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Wireless Networking IT Hardware

Silicon Valley to get WiFi Coverage 23

Posted by Zonk from the nice-for-them dept.
prostoalex writes "A high tech civic group led by Intel is soliciting a bid from ISPs to create a WiFi cloud around Silicon Valley. From the Reuters article: 'The Smart Valley group will solicit financial contributions to develop the plan to cover another 20 Silicon Valley cities. In all, the plan would stretch across four counties - Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz.'"
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Silicon Valley to get WiFi Coverage More

Silicon Valley to get WiFi Coverage

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  • Security? (Score:1, Troll)

    by Eightyford ( 893696 )
    How secure are these transmissions? Wouldn't high tech companies in Silicon Valley need extreme security?
    • How secure are these transmissions? Wouldn't high tech companies in Silicon Valley need extreme security?

      How secure do you think the Internet is? Do you trust companies like Level3, XO, and AT&T with your communications? You shouldn't... use a VPN or encrypt your traffic through some other mechanism.

  • another step (Score:5, Insightful)

    by drDugan ( 219551 ) on Friday January 27, 2006 @01:22PM (#14580037) Homepage
    Wide, free access is another step in humankind's inevitable re-evaluation of what property means. Everywhere I look, things are becomeing more open and free. Freecycle, free wifi, free search, free software ...

    when, as a society we unlock the food and shelter, and people start to have real choice in what they do with their time... thigs will start to get REALLY interesting.
    • I can't wait for my free oil :-)
      • Right, I was going to comment on how no one lifted the laws of economics recently ...
        • economics are not LAWS -- economics has descriptive observations of social behaviors. the premise of the whole field of economics is "resource allocation". as the definition of "resources" changes, so does economics

      • Re:another step (Score:3, Insightful)

        by vertinox ( 846076 )
        I can't wait for my free oil :-)

        Well if ITER [wikipedia.org] gets off their butts and gets the Tokamak reactor up and running they we can have the free power we want to convert stuff to hydrogen or biodisel.

        Of course this might be 20-50 years before they get one made for public consumption, but one can only hope...

        But like the grandparent says, everything can be free if the right technology is applied. Free markets demand it.

        Energy, information, people, and markets want to be free. (We have no choice)
    • We have a long way to go before we are anywhere close to a non-monetary society like you see in Star Trek.

      • Re:another step (Score:3, Insightful)

        by drDugan ( 219551 )
        why? with the rapid acceleration of idea tranfer globally, what is keeping us back?

        we're already training the whole 9-16 age bracket on simple models of social interaction with game-based systems. this generation of people will grasp new models of interaction muchg faster than the aged rich today.

        • Well, I hate to break this to you but video game social networks have very little to do with doing away with capitalism. The communist ideals are similar to what you are speaking about but have been proven to be too idealistic for reality. At best we can achieve a heavily socialist society with a large number of basic neccessities taken care of, but this will be resisted by a large portion of the population as infringing on their rights. If you look at the spectrum of societal market systems, you can bas
          • you haven't broken anything. These ideas have been around for CENTURIES.

            games define the models on which we train our brains. games will radiaclly shift how we think, and thus will change how we live.

            words like "communists" are laden with context and the discussion get quite complex, and almost impossible on chat boards.

            "the best we can achieve" -- big myth
            I assert human nature is highly mutable and defined almost exclusively by the situations in which we train our behaviors. "we" can achieve what ever
            • Well, just FYI, I am not part of the 'political right', I voted Green Party in the recent Canadian federal election, and NDP in most of the previous elections. I have no doubt that the society that you are dreaming about would be wonderous and springboard us into better and better things, but free wireless internet in SV is a long long ways from what you are describing, centuries away I would predict. There is a one-dimensional spectrum for all intents and purposes and in practise if you look at the examp
    • when, as a society we unlock the food and shelter, and people start to have real choice in what they do with their time... thigs will start to get REALLY interesting.

      Did you miss it? In the US at least this has already happened in a real sense. While it wouldn't work for everyone, on an individual level you can live in homeless shelters and eat in soup kitchens and have better food/shelter than 95% of people had 200-300 years ago - for free.

      Most people could get basic food and shelter with a 20 hour a wee
      • You are forgetting human nature. Most humans by nature will strive for more - a higher standard of living. More than they have now. More than their neighbors. The fact that few people settle for a low standard of living to get lots of free time proves it.

        I understand human nature pretty well. Human will strive for understanding. It is unhealth in both individual and society that leaves the individual scared and fearful or running out, which "drives them for more". Modern society has no safety net, and pe
        • Here in Canada we have a safety net, many of them, and there are lots of people striving to get rich and people barely able to get by. You sound like you are expounding European society, which are great, but you think there aren't poor and homeless people there? Or rich assholes with SUV's?
  • No matter what 802.11(b/g) channel they select, won't it interfere with existing users?
  • I assume this is referring to some kind of other free WiFi access, besides the 8 zillion free access points already in the valley. Aren't there some more remote places that need this? This is like giving away chocolate bars to Willy Wonka... pretty sure there's enough to go around already.

    Also, Santa Cruz has always had those pesky mountains in the way, so I assume this will be an airborne solution, i.e. satellite or balloon, right? How else will my friends in the SC mountains get it?
    • I'm pretty excited to hear Santa Cruz might get WiFi coverage (though I've never thought of it as part of Silicon Valley). It's always been one of my favorite places on earth to visit, and now it's due to get even better. Now if they could just do something about the housing prices...
  • After all, the ISP's have successfully lobbied in many localities to prevent the establishment of just such "WiFi clouds", citing their inability to compete against such a service.

    We're not talking about a few kooks here, we're talking about a LARGE, ENTRENCHED and POWERFUL lobby (think: telcos and cable providers). If the geeks out west can pull this off, it'll establish a precedent which will have ramifications for the entire country and how we are able to use this marvellous new invention, the internet

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