Learn, network, and enjoy the festivities at the 2006 Congress in our nation's capital—Washington, DC

The AORN Congress is a must-attend education conference and trade show for anyone who wishes to excel as a perioperative RN. Attendees will be able to network with perioperative nurses from the United States and abroad and exchange ideas related to practice issues and strategies. Congress offers sessions and events tailored to staff nurses, managers, nurses in ambulatory settings, nursing students, and faculty members.

Staff nurses, this is the only event with education sessions and exhibits devoted to all aspects of perioperative nursing. Choose from sessions providing the latest on surgical procedures in a variety of clinical practice settings, and discuss practice issues with others who, like you, encounter these issues daily.

Managers, attend exclusive networking events with 2,500 of your peers and industry professionals to improve the delivery of perioperative care. Many education sessions have been specifically designed for perioperative managers and leaders. A half-day session on creative leadership will be offered twice.

Ethernet Cables suit patch and network installations

Available in PVC and PUR in lengths to 100 m, electrical patch cables are offered in straight-through and cross-over designs for connecting active elements in control panels. Electrical network installation cables, available in same length range, are designed for use outside control panels. Fiber optic patch and network installation cables feature PVC jackets and are available as multimode cables in 50 and 62.5 [micro]m core diameters. Optic patch cables come in lengths from 1-3 m.


RICHMOND, VA (November 28, 2005) - Over 80% of the problems associated with the deployment of industrial Ethernet networks are in the physical layer. Specifically they are mechanical connectivity issues. The majority of these issues are within the cabling systems, which generally represent from 50-70% of the total network costs. In many cases, the type of cables required must be application-specific to meet the demands of the industrial Ethernet network environment.

Responding to this issue, Weidmuller has developed a full range of electrical and fiber optic Industrial Ethernet Cables for both patch and network installation- as critical components in their full range of Reliable Ethernet Solutions. In addition to providing a complete offering of standardized industrial Ethernet cables, Weidmuller can provide custom cables for customers with specific application requirements. Their expertise allows Weidmuller to guide customers in selecting the right Ethernet cables for their network.

Yale School of Medicine helps establish neuroscience network

Yale School of Medicine, USA, is participating in a new collaboration with the National Institutes of Health to establish a comprehensive web-based Neuroscience Information Framework (NIF).

It is understood that the purpose of the NIF is to help guide neuroscience researchers to relevant information stored anywhere on the Internet. The NIF will be built by a consortium of universities including the California Institute of Technology, Cornell University, George Mason University, University of California at San Diego and Yale.

Total NIH funding for the NIF is USD500,000 for the first 15 months and USD1m for the next year. The Yale component is USD125,000 and USD250,000.

everything you'll ever need to know: a former principal, superintendent and education professor with decades of experience under his belt offers a co

As a professor in the administrative services credential program at California State University, Stanislaus, I helped scores of teachers become principals. I also was a teacher, principal, director of research and superintendent (Hillsborough City, 1967-1972, and Lincoln Unified, 1972-1990). The following gems from this experience can help guide our school leadership.

1. Be a servant leader. As the principal, your responsibility is to provide leadership, organization and management to enable all staff members to function at their best level. Your raison d'etre is to provide service to others.

2. Listen! Listen! Listen! Give your full attention to the questions, testimony, dreams, ambitions, expectations and comments of all school stakeholders. Learn to be an active listener. Listening advances learning.

3. Visualize your ideal school culture and work toward it. Keep your actions, modeling and reinforcing focused on moving your culture from where it is to where you want to be. Focus your efforts on the vital elements of your desired culture: respect for self, respect for others, responsibility for your actions. Focus on academic growth, punctuality, completing homework, professional confidentiality, collaboration and collegiality. Align awards/recognition with desired culture. Celebrate the achievements of staff --both certificated and classified--our partners committed to serving students.

MIC set to guide Korea's u-city mania

Last month Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), together with the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, announced that they will jointly coordinate and regulate the burgeoning growth of u-city (ubiquitous city) projects in the country.

"At present there are no guidelines," said an MIC source. "We are at the beginning stage. We want to set requirements and standardize the technologies. We plan to have a standardized u-city model and to set up the legal base" The MIC's u-city initiative is being implemented under the auspices of its broadband convergence network (BcN) division.

The u-city concept will feature widespread use of RFID and ubiquitous sensor networks. MIC minister Chin Daeje suggested last year that the RFID business alone might in the future become as large as the mobile phone business.

A rush of announcements relating to u-city projects have been made recently. Last month KT Corp and the Korea National Housing Corp contracted to jointly construct a "u-city" in Unjeon, near the border with North Korea, by 2009. KT will install the latest wireless and FTTH infrastructure.

On the case: catastrophic nurse case manager Liz Zemke has an intimate understanding of what her patients need—she's been there herself. After losing

On a day that seemed like any other day, registered nurse Liz Zemke headed off to see patients at a rural California health clinic. A busy woman juggling a career and family, she was probably pondering the day's minutiae--reports to file, phone calls to return, dinner to make, dry cleaning to drop off, birthday cards to send.

But it wasn't a day like any other day. Around a blind curve on the mountain highway, a stranger's car careened into the wrong lane, headed straight for her. Life as she knew it was about to change forever.

The crash was head-on. Zemke suffered head trauma and severe damage to her right leg and ankle--her foot was nearly severed. She endured nearly two years of rehabilitation and painful surgeries. In the end, surgeons were able to rebuild her leg and knee, but the foot was beyond hope. Her choices were grim: Learn to live with the pain, doctors said, or amputate below the knee.

As wrenching as the decision was, Zemke chose amputation. Unable to walk out to her mailbox without pain, she knew, logically, that a prosthetic limb would help her regain the mobility she'd lost.

Samtec publishes new Automotive Interconnect Solutions Guide

Samteca[currency](TM)s Automotive interconnect capabilities include Rugged, Power, Cable Plugs and Receptacles, Discrete Wire Systems, Micro and Standard Board-to-Board Interconnects, Micro Card Interfaces, I/O Interfaces, RF Connectors and Cables, and Flex Circuits. Samtec is also in the industry leader in Signal Integrity services and Application Specific interconnects.

Samtec is ISO/TS 16949 certified and is fully integrated with multiple automated US and Asian manufacturing facilities, in-house tooling capabilities, and electroplating operations. With in-house Signal Integrity design and analysis and prototyping for quick sample turnaround, Samtec is the ideal supplier for many automotive connector applications.

Samtec has been ranked number one in overall customer service for ten consecutive years in the Bishop & Associates Survey of the Electronics Industry, and they are ranked first in product quality, on-time delivery, turn-around time on new products, and technical support and expertise.

UWB: it's here, and headed for home networks

After years of literally unbelievable hype, ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless technology made its commercial debut. The technology still doesn't make seeing through walls a snap, as its promoters predicted a few years ago, but it does make it possible to send tens or hundreds of megabits of data per second a tens of meters.

That makes it a good candidate to help out around the house and office, wirelessly connecting all kinds of equipment that formerly would have called for cables. And however it evolves, service providers looking at the possibilities of providing home networking services will have to pay attention.

UWB technology, as its name implies, sends low-power signals spread across large portions of spectrum, usually GHz rather than a few MHz as in conventional wireless technologies. The physics of such an approach means that different transmissions even in the same spectrum tend not to interfere with one another, and that they can carry huge amounts of data but not very far, according to Martin Reynolds, a Gartner analyst.

The signals' ability to pass with ease through, but also reflect from, quite solid objects was also supposed to lead to through-wall imaging equipment that would be a godsend to police and the military--but hasn't yet, Reynolds says.

Home networking

As you move from your bedroom to the kitchen or the living room in the morning, radio frequency ID sensors start a chain reaction that gets gadgets in your home to start working. The lights and the air conditioning come on as you enter a room, and your radio or TV is automatically turned on to your favorite channel or station. By the time you reach the kitchen, the electric kettle has already boiled the water for your coffee, and your fridge has alerted the supermarket that you'll need more milk tomorrow.

The future of the home is in the network and it is a Holy Grail that companies ranging from Cisco to Intel to Sony are pursuing. But if any country has a shot at leading the way, it is Korea.

Home networking is one of the nine key new technologies that Korea has earmarked. On the ground floor of the Ministry of Information and Communication's headquarters building in downtown Seoul is a "Ubiquitous Dream" exhibition hall that features a fully functioning and dazzling home network.

Home networks combine telecommunications, broadcasting, construction, appliances and software solutions together to link everything in a home and connect it with the rest of the world.

Sensors and chips embedded in devices around the home sense, process and exchange information to create the ultimate in convenience. "We are connecting everything around us," says Hyun Park, vice president of LG Electronics. "The goal is convenience as well as automated security features. Home networks help save money, manage energy and keep our home safe."

LG, a big manufacturer of home appliances, consumer electronics and communications products like cellular handsets, is a trail blazer in home networks. It is the first company in the world to commercialize products such as the Internet-enabled refrigerator, which can be connected through broadband and also acts as a home server or main gateway to the home network.

LG's $5,000 Internet fridge comes equipped with a 15-inch display, which can be used to watch TV, surf the net, download email, play music through its MP3 function or listen to satellite radio. It has video messaging built in and can keep track of the family schedule. You can record a video message for family members through a built-in camera and save several hours of messages on the fridge's storage--its hard drive. The appliance also keeps track of the amount of food inside the fridge, as well as key information such as "use by" dates for perishable products.

Digital Rights Are Key to Intel's Digital Home Vision

For the digital home to work, Intel's Whiteside says the consumer must have enough rights to acquire and use digital media content. Like other Intel Corp. executives, Don Whiteside is enthusiastic about pursuing the company's vision of the digital home.

"The essence of the digital home is flexibility and portability of content," said Whiteside. "This means that any content can be played on any machine, whether it's a PC, TV or [mobile] phone."

But Whiteside isn't focusing on Intel's Viiv technology to make this happen. That's because Whiteside, Intel's vice president of technology and policy standards, isn't a technologist. He works with national regulators and policy-makers on issues of digital copyrights.

To achieve "flexibility and portability," Whiteside believes the consumer must have enough rights to acquire and use digital media content.

Network Magic

Network Magic, from Pure Networks, manages and repairs home networks. It runs on each system in the network and displays a visual map of the network configuration. Many common problems can be fixed simply by clicking the Repair button. The product handles initial network setup, configuring file and printer sharing, and notification of unexpected visitors to the network. You can also use it to notify other users of new files available for sharing, or to monitor their network usage.

Symmetricom Introduces Next Generation Clock for the Network Edge; TimeProvider targets small office and access node requirements

the world's leading supplier of network synchronization and timing solutions, today announced the introduction of its TimeProvider(TM) synchronization and timing system, the first in a new class of telecommunications equipment. The TimeProvider is engineered to bring carrier-class network synchronization to offices and nodes located at the network edge, improving overall network efficiency and quality of service.

Networks are evolving from the purely circuit-switched (TDM) architectures to hybrid circuit/packet switched. Traditionally it was believed the points of demarcation between TDM and newer packet-switched portions of the network would be close to the network core, but actual deployment is happening much closer to the edge. These transition points are prone to higher error rates and potential failure, pushing synchronization requirements out to end offices, wireline and wireless access nodes and customer locations. This trend has been accelerated by the proliferation of high-speed data, broadband multimedia, fiber-to-the-home, and wireless 3G services, driving the need for high quality synchronization beyond the network core.

The TimeProvider meets network standards and performance parameters of a core office synchronization system in a compact and cost-effective package. It tracks and qualifies incoming timing references, filters jitter and wander, and distributes precise synchronization and timing signals. Through integration and state-of-the-art signal processing, TimeProvider achieves the level of miniaturization and cost reduction required for network edge deployments.

Canon Introduces New imageCLASS MF7280 Digital Imaging Solution for Small Businesses and Office Workgroups

New imageCLASS MF7280 Brings An Economical High-Performance Workflow Solution To Small and Home Offices

Canon U.S.A., Inc., the nation's market share brand leader in black-and-white and color laser printer/copier solutions(1), today introduced its latest digital office solution, the imageCLASS MF7280. The imageCLASS MF7280 provides 'big office' workflow capabilities at a 'small office' price tag, enhancing the productivity of burgeoning workgroups and busy office environments.

The imageCLASS MF7280 performs printing and copying of letter-sized output at 20 pages-per-minute with full duplexing capabilities for copying, printing, sending and faxing. The imageCLASS MF7280 is designed for work environments where smaller machines can't quite keep up and large office equipment is not yet needed. The imageCLASS MF7280 provides a perfect workgroup solution with 11"x17" paper support, copy and fax capabilities, and network functionality for printing, universal sending and PC faxing.

"The new imageCLASS MF7280 copier offers significant productivity advantages to general office and small business users who want greater network performance from their multifunction device," said Tod Pike, senior vice president, Imaging Systems Group, Canon U.S.A. "To better meet the growing business needs of today's workgroups, the imageCLASS MF7280 device incorporates many of Canon's award-winning imageRUNNER digital imaging technology to provide greater document handling capabilities and functionality for today's small office environments."

PACS: small, medium or large: regardless of size, every hospital that has installed PACS technology can demonstrate benefits. Organizations that gaine

Sharing high-resolution diagnostic images across a network and being able to access those images from remote locations is a goal of most hospitals these days.

For large healthcare organizations, the new generation of PAC S (picture archiving and communications systems) allows multiple facilities--even if they use different hospital information systems--to have ready access to all needed images. On the other hand, small hospitals, especially those located in rural areas, will require fewer visits from radiologists affiliated with larger institutions when using automated systems, and the systems can shave expenses associated with film processing and storage. Across the board, the benefits to be derived mostly stem from the organizations' specific goals in implementing PACS technology.

In the case of Audubon County Memorial Hospital in Audubon, Iowa, the cost savings is estimated to be about $65,000 a year, says Troy Schoon, director of radiology. Yet for Schoon, going live with a PACS from Jacksonville, Fla.-based StorCOMM Inc. represented the culmination of a long-term planning effort.

2005 Custom Home Pacesetter Awards

On the next 13 pages you'll meet some of the best practitioners in the custom building business: the winners of the 2005 Pacesetter Awards. Co-sponsored by CUSTOM HOME and the NAHB Custom Home Builders Committee, the Pacesetter Awards program honors custom builders who not only excel in the business of custom home building, but also bring new ideas, more effective procedures, and higher standards to their businesses. The winners were chosen by the magazine's editors for their demonstrated excellence in one of six categories critical to success in custom building: marketing, management, customer service, design, production, and innovation. We are proud to share their stories with you and to add these builders to our custom home building hall of fame.

Future-proof your network

If you've ever done a tricky remodeling project at home, you might be familiar with the urge to just level the place and start over. But on your corporate network, no one wants to have to explain the need for a forklift upgrade where large parts of the infrastructure must be overhauled. How can you maximize the longevity of your IT investments in a world of ever-changing protocols and constantly evolving security dangers? Beyond thinking carefully about scalability and capacity, here's a look at some key tasks for your future-proofing to-do list. Keep these considerations in mind as you evaluate and purchase new gear.

1. Stick to modular equipment, centralized management.

To avoid rip-out upgrades later, follow this advice whether you're planning your wireless or wired LAN. On the wireless side, this usually means buying a centralized wireless LAN (WLAN) switch that will let you upgrade access points easily "Stand-alone fat [access points] exclusive architectures are out, but some companies are deploying a mix of thin and thick," for example, using thick access points to support branch-office locations, says Ellen Daley, principal analyst at Forrester Research. On the wired side, this means selecting equipment that is as modular as possible in the wiring closets and the core data center. Even then, consider keeping about 20% of the expansion room open.

User friendly: a high-tech home without a high-tech feel - Estate of the Art

Ask a focus group of wealthy, middle-aged, suburban women to create a wish list for the perfect home, and you're sure to get some interesting ideas. That's what the editors of BUILDER, our sister publication at Hanley-Wood, LLC, did to develop the plan of its 2003 show home, HomeDestinations, at Southern Highlands on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Designed by Scheurer Architects of Newport Beach, Calif., and built by Las Vegas-based Christopher Homes, the 10,000-square-foot villa is the vanguard in luxury home design. And nowhere is that more evident than in the electronics threaded throughout the residence.

"State of the art" is how Greg Simmons, vice president and co-owner of Eagle Sentry, Las Vegas, describes the vast but largely concealed electronics array. "The system gives very good but simple control of all the low-voltage systems in the house," he says. "We can turn on the fireplaces from any touchpanel, turn on the audio/video system, control HVAC and lighting.... And from the same panels, homeowners have full control of security--both perimeter and surveillance.'"

Eagle Sentry designs and installs the full gamut of residential electronic subsystems from central vacuum systems to automated home theaters. Despite the show home nature of the project, Eagle Sentry's assignment for HomeDestinations wasn't unlike a typical job for the high-end installation company. Upscale homeowners want all the cool, trick features provided by technology but they don't want to see that it's there.

Small Business 101; Financial Planning

If you are thinking about starting your own business, you probably have tons of questions about where to start. Get advice from Small Business 101 to learn more about the basics of entrepreneurship.

Scott Parsons is the director of the financial services division for the Virginia Department of Business Assistance. He also serves as the executive director of the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority.

Scott has over 18 years of commercial lending experience. He has worked with Bank of America and its Virginia predecessors working as a credit analyst, a commercial account manager, and later as a manager of a central credit underwriting center in the commercial card division. Most of his experience has been in assisting small businesses with their financial needs.

Setting Up a Wireless Office Network

You've spent a fortune building up your office network, and already it's nearly obsolete: To stay productive, all your employees have to be at their desks all the time. Meanwhile, sales leads and urgent e-mails go unanswered whenever your staff members meet in conference rooms or step away from their workstations. Enough! Here's how you can cut the cords with a wireless office network.

1. Choose your weapon.

Wireless networks are no longer just science projects. If you don't mind tinkering, it may be worth your while to become an early adopter of Bluetooth. The standard will make serial port sync cables a thing of the past, because any Bluetooth device within 30 feet of your PC can automatically bond with and relate its travels to home base. Alternatively an 802.11b setup, also called Wi-Fi, will eliminate the associated stringy blue cables hanging from the office ceiling.

Keep in mind that neither system is as affordably priced as the broadband router and Ethernet hub flavor du jour. You'll pay quite a premium to cut the cord. But you'll also save a relative fortune in cabling fees, because expanding the office will no longer involve threading the walls with wire.

ADS Launches USB to Ethernet Starter Kit for Home/Small Office Users; Latest Addition to Popular USB Product Line Simplifies Network Building

ADS Technologies Inc., a leading provider of USB upgrade solutions, Wednesday announced the release of USB to Ethernet Starter Kit, a networking solution that allows users to set up a true 10BaseT network for the home or small office with plug and play convenience.

The USB to Ethernet Starter Kit allows users to share Internet access, files and peripherals instantly without requiring them to open their computers to install networking interface cards (NIC).

The USB to Ethernet Starter Kit includes: five-port ethernet hub, two ethernet adapters, A/C power supply, 10BaseT cables, driver disk and Midpoint Companion Lite software, which allows users to share a modem for Internet access. This feature eliminates the need for additional routers or hardware and also includes a natural firewall, adding protection against outside intrusion.

"USB technology has made home and small office networking more accessible to the average consumer," said Mike McCoy, president of ADS Technologies. "Users do not have to have extensive networking knowledge or experience to reap the benefits of file, Internet and peripheral sharing.

Brother Introduces New Performance and Workgroup Flatbed Laser Multi-Function Center Devices; New Brother MFC Products Target Wide Range of Home, Smal

Brother International Corporation today introduces three new 5-in-1 flatbed laser Multi-Function Center(R) (MFC) models - the new MFC-8440, MFC-8840D and MFC-8840DN. Common to each model is a high-speed SuperG3 33.6K bps plain paper fax, an HQ1200 (up to 2400x 600 dpi) laser printer with up to 21ppm print speeds, a flatbed digital copier (up to 21cpm), PC Fax capability, and color scanner with high-quality resolution up to 9600x9600dpi(1). The MFC-8840D and MFC-8840DN models also include paper-saving duplex (two-sided) printing, with the latter adding network-ready connectivity for workgroups. The MFC-8440 (449.99(2)) and MFC-8840D ($549.99(2)) are slated for availability in late April 2004, and MFC-8840DN ($649.99(2)) is expected to be available in May 2004.

"The multi-function product category has come a very long way in a fairly short time with more and more businesses and individuals understanding its value and benefits," says Don Cummins, Vice President of Marketing at Brother. "What these customers have come to understand is that products like those we're now introducing offer the same professional quality that they expect from multiple 'single-function' devices. They are also much more robust, offering a long, dependable life, and considerable savings in terms of space and costs."

A variety of features beyond the basic functions have contributed to an increased attractiveness of MFC products to businesses and consumers. The new Brother line of MFCs includes flatbed scanning areas that accommodate single-sheets or bound documents up to legal size. They also have faster print speeds of up to 21ppm, a large 32MB base memory capacity, and an expandable printer memory of up to 160MB(5). A 5-line back-lit LCD display makes for easy setup and operation -- all of which to makes the new Brother MFCs valuable office equipment. Cummins adds, "Features such as duplex printing and internal network cards are important added features that separate the MFC-8840D and MFC-8840DN from the competition."

ELI simplifies small office security

An enterprising start-up has hatched a plan to make wireless LAN security both simple and strong for small-business users, teleworkers and consumers.

The plan, from Electronic Lifestyle Integrator (ELI), marries an appliance that has an integrated set of network functions with a hosted security update service.

Users select one of several classes of security then the appliance downloads the settings and configures itself to support that choice. ELI's servers automatically update the appliance's built-in anti-virus, content-filtering and anti-spam applications several times a day

The Mount Laurel, N.J., vendor was co-founded by CEO Susan Lutz and CTO Robert Smith, who have sustained the fledgling company without any venture backing. Lutz co-founded secureIT, which focused on IT security solutions and was acquired by VeriSign, for which Lutz worked for five years. She also serves as CEO for Etsec, a company that focuses on enterprise security services and strategy. Smith remains CEO and CTO of Secure Networking Company a managed security services firm in Europe. He also worked for VeriSign as a product manager.

The initial model of the device, called Eli, has a DSL modem. The company says it will soon ship a cable modem version, and is designing a model that will have a PCM-CIA slot that can accept a cellular adapter card to connect with wireless data services. Each also has a four-port Ethernet switch, an 802.11b/g WLAN access point and USB port.

Printers: Small Office, Shoestring Budget

Having a thriving small business is nothing to complain about, but rapid growth brings with it some pretty hefty demands on office infrastructure. Mike Scully should know. As the business director for MR Architecture, a small New York design firm, he has seen his company grow from 6 to 16 employees over the past year, and IT resources are stretched thin. "Now we've got to add new computers and new printers," he says, "but who's got the time, or the money, to install and administer them?"

To help small businesses like Mike's, we resolved to find out how much printer power today's dollar could buy. So we asked vendors to send us their least expensive small-business printers. For this story, PC Magazine Labs tested eight monochrome lasers that sell for $300 or less and five color lasers for $750 or less. Thrifty buyers will also appreciate the four $500 multifunction models we tested, which also handle fax, scanning, and copying.

What about $50 ink jet models, you might ask? After all, the laser printers we tested aren't quite as cheap as the average ink jet. There's definitely a place for ink. Despite the almost scarily high cost of replacing ink cartridges, a laser printer probably doesn't make sense for everyday home use. And multifunction ink jet printers, which can print terrific color photos, sell for as little as $80. "Home users want color photo printing," says Jennifer Thorwart, an analyst with research firm IDC who closely follows the laser market. "Although the price of color lasers has come down into the $500 to $600 range, you can't expect home users to pay that."

For anyone running a home office or small business, however, a $200 monochrome or $500 multifunction laser is nearly irresistible. And sub-$750 color lasers are a godsend to small graphics houses—or home users who want to print like small graphics houses. As prices have dropped, color lasers have experienced a particularly sharp rise in popularity. They now account for 12 percent of the U.S. laser printer market, and sales are expected to increase at a rate of 20 percent a year beginning in 2004, according to IDC. "Most of this is being driven by the sub-$1,000 color laser segment," says Thorwart.

Naturally, you'll have to make a few sacrifices with the low-cost models. Of the 17 printers we reviewed, not one includes a stacker or a sorter for managing your output. Only three offer duplexers for automatically printing pages on two sides. And only one model, the $750 Oki C5100n, has a network card.

Digital Rights Are Key to Intel's Digital Home Vision

For the digital home to work, Intel's Whiteside says the consumer must have enough rights to acquire and use digital media content. Like other Intel Corp. executives, Don Whiteside is enthusiastic about pursuing the company's vision of the digital home.

"The essence of the digital home is flexibility and portability of content," said Whiteside. "This means that any content can be played on any machine, whether it's a PC, TV or [mobile] phone."

But Whiteside isn't focusing on Intel's Viiv technology to make this happen. That's because Whiteside, Intel's vice president of technology and policy standards, isn't a technologist. He works with national regulators and policy-makers on issues of digital copyrights.

To achieve "flexibility and portability," Whiteside believes the consumer must have enough rights to acquire and use digital media content.

The problem is that the ability for consumers to use digital content freely on multiple devices is at odds with the need for content creators to prevent pirating. This has created disagreements between the entertainment industry, cable providers and consumer electronics interests.

"We fought tooth and nail with the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] on the cable plug-and-play agreement," said Whiteside, referring to the 2003 FCC decision that allowed digital TVs to receive cable signals without the need for a set-top box. The decision still required set-top boxes for content on demand. At that time, the entertainment industry wanted tighter control over how consumers could access digital content.

Whiteside thinks that in order for the digital home concept to work, consumers can't be too restricted in the use of digital content.

"In this country we have the concept of fair use. We own a private copy," said Whiteside. "You have to let consumers do some copying for their own use."

At the same time, copyright owners need a fair compensation mechanism for the use of their digital media content. Whiteside believes that such balance of interests can be achieved by having consumers pay upfront for the number of copies they want, similar to the way businesses buy software licenses.

"You could buy a version that lets you make one personal copy," Whiteside said. "Another would let you make five copies."

Whiteside was critical of levies on the sale of playback devices such as DVD players, digital content, and blank CD and DVD media. Some countries use levies as a means of compensating copyright holders. Whiteside believes that levies raise the cost of products for all consumers regardless of how individuals are using the products.

"If you buy a CD in Canada, 65 percent of the retail price is a levy."

Rights owners don't like levies because they don't fairly distribute proceeds to the copyright holders, Whiteside said.

"Business models are being disrupted," he said.

Under copy licensing systems, consumers pay only for what they use, and content creators are paid for what the consumer buys, without the tax-collecting body getting in between.

Service Providers and Bandwidth

With the digital home's potential to create new types of digital entertainment services, Whiteside thinks the model of cable TV needs to change. Technology is needed to bring in significantly more bandwidth, but Whiteside believes that consumers need control over the use of their bandwidth, which they currently don't get from cable companies.

"Consumers should be able to portion out their bandwidth. They should be able to say, 'I want 25 percent for a media server, 25 percent for security services,'" said Whiteside. "Right now the service provider decides what the bandwidth is used for."

As the digital home expands from a single digital TV to a network of entertainment devices, the home will need a network. One way this could happen is for cable companies to expand the wire that comes into the home so that it doesn't stop at the wall. Whiteside believes that it is in the interest of the cable industry to do so.

"Service providers want to control the home network," said Whiteside. But such control many not be in the best interests of consumers.

"The consumer should own the product, not the service provider.

"In the past Ma Bell owned everything," said Whiteside, referring to telephone service. "It brought in content on its wires. If you wanted a phone in every room, Ma Bell was the only provider. Look at all the options we have in buying a phone now."

Whiteside also believes that cable companies want to be the entities that install the home network.

"Consumers will set up their own networking," said Whiteside, just as consumers hire their own contractors to install other home furnishings.

Another challenge is the issue of which consumer devices will be allowed to display which content. Currently, set-top boxes are designed to restrict the viewing of content to permitted TV sets under permitted circumstances. Whiteside said that entertainment devices in the digital home should be all-purpose players, able to handle any media. The differences would be in form factor and in primary focus of the device. Just as digital music can now be played on a 5.1 surround sound audio system and an iPod, movies should be able to be viewed on a big-screen TV, a PC and a mobile phone.

Network Magic

Network Magic, from Pure Networks, manages and repairs home networks. It runs on each system in the network and displays a visual map of the network configuration. Many common problems can be fixed simply by clicking the Repair button. The product handles initial network setup, configuring file and printer sharing, and notification of unexpected visitors to the network. You can also use it to notify other users of new files available for sharing, or to monitor their network usage.

Building A Home Network: Wires Rule

Wireless networking is the current hot topic. It's no surprise, because Wi-Fi promises wonderful benefits. Be connected anywhere! No pesky wires needed! It's certainly useful when you have a mobile PC, and are moving from meeting to meeting, or wanting to grab a latte' at your local Starbucks.

Wireless, however, is not problem-free. First, there's the whole poorly-understood security issue. Put up an unsecured access point in your home, and suddenly the entire neighborhood is sharing your cable modem connection. Or, as Dave Salvator discovered recently, you can encounter some interesting conflicts with your neighbors. But to me, the most pressing matter is one of performance.

Now, this isn't really a diatribe against wireless. I think the various flavors of 802.11 certainly have their place. But in my own case, wireless networking is a less-than-perfect solution. First, I move a lot of big files and directories around, because of the kind of work I do. Just moving the standard benchmarks around my network takes a good ten minutes over 100 mb/sec Ethernet.

Wireless Performance Problems Then there's my house. The way my house is laid out turns out to be something of a nightmare for wireless.

The problem is that my office, which is where the cable modem connection lives, is in the daylight basement. An 802.11b or 802.11a router or access point located there is actually invisible to any wirelessly enabled system in my upstairs bedroom. I could place a bunch of repeaters around the house, I suppose, but that gets expensive and still wouldn't solve my performance problem. So my solution was to wire the house.

As it turned out, wiring up the house was an opportunistic event, brought about by bugs. I'm not talking software bugs, but literal ones: termites had invaded the front wood siding. I was forced to replace the front siding – which meant the entire front wall of the house was removed temporarily. That offered a golden opportunity to wire the rest of the house.

In fact, I'd had a crude 100mb/sec network in my basement office for years, but it mostly consisted of CAT5e wiring strung along the baseboards. In fact, that's still the case down there, because of the flexibility it offers me, particularly when testing products. On the other hand, my wife's office was adjacent to mine, and she was quite clear about the whole issue of wiring her office: no visible wires.

Additionally, I have two daughters with bedrooms upstairs. Eventually, they'll have PCs in their rooms, and I wanted to make sure that they had easy connectivity to the Internet. At some point, as they approached the dreaded teenage years, they'd also need their own phones. My wife expressed a desire to occasionally work in the dining room as well, through her company-provided DSL link. Finally, I wanted a clean way to manage all that wiring.

In the end, the parameters looked like this: CAT5e connections to each of the kids room, the dining room and the office POTS (plain old telephone service) dial-tone to those locations Some type of wire/cable management system Easy connections to multiple Internet connections (one cable modem and one private DSL connection) Co-ax cable support for video (satellite or cable TV)

The key to all this was the independent contractor who was replacing the siding on my house. Cameron was just the right guy -- one of the most flexible and knowledgeable contractors I'd ever met. He was pretty familiar with the issues of wiring a house, having done quite a few, and came up with some great ideas.

The first one was the use of a pre-built wiring bundle, designed specifically for home use. The wiring bundle consists of a phone, fiber, dual coax cable (RG6, offering 2.2GHz bandwidth) and Cat5e Ethernet in a single bundle wrapped with orange insulation. It's made by General Cable and goes under the HomeLinx brand. At roughly $1 - $1.50 per foot, it seems expensive, until you realize you're getting five different cables in one bundled price. We needed about 200 feet for our project.

The next piece of the puzzle was the cable management system. Leviton makes a line of cable management products for wired home applications. We chose the Leviton SMC-280 Structured Media Center as the main management box. In addition to having multiple punch-outs for cable runs, a number of mounting holes are drilled into the back of the box, which allow you to either mount Leviton patch panels or other gear.

Leviton makes a host of accessories for the box, and sorting through the various patch panels would have been tedious at best. The good news is that Leviton has some pre-built modules, making the choices much easier. We chose their Advanced Small Office Unit (part number A7603-ASO), which sports a pair of combination CAT5e voice/data modules, a POTS distribution panel and a six-way coax video splitter.