Do you remember the Internet coffee pot? Back in the earliest days of the Internet, researchers at the University of Cambridge put a constantly updating image of their break-room coffee pot on the Internet. It had a utilitarian purpose — why go all the way to the break room if the pot was empty? But it was also a bit of an Internet sensation. I remember showing friends the coffee pot of the Mosaic browser and breathlessly exclaiming, “And this is all the way from England, and it’s live …” There really wasn’t a lot of content on the Internet in those days.

Compare then to this: a coffee maker that tracks your usage, and wirelessly “phones home” to order refills when you’re close to using up all of your coffee pods. If you think this is unusual, then you better strap yourself in, because from here on, things will get faster. The next phase of the Internet is arriving sooner than you think with the Internet of Everything.

“Selfies” may be the official new word of [the year], but Binge-Watching was a runner up for a reason. A recent survey conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Netflix among nearly 1,500 TV streamers (online U.S. adults who stream TV shows at least once a week) found that binge watching is a widespread behavior among this group, with 61% binge watching regularly.

If the common perception of binge watching was a weekend-long, pajama-wearing marathon of TV viewing, survey respondents don’t see it that way. A majority (73%) defined binge watching as watching between 2-6 episodes of the same TV show in one sitting. And there’s no guilt in it. Nearly three quarters of TV streamers (73%) say they have positive feelings towards binge streaming TV.

Ken Burns’ recent documentary, “The Dust Bowl,” serves as a sobering reminder that we owe our existence to the top six inches of soil and timely rains. It also reminds us, as President Franklin Roosevelt wrote, “The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.”

In the intervening 75 years since the Dust Bowl, farmers, ranchers, conservationists and policy makers have worked diligently to reverse the tide of soil erosion while making enormous gains in agricultural production. Working to heal much of the nation’s cropland affected by that ecological disaster, generations of farmers, ranchers, policy makers and conservationists deserve our unqualified appreciation and praise.

We now stand on the precipice of a new era in agricultural sustainability — one that seeks to not just stem the tide of erosion, but to rebuild the health and productivity of our nation’s soil. Rebuilding our nation’s soil health may well be the most important endeavor of our time.

Are you saving enough for retirement, no matter how young you are?

A 45-year-old couple making $80,000 a year today will need $4 million at retirement to live comfortably through their 80s.

The Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort is located in Krasnaya Polyana in the Northern Caucasus in Russia, close to the Black Sea. The resort is set to receive a major boost to its profile by becoming one of the major projects of the 2014 Winter Games.

Some 43 hectares of sport tracks will reach nine kilometres in total in order to meet the requirements of the International Federation of Mountain Skiing (FIS). The resort has therefore been equipped with a state-of-the-art XYZ system. ABC’s value-added reseller, Whozits, was commissioned to implement the system. …

You have to tilt your head to see the tops of the mountains at the Rosa Khutor Mountain Resort.

In Russia’s Western Caucasus, some 30 km from the Black Sea, a massive mountain range soars up to 1,760 km — more than a mile — above a tiny subtropical village called Krasnaya Polyana. There, the world’s best athletes will assemble for the alpine skiing competition at the 2014 Winter Games.

But that spectacular terrain also adds up to a major event security communication nightmare. …

Delivering coverage fast has never been so easy

Temporary communications coverage is often needed to get the job done – whether that’s delivering security at a major event or completing a big engineering project on time. Whatever the need, the world’s smallest base station makes rolling out coverage easier than ever.

The XYZ base station from ABC is the smallest base station in the world, yet it packs in the same powerful features as its big brother, the XX. These include fast TK data, air-interface encryption, 123 handover and base station fallback. …

Baby grand

The world’s smallest base station makes rolling out coverage easier than ever

It’s little larger than a laptop. But that’s what makes ABC’s XYZ mini base stations — the smallest base stations in the world — so powerful.

You can use them to quickly roll out temporary communications coverage. They fit into tight spaces, save energy and money and even go mobile when necessary.

Talk about small packages. …

As a city prone to flooding, Tianjin in China uses a system of channels and flood retention areas around the city to manage flood water and limit the damage to urban areas. Tianjin is also known for its pioneering efforts in scientific and sustainable development. For the city, water conservation is a top priority and has the highest rate of water recycling in China.

Digital communications plays a major role in this flood management plan and Tianjin has an 800 MHz XYZ network comprising one switch and 15 base stations covering both the city and its suburbs. In addition, one dispatcher workstation and around 100 terminals are used. …

Tianjin ranks on a top 10 list no municipality wishes to make: It’s among the top 10 cities in the world at risk of flood loss.

Specifically, Tianjin risks losing nearly 100,000 residents and $30 billion in assets in a deluge, according to a report by Risk Management Solutions.

As Tianjin leaders work to safeguard the sixth largest city in the People’s Republic of China from potentially devastating floods, they employ a surprising tool. In addition to channels, reservoirs and hydraulic monitoring, city officials rely on an 800 MHz XYZ network, developed by ABC. …