Weekly Weigh-in #5: Google vs. Verizon, AT&T, etc...

The FCC is getting prepared to auction off the 700MHz spectrum, and as all the likely bidders (AT&T, Verizon, etc...) are reaching into their deep pockets, happy with the lack of governmental restrictions, Google is asking that certain conditions be set ahead of time in exchange for a substantially high minimum bid.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently sent a letter to FCC chairman Kevin Martin explaining that if the FCC wants their $4.6 billion minimum bid to be considered for a part of the UHF TV spectrum they “should extend all CRMS-type spectrum licensees clearly delineated, explicitly enforceable, and unwavering obligations to provide (1) open applications, (2) open devices, (3) open wholesale services, and (4) open network access.”
Google's most vocal opponent has been Verizon (who has recently said they are willing to consider some, but not all of the obligations) throughout this whole debate.

This begs the question: What's in it for Google? If the FCC accepts their obligations, is this the first step towards a free-for-all Google VoIP phone?

Update: As it stands now, it appears that the FCC will take its chances and not accept all of Google's conditions.

Weekly Weigh-In #4: iPhone + AT&T = poor service???

The hype surrounding the recently released Apple iPhone has created quite a stir around the office. Of course, some of us (hmm,hmm Dieter) can’t wait to get one, while others (who are undeniably envious of new toys) believe it to be overrated.

But rather than join this perennial debate, we would like to draw your attention to the network outages that AT&T customers experienced shortly after the release of the iPhone.

While some people have speculated that AT&T's network issues were due to the pressure of thousands of people activating their new Apple iPhones at the same time, AT&T representatives had this to say about the wireless data outage on their network: "Don't blame the iPhone"... There was a technical issue in the network, but it had nothing to do with the iPhone." It turns out that AT&T's euphemistic phrase "EDGE is down" was in fact "AT&T data routing system is down"!

I'm of the opinion that AT&T should have anticipated the strain that this surge was going to put on its network, and should have dedicated the necessary resources (AT&T is not exactly penny-pinching when it comes to buying other companies) to ensure a stable network. Instead, they played this "Let's-wait-and-see-what-happens" game and it seems when the network crashed they at least had their PR crisis management in gear.

So I invite you all to:

1. Join me in venting against the poor services we, The Consumers, have to put up with (especially when we pay a premium price for those services)
2. Offer any opposing view that will make iPhones users feel warm & safe
3. (wait... there is NO third option! Sorry "third-option-people")

/deka

Weekly Weigh-In #3: Software vulnerability auctions vs. ethical disclosures

A week ago, a Swiss company by the name of Wabi Sabi Labi (gotta love the name) launched an Ebay-style marketplace for software vulnerabilities. They allow anyone with a verified security flaw to auction it off on their site. Wow!

While I find this very discomforting because of the potential for exploitation of such defects by unscrupulous 'buyers', I believe researchers should be compensated adequately by software manufacturers for "ethical disclosures" that end up improving software quality.

Fact: 99% of all bugs are customer-found.

Software is imperfect because we are imperfect, thus, defects are here to stay. Therefore, anyone that helps to "dev test" a software to the point of identifying a flaw should be compensated (and possibly offered a job) for their hard work.

Although I do not condone the WSL marketplace, I do understand why it came about. It is a logical reaction to the lack of fair recognition that is currently given to members of the public that point out software flaws to manufacturers.

The fair thing to do would be for WSL to offer software OEMs the chance to "buy" vulnerabilities offline before resorting to publicly offerings. On the flip side of this, I guess researchers can now add WSL to their list of leverage points when negotiating software OEMs.

Thoughts?
/Peter

Pingsta Globetrotter

Over the past year I've had the opportunity to travel quite a bit (ahh, the luxury of studying abroad while in college). During my free weekends I traveled around Europe, even spending my spring break in sunny Malta. Loving travel as much as I do, I can't help but remark how great it is that in our day and age I don't have to be confined to a desk at all times to get my work done.

Most recently I spent a week in the Big Apple, both touring and working in the city. I find it is an amazing feeling to always have the capability to be connected with the people we want or need to reach. I can easily email someone with an idea as I am waiting for the light to turn green in Times Square, how much better can life get for an aspiring globetrotter? Granted not everyone has the luxury of being able to work away from the physical office, but with the latest and greatest online tools becoming ubiquitous we no longer have to stay chained to a desk or locked away in a corner office.

Fortunately for me, Pingsta embodies and embraces new forms of collaboration. We - the Pingsta team - are spread out throughout the continent, some of us have never even met in person, yet we are able to collaborate as conveniently as if we were all in the same room. Call me an optimist or even an idealist, but I think it's fantastic to be experiencing this virtualization revolution firsthand!

Cheers,
Owen

Weekly Weigh-in #2 - IPv6 replaces SSN - The true human network

The Weekly Weigh-In is back with our Independence Day special.

Imagine a world where everybody the world over is assigned a unique confidential IPv6 address instead of a country specific identifier like a social security number? If you marry this thought with a scenario where all our data is stored in an encrypted format online (part of the decryption process should include a 3-way authentication handshake with the data owner's IPv6 address), such that PCs, handhelds, surface computers etc simply become intelligent browsers interfaces to a 3-dimensional internet where our web-based "hard-drives" reside.

What you get is a world where we all effectively become an extension of the Internet thereby making it possible for us to access all our media, photos, music, videos, playlist, medical, academic and financial records etc online from anywhere in the world. Imagine being able to rent a car while on vacation in Tokyo, assign the car your IP address to grant you on-the-go Internet access, download your playlist through the car's interface, log into your home IP-CCTV cameras in San Francisco to see if your neighbor is watering your plants as promised, pay your bills, drive to a dentist in Tokyo, who simply accesses your dental records online before proceeding with your scaling and polishing et cetera.

One world, one IP, seamless applications. I’d love to hear your thoughts regarding additional possible uses and concerns.

Happy 4th of July to our US audience and remember to party like rock stars!

-Peter Alfred-Adekeye

Tag!

This week we've rolled out a lot of small fixes and improvements (check out the new about page, as well as the new way we're dealing with the panels on the left side of the page once you've logged in, for example), but the big deal is the new library functionality. We want Pingsta to be a place where internetwork superstars can share ideas, and it seems to us that a big step in that direction is to allow you to have a place for your stuff.

Right now the main element in the library is its bookmarking feature; when you hit the library page, you're able to add links to your favorite sites and share them with the other members of the Pingsta community. The best way to see other people's bookmarks is to find them in the People pages and then click on their "library entries" link. In addition, when you're browsing your library (or anyone else's, for that matter), you can see all the tags that have been attached to each library item -- click on any of those tags to see every item from every library that has that tag.

Please give the library a whirl; go add your favorite bookmarks and tags. Now click on your tags to see what the rest of the Pingsta world is reading. You may be surprised at what you find!

-d.

Weekly Weigh-in #1: Wikipedia vs. Britannica

Every week we'll be having our "Weekly Weigh-in", a discussion about any topic that is currently being debated around the office.

As our first installment of the Weekly Weigh-in, we'll focus on the digital age-old debate of Wikipedia, with its unmoderated socially-generated user content versus legacy print encyclopedias like Encyclopaedia Britannica.

We'd like to have you weigh-in on this topic:

• Do you consider Wikipedia the epitome of open-source collaboration or do you see it as fundamentally flawed?
  
• Although Wikipedia is a more up-to-date resource, does it have as much legitimacy as print sources?
• In what cases would/should one turn to Wikipedia as a resource?

-Owen

How did the name "Pingsta" come to be?

Many of you have asked us what Pingsta means, and since we can't resist the opportunity to tell a good story whenever the chance presents itself, here it goes...

The name "Pingsta" was born after months of caffeine-powered deliberations (caffeine is, as you might have observed by now, a big part of our life here). Pingsta is a combination of two words. The first word, "PING", is the acronym for "Packet InterNet Groper", a troubleshooting tool used to test IP network connectivity. Ping is also commonly used as a verb... "to Ping" meaning to "IM", call, email ( in other words, to contact) someone. The second word (well... half a word actually) is "Sta" - derived from the word "Star" as a subset of "Superstar".

As we set out to create an environment where technology enables people to communicate and collaborate seamlessly, we decided to follow that train of thought further, and it went something like this...

"This tool will help the world to 'Ping internetwork Superstars' (hmm, interesting)... 'Ping Superstars' (like it... but it's way too long)... 'Ping Star' (better! Now, how can we make it sound modern. Let's see... drop the "r" maybe?)... 'PingSta' (Eureka! we have a winner)."

/deka

P.S: Here are some other names that crossed our minds and the reasons why they were discarded:

1. "Hubnob" (it initially sounded clever, but eventually reminded us too much of the failed Walmart attempt at re-creating Myspace)
2. "Geekspace" (Myspace for geeks?... Boy, that sounded unholy!)
3. "Citizen IP" (someone - who shall remain nameless - might have been watching a certain movie... Citizen Kane, perhaps?)

Alright, alright! We won't bore (nor torture) you with the whole list of unusual (and sometimes funny) names we entertained during this entire process. Let's just say that Pingsta sounded like music to our ears.

Fasten your Seatbelts, folks.

The first time I saw Pingsta, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I don’t know if it was the name, the element of mystery wrapped up in the “invite only” paradigm, or the fact that the Pingsta jobs page mentioned ”...helping to make the world a better place” as one of the employment perks, but I had to find out more. I applied on the spot.

A couple of days later I found myself on the phone with Peter, in what had to have been the most unusual job interview I’d ever experienced. We talked for hours about what Pingsta was, is, and promises to be, about the supreme court and Paris Hilton, and about the potential of the Internet to make a difference in the world, as well as the special role in the Internet that Pingsta can play. I knew I had to get on the team. Anybody with that much drive and enthusiasm about what they’re doing is unstoppable.

Here’s what I didn’t know: They’re ALL like that. After joining the Pingsta team, I’ve discovered that every one of its members shares the zeal and drive of its founder. I’ve had the honor of working with some amazing people in the past, but nobody has the fire that these folks have. And it’s infectious. I’m working harder and more intensely than I have in a long time, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

In the two weeks since I started with Pingsta, we’ve rolled out some great enhancements (check out the feed reader and the new login flow on the home page, for starters), as well as a lot of little improvements that will, hopefully, make Pingsta as much fun for you guys as it is for us. There are much bigger things happening right now and in the near future, and I can’t wait to tell you more.

I won’t lie to you; there is a tremendous amount of work to do around here. But every last bit of it is going to be a blast. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

-d.

It's not social networking, It's Pingsta

Pingsta was inspired primarily by the lack of the following:

1. an internetwork intelligence repository that is comprehensive, validated and openly available to the world
2. a social and intellectually stimulating playground for the rock stars that invented (and continue to sustain) the internet.

We set out to create a platform where internetwork experts can hang out and socialize with colleagues from across the world, discussing topics of personal interests such as kite-surfing, IPv6, rock-climbing, inter-planetary communication, Matter-over-IP etc seamlessly, while also collaborating to extend their intellectual legacies through submissions to the internetwork repository.

Several barrels of coffee over months of little sleep later, Pingsta was born. We've since put together a core team of some of the smartest minds in software engineering and design and they are working tirelessly towards making Pingsta the ultimate virtual internetwork playground. Keep an eye out for weekly feature roll-outs ;-)

We're proud to say that four months after beta launch, our niche membership of early-adopters spans inventors, fellows, distinguished engineers, technical leaders, CCIEs, JNCIEs, etc from the US, UK, Australia, Japan, France, Belgium, Poland, Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, South Africa, Israel, India, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Taiwan, China, Bangladesh, Slovenia, Singapore, Ireland, Russia, Spain, Italy, Norway, Serbia, Croatia, Finland, and Brazil.

Thank you all for your continued support, participation and feedback. We hope you enjoy the ride with us!

Peter Alfred-Adekeye
Founder, Pingsta, Inc.