MetaFilter posts tagged with wifi

Fewer Twitters with caffeine jitters?

Shepherd — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:36:43 -0800

According to the Wall Street Journal, coffee shops in New York are starting to cut back on laptops -- by reducing WiFi privileges, removing outlets, or banning the machines outright. This article has spawned a vast number of spin-off pieces and conversations across the Web. Meanwhile, the quest for a place to lounge in the glow of unlimited Internet use continues to be a beacon... even here on MetaFilter.

Help the police

Kirth Gerson — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:45:30 -0800

"Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations." To be fair, it's not just Republicans who like this idea.

Allergic to WiFi

socalsamba — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:49:38 -0800

Are you allergic to WiFi? Some residents of Sante Fe, NM certainly think they are and they want to take away municipal WiFi to sate their delusions.

But who wants to do math? Math is hard. Scaring ignorant people is easy.

Artw — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:04:09 -0800

Wi-fi Routers: Silent blinking death. Via badscience.net, where it was posted in response to what sounds like a truly awful show. Electrosensitivity previously discussed here.

The latest in tinfoil hat fashion.

scblackman — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:29:28 -0800

"Is Wi-Fi going to turn out to be the tobacco, asbestos or Thalidomide of the 21st century? It's looking that way." Woman choses to live in a Faraday cage to ameliorate the symptoms caused by electrosmog. It's funny that she looks so much like a beekeeper in her fancy hat, given the recent kerfuffle (from another UK paper) about mobile phones wiping out the bees. Coming soon: faraday undies. [via]

This is the internet upside down

klangklangston — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:09:22 -0800

They'll never piggyback on your wireless again Your router makes the computer look funny. (via MeTa)

Power outlets in airports wiki

allkindsoftime — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 00:25:19 -0800

AirPower Wiki looks like its just getting off the ground, but if you travel much, you know the hassle of finding a power outlet in an airport. Hopefully it grows fast and furiously.

WiFi Piggybacking Arrest - revisited.

twiggy — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 07:01:30 -0800

Another wifi-related arrest was publicized today. In the past, the only case readily available to researchers involved additional seedy activities that are what really drew the arrest. The coffeeshop and other open hotspots show up on several sites such as jiwire and wifinder which are devoted to helping people find wireless hotspots.

In this case, a coffeeshop noticed someone leeching their WiFi parked in his truck -- over the course of 3 months, without ever entering the coffeehouse and making a purchase. While not yet convicted of anything, he has been arrested for "theft of services," and this could mean the first precedent set for whether or not "wireless piggybacking" is illegal. The case becomes especially interesting for both sides of the ethical debate on "borrowing" wireless. One one side of the judge's opinion will be the fact that the coffeehouse is a public place, not a private home. On the other side, it turns out the man who was arrested just so happens to be a registered sex offender, though this coincidental fact is not technically relevant to the case.

Spare some WiFi for Indian Food

tozturk — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 19:02:49 -0800

Have extra Indian food around your house? Trade it once a month for free Wi-Fi access. Sharing WiFi via Google Maps [via mefi projects] If you've got WiFi and are willing to share it - or you can can 'see' someone else's WiFi and would like to use it - you're in the right place.

Wireless City

The Jesse Helms — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 15:50:39 -0800

New Orleans becomes the first US city with free citywide wifi.

The Heart of Silicon Valley beats for WiFi

sarahnade — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 11:01:44 -0800

Newsfilter: Mountain View plans WiFi city. The Mountain View, CA City Council has approved an offer from Google to rent the city's street lamps for $12,600/year to install city-wide wireless internet. Some residents are concerned about privacy and health issues, but the city council says that's beyond their scope, and chooses to take the free lunch. (Disclaimer: I live here.)

SBC Vonage Google Internet pay Yahoo

thedailygrowl — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 22:30:56 -0800

"They use my lines for free -- and that's bull." The CEO of SBC Communications Inc. Ed Whitacre launched this criticism at the likes of Vonage, Google,Yahoo and MSN. Meanwhile Google is seeking some alternative paths to the Internet.Perhaps SBC should head the old adage from John Gilmore "the net treats censorship as a defect and routes around it”Or perhaps these companies need to pay the proverbial Internet plumbers; myself, I prefer more competition;my phone bill has never been lower!

Google Nationwide WIFI

Mave_80 — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 08:58:40 -0800

Googlenet. What if Google wanted to give Wi-Fi access to everyone in America? And what if it had technology capable of targeting advertising to a user’s precise location? The gatekeeper of the world’s information could become one of the globe’s biggest Internet providers and one of its most powerful ad sellers, basically supplanting telecoms in one fell swoop. What was speculation this last month, now seems to be getting closer. However, it looks like it's raising hackles, similar to the ugly memories of google web accelerator beta which was cancelled just a few days after release

Gas, Grass, or Ass, But No One Rides For Free

NotMyselfRightNow — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 09:41:19 -0800

"More than 10-million U.S. homes are equipped with [wi-fi] routers that transmit high-speed Internet to computers using radio signals. The signals can extend 200 feet or more." And Benjamin Smith was just arrested for going online through an unsecured one that didn't belong to him.

It begs the Doonesbury question: Isn't it still a free country?

WiFi Thank You

sciurus — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 10:32:41 -0800

Wi-Fi Thank You is a place where you can send a thank you message to anyone who provides a free Wi-Fi hotspot.

Government is going after free WiFi

mountainmambo — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 11:22:31 -0800

Republican Congressman Pete Sessions from Texas introduced a bill that would make all free, public, municipal WiFi illegal. Sessions, as it turns out, is a big fat recipient of SBC funds. Why stop there? Should we privatize highways as well? How about subways? Glad the liberal media is all over this one. Here are a couple of links: Original post on DailyKos, An informative editorial from the Fort Wayne paper

Save the BetaMax!!!

fenriq — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 10:11:40 -0800

Endangered Gizmos via the EFF (warning, they do want your money to continue fighting "to defend our rights to think, speak, and share our ideas, thoughts, and needs using new technologies, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web.")
Lawsuits have driven some excellent consumer products into extinction, like the ReplayTV 4000, DVD X Copy and the lamented wild and crazy Napster 1.0 including what drove them into extinction. They also list endangered gizmos like the HD TV PCI Card, Morph eus and Generic FireWire, open Wifi hot spots and CD burners.
Among the "saved" gizmos is the Skylink garage door opener which had been attacked under the DMCA.

Campin' with the net

Doohickie — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 17:30:17 -0800

FutureIsNowFilter "TengoInternet and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced a pilot program to offer wireless Internet service at five Texas state parks... The wireless service will allow park guests while visiting the park to access the Internet to gain park information, send e-mail or pictures, or just surf the Web, without cords having to physically plug into a network."
Shouldn't be camping be more about nature than technology?

Shirky: Spectrum as resource

freebird — Mon, 16 Aug 2004 12:52:42 -0800

A nice article on some of the engineering and economics aspects of WiFi, and the history of frequency regulation in the USA.

Build your own wokfi system!

X-00 — Sun, 16 May 2004 18:45:43 -0800

USB adaptors & a Spider Skimmer = Poor Man's Wifi!

WiFi (Networks) Against Bush

silusGROK — Wed, 12 May 2004 09:57:28 -0800

WiFi Against Bush is an interesting twist on viral marketing aimed at our neighborhoods and the occassional warchalker — let everyone in within range of your router know what you _really_ think of the President.

Via the venerable Shifted Librarian.

It's like cruising for sex for geeks.

WolfDaddy — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 10:12:16 -0800

Catch some waves... for free! Wi-Fi Freespot will help. Via my roommate's co-workers, who keep sending this round e-mail circuits. I don't know why they include me. I hate technology.

Concsience pricker

marvin — Wed, 08 Oct 2003 17:28:35 -0800

WiFi-SM is "a Wi-Fi-capable patch you stick on your body so you can feel painful shocks whenever news stories are published containing keywords that you enter into the software". (via Mikes List) Who needs this when we have MetaFilter?...

McD Wireless

sparky — Wed, 09 Jul 2003 06:17:28 -0800

McD Wireless Beginning today, many McDonald’s restaurants around the Bay area will provide Wi-Fi with a side of fries... Previously discussed in March.

iLoo

ginz — Wed, 07 May 2003 03:41:38 -0800

Would you queue for the iLoo? [More inside]