London's Mayor Promises London-Wide Wireless For 2012 Olympics

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London's Mayor Promises London-Wide Wireless For 2012 Olympics

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 20, 2010 @09:53PM from the sounds-like-a-commie-from-here dept.

Pax681 writes "[London Mayor] Boris Johnson declared that London will have all bus stops and lamp posts Wi-Fi enabled by 2012 for the Olympics. In an article on Tech Eye, Boris waxes lyrical (or as lyrical as he can get) about how it would be done at a Google Zeitgeist event in Hertfordshire. These would be public Wi-Fi hotpots; as such, would these break the new law on open access points? Would they be just the thing for people to use to infringe with impunity and anonymously bypass the chances of running foul of the Digital Economy Act?"

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Cash prize of £500 by Anonymous Coward · 2010-05-20 21:58 · Score: 5, Funny

For whoever can download the Al Queda Operators Manual while at the table next to the Mayor.
You may also get a congratulatory beating.
1. Re:Cash prize of £500 by Linker3000 · 2010-05-20 23:49 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  ". there must be an alien creature manipulating the timeline!"
  
  Have you SEEN Boris Johnson?
  
  --
  AT&ROFLMAO
Has Boris thought.... by bothemeson · 2010-05-20 22:03 · Score: 3, Informative

how many lamp-posts there are in London? He's a well-meaning right-wing buffoon.
1. Re:Has Boris thought.... by $RANDOMLUSER · 2010-05-20 22:30 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  So that's 1 WAP and 3 CCD cameras on every lamp-post in London, then?
  
  --
  No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
2. Re:Has Boris thought.... by commodore64_love · 2010-05-20 22:37 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Laws don't apply to government. "No open access hotspots" unless of course a politician does it.
  
  --
  "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
3. Re:Has Boris thought.... by flyingfsck · 2010-05-20 22:38 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Cool, so I take it that pretty soon one can do Video VOIP conference calls around a lamp post...
  
  --
  Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
4. Re:Has Boris thought.... by Thanshin · 2010-05-20 22:51 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Mobile phone manufacturers are worried.
  In the near future, to make a call in London you'll only need to say, in clear voice:
  "I WISH TO CALL MY FRIEND MIKE"
  And the nearest lamppost will set the call.
  At first it will be a bit strange to speak to a lamppost and hear it reply in your friend's voice.
5. Re:Has Boris thought.... by value_added · 2010-05-20 22:58 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  He also promised to get rid of Bendy Buses, improve rail and cycle services at no cost to the taxpayer (lolwut?) and (most likely) something about a badger in every pot.
  Not being English, I read the above and guessed that a "bendy bus" was some sort of English desert. I was disappointed to learn that it has nothing in common with spotted dick, trifle, brakewell tart, or even a roly-poly, but rather it's just a frigging bus. Or more specifically, an articulated bus.
  The badger reference I'm still working on.
6. Re:Has Boris thought.... by gazbo · 2010-05-20 23:07 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Had I lived in London I would have voted for him solely for his appearances on Have I Got News For You. And I am not in any way ashamed of this fact.
7. Re:Has Boris thought.... by delinear · 2010-05-20 23:44 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  The obvious answer is that the hotspots will be declared legal but anyone who uses them will be branded criminals, in that way Boris gets to keep his promise, the copyright holders get their own way and everyone's happy. Well, everyone apart from the public, but they don't really matter since they're just a machine for generating cash.
8. Re:Has Boris thought.... by delinear · 2010-05-20 23:48 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Ditto - in fact, having seen time and again what a mess "serious" politicians have made of running things, I think from now on we should all vote based on the candidate's comedic value. The country will still be screwed, but at least we'll get some laughs.
9. Re:Has Boris thought.... by Linker3000 · 2010-05-20 23:52 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  "At first it will be a bit strange to speak to a lamppost and hear it reply in your friend's voice."
  
  You clearly have not seen the drunks in Middlesbrough Town Centre on a Fri..well..Fri-Thurs night - they sure as hell try.
  
  --
  AT&ROFLMAO
10. Re:Has Boris thought.... by delinear · 2010-05-20 23:52 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  You're not thinking like a politician. Why fit WiFi to 1,000,000 lamp posts when you can initiate a "take back the night skies" policy, reduce the number of lamp posts tenfold and easily keep your WiFi promise into the bargain.
11. Re:Has Boris thought.... by joss · 2010-05-20 23:53 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  > At first it will be a bit strange to speak to a lamppost and hear it reply in your friend's voice.
  I've been doing it for years. It's one of the wonders of ciderspace.
  
  --
  http://rareformnewmedia.com/
12. Re:Has Boris thought.... by Gordonjcp · 2010-05-21 00:45 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Help me here, please, what's wrong with the busses?
  They don't fit in the streets very well. They are unreliable, spending roughly a quarter of their life in the workshop - assuming they haven't gone on fire. On a long, straight bit of road (not many of them on a typical London bus route) they return a stunning 3mpg! Thanks to their antiquated engine designs, they burn slightly less fuel and emit only slightly more unpleasant fumes when they're on fire than when they're on the road. The only way to get them above 1.5mpg on a normal route is to tow them with a recovery truck.
13. Re:Has Boris thought.... by locofungus · 2010-05-21 01:41 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Nothing wrong with London's public transport. The problem is very large vehicles in London (centre). The roads are generally too narrow, too bendy and have too many junctions for very long vehicles.
  Many junctions have had their stop lines moved right back (20-30m from the junction) to allow the buses to turn into them. It's all too common for a car driver to be unable to see the point of stopping so far back so they stop a cars length or two in front of the line. Then one of these buses comes around the corner and everybody is stuck. (over the years this has got to be a lesser and lesser problem as more and more car drivers have directly experienced the problems it causes but it's never gone away completely)
  Or when the buses are going along a main road with two lanes they should wait until their exit is clear before entering a box junction (yellow hatched area where you are not allowed to enter unless your exit is clear and are not allowed to stop on unless you are turning right and are prevented from oncoming traffic). But cars in the other lane will "overtake" the bus and then pull across into the buses lane meaning that the 18m gap that the bus needs in front of it never happens. So the buses just block the junctions. (and pedestrian crossing are blocked even more often - it's not at all uncommon for once of these buses to end up slap bang across a pedestrian crossing for the entire green man phase - which tends to be fairly short anyway even when you've got a direct route across the road)
  These buses have a surprisingly brisk acceleration - and there is a significant proportion of bus drivers who will just pull away when there is a car or cyclist overtaking. Typically for a car it's not too much problem but many cyclists cannot then get past them but end up stranded in the middle of the road with a bus that is now going slightly faster than they are but has 15m of vehicle behind them preventing them from getting back in.
  For the people who use them, these buses are very good. But, unfortunately, they do not work well on the road infrastructure in central London.
  Tim.
  
  --
  God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = -@B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t," and there was light.
How long will Digital Britain last? by Landak · 2010-05-20 22:14 · Score: 5, Interesting

To the joy of nerds everywhere in the UK, it seems like the Digital Britain bill might not last very long with the current Government.

Whether or not Cameron and the conservatives can splinter away from Murdoch enough to let this happen remains to be seen, but I am currently naive enough to be genuinely optimistic about the results of having liberals in power for the first time in over a century.

--
My UID is prime. Is yours?
1. Re:How long will Digital Britain last? by Hurricane78 · 2010-05-20 22:47 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  You don’t seem to know how politicians work:
  1. Do a couple of speeches or something in front of whoever you want to take over.
  2. “Promise” some things, anything, doesn’t matter if it’s even physically possible, let alone sensible, that those people really want.
  3. Link whatever you (or rather your “shareholders”) want as a precondition to that promise.
  4. Use the people to get that precondition trough in parliament.
  5. Forget about the original “promise”.
  6. Find a “scandal” (something those people really do not want) to get them to hate the opposition again, be distracted and forget about what you did.
  7. Rinse, repeat.
  Real professionals make up the things, that those people think they want, themselves. E.g. by inventing non-existing dangers with the use of their media outlets. This also makes it much easier to void the “promise”, since you don’t need to fix something that never existed in the first place. Your “promise” already was fulfilled from the start.
  
  --
  Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
2. Re:How long will Digital Britain last? by mrrudge · 2010-05-20 23:31 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I'm currently sitting in a park in London, using free wifi. It's 25C and there are very nearly naked people tanning themselves all around.
  
  If the alternative is your unsubstantiated pessimism then I'll probably stay here, thanks.
3. Re:How long will Digital Britain last? by Rocketship+Underpant · 2010-05-21 01:10 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  The primary problem with naked people in Britain is that they're usually British people.
  
  --
  He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Re:Not all officials are bad by commodore64_love · 2010-05-20 22:49 · Score: 4, Informative

>>>Give the new ones a chance - they'll have their faults for sure, but they won't be quite as control freak as the last lot.
That's what we said over here in the American Union, and yet the "new lot" happily renewed the Patriot Act rather than let it expire, and they just passed legislation to start collecting DNA

--
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
He is a buffoon, who makes a million pounds by SmallFurryCreature · 2010-05-20 23:03 · Score: 4, Insightful

Everyone in England thinks he is a buffoon, who still somehow manages to earn a very high salary indeed as an editor, get his government pay and somehow won the election for Major from Ken Livingston (who himself was an outsider, a left wing socialist who ran against his own party candidate when right wing "labour" Tony Blair was still somewhat popular).
Search for "boris hignfy" on youtube, seriously funny stuff. The guy gets away with gaffs that people have torn Bush and Blair apart for. NO journalist even dares to jump on any slight mis pronunciation or botched fact Boris makes. It is BRILLIANT. He has given himself a license to say what he wants to say and not have to worry about weighing every word on a silver platter. Nobody will ruin his career because he "claimed to have invented the internet" or he mixed up the date the US declared independence.
Watch his appearances on the show and then realize he makes more money then you ever will.

--

MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Re:Not all officials are bad by jecblackpepper · 2010-05-20 23:11 · Score: 4, Informative

At least the new lot in UK have explicitly said that they are going to repeal some of the civil liberty infringing laws, including ensuring the removal of innocent people's DNA from the DNA database. Of course they've only be in power a couple of weeks haven't even yet placed their programme for government before parliament, but I'm at least hopeful that they will do some (all) of the things they've promised on civil liberties.