Add a Picture to Your Blog
When you read most "How to make your blog better" articles, they suggest adding some pictures. So today, I added a picture at the top of the blog. My plan is to change it regularly.


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 5:09 PM |

 
Wireless Scene On My Block
US Internet's (USI) municipal wireless pilot project (Belair equipment) is on my block with three access points -- one in front of my house and one on each corner. This is the south pilot; Earthlink is running the north pilot (check my posts here and here).

The closest access point, which I can almost see through the foliage from the second-floor window on my left) seems to be down. It doesn't show up on my Mac and even when I wandered outside and stood below it, I got only a weak signal which I think was coming from one of the corner nodes.

I walked over to the corner node, sat on the curb under the antenna, and jacked into the USI network. Smokin'! Using Speakeasy, I tested download speeds up to 4Mbps and upload speeds even faster.

I walked down to the other corner and my connection switched seamlessly to another node. Coverage (line of sight) seems pretty good on my block.

In the course of wandering my block, I came across at least twenty-five Wi-Fi access points. Most were secure but not all of them.

Watch the Wireless Minneapolis site for information on accessing the network during the pilot.


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 3:58 PM |

 
Southside Wi-Fi Goes Live!
[Last week, Earthlink opened the Northside Pilot Project. I blogged it here.]

Brian Coyle Center, July 14, 2006. South Minneapolis, West Bank.

The City of Minneapolis is presenting the south wireless pilot project. US Internet (USI) is the vendor on this one. Right now, sitting in the gym at the Coyle Cener for the presentation, I can't see their nodes at all on my Mac. Looks like the system went down or at least a node? Or did my computer just lose touch? This damn 15-inch Mac (aluminum) does that.

Jim Farstad is warming the crowd. He is the City's consultant on this wireless project. He just told us that there has been 100% conviction rate for crime that's been video-taped here and the idea is with wireless all those cameras will transmit over the Internet and adding cameras will be more cost-effective.

He's talking Internet advertising and bringing up hyper-local adverts. 'Log on in this neighborhood and get local content.' A more cost effective way of advertising. He says now only alternatives are Yellow Pages (now Qwest Dex) and Star Tribune for small business. My question: Who gets to feed hyper-local access? Can I set up a business selling hyper-local ads? Or will Earthlink/USI sit on that and wait until Google wants access to the market.

There's a good turnout here. Becca (Vargo Daggett) is sitting behind me. She is our most active community wireless activist. She quit activating around the Minneapolis project when the City decided on the public/private model. She believes in public and that cities can afford to bring in broadband (wireless or fiber or something) and she has some very convincing arguments. She got me involved when I read an article where she was quoted and I started going to the Digital Inclusion Coalition meetings. I helped with the writing and editing of the recommendations for the Community Benefits Agreement to be negotiated with the chosen vendor.

Talking up the CBA and also talking to the vendors at this demo and last weeks in North Minneapolis, I fear that the contract might go to who can provide more money for community benefits rather than who can manage the best network. Earthlink likely has much deeper pockets than USI. But who has the better technology? The US Internet group make the Belair wireless system that they are using sound much better than Earthlink's Tropos. It can send and receive signals at the same time and sustain higher bandwidth whereas the Tropos hardware that Earthlink uses can only send or receive. Yes, OK, I'm partial to US Internet. They're local. I like local.

Jim F. is talking security. Equal to wired, he says. If you implement the security. If you just plug&play, there is no security. City wants very strong security. We want VPN as part of this. Vendors are using high level of security. Users must take responsibility. Must have security practices.

Not a bad explanation. I can live with it.

Catherine Settanni takes the stage and is talking up Digital Inclusion, the new name for Digital Divide. I've reported on this in previous posts. This is where the community benefit money will go. Many people are not on the Internet due to economics.

The network finally showed up again. It's weak but I did get to a couple of sites. I guess it's the card and configuration of this stupid Powerbook. My 12-inch Mac has much better connectivity.

Kurt Lange from US Internet is now talking to us. Kurt is having trouble with the remote for his Powerpoint presentation.

Kurt: Who is US Internet? 11 years in business here. It's a national ISP. Locally owned and operated. 24x365 support services. 7000+ access points around the country. They have experience with Wi-Fi. List of local customers... Why Wi-Fi is good. Low-cost alternative access. Lowers cost of government. New and exciting applications like friend locators. [PF: What about economic development from useful applications?]

Kurt: Technical details. Multiple nodes on the network that provide high-speed, fault-tolerant solution. Very dense network. Averages about 30 per sq. mile rather than norm of 15. Should be greater bandwidth available.

Kurt: Diagramming how wireless networks can degrade. USI system has dedicated radio, communicating with users and other radios on the network. [PF: This doesn't mean shit unless we know that the Earthlink network doesn't have the dedicated radios and aren't as robust. So these explanations aren't useful without knowing why he's giving us the info.]

Kurt: Today. Want to show you a few things. Branded hotspot, that's hyper-local so you can serve different content. Users in a coffee shop could see a branded coffee shop node. Pay as you go for visitors. Pre-paid services, businesses could sell them and buy access. Hotels can offer to guests. Users could get access anywhere in the city. CTCs (community technology centers) could give out prepaid services. VOIP: Wi-Fi phone service.

Q&A
What are your upload/download speeds? 3-12 Mbps expected on the network but you might have to pay more for higher speeds.

Can a unintelligent box (router) talk to the network? Yes. Standards apply.

Do you need other hardware to connect for security? There will be a customer device and it will be secure. You will be able to authenticate securely with various other methods. [PF: There are Mac compatibility issues here, I think, according to what Earthlink said last week.]

Can mobile user jump from one node to another transparently? Yes.

Vendor technology for the nodes? Belair.

CPE equipment choices? (customer devices) Peplink and Ruckus are the leading contendors.

Do you need customer device? No. You can use built-in Wi-Fi card but will depend on coverage in your location. Plus the type of home you live in. [PF: Stucco homes will block radio signals.]

Will this system span St. Paul? What happens with you get to the border? [PF: Jim Farstad jumps in.] Lists different cities that met about this topic. Then discusses U of Minnesota and bridging to the U of M. Whether St. Paul does exactly what wehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif do, there are ways to expand the system. [PF: USI has a U of MN option on their sign-in page and say it will be working soon.]

I have a home network cable modem. What's going to happen? You can replace your cable modem and use ours.

I showed up, got a card, thought it was my SSID, I was confused, how do you think it will be easier from a customer perspective? In full deployment, number of options for connecting, user name and password, or alternate authentication which would allow auto connecting. Different options to connect.
Response: I'm an IT professional. I was intimidated. What's going to be easier.
Kurt: bad design of our web site didn't help. Too small where you had to log-in. Part of it is making it easier on the site. "We'll get better at it."

If I have multiple computers will I need separate accounts? Maybe. Might be extra fees for connectivity. Maybe family packages. Jason (my USI guy) chimes in that it will be single sign-on for subscription services.

We are done. I have a very weak signal here. Drat.

Other posts about Minneapolis municipal wireless.


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 3:48 PM |

 
Who is this Ze Frank Guy?
I started hearing a buzz about Ze Frank as Amanda Congdon parted ways with Rocketboom. Doc Searls had a link to a favorite Ze Frank, so I followed and was treated to a fascinating explanation of 'redicktricking'. I had never heard of it before.

Here's the link, kids.

And as Doc would say, here's a bonus link: The Joanne Colan debut at Rocketboom (at least I think it's the debut). (Amanda left Rocketboom and Joanne is replacing her and this is, like, a really big disruption of the Web, analyzed endlessly in the blogosphere.)


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 7:39 AM |

 
John Edwards courts tech crowd in Seattle or is there a bozo on the bus?
John Edwards courts tech crowd in Seattle

Steve Rubel says the Edwards should put Dave Winer on his campaign bus with no restrictions. Whoa.



- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 7:43 PM |

 
Mac Geekery - Optimizing AirPort Connectivity
Mac Geekery has some basic advice on optimizing airport wireless reception. I don't really think it's Mac specific either. Basically, you want to survey the wireless access points in your vicinity and make sure you are using a unique channel.

It seems to have worked here. I was on channel 9, which is the default for the Qwest Actiontec, and there is another Actiontec around which is sharing the channel. When I moved to channel 3 (via advanced configuration in the Actiontec web configurator), I got much better download times - 800-1000Kbps compared to 300-500Kbps. And it looks like it's sustaining that.

Mac Geekery - Optimizing AirPort Connectivity

via TUAW and my buddy Roy

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 7:06 PM |

 
The Stormhoek Guide to (Wine) Blogging
Hugh Macleod (gaping void) and the folks at Stormhoek have produced

The Stormhoek Guide to Wine Blogging

It will appear as an insert in the "well-known international wine & spirits trade magazine, The Drinks Business." Buy you can have it today as a pdf, downloadable from Hugh's Gaping Void site.

Even if you don't market wine, this is very useful information for using blogs as a marketing tool. Stormhoek is finding success in the space. (Of course, they also have Hugh drawing cartoons for them.)

Rock on.

via Tim Elliott's Winecast Blog/Podcast


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:06 PM |

 
Speak Softly Or Be Overheard



A new and local blog called Overheard in Minneapolis.

How many times have you sat down with friends at the end of your day and said, "You won't believe what I heard in the elevator/grocery store/bank/etc today...?" Those jewels need a place to come together and brighten our lives.

So far, I'm not convinced of the value of our local overheard jewels. (I do like this one.) The site is based on one in NY called (can you guess?) Overheard in New York. (From that site, you can link to Overheard at the Beach and Overheard at the Office but no link to our local Overheard. I wonder if there will be any trademark issues?)

No names named as to who is responsible for the site. There is a contact email.

via MnSpeak


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 2:07 PM |

 
Municipal Wireless Links
Couple of recent NY Times articles cover municipal broadband deployment relating to Anaheim and New York City. The Anaheim one is very relevant to Minneapolis as it describes the recent Earthlink wireless network deployment. This is Earthlink's first real deployment, at least in a city of any size. (Anaheim has a population of 340,000.) Earthlink is competing for a wireless contract in Minneapolis with local company US Internet.

The article mentions that Anaheim has few tall buildings but that there could be deployment problems in cities like San Francisco (and Minneapolis) where there are tall buildings. Wireless signals are expected to get to the third or fourth floor and then either internal wiring takes over or some kind of wireless booster system will have to be put in place. The article makes this sound like Earthlink will be doing this in Anaheim.

At the Pilot Demo in Minneapolis yesterday, it sounded like getting a signal to the top of a high-rise building would be the building's problem, not the City's. Problem is that residents of many high-rises are low- or fixed-income (lots of elderly). Hopefully the City and The Vendor (Earthlink or US Internet) will help in those situations. (I am completely speculating here. The contract for wireless service is yet to be negotiated and there is still another major player in competition.)

As for free service in Anaheim, Earthlink president and CEO, Gary Betty, has this to say:

Free doesn't work. I mean, what's for free? People are in business to make money. We need to get return on capital."

San Francisco, according to the article, is a rare exception due to population density requiring less investment per wireless user.

Anaheim's first taste of EarthLink muni Wi-Fi

And here's the second article about NYC.

New York to Examine Creating Citywide Broadband Network

Even as a contractor moves ahead with plans to install wireless networks in 10 parks, New York City intends to study whether to establish a citywide broadband network similar to those planned by cities like Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Read them soon. I suppose they will be locked behind the paywall in the near future.


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 1:37 PM |

 
Kismac Stole my Extreme Card
I wanted to load a wireless detection app on my Powerbook today (for the Pilot Project wireless demo). I got the old standby, MacStumbler, and also grabbed iStumbler (both work well). Then I found Kismac.

Kismac gives you way more information than MacStumber or iStumbler plus it has some cracking features. I was tempted to try getting on the pilot muni network in my neighborhood but it will be free and open in a week so I will just wait - rather than risk someone seeing my crack attempt.

Kismac is a bit scary as it takes over you wireless card and you lose basic Internet connectivity. But it worked fine on my Powerbook 12-inch and it released my Extreme card when it quit. I chose the 'configure manually' option when installing.

So then I tried to install on my Powerbook 15-inch (that's my company owned model). I could not get it to work with my Extreme card even after several installs and removals. I get an error on scanning and it hijacks my Extreme card and won't give it back until I reboot.

The Extreme cards in both units are the same. Must be something in my network config, I suppose. This link has some troubleshooting help so I will attempt to get Kismac working on the 15-inch. But how weird that it works on one and not the other.



- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 5:11 PM |

 
Minneapolis North is Wireless Today!
I'm blogging from the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center in Mineapolis North. It's the Community Sponsored Pilot Demonstration and Earthlink (one of two potential vendors) has turned on the Wi-Fi and I'm logged to the network. Bandwidth is excellent with bursts to 3 Mbps. I want this at home.

But my home is in South Minneapolis and US Internet, the other potential vendor is in charge of the south pilot with a kickoff next Friday (Brian Coyle Center, 4-8 p.m.). I have an access point right outside my window but I won't have any logging info until next Friday. Damn.

Basic city service will be 1 Mbps but it will be symmetrical. The Earthlink system will have encryption built in. That's great to hear. (Remember, Earthlink is competing for management of the network; they have not been chosen yet.)

Good attendance at this event. At the moment, Bill Beck with City of M BIS is talking about how the network will serve the City. Stuff like Animal Control getting ready access to info via Wi-Fi. Police can have video feeds. "Lower cost, higher reliability."

Jim Farstad, City Wi-Fi consultant takes the stage. He's not wearing his suit jacket today. He's discussing benefits to the City. Estimates 300 to 400 hot spots currently in the City. Municipal wireless goes city-wide with that idea. "Ubiquitous" ah, I love that word. "Spur new developments of applications."

Jim Farstad: "Increase digital inclusion. Many residents do not have access to the technology. Hard to apply for jobs if not online. This program will be a strong enabler."

Farstad: Vendor will be chosen in August. City-wide deployment fully available in the fall of 2007. City owns Fiber backbone. System owned and operated by selected vendor. City will be anchor tenant. Farstad: "We see tremendous community benefits. Provide more cost effective access [for digital inclusion].

Catherine Settanni, C-CAN Director takes the stage to discuss Digital Inclusion. (I'm part of a coalition providing digital inclusion recommendations to the City.) Catherine is telling us why we should be online-- jobs, e-government, education, banking, health care. She had another point - social inclusion - which she did not talk about.

Settanni: Community Benefits Agreement. Vendors has to work this out with the City. One major point is a Digital Inclusion Fund. Philadelphia has this and we will too.

Final CBA Recommendation from the Digital Inclusion Coalition is here.

Catherine talks about TC Daily Planet as loaded with community information. What about the Star Tribune? I'm amazed that they aren't more involved to become part of a portal system and provide a news feed. Are they just short-sighted?

Ben Kimmel takes the stage. He worked with some kids gathering survey information.

Kids discussing survey questions: Knew how to use the Internet? YES. How much did they want to pay? $10.

Tiffany is the CTEP/Americorps volunteer. She entered in the data from the surveys. Found out that they were using the internet at a school or community center. Access was the biggest need. Used Survey-Monkey to collate results. That's an online service, a web app.

A woman in audience asks why are we here today? To support this? What can we do now? Talk to our Council Members? Her problem is she doesn't have the equipment. We need the computers. Hardware is the issue.

Next up: Cole Reinwand, VP Product Strategy and Marketing, Earthlink. He's selling Earthlink. They had the first pop-up blocker! I didn't know that. Earthlink is in Philly, Anaheim, New Orleans, Honolulu, BART (SF).

Why does Earthlink want to do this? They need to have a way to push broadband and only Time Warner Cable allows this or resell DSL which doesn't have a good price point. So wireless will let them build out broadband.

Describing the Earthlink Mesh System... lots of pictures. We can go outside and see the tower. Radio transmissions are very low power, less 'danger' than cell phone emissions. Earthlink uses 36 Wi-Fi nodes per sare mile, needs about 2000 radios to cover the City. Need more powerful CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) to get the signal. We will provide the devices (cost?). 1Mbps up and down. Occasional use buy-in. T1 alternative from 1.5 to 3 Mbps. Less than 50% of land line rate (still $200/month).

Hmm. No chance for questions with the Earthlink guy. I wanted to know more about the CPE and if they plan to charge. Plus wireless networking from there.

If you are an Earthlink or partner customer (for ISP) you can roam to any Earthlink city and get online. That's cool.

(Crowd has thinned out dramatically.)

Curt (from Digital Inclusion Coalition) asks about connecting to upper floors of a high-rise. Jim Farstad answers: need interior wiring. This sounds like cost has to be borne by the building, not Earthlink. Stucco construction will be a problem. Coles says sometimes they are seeing access to 6th or 7th floor and that they will try to address this after initial rollout.

Barbara, Phyllis Wheatley director, wants to know about access for community-at-large that don't have computers. Jim F. discusses redeploying computer technology. Computer technology centers will help. They need to be upgraded. There are not enough volunteers.

Someone asks if any suburban communities want to be part of a wireless program. Yes, says Jim. Other communities might be joining our network. Bill Beck says it will probably be necessary for police and fire.

Catherine shows us a CPE.

Guy asks about whether he needs an ISP in addition to Earthlink. And wireless throughout the house? Cole says Earthlink bundles ISP with access. Jim says there will be business opportunities for working with interior spaces for wiring.

Cole: $21.95/month, sign up for a year to get a free CPE. Can link in a wireless router to the CPE. Can go without CPE if signal is strong enough. But sometimes the laptop card doesn't have enough signal to push back to the Internet.

Barbara Milon, Executive Director of Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, thanks us all for coming today. Thanks for hosting, Barbara.



- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 12:08 PM |

 
Freedbacking Bloglines
Chris Pirillo led the 'Users in Charge' (mp3 here) group June 23 at Bloggercon and then added a blog post about providing developers with 'freeback' by tagging your blog posts with 'freedbacking'. Bloglines, my main aggregator/blog reader thingie, picked up on it and said 'We will listen' if you include the terms 'freedbacking' and 'bloglines' in a post. It's nice that Bloglines will seek out freedback even if it's not tagged as some bloggers don't tag yet or are at tag dumb blogging tools like Blogger.com (where you can hack for the tags but it's a geeky solution).

Forthwith my freedback, Bloglines. I love ya, man. I tried the Google RSS reader and I liked some things - like how it kind of gave me a randomized feed of posts from aggregated from all my feeds - but it was slow and they kept changing things and it was difficult to organize.

But Bloglines, old friend, we need some tagging here. I'd like to be able to aggregate under a tag of my choosing.

Let's see. It would also be nice to have alternate views of my subscriptions. I use folders a lot but how about a list in alpha order or options to view in other orders like least read. That would be nice. Searching through my subscriptions would also be nice.


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 10:43 PM |

 
Trailer for Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth
A Terrifying Message from Al Gore

My first attempt at blogging something from Youtube.



- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 10:26 PM |

 
Greenway Graffiti
I've uploaded a series of images that I took along the new Greenway section (Hiawatha Ave. to the Mississippi, still under construction). There is a row of buildings with some serious graffiti that I decided to document along with general photos of the Greenway itself.

It's easy to get to and makes for a nice running path in the Seward Neighborhood. I think it will be completed this summer. I know that at one time there were plans to continue across the railroad bridge, over the Mississippi to St. Paul. That would be awesome.

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 8:12 PM |