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New encryption may become Wi-Fi's future: A standard known as CCM developed by Hifn may be the contender for WEP's replacement.
Starbucks announcement speculation and history: This article speculates on what Starbucks, HP, and T-Mobile might be announcing tomorrow (I'm covering it for a newspaper), and discusses the history of the Compaq (now HP) and MobileStar (now T-Mobile Wireless Broadband) partnerships. One analyst quoted performs a backwards reductionist view of T-Mobile's revenue potential: X people with laptops, X percentage of which have Wi-Fi cards, X percent of which go to a Starbucks, X percent of which pay for service. Rather, it's of the people with Wi-Fi cards, which choose specifically to go to Starbucks to use the network and pay for it? That's an additive number, and it could be large.
A few errors: MobileStar only used 802.11 with frequency hopping, a non-Wi-Fi standard, in hotels. Their Starbucks deployment was Wi-Fi (Direct Sequence) from the start. Deutsche Telekom acquired MobileStar's assets, not the company. T-Mobile isn't just running on the 2.4 GHz band in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square, but on the same channel as Personal Telco. Users might find themselves by default on Starbucks network only if they don't have an option to choose a network by name. Finally, and this isn't an error, what's the antithesis of a cyber cafe, Mr. Schultz? A place where you pay people to not use their computers?
Slashdot weighs in on community v. Starbucks frequency problems: The discussion degrades into ignorance quite rapidly, but the early posts are excellent examinations of the issue.
David Sifry says Cringely is an idiot: I wouldn't be so direct, but I'll let Sifry speak for himself. Sifry is a techie and a smart guy, and when I talk to him, I hear the light of reason in his voice (as it were). He understands the deep structures of Wi-Fi, and also its business potential.