ForbesOnTech

The SweepStakes Winner at MacWorld?-- 802.11 n Wireless!

The real win at MacWorld this week wasn’t Apple’s super thin new MacBook Air.  Rather, the sweepstakes winner is the 802.11 pre (n) wireless specification, which is the basis for Apple’s wireless backup, remote software installation and other data transmission schemes used on Apple’s new products.

            Apple gets major points in my technology ledger for its adoption and endorsement of 802.11 n. Right off the top, 802.11n provides Apple or any other computer maker more than mere bandwidth, the technology also has greater signal saturation and range than existing 802.11 technologies. Apple is the first computer maker to do more than just incorporate 802.11 n into its portables. It has made a wholesale adoption of the technology to improve its consumer computing experience.

            Using the new wireless standard to overcome the major shortcomings imposed by the MacBook Air’s form factor is the type of engineering that’s at once unusual for Apple but also the type of elegant workaround that marked Apple and its third-party developer community in the early days of the Macintosh. Apple correctly assumes that users of the MacBook Air are likely to also have older Macintoshes with integrated CD drives. By allowing users of the new MacBook Air to remotely install applications and back up data using wireless technology softens some of the edges associated with acquiring bleeding edge technology. The catch with this approach however is this: while 802.11 n is downwardly compatible with the older a and g spec, if users want or need n’s extended range and greater bandwidth, the computer loading the application should also be equipped with an 802.11 n compatible wireless transceiver.

            In daily use, it’s unlikely many users of the MacBook Air will benefit from the 802.11 n standard’s increased bandwidth or range, since few corporations of hot spots have upgraded their access points yet. But around the home or on the road where 802.11 n is available, it makes cloud-based computing enjoyable and worthwhile.

            And although Apple doesn’t own and didn’t invent the new wireless standard it’s adoption of 802.11 n is, I believe, a very important milestone. Now the world needs to catch up. —Jim Forbes 01/18/2008

            

I Can Live Easily with 802.11 pre n technology--So Can my Neighbor

I guess PCMag doesn’t much care for the idea of 802.11 draft n routers in the home:here

So unless you're using your draft-n router in the middle of a

Kansas

cornfield, there's almost no chance you're actually going to see true draft-n performance at 2.4 GHz. The throughput numbers I gathered below are all best-case. In real life, all of these routers (with the exception of our Editors' Choice, properly configured) will most likely get you only between 75 and 95 Mbps. Maybe.

Based on practical experience, I have to agree with PCMag’s take on the realistic state of 802.11 N today. Right after the holidays—thinking I was willing to take a chance and ride the curl of an incoming technology wave-- I combined a bunch of gift certificates and got an 802.11 Pre n router and a matching dongle for some of my older machines.

Expecting that the base leg of the new network (the router to the one machine in which I had an 802.11 Pre n card installed would help me fine wireless Nirvana (which I herewith declare to be persistent connectivity and acceptable signal saturation while slurping tangerine juice from my fingers as I sit under a neighbor’s citrus tree some 350 feet from the router which sits very high in my attic). I logged on to YouTube as a field test.

Pop! Bang, Zow! The connection was faster than anything I had ever experienced.  And I was connected to Rancho Bizarro N farther away than I’ve ever traveled from my home network before.

Then my contractors added their 802.11 g portables to the network and the throughput dropped, even after I stopped shouting “No Porn on my home network, guys!” After about 10 days of use I still think 802.11 pre N is an important technology. And not just because it’s wicked fast. For me, its increased range and excellent signal saturation at the outer limits of the network continue to make it a no-brainer addition to my home network. At the moment spending $80 to $100 for each of the cards I’d need to bring all of the equipment I own up on the network precludes a wholesale adoption of the technology.

But, my neighbor—who lives just beyond the crest of the mountaintop I live on, innocently asked me two days ago if he could “try-out the new card on his laptop?”

Hell, I raid his plum and Reed avocado trees so I thought: “It’s only fair” then 10 minutes later I watched the network throughput drop as he successfully leached bandwidth for the first time in four years. I dialed his cell phone “Hey no porn or Baja 1000 racing videos on my network, neighbor!”

He innocently asked “where’s the cheapest place to buy an 802.11 pre n card?” Looking out my kitchen window, I could see the faint glow of a screen in his upstairs den.

My dish washer started. I chuckled “I guess he’s on the network forever now.”

I don’t live in a

Kansas

wheat field, but I do live in an area of rural northern

San Diego

County

where avocados and navel oranges out number people. Besides, I really don’t mind sharing when I have bandwidth to spare. Moreover, my neighbor has some great air tools and I still have to replace the bearings in my boat trailer and add “bearing buddies” to protect them against the saltwater corrosion of launching my boat in the forth coming yellowtail season.

As if my neighbor’s satisfaction of being able to get a strong wireless connection from his side of the avocado trees wasn’t enough, the contractors working on the MaForbes addition here seem to like it too.  Every couple of minutes, during their lunch or breaks I repeatedly hear “Holy Makita! You ain’t going to believe this You Tube Clip!” And then the bandwidth drops. Eventually I again can’t hear myself think over the sound of nail guns and jack hammers”

New technology isn’t cheap. But it often makes life easier, especially if you live at the confluence of wild lands and Nirvana. Pre n 802.11 works for me--Jim Forbes, 01/10/2008.

Verizon Pops My Dream of Persistent Connectivity-- How to Turn a Good Customer Experience Into a Nightmare

In the world of personal computing there have been moments when I’ve wanted to take a large maul to what only days before had been a perfectly functioning personal computer and turn it into a small pile of smasked plastic, silicon chips and flat pieces of wire. And nothing brings this rage on faster than to have something I relied on and crowed about for months on end to stop working or become very difficult to use.

Congratulations Verizon, you turned one of the most important features of my go everywhere sub compact into crap. And Verizon managed to do this at a time when I was waiting for a loved one to come out of an oncological surgery suit and when I needed persistent connectivity most desparately.

Over the years, I’ve forgiven technology companies for a lot of errors and misdeeds. It’s always come down to my belief: In the end, well run companies "get it right."

But my view started changing three weeks ago when I tried to get a day pass from Verizon for its National Broadband wireless network. Until then – as San Diego County was aflame from its wildlands almost to the edge of the Pacific Ocean—accessing Verizon’s broadband network on an ad hoc basis (paying $15 for a day pass) was so simple that I had to take it for granted.

But I suddenly found that it was n o longer easy . Furthermore, I very quickly came to believe that one department at Verizon wasn’t talking to other departments. Over three days, I made a total of 15 phone calls to Verizon trying buy a day pass. A quick count of the numbers I wrote down and circled on my notepad shows seven different phone numbers. I lucked out on one call and got connected to a tech support specialist who finally got me connected. After I hunted down and found the ESN number for my X60’s internal Sierra WWAN modem. But the other numbers I called generated some of the most unsatisfactory customer experiences of my life.

It didn’t take m very long to figure out that not many people at Verizon are aware that the company offers several ways to connect to its wireless broadband network; PCMCIA cards and computers that include built in WWAN modems. Or that network access is available for a monthly fee on one- and two-year contracts, or on an ad hoc "day pass" basis. I patiently explained that I wanted a day pass to more Verizon phone reps than I want to count. Eventually I discovered that some departments at Verizon regard this feature as a "prepaid phone."

On top of this, Verizon expects anyone who calls for help with prepaid phones to know their phone number. But, as an occasion network user that’s something I have to get from deep within the help or Options menus in Verizon Access Manager application. But wait there’s more, on one computer the number is plainly recognizable, on another it’s not. Moreover, I’m handicapped and can’t write legibly with my dominant hand.

I’m probably the worse case scenario for a positive customer service experience: my wireless network provider had laid a path to a painless signup experience that I had used successfully many times; the service I purchased from my provider was so good I had to think very critically about things they could do better; Relatively few people have my handicap and are still as active with their computers as I am; Finally, I believe I have the right to a good customer and consumer experiences.

What’s most amazing to me about my damaged relationship with Verizon is this large communications company had the foresight to use a web page for day-pass signup. My experience using this signup service was so good, it was a big factor in my decision to tout Verizon’s national broadband wireless network in this blog.

For whatever reason, I can no longer access and use the signup web site and Verizon seems unable or unwilling to help me.

How important is persistent connectivity to me? You can bet that any cellular network that offers me an acceptable data rate (which I believe to be .76 MBps or faster) and an affordable national rate plan will get all of my household’s business and get my personal recommendation.

In Verizon’s defense I have to add that its National Broadband network fit my needs so well that my only complaint was it’s monthly price. And, in my travels up and down the west coast I’ve only found a couple of places where I couldn’t grab and hold a connection. Verizon was my first great experience with persistent connectivity. I hope it’s not my last.

After four failed attempts to get a day pass this week on this cell network’s national broadband service, I’m about ready to give it up. Sadly this also comes at a time when I have to renew my wireless plans.

Like a lot of technology buffs I thought that Intel’s WiMax technology would revolutionize persistent connectivity. However with the recent dissolution of the Clear Wire/Sprint alliance, my dream may have been shattered.

Persistent connectivity is as transformational as it is disruptive. If you experience it, come to rely on it and then lose it, you miss it a lot.

I hope Verizon makes a big commitment to broadband access. For the moment, it has acceptable network bandwidth and above average network penetration. I just hope that they return to a web-based signup procedure. That way I don’t get frustrated as I dial a long list of 800 numbers and speak to a legion of call center employees who get as frustrated as I do when they can’t match my needs with the offering their company provides.—Jim Forbes, now jumping from one free WiFi hotspot to the next, on 11/14/2007.

WiFi Phones For Skype--A Peripheral That Adds Value

Applications that have had the greatest impact on my life all share a single trait: they have gradually become an everyday part of my computing routine.

I moved to Powerpoint from  Living Videotext’s More Outliner. I started using it occasionally, grew to dislike it immeasurably, and then changed my mind. Today, PowerPoint is an intrinsic part of how I use a personal computer, and its performance is part of how I judge an underlying hardware platform. I moved to Microsoft Word the same way.  I used other programs and gradually moved to Word.

This helps to explain why I’m a Skype loyalist. I started using it to save money and because I didn’t want to tie up my house landline. Today, I can’t imagine not using Skype for domestic or international business and personal phone calls. And Skype has just kept getting better as more people switch to computer-based VOIP for whatever reason.

I’ve reached the point with Skype that I judge a computer or peripheral partly by it’s Skype experience. This applies to notebooks, web cams, headsets and more recently WiFi Skype phones. And that brings me to a new piece of hardware—Belkin’s WiFi phone for Skype. I like this peripheral so much, I honestly wish I had access to it before I retired.

This diminutive WiFi phone automatically connects to the Skype network as soon as it detects an open 802.11 network, downloading your phone numbers to make Skype network and off network calls whether or not you’re in front of, or even in the general vicinity of your primary computer.  I’ve used the Belkin WiFi phone for Skype about three months and it’s so reliable that I’ve come to use it almost as much my Verizon cell phone.

I like this phone’s usefulness, it’s rock solid reliability and the fact that it’s battery lets me go  two days or more between charges. My one and only complaint with this, and phones from other companies built to the same reference specification, has to do with the phone’s charger cable receptacle. It took me three tries before I learned to mate the phone with its charger cable successfully. But, once it’s hooked up, it stays connected and charges rapidly. I do recommend that you make sure you have adequate lighting the first couple of times you connect the phone to its charger cable.

The keys are easy on your fingers and you navigate through your phone number lists using a track stick.  It uses keys to place and end calls, just like most cell phones. And just like many cell phones, you power the phone on and off by holding down the red “end” key.

I really like the audio quality of my Belkin WiFi Skype phone. It’s on a par with and often better than the audio of my Verizon cell phone.  Volume is easily adjusted by its user, a feature I think is critical to its usability.

This purpose built peripheral is something I use nearly everyday. When I’m working outside around my house it rests comfortably in my shirt pocket.  When I leave for a trip, it’s one of two pieces of equipment I make sure is loaded in my back pack, along with it’s charger.

It’s value to me was reinforced late in October when I was forced to evacuate my house in Escondido, CA, because of the approaching Witch Creek Fire, which burned six houses on my block but didn’t touch my home. At the evacuation center legions of people sat in their cars talking on their cell phones. Predictably, the outgoing traffic nearly subsumed the cell networks and many mobile phone users ran out of battery power or simply were unable to make calls.

But not me.  I was parked next to the school/evacuation center’s computer room where I stayed connected to Skype and kept in touch with my relatives up in  Los Angeles County.

Priced around $180.00 and available at numerous online and brick and mortar retailers, portable WiFi phones designed specifically for Skype or other networks make what already is a very good experience even better.

Belkin’s WiFi phone for Skype makes an excellent stocking stuffer, and is an incredibly useful peripheral for Skype’s VOIP network.  The fact that I was able to rely on it at a time when local cell networks were at peak demand because 250,000 of my fellow San Diego County residents were streaming to evacuation centers reinforces my belief that this WiFi phone is nearly as important as my cell phone.

In addition to Belkin, Phillips and Logitech market phones built to a similar reference specification

--Jim Forbes, 11/08/2007

Confessions of a Technological Fire Refugee-- the San Diego Fires Part II (Hazily From Inside the Valley of Fire)

Fire Blogging Part II

A Technological Refugee's Notes and Observations

Rather than using the second part of my fire blog for spot news, I thought I'd post some more observations using the a refugee point of view.

Fire Safety and Bugging out

First off, Reverse 911 emergency call systems rule. the first phone call from the Escondido police department came in mid morning on Monday. I had about three hours notice to get ready. I spent most of the time, making sure my home on my little mountaintop not far from the San Diego wilderness was "fire safe."

     Briefly, by "fire safe" I mean collecting and disposing of all tinder that has accumulated near my house as a result of the wind storms. I than soaked the edges of my neighbors' uncut field and the row of scrub oak that lines the small private road winding up the mountain to my house. My final task was to fire up my yard tractor, pick a stretch of dying law, lower the blade till it came into contact with the earth and create a fuel free "safety zone." I actually did this twice: Once to create a fuel free zone to park my Toyota 4Runner in front of my house and the second time to create a place to retreat in case the fire broke through while I was still at home.

    I then parked my tractor and ATV in safe spots away from the house left the keys in the ignition, and rechecked the contents of my "Go Bag" (a bright red Swiss Army back pack with a change of skivies, fresh socks,two days worth of prescriptions, some Tylenol, notepad and pen, digital camera, fully charged cell phone and notebook computer, appropriate chargers, cell phone and wireless Skype phone. I have two bottles of water on the outside of my backpack, one for me and one for my domestic pets.

     The next to last things I threw in the back of my fully fueled Prius were pet food, a bag of kitty litter, a plastic litter tray and a case of bottled water as well as an extra set of clothes including a light weight jacket and extra tie-dyed t-shirt. The reverse 911 mandatory neighborhood evacuation call came early Monday afternoon.

     When the call came, I stuffed my two useless cats in their crates, got hissed at, leashed up my bug-eyed PTSD afflicted chihuahua and got the hell off my mountain top.

     I was interviewed yesterday by a couple of news people who are not native Southern Californians. Both people thought I had a "casual approach to being evacuated."

     I was quite frank in my reply "I don't have a single thing that can't be replaced" and my personal worse case scenario is my house burns to its concrete foundations.

     If that happens all that happens is that I rebuild on my mountaintop. I have good insurance, outstanding credit and am ready for some retail therapy anyway. When the call came, I was ...gone in two minutes.

     Having worked as a reporter covering big wildlands fires that take out parts of towns, I've seen first hand what happens when people delay

evacuation. Burns are unbelievably painful and its not something I chance. 

     I did stop on my way to the evacuation point to make sure the two elderly neighbors at the base of my mountain were ready to go and out their doors.

     As i looked east i saw the flames from the Witch Creek fire in the general area of two houses set in rural lots.  Both houses were lost in the blaze and no one was hurt.

h

Surprise, Surprise, The evac center is full up

So I was directed to an "overflow center" about 1/2 mile away. I followed the line of cars, parked in a large parking lot away from trees and went in the school gymnasium to register. The process was simple, took almost no time and the center had chilled water, juice and snacks on hand.

     I can't thank the staff and students at the Calvan Christian Academy in Escondido enough. There evac center was staffed entirely by volunteers from the neighborhood and the school and everything was, clean and well run. Even the "computer room" was open to evacuees.

    Talk about the miracle of loves and fishes. The center served dinner at 6:30 for a crowd that I estimate to have been as large as 2000 people. No one went away hungry. By 9:00 pm, people were settling in for the night on cots or in the cars in the parking lot. Calvan did this without any help from the Red Cross and did a first rate job of providing emergency shelter and food.  Outstanding.

     Down the street at Escondido High School, the fenced PE field had been turned into an ad hoc horse corral. I am very surprised at the number of horses in Escondido.Even the live stock was well cared for by volunteers with horses and goats alike being fed and watered regularly. seeing some big red horses and a couple of huge mules made me remember how much I like horse flesh.

    With the glow of the Witch Creek fire fading to my east, I returned home to my mountain top around 10 pm where i sat out on the porch listening to the winds, the sound of the fire and happily noticing that it had moved away from my neighborhood at last

Media Misses Mark Day One

    On Monday of this week local media blew it. Most of the news was incredibly superficial and there was almost no granular detail on what roads were open out of San Diego. By Tuesday this had changed as the California Office of Emergency Services  (OES)stepped in to make sure the 250,000 temporarily dispossessed residents o San Diego County knew where shelters were located, whether or not they were still "open" and most of all, where citizens could get more detailed information.

     Once OES stepped in, the level of panic dropped noticeably and people at the shelters began to settle in. Also, the rambling, sometimes accusatory comments on talk radio dropped measurably.

     Forest fire emergencies should not be used by talk radio to advance popular conservative causes.  I freely shared my bottled water with any family I saw parked by the side o I-15, waiting for the freeway to clear. Whether they were legal or not wasn't material. helping my people is more important to me than a popular cause.

Fire oddities:

     A public service message broadcast Tuesday advised horse owner that the SPCA and an equine rescue operation  were accepting horses on Shelter Island.  Wow, did that make me think, Swim horses and live stock through Mission Bay?  Well Shelter Island is connected to civilization by a bridge, so getting "Swaps, Citation or Man o'War" over there shouldn't be much of a problem. by Tuesday evening Shelter Island was awash in horseflesh as well as the occasional goat "stable buddy." I admit I Find the image of horses going to an island funny in a comforting kind of way.

     Two hours after I got home an explosion of fleeing sparrows bolting from the Forbes bird day spa and resort complex in my garden, followed by loud squawking made me look out the window where--two gray African parrots where feasting on the apple and jicama chunks in my bird feeder and then loudly taking a bath in the stock trough I use as a bird bath.  Damn parrots left a ring of dirt in the bird bath after the flew away looking for avocados.

     My dog has a definite case of wild fire related PTSD.  This is his second fire and he's not very happy about smelling smoke.

Where's da planes, boss?

     Local talk radio spent a lot of time crying about the lack of air tanker support early this week. The US Navy responded on Tuesday with a score of SeaHawk choppers (the Naval variant of the Army's UH 60 Black Hawk) that beat back flames throughout the county. the reason the large aerial tankers weren't flying is because of the shifting Santa Ana winds, which can change directions rapidly-- not a good thing for a plane carrying 20,000 pounds of retardant trying to center on a drop run.

     C-130 air tankers are already on station this morning, 50 minutes before first light. Fortunately for air and ground crews, this will make air tanker operations safer.

     With air assets in the air the Witch Creek fire should be stopped before it gets to Hawaii.

Refugee High tech

I never go anywhere without my notebook which has integrated 802.11 WiFi and broadband wireless.  I used both extensively while i was away from my house. at the evacuation center, I spent about two hours sending emails on behalf of others gathered in the parking lot.

Another key piece of technology is my Belkin wireless SKype phone. If it's reasonably near an open WiFi network, it finds and logs into Skype where I use it to make out-of-network calls.  It's audio quality is very good, it's easy to use and it has a very long battery life. I"m surprised more evacuation centers don't know about this technology since it can substantially reduce traffic on cell networks in emergencies.

     Skype wireless phones may be one of the most important technology tools you can pack in your personal "Get Out of Town Bag."

     Another great technology I use is ham radio.  the emergency two and six meter networks in Southern California were up and running almost as soon as th first wild lands fire fighting rigs were rolling on responses.  Listening to the traffic on my tiny hand held transceiver I was amazed at the coordination and help ham radio operators provided in this fire season. It's a long tradition I'm glad to see continuing into the 21st Century

I'm going to post this now. As i write this the only visible fies are to my north on Palomar Mountain and in Fallbrook. I can hear the engines of overhead air tankers and the distant sound of sirens as reserve fire trucks and dozers make their way to the fires. And as usual, my hats off and cold bottles of Coca Cola freely extended to the wild lands and city and county firefighters who battled he flames on four sides of my town to a standstill and probably stopped the Witch Creek fire from spreading to Hawaii.  hack, hack, cough--Jim Forbes 10/24/2007 from smokey Escondido, CA.

Smashing the Useless Chimneys of SmokeStack Marketing Communications

I pay a lot of attention to portable computing marketing trends and while some of the companies in this category have done very well, others are losing market share at a time when the category is experiencing unparalleled growth.

It’s this last category of companies—mostly hardware makers-- that astound me.  Uniformly they appear to be practicing what amounts to “smokestack PR” in an era when new media outlets and marketing message opportunities are rapidly appearing.

At the heart of smokestack PR practices is the reliance on old media partners as a primary outlet for distributing product information (reviews, first looks and very rarely trend stories) to target audiences. The most obvious problem with this 20^th Century approach to marketing is that yesterday’s top-ranked outlet for such information is now in bankruptcy and its page counts are plunging. But the contract-marketing firms who serve this segment seem unable to see the looming fatal tiger trap.

And the firms that rely on old school marketing share some of the blame for the problems. The “client” at such agencies has grown accustomed to product launches synchronized with new processors, core logic or display technologies, rather than real world usage patterns. All too often, the client wears blinders that restrict the view of his products to units sold according to form factor, or technical specs. Get the client to remove their blinders and look at products deployed according to usage and a new model suddenly appears.

And of course that model that pops out of the mist opens new venues for marketing messages. And those venues are often direct high-speed pipes leading to more unit sales that come at lower cost per thousands of customers. But selling a smokestack client whose proof of work consists largely of phone contact sheets with conversation summaries or a hurried conversation on the back nine holes of a suburban gold course is difficult.

            Difficult, but it’s not impossible.  And if the “client”, “agency principle” or “account team” is using the technology they’re selling or demonstrating they should be capable of seeing and positioning the advantages of new technology beyond static bench mark numbers.

            I’m a pretty good case study in this. For a lot of my professional life, I wrote about and was married to smokestack marketing for portable computing. And along the way, I learned that form and function outweighed pure performance.  Three examples:

+ my life with HP’s early OmniBook  subcompacts. when I switched to Omnibook, I cut about seven pounds that I had to schlep all over the country. And I did it without sacrificing a single feature I needed to do well at my job. Sadly, the Omnibook ended up being miscast at “executive jewelry” rather than the breakthrough portable product it was.

+A two-year marriage to a Toshiba Portage with a “slice” bay and optional second battery. The first week I used this notebook I departed for a 10-day trip to Asia. While I was in Asia, I had to hit three important deadlines. The Portage performed flawlessly, despite some very rough handling by me at Raffles Bar in Singapore. When I landed at Narita in Japan I called my office and was told I needed to deliver a 2,500-word feature ASAP.  I boarded a UAL 777, took my seat, booted up the Portage and pulled out the printed notes I needed to complete the assignment. Eight hours later, I finished and saved the story. That was my first true “transcontinental” experience with a second battery and it still shapes my thinking on how important battery life can be in portable computer marketing. Toshiba seemed to be more interested in positioning this specific Portage model as something that filled in several check boxes in a matrix than in positioning it as a system for growing number of professionals who needed a reliable notebook with extreme battery performance.

+ Lenovo’s ThinkPad X60s and X60 tablet line. As a Demo producer, I talked and wrote a lot about concepts I called “persistent connectivity.” “pervasive computing.” But it wasn’t until I started using X60’s with integrated EvDo wireless modems that I really understood how important this concept is to mobile professionals.  And that realization hit me last year, while fishing at an out of the way lake in the Western Sierra when I received an urgent voice mail message from a family member telling me to “check my email now!” So, I hiked up to a hilltop near the Lake, booted the X60 up, logged on to Verizon’s access manager, signed up for a $15 day pass and connected to the EvDO network. The message was an urgent action request for me in my role as CEO of the first National Bank of Dad. I made the requested funds transfer, sent a text message alert to my off spring, hiked back down the hill and proceeded with the task at hand-- catching a  limit of big fall run rainbow trout. In this application I could just as easily have been a drug company rep booking a large order for s new pharmaceutical, as I was a Dad getting money to a grateful child. Of all the portable hardware makers, Lenovo seems to understand that usage, not the latest and greatest processor drives applications and customer adoption. And it’s adoption that drives sales.

Service providers  that understand the need for new approaches that emphasize  usage over matrix stats marketing messages include: Craig McCaw’s ClearWire, the Sprint/Nextel/Intel WiMax alliance and Verizon. Because of this fundamental shift away from smokestack marketing communications, these companies are poised to create and maintain leadership positions.

Other people, including the fellow PCWeek Alum Rob Oregan here are much more eloquent about this message, but it’s been on my mind for a while.—Jim Forbes on 09/11/2007

Mesh Networking Begins to Come of Age

One of the most incredible technology demonstrations I ever picked for Demo was of 802.11 ad hoc mesh networking. The Demonstrator was SRI in Menlo Park and the technology had been developed for the USMC as part of their urban warfare technology.

When the technology was described to me months in advance of Dem, all the cosmic gears, sprockets and drive elements went “click” and I instantly understood that the technology could have far-reaching implications beyond the Marines and their need to keep data and other networks up and running under the most adverse of conditions.

            SRI’s demonstration caught the attention of venture investors, entrepreneurs and press. Everyone who saw it immediately understood what it meant to see a network expand with the simple addition of another portable computer equipped with the right software and hardware. The audience also understood the meaning of a “dead node” in a combat 802.11 network.

            SRI’s technology is still very fresh in my mind, long after it was unveiled at Demo. As a result of the that demo, I went on to pick several other mesh networking companies, notably Sky Pilot Networks, now a mesh hardware supplier, but which was originally chartered to be a public networking supplier.

Two ther companies in this space that deserve watching are Firetide Networks (pick by Chis Shipey to launch at Demo 2003) and Packet Networks ( a  co-founder of which  is the former SRI researcher credited with pioneering mesh networks).

Instant wireless networking (another name for 802.11 mesh networks) has scored a number of impressive wins since it was unveiled six years ago. It’s now used extensively by the Department of Defense, emergency services agencies and municipalities to increase the flow of information in a variety of circumstances.

Firetide is one example of how instant wireless networking suppliers have been able to quickly capitalize on the growth of wireless networking. Since its founding in 2003, it has gone on to create a partner network that specializes in installing instant user-configurable wireless networks for anyone that wants to deploy wireless VOIP, video surveillance and high speed internet connectivity. Meru Networks, Netgear, AirPath Wireless and Pronto Networks.

Packet Networks has been equally successful in the public sector.

            Mesh networking is an important is also a part of educational computing where college level instructors are using it to create instant networks that are used for field work. One of the most unusual instant networks was highlighted recently in the blog of HP’s educational computing evangelist, Jim Vanides. One of Vanides more unusual posts here, concerns an enterprising geology professor who organizes multi car caravans that take students on field tours for a geology class. The far-thinking professor has built a power point deck that outlines the geologic features the students see as they whiz along at 60 or more miles an hour. The students sre using tablet PCs equipped with wireless adapters and mesh networking software. Presumably, the professor is controlling the display of PowerPoint slides from a passenger seat somewhere along the rolling classroom. I can only hope that student drivers aren’t glued to the slides on their notebooks and talking on their cell phones while they drive.

            Instant mesh networking, it’s a technology that can transform educational and all other categories of porftable computing.—Jim Forbes, wirelessly from my palm fronded outside office on a small mountaintop in rural San Diego County on 09/04/2007.  Woops, I guesss that was a small earthquake offshore. Fins up!

(mandatory disclosure:  Prior to retiring after a stroke kicked my butt in the hours before I was to have opened a Demo show, I produced DemoMobile, worked with Chris Shipley on Demo and wrote the printed and online versions of the DemoLetter and DemoMobile Letter.).

Betting on Craig McCaw's ClearWire to Set the Gold Standard for Broadband Wireless Networking

What do residents of sleepy California Central Valley towns like Chico, Merced, Modesto, Stockton and Visalia have that I want now?

Simple answer: inexpensive, pervasive and persistent wireless connectivity. Residents of all these town, plus portions of Western Washington, and Reno, Nevada, are all now served by what could be the most important business play in wireless broadband today, Craig McCaw’s ClearWire wireless broadband .  Priced at less than $40 a month for 2MB of persistent wireless connectivity, ClearWire is breaking new ground and is also on the leading edge of  Intel’s WiMax technologies.

Unlike 802.11 providers, which use unregulated bandwidth in the 2.4GHz radio spectrum, ClearWire operates in a higher regulated frequency spectrum  (which goes a long way to solve 802.11 problems such as interference by other devices that use the same unlicensed spectrum).  Plus, ClearWire’s frequency enables network operators to use more more robust transmission technologies, which, which extends the range of the network.

What makes ClearWire remarkable is a well-deserved reputation for being easily installed by non-technical computer users. And, rock solid reliability. Add to that it’s inexpensive monthly basic service rate and its pervasive signal penetration within subscription areas and you can begin to imagine why I can’t wait for ClearWire to come to my home range here in northern San Diego County.

I have watched ClearWire turn two households into raving wireless proponents.  One is a nephew who lives on the fringes of ClearWire’s subscription area near Bend, OR, and the other is a very good friend now living in Seattle.

ClearWire is one of the first big wins for Intel’s WiMax wireless broad technologies. Intel is also working with Sprint/Nextel as part of its efforts to make WiMax wireless networking a community and industry standard.

ClearWire supplies subscribers with a proprietary modem/receiver that connects to a PC via a USB cable. The receiver connects to the ClearWire WiMax network.  Users can then use off-the-shelf Cat5 networking cable to connect the ClearWire modem to their 802.11 WiFi networks. Unlike 802.11 mesh networks, ClearWire has very low latency rates.

A peripheral called a “ClearPlug is sold by ClearWire to improve ClearWire network connectivity.  ClearPlugs are small ClearWire receivers that plug into AC outlets.   Users can use ClearPlugs to maintain an optimal connection to the ClearWire network. ClearPlugs transmit their signal to connect to the ClearWire modem using existing wiring, eliminating the need to run extra cables.

ClearWire recently unveiled a PCMCIA ClearWire wireless card. Although this card has been available in Anchorage, Alaska for some time, it’s 0nly now just beginning to ship in the lower 48 states. The ClearWire Card makes possible true pervasive wireless networking and can be used in moving vehicles operating within range of ClearWire’s regional networks.

Download transmission speeds of about 2mbps are common on the network but upload speeds are only 256kbps.

In addition to West coast subscription areas, ClearWire is also operating on the east coast, in Texas and parts of the Midwest.

In the race to deliver wireless broadband connectivity I’m betting on ClearWire. It has the bandwidth, pervasiveness and reliability that is needed to make broadband wireless networking a reality. I just wish it were available here in southern California. Jim Forbes, Escondido, CA, 08/24/2007

If it First You Don't Succeed Then Patiently Call Tech Support

    This week I had to go up to my ancestral home, the somewhat technologically backward town of Azusa, CA  to run errands, take MaForbes shopping and out for a general airing. I'm deep into the initial process of a major remodel to my house and need a persistent high speed Internet connection to accommodate the frequent emails I receive from my contractor and designers, which uniformly include large attachments.

     SO rather than get annoyed fighting unbelievably slow dial-up connections or frequent trips to the local Cinnabun bakery five miles east of MaForbes' house, I cheerfully decided to buy a $15 day pass on Verizon's EvDo broad band network. My notebooks of choice are ThinkPad X60's and both include integrated EvDo modems. The decision to splurged $15 for 24 hour access is a "no-brainer" for trips like this week's. I don't tie up MaForbes' phone line, I don't have to steal bandwidth on some neighbor's unsecured 802.11 network and I can work at the old desk in my childhood bedroom. But most of all, I don't have to fly from the western edge of town to the Cinnabun, which is merely 75 feet from the city limits of Glendora-- the next town east on Route 66.

     I fired up Verizon's network access application, clicked through the "Connect" and "Access" options and merrily filled in the form.  Whoops, it burped and told me to call Verizon and automatically generated a help ticket number, a geocoded location and displayed the cell phone number associated with the internal modem on the X60.

     After just a three minutes on hold I found myself talking to a somewhat confused Verizon rep who didn't know that the company offered a "prepaid access" option on notebooks equipped with integrated EvDo modems. Shethen proceeded to initiate one of three transfers that it took to get through to someone from Verizon who not only knew about day-passes but was prepared to help me.

     At about 15 minutes into the tech support call I was transferred to a call center in Bellevue, WA, the west coast home of Verizon and Vodaphone (whose technology is used by the cell carrier for its wireless data networking). The rep at this call center was incredibly polite and asked me to hang on while she looked into the problem.

    Meanwhile, I had disconnected from EvDo and relaunched the log-on and day pass sign-up applications. This time I was successful and within three minutes was downloading a drawing of the proposed remodel. But after I had connected to EvDo, I thumbed the disconnect button on my cell and focused on the work on screen.

    I had been disconnected from the Verizon rep in Washington all of about four minutes when my cell chirped. I looked at the incoming number, noted the 425 area code and the identifying words "Verizon wireless" and cheerfully said "Hello kind people at Verizon."

     The tech rep apologized for taking so long and said she understood why I had disconnected rather than wait on hold.  Points, to Verizon for humility. The tech also recognized that my inability to resolve my problems  with one call (and no transfers) is that few of the reps in call centers are used to getting calls from people connecting to the EvDo network using the "prepaid" or day-use option. I give the last tech rep I talked to credit for trying to get me to buy the service on a monthly basis and laughing at my joke: "unlike avocados, which in Escondido are a form of green gold for orchardists, money doesn't grow on trees."

     She laughed, and noted that my billing address was very near the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park--which is about one half mile and the occasional loud lion roar from my house. I hung up, satisfied with my experience. I lit up muy last Cuban Upmann Churchill cigar.

    As the cigar smoke swirled lazily in a light southern California breeze born over my beloved Sierra Gabriel Mountains, I realized that it's still very early days for cellular and related data networking. But,at this point in my life, I often need persistent wireless connectivity to oversee and understand an important project-- building a new wing on my house for my 89-year old mother one ream of paper at a time, and one 1.5 GB architectural drawing and five emails at a time. And since I'm away from, or out of range, my home's WiFi network A $15 day pass is a worthwhile investment.

     In fact, this capability has become so important that I can't imagine more notebooks don't include it as part of their standard configurations.

     Oh, I think I've figured out why Verizon occasionally burps when I sign up. If I remember correctly, the four times it's happened, the zip code that I enter in the "your location" field is different than my billing address zip code.  It's all part of growing pains, I guess. I can live with it. Easily--Jim Forbes, 08/17/2007.