Posted 11/05/09 at 11:29:38 AM by Paul Lilly

There was a time when computer geeks might have been viewed as social outcasts, but that's certainly not the case anymore. And according to research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, those who stay connected to the Internet and tote around a mobile phone tend to have more friends than those who don't.

It's not just about quantity, either. Researchers found that owning a mobile phone and participating in different Internet activities usually means a more diverse group of friends.

"Contrary to the argument that Internet use limits people's participation in the local community, local institutions, and local spaces, our findings show that most Internet activities are associated with higher levels of local activity," say the researchers. "However, we find some evidence that use of social networking services -- for example, Facebook, MySpaced, LinkedIn -- substitutes for some level of neighborhood involvement."

We blame the latter findings on Mafia Wars and Farmville.

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Posted 11/03/09 at 08:30:54 AM by Paul Lilly

Following up its first WiMax deployment in Baltimore in September of last year, Sprint on Monday launched WiMax service in Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth. This in addition to the three markets being served in North Carolina.

And Sprint isn't even close to be finished. By the time 2009 comes to an end, the wireless provider says it will roll out WiMax in Honolulu, Seattle, San Antonio, and Austin, Texas.

"Sprint continues to lead the charge in rolling out wireless 4G in cities across America and the momentum continues to build," Todd Rowley, vice president of Sprint 4G, said in a statement. "Our aggressive expansion of Sprint 4G will include many new devices and capabilities that create increased performance and productivity while enhancing personal lifestyles on the go."

Looking ahead to next year, Sprint expects to launch service in several more markets, including Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

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Posted 10/30/09 at 04:01:23 PM by Bart Salisbury

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Posted 10/30/09 at 12:30:31 PM by Paul Lilly

Ever imagined a world where 6-foot Care Bears roam the streets going door-to-door begging for sweet treats while you're trying to watch the Phillies take a 2-to-1 lead over the Yankees in the World Series? That may be the scene tomorrow, based on the most popular online Halloween costume searches, according to frightening data put together by Hitwise.

You're also likely to see Michael Jackson and Balloon Boy getups, which held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. But of the searches beginning with the word 'adult, 'adult Care Bear costume' came in third, right behind 'adult cat costume' (No. 1) and 'adult Snow White costume' (No. 2).

You're also likely to run into more themed pets than ever before. Compared to 2008, Hitwise noted a 97 percent increase in searches for "pet costumes." Better toss some Milk Bones in with those fun-sized Snicker bars.

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Posted 10/29/09 at 07:51:00 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Now that Geocities has been shuttered for good by Yahoo, do you find yourself wanting to have just one more look around? Geocities may have been home to some of the ugliest, most poorly designed sites in existence, but it was special to a lot of people. For many, it was their first foray into the internet – the first real hub of content creation we all shared. If you fall into this category, you’re in luck. You can head on over to Reocities and see a sizable chunk of the once great webhost.

Riocities is a one man project started only six days before the shutdown that aimed to save the Silicon Valley “neighborhood” in Geocities. Riocities owner, Jacques, created a script to rescue Geocities pages by copying them to his personal storage space. He eventually expanded his project to grab as many Geocities neighborhoods as possible. All told, he saved about 600,000 pages from extinction.

All this was done on a 10Mb connection. That’s commitment. There may not be anything really worth saving in Geocities, but now we have the time to find out. So feel free to dive into this world of animated GIFs and MIDI background music at Reocities.

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Posted 10/29/09 at 08:06:00 AM by Paul Lilly

Alcatel-Lucent on Wednesday unveiled a pair of new IP routers the firm says are designed to give service provides a cost-effective alternative for "offering smaller communities the same advanced mobile, residential, and business services" that are currently employed in larger metropolitan areas.

The new units include the three-slot, 5RU 7750 SR-c12, and one-slot, 3RU 7750 SR-c4. Both serve up 90Gbps of forwarding capacity and can support edge routing interface speeds from T-1 to 10G Ethernet. Alcatel-Lucent also noted that both run under the same operating system as the company's entire Service Router family.

"With these additions, Alcatel-Lucent is effectively extending a proven, feature-rich platform to address new market opportunities where they need the capacity and capability, but at more cost-effective price points," said Glen Hunt, principal analyst, Carrier Infrastructure, Current Analysis. "The elegant integration with the existing portfolio -- especially with a single operating system from end-to-end -- makes it attractive to operators who are looking to deliver full featured, high performance services from their smaller or more remote points of presence in order to drive new revenues."

Other features include native IPv6 support, non-stop routing, non-stop services, Multi-Chassis-LAG, and support for a range of legacy and Ethernet and interface types.

The SRu 7750 SR-c12 and SR-c4 are available now, although Alcatel-Lucent didn't say for how much.

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Posted 10/28/09 at 04:18:34 PM by Bart Salisbury

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Posted 10/28/09 at 03:32:23 PM by Bart Salisbury

There’s a definite object lesson here, but I’m not sure what it is. It could be that competition is a good thing. It also could be that monopolies don’t take kindly to threats to their turf. What is obvious, however, is if you need your local cable provider to do something you got to be prepared to poke them in the eye (preferably with a sharp stick).

The suburban hamlet of Monticello, Minnesota, just outside of Minneapolis, had a hankering for fiber optic cable for all its residents. The town approached it’s regional telco, TDS Telecommunications, with the request and was rebuffed. TDS didn’t see the need to make such an investment in Monticello now or any time in the foreseeable future. In response, the citizens of Monticello passed a referendum to build their own fiber optic system, which would compete with TDS’s cable service to the town.

That didn’t sit well with TDS, which promptly sued Monticello. Minnesota law sides with the city in this case, and as the lawsuit progressed through the courts the city kept winning. TDS’s intent wasn’t to block Monticello’s efforts, only to delay them. While the lawsuit was underway the city was prevented from starting construction. TDS, however, wasn’t, and began to install its own fiber optic system. When completed, TDS crowed about the technological improvements it rendered in Monticello, saying “TDS is working incredibly hard to deliver the faster speeds customers want.”

And it didn’t end there.

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