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CTV Story on WiFi at UoGuelph

CTV.ca - Wi-Fi lets surfers unplug, but stay connected- CTV News, Shows and Sports -- Canadian Television

Check out the video -- finally we can see the guys that started Spotnik. I always wanted to know what they looked like, now we all know. Thanks CTV (and David Akin!) for bringing this story to us - another university is wireless at U of Guelph.

Wireless Video Coming Soon

New Wireless Standard to Carry Cable TV Signal

Finally some hope on the horizon for a chipset to transmit video. Untethered components could mean some really interesting combinations of how existing appliances can be used.

San Francisco Hopes for WiFi Everywhere

Free Wireless Everywhere / Tech visionaries' new project mirrors roots of Internet

I especially found this excerpt interesting:

As Cox explains it, "The community-network folks are trying to build the commons and make something that they feel should be kind of like a public library -- like, free for everyone, just there, like infrastructure. Kind of like drinking fountains on the side of the street. You don't pay for that water. It should be like that. It's access to information, it's access to quality of life. It's just participating in society. That's what wireless technology is starting to be associated with."

What is important to note is that these projects OUGHT to be done with the support and buy-in of the municipality because in fact the city builds the libraries and the water fountains. Once you maverick your way into this type of project, you may find the city is not so amenable to a larger and longer-term project. Remember those water fountains usually exist for 30-50 years in the same spot with the same water running through them. And the libraries, well we know that you can't get the latest book or DVD usually through a library... Hiend technology like this being pushed to what is ordanarily a later-adopter customer like a municipality will be an interesting sell. Pubilc WiFi has to cross the chasm without the early majority, it appears. I wonder if that is possible.

WiFi Chipsets Go Cordless

Netopia pushes Wi-Fi cordless phones

An interesting combination of 20th and 21st century technology. Question: Will my cordless phone be able to tap into my Outlook address book to use an insta-dial directory? Will it have interfaces to access my computer? Or just a built in broadband gateway? It would be darn shame for cordless phones to be compatible with only certain broadband VoIP services...

Best Western's Doing It

Best Western Offers Free Hi - Speed Access

One by one hotels are offering free Internet access. An amenity indeed. I would definitely choose one hotel over another based on the quality of Internet access they have.

WiFi'd Limos

WiFi Limos

This just makes sense to me -- Limos + WiFi, a perfect early adopter combination. And charging a premium, well that makes sense too. Remember how much those car phones used to be and the service? You can do quite a bit more these days with email and Internet than you can in a 10 minute clunky car phone conversation. Of course if you close a $100M deal in 10 minute car phones conversation that statement does not apply to you.

Scare tactics work well

Fortune.com

Peter Lewis shows how people can open network shares on a public network. Can someone point me to any configurations on any access points as to how one would restrict network shares? Is it as easy as turning off access to the Windows sharing ports? One can't rely on users to turn off sharing so Peter's advice is quite bad in this regard. In a public hotspot it ought to be the responsability of the hotspot operator to disable peer to peer Windows sharing or printer sharing just to protect the users of that network. But to be sure, on a public free network can you expect any level of security or quality of service?

I think it would be important for a captive portal, once you connect, to inform a user of what they have shared publically. Do any captive portals do this?

When Munis Build WiFi

Muniwireless: Cities build their own networks Archives

Wow, this is a terrific article on the potential public vs private sector debacle that may be on the horizon. If network access is still considered a luxury by the private sector how can it ever be a utility like electricity? Sounds like the private sector is talking out of both sides of their mouths. One one hand they claim "plug and play", on the other they want to confuse and leave customers out in the cold.

Definitely an issue to watch...

Friendly Reminders for Our Readers

Happy New Year folks. The year has gotten off to a bang and traffic on the blog is reaching all time highs. This week there was a day with almost 1000 page views. That's about triple the usual volume. I wanted to remind readers about a few features of the site and to update you on some plans:

1. We now have a "Feature Stories" section on the right hand side, and the first story on the Forest Hill Village "hotzone" is available. I am interested in interviewing interesting people about exciting wireless projects happening in the GTA. If you are intereted please email me.

2. If you like the site I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feeds. There are 2 available both in RSS 2.0 format:

Last 15 Stories and Hotspots

ALL WB Hotspots

Copy and paste the URL into your favorite news aggregator to get notified when new content is posted.

3. There is a plan to develop an offline/Flash based hotspot tool for WB. That way you can have a little app loaded on your machine to find where those spots are when you are looking to get connected. Ideally I'd like to keep the blog free to everyone but to develop such a system will take some support. Please donate $5 if you find WB useful by using the PayPal link on the right column of the Blog. You'll be the first beta tester for the Wireless Bandit Finder.

Again thanks for reading and contributing. If you have some stories that you'd like to submit or a new favorite hotspot you have found please send it along.