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Cardboard WiFi Antenna Upgrade
An anonymous reader writes "A British company called Tritium is marketing a piece of cardboard with metal foil on one side. You order it for under US$25, shipping included, and you get a flat envelope with the cardboard. Cut it out, shape it into a parabola and snap it into the little stand. Then slip it over your current antenna. It is advertised to extend the range of your current antenna by 2 to 3 times. See their website for more information on the cleverly named Tritium Flatenna."
doesn't it?
i laughed at this too, like 90% of slashdotters here
then again, if you told me in the 1980s that people would pay for bottled water
or in the 1990s that people would pay $5.00 for a cup of coffee
i would have laughed at you too
the lesson is not to laugh, but to figure out your own amazing scheme
for while we laugh at the people who sell this stuff, they are laughing all the way to the bank
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Well, like someone said, If you glue two pieces of crap together, some $EXPLETIVE_FOO will pay good money for it. (And if you do it in white or aluminium and emboss an apple on it: 500% instant markup! ;) )
/Consumerus Sapien
Unfortunately all this does is crank up the gain. It probably works fantastic with one story houses, but I imagine for two story apartments and houses it wouldn't be too ideal. Crank up the gain, your antenna becomes more and more dipole- it broadcasts very well onto one plane but not anywhere else with a strong signal.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
It's the only way to fly. Pringles can antennas just plain don't work - the only reason you see an improvement is because *anything* even vaguely right is better than the piss-poor excuse for an antenna that wifi cards have.
Does it work? Yes, this advertises a boost, but so do a bunch of products for cell phones that are purely decorative. I had to sell these for a small retail store, and to this day I feel guilty. A local newstation did an expose where they found there was zero conductive material at all in these stickers.
...NO CLAIM IS MADE THAT THIS ITEM WILL INCREASE YOUR SIGNAL."
I think a big clue is located in the disclaimer at the bottom of the page:
"No Warranty. ALL SALES ARE FINAL.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Anyone can grow their own tomatoes, or search for gold or gemstones, but how many choose instead to buy tomatoes, gold, or gems? Often tomatoes in the grocery taste like wet cardboard and sell for $3.99/pound, which is why I grow my own when I can. But I also search for gold and gemstone deposits. Some are DIY'ers; most are not.
-cp-
Alaska Bugs Sweat Gold Nuggets