Science Library Pad

Air Canada: wifi yes, cellphone no

Travellers will be able to click their way onto Air Canada's new WiFi service next spring as the carrier teams with Aircell LLC to install a mobile network.

The Montreal-based airline will start with two 120-seat Airbus A319s, charging $12.95 plus tax for each passenger who connects wirelessly to the Internet while flying between Toronto and two destinations in California - Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Air Canada then plans to gradually roll out Aircell's "Gogo" system across its fleet in North America.

...

Air Canada won't be enabling "cellphone voice usage," arguing that the cabin in the sky is one the "last bastions of solitude" away from being bombarded by cell conversations in everyday life.

Internet to take to skies with Air Canada - Globe and Mail - September 10, 2008

mobile innovation, crowdsourcing and more in Economist Tech Quarterly

Economist Technology Quarterly for September 4, 2008

The meek shall inherit the web
Computing: In future, most new internet users will be in developing countries

Following the crowd
The internet: The idea of “crowdsourcing”, or asking crowds of internet users for ideas, is being tried out in some unusual quarters

Armchair archaeology
Computing: Archaeologists are using free satellite imagery from Google Earth to make discoveries, develop theories and plan expeditions

and there's more at http://www.economist.com/science/tq/

Amazon Kindle: books you can never share

Ah yes, progress.  Now for only $10 you can buy a book and read it.

ONLY you can read it and ONLY on Amazon's $400 Kindle e-book reader.

Want to give it to a friend?  Sell it?  Pass it on to your children?  Donate it to a library?  Sorry, too bad, it's "licensed digital content", don't you know.

Use of Digital Content. Upon your payment of the applicable fees set by Amazon, Amazon grants you the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Device or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. Digital Content will be deemed licensed to you by Amazon under this Agreement unless otherwise expressly provided by Amazon.

Restrictions. You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content. In addition, you may not, and you will not encourage, assist or authorize any other person to, bypass, modify, defeat or circumvent security features that protect the Digital Content.

(Some emphasis above mine.)  I find it interesting that in all the Engadget hoopla, and on the entire snazzy Kindle page, this is never mentioned.  You have to go to Kindle Support, and find the last item on the page (Amazon Kindle Terms of Use and Policies), and then you get another list of pages where you have to select "License Agreement and Terms of Use", and then find the Digital Content section within that item.

How many people do you think are going to do that?

I also like this language "you may not, and you will not".  Um, ok I can see how you can forbid it, but "you will not"?  What is this, like a contractual limitation on reality?

Geist on overpriced Canadian mobile data

Michael Geist has a piece in the Ottawa Citizen and various other papers, as well as on his website on the high price of mobile (cellphone) data in Canada.

For example, Rogers - Canada's sole GSM provider and therefore the only telecom company currently equipped to offer the iPhone - offers a starter data plan that provides 1.5 megabytes of data per month for $15 (each additional MB is $21).  Since that is not even enough data to download a single high-resolution photograph, most consumers presumably opt for more.   The company's biggest data plan provides 500 MB, yet costs $210 per month - far beyond the reach of most consumers.

This pricing, which is comparable to plans found with Bell and Telus, is not close to competitive internationally.

He has additional commentary in his blog

For example, consumers in Lithuania can purchase an unlimited data plan for less than $3.00 per month, while similar plans can be had in the Netherlands and France for under $15.00 per month.  In fact, Canada not only trails the U.S. and Western Europe, but Eastern European countries such as Poland and Romania, Asian countries such as Malaysia, and African countries such as Rwanda all offer unlimited monthly data plans for less than $50.

Previously:
June 26, 2007  outrageous cellphone data charges, the sequel: roaming

outrageous cellphone data charges, the sequel: roaming

$5 for every 100k, roaming outside Rogers network

100k is about one cellphone photo uploaded from my K790.

That's only oh, $84.50 for 1,690k to pick an example.

Wow, what a wondrous age of mobile data we live in.

Here's your incredibly expensive phone, oh by the way, you can't afford to use any of its network features.  Welcome to the 21st century in Canada and for Canadians traveling the world, cellphones in hand.

So the good news is that it's possible to Flickr photos in Tallinn directly from a Rogers cellphone,
the bad news is that uploading 2 photos while roaming costs as much as buying an entire old-fashioned 24 exposure roll of film.

This is absurd.

Previously:
April 05, 2007  more on Canadian cellphone data charges

wireless on a cruise (Tallink)

The Stockholm-Tallinn cruise line Tallink has free wireless Internet, I don't know if it's on all the ships but it is on the Romantika.  Not available in the cabins AFAIK, but works fine in the 6th and 7th floor lounge areas next to the outer deck.  Must be satellite, as it works while the ship is sailing.  A bit slow but certainly usable (I'm using it right now).

WiFi and the Elite Hotel Stockholm Plaza

The good news is that the hotel has free wireless (albeit you do have to go down to the front desk and request a new access code every 6 hours).  The bad news is that on the second floor, with my PowerBook G4, it is very flaky.  Sometimes no connection, sometimes no DHCP, sometimes works great all evening.

I am currently camped out in a third floor hallway as it is in the "no DHCP" mode.

Front desk unfortunately doesn't seem to be able to do anything, like reboot the nodes - they just tell me to use the Windows computer that's wired up in the tiny business closet.

The wireless is from The Cloud Networks.

economist on ubiquitous wireless

The Economist had a recent survey on "telecoms" which is really more about ubiquitous wireless.
I'm a bit worried that we're going from the old fantasy of "my fridge will order milk on the Internet" to "my fridge will order milk on the Internet wirelessly".  Many things that didn't make any technology sense as wired services still don't make any sense if you take the wires away.

That being said, they are fairly balanced and skeptical, as always.

Most of the articles are unfortunately pay, but the intro is free.

A world of connections - Apr 26th 2007

more on Canadian cellphone data charges

I had a question from the US asking why I didn't just get an unlimited cellphone (Internet) data plan for about $30.  The answer is, there are basically no unlimited cell data plans in Canada.  With Rogers, you can maybe get 25MB/month for $90.  Information Echo has done a very good job of looking at the ridiculously complex and exceedingly expensive data plan options from Canadian carriers:

A collossal Ripoff - Mobile data in Canada

mobile data here in Canada is simply unrealistically priced, and until the carriers clue in to this fact and providing pricing more along the lines of what is available in the USA, it will continue to stifle their own [growth]

As a side note, I got a message on my phone yesterday that my $5/month "navigate mobile Internet" amount of data included (before the 3 cent per kilobyte charge kicks in) was being increased from 2MB/month to 5MB/month.  I don't know if this is universal for the plan - the Rogers website still shows a 2MB limit.

UPDATE 2007-04-12: The Rogers site now shows two plans

$5 for 5MB/month
$10 for 10MB/month

in both cases it's still 3 cents per kilobyte beyond that.

ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2007-04-05: Rogers has recently (April 2, 2007) introduced a cellphone videoconferencing+ offering on a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) 3G network in limited deployment in a few Ontario cities, they're calling it Rogers Vision.  The plan offers the odd combination of 10MB of data... plus unlimited video calls.

# Get the Vision Mobile Internet Plan for ONLY $5 more than your regular voice plan (discounted from the $10 regular price), and receive 10MB† of data for high speed mobile Internet browsing, email access and chat

# PLUS these amazing limited time Rogers Vision bonuses:

   1. 3 Years Free Unlimited Video Calling
   2. 3 months Free Unlimited Video on Demand
   3. 3 months Unlimited mobile Internet for browsing, email access and chat

Good luck trying to decode the literally hundreds of different Rogers phone plan options, including trying to find any details on the "Rogers Vision" plans, which don't seem to exist.  Rogers Vision data plan options that it gave me were:

• navigate mobile Internet  $5/month
• 1.5MB data access $15
• 3MB of data $25
• 7MB of data $40
• 25MB $60
• 100MB Data Access $100/month

If that seems confusing, contradictory, and more obscure and indecipherable than cuneiform on broken Sumerian clay tablets, that's because it is.  I have to imagine Rogers has some supercomputer at their main office just to solve the math of the different plan options each month.

Previously:
April 3, 2007  map and gps mashups in InfoWeek
February 23, 2007  Internet on a phone: be very afraid

map and gps mashups in InfoWeek

The March 17, 2007 InformationWeek has a fairly extensive article with sidebars, Maps Meet Mashups.

among the hottest and most useful new generation of applications on the Web--the location mashup.

More than 35,000 location mashups--ranging from restaurant locators to celebrity trackers--have been created using Google Maps alone.

I was interested by their sidebar GPS Mashups Are Going Nowhere.

Wireless carriers generally don't share the information generated by a phone's GPS chip--a user's longitude and latitude, in particular--or other network data that might be used to pinpoint a phone's location. Just getting GPS data can be difficult if not impossible for would-be mashup makers.

Well, yes but.  While most phones don't have accessible GPS, newer phones with Bluetooth and good Java support can talk to an external GPS.  However, it's certainly true that the cell providers are killing this in multiple ways:

• limiting access to internal phone location information
• limiting ability to run third-party apps on the phone
• outrageously expensive Internet data charges
• trying to lock users into the provider's special (and extra cost, always extra cost) GPS mapping offering

I found lots of GPS mapping applications I'd like to try on my Sony K790 using a Bluetooth external GPS:

del.icio.us/scilibfurl/mapping+cellphone

but let's check last month's Internet data bill (most of it before I turned on the very slightly better data plan)

Yes, that's right, 4 MEGAbytes for over $200.  That's megabytes folks, you know, the little things that fit 1000 at a time onto the 1 gig memory sticks scattered in your desk drawers.  Four 3.5" floppy disks worth of data for $200.  Back to the Future!  Except if floppies had cost $25 each.

But not to worry, Rogers has Telenav Navigator!  Except not for my phone.  Oh, and it will cost $10 a month.  If I'm reading it right, that's $10 a month PLUS the data charges.  Because you know, 5 cents or 3 cents per kilobyte wouldn't be enough, they had to tack an extra ten bucks on.

So while I may try some mapping apps, they're going to be ones that use locally pre-loaded maps (e.g. on the phone's memory stick) and that never, ever connect to the Internet.

Internet on a phone: be very afraid

I remember a while back in a course watching a presentation about the wonders of 3G cellphone networks to come and saying something along the lines of "why is 1 megabit per second [1000 Kbps] to your cellphone a big deal when you can already get 10 megabits per second with WiFi?"

Now that there's WiMax, the situation is even stranger.

In Canada, from a single vendor, Rogers, you can get (ignoring modem/device cost):

Home Internet over cable - most expensive plan (Extreme) is $52/month for up to 100GB, at 6000 Kbps down, 800 up

Portable Internet (using WiMax AFAIK, requires a lot of power e.g. walljack) - most expensive plan is $50/month for up to 30GB, at 1500Kbps down, 256 up

Cellphone Internet: either 5 cents per kilobyte, or get a "navigate mobile Internet" plan for $5/month with 2 megabytes free, then 3 cents per kilobyte

Let's say you want to send/receive just 1 gigabyte per month, 1000 megabytes, 1,000,000 kilobytes.  This is not exactly a lot of data these days - 1 gig will fit on a memory card the size of my thumbnail.

Home Internet: $52 and you could still send/receive another 99GB

Portable Internet: $50 and you could still send/receive another 29GB

Cellphone Internet: 1 million x 5 cents = $50,000.  That's right.  Fifty thousand dollars.
Or, if you subscribe to the Rogers data plan, $5 + 999,998 x 3 cents = only $30,004.94 $5 + 998,000 x 3 cents = only $29,940

If you don't think this is a real concern, a single photo sent to Flickr might be as much as 100 kilobytes.  A single Java application download is often about 1000 kilobytes.

So I don't think I'll be exploring much of the exciting world of cellphone Internet any time soon.

UPDATE: You might say, why not do all kinds of stuff through SMS/MMS text/photo messages?

Yes, of course Rogers does offer text messaging.  Which, I assume, confusingly, includes photo and video messages.  But its worse than that.  Usually to e.g. upload to Flickr, I want to MMS to an email address.  No problem.  Except the phone interface doesn't provide any information whatsoever about whether you're sending an MMS message (cheap) or whether you're sending an Internet email (outrageously expensive as indicated above).  Are all emails sent and received as SMS?  Are only some?  Not clear.

When I send an email, I get a cute little email icon on my screen... and the ominous world globe that I see when I access the Internet.  This is ridiculous.  I have tons of screen realestate.  I would like to see the following: if SMS/MMS, display harmless cute little icon.  If Internet, display large red label

WARNIN: Internet access.  You have just spent x gazillion dollars.

And yes, you can in theory download Java apps to your PC and then transfer them to your phone, but there is no documentation whatsoever on how to do so - it's not even clear if it's supported - the Applications folder doesn't show up as a possible destination on the phone file system when connected to the PC.

the cellphone as technology integration platform

I carry way too many devices around

It makes sense to me that many of them could integrate together on the cellphone, specifically:
- cellphone :) that works anywhere in the world
- camera (at least 3 megapixels, turn the phone sideways so that it works like a regular camera)
- GPS (including ability to record tracks and download them to computer, as well as share the GPS to other devices using Bluetooth)
- MP3 player
- Bluetooth (and ideally USB) connections for additional external devices

If you want to go a bit beyond that, also nice would be
- WiFi and voice over ip (VoIP)

I don't think you can make your cellphone also a PDA, really a PDA should have a large screen and ideally a slide-out keyboard.  Cellphone should be able the size of a small camera - I don't know if it's practical to also have a large screen, although to be sure some small cameras do use most of their back space for a screen.

There are of course already cellphones that have GPS, but they don't make it externally accessible and I don't think they record tracks.  There are some with MP3.  And there are some with the turn-sideways 3 megapixel camera.

AFAIK the Sony Cybershot K790 is currently the closest to this spec.

The Nokia N95, with its 5 megapixel camera and strong GPS features, should also be a good contender, but it's not available yet - so far there's just CES coverage and such.

A good opportunity for Apple... and in fact there are rumours that the iPhone will include a camera, GPS, and iPod capabilties, and that they may even put GPS chips in their laptops (which would introduce the usual "easier to recover when stolen / but a potential loss of privacy" set of issues).

review of Via Rail wireless

Works ok, 802.11b.  The connection to the Internet is not speedy by any stretch of the imagination, speedtest.net says 674ms ping time, 159kbs, better bandwidth than dialup I guess.  I'm used to broadband.  I don't know what the upload is; speedtest.net was unable to test it.

I'm travelling between Ottawa and Montreal.

It's Can$8.95 for a "daypass" (8 hours I think).

I guess considering that Internet on airplanes seems inexplicably to be languishing, this may be one of the few wireless-enabled means of transportation.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention, the seat tray-tables are surprisingly small, they're stored in the armrest.  If you have a normal-sized laptop, it's going to be awkward.  My 12" PowerBook was small enough to fit on the tray, but just barely.

UPDATE 2006-09-11: There are power outlets located beneath the seats (below the central armrest).

Previously:
February 25, 2006  VIA Rail offering wireless

conference tag goodness with HitchHikr

HitchHikr (by David Warlick) brings together a couple different conference aspects in one place.
Mainly, letting you specify a conference tag (allowing me to retire my unusued wiki List of Library Conference Tags).

As far as I can tell, it basically provides a central conference inventory, and then uses all the tags indicated to query Technorati for postings and Flickr images.

Here's what he has to say about choosing tags in the FAQ:

First of all, I think that you need two tags for a given conference event, assuming that it is an annual or otherwise regularly held event. One tag should apply to the conference as an organization or concept. For instance, for the North Carolina Educational Technology Conference, a general tag would be ncetc. This tag would bring up all blog, podcasts, and flickr images associated with the conference regardless of the session, or any actual occurrence.

The second tag would be built on the general tag, focusing on a specific conference event or date. Typically, for an annual conference, this would require adding the two digit year. The next North Carolina Educational Technology Conference would be tagged ncetc06.

Finally, tagging blog entries and photos with specific conference presentations or features can be accomplished by adding an acronym for the feature or the speaker at the event. For instance, I might ask attendees who blog my presentations to tag them with ncetc, ncetc06, and ncetc06warlick. I, as a presenter, would need to visit Hitchhikr.com and add that tag to the conference.

I've been thinking about this for a while.
Personally, I think the tools should be mature enough that we can combine tags.  Taking his example, we end up with both

ncetc ncetc06

To me, if our tools were good, we'd just do

ncetc 2006

and search on the intersection.

I'm also anti-two-digit.  As a CS person, particularly since we just turned the century mark, it bugs me to see two digits when I know this will break in a hundred years.  Also, 05 could mean "the 5th conference", not 2005, as I mentioned in a previous posting.

I do very much like the idea of adding the first presenter's name as a standard way of tagging presentations.  And put this at the end of your presentation, so people know what to use.

In case you're wondering why I have such an interest in conference blogging, this blog started in November 2004 as a more professional (e.g. less strewn with cat photos) hosting space for my presentation notes from Internet Librarian 2004.

Wishlist:
It would be nice if you could automatically add conferences to the calendar tool of your choice (Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, etc.)

HitchHikr found via Disruptive Library Technology Jester.

Previously:
April 30, 2006  Postgenomic - conference review markup
April 24, 2006  Google Calendar experiments
November 07, 2005  conferences, tag collisions, the power of AND
October 26, 2005  blog and wikis for conference coverage *****
October 24, 2005  IL05 - Internet Librarian 2005 - blogging and such
September 05, 2005  Internet Librarian International 2005 in 5 weeks
July 05, 2005  more ideas for conference websites and webtech *****
June 27, 2005  Gnomedex conference
June 07, 2005  how to tell if you're at a geeky conference
May 02, 2005  in which everyone finally starts to get wikis
March 17, 2005  some thoughts on conference blogging
February 16, 2005  more on conference blogging
February 12, 2005  OLA! more grumbles about conferences
January 17, 2005  SLA blog and wifi?
November 20, 2004  very old conference notes

Canadian WiMAX - wireless highspeed Internet

Inukshuk is using pre-final-certification WiMAX technology to operate the network, making it the first large-scale WiMAX deployment in North America. Bell and Rogers used their preexisting infrastructure such as cellular towers to install the network, which operates in spectrum licensed to the companies already. Those spectrum licensing requirements stipulate that the service be made available in at least 25 unserved rural markets in the next year and 50 by March 2008.

WiMAX service will be available directly from both Bell Canada and Rogers Communications. Bell Canada is dubbing its WiMAX service "Sympatico High Speed Unplugged." Subscribers will pay CAN$45 per month for 512Kbps down, but a 3Mbps service will be available for an extra CAN$15 per month. Rogers Communications is calling it "Portable Internet," and is charging CAN$49.95 per month for 1.5Mbps service. Currently, Rogers offers 3Mbps landline service for CAN$43.95.

ArsTechnica - Canadian WiMAX network launched

VIA rail offering wireless

We are pleased to announce that our wireless Internet service, which has been available on a trial basis for over a year, is now offered permanently on board selected trains.

We are getting closer to achieving our main goal: that of extending our Wi-Fi offer to all our trains in the Québec City-Windsor corridor, thus further developing a service that VIA Rail was the first passenger rail company in North America to offer.

http://www.viarail.ca/wirelessinternet/

It's not free, there are three service plans: per-minute, per-day and per-month.

wireless in Canadian cities and elsewhere

Dose was out today with a set of articles about urban wireless, including a brief look at the current situation in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, and Toronto. 

OTTAWA
Despite its reputation as a high-tech centre, Ottawa is a little behind other cities. But it’s catching up, says one wireless providers. “I think people are increasingly getting comfortable with that kind of service,” said Tom Camps, of BOLDstreet Wireless, which operates about 1,000 hot spots. There hasn’t been a huge push from the municipal government to create a city-wide wireless network, but another company, Telecom Ottawa, has installed numerous outdoor transmitters in the downtown core to create wireless zones.
— Meagan Fitzpatrick/Dose Ottawa

As a side geeky note, um Dose?  Story ID MVDCvrHol6X1u1ST%2bYcn2x/bDZ9TnCciK9STXbmD/RvsHgvwoMp2bw== ?

Are you anticipating having a story for every atom in the universe, or what?  Talk about your planning ahead...

Google Wireless Internet and Fiber Network: I for one welcome our new Internet overlords

And now Google does... well... everything.

http://wifi.google.com/faq.html

Where can I go to download Google Secure Access?

The program can currently be downloaded at certain Google WiFi locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.

via Slashdot Google WiFi + VPN Confirmed /.

VPN = Virtual Private Network, the "Secure Access" part of what they are providing.

UPDATE: For an interesting overview of Google's planetary domination, see College life, powered by Google.

Also reported today:

Google Plans National Optical Fiber Network

Google is reviewing bids from tech vendors to build a nationwide optical DWDM network, which means that the cash-flush web giant could soon have a communications network that few can rival. The vendors who have seen Google’s fiber network RFP say that the nature of the network can really only mean that Google ultimately hopes to push massive amounts of voice, video and data close to the end user. The perennial problem is that close is not enough — to reach the end user, Google has to have access to the last mile.

via IP Democracy via CAnet - news

(PS The reference in the title is to a Simpsons quote.  You can amuse yourself with a Google search on "i for one welcome our new * overlords".)

CLA 2006 in Ottawa

The 2005 Canadian Library Association Conference wrapped up yesterday (I didn't go).
They had both a blog and a wiki.

Next year the conference will be in Ottawa on June 14-17, 2006.
Presumably, what with my organization being based in Ottawa, there will be a substantial contingent of us there.

So here's my usual wishlist:
- free wireless Internet at the conference
- free or subsidized hotel Internet
- conference blog / wiki / bliki
- conference tag: CLA2006

UPDATE 2005-10-13: You can check out this blog's CLA2006 category for any updated info I have.

ILI2005 - talk on browser extensions

I will be presenting at Internet Librarian International 2005, in the Global Best Practices track.
I will be talking about using browser extensions to add functionality to web pages.
It will be a 15 minute spiel, so I will be just covering a few areas quickly and providing lots of reference info.

Global Best Practices: How to Enhance Access with Browser Extensions, 10 October 2005, 15:15-15:30

The venue is the Copthorne Tara Hotel (London, England).
The Hotel Fact Sheet (PDF) says

* High speed internet access in Club rooms [this appears to be a room type].
* Wi-Fi Connectivity and internet points in lobby.
* Multiple broadband internet access in both function suites [conference rooms] with
Wi-Fi connectivity and full audio visual support.
* cafexpress - in house coffee shop; a light, airy and thoroughly
modern space with wide screen T.V, Internet access and a delicious
selection of freshly-made sandwiches and light bites

There doesn't seem to be a formal blogging plan.  I am told

about blogging the event.  We don't have any formal plans to do so right now, but a number of bloggers will be there, plus we are running a full-day track on collaboration, blogs, wikis, etc.   I am certain the conference will be covered in the blogosphere one way or another.

I have set up a wiki for the conference since I will be vacationing in the area anyway and need to gather some information.  Anyone else going and interested in the conference blog / wiki planning?  There's not much content there yet, the URL is

http://ili2005.xwiki.com/

XWiki actually provides both wiki and blog functions, I'm also going to look into the Web Services possibilities (particularly pulling photos in from Flickr.)

As indicated on my conference plan and in the (open for anyone to edit) list of library conference tags, the proposed tag is ILI2005.

at SLA 2005 conference

Hi, I'm at the SLA conference in Toronto.
I have reached the conference centre through the power of Zen navigation.

I devised a not-so-brillant plan of vacationing for 4 days in New York, flying back to Ottawa and arriving at 11 PM yesterday (Sunday), and then flying to Toronto at 6 AM today (Monday).
So if you see a dazed, sleepy-looking guy wandering around with a yellow SLA Blogger ribbon, that's probably me.  I didn't actually manage to coordinate my packing and repacking well enough to bring any of my geeky bloggerwear.

So far I have managed to take some very bad photos on the way in.
A giant windmill in Toronto?  Who knew?  (Presumably power generating.)

I got wireless Internet so I will be online most of the day.
(I paid separately for it, it's not available generally to conference attendees or even to conference bloggers.)

See previous posting Finding Me at SLA 2005 for some info on locating me.

wireless hot spot or not spot?

WiFi users feel the sting of 'evil twins'

a new type of attack by a hacker using a fraudulent WiFi hot spot. Commonly known as "evil twins," the fake hot spots are set up close to legitimate public wireless access points in an attempt to trick users into logging onto the rogue site while believing they're using the trustworthy site. "Users think they've logged on to a wireless hot-spot connection, when in fact they've been tricked to connect to the attacker's unauthorized base station," said Dr. Phil Nobles, a cybercrime expert

in today's Globe and Mail

Remember that any time you're not using your computer or your network, you're at risk of having your information intercepted.  VPN, SSH tunnel, or other ways of sending your data encrypted are best.

combining visualization with text

Jeremy Wagstaff's LOOSE Wire has been doing some neat things with little bar charts, of all things.

Media Coverage as Sparklines

Sparking the Wi-Fi Revolution

SLA2005 event blogging (and wireless)

With apologies to Library Boy for copying an entire posting

According to messages on the listservs of SLA Toronto and TALL (Toronto Association of Law Libraries), SLA is thinking about doing something similar to what happened at the recent Computers in Library conference at the upcoming Toronto SLA conference in June, i.e. "blogging the conference".

Jane Dysart, of Dysart and Jones Associates, is asking "if there are any bloggers out there who are planning on attending the conference and blogging the event".

Any interested bloggers are invited to get in touch with her.

Hmm, if only someone had been thinking about blogging SLA2005 earlier.
Say, in January.

Please, please tell me that we can blog SLA with tags (the tag is SLA2005) and without this core/noncore debate.

UPDATE: I hear some good news from Jane Dysart on SLA2005 wireless - I'm told SLA is trying to find a sponsor to cover the costs (the conference centre has extensive wireless infrastructure, but they charge a hefty price to make it available).  If YOU would like to sponsor, I'd be happy to pass that info along.  Regular SLP readers may recall that I suggested the idea of wireless sponsorship a while ago.

latest in the SLA 2005 connectivity stream

j's scratchpad writes

Many of us have been whining about how much the Special Libraries Association is charging for Internet access during the annual conference in Toronto.

...

how about the idea of getting some of our sponsor friends to support our individual Internet access? I'd be happy to slap a sticker on my machine saying "So-and-so paid for my Internet access" for free advertising.