July 7, 2005
Man arrested and charged with stealing WiFi signal
CNN.com - Man charged with stealing Wi-Fi signal - Jul 7, 2005 wow, I hope the police don't find better ways to catch these "thieves", half of my friends would go to jail. I wonder if this is a crime in a large city where lots of businesses leave open WiFi access points?
Posted by Martin at 10:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 13, 2005
Try Network magic Beta
Are you the LAN admin of your home? Tired of incompatible systems and no consistent UI? Try out Pure Networks Network Magic Beta (yea full disclosure, it is an Ignition Partners portfolio company). When I first installed it, it didn't work because I am using a Cisco 340 AeroNet router at home, but I have been meaning to slap the Linksys up anyway. Review in a minute after I hook up.
Posted by Martin at 11:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 3, 2004
Technology that actually helps my life
Now here is something useful from Virgin Wireless in Australia. Cell phone hangs up on drunken dialers | CNET News.com Especially useful during this holiday season. Now how do you do the reverse? Prevent the drunks from calling me? I recently got a new cell phone and before my number moved over, i received many late night calls to the former owner (who I suspect was in the Pharmaceutical business).
Posted by Martin at 8:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 16, 2004
Just when I had thought I found the perfect phone...
An astute reader, Rob Currie from Redpoint pointed out:
Hi Martin,
ATTWS is replacing 850Mhz TDMA spectrum with 850MHz GSM spectrum and as a result the newer US targeted tri-band phones are 850/1800/1900. If you purchase a foreign tri-band then it's usually 900/1800/1900 - a huge loss with respect to coverage due to the better propagation of 850.That's why I went with the quad band v500/v600. I've run across a lot of people purchasing 900/1800/1900 tri-band phones for world coverage and in the process severely handicapping their home coverage without knowing it.
Rob
------------------------
So I walked over to talk to our resident ATTWS experts in the telco group and did find out that my coverage on ATTWS is about half what it could be. This because my phone only connects to ATTWS cells running at 1900. Now with the Cingular network merger, they have inmarket roaming so I can use the 1900 Cingular cells as well. But all new GSM antennas at ATTWS are going to be 850. So the real killer phone for world coverage (including US) is a quad phone doing 850/900/1800/1900. Well off to e-bay....
Posted by Martin at 1:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 12, 2004
Wow, UltraWideBand by Christmas!
Thanks Mark for point out this in your recent SNS.
"I first brought this rather amazing technology to SNSers attention perhaps five years ago, when it was still in the R and D stage. This week Motorola's Freescale chip spinout got approval from the FCC to begin shipping UltraWideBand chipsets (immediately) for product integration; the company expects to see products using these chips as early as this Christmas (see Quotes)."
This means 110mb wireless between devices. That means wireless video to my flat panels, wireless sound to speakers, etal. Just in time for my new house! Glad I waited.
Posted by Martin at 5:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 3, 2004
Hacking my Nokia 6230 onto ATTWS network
I bought a unlocked Nokia 6230 on Ebay (actually from a guy in Bellevue that ships from a wharehouse in Taiwan. Very cool in that the keyboard has the chinese characters on it. But of course ATTWS does not support the phone yet. Lots of searching on the web didn't turn up the exact right settings. The Nokia site and Wireless Services did not get me the right settings by SMS because they don't support the phone yet. I tried to download some settings for phones that looked similar, but to no avail. So here dear reader I have the WAP, MMS, and Internet settings for the Nokia 6230 running on ATT Wireless.
MMS:
Settings' Name: AWS MMS
Homepage: http://mmsc.mobile.attwireless.net
Proxies: Enable
Primary Proxy: 010.250.250.055:8080
Secondary proxy: :8080
Data bearer: GPRS
Connection Settings -> Bearer Settings
GRPS access point: proxy
Authentication: Normal
User name: [blank]
Password: [blank]
WAP/Internet:
Settings' Name: mMode
Homepage: http://hoome
Proxies: Enable
Primary Proxy: 010.250.250.054:8080
Secondary proxy: :8080
Data bearer: GPRS
Connection Settings -> Bearer Settings
GRPS access point: proxy
Authentication: Normal
Login type: Automatic
User name: [blank]
Password: [blank]
Have fun! I love the phone! I have a bunch of music loaded on it. I also use the FM receiver quite a bit. With the camera in my pocket I definitely take more pictures and movies. I recorded Finn saying something for my ring. very fun.
Posted by Martin at 3:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 2, 2004
World Record Bluetooth file transfer
Wi-Fi Toys reports a 1KM file transfer from a standard bluetooth cell phone. Thought it was safe to walk around with your cell phone Bluetooth on default? I use my Nokia 6230 with a Jabra 250 connected, but I am reconsidering it. There is an increasing group of BlueDriving hackers that are taking up where WarDriving started. Security threats everywhere. Investment opportunities everywhere...
Posted by Martin at 3:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 7, 2004
Wimax will kill the WiFi star
Well more people are piling onto a prediction I made over a year ago that there won't be any profitable business in retail WiFi access points. Wireless VC Losses 'Max'imized :: AO. There are two forces conspiring against commercial WiFi. First is FREE. Why pay when there are 100x more free access points around? Converage of free access points in Seattle is now far superior to commercial spots. The second is the oncoming WiMax. WiMax access points will be $400 at Amazon next year. And $200 in 2006. Why slurp WiFi when you can get the firehose of WiMax?
Posted by Martin at 8:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 14, 2004
One man's view of mobile commerce Value Chain
The mobile content value chain by Movisto founder Shawn Conahan.
Posted by Martin at 3:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 18, 2004
Yet another wireless connectivity standard from CEBIT
Wireless alliance touts 'magic touch' RFID technology - ZDNet UK News. Nokia, Sony and Philips announce the Near Field Communication (NFC) alliance which basically uses an RFID chip for authentication of the client (rather than pure software like Bluetooth or 802.11) and then data can be passed using existing wireless protocols like Bluetooth. To me this just looks like a tightening up of the security model for device to device transactions, not a new protocol. But what do I know...
eat'
Posted by Martin at 10:22 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 28, 2004
WiMax coming
I have been starting to see WiMax start-ups. IDG likes it too.
Posted by Martin at 12:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 9, 2003
Andronics remote water monitoring service
Have been thinking about wireless sensor networks. There are lots of verticals that could benefit from wireless sensor networks being applied there. A quick google search found these guys doing it for water treatent plants. Andronics wins award.
It would be nice to look across all the verticals that may beneft from wireless sensor networks and see where the greatest opportunity may be.
Posted by Martin at 1:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 8, 2003
Wireless internet meets green energy
those crazy brits. Two of my favorite subjects together. iTrike: The World's First Solar-Powered Internet Rickshaw! Not so much a practical application, but a publicity stunt. We need more of these. Raise awareness of how to be cyberconnected, but earth-responsible at the same time.
Posted by Martin at 7:06 PM | Comments (0)
May 28, 2003
Beware of WiFi cards left on!
<p>True story.</p>
<p>I just returned from a day down and back to SF on the Alaska SARs shuttle. My laptop is a Toshiba Protege with built-in WiFi. There is a little switch on the front of it with an "off" and "on" switch so you can turn the radio off to preserve power when not needing it. I found out today there are many other reasons to turn it off. Normally I leave it on all the time just to see if there are available WiFi hotspots to hop onto. Today on the way back from SF on the plane at 30,000 feet, I figured there wouldn't be any WiFi connectivity, but decided to check anyway (I am a geek). There was another laptop with a WiFi card beconing me to connect to "beauty1" as an ad-hoc network. What the heck I punched connect. It seconds, I was cruising another laptop somewhere in the 737. I checked out the outlook.pst file, copies of the contact database as a .csv file, lots of business .ppt presentations, some music files, lots of spreadsheets, and even a copy of the guy's resume! I could have copied anything I wanted. Or planted a virus. Gosh, where is a good virus when you need it? In the process of having all this fun with another guy's laptop I had the realization that maybe he was snooping me too! dooh!</p>
<p>So there are two things you can do to reduce your exposure. </p>
<p>1. Turn off your WiFi radio, or remove the card when you are not actively looking to connect to a WiFi network (safest).<br />
2. If you have to leave it on in a public place, go to the configuration settings and check "do not share files and printers with others". This will limit the resources another person can see even if they connect to your computer. </p>
<p>Be ware out there.</p>
<p><br />
</p>
Posted by Martin at 8:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack