31 August 2002

Sighting: AirTouch Networks War Driving Kit It's handy to have a way to sniff around your WiFi network and Airtouch Networks War Driving Kit makes it easy to do by using a laptop for security auditing on wireless LANs. All kits currently include sniffing software, 802.11b radio NIC, and antenna. Airtouch sells different versions of the kit with varying antennas types. The Enthusiast Kit comes with a medium power, car-mountable, omni-directional antenna. Other versions include the Beginner Kit ($299), which comes with a lower power omni- directional antenna, and the Pro Kit ($499), that includes a higher power, car- mountable omni-directional antenna.

Personal Knowledge Publishing KILKENNY, Ireland -- Why would so many people want to offer up their thoughts in a randomly wired Internet Commons? In Sebastian Paquet's ongoing quest to understand why personal knowledge publishing is becoming especially popular with certain professions, it occurred "that people in these professions have another thing in common: they generally have little to hide, and sharing improves the quality of their work output." Stephen Downes thinks "educators play the same sort of role in society as journalists. They are aggregators, assimilators, analysts and advisors." They are middle links in an ecosystem, or as John Hiler puts it, parasites on information produced by others. And they are being impacted by alternative forms of learning in much the same way, for much the same reasons. We're all part of an Information Food Chain.