Sep 2007

Dear Client,

We had a minor outage on our T1 line a couple of days ago for about 30 minutes. It must have been a system wide outage, as it was fixed far faster than the phone company can respond to an individual T1 outage. Not complaining, mind you. J This was followed that evening by spectacular lightening and monsoon conditions here that took out power—6 times. We had to go to generator as the battery capacity in our UPS systems ran out. Other than that, this last month has been pretty steady in terms of up time.

One huge item on the political agenda to watch is the upcoming auctioning off of wireless spectrum by the FCC. This spectrum has repercussions that will last for years, as the frequencies involved will penetrate buildings without much difficulty, allowing the establishment of true wi-fi deployment. If it is kept out of the hands of the monopoly companies who want to buy it and sit on it. So far, the only real competitor who has shown an interest in making any real difference has been Google, and even they have been rather vague in their plans if they win the auction.

Why do we care about things like this? If a company like Google came along and deployed high-speed wireless across wide areas, they could blow the Telco and cable monopolies out of the water. That would force the Telcos to do what they have been promising for years and chosen not to deliver—even though they were paid to provide this network for the last 15 years. For details on what this, see the website www.teletruth.com. These abuses by Telcos won’t be resolved by regulatory action—only by other companies who can force their hand. It is no accident that the United States is now 10 th or worse in the world in Internet connectivity.

On a personal note, the last month of repeated high winds (40+ mph) resulted in stripping the roof to an open-sided shed of ours. I suppose that’s why they call it ‘Labor Day’.

At least some of the tomato plants have survived the 110°+ heat we have had and even continued somehow to set new tomatoes (!). That’s pretty amazing as all the literature says they don’t set after it gets above 90°. I did take down the sunflowers and left some of the heads on the ground, much to the delight of the birds. Most of the heads I harvested and will dole them out for the birds over time. Need to start thinking of the fall garden. Always something to keep me busy.

Hope your holiday is enjoyable!

Sincerely,

Ben Conner