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The Doom of Wired Peripherals
techie writes "Is the doom of wired peripherals near? According to an article on CoolTechZone.com, it sure seems that way and Apple is leading the way. Quote: "Device cables are becoming a thing of the past, and that development couldn't come soon enough. We're ready to unplug, and we want to make the most of it. Apple has recognized this desire for consolidation and the benefits of a wireless lifestyle, and they've reacted effectively. When the iMac was first introduced, people went gaga over the fact that the monitor, computer, and speakers were all in one enclosure, thus eliminating the need for two bulky pieces of hardware and multiple cables. Just when you thought that was incredible enough, WiFi comes along and gives us blazingly fast Internet connections through the air, and Bluetooth rises up to allow all of our devices to sync with one another and the operating system without any wires."
I'll jump on the bandwagon when we can get rid of the power cable. When is power over wireless coming to computer peripherals?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
and then I got rid of it.
Fricken' batteries dieing all the time. Who needs it?
Download my free songs!
Wireless devices are cool. People buy them, so companies make more. Who'da thunk it!?
What an interesting article!
wireless mouse/kb sucks. Always recharging batteries and keyboard sensor overwhelms mouse which makes multiple selections a pita.
Personally I'd rather have my house wired with Cat 5 than setup an access point. Besides, if I want wireless, there are 5-6 of the free linksys ssid's near by.
Until your batteries die, or your devices start to interfere with eachother, or you realise that your "Blazingly fast" wireless internet is actually pretty slow and becomes very slow as soon as anything gets between you and your access point.
Wireless "everything" is hugely overhyped. Yes, a wireless mouse is nice because it doesn't snag, but why do I need a wireless printer? Or a wireless monitor? Or anything else that's largely static for its lifetime?
Till they can get wireless to the point where it exceeds wired in speed then maybe I'll go full wireless. But I'll take my custom built PC with its tower and parts with ok cable management over an iMac or any of Apple's hardware anyday.
"I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes" ~ Laughing Man - GITS:SAC
USB is great because it's a) universal and b) able to power and charge quite a range of small devices.
Drop your PDA or ipod into a cradle and get a fast connection that's also charging your batteries.
When and if inductive charging (think Braun toothbrushes) becomes widespread, then maybe wireless will become sensible for most devices.
I, for one, would rather have a cable running to my mouse than have to worry about changing / recharging its battery. I'm all for a printer using wireless to receive data, even if only for the cost savings on stupid printer cables, which have always been an appalling racket. Wireless transfer of data from a camera is also a nice convenience. But wireless keyboard and mouse have never resonated with me. Maybe when they come with a mini cold fusion reactor inside them so they "just work" and you never have to think about battery life.
rooooar
Everytime I've worked with wireless technology it's been flakey. It's gotten to the point that if friend of mine calls me up and asks for help with their "wireless network", I show up with a roll of Cat5e, RJ45 plugs and a crimper. For 99% of wireless stuff, I just refuse to spend any time trying to get this technology to work. If I want to set somthing up, I want to be able to set it up ONCE and never have to worry about it again.
I've yet to see any wireless implementation that is reliable as wired. Until that gets fixed wires are here to stay.
WiFi comes along and gives us blazingly fast Internet connections
My internet connection over wired ethernet - 512Kbps
My internet connection over WiFi - 512Kbps
Wtf are they talking about?
BTW If you're chortling at my paltry ADSL speed -- which is the most I can get where I live -- do bear in mind that I live in remote, leafy... central London.
No, I'm not interested at all in wireless. I'm wired at home, and wired at my business. Why? I'm a big fan of speed and reliability, both of which are always sacrificed with wireless anything. Wireless may be cute if all you're doing is checking your MySpace account and shopping and doing other such trivial things. Nobody in their right mind who relies on their computers for earning a living would do wireless.
Wireless stuff is nice - especially when it comes to network connections - but there are still a lot of places where I prefer my wires. It's going to be long time, possibly never, before we have wireless transfer speeds fast enough for me to connect a hard disk, my iPod, or my various small storage devices. The same goes for digital cameras - just as fast as transfer speeds are rising, my pictures get much, much, larger, and I'd hate to try and unload a few gigs of photos via Bluetooth. I can't really get into wireless keyboards and mice, either, mostly because I consider dealing with a charger to be more bother than just using wires - although I'm sure wireless power will negate that issue sometime soon.
What I really want to see are good, inexpensive wireless speakers. Klipsch revolutionized home audio when it released low-cost THX systems for computer users - within a few years the price of good surround sound had dropped several-hundred percent. If someone can do the same thing for high end wireless speakers, that would eliminate a lot of wiring hassle from my life.
"USB is great because it's a) universal ....(think Braun toothbrushes) becomes"
Those USB toothbrushes are way kewl. Last week once, after I brushed my teeth, I got an email from a dental student in Thailand warning me about possible weakened enamel in one of my top molars.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Wires are GOOD. Using wired peripherals, -i don't have to worry about batteries -i am sure my mouse works, even in that spot behind the speakers where the magnet blocks the wireless mouse -no-one can print on my wired printer. -no-one can hack my wired webcam to look at me while i am browsing for p^Hrecreational clips on youtube
Reliability is. Most of the wireless networks and peripherals I've seen have been randomly unreliable at some point or at least more difficult to configure such that they work reliably. Much of this is due to the immaturity of the technology, but the bottom line is that wireless connections are intrinsically more flakiness-prone than wired ones.
At work I see hundreds of batteries thrown away a month. I'll take wires over that any day.
WiFi is progress, wireless mice aren't.
I like the fact that you can go wireless. Great, however, nothing beats a wire for security. Not too say that I don't use my wireless laptop, however sometimes having a wire upstairs makes sense. The other part is that my cable provider has upped our standard to at least 7megs/700k. Thats way faster then my wireless can handle. But being able to print anywhere in the house... yay!!!!!!!!!
I think that is the reason for cables. I would love to be able to keep up, but when the cheap fibre to the house thing happens, my poor ole wireless wont keep up. The upgrade path is too steep. Maybe ain a few more months I will upgrade to something quicker.
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
When I start thinking about the data sent to things like my monitor and speakers, I'd think you'd quickly run into bandwidth issues.
I'm the minority I guess. I like cables. They work. They're secure. They're cheap.
I like cables. I don't intend on abandoning them anytime soon. Please continue providing this option.
-c
"If you are an idealist it doesn't matter what you do or what goes on around you, because it isn't real anyway."-R.P.W.
I would love to see this become the case, but until wireless cards all have flawless support under Linux, reception ranges are increased, throughput increased and prices come down to near their wired equivalents, I just can't see wireless taking over.
Also, certain items such as monitors are unlikely to ever use wireless links.
You see, the neat thing about the world is that we don't have to completely get rid of something just because a newer way of doing it comes along.
I love having wireless networking, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't run cables through all the walls if I was building myself a house. I mostly use my cordless phone at home, but having one phone always attached to the wall means that I'll always be able to easily find it if I need it. I can't remember the battery on that phone ever dying on me.
We can have the wireless revolution without actually getting rid of all the wires. My printer can keep its wires. I don't move it very often. My iSight camera wire doesn't bother me at all. My USB hub would probably be far less useful if we got rid of all the wires, so let's not worry about that. I can't even remember the last time my keyboard's cable was a problem. My keyboard just sits there, on the keyboard drawer.
Rather than making parts of a non-mobile computer mobile, I'm much more interested in making already mobile computers better. Give us better PDA's, make a tablet computer that is useable and affordable. The cord on my mouse is not that big of a problem.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I saw a thing on Gizmodo about wireless HDMI. The bandwidth involved in getting that kind of transmission across a plane without major compression is hilarious. DVI is about the same. And the interference alone ... !
Once somebody shows me an affordable (less than $500 in this market), interference-free, non-carcinogenic device that can transmit 1080p 50 feet across a room without losing quality, THEN we will have reached a wireless nirvana.
As for the other peripherals, I still can't find a wireless keyboard and mouse that has a range above 12 feet. And even then, they really hardly work past 6. It's wireless, but not truly free.
On the other hand, Awesome, but impractical implementations of wireless technology hold a lot of promise in the whizbang 21st century. So, you know, I can hold my breath.
In other news... scientists are baffled why our cancer rates just keep going up and up?!
;-) Hot cancerless chicks, will be the IN thing for sure!
If only they would train doctors in med school to use wireless protocol analyzers to measure activity around a patient's environment, then quickly prescribe a healthy dosage of tinfoil hats & tinfoil body suits.
Hey I bet 7 of 9's tight Star Trek clothing already has a thin layer of tin foil in there... So just be sure to prescribe those to all the nice ladies
Adeptus
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
Yeah, cabling is a pain, but we should be looking at ways to reduce the power consumption of our electronics, not boost it.
Wireless peripherals would have to draw independent power and be "always on" - guaranteeing that even when everything is shut off and you're on vacation in the islands, your home computer gear is still sucking power.
Clear, Dark Skies
The revolution is over. None of this technology is even slightly new and it's all widespread. Pretty much every peripheral that can be untethered from a power supply has been. Even printers which need a power cord can be hooked up to wireless by the kind of people who've never heard of /. Wireless is old news and an article talking about a bluetooth mouse is redundant.
Whatever is happening for the future of wireless peripherals involves more people synching their contacts/calenders/photos from their phones and VOIP WLAN phones. There might be some adoption of building wireless modems into All-in-one-printers which would improve functionality for some people by removing 5 minutes of set up to get two boxes talking to each other.
the more they over-think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the pipe
...that Wired magazine will become obsolete?
I'm not giving up my wired connection until they fix the inherent latency issues in wireless. 80% of what I use my computer for is gaming. Online gaming is killed by lag. Wireless has tons of lag.
"It was when I found a wireless bluetooth toothpick in a Sharper Image catalog... That was when I decided to build the asylum."
Where were you when the voynix came?
how can mac system which is clubbed in one enclosure give 5.1 exp,i still love to see wireless 5.1 speakers (quality is very important).i don't think wireless can beat wired sound systems
Now for those of us who have been in the tech world for more than 10 years this is old news. For those of you who are new let me tell you a secret. They have been spouting wireless freedom for a long time. Heck Apple sold Basestations with their laptops back in 2000. Bluetooth has been around since the stone ages and a couple years ago looked like the technology would die out due to lack of interest. What has changed? Technology? I dont think so. Maybe I am a Cynic but I will believe it when I see it.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
I've had two of the things... Microsoft wireless desktops. The last one was a Wireless Desktop Elite or some such. Nice mouse, and nice feeling keyboard. The problem was the stupid dialogs which would occasionally pop up. "Your wireless device has a low signal strength. You should check the batteries."
I finally trashed them and bought a new mouse and keyboard which had a wire. Logitech something keyboard, and a G5 gaming mouse. The G5 is nice, the cable is covered in cloth and is very flexible.
I do use a MS Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000 on my laptops, and it works ok. But maybe it has to do with the USB dongle thingy being only a foot away from the mouse, rather than the 2 feet or so my desktop wireless receiver was at home.
Nope, I don't mind wires.
"Wireless everything" is about the same as "flying car": it's a purely technical point with gross impracticality. In short, it's a pipe dream for the borderline geeks to fantasize (and wank) over. I like my wired periphials because they're more convenient--no dealing with battery replacements (the rechargable ones have a limited # of charge cycles)--and have lower latency.
"I've spent my whole life figuring out crazy ways to do things. It'll work." -- Montgomery Scott, "Relics"
Noone has proved that any of these wireless devices cause cancer. And charging/changing 9 sets of batteries can be fun!
I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to hunt for a few NOS Logitech M-BA47 ergonomic 3 buttons +scrollwheel USB mouses on eBay.
If I don't, I won't have any choice but to buy something wireless when comes the time to replace it. I don't want to worry about batteries, charging them and wireless security issues. Wired keyboard and mouse for me.
I'm wondering if it's really progress if everything we own are wireless, doesn't anybody think about the load of batteries it will take to make this equipment work?
Even if you use rechargeable batteries, i'm pretty sure a company that has over a 1000 employees will be very pleased to buy a pack of 4 AA batteries at 20$ plus another 25$ for the charger + the time for the I.T to go around spendind their time changing batteries instead of actual work.
I mean seriously, it may be practical but it is not cost effective or even realistic to imagine keyboard/mouse.
How many batteries does a keyboard take and a mouse? you'll ahve to spend 40$ every 3 months for each user so they dont have wires on their desktop?
i think not
I just acquired Logitech S510 wireless desktop. It looks fantastic, the keyboard has a fantastic key feel, but the problem is that because it's wireless, it's a fraction of a second delayed compared to wired keyboard.
:(
When playing a videogame (NFS: Underground 2 for example) there is a delay between when the key is pressed and when the game reacts.
This is still quite unacceptable, and regrettably, i will be returning my beautiful keyboard
Bull.
"tethered by a cumbersome cord"
"the power cord, which is as unobtrusive as can be"
How can a mouse cord that's 3mm in diameter be "cumbersome", and a powercord that's twice that thickness be "as unobtrusive as can be"?
"thus eliminating the need for two bulky pieces of hardware and multiple cables"
The hardware wasn't eliminated, just consolidated. BTW, the Mac started that consolidation with the Apple Lisa (I had one) and, later, the original Mac (I had one) a long time before iFruit.
"just look at the abundance of cables in your office closet and try not to be intimidated by their menacing appearance"
Are we talking about wireless in the closet or desktop?
"appearance is clean, simple, and elegant, which is more than can be said about that grayish box that you may have"
Fanboy.
"You may wish to continue to plug in a cable and get reliable speed and data transfers that way"
Yep.
"I'll take wireless if at all possible, thank you very much."
You're welcome. Hope that works for your when your mouse batteries die, and you don't have a spare, right in the middle of working on a presentation, report, or WoW.
WiFi comes along and gives us blazingly fast Internet connections through the air
I hit my head ROFL so someone will be hearing from my lawyer very soon!
Wireless is the bane of my existence. Everytime a tard goes someplace they can't connect I get a call. Everytime a tard can't sync a bluetooth phone I get a phone call. "I can't double click on my internet even with my special double clicky internet clicker thingie. Should I have gotten the one with the green blinkie light or maybe the blue one?".
F**K wireless. F**K bluetooth. Wireless devices and networks have caused more down time than gawfle BNC wireing from days gone bye. Wireless is worth it in only one place. If you have pets that eat cables. Though IMHO cost/pain is only equal if you don't call someone like me for tech support.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
It's quite embarrassing, you got it all wrong.
Please consume.
If energy was free and didn't have to come from some power plant that poluted the environment, then yeah, wireless me up. Problem is that yoru wireless keyboard takes AA batteries that have to be manufactured, charged, and disposed of. What, so you don't have to look at a thin cable running to the edge of your desk? My keyboard cable doesn't kill me.
Yeah, I see WIFI in notebooks as making sense...but on a desktop? I don't move my desktop...I ran CAT5 to my office and I get faster performance and don't waste electricity on the WAP or my box.
Same goes for peripherals like wireless printers...HUH? Is this a real problem?
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
What exactly is apple pioneering? Seems to me nintendo and Microsoft (xbox not windows) deserve more credit for this. Of course, apple was only 3 years behind ms and logitech with their wireless mouse...
Wireless is fine if you live in the middle of nowhere.
But only so many devices can use the 900MHz, 2GHz, and 5GHz bands. Anyone who lives in suburbia or the city will know what I'm talking about.
It's not like your mouse will start moving on its own, but when its doing a CDMA backoff because your nextdoor neighbor's cordless phone is in use, you'll bang it in frustration when you miss that headshot.
And forget about IR. Line of sight? It's a joke.
Anything _interactive_ needs to be wired. Speakers, monitors, keyboard, mouse. Wireless might be okay for a printer or your MP3 player -- devices that you do batch transfers with.
Plus, wireless input devices are _heavy_ and it can really take a toll on your wrist or forearm. Until we get lighter weight, efficient batteries that don't cost and arm and a leg and/or don't explode, it's another major drawback.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
A new version of Doom? How closely is it going to resemble Doom III? Will there be light in this one? How about patches, will I at least be able to get my duct tape in this one? Who is involved, is Carmack going to be on this one?
Oh wait, we are talking about wired peripherals. Seriously, human factors engineering has to give way to functional design at some point. The fact that a whole machine can be put into a single box means nothing to me. I am all about the power of putting together your own machine and seeing it blaze new trails in FPS, read writes and FSB speeds. It could come in 50 individually housed components for all I care, just give me monstrous speed and I am satisfied.
This thread is about peripherals in general. As much as I like being able to sync my Sidekick with my laptop without needing a cable, this is a non-factor in purchasing decisions for me. I would trade all the wireless access for a faster GPU any day and know a lot of people who would too.
M
It's a good technology, but it's being overused. "Wireless" has become a buzzword.
* WiFi / Bluetooth for Newtons, laptops, PDAs, etc. - very good. Having to mess with more than one cable every time I move my "mobile" computer is a PITA.
* Bluetooth celphone - good thing. I can sync my contacts and calendar to my phone without taking it out of my pocket.
* Wireless headset - a little silly, but still nifty. Leave my phone in my pocket, talk on it handsfree without hanging myself on a cord.
* Wireless mouse - not so smart.Batteries make the mouse heavy, make my wrist tendons work harder, aggravate my carpal tunnel. Besides - it's a MOUSE people, it shouldn't have to move more than a foot or two.
* Wireless keyboard - in the name of all that's holy, why? It's one cable, and it should never move!
WiFi'd peripherals just work.
Apple's Airport and Airport Express wall-wart provide transparent connections to peripherals and seamless coverage to your network.
Luddites fear not! Wifi sucks for audio-to-stereo. It is the timelag delay between the computer and stereo that is unacceptable. Wired is much better.
And then I show up afterwards, billing time at $80/hr to put a working wireless network there, since that's what they wanted in the first place.
It wouldn't be so hard to make it work if you weren't so stupid.
Enormous batteries turn a mouse into a moose.
They should go back to the drawing board on this one, and scrap whole idea of the megaton-mouse with 2 AA batteries, and find some way to do it with from 1 to 3 watch batteries.
Where were you when the voynix came?
This is a fantastic step backwards.
Can we make the tech cool AND useful?
- Paul
Pftttth! "Wired" Magazine, what a bunch of losers.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Headline: Wireless in a Big Way!
Response: wireless is bad, 'cause...
Headline: Nothin' Beats Wires!
Response: wires make the baby jesus cry...
They'll have to prise my wired keyboard and mouse from my cold dead hands. Wireless has many uses, but wireless keyboards and mice suck - what with dying batteries, interference and other problems. They've been promising reliable ones for years. Hah. Yeah right.
Well wireless is fine but...
I own a number of Netgear MP101 Wireless Digital Music players so that I can play my MP3 collection anywhere in the house. Well, sort of anywhere, the kitchen is a nightmare, especially when the microwave oven is on. The Dining room is OK, most of the time, the lounge moderate. The study (where the server is) is great.
The moral of this is that I've invested in a wireless infrastructure, but I still wish I'd put in wires for some of the locations.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
"Device cables are becoming a thing of the past, and that development couldn't come soon enough."
Haha, he hasn't seen the back of my computer! 3.1 speakers alone generates five cables. Printer cable. Power cables. Even with wireless networking, the cable modem and the wireless router generate about four cables. Even a wireless keyboard has a cable to connect the wireless receiver to the ps/2 port. Monitor cable. The rat's nest back there is amazing. Every time I move my computer I have to disconnect every single cable, detangle them, and then plug them all back in again.
End of cables? Not even close, especially for desktops. Probably the best cable-reduction tactic is to get one of those luggable laptops. But then you have to accept crappy sound, no external mouse (or an erratic wireless one), etc...
Penny - plain text accounting
Had a vireless mouse, too, and was very unhappy with it because of the batteries. However, I do have devices, which have their own power supplies, and still need to connect to the computer via USB ports. I see no reason why those devices couldn't be wireless. This includes printers, scanners, speakers, and external drives. I started out with two built-in USB ports; recently I had to expand to 12 ports. All I should need are two ports: for my jump drive and my external Bluetooth transmitter.
(Before anyone claims that there are wireless printers/print servers already, let me just say that I consider those to be the biggest scam currently out there. The office wireless HP printer has a $20 network card, but carries a nearly $100 price premium over non-wireless printers.)
Well, that's it, really.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
Yes, wireless is great, except it's not dependable for anything. I have to restart my wireless router almost daily because it forgets how to route data for some machines. I have a wireless mouse and keyboard combo which sometimes forgets how to talk to the host device, and the only way to fix it is to VNC into the machine (after restarting the router). Transferring half a terrabyte to an external USB2 hard drive takes 8.5 hours already, I can't imagine trying to move that data across some sort of wireless interface.
When this stuff "just works" it will be great. Until then, I still plan on running physical wires around the house.
We recently started getting DVB-T over here, so I got a nice decoder. Now I need one remote to change channels, and another to change volume. If I wanted to run the audio over my hifi, that would make three. I have 2 cameras, a MP3 and a cellphone, all with USB cables. For some weird reason, they all use different plugs on the device-side. When will these stupid manufacturors get their heads out of their asses and STANDARDISE. How about daisy-chaining all your AV equipment with some cheap POF cable which can transport BOTH the music AND the control signals. How about my DVB decoder telling the TV: "hey, I'll take care of the channels now, stop responding to those signals from the remote." How about standardising wall-warts so I can recharge my mobile with the mouse recharger? Is it REALLY going to take all your customers away? WAKE UP!!!!
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
Call me a luddite but I just don't like the idea of being surrounded by electronic gizmos all transmitting radio waves at me. They may well be safe individually but en-masse they're bathing me in swathes of radiation I'd rather not be bathing in.
It's bad enough having my laptop warming my knees as I commute but having it also transmit radio waves at my nuts mere inches away isn't something I relish.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Wireless won't replace wired until wireless devices can be powered through the air.
My portable Bluetooth mouse goes through charges so fast I've gone back to a wired mouse. My keyboard seems to last OK, but it's got 6 Alkaline double-A batteries in it, not two rechargable AAAs (high amp hour, right).
I tried using a combo-PDA-phone-MP3-player, but all that meant was that when I needed to use my PDA or phone I couldn't because I'd been playing music and it complained too much about being low on juice.
The wire that charges my phone is more annoying to me than the one that powers my wired mouse, because I have to pay attention to it.
I've had a few logitech wireless mice, and I've liked each one less than that preceding it. I always buy the 'best'... The mx1000, the g7, etc. But they get progressively suckier.
I'm to the point that I'm looking for a wired mouse again, but it's gotta be GOOD. High DPI (adjustable if possible), good tracking even on less than ideal surfaces, doesn't need to EVER been cleaned, and works on all OS's without special drivers. Oh, and no Logitech. Their products (keyboards and mice) are almost as bad as their tech support, now. So far, the only thing I've seen that might come close is Razer's mice.
Anyone got any suggestions? I'd take another wireless if it was rechargeable, lasts for more than 2 days between charges, and fits the other criteria.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
I seem to remember around 2001 when blue tooth was getting recognition. Companies were saying that you would need no cables running from your computer to your monitor/mouse/keyboard/printer. Ok we have the keyboard and mouse but after 5 years nothing else. I would LOVE to be rid of "the tangle monster" that seems to plauge all of my users desks. I just dont see it happening for a while yet.
MISSING - Sig file. 2 years old black and white and very funny. If found please email me.
Batteries are only part of the problem with wirelessness. There's factors like performance and reliability that go to hell when you lose the wires.
(Non-technical) people keep suggesting that the college I work for "go wireless" for our networking... not grasping that we'd be replacing a switched 100Mbps line to every computer (with 1Gbps only a wiring-closet upgrade away) with shared wireless spectrum that tops out at 54Mbps and requires encryption, access limits, etc. People ask why I never call anyone from my mobile phone, and instead go find a landline instead... it's because I want to be able to hear and be heard. Why do you think most of the civilized world switched from wireless television to cable?
Buy a clue people: in almost any category of technology, wireless sucks compared to wired. And getting rid of a slender cable from my mouse or keyboard to my monitor is not worth it.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
I find the timing of this article very coincidental, since I spent much of last Sunday under and around my desk taming the snake farm. It took nearly 4 hours to untangle, organize, bundle, strap and reconnect everything.
Just because a peripheral goes "wireless" to the CPU doesn't mean that the device lacks wires and cables. Furthermore, key devices, such as external drives (and monitors, unless you are talking iMacs) are not going to be able to go wireless without really great leaps in both data transfer and power supply technology.
So, for an interesting exercise - let's just tally up how many cables I have running:
To the Mac:
Cinema Display with ADV supplying both power and video (1)
USB hub (1)+ Laser Printer to Hub (1) + Photo inkjet Printer to Hub (1) + Scanner to Hub (1) + Mouse 1 to Hub (1) (wireless mouse) + Mouse 2 to Hub (1) (wireless mouse) + PDA Cradle to Hub (1)
External Drive 1 to USB 2.0 card (1)
External Drive 2 to USB 2.0 card (1)
External Drive 3 to USB 2.0 card (1)
UPS connection to built in USB port (1)
Ethernet cable (1)
Speaker system (1)
Firewire 400 from external DVD burner (1)
Interconnected Peripherals:
Mattias Keyboard USB to Cinema Display (1)
Griffin aluminum knob things with pretty blue light to Cinema Display (1)
Firewire 400 External Drive 1 daisy chain (1)
Firewire 400 External Drive 2 daisy chain (1)
Sound System Connections:
Speaker (subwoofer unit) system to CPU (1) + Right Channel to Subwoofer unit (1) + Left Channel to Subwoofer unit (1) + Desktop control module to Subwoofer unit (1)
Network Connections:
Co-axial cable to modem (1) + Ethernet cable to router (1) + Ethernet cable to wireless hub (1)
TOTAL DATA CONNECTIONS - 25
Power Supply Connections:
CPU (1) + USB hub (1) + Laser Printer(1) + Photo inkjet Printer to Hub (1) + Scanner (1)
Mouse 1 (1) (wireless mouse) + Mouse 2 (1) (wireless mouse) + PDA Cradle (1) + External Drive 1 (1) + External Drive 2 (1) + External Drive 3 (1) + External Drive 4 (1) + External Drive 5 (1) + UPS (1) + Speaker system (1) + External DVD burner (1) + Modem (1) + Router (1) + Wireless Hub (1)
TOTAL POWER SUPPLY CONNECTIONS - 19
That's 44 wires, excluding the power supply and telephone cord for my telephone, the power cords for the desk lamp and for the box fan I had to put under the desk to circulate air to the CPU, since all of the cords connecting the peripherals were filling the access holes in the top and side of the desk, and the various USB peripherals that I don't keep connected, such as card readers, a WACOM tablet, an iSight camera, the iPod dock.
Of all of these peripherals, the only one that can truly eliminate any cords is the keyboard. I had been using the Apple blue-tooth keyboard for a while, but didn't care for it, and substituted the Mattias with a true mechanical throw. Also, I really don't need two mice, but since I often forget to re-cradle the Logitech, I keep a second one handy, just in case. Okay - so that's three cables out of 44. Big freakin' whoop.
And since Apple's long since abandoned their proprietary data/power connection for their Cinema Displays, when I upgrade to the 30" this fall, that's another cable added to the mess.
If your wireless is THAT slow, check for interference, try changing channels or boosting the power level, and, if necessary, buy more robust equipment or repeaters. If you aren't getting near the advertised 11/54/108/whatever mbps speed then something is wrong.
If you have little or no interference and no obstructions, you should be able to get near-maximum speeds if you are within 10-20 feet. Beyond that speeds may drop off. With obstructions or heavy interference, you may be lucky to get a signal at all.
Three big causes of WiFi interference:
Other Wifi transmitters, handheld telephone sets operating at 2.4GHz, and microwave ovens when turned on.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
... but even with nuclear power (the only viable large-scale alternative to fossil fuels) with perfect radiation-free reactors (let's say cold fusion worked, or Larry Niven's stasis field fusion tube) you'd still need to build the plants and wires and you'd still have the heat output problem, plus beaming power through the air to your wireless devices wouldn't be healthy for you.
We need to stop making copper umbilical cords and start making more batteries that explode and drool toxic waste into our land fills.
When the iMac was first introduced, people went gaga over the fact that the monitor, computer, and speakers were all in one enclosure, thus eliminating the need for two bulky pieces of hardware and multiple cables.
Yeh, "gaga" is the word. Goofy idea. The only goofier design was that horrid 8-bit-era thing whose name I've gratefully blanked that included a printer. And put the power supply for the whole system in the printer, so when the printer (the most fragile part of the system) broke, the whole thing became junk.
The iMac sucked. I have all the parts of an iMac except the monitor and analog board that I was going to get working again... never did. Anyone want it?
The only all-in-one computers that make sense are laptops.
Let me stick the hot computer in another damn room, especially now I can use an LCD monitor. Having one cable to the monitor for power and video, OK, though it took Apple 5 years and 4 redesigns to get that right (STANDARD connectors on the business end of the cable, thanks), but if the monitor breaks let me replace it, if the computer breaks let me plug another in, let me use a KVM so I can switch from my Mac to my Wintendo...
wireless TV remotes -- YES, wireless mice -- maybe, wireless keyboards -- why?, wireless printers -- why?, wireless any sort of data storage device -- no.
It seems that some people are going gaga over wireless devices. I admit that it is a matter of personal preference and that some people prefer aesthetics over practicality. There are tradeoffs that are made when one chooses wired versus wireless. Things that are mobile or used while wandering around the house or office should be wireless, things that are only moved when they are upgraded don't need to be wireless. Many people are needlessly using wireless devices who do not know that they are actually making their life harder and potentially increasing the possibility of people eavesdropping on them? How many clueless users are blaming their PCs for problems caused by their wireless peripherals? How many people don't realize that the batteries in these devices either have to be replaced regularly, or if they are rechargeable, that they will eventually no longer hold a charge?
I know that several of my neighbors were clueless about their wireless phones not working when the power goes out -- until we had a three day long power outage. Many of those neighbors now have a corded phone for backup.
The problem is not cabling per se, but unstructured cabling. Let me explain.
I have a fileserver, a desktop machine, a laptop router/firewall, a DSL modem/wifi router, a laptop, a printer, a UPS, switch, patch panel, 5.1 speaker system, 2 monitors, scanner, keyboard and mouse. Plus other peripherals I forgot about. All the big devices need mains power. That's roughly 9 mains connections. That means a mess of power boards plugged into the wall sockets and a mess of 9 mains cables running in all different directions. None of the devices provides a means to daisy-chain nearby devices. For example my two monitors could get by with only one mains cable, if the second monitor could plug into the first.
The scanner uses DC power so there's a power supply sitting on the floor which is plugged into the mains. The laptop also uses DC power, so it has its own separated power supply box. Although the scanner is plugged into the fileserver, it is physically located on the speaker system. So I have a USB cable running to the scanner.
My VOIP phones (forgot those!) get power from the mains but via a rectifier built into the mains plug. However the rectifier sits sideways not vertical, so the plug essentially takes up 2 sockets on the powerboard. Their power comes from the left, but their ethernet connection comes from the right, at the switch. Why can't we combine the cabling for the power and the ethernet so the phones only have one cable to plug in?
My two screens have, each, a video signal (DVI) and a power cable. So I have 4 cables to deal with. Why can't power and signal be combined into the one cable? If I want to do it myself then I have to ensure the signal is shielded from the power cable - but this engineering problem should have been solved by the monitor designer already.
Basically the cabling is a mess, for even my modest amount of infrastructure. It would help a lot if all the cabling from all the devices could go to a junction box of some kind, and be distributed out from that.
Internally PCs have the same kind of problem. Have you ever put together a PC from scratch? You probably ended up with wires everywhere. Why is there not a single connector to join the front panel (power button, reset button, USB, Firewire, speaker, mic etc) to the motherboard? Why do we have to fiddle with multiple cables, and worry about the polarity of the Power LED? Why does a case which houses multiple disk drives not include a wiring harness for those drives? Why does a case with multiple fans not include a wiring harness in the case design? How come some CD-ROMs have their power socket on the left, and others on the right? This is lowest-common-denominator engineering and I suppose it's one of the things that Apple got right, that all the parts in their PCs fit together well. Compared to the typical PC, where each part appears to have been designed without any consideration to how it will fit within the whole.
"When the iMac was first introduced, people went gaga over the fact that the monitor, computer, and speakers were all in one enclosure, thus eliminating the need for two bulky pieces of hardware and multiple cables."
The *I*-mac? Welcome to 1984, mister.... I had 3 Macs before Apple even started making two-piece systems (the LC was the first, I believe).
"Good news, everyone!"
You shop on the internet wirelessly?
Hey, buddy ol pal...remind me again what access points you frequent?
:(){
Never, if you want your hair to remain where it is.
When they start encrypting the bluetooth transmissions, I'll consider using a bluetooth keyboard.
Yes, the signals are short range. But that all depends on the size of the antenna, don't it.
For anyone paranoid enough to use PGP, sending a passphrase unencrypted over the airwaves is kinda like planting a giant stake in the front yard and calling it a fence.
Relying on power though centralizes the problem. And why dispose of batteries every time, only to buy new ones, when you can just use a rechargable and have the whole system last essentially forever? Even with heavy use a bluetooth mouse can last for a month or more, then it's fifteen minutes in the charger and you're ready to go again.
Also, I don't think you've factored in the extra cost in environmental resources and pollution to produce the cord that goes on non-wireless mice, not to mention the additional complexity in packaging that probably has some six your old child winding the cord up to put the twist-tie on for packaging - wireless mice can more effectivley be packaged via automation.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
An approximate test of LAN speed, wired or wireless, is to ftp a large file between 2 local machines. This will most often be an underestimate due to protocol, OS, and disk-related delays, but it's a great measure of real-world throughput.
A more theoretical measurement would be an ethernet-speed-test program sending best-sized-for-your-setup raw ethernet packets from one machine to another. If this number is significantly lower than the advertised speed, then you've either got a configuration issue, a hardware issue, or an external issue such as interference, distance, or poor antenna placement.
In-between is PING. Turn off fragmentation, set the packet-size to the maximum size you can that doesn't fragment, and run it in continuous-flood mode for 100 seconds. Take the total # of packets, multiply by the packet size, and divide by 100 and you get something close to the actual speed.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Wired peripherals will still be necessary for computers in public spaces. I supervise several computer labs on a college campus, and if we used wireless keyboards and mice, they'd all be gone within a week, regardless of the fact that they'd be useless to anyone without the proper receiver.
I love wireless devices. All of my peripherals are wireless, and I use my Dell Axim like its my religion. My dream is to eventually have all device go mobile.
However, I wonder what are the health consequences living with all these wireless devices around us. In some of the wireless power products that were mentioned above, they transfer the power through energy levels equivalent to a small microwave. In the near future, if we have a whole set of wireless powering devices like these, its like sitting around a bunch of microwaves that are turned on 24-7. This is on top of the already existing wireless radition we are already immersing ourselves in -- Wifi, bluetooth, CDMA, GSM, radio waves.
We probably wont know the health consequences are until the next generation. All these technology have only become popoluar and feasible in the last decade. Mebbe we"ll find out after we have kids, mebbe we won"t be able to have kids....
...understand that wires are broadcasting antennas.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
http://www.belkin.com/pressroom/releases/uploads/0 1_03_06CableFreeUSB.html
Your usb hub wouldn't be as useless as you think without wires.
...I'm all in favour of wireless peripherals as it's a lot easier to monitor what is going on. Having to break in and attach bugs to CAT5 was getting to be boring.
"The world went crazy with the iMac"
Currently the only one we have left at work is wedging the door open to let some air into the building.
Its the only thing heavy enough to do the job.
I hardly see the advantages to switching to wireless. Reasons: 1) Very environmentally incorrect: throwing out batteries when can run wired with no batteries at all [less waste]. 2) More likely to be stolen. 3) Some lag as batteries get weaker. 4) Don't have to worry about placing a wired mouse back on a charger [as some use chargers] 5) Wired are generally less expensive. I had a wireless logitech years ago. Sold it and bought two new wired mice [upgrading the mice on two of my pcs]. Much more happy with wired.
At least when things are wired you can't lose them. I forsee hours of trying to find my mouse every time I check my email.
I'm a big fan of Apple's computers, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify their use in the security environment that I work in. We are required to have our security people physically disable the cameras, microphones, wireless cards, etc. that Apple (and others) are stuffing into their machines. Since we can't have Bluetooth accessories either, wireless-only input devices would be a real non-starter.
;-)
No, we don't have cell phones, iPods, USB drives, PDAs, or any other of the things people seem to think are necessities these days. Makes for a nice, quiet office
When the iMac was first introduced, people went gaga over the fact that the monitor, computer, and speakers were all in one enclosure, thus eliminating the need for two bulky pieces of hardware and multiple cables.
I thought the TRS-80 did that?
Seriously, why is everyone giving every bit of credit to apple when when there was a point in early home PC history where having "two bulky pieces of hardware" wasn't an option?
Maybe they deserve some length of credit for bringing this back as a functional form but they certainly didn't "introduce" it at all.
As a consultant, I love the fact that they've managed to take something simple and reliable that almost never has problems (wires connecting keyboards and mice), and replaced it with something prone to all sorts of failures... dead batteries, interference, poor range, and generally poor manufacturing quality.
Every wire they eliminate equals more billable hours for me! I'm all for wireless peripherals!
-R
ps- In all seriousness, I make sure my clients understand this before purchasing one...
Wow, all the comments seem to be something along the lines of, "Eh, sonny! I don't need your new-fangled wireless technologies! That nest of cables behind my desk is the way it's supposed to be, because it's the way it's always been!" I love wireless technology. I think why it's received so well in the real world and not so much on slashdot is because it's a technology for people. It makes things easier for real people, not so much for geeks. Some people will respond "How hard can plugging in a mouse be!?". Those people have never worked tech support. Even bluetooth pairing is too complicated.
all your instant on appliances and devices are consuming in aggregate? How much it costs you each year to keep them running? How much CO2 is emitted to keep them running?
All so you can enjoy a slight momentary convenience?
Clear, Dark Skies
...I throw away all my wired devices. I had one wireless mouse and it was completely useless. Either you had to recharge it every second day or you had to use AA batteries, nonsense.
So if all your devices by just being in a certain room getting charged wireless, I am willing to change to wireless connection between them. But, only if we get one and only one standard and hopefully it doesn't have a stupid name like greentow or rednail or something similar...
"People who are willing to sacrifice essential freedoms for security deserve neither freedom nor security."
B F
We haven't seen the full potential for abuse of wireless yet. Everyone loves the fact we can get rid of cords, but no one realizes that as soon as you send something over the air, it can be intercepted. Interception is very difficult with wires, as data is essentially moving from Point A to Point B. With wireless, data is emanated from Point A, and a receiver at Point B detects it and picks it up. That data is now moving in a three dimensional space that is interfered with by wireless phones, cellphones, and anything else that has a strong enough electromagnetic field.
I will repeat myself. The abuses for wireless is unbelievable. If you have a wireless mouse and keyboard, all it takes is someone who wants to tap your connection. It doesn't take AT&T and the NSA to see what you're doing on your computer, it only takes your pissed off neighbor.
As wireless comes of age, people will love the simplicity and ease of use. Things will pair up easily and we will build our own personal networks. We will assume privacy because no one else is around. Case in point: Disney Mobile. What is intended for Mom and Dad to be able to keep tabs on their kids has been around for years, it's application intended for surveillance on Mom and Dad.
Lies are becoming a thing of the past. Now how honest are you? Who do you want watching over you?
The technology for surveillance is here and has been for a long time. It's time we recognize it and begin calling for transparency in the governance of those who monitor the surveillance.
Neutiquam erro
Wireless still isn't as fast as wired. Sure we have some "fast enough" for most purposes wireless technology but for pure blazing speed, you still need a wire. Wired technology also helps reduce attacks. Wifi, bluetooth, they are all vulnerable just by being in the vicinity, with a wired technology, you need physical access to the wires.
I'm not completely against wireless though, I do have a wifi network mixed with my wired network at home, it's great for web surfing wherever. I also have a bluetooth headset with is a million times better than it's wired equivalent. I also think that things like bluetooth mice, keyboards, printers and such are a great idea. Reducing the mess of wires and cleaning up my desk is a good thing, however I don't see the elimination of wires anytime soon.
is the fact that all wireless protocos are currently and will alway be easy to crack. I realize that a lot of folks do not care about security (1.they run windows. 2. They do not object to the NSA spying and then turning over the data to the DOJ).
Security implications of mouse movements?!?
I'm pretty security conscious, but cannot think of any possible way anything could be learned from mouse movements.
Security might not too inconvenient. The device could authenticate key exchange w/base station and require physical interaction to re-authenticate.
Man, you really need that seminar!
We really don't know the health impact of having our homes and offices densely
packed with wireless transmitters/receivers. I suspect that many geeks probably have
an orgasmic feeling when they say "look Ma, no hands". I won't comment on the Freudian implications.
But if Ma developes a tumor one day, it's all too easy to rule out wireless technologies
since the latest industry-sponsored study (or researcher too scared to be blunt, so s/he perpetually concludes that "more research is needed") will indicate that they are safe.
Even while we sleep, the wireless companies are devising new candy to aggressively inundate us with wireless tech so that even if it were found to be unsafe in the longterm, as Bush would say, it would collapse the economy to look for better alternatives or turn back.
I *like* wires because: - They're faster. - They're more private. - They're healthier. (Don't microwave my body to varying degrees, and don't even *start* about wireless power) - They're scalable. (The wired spectrum, aka 'space', will fill up very slowly) Unfortulately, the wired renaissance will only begin after a bunch of people with growth's in their neck have had their bank accounts emptied via their wireless internet connection after their RFID stored identity was stolen by a passer-by...
"Device cables are becoming a thing of the past, and that development couldn't come soon enough"
My personal experience has been less positive... you can have my wired, balled, Logitech mouse when you pry it from my cold, dead, bloody, dismembered hand. It's lighter and more responsive than my wireless optical Logitech mouse and I can't say the cable ever bothers me. The wireless mouse jumps all over the place when it is more than about 5ft from the receiver. The Logitech wireless keyboard is a bit better - it has excellent battery life but still tends to drop keypresses too often unless its sitting very near the receiver.
Bluetooth is handy for syncing my phone to my PowerBook, but that's a different case - the phone only occasionally needs a connection, and the rest of the time I turn Bluetooth off so it doesn't drain the battery ten times more quickly. It's nice not having to search for a USB/phone cable. But for always-connected, always-present devices, nothing beats a cable.
Encryption or no encryption.
Yeah, that too, probably.
Now, in programming, if I type an "A" and get some odd Cyrillic character instead I can see the error and fix it(though it's a pain), but I can certainly see why my kids didn't want to use this system for gaming. "Daddy, the evil hunter is shooting me, and my stupid mouse is locked up again!".
I tried moving the antenna, and replacing the batteries, but the performance remained the same. So, now I have a very sleek-looking wireless mouse and keyboard -- in a box. I went out the next day and purchased the nicest CORDED keyboard and mouse I could find.
As I write this (at work) my wireless Kensignton mouse is telling me it needs YET ANOTHER battery change. Hooray for wireless.
Reasons why, beyond reliability:
- small kids: I'm just not interested in my kids running around with a wireless mouse and loosing it in an obscure place
- older kids: I prefer them not to have internet access in their own room, but have them 'wired' to a shared space / living room.
- security: encryption or not, wired, physical connections are safer. Don't get me started, I still don't get why they make RFID-enabled passports and keys which end up being readable without your control.
- are you confident with the safety of cell phones? Admittedly, Wifi signals should be weaker. Yet when I get to the office and plug power & ethernet cable to my laptop, it just feels natural to cut-off wireless.
When I'm at my desk i plug into my Powerbook
0) Power
1) External monitor
2) USB-Scanner
3) external Firewire Disks
Headset, Cellphone-sync, Network, Mouse are wireless yet.
I would really like to get rid of the wires for 1..3 and to be able to make a automated regular backup to the disks on my desk without having to plugin the external disks.
k2r
I just cannot agree with the line: When the iMac was first introduced, people went gaga over the fact that the monitor, computer, and speakers were all in one enclosure. When I saw this, I thought, what if the monitor goes, what if the spearkers go? I had a teacher who brought in an iMac whose speakers had blown. Apple's suggestion was to buy a new iMac since the speakers were encased the the plastic of the case. We sold her a $20 pair of speakers and told her to plug them into the headphone jack. I simply don't understand the unabashed and unconditional love of anything Apple on Digg and Slashdot. No hardware or software manufacturer is simply that wonderful.
A salesman once tried to sell me a cordless screwdriver. I didn't understand. None of my existing screwdrivers have cords.
all your peripherals and all your appliances consume power even when you aren't using them, that's a significant change to your consumption.
Clear, Dark Skies
Because of security concerns, the federal government and us contractors are not allowed wireless keyboards, mice, networks, etc... Plus, the battery drain, even with recharables, the batteries wear out over time.
Only one day after we were told how some of the drivers could be hacked on wireless, now we are being told that wireless is the way to go.
This is brought to you by the same MBA's that brought HDTV. I have seen it, but don't see that it is worth the premium price.
I'm not necessarily happy with DVD's for movies either. I believe I've returned 10 movie rentals for every video tape rental that I ever made.
I think we are being sold a lot of hogwash
But I do believe that some of the consumers are catching on or will. I have had a couple of people contact me about their wireless network being slow and then I go to their site and find that they have 15+ computers in an office connected to a single linksys router. Then I have to explain to them what there problem is and then explain to them how insecure they are. On the second one I was even heads up enough to monitor their traffic while I discussed their network topology. When it came time to actually look at there network their computer guy was wanting to give me the WEP key. I just told him in front of the CEO nevermind I've already got it.
Yeah, it was a mean thing to do and it was also the wrong thing to do, but I've gotten tired of discussing over and over again the insecurities of wireless. I feel like I'm beating my head on a stone wall when it comes to this. I think I just smelled that attitude that if I said anything about it they would just come back, " Nobody would hack us were encrypted and we've never been hacked ". I just wanted to skip that discussion. I also think it's negligent on the part of an employer small or large that you should leave valuable information in the open. There are employees which are dependent on a job whose paycheck is dependent on the security of the company. Would you leave the doors unlocked at night?
Okay rant over. Thanks, I feel better.
He who said 1,000,000 monkeys on 1,000,000 typewriters would eventually type the great novel, never saw an AOL chat room
"The throwaway culture takes another step forward for nothing but sheer and utter laziness of humans."
Oh I don't know. If nature can "cut the cord" with humans. We can "cut the cord" with our creations.
In the 1920s they were predicting broadcast power including transportation by wireless roller skates, sometime in the 1970s or so. Looks like we missed the target. Damn.
aside from powering virtually every device (including wireless devices during the recharging phase), as long as I have a wired mouse, I know my mouse is on one end of the wire and the computer is on the other. This might sound silly, but it's quite nice to not have to look for the lost mouse, due to the fact that as long as it's plugged in, it cant go more than 6 feet in any direction and it's leaving a trail to where it just so happens to be hiding.
I can be almost anywhere and find an unsecured wireless network with my laptop. Even in my appartment I can connect to 3-5 unsecured wireless networks at any time (makes me wonder why do I continue to pay those pesky Rogers bills for the cable Internet.) Wireless networks and cell-phones are fine. Anything else that is wireless is way overstated.
You can't handle the truth.
I agree for the wireless networks, they are really unreliable. But there are some good mouse out there. I bought a logitech V200 Cordless Notebook Mouse and it is really good.
I've been using it for 4 mounths and still no sign of battery weakness. The good thing abot it is that it does not emit light yet is an optical mouse and at the end of the day, I can attach the receaver underneath the mouse to turn it off to save up batteies.
A good product overall.
The Doom of Wired Peripherals? Thats like saying "Now that we have SUVs Vans and Pickup Trucks are obsolete!"
Two things that have been mentioned here over and over again ALREADY are the lack of reliability and the security holes wireless peripherals open.
I wont use wireless devices because I play FPS games. I already cannot stand lag, imagine not being able to aim or take a shot at a critical moment because you have a)weak batteries or b)almost ANYTHING between the transmitter and receiver. It already frustrates me that some cellphones can induce a current in my USB cable that shuts down the port. Imagine how that problem can be magnified by owning a cellphone or cordless phone that shares frequencies with the Bluetooth spectrum.
AND if thats not enough what about security? If you have any concern about wireless security then you MUST consider the fact that the EXACT SAME Pringles can yagi antennas can be used to aim at your wireless keyboard, or printer and enable someone to tap your data stream. Who needs to compromise a machine using a trojan, rootkit, or virus when there are people who are broadcasting their information out to the world. Of course someone is going to say "But I have ENCRYPTION!" Well folks, encryption just makes it harder to read the message. It's only EVER a stumbling block and it gets easier to crack any given encryption scheme every day.
On the other hand it is an amusing idea to go into rich neighborhoods and steal credit card numbers off of bluetooth keyboard data streams. hmmm...Gotta put that in the revolution notebook under "Redistribution of Wealth."
---Gorehog
...we'll have wireless circuit boards where all the components talk to each other using low power, short range wireless and the circuit board is merely a legacy component so they will fit in today's cases properly. Yeah. Like THAT will ever happen.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
How is Apple leading the way? Their systems don't even have a wireless option when you purchase them - you have to buy the wireless keyboard and Mightymouse separately!! This has nothing to do with Apple, but the bastard fanbois just couldn't resist putting their name in.
Wireless periperals in a college computer lab? No thanks. Hundreds of keyboards, hundreds of mice, hundreds of sets of batteries to change every month, and every one of them is just begging to be lost or stolen. Hard wired peripherals and generous application of zip ties is the only way to go here.
I see two very serious potential problems with an overabundance of RF-based wireless peripherals, problems which I believe will insure that wired ones will be with us for some time to come.
First and foremost: Security, and I'll start with wireless keyboards as a great example. There have been lots of articles about keystroke-logging malware, but there seem to have been precious few warning about the fact that wireless keyboards cheerfully broadcast every keystroke whoever uses one types, free for anyone with the right knowledge and hardware to just pluck off the air.
Second issue: Mutual interference. I read just recently (don't recall where) that someone brought home a nice wireless access point for their home network, and they were having a heck of a time getting it to work consistently.
As it turns out, the WAP had been set up right next to the microwave oven in the kitchen. Every time someone started heating up their frozen burrito or whatever, ZAP! The wireless part of their network went down, hard. Yes, microwave ovens and 802.11b/g networks operate right around the same part of the RF spectrum (2.4GHz).
Third point: Hamateur radio folks, commercial radio stations, and (especially!) labs where RF experimentation and development takes place, all need to be extremely leery about wireless peripherals because of the interference the things can cause to non-computer devices. Heck, I've got enough problems trying to filter Ethernet leakage out of my own station without worrying about wireless widgets on my computers adding to the problem!
This doesn't even touch on the possibility of licensed RF devices (such as portable 2-way VHF or UHF radios, or high-power commercial or amateur stations) causing interference to wireless peripherals. Being that such peripherals have to, by law, comply with FCC Part 15 regs, and "accept any interference received, including that which may cause undesired operation," the owners of such devices have four choices in such a case: Work with the licensed radio user, to try and resolve the issue, or try and resolve it themselves; Grin and bear it; Switch to infrared-based wireless devices; Or go back to wired devices.
Do wireless peripherals have their place? Of course they do. However, users of such would do well to remember that the RF spectrum is a very crowded place, and simply getting wireless for the sake of having wireless may not always yield the results that they expect.
Keep the peace(es).
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
Is anyone concearned about the gaping security holes in WiFi and Bluetooth?
Horns are really just a broken halo.
... it sure seems that way and Apple is leading the way ...
Not really, Apple's $2,500 Mac Pro does not come with wireless by default, it is a build to order operation of course.
WiFi might be good enough for Internet speeds. That's because my connection to the world is limited to what I have with my ISP. For moving files and data across my home network, it's too slow.
What I don't like is the complexity and security involved with all this wireless... Therefore, you'd need security. Likely culprit would be wpa or some variation of said protocol...I would still run the risk of overloading the "channel" with my multiple keyboards and mouses, oh and pritners and monitors.
So while it sounds good on paper, the practicality of wireless is still missing from the equation.
It's interesting that the system I'm running at home is exactly the one you suggest is not yet possible. WPA wifi network, pixma wifi wireless printer, bluetooth keyboard and mouse with encryption (apple ones), bluetooth drawing tablet with a rechargeable battery. The batteries last about a month for a mouse (I use rechargable ones) and much longer for the keyboard. None of them interfere with each other. Given I've never had any problems with any of the gear, I'd say it's eminently practical today to use wireless peripherals.
Jobs always had a thing for a one-piece system since WELCOME TO 1984!! the original Macintosh and also fanless design. Then it was try try again with the Macintosh Classic, the iMac, the Cube... no matter how bad an idea it was nor how badly it crashed in the market.
It was the Macintosh II that started the 2-piece thing and color.
Remember your history.
Apple introduced an all-in-one computer in 1984.
"I've passed on wireless keyboards and mice mainly because I don't want to generate more battery waste which ranks up there as among the most offensive types of garbage we accumulate."
Uh, huh. Let me take a dump in your cereal, then tell me what's more offensive.
Wireless connections do save time and effort in setting up a system.
However (unless you have mice in your attic or walls chewing on the
cables) a wired connection is more reliable. It's also more secure
(wire tapping not withstanding, though you can put the wires in
chrome steel pipes). Wireless devices are usually portable, which
means batteries going dead at the worst moment.
I'll stick to hard wired connections, though a laptop with Wifi that
can be moved anywhere in the house would be nice. But there will always
be a docking station or two.....
I have a small, somewhat cramped, home office, and I work with the keyboard and mouse on my lap using a small notebook for a mousepad. When I had a wired mouse I would take a serious fall at least once every week or two when I hastily got up to answer the door or something and tripped over the mouse cord. This also led to short lives for my mice. Then (a couple years ago) I got one of the older models of the Logitech wireless mouse - no more falls. I use rechargeable AA batteries for a lot of things and usually have a couple of them in my charger. With the older mouse I had to switch the batteries about once a week. That mouse finally died a month ago and I got a new Logitech wireless mouse with an optical sensor that emits no visible light. I am still on the original batteries (included with the mouse), using it at least 40 hours a week. I love it.
I charge a battery for fifteen minutes, it lasts me about three months. All of the enery used is generated in one central facility, with air scrubbers and the like - the portion of power required to charge up the batteries over five years is probably less polution than me starting my car.
Consider all of the checmicals that go into making the cord, and the byproducts thereof. That all has to be cleaned up or otherwise contained.
You really need to look at a plastics manufacuring plant if you think a power plant is bad!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not to mention, have you though about what powers the devices that assembly the cable? Hint: It's not steam power. It's also electricity! It probably takes more electricity to make the cord than I will use over the whole life of the mouse.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Having to press a key more than once on the keyboard is just frustrating. If you touch type, or you're working on a paper where you're transcribing from a book onto the computer and not even looking at the monitor, then missed keystrokes get to be a huge PITA.
In other words, there is exponential decay, with a half-life of 68 days (0.99^68 = 0.5).
Right?
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
...I'm gonna wrap myself in tinfoil...
Yep, nothing better than using a wireless keyboard and mouse with batteries that *will* eventually fail in such diverse arenas as nuclear power, range safety, medical monitoring, etc. The article is completely right: The sooner we get rid of all of these wired peripherals, the better.
You will have to pry my wired mouse and keyboard from my cold, dead fingers. No batteries to charge or replace, or in the case of the mouse, add inertia.
Screw all you "Wireless Electricity" people.
We need to upgrade DIGITAL electricity! Get rid of this old, Analog electricity-crap we're stuck with!
help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am
I am old enough to recall the claims made back in the late 1980's that computers would usher in the paperless office. Believe me, we now use more paper than ever!
These "wireless" claims remind of that, a lot. If history is a guide, I suspect that in 10 years we'll have more wires than ever.
"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" - John Lydon, San Francisco 1978
Motorola's UWB would fix that, but Steve bought the other roadmap.
but iNTEL is trying to screw that up.
First, great points and concepts.
Second, a couple of answers -
> None of the devices provides a means to daisy-chain nearby devices.
They used to - the typical AT supply had an in and an out - and various TTL monitors had a plug that'd fit.
That went out of favor with EGA, as people ran into issues with brownouts when they turned on the tube.
Today, it's a different issue altogether.
- No enterprise on the planet runs all of its stuff off the same rail. They distribute things across several circuits. The best power supplies will span several circuits.
- Daisy chained stuff is not appropriate for a UPS. Having a UPS is all about uptime... otherwise, buy a surge strip. Noone in their right mind would waste a single mah on speakers, a scanner, or anything else that isn't mission critical.
- Things break, supplies fail. Daisies will screw you when this happens.
- Things get replaced. Again, daisies will screw you when you wish to remove something... everything downstream goes away, with it.
- Daisies aren't the be-all you think they are... probably because you haven't had to deal with one over the long term. Yet. Remember thinnet (ethernet over a coax bus)? Yep, daisies are great if everything is located in a nice straight line. Move something after the fact, though, and it's a rats nest. Place something off by itself, and it's a rats nest. In fact, anything that involves a change in cable length is a rats nest. And you can't break the bus, else you'll dump the entire segment. Then one day, "Star Lan" came of age. Daisied networks immediately bit the dust. And "daisied anything" went with it, and we rejoiced.
Can some things be daisied?
Yes, certainly. I'd daisy a low-power monitor off a PC... but NOT the other way around. Monitors blow up; they need to be swapped without dumping anything else. OTOH if the PC blows up, the monitor is moot. The same is more true with peripherals... the whole point of the USB fad is to facilitate adds, moves, and changes. But consider if you actually daisy these devices off of each other, and... buh-bye uptime.
> Compared to the typical PC, where each part appears to have been designed without any consideration to how it will fit within the whole.
People should stop buying commodity junk? When you buy stuff that's oriented toward a moron who'd buy an iPod, you get something that the iPod market would buy. Otherwise, I'm not sure what you mean by "typical PC"... none of mine, anywhere, suffer this issue. Not the desktops, not the towers, not the 1Us, not the 2Us, not the 6Us or 8Us. Of course, it helps that I have a plan for the internal layout before I buy something, I guess... but I don't own an iPod, either.
There's three philosphies with PC guts -
1. iPod junk. The buyer wants to feel good about a box that has a great appearance. They've no clue about anything else. Companies that market to these people intend to protect their margins by spending money on outside appearance, and shaving costs in the guts.
2. Uptime / Heat management. This group's primary concern is airflow / etc, to preserve the longevity and availability of the device. They honestly do not care how it looks, nor what cables are needed - so long as it works. That's not completely true, though... I'll not buy a box that only has one power cable. I demand at least a 2+1, and prefer 3. Same with any other single point of failure that can be eliminated.
3. Dev Boxes. It's all about real estate and slot counts. It's all about stuffing 8 or 10 fullsized cards into it (with daughterboards), and still being able to manage what happens inside of it when things go wrong. They likewise do not care about anything else, so long as they can cram stuff into it and have it continue to work. They do not care about cables, at all, because *noone* can predict what cables will be plugged into it, and these cables will be hand-made, on-site, anyway. Well, except for power... we can predict *that*. And we've already discovered that a single power cord is
help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am
Others have commented on some of the advantages of wires. But one is still missing.
The electromagnetic spectrum is a scarce resource, particularly the parts of it that have nice properties like propagating over the horizon, or propagating through the walls of your house. Some applications, like cell phones, absolutely require wireless for mobility.
Others, however, do not. For some things, like a wireless mouse, some find it merely convenient. For others, like a wireless printer, it's just a frill. For static applications where the two ends aren't moving, wires are perfectly reasonable. If it's a reasonable expectation that everyone at my house will want a phone for the next 50 years, it's worth running the wire out there.
Wireless everything pollutes the spectrum, and causes interference for all devices. There's only so much wireless density you can stand. Wires keep the spectrum clean, preserving that resource for applications that really need its properties.
Good engineering uses exactly the resources you need to solve the problem, and no more. A wireless connection is not always good engineering.
But it's far more practical than a wired mouse for clubbing people on the head.
I take exception with that.
Listen. Get a nice fat corded mouse and take a few cord wraps around the hand leaving a good 2 feet (60cm) to swing with. Hell ya! Bring it back for more!
Otherwise your just chucking enough lightweight plastic to piss off a new born. Once.
No friggin way. When shit need straightening up around the office, I'll take a corded mouse anyday.
In fact, I get to see how great it is everytime I go to a lan party. Either someone's wireless mouse dies and we have to look for either batteries or a wired one, or someone drops out of a game of Warcraft because their wireless ethernet connection just crapped out.
Now, for things like ethernet, I can maybe see the benifit of wireless. But mouse and keyboard? They aren't going anywhere. They're going to be sitting in front of my monitors and next to my computer. I have a desk. Those cables go through a hole and sit next to the wall. This is not a problem.
I think that's what the specs are on the new silicon.
Anyway, Motorola's group has demonstrated non-interference at quite high bandwidth useage. Sure, there's a limit there somewhere, but there's a lot more headroom.
Let's all say it together, class: "black shakes"
There is a limit to how much bombardment living tissue can withstand, even at low levels, before things start to get fubar.
My cell phone is as unplugged as I care to get (and sometimes too much, even). I'll keep my shielded cables and wires, thanks.
People constantly complain that their batteries only last "a few months" (think I saw a few weeks in posts as well), and that rechargable batteries sucks too yada yada yada.
Why not flywheels (ignoring that they probably don't make them THAT small yet)?
For most things it only needs to keep a working charge for 8 hours a day and can use upwards of 16 hours to recharge (regular office use at least). Most flywheels I've read about (for electricity at least) last for years and thus probably outlasts your current equipment anyway.
Think about it - sure, the flywheel might have to be bigger than regular AA or AAA batteries, but by how much?
And they'd be more expensive - that's a given. But seeing as flywheels will outlast chemical batteries by a mile, that's something I could live with.
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
When the iMac was first introduced, people went gaga over the fact that the monitor, computer, and speakers were all in one enclosure, thus eliminating the need for two bulky pieces of hardware and multiple cables
Maybe the submitter did. I looked at it and said "What a ridiculous design. If I decide to upgrade to a large monitor later, I have to replace the entire computer."
And it absolutely pisses me off.
I'm no tree-hugger, but the amount of power we consume in aggregate because of all these "it's just another milliamp" computers, TVs, stereos, and so on could go a ways towards meeting our carbon emission problems.
Don't get me started on video cards with their own power supplies..
Clear, Dark Skies
It should all be wireless! Don't even have to plug it in! Wanna add some more ram? You don't even have to the open the box! Just set the newly purchased package on your desktop and BOOM! another gig of ram! Wireless dvd drives, you just set the dvd (still in packaging) on top the player and play it! Play your neighbor's pron collection without him even knowing! For the students out there, wireless pencils! You don't even have to take them out of your bag, just start writing! The graphite will wirelessly appear on the page! Join the wireless revolution!