Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

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Aaron Swartz in The Wireless Future:

Let me tell you how it will go:

Apple gets tired of releasing new, faster wireless hardware (AirPort, AirPort Extreme, AirPort Insane, AirPort Illegal). So they release one box, software upgradeable to use whatever new protocols and frequencies become available. As consumers clamor for more bandwidth the FCC opens up more spectrum, making the adjustable boxes more valuable.

Meanwhile the boxes are getting stronger too, able to push bits for farther distances. They[pi]re cheap and popular enough that all of San Francisco is covered a forest of overlapping wireless. It[pi]s time to unify them. The next software upgrade turns this collection of hub-and-spoke networks into one large mesh, letting packets bounce from one base station to another, perhaps stopping at a few laptops in between.

This giant network becomes the home to a high-bandwidth file sharing network. The RIAA and MPAA look on in horror. There[pi]s no ISP to go after, if they shut down one node the packets just bounce thru a different path. [greater equal]At least it[pi]s just San Francisco,[less equal] they think.

Brewster buys a faster Internet connection and opens it up to this giant wireless network. Everyone in SF cancels their cruddy cable and DSL service, and uses real high-speed two-way Internet connections, running their email and web servers from home, like the creators intended.

Interesting thought about the boxes. On the Web, this little Lindows MobilePC runs rings around my Titanium laptop. And that's with either Netscape or Konqueror, while the TiBook runs Safari, a Konqueror derivative.

The LinBook is an appliance: the computing equivalent of a cell phone or a digital camera. And for a similar price: under $800.

My point: we're ready for the Net equivalent of the telephone. Does anybody care how "fast" a phone is? Bare functionality is all that matters. How much more do we want a Net appliance to do?

Here's the trend to watch.

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