the battle-tested Unix operating system, considered far more reliable and powerful than Microsoft’s Windows.

Superior ‘Walled Garden’
And since the Mac OS lies at the core of the data centers that host the iTunes store as well as almost all of Apple’s commercial products (except for the iPod shuffle, nano, and classic), it could provide a level of glue to help Apple provide a superior experience for its customers. With such a common foundation of software, Apple could more easily ensure that Pixar movie is sent in the proper resolution, whether it’s to be viewed on a large-screen, high-definition TV or on an iPhone. Also, Apple could simplify the job of syncing various devices.

When a new appointment is entered into an iPhone, the network could make sure to update the calendars on the customers’ Mac or laptop, or even the iPod in their car. Says one longtime Net executive: "Apple’s current architecture forces you to designate a Mac as your server where you stream to Apple TV or sync your iPhone. This is really klutzy. So what is the answer? Well, one is to have your media in the cloud. If the performance is there, it would be a superior model."

In a sense, Apple would have created a new kind of "walled garden." Normally, this term refers to Net offerings that limit where consumers can go on the Web. Think about the limited browsing available from most TV cable boxes. But Apple’s walled garden would be defined not by what it limits you from doing, but by the fact it’s tuned to work best with Apple’s own hardware. For Apple fans, they’d only have to be familiar with one user interface. And since Apple’s products all rely on the same set of software—Safari Web browser, the iTunes Music Store, the Quicktime Media player—they wouldn’t have to deal with the many incompatibilities that plague Net users.

Also, Apple includes a wireless networking technology called Bonjour in every download of iTunes that lets any Apple product automatically spot other Apple products within range. Here’s one possibility: An iPhone owner could be able to use the device like a handheld media server, to move movies or songs or files out in the cloud among those devices.

Grunt Work for a Partner
The hardware cost of building out the network would probably not be that huge, measured in hundreds of millions, possibly, rather than billions. And if Apple went to a voice-is-free approach or to a flat fee, many of the administrative tasks—bill tracking, or detailed call data, for example—would be largely unnecessary. And since no lawns would need to be dug up to make way for new fiber cables, Apple could connect homes for less than $300, compared with more than $800 for fiber, say experts.

Of course, there would be enormous complexity in running such a network, given rules set by the FCC. That’s why most sources think Apple would sign up a partner to handle the grunt work—say, an equipment provider such as Ericsson (ERIC) or Alcatel (ALU), or a consulting firm such as EDS (EDS). Even then, skeptics such as Txtbl’s Sarva doubt Apple could ever figure a way to make a return on its network investment.

The rules approved by the FCC on Aug. 31 make the job more difficult as well. Thanks in large part to pressure from Google and other Net companies, owners of the spectrum will be required to allow any device or application to run. Such "open access" rules are an attempt to break the ability of phone companies and cable providers to limit which cell phones or other devices consumers can use, or to prevent them from using competing services for downloading music or playing games. That means Apple would have to think not only about enhancing the use of Apple products, but also take on the gargantuan task of making sure the network also supports competing hardware and software, from Microsoft’s Zune music player to Amazon’s (AMZN) Unbox movie service.

And Jobs might have to beat out Google CEO Eric Schmidt, an Apple director, in a bidding war (BusinessWeek.com, 7/20/07).

Schmidt has said Google, come January, will likely bid.

 

Blog Wild

Monday, September 10th, 2007

WildBlue was named Euroconsult’s 2007 Broadband Satellite System Operator of the Year during the 11th World Summit for Satellite Financing in Paris, France. WildBlue provides high-speed Internet access via satellite to homes and small businesses in communities not currently served, or underserved, by other high speed providers. From their press release:

The Broadband Satellite System Operator of the Year award is based on a performance analysis of satellite market players, selected by a jury composed of representatives from Satellite Finance, Space News and from Euroconsult’s analyst team. In selecting the award recipients, the jury reviews each operator’s performance in relation to a number of benchmarks, including: subscribers at year-end 2006 and 2006 subscription growth; penetration of the estimated addressable market at year-end 2006; and strategic decisions and innovative offerings of 2007. WildBlue received the award yesterday during a ceremony held at the Hotel Westin in Paris.

But who is Euroconsult?

Since its creation, the company has become a worldwide reference for research and advice at each step of the value chain in the satellite industry including satellite manufacturers, satellite operators, satellite service providers, launch and services equipment, space agencies, TV platforms & channels as well as bankers, investors and insurers.

A forum on this award dished mixed-reactions. One user notes that the survey did not include—duh—customers! And some of these customers don’t seem too happy — suffering from frequent timeouts, slow speeds, and questionable customer support. Some express their anger on YouTube:


 

Others however, realize where the satellite broadband industry is — in its infancy, expanding, and still adapting to customer demands. HughesNet (the primary WildBlue alternative) is rising but doesn’t appear to be out-performing WildBlue in value or speed. As one forum particpant puts it: “I wasn’t happy with the spike in latency, but at the end of the day no one else is working any harder to provide this customer with a better alternative, at least not today.”

Phoenix – so far, so good

Monday, September 10th, 2007

The Phoenix Mars Lander has passed its first in-flight check. The collaborative project, part of NASA’s Mars Scout class, is headed by the Universtiy of Arizona but includes efforts by Lockheed-Martin and The Max Planck Institute. The mars lander, slated to explore the arctic region of mars, analyzing samples of soil and ice, launched on August 4th and is expected to land on May 25, 2008. Last week, it received its first in-flight report, including a photo taken from its robotic arm camera:

The Robotic Arm Camera took an image of the Robotic Arm scoop using its red LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lamp. Human eyes see this image only in shades of gray, so the picture has been enhanced in false color to better represent what the camera sees.

Images from the Robotic Arm Camera, one of five imaging instruments on the lander, will be the only pictures taken and returned to Earth until Phoenix approaches and lands on Mars on May 25, 2008. Additional images will be taken by the Robotic Arm Camera later in the cruise stage.

The Robotic Arm Camera check was one of a series of instrument tests being completed as Phoenix cruises toward the red planet. Phoenix was about 57 million miles from Earth when the image was sent back. It is traveling at 76,000 miles per hour in relation to the sun.

On Mars, the Robotic Arm will dig trenches, scoop up soil and water-ice samples and deliver them to several instruments on the lander’s deck for chemical and geological analysis.

The Robotic Arm Camera, built by the UA and Max Planck Institute, is attached to the Robotic Arm just above the scoop and will provide close-up, full-color images of the Martian surface, prospective soil and water-ice samples, samples collected in the scoop before delivery to the lander’s science deck, and of the floor and side walls of the trenches.

While the photo doesn’t look like much, it provides welcome relief to the project team. From the project’s excellent blog:

At the moment all we have to look at is the scoop on RA that we’ll use to dig into the surface of Mars. Although we see numbers flow back during these health checks, a picture is something very tangible. It tells us in an image what it takes pages of numbers to understand. We see a sharp focus, the lights are on, the multitude of commands executed properly, the data pipe that the images stream down all work, After all RAC is a camera, all the work is to have an instrument that takes images and the result is we get a picture here on Earth from tens of millions of miles from home. Makes me confident we’ll get back pictures after we land on Mars.

I find this very comforting. Not only have we endured launch, deep cold of space, but we also survived the Van Allen Radiation Belts that surrounds the Earth (some 1500 rems / year compared to 0.04 here on earth). We’ve prepared for this and we’d prepared well. It certainly is exciting to see our hearty little friend is healthy so far from Earth on her extraterrestrial journey to her new home on Mars.

The same in-flight check returned the lander’s cruising temperature (a touch colder than a Wisconsin winter):

So far all looks well on the spacecraft and the instruments are at a balmy -30° C with some places near 0°C. The RAC at a comfortable -15°C!So much for the interplanetary weather report.

Meanwhile, the weather on Mars isn’t much better. Earlier this summer, a global dust storm swept the red planet creating a sky-darkening dust clout, nearly killing NASA’s solar-dependent exploration rovers. The rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have worked 40 months more than their original 3-month goal. Along the way, they’ve survived a lot:

"These rovers are tough. They faced dusty winds, power starvation and other challenges — and survived. Now they are back to doing groundbreaking field work on Mars. These spacecraft are amazing," said Alan Stern, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Let’s hope the Phoenix has similar longevity. So far, so good.