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Austin Becoming Wi-Fi Hot Spot
Omega1045 writes "The Austin Chronicle is running an interesting article on how Austin is fast becoming the Wi-Fi Capital of the Free (as in beer) Wireless World. With the industry standardization board Wi-Fi Alliance moving to Austin earlier this year, and groups like Austin Free-Net helping local businesses, the article quotes Austin has having more hotspots 'than anywhere else on the planet'. While this article does quite a bit of bragging about Austin, it also does a great job of highlighting how businesses and local non-profits can work together to promote and profit from free Wi-Fi Internet access. This provides an excellent model for other cities to follow using tools like Less Network."
The world is ready for a new way of doing business and living life. It's not about more money and more stuff. It's about knowing the difference between a life well-lived and a life that's purchased. It's about how much you can do with what you have.
(i.e., free Wi-Fi == good)
You can hope, or you could get involved with a local WiFi club. I am already going to try to seek these guys out (Austin Free-Net) after reading the article.
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
I've been to Austin, it is massive. Takes an hour to get where you want to go, driving full speed on the freeway. And yes the city is a hotbed of open WiFi.
If Hanlon had a corollary, however, it would be : 'Never attribute to good heart or generosity that which is easily explained by ignorance.' Just because a city has a Fry's (electronics wholesaler, sells wifi dirt cheap) and ten thousand unsecured wireless access points, don't think for a second that ten thousand people all decided to to donate bandwidth out of the goodness of their hearts. More likely scenario : get home / to the office, plug it in, watch the blinkenlighten, It Works!, drink beer, surf Internet.
Then again, Texans (and Austin'ites) are pretty good at heart people, some of them may know they are open and leave it so people can use it.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
I chuckle every time I hear about "wireless" networks because every time I wander into starbuck's or any other spot with wireless everyone with a computer is jockeying for the power outlets. There usually aren't nearly enough outlets for the number of people who need power. Heck, when people bring laptops into one-hour meetings in my workplace they are usually jockeying for outlets too.
So, maybe we're seeing a large deployment of "one less wire" networks, but until battery life gets much better, I don't think it's fair to say wireless. Most laptops and pda-type gadgets are lucky to get two hours of "real" usage in the field. By "real" I mean actually using the laptop or gadget on the wireless to surf the internet while, for example, playing music. (Everyone in these coffee shops seems to have headphones plugged into their laptop when I see them.)
Just an observation, not a critique on the article.
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
UT makes up 90% of Austin? What are you smoking man. I live in an Austin suburb, and UT is big, but it is only a small percentage of the metro. The greater Austin area is over a million people, and UT is about 50 thousand students. Even if you figured there were one faculty/staff per student (which isn't even close), that only comes to 100 thousand directly UT related people, and that is what, 10%? Not only does Austin area have UT, it also has most of the state government of Texas, which employs thousands of people, Dell, which employs over 20 thousand people in the Austin area, a major IBM facility, major facilities from Motorola, AMD and numerous other companies.
Even if you are talking square miles of land, and only talking about the actual city limits of Austin, UT isn't anywhere near to 90% of the city limits of Austin.
1. Crushing traffic gridlock
2. Rebulican redistricting that disenfranchises Austin voters.
3. Expensive housing (maybe not as bad as Portland)
4. Large pool of technical talent chasing fewer jobs
I live here, and I actually like it. But in the last 10 years or so this city has a developed desperate, almost pathological need to pimp itself with dubious claims of superiority. "Live Music Capital of the World"! "Wi-Fi Hotspot!" It gets a little old, and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Having just moved to the Austin area from Silicon Valley....
:)
Wireless is very popular here because they get more lightning strikes per week than Kali gets in a year! Having everything connected with wires is like playing russian roulette. I'm going to need at least 3 more APC UPS's.
On the upside... The BBQ is excelent, and gas/diesel/rent/food/etc... is cheap.
Chicken fried steak w/ bisquits and gravey.
Anyone seen my jagged little pill?
Rail? Give me a break. I live off Parmer Ln and it wont do me jack. Also, you still have to drive to the rail system. And when you get to your destination, you will have to take a taxi, bus, or if your luck, walk not to far from the office.
On the other hand, I wish Austin would keep with "green" traditions and support bio-fuel. E85 would be a good start.
Life is not for the lazy.
You still don't get it. OP said:
Oversaturation is a big issue. WiFi shouldn't be painting a whole city in places where it wasn't asked for.
Then you said:
I think the key to oversaturation isn't to stop people to making these cities 100% covered. If I am reading you correctly, I infer that you are saying that you don't want to be sitting if you house and having the free connection overlapping your DSL or Cable Modem. Well if you set your WAP up with WEP encryption, you won't have this problem.
And that's where you were wrong. I'm sure the OP knows how to select the SSID -- that's not the problem. The problem is the nagative perfomance impact of collisions from loads of wifi signals overlapping, especially high-bandwidth "g" networks, and new implementations that reduce the number of channels available to improve bandwidth on one link at the expense of everyone in the area.
Your post flat-out said WEP would eliminate the problem. It doesn't. Hence the (well-deserved) +4 Informative.
everything in moderation
Move to Austin and crash w/ a friend.
Apply for UT or ACC get admitted.
Grow a pony tail.
Get a job at HEB or Fiesta or Central
Market.
Wear a belly pack.
Get a Student Loan (2k).
By a cheapo laptop and used bike.
Default your loan.
Get your own place in the crappy
side of town (East I-35).
Finally get your back pack, your belly
pack wait 3 hrs for the dillo bus
down town. Go to cafe on South Congress.
Go to the bathroom and change your sweat
drenched shirt and remove the fire ant
that's been chewing your skin inside your
sock all the way from Ben White.
Finagle an AC outlet. Log-On to Slashdot
and brag about Austin is intensity in
ten cities..cool dude!
Buy Chai tea with the last dollar
til payday(bring extra bag for refill).
- these are not the droids you are looking for -