You say this doesn't really cover greeting card systems. And yet... American Greetings and Hallmark have licensed the patented technology. Therefore THEY certainly must've decided that it did cover them, or at least that it wasn't worth fighting. Frankly, I'm stunned by this... This is a patent that needs to be destroyed.
Where I live, DSL is out of reach, and SWBell has no timetable to extend it. Cable modem is being "tested" in our area, but not in wide use. And the quality of the phone lines themselves is such that I was lucky to get much above 28.8. SO, in steps Nucentrix, a wireless microwave ISP here in the Austin area. For about $70/month, I get a 354Kb/s download (actually bursts well above that) and a 128Kb/s upload. If I wanted it, for about $230/month I could have T1 speeds.
Upside: Latency is tiny (nothing like those satellite wireless solutions) and the speed is great. Works fine in good weather and bad, and I'm even a good 20 miles from the tower.
Downside: more expensive than DSL/Cable, is only available if you have line of site to their antennas, and requires installation of a truly ugly antenna on/near your house (in my case, 30 feet tall). It's hideous. It looks like we're aiming a deathray at Austin.
Nucentrix was originally providing cable TV via microwave to rural areas for years, and have now added what is basically a cable modem to the end of a microwave antenna. The product is going to be a niche... I don't see these deathray antennas popping up on every house. But for folks with my combination of problems, Nucentrix makes a great solution.
[this is kind of a repost of comments when we discussed this last Dec 6...]
Please don't think of wireless net access as being the equivalent of MOBILE net access. Two different animals.
Where I live, DSL is out of reach, and SWBell has no timetable to extend it. Cable modem is being "tested" in our area, but not in wide use. And the quality of the phone lines themselves is such that I was lucky to get much above 28.8. SO, in steps Nucentrix, a wireless microwave ISP here in the Austin area. For about $70/month, I get a 354Kb/s download and a 128Kb/s upload. If I wanted it, for about $230/month I could have T1 speeds.
Upside: Latency is tiny (nothing like those satellite wireless solutions) and the speed is great. Works fine in good weather and bad.
Downside: a little more than DSL/Cable, is only available if you have line of site to their antennas, and requires installation of a truly ugly antenna on/near your house (in my case, 30 feet tall). It's hideous. It looks like we're aiming a deathray at Austin.
As far as how the company is doing, I have no idea. They originally were providing cable TV via microwave for years, and have now added what is basically a cable modem to the end of a microwave antenna.
The product is going to be a niche... I don't see these deathray antennas popping up on every house. But for folks with my combination of problems, Nucentrix makes a great solution.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, couldn't make it past about the 10 minute mark. My Pretensiousness Meter went off the scale. "My brain is floating like a dumpling"? Puh-lease.
You say this doesn't really cover greeting card systems. And yet... American Greetings and Hallmark have licensed the patented technology. Therefore THEY certainly must've decided that it did cover them, or at least that it wasn't worth fighting. Frankly, I'm stunned by this... This is a patent that needs to be destroyed.
Where I live, DSL is out of reach, and SWBell has no timetable to extend it. Cable modem is being "tested" in our area, but not in wide use. And the quality of the phone lines themselves is such that I was lucky to get much above 28.8. SO, in steps Nucentrix, a wireless microwave ISP here in the Austin area. For about $70/month, I get a 354Kb/s download (actually bursts well above that) and a 128Kb/s upload. If I wanted it, for about $230/month I could have T1 speeds.
Upside: Latency is tiny (nothing like those satellite wireless solutions) and the speed is great. Works fine in good weather and bad, and I'm even a good 20 miles from the tower.
Downside: more expensive than DSL/Cable, is only available if you have line of site to their antennas, and requires installation of a truly ugly antenna on/near your house (in my case, 30 feet tall). It's hideous. It looks like we're aiming a deathray at Austin.
Nucentrix was originally providing cable TV via microwave to rural areas for years, and have now added what is basically a cable modem to the end of a microwave antenna. The product is going to be a niche... I don't see these deathray antennas popping up on every house. But for folks with my combination of problems, Nucentrix makes a great solution.
[this is kind of a repost of comments when we discussed this last Dec 6...]
Where I live, DSL is out of reach, and SWBell has no timetable to extend it. Cable modem is being "tested" in our area, but not in wide use. And the quality of the phone lines themselves is such that I was lucky to get much above 28.8. SO, in steps Nucentrix, a wireless microwave ISP here in the Austin area. For about $70/month, I get a 354Kb/s download and a 128Kb/s upload. If I wanted it, for about $230/month I could have T1 speeds.
Upside: Latency is tiny (nothing like those satellite wireless solutions) and the speed is great. Works fine in good weather and bad.
Downside: a little more than DSL/Cable, is only available if you have line of site to their antennas, and requires installation of a truly ugly antenna on/near your house (in my case, 30 feet tall). It's hideous. It looks like we're aiming a deathray at Austin.
As far as how the company is doing, I have no idea. They originally were providing cable TV via microwave for years, and have now added what is basically a cable modem to the end of a microwave antenna. The product is going to be a niche... I don't see these deathray antennas popping up on every house. But for folks with my combination of problems, Nucentrix makes a great solution.