Isn't it awful how the 24-hour news cycle has cheapened that phrase? I mean, when was the last time you tuned into one of the cable news channels and didn't see a screaming banner proclaiming such?
But enough grumbling-it's Friday and here I am again in the Crown Center atrium, and I'm happy to report that not only did I not have to resort to fending for myself when it came to grabbing an IP address from the router (in fact I haven't had to do that again since telling you how in this January post), but it seems CC is catching on to this public-relations thing. Boot up and hunt for the SSID down here now, and your eyes are no longer assaulted by the arcane "aircore.ccf" but the more benign and inviting "Crown Center food court." Hey, it's a start.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled whatever.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Been there and done that, Sam
Interesting guest editorial in today's Kansas City Star authored by Sam Hossain, a student at Avila University. He thinks KC ought to go all out-literally-by unwiring the city's parks.
Hmmm. Now just where have we heard something like that before? Oh, that's right-here and here. And here too, come to think of it.
In short, open-air hotspots aren't a new idea. And sadly, they haven't proven to be a very successful one either, at least locally. I'm just not aware of any place around town that if lit up would work as well as say, the much-publicized Bryant Park hotspot adjacent to the New York City Public Library. Frankly, I'd be too leery of sitting with a laptop out in too many of our local parks even in broad daylight-and even if the screen were readable under such conditions. That's too bad.
What I'd like to see as an alternative, as I suggested last winter when I reported on the previous summer's restaurant parking lot robbery-slaying, is an indoor location with Wi-Fi that would be available to the public either early and late, or better yet, around the clock. In other cities large college libraries sometimes fill the bill, but as Macenstein noted in the post below, the largest one around here isn't currently motivated to do so. Perhaps instead of unwiring the parks, the community could come together to pay for extending the hours at the Plaza Library-say to maybe 7 to midnight Monday through Friday, and 9 to 9 on Saturday. Let's go with college hours on Sunday-how about 1 to 9?
Or let's really dream-that someone with a large ego and deep pockets bites on Macenstein's suggestion big time and funds UMKC's turning the Miller Nichols Library into a 24/7 operation like growing numbers of other university libraries are becoming-and just to sweeten the pot, opening up the hotspot there to everyone.
Hey, you never know.
Hmmm. Now just where have we heard something like that before? Oh, that's right-here and here. And here too, come to think of it.
In short, open-air hotspots aren't a new idea. And sadly, they haven't proven to be a very successful one either, at least locally. I'm just not aware of any place around town that if lit up would work as well as say, the much-publicized Bryant Park hotspot adjacent to the New York City Public Library. Frankly, I'd be too leery of sitting with a laptop out in too many of our local parks even in broad daylight-and even if the screen were readable under such conditions. That's too bad.
What I'd like to see as an alternative, as I suggested last winter when I reported on the previous summer's restaurant parking lot robbery-slaying, is an indoor location with Wi-Fi that would be available to the public either early and late, or better yet, around the clock. In other cities large college libraries sometimes fill the bill, but as Macenstein noted in the post below, the largest one around here isn't currently motivated to do so. Perhaps instead of unwiring the parks, the community could come together to pay for extending the hours at the Plaza Library-say to maybe 7 to midnight Monday through Friday, and 9 to 9 on Saturday. Let's go with college hours on Sunday-how about 1 to 9?
Or let's really dream-that someone with a large ego and deep pockets bites on Macenstein's suggestion big time and funds UMKC's turning the Miller Nichols Library into a 24/7 operation like growing numbers of other university libraries are becoming-and just to sweeten the pot, opening up the hotspot there to everyone.
Hey, you never know.
Monday, June 06, 2011
Forgive me, for I have sinned...
Just had a birthday go by-none of your business which one-and decided to treat myself to something I'd long coveted: truly mobile Internet access, to wit, by tethering my cell phone to my Mac. I know what you're thinking-"What are you, the champion of free and open Wi-Fi, doing throwing yourself headfirst into the clutches of the most egregious form of play-for-pay?" Well, for one thing, I'm probably one of only two or three people still alive who actually does carry a cell phone only for emergencies, which is another way of saying I'm using prepaid at the cheapest pay-as-you-go rate. Those unused credits pile up eventually, and later this year I'd have run into my provider's account limit when I tried to add money to roll over my balance unless I began burning it off by spending some of it on something. And there just happens to be one place in particular that I frequent on occasion where something like bring-your-own Internet access comes in rather handy. More on that later.
Anyway, playing around with trying to read news on that hopelessly tiny screen and enter URLs using a telephone keypad has given me a new appreciation for ath64's observation in October's fifth-anniversary post that cellular-only access does indeed reduce its users to second-class netizens, so to speak. You've just got to have more going for you than that if you're going to do serious work. So...after a little tinkering and tweaking, I'm able to pull up your favorite search engine and mine on a 15 inch screen with a full-size keyboard attached, no matter where I happen to be.
Even if I happen to be in the Miller Nichols Library on the UMKC campus, where the wireless network is closed to outsiders. Now I can't really quibble with that-UMKC, after all, owes more to tuition-paying students than it does to anyone else. It simply would be nice, though, if-perhaps through the largesse of a carefully-solicited donor, maybe-they could see fit to open the Wi-Fi in this one location on campus up to everyone-as the Ethernet ports the wireless access replaced once were. Once again, I realize this isn't a public library we're talking about, but it's not like they're totally unwilling to serve the public.
Seven years is probably long enough to wait for nice, however, so I sauntered over to the neighborhood of 51st and Rockhill last night, laptop and phone in tow, not just to see how my new birthday present would perform where I bought it to use, but to take a gander at the place for the first time since its recent big makeover.
The long retractable power cords dangling from the ceiling are cool. Some of the power-challenged hotspots around town ought to consider them at the next remodel. Not so cool, however, is what they've done with the microfilm newspaper archive-a prime attraction for yours truly because of its more convenient location and hours of access. Before, you pulled the roll with the paper you wanted on it right out of the cabinet and carried it a few steps to a reader, then went to work. Now, you first pay a visit to the library's online catalog-which if you're not a student or a faculty or staff member means you either find a dedicated catalog computer or make use of bring-your-own access to get there-and request that the library's new robot retrieve the roll or rolls you need from closed stacks. Whether said robot actually does retrieve the requested material apparently depends on its mood. Bad enough when you're pursuing research for personal purposes when the local public libraries with newspaper morgues are closed. It would have been much worse had I been a student with a paper due in the morning. Good that there was still human intervention available-in the form of a helpful, competent staffer who got the materials in time for me to go through at least some of it.
Moral of the story: Just because something's newer and more sophisticated, it isn't necessarily better. After all, Rube Goldberg made a career of pointing that out. On second thought, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that no one currently enrolled at UMKC has ever heard of him. I must be getting old.
Anyway, playing around with trying to read news on that hopelessly tiny screen and enter URLs using a telephone keypad has given me a new appreciation for ath64's observation in October's fifth-anniversary post that cellular-only access does indeed reduce its users to second-class netizens, so to speak. You've just got to have more going for you than that if you're going to do serious work. So...after a little tinkering and tweaking, I'm able to pull up your favorite search engine and mine on a 15 inch screen with a full-size keyboard attached, no matter where I happen to be.
Even if I happen to be in the Miller Nichols Library on the UMKC campus, where the wireless network is closed to outsiders. Now I can't really quibble with that-UMKC, after all, owes more to tuition-paying students than it does to anyone else. It simply would be nice, though, if-perhaps through the largesse of a carefully-solicited donor, maybe-they could see fit to open the Wi-Fi in this one location on campus up to everyone-as the Ethernet ports the wireless access replaced once were. Once again, I realize this isn't a public library we're talking about, but it's not like they're totally unwilling to serve the public.
Seven years is probably long enough to wait for nice, however, so I sauntered over to the neighborhood of 51st and Rockhill last night, laptop and phone in tow, not just to see how my new birthday present would perform where I bought it to use, but to take a gander at the place for the first time since its recent big makeover.
The long retractable power cords dangling from the ceiling are cool. Some of the power-challenged hotspots around town ought to consider them at the next remodel. Not so cool, however, is what they've done with the microfilm newspaper archive-a prime attraction for yours truly because of its more convenient location and hours of access. Before, you pulled the roll with the paper you wanted on it right out of the cabinet and carried it a few steps to a reader, then went to work. Now, you first pay a visit to the library's online catalog-which if you're not a student or a faculty or staff member means you either find a dedicated catalog computer or make use of bring-your-own access to get there-and request that the library's new robot retrieve the roll or rolls you need from closed stacks. Whether said robot actually does retrieve the requested material apparently depends on its mood. Bad enough when you're pursuing research for personal purposes when the local public libraries with newspaper morgues are closed. It would have been much worse had I been a student with a paper due in the morning. Good that there was still human intervention available-in the form of a helpful, competent staffer who got the materials in time for me to go through at least some of it.
Moral of the story: Just because something's newer and more sophisticated, it isn't necessarily better. After all, Rube Goldberg made a career of pointing that out. On second thought, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that no one currently enrolled at UMKC has ever heard of him. I must be getting old.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Wonder what changed their minds?
Google, that is. After first having spurned the bigger Kansas City in favor of its more diminutive sister to the west, they now want to build out their gigabit network on the Missouri side anyway.
Curious in that one of the reasons they gave for going with KCK initially was that the electric utility whose poles they'd need to string fiber on over there-the Board of Public Utilities-was municipally owned, in contrast to investor-owned Kansas City Power and Light.
You don't suppose that feelers were put out to some of the also-rans after the big March announcement along the lines of, "Well, if we could perhaps work out something like the same deal with you that we got from KCK..." now, do you? I guess if there are any more expansion announcements elsewhere in the coming weeks, we'll know.
In the end, of course, it doesn't matter. There are clearly neighborhoods in KCMO where the need for something like this is every bit as great as it is anywhere in Wyandotte County. So start pulling the wire and digging the trenches already! The sooner the better.
Curious in that one of the reasons they gave for going with KCK initially was that the electric utility whose poles they'd need to string fiber on over there-the Board of Public Utilities-was municipally owned, in contrast to investor-owned Kansas City Power and Light.
You don't suppose that feelers were put out to some of the also-rans after the big March announcement along the lines of, "Well, if we could perhaps work out something like the same deal with you that we got from KCK..." now, do you? I guess if there are any more expansion announcements elsewhere in the coming weeks, we'll know.
In the end, of course, it doesn't matter. There are clearly neighborhoods in KCMO where the need for something like this is every bit as great as it is anywhere in Wyandotte County. So start pulling the wire and digging the trenches already! The sooner the better.
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Your tax dollars at work-at least through Thursday
Just came across this nice little consumer alert from your friends and mine at the Federal Trade Commission trying to scare the bejeezus out of you when it comes to open Wi-Fi. Well, no it doesn't-in actuality it's well thought out and informative, for the most part. Unfortunately, it still shows a few symptoms of Clark Howard Disease-sorry, ath64-as evidenced by this pair of half-truths:
"An encrypted website protects only the information you send to and from that site. A secure wireless network encrypts all of the information you send while online."
Half-Truth No. 1 ignores the reason that the Secure Sockets Layer protocol was developed in the first place-and why it was adopted years before anything like Wi-Fi was even contemplated. Of course it's true that it encrypts only traffic between you and the remote host to which you're connected-what other traffic is there to protect? What the FTC neglects to stress is the fact that the encryption is end-to-end, protecting you not only between the client device and the router, but beyond.
And that brings Half-Truth No. 2 into play. As ath64 has stressed in responding to each of Clark Howard's missteps, connecting to a secured router provides protection ONLY BETWEEN YOU AND THE ROUTER. UNLESS THERE IS THIRD-PARTY ENCRYPTION BEYOND THAT, YOUR TRAFFIC IS STILL SUBJECT TO INTERCEPTION BETWEEN THE ROUTER AND THE REMOTE HOST. So saying that "a secure wireless network encrypts all of the information you send while online" is misleading, because it only provides such protection for that data on its first hop-from your device to the router.
Those criticisms aside, the FTC deserves praise for recommending Wi-Fi users make sure they only log into fully encrypted websites and extolling the virtures of virtual private networks, both of which serve to obviate the need for hassling with access-point encryption away from home. Maybe it's not such a bad thing that it will now be open for business as usual on Monday.
"An encrypted website protects only the information you send to and from that site. A secure wireless network encrypts all of the information you send while online."
Half-Truth No. 1 ignores the reason that the Secure Sockets Layer protocol was developed in the first place-and why it was adopted years before anything like Wi-Fi was even contemplated. Of course it's true that it encrypts only traffic between you and the remote host to which you're connected-what other traffic is there to protect? What the FTC neglects to stress is the fact that the encryption is end-to-end, protecting you not only between the client device and the router, but beyond.
And that brings Half-Truth No. 2 into play. As ath64 has stressed in responding to each of Clark Howard's missteps, connecting to a secured router provides protection ONLY BETWEEN YOU AND THE ROUTER. UNLESS THERE IS THIRD-PARTY ENCRYPTION BEYOND THAT, YOUR TRAFFIC IS STILL SUBJECT TO INTERCEPTION BETWEEN THE ROUTER AND THE REMOTE HOST. So saying that "a secure wireless network encrypts all of the information you send while online" is misleading, because it only provides such protection for that data on its first hop-from your device to the router.
Those criticisms aside, the FTC deserves praise for recommending Wi-Fi users make sure they only log into fully encrypted websites and extolling the virtures of virtual private networks, both of which serve to obviate the need for hassling with access-point encryption away from home. Maybe it's not such a bad thing that it will now be open for business as usual on Monday.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
In which "public" becomes a relative term.
Finally got some feedback on the North Kansas City Public Library's closed network, which I reported here as such back in October '09. You don't need a library card for the password; just ask at the desk and they'll hand it to you on a slip of paper. In fact I'd pass it along, except for two reasons:
1.) I'm not comfortable doing that from either an ethical or legal standpoint-it's not my network, and its owners can run it any way they want, and:
2.) The security on the network is WPA-Personal, also known as WPA-PSK, where PSK is an acronym meaning "public shared key." Which means, in short, that everyone is using the same password, just as you and your housemates probably do on your network at home. Not really the best method of controlling access on a large public network like a library's.
And that causes me to wonder once more just why NKC is doing this. You'd think that especially these days, public libraries would put the emphasis on public. The fewer hoops patrons have to jump through, the fewer obstacles placed between them and what they came in for, the fewer hassles and snags in their user experience, and the better case you can make for the public library's status as an institution still relevant and worthy of our support in an increasingly wired (and unwired) world where, as ath64 sagely reminded us in last fall's fifth-anniversary post, more and more information lies at our fingertips rather than behind reference and circulation desks.
Whether NKCPL's status in the guide changes is up to ath64, but my guess is-and my vote would be-that it won't. The network is still closed unless you obtain the necessary credential-the password-in advance. That said, it would be nice if NKCPL updated its website and told people the truth about its network-and finally got rid of the nonsensical instructions for connecting they've listed since it went live. I mean, "Open your web browser and connect to 'Zone CD...' " Really? Come on!
And on another note, I'd hazard a guess that NKC's vaunted Windows-only wireless printing capability is still a service in search of customers. The only other laptopper our source saw there was using-drum roll culminating in a cymbal crash, please-a Mac.
1.) I'm not comfortable doing that from either an ethical or legal standpoint-it's not my network, and its owners can run it any way they want, and:
2.) The security on the network is WPA-Personal, also known as WPA-PSK, where PSK is an acronym meaning "public shared key." Which means, in short, that everyone is using the same password, just as you and your housemates probably do on your network at home. Not really the best method of controlling access on a large public network like a library's.
And that causes me to wonder once more just why NKC is doing this. You'd think that especially these days, public libraries would put the emphasis on public. The fewer hoops patrons have to jump through, the fewer obstacles placed between them and what they came in for, the fewer hassles and snags in their user experience, and the better case you can make for the public library's status as an institution still relevant and worthy of our support in an increasingly wired (and unwired) world where, as ath64 sagely reminded us in last fall's fifth-anniversary post, more and more information lies at our fingertips rather than behind reference and circulation desks.
Whether NKCPL's status in the guide changes is up to ath64, but my guess is-and my vote would be-that it won't. The network is still closed unless you obtain the necessary credential-the password-in advance. That said, it would be nice if NKCPL updated its website and told people the truth about its network-and finally got rid of the nonsensical instructions for connecting they've listed since it went live. I mean, "Open your web browser and connect to 'Zone CD...' " Really? Come on!
And on another note, I'd hazard a guess that NKC's vaunted Windows-only wireless printing capability is still a service in search of customers. The only other laptopper our source saw there was using-drum roll culminating in a cymbal crash, please-a Mac.
Friday, April 01, 2011
So now the 'Dotte is REALLY going to be hot...or is it?
For all two or three of you out there who don't know by now, Google has chosen Kansas City, Kansas as the initial rollout location for its greatest-thing-since-sliced-bread gigabit network. Yes, that's right-gigabit. As in one billion bits. As in a 1 with nine zeroes behind it. As in download a whole DVD in maybe 40 seconds to a minute. Cool. Too bad, though, that it'll take years for wireless networking speeds to catch up to where they can take full advantage of a backhaul that fast. Right now the best state-of-the-art Wi-Fi equipment would have trouble carrying anything more than about 150 megabits per second, and then only under ideal conditions.
But who's complaining? Give me a gigabit right now and I'll gladly saw it into tenths and share it with nine other users, especially for free-which is the price Google plans to charge for nonprofit use (read libraries). One can only hope that being hooked into the most 21st-century of networks will alleviate the rampant epidemic of 20th-century thinking among so many people that has made eastern Wyandotte County such a digital backwater-and has kept its public libraries in particular from doing nearly as much as they ought to be doing to remedy that.
In short, there'll be plenty of news of interest here emanating from between the viaduct and the speedway over maybe the next 18 to 24 months. Stay tuned.
But who's complaining? Give me a gigabit right now and I'll gladly saw it into tenths and share it with nine other users, especially for free-which is the price Google plans to charge for nonprofit use (read libraries). One can only hope that being hooked into the most 21st-century of networks will alleviate the rampant epidemic of 20th-century thinking among so many people that has made eastern Wyandotte County such a digital backwater-and has kept its public libraries in particular from doing nearly as much as they ought to be doing to remedy that.
In short, there'll be plenty of news of interest here emanating from between the viaduct and the speedway over maybe the next 18 to 24 months. Stay tuned.
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