Tuesday, August 27, 2002

I still can't get used to the sight of people walking around airports talking to...someone via a cell phone microphone, looking off into space and avoiding eye contact with people in their realspace. It's a little weird, watching people whose attention and focus is so obviously not here. The lady sitting next to me is very quiet for minutes at a time, and then jolts me with a blast of speech for which I have no context. There's got to be a slang word for this. comment []9:17:35 PM

I'm giving a lot of thought to the changes that will happen when (OK, if, but I'm an optimist) we've got lots of broadband wireless metropolitan area networks up and running. Then, we get: The ability to jump over the local phone companies and use VOIP to call anyone else with home broadband The ability to jump over the cable companies and phone companies for net access Real location transparency - access to information in every context where we live/work/play Always-on network connections among all our tools and toys - computers, stereos, cars, game consoles, cameras, appliances, dog collars, kids' ID bracelets...lots and lots of great applications come to mind It'll definitely change our lives, and I'm betting for the better. More information is a Good Thing. Again, I hope I'm around to see it come to pass. comment []9:12:25 PM

Unwired and Tired This is another first - I'm online and blogging in LAX Terminal 7, courtesy of Boingo's wireless access point and an $8 connect fee. Very cool - may I never again have to lurk about looking for a spare dial-up access connector. Wifi never felt better. That was the good news. The bad news is getting home at 11pm. But at least I'm online. It only took 5 minutes to sign up for the service and give Boingo their cash, but there was a glitch at the end of the signup screens. I got in a loop where Boingo kept asking me to download some required software; I'd fill in a short info screen and hit the download button; then I got sent back to the main Boingo promo screen where I saw a download option, and hitting that brought me full circle to the info screen. After 2 or 3 abortive tries, I gave up and just launched a brower, and voila, I had access. Good service, horrible service activation interface. comment []8:51:37 PM

© Copyright 2002 Jeff Nichols.