Saturday, September 20, 2008

Internap - Lehman brothers


It looks like Internap was on a trial with Lehman Bros - the contract will be assumed by Barclays.

To see the list of Contracts and Leases to be assumed and assigned to the Purchaser at the closing, please click on the links below:
List of Contracts and Leases to be assumed and assigned to the Purchaser at the closing (IT) (updated as of 9/19/2008 1:07 AM *)

Immersion - update

The latest developments seem to indicate that Immersion technology is NOT used in the new RIM blackberry, and the new HTC phone - see these posts from cellodude on the IV MB:

>>No haptic touch in HTC Diamond - did they talk to IMMR and say no?

HTC was to have haptic touch in the Diamond but canceled the feature. What happened?

1st vid explains why no touch haptics, 2nd vid shows haptic game.

Video interview with Horace Luke, HTC Chief Innovation Officer (@1:52):

Graphic: [Why no haptic?]

HL: "... over and over again, and I fine tuned it over and over again, and after asking a whole bunch of folks, and doing a whole bunch of usability studies, people like, "not worth it.""

Interviewer: "So, on the record, you did design..."

HL: "We did design with the intent of it, but no, it didn't... it didn't happen because it just SUCKED (laughs).

Graphic: [Have you considered localized haptic technology?]

HL: "... very expensive technology, very expensive. (Smiles) Not ready yet. Until you can buy it at 7-11, I don't think, you know..."

Then HTC goes on to demo a game "Tweeter" that has haptics and Horace Luke and Eric Lin, HTC Online Global Strategist are all excited about feeling it in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDS5BKkmoTM

Video of HTC Diamond game Tweeter in action:

Reviewer: "It [Haptics] blew me away."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEy6qM93mjw

This is hard to figure what happened. Possible scenarios:

1 They talked to IMMR about VibeTonz (actuator shakes entire phone) and didn't like it.

2 They didn't talk to IMMR about VibeTonz style vibration and couldn't get simple haptics working correctly themselves.

3 They talked to IMMR about next-gen localized feedback but decided it was too expensive, or not available to them soon enough because of the time involved for tweaking.

This last one doesn't make sense: 4 They didn't talk to IMMR about next-gen haptics and decided it was too expensive.

My theory: they tried VibeTonz & didn't like it, then asked about localized feedback (ala Nokia) & decided to skip it, too difficult & expensive to implement. Result? No haptic touch in HTC Diamond.

Perhaps this prompted IMMR to release the "Kit for Designing Touch Feedback Into Small Touchscreen Products" in July? Food for thought.

>>Re: Verizon's Internal Release on Storm

I don't think the haptics are driven by vibration actuators/electrically, so no. I think they're using an in-house design with screen layers that somehow click when depressed, but you have to push HARD to get the click effect, slowing down text entry. One video reviewer is afraid the screen will break, you have to push so hard. See bad reviews at #41532.

>>Don't hold me to it, but I believe it doesn't use an actuator, even the built-in one. If by some chance it does use the built-in actuator, then they're doing the same as Motorola, without the precise control over the actuator which IMMR tech has.

Tata Communications' Global CDN service selected by IAHGames

First TATA and Bit Gravity customer announcement:

>>Sep 19, 2008 (TELECOMWORLDWIRE via COMTEX) -

Tata Communications (NYSE:TCL), a provider of communications, and IAHGames, an online game Publisher and Operator in Southeast Asia, announced on Thursday (18 September) that IAHGames has engaged Tata Communications to provide its Global Content Delivery Network (CDN) service in Asia. Tata Communications' Global CDN service reportedly accelerates game delivery and offers a high quality customer experience for the digital media and entertainment community. In addition the CDN service enables large gaming files to download six times faster than conventional networks.

The CDN service will deliver a range of online games, including Granado Espada and an upcoming title EA SPORTS, FIFA Online 2, which is due for closed beta testing.

Financial details were not available.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Switch and Data - Atlanta

On September 15, 2008, Switch and Data GA Four LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Switch & Data Facilities Company, Inc. ("Switch and Data"), entered into a lease agreement for a 79,200 square foot facility located at 180 Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia. The lease commences on December 1, 2008, for a term of fifteen years, which Switch and Data may renew, at its discretion, for an additional ten or fifteen years. The facility will be operated in a manner consistent with existing Switch and Data facilities.

Cyberknife Cancer Center at the Brandon Regional Hospital in Brandon, Florida opening in Dec 2008 or Jan 2009.

from yyy60 on the Yahoo MB:

>>Radiation Therapist - FT for Cyberknife

JOB SNAPSHOT

Location: Brandon, FL
Employee Type: Full-Time Employee
Industry: Healthcare - Health Services
Manages Others: No
Job Type: Health Care Professional Services
Education: 2 Year Degree
Experience: At least 3 year(s)
Relocation Covered: No
Posted: 9/12/2008
Contact Information Ref ID: OSG-Cyberknife-Brandon-Rad

Description
***New Cyberknife Center at Brandon Regional Hospital opening December or January.

JMP Securities

Internap Network Services Corp. (INAP)

18-Sep-08JMP SecuritiesInitiated
Mkt Perform

Equinix Inc. (EQIX)

18-Sep-08JMP SecuritiesInitiated
Mkt Outperform

Equinix to Host Regional Peering Forum on September 19, 2008

SINGAPORE, Sept. 18 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ —

Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) , the leading global provider of network-neutral data centers and Internet exchange services, today announced that it is hosting the Regional Peering Forum 2008, featuring speakers from network and content industry leaders including Microsoft, TRUE Internet Gateway and Globe Telecom. The forum will take place at the MGM GRAND Macau on September 19, 2008.

Both network service and content providers recognize the importance of peering in enhancing performance, reliability and reducing transit costs. With tremendous opportunity in the South East Asia Internet market, international players are now beginning to explore peering relationships with the local Internet service providers in the region.

At the Regional Peering Forum, Equinix will provide analysis of regional peering trends and dynamics, along with local experts from Globe Telecom and TRUE Internet Gateway, who will discuss Internet development and their peering perspectives in the Philippines and Thailand. Microsoft will also share their experience on the international network engineering arena, specifically within the region.

The Regional Peering Forum will be chaired by Raphael Ho from Equinix and scheduled speakers include Bobby Romero from Globe Telecom, TRUE Internet Gateway’s Rungkiet Kamondetdacha, and Christian Nielsen of Microsoft.

Equinix is also hosting Peering Tutorials on the same day, featuring best practice on IPv6 peering deployment and peering coordination by Martin Levy of Hurricane Electric and Guy Tal of Limelight Networks.

In addition, Equinix powered “Meet-Your-Peers” sessions are scheduled on 18 September in conjunction with the Regional Peering Forum. “Meet-Your- Peers” sessions provide a meeting platform that enables dialogues between the forum attendees to further grow their peering contacts.

Source: Equinix Hong Kong Ltd

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

notes from the 3rd European peering forum

some notes form a partecipant at the 3rd European peering forum. The last comment is: Equinix has a bigger and bigger presence, with continuous expansion.

>>IXP Panel

  1. Che cosa si può fare per migliorare i collegamenti trai vari partecipanti della comunità (tools, pagine pubbliche, etc) - No public peering matrix perchè i soci non la vogliono (AMS-IX). Tutti stanno lavorando per un tool che permetta di fare peering to all
  2. 100 GBE- Ci stanno pensando
  3. Free ports per IPv6? - No al momento

Considerazioni finali:

  • l’evento, come altri simili, è di interesse per le occasioni di confronto e di incontro con altre persone. Quindi è utile per far “conoscere” al mondoTOP-IX
  • in compenso occorre stare con l’occhio pronto per catturare le persone che interessano (non viste per esempio le persone di Amazon, si Google e Yahoo); potrebbe essere utile un servizio di peering tra le persone dedicato e non casuale.
  • la presenza sempre maggiore di Equinix che offre colocation e exchange contemporaneamente, in continua espansione. Il fatto che non non siano presenti ancora in Italia è significativo

Monday, September 15, 2008

a difficulté dans laquelle se trouve aujourd'hui la médecine en général et la cancérologie en particulier face à l'innovation, réelle ou supposée.

>>Nicolas Daly-Schveitzer
Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France
Médecin cancérologue-radiothérapeute. Professeur d'université (Toulouse III). Ancien directeur général du centre-anticancéreux de Toulouse.
Dans son numéro du 15 septembre 2008, le "Red Journal" (*) fait place à une vive controverse déclenchée par deux médecins, Soren Bentzen (Madison, Wisconsin) et Todd Wasserman (Delray Beach, Florida), qui s’insurgent contre la démarche publicitaire du constructeur Accuray en faveur de l’utilisation de son produit phare, le Cyberknife (accélérateur linéaire miniaturisé et robotisé), dans le traitement du cancer de la prostate.

....

Balancing on a Knife's Edge: Evidence-Based Medicine and the Marketing of Health Technology
Søren M. Bentzen, Todd H. Wasserman
pages 12-14
Full Text | Full-Text PDF (92 KB)


CyberKnife Treatment of Prostate Cancer: A Reply to Bentzen and Wasserman
Omar Dawood
pages 14-18
Full Text | Full-Text PDF (112 KB)

BlackBerry Storm

Verizon BlackBerry Storm Minute with Mike Details...
Posted In: News & Rumors | By: Kevin Michaluk | Date: 15 Sep 2008 | 13 comments

Verizon BlackBerry Storm

UPDATE: Here's the image we were waiting for. I love how the first paragraph is about the bloggers who love to speculate. Cheers to that Verizon! Not much new in the announcement, but GREAT to see things get "official." Word has it there are more images and even a video that were circulated within Verizon, so hopefully we will soon be seeing some more BlackBerry Storm eyecandy. And while at this moment the verizonwireless.com/storm site is not up and running, it does look like that will in fact be the place to go to sign up for web updates. Stay tuned for more. **

CDNetworks - Equinix Tokyo

10 gig port:

Company Information
Company Name CDNetworks
Also Known As AS-CDNetworks
Company Website http://www.cdnetworks.com
Primary ASN 43303
IRR Record
Network Type Content
Approx Prefixes 5
Traffic Levels 5-10Gbps
Traffic Ratios Mostly Outbound
Geographic Scope


Global
Public Peering Exchange Points
Exchange Point Name ASN IP Address Mbit/sec
AMS-IX 43303 195.69.144.191 10000
DE-CIX 43303 80.81.194.4 10000
Equinix Tokyo 38670 203.190.230.34 10000

BlackBerry Storm launch?

from cellodude, on the IV MB:

>>BlackBerry Storm announcement Monday?

[VZW BlackBerry Storm to be Announced on Monday?
By: Kevin Michaluk | Date: 13 Sep 2008 |

Verizon BlackBerry Storm to be Announced on Monday?

The net is buzzing today with word that Verizon is set to "announce" the BlackBerry Storm this Monday, September 15th, with sales targeted to begin on November 1st (will believe it when the device is in my hands that day!).

This news comes via an internal email that's been floating around Verizon Wireless featuring the image above (notice the Stormy clouds in the background and the touchscreeny-like fingerprint. Subtle. Not!!). Word also has it that Monday's announcement should be accompanied by the launch of a teaser site at http://www.verizonwireless.com/storm]

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Startup Marries Flash Video with P2P

from GigaOM:

>>PPLive, a Singapore start-up that has a P2P video platform for distributing television in Asia has developed a way to accelerate and distribute Flash videos over peer-to-peer networks.

The other issue with this technology - it could make the video aggregators like YouTube crazy. Why? Because the first few seconds of the video are streamed from say YouTube and rest from the PPVA network. “This becomes an even bigger issue when advertisers start requesting more detailed statistics about online video usage,” NewTeeVee writes. Nevertheless, it could have some interesting implications for P2P CDN offerings.

Nokia perfects the clicky tactile touchscreen

Immersion has had an agreement with Nokia for over one year - without a haptic phone reaching the market, yet. One explanation is that Nokia has been "fine tuning" the touch feed back with IMMR - and under this view the agreement for a flat fee could find an explanation. more questions than answers, anyway...

>>It’s taken them 10 years but Nokia boffins
have finally perfected a ‘touch feedback’ touchscreen. Don’t be fooled by simple vibrational imitations folks, this is the real McCoy – you press a key on the screen, and it clicks under your finger with exactly the same sort of fingertip feedback as if you’d pressed a conventional keyboard key. Roope Takala, Senior Program Manager at Nokia’s research labs gave me a demo of the technology in Finland the other day on a hacked N770 Internet tablet.

“Funnily enough, although you think you’re typing faster than normal because of the feedback, in actual fact you’re not,” said Takala, “There’s just some sort of mental satisfaction that comes from typing with a tactile response.”

Haptikos

The new Haptikos technology will apparently be shipped with the upcoming Nokia S60 Touch phone that has been shown off at recent demos, and the team is busy working on the next challenge, which is to provide exact tactile replicas for scrolling and draw/paint programs.

A post from cellodude on IV:

>>IMMR has patents covering the use of piezo actuators under the touch screen for haptic feedback. Yes Nokia is paying IMMR for IP, plus SDK & consultation to achieve exactly the effects they want.

[United States Patent Application 20080111788
Rosenberg; Louis B.; et al. May 15, 2008 [continuation from 2003]
Assignee Name: Immersion Corporation

Haptic feedback for touchpads and other touch controls

[0035]...one or more piezoelectric actuators 42 are coupled to the underside of the touchpad 16...In one embodiment, a single piezoelectric actuator 42 is positioned at or near the center of the touchpad...In other embodiments, multiple piezoelectric actuators 42 can be positioned at different areas of the touchpad...

[0039] The piezoelectric actuators 42 have several advantages for the touchpad 16. These actuators can be made very thin and small, allowing their use in compact housings that are typical for portable electronic devices. They also require very low power, and are thus suitable for devices with limited power (e.g., powered by batteries).]

Ike Hammers Texas Internet

Renesys reporting on the effects of IKe, especially in Houston:

>>The counties around Galveston and Houston, TX (most notably Harris County) have suffered a slowly climbing number of network outages over the last day. We expect to see this number continue to climb as the secondary effects (e.g. power loss, UPS battery failure, generator fuel unavailability) of the storm hit the region.

We examined the withdrawals reported in BGP for prefixes (networks) in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas and notice that, aside from Texas, the coastal Gulf region has fared pretty well against Ike, so far. The Texan cities and counties immediately in the path of Ike are, however, definitely and noticeably suffering network connectivity failures.

Affected cities, counties and organizations

To get a sense for the organizations affected in the initial aftermath of Ike, we can look at the top ten organizations, top five cities and top five counties, sorted by number of networks suffering an outage as of approximately 13:00 CDT. Notably, these do not account for the relative sizes of the organizations, cities or counties.

Organizations affected (prefix count)

  1. Schlumberger Limited (19)
  2. AT&T WorldNet Services (15)
  3. NASA/Johnson Space Center (12)
  4. Suddenlink Communications (10)
  5. Level 3 Communications, Inc. (10)
  6. Cebridge Connections (10)
  7. Internet America, Inc. (9)
  8. Comcast - Houston (9)
  9. NTT America, Inc. (8)
  10. Moore Concepts (6)

Cities affected (prefix count)

  1. Houston (110)
  2. Kingwood (14)
  3. Dallas (14)
  4. The Woodlands (10)
  5. Friendswood (5)

Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S.

from the New York Times, USA are losing their position as the heart of the internet:

>>The era of the American Internet is ending.

Engineers who help run the Internet said that it would have been impossible for the United States to maintain its hegemony over the long run because of the very nature of the Internet; it has no central point of control.

And now, the balance of power is shifting. Data is increasingly flowing around the United States, which may have intelligence — and conceivably military — consequences.

Almost all nations see data networks as essential to economic development. “It’s no different than any other infrastructure that a country needs,” said K C Claffy, a research scientist at the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis in San Diego. “You wouldn’t want someone owning your roads either.”

Indeed, more countries are becoming aware of how their dependence on other countries for their Internet traffic makes them vulnerable. Because of tariffs, pricing anomalies and even corporate cultures, Internet providers will often not exchange data with their local competitors. They prefer instead to send and receive traffic with larger international Internet service providers.

This leads to odd routing arrangements, referred to as tromboning, in which traffic between two cites in one country will flow through other nations. In January, when a cable was cut in the Mediterranean, Egyptian Internet traffic was nearly paralyzed because it was not being shared by local I.S.P.’s but instead was routed through European operators.

The Renesys rankings of Internet connections, an indirect measure of growth, show that the big winners in the last three years have been the Italian Internet provider Tiscali, China Telecom and the Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Synacor / Internap P.R. - some comments

Synacor, Inc. was created in 2001, with company headquarters established in Buffalo, NY. Synacor has become a leader in progressive corporate culture and is a beacon for a burgeoning growth among U.S. technology and Internet companies. Synacor's forward thinking enabled us to build a flexible provisioning platform, enabling comprehensive delivery to Internet broadband service providers like you.

Being headquartered in Buffalo, Synacor went for Switch and Data:

>>August 22, 2005 – Tampa, Florida – Switch and Data today announced that Synacor, a provider of technology supporting the delivery of bundled online services, will use Switch and Data’s Buffalo data center as part of its network.

“We are a mission-critcal content provider serving many of the largest broadband providers in the country. We have found Switch and Data to be a proven leader,” said Adam Howell, Manager of Network Engineering at Synacor. “With several million users on the Synacor network and stringent service level agreements with its clientele, Synacor needed to ensure that its Network Operations Center (NOC) would have conditioned diverse power and not have to worry about HVAC disasters. Switch and Data was Synacor’s logical choice. Synacor needed a company that could accommodate its rapid growth and allow it additional options for facilities nationwide.”

In its IPO filing, Synacor mentions only one data center, but in other filings they committ themselves to a Disaster Recovery data center:

>>The following disaster recovery plan is specific to Client and must be implemented/undertaken by Synacor as described herein.

Overview:
Synacor must back up all data, software, and configurations every twenty-four (24) hours to an offsite location at least one hundred (100) miles from Synacor’s primary data center/the location at which the Disaster (defined below) is expected to occur, is occurring or has occurred such that should a Disaster occur, such data, software, and configurations can be installed on hardware at a new data center. The new data center will initially be a third-party managed hosting provider.

A similar agreement:

>>Overview:
All data, software, and configurations will be backed up every twenty-four (24) hours to an offsite location such that should a disaster occur, they can be copied to and installed at a new data center. The data center could be an Adelphia data center with appropriate hardware available or at a third party location such as Rackspace.

>>Data Center Facilities
We currently operate and maintain a data center, which is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and a network operations center. Both our data center and network operations center are located in a shared facility operated by Switch & Data Facilities Company, Inc. in Buffalo, New York. The network operations center houses all production and development systems that represent the operations center of the services and products delivered to our customers. All systems are fully monitored for reporting continuity and fault isolation. The data center and network operations center are in a physically secure facility using monitoring, environmental alarms, closed circuit television and redundant power sources.

From the P/R:

>>“Synacor is a high-growth business and the company could not afford the intermittent network reliability, low-power data center space and price escalations found with some providers,” said Adam Howell, director of networks and IT operations for Synacor. “We evaluated 26 data centers in seven states before selecting Internap. With Internap, we get an integrated solution from a trusted company that saves us money and improves the reliability of our Web portals and Internet tools. Switching to Internap is the most important IP operations project we will complete this year.”

The "price escalation" comment is interesting. Geeting a sweeter deal with Internap?

Let's also have a look at the outage comment:

>>
There isn't a lot in Buffalo, however there are a few:

Switch & Data
ShatterIT
Matrix Telecommunications
Digicon (out of business?)
Ronco Communications

The main carrier hotel for Buffalo is the Main Place Tower at 350 Main St. All of those except for one are hosted there.

Switch & Data recently had a power outage (15-30 minutes, during a generator test) and as a result a few of their large customers are looking elsewhere. Depending on your view and uptime needs, it's either a chance to negotiate good terms or a reason to stay away.

05-03-2008, 05:38 PM

The “We evaluated 26 data centers in seven states before selecting Internap" comment is very nice, however, Internap does not specify if the data center(s) chosen is one of Internap "own" data centers or just a partner site (you might assume it's an Inap center, as obviously a comment indirectly saying that an Equinix or Main 365 data center is a great one wouldn't be put on a P/R, but sometimes some more disclosure would help. Old problem with Internap). Just as a small reminder, margins are different depending on the fact that the customer is using a partner or own Internap site.

Uwink blog update - Mt. View

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but that doesn’t mean exciting things aren’t happening at uWink, it just means that there’s a lot going on and most of it we can’t talk about just yet. Since we last updated this blog, we opened uWink Hollywood (see the press release for more info on how cool it is), hosted a couple of press nights, and had Nolan talk at various conference around the world. We are working on installing our technology in a senior center, and we are working night and day to open uWink Mt. View.

uWink Mt. View will be located on


Castro Street

in the heart of Silicon Valley. It’s a great location and we are training the staff now. We’ve had a lot of buzz around the Mt. View location, not from the press but from the folks on the street who pass by the location and see pictures of the terminal. You all should know that Mt. View is home to Google, and Apple is just 10 minutes away.

Castro Street

is known as a place to go for lunch as well as dinner in the area. On

Castro Street

you can find almost any kind of Asian food: Korean, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, etc. uWink will be the American Food restaurant on the street and for that we are excited.

Anyway, we’ll try to keep you all updated more consistently on this blog, but please forgive us if we are heads down working. Happy Back to School!

Alissa

Friday, September 12, 2008

KPN - Equinix

KPN is the leading telecommunications and ICT service provider in the Netherlands, offering wireline and wireless telephony, internet and TV to consumers and end-to-end telecom and ICT services to business customers.

At March 31, 2008, KPN served over 35 million customers, of which 27.5 million in wireless services, 5.3 million in wireline voice, 2.4 million in broadband Internet and 0.6 million in TV. With 25,925 FTEs (43,409 FTEs including Getronics), KPN posted revenues of EUR 3.6bn and an EBITDA of EUR 1.2bn in Q1 2008. KPN was incorporated in 1989 and is listed on the Amsterdam and Frankfurt stock exchanges, having recently delisted from the New York and London stock exchanges.

Dallas GigE Exchange:
206.223.118.75 dlls-s1-rou-1001.US.eurorings.net

Ashburn:

206.223.115.182 ahbn-s1-rou-1001.US.eurorings.net

Chicago:

206.223.119.95 chg-s1-rou-1001.US.eurorings.net

S. Jose:

206.223.116.99 sjca-s1-rou-1001.US.eurorings.net

How Haptics Will Change the Way We Interact With Machines

Popular Mechanics:

>>
Moving haptics out of the lab can be challenging. Tactile feedback in consumer electronics must be both convincing to the user and appropriate for the device.

The medical application of haptic technology is perhaps the most compelling. Immersion and SensAble Technologies create several training machines that give tactile feedback to surgeons as they learn procedures such as endoscopy and laparoscopy.

If the current wave of haptic innovation is any measure, reaching Okamura’s goal is only a matter of computer processing power and time. Engineers developing tactile feedback systems believe that current products are only the beginning of a much larger trend. “In general, I think haptics today is where the Internet was in the early ’90s,” says Tom Anderson, the CEO of Novint. “Not that many people know about it, but it’s one of the few technologies we’ll see in our lifetime that fundamentally changes computing.”

Click to enlarge
+ Click to enlarge

The Nokia Haptikos Web pad prototype uses piezo actuators mounted beneath its touchscreen to produce vibrations and pulses. The screen has a 0.1-mm movement that is independent of the device body itself, allowing for highly accurate feedback. When the screen is touched, it can produce sensations that mimic the different stages of pressing a physical button, from pushing down to letting go. Nokia expects to include the technology in a product coming this year. (Diagram by Gil Ahn)