Today is the first official day of my vacation week. A week of rest and trial seperation from work. I couldn't be happier. I needed some time away from that place. Working the hours I do, dealing with the people I deal with, takes it's toll on you after a while. So it's nice to get a little time away, collect myself, and not deal with it. Plus, it's Film Fest week, so I know where I'll be all next week. I hope to have some pictures, as well as good stories to tell. I'm sure I will have at least one of the two.
In other news, I recently heard about a news story that you all might find interesting. Read about it here. Apparently when the FCC is done making all the TV stations convert over to digital, they plan to auction off the 700mhz band to the highest bidder. That's the real reason for the whole switch to digital. It truthfully have nothing to do with High Definition (or HD, if you prefer) at all. They want that band because it's some valuable stuff. It's what TV is on now, and it's good, low frequency, and can go through walls and such. Of course, all the major telecommunications companies (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, et al) are going to bid, but a new player has tossed their hat in the ring.
Google.
That's right, the internet giant has said they will meet the minimum bid of 4.6 billion (billion!) dollars and get into the fracas on the condition that whomever wins the bidding (be it them, or someone else) has to keep it an open platform. In other words, no doing like what the wireless communication companies do now. Google wants it to be open to any hardware and software. And speculation is that if they were to win it, you might see a nationwide free WiFi network,
as well as Google perhaps getting into the hardware biz and making their own device that would work on it, as well as use Google Talk or Skype, some kind of VoIP service and if that were to happen, it would completely change the entire landscape of wireless communications. And be a huge benefit to us, the consumer. Keeps your eyes on this one kiddies.
Well, that is all for now. I'll try to keep up to date during the festival, but I can't make any promises. But check back often, and if you get bored, watch the JerryTown videos posted. They're good ones
2 comments:
yay google :) and marc says if they buy developers they can buy him :)
Holy crap that is amazing! Go Google! I will cheer for them since that is perfectly in line with the Google philosophy. Its about time someone shook up the US wireless telecom market.
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