The BFC Computing Weblog

DRED has published its ’Broadband Action Plan’ with recommendations on how to improve the penetration of high speed Internet service in NH. I attended a session in Plymouth last year to provide input on the plan.

Overall it’s a good report. I’m especially impressed with its recommendations to get State out of the way for access to land and towers, permitting, etc. Also, predictable, uniform, and competitive access to utility poles is a very important issue. They recommend the creation of a government office to oversee this work, but don’t set a recommendation for when that would would be finished. It may be necessary but this issue ought not be used to grow government in a permanent manner. This kind of communications infrastructure has the potential to really streamline government, so it’s probably a net-win to have the office. They’re asking for $100,000 for each of the next two years to fund the office, so it’s necessarily limited as currently proposed. A citizen of NH might expect to pay a dollar over the next few years to fund it.

I’ve noticed that Burlington Telecomm has been having revenue shortfalls and the ECFiberNet project, which I had high hopes for, has apparently abandoned the core attribute that made it exciting - that it would be self-funded, and has gone asking for bond money instead. That was always the uncreative option, but the private model made ECFiberNet free of coercion. That is to say, government-run models don’t appear to be very healthy, but where the government can act to get out of industry’s way or improve its monopoly grants we should welcome its action.

Following up on my March 2007 article Conflict of Interest at Comcast, in excerpt:

Odds are those high-traffic users are downloading video. … This is directly in competition with Comcast’s other, main, business, providing video services. The amount of traffic they’re killing at (~250GB/mo) is probably just about what you need to replace a Comcast video service.

the FCC yesterday ruled:

Comcast had an “anticompetitive motive” because it delayed and blocked peer-to-peer files through applications such as BitTorrent. Such files often are high-quality video that might otherwise be watched and paid for on cable television.

and ordered Comcast to behave. As I noted earlier, this mirrors a previous decision about DSL companies monkeying with VOIP traffic.

Our friend and sometimes subcontractor Dan Grover had surgery today, and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Dan posted a pre-surgery photo today, and finally it makes sense how he’s so efficient at his work:

All the best, Dan.

I went to a SwANH seminar a few weeks back which was quite good. One thing I didn’t realize was that SwANH was going to give my e-mail address to the event sponsor as part of the deal. I just found this out as I received a product advertisement from them to the address I provided to SwANH.

I understand the need for sponsors, and perhaps ‘to sweeten the pot’, but I might have provided a better address had I known. File under ‘for future reference’.

Jeff Dwyer has published a new book, Web 2.0 Application Development with GWT.

Google Web Toolkit is a development framework which lets you write web applications in Java and have it automagically converted to AJAX/JavaScript/HTML and deployed to all kinds of devices for you. Jeff did a demo of GWT at the September 2006 DLSLUG Meeting.

Jeff is a really smart dude, which he proved to me when he worked as an intern under me at PreviousJob™ where we did some work playing with Catmull-Rom splines for fitting endovascular grafts into abdominal aortic aneurysms. I was able to say, “hey, this looks like a good use for Catmull-Rom splines,” and Jeff could go off and learn all the math and implement it. Good intern! So, Jeff was an easy hire once he was graduated. Any book he’s written is bound to be fantastic.

He’s now the CEO of MyHippocampus.com, which I barely understand. :)

Congrats, Jeff!

Last week I attended and presented at FOSSVT, a conference focused on Open Source in Education. Organized by the National Center for Open Source in Education, FOSSVT, at Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, VT, was attended by over a hundred educators and technology specialists.

Executive Director Bryant Patten did yeoman’s work organizing the inaugural event, arguably the most successful Open Source event in Northern New England in recent memory. Kudos to Bryant.

I presented “Taking Control of Your Network Using FLOSS Software”, a talk about why it’s important to have a well-regulated network, and a whirlwind tour of a bunch of Free (Libré) Open Source Software (FLOSS) tools that could be useful for educators and technologists looking to take control of a school network. We covered some concepts, troubleshooting techniques, and resources available for further study.

As promised here are the slides . (3.3MB PDF)

Quoting in whole from the ValleyFiber page:

ValleyFiber is a new initiative by ValleyNet to help towns organize themselves to create and use town-wide fiber-optic networks to offer residents, organizations, municipal government, and businesses high-speed Internet, telephone, and television access without burdening taxpayers.

ECFiberNet is the first group of towns that ValleyFiber is working with to implement community-wide fiber-optic networks. ECFiberNet consists of roughly 20 towns in the Upper Valley and east-central area of Vermont who are working with ValleyFiber to approve, fund, and create a fiber-optic network to serve its residents, businesses, and municipal facilities with high-speed Internet, telephone, and television services.

ValleyFiber has created a unique financing model in which the towns do not bond for the infrastructure, but rather fund it out of operating revenues. This is good for the taxpayer and good for those who need Internet service. ECFiberNet appears to be poised for success at Vermont town meetings, receiving a unanimous voice vote of Yes.

New Hampshire is behind the curve, in comparison. It’s very important, if you’re a business owner and would like to see a fiber optic network available to your business, to sign their statement of support indicating that your business would be interested in the project, and that it feels that such a project is important. The statement of support is worded generally, and only cites ECFiberNet as an example, rather than attaching you to a specific network. To sign the statement of support you need only support a fiber project of some kind – these are being collected to indicate to others how much interest there is in the community. If you’re working for a company in the Upper Valley, please get this to your boss and explain the benefits, if you’re in a position to do so.

Additionally, everybody who would buy the service for their homes can pre-register here.

I’ve written before (here, here, here, here, and here) about some of the problems caused by the current Internet situation. I also should have written about it here - good Internet is the only thing holding us back from being the next Silicon Valley, but man just try getting somebody talented to re-locate here and tell them they’ll have to go back to dial-up. Deal Killer.

The first half of that title could apply to so many things, but regarding the Fairpoint proposal, Vermont’s PSB found this:

In rejecting the application, Vermont’s Public Service Board said in a statement that FairPoint failed to demonstrate that the company would be financially sound after completing the transaction… “Significantly, the Board noted that its review did not consider a recent settlement in Maine that had the effect of lowering the purchase price of the merger,” the Vermont Public Service Board said in its statement.

And the article adds this:

The companies settled objections from Maine regulators on December 13 and revised its transaction proposal that lowered the price by about $200 million. The new reworked proposal, has not yet been submitted to Vermont regulators.

So, the Vermont PSB knows about the altered terms of the deal but decided to issue a ruling based on what it knows is inaccurate data? Why would they do such a thing?

Possibilities:

• They were under a deadline
• They can only cast a reject/accept under such a deadline
• There wasn’t a deadline but they wanted to make the news and/or color perceptions
• They’re clueless.

So, the menu as presented is: incompetence, malice, or bureaucracy. What other possibilities are there (I’m asking, not being rhetorical)? What does Hanlon have to say about government?

[Thanks to Steve for the link]

I got this in my e-mail over the weekend:

   
          Dear Verizon New England Inc. Customer,
          
          Pending approval of the Maine, Vermont & New Hampshire public utilities commissions, Verizon has agreed to transfer control of Verizon New England Inc. assets in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire to FairPoint Communications. After the transfer, your new local service provider will be FairPoint Communications. We currently expect that this transfer will occur between January 31 and May 1, 2008.
          
          Beginning December 2007, Verizon will cease providing paper-free billing. It is Verizon’s current understanding that FairPoint Communications will reinstate paper-free billing at a future date.
          
          It has been a pleasure serving you.
          
          Sincerely,
          Verizon
          

Meanwhile, the Valley News seems to be printing the IBEW talking points without analysis and, while paying lip service to the necessity of high speed Internet for regional economic viability, it completely ignores the white elephant in the room which is Verizon’s neglect of New Hampshire’s telco infrastructure and unwillingness to make further investment. They do point out that Vermont has more regulation on the telcos there, but one has to wonder why a New-Hampshire based newspaper would conveniently leave out mention of its own state’s problem.

It looks like ValleyNet is going to do electronics recycling again, this Saturday at the Montshire from 9-12. See their website for more info, and bring a truckload of your old power-eating beasties.

Hat tip: Anne.

UPDATE: I went on Saturday around 11 and there were about 10 cars in line. I had a PowerMac 7300 (XPostFacto just wasn’t cutting it) two keyboards, and an office wastebasket full of miscellaneous circuit boards and parts. $10, which was fair, and the recycler seems dedicated to responsible recycling. They unloaded right from the car, and off we went. The only way it could have been more painless was if the line was a bit shorter. The Prius in front of me nearly ran over the volunteer because he didn’t hear its engine.