Slashdot Mirror
Three-wheeled Wireless Internet
An anonymous reader writes "I just found this article which describes how a group of people in the UK built a 3 wheeled trike-type rickshaw to give visitors to a festival mobile Internet access. An interesting read for those /.ers into wireless networks, it also gives good information about the use of satellite for net connectivity and renewable energy sources. They do a good job of lightening a dry subject with a dash of humour." (The festival here is The Big Green Gathering, which sounds like a low-key, English version of Burning Man.)
All of this is doable by the average slashdotter, except of course for the sattelite link, which is probably expensive. Still, very, very cool.
A blog like any other.
I don't know if I'm too keen to rent a little bike with an internet connection. I'd much rather have wireless connection points scattered over the festival terrain which would allow a PDA to connect - that way, I can even walk.
One day, when technology is dirt cheap (if that ever happens), then I wouldn't mind having a little computer loaded on a little bike like that.
Until then, I first need personal connectivity
Save the whales! - collect the whole set
"I hate people who fabricate unintelligent quotes to add to their work seemingly by some 'anon' sage" -- anon
This looks like a very cool project indeed... I didn't find mention on the cost though. Estimates? Educated guesses?
.: Max Romantschuk
Do you think maybe you can go to a freaking festival, and not have to check your freaking email? How about just chilling out and having fun for a few hours? And I'm not even going to mention the demeaning aspects of the rickshaw. Its shameful history should not be resurrected under any circumstances.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I already had this mental image of people riding around, delivering paper printouts of http-requests and...
eh, nevermind...
Then I realized "I'm in the middle of the desert I don't want my email to find me", quickly checked slashdot and turned it off ....
Mind you, they did apparently have some stiff competition from InterDump Inc, the company responsible for the festivals internet-enabled portaloos.
or otherwise he'd be able to PM his boss his iTrike got jacked!
The Big Green Gathering is similar to the Burning Man with the exception of a total lack of 14 year old Californians off their heads on mescaline.
Whether this is a plus or a minus depends entirely on your age.
Invoicing, Time Tracking, Reporting
Sounds like the premise for a bad Kids in the Hall sketch, with one of the gang on fire and acting totally low-key about it. Either that, or I'm amazingly sleep deprived.
Mod with your heart, not your intellect!
"Hippies, hippies... they want to save the world but all they do is smoke pot and play frisbee!"
No kidding. What is it with these nouveau-hippie-raver types? On the one hand, they are, as you say, luddites, anti-science and anti-rationalist, "back to nature" types; on the other hand, they listen to music that would not be possible without computer technology, take drugs invented in laboratories, and now are setting up computer networks at their events. WTF?
...a 3 wheeled trike-type rickshaw...
It's a sad, sad day when the stories contain two levels of redundancy. Would you say a 2-wheeled, bike-type mountain bike? A four-wheeled, 4x4-like Land Rover? Sheesh.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
For those who are too lazy to read the entire article, I'll point you to the good stuff: Wifi Chick, complete with iBook.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
I feel so sorry for you. You're obviosuly quite young and earnest, and probably a very Nice Guy(TM). You've made the fundamental mistake that many young men make (myself included), amd that is that everyone else is just like you. Bitter experience will tech you otherwise. Go out, chat up loads of other young women and have a good time. Don't take things so seriously jsut now. I know, it's easier said than done, but this is advice from someone who's been there and done it. If only I'd known 10 years ago what I know now. In a few years' time, you'll probably meet someone you love much more and in a different way and it will all become moot.
Stick Men
Wi-Fi networks essentially accomplish the same feat using a sub-pairing of ultra-banding technologies similiar to cell phone towers. It is an interesting technique that should make wireless networking available to the masses and at a much sweeter price point than currently available. Are we soon to see a Star Tre-like array with their triangulation of their tricorders?
This is on my doorstep, its my local culture and the the comparison with burning-man is a little off the mark.
/. tend to see the iTrike as a festival gimmik that is less than practical, when it is realy a high profile proof of concept with a little humour thrown in.
the BGG is an activists gathering, while there is music at night, by day it is not a hedonists paradise like Burning-Man but more a massive sustainability workshop where you can learn about non-violent resistance through to how to get web without a mains socket.
People on
I am realy glad the BGG got slashdotted because it rarely gets a mention in the UK, let alone internationally.
BTW - Heds from overseas looking for a Burningman Type experience should try Glastonbury festival - the BGG is for serious activists, travelers and the free-festival harcore, the first thing you notice is that there is no branding or commercialism on site which is wierd to say the least in this day and age.
As for cost... its difficult to know. Short of the tech itself, the iTrike is probably recycled bits and bobs from...
Rinky-Dink
http://www.baka.co.uk/rinky/
Raymundo's Renewable Lounge
http://www.ray-mundo.co.uk/
and some road protest site somewhere.
This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
Glastonbury (actually Pilton) is constantly under harassment by the local Conservatives (read Republicans) who try to shut it down. It is now costing a fortune to maintain security and the quality of life around the area is suffering for several weeks in summer. It is also very difficult to get tickets outside the UK. The last thing we need is ticketless foreign stoners wandering around and giving the right-wingers on the council an excuse to stop it for good.
well, this is pretty nifty, wireless and all. My friends 1982 Cadilac doesn't have that, but he *swears* it has a power ass-scratcher...
C|N>K
The average slashdotter must be now drooling at the sexy chicks . Whatever keeps women within 10ft and can be built from spare hardware in their parents' basement is OK for the average slashdotter.
Burning Man was based on the likes of Stonehenge Free Festival (1973-84) which got closed down by Maggie Thatcher for having too much fun.
This is more like a church picnic for eco-types.
need a free COBOL editor for Windows?
W3C is of course. Would you rather M$ create the standards? The same people who came up with ? Didn't think so.
Hmm very similar although there might be some cross Pacific grammar differences.
a) I learnt how to X (speaking of past learnings)
b) I have learned how to X (speaking of present learning)
But both can be switched around to personal preference, I would use A but hey, im English so i would naturally use the way i was taught at school..
Simon
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
Can't I just go to my favorite coffee shop in town to have some real java and run into a friend or two when I feel like it, and just chill out and have fun? Often, the answer is, not if I don't have my email-enabled cell phone so my server or my boss can call me if there's a problem.
The 'net can indeed encroach on our busy lifestyles, but it can be liberating, too.
Then again, one of my primary hobby is cave exploration, and they ain't made the cell phone that will work down there (though it is technically possible using extreme low frequency RF.)
Here are the costs for this (in Euros):
- Satellite terminal and dish: 5,000
- Buffalo Tech Base stations x 5: 750
- Assorted cabling: 50
- Home made wireless bits: 150
- Home built rack-mount firewall: 1,000
- Dodge D50 s/h: 3,5000
- Rickshaw: 1,000 (guessed)
- Speakers and Amp, Mixer, Batteries: 1,000
- Solar+Wind+Batteries: 10,000 (guess)
- Other bits and bobs: 100
So quite expensive really, obviously you could this for a lot cheaper.
Either are acceptable forms in English for the past participle of 'to learn'. However, in British English the form 'learnt' is used and American English, the form 'learned'. Another lesson learnt or learned.
It's a lot more laid back, much more of a family affair.
However I'm not too sure how popular people tapping away on laptops would be - my experience of the Big Green Gathering would lend me to expect they would get lots of pitying looks from most of the crusties.
I went to one outside Leeds a couple of years back, and it was great fun. All electricity used is generated on site, using solar panels, windmills and pedal power - which means that unless a band has lots of energetic fans, they tend not to get too loud.
On a side note, some Greenpeace reps were trying to get donations to get their vehicles back after they'd been impounded at an anti-GM protest the week before. They didn't seem to take too kindly to the suggestion that they should use public transport, cycle or walk instead of ride around in clapped-out diesel-guzzling second-hand ambulances and buses.
=#= Man, you are such a loser! Why can't you be an individual, like the rest of us?
Uh huh... Next year's challenge: A rickshaw mounted solar powered shower and soap.
Do you or your partner snore? - Visit www.snoring.com.au
Um, I looked all over their site a few time searching for the hypocrisy you speak of. I can't say it jumped out at me.
Now, a slashdotter blindly judging a large group of people without bothering to research their claims... that sounds a little on the hypocritical side I'd say.
How do you either of you know what they are like, have you ever met them? How can you say they are hypocrites? Have you ever spoken to them and asked them what their beliefs are?
Aren't you being just slightly judgemental here? You've made an assumption between the plethorer of different things going on at this festival and what they did, without knowing what they do and how this all fits together. Perhaps you ought to presume less and appreciate that you are not being preached to, just presented with some information.
So far as I can made out, they're cider drinking lunatics! (organic cider that is).
We have had rickshaws/bicycle taxis in Copenhagen (Denmark) with wireless access since the beginning of this year (some call them mobile net cafes). I wonder how many actually use this?!
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
That, my friend, is either sheer hypocracy, or stupidity and ignorance.
Stick Men
Sounds alot like something freeserve would do to tie in with their hippie-style tv ads. :P
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Unfortunately the rocket that put the sattellites in orbit was a tad less than "earth-friendly"
Next time it might be fun to try something more decentralized, and owe more step away from the military-industrial complex (which admittedly is bringing us lots of this great tech). E.g. an ad-hoc network of stations routing back to the main uplink, or a bunch of shortwave transmitters.
reed
VOS/Interreality project: www.interreality.org
Slightly off topic, but ...
It might surprise you to know that the key to all this "new age mumbo-jumbo" is to experience first hand. Ever tried a shamanic ritual?
You WILL be pleasantly surprised I think! It may not work first time (but it did for me) and I was gob-smacked.
I, as you, was once of the mind set that "it doesn't work." "it's not science" ... all the usual stuff.
As others are getting towards in all the threads here ... this festival and the fact that new age hippies are may be contradicting themselves by introducing a Internet connection - when their "dogma" would seem to be totally against science and technology - are missing the point.
I think the "modern hippie/activist" would be sane and educated enough to realise that technology is a necessary part of evolution, almost guaranteed to happen if you will ... but at the same time it is being fully mis-used in this world at present ... and hence are striving for a better more peaceful co-existence.
It is this individualistic society that we are bought up in that causes so many problems and they are trying to get away from that.
ps. I personally know some of the people who are running this festivla Internet thing-a-my-jig and they DEFINITELY have their hearts and minds in the right place. Which is why I've bothered to get this /. account and set some of you straight.
Not a hint of hypocrisy in place I'm afraid. Perhaps some of the most honest, hard working altruisting people I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with ...
Anyone interested in seeing what the stats look like for a page being slashdotted can visit this URL:p l?conf ig=mirror.us.psand.net
/.'ers use as well as where they come from.
http://mirror.us.psand.net/cgi-bin/awstats.
It's interesting to see what browsers and platforms
"Unfortunately the rocket that put the sattellites in orbit was a tad less than "earth-friendly""
While a good point, if you read the text, it refers to 'Conventional distributed mains and fossil fuel generated power', so we are discussing sources of power here, not communications equipment. It's true that it's not at all perfect, whilst it's generally agreed that BP make the best solar panels, they are also a petrochemical company that a party to the industry that is ruining the environment and heating up our planet.
I guess the answer is, if you are not preaching, and this article is not preaching I hope, then any little you do to help, helps. Better to do something in the right direction than nothing at all I reckon.
Interestingly enough, one of the manufacturers of satellite internet terminals is Rayceon. Yes the very same whose missiles the US military used to kill innocent people in a Bahgdad market earlier this year and the same whose military vehicle appeared on the front of September's Linux Journal as an example of how great Linux is. It's a really strange world out there full of contrasts and contradictions.
Incidentally, I shall be cancelling my LJ subscription.
That part of the mind we call the heart might be in the right place, but the rest of it is on its way into outer-space. All the good will and wishing very hard for peace and harmony etc. doesn't produce tangible results. You have to do stuff.
You got a /. account, but decided to post as an AC!
Well I don't have a problem if ppl want to practise "mumbo-jumbo", just so long as it doesn't interfere with my life which it doesnt.
You should cross the Atlantic instead. It's quicker. :)
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Cross Atlantic numbnuts. Even I, an uneducated Yank know the difference.
I reckon this was one of the best responses to the article, at least the comments arising from it were some of the most enlightening, better than simply calling people tree-hugging hippies etc.
Shame it got moderated to -1
If you're in New York, you should check out magicbike.
No, I'm New Here
Yes, they magically use a 3-wheel cart as a magical internet kiosk. Let's just ignore the 6 ton equipment truck they had nearby with the actual uplink and all the real equipment.
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
Mobile Wireless Internet Access Point
"The BAkSCII is a wireless internet cafe, ready for instant deployment whereever and whenever the need arises. Constructed around 4 Open Brick computers, 4 TFT flatscreens, one hub, a 12 V battery and a wireless network station, the BAkSCII was originally intended to be mobilized on a Bakfiets ["Box-bike", i.e. a bicycle with a large cargo box on the front] during the N5M4 TML. Since ASCII's relocation due to an unreasonable rent increase on their space, the BakSCII has been the core component of their internet cafe at the squatted EasyCityspace."
More info:
http://www.scii.nl/ascii/projects/bakscii
Despite the upthread comment about '14 yearolds on drugs' I have to point out that people under about 20 are pretty rare at BM - I bring my kids (including a 12 yr old) and finding other kids for them to hang out with is pretty hard (even with 30,000 people there) - partly it's because it is a very adult crowd (14 yr old kids really don't have the wherewithall to rent a truck, fill it with food and water and drive it 100s of miles from anywhere), and partly because it's the week before the labor day holiday weekend and in the US most kids (not mine) start school before or during that week
Ten years of friendship? Obviously her friendship didn't mean much if she's already banging your best buddy. Sounds like it may be time to find some new friends. Easier said than done, I know. Listen to me, I've been there... If you want to hear about some of the crazy shit I have to put up with, I link to my site above. Oh, and just so I don't get modded offtopic, I like connecting to the Net over my cell phone using Sprint PCS, which is usually at about dual ISDN speed. If my friends and I are ever at a coffee shop or park with no Wi-Fi, I turn on Ad Hoc sharing over my 802.11b card, and everyone is able to get online! Funfunfun. I plan on doing it at PSG next Summer, which is a fun Pagan festival held in the middle of nowhere. (aka Ohio)
"Three-wheeled Wireless Internet"
They're called R2 units.