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Wi-Fi, Linux, And VoIP In Canada
WEFUNK writes "Canadian Business magazine has a cover story promoting Wi-Fi, VoIP, and Linux as 'Stuff that Works: 3 hot technologies that live up to their hype.' The article goes on to describe a number of Canadian success stories, ranging from Spotnik Mobile's growing network of Wi-Fi hotspots to the Canadian National Railway's use of Linux since 1993, and quantifies the benefits of VoIP to a Canadian insurance company's call centre. The article also includes some shipment numbers for Linux servers in Canada, mentions the growing number of Linux apps, and nicely downplays the SCO debacle."
Stuff that works 2003 July
Three technologies that will live up to their hype
The bursting of the high-tech bubble a couple years ago sullied the prospects for new technologies--in some cases, for good reason. After all, many so-called tech revolutions haven't even come close to living up to their hype. Selling doodads on the Web is not an inexpensive way to make billions, and the malls are still jammed with shoppers. A new Web services economy, in which customized mini-software programs are licensed and distributed over the Internet, hasn't emerged. And remember convergence? Some of the tech world's highest flyers blew their brains out on that idea.
And yet, despite the many disappointments to businesses and investors alike, it's a mistake for either group to think the high-tech meltdown whitewashed the economic impact of all technological innovation. It's just that business models don't change overnight. So although the volume on the hype machine is now a faint crackle, there are some technologies once labeled "disruptive" that are entrenching themselves, if only quietly, in corporations and society at large. And the opportunities remain significant.
Broadband wireless data communications is making instant access to information anytime, anywhere, a reality. The open source movement, which encourages the free exchange of software for the Linux operating system, is transforming corporate IT departments. And the venerable phone is now tapping directly into the Internet, nearly eliminating long-distance fees and threatening upheaval in the telecom industry.
You may not be aware of it, but these technologies are here, they're being used by Canadian companies--and they may yet live up to their billing.
Wi-fi
When Starbucks announced in January 2001 that most of its outlets would offer wireless broadband Internet access to their frappuccino-addicted customers, skeptics questioned its plan. Turns out Starbucks was ahead of its time: the chain now has thousands of wireless cafés across the US, and space on the Wi-Fi bandwagon has become scarce.
Wi-Fi--short for "wireless fidelity"--is the palatable brand name for a standardized (802.11b) wireless data signal that broadcasts 11 Mbps of bandwidth within a 100-metre radius. Put the transceiver inside a building, and the distance of that wireless local area network, or wireless LAN, is reduced by as much as two-thirds. But that's enough for most eateries, hotels and airports that want to give patrons a wireless Internet connection inside a so-called hotspot. All users need is a Wi-Fi modem card or a built-in Wi-Fi radio like Intel's new Centrino chip.
If you believed the hype about 802.11b three years ago, you're no doubt disappointed that our cities aren't yet awash in wireless broadband signals--but that future's not too far off. The buzz has been loudest in the US, where Cometa Networks, an ambitious venture backed by IBM, Intel and AT&T, has vowed to launch 20,000 hotspots across America by 2008. Both wireline and wireless telcos are making a big push this year: Verizon is converting some 1,000 New York City phone booths into Wi-Fi hubs--an idea it got from Bell Canada, which is wrapping up its own six-month trial of public Wi-Fi service (branded "AccessZones") in train stations and airports across the country.
Independent and regional wireless ISPs are coming out of the woodwork in both the US and Canada, partnering with any establishment that wants to provide a value-added service. One start-up, Spotnik Mobile, has 49 public hotspots in Ontario (mostly in Toronto, where the company is based) and plans to have 500 by year-end. Spotnik's business model--which drew a $6-million investment from Telus--has the company making deals with the hospitality, transportation, property management and food services industries to set up hotspots. "We see it as a marketing tool for customer acquisition," says Murray McCaig, who co-founded Spotnik with MBA school chum Mark Wolinsky in 2001. "We drive traffic t
We have this too (University of New Brunswick), but we have specific labs for different purposes. Like the Linux lab, the Java lab (Windows 2000 with emacs and Sun j2sdk), but the public labs are all Windows 2000. It pisses me off to go into one of the public labs and have to kill:
- Realplayer tray app
- AOL instant messenger
- Yahoo instant messenger
- ICQ instant messenger
- MSN instant messenger
- Quicktime tray applet
- whatever else the last user of that particular computer decided to install.
It's so much nicer having a home directory in Linux that not only stores personal documents, but personal desktop settings, etc. Another thing I can't do on the Windows 2000 machines is kill messenger.exe (need Administrator access) so every once and awhile SPAM pops up from this stupid network tool.
It's nice to log into the computer and get exactly the same desktop that I, myself customized while the next person to log in gets his/her own desktop.
On my bookshelf
Cisco's "Voice over IP Fundamentals"
O'Reilly's "Practical VOIP"
Alan B. Johnston's "SIP Understanding the Session Initiation Protocol"
Cisco's "Deploying Cisco Voice over IP Solutions"
Douskalis's "IP Telephony"
Standard Disclaimer: I am not employed by Multitech nor do I have any financial interests in them.
That's true, but what they're talking about is comfort noise generation. There's always static on the line (background noise in the room for example and electronic noise) and as part of the compression, if the sound power is too low, no audio is sent. That's called silence suppression, and prevents the consumption of bandwidth when no one's talking (which is more than 50% of the time ... normally people aren't talking both at once).
Well, on the other end, during a silence period, nothing at all would be played, so it would sound like a dead line. Comfort noise generation does a bunch of math on the background noise at the transmitting end to pick up key frequencies in the background noise, and then these are recreated at the other end. They don't match (not even close -- you could consider it extremely lossy compression) but it's close enough to our ears so it sounds continuous.
Linux and WiFi make a great combination.
Here's a HOWTO (soon to be published at the Linux Documentation Project) about using Linux as a WiFi Access Point.
And if you want to pay $20 for the same thing, contact www.packet8.net.
No I don't work there but check out www.dslreports.com for lot's of good VoIP info and detailed user experiences between Vonage and Packet8. Packet8 does not have all the features of Vonage but it has some other features that Vonage doesn't have (call forwarding that rings all phones on the forward list).
I have Packet8 and it is good. I can call unlimited for $20 and my buddy in Germany is 5c/min. Why not get your DSL or Cable paying for itself?
Both the Vonage and Packet8 are fine choices, read the user reports and decide for yourself.
Hedley