Unfriendly WiFi spot near Bel Air Maryland

McShanes coffee shop (was called The Cup) - 2217 Churchville Rd - 410-734-0622 Is listed as a Free WiFi access spot. But it is an unfriendly neighborhood. I got there late and they closed up on me. And 10 minutes later the Sheriff's deputy told me that someone had called them and I was told to wrap things up and move on. So I suggest not patronizing that establishment.

Football Field-Sized Kite Powers Freighter

Found on /.

A new freighter set to launch in December will be receiving a hefty dose of power from a kite the size of a football field. The 460-foot ship, owned by the Beluga shipping company, hopes to see as much as a 50% drop in fuel consumption during optimal conditions.

My Little Cat will not quite as big a Kite, but A nice big kite will be nice to get a handle on winds aloft. The SkySail uses a Pod at the end of a single Toe. This Pod in turn controls lines that maintain the shape of the sail. For me, I can see running a few lines to control such a kite would make for better trimming. And a recovery line that when pulled will take most of the air out of the sail.

Solar Cells: 30 cents a watt; Printed on a roll.

Nanosolar’s cells use no silicon, and the company’s manufacturing process allows it to create cells that are as efficient as most commercial cells for as little as 30 cents a watt.

News: popsci , biodieselnow , gadgets.boingboing ,

$1 per Watt is a great price for Solar Panels.
I just love how much development is being put in to Solar Panels. That should be on the market by 2010. This is just in time for the big sail boat I want to get in 2012.    /.       industryweek
As a comparison my Northern Tool + Equipment catalog shows a 15 watt panel selling for $99.99 USD. Now can I find the surface area for a kilo-watt on the boat.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance has a posting titled Publicly owned networks are the key to universal access and healthy competition.

Where there are 5 main points in the Executive Summary.

1. High-speed information networks are essential public infrastructure.

2. Public ownership ensures competition.

3. Publicly owned networks can generate significant revenue.

4. Public ownership can ensure universal access.

5. Public ownership can ensure non-discriminatory networks.

I have to admit I did not read the paper, but the web pages summery is going in the right direction.

Go Skype Go

Skype asks FCC to open up cellular networks

We need not only network neutrality. The right to use the network within the law, and not to be required to use the network as the provider intended. But we need wireless network neutrality as well. where our phones are not "crippling features on phones, locking handsets to operators, limiting consumers' ability to install third-party applications, and limiting the terms of service with bandwidth caps and restrictions on what content can be accessed through the network".

The reality is this is only one step in the right direction to un-encumber the on ramp to the information super highway. We don't want all the bazaar toll booths .

What we Need is a free to use wireless Internet with the range we have on our wireless phones. The bandwidth is there. The oligopolies want to convince you differently... HA ha. Then all we need do is buy an Internet phone, looks like acts like a cell phone, and We can call anyone, anywhere. The Internet knows no internal boundary's. Do you think its to much for the US Post Office to offer a phone exchange so we can look up peoples phone number. Don't you thing Google would do that for us. I know Versign wants to sell that to us, but we can buy Internet domain names for $10 from register.com SO why would I pay $100 for the same thing.

Software Patent Debate

"The court is now debating whether or not software is actually patentable."

Its about time.

The court needs to redefine software as something that is actually soft. Software should be that set of programs that are deliverer with the source code and making that completely un-patentable. Some of have a new term for this its called open source. But in reality its the only software that deserves to be called soft. You can still buy commercial-ware, if you want to. Lets just call commercial-ware, commercial-ware. There is nothing soft about it.

I am not surprised that US Lags World In Broadband Access, And the FCC's is at fault.

The cable Co. and the phone Co. don't provide Broadband Access for my house. Seems if I lived in England or even China this would not be the case. The real solution is to bypass the monopoly ISP's and use a grid of Radios to make up the local network. If the FCC had not outlawed the use of WiFi with a 10 to 15Km range we would not have all the problems we have now. I have my FON router and no place to go... But God bless the local Pizza place with the open AP. That's where you will find me. Yummm love that Gyro.

In case you didn't know the original Ethernet protocols where based on the ALOHAnet, a radio network at the University of Hawaii, that communicate across the campus from island to island. The bandwidth plan that Apple Computer proposed to the FCC way back in 1995 included hundreds of 10Mb channels in the Gigahertz bands. Here is the PETITION FOR RULEMAKING of the "NII BAND". The US would be a different place with an Internet freedom we currently do not enjoy.

Since then this radio bandwidth has been given out to cell phone companies that charge us the big bucks to use. So rather then to progress into the 21st century the FCC keeping us back in the dark 20th century w/ out open Internet access. Most Highways don't have toll booths any more why should the Internet. At least the FCC should not be giving the airwaves away to corporations that simply want to take a buck.

Here is some history of things the FCC took away from us.

Don't forget that Al Gore was Vice president then. He was Inventing the Internet for us back then. So you can see what a mess he left us with to clean up. Just think what he would do to Global Warming. It boggles the mind.

Don't be the loser here. Bill has everything to win when you spend too much money on bandwith. He owns large shares of many Internet providers. It was only a few years ago when he bought 40% of the chares of Comcast cable.

Gates Proclaims Internet to Revolutionize TV in 5 Years

TV is a broadcast media!

The Internet is a send me one, now, media.

Even with peer to peer file sharing getting TV over the net will not be the way to go, unless you want to pay to the nose to the TelCo's and CabCo's for the bandwidth.

We all are better off with MithTV ,or TVo, for time shifting the broadcast media. Rather then spending all that money on unneeded bandwidth. It not like your going to miss anything. Right now most shows are broadcast twice a week and there are marathons to catch you up with shows like 24.

The bandwidth we need is for playing World of Warcraft.

Give us Digital Free Speech

I don't care about some dumb paper work.I want the Public to have a share of the radio spectrum. My Wifi FON router should have a 10 to 15 km range. not 100 to 500 foot range. It should be illegal/unconstitutional that we don't have reasonable Free Speech in digital spectrum.

But no We have to pay the Teloc's, the King ( of England ). This is the sort of thing that created this country. But some how the government has lost sight of this,

Its time to throw your cell phones (Tea) into the harbor.