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Texas State Parks Offer Wi-Fi
digrieze writes "Here's a story raising a holiday ruckus. Texas has started providing free Wi-Fi service at state parks, causing friction with the 'get away from it all' crew. Looks like a nice place to vacation to me."
If you really do 'get away from it all' then the WIFI service will only be as good as the battery on you mobile device. Sounds like a great idea, but it seems very limited with current technology.
As a Texas resident and an avid camper, I think this is great! There has been many time I have been camping and wondered what else there is to see and do in the local area. Sure one would argue that you could go to the lodge and collect a bunch of tourist pamphlets, or you could sit in your tent or at the picnic table and check the local weather and current fishing and river conditions or even post first on /.
[n8.r0n] http://petesweb.spymac.net/
"Hence, in order to have good coverage, you need to put antennas all over the park."
Great! That's exactly what I want...
"Hey, dad, is that a long-necked gray glacksmale hawk on that wi-fi tower over there?"
Honestly though, you know what will really happen?
a- Spammers will hit the open access points to flood their product onto the net.
b- Kids will steal as many access points as possible.
c- Tax payers will wonder what the hell they are doing putting wi-fi out in the middle of nowhere instead of giving wi-fi to rural Texas... where it might actually improve quality of life.
I am a wi-fi fan-boy... but what the hell?
From the article:
And with proliferating access and declining price, the user's physical location has become less important than ever before.
I beg to differ on this point. Since we can change our location -- Wi-Fi allows us to unchain ourselves from our desks -- location can now be used to provide a richer computing experience, as in applications like Placelab, and Plazes.
Chalk another site up on the list to wardrive.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
I really enjoy going camping AND NOT being within range of everyone. I like to take that time when I"m "Unplugged" to relax and not have to worry about my servers going down or something like that. Well, I'm still worried but I don't have a viable way of checking...with wifi I would be checking every few minutes.
Luckily it's in Texas and I usually don't camp there so I'll just have to not think about it.
But on a positive note, at least kids will have something to do when their parents drag them away from "all the distractions at home."
If you don't like wifi in the park, don't use it. Simple answer.
;-)
That said, I think if the folks who manage the parks want to put antennas in the campground areas, fine. Or where there's public amenities. That makes perfect sense - it's a potential revenue stream, it's cheap to provide, and a lot of "campers" (which here in the U.S. often mean RV owners who want all the comforts of home wherever they travel) may take advantage of it. Even after reading the article, I really doubt they are referring to putting antennas everywhere in the parks - just in the areas that are developed. I don't think folks who go off into the wilderness with their sleeping bags and a pup tent are the target for wifi in the park.
And I don't see why it's an issue. Most campgrounds that would have this sort of service are designed for the vehicular set. The "back-to-the-woods" folks already stay far away from them. I could see how wifi in the deep woods would detract from the park experience, but that's not what this appears to be.
Then again, my idea of camping is staying in a hotel that doesn't offer room service. As much as I like the outdoors, I see it as a rather poor choice for sleeping. And RV's aren't much better in my eyes. So maybe my perspective is a tad skewed
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
but how will all of the increased radio effect the wildlife?
do any animals (not joking) use frequencies in that range? will there be a significant increase in radiation, doing harm in a 'natural' setting?
The IRS is the one organization that you don't want to fuck with. Remember, these are the guys who took down Al Capone.
I figured out why the naturalists hates this thing. The park rangers went with pringle cans as their antennas. Imagine hundreds of pringle cans everywhere on trees, rocks, animals! :)