Over the last 20 years I’ve worked on several systems that rely on pushing data around to the right place at the right time in order to be effective. Hotel reservations systems need real-time availability information, LPG distribution needs to know what state various tanks are in, streaming video to cellphones needs to get over the air to the user and live video needs to get over the network to the broadcast center.

40 years ago much of this wouldn’t have been possible as the lines of real-time communication didn’t exist or were prohibitively expensive (compare the cost of a telegram message in 1900 to a text message today, or a transmission from the Hubble Telescope.

In 20 years will networks exist as we know them today – patchy, unreliable and certainly not ubiquitous enough to rely on consistently? Or will the promise of an always on connected affordable  cloud become real.

Imagine film of a normal street right now, a relatively busy crossroads at 9AM taken from a vantage point high above the street, looking down at an angle as if from a CCTV camera. We can see several buildings, a dozen cars, and quite a few people, pavements dotted with street furniture.

Freeze the frame, and scrub the film backwards and forwards a little, observing the physical activity on the street. But what can’t we see?

I'd not bought into the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray war. Not because I thought one standard was better than the other, but because over the last couple of years I've become more and more convinced that over the wire and over the air distribution are going to dominate.

In the US with Comcast and Verizon pushing speeds (12Mbps and 50Mbps are fairly common for Cable and Fiber respectively) and despite the grandstanding about net neutrality and p2p on-demand video is growing - you only have to look at Netflix, AppleTV and the Xbox Marketplace to see that.

Rather than jump on the Blu-Ray bandwagon with the demise of HD-DVD Microsoft are betting on downloads as the way forward. As long as the infrastructure continues to advance and the ISPs and record/music business don't spoil it for everyone I think it bodes for a great future...

As anyone who has ever visited a rack room or looked down the back of a home PC can testify... cables get tangled.

If you've ever wondered while passing the time trying to sort out the mess if there's a better way to untangle them.... wonder no more, but get in training as a speedcabling athlete.

This new sport has just crowned it's first winner in a competition in LA that saw contestants battle to de-tangle a dozen ethernet cables of varying lengths... with the added twist that they still had to carry data at the end of the race!

These cables were not just tangled by time and chance. There was method to the madness! To get them to replicate the conditions of the wires found snaking and choking their way around hard drive units, monitors and printers in offices worldwide, Steven Schkolne (creator of this new sport) first started by tangling them in a figure eight. Then he threw the bundles in a clothes dryer for 3 minutes.

The first winner was Matthew Howell - and as well as the fame of being the first crowned champion in the sport he got a $50 voucher for a local restaurant.

Finally, a sport I might have a chance at.... check out the rules and other details at the official site...