RSA Security and Hifn along with the 802.11 Patch WEP: internetnews.com coverage, News.com coverage: If everything in these stories and the RSA press release are correct, we could have a quick and easy update to WEP that makes it actually robust enough to trust as a simple first-line of defense. It still won't be the right method to rely on, but it will actually meet its initial purpose. The information makes it sound as though most firmware will support the revisions, meaning current devices can become compatible with just a flash. This new method ensures that vastly more RC4 keys are used based on the same shared secret (the WEP key) so that the complexity of cracking the key goes up to some large order of magnitude more difficulty. The shared-key problems remain: updating keys, managing them, keeping them secure, etc. (Read more about WEP and other problems with Wi-Fi's security profile in Wireless which now needs to be updated.)

Slashdot thread on WEP update: the best Slashdot thread I've read in a long time. Well-informed discussion by a core group of knowledgeable people contributing to an overall understanding.

I'd tell you about it, but then I'd have to... Folks, I have some great news that I can't tell you about as much as I'd like to. I can't even hint at it, besides telling you I can't hint at it. Come back Thursday morning when I release a great story that should make everyone happy just in time for the new year.

Solstice Suspension: I'll be on vacation for several days over the next two weeks, and I don't expect much news, either, as everyone regroups from a difficult year. I appreciate the vast amount of advice and information readers and friends have contributed to me in running this Web site, and I am thrilled to be writing about this whole subject.

InfoWorld CTO asks Santa, Wi-Fi Wherever?: Chad Dickerson, InfoWorld's CTO and penner of his regular (and well worth reading) CTO column, asks the bearded man in a red suit for ubiquitous Wi-Fi because, well, because it works! I'll be good next year if you give me wireless access to the Internet from my laptop from all the places where I find myself sitting unproductively.

This humble Web log (or blog) has been nominated for the best technology Web log of 2001 . Feel free to vote. The award comes from Scripting News, an ur-blog and blogfather and connected at the hip with Userland, a content-management software maker that also hosts Web logs.

What she said: European governments suck capital from eager telcos resulting in wireless data disaster: I've been saying this since spring, and the groundswell of support continues to grow for those of like mind. The European telcos, suckered in by a burgeoning economy and the end of old rules, bid $140 billion on 3G (third-generation) cellular licenses for frequencies throughout Europe. When the bubble burst, the telcos found themselves with licenses for a technology that doesn't quite exist, an infrastructure that can't support it, and lots of debt.