My Long Bet Against Mobile Carriers: Update 1

Late last year, I extended my T-Mobile contract 2 years. When I signed it, I had a hunch it will be the last time I’m locked into an agreement like that. Now, I’m confident – so confident that if I was holding any mobile carrier stock, I’d start shorting. A couple weeks back, we got …

Planting Flowers for a Walled Garden

Peter Fleck is asking about content guidelines for Minneapolis’ wireless portal. My initial thoughts….. Some of you may know I worked on a similar project (same idea, but in the private sector) back around 2000. All the problems we struggled with then are non-existant now (syndication formats, wireless equipment, etc). Since the U of M’s …

Wednesday, March 7, 2007 11:33:43 AM

I wasn’t getting the upload speeds I was expecting. Not by a long shot. After troubleshooting the dsl line and the modem itself, the Speakeasy rep and I determined the Linksys WRT54G router was the issue. Upgrading the firmware to v4.21.1 didn’t improve anything. Then, after poking around the router’s admin settings, I found the …

WiFi and Complementary Kid’s Meals are the Same Thing.

Back a few months ago, the family Smith and family Van Buren dined at a Claim Jumpers Restaurant. I’m still impressed, that by default, they came out with a complementary kid’s plate (cheese sticks, tortilla, deli turkey slice). If you have kids, you understand how brilliant this is. It shows the restaurant actually acknowledges parents …

Star Tribune on Muni WiFi: FUD or Just Wrong?

The Strib’s Steve Alexander is on a Muni-WiFi bashing kick. In Sunday’s Slowdown in the Fast Lane, the angle was how the forthcoming Minneapolis muni-WiFi will make the current cable and DSL offerings look paltry and non-competitive. Oh – and we don’t get the maximum bandwidth out of our current pipes anyway. Really? Muni-WiFi isn’t …

Finally – Multiple Speakers in iTunes AirTunes

Spent a few moments over lunch refining my wireless network, while making sure everything worked as expected, I noticed a ‘Multiple Speakers’ option in my iTunes v6.0.5 (20). About Frigging Time! When we first set up the Airport Express, I was baffled why I couldn’t have the same music playing in the room with the …

NetGear Skype WiFi Phone Available for Pre-Order

I’ve been anxiously awaiting something like the NetGear Skype WiFi Phone. The potential is huge – if only to un-tether me from the laptop for podcast calls. This’d be great for taking calls around the house, out in the garage, or chilling in the backyard. UPDATE 18 May 2006: Linksys just announced their WiFi Phone. …

Citywide WiFi Needed in the Twin Cities, As Is Symmetrical DSL

I grabbed lunch with Leif Utne earlier this week. As you might expect, it was a pretty intense conversation on podcasting, technology, politics, and the overlap. First order of business, I’m down with Minneapolis going with a private company to run citywide WiFi network for the two reasons cited in the Strib article: Startup CostsThe …