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WiFi On Two Wheels
MeGaBiTe1 writes "Yury Gitman is not the average cyclist from Brooklyn. His goal is to bring more easily accessible free wireless hotspots to the masses. To do this, he has created what he calls the Magicbike, a bicycle equipped with a laptop, power supply and antenna. Gitman's bike has allowed people in NYC to browse the internet freely in local parks and gardens. 'I am like the ice cream man, but with no music and I deliver free wireless access and not ice cream'."
I wonder how long it will be before a cop pulls over his bike and tickets him for inappropriate and bizarre analogies...
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
I bet the wardrivers with GPS are going nuts trying to pin him down while he's riding.
Props to GNAA!
Wireless Review did an article on the wheelbike back in February.
k e_wheel_deal/
http://www.wirelessreview.com/ar/wireless_magicbi
in theory, but exposing your equipment to the elements, vibrations, and possible accidents, and even theft. Good lord its New York. I mean maybe in cars, like CB radio-style. But by bike, ehhh... I would be a lil afraid for my own property.
je suis parce que j'aime
Can we just buy one of those magic bicycle and keep it in our room?
... but with no music
... and with wireless internet service instead of ice cream
... and with a bike instead of a truck
... and it's free instead of costing money
... and I'm really more of a boy, not a man
... come to think of it, I'm nothing like the ice cream man at all... I was just talking outta my ass.
Portable versions of Firefox, GIMP, LibreOffice, etc
Hopefully the site isn't hosted on this bike...if it got slashdotted and crashed, we could all get sued for his injuries!
Sheesh, it's amazing that no one has remarked upon the important thing about this guy, which is that he's freaking cool! This is exactly the kind of thing I'd like to do if I had the money and time! Good ol' selflessness and wonder and doing good for your fellow man! Just because!
What a nifty idea, wow. And I liked his analogy too, which I saw as more of a humor thing than a real analogy anyway.
"He's coming around the park again~ Quick! hit
the reload button while you have the chance!"
-- Connected to Wi-fi bike boy --
-- 11.00 mbits per second --
-- signal stregnth low --
*swoosh*
--wireless internet conneciton unavailable--
"damnit. . . "
Saying "Militia really just means National Gaurd" is like saying "Press really just means PBS"
The point of finding a free acess point, for most people, is to get on the internet, to send/receive e-mail. Some people might be interested in fiddling around with 'clueless user Linksys #82", but mostly finding an acess point is a means to an end, not an end in itself. A mobile acess point is not a roving Lan party, it is sort of useless. Unless he has omnidirectional wireless internet connection with him (nope) then most people will be kind of disinterested in what he has to offer. Most people won't even bother (or know how!) to browse the network. I really wonder where he is going with this.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
...how long before spammers just load their software onto laptops and start blasting out spam from the nearest hotspot? Are there any safeguards that will prevent this?
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Big Electronic Human Energised Machine, Only Too Heavy
Check this out
but the first thing that ran across my mind is that this poor bastard is going to end up in court because some pervert used him to anonymously download kiddy porn off of the net.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
On the one hand what he's doing is kind of cool and nice. Interesting to say the least... On the other hand walking around like he's a saint or he's bringing vittles to the starving masses makes him look like an imbecile... I mean for chrissakes, you're giving people limited wireless connectivity, in the random chance that you happen to be parked by a guy with a laptop...
;)
You want to be a hero or feel good about yourself? Be a volunteer firefighter. Restore PCs for senior citizen centers, donate to cancer research foundations, give a starving Afican or Chinese kid lunch money. Driving around giving out free wireless internet... *snickers*
The very point of it is pointless. It's basically just a "Lookit me, I'm special-decial like Homestar Runner." I think the guy needs a hobby...maybe he should try being a kernel hacker, I hear that eats into your free time.
Free Wi-Fi on a bike? Why not a train?
PointShot (http://pointshotwireless.com), the folks that provided ACE passengers with the country's first Wi-Fi train service, is in the process of trying to bring a Wi-Fi service to Caltrain here in Silicon Valley.
But according to Caltrain management, it is going to take a year to find a free provider:
"Caltrain is currently working on a request for proposal to provide wi-fi on its trains. Our goal is to be able to attract a provider who will provide free wi-fi service through more than just a pilot period. If the entire process goes smoothly, we may be able to offer wi-fi within about a year.
Our long-term vision is to provide complimentary wi-fi and work with companies along our corridor to allow their employees to start their workday by logging on while on the train. We believe this will be a huge quality of life benefit to our customers and their employees."
For those of you that don't know, Caltrain is the Silicon Valley commuter train that serves passengers from San Jose to San Francisco.
If you find "a year" to be entirely too long or you know of interested Wi-Fi providers, email boardsecretary@caltrain.com or go to http://www.caltrain.org/contact.html.
And let us not forget the classic:
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I like my bike mod better. I attached my old ipaq to the center of the handle bars and with a pcmcia wifi card, serial GPS receiver on the back and the right software i can go biking while wardriving and listening to mp3s at the same time. Wish I had a pic. Anyone else try anything similar?
Oh yeah, and how does he get his connection while on the road, cellphone? Even with Vision or Edge it wouldnt be that great internet access now would it.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the