On Thursday, May 11, nerds and Sun-worshippers all over the world pointed their satellite TV dishes at Intelsat K. Then they honed in on the H5 transponder and saw a most remarkable transmission from Russia: Sunergy 14 - New Enterprises in New Economies, hosted by Sun Microsystems co-founder John Gage.
Sunergy 14 was the latest broadcast of Sun Microsystem's techie talk show on the future of computing. Each bimonthly Sunergy episode looks at an industry frontier that would warm any geek's heart: object-oriented technology, designing the global information infrastructure, computer security, and even "Cyberjockeying in the 21st Century."
Sunergy's mix of live interviews, discussions, and on-location reporting draws viewers into the inner sanctum of Sun's engineering élite. Gage leads the often lively banter with tech types, engineers, trade experts, and scientists from around the world.
Guests - who have included Carl Malamud of Internet Multicasting Service, Brewster Kahle of WAIS, and Larry Irving of the US Department of Commerce - are always top-notch. Conversations cover topics from what projects they're working on to books they're reading to issues they're riled up about. (Unfair US export restrictions are one of Gage's fave battle cries.)
In true interactive spirit, during one segment of the show, Sunergy's 100,000 or so international viewers are invited to call and e-mail questions.
Don't have a satellite dish? No problem. In addition to the satellite downlink, Sun transmits the whole show live over Internet MBONE.
Transcripts, as well as select audio files, are available at www.sun.com/sunergy/. You can save time by ignoring the satellite and Net broadcasts and downloading these transcripts, reading lists and white papers from the Net. But, of course, then you'll miss some of the subtler jokes, bad acting, and flip comments.
Playfully poor production values aside, Sunergy beats the pants off most hour-long shows on network television.
Sunergy: Broadcast on satellite and on the Internet MBONE four to six times a year. Sun Microsystems Inc.: +1 (415) 786 8205, e-mail sunergy@sun.com, on the Web at www.sun.com/sunergy/.
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