New Computer Wireless Network Technology to Drool Over
An article posted today on Wired got me all excited (Yes, I am that kind of geek)! They discuss the future of wireless networking and how the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) has announced that 60Ghz multi-gigabit wireless technology is now available to member companies to start turning out products that use the new high-speed standard.
Yes, you didn’t read that wrong and I didn’t make a typo… multi-gigabit wireless! The article discusses this in more detail, so I will refer you to it to pull the details out, but imagine if you will, the ability to have a wireless LAN at more than 10 times the speed of current 802.11n Wi-Fi, or Wireless N rate. Heck, most offices do not even have gigabit switches in them, and my own home doesn’t.
That still means our bottleneck is the internet connection to our home, but a gigabit wireless, combined with say, Google Fiber Internet at gigabit speed is going to be amazing when it gets here! Of course, Google will bring that technology to Greenville SC first, so you better plan to move to the Upstate to fulfill your need for speed! =)
An article on NetworkWorld.com made me chuckle today… Apparently the Bad Guys are now using Radio Direction Finding (RDF) to locate hidden notebooks because their 802.11* wireless was enabled.
It seems amazing to me that it has taken this long for anyone to realize that if a ntoebook or any other device is “wireless”, that it is transmitting a signal, which can be located. RDF is actually a sport and ham radio operators have been doing it for years… We use high gain, directional homemade and sometimes professionally made antennas, receivers and sometimes doppler systems to zero in on a hidden transmitter. This is called “foxhunting” in the USA for the casual participant.
The original article can be found here: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/030210-wifi-finders.html?hpg1=bn
A friend posted this YouTube video on a County Hunter forum. I found it very well done and thought I would share. This is a demonstration of a Yagi beam antenna and shows how adding a reflector and directors to a driven element increases the signal strength in front of the antenna by focusing the power bounced off the reflector and through the “director” element/s.
Today I spent about an hour or more showing Scott what an Amiga A-4000T is all about. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any disks with me to show him the awesome 80s & 90s graphics. Nor did I get it online to show him what that machine was used for.
What was it used for? I’m glad you asked! It was used to run Amiga Connection (AmiCon.Net) BBS for years and years. At the time that I pulled the plug on it about 2005, it was likely the oldest CNet Amiga BBS still online. I hope to be bringing it online again in the coming weeks, and let it live out its life serving up those wonderful ascii/ansi graphics via a telnet connection. Don’t worry, I will announce the grand re-opening because I know you want to see messages and uploads that posted 10 years ago.
AmiCon has over 800 registered members still that have not been weeded out (I turned off the “weed” for inactive users to preserve the database). Some awesome people used this board over the years, maybe they are still alive?
While I’m on the subject of forgotten technology, what about IRC? It’s around still, in fact, there are thousands of IRC servers and if you log onto some of the larger networks, you will find thousands of people online, however, if you ask 100 people if they know what it is, a dozen will have heard of it, one might still use it. I still run an IRC server at irc.SuperHosts.Net, which was part of the irc.ExodusIRC.Net network until we lost all the other people. Want to join in the fun? No problem, shoot me an email, I’ll tell you all about it… IRC is actually pretty fun. You can find live discussions going on just about any time of the day, in any language, and on any subject.
Maybe I should leave out my OTHER forgotten technology…. Ham Radio… Uhmm yeah, I still use that too!
