Wednesday, July 25, 2001

TeraConnect expands throughput, lessens data bottleneck

Published in Interface Tech News

NASHUA, N.H. ‹ TeraConnect hopes major data-transmission companies will breathe a little easier with the introduction of its new T-48 fiber optic interconnection device, which permits data transfer at rates up to 120 gigabits per second.

Intended for use in high-capacity routing and switching systems, and high-end servers that contain routing and switching hardware, the T-48 is a two-dimensional array converting fiber optic signals to electrical signals used in computer equipment.

In large setups, multiple pieces of equipment are placed in rack systems and connected with high-bandwidth fiber optic cables. The machines can work only as fast as they can transfer data to each other.

"There is a bottleneck in trying to interconnect the machines themselves," said Bill Lindsay, TeraConnect's director of product marketing. Lindsay said the T-48 does the work of four standard 1x12 fiber arrays in half the space on a circuit board, and with less power consumption.

Maribel Dolinov, senior telecom analyst for Forrester Research in Boston, said the product is desirable for companies like Cisco and Nortel, which are among TeraConnect's potential customers.

"One of the things the systems providers are looking for is people to assemble (component groups) and then sell them," Dolinov said.

That is exactly what TeraConnect says it is doing.

"The traditional optical communication systems were built one link at a time," Lindsay said. The T-48 offers four dozen links in one component.

Dolinov said cost, size, and power consumption are all large factors in manufacturers' purchases of optical-electrical conversion equipment, and said TeraConnect's offering may solve some problems in those areas.

TeraConnect, which spun out of BAE Systems in November 2000, has been working on this project for over a year, taking advantage of its continued access to BAE Systems clean rooms and engineering equipment.

"That's a big competitive advantage for us," Lindsay said.

The company is pursuing deals with major market players. While reluctant to name specific potential customers, Lindsay said the company is targeting four major markets: routers, switches, high-performance servers, and storage.

In the context of those markets he talked about possibly approaching companies like Cisco, Nortel, Sun, and EMC. He said TeraConnect is also eyeing major telecom service providers and metro-area operators.

Lindsay said the company is involved in smaller deals now, as prospective clients purchase a few T-48s for testing with their products. He said he anticipates sales to increase as the test results come back.

Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Bottomline patents payment messaging system

Published in Interface Tech News

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. ‹ Moving to protect its electronic invoicing and payment software for businesses, Bottomline Technologies received a patent in late June for its e-payment notification system. The system, called ERADS (electronic remittance advice delivery system), is already distributed as part of Bottomline's PayBase payment-automation software.

Bottomline chairman and CEO Dan McGurl said ERADS makes it easier for both parties to know what transactions have occurred.

"When you make an electronic payment," McGurl said, "there are certain limitations that do not allow organizations to send all the remittance information with the payment. (ERADS) is a real-world technology that enables organizations to work around the limitations."

Bottomline still has about 20 patents pending, McGurl said, all of which are for aspects of the company's e-payment and e-invoicing products. The protection offered by a patent improves what McGurl said is the company's already-strong position in the marketplace.

Bottomline's major initiative of late has been moving from a client-server style system to a Web browser-based implementation, a project McGurl is pleased with."We have substantially strengthened our product line with this Web-based (system)," he said.

Harry Wollhandler, vice president of research at Peterborough, N.H.-based ActivMedia Research, agreed. "The systems they've developed meet the criteria of the marketplace rather well," Wollhandler said.

The issue now for Bottomline, Wollhandler said, is to see how the market standards develop. If Bottomline's products can work with most companies' accounting systems, Wollhandler expects them to do well.

"The issue is critical mass. Can you get enough partners involved?" he added.

Bottomline is making an effort, according to McGurl said. FleetBoston, Citibank, and UPS all use Bottomline products and resell them to their customers.

The opportunity is real, Wollhandler said, for systems like Bottomline's to really take off. "Bill presentment is hard for banks," he said. "In terms of corporate business, (systems like ERADS) start to bypass the credit card, saving 2.3 percent on every transaction."

Wollhandler said Bottomline, which will announce its annual financial report in the first week of August, is moving in the right direction.

"Too many companies have gone after investors at the expense of going after customers. The strategy they seem to be putting into place is going after customers and letting investors take care of themselves," Wollhandler said.

Sunday, January 28, 2001

Bottom of the food chain

Published in the Antarctic Sun

Every meal. Every break. Every glass, plate, fork, knife, spoon, pot, pan, sandwich, juice container…. Every time a dining room attendant (DA) turns around at McMurdo, there’s more to do.

But too often to diners on station they’re just the blue-clad bodies moving a rack of glasses right in front of you or the faces at the dishroom window.

Most of the time, the DAs are smiling, and that’s a tribute to their resilience. "It’s the most difficult job on station, and they probably work harder than anybody else," said Jan Jasperson, the winterover food service supervisor, who said that if he could do anything for them, it would
be getting DAs paid more than the $350 a week they earn.

The DAs play a role in every part of the galley operation, except one. "We don’t cook food," said lead DA Ginger Alferos.

The DAs clean and restock dishes, prep food and salads, make sandwiches and flight lunches, make sure the food lines are stocked, and clean the whole place when the meals are done.

"I do different jobs: deli, floating, pot room, dishroom, it all depends on your mood," said DA Amanda Dow.

The pot room is really where the legends of DA-dom are made. While sitting in on their "family meal," at a strange time like 9:30 a.m. for lunch, the stories come out. Many of them involve the cramped rectangular space called the pot room.

The din in there can be deafening. With big, metal pots and pans resounding while they are moved through stainless steel sinks, the shift starts out loud. Add the music, the singing along and the joketelling and it’s a big party, albeit crusty food in abundant attendance.

In the background is a periodic rumble of the disposal, a giant one, almost the size of a five-gallon bucket. And, as one story goes, a DA once dumped a big pot of mashed potatoes into it instead of scraping the pot into food waste first. As if it were karmic retribution, the disposal exploded, spraying ground-up food everywhere and covering the operator’s face with a big white cloud of potato glop.

It seems gross. It is gross. But then the DAs think it’s funny, which gives insight into how they survive.

"The people make it fun," Dow said. Some of their on-the-job entertainment comes from people who pass through the galley. The DAs keep tallies, like how many people lick their fingers before touching serving utensils. At times they’ll take surveys, asking questions through the dishroom
windows as people stack their plates. It’s a good way to keep their minds active while working a mindless job.

Their presence is appreciated. "There’s no way we could do what we do without them," Jasperson said. In the rest of the world, Jasperson said, the jobs akin to the DAs are held by high school students. But in their lives back home, these DAs are food-service workers, teachers, outdoor guides and other professionals, including a nurse and a geologist.

It can be a good leg up for future jobs in the U.S. Antarctic Program, though. DAs can prove their ability to endure hardship and show their skills with the community.

"They’re our front-line defense," Jasperson said, explaining that the DAs are the first to hear feedback from the community and take the most heat for problems in the galley.

They put up with it because they want to get to Antarctica and they stay because they’re here. There is some appreciation from the community, the DAs say, but there’s no such thing as too much. The folks in the galley, though, know the value of the grunt work.

"We love our DAs," Jasperson said.

Sunday, January 21, 2001

Preserving the huts: Protecting the heritage

Published in the Antarctic Sun

Almost exactly 99 years ago, construction began on the first building on Ross Island: Robert Scott’s Discovery Hut. Now, researchers and fundraisers are stepping up the effort to preserve and restore the historic huts in the Ross Sea area.

Ross Island’s three huts – Scott’s on Hut Point and Cape Evans and Ernest Shackleton's on Cape Royds – are the primary targets for preservation, though there are over 30 historic sites in the region, including memorial crosses and supply depots left by the early Antarctic explorers.

"We have the responsibility for the practical management of Heroic Age sites in the Ross Sea area," said Nigel Watson, executive director of the Antarctic Heritage Trust, a New Zealand-based, non-profit organization.

To date, the AHT has hired conservators to come to the Antarctic to slow or halt the decline of metals, woods and fibers at historic sites. The trust also maintains a collection of artifacts in Christchurch, which are being worked on and will eventually, Watson said, be returned to their original locations.

But the trust’s work so far has only slowed the rate of decay of rare historic artifacts. "We really haven’t halted the decline," Watson said. "As you look through the huts you can see the decay. Don’t take it for granted, because one day it might not be there," he said, noting that one of the two buildings at Cape Adare is no longer standing.

Watson said the trust is now looking at different approaches to maintaining each historic hut site, ranging from a possible full restoration of the Discovery Hut to its original condition, to preserving a hut at Cape Evans or Cape Royds in something close to its current condition, though treating the materials to prevent future decay.

This could cost several million dollars, Watson said. The AHT relies on donations from the public for its operating budget. The money must fund responsible care for the huts, Watson said.

To that end, the conservation effort is backed up by scientific research. Bob Blanchette of the University of Minnesota, and Roberta Farrell of the University of Waikato in New Zealand are conducting a joint effort, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, to study the decay and deterioration of wood in the historic huts.

The main source of damage to the wood is erosion. High winds sandblast the outer walls of the huts. This is visible, Blanchette said, particularly on the beams supporting the verandah of the Discovery Hut.

There is also chemical deterioration. The high salt content of the snow in the area, due both to the nearby seawater and to gas emissions from Mount Erebus, weakens the wood fiber.

Further, Blanchette said, fungi within the huts are attacking the materials that are sheltered from the storms to which the outer walls are subjected. In addition, there seems to be a soil fungus attacking the wood foundations. It is not clear, Blanchette said, how this fungus arrived at the historic sites or how it retained its ability to attack wood in a wood-less environment.

"The fungi that we’re finding are very unusual and appear to be unique to the Antarctic," he said.

Part of the research is also looking at the impact of visitors to the hut, who introduce dirt, heat and moisture into closed-up buildings. Blanchette’s group has installed temperature and humidity monitors in the huts, and is trying to keep close track of the length of time visitors spend in the huts.

Blanchette and Watson are optimistic. Watson noted that the centenaries of the construction of each hut are coming up within the next decade. That provides a unique historical angle on fundraising, he said, which may have very positive results for the huts’ preservation.

Blanchette also believes that research and conservation can work hand in hand to restore and protect the huts before they disappear.

"It’s not too late," Blanchette said.

Sunday, December 24, 2000

Warm bodies, warm hearts: A day with McMurdo's GAs

Published in the Antarctic Sun

It’s early morning. Most folks are struggling to get to work with coffee in hand. But several brighteyed, low-paid men and women are bouncing off the walls in the GA shack next to the carpenters’ shop at McMurdo.

Led by former general assistant Sally Lyon, this season’s operations GAs are ready to work. Lyon doles out the day’s tasks.

"Heather, you’ll go to waste. Lynn, you’ll go to the galley, but it’s just for the morning," Lyon says. She also sends two GAs in a Spryte to replenish the Penguin Ranch fuel supply. The remaining two head out to Williams Field to re-flag a route on the ice shelf.

These operations GAs are not the only ones in town. But the work of several other GA's assigned is with designated departments in town, such as facilities maintenance and fuels department, is bit more specialized.

The nine operation GAs are the ones out shoveling snow, moving boxes, entering data and generally helping out all around McMurdo Station.

It doesn’t take a lot of training to be a GA, though they do go to happy camper and sea ice schools early in the season. But it does take a certain type of person.

Lyon picks her crew carefully from a pool of applicants that by far outnumbers the number of positions available. They're all seeking a job with adventure. "The variety is what attracts most people," Lyon said.

Most of the people she picks, Lyon said, are flexible and have a sense of humor as well as
a broad range of life experiences. This year’s GAs include a former Peace Corps volunteer,
a former tour director with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and a person
who worked with delinquent youth.

But there is one characteristic that pervades all else in the application process, Lyon said: "Somehow they’ve made it clear that they will do anything to get here."

This means Lyons doesn't have to sell the job; she even tries to discourage applicants. She starts an interview by telling them about the worst parts of the job. If they still sound positive, she tells them the good parts.

As the season progresses, work varies a bit, but not always enough. Sometimes GAs end up doing the same thing for several days. Though from the beginning they were told that this would almost certainly happen, it is still sometimes difficult.

When the job does change every day, on the other hand, there’s different challenge. "You don’t see the big picture," said GA Lynn Keating. A day-long task for a GA may be part of a month’s worth of effort for everyone else; having a sense of closure about a project is rare.

Lyons tries to mix up the tasks among the group a bit, to keep them interested in what’s going on, and to keep them learning about how the station operates. "My goal is that they’re as excited to work on January 20 as October 20," Lyon said.

She reminds them to be aware of where they are and how amazing it is. "When you’re shoveling, don’t forget to look up," Lyon said.

In addition to becoming well-rounded in operations, being a GA is a good way to make a good impression on people who will be hiring for next season. "It’s a great springboard," Lyon said.

All of last year’s McMurdo GAs came back for another season, whether for winter at Palmer or in town this season. Many more ex-GAs work all over town and throughout the Antarctic program.

"Everywhere you go, there’s former GAs," said GA Heather Reider.

From those former GAs and the quality of work of each year’s crew, the word is spreading
that GA labor is valuable, Lyon said. "People are starting to recognize that there’s an incredible amount of talent in this group," Lyon said.

Lyon’s combination of practicality and motivation works out well for her and for the GAs. Most of them are active most days, and they are able to work without much supervision. "They exceed my expectations," Lyon said.

And even outside of work the GAs stick together as a team. "A roomful of strangers become the best of friends in four months," Lyon said. In the morning, they trade jokes and stories,
as well as tips and thoughts about previous work or that day’s upcoming projects. At lunch, they rally around each other, asking, "How’s your day going?" and exchanging reports of how life and work are in different departments.

The bottom line for most of the GAs is that they’re here on the Ice and experiencing a range of ways to work and live. "If you’re going to work your butt off for not very much money, why not do it here?" Lyon said.