If you're even vaguely interested in WiFi (and if you're not why are you reading this? ) you need to look at Glenn's reports from the recent 802.11 Planet conference in Santa Clara. here, here and here. [from: JB Wifi]

Cometa analysis from Unstrung Links with iPass and other roaming systems. Target market is business people. Big competition, are they too late? [from: JB Wifi]

Popdex Another blog tracking site for link whores.

I mentioned yesterady that some factions in the USA consider WiFi to be a threat to "Homeland Security". Today there's an article in Wired. Feds Label Wi-Fi a Terrorist Tool in which federal cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke who said "Companies throughout the country have networks that are wide open because of wireless LANs.... Millions of houses are getting connected, which means that more and more are getting vulnerable," then we have Daniel Devasirvatham, who headed the Homeland Security task force for the Wireless Communications Association International trade association saying "We know that (an attack) could bring down the network of this country very quickly. Once you're on the network, it doesn't matter where you got in,"

Does anyone else find this mildly ridiculous? Let's take that last point. "It doesn't matter were you got in". So if I launched a denial of service attack from a Taiwanese server that I controlled via a box in Australia by using a laptop in Bryant Park with the park's Free WiFi access, Bryant Park is responsible? Hello? Or what if I share WiFi internet access round my home and incidentally someone in the road uses it to attack Whitehouse.gov to what extent am I responsible? These are difficult questions but if we take the view that I and Bryant Park are responsible, what do Feds think we're supposed to do about it? Can we expect them to mandate that all WiFi hardware is to have a Fed chip installed to provide positive identification and that the protocols are modified to ensure the ID is used, and that anyone tampering with it gets a minimum 20 year gaol sentence? And do we really think that will make any difference at all to the ability of a determined hacker to break it?

Scott McNealy famously said "There is no privacy, get over it". Well I'm tempted to say to the Feds, "There is no security, get over it." And put your efforts into securing the critical systems at the centre, not into trying to mandate security at the edge. [from: JB Wifi]

With the Cometa announcement about AT&T, Intel and IBM joining forces to build a US nationwide network of hotspots, I think the WiFi hype meter just went right off the scale. Every technical publication and every technical column in mainstream publications carried the story. But there was a severe lack of intelligent comment or analysis. Now Reiter has published his first thoughts. I'd like to add a couple more.

The sheer scale of the plan is awe inspiring. "20,000 Wi-Fi hot spots", "an access point within five minutes walk of any employee in an urban setting and within five minutes drive in a rural setting". This is either going to take a massive rollout effort or a franchise model.

It's not at all clear what the busines model is going to be. From Reiter, "The Cometa executives said they were not certain how the new network would be used but were convinced that the nation's 100 million Internet users would begin to use their portable computers in new ways once connections are widely and easily available as they travel." As Reiter points out, not certain? They've got to be kidding!

So is this a massive VC, cash and debt based landgrab to secure ownership of the sector? Anyone would think this was 1998 all over again. [from: JB Wifi]

The Register : Nortel Networks is to offer mobile operators a new technology that will seamlessly link their wide-area wireless networks with fast emerging Wi-Fi systems.

The idea behind Nortel's new technology is that mobile operators can offer consumers and enterprises a single 'sign on' and seamless service between 2G/3G networks and Wi-Fi hotspots based on 802.11b.

I can understand the reasoning. But when can we expect WiFi devices to include a Cellphone SIM card? And why should WiFi manufacturers include this? [from: JB Wifi]

I've started an Ecademy WiFi mailing list. Come and join in. [from: JB Wifi]

Lots of good reports coming out of the 802.11 Planet conference.
The future of WiFi wireless technology will encompass voice, cellular networks, the military and even toys.
Wi-Fi: As big as Budweiser? No Bigger
Wireless punches hole in homeland security or how WiFi is one of 5 major security risks in the USA
Boingo Recruiting For Wi-Fi Hotspots
Nortel marries GPRS and Wi-Fi  for seamless roaming between the two types of connection
NIST draft goes final: PDF on security approaches
Glenn has updated his Update to wireless insecurity article

Once more up the hockey stick curve, dear friends. [from: JB Wifi]

Danny O'Brien is blogging the 802.11 Planet conference.

You can see that WiFi is taking off: lots of low-attention-span wide-eyed MBA wolverines sniffing and snarling their business plans on the floor. They already know Sky's overview - they want to know what everyone is going to do for them, or what they can do to everyone else. The conference is much much bigger than last year, but I think the smarts has got a bit more dilute. Ah, well - once more into the J-curve... [thanks, Oblomovka] [from: JB Wifi]

The Wireless LAN (WLAN) Top Sites List has got a good selection of links [from: JB Wifi]

Wild story about a semi-autonomous balloon antenna. Floating at 60,000 feet and maintaining position for 12 months with large slow turning propellers, the balloon is used as an antenna to beam WiFi down to an area of 10 miles radius. [from: JB Wifi]

Just discovered Smart Convergence, another Wireless Lan Blog. Eduardo has got some good coverage of Project Rainbow, the Intel initiative to spread WIFi everywhere. [from: JB Wifi]

SMC adds multi-function Cable Modem gateway ANother multi-function consumer unit. This one's cable modem, WiFi AP, 4 ethernet ports and a firewall. All for $230. [from: JB Wifi]

Keep an eye on SUPERNOVA 2002 There's a stellar cast of speakers and likely to be lots of blogging. [from: JB Ecademy]

This one's a must read for Ecademy London WiFi enthusiasts. Wi-Fi News: London Hot Spot Report : Guest report on London Commercial Hot Spots from Tim Woolford.

Has anyone else got stories of using hotspots from the London streets? [from: JB Wifi]

International Wi-Fi Meetup Day -- Join other Wi-Fi Geeks : Meetup with other local Wi-Fi geeks to talk about the latest developments in wireless technology Wed Dec 11, @7pm

London options include
- CommsPort Limited, 68 Goswell Road, London,
- Marquis of Granby, 2 Rathbone Street, London,
- Jerusalem, 33-34 Rathbone Place, London, [from: JB Wifi]

I just came across an amazing statistic. "Of the 300,466 books published in the U.S. from 1927-1956, only 9,240 are currently available from publishers at any price." The relevance of the 1956 date is that the Sonny Bono copyright extension bill in the USA makes these books copyright rather than public domain. So that's 291,226 out-of-print books that you cannot buy anywhere because the book industry is hoarding it.

This reminds me of Janis Ian's proposal to the record industry. What if the book industry and the record industry created a site where their entire back catalogue of unpublished work was made available for download at a really cheap price? Like a few pence for each song and maybe a few tens of pence for each book. Does anyone think that wouldn't make a ton of money for them out of content that they're not exploiting anyway at the moment? I can think of a whole string of books and music from that canon that I would buy if I could. Like John Shirley's early work; Lewis Shiner's early work; anything by Bob Shea; the albums from the Grateful Dead spin off bands in the mid 70s; Reebop Kwaku Baah & Ganoua, the record of moroccan drummers that I stupidly leant to someone. The dub versions of Rico's Man from Waraika; And so on. [from: JB Ecademy]

Guy Kewney's been using Free WiFi access in St Albans pubs. The deal is pretty good, after all. The pub gets broadband installed, without having to do it all themselves (they pay the broadband) and they get "behind-the-bar" laptop computer for visitors who didn't know there was Internet access, and who will now come back and use it another time. If they sell three extra pints a day, they're breaking even. [from: JB Wifi]

David Reed has a large collection of links to papers on Open spectrum and scaling limits of wireless. [from: JB Wifi]

Very cool map of access points in Estonia covering both free and commercial hotspots. This is a great model of how this should be done in other countries and follows on from my ranting here about the lack of a definitive map for the UK and USA. [from: JB Wifi]