This year's Northern Voice -- the 2007 edition -- was a great event. In terms of the things I wanted to get accomplished:

Chris Pirillo -- who I have butted heads with in the past over at techpodcasts.com -- was also at NorthernVoice but in something of a more exhausted state. Chris popped in later Saturday morning, I was hoping to get a few minutes of his time for the podcast but he was not in a talkative mood. I told him how I felt his writing was getting richer, more on point; which I attribute to his marriage. Chris thanked me profusely and apologized for not being more engaged at NorthernVoice. He explained it to me and here is his explanation for you.

And here is something else I got at NorthernVoice -- 2 days off work when I really need to be at the office. It seems like a lot of us got sick there. On Tuesday a fever of 38.5. Very memorable.

NorthernVoice NorthernVoice2007 NV2007

Photo by Eric Eggertson of commonsensepr.com

In contemplating a wired conversation, it seems that I have initiated one. That is a far more useful metaphor for the current state of connectedness that is perjoratively referred to as "blogging" than anything else I have read lately. I think the phrase "keep those cards and letters coming in" could be roughly translated to "me heart the trackbacks" in this age of the digital essay. Mind you, we are awash in a sea of prate as well but it is easily filtered. (Merely using "prate" in a sentence also helps to qualify reader participation.)

Ethan took part 1 of my "Activity or Action?" series and riffed it into something much bigger than I had envisioned in the near term. Coincidently he eschews blogging yet again in a follow-up post a few days later. While I do not agree as strongly with his aversion to being associated with blogging -- quite obviously by someone's definition he is blogging -- his repeated association to the concept of 'me, Writer' is sound.

"Activity or Action?" stems from my frustration with a lack of forward thinking and planning work in much of the current internet application space. I have much more to say about that but the issue at hand is Ethan's extension of the theme to be far more comprehensive. Take a look at his action points if you have not yet read his piece:
? "No" is not a plan
? Forward or Backward?
? Conservation as Regression
? Progress wanting, progress found
? What is dreamt of in your philosophy?

While things get a bit muddled in the middle, the thrust of the argument is that complex problems require progressive decision making. Progressiveness can borrow from the past and it will be multi-faceted. Progressiveness is not the domain of a particular political philosophy. Instead it dwells mainly in the houses that retain the best ideas for the problems at hand. Progressiveness is not a dogma, it is an ethos.

I think we are developing some themes here that quite reasonably could be expanded into a book. Once Ethan has finished his L'ingOL, I think he needs to face the AYBBAM demon. Given some of the latest business/leadership books I've been trying to read, we could not do any worse

An update to my feed story regarding the Podshow bunch. While The Bradcast is still listed in the Podshow search engine clicking on the show "information" link takes you to a blank page. My copyright notice barring caching or complete reproduction of my feed for subscription purposes is clearly visible. You cannot download attachments or subscribe to my feed through their site; it's a small victory.

I strongly urge all podcasters that do not want an inferred relationship with Podshow to make sure that they exercise their right to be independent. You do not have to be listed if you do not want to be.

... If so drop me a line by clicking on the comment or feedback links at this site.

As an electrical engineer and former engineering physics guy (back when fibre optics was "full of promise"), I have been following the whole business of Broadband Over Power Lines (BPL) for years now. Or should I say the "lack of business".

BPL has always just been around the corner. I've figuratively fallen asleep waiting for the technology to be ready for market. Well this caught my eye today..."Texas to get broadband over its power lines". While this announcement is typically premature in its joy; the article does reference an actual working service in Ohio. The model seems to be that the power companies lease the lines and let somebody manage the network for them. Cinergy is offering the service through Current Communications residentially to parts of Cincinnati. (Is Peter Frampton still living there?)

What I am interested in are customer comments on quality of service and relative speed. Information on the network operator's web site indicates that the speed is "up to 75 times faster than dial-up". Why use dial-up as a relative measure? Are there issues with speed? One positive aspect of the service is that the speed is the same both downloading and uploading -- no artificial speed traps to stop you from effectively peering on the network. I wonder how long that will last.

Comment, email or feedback is welcome.

D'Arcy Norman points to this photo by Niall Kennedy:

Is that a model or a mess?

What is even worse about this whole "Live" thing -- "Goodnight Tor-ON-TOE!, Thank U!" -- is that it would seem to be nothing more than an omnibus re-branding of a bunch of stuff that already exists along with an Ultra-lite version of Groove.net that will be called Office Live... And Office Live will be available "real soon now". What about the absurd duplication of content between start.com and live.com?

Why did this announcement have to be made now? With no serious product to launch it seems like committee-think in the extreme. What's worse is that the MS big-wigs had to stand in front of slides like these and try to spin a tale.

Robert Cringely has made an impact with his latest piece from the PBS bully-tech pulpit. (catch it here http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20051020.html and also the tech.memeorandum coverage here)

I design reliable power systems and data centers for a living.

In general terms, you don't need 3 to 4 times more electricity for cooling a data center than you need to power the electronic loads. The rough rule of thumb is 1 to 1. That means 1 watt of connected data center load will need 1 watt of electricity for connected mechanical loads. A watt of electricity does not automatically become a watt of heat; some of that electricity is converted to light and motion. Cringely overstates the actual (as opposed to the name-plate rated value) power consumption of the drive arrays by at least double. He also gets muddled up when he discusses data center floor space; mixing up total square footage with the square footage of the connected load space. He uses an incorrect approach to calculating "necessary" space to support "equipment" space. He makes some incorrect assumptions about the types of drives used in many of the arrays. The Cringely argument also completely overlooks load diversity in a data center. Even if 6,500 square feet required 330 Watts per square foot, the total equipment foot print over the remainder of the space would have a much lower density on average. We refer to stacked racks of blade servers and drive arrays as "spot" loads. You don't need to provision the entire facility at the load density of its densest loads; what you do have to do is provide the flexibility to power those loads in a range of locations and to provide appropriate cooling for installation conditions. It is true that load densities are starting to increase over the norms of the last few years, however.

It's worth noting that Cringely is treading down a path we've been on before and the evidence regarding actual data center electricity utilization demonstrates different usage patterns than what was predicted.

If you're interested in discussing data center electricity usage and design with me Robert, then call me at my Calgary office at (403) 541-6475 (Updated: 2006/12/10)

Yesterday the CRTC approved all of the satellite and digital audio network applications it had before it. As a side bar they also announced their new marketing slogan and branding initiative, which will be based on the theme: "Now, more useless than ever."

My intial read of the exceptions list in the decision indicates that this is just another Canadian fine whine. Sure Canadians can have all the satellite radio they like, provided each channel is offered in both official languages on equipment that only plays artists sponsored by the Canada Council while owners of the service drive unicycles in each province simultaneously while rubbing their bellies shouting "we are Canadians, we are not Americans".

In deference to Tod, if the CBC wants to be on the bird (they are partners with Sirius) why do they need all the schlocky, 1971 pro-Canadian, "protect our culture" crap wrapped around their programming. Why not compete straight-up against the likes of NPR, C-Span, BBC World, WRN and PRI -- all of whom currently have Sirius channels. In a global context, the CRTC's decision is one of the most protectionist actions of the last 15 years. What happened to the concept of a marketplace? In its place the CRTC imposes rules on the number of channels that must be "Canadian" (ie: at least 10% of all available channels). Of those, 25% must be in French. Hello, CRTC? If I live in Restigouche and I want Sirius, um, it won't be for the stunning variety of French language programming services available to me. In Quebec and New Brunswick, terrestrial radio has and will provide vastly superior French language programming variety than the paltry number of quota derived channels the CRTC is demanding. Give me a freaking break.

This country already has inadequate satellite TV service, with a steadily decreasing choice of programming, from networks that have learned how to block program across dozens of time zone and channel combinations. Now we have the thought police introducing a bunch of new rules for same-think broadcasting elites to play with on a new medium. Satellite radio here won't be excellent, it will just be Canadian.

Meanwhile, media and Government wonder why podcasting is taking off.

Well, the reviews are in for NorthernVoice and they are generally favourable. Due to a few delays enroute I only got there for the last session and the post-conference socializing, however I did get to meet up with Boris Mann and Roland Taglao, both of whom were very gracious and helpful to this travelling stranger.

While Scoble and Pirillo were in the room -- surrounded by blog bunnies and mullet-headed geeks...YES I'm kidding -- I decided to set off with Canadian blog & radio superstar Tod Maffin and about 15 others for a tour of the CBC Vancouver Broadcast Centre. A big thanks to Tod for his enthusiasm and his energy in answering our queries -- I'm sure it was a long day for Tod. I especially enjoyed dinner with Tod and our academic colleagues, who for the most part seemed to get it; even if it was in a more circuitous and introspective way.

Heard in the crowd about Scoble -- "He's arrogant", "Isn't Robert Great?", "He's a sponge" and "He's Microsoft's meme". The neat thing about Scoble is that he effortlessly handles the lightning rod effect. Good on you too Robert for dragging your butt up here even with the energy level sagging a little earlier in the week.

One tool that impressed me in about 3 minutes of demo'ing was Qumana. It looked great but when I got to the web site... Yuck! The site misses the essence of what looked like a sublime tool. I also cannot figure out whether this is one tool or two and what the licensing terms are from the web site. If any site cried out for an in-your-face Flash demo, the Qumana site is it.

The strange thing about sitting in a room with the NorthernVoice crowd is how different it's tech-quotient is from normal business. Looking at the laptops in use, about half were PowerBooks. So this is a very, very different group of users from the norm. Something to bear in mind.