[Updated 8/30/11, 1:25 pm. See below.] The way to think about San Diego’s Ortiva Wireless is that it serves as a kind of accelerator. The reason the company exists comes down to the fact that the world is going wireless, the mobile device is moving into the center of our lives, and bandwidth congestion is an increasing problem.

“It’s not a techy thing,” CEO Marc Zionts told me earlier this summer. “There’s just an insatiable demand for bandwidth on wireless networks, and we’re just one of the bullets for that pain.”

Bullets usually inflict pain, but you get the idea. Ortiva has developed server-based software that’s designed to make mobile video stream faster and better across a wireless network, and seamlessly deliver other multimedia content that’s transmitted to mobile subscribers. The company’s customers are mostly mobile network operators in North America and Europe (such as Sprint and Vodaphone), and other wireless service providers.

“The essence of what we do is video optimization,” Zionts says. “The value proposition for consumers is that they get a better experience with fewer stalls when we’re in the network.”

Where San Diego’s Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is primarily concerned with the bandwidth problem from the perspective of mobile devices, Zionts says Ortiva is focused mostly on the core of the wireless network.

Ortiva was founded in late 2004 to develop a promising breakthrough that Sujit Dey, an electrical and computer engineering professor, had created at UC San Diego. Dey, who has remained at UCSD while serving as Ortiva’s chief technology officer, says his innovation dynamically adapts data for the type of network, device, and application being used. In 2005, Dey said: “Our pitch to wireless carriers is that our products can increase wireless data capacity and revenues by a very healthy margin, while reducing capital and operating expenditures. We also provide significant advantages to content providers and aggregators—allowing them to deliver rich content across any network and device, without the need to develop and maintain network and device-specific content versions.”

Since 2004, Ortiva has raised nearly $40 million from venture investors that include San Diego’s Mission Ventures and Avalon Ventures, along with Palo Alto, CA-based Artiman Ventures, Intel Capital, and Comcast Interactive Capital.

For the first few years, Ortiva was focused mostly on … Next Page »

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Tom Huseby says he’s finally able to go home and not worry about seeing his family’s savings stuffed under his mattress. “The panic is over,” he says. “All of a sudden, things are getting a lot better. It doesn’t feel much better now, but it is.”

Huseby, a noted Seattle-based venture capitalist with SeaPoint Ventures, Oak Investment Partners, Hunt Ventures, and Voyager Capital (and the Godfather of what we’ve been calling the “Qpass mafia”), was giving his 30,000-foot view of the economic landscape and VC market at today’s Mobile Northwest 2009 conference in Seattle. He also drilled down into some of the most pressing challenges in the mobile space, as well as what the startup opportunities are. Just a few highlights here:

“Unemployment is going to slow growth across any consumer business. If you’re in mobile, I hate to tell you, but you’re in the consumer business. I do think there will be liquidity in mobile startups,” Huseby says. “Most startups are going to have to earn it the old-fashioned way, they’ll have to grow over a long time. You’re going to have to survive during a roller coaster ride. Every single company will have to go rushing to the bottom, and then do the slow, clanking ride to the top.”

In terms of startup opportunities, it helps to think in terms of what wireless carriers need. Huseby calls himself “fairly carrier-centric.” As he puts it, they are big customers that are predictable (once you understand them) and they generate huge amounts of cash. He laid out the top three challenges for carriers today—absolutely critical to understand if you’re an entrepreneur trying to get their attention with a new product.

—Bandwidth. There’s “tremendous pressure on carriers” to provide more bandwidth to support people’s exploding need for data connectivity wherever they go, Huseby says.

—Costs of bandwidth. “Oh my God, how are you going to pay for it?” he asks. With such a competitive market, Huseby thinks costs for consumers will actually go down. “I think they’re not going to get the money from us, they’re going to have to get it from advertising. Advertising revenue will absolutely help pay for the bandwidth.” (The problem is that mobile advertising revenue is still relatively small and doesn’t usually go to carriers.)

—Holding onto consumers. “If they’re going to pay for it with advertising, they need to get a much firmer grip on their customers,” Huseby says. He sees this as a crucial issue for the coming decade. “The next viral social network has to work hard to make [ad revenues] accrue to them. Carriers have to be very conscious of the demographics of their customers. They have to get their customers anchored in.”

After his talk, I had a chance to ask Huseby about some other areas of interest, like mobile search. He says he’s generally staying out of that space, but is looking at location-based services from the perspective of retail stores and local advertising.

We’ll have more from the conference soon, so watch this space.

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Comcast Sues FCC Over Bandwidth Cap

Comcast is suing to overturn a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission, Ars Technica reports. The FCC ruled in July that Comcast could not slow down the Internet access of users who share files over peer-to-peer networks. The dispute is part of a growing controversy over whether the Internet faces a data traffic jam and what service providers can do about it.

Is Geoengineering a Good Idea?

A number of ideas that go far beyond cutting down greenhouse gas emissions have been floated to combat the effects of global warming, such as seeding the atmosphere with reflective particles or placing giant mirrors in space to divert sunlight from the planet. The International Herald Tribune reports that some scientists say such plans could have unintended negative effects, while the Royal Society, a British scientific body, says they might become necessary regardless of how risky they are.

PCs Rapidly Infested with Bot Software

The number of PCs infected with software that can turn them into “bots,” remotely controlled by criminals to send out spam or denial-of-service attacks, has jumped from about 100,000 to 400,000 over the past three months, says the Washington Post. The estimate comes from a group of volunteers, called Shadowserver, who monitor such activity. The Post says the real number of infected PCs is probably much higher.

McCain Being Googled More Often, Data Show

As the presidential campaign heads into its final two months, the number of people doing Google searches on Republican nominee John McCain is gaining on the number searching Democratic candidate Barack Obama. TechCrunch charts the data coming from Google Trends and finds that McCain spiked in searches when he announced Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. There’s no knowing, of course, whether this increased online attention translates into votes.

Candidates Differ on Plug-in Cars

It’s probably the first presidential campaign this has come up in, but both Barack Obama and John McCain have staked out positions on plug-in electric vehicles. CalCars takes a look at where the two stand. Obama would support more tax credits for plug-ins and switch the White House fleet to all plug-in vehicles. McCain wants to offer $300 million for developing more advanced batteries and has specifically supported Chevrolet’s electric Volt.

Startup Promises Power from Dirt

A company in Cambridge, MA, is working on fuel cells that use the metabolic processes of bacteria to generate power. Technology Review says the company, Lebone Solutions, realizes the process only produces small amounts of electricity, but thinks it will be enough to meet some needs in developing countries with populations living off the grid. The developers recently completed a pilot study of the technology in Tanzania.

Computer Makers Try to Get Greener

Computer manufacturers are looking for ways to make PCs more environmentally friendly, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dell, for instance, has introduced a machine built with recycled parts. Other companies are developing software to make computers use less energy, or building chips that are more energy efficient.

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Conventions Draw Citizen Journalists

It’s not just the presidential candidates who are taking advantage of new technologies in this year’s campaign. As CNET News tells us, citizen journalists are recording and broadcasting events in unprecedented numbers and formats. While some upload raw footage of protests and arrests to websites, others are using a cell phone application called Foneshow to share media clips from the campaigns.

Candidates Offer Answers on Biomedicine Questions

Barack Obama and John McCain have provided answers to 17 questions related to healthcare and medical research posed by a group promoting healthcare as a higher national priority. Science News reports several similarities in the candidates’ responses to questions from Research! America, of Alexandria, VA. Both believe in funding for the National Institutes of Health, support stem cell research, and let in more foreign workers with medical skills. The site links to the complete set of answers, as well as those from third party candidates such as Ralph Nader and Bob Barr.

Foreign Internet Traffic Bypassing U.S.

An increasing amount of the data flowing through the Internet from other countries is being routed around the United States. The New York Times reports that 70 percent of Internet traffic went through U.S.-based routers a decade ago, but that now it has dropped to about 25 percent. In part, the drop is due to concerns that American intelligence agencies were spying on the traffic, a military advantage the country is now losing.

Internet Hasn’t Hit a Traffic Jam Yet

Cable companies, fearful that the growing demand for bandwidth will soon reach the limit of the Internet’s capacity, are talking about ways to control traffic flow. (Comcast has even said it will place a cap on broadband customers’ monthly usage.) But BusinessWeek says there’s little real evidence of any coming traffic jam. Even though there is some congestion on cable systems, technological advances are allowing massive increases in the data capacities of the network, the magazine says.

Boston Turns Out the Lights to Save Electricity

The City of Boston is starting a two-month trial of a program to turn off the lights in 34 skyscrapers as a way to save energy. The city estimates that turning off all the lights above the 30th floor between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. should cut the amount of electricity used for lighting by about 25 percent, according to the Boston Globe. If the program is deemed successful, it could continue year-round.

Does Lack of Sunspots Presage Global Cooling?

The sunspots that usually roil the surface of the sun, and can cause electromagnetic interference with satellites and power grids, have been virtually absent all year. In August, according to New Scientist, only one sunspot was, well, spotted. Long periods of low sunspot activity have been associated with a cooler climate, but the magazine says it’s too early to tell how long this one will last or what its effects will be.

Flurry of Hurricanes May Be Result of Warming, UN Says

With Hurricane Gustav just past and three tropical storms brewing in the Atlantic, the head of the United Nations Environment Program warns that the heavier hurricane season may be a result of global warming. Of course, no one storm can be attributed to global warming, but Achim Steiner of the UN told Reuters that extreme weather events, including hurricanes in the Atlantic and floods in India, “reflect a pattern of change that is in line with projections” by global climate experts.

Blowing Stuff Up Goes Green

Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are working on a new class of explosive materials that improves on conventional explosives by making them more stable, and is more environmentally friendly to manufacture. Daily Tech says the new explosives are based on a class of compounds called molecular crystals, which normally require toxic, non-organic solvents to process. Researchers discovered a class of organic solvents that could reduce the amount of toxins created during manufacturing of the explosives. Somewhere in here, a Dr. Strangelove joke is eluding me.

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New Nanomaterial Cleans Up Broken Bulbs

Compact fluorescent bulbs are being touted as environmentally friendly, since they’re much more energy efficient than standard incandescents. Their only problem: Break them, and you spread poisonous mercury all over the place. Now, according to the Discovery Channel, a researcher at Brown University has developed a nanomaterial that absorbs mercury 70 times better, making clean up that much safer and easier.

Verizon Wants Right to Throttle P2P

Despite the Federal Communication Commission’s recent ruling that Comcast could not legally slow down peer-to-peer file sharing, Verizon is arguing it needs to be able to do just that. Ars Technica reports that Verizon’s chief technology officer spoke at the Progress and Freedom Foundation and argued that access providers need to be able to throttle back on speeds for these high-bandwidth users so other customers can get adequate service.

Gentle Approach Could Overcome Drug Resistance

An experimental drug that doesn’t kill bacteria but makes them less potent may be the solution to the growing problem of germs that are resistant to antibiotics. New Scientist reports that researchers from the University of Texas have developed a drug that blocks bacteria from detecting two hormones they need to spread infection through the body. The drug rendered the bacteria ineffective without doing the killing that spurs resistance, the researchers said.

Your Driver’s License May Be Watching You

Driver’s licenses in states bordering Canada or Mexico may soon come equipped with RFID tags that can be read as far away as 30 feet. Though they’re designed to decrease identity fraud, they and other RFID devices could also allow the government to track you without your knowledge. Scientific American says lawmakers so far have done little to address potential privacy invasions for citizens.

Cyber Crooks Find Ease in Distributing Malware

Continuing his series about cyber criminals tools of the trade, Brian Krebs of the Washington Post’s Security Fix blog talks about how the bad guys distribute their bad software. Whereas it used to be difficult to create a network of hacked computers, now online services make it easy for anyone with nefarious intent to spread data-stealing software around.

Scientists Say Global Warming Hurts Economy

Climate change could cost the U.S. economy $2 trillion, unless the next president starts spending money to address the problem. That’s the message from a group of eight scientific organizations, according to MSNBC. The scientists want the next president to spend $9 billion between 2010 and 2014 to protect the country from extreme weather.

States Can Impose Emissions Requirements, EPA Says

Individual states can now set their own requirements for utilities to monitor their emissions, after a court overturned an Environmental Protection Agency rule preventing it. Reuters reports that the Bush administration had wanted to keep control of emissions centralized in the EPA, but the court found that existing monitoring requirements do not insure compliance.

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Internet Deluge Not Likely, Study Finds

Some Internet service providers are worried that the growing demand for large files, such as videos, is going to produce more data traffic than the Internet can handle. But one Internet expert says traffic growth rates are actually falling. Ars Technica reports that Andrew Odlyzko of the University of Minnesota’s Internet Traffic Studies project says “there is not a single sign of an unmanageable flood of traffic.”

Presidential Debates Head to MySpace

MySpace will create a portal for people to watch live streaming of debates between the presidential candidates, at the request of the Commission on Presidential Debates. TechCrunch reports that the portal will be accessible to anyone, whether they have a MySpace account or not, and will include real-time polling. The first debate is scheduled for September 26.

Is There an Alternative Energy Bubble?

Hundreds of millions of venture capital dollars are being directed to alternative energy startups, and a writer at CNET News argues that’s a sure sign there’s a bubble forming in the alternative energy market. The writer, Steve Tobak, says it might not be the biggest bubble, and it may not be near bursting, but he thinks there are more energy companies being founded than the market will be able to sustain.

Companies Tackle Power-Hungry PCs

Personal computers are responsible for 40 percent of the carbon emissions attributable to information technology, according to the research firm Gartner. So Microsoft is joining with the non-profit Climate Savers Computing Initiative and a Seattle-based startup, Verdiem, to look for ways to save energy in PCs. The New York Times reports that the group is providing free software to help PC users find ways to use less energy.

Technique Would Make E-Cars Noisier

If you had any thoughts of sneaking up on your enemies and running them over with a nearly silent hybrid car, forget about it. Lotus Engineering, which makes active noise management systems to keep it quiet inside the car, has developed a system to produce artificial engine noises and make the cars safer for pedestrians. Edmunds.com says the company has made a demo model of its “Safe and Sound Hybrid” using a standard Toyota Prius.

Obama Promotes Hybrids, Renewables, Conservation

In a speech at Michigan State University, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama laid out his plans for the country’s energy future. Earth2Tech bullets some of the highlights, including a call to put 1 million hybrid electric vehicles on the road by 2015, get a quarter of the nation’s energy from renewable sources by 2025, and find efficiencies that cut demand for energy by 15 percent by 2020.

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FCC Considers How to Save Birds from Cell Towers

No one is quite sure how many migrating birds are killed when they slam into cell phone towers at night, but the number could be in the millions. So five conservation groups attended a mini-conference sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission to urge the FCC to protect the birds, Ars Technica reports. The FCC did not say how it might address the issue.

‘E-Bay for Biofuels’ Seeks Market Efficiency

A group called the U.S. Biofuels Exchange has established a website that allows buyers of biofuels to find producers of all sizes. The Environmental News Network says that there are all sorts of small producers of ethanol or biodiesel, but that it’s been hard for potential purchasers to find them, making the market less cost-efficient. The trading site contains a tracking system to follow deals and display real-time pricing.

Internet Pricing Based on Usage Rates?

Usage-based pricing could be coming to your Internet connection soon, according to GigaOm. AT&T, Time-Warner, and other suppliers of connectivity plan to introduce pricing tiers, based on how much bandwidth a user requires. The site supplies some estimates of how many bytes a user might get for his buck.

Flat-Screen TVs Contribute to Global Warming, Study Says

Think you can go green by eschewing the SUV and watching a movie on your big flat-screen TV? Think again. Earth2Tech reports that a study at the University of California, Irvine, raises the possibility that nitrogen trifluoride, a gas used in making the TV sets, could have a greater impact on global warming than coal-fired power plants. While produced in less volume, the gas is 17,000 times better than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Biotech Startups Scramble for Tax Credits

Maryland has been trying to encourage the development of new medical devices and treatments by offering $6 million in tax credits to biotech startups. Now in its third year, the program for the first time saw company officials camping out on the sidewalk, hoping to get their share of a limited pot, the Washington Post reports. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley says he hopes to raise the tax credits to $24 million by 2013.

Autonomous Autos Could Save Fuel and Lives

Cars that are programmed to drive themselves, instead of relying on fallible human drivers, could make more efficient use of fuel while reducing the risk of accidents, says a story in Business Week. General Motors is one of the companies embracing the concept, the magazine reports. The Pentagon is also promoting the creation of autonomous vehicles for military uses.

Plane Fuel Costs Too High? Take a Zeppelin

As airlines struggle to find ways to cover the soaring cost of jet fuel, several companies and governments are looking into creating a new generation of airships. The New York Times reports that a number of companies, mostly in Europe, are working on new designs for dirigibles. In the U.S., the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency has funded research into airships, mainly for military communications.

Scientists Promote Six Degrees of Vaccination

Kevin Bacon may be the key to stopping flu pandemics, according to Science News. The magazine reports that targeting vaccinations to the right people could be a quick and inexpensive way of stopping a disease’s spread in its tracks. The idea is based on the notion of social networks – popularly known as six degrees of separation, the phenomenon that allows you to connect any actor to Kevin Bacon in only a few steps – and relies on vaccinating people who act as “nodes,” who connect one circle of people to another.

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