From jim at media.mit.edu Fri Nov 7 12:04:19 2003 From: jim at media.mit.edu (Jim Youll) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 12:04:19 -0500 Subject: [Rooftops] Fwd: FW: [CTC] Muniwireless.com Message-ID: <200311071647.hA7GlJ2s011484@new.agentzero.com> >Subject: Muniwireless.com >Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 10:59:27 -0500 > >http://www.muniwireless.com/ > >This site is devoted to municipal wireless projects worldwide >that are funded and/or run by cities and towns. These can be >simple downtown hotspots or city-wide wireless broadband networks >designed to bring cheap broadband to all local residents. >Although we often use the word "city", rural municipalities >receive equal coverage because they are leading the fight for >affordable, universal access to the Internet. > >We have included a category called Community Wireless to >highlight wireless projects organized and run by local residents, >with or without support from the municipality. We believe that >these grassroots initiatives force local and regional governments >to support affordable wireless (and wired) broadband access to >the Internet whether it be through financial or regulatory means. > >We also deliver news about wireless technologies (Wi-Fi, >metropolitan area networks), the many ways in which people have >made wireless access part of their lives, legal and regulatory >issues affecting wireless access, and the rise of city carriers. > >To make this site even more useful for municipalities and >regions, hardware and service providers, we have included topics >on where to find money for projects (subsidies), tenders (to help >those issuing public tenders), tender responses (for those >responding to public tenders) and reports on how municipalities >around the world are tackling their wireless projects. > >We would like to hear from you about stories, links, and contact >details of people involved in projects. If we have made any >errors or our news items need to be updated, please email: >info at muniwireless.com. > >Who we are > >Muniwireless.com is an initiative of Lemon Cloud BV, an >Amsterdam-based legal and consulting services company. Lemon >Cloud's services include providing in-house legal counsel >services on a part-time basis, drafting and negotiating >agreements for sales, licensing, and distribution transactions, >assisting companies in closing large licensing and distribution >deals, creating an intellectual property infrastructure for >early-stage companies, sales force training, assisting IT >companies in fundraising and M&A, and business development >activities for clients. > >The founder, Esme Vos, is an intellectual property lawyer, gadget >freak, writer and former chemist. She has written >technology-related articles for Europemedia.net and remains >passionate about the Mac, one year after switching from Windows. >She believes in affordable Internet broadband access for everyone >and wants to help people and their local governments find ways to >get around the roadblocks posed by local telecom and cable >incumbents that have kept access prohibitively expensive or >unavailable. When not lawyering, consulting, writing or ranting >about expensive broadband, she travels, cooks, runs and >meditates. From jim at media.mit.edu Mon Nov 10 08:16:47 2003 From: jim at media.mit.edu (Jim Youll) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 08:16:47 -0500 Subject: [Rooftops] PocketHop launches w/ $5M in financing Message-ID: <200311101259.hAACxU2s018539@new.agentzero.com> Just saw this come across VentureWire... >Wireless Networking -- Belmont, Calif. > o Mesh Networking Firm PacketHop Launches with $5M > >PacketHop, a producer of mobile mesh networking >software, said it has launched with $5 million in >financing. > >Read the full story at: >http://alert.venturewire.com/storyFull.asp?sid=NQQLHHLNNJ >http://www.packethop.com and perhaps of interest to some on this list, they're hiring: >We're Hiring! >We're looking for senior software engineers with experience in wireless, >networking, systems, applications, Windows, or Linux; >senior QA engineers; system and network operations staff; and >senior user interface designers. > >Please submit your resume to jobs at packethop.com From jim at media.mit.edu Mon Nov 10 08:48:54 2003 From: jim at media.mit.edu (Jim Youll) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 08:48:54 -0500 Subject: [Rooftops] Given ubiquitous 802.11, what comes next? Message-ID: <200311101331.hAADVc2s019642@new.agentzero.com> // Here's a thought problem for you: // John Mello writes in today's Globe about ultraportable laptops, and casts them in // light of "wireless hot spots popping up like toadstools after a downpour" // (I am happy to elaborate on the toadstool thing for those of you who grew up in // and have always lived in the city)... // // Below is a decent review of a decent small computer, the Sharp Actius AV18P // See it at http://www.sharpsystems.com/products/pc_notebooks/actius/av/18p/ // Sharp are selling it with 2,000 free minutes of T-Mobile hotspot time // // My big question is: // Given ubiquitous 802.11 via a mix of free and paid hotspots // (assume that all the for-pay operators will get their acts together and allow customer roaming) // what next? // what classes of consumer devices will exist? How close are we to those devices now? // how much in software, how much in hardware? Does anything change at all? // Will IP phones catch on bigtime given that conventional cellular is now very cheap // especially with the coming of number portability on Nov 24, and the emphasis on // new services and new handsets as business drivers? // // the floor is open! Appealing to the new mobile users Sharp Actius combines features with bold price By John P. Mello Jr., 11/10/2003 This year may be known as the year of the lugtop, those desktop computers masquerading as laptops that have become le dernier cri among many consumers. But now that wireless hot spots are popping up like toadstools after a downpour, we may start to see lighter, trimmer byteboxes garnering greater favor in the coming months. These ultraportable laptops feature processors designed for the demands of mobile computing, such as low power consumption, and include wireless networking as part of their overall package. A new entry into this ultraportable category is the Sharp Actius AV18P notebook, which sells for between $1,389 and $1,499 on the Internet. That's a good price for a svelte unit like this one. At around 3.7 pounds, this Actius is a bit heavier than some of its rivals in the market, like the Dell Latitude X300 and Sony Vaio PCG-TR1A, but this silver-and-black beauty is still plenty portable. Not only will it not prompt any unscheduled trips to the chiropractor, but its compact size -- slightly shorter and a little wider than a letter-size notepad -- will fit conveniently in a briefcase, with space to spare. The unit sports a bright and sharp 12.1-inch XGA low-reflection display with a native resolution of 1024-by-768 dots and maximum video RAM of 32 megabytes. Many ultraportable models are being built around Intel Centrino technology, but Sharp has equipped this Actius with a mobile chip from AMD, its Athlon XP-M. Running at 1.53 gigahertz, the processor offers a higher clock speed than found in base models of some of its rivals. The Actius base models have 256 megabytes of memory, expandable to 768 megabytes. That's low compared to Centrino machines, which can be expanded to more than a gigabyte of memory. If you plan to have long keyboard sessions with your laptop, you may want to think twice about the Actius. The keyboard action is stiff, and the keys have a shallow stroke. Although the alphanumeric keys are a good size -- as are the left-shift, backspace, and enter keys -- the cursor keys and left shift key are on the small side. The lithium ion battery is rated at 2.7 hours, but it can be extended with an optional extra battery to more than five hours. That optional battery pack, though, will boost the weight of the unit over 4 pounds, which is exiting ultraportable range and entering traditional laptop territory. Battery life, of course, is dependent on what you're doing with the machine. If you try to watch a DVD movie on battery power, you won't make it to the end of the flick before running out of juice, unless you're watching a short subject. The unit has a 40-gigabyte hard drive and no floppy drive, not a significant omission these days, although an optional, external USB one can be purchased. Its optical drive will read and write CDs at a peppy 24x, as well as play DVDs. Actius has a full complement of input and output ports: two USB 2.0 ports, a four-pin FireWire (IEEE 1394) port, microphone and audio-out jacks, S-video output, external monitor socket, PC Card slot, 56K modem, 100/10 Ethernet port, and a volume control dial. Antennas for the unit's 802.11b wireless networking capabilities are built into the sides of the display. The software package included with the Actius is skimpy. There's Adobe Acrobat reader for viewing PDF files, the ubiquitous InterVideo WinDVD for displaying DVD content, Outlook Express for e-mail applications, and the usual Microsoft freebies. The assumption is that the Actius will supplement a desktop machine with ample software that can be installed on the Sharp notebook. That assumption, from my experience, isn't far-fetched. One of the first things I do when I buy a new laptop is to purge most of the software packaged with it and install the more robust programs that I'm used to working with. In the past, ultraportables were seen as a tool for mobile professionals and were priced that way. That profile may change significantly in the coming months, largely due to the proliferation of wireless networking. With this Actius, Sharp can satisfy the old profile of the ultraportable user, but with its bold pricing and incorporation of entertainment features like a CD burner and DVD viewer, it has positioned this unit to appeal to the new breed of mobile notebook user, too. John P. Mello Jr. is a freelance writer. He can be reached at jpmello at cox.net. // THE ABOVE WAS THE FULL TEXT OF http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2003/11/10/appealing_to_the_new_mobile_users?mode=PF From jim at media.mit.edu Tue Nov 18 13:20:02 2003 From: jim at media.mit.edu (Jim Youll) Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:20:02 -0500 Subject: [Rooftops] Fwd: Fw: Unarmed Robbery - Kendall Square area Message-ID: <200311181801.hAII1u8i001833@new.agentzero.com> IMHO... I believe this recent robbery in Kendall Square illustrates one of the two primary reasons people will never use expensive, visible-to-others computers for wireless Internet access in public spaces. It's not just the risk of being seen and then robbed that must be taken into consideration, but also the danger that arises from focusing much of one's attention on the private world of the device, and not quite enough on the surroundings. A similar risk is that of stepping into traffic whilst crossing a street and talking on a cell phone. Those of us who work in indoor public spaces (primarily coffeeshops I suppose) are must consider this new risk as well, but I think it's somewhat less a problem, as "attention to surroundings" is needed *after* the laptop has been put away in that case. The other of the two reasons is that it's either too bright, too hot or too cold to be outside with a computer in most places on the planet. >Subject: Fw: Unarmed Robbery - Kendall Square area >Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 12:37:58 -0500 > Cheryl Vossmer > > CRIME ALERT BULLETIN > MIT POLICE DEPARTMENT > Issue Date: November 7, 2003 > > On Monday, November 17, 2003, at approximately 7:50 P.M. an MIT >student was the victim of an unarmed robbery, which occurred on >Dock Street, in Kendall Square as he exited the "T". He had been using his >laptop computer while on the train and believes the suspects followed him >off the train. > > The victim reported that a suspect approached him from behind and >pushed him to the ground. Suspects then fled with the victims backpack >which contained his laptop computer. One suspect told him "Be quiet, do you >want to die?" > > The victim describes the suspects as follows: four males, all >wearing dark clothing , 19 - 22 years of age. He was unable to provide any >further description. > > Cambridge Police and The Police at MIT searched the area with >negative results. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Cambridge >Police >Detectives at 349-3370. > > The Police at MIT Crime Prevention Unit suggests the following >safety precautions: > * While on public transportation pay attention to your >surroundings. Know the location of emergency telephones. > > * If you are reading or utilizing electronic devices put your >book or paper down and look around paying attention to patrons who >enter/exit the train.