There's no shortage of complaints in the U.S. over the perceived shortage of wireless spectrum: Failure to get cellular phone service, interference from neighbors' Wi-Fi home networks, and slow download speeds due to overcrowding. Some have dubbed 2010 a year of wireless congestion.

As folks like Christopher Mims (Technology Review) and Dan Reed (Microsoft Research) point out, spectrum doesn't need to be scarce if the industry simply did a better job of provisioning and dynamically load balancing it. Entrepreneurs looking for a new business idea or students needing a research project would do well to look into this area; it looks like one of the most critical problems in networking to solve this decade.

→ More - Crisis in Availability of Wireless Spectrum is a Myth (technologyreview.com)
→ More - Spectrum Future Shock (hpcdan.org)

United States Radio Spectrum - Frequency Allocations - Graphic: www.ntia.doc.gov

Some of you in the U.S. who thought you had a broadband Internet connection just last week may be surprised to find out you don't now. That's because the U.S. FCC now defines broadband as supporting 4 Mbps for downloads and 1 Mbps for uploads, according to their new report.

The last time the FCC redefined broadband in 2008, required conenction speeds were only 0.768 Mbps (768 Kbps) or greater. Why the large increase now? And does it really mean anything? Most networking savvy folks know that bandwidth numbers represent only one part of a high speed Internet connection; that other factors like network latency also need taken into account. Time to ditch the term "broadband" entirely, methinks.

→ More - 6th Broadband Deployment Report (fcc.gov)

The folks at HDTV Magazine recently completed an interesting podcast focused on home automation. In short, home automation is the concept of adding intelligent, typically networked, control to home lighting, air and electronics systems. Despite a lot of hype over many years, the field hasn't exactly grabbed the hearts and minds of most families. Does the thought of automating your home scare you? The sometimes complicated technology and product choices have probably frightened some people off.

It all started, basically, with X10 - a technology standard for home automation conceived decades ago at a time when household appliances came in those horrible shades of green and yellow and cell phones were bigger than your head. X10 is still around, believe it or not.

→ More - Home Automation Standards Podcast (hdtvmagazine.com)
→ See also - Home Theater at About.com

The company behind OpenDNS has announced their SysAdmin Awards, ahead of the upcoming annual System Administrator Appreciation Day. Sysadmins (systems administrators) are responsible for keeping collections of computers running efficiently. That inevitably means dealing with various network issues.

Even in this day of widespread wireless networking, sysadmins at larger organizations must manage network wiring challenges, too. One of the OpenDNS SysAdmin winners, Kris Wessels, received the Neat Freak Award specifically for cabling prowess. Believe me - that's impressive. Especially at schools and corporations, having a good sysadmin is essential to a productive organization, even though the work is often far from glamorous. Be kind to them.

→ More - SysAdmin of the Year (2010) (opendns.com)
→ See also - An 11-Year Old Network Administrator (2008)