I'm disappointed in the THG article, and I think you should be too. Obviously the security issues have spawned out of London, where many businesses there are being "hacked". But a recent broadcast in the BBC news covered this story from a completely different angle.
Apparently there is a huge underground following of laptop users who walk within distance of a wirelss network, and connect to it to access the internet. Written in chalk, on sidewalks and walls, are the exact place you have to be to access a network. Businesses call this "hacking". <i>To this day, there have been no reports of any type of virus uploads or data thefts.</i>
Now what interests me, is this idea that you can connect to the internet anywhere you want. This is quite amazing, really. Businesses should still be concerned for the intrinsic value of security; however, this FUD is a flat out lie. There is no one being hacked and wireless internet in metropolitan areas is nothing but a wonderful idea in my opinion. Imagine you are walking down the street and you and a friend are looking for a good place to eat. You can pull out your PDA and wirelessly connect to the internet to search for good local restaurants, without paying huge fees of $200/month or some crazy figure like that for ricochet modems. Maybe the government should be involved and raise a lobby to consider adding this as a public service? Current wireless solutions have the ability to work up to 3 or 4 blocks, if they're of high quality. A single precaution would be mandatory: laws preventing businesses from tapping into the networks, and fines for those who do. You wouldn't need to add many stations to make this a reality, and it would do many things:
1) raise public use of technology and awareness of it
2) connect people to information better (why else did we invent the telephone and the car?)
3) entice tourists to enter cities with a virtual guide to show them exactly what they want to see
My question is, why not?
1° of separation between my monopoly and yours. That's business with .NET
Apparently there is a huge underground following of laptop users who walk within distance of a wirelss network, and connect to it to access the internet. Written in chalk, on sidewalks and walls, are the exact place you have to be to access a network. Businesses call this "hacking". <i>To this day, there have been no reports of any type of virus uploads or data thefts.</i>
Now what interests me, is this idea that you can connect to the internet anywhere you want. This is quite amazing, really. Businesses should still be concerned for the intrinsic value of security; however, this FUD is a flat out lie. There is no one being hacked and wireless internet in metropolitan areas is nothing but a wonderful idea in my opinion. Imagine you are walking down the street and you and a friend are looking for a good place to eat. You can pull out your PDA and wirelessly connect to the internet to search for good local restaurants, without paying huge fees of $200/month or some crazy figure like that for ricochet modems. Maybe the government should be involved and raise a lobby to consider adding this as a public service? Current wireless solutions have the ability to work up to 3 or 4 blocks, if they're of high quality. A single precaution would be mandatory: laws preventing businesses from tapping into the networks, and fines for those who do. You wouldn't need to add many stations to make this a reality, and it would do many things:
1) raise public use of technology and awareness of it
2) connect people to information better (why else did we invent the telephone and the car?)
3) entice tourists to enter cities with a virtual guide to show them exactly what they want to see
My question is, why not?
1° of separation between my monopoly and yours. That's business with .NET
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