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Fon – Wi-Fi Everywhere

Wi-Fi – the wireless networks that your computer can connect to and surf the web. Some times it's free (possibly at your home, at work, at certain businesses like Panera Bread) other times there's a charge (like at Starbucks). Fon is a new movement of broadband subscribers that aims to create a world-wide Wi-Fi network that is free for all those that participate by adding their broadband access to the overall network. As an aside, it's pronounced like "phone", but has pretty much nothing to do with telephones. In this issue of Spotlight on Technology I'll discuss the details of the Fon system, how you can "join the club" and a few of my hesitations and questions.

One interesting note about Wi-Fi in general is that the word, "Wi-Fi," is not actually short for anything. From what I've read, it seems the term found its origins in the phrase "Wireless Fidelity", but the people who invented the term (the Wi-Fi Alliance) now discourage people from making this connection.

The Fon system depends on some special software that is installed on your Wi-Fi router (the device that transmits the network signal through the air). Currently only one wireless router is supported (the Linksys WRT54G) but Fon is planning on supporting more as development continues. This software allows other Fon users (they're called "Foneros") to connect to the wireless network that extends outside the walls of your house (usually for 100 feet or so) using a username and password supplied by Fon. They are calling each of these routers Fon hotspots. The plan is to have enough of these hotspots spread out across each city to create a seamlessly connected world-wide Wi-Fi network.

Besides the hardware, the other main component of Fon's world-wide movement is a really slick mapping system, based on Google maps. Their maps show the locations of all registered Fon hotspots, so if you plan on traveling you can find out what parts of town will have Fon access before you leave. On your next trip to Europe or Asia, you wouldn't have to worry about paying exorbitant hourly rates for Internet access… just find a Fon hotspot and log in. This mapping tool makes finding Fon hotspots so simple that I imagine this feature alone will account for Fon's eventual success.

To become a Fonero and get in on the action, all a person needs to do is get the supported wireless router, install the router software and register at http://www.fon.com. Once registered, your hotspot will show up on the map. Fon states that your privacy is protected, but, ultimately, this was one of the reasons I have not signed up yet. It may be a while before I'm really comfortable advertising my address, even anonymously, to the rest of the world.

Currently in Nerd County (OKC) there are only about 6 Fon hotspots – hardly thorough coverage. However, in bigger metropolitan areas (such as Dallas) there are quite a few more, and the movement is still relatively young. Below is Fon's map of the Dallas area.

I came really close to signing up for the $25 router (which has apparently dropped down to just $4 as of June 2^nd) and registering for a Fon account. In the end though, I have not yet done this. Besides the privacy issue mentioned above, I was also reluctant to sign up because 1) I'm almost certain my contract with Cox (my Internet Service Provider or ISP) does not allow sharing my bandwidth with individuals outside of my house and 2) I don't really want people doing illegal things on my bandwidth.

Any website visited by a Fonero using my router would, from Cox's perspective, look as if I were the one visiting this site. Fon's system is not totally anonymous – anyone using my Fon hotspot will have logged in using their Fon username and password. Fon states that this lack of anonymity will deter people from doing illegal activity over someone else's Fon hotspot. However, I'm not really convinced – even though people log in with a username, once they are on my network, I don't think Cox can differentiate between their Internet activity and mine.

There are several ISPs around the world that are cool with Fon so maybe Cox will eventually come around and allow users to share their bandwidth. One alternative, I believe, would be to get Cox's business-at-home service which is about $15 more a month but allows you to do more with your account.

If Cox were to allow bandwidth sharing, I would probably eventually talk myself into joining Fon. The potential of having Wi-Fi readily available everywhere is really appealing, especially if this network were built from a grassroots movement such as Fon.

Next-Generation Console Wars

This November will be a big month for gamers. Assuming there are no delays, Sony and Nintendo will be unleashing their next-generation video consoles, (the PS3 and the Wii, respectively), on the world. Microsoft got a head start by launching their Xbox 360 last November. These new systems are capable of unprecedented graphics and introduce some very innovative features into the gaming world.Last week all three console makers and everyone else in the video game world were in LA for E3, (the Electronic Entertainment Expo). This event can be like a competition between the different companies, each trying to outdo the others with things like bigger booth setups and hotter booth babes. I don’t know who won as far as presentation is concerned, but from what I’ve read and seen, the consensus is that Nintendo’s Wii was the most impressive offering of the three systems. Microsoft has some surprisingly good-looking games for their Xbox 360, and Sony pretty much dropped the ball with their PS3.

Nintendo’s Wii (probably $200)

Most “grown-up” games (such as Grand Theft Auto) were not ported to Nintendo’s last console, the N64. For many, this cast the system as a “kid’s only” machine. Adult gamers tended to prefer the PS2 or Xbox 360. With the Wii, Nintendo is trying to rid itself of this image by creating a system that is so innovative and that plays games that are just so much fun, gamers of all persuasions will want it. They got a lot of flak when they announced they were changing the system’s name from the “Revolution,” (which I still prefer), to the Wii, (pronounced “we”). Nintendo is hoping to reach non-traditional markets with this system, (such as the elderly), and probably has a better chance of this with a friendly name like Wii.

The feature of the Wii that is making the most noise is its new controller. It’s a long remote-looking device that has some sort of gyroscope in it that senses the movements of your hand. At E3 Nintendo showed off a tennis game where you actually swing your arm like you’re holding a racket and the character on the screen swings likewise. It could differentiate between the types of swings, (backhands, forehands, slams), as well.

Another notable feature of the Wii is the “Virtual Console.” The Wii will be able to emulate several old systems, (NES, SNES, N64, TurboGrafix16 and Genesis), and most, (if not all), of the games for these systems. You will download these games as files from Nintendo’s servers. It has yet to be announced if this will be subscription-based or not.

The Wii is significantly less powerful than the other two systems and will not feature the high-definition (HD) graphics that the other systems have. Nintendo has said that this is a measure to keep consumer costs down.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 ($300-$400)

There was some question about Microsoft’s releasing their system a full year before their competition. Sega did this with their Dreamcast and it turned out to be the final nail in their coffin. The Dreamcast got trounced by the PS2 and Sega eventually closed the doors on its hardware business for good. However, it looks as though Xbox 360 will come out of this fight in one piece. Their E3 showing was strong. The 360 games had arguably the best graphics at the show and supposedly at one booth an “exclusive” PS3 game was actually being run on a hidden Xbox 360.

Microsoft offers a great online experience with their Xbox Live service. Your stats and achievements in games show up on your online account page which offers a new social dimension to gaming. At E3, they announced that eventually PC gamers will be able to play against 360 players, which is pretty cool.

Microsoft scored a coup of sorts by getting Grand Theft Auto IV as an Xbox 360 exclusive. (Presumably it will eventually be ported to PS3 and PC). The previous three installments of this game debuted on the PS2. According to John Carmack of Doom and Quake fame, the Xbox 360 is the easiest system to develop games for. I read a while back that the PS3′s super-powerful technology was very complex and made creating games for it a headache. This is just speculation, but this could have something to do with Rockstar’s switch to the Xbox 360 for their Grand Theft Auto series.

Sony’s PS3 ($500-$600)

It seems the only news you hear about the PS3 is bad. It’s going to cost $600. It may be delayed until ’07. There may not be many games available at launch. Sony needed to have a good showing at E3 to stifle this bad press. Unfortunately, they didn’t have much to say or show.

On paper, the system looks really nice. It’s got tons of power, potentially will play games at higher resolutions than the other systems, and is the only system to support high capacity DVDs, (Blu-ray DVDs), out of the box. Whether the game developers will be able to make use of all these features and power is yet to be seen.

One interesting note about the PS3 is that it will support Linux. It’s not clear yet if the main operation system of the PS3 will be based on Linux or if it will be able to dual boot into Linux. Either way, the potential for customization seems far greater on the PS3 than on the other systems.

Over the years I have primarily been a PC gamer. The last console I bought was a PS1. But I find myself really excited about these next-generation systems. The potential for the Wii’s controller is off the charts. The online components of all three systems are going to be cool. The graphics of the Xbox 360 and PS3 are going to blow our minds. As for which system(s) I want to get? I’ve got the High-Definition TV bug really bad and will probably try to get one some time this year. If that happens, I’m seriously considering getting an Xbox 360 to really make use of the high-def resolutions. I will definitely get a Wii- all my old favorites through emulation, the controller, and shiny new versions of all my old favorites make getting this system a no-brainer.

Man, Machine, Nature

Nature and technology. I would imagine most people would either have not much to say about the relationship between these two concepts, or would say that they are diametrically opposed. For a smaller group of people, technology is seen as an evil force that will destroy nature unless we take action to stop it. These sort are usually called Luddites. Ludd was a (possibly mythical) man who destroyed factory machines during the industrial revolution.

For a probably much smaller group, technology can not advance quickly enough. They envision a planet where nature as we know it is left behind in technology's wake, and is all the better for it. For lack of a better term, I'll call them anti-Luddites and they actually scare me a lot. In a world controlled by such people, (I'm picturing evil scientists), if we made just a few terrible mistakes we would be overrun by tiny, self-replicating nanotech robots that feed off of matter itself. These robots would quickly reduce our planet to a giant "gray goo" ball of themselves, killing everything in their path.

I find myself in yet another group. I believe there is a healthy middle ground where the natural world and technology can mix together, forming innovative and helpful devices.

In William Gibson's novel Idoru there is an Oregon-based computer company (they are also called a "commune" and a "cult" by some of Gibson's characters), called the Sandbenders. Gibson does not go into great detail describing the sort of computers the Sandbenders build, but from what he does say, they are beautiful, simple but powerful, and almost organic machines… basically the anti-Dell computer. They are also, in my mind, one of the best descriptions of that middle ground between nature and technology… an almost perfect meshing of the two seemingly exclusive worlds.

From the novel: "[The Sandbenders] started with a woman who was an interface designer. Her husband was a jeweler [...] and a big green, too, and hated the way consumer electronics were made, a couple of little chips and boards inside these plastic shells. The shells were just point-of-purchase eye-candy made to wind up in a landfill if nobody recycled it, and usually nobody did. He used to tear up her hardware, the designer's, and put the real parts into cases he'd make in his shop. People liked touching all that stuff: metal, the smooth stone." To me, the people behind the Sandbenders are some sort of mix between Apple, Bob Moog (of Moog synthesizers), and the PC-modding kid that lives down your street. They understand that technology can be very helpful, but at the same time, they design it so that it seems like a natural extension of ourselves. In Idoru you get the feeling that Sandbenders are relatively scarce devices because when people see the main character's Sandbender, they become enthralled with it and just want to hold it and touch it. The technology actually makes people want to use it, which is something rarely seen today. The closest current examples of this I can think of are the iPod and the Quicksilver launching utility for Apple's OS X.

I recently went on a two-day hike up a mountain in Hong Kong. We walked up a trail leading through trees and brush, stayed in a cabin that had no electricity, and then hiked back down the mountain the next day. I have not done much of this sort of thing and am not in great hiking shape so I soon found myself pondering ways in which technology could be of assistance during one of humanity's best ways of returning to nature, a hike. I thought of things such as water purifiers, flashlights and helicopters (we passed a helipad about half way up and I kept imagining how painful it would be to break or sprain an ankle two miles from this pad and having to hobble down to it).

Besides these obvious, (and real), technologies, I found myself inventing new devices. My favorite was what I call the roboteraffestuhl, (that's what I got when I ran "robot monkey chair" through Google's english-to-german translator). It's a chair that sits about four feet off the ground on robot legs and it has a prehensile robot tail. As we marched up the trail I pictured myself sitting leisurely on my roboteraffestuhl…It plucks an apple for me out of a nearby tree with its’ tail and I start to doze off under the rhythmic swaying of its’ powerful, yet graceful, robot legs. A while later, I look down at my friends as sweat pours down their grimacing faces, offering them a slice of apple, saying "I told you you should have brought your roboteraffestuhl ."

The more I think about it, I’m actually not sure that I would want a robotic monkey chair that would hike up mountains for me. There is something cleansing and refreshing about occasionally pushing your body to its physical limits.

Maybe the place where humanity will most readily accept new technology is where it extends our reasoning and memory abilities, sort of a mechanistic, human-improvement system. In Idoru, the characters can "port" into their computers, using them as sort of sans-cerebral, (to borrow a phrase from a friend), memory devices. I imagine that a simple device that quickly, intuitively, and securely helps you remember things and search through the data in your head, would be a wonderful new tool welcomed by most people. If the alternative was a dark, lonely life of senility, I'd imagine such a device could eventually be accepted by even the staunchest Luddite.