George Ou

George Ou was a network engineer who built and designed wired network, wireless network, Internet, storage, security, and server infrastructure for various fortune 100 companies. He is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP #109250). He was Technical Director and Editor at Large at ZDNet.com and wrote one of their most popular blogs “Real World IT.” In 2008, he became a Senior Analyst at ITIF.org, and he currently writes for High Tech Forum

Latest from George Ou

Google angling for free H.264 plugin

I was likely wrong on Monday when I said that Google dropping H.264 video compression support in their Chrome browser was due to untenable hubris.  I’m beginning to think that Google was being smart and that this is just a quick way to save money.  No it’s not about saving storage costs on YouTube which ...

Google’s untenable hubris on H.264

Google has announced on its Chromium blog that it will be dropping H.264 support in its Chrome web browser in favor of the VP8 compression technology used in the WebM standard.  H.264 is the most popular and widely supported video compression standard in the world.  It is used in all the major standards like Blu-Ray, ...

Wi-Fi was never a substitute for wireless carriers

There is a pervasive myth that Wi-Fi (802.11 wireless Ethernet) is some sort of substitute for mobile data services when the reality is that they are complementary technologies.  Wi-Fi is designed as a short-range technology while long range mobile standards like 3G CDMA or GSM are designed to blanket towns and cities with data coverage.  The ...

Microsoft Windows on ARM rumors persist

Ina Fried follows up on last month’s rumors about Microsoft Windows (not the smartphone version already running on ARM) running on the ARM CPU Architecture which powers nearly all the smartphones of the world with 5 billion devices projected to ship in 2011 by iSupply.  Two weeks ago, Peter Bright had given probably the best ...

Enough with the cable broadband monopoly myths

Nearly a year late to the party, Nate Anderson repeats the myth that the FCC concluded that higher speed broadband is turning into a Cable DOCSIS 3.0 monopoly outside of Verizon FiOS fiber to the home (FTTH) territory because the fiber to the node (FTTN) VDSL2 technology used by other Telcos can’t compete.  This is ...

CES 2011 – Microsoft alternative to Google TV?

Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times reports that Microsoft might be showing off a Microsoft alternative to Google TV.  Considering that the first Google TV devices like the recently halted Logitech Revue came in at a steep $300 (compared to the limited but inexpensive $99 Apple TV) and had less than enthusiastic reviews due to ...

Is Google prepared to spend over $20 billion to be a carrier?

Every time rumors about Google becoming a fiber broadband provider or wireless carrier surface, the speculation and adulation from the blogosphere is so predicable that it’s almost expected.  TechCrunch even predicted that it was only a matter of time that Google would attempt to become a new nationwide wireless carrier and that it was Government ...

FCC’s utter incoherence on Paid Prioritization

Julius Genachowski’s FCC managed to pass their Net Neutrality ruling last week by striking a very delicate compromise.  This compromise was needed to get the necessary votes from the FCC commissioners who wanted an outright ban on Paid Prioritization or “access fees” (the existing practice of broadband providers charging businesses for direct access to their ...

If the FCC attempts to set peering prices, why can’t the EU?

If the French government or carriers don’t like it, too bad unless the French government wants to enact a tax on Google YouTube bits or anything else originating from the US, and I would think that would raise questions of fair trade.  But the fact is, Google is already paying to operate in Europe.  They ...

The contradiction of CDNs and no paid prioritization

With the text of the just passed Net Neutrality rules under lock and key, the FCC is trickling out some of the details regarding the ruling.  ArsTechnica’s Matthew Lasar noted that the FCC was promising to outlaw paid prioritization.  The FCC majority that passed the rules justifies this by claiming: “Since the beginning of the ...