HydroGeM !

This post speaks about GM which plans to soon launch Sequel, a car based on hydrogen technology. GM said that Sequel would become the first vehicle in the world to successfully integrate a hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system with a broad menu of advanced technologies such as steer- and brake-by-wire controls, wheel hub motors, lithium-ion batteries and a lightweight aluminum structure. It could also go 300 miles before refueling, GM said, well beyond the industry standard of 150 miles, besides doing 0-60 in 10 seconds.

With mounting pressure on non-renewable resources, rising prices of oil and gas and ecological concers, the launch of a mass production hydrogen powered car could be a key solution. Unarguably, however, much research and development is needed before the use of hydrogen-based fuel as a practical alternative to fossil fuel options.

Source:
http://progressiveconservatism.blogspot.com/2006/09/hydrogen-news.html

Silicon Valley:Unplugged

This blog speaks discusses the September 5th press release about Silicon Valley awarding a municipal WiFi contract to a consortium of companies including Cisco, Azulstar, IBM, and SeaKay to serve 2.4 million people with a free 1 MBPS connection. How the prospect of free municipal WiFi and the upcoming rollout of WiMAX will affect 3G rollout plans from cellular carriers is indeed debatable


In the short term, it seems unlikely that it will have any impact on 3G services like EV-DO and HSDPA, which are becoming widespread with coverage. but this could change in the long term depending on consumer preferences for large WiFi environments or demand for wireless connectivity along with mobility outside of those large 'hot-spots'.

Source:
http://blogs.cisco.com/news/2006/09/mesh_comes_of_age_in_silicon_v.html

Limewire: History reP2Ped ?

Issue:
The blog speaks about how Limewire was sued last month by major record labels like Sony-BMG and Virgin Records, suing the developers of the LimeWire P2P file sharing software.

Background:
LimeWire, started in 2000, is the largest exclusive P2P developer for the Gnutella P2P network. Gnutella was the first popular P2P network after the original Napster was shut down and popularized a distributed architecture that used no central server. LimeWire has been downloaded by hundreds of millions of users. It is regularly one of the top weekly downloads at download.com, which reports 20 million total downloads. LimeWire is noted for having both Windows and Mac versions and opening up its source code to other developers.


Implication:
This blog tells that Limewire, one of the largest P2P networks providing free music files over the internet, was sued by major record labels in August. The company had been in discussions with RIAA to install filtering software in its software, last year. And although the version released in June, earlier this year, had a new option to filter unlicensed content, the system did not verify the authenticity of licenses, allowing filesharers to spoof legal licenses.

While it is illegal to share unlicensed content, allowances should be made in existing copyright laws to allow sharing of appropriate content across P2P networks. P2P networks need to seen as a radical advance in networking technology, as it reduces burden on a few central servers and shares resources to increase efficiency and robustness. The Napster case (2000), did not deter P2P service providers, and the focus of RIAA and other authorities should ben formulate a plan to include interests of artists, labels and millions of users to offer improved services at lower costs, and recover revenues through bulk increase in licenses or advertising. The advent of email in today's world can be considered a good analogy.

Source:
From the blog: http://www.limewire.org/blog/?p=203

MIS Technology Briefing

When I first heard about the Technology briefing excercise in the MIS class, I wanted to do my assignment in ERP technologies, given my professional experience working as a Project Consultant in the implementation of ERP Business Solutions.

However, I soon understood that the real motive behind the Tech Briefing was to learn a new technology and relate it to the basics of Information Systems that we were learning in class. Almost immediately, the picture of my friends trading stocks online came to mind, and I realized that I had very little knowledge of how Online Trading in the Stock markets works. I was in awe of how a system dealing with as huge a quantum of data as it did, managed to function almost flawlessly, delivering results on demand with great accuracy and consistency.

This also fit well, with my long term career plan of working in Investments Management, where such systems were a key part of day-to-day functioning.

I shared my ideas with Jack and Saurabh, and we submitted a paper highlighting our interests, Online Trading being one of them. Throughout our research, we learnt that our limited understanding of Online Shares & Commodities Trading was just the tip of a giant Information System Iceberg, that churned out such an efficient end-result.

For instance, we did not know that Bloomberg had 2 million new visits each month to their news and information site; or that Citigroup had 1.6 trillion USD in assets and that if its Banking division were to be seperated as an independent entity, it would still figure in the world's top 10 largest firms. This and much more trivia made this team effort an interesting and rewarding one.