• New DirecTV satellite means more HD
By Brian Santo
DirecTV is preparing to offer an expanded lineup of HD channels and movie channels with its newest satellite launched last week.
The DirecTV 12 satellite is due to begin operating in the early second quarter of next year. The company anticipates it will boost the company’s HD capacity by 50 percent – to more than 200 HD channels – increase the number of local HD markets it will serve, and expand movie choices on the DirecTV Cinema and DirecTV on-demand services.
The company said that following the launch, it received confirmation that all of the satellite’s systems are functioning properly.
• Google executive running for Vermont governor post
By Dave Gram, The Associated Press
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. (AP) – Internet search giant Google is based in Silicon Valley, yet it runs its community affairs operation out of a former bread factory in an old New England railroad town, hard by the confluence of the White and Connecticut rivers.
Matt Dunne, 40, the man in charge of Google’s efforts to burnish its image in the places where it has offices, keeps up with corporate headquarters through a broadband link from two video screens in the bakery’s former walk-in cooler.
Dunne’s use of that technology – and the broadband Internet connection supporting it – is an example of what he touts as the key to Vermont’s economic future as he campaigns for the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor.
“We need to, and I believe have an opportunity to, go from one of the lowest broadband penetration states in the country to the first state that brings fiber-optic high-speed Internet to every home in the state,” Dunne said in an interview. “And that’s an incredible opportunity for us to move from a state that’s not thought of as being a technological center to being a technological center.”
