In a nutshell: A judge has sentenced the CEO of 19 fraudulent tech firms to six years in prison on conspiracy and fraud charges. The Florida man headed up a scam that sold counterfeit Cisco networking equipment. Authorities estimate the criminal enterprise sold more than a billion dollars worth of gear.
Forward-looking: One of the most famous phrases about the value of networks came from Sun Microsystems' Scott Gage in 1984 when he declared that "the network is the computer." That long-time Sun tagline referred more to the value of connecting computers together and the concept of thin clients attaching to a centralized computing infrastructure than cellular networks. Nevertheless, it remains a prescient, pithy synopsis of where the computing and telecom worlds have been headed for the last three decades.