Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Promise of intelligent networks Interesting piece on how pervasive computing with wireless connectivity could become a mesh network, sort of like the uvvies in Rucker's Ware books. Somewhat visionary, but seems reasonable given the potential growth of these technologies. 7:12:00 AM

	Tuesday, February 04, 2003

Quote from Scott Shamp in a recent ZDNet article on wi-fi: "Companies were paying billions for the 3G spectrum space. And then along came Wi-Fi, which basically killed 3G," said Shamp of the University of Georgia. "The free, unregulated aspect of the Wi-Fi spectrum makes it greatly advantageous over 3G." We see this theme over and over, where the free and simple overcome the expensive and complex.  What is the nature of this pattern?  It's more than just people wanting to get something for nothing.  I believe it is more the nature of the human interaction with our reality.  For millenia, information has been free.  The only limit to what information we could get was what information we were exposed to. Today this is different.  Much of the information we need requires us to sacrifice resources (a.k.a. money) to acquire.  This goes against millions of years of hard-wired evolutionary behavior.  As the information society moves forward, this will become a constant conflict to determine what we should have to pay for vs. what instinctively seems should be free. 12:31:24 PM

	Friday, January 31, 2003

It all started on Tuesday... Actually, I think it all started on Sunday, but I can't be certain.  I attempted to install a new GPS add-on for my P2000, and I couldn't get it to work.  The un-install program wasn't very seamless. Anyway, something did me the wonderful favor (butt-fuck would be a more accurate phrase, actually) of corrupting my Windows 2000 software registry.  This did not create an apparent problem until the next time I rebooted my system, on Tuesday.  That's when all hell broke loose. Several hours later, I finally managed to get Windows to boot by using the recovery console to replace the corrupted registry file with the original backup.  This didn't fix Windows, but I was at least able to boot, get on the network, and copy all of my data to my desktop PC.  Then began the long process of re-loading all my software. Next week: Time to plan a practical backup strategy. 12:35:39 AM

	Monday, January 20, 2003

From The Comics Journal's weblog: "You know the Raelians, right? The cult that claims to have cloned the baby for their space alien inspired bid to immortality? Obviously fringe nutjob cultists, right? "Look at their website. It says they have over 55,000 members and counting. "Then go here -- there are more people who can be convinced to believe that Earth was seeded by space aliens who will return to earth and bestow immortality on mankind than can be convinced to buy a mid-selling Mainstream title like Daredevil. "Now, where is the comics' 'mainstream', again?" The answer, of course, is Heavy Metal, or perhaps Nickelodeon Magazine's section of kids' comics; beyond that, there's no such thing as "mainstream comics", unless you want to count the Sunday funnies of your local newspaper. 7:56:02 AM

	Saturday, January 18, 2003

Working offline The switchover from DirecTV to Speakeasy isn't going smoothly.  Our old DSL connection went down on Thursday, and we don't have any word yet as to when the new one will be up.  Still not self-install kit, either. It's frustrating.  I've gotten very jaded by having a full-time, high-bandwidth connection at home.  Dialing in sucks, doubly so because I'm only getting 26kbps, so the web is slooooooooow.  This seems odd to me, because we're only about a mile from the central office.  I would expect to get speedy dial-up. 1:32:50 AM

	Thursday, January 16, 2003

Seattle reporter files story from Lufthansa/Boeing data trial flight: A Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter tested out the new Frankfurt-Washington, D.C. Lufthansa flight that features wired and wireless access to a 128 Kbps up/3 Mbps down satellite link. The system supplied by Boeing division Connexion can be used only with a single Wi-Fi card at the moment, but general approval is being sought. Boeing's Seattle rival Tenzing, which had originally planned an SAS/Telia trial for in-flight Wi-Fi almost two years ago, scoffed at Connexion's cost structure; Tenzing has put lower-speed service into nearly 40 planes. Lufthansa plans to charge about $30 per flight for access to the service. Wired plugs and electrical outlets are available only in first and business class. More planes will probably not be added after this 3-month test until 2004. [via several readers and Wireless-World list] [80211b News] If I flew more often, this would be truely exciting. 7:45:57 PM

pocket WiFi detector released [Smart Mobs] How do I get one? 6:51:48 PM

	Wednesday, January 08, 2003

"If only I could have waited" dept. I needed to get my laptop when I did, but if I could have waited until now, I would be thinking  seriously about the new 12" Apple Powerbook G4.  It's not quite as small and light as my Lifebook P, but it does run OS X, and Apples products are typically of the finest quality.  It's even price-competitive! When I was shopping last summer and fall, I was really interested in an OS X machine.  However, my primary consideration, above even performace, was (and remains) maximum portability.  My primary options were the Lifebook and the Sony Picturebook.  At the time, Apple just didn't have a competitive device.  Now they do.  Hopefully, it will still be around when it comes time to buy a replacement.  If so, I may be making the "switch". 10:12:52 AM

The next time you buy food, take a look at the ingredients.  Notice how much of what you eat contains either natural or artificial flavor.  Do a google search to see what this means.  Read (or listen to) Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser.  Think about how all of these chemical additives, the exact contents of which are not required to be devulged by the FDA, and wonder how these chemicals might be affecting your overall health.  6:12:03 AM