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Pizza Without Wires
a2gsg was one of several to submit this story about a pizza chain in Malaysia building a high-speed wireless broadband network -- so its customers can order pizza and connect to the net. Pinoygrams, anyone?
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I tried to place an order, but it turns out I was in violation of the DMCA ...
Delivery
Man
Can't find
Address
Wow ... that was bad ... I will shut up now.
I was thinking the same thing. I also prefer my pizza without rocks, mucous, feces or urine, among other toppings.
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
They don't take plastic via the webpage.
They don't add tax onto your order on the webpage. You find out the REAL total upon delivery.
Their page doesn't seem to like to work with Opera. Sure, you can figure the tax pretty easy, but it has caught me out a couple of times. Papa John's tells you the total w/tax on phone orders, so I know having taxes NOT figured for me isn't what I expect.
Those are relatively small, and it is a heck of a lot nicer than sitting on hold for 10-15 minutes. Using plastic would make it a lot nicer, though.
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Buy a pizza for $500, get broadband access free
Let's not give Microsoft any ideas ("You can get any toppings you want, as long as one of them is an MSN CD")
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
2 inch pizza??
What kind of bulltacky is that? A world where a regular pizza is 2 inches in diameter isn't worth living in!
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
A little planning goes a long way...
Check out www.pizzacast.com for details
It may not have been put very tactfully, but the above comment is true. A Pinoy is a Filipino overseas worker. The pinoygrams described in Cryptonomicon weren't wireless either - they depended on a huge cable.
It looks like the only reason the word 'pinoygram' was used, was that both countries are in South East Asia and Cryptonomicon is also set there.
dave
Pappa John's lets you do that already here... It works pretty well... I only had a problem with it once and that was about 8 months ago... Beats sitting on hold!!! However, I don't think that you can use coupons, but they usually have their national specials up...
... I usually prefer pepperoni or sausage on my pizza, not wires... but to each [his|her] own, I suppose. They eat some weird things in Malaysia...
Zaphod B
Zaphod B
When duplication is outlawed, only outlaws will have
No evidence whatsover that radio causes cancer, microwave or no. The famous cell-phone-causes-cancer bull started with a lawyer who "just supposed" the idea into existence. Hm. Client's husband with brain cancer, dead + used cell phone == cell phone caused cancer.
I believe the jury didn't buy it, but it now is part of the national folklore. How would you test this, tape tiny cell phones to the ears of white rats?
Anything can be supposed. It isn't science's job to disprove harm whenever someone dreams up an idea like microwave=death, it's the proponent's job to provide evidence to even consider researching the topic. What if the plastic on the cell phone caused the brain cancer? How about his shoulder position? The angle of his neck while using the thing? Maybe the tinny sound of the phone somehow triggers a genetic flaw that causes cancer cells to multiply in the brain; and on and on and on...
Point: you'll be dead in 50 years anyway, don't sweat the small stuff.
Yup, I use it exclusively. Works great in Durham, NC.
The REAL sam_at_caveman_dot_org is user ID 13833.
It was a reference to Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon, if I'm not mistaken. In the book, "Pinoygrams" were the short video-greeting-cards that Filipinos overseas could send home to family, to be viewable for a small fee at convenience stores with terminals. It was set up to finance the construction of a data haven IIRC.
Freedom: "I won't!"
Genre: Thriller / Action (more)
Tagline: Her driver's license. Her credit cards. Her bank accounts. Her identity. DELETED.
her pizza. ORDERED ONLINE.
haha and remember the digital fireplace/fishtank? that was some lame shit.
..I hope thats not something you have to ask for specifically.. Can I get the pizza *without* wires? They're really hard on my digestive system.
air and light and time and space
I think its great to see companies and small businesses helping out otherwise internet-lacking communities like this. If only more companies would stop just trying to make a profit, and realise that you can occasionally improve the quality of life.. while still making a profit.
when the rain comes, they run and hide their heads. they might as well be dead.
More seriously, this is a good idea. By the way, SBUX has a few locations now with 802.11 in the cafe for surfing with your laptop - not quite the same scale, but similar in that they are filling in the coverage gaps where other carriers fear to tread (or go bankrupt - e.g. Ricochet).
sulli
RTFJ.
out of curriousity, and cause im too lazy to look it up, what does RM stand for (other than "the malaysian currency" cause im not a dumbass) and about how many us dollars (plus any other currency you feel like adding)is it worth?
I just did a quick search on google and the first likely page I found: http://www.qsl.net/seanet2001/m'sia_currency.htm says the exchange rate in April 2001 was:
(I have no idea how the abbreviation for "Riggit" is "RM".)Thinking further about the setup they are proposing, it may not cost them all that much for the physical infrastructure; especially in comparison to the cost of a wired broadband setup. They still would have the fixed costs of installing the antenna(s) and connecting them to whatever routers and internet pipes. They'd also have the monthly costs of the bandwidth. I'm still wondering how they can make a profit considering how much bandwidth could be consumed in a month (unless they have a bandwidth cap? There was no mention of it in the article, but I'd sure expect they would institute one before long. Otherwise, their advertisement is effectively saying: "Buy a pizza, and be able to spam / webhost / etc. for free."
Another thought: how long is one entitled to free access for the price of that pizza? Could well be that it would be just one week's worth... what a nice synergy! "Honey? Our internet connection just got shut off again... could you please order a pizza?" :*)
From the article: (my emphasis)
So it looks like they are expecting to recoup their expenses pretty quickly. Which begs the question, just HOW MUCH do one of these pizzas cost?
Possible advertisement? Buy a pizza for $500, get broadband access free!
:*)
At least everyone I've ever met that called themself "pinoy" was Filipino.
When researching to start a local community run wireless LAN, the main problem I found (apart from lack of licencing information for the UK), was where to host base stations in view of everyone.
If the community was to create a site, or set it as the default homepage, for a store for local things like pizza and other shopping, then I can see that store chipping in enough for a base station, and the transmitter too!
This is a model I've been long awaiting... charge the businesses, provide it to individual consumers for free.
This is also the only model that has any prayer of competing with traditional telco -- it's too expensive to lay competing cable or to try to have your government convince your telcos to "share" (Bell cough cough).
I want this pizza place in North America.
--brian
"Your order will be processed and transmitted to the Pizza Station kiosk nearest to you where the order can be picked up."
there are going to be lots of people who dont pick up their pizzas, because thats not what they really paid for. there is going to be lots of free pizza sitting around conveniently placed kiosks. that is going to be one great city!
the animal doesnt even have opposable thumbs, focker!
Pinoy (and Pinay) means Filipino, not Malaysian. Rather different countries.
Liberty in your lifetime
I'm a bloodsucking fiend! Look at my outfit!
I can see the headlines already:
Get pizza fast. Surf for pr0n faster.
I haven't ordered a pizza by calling on the phone in 3 years. Papa John's pizza, among others, does a lot of business here in Austin online.
I'm rather partial to the wirelss coffee house idea, myself, if only I could afford a laptop and wireless modem.
Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
...are they going to recoup their losses? I don't care how much pizza they sell, broadband is expensive. I just don't see how this can work.
USA Intellectual Property Laws: 5 monkeys, 1 hour.
I'm the stranger...posting to
Finally, a company that gets it. 3G is so expensive... why do you think companies have scaled back large deployment of it? And here is a company (that isn't even a telco..) that is using 2.4ghz and 5.7ghz band (which is unlicenced, and therefore, free..) to have higher speed connectivity. This is similar to Apple's airport in design, since it is going to be using the 802.11 standard.... but Airport uses only the 2.4 ghz band.
I will be interested in knowing how this Pizza company will implement security. The free wireless networks in place in Seattle and San Francisco still do not have great security, as there isn't great security inherent in the protocol. I would hate to have someone snagging my email or telnet sessions out of the air.. (and yes, I do use PGP and SSH.. but many people do not...)
I do happen to find it interesting about this company... A pizza company no less. I work for a CLEC, and I see all kinds of executives here who still don't get broadband... (as crazy as that sounds, it is true..) I honestly hope that this company can implement this.
This reminds me of companies who designed broadband connectivity that went through power lines... and had an impossible time trying to convince the Power companies. They simply didn't understand the resources that they had. Now, we are entering an age where in fact wires can be made obsolete ( for the most part...) and we can send out high speed data though the air. Now, if we can just get the security down, and make sure that they don't cause cancer.. and microwave towers can...
Blah Blah Blah.
I know at Uconn and a few other college campuses, some of the restauraunts that do lots of business with the students have implimented forms where you can place your orders online, and receive a call when the food's ready (it caught on really well at Uconn, possibly partially because of the broadband internet connections that are pretty standard in college dorms nowadays). They usually band together and pay a third party to operate and maintain the internet service. All of the experiences i've had with the combination of food service with the internet have been fairly pleasant, it should be interesting to see how a more concrete co-mingling of the services will pan out.