Past Diatribes

Well, the big news first: I was not only the newest happy member of the JBA Software Products (Ireland) Limited team, I was the last. A week before Christmas Eve, the computers were all shut down, the furniture was all shipped out, and the doors closed for good. As a company, JBA SPL has bit the proverbial dust, kicked the final bucket.

I SWEAR, IT WASN'T MY FAULT!

The company was acquired by a Canadian firm who decided to close Dublin down, consolidating everything over to England. End result: Mikey received a nice severance package, but was doomed to be counted among the unemployed for the holidays.

My Dad says that these things usually turn out for the best, and he was right. For a couple of weeks I was researching around, posting off CV's, interviewing, and waiting beside the phone. And finally, I've gotten myself a seat back in the game. I'm anteing up with a new company called Interactive Enterprise Limited.

In the short run, IE offers me more money and is closer to home. In the long run, I believe this company will really go far. We develop software which enables cable companies to deliver really neat stuff over the line. Interactive TV, telephone service without paying the phone company's line rental, video-on-demand, teleshopping, e-mail, text information, the works. One feature, all alone, is enough to make me an enthusiast: cable offers Internet connections somewhere around 40 times the speed of today's fastest modems.

Over copper phone lines, the fastest possible speed to download data is 33.6kbps (kilobits-per-second). Using some funky software compression techniques, computer modems can boost this as high as 56kbps. The coaxial cable plugged into the back of your television set is made differently, though. Information can come down that pipe at about 2mbps (megabits-per-second). To oversimplify, that same sort of coaxial cable is often used to link up fast computer networks in offices. That gave folks some ideas....

A couple million people in the US, including this dude I know named Charles, already have cable modems hooked up to their computers. His review: 'The speed is other-worldly.' 'Nuf said. While this technology hasn't really hit Europe yet, it's poised to spread like wildfire. Interactive Enterprise has deals worked out with some big communications companies, and waits with the right knowledge in the right place at the right time.

If you're interested, there's plenty of concise information on cable technology available from Cable Datacom News. Check it out! It's an interesting field, and I'm happily up to my ears learning all about it!

What else have I been up to? Um, I went to the greyhound track. I bought a drill and re-mortised a door. I've upgraded a couple more computers and fought the dreaded NYB Virus. I urged my friend Eddie to move to New Zealand to chase this Kiwi chick, and went to the National History Museum at Collins' Barracks. Oh yeah, and I spent some time hiking around in the Dublin-Wicklow Mountains! (I'll post a picture shortly, but it's really something that must be seen in person.)

Both my better half and I are in good health & are planning to buy a car, shortly. And that's about all the news for now: be sure to drop me a line, and let me know what's going on at your end.

Peace.