Okay, let's check the traffic on the Internet: Traffic is heavy westbound and eastbound. Arteries are clogging up the expressway headed both north and south with tie-ups and breakdowns reported heading both in and out of town with delays of an hour or more in both directions. Internet service providers like Comcast and Time Warner have reached a point where they are now controlling traffic due to heavy Internet traffic. Time Warner is now testing monthly bandwidth caps and even the phone companies (AT&T and Verizon) aren't immune to congestion although they can go deeper in the system with service by using routers and fiberoptic links...
What's causing all this traffic? We are. Although we all pay for Internet service, it doesn't mean we can be gluttons and not expect to affect everyone else's use of the Network. Service providers are now considering asking consumers to stick to two helpings per person, limiting monthly downloads. They're also starting to limit the availability of dishes to control your appetite for gluttony. To understand how serious this problem is, consider this: each cable serves about 500 households, which share about 40 megabits per second of download capacity. If each household gets Internet service with a maximum download speed of 10 mbps, four of them downloading at full spead can saturate the connection. According to Rob Malan, chief technology officer for Arbor Networks, "one greedy person on that network knocks the whole neighborhood offline." ...
Video is the big Internet driver with YouTube, started in 2005, accounting for 10% of the traffic. Add movie and music downloads to create an even higher percentage of downloads. There are solutions to heavy traffic problems. A new modern technology called Docsis 3.0 which is starting to roll out this year, can increase download capacity on a cable to 160 mbps. Solutions cost money though and a spokesman for ABI Research estimates that cable providers need to spend $24 billion through 2012 to upgrade their networks. Are you perhaps starting to see that on your cable bill? Count on it. In the meantime, remember when we all started turning out the lights when we left a room to save money on our electric bills? We all can do the same with our downloads...
10 Timeline Memories:
- 1892] Honest: If my math is correct, Abraham Lincoln would have been 209 today. I'll have to check with Williard Scott on that. Honest Abe's birthday became a national holiday in 1892 when he would have been 83. Of course that celebration was taken away from Lincoln and Washington in lieu of 'President's Day', Feb. 18th this year...1915] The cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial is laid in Washington, D.C...
- 1909] Advancing the cause: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is organized...
- 1924] First in the nation: Calvin Coolidge makes his first presidential political speech on radio. Here's Cal in action for the cameras: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5puwTrLRhmw ...
- 1971] 'Happy Trails': James Cash (J.C.) Penney dies from natural causes at 95. Penney's closes its stores for half a day. They couldn't close for a full day??? 1983] Ragtime pianist, the great Eubie Blake passes away peacefully, 5 days after his 100th birthday. From the 1932 musical "Pie, Pie, Blackbirds" Eubie plays 'Memories of You': http://youtube.com/watch?v=UgaA488t2bE ...2000] Charles M. Schulz, creator of 'Peanuts' dies from cancer at 77...2000] Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry, who led the Dallas Cowboys to 5 Super Bowls, winning 3, passes away from leukemia at 75...
- 1976] Murder in Hollywood: 37-year old actor Sal Mineo is found murdered in his driveway, the victim of a botched robbery attempt. Here's the former heartthrob in better times, as a guest on 'What's My Line?' in 1957: http://youtube.com/watch?v=86cCoEhJ2VY&feature=related ...
- 1989] Vote for me: Tiny Tim declares himself a New York City mayoral candidate but changes his mind a.k.a. 'Mike Bloomberg syndrome'...
- 1999] Free at last: Bill Clinton is acquitted of impeachment charges by the Senate...
- 2004] The best part of breaking up: Mattel announces the breakup of 'Barbie' and 'Ken'. The pair met on the set of their first TV commercial in 1961, seen here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z5pcyHT838g&feature=related ...America's favorite couple has since reconciled...
- 2006] Nor'easter: A powerful Nor'easter blankets the Northeast dumping1 to 2 feet of snow from Washington, D.C. to New England. We got an exaggerated 26.9" of snow, an all-time record in New York...
- 2007] Trolley Square shooting: A beserk gunman opens fire at Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City killing 6, including himself...
Music Memories:
- 1956] Recorded on this date: "I Put A Spell On You" - Screamin' Jay Hawkins. SJH does the little ditty on SNL: http://youtube.com/watch?v=orNpH6iyokI ...
- 1961] Gold Standard: "Shop Around" - The Miracles becomes Motown's first million selling gold record. Here it is right off the record: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_fwrProP8ZE ...
Commentary:
Remember the old Radio adage of always going forward, never back? You would always plug ahead to what's coming up. You would tease to keep the listeners listening for a particular show, song or promotion. Well it didn't work for TV during the Grammys over the weekend. The tease was for the Amy Winehouse performance from London via satellite. The overall numbers produced the 3rd-least watched awards show with 17.5 million viewers. Oh sure, CBS won the night but it was down from 20 million last year, down a half-million from 2006 and down almost 2 million from 2005. The highest viewed Grammys was in 2000 when 27.7 million looked on. As viewers kept watching this past Sunday night, the audience moved from 18.5 million to a high of 20.1. From 9:30 on, the audience declined each half-hour, despite teasing to Winehouse's appearance. From 10:30 on, the erosion would reach a low of 15.79 million. In New York, 1 in 4 TVs were tuned to the Grammys. In an ideal world, you would get the star performance on earlier. In this case they were dealing with Amy Winehouse, poster child for the disfunctional artist. By the time they got her, it didn't matter anyway...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Christina Ricci (28), Josh Brolin (40), Chynna Phillips (40), Arsenio Hall (53), Michael McDonald (56), Ray Manzarek (69), Gene McDaniels (73) http://youtube.com/watch?v=37x-uaiovYw , Bill Russell (#6) (74), Joe Garagiola (82), Charles Van Doren (82) and Dom DiMaggio (91)...
Timeline Countdown: 2 days until pitchers & catchers report voluntarily, 26 days until daylight time, 38 days until spring and 43 days until opening day...
