Inside-Out

A friend of mine received an order confirmation from Ticketmaster recently that contained the following...

Running An Errand

Conducting Mozart 25.1 - Part 1

I am very fortunate to have many hobbies -- especially motorcycling and music. I wrote about the origins of my love of music back in December 2000 so I won't repeat it here -- suffice it to say that my interest in music has continued to increase. I find almost all kinds of music enjoyable and have recently organized more than four hundred CDs as mp3 tracks which I can select and play via a Lansonic digital audio system which is on the home local area network (more about that in a future posting). Of all the music and great composers of the world, my favorite for many years has been Mozart. The chance to conduct an orchestra playing a Mozart composition was not even in my dreams. (read more)

WiFi On Steroids

You will find quite a few postings here on patrickWeb about WiFi. My enthusiasm continues to grow as WiFi continues to gain momentum. The technical name for WiFI is 802.11b. That is the standard from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, of which I am proud to be a senior member). 802.11b will soon seem primitive! (read more)

Two Percent - case 2

I continue to say we are only two percent of the way into what the Internet has in store for us. It isn't the technology -- its the gap between expectations and results. What we expect and what we get. You would think by now that major e-businesses would have pretty slick ways to satisfy our expectations yet even the simplest of things seem to elude them. Today I received a reminder in the mail to renew a software package that I use. Not from a fly by night software and services company but one that is valued at more than $10 billion. The renewal notice said I could renew this particular software by fax, phone, mail, or online. Have it your way -- this is good. I entered the link in my browser and the renewal form popped up immediately. I thought this was going to be a snap. No so. (read more)

ThirdAgers

Pretty gloomy weather in New England today but things brightened up when I got a call from my good friend Mary Furlong. It started out as a brief chat as we do from time to time just to update each other on happenings and points of view. It is always a privilege to hear Mary's view of things. There is nobody on the planet who knows more "third agers" than Mary. She is a leading authority on technology and aging and is founder and chairman of ThirdAge Inc. Before founding ThirdAge in 1996, Mary founded SeniorNet, a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to educating older adults about computer technology. She served as president of SeniorNet for 10 years. Our conversation caused me to dig out the chapter in my book, Net Attitude, where I had some things to say about "seniors". (more)

Fall Internet World

Fall Internet World is coming up in less than three weeks and I am honored to being one of the keynote speakers. I'll be talking about "The Future of the Internet" on Tuesday, October 1, 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM . There will be a short press meeting afterwards and then the conference book store will be hosting a book signing for Net Attitude. You can be sure that part of the talk will be about WiFi.

No Radio, No TV, No Computers, No Fax

I have been in need of a keyboard platform for quite some time so I put the Logitech cordless keyboard in a saddlebag and took a motorcycle ride to Jefferson Business Interiors in Stamford, Connecticut. A diagonal model with easy rider arm and tru-gel wrist rest turned out to be just what I was looking for. The manager at Jefferson's offered a small discount and free shipping of the item, which had to be special ordered. I then noticed his colleague put a form into an IBM typewriter! (read more)

Book of Ki: Co-ordinating Mind and Body in Daily Life

Just finished reading Book of Ki: Co-ordinating Mind and Body in Daily Life by Koichi Tohei. This was a remarkable book written by a remarkable man. It provided excellent insight about Eastern medicine and philosophy and added practical examples that were easy to relate to. If you are looking for something a bit different than a Clancy novel and want to learn what Qi is all about, I highly recommend this book. Thanks to Chris Smolyk for telling me about it. (also see "Books I have Enjoyed")

What a Day!

Update and some pictures from a motorcycle trip up to Massachusetts on Sunday coming up shortly.

WiFi in Europe - part 2

It wasn't my plan for the blog to be a WiFi blog -- there are so many other things to write about in the world of Internet Technology. However, my enthusiasm for WiFi grows each day as I hear from readers. Anders Jacobsen, a Norwegian subscriber to my weblog's RSS newsfeed, sent me some additional WiFi resources I was not aware of. Wireless communities are popping up all over the world -- it is not an American phenomenon. (read more)

WiFi Evolution -- It's In The Chips

C|NET ran a story called, "Wi-Fi to climb aboard modems", that describes how Wi-Fi chips for wireless home networks will seeon become integrated with broadband modems. Communications chipmaker Conexant Systems announced Tuesday that it is adding Intersil Wi-Fi chips to the semiconductors it builds for high-speed cable or DSL modems. This is clearly the next step in the evolution of Wi-Fi. Not long ago people with home LANs had (and many still do) a cable or DSL modem plus a router to make the Internet connection available to other PCs in their house plus a wireless access point to extend the connection to laptops in the backyard or wherever. Three boxes. By the end of this year it sounds like there will be one box that does it all. There are already nearly twenty million homes and offices with WiFi. The momentum will surely accelerate even beyond the current frenetic pace.

WiFi In Europe

Matt Gould at Megabeam dropped ma a note to remind me that WiFi is not an American thing. Megabeam is building a pan-European wireless hotspot network targeting business travelers at airports, hotels, train stations, and convention centers. Hotspots are up and running in both Milan and Rome airports and in key European business centers including London, Milan, Rome, Munich, Zurich and Amsterdam. The service will soon be available at 12 European airports with a total of 65 hotspots live by the end of the year. (read more)

Internet2 Virtual Briefing

There will be an Internet2 "Virtual Briefing", entitled "New Networks, Old Economy," on Friday, September 13, 2002, 1:00pm-2:30pm EST. Presenters will discuss approaches for building advanced networks in a telecommunications environment that some believe is reverting to the models of the "Old Economy". The speakers will bring their various perspectives to an exploration of the fundamental changes in the telecom industry since the end of the "Internet boom" and will consider how the higher education community should respond. More information and netcasting options are here.

1:19:19 AM  

CEOs Need To Walk In Customers' Shoes

Stephanie Stahl wrote an Editor's Note in Information Week (Aug. 26, 2002) called "CEOs Need To Walk In Customers' Shoes". She says, "Maybe it's just one of the many trade-offs for living where you want to live, but I know so many people who still don't have access to high-speed cable lines or DSL...." One technology CEO told her that he thinks it's important to understand and operate within the limits that others around him have. And since the telecom companies have dubbed the connection to the consumer the last mile instead of the first mile, there's not a lot they can do about it right now, right? Stephanie adds, "John Patrick doesn't buy it". (read more)

NewburyOpen.net Puts WiFi On The Road

The latest addition to NewburyOpen.net is that they have made a "mobile" version of their wireless node that sits on top of one of their cars. They plan to park it next to various places every Sunday and provide free wireless Internet service in new locations every week. For their first day out it happens to be parked by a Starbucks, which is somewhat intentional since NewburyOpen.net wants to make the statement that free WiFi is the way to go, not $14 by the hour. (read more)

Archives updated to include August 2002

Archives are updated to include August 2002. I hope you enjoy the postings.

Newbury Surfing

The momentum is building to create community area networks everywhere! My first taste of this was during Subway Surfing and now it seems that each week I learn of something new. NewburyOpen.net -- on Newbury Street in Boston -- provides free high-speed WiFi Internet connections for Bostoners and travelers away from work or home -- at Internet-by-the-Hour stations at 252 Newbury Street and in cafes and shops on Newbury Street. (read more)