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Wireless Networking The Internet Hardware

WiFi Gone Wild 180

Posted by michael from the freebie dept.
b4k4 writes "According to this news release, the Texas Department of Transportation is proposing to install hotspots at all 84 Safety Rest Stops and 12 Travel Information Centers statewide. This would be in addition to the four test locations already in place along US287." Reader polluted notes that Portland is working on free WiFi. An anonymous reader sent in word of this year's wifi-shootout, a contest to maximize the range for an 802.11b connection. And Roland Piquepaille writes in regarding cows wearing WiFi collars, which I'm afraid reminds me of a crummy sci-fi movie.
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WiFi Gone Wild More

WiFi Gone Wild

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  • Saftey measures... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ninwa ( 583633 ) <jbleau@gmail.com> on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:44AM (#9385855) Homepage Journal
    The places that have wireless networks should also issue handouts concerning possible security problems to cover their butts. How long until you hear someone getting sued because someone borked their computer over a wireless network?

    • Re:Saftey measures... (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      How long until you hear someone getting sued because someone borked their computer over a wireless network?

      Is that some sort of Swedish hacking term? Bork a Bork a Borka !
  • The article notes that Texas is the first state to implement wireless hotspots at their rest stops. This is a great idea and, hopefully, other states will follow suite.

    Happy Trails!

    Erick

    • Texas, govt agency as an ISP? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:59AM (#9385942)
      Seems that in Texas, truckers are the predominant users of roadside rest stops. Since a govt agency will be providing the Internet, you can bet your life that there will be plenty of surveillance involved, so I wonder if this will also be a fishing expedition for truckers who traffik in child pr0n? If you've ever travelled thru Texas on the interstate highways, you've undoubtedly noticed the many "adult" movie stores near lots of truckstops, and how many 18-wheelers are always filling their parking lots..... not to be making any insinuations about truckers being such big-time consumers of pr0n or nothing like that.

  • Crowding (Score:5, Insightful)

    by officepotato ( 723274 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:45AM (#9385859) Homepage
    Won't this cause parking problems as people stay at rest stops as long as their battery lasts, rather than long enough to do their business?

    • Re:Crowding (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:57AM (#9385928) Homepage Journal
      why would they waste their time there, just for fun?

      I think you think that there's more nerds out there than there is.

      However truck drivers & others who are forced to spent some time on these stops would really benefit from this.

      • Re:Crowding (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Joe Decker ( 3806 )
        However truck drivers & others who are forced to spent some time on these stops would really benefit from this.

        Ended up talking to a trucker last week, we'd both stopped on a road with a view of Mt. Hood to photograph, and got to talking. Apparently WiFi in truck stops is quite the rage, just for this reason.

    • My Pontiac Vibe GT has a 115 volt outlet. Screw my battery, how long can I sit at idle with my A/C on?!?

      • Re:Crowding (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        You say that like a Pontiac Vibe actually makes your dick bigger or something. It's a girly car! Get some pride.

    • Re:Crowding (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Jahf ( 21968 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @08:40AM (#9386275) Journal
      Set a 1 or 2 hour time limit on the DHCP lease and only lease to a MAC once per day. Sure, you will get the occasional geek who knows how to change their MAC, but it prevents the majority of the problem.

      I'm more curious to know when the first hackers are going to realize how easily they can be anonymous. And I'm sure someone will say "they'll probably have cameras" but with a pringles can you don't need to be near that camera.
      • I have mod points and really wanted to moderate in this article but there's no way I can't reply to this.

        First of all, this is a rest stop. You will stay there for an extra five to 10 minutes, tops, to check for really important emails or weather info. And that's if you're really lax with your schedule. When I'm going on a road trip long enough to warrant a stop at a Rest Stop it's about long enough to run into the bathroom and walk around for about 1-2 minutes. Then back on the road - daylight's burni

  • is it all free in these places? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    because if i'm gonna have to pay why not just hit a net lounge at the pit stops/nearest town

  • A whole 'herd' of new excuses? (Score:4, Funny)

    by plover ( 150551 ) * on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:47AM (#9385872) Homepage Journal
    "Sorry, my access point grazed out of range."

    "How would you like your firewall? Rare, medium, or well?"

    • FYI, while your remark was quite funny i think you forgot to follow the link. While the headline does insinuate herding WiFi access points, thats not what it's actually about

      It talkes about setting up programmable Virtual Fences (as you already have for dogs) so that multiple herds can be remote controlled from a central location..
      • No, I read the link. And the "virtual fences" don't work the same way as they do for dogs. The dog radio containment systems I'm familiar with use a buried antenna wire to mark the dog's range -- if the dog approaches the wire, they're corrected. The cow collars actually have GPS receivers, and the rancher downloads a "virtual fence" to the collar. The corrections come whenever the collar detects the animal has strayed, and the cow is "rewarded" by not being shocked when it's heading home.

        The cow coll

        • Doesn't sound better to me - in fact, it sounds worse. Dogs eventually learn where the electric fence is, so they stopped being shocked on a regular basis - only on the very occasional instances when they get stupid and try to head for the fence (my in-laws have one of these fences, and after the first few days their dogs have stayed well away from the fences).

          The cows won't get the reinforcement that the fence is in the same place every day. They won't be provided with a visual cue (i.e. an actual fence
          • Good point. I wonder if they'd be better off with a pair of leg stimulators -- something like ACE bandages holding electrodes on their forelegs that would zap them making them think they were snakebit or something. Of course, panicking a cow isn't likely to be a productive action either. Maybe the "feeling" of something hard would cause them to back up and turn around, like a Roomba bumping into a chair leg.

            Another possibility would be to have more than one electrode pair on the collar. Just as you tu

  • vending machine delivered temporary accounts.
  • Why do cows need Internet access?

  • can always get your /. (Score:5, Funny)

    by millahtime ( 710421 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:49AM (#9385883) Homepage Journal
    Now, nerds in texas can always get their /. fix when traveling. They just have to stop of at a rest area, get some vending machine food, a soda, stop off at mr. porclyn and /.

    Although, hopefully not all at the same time.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:can always get your /. (Score:4, Funny)

      by southpolesammy ( 150094 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @08:01AM (#9385957) Journal
      ...stop off at mr. porclyn and /.

      Well, that would explain some of the shitty moderation going on here lately...
    • Now, nerds in texas can always get their /. fix when traveling. They just have to stop of at a rest area, get some vending machine food, a soda, stop off at mr. porclyn and /.

      Although, hopefully not all at the same time.

      This brings up an interesting problem with the proposed hotspots. Only people traveling can really take advantage of them. You see, I live in Texas and have traveled all around the state. Most of Texas is not populated and you drive hours without seeing anything but rest stops (and eve

      • The big practical use for this is to truckers. They are required by law to "rest" (read that as do anything other than drive a truck) for a certain number of hours each day, and this requirement has recently increased the number of hours. What the state is hoping to accomplish is that by giving truckers more amenities along the road they will be more willing to follow the regs and less likely to "push it".

  • WiFi WiFi WiFi *yawn* (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aussie_a ( 778472 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:50AM (#9385893) Journal
    I have to admit, I'm becoming annoyed with WiFi. Not because I think there is anything wrong with it, but for the simple reason that if there is ANYTHING involving networks, out comes WiFi.

    Why is WiFi so great? And why is everyone working to provide free access to it? Free acces (as in beer) is great. But I just have one question. Why?

    Sure it's convenient and everything, but governments, businesses and individuals are all doing this. Providing free WiFi. Why? What payoff does everyone get?
    • well it's all about the business model; free Wifi is a good buzzword which means better press, in real money you get more customers staying longer (you stay at the rest stop twice as long .'. spend twice as much) and most importantly have an edge over the competition especially for business customers. free as in beer still makes people money, and costs virtually nothing to run.

    • Re:WiFi WiFi WiFi *yawn* (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cuzality ( 696718 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:54AM (#9385918) Journal
      Wi-fi is the next 'bathroom' -- every customer-service-oriented business will have to have it, even though you get nothing out of it, and in fact it costs you money, but if you don't have it you're not a 'complete' business.

      • Re:WiFi WiFi WiFi *yawn* (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Paulrothrock ( 685079 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @08:07AM (#9386008) Homepage Journal
        A better example would be air conditioning. When most people couldn't afford it for their homes, they would go to places that had A/C, like movie theatres. They used to advertise it. Broadband+WiFi will be similar, except that in addition to expense, you have expertise that people lack to implement a home WiFi solution.

        Personal Story: I have a laptop with WiFi and I went to the only Starbucks in town for some coffee. They didn't have WiFi there, so I went to Panera Bread Company to get a drink. The coffee was worse, but they had WiFi, so I stayed for three hours!

        • The coffee was worse, but they had WiFi, so I stayed for three hours!

          I see your point about wi-fi getting you to go there in the first place, but I would think that any shop selling coffee drinks might be more interested in getting you out as well as in. You may have hung out for three hours, but did you buy more than one thing during that time?

          It seems like the negatives could equal the benefits for the coffee shop. People come in but they hang out, taking up seating space and preventing new customers

          • I bought about $10 worth of food and drink, whereas I didn't buy anything at Starbucks. The smells make you hungry and you make an impulse buy. I know that some Starbucks have T-mobile providing the access, but I'd still go to Panera instead of that place because it's free, and pretty fast for 802.11b.

          • Re:WiFi WiFi WiFi *yawn* (Score:3, Insightful)

            by jc42 ( 318812 )
            Here in the Boston/Cambridge area, the first cafes that got wifi access points reported that the extra business paid the monthly cost in 2 or 3 days. As more places got wifi, this time may have gone up, but not by that much.

            Most food places are full for only a few hours three times a day. They are nearly empty other times. An access point doesn't increase your business during the mealtimes, but it does increase business the rest of the day.

            For a similar situation, back when I was in grad school, many o

      • Re:WiFi WiFi WiFi *yawn* (Score:5, Funny)

        by TheRealFixer ( 552803 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @08:08AM (#9386014)
        Yeah, except when nature calls I'm not running around looking for a hotspot.
    • What payoff does everyone get?

      Maybe they get a better connected populous. Or businesses move into the area, or people who use WiFi are generally wealthier, so tax revenues go up without raising rates. If the entire city of Portland had free WiFi, I'd overlook the whole earthquake thing and move out there.

    • Re:WiFi WiFi WiFi *yawn* (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In this case, I heard the point was to encourage motorist to take more time at rest stop to actually *rest*. Apparently too many of us Texans like driving for extended periods without taking enough breaks. So I guess its safety thing...

    • Providing free WiFi. Why? What payoff does everyone get?

      I think it would be very convenient to have WiFi at a rest stop, especially for those who are not from the area and travelling, can bring up MapQuest quite easily. And... (not sure if Texas has this by the NJ/NYC metro area does) they could log online to check latest traffic reports. I can't wait for the day until sensors are installed along all roads to monitor traffic conditions; it could be integrated into a MapQuest-like program to plot the mo

      • And... (not sure if Texas has this by the NJ/NYC metro area does) they could log online to check latest traffic reports.

        Well, if they're headed to Houston, they can. The Houston Real-Time Traffic Map [houstontranstar.org] now covers nearly every stretch of metro-Houston's highway system including toll-roads and HOV lanes, and provides information on accidents, etc. The map is auto-refreshed every 3 minutes.

        The system uses sensors placed on over-road to read the "easy-pass" toll road transponders that many people have and

  • Pre-emptive Personal Telcos (Score:3, Insightful)

    by philntc ( 735836 ) <info@[...]loosystems.com_water_in_gap> on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:50AM (#9385894) Journal
    How long before telcos ship integrated devices that include DSL modem and wifi, all interoperable with VoIP networks?

    They could still make money on the DSL subscriptions and do and end-run around the grassroots personal telcos.
  • Having worked large cattle operations in the past, moveable grazing areas would be a fantastic way to use this. Graze for a certain area for a set amount of time, move to a new area and mark off the area just grazed for a specified time to let it recover. Ahh the possibilites..... toddlers in McDonalds PlayGyms unable to leave.

  • APs along the Interstate (Score:3, Informative)

    by moorg ( 537751 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:55AM (#9385919)

    Some truck stops in Texas already have WiFi access (though not free) via a service for truckers [truckstop.net].

    From my wardrive along the interstate it can be debated that there are enough hot spots already [calebgroom.com].

    All joking aside I can't wait for there to be legitimate free APs.

  • Maybe this explains where mad cow disease is coming from. The WiFi is driving them batty.
  • i don't see a greatly pressing need for that...but wow i'm sure i would appreciate it (when i move back to texas that is). it's a great idea for a great state =P.

    the thing is, usually people in texas driving on highways are zooming along at 80+ mph anyway...not sure how many people would want to stop to check email or such. might as well get to your destination faster and do the internet stuff there.

  • Kindergarten (Score:3, Funny)

    by Viceice ( 462967 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @07:57AM (#9385930)
    "Now children, who weould like to tell me what are the inportant things cows provide us with?"

    "Meat, Milk, and Internet!"

  • Will this help? (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by thedillybar ( 677116 )
    "Knowing free Internet service is available at our rest areas will get drivers to make regular stops. Since fatigue is a factor in 1.5 percent of all crashes, anything we can do to get people to pull off the road and take a break is going to make our highways safer."

    Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of wireless Internet at every rest area.

    But what happens when truckers (and the rest of us) stay up surfing all night instead of sleeping?

  • We could put wifi repeaters in every car, put a solar powered unit (with a battery back, of course) on every street corner, build them into streetlights. Once they get small enough, every cellphone, pager, and PDA could be a repeater and the entire national voice network could go VOIP in a giant P2P network.

    Of course, then we have to find a way to pay for it all. But hey, people need wifi access at rest stops and such. I mean, what are you going to do if you're out of internet access range for a few hours?
    • You know, people used to think the same thing back when the cell phone first came out. Most people thought it was completely unnecessary to have a phone with them wherever they went. Now look at it. Everybody and their friend has a cell phone. Hell, some people have two. And you can now get cell phone coverage just about anywhere you travel.

      My point is, the internet is a luxury that we've come to expect and rely on, way too much sometimes. Eventually it will work its way in to everything and people will
    • Of course, then we have to find a way to pay for it all. But hey, people need wifi access at rest stops and such. I mean, what are you going to do if you're out of internet access range for a few hours?

      I think it's a great idea. This last week I was on a trip with my dad, not a single place we stayed (friends or family or hotel) had a connection to the net. I was betting on the fact that at least one of the places we stopped would have WiFi or a lan I could plug into since I don't have a dial up accoun

  • Yesterday (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Brie and gherkins ( 778845 )
    I didn't connect to the internet wirelessly or wirely, and I had a good productive day.

  • For those that bothered to RTFA (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dracolytch ( 714699 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @08:07AM (#9386007) Homepage
    Any ideas on how to keep those zap-collars working for extended periods? I'd think that replacing/recharging all those batteries would almost be as much work as herding the darn things.

    ~D
    • The cows are coming in to the barn twice a day to get milked anyway. When the cow gets locked into the milking stall, the collar can notify the stall that it needs its battery changed out. I'd think the batteries would be modular, and would probably last at least a couple of weeks, so you'd need spare batteries and charging cradles for 1/14th the number of head in your herd.

      Since they can carry a lot of weight, the batteries may even last longer than that. If they last 30 days, well, all the head need t
      • I don't know about elsewhere, but if they're out in a pasture the size of MA (Which they mentioned in the article), I don't think they're dairy cows. The checkup thing makes sense though.

        Of course, I could also see whole new avenues of theft (Device and livestock), pranks, and similar with toys like these.

        ~D
        • Very true, in the context of this article, we're probably talking about strictly beef cattle. But yes, they still need to be individually handled a few times a year anyway, so I'd guess they'd want the batteries to last at least as long as that interval.

  • Fleecing of America.. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ltm ( 542708 )
    I'm sorry to all you tin-foil hat 802.11 receiving guys out there, but this is a huge waste of taxpayer money.

    I live in a state that has these grand taxpayer waysides, that, while being a wonderful place to take a dump, are a luxury for a state that has cronic budget deficits and are one of the highest taxed states in the nation.

    Adding wi-fi to the wayside crapatoriums will indeed benefit a few people looking for some highway p0rn, but again, it's a total luxury for a small population of folks who bring

    • I'm from Austin, and go to college in upstate New York. I drive back and forth about 3 times a year, which is about 30 hours on the road one way.

      8 of those hours involve just getting out of Texas, and any chance to stop and look at something other than the straight flat interstate around Dallas is definitely welcome.

      And you can't complain to much about the taxes, Texas being one of the few states without an income tax. Just enjoy one of the nation's best highway systems, paid for by oil-rich landowners.
    • You live in New York too?

    • Re:Fleecing of America.. (Score:5, Informative)

      by chefmonkey ( 140671 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @09:30AM (#9386896)
      ...this is a huge waste of taxpayer money.

      You need to go back and read the news release more carefully.

      TxDOT is taking bids for private companies to come in and install intenet kiosks in rest areas. These kiosks would charge users per time-unit to use them to access the internet.

      These private vendors are also required by TxDOT to provide free wireless coverage. The income from the use of the kiosk is expected to fund the wireless usage.

      The only expense to the taxpayer is whatever administrative time is required to run the bid and selection process. After that, it's all in the hands of private companies.

      • The only expense to the taxpayer is whatever administrative time is required to run the bid and selection process.

        Like any viable organism, a bureaucracy must learn to feed itself, and then continue to do so or die. Bureaucracies eat money, taking from the rich and giving to the poor, so as to always be assured of a majority support. Then they extract a wealth redistribution fee (trasnlation: get well paid for the effort). It's also why government jobs, even menial ones, pay so highly and employ a major

        • I'm not having a discussion with you until you take off the tinfoil hat and put down the liberatarian flash cards.
          • In other words, you won't have a discussion with me until I agree with you first...

            Nothing could have made my point better!

            • No; you made an arugment that state-run services were governmental excess. When it was pointed out to you that the service was, in fact, to be privately run, you changed what we were discussing. Instead of talking about whether the government should be providing services, you twisted it into an anarcho-libertarian rant calling for the abolition of governement in general.

              It's a completely different topic, and not one that I've ever seen discussed in a reasonable manner.

              I don't engage in coversations with peo

              • I absolutely did not change the premise of the conversation. Dykofone commented that it was a great idea because someone other than common folk pays for government largesse ('in Texas this stuff gets paid paid for by rich oil landowners'). I pointed out that one of the greatest economists of all time pointed out that wealth redistribution ("legal pluder" in his own words) was the essence of the State, and that its popular support is derived by sharing the booty with the masses (everbody loves something fo

  • New Problems for RIAA (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cfulmer ( 3166 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @08:14AM (#9386056) Journal
    So far, the RIAA's "sue the world" strategy has relied on subpoenas sent to ISPs to identify the filesharer who was using a specific IP address at a specific time. What happens when the ISP has no idea: "Well, it was somebody travelling on I-20."? If the ISP were a private entity, the RIAA _may_ be able to sue the ISP. But, what happens when the ISP is the State of Texas? My one semester of ConLaw says that the 11th Amendment would bar that suit.

  • Set up a damn ROAD CONSTRUCTION WEBSITE! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @08:35AM (#9386226) Homepage Journal
    This would be GREAT, if they were to set up a damn ROAD CONSTRUCTION WEBSITE.

    I'd love to be able to check and say "oh, I-35 is under construction from hither to yonder. Hm, what is my alternate route?" instead of the old "a mile past the last exit you see the ROAD CONSTRUCTION NEXT 50 MILES" sign.
    • Microsoft Streets and Trips has a system by which it downloads construction information. It usually works, too. Of course it doesn't necessarily know about every project but it certainly knows about most of them.

      I know it's a microsoft product but I just want to point out that there are systems that do this sort of thing. You have to pay for them, but that's life.

  • Terrible waste of money (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Moblaster ( 521614 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @08:39AM (#9386262)
    I can understand how wonderful it would be to have these hotspots available for "free."

    However, taxpayer dollars are coerced from citizens for any government project. This one is a short-sighted waste of those dollars.

    If there is a compelling demand for this kind of service, then Texas should have stopped at a trial of 4 spots (if even that) and let private industry take over.

    The "1.5% of fatalities are caused by fatigue" argument is a red herring meant to justify this wasteful expenditure. I am sure the hundreds of thousands (million? two million?) of dollars spent on this "sexy" bureaucratic project could have been far better spent in other forms of more relevant traffic safety measures -- like carving those "wake-up" notches into road sides, or more money into re-inforcing messages not to drive drunk, or more money for training to reduce recidivism in previous DUI convicts.

    OR HOW ABOUT THIS? How about putting some stalls on the bathroom doors in the rest stops at El Paso? No joke... they had open stalls last time I was there a year ago. Aren't there are more basic steps along the road of highway culture than going from the outhouse straight to Wi-Fi?

    As it stands, this is a luxury expenditure that will let a small number of travelers with laptops get mail while otherwise subsidizing porn-surfing. Come on... if it's late at night and someone is tired, precisely how does an hour spent surfing web sites and expending ones mental resources in that kind of concentration improve one's alertness? It's an unsubstantiated bureaucracy-boosting statement that pushes the taxpayer just a few steps further down the road of permanent government debt, and ultimately, a form of bondage to pay back old expenses that should never have been incurred in the first place.

    Next time I drive through Texas, I'll drive friendly, I won't mess with Texas, and I'll surf the web for free. Three nice thoughts. But only two of them are good ideas. It would be nice for the Slashdot crowd of harder-than-average thinkers to look past our love of technology to identify bigger-picture issues before slapping on the seal of approval for this kind of government excess.

    • Re:Terrible waste of money (Score:4, Informative)

      by chefmonkey ( 140671 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @09:45AM (#9387074)
      If there is a compelling demand for this kind of service, then Texas should have stopped at a trial of 4 spots (if even that) and let private industry take over.
      You mean, perhaps, like taking bids from private companies "able to provide free wireless Internet service and pay telephone-like Internet access at kiosks"? In other words, putting together a business case and selecting a private company to come in and run it, with no funding from the state? Perhaps you should RTFA.
    • You haven't spent any amount of time traveling along a highway. I am not talking about that road trip you took in college to the next city that was four hours away. I'm talking about traveling for days.

      You need to stop, get out of the car and stretch your legs and do something else other than sit behind the wheel. When I traveled between NY and FL I would stop every couple of hours and sit on a park bench and read for 15 minutes before continuing on. Offering WiFi will be an additional incentive to get

  • WIFI-enabled cows (Score:3, Funny)

    by o'reor ( 581921 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @08:48AM (#9386338) Journal
    I can imagine this :
    redneck_geek@myfarm $ ping betty.myfarm.com

    PING betty (192.168.1.15): 56 data bytes
    Moooo from 192.168.1.15: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0.1 ms
    Moooo from 192.168.1.15: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.1 ms

  • Whats your favourite cow exploit? (Score:4, Funny)

    by blacksky ( 740975 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @08:54AM (#9386400)
    I can't wait for the first time a hurd of wirelessly controlled cows get hacked. Imagine the fun you could have with a hurd of cows at your command.

    I think I'd have them follow the same person around all day. When he stopped walking, the cows would stop. When he went in a building, the cows would wait outside.

    Or just send them all to go and flash-mob the local butchers.
  • GR3A+ REdNECK hackEr5 W1+h L4ptOPS
  • Here I am, reading the title, expecting some good spring break action or something... then I come to find out that it's about herds of cows and WiFi at rest stops...

    WTF? How disappointing... :(
  • We've been seeing Wi-Fi turn up just about everywhere, including truck stops, municipal buildings, our favorite stores, and so many more. You can check out your area or search for specific places in the US [wifimaps.com], as seen by wardrivers.
  • I can just see the new action flick, "Smokey and the Spammer", with high speed chases from hot-spot to hot-spot as they detect viagra and cialis ads coming out of one rest area after another down I-10... culminating in a 30 car pile-up as the spammer tries to run the roadblock at the Louisiana border.

    Ah, they'll probably just block port 25 outgoing. Spoilsports.
  • Wifi is nice, but speaking as a frequent traveller on the Texas highway system, I'd much prefer clean floors, stall doors, and soap in the Texas rest stops first.
  • From the article about the cows [newscientist.com]:
    They have only tested the moving version on a group of students.

    "We have done this on a few research animals but it is not quite ready for prime-time," explains Butler. The technology appears to be working, but stimulus is not deterring the animals.

    I wonder what kind of stimulus they used.

  • This is NOT Tax Payer Funded (Score:3, Informative)

    by krgallagher ( 743575 ) on Thursday June 10, 2004 @10:00AM (#9387293) Homepage
    OK I downloaded the Request For Offer [state.tx.us] from TxDOT. This is not intended to be a taxpayer funded initiative. In fact here is an excerpt that says just that:

    "3. CONCEPT: TxDOT envisions a concept where wireless internet service is available for public use.
    3.1. The traveling public would be able to use a personal computing device, such as a laptop computer, equipped to acquire a wireless internet signal, to use the internet and send email during a break from the road.
    3.2. A separate kiosk, provided by the vendor, would allow those traveling without a personal computing device to utilize the internet service.
    3.3. This service will be provided at a cost to the consumer, not to TxDOT."

    TxDOT is expecting the "People not traveling with wireless equipment" to cover the cost of the project when they "connect to the Internet at kiosks for a reasonable fee to be collected by the vendor."

    Personally I think this is the fatal flaw in their plan. I doubt there will be enough kiosk users to cover the costs. Still I have to give them credit for trying.

  • the funniest quote from the portland piece (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ""Right now we don't really have competition for Internet access," Sten says."

    This is the biggest load of BS I have ever read. First off comcast, verizon and qwest all offer broadband city wide...his little network covers about 5 city blocks. then there are about 200 dialup isps in the yellow pages. About a month ago Qwest lowered its prices by 10$ and Comcast, a few days later, upgraded all current and future subscribers faster down load speeds free of charge. If anything competition among Portand's inter

  • Why would one need such a high-bandwidth link as WiFi for the cow herding application? Is this a case of buzzword intoxication? WiFi, WiFi, everywhere, and nary a mind to think [sorry].

    The cows aren't browsing the Web, for crying out loud. Tracking their location and various health monitors, sending the "zap" command, can be handled by something in the 300 baud capability range, using considerably less power than a wireless ethernet card -- you won't need to strap that large solar panel to the cow's

  • Here in the Computing and Information Sciences department at Kansas State University we have a research project that is using some kind of sensor cluster implanted in cattle. These sensor clustors then take vital signs and other data and respond to researchers who scan the cow/bull with an IPaQ. Kind of like a tricorder, but with the sensors in the cattle instead of in the hand held device.

    I don't know too many of the specifics of the project (I'm a systems administrator in the department, rather than a

  • From Willy Week: Behind the experiment lies a radical notion: that the Internet is as important to Portlanders as water, power or paved streets. ... "The Internet should work more like a public road and less like an expensive health club," says City Commissioner Erik Sten.(side note for non-Portlanders: This is the first half-intelligent thing Sten has ever said)

    Of course, in some quarters, them's fightin' words.

    "If they compete with us, they can expect a competitive response," says Don Williams, Comcas

  • Cows (Score:2)

    by cshark ( 673578 )
    Cows wire to explode. That's funny. Moo00-BANG!
  • If you get a chance to read the WillyWeek piece on what we are up to in Portland OR you will notice that what has actualy BEEN DONE, not planned or figured out but really and truly in the field working, has been done by the Personal Telco Project for the grand tax payer burden of $0

    Donations, sweat labor, dedicated folks doing the labor, home and biz owners dontating up space, bandwidth being given....

    So of course the thing to do for City Agencies is to see something that is working and come up with a wa
  • If you need that quick cash all you need to do is hang around the rest areas in Texas and wait for someone to pull in and break out their laptop. A simple mugging should be all it takes to be on your way to at least $500 at the pawn shop!

  • WiFi rest stop in West Texas (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Wonko42 ( 29194 ) <ryan+slashdot@noSPaM.wonko.com> on Thursday June 10, 2004 @12:49PM (#9389675) Homepage
    Some friends and I just finished a two week, 7,400 mile road trip around the US. We spent two days driving across Texas from east to west. Imagine my amazement when, after driving down I-10 for hours and hours through the desolate, dry, tumbleweed-infested desert of West Texas, I walked into a rest stop in the middle of nowhere and found myself looking at myself on an LCD screen.

    After doing a double-take, I realized there was a webcam mounted on the top of the LCD. Behind the live webcam window, there was a fullscreen display of the rest stop's power usage statistics. Apparently, this place was powered entirely by a single wind turbine (which I had noticed outside). They were displaying all kinds of fun graphs and historical data on power generation and usage and whatnot. The poster describing the system claimed they were using WiFi to transmit the data from the turbine to the computer inside.

    We were pressed for time, so I didn't whip out my laptop and check to see if the access point was open, but still, I was pretty amazed. We circled the entire country, and of all the rest stops we visited, that little stop sitting all by itself in the middle of the desert was probably the nicest one.

  • There is a company here producing many devices for the farmers and specifically their cows. One of the devices detect when a cow is about to deliver and using a WiFi AP forward the alert to the farmer who no longer need to sleep in the barn when a cow is about to deliver.

    I believe this is the real Freshmeat.net.

  • Evanston Public Library [epl.org] Free WiFi, no strings attached, they have a pamphlet in the lobby about how to use it.

    No WEP, nothing. BYOL

    I always war-drive when travelling, but that can get tiring and also impractical on the Interstate, so I'll stop at a Flyin' J's Truck Stop with WiFi [flyingj.com] over some other place.

    I like the previous comments about "WiFi is the next bathroom".

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