Published in Interface Tech News
CHELMSFORD, Mass. ‹ In a bid to keep customers buying during a time of declining capital expenditures, Sycamore Networks released in early October its SILVX InSight product, which integrates planning, design, and testing for optical networks.
InSight was designed to work with Sycamore's existing network management system, SILVX NMS, to take an inventory of existing network infrastructure, and propose upgrades and equipment purchases to improve the efficiency of carrier networks.
"It's a simulated network," said Wade Rubinstein, Sycamore's director of professional services. "It's much cheaper to put this software on a PC than to buy another switch."
The key to InSight, according to company officials, is a database that includes specifications on networking hardware, permitting capacity planning and load simulation, as well as cost-benefit analysis and testing prior to purchase.
Analyst Maribel Dolinov of Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research, said the database could be hard to keep updated. "You can't just call up a company and ask for its specs," she said.
With monthly updates to its database, Sycamore said it will be able to keep current, enabling the linking and design possibilities the company identified as its target service.
"We want to enhance productivity and help the next generation of intelligent optical networks," Rubinstein said.
The driving force behind the product's release, is a good idea, Dolinov said. Across the networking industry, she said, "sales are becoming much more complex." Not only are orders smaller and more specific, but they're reducing in volume and dollar amounts, she added.
In Dolinov's view, another specter looming on the horizon for optical networking is a revelation like the recent one from Qwest, stating that it is finished building its network.
"That's a scary sort of thing for an equipment provider," Dolinov said. Further, she continued, if a supplier is feeling a crunch from one customer, it's hard to make up the difference in new business right now.
"At the end of the day," Dolinov said, "tools are still pretty company specific."
Wednesday, October 31, 2001
Monday, October 29, 2001
MerryGo borrows P2P name for Internet timeshare exchange
Published in Interface Tech News
MANCHESTER, N.H. ‹ MerryGo launched its new Web site in late September. It will use a peer-to-peer (P2P) method, permitting owners of timeshare properties to deal directly with each other, rather than going through a difficult-to-use central clearinghouse system which is not available on the Internet.
MerryGo is not harnessing the power of computers, but the power of individuals, and is providing central-server traffic direction on its Web site.
The standard timeshare exchange process involves a large group of people, each of whom has an asset: a week of time at a timeshare resort property. Those people pay annual membership fees to resorts and to associations that permit them to exchange their time at one location for someone else's time at another spot.
At present, that process is complex and overly centralized, said Forrest Milkowski, company co-founder and executive vice president for sales and marketing at MerryGo. "We're going to change the way the timeshare industry works," Milkowski said.
That's a big statement for a two-person company targeting the $1.5 billion timeshare exchange sector, but mirrors the changes P2P technology has threatened in the music industry via sites like Napster.
MerryGo's service involves one-to-one trading, with owners posting properties on MerryGo's searchable site. When they find an interesting property, prospective exchangers can e-mail the timeshare owners directly.
Milkowski said this way is not only cheaper, with fees based on transactions rather than annual memberships, but more personal. "I can actually contact the person who owns the property," he said.
This permits travel tips to be passed on from person to person, including which restaurants are the nicest or directions to a pleasant picnic spot. Milkowski said MerryGo's method takes the information out of the hands of a telephone representative for a large company and puts it into the hands of timeshare owners and exchangers.
The company is also partnering with major timeshare resort companies to offer discounts for vacationers exchanging within one company's properties, rather than seeking out other destinations. Although Milkowski said MerryGo Web site visitors would be free to choose any location that fits their needs.
MANCHESTER, N.H. ‹ MerryGo launched its new Web site in late September. It will use a peer-to-peer (P2P) method, permitting owners of timeshare properties to deal directly with each other, rather than going through a difficult-to-use central clearinghouse system which is not available on the Internet.
MerryGo is not harnessing the power of computers, but the power of individuals, and is providing central-server traffic direction on its Web site.
The standard timeshare exchange process involves a large group of people, each of whom has an asset: a week of time at a timeshare resort property. Those people pay annual membership fees to resorts and to associations that permit them to exchange their time at one location for someone else's time at another spot.
At present, that process is complex and overly centralized, said Forrest Milkowski, company co-founder and executive vice president for sales and marketing at MerryGo. "We're going to change the way the timeshare industry works," Milkowski said.
That's a big statement for a two-person company targeting the $1.5 billion timeshare exchange sector, but mirrors the changes P2P technology has threatened in the music industry via sites like Napster.
MerryGo's service involves one-to-one trading, with owners posting properties on MerryGo's searchable site. When they find an interesting property, prospective exchangers can e-mail the timeshare owners directly.
Milkowski said this way is not only cheaper, with fees based on transactions rather than annual memberships, but more personal. "I can actually contact the person who owns the property," he said.
This permits travel tips to be passed on from person to person, including which restaurants are the nicest or directions to a pleasant picnic spot. Milkowski said MerryGo's method takes the information out of the hands of a telephone representative for a large company and puts it into the hands of timeshare owners and exchangers.
The company is also partnering with major timeshare resort companies to offer discounts for vacationers exchanging within one company's properties, rather than seeking out other destinations. Although Milkowski said MerryGo Web site visitors would be free to choose any location that fits their needs.
Thursday, October 25, 2001
Things that go bump in the night
Published in the Current
Scarborough’s Black Point Inn plays host not only to visitors from out of state, but from the realm of the paranormal, employees say.
The hotel, the last of close to a dozen of the original inns in Prouts Neck, has a lot of ghost stories surrounding it, according to housekeeping supervisor Angel Bechtold.
One recounts that a kitchen worker lived in the employees’ dormitory above the barn, now the garage. When the man’s fiancée broke up with him, he hanged himself. Now his spirit, Bechtold said, haunts the room he lived in.
“I have lived in that dorm and have felt things in the dorm, right beneath the widow’s walk,” she said.
While living there, she said, she would make her bed in the morning and come back to find it unmade after work. Smaller items, like a hairbrush, would be moved around, too.
“It’s pretty haunted,” Bechtold said.
She said she has experienced various presences in the inn and its outbuildings, but mostly during the winter when fewer people are around. At busier times, she said, taking care of guests distracts her from any ghosts which may be around.
She said she has never felt unsafe in the inn, but has been unsettled a few times.
“It’s like a creepy feeling, but nothing scary,” Bechtold said. “Walking through you can get really creeped out.”
Because the inn is so old, she said, it is more likely to have ghosts in it.
One housekeeper, Bechtold said, hears whispers and a cat meowing in the attic, which is used as a storage area.
Several small children have talked of ghosts when on the third floor of the main building, she said, including the young child of an employee, barely able to talk, who pointed up at the widow’s walk and said “ghost.”
Whether it’s because of battles between whites and Native Americans in the 18th century, or ghosts from the area’s other hotels needing a new home after those inns were torn down, or events at the Black Point Inn itself, Bechtold said there’s something there, but only for those who believe in ghosts.
She said she knows people who do not believe in ghosts and they haven’t seen or heard anything they can’t explain.
“I think if you believe, it’s really there,” Bechtold said.
Cape Elizabeth is also home to a haunted house, the Gothic-style Beckett’s Castle, at 7 Singles Road.
Built from 1871 to 1874 by publisher Sylvester Beckett, the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but not for being haunted.
Indeed, the current owner, Nancey Harvey, said, “The previous owners said it was haunted, but (the ghosts) have gone away with me.”
But if it is no longer haunted by ghosts, the house is perhaps haunted by its own former haunting. Harvey said she gets frequent calls inquiring about the house being haunted.
The ghosts which previously inhabited the house were said to be Beckett himself and possibly a child. Among their antics were creating cold spots in the house, removing sheets and blankets from beds, moving paintings and never allowing one door to remain closed, even when nailed shut.
Beckett built the house largely with his own hands, according to the building’s listing in the National Register, from local fieldstone. Its trademark feature is a three-story tower in the southeast corner of the building. It is a four-bedroom house with a parlor, dining room and kitchen. The house has a number of diamond-shaped and triangular windows.
Scarborough’s Black Point Inn plays host not only to visitors from out of state, but from the realm of the paranormal, employees say.
The hotel, the last of close to a dozen of the original inns in Prouts Neck, has a lot of ghost stories surrounding it, according to housekeeping supervisor Angel Bechtold.
One recounts that a kitchen worker lived in the employees’ dormitory above the barn, now the garage. When the man’s fiancée broke up with him, he hanged himself. Now his spirit, Bechtold said, haunts the room he lived in.
“I have lived in that dorm and have felt things in the dorm, right beneath the widow’s walk,” she said.
While living there, she said, she would make her bed in the morning and come back to find it unmade after work. Smaller items, like a hairbrush, would be moved around, too.
“It’s pretty haunted,” Bechtold said.
She said she has experienced various presences in the inn and its outbuildings, but mostly during the winter when fewer people are around. At busier times, she said, taking care of guests distracts her from any ghosts which may be around.
She said she has never felt unsafe in the inn, but has been unsettled a few times.
“It’s like a creepy feeling, but nothing scary,” Bechtold said. “Walking through you can get really creeped out.”
Because the inn is so old, she said, it is more likely to have ghosts in it.
One housekeeper, Bechtold said, hears whispers and a cat meowing in the attic, which is used as a storage area.
Several small children have talked of ghosts when on the third floor of the main building, she said, including the young child of an employee, barely able to talk, who pointed up at the widow’s walk and said “ghost.”
Whether it’s because of battles between whites and Native Americans in the 18th century, or ghosts from the area’s other hotels needing a new home after those inns were torn down, or events at the Black Point Inn itself, Bechtold said there’s something there, but only for those who believe in ghosts.
She said she knows people who do not believe in ghosts and they haven’t seen or heard anything they can’t explain.
“I think if you believe, it’s really there,” Bechtold said.
Cape Elizabeth is also home to a haunted house, the Gothic-style Beckett’s Castle, at 7 Singles Road.
Built from 1871 to 1874 by publisher Sylvester Beckett, the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but not for being haunted.
Indeed, the current owner, Nancey Harvey, said, “The previous owners said it was haunted, but (the ghosts) have gone away with me.”
But if it is no longer haunted by ghosts, the house is perhaps haunted by its own former haunting. Harvey said she gets frequent calls inquiring about the house being haunted.
The ghosts which previously inhabited the house were said to be Beckett himself and possibly a child. Among their antics were creating cold spots in the house, removing sheets and blankets from beds, moving paintings and never allowing one door to remain closed, even when nailed shut.
Beckett built the house largely with his own hands, according to the building’s listing in the National Register, from local fieldstone. Its trademark feature is a three-story tower in the southeast corner of the building. It is a four-bedroom house with a parlor, dining room and kitchen. The house has a number of diamond-shaped and triangular windows.
Police have plan for dealing with anthrax
Published in the Current
Scarborough’s police and fire departments have dealt with several suspicious packages in town, and though they have not yet encountered anthrax spores, they are ready.
In the past two weeks, as anthrax scares have occurred in Westbrook and Portland, four suspicious packages or envelopes have arrived in the mail at Scarborough addresses, including Town Hall. None of them actually contained hazardous material, said Police Chief Robert Moulton.
Cape Elizabeth Police Chief Neil Williams said only one suspicious letter has been reported to his department. It turned out to be a thank-you note from a local resident. Another situation in which a postal carrier was concerned about a skin condition turned out to be a damp magazine cover that rubbed against his arm and shredded, Williams said.
He said the police will typically respond first to a report of suspicious mail, “to determine why it’s suspicious.” A contaminated package or area would be dealt with by the town’s fire department, Williams said.
People should respond differently to this new type of threat, Scarborough Chief Moulton said. It’s a big change from the “pull the fire alarm and leave” response people have traditionally had to an emergency.
Instead of evacuating a building that could be contaminated, Moulton said, the procedure should be to isolate the people within the area.
“You go to a lockdown state, when everybody stays where they’re at.”
While it could be hard on people who are quarantined and for their loved ones, who may want to see them, Moulton said the isolation of possibly-exposed people is to prevent the spread of any contaminant and does not pose a risk to those isolated.
“You’ve either been exposed or you haven’t,” he said. But a contaminant on someone’s clothing could be spread if the person evacuated the building and came in contact with other people.
Once a substance or package has been identified, Moulton said, it will be contained and removed by the police or firefighters.
In the case of the Town Hall package, it was still sealed and not leaking. It was suspicious, however, because it was sent from India with excessive postage and was about the size of a hardback book.
The police evidence technician went to Town Hall, Moulton said, and sealed the package in several layers of plastic before coming back to the police station, where it was examined in a contained environment.
The Town Hall packet was found to be from a civil engineer in India looking for business.
“It was junk mail, basically,” Moulton said.
When a package is opened or if a substance escapes from it, the incident would be treated as a hazardous materials event, Moulton said. Firefighters would show up in protective gear to contain the substance and collect it.
If a powder or residue needs analysis, Moulton said, it would be contained in several layers of plastic and sealed in a canister before being taken to the Maine State Police lab in Augusta. It would be taken in a town police car, which could use its lights and sirens along the way, Moulton said.
When you encounter a suspect package or letter, Moulton said, leave it alone and call 911. The dispatcher will ask you a series of questions to help determine the appropriate response. Among those questions will be: Is the package opened? What kind of area is it in? Is anything leaking or protruding from it? Is it irregularly
shaped?
Depending on the answers to those and other questions, the police and fire department will respond with appropriate personnel and equipment, Moulton said.
The most important thing to remember is after you call 911, don’t evacuate, but instead stay put until authorities say it is OK to leave. This is counter to fire-safety training, and even the opposite of the normal response to a bomb threat, Moulton admitted, but he said it is a very different sort of threat.
“It’s a different mindset than we’ve been used to,” he said.
Scarborough’s police and fire departments have dealt with several suspicious packages in town, and though they have not yet encountered anthrax spores, they are ready.
In the past two weeks, as anthrax scares have occurred in Westbrook and Portland, four suspicious packages or envelopes have arrived in the mail at Scarborough addresses, including Town Hall. None of them actually contained hazardous material, said Police Chief Robert Moulton.
Cape Elizabeth Police Chief Neil Williams said only one suspicious letter has been reported to his department. It turned out to be a thank-you note from a local resident. Another situation in which a postal carrier was concerned about a skin condition turned out to be a damp magazine cover that rubbed against his arm and shredded, Williams said.
He said the police will typically respond first to a report of suspicious mail, “to determine why it’s suspicious.” A contaminated package or area would be dealt with by the town’s fire department, Williams said.
People should respond differently to this new type of threat, Scarborough Chief Moulton said. It’s a big change from the “pull the fire alarm and leave” response people have traditionally had to an emergency.
Instead of evacuating a building that could be contaminated, Moulton said, the procedure should be to isolate the people within the area.
“You go to a lockdown state, when everybody stays where they’re at.”
While it could be hard on people who are quarantined and for their loved ones, who may want to see them, Moulton said the isolation of possibly-exposed people is to prevent the spread of any contaminant and does not pose a risk to those isolated.
“You’ve either been exposed or you haven’t,” he said. But a contaminant on someone’s clothing could be spread if the person evacuated the building and came in contact with other people.
Once a substance or package has been identified, Moulton said, it will be contained and removed by the police or firefighters.
In the case of the Town Hall package, it was still sealed and not leaking. It was suspicious, however, because it was sent from India with excessive postage and was about the size of a hardback book.
The police evidence technician went to Town Hall, Moulton said, and sealed the package in several layers of plastic before coming back to the police station, where it was examined in a contained environment.
The Town Hall packet was found to be from a civil engineer in India looking for business.
“It was junk mail, basically,” Moulton said.
When a package is opened or if a substance escapes from it, the incident would be treated as a hazardous materials event, Moulton said. Firefighters would show up in protective gear to contain the substance and collect it.
If a powder or residue needs analysis, Moulton said, it would be contained in several layers of plastic and sealed in a canister before being taken to the Maine State Police lab in Augusta. It would be taken in a town police car, which could use its lights and sirens along the way, Moulton said.
When you encounter a suspect package or letter, Moulton said, leave it alone and call 911. The dispatcher will ask you a series of questions to help determine the appropriate response. Among those questions will be: Is the package opened? What kind of area is it in? Is anything leaking or protruding from it? Is it irregularly
shaped?
Depending on the answers to those and other questions, the police and fire department will respond with appropriate personnel and equipment, Moulton said.
The most important thing to remember is after you call 911, don’t evacuate, but instead stay put until authorities say it is OK to leave. This is counter to fire-safety training, and even the opposite of the normal response to a bomb threat, Moulton admitted, but he said it is a very different sort of threat.
“It’s a different mindset than we’ve been used to,” he said.
Friday, October 19, 2001
Lucent slashes staff in survival play
Published in Interface Tech News
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. ‹ Lucent Technologies cut nearly 1,000 job at its Merrimack Valley Works plant in a recent effort to save itself. The cuts were part of a 50 percent job reduction effort at Lucent, resulting from reduced revenue and changing customer demands.
The company-wide cutbacks will reduce the Lucent workforce from 123,000 at the beginning of 2001 to about 60,000 at the end of 2002, the company said. The Merrimack Valley plant's employment will drop from 3,750 to 2,800, said Lucent spokeswoman Mary Ward, who would not give a time frame for coming reductions.
"We're always reviewing what we need in terms of staffing levels," she said. Now that Lucent is moving toward outsourcing tasks, she said, jobs in the company have to go.
"(The reduction is) a response to the new business model of using outside contractors," Ward said. "Most of it is in response to the current market conditions."
Those conditions, according to Forrester Research analyst Maribel Dolinov, are difficult.
While many carrier companies are publicly saying they are moving from circuit-switching to packet-switching, those same companies had been placing sizable orders for circuit-based equipment. Now the carriers are cutting back their purchases of older technology, leaving companies like Lucent trying to bridge the gap while dealing with reduced revenue.
Lucent said it is working hard to continue its relationships with carriers. "We're doing whatever we can to help our customers," Ward said.
Dolinov said Lucent might be handicapped by the sense that the company is in bad shape.
"A lot of the good folks have gone out with the natural brain drain (that follows job reductions)", Dolinov said.
But those with good ideas don't have anywhere to go, with Nortel also laying off and start-ups experiencing financial droughts. In some cases, Dolinov said, laying low might be the best course of action. "You might as well just stay at Lucent and try and make it happen," she said.
The next six to eight months will show whether Lucent and its competitors will be successful, Dolinov said, and it could take longer than that for real results to appear. Lucent itself said it doesn't expect to see profits until fiscal 2003.
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. ‹ Lucent Technologies cut nearly 1,000 job at its Merrimack Valley Works plant in a recent effort to save itself. The cuts were part of a 50 percent job reduction effort at Lucent, resulting from reduced revenue and changing customer demands.
The company-wide cutbacks will reduce the Lucent workforce from 123,000 at the beginning of 2001 to about 60,000 at the end of 2002, the company said. The Merrimack Valley plant's employment will drop from 3,750 to 2,800, said Lucent spokeswoman Mary Ward, who would not give a time frame for coming reductions.
"We're always reviewing what we need in terms of staffing levels," she said. Now that Lucent is moving toward outsourcing tasks, she said, jobs in the company have to go.
"(The reduction is) a response to the new business model of using outside contractors," Ward said. "Most of it is in response to the current market conditions."
Those conditions, according to Forrester Research analyst Maribel Dolinov, are difficult.
While many carrier companies are publicly saying they are moving from circuit-switching to packet-switching, those same companies had been placing sizable orders for circuit-based equipment. Now the carriers are cutting back their purchases of older technology, leaving companies like Lucent trying to bridge the gap while dealing with reduced revenue.
Lucent said it is working hard to continue its relationships with carriers. "We're doing whatever we can to help our customers," Ward said.
Dolinov said Lucent might be handicapped by the sense that the company is in bad shape.
"A lot of the good folks have gone out with the natural brain drain (that follows job reductions)", Dolinov said.
But those with good ideas don't have anywhere to go, with Nortel also laying off and start-ups experiencing financial droughts. In some cases, Dolinov said, laying low might be the best course of action. "You might as well just stay at Lucent and try and make it happen," she said.
The next six to eight months will show whether Lucent and its competitors will be successful, Dolinov said, and it could take longer than that for real results to appear. Lucent itself said it doesn't expect to see profits until fiscal 2003.
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