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Spokane Gets Unwired
prostoalex writes "Spokane International Airport is getting wireless connectivity just before the city will expand WiFi coverage to 100 blocks in Spokane downtown. It will be the largest urban Wi-Fi zone in the United States, said Bob Conley, a founder of Vivato, the company that made the antennas for both installations. Vivato's press release mentions the service will be useful not only to casual downloaders. The downtown 'Hot Zone' will improve city services by facilitating intelligent policing, quicker fire and rescue response, and will support e-government initiatives and a more productive mobile workforce."
I don't know that I like wifi being used for real substantive critical things like emergency services. It's still just a little too unreliable, signal can get messed up by whatever... I'd hate to have my house being burned down and the fire department doesn't know because the weather messes up their wireless network.
indeed! that's what i'm waiting for ;)
in the news yesterday, they mentioned the engineers setting up the wifi antennae attracted the attention of the secret service.
i guess sitting around on the street with a laptop is suspect.
for a minute there, i lost myself...
Finally, now I have something to do while I'm waiting to get through a security checkpoint, respond to those viagra e-mails.
The real hope is that this service, as it relates to emergency response, does not become another layer of dependency. At Stanford we had the pleasure of testing IP phones in the CS department and living with the fact that when the power fails, the phones are gone, too.
;)
As an old man, a child of the 70s, I was used to power and telephone access being separate concerns. We liked it.
By isolating services, you often get safety through redundancy. Wiring emergency response into a new infrastructure is a dangerous proposition.
Keep fire and rescue response on their own bands. Keep alarm systems on dry pairs. Etc. Save a life today; be old school.
Hope it stretches out to my house :)
I still have yet to hear about how reliable this stuff actually is. Putting an AP at every intersection simply isn't good enough. I'm not saying that's what they are doing, but if it is than it's basically pointless. To deliver speeds of greater than 1Mbps for all users there would need to be essentially thousands of access points to handle this, seeing as the signal strength issues lie mainly on the client side. Policing (at any level) via WiFi sounds like a recipe for disaster.
I am feeling fat and sassy
That's because Bush was in town yesterday rolling around in his motorcade...
The secret service doesn't just wander the streets of Spokane.
We've heard many people ranting on about how insecure WiFi is, how it will never catch on, and so forth. Then you hear people talk about how great it is. Like it or not, it's here to stay. I like to think of WiFi as the new "wild west", the dotcom of the new generation. Just like the earlier dotcoms, companies are scrambing to make their mark. Some will fail miserably, some will grow to be giants, and some will be successful and be eaten (or destroyed) by the giants. It's still early in the game and it's hard to tell who will win out. Cometa is gone and they had some big backers. Maybe they just didn't have the proper management or revenue model. It'll be interesting to see how this all turns out.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
from http://terabytetrigangle.com : We (Spokane) also have connectivity - more high-speed fiber per capita than any city in the U.S. - all of downtown has high-speed services available via either fiber or copper. -------------- not sure, but i doubt they'll be adding wi-fi to that last of high-speed services.
... :P
it'll probably be more like a giant starbucks. $10/hr
for a minute there, i lost myself...
ah yes, i neglected to mention that.
i think i got distracted in the middle of posting.
work has an annoying way of doing that.
for a minute there, i lost myself...
Now the cops will just sit around eating doughnuts AND watching porn.....
at least at&t maintained the batteries for rotary dial!
They switched to decaf!
I was in the Quad Cities "International" Airport yesterday, and HEY! free wireless internet. Score! But then in Detroit it was $7 to hook up. :P
Then I thought, there should be some user maintained web page that summarizes what kind of networking airports have available. I couldn't find such a thing on google. Any hints?
Out of 4 random intersections downtown (well within the listed coverage area), 3 had no signal and the 4th was so weak it kept coming and going.
I suppose you get what you pay for...
Real programmers use "copy con program.exe"
WiFi...quicker fire and rescue response
1. Buy lots of 2.4 GHz phones and plug them in all over downtown Spokane.
2. Rob a bank.
3. Profit!
last time i was there with my laptop i was happily supprised to find free wifi. nothing better than memorizing slashdot posts to pass the time...
Spokane city officials today announced that the city's population has more than quadrupled due to the sudden influx of Internet geeks who are looking for WiFi. Spokane's mayor likes to refer to it as "the Slashdot effect."
Airport officials aren't sure how many people will sign up to use the service, but the system is equipped to handle hundreds of simultaneous users.
The service is free until July 16, after which it will cost $6.95 a day.
The airport spent no money to install the service, and will net at least $60,000 a year after Airport Network Solutions takes its cut.
Oh and by the way, the federal government coughed up a cool million to finance this venture.
For those of you who are unfamilar with Spokane we do math a little differently around here. The parking garage downtown for instance. Paid for by the city, for the Cowley family who own the River Park Square mall (and the local papaer) can only break even when it is near 100% capacity year round.
No, it has never even come close to breaking even.
This would make a great tourist / sightseeing / shopping platform for many small towns or urban areas in general. You know those things they hand out at museums. What if something like that could be targetted so that someone would walk around a whole city and through gps they would be able to not only find out the history, but also (convinently) that the shops they were passing on the way to another historic spot were "the same place that so-body was caught doing to you know what". You don't always need a gui for this stuff. How much would a gps + cpu + speaker cost anyways?
-?-
... a follow up:
The linked artile mentions that the "switch" won't be flipped for another week. The local paper article said it was active already, they wanted it up for the big "hoopfest" tournament this weekend.
So, one of the articles is wrong (probably our paper, it sux0rz). Maybe that's why I couldn't connect.
Real programmers use "copy con program.exe"
I wonder if the Spo-compton parking meter nazis will use this. I wouldn't be surprised as when I was living there attending Gonzaga, they had an incredible and uncanny ability to pounce on an expired meter literally withing 60 seconds of expiration. They probably could cut that time down to a quarter of that if each meter had a wifi device and a simple program to broadcast when a meter has expired.....
...and IN SOVIET RUSSIA, beowulf clusters imagine 1, 2, 3 profit!!!! jokes made out of YOU!!!
OTOH: Wireless freedom innovation good
Right now geek wireless can do no wrong.
You lucky...lucky...little man...whom i wish i was at this very moment on my dial up connection.
"No, seriously, I AM a wallet inspector"
Yeah, I'm in Pullman too (lovely place in the summer, egh?). I get the great privilege to visit the Spokane airport on Thursday.
I live in Pullman too, and the correct term is "Spo-Compton". Unfortunately I have to go to Spokane every weekend. Ah, how I hate it so.
This is what worries me. With wireless networking, it is possible to build free community networks that span large distances and don't rely on rented infrastructure (phone lines, cable, etc...), except for uplink to the rest of the internet. (For an example of what such a network would look like, check out roofnet)
If a commercial provider can provide "good enough" service for cheap, it removes part of the incentive to create high quality community networks that are free.
-jim
"I live in Pullman :-) Spok-vegas is only ~70 miles away."
Better get out that Pringle's can!
"Derp de derp."
"...and will support e-government initiatives and a more productive mobile workforce."
Let's see how many buzzwords we can pack into that last dependent clause:
"...and will grow e-civil management initiatives and will improve the morale of the mindshare in a more immersive global knowledge worker production environment."
Mod Interesting or Underrated, help my karma.
Whatever it is I'm complaining about, I'm sure the Republicans did it. This is
yeah... well...
luckily the internet insulates me from the sad reality that is living in spokane.
for a minute there, i lost myself...
I'm sorry.
BTW, how's that parking garage deal working out for you?
just about as good as your site ...slashdotted, -slashdot? ;)
:P
just teasin.
i'm not too particularly fond of it either, but it is good to see spokane actually getting a little attention after the 1974 world fair left town.
i only recently moved here... and looking for a clean exit already.
for a minute there, i lost myself...
Quoth the poster:
"...and will support e-government initiatives and a more productive mobile workforce."
Let's see how many buzzwords we can pack into that last dependent clause:
"...and will grow e-civil management initiatives and will improve the morale of the mindshare in a more immersive global knowledge worker production environment."
This is fairly typical of Spokane. As late as 2000, I knew people in Spokane who were talking about "getting on that new Internet thing" and suchlike.
Spokane is a pathetic backwater that is still basking in the afterglow of Expo '76. Anyone who doubts this needs to realize that about 80% of Spokane's college grads leave town as soon as they get their diplomas. You think the job market sucks where you are? Spokane's economy is perennially depressed. Spokane unemployment rate actually spiked during the 90s boom years! Besides, Spokane has lots of crime and not nearly enough cops.
This is yet another futile attempt to get on board with "the next big thing." Trouble is, WiFi has been around for a couple of years now. Its latest attempt to be one of the cool kids is nothing short of pathetic.
I'm really sorry. You go cow-tipping alot? Howzabout them Cougs and their former coach?
> The downtown 'Hot Zone' will improve city services
> by facilitating intelligent policing, quicker fire
> and rescue response, and will support e-government
>initiatives and a more productive mobile workforce."
Not to mention denial of services when it gets hacked. Hopefully, there will be redundancy in system services and tip top security.
Also, I'm not sure I want my connectivity through a municipal carrier. What is the legal landscape like? How much regulation will there be?
I'm all for getting connected but... I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here.
Codifex Maximus ~ In search of... a shorter sig.
That just about describes any Eastern Washington town.
Airports shouldn't be selling internet access. While $6.95 isn't a heady chunk of change in my budget it's not something I'm gonna pay when I need to save my batteries for that 4-hour cross country. And finding an open, accessible power socket in an airport is like finding a Krispy Kreme in the Friday bagel basket.
Why do I want net access in an airport? To check flight times when I'm picking someone up. To check e-mail for a few minutes, maybe. But seven bucks for a 45-minute layover? Give me a break.
If, say, Topeka International had free, casual wireless access and Fargo International didn't I'd be more likely to book my flights through Topeka. What would Topeka get? My landing fees (which is their core business.) My undying dedication to FooBar Air, who uses--and is more likely to maintain--Topeka as their hub. And happy passengers.
IBM gives away an OS because they want to sell hardware and consulting services. Stick to your core business. Giving away wifi is inexpensive and high-profile.
I got out at 22 after growing up there. Most of my friends called me an escapee, but a few called me a turncoat for moving to "the coast."
Spokane has very little to offer you if you're not into meth or bad football. Pullman is worse - drunken parties, meth, cow tipping, or bad football. You know someplace is pathetic when you call going to Spokane a trip to a "real city." Are they still doing saturation coverage of the state "B" basketball tournament? And has anybody else noticed the abundance of restaurants, car lots, and funeral homes in Spokane?
Granted, the cost of living is cheaper than Seattle, but if there are no jobs to be had, what's the use? And it's a lot worse now that Kaiser is completely shut down. This is a place where the idiot then-mayor Sheri Barnyard^WBarnard brought in Alaska Airlines' competitor to keep out the maintenance facility they wanted to build.
The other day I saw a fruit stand in rural central Washington advertising free WiFi. For those interested, it's highway 97A between Orondo and Chelan. ;)
Cynicism, like dogmatism, can be an excuse for intellectual laziness. - Susan Shirk
You know that every federal agency will want access to it so unless encrypt your transmissions it will be like hanging your laundry on a outside cloth's line or posting your comments to Slashdot!
How in the world are you going to track down malicious hackers if they can connect from anywhere they want? Isn't physical access one of the only ways you can hold people accountable for thier behavior?