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Archive for December, 2004

Cellular Insurgency

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 17th, 2004

Smart Mobs points to an article from the The Christian Science Monitor about North Korean telecomm. In a country where nearly every facet of society is controlled, North Korean authorities are encountering a new foe: the cellphone.
It was only last year that [...]

Spot Beam Satellite Launched

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 17th, 2004

The AMC-16, a hybrid Ku/Ka band spot-beam satellite, owned by SES AMERICOM, has been successfully launched by an Atlas V rocket provided by International Launch Services. SES will beam hundreds of channels to American homes — the first time U.S. customers are served from a foreign-licensed satellite.
[...]

Solar PC

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 17th, 2004

SolarPC manufactures high quality Mini-ITX computers for home, business, educational, mobile and industrial applications. All SolarPC Systems utilize efficient 12 volt DC power and small aluminum cases that run quiet and cool. Just add sunshine.

EPIA MII boards are available in [...]

UWB Tracking Tags

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 17th, 2004

The FCC has certified the UWB (ultra wide-band) tracking technology of Ubisense, a Denver-based developer of RFID indoor location positioning systems. The FCC certification gives Ubisense the green light to sell its products in the U.S. Unlike conventional RFID systems, which operate on single bands of the [...]

Christmas Wish

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 16th, 2004

After trying to watch the local nightly tv news, I finally gave up (again). It was unwatchable. Tabloid. Inspired, I wrote a moronic note to the news director, suggesting more coverage of sex. The station (KOIN), has canned all their veteran newspeople and now produces (mostly) garbage. [...]

FCC: Nextel Gets Spectrum Credit

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 16th, 2004

The Street reports one day after the $35 billion Sprint/Nextel merger was unveiled (NewsHour), published reports indicate the Nextel is due a windfall for its participation in a government-brokered wireless spectrum swap.
The FCC is circulating a new draft of an order that would grant Nextel the $452 million credit [...]

10K APs Unwire Taipei

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 16th, 2004

Aptilo Networks will supply the management platform for Taipei City’s huge WiFi cloud. The network is expected to make WiFi access as easy as using cell phones for virtually all of Taipei City s 2.65 million inhabitants. Taipei plans to make wireless internet access available everywhere by the [...]

City Clouds Sell Out?

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 16th, 2004

Dana Blankenhorn explains How Cities Should Deal With WiFi
…Cities should be building WiMax (802.16) networks. The big problem for 802.11 remains backhaul. If Bells control backhaul, they determine the price of Internet service. We found this in the CLEC business. This monopoly must be broken. [...]

Broadband Manifesto

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 16th, 2004

Engadget tells the tale of a noble hack; adding WiFi to the popular Treo 650 ($449). Treo Central has the details.
Plenty of Treo 650 owners were cheesed off that palmOne released their new smartphone without support for their WiFi SD card ($129), which officially only works [...]

EZ Billing from Sputnik

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 15th, 2004

Sputnik has announced new software modules for credit card and PayPal payments to their remarkable line of managed access points. The inexpensive Sputnik APs like the $99 AP 160 or $199 AP 220 can be centrally controlled. You can create different splashpages for each hotspot and monitor their [...]