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SBC Park Plans A Giant 802.11 Hotspot
Numeric writes "Baseball games won't be as boring at SBC Park, home of the San Fransico Giants, because they are offering "one of the largest hotspots", according to this Yahoo article.
SBC Communications provides DSL and wireless connectivity to business and consumers. I wonder if Minute Maid Park will offer free orange juice or even better Citizen Ball Park could offer free money! Its nice to see the staduim sponsor offering more than just the name sake of their business."
LostCluster writes "The San Jose Business Journal adds the details that the WiFi access will be called SBC's Freedom Link, and and be based on 121 access points spread across the park. Access will be free during the 2004 season, but will cost $7.95 per day or $19.95 per month starting next year."
This will be just another excuse to raise the price of hot dogs and beer.
Is this something I would really want to use. Who would surf the net while watching a game. Why go to a game then.
Evolution or ID?
Hehe, for all those sitting in the very back top rows, now you can watch the game on real player and actually see something.
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Go canucks, habs, and sens!
You know a sport is boring when...
How are people going to do "The Wave" with a laptop on your lap?
get a few mates with webcams and laptops and set up a multiangle freeview of the game ;-)
Any word on Hooters sponsoring a baseball stadium? Just so long as they don't bring their cameras...
the WiFi access will be called SBC's Freedom Link
Previous name considerations included, "SBC's French Link". Though this name was later changed under public and Congressional pressures.
Has anyone considered how this will affect (or even effect) the ease of gambling at sporting events. This could allow for betting on individual free throws in basketball, whether a play will be overturned in football, individual innings in baseball (you can even change your bet real time, double down etc).
Many stadiums dont allow bookbags or similar bags anymore (a woman's purse usually an exception) because of terrorism concerns. Laptop bags would seem to fall into that category.
The former Veterans Stadium allowed bookbags that were clear/transparent colored, or the bags you get at the grocery store. Even still, your bag has to be checked to make sure you're not bringing in outside beer, canned soda, and other prohibited items. Citizens Bank Park will probably carry the same policy.
It would seem that in order to get a laptop in, you would probably have to carry it in directly, no bag or anything. Or, bring a handheld that fits in your pocket.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
You didn't even have to read the article for this one: the wireless access will be a separate charge next year. This year it will be positioned as a loss leader: get people using/hooked on the product for free, then start charging (also called the drug dealer's sales model).
And so what if you don't want to use it? Don't use it - there, that was easy. It's possible someone will. I don't want to drive a dump truck around but I understand there are people with different needs that might be able to use a dump truck. You != everyone.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
"We've created one of the largest, if not the largest, hot spot in the world," says Larry Baer, Giants executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Don't think so Larry Baer. You're in a one-block stadium. Case Western Reserve (in my hometown Cleveland) has what I believe is the largest public WiFi network. It covers university square and most surrounding areas.
Betting on every play... cool! (I don't gamble though.) Multiple camera angels (long overdue) is a great idea!
Do or do not. There is no try. --Yoda
Wireless is shared bandwidth so if there are a lot of people using it, performance becomes absolutely miserable. Even if people flock to the statium to use wireless networking, as opposed to watching the sports, I don't think this is worth the bother. Sure, before the game starts some people might want to use their wireless PDAs to check up on stocks, etc, this isn't going to be used very much. I think the heaviest users are going to be living line of sight to the stadium with Pringles cans pointed that way.
Actually at Citizen Ball Park, if you buy a $3 beer, the vendor notifies you of a $2 transaction fee, and asks if you want to continue.
The Giants could be making a huge mistake. MMORPG's are pretty popular among baseball players. Guys like Doug Glanville and Curt Shilling are big time Everquest players, and Star Wars Galaxies is pretty popular as well.
I can see it now. Instead of 7 guys in the bullpen bs'ing around and trying to look interested, you'll have the entire Giant's rotation staring at laptops trying to powerlevel.
"Johnson, get warmed up, you're going in next inning"
"But coach, if I go in, where are the guys gonna get another level 25 human paladin to tank?"
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
I have two issues here; both having to do with security.
The first is how many of the folks using this will relize that there may be those running air-snort, or whatever the heck it's called, in the park? If I remember, the WEP is easy to crack (may not be real time cracking, but a few hours later on a top end machine back at home after airsnort records a ballpark full of packets on a 20gb drive).
A SBC size stadium full of airsnorted IP packet traffic may have some interesting gold nuggets
(business deals, insider information, credit card numbers, etc) especialy during a business day or evening.
The second is how do they intend to enforce payment? Again, if you have airsnort or airpeek or whatever, can't you find out what the SSID is and then get on?
Even if it has to do some sort of authentication
based on the MAC address before it hands out dhcp, can't someone wait until the guy in the bleacher
next to them is through/goes to the bathroom/goes to the concession stand/takes a nap; then does a man-in-the-middle (assuming both the MAC and the
allready-dhcp'd-ip) and get on? Perhaps, now that they are using someone else's identity; go ahead and PTP a bunch of people's music; or surf kiddie porn; or whatever?
Personally, when I go to events like this, I go totaly empty handed. No laptop, no cellular, no bags, nothing.
Cleara