It's In The News: a central thread

[popper]

It's In The News: is a general thread to replace She tells it like it is.
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/10...l#post34325919
as there seems to be some question as to weather its allowed to make your general news sighting posts there under that topic thread and the OP has not made comment as to his original wish.

to be clear:this thread topic IS setup by me, and is intended to take any and all external news posts you deem interesting even the odd non VM news story now an then, (but it might be better to make another all subjects It's In The News: 2 thread elsewere and link to it from here), and i ask that it remain so.....

as far as im concerned its perfectly fine to pull off any news post made here and start another thread to continue that topic, links back here might be nice to

why did i do this, im bored around here lately and thought it might help start new readers posting their thoughts and idea's as the less traveled news URL's get an airing here hopefully.

so to begin: (now go find yours and post them, even the shy readers too)
------------------------------------------------
http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/cgi-b...action=display
Virgin Mobile co-founders resign
"
Virgin Mobile co-founders managing director Alan Gow and deputy managing director and Joe Steel have resigned. [img]Download Failed (1)[/img]


Steele leaves next month while Gow will depart once a successor is in place.

Both men were both co-founders of Virgin Mobile in 1999 and have been responsible for steering the company’s development before and during the launch of Virgin Media.

The changes reflect the integration between Virgin Media’s cable operation and Virgin Mobile, particularly in distribution and IT. However, Virgin Mobile will continue to exist as a brand and business unit in its own right...."

--------------------------

http://www.lightreading.com/document...26390&site=cdn
"
Virgin Revamps DNS StrategyJUNE 13, 2007Discuss >
Virgin Media (Nasdaq: VMED - message board) says a small investment in new domain name server (DNS) technology it's deploying should make its broadband services appear faster to customers and make its network more secure.

The U.K. cable operator, known as NTL before it adopted its new name earlier this year, is "investing a few hundred thousand pounds, much less than £1 million [$2 million]" on new DNS equipment, which translates domain names into IP addresses, from Nominum Inc. . (See Virgin Media Picks Nominum and NTL Relaunches as Virgin Media.)

The new gear, and the way it's being deployed will have an impact on Web page response times and network security, says Keith Oborn, the operator's Network Systems Product Architect.

Here's why. Oborn says both NTL and Telewest, the two U.K. cable operators that merged in late 2005 and then subsequently acquired Virgin Mobile (hence the new name), were both already using Nominum's Caching Name Server technology, though in a slightly different setup.

(See NTL & Telewest: Together at Last! and NTL Takes Virgin.)
"We decided to revamp the DNS architecture for the relaunch as Virgin Media as, while Nominum's technology does exactly what it says on the tin, we had vulnerabilities in both legacy systems, which we're addressing by deploying a distributed architecture" and an inter-server communication technique called BGP anycast, says Oborn.

He says NTL previously had "two large DNS clusters with load balancers, but these created bottlenecks," which slowed down the time it took for domain name lookups to be executed.

Now, though, "we are distributing them around the edge of the network, and by September we will have 50 deployed, far more than we will actually need to meet traffic demands.

Any one server will likely only ever be five percent busy, so if one fails, no one will notice, and we have tested this.

It would take a lot of them to fail simultaneously to have an impact and the chances of that happening aren't even worth calculating," says the Virgin Media man.

The new setup will kill off any bottleneck problems and result in a better response time -- 10 milliseconds across the Virgin Media backbone. ..."

Any topic not regarding VM will be off topic in the area which it is posted of course

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6734833.stm bbc news link of steming losses by VM prob posted before but posted now to stay on topic in your thread

[popper]

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/item/56673/254/260/3
"
Sky reignites public feud with Virgin Media

13-Jun-07

BSkyB has reignited its public war of words with rival Virgin Media, claiming cable customers "deserve better". The marketing push comes just days after Virgin Media announced the launch of Virgin 1, a TV channel aimed to challenge Sky One.

The satellite giant has taken out full page adverts in the national press outlining what it says are the differences between Virgin Media and Sky.

The ad reads: "If you're a Virgin Media customer, no one could blame you for feeling disappointed or let down. Many of you were loyal to ntl:Telewest and were told things would get better."

It says cable customers are "missing out" on hit shows such as Lost and 24 and are "probably paying over the odds" for broadband and phone services. Sky withdrew its basic channels including Sky One and Sky News from the cable platform in February this year after the two companies failed to reach agreement over the cost of carriage. ..."

---------- Post added at 16:54 ---------- Previous post was at 16:53 ----------

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

Any topic not regarding VM will be off topic in the area which it is posted of course

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6734833.stm bbc news link of steming losses by VM prob posted before but posted now to stay on topic in your thread

indeed, hence the 'it might be better'....

---------- Post added at 16:56 ---------- Previous post was at 16:54 ----------

give a little clip of the url though, is it werth clicking to read the whole thing...

---------- Post added at 17:36 ---------- Previous post was at 16:56 ----------

ohh the Virgin Mobile co-founders guys, they had no other jobs to go to apparently....

seems odd to leave without new high management jobs to walk into, interesting

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle1928479.ece
"Virgin Mobile loses top two executives

Two co-founders of the mobile company, Alan Gow and Joe Steel, quit the Virgin Media group with no job to go to

Robert Lindsay
...
Virgin Media said that the "changes reflect the ongoing integration between Virgin Media’s cable operation and Virgin Mobile, particularly in distribution and IT".
Related Links
Virgin Media director steps down

• Virgin Media loses nearly 50,000 customers

It stressed that Virgin Mobile would continue to exist as a brand and business unit in its own right. But the mobile arm has not shown an outstanding performance since its takeover by the US-listed cable company.

Figures for the first three months of the year showed that Virgin Mobile lost a net 61,000 subscribers quarter on quarter while revenues dropped £10.7 million to £141 million, although Virgin stresses that it has won contract customers while losing less profitable pay as you go ones.

There have also been reports that Virgin Mobile's heavily advertised TV handset, known as the Lobster, has not sold as well as hoped. ...
"

[Munkeh]

Originally Posted by popper

"We decided to revamp the DNS architecture for the relaunch as Virgin Media as, while Nominum's technology does exactly what it says on the tin, we had vulnerabilities in both legacy systems, which we're addressing by deploying a distributed architecture" and an inter-server communication technique called BGP anycast, says Oborn.

It's not BGP anycast.
(and there's no inter-server communication but we'll let that one go )

[Incomplete]

Originally Posted by Munkeh

It's not BGP anycast.
(and there's no inter-server communication but we'll let that one go )

I remember Mr Oborn well, amongst other things for cutting off management to the whole of Swansea with one of his projects.

I guess it'll be ISIS anycast then, though that works just as well but is certainly not an inter-server communication protocol. About bloody time you chaps got around to using anycast anyway slackers!

How are you Munkeh?

[Munkeh]

Originally Posted by Incomplete

I remember Mr Oborn well, amongst other things for cutting off management to the whole of Swansea with one of his projects.

I guess it'll be ISIS anycast then, though that works just as well but is certainly not an inter-server communication protocol. About bloody time you chaps got around to using anycast anyway slackers!

How are you Munkeh?

Heh.. he has a singularly unique approach to systems architecture

That'll be a family fortunes *bap-barp* for ISIS, but these are only going to advertise downwards from the POPs so..

And yes it's about time we went anycast, and does mean VM will have one uber caching DNS platform when rollout is complete. Still just one small piece that most people wouldn't even think about that is now honkingly spec'd and scalable.. (99% of people don't even know the impact these systems have on their connectivity, and the chaps involved never get kudos for most of the stuff that's deployed that actually makes the 'tinternet work on this scale for this many customers).
The rest of the systems infrastructure to follow suit I hope, (beancounters obviously not throwing their abaci in the mix), still Keith's keeping me busy with his "make this fluffy cloud idea work please" requests. Next.. potato powered cars and anti-gravity flying rabbits would you believe.. all in the name of research and a faster more stable broadband connection (ok thats not true, the rabbits are actually frogs).

Oh and I'm fine... (would my guess be correct that Brick Lane is one of you daily haunts?)

[popper]

Munkeh and the guys

nice to see the under belly at work

all i really want is multicasting to the BBC AVC streaming trials multicast servers (and its like) to work, and we can then build on that VM user wide multicast into the future....

any multicast fluffy cloud idea from this Keith in the pipeline then or doesnt he know what that is and how its a good thing?,

or perhaps someone somewere in VM have a a reasonable idea of its potential and will put it in place (even as a baguley trial)sometime soon?.

[NTLVictim]

Cough..would the phrase "he has a singularly unique approach to systems architecture" mean he's a kakhead hangover from NTL? Why am I still paying this losers' wages???

[popper]

interesting point there NTLVictim
it would be interesting to see some more response so keep it up guys.

in other news:

'Cybertill ticked all our boxes,' , so whats wrong with it guys
http://www.itbsoftware.com/pr/14605
"
Virgin Media Chooses Cybertill Epos For New Stand-Alone Stores

Published 14th June 2007

EPoS technology company, Cybertill Limited, has revealed that its point-of-service software is driving Virgin Media’s first own-fascia stores and underpinning the retailer’s plans for expansion.

Virgin Media operates in 100+ ‘shops-within-shops’ in Virgin Megastores nationwide. After its acquisition by NTL Telewest last year, it now has five stand-alone stores as part of a strategy to create a nationwide chain.

Virgin Media’s new distribution strategy and the requirement to support Chip & PIN processing prompted an evaluation of its incumbent EPoS system. The time was felt right to move to a more contemporary and functional system and, after considering a number of alternatives, the cybertill solution landed the contract.

Delivered as an ASP service over a virtual private network, cybertill reduces the cost, risk and management overheads of traditional EPoS systems.

Ian Villalard, Operations Manager at Virgin Media, was responsible for selecting Cybertill. He explains: “Cybertill ticked all our boxes, both as a supplier and a solution. The company is forward-looking and its software is innovative, cost-competitive and scalable. All this makes Cybertill an ideal partner as we grow our store estate.”

Once the contract had been won, development started to customise the solution to Virgin Media’s needs. These included Chip & PIN implementation and integration with the retailer’s Strategix stock management system.

The cybertill software is installed on J2 920 integrated touchscreen computers supplied by J2 Retail Systems via their Box Technologies distributor. This is the company’s de facto choice for clients requiring a Chip & PIN-compliant point-of-sale solution.

Part of cybertill’s appeal is its ability to customise the point-of-service to a client ‘look and feel’. In the case of Virgin Media, the till points display its trademark brand values of ‘cool and contemporary’, designed to appeal to the retailer’s predominantly youthful target customers.

The ease of reporting offered by cybertill was seen by Virgin Media as another big plus. Continues Villalard: “One of our main business drivers was......"

---------- Post added at 19:47 ---------- Previous post was at 19:30 ----------

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcas...103195,00.html
"
...

Virgin Media has struck the exclusive UK TV deal for The Sarah Connor Chronicles with US studio Warner Bros.

The show will be made available across various digital media, with catch up and preview clips available via Virgin Media's on-demand services.

Virgin Media has also struck a deal, with CBS Paramount, to air several of the Star Trek series, totalling 624 hours of programming that it aims to build a "cult community" around on the Virgin1.co.uk website..."

---------- Post added at 20:15 ---------- Previous post was at 19:47 ----------

no sub, but heres what they say, do you want frys with that?
http://www.nma.co.uk/Logon/ResourceBarrier.aspx?RequiredServices=17,|&Pipelin edPage=/Articles/33658/+McDonald's+sponsors+Virgin+channel.html&Pipelined QueryString=liArticleID%3d33658#ContentContinues

"
McDonald's sponsors Virgin channel

Article Type: News | Author: By Richard Simpson | Source: NMA magazine | Published: 14.06.07
McDonald's has signed a major five-month sponsorship deal on Virgin Media's portal as part of a concerted digital marketing campaign for its deli-style sandwiches.

The deal will see the fast-food giant become the sole sponsor of a new channel called Take 5, which is dedicated to 'bite-sized' entertainment.

The wider campaign will include advertising on sites including Yahoo!, Ebay and MySpace, on which McDonald's is running a home-page takeover for the deli sandwiches. There..."

[Incomplete]

Originally Posted by Munkeh

That'll be a family fortunes *bap-barp* for ISIS, but these are only going to advertise downwards from the POPs so..

Ah RIP then All good and all works anyway

Originally Posted by Munkeh

Oh and I'm fine... (would my guess be correct that Brick Lane is one of you daily haunts?)

Never heard of the place.

[popper]

Virgin investor retreats in a Huff
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/busin...104559,00.html
"James Robinson
Sunday June 17, 2007
The Observer

Bill Huff, the powerful hedge fund manager who is a major hareholder in Virgin Media, has sold a large chunk of his stake in the cable company for around $1.6m (£800,000).


Huff reduced his stake in Virgin Media, which is quoted in New York, from 5.7 per cent to 4.9 per cent, according to documents filed with the SEC, the US's stock market regulator, last week.
Huff's influence at the company, formed by the merger of NTL and Telewest and the subsequent acquisition of Virgin Mobile, prompted a bitter shareholder row earlier this year after other investors complained he had too much power.

One of his key allies, William Connors, a former employee at Huff's company WR Huff Asset Management, stepped down from the board after complaints he had disproportionate representation.

Huff also has a seat on the board, as does another former employee, Edwin Bank. Huff was briefly interim chairman of the group and appointed current chairman Jim Mooney, whose decision to remain in his native America has been criticised by some shareholders, who believe he should be based in the UK.

Huff's decision to reduce his stake could prompt investors who are concerned about the group's performance and strategy to demand he further reduces representation on the board...."

[Toto]

Originally Posted by popper

Virgin investor retreats in a Huff
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/busin...104559,00.html
"James Robinson
Sunday June 17, 2007
The Observer

Bill Huff, the powerful hedge fund manager who is a major hareholder in Virgin Media, has sold a large chunk of his stake in the cable company for around $1.6m (£800,000).


Huff reduced his stake in Virgin Media, which is quoted in New York, from 5.7 per cent to 4.9 per cent, according to documents filed with the SEC, the US's stock market regulator, last week.
Huff's influence at the company, formed by the merger of NTL and Telewest and the subsequent acquisition of Virgin Mobile, prompted a bitter shareholder row earlier this year after other investors complained he had too much power.

One of his key allies, William Connors, a former employee at Huff's company WR Huff Asset Management, stepped down from the board after complaints he had disproportionate representation.

Huff also has a seat on the board, as does another former employee, Edwin Bank. Huff was briefly interim chairman of the group and appointed current chairman Jim Mooney, whose decision to remain in his native America has been criticised by some shareholders, who believe he should be based in the UK.

Huff's decision to reduce his stake could prompt investors who are concerned about the group's performance and strategy to demand he further reduces representation on the board...."

You have to love this backrrom stuff

Now, where are my red braces?

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/item/56673/254/260/3


Good on sky for hitting back, saw the ad in last weeks sunday mail.
About time they rolled their sleeves up with branson.

[popper]

Now, where are my red braces?

you have to wonder why he's not got rid of all of it, and more so, who took the shares off his hands (i didnt bother to look).

perhaps he's waiting for the price to rise a bit ,he's lost a few quid in this quarters dividends payout on what he offloaded so far, so its interesting.

Originally Posted by popper

you have to wonder why he's not got rid of all of it, and more so, who took the shares off his hands (i didnt bother to look).

perhaps he's waiting for the price to rise a bit ,he's lost a few quid in this quarters dividends payout on what he offloaded so far, so its interesting.

Maybe keeping some for a " rainy day " ?
Do people like that have them?