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Test Drive: 2010 GMC Terrain - San Jose Mercury News

Consumers can't seem to get enough of the all-new GMC Terrain compact crossover and its Chevrolet sibling, the Equinox. These fuel-efficient family vehicles are selling so well that the plant in Ontario, Canada, that builds them is running at ...

Temasek and Thaksin lost in space - Asia Times

When Singapore's state-run investment arm Temasek Holdings bought Thailand's Shin Corp telecommunications conglomerate in 2006, its 73 billion baht (US$2.2 billion) acquisition of Shin Satellite was a strategic afterthought. Temasek was known to have ...

Live HD Broadcast: A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor - Cape Cod Today

Presented by Prairie Home Productions, American Public Media, and BY Experience on Thursday, February 4th, 2010, and an encore showing on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 Garrison Keillor, host of A Prairie Home Companion, brings the beloved radio show to ...

Biz Buzz: Former Iowan Katich brings yoga discipline to top athletes - Des Moines Register

Former-Iowan-turned-NBA yoga guru Kent Katich was featured in an ESPN.com Page 2 story last week. Writer Maria Burns Ortiz said Katich is the only yoga instructor working full-time with an NBA team currently or - as far as he can tell - in the ...

Venezuelan police break up anti-Chavez protest - Pioneer Press

CARACAS, Venezuela—Police used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter hundreds of students protesting against the government Thursday, while President Hugo Chavez's supporters celebrated the 18th anniversary of his failed coup as an ...

Organizations: Week of Feb. 7 - Minot Daily News

Souris Valley Danish Society Luncheon Meeting: noon, Scandinavian Heritage Center basement. Cost for the lunch is $5 per person. Anyone interested in Danish history and culture is invited. Call 839-8280 for more information. Sertoma Club: noon, Grand ...

A church in a bar, Super Bowl services, and more - WTVD

“This AIN’T your grandmother’s church!” So reads the website of one of Raleigh’s newest churches, Another Level . And that statement may be an understatement. Don’t expect stained glass and hymnals there. Instead, you may see shot glasses ...

Resolved Question: Cheap place to buy Pioneer GEX-XMP3 Portable XM Satellite Radio Receiver w Home Kit?

Where can I find a great deal online for Pioneer GEX-XMP3 Portable XM Satellite Radio Receiver w Home Kit more

Resolved Question: Does the Pioneer - 50W x 4 MOSFET Apple® iPod®/Satellite Radio/HD Radio-Ready CD Deck work with the iphone?

I am looking to buy this deck but before I do I am wondering if it will work with an iphone. It is on the Best Buy website. more

Resolved Question: how do i play my ipod?!?!?

ok i have this Model: DEH-P5100UB deck in my car but i dont know how to play my ipod on it can u help me plz here is the website http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Pioneer+-+MOSFET+50W+x+4+Apple+iPod/Satellite+Radio-Ready+In-Dash+CD+Deck/9197175.p?id=1218056226379&skuId=9197175i did but there is like a usb cord in the back of the deck i dont know wat that is for more

Resolved Question: 2007 Kia Optima LX HELP PLEASE.!!!?

Would anyone know if the STOCK radio in this car a double din, or single.? I want to buy my boyfriend this deck for his car but i have no idea if it will fit,,, (because i have not yet seen the car) Pioneer - In-Dash Navigation Receiver/ Satellite Radio/HD Radio/Apple® iPod®-Ready CD Deck Model: AVIC-U310BT | SKU: 9362012 (the mounting style is double din) ..If it doesn't fit anyone have any idea of one that will.? i want the GPS built in.! more

Voting Question: > Hello, what is the difference between these 2 models? - besides price. Just looking for a portable player to?

> Hello, what is the difference between these 2 models? - besides price. Just looking for a portable player to listen to XM channels. Thx, > > > 1. Pioneer GEX-INNO2BK Inno 2 Portable XM Satellite Radio with MP3 > Capability > > > 2. Pioneer Inno Portable XM2go Radio with MP3 Player > > >XM2Go is strictly an XM receiver, The XM2Go has an FM transmitter, Inno 2 is also an MP3 player. Is INNO2 able to receive XM receiver?. Looking on amazon INNO2 is $109 and XM2go is $299 - it just appears Xm2go just has more whiz bang features belles and whitles. etc. Is xm2go really worth the extra money if all I need is a portable XM to carry to work? Thx, more

Voting Question: how do i find out what sound equipment to purchase that will match up and work good for my 96 Chevy cavalier?

i have these... a Pioneer - 6-1/2" 2-Way Car Speakers with Polypropylene Cones (Pair) a Pioneer - MOSFET 50W x 4 Apple iPod/Satellite Radio-Ready In-Dash CD Deck a Pioneer - 12" Single-Voice-Coil 4-Ohm Component Subwoofer a Pioneer - 300W Bridgeable 2-Channel Amplifier with Built-In Crossover will all this stuff work good together? more

Resolved Question: I have a Pioneer AVH-P4100DVD in my car. NO song title when on satellite radio?

near the upper left side of the screen, when I'm tuned to Sirius satellite, it says "song" and then has that "ghost busters" circle with a line through it thing to signify "no song" I'm guessing. How do I turn this off or make it to show the song? more

Resolved Question: How do you find the radio ID on a pioneer premier InDash?

i need this ID to activate the satellite radio more

Resolved Question: New sound system idea. What do you think?

I know some of the brands aren't the best but its okay. Just want more then factory 98' Windstar system. I'm looking to stay under $850 (or in that area), so heres what I'm lookin at. 1-JVC Arsenal,KD-AHD59 CD/MP3 receiver w/HD radio,USB input, & iPod control $160 1-Pioneer, XMp3, portable XM satellite radio w/home & car kits $180 2-Audiobahn,ABC680V, 6''x8'' component systems $100 1-Boss Audio,CW350, 50Wx4(rms) amplifier(to drive components) $65 1-Visonik, dual 12'' subs in bandpass box $140 1-Boss Audio,D800.2, 260Wx2(rms) amplifier (to power subs) $120 1-Boss Audio,CAP2R, 2.0 farad digital capacitor w/LED display $40 and I would use a 2ga. dual amplifier wiring kit This all comes up to right around $815 or so. 720 watts (RMS) output wold be much better then the stock crap I use now. more

Resolved Question: can i connect my ps3 to a Pioneer - 550W 5.1-Ch. Apple® iPod®/Satellite Radio-Ready Home Theater Receiver?

I wanted to get a home theater and connect it to my PS3 but im not sure if this one is the right one heres the link: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9238942&type=product&id=1218065494188 Does it come with the speakers? please answer this question more

Resolved Question: how to use the satellite radio pioneer xm?

Resolved Question: how do I hook up a satellite radio to a pioneer cd car stereo through the aux feature? RB?

I can not see an aux jack. more

Resolved Question: where can i find pioneer car stereo manuals. specifically for model DEH-P49001B?

i purchased a car with a Pioneer DEH-P49001B stereo in it and i need a manual to be able to use all of the satellite radio, ipod, etc. functions. more

Resolved Question: Does a Pioneer GEX-XMP3 Portable XM Satellite Radio Receiver w/ Home Kit go with a sirius subscribtion ? I hav?

I have a stiletto from sirius and i listen to it, but i would like a protable with an antena built right into it? will i be able to listen to my xm portable with siruis subscription ? thanks more

Resolved Question: Why does our Sirius satellite radio cut out on this barely used Pioneer stereo?

Pioneer DEH-P3900MP with Sirius component installed. I had this in my car for 6 months until I sold it with no problems. I got a new car so we moved it to my girlfriends car. It was installed last weekend at Best Buy and it started cutting in and out after a few days. We took it back this weekend and they moved the antenna and before leaving the parking lot it stopped working again. So we took it back the same day and got a new antenna put on. Same thing - just after leaving the parking lot the Sirius stops and the display reads "Acquiring Signal" constantly. Why is this happening? It's on a VW bug and the antenna is mounted by the hood under the windshield wipers. The first time it was on the dash near the windshield on the inside of the car. more

Voting Question: How do I hook up Ipod and Aux Input to my Pioneer head Unit with IP/Bus?

I already have an Ipod control cable hooked to my Pioneer stereo and want to hook just the audio for my satellite radio to the unit as well(I don't NEED to control my satellite with the head unit). How do I daisy-chain two cables together(My Ipod cable, and a IP/Bus cable w/ RCA jacks on it)? I don't want to buy a box with an in/out on it, and I am tired of plugging the Sat into the front Aux of my head unit. Thanks more

Resolved Question: XM Radio or iPod Nano?

I am having trouble deciding which device I should buy. The new Pioneer XMP3 portable XM Satellite Radio device? Or just a 16GB iPod Nano? Any advice? more

Resolved Question: XM and Sirius Satellite Radio Question?

This question may be obvious, but I'm not for sure. My dad's vehicle (2007 Ford Edge SEL) came with built-in Sirius satellite radio into the factory stereo. And it doesn't display the song name, artist, or album for the song playing. Now it may be different from the portable XM Pioneer Inno and the new XMP3, but do either of these portable devices display the song information? And one more question, does the XMP3 have a built-in flash drive? Or do I have to buy a separate microSD card to store the "100 hours of my favorite XM programs" like Pioneer claims? Thank you all so much. Much appreciated. more

Voting Question: stereo System amp and stuff?

so im gonna get a Pioneer - 50w x 4 mosfet Apple® iPod/Satellite Radio-Ready cd Deck and a bazooka passive bass tube and i don't know what amp to get still looking at speakers helpkeep in mind im new to this stuff BT1014 - BT Series 10 inch 4 ohm Passive Tube do i need anything special on the amp for the Speakers ?or a BT1024DVC - BT Series 10 inch 4 ohm Dual Passive Tube more

Resolved Question: Does anyone have suggestions on good decks for a Honda accord?

Basically, I am kinda picky on what I get. I don't want alot of knobs, or the knobs to be joy sticks. I used my dads and his is a Pioneer, but the knob is a joystick, needless to say I almost killed it with a screw driver. Currently I have an Alpine CDA-9851, and I am satisfied with the setup. But, it keeps failing. In 3 years, it has almost died completely 2 times. The first time it was under warranty, this time its out of warranty so I can't send it in. I don't want to spend a hundred or a couple hundred for someone to fix it when I can get a new one cheaper . That being said, what is a good one, and reliable, model? I don't mind 2 knobs, but I don't want 2 knobs the size of wheels on it either. I don't care about fancy backgrounds, or flashing lights. I don't care if it talks to you, makes you coffee, or has a GPS. I don't care about satellite radio, or HD radio. The only function I want is something that I can plug a flash drive into, or MP3 player. (Not Ipod, I hate Ipod. Maybe Zune, but most likely something like Sandisk or something.) Obviously I need Sub woofer controls. The one I have now has alot. I can turn the amount of sound that goes through it, I can say what kinda of sound, like wide, narrow. I can turn the bass up outside of how much volume goes through it. As well as what frequency levels go through it. So all in all, I have 4 separate sub woofer controls. I also need some speaker controls, but not as much as the sub needs. (I like fine tuning my sub. If you include the amp, I have 7 different settings for the sub.) Currently I have only 3 for the speakers. Which is sufficient. So, should I get a new Alpine, or is their a different brand thats good? (I have almost everything else in my car Alpine, except the amp. Both front and back speakers, the sub, and head unit, are Alpine.) Should I stay with a CDA? Go to a different model? To a different company? Any suggestions on a good deck? more

Voting Question: do you think the internet/world has gone corrupted?

is the internet today what was planned when they created it more than 35 years ago? the message forums, chat, video postings, porn, etc.it makes me ill. they planned to make the internet to share their research with one-another from diffrent locations. not to post yourself. its like the world. the war, violence, sex, drugs, alchohol, vehicals accidents, anger, weapons, etc. it makes me sick to the stomic. i feel like i want to move to a old town with no eletronics in the middle of nowhere and study from my books there. i hate being afraid somebodys going to comeinto my house and murder me, or fear that a car is going to crash into me on the sidewalk while i am going to the library. why does the world have to be so corrupted? what is wrong with peace, and following the 10 commandments? even if you are not a christain you can still follow them. they are moral laws. this is what they intended. The Internet was the result of some visionary thinking by people in the early 1960s who saw great potential value in allowing computers to share information on research and development in scientific and military fields. J.C.R. Licklider of MIT, first proposed a global network of computers in 1962, and moved over to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in late 1962 to head the work to develop it. Leonard Kleinrock of MIT and later UCLA developed the theory of packet switching, which was to form the basis of Internet connections. Lawrence Roberts of MIT connected a Massachusetts computer with a California computer in 1965 over dial-up telephone lines. It showed the feasibility of wide area networking, but also showed that the telephone line's circuit switching was inadequate. Kleinrock's packet switching theory was confirmed. Roberts moved over to DARPA in 1966 and developed his plan for ARPANET. These visionaries and many more left unnamed here are the real founders of the Internet. http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html The original ARPANET grew into the Internet. Internet was based on the idea that there would be multiple independent networks of rather arbitrary design, beginning with the ARPANET as the pioneering packet switching network, but soon to include packet satellite networks, ground-based packet radio networks and other networks. The Internet as we now know it embodies a key underlying technical idea, namely that of open architecture networking. In this approach, the choice of any individual network technology was not dictated by a particular network architecture but rather could be selected freely by a provider and made to interwork with the other networks through a meta-level "Internetworking Architecture". Up until that time there was only one general method for federating networks. This was the traditional circuit switching method where networks would interconnect at the circuit level, passing individual bits on a synchronous basis along a portion of an end-to-end circuit between a pair of end locations. Recall that Kleinrock had shown in 1961 that packet switching was a more efficient switching method. Along with packet switching, special purpose interconnection arrangements between networks were another possibility. While there were other limited ways to interconnect different networks, they required that one be used as a component of the other, rather than acting as a peer of the other in offering end-to-end service. http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml#Initial_ConceptsI WANTED A ANSWER FOR A OPINION, NOT BULL FROM A POSTER WHO DIDN'T READ! WHY DID YOU EVEN POST ANYWAYS? GO WASTE YOUR TIME SOMEWHERE ELSE!YOUR THE PEOPLE I'M TALKING ABOUT! SCUMBAG!YEAH, I WENT THERE! more

Resolved Question: What do I need to connect my Sirius radio to my Pioneer head unit?

I have a Pioneer stereo that will operate my Sirius radio, I currently have the car kit and want to use the stereo to control the Sirius unit(It is a 'Satellite Ready' head unit.). I don't know if I need the Sirius SC-VDOC1 or the SiriusConnect CD-SB10. Sirius isn't the best at making sure you don't have redundant equipment, so I'm a little lost here. Thanks. more

Resolved Question: Using XM Radio in My car?

Im thinking of getting a pioneer inno2 receiver so I can take it almost anywhere.I will be putting a CD receiver/head into my Kia that says its Satellite ready. Im reading that its hard to use this reciever in a car. Is it possible to make it work good or should I look at other radios? more

Resolved Question: What would I need to use XM Radio in my car?

Resolved Question: How do I hook up my new head unit, with the factory installed sirius satellite radio?

I bought a new pioneer head unit, and right now my deck is stock, but i have the sirius factory installed. my pioneer says its sat. ready. How do i go about hooking everything up? more

Resolved Question: Pioneer DEH-P7900B iPod/Satellite Radio-Ready CD Deck?

I'm looking at buying this used off ebay but want to know if it is reliable, good quality, what it's worth in good condition ect? more

Resolved Question: Would you rather get XM or Sirius Satellite Radio?

I was think about adding a satellite radio card to my pioneer DEH-P6000UB stereo, but I was wondering if Sirius or XM is better. I want one that has great rock stations, and maybe some news stations and rap. Which one would you recommend Sirius or XM? more

Resolved Question: Does getting sirius satellite radio require me to buy a seperate reciever or can i run it off my pioneer one.?

My pioneer DEH-P500UB says its sirius satellite ready what else do i need? more

Resolved Question: Is this a good car audio system?

This is my first time building a car audio system. It is going in a Chevy S-10 Extended Cab Pickup truck. I want it to have good all around sound. It must have good bass but not overpower the highs. The system consists of the following: Head Unit - Pioneer DEH-P5000UB, CD Receiver, iPod and satellite radio ready). Door Speakers - 2 Pioneer TS-A1682R, 4 way, 6 1/2", 280 watt peak power (2-50 watt RMS). Amp - Profile HA1040, 4 channel, 80 watts RMS by four channels, or 225 watts RMS per channel when bridged to 2-channel. (Amp will power the two door speakers on first 2 channels and the sub with the last 2 channels bridged together). Sub - 1 MTX Thunder5500 T5510-04, 10", 300 watt (150-300 watt RMS). Sub Enclosure - Q-Logic QLH-.6510SS, sealed and ported single sub enclosure. This doesn't include some of the smaller items like weiring, etc. Is this a good setup? more

Voting Question: Head unit for F150 with Sirius Satellite?

My truck has a 6 disc changer with satelite radio. I want to replace the head unit but retain the satelite radio. I've checked with best buy,circuit city, and crutchfield. They have all told me that I have to change the satelite tuner because aftermarket head units will not plug and play with factory sirius tuners. Back home, two friends of mine with similar trucks and audio systems switched out their headunits, one with a pioneer dvd unit and the other with a kenwood cd unit and both plugged into the sirius tuners. I tried calling them where they work but they do not work there anymore. I tried calling pioneer and kenwood but they were no help. I am looking for a decent head unit that will plug into my factory satelite tuner and has an aux input for an mp3 player. Thanks more

Resolved Question: Which CD player should i get for my car?

I am going to BestBuy tomorrow to buy a CD player for my car, i am looking for opinions on which i should buy....i think i have it narrowed down to these three so if you could help me out that would be great. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=abcat0302012&type=category 1. Pioneer 50W x 4 MOSFET Apple® iPod™/Satellite Radio-Ready CD Deck DEH-P3900M 2. JVC 50W x 4 MOSFET CD Deck with MP3 Playback and Detachable Faceplate KDG230 3. JVC 50W x 4 MOSFET Apple® iPod™-Ready CD Deck KDPDR30 more

Resolved Question: What's the best AV Receiver I can buy for $1000-$1200?

I have an HD DirectTV DVR, Blu-Ray player, XBOX 360, VCR and a Pioneer Plasma HDTV (1080p) and want a new AV receiver with at least 3 HDMI inputs, with good upconversion and good downcoversion as well. Would like iPod comptabible, satellite radio ready and ability for multi-zones. Thanks for your help! more

Resolved Question: What Do I Need for an Satellite Radio Ready Unit, and Can I Remove It if I Sell My Car?

I'm interested in getting XM Radio this Christmas season for myself. I would probably use the subscription in my car and on my computer. My car's stereo, a Pioneer DEH-P5800MP, is satellite radio ready. What further equipment do I need in order to begin receiving satellite radio. Also, if I plan on selling my car, can I remove the needed equipment to carry my subscription over to my new car? more

Resolved Question: Best car cd receiver w/ipod, hdradio, sat-radio ready?

I'm looking for a new car CD receiver that has the following capabilities: HD Radio (preferred to be built-in) plays iPod (and controls volume from stereo rather than from ipod) satellite radio ready has inputs for subwoofers and NO fold-down face, but straight CD slot. in the price range of $139-179 or so. I'd prefer it to have a black background display with white letters/numbers rather than a blue background. Also would prefer it to have an aux input in the front for hooking up ipod, sat radio, etc. as I have both an ipod and a Sirius plug n' play unit I'd like to use with it. prefer kenwood, apline, JVC, Blaupunkt, pioneer thanks all! more

Resolved Question: What satellite radio should I get?

I was looking the Pioneer Inno (XM player), and the Sirius Stilletto 2. The thing is I love music and I love my personal MP3's, and would love them more on the go. I know nothing about satellite radios, I would rather have XM radio but I heard XM and Sirius were merging so does it matter what player I get, will I get the stations from both companies? Man oh man, this is too much to take in, someone with the knowledge please help out. Thanks for any info. By the way I will be using this mostly in my car, but will also use it on the go. more

Resolved Question: What do i need to buy to let the satellite radio work in my Scion XB? its sat ready,but needs a receiver??

The factory head unit ( Pioneer) shows its sat ready, however I know it needs and antenna and a receiver. Where can I buy the receiver? Ebay? more

Resolved Question: What do I need for satellite radio?

I have a pioneer 4800mp for my head unit. It says that it is satellite radio ready. I plan on getting sirius sat radio. Do i just need the tuner - http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000EYFFYS?ie=UTF8&condition=new&tag=dealtime-ce-mpfeed-20&creative=380345&creativeASIN=B000EYFFYS&linkCode=asm and then I control the channels through the head unit, or do I also need another receiver to hook up in the car also? Basically what else do I need to hook up the sat radio?here is what my head unit looks like - http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/product/details/0,,2076_310069880_291048449,00.html more

Resolved Question: Can anyone recommend a particular CD head unit for an F-250?

Looking to purchase a new head unit for my 05 F250. A buddy of mine has a Pioneer Premier unit and it works well, looks great too. I am looking for something that is iPod capable and Satellite Radio ready. Preferably under $350. Any other ideas? more

Resolved Question: Anyone intrested in writing a two page summary of this?

FIBER KEEPS ITS PROMISE BY GEORGE GILDER "Today, I await the death of television, telephony, VCRs, and analog cameras with utter confidence as Moore's law unfolds." Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner, John Malone, are you listening?" Get ready. Bandwidth will triple each year for the next 25, creating trillions in new wealth. Editor's note: Four years ago, Forbes ASAP published its first issue with a stunning prophecy by contributing editor George Gilder. Fiber optics, said George, had the potential to carry 25 trillion bits per second down a single strand. This represented a ten-thousandfold leap in carrying capacity over the 2.5 billion bits "barrier" long assumed by most experts in the field. What did George see that others had missed? One, a little-recognized (at the time) breakthrough called an erbium-doped amplifier, which keeps optical signals pure and strong over long distances. The other was a deep technical shift, with roots in the 1940s-era work of information theory pioneer Claude Shannon. If you believed Shannon, his logic dictated a new messaging scheme called wave division multiplexing. Though scorned by the experts four years ago, WDM now is emerging as the winner George had prophesied. The real winners will be all of us, as the coming world of cheap, unlimited bandwidth unfolds and at last fulfills the true potential of the information age. Here is George with an update. IMAGINE THAT IN 1975 YOU KNEW that Moore's law--the Intel chairman's projection of the doubling of the number of transistors on a microchip every 18 months--would hold for the rest of your lifetime. What if you knew that these transistors would run cooler, faster, better, and cheaper as they got smaller and were crammed more closely together? Suppose you knew the law of the microcosm: that the cost-effectiveness of any number of "n" transistors on a single silicon sliver would rise by the square of the increase in "n." As an investor knowing this Moore's law trajectory, you would have been able to predict and exploit a long series of developments: the emergence of the PC; its dominance over all other computer form factors; the success of companies making chips, disk drives, peripherals, and software for this machine. With a slight effort of intellect, you could have extended the insight and prophesied the digitization of watches, records (CDs), cellular phones, cameras, TVs, broadcast satellites, and other devices that can use miniaturized computer power. If you did not know precisely when each of these benisons would flourish, you would have known that each one was essentially inevitable. To calculate approximate dates, you had only to guess the product's optimal price of popularization and then match its need for mips (millions of instructions per second) of computer power with the cost of those mips as defined by Moore's law. Merely by using this technique of Moore's law matching--and holding to it with unshakable conviction for nearly 20 years--I became known as a "futurist." Today I await the death of television, telephony, VCRs, and analog cameras with utter confidence as Moore's law unfolds. You can tell me about the 98% penetration of TVs in American homes, the continuing popularity of couch-potato entertainments, the effectiveness of broadcast advertising, and the profound and unbridgeable chasm between the office appliance and the living-room tube. But I will pay no attention. Just you wait--Jack Welch, Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, John Malone, and David Jennings--the TV will die and you may be too late for the Net. It is now 1997, and a stream of dramatic events certifies that another law, as powerful and fateful and inexorable as Moore's, is gaining a similar sway over the future of technology. It is what I have termed the law of the telecosm. Its physical base lies in the same quantum realm of eigenstates and band gaps that governs the performance of transistors and also makes photons leap and lase. But the telecosm reaches beyond components to systems, combining the science of the electromagnetic spectrum with Claude Shannon's information theory. In essence, as frequencies rise and wavelengths drop, digital performance improves exponentially. Bandwidth rises, power usage sinks, antenna size shrinks, interference collapses, error rates plummet. The law of the telecosm ordains that the total bandwidth of communications systems will triple every year for the next 25 years. As communicators move up-spectrum, they can use bandwidth as a substitute for power, memory, and switching. This results in far cheaper and more efficient systems. In 1996, the new fiber paradigm emerged in full force. Parallel communications in all-optical networks became the dominant source of new bandwidth in telecom. Like Moore's law, the law of the telecosm will reshape the entire world of information technology. It defines the direction of technological advance, the vectors of growth, the sweet spots for finance. AMERICA'S DARK SECRET FOR MORE THAN A DECADE, American companies have been laying optical fiber strands at a pace of some 4,000 miles a day, for a total of more than 25 million strand miles. Five years ago, the top 10% of U.S. homes and businesses were, on average, a thousand households away from a fiber node; now they are a hundred households away. However, the imperial advance of this technology conceals a dark secret, which has led to a pervasive underestimation of the long-term impact of photonics. Sixty percent of the fiber remains "dark" (unused for communications) and even the leading-edge "lit" fiber is being used at less than one ten-thousandth of its intrinsic capacity. This problem has prompted leaders in the industry, from Bill Gates and Andy Grove to Bob Metcalfe and Mitch Kapor, to underrate drastically the impact of fiber optics. Restricting the speed and cost-effectiveness of fiber has been an electronic bottleneck and a regulatory noose. In order for the signal to be amplified, regenerated, or switched, the light pulses had to be transformed into electronic pulses by optoelectronic converters. For all the talk of the speed of light, fiber-optic systems therefore could pass bits no faster than the switching speed of transistors, which tops out at a cycle time of between 2.5 and 10 gigahertz. Meanwhile, telecom companies could not deploy new low-cost fiber products any faster than the switching speed of politicians and regulators, which tops out roughly at a cycle time of between 2.5 years and a rate of evolution measurable only by means of carbon 14. Nonetheless, the intrinsic capacity of every fiber line is not 2.5 gigahertz. Nor is it even 25 gigahertz, which is roughly the capacity of all the frequencies commonly used in the air, from AM radio to kA band satellite. The intrinsic capacity of every fiber thread, as thin as a human hair, is at the least one thousand times the capacity of what we call the "air." One thread could carry all the calls in America on the peak moment of Mother's Day. One fiber thread could carry 25 times more bits than last year's average traffic load of all the world's communications networks put together: an estimated terabit (trillion bits) a second. Over the last five years, technological breakthroughs and legislative loopholes have begun to open up this immense capacity to possible use. Following concepts pioneered and patented by David Payne at the University of Southampton in England, a Bell Laboratories group led by Emmanuel Desurvire and Randy Giles developed a workable all-optical device. They showed that a short stretch of fiber doped with erbium, a rare earth mineral, and excited by a cheap laser diode can function as a powerful amplifier over fully 4,500 gigahertz of the 25,000 gigahertz span. Introduced by Pirelli of Italy and popularized by Ciena Corporation of Savage, Maryland, and by Lucent and Alcatel, today such photonic amplifiers are a practical reality. Put in packages between two and three cubic inches in size, the erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) fit anywhere in an optical network for enhancing signals without electronics. This invention overcame the most fundamental disadvantage of optical networks compared to electronic networks. You can tap into an electronic network as often as desired without eroding the voltage signal. Although resistance and capacitance will leach away the current, there are no splitting losses in a voltage divider. Photonic signals, by contrast, suffer splitting losses every time they are tapped; they lose photons until eventually there are none left. The cheap and compact all-optical amplifier solves this problem. It is an invention comparable in importance to the integrated circuit. Just as the integrated circuit made it possible to put an entire computer system on a single sliver of silicon, the all-optical amplifier makes it possible to put an entire system on a seamless seine of silica--glass. Unleashing the law of the telecosm, it makes possible a new global economy of bandwidth abundance. Five years ago when I first celebrated the radical implications of erbium-doped amplifiers, skepticism reigned. I was summoned to Bellcore, where the first optical networks had been built and then abandoned, to learn the acute limits of the technology from Charles Brackett and his team. I had offered the vision of a broadband fibersphere--a worldwide web of glass and light--where computer users could tune into favored frequencies as readily as radios tune into frequencies in the atmosphere today. But Brackett and other Bellcore experts told me that my basic assumption was false. It was no simpler, they said, to tune into one of scores of frequencies on a fiber than to select time slots in a time-division-multiplexed (TDM) bitstream. Indeed, electronic switching technology was moving faster than optical technology. In the face of the momentum and installed base of electronic switching and multiplexing, the fibersphere with hundreds of tunable frequencies would remain a fantasy, like Ted Nelson's Xanadu. In 1997 the fantasy is coming true around the world. Xanadu has become the World Wide Web. The erbium-doped fiber amplifier is an explosively growing $250 million business. Electronic TDM seems to have topped out at 2.5 gigabits a second. TDM gear has suffered a series of delays and nagging defects and so far has failed in the market. Electronic TDM failed not only because it pushed the envelope of electronics but also because it violated the new paradigm. In single-mode fiber, the two key impediments are nonlinearities in the glass and chromatic dispersion (the blurring of bit pulses because even in a single band different frequencies move at different speeds). Chromatic dispersion increases by the square of the bit rate, and the impact of nonlinearities rises with the power of the signal. High-powered, high-bit-rate TDM flunked both telecosm tests. By contrast, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) follows the laws of the telecosm; it succeeds by wasting bandwidth and stinting on power. WDM takes some 33% more bandwidth per bit than TDM, but it reduces power to combat nonlinearity and divides the bitstream into multiple frequencies in order to combat dispersion. Thus it can extend the distance or increase capacity by a factor of four or more today and can lay the foundations for the fibersphere tomorrow. In 1996 the new fiber paradigm emerged in full force. Parallel communications in all-optical networks, long depicted as a broadband pipe dream, crushed all competitors and became the dominant source of new bandwidth in the world telecom network. The year began with a trifold explosion at the Conference on Optical Fiber Communication in San Jose when three companies--Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs, NTT Labs, and Fujitsu--all announced terabit-per-second WDM transmissions down a single fiber. Sprint confirmed the significance of the laboratory breakthroughs by announcing deployment of Ciena's MultiWave 1600 WDM system, so called because it can increase the capacity of a single fiber thread by 1,600%. The revolution continues in 1997. At the beginning of January, NEC declared that by increasing the number of bits per hertz from one to three, it had raised the laboratory WDM record to three terabits per second. During 1996, MCI had increased the speed of its Internet backbone by a factor of 25, from 45 megabits a second to 1.2 gigabits. On January 6, Fred Briggs, chief engineering officer at MCI, announced that his company is in the process of installing new WDM equipment from Hitachi and Pirelli that increases the speed of its phone network backbone to 40 gigabits per second. Accelerating MCI's previous plans by some two years, the new system will use a more limited form of wavelength-division multiplexing to put four 10-gigabit in-cause formation streams on a single fiber thread. The first deployment will use existing facilities on a 275-mile route between Chicago and St. Louis, but the technology will be extended to the entire network. This move will consummate a nearly thousandfold upgrade of the MCI backbone, from 45 megabits per second to 40 gigabits, within some 36 months. Ciena, meanwhile, has announced technology that allows transmission of 100 gigabits per second. Its February IPO was the most important since Netscape (market cap at the end of the first trading day: $3.4 billion). Why? Ciena is the industry leader in open standard WDM gear. During the first six months the MultiWave 1600 was available, through October 1996, the firm achieved $54.8 million in sales and $15 million in net income. (Lucent is believed to be the overall leader with more than $100 million of mostly proprietary AT&T systems.) At the same time, the trans-Pacific consortium announced that it would deploy 100-gigabit-per-second fiber in its new link between the United States and Asia. A powerful new player in these markets will be Tellabs, currently the fastest-growing supplier of electronic digital cross-connect switches and other optical switching gear. In a further coup, following its purchase of broadband digital radio pioneer Steinbrecher, Tellabs has signed up all 12 principals in IBM's all-optical team. Headed by Paul Green, recent chairman of the IEEE Communications Society and author of the leading text on fiber networks, and by Rajiv Ramaswami, coauthor of a new 1997 text on the subject, the IBM group built the world's first fully functioning all-optical networks (AONs), the Rainbow series. Tellabs now owns the 11 AON patents and 100 listed technology disclosures of the group. The implications of the WDM paradigm go beyond simple data pipes. The greatest impact of all-optical technology will likely come in consumer markets. A portent is Artel Video Systems of Marlborough, Massachusetts, which recently introduced a fiber-based WDM system that can transmit 48 digital video channels, 288 CD-quality audio bitstreams, and 64 data channels on one fiber line. Aggregating contributions from a variety of content sources--each on different fiber wavelengths--and delivering them to consumers who tune into favored frequencies on conventional cable, the Artel system represents a key step into the fibersphere. It can be used for new services by either cable TV companies or telcos. The deeper significance of the Artel product, however, is its use of bandwidth as a replacement for transistors and switches. The Artel system works on dark fiber without compression. The video uses 200-megabit-per-second bitstreams (compare MPEG2 at 4 to 6 megabytes per second) that permit lossless transmissions suitable for medical imaging, and obviate dedicated processing of compression codes at the two ends. A move to massively parallel communications analogous to the move to parallel computers, all-optical networks promise nearly boundless bandwidth in fiber. According to Ewart Lowe of British Telecom, whose labs at Martlesham Heath in Ipswich have been a fount of all-optical technology, the new paradigm will reduce the cost of transport by a factor of 10. For example, the optoelectronic amplifiers previously used in fiber networks entailed nine power-hungry bipolar microchips for each wavelength, rather than a simple loop of doped silica that covers scores of wavelengths. As these systems move down through the network hierarchy, the growth of network bandwidth and cost-effectiveness will not only outpace Moore's law, it will also excel the rise in bandwidth within computers--their internal "buses" connecting their microprocessors to memory and input-output. While MCI and Sprint move to deploy technology that functions at 40 gigabits a second, current computers and workstations command buses that run at a rate of close to 1 gigabit a second. This change in the relationship between the bandwidth of networks and the bandwidth of computers will transform the architecture of information technology. As Robert Lucky of Bellcore puts it, "Perhaps we should transmit signals thousands of miles to avoid even the simplest processing function." Lucky implies that the law of the telecosm eclipses the law of the microcosm. Actually, the law of the microcosm makes distributed computers (smart terminals) more efficient regardless of the cost of linking them together. The law of the telecosm makes broadband networks more efficient regardless of how numerous and smart are the terminals. Working together, however, these two laws of wires and switches impel ever more widely distributed information systems, with processing and memory in the optimal locations. WHAT SHOULD THE MAJOR PLAYERS DO NOW? FOR THE TELEPHONE COMPANIES, the age of ever smarter terminals mandates the emergence of ever dumber networks. Telephone companies may complain of the large costs of the transformation of their system, but they command capital budgets as large as the total revenues of the cable industry. Telcos may recoil in horror at the idea of dark fiber, but they command webs of the stuff 10 times larger than any other industry. Dumb and dark networks may not fit the phone company self-image or advertising posture. But they promise larger markets than the current phone company plan to choke off their own future in the labyrinthine nets of an "intelligent switching fabric" always behind schedule and full of software bugs. Telephone switches (now 80% software) are already too complex to keep pace with the efflorescence of the Internet. While computers become ever more lean and mean, turning to reduced instruction-set processors and Java stations, networks need to adopt reduced instruction-set architectures. The ultimate in dumb and dark is the fibersphere now incubating in their magnificent laboratories. The entrepreneurial folk in the computer industry may view this wrenching phone company adjustment with some satisfaction. But computer firms must also adjust. Now addicted to the use of transistors to solve the problems of limited bandwidth, the computer industry must use transistors to exploit the nearly unlimited bandwidth. When home-based machines are optimized for manipulating high-resolution digital video at high speeds, they will necessarily command what are now called supercomputer powers. This will mean that the dominant computer technology will first emerge not in the office market but in the consumer market. The major challenge for the computer industry is to change its focus from a few hundred million offices already full of computer technology to a billion living rooms now nearly devoid of it. Cable companies possess the advantage of already owning dumb networks based on the essentials of the all-optical model of broadcast and select--of customers seeking wavelengths or frequencies rather than switching circuits. Cable companies already provide all the programs to all the terminals and allow them to tune in to the desired messages. But the cable industry cannot become a full-service supplier of telecommunications unless the regulators give up their ridiculous two-wire dream in which everyone competes with cable and no one makes any money. Cash-poor and bandwidth-rich, cable companies need to collaborate with telcos--which are cash-rich and bandwidth-poor--in a joint effort to create broadband systems in their own regions. In all eras, companies tend to prevail by maximizing the use of the cheapest resources. In the age of the fibersphere, they will use the huge intrinsic bandwidth of fiber, all 25,000 gigahertz or more, to simplify everything else. This means replacing nearly all the hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of switches, bridges, routers, converters, codecs, compressors, error correctors, and other devices, together with the trillions of lines of software code, that pervade the intelligent switching fabric of both telephone and computer networks. The makers of all this equipment will resist mightily. But there is no chance that the old regime can prevail by fighting cheap and simple optics with costly and complex electronics and software. The all-optical network will triumph for the same reason that the integrated circuit triumphed: It is incomparably cheaper than the competition. Today, measured by the admittedly rough metric of mips per dollar, a personal computer is more than 2,000 times more cost-effective than a mainframe. Within 10 years, the all-optical network will be thousands of times more cost-effective than electronic networks. Just as the electron rules in computers, the photon will rule the waves of communication.I know people would not write it..But worth a try:) more

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