Category Archives: Wireless

It seems that Orlando has cancelled their experiment in offering wi-fi in the downtown area due to lack of use. I suspect usage at nearby locations will increase accordingly. Meanwhile, the Rasiej Plan is doing just the opposite in New York City.

bq.It’s too early to say whether it’s a trend, but Victrola Coffee & Art in Seattle shuts down its free Wi-Fi on Saturday and Sunday: I spoke to co-owner and co-founder Jen Strongin today after a colleague tipped me to the fact that this lovely, single-shop coffee establishment had decided to experiment with taking back its culture by turning off the Wi-Fi juice on weekends. – Glenn Fleishman They didn’t like the impact it was on having on the atmosphere. It may not be a trend, but it is a ramification to consider.

In Japan, bookstores can participate in a program that allow customers to bookmark the stores with their cellphone through RFID. Go read the article because I am not completely sure I understand it.

bq.If there’s ever a case to be made for municipal self-determination it’s that so many municipalities view broadband networks (wireless or otherwise) as vital components in their ability to serve the public through police, fire, and emergency care and to make their communities competitive for business. When Rep. King say he thinks that cities want to turn broadband into a profit center, he just doesn’t understand what they’re doing with the technology and how underserved and overpriced most of his state is-or he’s only listening to one viewpoint: SBC’s. – Glenn Fleishman

We have been planning on putting in a wireless system for a good while. Due to a bit of odd circumstances more involved than I want to get into, we settled on going with WAM from GIS, who long-time readers may remember is our circulation system provider. We are filtering via our firewall so that issue is taken care of as well. In fact, we still haven’t worked out all the administrative issues involved but have already had three users today, all of which were from out of town as you might expect. But we are up and running and people are connecting and I, for one, am very pleased.

bq.My officemate and I stopped in to take a look at this fantastic building a few blocks from our office and chatted with the branch manager. We asked, “Is there Wi-Fi?” She said, no, but there’s a plan afoot to roll it out to branches soon. But she noted that the first phone call they received after re-opening was from someone asking the same question! It’s a trend. – Glenn Fleishman I have said for the last few years that what most people who came in asked for were places to plug their modems in rather than how to connect to a router. This winter, that has all changed. All our libraries are getting asked. It is now a matter of when, not if. And the when will be very soon.

Having the 1 GB SD Card has really been wonderful for carying about media files, but the downside of using this is that every time you want to download something onto it, you need to have some sort of card reader. That isn’t as big a problem as it once was, but it is still annoying. To counter this, SanDisk is introducing an SD Card with a USB Port that solves that makes the issue go away. Speaking of expansion memory, I looked at a couple of the launcher programs available for the 650 (the memory does fill rather quickly), but didn’t like the way they all seemed to replace the standard interface. Then I discovered LinkStart. Transferring things on and off the card is lightning-fast and I now plenty of free memory for adding more applications if I need to. I have been using Jenny’s Treo 600 List as a guide to software to load. She has lots of cool things, but just to show how big a geek I am, my favorite at this point is pssh. Being able to secureshell into a server from just about anywhere is just so fantastic to me for some unexplained reason.

It sound like the plot of an old fashioned thriller, but the concept of rogue access points has a lot of buzz this morning, although some describe that as hysteria. I don’t think it is too major a problem, but it is something to consider. I spent some time playing with the new wireless setup we are attempting to put in, and during that time, I detected two networks that I have no idea where they were coming from. I think a key thing is choose a unique ssid and don’t depend on being the only “linksys” around.

I spent a good deal of time on Tuesday trying to get the notebook we like to use for inventory to communicate with the access point it usually communicates with. In the end, I had to turn off WEP and opt for MAC Address Filtering instead. I found out why today… because WEP is dead. Just be careful if you follow advice and go with WPA because WPA is not secure, either. To be safest, go with WPA2. But crossing your fingers won’t hurt, either.

bq.Wi-Fi is readily available in public places such as coffee shops, airports and hotels. IT shops, however, will slow deployments a bit over fears of security. End users will take matters into their own hands, so expect to see lots of ad hoc networks springing up. – Michael Gartenberg
bq.Doesn’t it feel conspicuously odd when you go to Starbucks and have to actually pay T-Mobile for Internet access, especially right after you just enjoyed free access in your hotel’s lobby? Expect increasingly more pay-to-surf Wi-Fi (define) models migrate to advertiser-subsidized free access. Branded Wi-Fi networks will blossom. Major brands, such as Dove, CoverGirl, Olay, and L’Oréal, will gladly pay the tab for Web access in places where consumers hang out: beauty salons, barber shops, store malls, medical offices, hospitals. All this in exchange for a highly contextual, well-timed “brought to you by…” gateway page. After all, a branded Wi-Fi network is incredibly inexpensive to create. Businesses seek every conceivable hook to nurture loyalty, and consumers love a hero. Way back when, Pampers cut a win-win exclusive deal with hospitals to provide free diaper samples to every first-time mom, a move that locked in a long-term competitive advantage for parent Procter & Gamble. Mark my words, the same will happen with Internet access. – Pete Blackshaw