NOON -- Hola, amigos!! Yes, EuroBlog is in Madrid, and grappling with a paternity issue.

During Tuesday's opening address here at the Carrier Ethernet World Congress, Daniel Bar-Lev, Co-Chair of the MEF 's Marketing Committee, noted that it is now about 30 years since Ethernet was invented by Bob Metcalfe, and that, since then, Ethernet's development has been staggering.

"Your Ethernet is not your father's Ethernet," said Bar-Lev, "unless, of course, your father is Bob Metcalfe, and I don't think that applies to most of you here today."

Just most?

In a room of between 150 and 200 people, what was Bar-Lev suggesting? Unless, of course, the event was being graced by either, or both, of Metcalfe's two children...

More shocking was that the opening address was not given by normally omnipresent Nan Chen, the MEF's president and regular Ethernet tub-thumper.

But, for once, it seems Chen's day job has had to come first -- he had been scheduled to bounce onto the stage to open proceedings, but was held up in California with Strix Systems Inc. business.

— Ray Le Maistre, Family Relations Editor, Light Reading