WiFi On Two Wheels

MeGaBiTe1 writes "Yury Gitman is not the average cyclist from Brooklyn. His goal is to bring more easily accessible free wireless hotspots to the masses. To do this, he has created what he calls the Magicbike, a bicycle equipped with a laptop, power supply and antenna. Gitman's bike has allowed people in NYC to browse the internet freely in local parks and gardens. 'I am like the ice cream man, but with no music and I deliver free wireless access and not ice cream'."

Sounds good....

[SavedLinuXgeeK]

in theory, but exposing your equipment to the elements, vibrations, and possible accidents, and even theft. Good lord its New York. I mean maybe in cars, like CB radio-style. But by bike, ehhh... I would be a lil afraid for my own property.

legal ramifications?

[The Kow]

What happens when someone does something illegal from his 'hotspot'?

just say it like it is

[uunh haun]

"urban fabric," "socially active cultural fabric," "Wireless bikes are a tacitly surrealistic Ready-made that playfully reframe our assumptions"

^ Why I hate being an artist. Make your mark with your work, not with the hype.

Not that magical

[Brad Mace]

Sorry to sound like a party pooper, but it only brings wifi 100m closer to the masses. It's kinda neat but it doesn't seem all that useful.

But guys!

[MilenCent]

Sheesh, it's amazing that no one has remarked upon the important thing about this guy, which is that he's freaking cool! This is exactly the kind of thing I'd like to do if I had the money and time! Good ol' selflessness and wonder and doing good for your fellow man! Just because!

What a nifty idea, wow. And I liked his analogy too, which I saw as more of a humor thing than a real analogy anyway.

Whats the point?

[dj245]

The point of finding a free acess point, for most people, is to get on the internet, to send/receive e-mail. Some people might be interested in fiddling around with 'clueless user Linksys #82", but mostly finding an acess point is a means to an end, not an end in itself. A mobile acess point is not a roving Lan party, it is sort of useless. Unless he has omnidirectional wireless internet connection with him (nope) then most people will be kind of disinterested in what he has to offer. Most people won't even bother (or know how!) to browse the network. I really wonder where he is going with this.

All this free WiFi stuff is great, but...

[PapayaSF]

...how long before spammers just load their software onto laptops and start blasting out spam from the nearest hotspot? Are there any safeguards that will prevent this?

Maybe I'm to cynical

[Lord Kano]

but the first thing that ran across my mind is that this poor bastard is going to end up in court because some pervert used him to anonymously download kiddy porn off of the net.

LK

Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

On the one hand what he's doing is kind of cool and nice. Interesting to say the least... On the other hand walking around like he's a saint or he's bringing vittles to the starving masses makes him look like an imbecile... I mean for chrissakes, you're giving people limited wireless connectivity, in the random chance that you happen to be parked by a guy with a laptop...

You want to be a hero or feel good about yourself? Be a volunteer firefighter. Restore PCs for senior citizen centers, donate to cancer research foundations, give a starving Afican or Chinese kid lunch money. Driving around giving out free wireless internet... *snickers*

The very point of it is pointless. It's basically just a "Lookit me, I'm special-decial like Homestar Runner." I think the guy needs a hobby...maybe he should try being a kernel hacker, I hear that eats into your free time. ;)