Lisa Phifer explains 802.11 standards (archived Webcast): Josh Garland of SearchNetworking has made available a recent archived Webcast of security and standards expert Lisa Phifer explaining 802.11. I saw Lisa deliver several presentations at 802.11 Planet, and she's has one of clearest methods of explaining complicated technology without missing the details or oversimplifying.

7:12:43 PM    comment   

Peter Lewis weighs in on Wi-Fi hot spots: Pete's an industry veteran (and a mentor), and his rational take on Wi-Fi, free of hype and speculation, is pretty dead on. The future of hot spots isn't assured, but cell operators won't contrariwise just be able to charge a metered rate for slow service, either.

7:11:01 PM    comment   

The Stamford, Conn.-based research firm says the average handheld TCO is a whopping $3,000 per user per year, going up to $4,554 if you add a separate wireless modem. How can this be, given that many pocket-size personal digital assistants (PDA) cost as little as $300 off the shelf?

"What adds up are the number of line items, which many people don't think of on their own," says Gartner analyst Phillip Redman, referring to hidden costs such as training and IT support. It's "death by a thousand paper cuts," he says.
4:04:30 PM    comment   

Or maybe you took a seemingly more conservative approach and signed up the mobile workers for just 500 minutes a month, even if some of those workers then used additional minutes at premium rates.

In either case, savvy telecommunications buyers such as FedEx Freight and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNSF) say you've played right into the scheme national cellular carriers such as AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Sprint PCS Group use to maximize their revenues.
4:02:44 PM    comment   

FCC approves Vivato's antennas: Vivato received a splash of attention a few weeks ago with the demonstration of their phased-array antenna, a device which can essentially create individual focused beams of Wi-Fi access that follow devices as they roam. Their technique apparently offers a cost-effective way to light up entire buildings and offer long-haul wireless service.

The one holdup was receiving FCC approval because no devices quite like theirs have been approved for Part 15 unlicensed use. This clears that hurdle, and Vivato has said before that they hoped to have devices in production in the first quarter of 2003.

Vivato could have a disruptive and positive influence on the hot spot market, reducing the cost of setting up larger facilities, like airports or hotels, from millions to tens of thousands of dollars. Additionally, by reducing the overhead in managing a corporate wireless LAN through fewer devices with better coverage, they could hasten the expansion of WLAN deployment.

[80211b News]
3:12:06 PM    comment   

Note:  One thing I have long wanted to do is to borrow a lot of money from a Japanese bank at less than 1% (the current interest rate for high quality corporates), convert it into dollars, hedge the dollar conversion with a derivative, and buy zero coupon US treasuries.  This is a license to print money at 2.5% a year.  Amazing that more people don't do it.  Of course, it came as no surprise when I heard that John Templeton, perhaps one of the smartest long-term investors I have run across is doing exactly that as a major part of his personal investment strategy.  It goes to prove:  it takes money to make money.

3:10:59 PM    comment   

At least Google is moving closer towards owning the semantic web, and nobody is fussing.  They already have a web service interface, and webquotes allows what is essentially annotation metadata about a resource.  And assuming that Sergey was not leading Dave on at the conference last week, they are gung-ho about allowing people to update metadata directly into Google.  Am I the only person who is grasping the full potential of this?

Here is something to think about:  if you could "push" your web pages to Google to be indexed, and Google already caches those pages for access, why would you even have a web server?  If you publish to Google's cloud, you get automatic indexing, metadata like who is linking to you, and more.  And Google can add little semantic web-like features such as webquotes every few months to keep you hooked.  Then, the advantages of a central index really kick in when metadata starts to explode.  Obviously Google isn't pushing the "we made a better Internet" angle yet, but they could -- and the fact that they are so carefully surrounding key strategic bits of territory is not a coincidence.  I think AOL and MSFT both blew it already, and the Google guys are not as "aww, shucks, we just like to write web crawler software" as they talk.  Game over; the tired old Internet can't compete.

I wonder why nobody is publicly speculating yet about why Microsoft seems to be so interested in location services?

2:24:32 PM    comment