Archive for May 1st, 2003
… or so Janice refers to the Flyers. Well, the Sens got shut out a second time in this series with the Flyers — a 1-0 victory for the Flyers. Both teams played hard. I think the Flyers were working purposefully to initimidate Lalime — they hit him five times in the net, knocking him down, displacing the net and so on. Even so, Lalime kept his cool. What killed the game was that the Senators weren’t in front of the net for the rebounds. Throughout this series the Sens have been getting lots of shots, but not picking up the rebounds.
Randy (The Real Geek) asks about Bluetooth vs WiFi…
Microsoft Brings Web Services and Bluetooth to Cars Worldwide.
Windows Automotive 4.2
cool!
I am wondering where Bluetooth is going to fit into the future direction of computing. With WiFi in full tornado mode, do other short-range wireless initiatives stand a chance? Or can Bluetooth co-exist with Wifi? Does Bluetooth become a data sync protocol?
Bluetooth is point to point, low cost, low power, short range (10M). WiFi is networked, medium cost, higher power, long range (100M). You can have lots of people using a WiFi network over a large area. The so-called personal area network of Bluetooth is really not a network at all. It’s a few connections back to a hub device. Bluetooth is a wireless cable replacement solution, something like USB. In a pinch, you can run IP on it, but why bother? WiFi is a wireless network.
So, you won’t see WiFi headsets for cell phones — too expensive, and too much technology for what’s required. Similarly, you won’t see Bluetooth enabled access points for the corporate lan… range is too short, and the protocol is too dumb.
Due Diligence on Stupid Networks
I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading of Roxane Googin and David Isenberg on the Stupid Network for the last couple of weeks (writing a business plan). Tim Oren’s piece titled After Thoughts on David Isenberg’s Stupid Networks is very good.
Googin observes that as networks are shifting from voice to data, the revenues available to those networks have been plummeting. This has placed the traditional telco’s in a bind, because they have billions in equipment that is financed for the next 20 years. Voice is shifting from PSTN technologies to Internet technologies.
Isenberg’s Stupid Network thesis is that as the intelligence in the network decouples from the network itself, the underlying value of the network is as a commodity and nothing more. With open standards, and no proprietary stickiness, or gatekeeper to the network, the business of being the network goes away, and networks become something like the roadways and powergrids of today. Let’s resurrect the old monopoly.
Oren refutes this noting the inherent advantage of having customers capitalize their own equipment, and the brand value that can accrue to a solid network provider.
Good stuff.
