Wireless Hot Spots, Unite!

IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE that just ten years ago, major corporations were issuing breathless press releases announcing their arrival to what they called the "Information Superhighway" with the initial launches of their web sites.  

Now that maintaining a corporate web site is expected and universal, those press releases are embarrassing -- sort of like Steve Martin getting excited in the 1979 movie, "The Jerk," because he got listed in the phone book ("My name in print! That really makes somebody! Things are going to start happening to me now.")

A similar phenomenon is happening with the introduction of Wi-Fi hot spots. Ten years from now, every restaurant, coffee shop, gym, camp ground and amusement park will be expected to provide wireless access for customers, much as they're expected to provide a bathroom. But for the next two years, we can look forward to one company after another trumpeting the installation of wireless hotspots with great fanfare and excitement. 

Starbucks was the first major company to do so, announcing wireless access for customers back in August. This week, McDonald's announced that they've installed some 75 hot spots in San Francisco and Silicon Valley restaurants. Barnes & Noble will start testing Wi-Fi in 24 stores in Seattle and Atlanta next month, and plans a nationwide rollout next year. 

But it's not just big companies. The Truck Pride Travel Center in Chicopee, Massachusetts plans to offer Wi-Fi for $5 per hour. Austin Lone Star RV Resort in Texas, charges campers $3 an hour or $45 a month. A company called LinkSpot has installed Wi-Fi in 30 East Coast RV parks and plans 100 more. TengoInternet has equipped 12 parks in California, Texas, Arizona and Florida. Beach Wireless is setting up access kiosks at beaches and marinas in Newport, R.I. iDockUSA has equipped 13 California marinas. A Laundromat called Bar of Soap in Dallas, Texas, now has Wi-Fi. And a company called Serynade is building hot spots in San Francisco Laundromats. It goes on and on. 

Companies are rolling out Wi-Fi hotspots everywhere. Unfortunately, the public isn't interested and the providers are losing money. Why?

The problem is cost. Or, more specifically, value. 

Earlier this month I signed up for Starbuck's wireless access service, which costs about $40 per month -- roughly similar to what I pay for broadband access at my home. That's a lot of (extra) money for access at just one coffee shop. 

When I go camping, I'm expected to pay another $5 per hour for Wi-Fi access. And more when I go to the bookstore. And McDonald's. 

People are going to want ubiquitous wireless access, but aren't going to want to pay the $500 per month it would cost to get it. 

The solution is for Wi-Fi providers to copy the successful ATM model. You can go to just about any ATM in the world and get money from your checking account, usually for a reasonably small fee. Passwords and other account data are accessible. This was achieved through the establishment of Cirrus, STAR, Interlink, Plus and other programs that financial institutions join and adhere to. Individual ATM machines and banks usually support multiple programs. People can go anywhere, find an ATM and get money. It works. 

If a $40-per-month Starbucks account with T-Mobile also came with a discounted price -- say, 50-cents an hour -- on access at McDonald's, Barnes & Noble, campgrounds, gyms and other places -- and if passwords and preferences were recognized everywhere -- I think millions would sign up.

Gartner says about 53,000 Wi-Fi networks will exist in the U.S. by 2008, which makes it seem that you'll be able to access the Internet everywhere you go. But for you and me, it won't matter if there is one network or a million -- nobody is going to pay hundreds of dollars per month for universal wireless access, and few will pay real money to access just a tiny fraction of the networks.

Bad Robots

U.S. and Australian scientists have created a "semi-living artist" robot named MEART that draws pictures. The movement of the robot arm is controlled by rat brain cells in a petri dish on the other side of the planet. The special dish is called a multi-electrode array and has 60 electrodes that facilitate "communication" between neurons and the robot's electronics. Neural signals are sent to a computer that translates neural activity into bad art. The brain cells are in Professor Steve Potter's lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. The robot arm is in the lab of Guy Ben-Ary at the University of Western Australia in Perth. Neurons and arm communicate with each other over the Internet. The purpose of the research is to maximize grant money and also to bridge the communication gap between biological systems and computers. Oddly, they also claim to want to bridge the gap between art and science --  by letting artists know that what they do can be replicated by rat brains in a petri dish. The semi-living artist will be displayed at "ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show" in New York City July 12 and 13 at the Eyebeam Gallery. 

Don't Try This At Home

You know, you really can make a web server out of just about everything, including a guitar. 

Proof You Can Buy Anything on the Web

While geniuses at cell phone and PDA companies work hard to figure out how to make ever smaller usable gadget keyboards, one Cottonwood, Arizona, company called Fentek Industries applies its brainpower to the creation of huge PC keyboards with giant keys! Naturally you can buy them on the web. 

The Art Gallery

There's something breathtaking about advanced computer and communications devices imagined by genius designers unconstrained by reality. These prototypes are from NEC. 

For the Price of a Tall, Non-Fat Latte...

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Mike's List on the Radio

Craig Crossman's Computer America features Mike Elgan every Thursday night. The show runs from 7pm to 9pm SVT (Silicon Valley Time). Listen to Computer America on your local Business TalkRadio station or over the Internet every weeknight. Don't miss Computer America!

Follow-Up

I wrote in Mike's List 22 about a German radio station that plays noise that mosquitoes can't stand (no, I'm not talking about the Back Street Boys). And In Mike's List 29 and 42, I told you about a Thai programmer who created software that makes a mosquito-proof sound through your PC speakers. Now, Korea's SK Telecom Co has come out with a sound file for cell phones that drives away mosquitoes. Once the $2.54 file is downloaded, the barely audible noise never stops. It also uses your phone's battery 30% faster. (On second thought, that sucks even more than the mosquitoes.)

Gotta-Get-It Gadgets

When those tiny USB key storage gadgets just aren't tiny enough, you need the Pretec iDisk Tiny. The storage unit is just  over an inch long and comes in 32, 64, 128 and 256 megabyte versions. Here's where you can buy one.

The new TVBrick is a system for sending TV programming from a television set in one country to a PC in another. On one end, the TVBrick box is connected to both a PC and a TV. On other other, the user logs in to the TVBrick home page and, using a password, gets access to the foreign TV broadcasts. The device has no moving parts and operates in total silence. It's based on the OpenBrick platform. The company's web site says that "Because reproduction of home TV channels happens in a private manner within the same family, the use of TVBrick to watch home TV channels is compatible with international Copyright Law." Yeah, right. I'm sure the high-powered lawyers who work for the big TV networks won't have any problem with it...

Sweden's PrintDreams came out recently with the PrintBrush, the world's smallest printer. It's about the size of a cell phone, is battery-operated and communicates with your PC or PDA via Bluetooth. You wipe the PrintBrush on paper or other surface and the print job is left behind. Through the magic of PrintDream's RMPT technology, you can change direction, speed and angle, and PrintBrush remembers where to print everything. It's the perfect thing for graffiti artists with no artistic ability. The PrintDreams business model is to license its RMPT technology to OEMs that will create real products. PrintDreams CEO Jan Erik Hedborg says he expects a printer based on the RMPT technology to be on the market by early 2005. Here are three big pictures.

Colby Systems has announced a $280 micro drive -- a tiny hard drive that fits into a CompactFlash slot -- that offers a record-breaking 2.4 gigabyte capacity. The disk will spin at 4,200 rpm and transfer data at about five megabytes per second. Colby is famous for its police video systems, which record digital video and require small, high-capacity storage media.

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Wacky Web Sites

The fictional ACME company has been featured in countless Warner Bros. cartoons, from the 1935 "Buddy's Bug Hunt" to, of course, "The Road Runner" series. Now you can browse fine ACME goods in The Illustrated Catalog of ACME Products.

Citizens of Los Angeles, California, love it when bad things happen to good cars. Commander Chuck's Accident Photos web site chronicles myriad horrible L.A. car  accidents photographed from the air. 

Censors monkeyed around with the original King Kong, cutting scenes to remove excessive sex  and violence. A site called RetroCrush displays screenshots from scenes that were cut. Watch Kong munch on villagers, violate Fay Wray and generally go bananas!

If you don't like the stamps issued by the local post office, now you can make your own! Upload your personal pictures to the Stamp It Out web site, and it will auto-generate a set of four personalized illegal stamps.

What's a bitter waitress, tired of bad tips, clueless bosses and rude customers to do? Launch a web site called Bitter Waitress, of course!

Twisted Games

Keyboard Sumo

Bottom of the Sea

Sushi Race

Big Number o' the Week

6,300,000,000 (The number of dollars that will be spent buying online ads by U.S. companies this year, according to an Advertising Spending report.)

Tech News Trivia

What is SoundHunters? 

Tech News Trivia tests your knowledge of recent events in the world of computers. An obscure fact will be pulled from a story that has appeared on the mega-popular Elgan.com news site. Know the answer? Send it to [email protected] (be sure to say where you live). If you're first with the right answer, I'll print your name in the next issue of Mike's List!

LAST WEEK'S GEEK TRIVIA ANSWER: Last week I asked, "What does BEA stand for?" The answer: It's the first-name initials of the company's founders, Bill Coleman, Ed Scott and Alfred Chuang. Congratulations to Susan R. Steinberg of Deerfield Beach, Florida, for being first with the right answer!

Mystery Pic o' the Week

What is it? Send YOUR guess to [email protected] (be sure to say where you live). If you're first with the right answer, I'll print your name in the next issue of Mike's List!

LAST WEEK'S MYSTERY PIC: No, it's not an "internet-connected refrigerator," a "game where you have to get across without being wolfed on by sharks," or even a "computerized axial tomography image of some part of a mammal, presumably human," as suggested by some readers. It's the display of the BeefCam system, which is used to grade meat. The system uses cameras and analytical software to judge tenderness and other qualities of beef. Congratulations to Tracie Broom of San Francisco, California, for being first with the right answer!

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