Comcast Bandwidth Cap Sucks for Shareholders

Comcast this week blundered their way into a decision that will likely go down in internet history as being blindly ignorant.  Like IBM giving away the farm to Microsoft in the early 80's and Yahoo! giving away the farm to Google in the late 90's and TimeWarner giving away millions for AOL, Comcast just made a collosal mistake which is going to have terrible implications for its shareholders.

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Comcast has chosen to limit bandwidth for its cable internet users.

Many Internet providers reserve the right to cancel the service of the most excessive users. The 250-gigabyte cap is Comcast’s way of specifying a longstanding policy of placing a limit on Internet consumption, and it comes after customer pushed for a definition of excessive use.

But on the Internet, consumer behavior does not stand still. As the technology company Cisco stated in a report last winter, “today’s ‘bandwidth hog’ is tomorrow’s average user.”

New York Times article

Now, this would presumably block people from downloading large files and 'slowing down the internet for other users on the block'.  But if you look at what types of files make up large downloads, that is currently video.

Aha!  They are trying to protect their own business of enabling people to watch video via cable.  No good, enabling your customers to watch download movies via netflix if that cuts into PayPer View or On Demand downloads and sales.

But consider that Comcast has added an entirely new business line in the form of Cable Internet on the infrastructure it had already built for cable.  They made the pie bigger, and now they are going to chase away customers from eating that bigger pie. 

Why would a consumer opt to go with a service that blocks them from getting the full advantages of the internet?

They won't.

As an example, I today get cable internet from Time warner and actual Cable from Direct TV. 

If I were still a comcast customer and they tried to pull this crap on me, I'd drop the cable internet and go with someone that didn't block me from getting what I wanted.

By making this move they have just taken away the value proposition of one of their hotest new business lines to save an old business line with a short life expectancy.  Its kind of like selling someone Grohe faucets and then telling them that they can only dring 250 glasses of water.

Volcanic Microbes



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MindManager Pro7 FileExplorer Tool Doesn't Sort File Types in a MindMap

Today, I was digging in a little bit into the new and improved version of MindManager.  It comes in the version of MindManager Pro 7 and among many other things includes an upgrade to one of the tools that I have consistently used the most in MindManager.

Its the File Explorer tool.  In the past, you could establish a link to a folder on your PC, then click the file explorer button.  MindManager would dig through the file list of that folder and create individual topics of all the files, with links to those topics.  This was amazingly useful for managing project files of all types.

NEW VERSION UPRGRADES

In the new version, you no longer have to create the link on a topic first, just hit the file explorer tool first, browse for the destination folder and wallah, you have your list.  Very Cool.  :)

Even Better, the new tool has a refresh option, so you can refresh the file list in the mind map and see an updated list after you have added, changed or removed a file.

What's Missing from this Great MindManager Tool Still

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MindManager still does not provide a useful of way of sorting and organizing topics in an automated fashion.  You can filter, but not sort and organize.  This tool would be much more useful if it brought those files in under different sorting options including:

  • Sorting by file type (Word, xls, pdf, wmv, etc)
  • Sorting by file Date
  • Sorting by File Name
  • Including excluding specific file types

MindManager is a great software tool and I highly recommend it.  That said, the evolution of this software has been painfully slow over the last two years.  They have done some interesting things with MindManager making it more stable, but they always go half way with their evolution.

User feedback is addressed (eventually) but they never really go above and beyond taking the user feedback and doing something even better than asked for.  Mindjet gives 100% and not 110% in this way and it could be one of the reasons why their growth recipe has lost the momentum that they once had with versions 4 and 5.

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Where's Utterz Going with Upgrade? Broken CSS?

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I'm seeing several broken css styles with the rendering on Utterz today.



Plus, the query to start typing what I'm doing (as opposed to typing a title) and then to actually type what I'm doing in the body section, is down right confusing.



When I first saw this, I thought Utterz had added one of those mood ring like tools found on Facebook. (ex. Brett is Happy today. Brett is soaking wet from rain today or Brett is lost in a social media design today. :) or Brett is . . . yada yada yada)



I'm seeing text input boxes that do not fit with in the theme for the body section of Utterz.



Also, the Add Audio Pic Video buttons seem a little buggy as well.



I have a feeling that there was an attempt to make things wider and address some of the feedback requests of the past, but something definitely seems to be wrong in the execution.



I'm browsing in Firefox 3 on a 17" laptop with resolution set at 1080 I think.



As to the text prompts to kick things off, I think using verbage that sounds Facebooky is a mistake for several reasons.



1. It limits Utterz capability.

2. There are facebook connotations here that will mess with people and make Utterz feel like a bit of a knock off, which it isn't.

3. three, three, . . . I forget what three was for, but

4. You can't see the body text box, when you start the title text box, and that is just confusing up front and on the back end when it does show up.



In general, this just doesn't feel very tight. Maybe that's an execution thing, but aside from the wider boxes, the purpose of some of these changes seems mis-directed.

Mobile post sent by brettbum using Utterzreply-count Replies.

Introducing Document Management. Go Green!

Document management is the conversion of paper documents into electronic images on your computer. Once on your desktop, these documents can be retrieved effortlessly in seconds.

Thousands of organizations around the world use document management every day instead of paper filing systems. The reasons for this change are simple:



Document Management:

• Prevents lost records.

• Saves storage space.

• Manages records easily.

• Finds documents quickly.

• Makes images centrally available.

• Eliminates the need for file cabinets.



The steps necessary to introduce document management:

Documents are scanned into the system. The document management system stores them somewhere on a hard drive or optical disk. The documents then get indexed. When a person later wants to read a document, he or she uses the retrieval tools available in the document management system. Which documents can be read and what actions performed on these documents is dependent on the access provided by the document management system.

A complete document management system comprises five elements:



•Scanning

Major advancements in scanning technology make paper document conversion fast, inexpensive and easy. A good scanner will make putting paper files into your computer easy.



•Storage

The storage system provides long-term and reliable storage for documents. A good storage system will accommodate changing documents, growing volumes and advancing technology.



•Indexing

The index system creates an organized document filing system and makes future retrieval simple and efficient. A good indexing system will make existing procedures and systems more effective.



•Retrieval

The retrieval system uses information about the documents, including index and text, to find images stored in the system. A good retrieval system will make finding the right documents fast and easy.



•Access

Document viewing should be readily available to those who need it, with the flexibility to control access to system. A good access system will make documents viewable to authorized personnel, whether in the office, at different locations, or over the Internet.

If you've got a good idea of the basics of a document management system, you'll find our in-depth overview of document imaging and document management software a useful resource.



for more information please visit:http://www.laserfiche.com/

danita's Mobile post sent by brettbum using Utterzreply-count Replies.

Introducing Document Management. Go Green!

I've had to do this several times for companies I have worked for. I started actually with a scanner to scan in some old spread sheets that someone had printed. Then I converted them back into spreadsheets with Omnipage (8 or 9 back then).

A couple years later, I started scanning all customer contracts and account documents and mapping them out with MindManager to keep things organized.



These days I have my own company, so everything gets scanned. I use PaperPort for document management and I use OmniPage 16 these days for OCR purposes.



I've got a three hundred dollar Brother scanner/copier/fax/laser printer that I keep on the dock that is fantastic. I just drop a pile of papers into the document feeder and scan away.

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Facebook Status Broken Today

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I was just noticing today that Facebook comments, that little question that asks you what you are doing or feeling right now.

This little update function can be temporarily addictive, like wearing the latest fad or something.

Unfortunately, this outage caught me right in the middle of my own susceptibility to the fad, and now I look at my status updates with the 'upgraded' facebook and all I'm getting is a bunch of strings of code.

Now all of my 'friends' are going to think I'm in a super technical mood, or just being geekily weirder than I actually am.
"No, those strings of code are not how I was feeling yesterday!"
It was hard enough explaining to my mother years back that the google ads showing up on my site referring to baby bedding, did not actually imply that we were expecting another child, just some automated code from Google.

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Pay It Forward - Verizon Sucks?

I have been toying with the notion of what I should do with my brand new Treo 700P from Verizon Wireless. I'd really enjoy your thoughts on what you think I should or shouldn't do here. The more creative the better as I am stuck. In regards to my feelings for the Treo 700P, I hate it.

I love Treos, have loved them for almost a decade, but Verizon Wireless changed all that for me.

I bought a new Treo from Verizon Wireless last August, a year ago, and the phone was unable to work with email like it was supposed to. I took it back (I had 30 days money back + I was paying $6 a month for a warranty.) Verizon gave me a replacement phone in the store, and it was dead out of the box.

I should have recognized a big problem at that point, but I was in a hurry to get to Blogworld, so I had them give me another new Treo out of the box and I flew to Vegas for the show.

The phone worked, kind of. It was very problematic with lots of problems that I have detailed in my writing over the last year.

Long story short (for that part) they had to send me another replacement treo 700p on my warranty plan in June.

I tried the replacement for a week and it was susceptible to the same problems as the previous phone. (Didn't receive calls, lost voice mail,crashed regularly, and was unable to roam on networks other than Verizon Wireless)

Another long story short(ok, so I just can't tell a short story, I would have never made it as a serial writer in the 19th century!) I canceled my Treo off my gargantuan Verizon Wireless Plan (paying over $300 a month) That brought my monthly plan down to a more (less) reasonable amount of $200 a month. [I paid $100 a month for the same plan at t-mobile without a hitch ever].

I then picked up a little nokia phone from tmobile, and have been very happy. (except it doesn't have email)

The thing is I have this brand new Treo 700P, the latest replacement. I don't trust it myself, and would never dream of selling it on ebay or something, which is exactly what Verizon Wireless told me to do 5 times despite the fact that they admitted it would be morally the wrong thing to do.

I'm not as big of an ass as Verizon Wireless would have me be.

That said, I'm not completely free of that syndrome and have been trying to think of what I can do with this brand new phone that cost me almost $700 ($500 for the phone and $150 to cancel the Verizon Wireless plan).

I will be running a contest soon, offering up a great software program license(or multiple licenses) and I'm thinking about offering my new Verizon Wireless Treo 700P as a booby prize along with maybe a months supply of diet pills, and used pooper scoopers(something equally as valuable to my treoo 700P). The contest entrants will be bloggers and podcasters, and I'm thinking that if I give them the Treo 700P as a booby prize it might give them a lot of material to write about just how crappy the device and Verizon Wireless are in working with it!

That does seem like a mean vindictive thing to do to Verizon Wireless, but keep in mind they basically sold me a lemon and cost me $700 so I feel like they have ripped me off significantly. (not to mention I helped them stay in business 8 years ago, when they needed $1 billion, I gave it to them~no exageration, they used to be my customer and during their merger/formation their finances were very screwed up and I helped to prop them up and keep them in business long enough to get through the merger.

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