Convergence Conversation

Well, it's not an actual cry for help (yet), but I thought that might get your attention...

I'm currently involved in a research project, the intention of which is to collect and analyze technical data around fiber deployments (FTTH/B/C/N/letter of your choice), with a view to benchmarking deployment costs against the technology choices and physical constraints of real-world projects. If you're involved, or have been involved, in a real-world fiber project, and are willing and able to share some detailed data on an anonymized basis, please ping me, and I can fill you in on the project in more detail. More...

Now there's a headline The Daily Mail would probably love to run one day, though it would almost certainly be followed by something along the lines of "... and is out to nick jobs from hard-working British families!" I, however, am talking about orphan data.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Apple and all it has achieved in design and market creation, as well as the precipitous rise in its market cap, which The Dear Leader recently described as "surreal." I have never encountered a CEO of any company who didn't believe (at least in public) that his/her company was undervalued, so this remark in itself is surreal and has a vague whiff of short-bait about it.

Make sure that you post the appropriate content to the appropriate blog in future.

The vast majority of you probably don't care about my sporadic musical activities. So, my heartfelt apologies go out to you. The other day I erroneously posted an account of my recent musical adventures to this blog. I realized my gaffe within seconds and removed the post, but RSS is an unforgiving medium, so it was immortalized, despite my best efforts. Onward and upward.

Probably no posts for the next few days, as I'm Memphis-bound. Hopefully I will have some interesting news to report upon my return.

Having had my travel plans b(j)orked by the land of fire and ice, last night I tuned into the webcast of the opening session of Fiberfete. You can do the same today here, from 08:30 CDT (14:30 UK/15:30 CET/00:30 HK).

I was hugely looking forward to taking part in Fiberfete, where I was due to do some sponsored coverage of the event, but Eyjafjallajökull had other ideas, and my flight this morning was cancelled. The earliest slot I could re-book for was Friday morning, by which time the whole event will be over. David Isenberg has tried in vain for years to get me to one event or another, and on this one the stars aligned beautifully, before dispersing catastrophically.

While much of the rest of the world has been preoccupied with the sickening spectacle of tech bloggers publicly making love to their iPads, or alternatively dissecting them in search of a bone of St. Peter or some other indication of divine significance, here in the UK we have been witnessing the humiliating travesty of the Digital Economy Bill being pushed through the soon-to-be-dissolved Parliament in a process called "wash-up," which conceptually is perhaps most similar to a drug dealer hastily flushing his gear down a toilet when the jig is up. However, in this case the effluent is poorly drafted legislation, and it will probably have a much more toxic legacy than a bit of waterlogged skag flushed into the Thames. More...

I was saddened to hear today of the passing of Guy Kewney. I didn't really know him - we ran into each other at conferences over the years and had brief chats, and he called me occasionally with bits of gossip or to ask for a quote or input on a story. He was, however, a big influence, in the sense that he was one of the first European tech journalists I read online whom I actually found informative and entertaining. I have always had a lot of affection for him because he was among the first to link to this humble bloglet in its early days and raise the possibility that some of what I had to say might have been worthwhile. More...

Here's an excerpt from an email I received from Virgin Media today. Just for the record, my new account set-up, installation, and service so far has been nothing short of smooth, painless and splendid, a vast improvement over the way things were five years ago. My only suggestion for improvement comes after the email excerpt.

Hi James Enck,

Welcome to Virgin Media! It's great to have you with us, and we hope you're already enjoying getting stuck in to your new services.

At Virgin Media, we want to make sure we give you the best customer service out there. That's why we'd really like to find out how things went for you when you joined us. More...