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WiFi Gone Wild
b4k4 writes "According to this news release, the Texas Department of Transportation is proposing to install hotspots at all 84 Safety Rest Stops and 12 Travel Information Centers statewide. This would be in addition to the four test locations already in place along US287." Reader polluted notes that Portland is working on free WiFi. An anonymous reader sent in word of this year's wifi-shootout, a contest to maximize the range for an 802.11b connection. And Roland Piquepaille writes in regarding cows wearing WiFi collars, which I'm afraid reminds me of a crummy sci-fi movie.
The places that have wireless networks should also issue handouts concerning possible security problems to cover their butts. How long until you hear someone getting sued because someone borked their computer over a wireless network?
Won't this cause parking problems as people stay at rest stops as long as their battery lasts, rather than long enough to do their business?
"How would you like your firewall? Rare, medium, or well?"
John
Now, nerds in texas can always get their /. fix when traveling. They just have to stop of at a rest area, get some vending machine food, a soda, stop off at mr. porclyn and /.
Although, hopefully not all at the same time.
Evolution or ID?
I have to admit, I'm becoming annoyed with WiFi. Not because I think there is anything wrong with it, but for the simple reason that if there is ANYTHING involving networks, out comes WiFi.
Why is WiFi so great? And why is everyone working to provide free access to it? Free acces (as in beer) is great. But I just have one question. Why?
Sure it's convenient and everything, but governments, businesses and individuals are all doing this. Providing free WiFi. Why? What payoff does everyone get?
How long before telcos ship integrated devices that include DSL modem and wifi, all interoperable with VoIP networks?
They could still make money on the DSL subscriptions and do and end-run around the grassroots personal telcos.
Some truck stops in Texas already have WiFi access (though not free) via a service for truckers.
From my wardrive along the interstate it can be debated that there are enough hot spots already.
All joking aside I can't wait for there to be legitimate free APs.
"Now children, who weould like to tell me what are the inportant things cows provide us with?"
"Meat, Milk, and Internet!"
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
Seems that in Texas, truckers are the predominant users of roadside rest stops. Since a govt agency will be providing the Internet, you can bet your life that there will be plenty of surveillance involved, so I wonder if this will also be a fishing expedition for truckers who traffik in child pr0n? If you've ever travelled thru Texas on the interstate highways, you've undoubtedly noticed the many "adult" movie stores near lots of truckstops, and how many 18-wheelers are always filling their parking lots..... not to be making any insinuations about truckers being such big-time consumers of pr0n or nothing like that.
They should set up some kind of service, where they can check whom you are first, so if you go on some hacking spree they know whom to blame.
Wow, sounds like China. But no, this isn't needed because of free WiFi. At the moment I can go to an internet cafe and surf the web anonymously. All I have to do is hand over cash (well, it was possible in Rome. I'm assuming it's possible in Australia and America).
I didn't connect to the internet wirelessly or wirely, and I had a good productive day.
If I promise to be a good boy can I have some better karma?
Any ideas on how to keep those zap-collars working for extended periods? I'd think that replacing/recharging all those batteries would almost be as much work as herding the darn things.
~D
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
I live in a state that has these grand taxpayer waysides, that, while being a wonderful place to take a dump, are a luxury for a state that has cronic budget deficits and are one of the highest taxed states in the nation.
Adding wi-fi to the wayside crapatoriums will indeed benefit a few people looking for some highway p0rn, but again, it's a total luxury for a small population of folks who bring their laptops on the road. -- And no need to respond "hey, *I* bring my laptop on the road, so there must be others." Face it. It's a small population.
Not to say I'm (completely) against taxpayer funded hot-spots .. but come on .. put 'em up where there's a steady population of users.
So far, the RIAA's "sue the world" strategy has relied on subpoenas sent to ISPs to identify the filesharer who was using a specific IP address at a specific time. What happens when the ISP has no idea: "Well, it was somebody travelling on I-20."? If the ISP were a private entity, the RIAA _may_ be able to sue the ISP. But, what happens when the ISP is the State of Texas? My one semester of ConLaw says that the 11th Amendment would bar that suit.
This would be GREAT, if they were to set up a damn ROAD CONSTRUCTION WEBSITE.
I'd love to be able to check and say "oh, I-35 is under construction from hither to yonder. Hm, what is my alternate route?" instead of the old "a mile past the last exit you see the ROAD CONSTRUCTION NEXT 50 MILES" sign.
www.eFax.com are spammers
I can understand how wonderful it would be to have these hotspots available for "free."
However, taxpayer dollars are coerced from citizens for any government project. This one is a short-sighted waste of those dollars.
If there is a compelling demand for this kind of service, then Texas should have stopped at a trial of 4 spots (if even that) and let private industry take over.
The "1.5% of fatalities are caused by fatigue" argument is a red herring meant to justify this wasteful expenditure. I am sure the hundreds of thousands (million? two million?) of dollars spent on this "sexy" bureaucratic project could have been far better spent in other forms of more relevant traffic safety measures -- like carving those "wake-up" notches into road sides, or more money into re-inforcing messages not to drive drunk, or more money for training to reduce recidivism in previous DUI convicts.
OR HOW ABOUT THIS? How about putting some stalls on the bathroom doors in the rest stops at El Paso? No joke... they had open stalls last time I was there a year ago. Aren't there are more basic steps along the road of highway culture than going from the outhouse straight to Wi-Fi?
As it stands, this is a luxury expenditure that will let a small number of travelers with laptops get mail while otherwise subsidizing porn-surfing. Come on... if it's late at night and someone is tired, precisely how does an hour spent surfing web sites and expending ones mental resources in that kind of concentration improve one's alertness? It's an unsubstantiated bureaucracy-boosting statement that pushes the taxpayer just a few steps further down the road of permanent government debt, and ultimately, a form of bondage to pay back old expenses that should never have been incurred in the first place.
Next time I drive through Texas, I'll drive friendly, I won't mess with Texas, and I'll surf the web for free. Three nice thoughts. But only two of them are good ideas. It would be nice for the Slashdot crowd of harder-than-average thinkers to look past our love of technology to identify bigger-picture issues before slapping on the seal of approval for this kind of government excess.
In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
I can't wait for the first time a hurd of wirelessly controlled cows get hacked. Imagine the fun you could have with a hurd of cows at your command.
I think I'd have them follow the same person around all day. When he stopped walking, the cows would stop. When he went in a building, the cows would wait outside.
Or just send them all to go and flash-mob the local butchers.
GR3A+ REdNECK hackEr5 W1+h L4ptOPS
We've been seeing Wi-Fi turn up just about everywhere, including truck stops, municipal buildings, our favorite stores, and so many more. You can check out your area or search for specific places in the US, as seen by wardrivers.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
I can just see the new action flick, "Smokey and the Spammer", with high speed chases from hot-spot to hot-spot as they detect viagra and cialis ads coming out of one rest area after another down I-10... culminating in a 30 car pile-up as the spammer tries to run the roadblock at the Louisiana border.
Ah, they'll probably just block port 25 outgoing. Spoilsports.
"3. CONCEPT: TxDOT envisions a concept where wireless internet service is available for public use.
3.1. The traveling public would be able to use a personal computing device, such as a laptop computer, equipped to acquire a wireless internet signal, to use the internet and send email during a break from the road.
3.2. A separate kiosk, provided by the vendor, would allow those traveling without a personal computing device to utilize the internet service.
3.3. This service will be provided at a cost to the consumer, not to TxDOT."
TxDOT is expecting the "People not traveling with wireless equipment" to cover the cost of the project when they "connect to the Internet at kiosks for a reasonable fee to be collected by the vendor."
Personally I think this is the fatal flaw in their plan. I doubt there will be enough kiosk users to cover the costs. Still I have to give them credit for trying.
Insert Generic Sig Here:
""Right now we don't really have competition for Internet access," Sten says."
This is the biggest load of BS I have ever read. First off comcast, verizon and qwest all offer broadband city wide...his little network covers about 5 city blocks. then there are about 200 dialup isps in the yellow pages. About a month ago Qwest lowered its prices by 10$ and Comcast, a few days later, upgraded all current and future subscribers faster down load speeds free of charge. If anything competition among Portand's internet providers is red hot.
stendec@gmail.com
I can't see a pay internet kiosk use at a rest stop being too profitable. AKA going the way of the payphone. Users who can't wait to get to their destination to check their e-mails will likely have their own laptops and would prefer to use the free wifi access. Leaving a small market for pay kiosk use (outside of initial novelty). I see the state funding these APs after the private company goes under. My feeling is that if the public likes it, and it's not profitable, the government will fund it sooner or later. If I'm wrong, then I've seen a late night advertisement for pay internet kiosks that will make you a fortune.
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Why would one need such a high-bandwidth link as WiFi for the cow herding application? Is this a case of buzzword intoxication? WiFi, WiFi, everywhere, and nary a mind to think [sorry].
The cows aren't browsing the Web, for crying out loud. Tracking their location and various health monitors, sending the "zap" command, can be handled by something in the 300 baud capability range, using considerably less power than a wireless ethernet card -- you won't need to strap that large solar panel to the cow's back either.
Here in the Computing and Information Sciences department at Kansas State University we have a research project that is using some kind of sensor cluster implanted in cattle. These sensor clustors then take vital signs and other data and respond to researchers who scan the cow/bull with an IPaQ. Kind of like a tricorder, but with the sensors in the cattle instead of in the hand held device.
I don't know too many of the specifics of the project (I'm a systems administrator in the department, rather than a research assistant), but it sounded cool to me. Maybe with some WiFi collars the cattle could make a mesh network and just shoot the data back to the ranch house without needing someone to walk by with an ipaq, heh heh.
In a few years, all cows will have access to the Internet. And thanks to their always-on wireless connections, they'll make up the vast majority of Internet users. 75% of Slashdot posts will be from cows, and thanks to the mass enfranchisement of other cattle, the Goatse.cx site will actually feature a picture of a goat.
What's more, you'll benefit. Right now, the Internet is dominated by spammers and trolls. But with an influx of cows, sheep, chickens, pigs, and other farmyard animals, the quality of discussion and the quality of content is likely to radically increase. All these animals know a hell of a lot more than most Slashdotters about many ordinary topics - chickens, for example, will be able to tell you about eggs, something very few Slashdotters are expert in. Ask Slashdot will finally stop having useless topics like "How do I set up my Linksys router?" or "What wallpaper should I have on my desktop?" and instead feature discussions about types of grass to eat, avoiding foxes, and telling whether your feed has dead similar animals mixed into it.
Likewise, YRO will be dominated by discussions about avoiding the slaughterhouse, getting into the wild, etc. None of this "Ooooh, some obscure copyright bill might violate my right to download MP3s", this time it'll be important life and death issues.
So don't knock it. Cows have just as much right to be on the Internet as you or I. How dare you suggest they don't "need" Internet access!
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
If you need that quick cash all you need to do is hang around the rest areas in Texas and wait for someone to pull in and break out their laptop. A simple mugging should be all it takes to be on your way to at least $500 at the pawn shop!
This is my United States of whatever.
After doing a double-take, I realized there was a webcam mounted on the top of the LCD. Behind the live webcam window, there was a fullscreen display of the rest stop's power usage statistics. Apparently, this place was powered entirely by a single wind turbine (which I had noticed outside). They were displaying all kinds of fun graphs and historical data on power generation and usage and whatnot. The poster describing the system claimed they were using WiFi to transmit the data from the turbine to the computer inside.
We were pressed for time, so I didn't whip out my laptop and check to see if the access point was open, but still, I was pretty amazed. We circled the entire country, and of all the rest stops we visited, that little stop sitting all by itself in the middle of the desert was probably the nicest one.