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Wireless Clouds for Good and Ill
dr_delete sent in a story about Athens, Georgia joining the ranks of municipalities creating free public wireless networks. In a counterpoint to that, we have the Pentagon cracking down on wireless devices, trying to control information leakage. And Newsforge has a story about starting your own wireless ISP. Nifty stuff.
Anyone remember when a small group of people, disaffected with CompuSpend and other BBS corps got together and formed their own distributed network, based on private citizen's telco services? Wondering if the same thing will happen with medium-to-wide area networks? I mean, now that the 802.whateveritwas hack-thing is out there (you know, the one that lets you do wireless over medium-area distances), how long before people shuck off the "shackles" of their ISP and start forming small Winternet groups?
;-)
(Oh god, I might have just coined something. Quick! Alert Wired! =] )
The logistics of gluing small (urban?) 'clouds' together comes down to boundary-routing. Now, if only there was an 802.somethingelse hack that let these 'clouds' contact each other over inter-city distances, the Winternet wouldn't depend on Spring or Bellnexxia or whoever is backboning, today.
Cross your fingers.
.f00Dave
A quick read through that story shows nothing out of the ordinary. Anything that transmits something over air (cell phones, pagers, walkie-talkies, etc) is already banned from military and other government buildings, except in approved circumstances where the equipment was purchased by the gov't, or approved areas of certain buildings. I dont really see the "news" in that story.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
It looks like all the mid-sized cities are in a footrace. The City Commission wants to be an early adopter, and one vocal critic has been making some noise (sorry--no link b/c the local rag doesn't have the story in their web archive) even suggesting to demonstrate its vulnerability. How many repeats of this will we need before people start to pay attention?
"What is the sound of one belly slapping?"
Athens isn't the only place starting things like this. Valdosta State University has a wireless network spread out over most of the campus. Supposedly there is Wi-Fi being setup in Valdosta itself, nothing known whether or not it is a free service venture.
GA Tech also has a couple of projects going on here and here.
Georgia Southwestern State University also has an endeavour. As does the Medical College of Georgia.
I am a meat popsicle.
Not an exageration. Indeed, there is a propensity for holding "Gun and Computer" shows in the civic centers of rural Georgia.
You may laugh, but the modern redneck knows computers like they know guns and trucks. And they were into HAM and CBs long before the teenybopper set learned the advantages of cell phones.
Of course, Athens isn't exactly a redneck Mecca. It's more like the Berkeley of Georgia.