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May 23, 2007

Wee-Fi: Mooching, Computers before Wi-Fi, Health, Wasted Minutes

By Glenn Fleishman

Michigan moocher faces fine, service, not jail time: The Michigan man who used a coffeeshop’s free Wi-Fi without entering the shop or gaining their permission will pay $400 and perform 40 hours of community service (perhaps helping people hook up Wi-Fi networks in community centers?). He doesn’t appear to have been charged, but got this deal under a prosecutorial “diversion” program. Tricky: free Wi-Fi still has to be authorized to be used, even though no theft of service is at risk. He’s one of several people charged with using Wi-Fi without permission in the last few years, although the first I can recall using a purposely public free location.

Cincinnati paper asks, why Wi-Fi without computers? The paper’s editorial thinks Wi-Fi is just fine, but wonders if the divide between computer-owning and not is the one that should be solved first? It’s a chicken-and-egg problem. If you help people purchase computers, then they’re stuck paying $10 to $20 per month for slow dial-up access. If you build a citywide Wi-Fi network that includes a provision for subsidized and free accounts for low-income residents, then the computers start to have real value. There are a lot of ifs and buts in there.

Studies on radiation and health lead to more studies: The Guardian writes how the head of the Health Protection Agency in Britain called in 2000 for more studies on the connection of mobile phones to health; the results of that work (not all studies everywhere) have all been inconclusive or reject any connection. He’s the one calling in Monday’s BBC documentary on “electrosmog” for more studies. Actually, I’d love more studies, but it’s unlikely they’ll reveal more than the mobile phone ones, given that the energy expressed is so minute comparatively.

Wash those hotspot minutes down the drain: Trustive finds in a survey that half the hotspot minutes purchased on scratch-card and use-em-or-lose-em plans aren’t used. In my case, it’s probably 75 to 90 percent. Trustive is an aggregator, and sells prepaid (not as-you-go) minutes that expire after 12 months, and monthly service plans, so their interest is slightly vested, but they are also in a position to understand where minutes disappear to.

Posted by Glennf at May 23, 2007 8:08 PM

Categories: Wee-Fi

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