The stories coming out this week about Dolly Parton’s generosity are heartwarming and inspiring. Her legacy will continue to grow through the good she did while here on earth. For example, the Fiber Broadband Association and its members embraced and are amplifying her Imagination Library initiative. Her ongoing examples of helping others may be a greater memorial than her unbelievably large catalog of original music.
Ken Pyle at FIber Connect 2025 with a Dolly Parton cut-out promoting her Imagination Library.
Thanks to the Broadband Forum, my employer, for supporting this newsletter. The content, views, and opinions expressed herein are not those of the Broadband Forum.
A Personal Airbag for Fall Protection
The wearable airbag is something Viodi speculated about as a future invention. A decade later, at CES2026, Steve Lee, CEO of Smart Hip Mobility, provides an overview of his company’s invention that promises to help prevent a common injury among the elderly.
Autonomous Posture Support: On-Device AI for Better Sleep and Longevity
A good night’s sleep is important to a pleasant day and a long life. For some of us, a good night’s sleep is a challenge. One might have excellent REM and Deep sleep scores and wake up sore. At CES 2026, Water Robotics demonstrated its pre-production mattress, which provides localized posture support while dozing.
Some Chirps and Short Thoughts
- Drew Baglino, founder of Heron Power, discusses how its technology could revolutionize the power grid. With decades of experience in power electronics posits how data centers can act as a net positive for the electrical grid, starting at 1:18:49 in this video.
- New point-to-point USB to WiFi HaLOW devices could be a useful tool for ISPs to help their customers extend Internet to hard-to-reach places.
- It would be even more interesting if existing equipment could help activate that fiber to create a Distributed Acoustic Sensing network. It might be possible, using some of the Broadband Forum‘s open standards, such as OB-CAS, to measure changes in laser bias current within the ONU. As outlined in the link below, this could be an excellent cross-disciplinary university research project. See the LinkedIn post here.
The Korner – He Finally Gets His Wings
“What kind of bird is this?” That question inevitably comes from the recesses of the gray matter when this author boards an airliner. That line, like so many others – “I shouldn’t have done that,” or “We did it, Astronaut Becky” – is etched into the brains of many of us who watched the Real Wheels series, written and produced by and starring Dave Hood.
It is probably fitting that the bearer of the news of Dave’s passing last February would be my pilot son, who grew up watching There Goes an Airplane.
Dave Hood talking about the success of Real Wheels
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