An Opportunity To Help Someone

If you're looking for a blog entry about broadband, you can skip this one.

Yesterday, I read an article in the NY Times by Dexter Filkins, titled Afghan Girls, Scarred by Acid, Defy Terror, Embracing School . As a woman who went to Vassar in the days when it was still a women's college, I was particularly moved by the story of these girls, who, despite brutal intimidation, continue to pursue their education. I decided to write to the reporter and ask how I could help.

I have gotten a response from Mr. Filkins and am about to send a check to him, made out to the “Mirwais School Fund,” as explained in his email to me (below). I thought that some of my friends, relatives and colleagues might also be interested in contributing, which is the reason for letting you know about this. Here is the email from Dexter:

"Hi, thank you very much for writing about the girls at Mirwais School. They are a very inspiring bunch.

Thanks for offering to help. I’m happy to say that I have been deluged by letters from readers.
They don't really have banks to speak of here, and I'm not sure I would trust giving any money to the government. My address is below. I am in Kandahar, Afghanistan at the moment, so there is no bank account for the girls or the school. (I can do that when I get back to the U.S. later this month.)

If you feel like you can trust me, then make a check out to me­Dexter Filkins. Or, write it to the “Mirwais School Fund,” which I will set up when I get back to the U.S. later this month.
Until then I won’t cash any checks. Please specify what you would like done with the money­for the school, or for Shamsia, the burned girl. I can let you know how the money is spent and send you photos and updates. I am trying to find a plastic surgeon for Shamsia; I have already been contacted by a foundation in Switzerland that may be able to perform the surgery.

I don't really recommend sending stuff­school supplies, for instance. It is very difficult to move in and out of the area, as it is under siege by the Taliban. And the mail and roads and such like here are so bad---I just don't know how it could be pulled off with any degree of certainty.

If I cannot find anything worth while to spend your money on, I will send it back to you.

The girls need every cent, and I am sure they would be thrilled to know that someone from the outside world cares about them. It isn't often that any one of us can change a life, so I will take great care.

My address:

The New York Times
Attention: Dexter Fillkins
Foreign Desk
MIRWAIS SCHOOL FUND
620 8th Ave.
New York, NY 10018

Thanks very much again.

Dexter"

I feel comfortable with the arrangement Dexter has suggested. You can learn more about him at
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/dexter_filkins/index.html and his acclaimed book at http://www.dexterfilkins.net/

If any of you are moved to send additional contributions to this fund and let me know you have done so, I will try to send additional contributions--not to match yours (I don't think I could manage that) but at least to add more to the fund.

Thanks for reading this and for your kind thoughts for the girls of the Mirwais School.

Sandy
Vassar 1961 (yes-- I really am that old--but don't feel like it one bit.)

Ordinary or extraordinary?

"Ordinary events" are frequently the result of extraordinary journeys. I experienced one of those "light bulb" moments yesterday. After being an avid Skype user for years, I decided to add a Skype phone to our house, instead of always using it on my PC. We have tracked IP phones for years now, but had never felt that using the PC got in the way. It amazed me how blown away I was by the convenience and simplicity of adding a Belkin Skype phone in my kitchen. Intellectually I had known that the phone was a friendlier device because of its familiarity, but the difference was tremendous.

Some days seem made for epiphanies. My second ordinary/amazing moment came when Dave finally installed the high quality camera he had bought for his PC back a year ago when Skype started supporting them. As someone who lived thru the arduous history of desktop videoconferencing and videophones at AT&T, I had become a Skype devotee when my daughter in Florida was awaiting heart surgery. With expectations conditioned by years of compromise, I thought that the pictures I was getting of my far-flung family were adequate and didn't expect more. When Dave called me with his new video camera (which costs $89.99) I once again realized what a long road we have travelled since the days of the $500 AT&T Videophone 2500, with its (maybe) 4 frames per second capability. What a picture!

Lest I seem hung up on Skype (I guess its my deep video history), I was also struck today by an article in Telecommunications Online, by Sean Buckley. With the leader "Actiontec cleans up the home network clutter" Buckley starts by saying: "It’s hard to imagine a time when the idea of having an integrated modem with Wi-Fi wireless and other capabilities on one common network gateway device was a foreign concept." I flashed back to a slide we presented at VON Asia 2000 (November 13-15, Hong Kong, China ( www.broadbandhomecentral.com/presentations_archive.html ). Called "Enabling the Broadband Home", we illustrated "the complexities which need to be overcome by the industry to make the broadband home a reality for the mass market." It is humbling to understand that it has taken eight years to move from conception to realization and adoption!!

PCs and broadband--life's essentials?

We're about to start the remodeling of our second "broadband condo" in Sanibel. On Monday the contractor starts dismantling everything, so today we gave away virtually all the furniture. We'll be putting in new furnishings when the reconstruction is done.

As with our previous condo (which we still own) we'll be putting in some structured wiring, wireless, a sound system, 3 flat screen HDTVs and probably a Skype phone.

Looking around the condo this afternoon had me musing on what the essentials of life really are. We have a bed, the refrigerator is still here and we have our porch table as a temporary desk, eating spot, etc. However, the things that are most prominently still here are 4 PCs (3 laptops and 1 desktop), our cable modem, our Homeplug setup and an old TV. I've posted a few pictures of our temporary digs--they show what we can't live without. Oh yes, the other thing we do have is a couple of bottles of wine--one more essential of roughing it :-)

POF and musings on video vs text interviews

I noticed that we were not the only ones to observe on plastic optical fiber (POF) at the IPTV World conference, where we recorded several videos on the topic http://www.broadbandhomecentral.com/videos-IPTV_WF_NA_08.html. Today's issue of Fierce IPTV http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/pof-presents-another-wiring-option/2008-08-05?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&cmp-id=EMC-NL-FI&dest=FI noted that Swisscom is a leading deployer of POF, and that the technology has received most of its attention in Europe thus far.

Speaking of videos, we are still figuring out which medium to use where. One of our BBH Report readers that said that she still preferrs text interviews over video. I am speculating on whether this is because you can skim a text interview, pick out if there is anything of interest, and then focus on that section. With simple videos you have to watch the whole thing--and might not find anything you really wanted to know.

I wonder what other people are doing and find useful. For example, should there be a breif text summary of the main points, with links to the section of the video where that topic is discussed? Could be... But that means yet another layer of work to get these things online. Comments??

Where to find all of Broadband Sandy's videos

I realized I had put in a link to one of the videos we did at IPTV World, but didn't say how to find the others. We've (namely Dave, has) modified our Website to add a place with links to our videos and blogs http://www.broadbandhomecentral.com/videos-IPTV_WF_NA_08.html . Videos are organized by conference they were done at. You can see all 4 from the Chicago conference at http://www.broadbandhomecentral.com/videos.html .

I was thinking about shooting a video of the outside of our broadband home (we did a video a long time ago about the inside) but decided it was more fun to work in the garden than to video it. I'm including a picture of the mailbox--just for fun.