Archive for the Technology category
Wired’s Autopia has a great article on Robin Chase (of World Resource Institute, Zipcar) on mashing up the electric grid with cars and mesh networks: “The Grid, Our Cars and the Net: One Idea to Link Them All“. It explains what a smart electricity grid is and how cars fit in as network nodes to a mesh network.
And in this case, the current US recession might be a good thing, as Chase points out:
“The time is right, too. There’s $7.2 billion in the stimulus bill for broadband, $4.5 billion for the smart grid and about $5 billion for transportation technology.”
It reminds me of a discussion we had with Richard Hayes at one of the Sydney BarCamps about smart meters in a mesh network.
The Australian gouvernement is planning to spend billions of dollars on faster broadband (up to 100Mbps), which might arrive in five to eight years if we’re lucky, but would probably be too expensive for people to use. UK’s Virgin Media on the other hand is this year about to start testing wideband internet applications at a 200Mbps real-world pilot (not a lab experiment). If only the gouvernement would think ahead, and use that money not just to provide fast internet access but also improve and smarten the electric grid (people still need electricity to get online too, right?), they would get more bang for their buck (a two-in-one solution). I do believe there are issues between federal and state gouvernement, but that really doesn’t make sense (to not have a national electric grid policy). 19th century gouvernement doesn’t work well with current technology.
Wired has an overview of the new Fonera 2, to be introduced in Europe April 21st, for 50 Euro (94 $AUD), supporting for networked storage and automatic downloads (and YouTube uploads) in addition to its internet-sharing capabilities. That’s a lot of functionality for a little price. Interesting to see what the telcos think of this. Available worldwide in May (euh, probably except Australia).
Read on at Wired.com
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…
AppleInsider has a story on an Apple Australia package in the AU store which supposedly is a wireless bundle with Unwired. Unwired is the wireless ISP offering the uConnect free wifi service across Sydney. Unwired is also one of the slowest ways to connect wirelessly, and only available in metro areas. I wonder why Apple would team up with them?
Unwired would also be in the process of rolling out Wimax on a national network. Will we see the introduction of a new Airport range and a national Wimax service?
Additionally, Unwired is owned (partially?) by the Seven tv network, which also owns the Australian rights for Tivo distribution. A fast national wireless network might help the rollout of new Tivo services.
Chris Duran has set up a free wifi mapping project, just what we have been waiting for (and I was too lazy to do myself):
WiFi in Australia is a “user-generated and user-moderated maps of WiFi hotspots all over Australia”.
Any one can add any wifi (open, paid, restricted) they encounter, so start contributing!
Bruce Schneier in UK’s The Guardian on the the Mumbai attacks and the use of communication technology by the terrorists, and the subsequent call of the Indian gouvernment to ban Google Earth, as well as open wifi:
Open wifi networks are useful for many reasons, the large majority of them positive, and closing them down affects all those reasons. [...] I haven’t seen it talked about yet, but the Mumbai terrorists used boats as well. They also wore boots. They ate lunch at restaurants, drank bottled water, and breathed the air.
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.
iiNet has teamed up with Starbucks to provide WiFi services to 20 Starbucks stores in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Check out the full list of stores, for Sydney it’s Hyde Park, Cockle Bay, Haymarket, Circular Quay, 525 George Street, Transport House and QVB. As an iiNet customer, you’ll receive 100Mb of free data to use per month in Starbucks WiFi hotspots. Keep your iiNet username and password handy.
McDonald’s has been offering $14/h Telstra WiFi with their burgers since 2003, allowing customers to work online (yeah right) or surf the Web while munching on their $6 burger and fries. Did anyone actually do that? Because, well, I know myself, and eating a greasy burger with sauce and greasy fries,… But at least they were ahead of their times compared to their competitors.
“There is a McDonald’s restaurant in virtually every community and by making this service available to so many we are taking a leadership position and anticipating the future communication needs our customers.”
Now they take the next big leap, and offer free WiFi at all their locations. That’s at 720 McDonald’s stores across Australia (roll-out over time). And at the same time they’ll make it ‘Family Friendly’ by using Clean Pipes technology from earthwave:
“Clean Pipes provides a common security framework to protect McDonald’s from both external and internal threats. The solution involved a multi-million dollar investment by earthwave to develop a defense in depth security architecture made up of layers of security including firewalls, network intrusion prevention systems, distributed denial of service protection and various web protection mechanisms. This architectural approach will enable McDonald’s ability to continually monitor and defend its networks against potential internet related attacks.”
“The ‘Clean Pipes’ service also provides McDonald’s with a number of proactive measures and reporting aimed at both highlighting and countering potential network security threats from internet traffic generated by customers using the McDonald’s free WiFi Hotspots.”
Sure sounds impressive, using all the security buzzwords. Why would you need all that to offer ‘Family Friendly’ free WiFi? As far as I can tell, that means their public WiFi is linked to their internal network?
Next, they’ll get bouncers at the door too…
Better be safe than sorry, I guess.
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.