E Host List

Best Cable Deals

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:12:10 +0000

If you are looking for top cable deals that you can get for yourself then you are just at the right place. We are here to help you to select the best deal that would make you television viewing a wonderful experience. In the United States there’s a boom in the cable service providers and they are having cutthroat competition just to prove that they are the best.

There are highly powerful players that are dominating the US telecom sector. These have made a special place in the consumer’s heart and the first names taken. They are Charter communication, Time Warner Cables and Comcast communications. These are among the top ranked players in the market and also a favorite among the customers.

Out of the many, the two players that are fighting to get the top position are Time Warner Cables and Comcast. They are facing tough competitions everyday from small players like Verizon as this newbie is always coming with new techniques to capture the market.

The strategy that these top guns are following makes them the most popular. They provide too many services in one and because of that the customers get allured by it easily. They give cable television, internet and telephony together at the same rate and this makes the customers go for it.

This bundle strategy has made it beneficial for the both the customers and the business unit.

Both are benefitting mutually from this. These bundles are the crown jewels and till the time they are there you have to enjoy the monopoly in the US market. The bottom-line is that the customers will go for only those providers who offer better quality service in fewer amounts. Rest, we should refrain ourselves from speculating and focus on the strategies which is adopted by each and every player in the cable service and telecom service providing sector.

Zennstrom in The Project Venice: Old wine in new bottle?

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:30:47 +0000

When it comes to Internet entrepreneurship, Niklas Zennstrom is the name that occurs first. Not only has he been hugely successful in the past two ventures that he started namely – Kazaa and Skype (subsequently sold to Sharman Networks and eBay respectively), but along with Janus Friis they look as if they have made it quite big when it comes to raking in the moolah. However, as the character Zennstrom is, he has not stopped. He has involved himself again with Friis in the high-risk business of tech startups. As it seems now, this time though, it is not an innovative idea or first one to capitalize in a big way on a novel idea. According to BusinessWeek Online, the enterprising duo is now currently working on a venture code named, CIA operation style, – The Venice Project, which is developing software for distributing TV shows and other visual content over the Internet. For this, they have reportedly hired ‘teams of top software developers from half-a-dozen cities from around the world’ who are currently in negotiations with TV networks to strike deals with them for distributing their content. Now, how far this new venture will be successful depends on the number and quality of the agreements they reach with the TV networks (They surely would not like to get entangled into legal battles as it happened with Kazaa) and the intensity of competition they would face. The model of distribution of the TV content is still unknown to me. Will it be like accessing the content (through their software of course) from a web server where it would be stored, or streamed in or have something on the lines of the YouTube model? Then would the software be downloadable in wireless devices like mobiles phones and PDAs as Skype is? Will this be an IPTV hybrid venture? I tried to search for some info but so far could not find much. There are many, many such small and not so small firms doing the same. Whatever is the case, this time it might not be a super hit venture like Kazaa or Skype. Presenting/sharing/distributing video content is proving to be a very lucrative business for new entrepreneurs. Everyone seems to be moving towards that; even individual first time entrepreneurs like ex-Rocketboomer Amanda Congdon had major successes and was able to entice people like Robert Scoble to leave his high profile job and join a podcasting venture. TV content in mobiles is no longer a novelty with 3G phones hitting the markets even in developing countries about 3-4 years back. So, what can we expect from The Venice Project? The BusinessWeek article actually mentions that since Zennstrom and Friis are not leaving Skype and has speculated that eBay can be a player in the new Zennstrom-Friis project in the future (or who knows, maybe the project has the hidden blessings of eBay already). It seems to me that they might start this on a small scale just to test the water temperature with the big toe, and if it works out fine, only then the big plunge will happen and eBay might just join the fun then. Whatever happens, people like you and me will have another option in the market, maybe catch a glimpse of the favourite TV program while at work. But trust me, the television sales or channel subscriptions are not going down already as DVD and CD sales did owing to Kazaa’s assault on the movie and music industry leaving it severely injured. Online TV, new though it may be, sounds so passe and boring. Read

Web 2.0 content – I: Big Media Brands vs. New Media Brands

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:29:47 +0000

Today CNN is expected to announce the launch of CNN Exchange – a section in its website that will feature not only user-submitted videos, but audios and articles as well! In short, it will be CNN’s first experimentation with citizen journalism that is exciting many an entrepreneur’s mind these days. In all probability, the owner of the content would be CNN. YouTube has recently announced that all the content hosted by it is owned by it and users should agree to it before uploading any video. Now the question arises why should you and I be contributing with content (many of whom may be of real news value like rare video footages, scoops etc.) to the cause of an already established media behemoth who will be making money with my contribution. Why wouldn’t you and I contribute in newer Web 2.0 media like NewsCloud and NowPublic that hardly make any money with the content that community users share with each other? There are 100s of such citizen journalism sites. So what is CNN banking upon for success? Is it its brand image? Does it sincerely hope to attract citizen journalists with the bait that his/her contribution might just feature in a reputed news organization like CNN? Well, I must agree that this has its charm of its own. No matter, how much we may loathe the moneymaking biggies out there, yet we always had some kind of fascination to be a part of them. But then, only fascination to be associated with a behemoth is not enough. Will CNN be paying anything to the contributors? If I had an item of real value, or to have it burnt some midnight oil or spent money, I would certainly expect a company like CNN to adequately compensate me for my work, luck or whatever. Unless that happens, my contribution would always go to the newer and often non-commercial players. The satisfaction to contribute with quality content to those CJ platforms far outweigh the satisfaction that you might get contributing your big story to a big company making hundreds of millions and don’t have a penny to spare for you. In any case, the human psychology is inclined to support the underdog. What do you say?

Web 2.0 and beta: Till death doeth us apart?

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:28:24 +0000

This post by Mayank Gupta got me to write something about something that had been in my thoughts for quite sometime now and this ‘quite sometime’ is more than 6-7 months. I am sure this hasn’t escaped your notice as well. Whenever you see a Web 2.0 service, you find the word ‘BETA’ tagged with it. No matter how many times the service has been upgraded, it doesn’t count. You still find the same ‘beta’ tag. In his post Mayank cites the example of Zoho referring to a post by mani. Even after being upgraded for the umpteenth time Zoho services – Zoho Writer, Zoho Creator, Zoho Sheet and Zoho Show are all in beta versions still. Now it seems that everything releases in beta version, and for reasons not known to me, tend to stay that way no matter how much work has been made towards the existing service/software, no matter how many upgrades followed. Now, we have a few more conspicuous ‘betas’. Windows Live where all services like Windows Live Mail is in beta, the IM client is beta as everything else is. The new Yahoo! Mail is beta, as has been GMail for the last 2 years or so! Mayank concludes by saying; Now, it is bad or good, I am not sure about it but it seems to me that it is good for the companies because they are getting what they want and that is customer and the information. Hang on; he can very well be right! In fact keeping the releases in beta version state, the company can get constant feedback, reviews and other ideas from the customers/users. So it serves them all right. Then the upgraded version would be released, and of course it would be the beta version of the upgrade!

Marketing Sherpa: Blogging, podcasting top marketing tools for tech industry

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:27:16 +0000

Marketing Sherpa’s annual survey of about 1,900 business technology marketing executives has revealed that the list of top five effective tools generating leads in the tech includes blogging and podcasting! Answering to the question – ‘Which offers are ‘very effective’ for generating high-quality leads?’, marketers in business software and hardware and tech services firms put podcasting and blogging in the top 5 tools. According to the survey, the top 5 tools are: 1. Free Trials: 54% business software marketers called it very effective thus ranking it very highly. 2. Webcast: 41% software marketers ranked it as their favourite. Additionally, 33% technology services and 31% related hardware firms have also rated online seminars or webinars as highly effective tool. 3. White paper: This seems to be a traditionally accepted effective tool with all business technology marketers rating white papers, ranging from 31-36%, as ‘very effective.’ 4. Blog: 35% of software and ASP (application service provider) marketers rated their blogs as very effective while 33% of technology services firms rated the same. Surprisingly, only 19% of hardware companies felt the same way. 5. Podcast: Relatively new, this was virtually non-existent last year as a marketing tool. This year it is different and as the idea sunk in, 22% of software marketers have rated them ‘very effective’ lead generation tools. So what do we see here? Web 2.0 changing trends on how a product/service is marketed? If blogging and podcasting can work for business technology marketers, it can very well work for the marketers of the Old Economy companies. Well, there might be a big goldmine lying underneath the whole concept of podcasting and corporate blogging. By the way there is a lot of advertising money to be made from podcasting. Robert Scoble once reported that ex-Rocketboomer Amanda Congdon was making something like $85,000 a week, which he later ‘adjusted’. However, the money still is very good. $40K a week for small startup firms with less than 10 associates is excellent and IMHO about 10 people can make it happen. It is entirely possible to make a decent amount of money with a little imagination thrown in using Web 2.0 tools. News and figures via Podcasting News.

AJAX World Conference & Expo Charter Sponsors has some major AJAX tech concerns, but why?

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:23:11 +0000

SYS-CON Events has announced the charter sponsors of the First International AJAXWorld Conference & Expo taking place October 2-4, 2006, at the Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. It includes some of the big names working on AJAX technology like: Adobe Apress Backbase ComponentArt Google Helmi Technologies Laszlo Systems Nexaweb Parasoft telerik TIBCO Software Anyway, a thought crossed my mind regarding this conference. Why this AJAX-centric conference at the first place? To showcase the developments made in this technology or to say that AJAX makes the Web 2.0 thingy happen? Is AJAX the only technology for Web 2.0? I know that the rise of AJAX coincided with the catching up of the Web 2.0 idea. However, it looks really as if this particular JavaScript-based technology is attempting not only to integrate itself with the Web 2.0 idea, but to hijack the thought that when it comes to Web 2.0, the only technology to make it happen is AJAX. It would be wonderful to hear your views on this. News

On IPTV, bandwidth and MTNL

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:22:39 +0000

The Financial Express reports that MTNL is planning to strike deals with TV broadcasters like Star TV, Prasar Bharati, Zee TV, Sony Entertainment etc., for its soon to be launched IPTV services. They seem to be working hard towards this as the report says that MTNL’s IPTV service ‘Tri-Band’ is currently undergoing trial runs in pockets of Delhi and Mumbai. I will come back to MTNL again here later. First, let us see some issues regarding the price we have to pay for IPTV. One thing that comes in my mind is that when there is so much hue and cry over bandwidth usage in VoIP, which is used as a justification to charge a premium for even in this broadband age, I wonder whether video codecs would require any lesser bandwidth. Also, since IPTV data transfer would be only one way, then the ISPs would be laughing all the way to the bank as almost all of them charge for downloads than uploads. Coming back to MTNL launching IPTV, the best thing MTNL can do is to improve their dismal Internet service first. Not only MTNL is costlier than most ISPs in Delhi and Mumbai (when it comes to calculating how much data you downloaded for how much you paid), the services are shoddy to say the least. The customer care backup is virtually non-existent and is reminiscent of the sarkari babu culture plaguing many government-run concerns in the country.

Videoblogger thrown in slammer for ‘Contempt of court’

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:20:31 +0000

Freelance journalist Josh Wolf, 24, has landed in jail for refusing to hand over videotapes that he took during an anarchist protest in San Francisco in July 2005. The videotapes allegedly contain footage of the anarchists setting fire on a police vehicle. US District Judge William Alsop ruled that Josh Wolf, by refusing to hand over the tapes as evidence in a federal case is guilty of contempt of court. Judge Alsop ruled against all motions including 5th amendment rights, rights coming under freedom of the press, against bail or a stay. Prosecutors argued that setting fire to a police vehicle amounted to a federal crime as San Francisco Police Department receives federal funds. On the other side, Wolf and his legal team are accusing the government that it is manipulating the case to circumvent California’s shield law that allows journalists to withhold unpublished material and confidential sources from prosecutors. However, there is no federal shield law and in federal courts state laws doesn’t apply. Anyway, Josh plans to appeal against this ‘injustice’ and fight all the way, in which he estimates that the costs could be as high as $15K. He has used his blog to spread the message and solicit help from whoever can. Yesterday, Josh’s mother also sent out a passionate plea for financial and spiritual support through Josh’s blog. I am afraid, it didn’t attract many sympathetic comments. I sincerely can see the merits of the argument that says that to keep evidence of a criminal offense away from law, especially of hate groups like the anarchists is not a very appealing proposition for society at large to support. However, I am also all in favour of the rights of journalists. It would be rather very interesting to see how the case develops. Whom do you side with now? Read Picture Credits: National Lawyers Guild

WSJ Analysis: Top 10% of YouTube videos make 79% of plays

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:19:58 +0000

A Wall Street Journal analysis of companies has revealed that many companies still cling on to big hits to drive earnings. Giving examples from Pink Floyd’s all-time hit album released in 1973 – Dark Side of the Moon that is still selling around 10,000 albums a week to the current Web 2.0 businesses YouTube. It says that the top 10% videos in YouTube generate 79% of the plays. Over 5.1 million videos are uploaded in YouTube generating 7.56 billion plays. This means that 5,100,000 videos generate 5,972,400,000 plays! Take that! News: ZDNet Read

Windows Live Spaces rolls out major updates, can it compete with MySpace et al?

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:15:47 +0000

Microsoft, in a bid to ride on the ever-increasing popularity of online social networks began rolling out a major update to its ‘Spaces’ blogging service. It has added new functionalities and includes features that integrates Spaces with other Live services. This includes more customization options through the addition of gadget support from the Windows Live Gallery. The member area interface is very good looking, and user-friendly. However, the best and smartest new thing in the update is the Live Contact, a feature you have in the Windows Live Messenger. It enables users to have IM conversation through the Spaces site. What’s more, Microsoft has taken utmost care to prevent some of the issues that MySpace confronted like pedophiles/child molesters cultivating victims through MySpace. Apart from the standard request for approval of adding friends, it has imposed controls on users below 18, and only those who are already in their Windows Messenger contact list can contact them. (Well ask a 15-yr old lad wanting to contact a hot 18+ babe; he will tell you that he can very easily become a 21-yr old man! Practically this is eyewash.) With regular MSN users numbering in tens of millions (Hotmail is still perhaps the number one web-based free email service), it can really hope to get a good opening. Already there are many, many Spaces users now. With MySpace outages are becoming regulation of late (their IM client missing for months during the beginning of this year), Yahoo! 360 still not catching up as expected Spaces can be a more than moderate success. Did I hear someone mentioning the other huge successes like Tagworld, Facebook, Hi5 and the rapidly growing orkut? Well, online social networks are growing and will continue to grow like mushrooms. Then one day they will evaporate, as it would become all too common like email services in 1999-2000. Just like you don’t remember how many email accounts you had, neither do I. Chances are that you have stuck to or still use your good old Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail account often just like I do, GMail and, and (??)… well nothing else withstanding. MySpace would survive because it is still the most popular, with the highest number of members; but then the future belongs to those who have the strongest base, the best features and quality service. Spaces can make a difference here. Read