wifi

Transcend WiFi SD card hacking links

http://www.fernjager.net/post-8/sdcard:

As a 400 MHz Linux system with 32 MB of RAM, using only ~100 mA @ 3.3 V, the possibilities are endless!

http://haxit.blogspot.com/2013/08/hacking-transcend-wifi-sd-cards.html:

This post is written with the intention of exposing not only the exploits which will allow you to root (or jailbreak) the device, but also the process of discovering and exploiting bugs, some of which are a dead end, while others lead to the holy root B-)

http://hackaday.com/2013/08/12/hacking-transcend-wifi-sd-cards/:

As he suspected that some kind of Linux was running on it, he began to see if he could get a root access on it… and succeeded.

WiFi Is Critical To Academia, The WiFi Alliance Says

study sponsored by the WiFi alliance reveals the following:

WiFi and college choice

  • 90% of college students say Wi-Fi access is as essential to education as classrooms and computers
  • 57% say they wouldn’t go to a college that doesn’t have free Wi-Fi
  • 79% say that without Wi-Fi access, college would be a lot harder
  • 60% agree that widely available Wi-Fi on campus is an indication that a school cares about its students

WiFi and where they use it

  • 55% have connected from coffee shops and restaurants
  • 47% from parks
  • 24% from in their cars

WiFi in the classroom

  • 55% have checked Facebook™ or MySpace™ and sent or received e-mail while using their laptop in class
  • 47% have sent instant messages to a friend during class
  • 44% used Wi-Fi to get a head start on an assignment before a class was finished

WiFi and linkbaiting statistics

  • If forced to choose, 48% would give up beer before giving up Wi-Fi

Survey methodology: “In conjunction with the Wi-Fi Alliance, Wakefield Research surveyed 501 U.S. college students in September 2008. The sampling variation in this survey is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.”

In Flight WiFi Back In The Air?

I thought the matter was dead after Boeing shut down their much hyped in-flight WiFi plans (yep), but Engadget got a seat on JetBlue’s private introductory flight for their WiFi service. The good news is that it’s free, the not surprising news is that Yahoo! is partnering in it (and it requires a Yahoo! account), the bad news is that all you get is Yahoo! IM and email. No web browsing, or anything else useful. Well, that and there’s no power outlets.

[Insert Word Here] Is Hurting Your Network

Corporate networks are defenseless against the growing threat from instant messaging, and the government warns WiFi is insecure and easily sniffed.

Experts suggest we take precautions against the growing risk of p2p software that’s exposing sensitive documents and threatening national security.

Businesses blame security problems on their employees, their mobile devices, and other consumer technologies.

And now we have MySpace.

I’m A Fonero, Are You A Fonero Too?

Now that I’ve moved I’ve finally set up my Fonera. I had hoped to offer a story about the process, but it was so simple I can’t really say much more than “I plugged it in, I registered it, it worked.” The Fonera is a tiny little router/WiFi access point that looks worlds better than […] » about 500 words

Connectile Dysfunction

No sooner do I lay down a rant about how bad Sprint WiFi is than do they run an ad telling us how great their service is. Well, not only that, but they promise to save us from “Connectile Dysfunction.”

Angela Natividad described it best:

It’s hard to position broadband ads. You can be like Earthlink, which kind of laughs at the whole idea of marketing in general, and you can be like Comcast, which takes the easy way out with off-colour humour. Or you can make up a disease, kind of like Microsoft, and propose that your product will in fact cure it.

There’s a fine art to this tactic. A good rule of thumb: the closer you can get your made-up disease to sound like a sexual disorder, the better. Maybe people will get confused and mistakenly believe you could solve both problems, not just (the invented) one. Cute, Sprint. Cute.

It would all be chuckle-worthy enough if — as Zach and Matt pointed out when the shared the ad with me — if I hadn’t just complained about how lousy their Wifi service is.

Knockbox = WiFi + Real Estate Info

In another sign of the arrival of the stupendous, i.e. that the internet is changing our world, Engadget some time ago reported on the SellSmart Knockbox real estate selling dohicky. What is a KNOCKBOX? A KNOCKBOX is a sleek, self-contained appliance that is placed unobtrusively inside your home for sale. It contains a photographic tour, […] » about 300 words

PDX’s Free WiFi Rocks

Here’s a lesson the rest of the world’s airports could take from PDX: free WiFi.

Most other aiports charge dearly for WiFi, but PDX offers it free. Knowing this, I arrived at the airport a couple hours early and got my dinner and caught up on my email here instead of elsewhere. The Port of Portland didn’t get my $7.95 an hour, but they did get an extra customer in their restaurants and shops.

And now that my flight is delayed (because the incoming flight had to land in Denver to top off its fuel tanks!), the WiFi is giving me something to do besides complain (I’m saving my book for on the plane).

The Bathroom Reader

Somebody at Gizmodo found this Agence France-Presse story about the intersection of American surfing and bathroom habits in The Hindustan Times. It’s based on a report by the USC Annenberg School‘s Center for the Digital Future. For five years running now, the center has tracked internet use (and non-use) in a 2,000 household representative sample of America (choosing a new sample each year).

This year, researchers found: “Over half of those who used Wi-fi had used it in the bathroom.”

Gizmodo is going a little farther than I’d initially care to by asking readers to comment on their behavior, but I found this gem that reminds us that this may just reflect the evolution of our media: “The laptop in the john is the new newspaper for the millennium.”

I apparently have too many neatnik issues to go down that path, but rather than devolve the discussion, I’d like to point out that this Center for the Digital Future report appears to be a good complement to OCLC’s latest report and the regular stream of reports from the Pew Internet Project.

Now back to the funny: RSStroom Reader.

The Fight Over Massport WiFi

I do a lot of flying in and out of Boston’s Logan Airport, so I’ve been following the controversy about WiFi there with some interest. The story is that Massport, the government agency that runs the airport, is trying to tell tennents — like the airlines — that they can’t operate their own WiFi networks. […] » about 300 words

WiFi In Public Spaces

A message came acrross the web4lib list a few weeks ago with the following request: I want to hear from libraries who are currently implementing, or who already have implemented, wireless access for staff and/or patrons. I want your ‘stories’–good, bad and ugly. Issues and/or triumphs with IT staff, vendors, library staff, library boards, faculty […] » about 400 words

The Problem With PDAs Today

When I finally get around to writing up my impressions of the Pepper Pad, I’ll be pointing to Roger Sperberg’s recent posts at TeleRead about non-PDA handhelds and computers for stand up use. At the moment, however, some of his points remind my of a few I’ve got to make about PDAs here. I’ve got […] » about 400 words

Skyhook WiFi Geolocation

Old news from Gizmodo and Wi-Fi Networking News (quoting WiFi NN):

Skyhook has assembled a database of information about 1.5 million access points across 25 major cities in the U.S. by driving every street in every city. Their software records multiple data points per sample for directionality. Fire up their software on a laptop, and it compares the Wi-Fi information it sees with what’s in the Skyhook database, popping out a latitude and longitude within 20 to 40 meters.

Also geolocation related: Monopoly Live: London style.

When You Don’t Have A GPS…

Geolocation by GPS my be the most straightforward approach, but we mustn’t forget the other ways to get lat/lon coordinates. All current cell phones support aGPS positioning to comply with federal E-911 mandates, but not all phones make it easy for the user to get that information out of them. Still, some do and GPS-enabled […] » about 400 words

Reviewing FCC Rules on WiFi Use

I wasn’t really paying attention in June when WiFi Net News reported on a FCC decision regarding control of WiFi: The FCC says landlords, associations can’t regulate Part 15 use: The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology says that the function of regulating and coordinating frequency use is reserved to the FCC itself. It’s a […] » about 400 words