A Series of Tubes
An independent technology podcast…
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A Series of Tubes #115: Ciena Networks on the gigabit NBN; Stilgherrian on opposition comms policyAugust 15th, 2010Whether or not NBN Co was playing politics when it announced that it would configure the NBN with gigabit ports, one thing is certain: the technology is certainly here and now, and given the life cycle of technology, the pre-rollout upgrade probably isn’t a bad idea. A Series of Tubes speaks with Anup Changaroth of Ciena Networks about gigabit fibre networks, the product life cycle, and the value of Layer 2 carrier networks. And in a week that saw the release (to a political commentariat divided along party lines) of the Liberal Party’s broadband policy, Tubes gets Stilgherrian’s take on the week’s activities. A Series of Tubes #114: Geoff Houston on IPv4 exhaustion; Stil on the iiNet / AFACT appeal, Google Wave and politicsAugust 6th, 2010It really is happening, although the widespread sense of panic isn’t sufficient to stir people as much as a couple of pink batts. We’re getting close to exhaustion of the IPv4 address space: only a relative handful of 14/8 blocks remain in IANA’s unallocated address pool, and as listeners will hear, some address blocks are being held back as being too “toxic” for production use. A Series of Tubes speaks to APNIC Chief Scientist Geoff Houston (who must surely sympathise with Cassandra: uttering accurate prophecy, but too little believed). And in our regular chat with Stilgherrian, A Series of Tubes says “hello” to the courtroom, “goodbye” to Google Wave, and “where to now” for the NBN. A Series of Tubes #113: IPscape on Twittering Customer Support; NBN, Pacific Fibre with StilgherrianAugust 2nd, 2010Like many things, it would be easy to put the notion of Twitter as customer service channel into the “believe it when I see it” basket. But take another look: a great many companies have learned that it’s best to respond quickly to someone complaining about a product or service – usually with a #Bad(company name) hashtag. Otherwise, you could find yourself the subject not of one random Tweet, but thousands of damaging messages. That’s where Australian cloud-based customer contact provide IPscape is coming from. A Series of Tubes talked to CEO Simon Bourke about the benefits of adding Twitter to your list of customer service channels – and how to avoid alienating customers when the Fail Whale arrives. In our regular chat with Stilgherrian, A Series of Tubes discusses the new Pacific Fibre project, the release of the NBN maps, and how bad editorial decisions in mainstream media help drive the audience to Internet outlets. A Series of Tubes #112: Internode’s John Lindsay; Steve Chung of Ruckus Wireless; StilgherrianJuly 20th, 2010If you thought peace had broken out in telco-land with the NBN finally moving forward, think again. The copper will be around for some years yet, and with it will be the ongoing wrangles over access to copper-based services. Last week, iiNet and Internode launched action in the ACCC over wholesale access to Telstra’s ADSL2+ network, and A Series of Tubes talks to Internode’s John Lindsay about the action. And in the world of Google, technology and privacy, the leaky nature of WiFi networks has been brought to a very wide audience. A Series of Tubes talks to Steve Chung, consultant at Ruckus Wireless, about WiFi privacy – and about how network professionals need to tread carefully when using tools such as sniffers. In my regular chat with Stilgherrian, we wander around the new world of Open Government, the Privacy Commissioner’s findings on the Google StreetView-WiFi incident, and how the Pirate Party fell at the first hurdle. A Series of Tubes #111: We’re back with Stilgherrian on “Ozlog”, Spence and Spenceley on Vocus Edit LinkJune 17th, 2010Mostly, journalists use the expression “a long illness” as a code word for “cancer”. Not in this case: the gap in the Tubes was the result of my wife’s long illness, now under control, which had her in RPA hospital in April, May, and into June. But all’s well that ends well! In A Series of Tubes #111, I talk to James Spenceley and David Spence in an interview recorded before the world went pear-shaped. Fortunately, the things they had to say are still current today! We talk about the float of Vocus and the changes taking place in the Australian bandwidth market. And in my once-again soon-to-be-regular chat with Stilgherrian, we talk about the now-infamous “Ozlog” stories (just how much will the government try to log?), Google’s WiFi debacle, and the many misinterpretations of the OECD’s latest round of broadband penetration data (can journalists be taught about statistical error margins?). Welcome back to A Series of Tubes! A Series of Tubes #110: Peter Kazacos talks outsourcing for SMEs; Stilgherrian on censorship and comment spamMarch 28th, 2010Peter Kazacos has been in the Australian IT industry a long time. He founded and built Kaz Computing into one of the country’s strongest locally-owned outsourcing operations – something confirmed when Kaz Computing was later acquired by Telstra. Now, as the result of the acquisition of his company Anittel by Hostech (along with several other companies), Kazacos is now executive chairman of the merged entity. And he’s got a mission: to deliver outsourcing services to SMEs on a national scale, with a focus on regional businesses. That gives Kazacos strong views on what his customers need – and what the NBN has to do with SMEs. In our regular chat with Stilgherrian, Tubes talks Google and censorship, China and censorship, censorship and Conroy – and the comment-spam attack on Senator Steve Fielding. A Series of Tubes #109: Prof. Rod Tucker of Uni Melb’s IBES; Stil on NBN Prices and StudiesMarch 22nd, 2010If the NBN is to justify its price, it has to make itself valuable. Apart from faster Torrents – which certainly will be of interest to some users – what else can make the NBN valuable enough? That question is on the mind of Professor Rod Tucker, telecommunications luminary and head of IBES, the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society at the University of Melbourne. Tubes talks to Tucker about IBES – its research, and its applications test bed. But will we be able to make the NBN worth the prices that were announced last week in Tasmania? It depends – so in this week’s regular chat with Stilgherrian, we try to silence to “too expensive” complainers, as well as taking a look at why the NBN Implementation Study is still missing from the public sphere, and we celebrate 25 years of the dotcom era. Note from Chirgwin: A connection problem during the Rod Tucker interview means we have a short section of high noise at around the five-minute mark. My apologies! A Series of Tubes #108: Cisco talks SensorBase, Stil on the NBN legislation, Lundy’s alternative filter, Facebook’s woesFebruary 25th, 2010The problem with trying to find attack patterns on incoming traffic, according to Cisco, is that the world gets into an escalating “zero day” war. Another approach is needed; so hear about Cisco’s approach from Andy Norton and Glen Wellby of the vendor’s IronPort business and decide for yourself. And in our regular chat with Stilgherrian, Tubes looks at the NBN Co legislation, at Kate Lundy’s alternative proposal for the Internet filter, and we ask what can be done about people using Facebook for denigration and hate. A Series of Tubes #107: Vikram Sharma from Quintessence Labs on Next-Generation Quantum Comms & Rants with StilgherrianFebruary 18th, 2010I confess: after writing about it for the best part of a decade, I still find quantum communications strange and fascinating. I also get interested in new research companies – especially when they’re Australian companies commercialising basic physics – like Quintessence Labs. This week, A Series of Tubes explores both the physics and the commercialisation. Quintessence Labs’ founder and CEO, Vikram Sharma, talks about the company’s work with RMIT on second-generation quantum cryptography devices. He hopes the equipment will one day shrink to “the size of a broadband modem”. And Tubes talks to Stilgherrian about the Google Buzz publicity and privacy “fubar”, Telstra’s 42 Mbps moves, wireless in Swindon, and the complex interaction between censorship, the Internet, and TV news. A Series of Tubes #106: Jan Meijer of UNINETT talks electronic identity; Stilgherrian sheds his Anonymity to talk gigabit Google and Vividwireless expansionFebruary 12th, 2010Identity on the Internet is a challenge. How do companies guarantee the identity of their customers? How do users test the identity of the sites they think they’re using? In Sydney this week for the APAN conference, Jan Meijer took time to give A Series of Tubes his views on identity. And in a week that saw Anonymous decide that democracy is best defended by shutting off citizens’ Web access to their government, Stilgherrian also talks about Vividwireless’ ambitious plans to spread its 4G wireless service to the major mainland capitals. |
