Ray and I were musing about the "New Ethernet" that's being announced Thursday. Ethernet's appointed father, Texas resident Bob Metcalfe, will reveal all in a Webcast hosted by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF). (See Metcalfe to Unveil 'New Ethernet'.)
In advance of the official announcement, we banged our tiny, caffeine-addled brains together to see what (in an ideal, carefree world) we would want the "New Ethernet" to be.
Here are the best of our worst ideas:
1) EtherNetflix: Super-fast data services with integrated video content based on your personal preferences and viewing history. Ray's would come with 24/7 Blues Brothers. ("Bring me four fried chickens and a Coke…")
2) Ethernetbook: A small, portable, always connected reading device (comes with 2-mile long cable and jack) that's linked to a cloud-based repository of every novel ever written. I'd read The Da Vinci Code first to see if is as darned awful as everyone says. It can't be any worse than the movie (which wouldn't be in my EtherNetflix queue).
3) Ethernot: No calories. No cholesterol. No fat. Borrowing from the trend in today's food labels, Ethernot technology rewrites your marketing pitches so that they only tout missing ingredients. Should come in handy in this industry.
4) Ethanet: A cross between Ethernet and ethanol. Data connectivity with a kick like a mule… yeehah! Make mine a double.
5) Ethernetherlands: A next-generation service that has 100 percent uptime with zero latency or packet loss but is only available in Holland -- which, fascinatingly, is a "significant consumer of ecstasy," according to the CIA's World Factbook.
— Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief, and Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading
