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Viodi View Menu<\/strong><\/p>\n Current Issue<\/a>Time for Persistent Encryption?<\/a>Franchise This or Not?<\/a>Book Review \u2013 Digital Videomaker Handbook<\/a><\/p>\n Previous Issue<\/a><\/p>\n Viodi View Subscribe<\/a> <\/p>\n Viodi Forums<\/strong>Club Viodi<\/a>Local Content<\/a><\/p>\n Multimedia Search <\/a><\/p>\n Viodi Workshops<\/strong>Local Content<\/a>Telco Video 101<\/a><\/p>\n About Viodi<\/a>Contact<\/a>Biographies<\/a>Favorite Links<\/a><\/p>\n Interested in Sponsoring the Viodi View? Send an email to: sponsor@viodi.com<\/strong><\/p>\n Please forward<\/strong> this free publication to anyone you know who is involved in some way with independent telephone companies. <\/p>\n Mission of the Viodi View:<\/strong><\/p>\n In this on-line publication, we share our analysis, opinions and direction on the interactive television news and views that we believe will be of interest and use to our friends associated directly or indirectly with independent telephone companies. For more information as to the various ways Viodi works with independent telephone companies, please go to http:\/\/www.viodi.com\/alliance\/<\/a><\/p>\n Disclaimer:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] and its associates used their best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, the Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.<\/p>\n All displayed trademarks, logos and service marks are the property of their respective owners. \u00a9 2004 Viodi, LLC<\/a>. All Rights Reserved. Viodi View Newsletter – January 5th 2004 Issue<\/strong><\/p>\n In This Issue: Persistent Encryption, Franchises 101…..<\/strong><\/p>\n If Mondays are the worse day of the week, then the week after New Years must be the worst week of the year. The gray sky of winter combined with too much New Year cheer is enough to slow down anyone. Fortunately for me, I will be enjoying the balmy sunshine <\/strong>of the Phoenix environs by the time you get this issue of the Viodi View. Well, I will be in Phoenix, but probably will not see much of the Arizona sunshine from the inside of the hotel conference center. <\/p>\n Entone to Sponsor Local Content Workshop @ BobComm Entone<\/a> will be generously lending its support to the Local Content Worksho<\/a>p to be held Thursday, January 20th<\/strong> at Mid-State Engineering\u2019s<\/a> BobComm<\/strong> conference. This workshop will feature a subset of what is normally presented in an entire day and represents a value of up to $249<\/strong> (the normal cost of the workshop). Free Registrations<\/strong> for this event are limited and are reserved for telco operators. To reserve<\/strong> a free slot, please either send us an email at bobcomm@viodi.com<\/a> or call us at 408 551-0320. For more information on this workshop, please check out http:\/\/www.viodi.com\/local\/ <\/a><\/p>\n This workshop is a must attend event <\/strong>for any telco that had deployed or is considering deployment of video services. <\/p>\n Sunny Wireless Days<\/strong> <\/p>\n I will be there covering and recording NTCA\u2019s Wireless Symposium<\/a>. This event features over 30 experts who will be discussing the latest wireless topics including emerging standards, such as WiMax, regulatory concerns and applications. This two and a half day conference is a great value<\/strong>, highly recommended and is applicable to not only independent telcos, but to anyone with an interest in applying wireless technologies to solve real world communications challenges. <\/p>\n Time for Persistent Encryption?<\/a><\/p>\n While we are on the subject of NTCA<\/strong>, I had a chance to listen to their December 16th webinar regarding persistent encryption. Andy Mathieson of encryption provider, Latens Systems, and Rob Lingle, Vice President of Engineering for TVN, were the featured speakers. To learn about TVN\u2019s idea to create an encryption methodology that could facilitate the rollout of VOD<\/strong> over multiple platforms, click here. <\/p>\n See You at CES<\/strong><\/p>\n From Phoenix, I will be jetting to Las Vegas to moderate a panel, the Telco-Video Entertainment Partnership. I am looking forward to this as the panelists include Jonathan Hurd of Adventis, Derek Kuhn of Alcatel, Mark Turner of British Telecom, Jonathan Symonds of ICTV, Phil Corman of Microsoft and Jeff Weber of SBC<\/strong>. I look forward to learning more about SBC and 2 Wire’s announcemen<\/a>t to build a home entertainment applicance based on DSL. I also hope to learn more about SBC\u2019s franchising strategy at this event, which is most likely tied closely to the aforementioned appliance. <\/p>\n Franchise This or Not?<\/a><\/p>\n As mentioned a few Viodi View issues ago, Howard Shapiro of Bennet, Bennet and Bennet, PLCC addressed some alternatives to franchising over a year ago at the IP Video conference at Telecom \u201903. His presentation foreshadowed<\/strong> some of the potential strategies that larger telcos could employ to speed deployments of video. We have managed to pull Howard\u2019s presentation from the archives and are making it available for the next couple of weeks on the Viodi View; think of it as a slightly late, Christmas gift<\/strong> from your friends at Viodi. Click here to view<\/a> and listen to Howard\u2019s insightful presentation. <\/p>\n Ironman CEO In Our Midst<\/strong><\/p>\n On a related note, Carrie Bennet<\/strong>, the CEO of Bennet and Bennet, PLCC was recently profiled by Forbes<\/strong> magazine regarding her success at completing several Ironman competitions. Forbes did an online video interview with Bennet last month. In that interview, she discusses how the things she learned from training for and competing in the Ironman competition helps her deal with the challenges of running her business. Click here<\/a> to check out the video<\/a>.<\/p>\n Book Review \u2013 Digital Videomaker<\/a><\/p>\n One of the upsides to time-off is the chance to catch up on reading. This year I had the chance to sit down with the book Digital Videomaker \u2013 Guide to Digital Video and DVD Production<\/strong><\/em>. This book will be of interest to anyone<\/strong> who is involved with websites<\/strong> or cable television<\/strong>. Click here<\/a> to read my review on this book and why it will be the text we use for the Local Content Workshops in 2005. <\/p>\n Are You Board???<\/a><\/p>\n One of the benefits of the holiday break was a great deal of windshield time as my lovely spouse navigated the treacherous wintry roads between the rainy Bay Area and the snow-packed mountains of the Lake Tahoe region. I utilized this \u201cdowntime\u201d to work on a new layout<\/strong> for the Viodi View. The graphics aren\u2019t pretty, yet, but the initial goal is to make the site a bit easier to use (Thanks to Roger Bindl <\/strong>for the help with CSS).. <\/p>\n The major change to the layout is the addition of the menu on the left hand side<\/strong>. This menu will be expanding over the next few months. The significant additions are the \u201cViodi Forums\u201d<\/a> and \u201cMultimedia Search<\/a>\u201d sections. The Viodi forums are open to club.viodi<\/strong> members and Local Content Workshop alumni<\/strong>. The Multimedia Search<\/strong> section opens a page that discusses a unique opportunity to license a proven multimedia search engine that is receiving 3 million page views per month.<\/p>\n Another Good Reason to Move to Roseville<\/strong><\/p>\n While enroute to Lake Tahoe last week, I had the chance to see the SureWest video system for, amazingly, the first time. They truly get what needs to be done and they are pushing ahead to stay competitive. I guess then I should not have been surprised to see their announcement on Monday that they are now offering 3 Mb\/s down and 768 kb\/s<\/strong> Internet service for $42.95 per month<\/strong>. Off the top of my head, this seems to be very competitive from a dollar per bits measure. <\/p>\n The Korner: Drunk Computers?<\/strong><\/p>\n An unnamed source sent me the following note about seven months ago. Given that New Years is a time when many of us indulge in the consumption of adult beverages<\/strong> it seemed like this tale of good wine gone bad would be an appropriate way to ring in the Korner for 2005. What you are about to read reminds me of a very ugly incident that involved yours truly, a bottle of champagne, an airplane galley and a notebook \u2013 that story will have to wait for another time. On to my friend\u2019s story. <\/p>\n “About three weeks ago I got up from my business laptop to take a break. My son asked if he could surf. I said ok for the next 30 minutes. I had left a full glass of wine <\/strong>beside my laptop. He managed to knock it over and spill it all into my laptop that instantly responded by shutting down as in DEAD<\/strong>! As our entire business was situated on this laptop I was initially devastated. But I pulled the laptop out of its docket, removed the hard drive and battery and noted they were dry. Whew! I can at least recover all the data from my hard drive if I have to get another computer.<\/p>\n So then I decided to take that sucker apart to clean it (a Dell Insperion 5000 Laptop). After about 49,000 screws <\/strong>I had it almost apart except for seemingly one screw or Chinese secret somewhere. I had it open like a sandwich (about an inch open when pried) but in the very middle I could not find what was holding it together. I spent hours trying to figure what the %$#@&!<\/strong> was keeping this thing from coming apart. Honestly I came close to just physically ripping the sob apart\u2026but did manage to contain myself.<\/p>\n Then I had a revelation. I was trying to take this thing apart in order to clean it out from the wine. I had already rationalized the computer had protectively shut down due to leakage current going every where internally so it was probably ok if I could just clean it out. Letting the thing dry out was not good enough as I had tested dry wine <\/strong>on the kitchen counter top with a volt\/ohm meter and the sticky aftermath was conductive<\/strong>. So the revelation was, well I didn\u2019t need the thing entirely apart to hand clean it, I had it opened and exposed internally enough to maybe hose it out. I knew water would not hurt it if power was not applied. All I needed was to make sure it was dry<\/strong> after the hosing. Right?<\/p>\n So I wedged the computer<\/strong> out to expose internally what I could and threw it into the dishwasher<\/strong> for a full 45 minute wash cycle (no soap). My wife was flabbergasted and thought I was nuts. What the hell could it hurt as it was dead anyway.<\/p>\n After the dish washing I placed it on our coffee table and turned the directly above over head ceili<\/strong>ng fan on high and let it run for 24 hours to dry out. After inspecting it to insure it was dry I then put the battery and hard drive in, placed it in its docket and fired it up.<\/p>\n VIOLA! The hard drive was spinning! <\/strong>Then my keyboard flashed recognition lights! Then the hard drive started gurgling and chugging and gathering its brains! Then the screen begins to light up! Wait until I tell everyone about this! They won\u2019t believe it!<\/strong><\/p>\n But wait! What\u2019s wrong with that screen \u2013 all red <\/strong>and with strips up and down! Wait! What\u2019s that frying sound I\u2019m beginning to hear? Argghhh<\/strong>! The LCD screen has water in it!<\/p>\n Let me tell you about my brand new computer \u2013 an IBM emachine desktop and a beauty of a flat panel 17\u201d display. It\u2019s pretty cool and you can\u2019t spill wine into it.”<\/p>\n Next Article<\/a><\/p>\n Back to Top<\/a><\/p>\n Previous Issue<\/a><\/p>\n subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n Tsunami Relief Info<\/a><\/p>\n The link above leads to the USAID web site<\/a>, which has a listing of non-government agencies that it is working with to bring relief to the victims of last week’s Tsunami and Earthquakes. The Red Cross<\/strong> has an interesting program <\/a>whereby people can donate loose change through Coinstar<\/strong> machines. They estimate that $65 million <\/strong>could be raised if people who live within 2 miles of a Coinstar machine bring in a dollar of loose change<\/strong>. <\/p>\n
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