Archive for the Media category
Meraki has released a new, powerful 802.11n router, the MR58, targetted at businesses (with a price tag to match). It’s an outdoors version, has three 802.11n radios, five antennas. Meraki:
“The MR58 can also be used to create long distance mesh links as far as 20 km with optional antennas.”
The folks over at Open-Mesh also have a new router, the Professional Mini Router OM1P. New features include “a hardware watchdog chip that will restart the router should it lock up due to environmental or power spikes or short outages” and Power over Ethernet. Still only US$59 (the original still available at US$50). Soon they’ll also start offering Ubiquiti and WiliGear routers, pre-flashed with the Open-Mesh software.
Ubiquiti Networks are holding a contest, the UI/Firmware Challenge with US$200.000 prize money (first prize US$160.000!), ending August 17.They have some lofty goals:
“In an effort to enrich and contribute to the open-source community, Ubiquiti Networks is offering $200,000 in cash prizes for developers who provide the most impressive User Interface/Firmware for Ubiquiti’s newly released open-source embedded wireless platform, the RouterStation.”
“The goal of the contest is to design a feature rich routing firmware with a clean, intuitive web interface for configuration and maintenance of Ubiquiti Networks RouterStation hardware platform.”
As far as I can tell, it’s not about Linux hacking, but rather the UI design only. You might need to buy their RouterStation though…
Tonight’s free Wifi at Sydney Twestival (at 19:30, Australian Centre for Photography, 257 Oxford St, Paddington, NSW 2021) is brought to you by Unwired’s uConnect.
“Twestival participants can bring their laptop or mobile devices and continue to tweet through the night on the Unwired wireless connection.”
Enjoy, I’d say!
Starting Australia Day (January 26), myKP will introduce itself as a new ISP, promising broadband without caps. Their Hero Platform plan is $80 per month and the full product details, and small print, will be released on Australia Day. The access will be offered initially on a limited basis to myKP Free Wi-Fi Community residents spread across a number of councils (mostly NSW).
Additionally, good to see that soon they’ll introduce some more Sydney CBD (Pitt Street) and Haymarket free hotspots.
The Times Of India writes about the Mumbai police looking out for unsecured Wifi connections:
City policemen will be soon seen roaming in the streets with laptops
in their hands in search of unsecured Wi-Fi connections, in the backdrop of terror mails sent before blasts and terror attacks.
Owners will get notices from the police when their access point is “not password protected or secured”. How do they define “secured”? Will the owner get a notice when he uses WEP over WPA? Will they check for default and weak passwords?
So, because they send emails over open Wifi access points before the attacks, something they could have done with a wireless (broadband) modem or mobile phone, all Wifi needs to be closed up?
Short video interview with Meraki’s CEO Sanjit Biswas over at Fortune.
Thursday, Oct 23rd, 2008
Categories: Media
iBurst, recently providing free internet access as a sponsor of Web Directions South , is about to terminate its wireless network, ZDNet writes. The BigAir Group was one party interested in taking over the iBurst assets, but:
“BigAir Group Limited announced today it has been notified by the Receivers for the Commander Group, McGrathNicol, that its bid to acquire the iBurst assets of Personal Broadband Australia (PBA) was unsuccessful… The Company has also been advised by the Receivers that they intend to discontinue providing iBurst services and the network will be shut down and closed no later than December 19th 2008.”
iBurst was launched in 2003, and was one of the first to offer wide area wireless broadband internet. But last couple of years mobile telcos’ coverage of 3G grew both in reach and speed, and iBurst modems were too expensive, and bigger than the small 3G USB dongles.
I’d still like to salute iBurst for providing us with free internet access at Web Directions South last month, and the technicians then present. It must have been a difficult period for them knowing the company wasn’t in the best condition.
Monday, Sep 22nd, 2008
Categories: Media
Today’s One Web Day
On the third annual “Earth Day for the Internet”, communities across the country are holding events to learn about and advocate for that marvel of modern infrastructure, the Internet.
Peoples’ lives now are as dependent on the Internet as they are on the basics like roads, energy supplies and running water. We can no longer take that for granted and we must advocate for the Internet politically, and support its vitality personally.
The theme of this year’s OneWebDay is online participation in democracy, coinciding with the U.S. elections.
Melbourne is the only Australian city participating with their Future Melbourne project.
Almost twenty years on, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, creates the World Wide Web Foundation, the Web as humanity connected by technology:
The World Wide Web Foundation seeks to advance One Web that is free and open, to expand the Web’s capability and robustness, and to extend the Web’s benefits to all people on the planet. The Web Foundation brings together business leaders, technology innovators, academia, government, NGOs, and experts in many fields to tackle challenges that, like the Web, are global in scale.
The mission of the Foundation is:
- to advance One Web that is free and open,
- to expand the Web’s capability and robustness,
- and to extend the Web’s benefits to all people on the planet.
In a world where Net neutrality is under threat, and the intertubes are being censored, this is a welcome initiative. I believe Free Australia Wireless fits perfectly in the Web Foundation’s “Web for Society” and “Friends of the Web” programs.
Read the Web Foundation’s concept paper.
Saturday, Sep 13th, 2008
Categories: Media
The Register writes that a BT study found that about one-third of US enterprises are deploying 11n:
“The unprecedented level of early adoption of a corporate technology seems to indicate a genuine and urgent need for high speed communications, and the maturity of this sector, moving to mission-critical deployments and in some cases, seeing companies moving to wireless as their primary network rather than a back-up.”
Read on at The Register.
Once business users get used to high-speed wireless data at the office, they will want it out of the office too.
Thursday, Jul 31st, 2008
Categories: Media
Great article comparing bandwidth to oil, in the NYTimes:
“Americans today spend almost as much on bandwidth as we do on energy. A family of four likely spends several hundred dollars a month on cellphones, cable television and Internet connections, which is about what we spend on gas and heating oil.”
Interesting comparison. Read on at NYTimes.com.
How much do you spend on bandwidth (internet, mobile, cable tv,…)? I think I’ve been payment roughly the same amount for ten years now, though I do get more speed and data (and voice, sms…) allowance.