[CUWiN-Dev] keeping folks posted:

Wed Jan 12 09:47:06 CST 2005

hi all,

just wanted to let folks know about some of the stuff we're working on. 
i'm trying to make contact with folks who'll be able to manufacture that 
magical sub-$100 node -- using the specs that dave sent out a couple weeks 
ago.  most recently, i've been talking with starnix, the shuttleworth 
foundation, several manufacturing groups in the pacific rim, and now bob 
cringley (who just so happens to run a consulting company working to hook 
up pacific rim manufacturers with groups in north america who need devices 
manufactured).  andrew (from starnix) is _extremely_ excited about our 
mesh technology and has been having starnix folks work up some ways that 
our system might be integrated into various consumer devices.

anyway, everything right now is highly tentative, but wanted to let folks 
know,

--sascha

-- 
Sascha Meinrath
President                 *   Project Coordinator   *   Policy Analyst
Acorn Worker Collective  ***  CU Wireless Network  ***  Free Press
www.acorncollective.com   *   www.cuwireless.net    *   www.freepress.net

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 10:00:51 -0500 (EST)
From: Andrew Greig <andrew at starnix.com>
To: bob at cringely.com
Cc: sascha at ucimc.org, andrew at starnix.com
Subject: Re: Southern Asia internet warning system

Kool!!!!

Tim wants to work on a wireless USB stick that is a stand alone MP3 Player 
and stores files. We can squeeze a whole operating system (ubuntu) with 
office suit and the TV/PVR, games, voip and so on onto the USB stick so 
people with existing lap tops, PDA's and PCS can instantly boot off the 
wireless USB stick and join the mesh network as a thin client with out 
having to be a techie and installing anything. Even though you are in 
Linux you can see all and use all your documents that are on the device in 
windows/Mac. Once you take the USB stick off the device (PC) it will boot 
back to windows or Mac. You can also send wirelessly to your FM tuner in 
your car from a lap top or handheld and take movies to go with kids 
homework on additional USB's. The kids are likely to loose the USB sticks 
with the home work.  ;) With no operating system or files loaded on the 
device.... you can instantly go from one device to another with the 
security and convenience of knowing all your settings and files are 
conveniently and securely available to you.

The CD or DVD would be like the USB but "read only". See
http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html

We see a future where Sascha and Starnix bundle the Mesh Node with our
"all in one" appliances, CD, USB stick. We are looking into working
closely with www.markshuttleworth.com with his foundation and Ubuntu for
development and software bundling. www.ournet.co.za is next door to
Shuttleworth foundation offices in Cape Town S.A. We are looking to turn
them into a mesh pilot.

Thank you for introducing us to John at eleven Eng. It may work out that
John designs chip sets and wireless protocols for Sascha and us. Next step
would be your friends in Asia for manufacturing and as a market!!!!!

.....So how many Shares or options do I send you from our Panamanian
company???  ;)

We are looking at moving our head office to
http://www.earth.ac.cr/ing/index.html

Guy http://www.ampath.fiu.edu/workshop/guy_f.htm  is the one who is
courting us and arranging our involvement with offices on a campus they
are just about to build. We would design in-building wireless and
community mesh (with Sascha's help) for the newly proposed La flower
campus keeping in mind the values of the institution.

You and your family will be welcome to come visit.

Cheers

> Very interesting, Sascha.  I don't know if Andrew told you (or if
> Andrew even knows) but when I'm not writing columns or making TV
> shows I run a small consulting business with offices in the U.S. and
> Japan.  Nearly all of our customers are Asian companies.  We help  them
> source technologies in the U.S., Canada, or UK and sometimes we  help
> them find new business opportunities.  This sub-$100 automatic  mesh
> node might be just such an opportunity, especially for our
> friends in Taiwan.  So if you can describe your target device to me  in
> a big more detail, I may well be able to find one or more
> companies that might want to jump right in and start making it.
>
>
> All the best,
>
>
> ob
>
>
>
> At 6:46 PM -0600 1/11/05, Sascha Meinrath wrote:
>>Hi Bob,
>>
>>I've been rather swamped the past couple weeks but did want to
>>respond. CUWiN has been developing our system for going on five
>>years and are nearing a massive milestone: we'll be issuing a public
>> (beta) release of our software on February 1, 2005.  As Andrew
>>mentioned, the software creates an ad-hoc wireless networking
>>system, and is completely self-configuring and self-healing.  In
>> addition, it's provided with the OS (NetBSD) on a CD-ROM, so all one
>> needs to do to set up a network is burn the software to a CD, put a
>> supported wireless card into an old desktop computer, and boot up  the
>> CD.
>>
>>Basically turn on the power and the software will load the OS,
>>configure the wireless node, scan for other nodes on the network,  and
>> assimilate itself into the existing network.  The entire
>>software currently runs about 30MB -- so you can load it onto many
>> single-board, compact-flash-based devices for a more rugged
>>installation.  But the beauty of these networks is that they can be
>> built entirely with off-the-shelf hardware and using recycled
>>computers, so they're extremely cheap to create.  Our idea is to  make
>> a completely non-proprietary system available -- one that is  open
>> source and open architecture and uses open spectrum as the
>>communications medium.
>>
>>As a next step, we want to find a partner who can build a sub-$100
>> device for the consumer market -- taking the ease of setup to the  next
>> logical level -- and develop applications for use over these  networks
>> (i.e., that can take advantage of a community-wide
>>Intranet).
>>
>>Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions, I'm more
>> than happy to go into more detail if you'd like.
>>
>>--Sascha
>>
>>On Mon, 3 Jan 2005, Andrew Greig wrote:
>>
>>>..Got a call from a company in the states that is heading over to
>>> South Asia to install inexpensive Mesh nodes for communications.  They
>>> asked for our help. Our suggestion was to install self
>>>registering, self healing registering "a" nodes based on the next  gen
>>> from www.cuwireless.net . Sascha is our contact there and is
>>> extremely passionate about community mesh networks. Thank you for  the
>>> intro to www.eleveneng.com . Sascha's plan is to drive the cost  of
>>> their mesh nodes down from the present $400 to sub $100. We hope  to
>>> work with www.eleveneng.com to make this possible. On the "all  in
>>> one" open source appliance front, we are looking to create a  network
>>> of thin client/ set top box/ voip/ Utility meter reading  and possibly
>>> sensors for early warning system with alternative
>>>(solar...etc.) power sources. We would incorporate Bittorrent on
>>> these "not so thin" clients so the actual network IS the server
>>> distributed across the boxes in the mesh to provide a network with  no
>>> single point of failure. With enough wireless bandwidth you can  daisy
>>> chain the boxes for a supper computer effect (see Ultra Wide  Band).
>>> From what we understand of Sascha's deployment is that
>>>Cuwireless provides connectivity between homes and business's with
>>> the "a" nodes. The clients can also be hoping points, pushers of
>>> content ie streaming video and servers and they can share their  DSL/
>>> Cable/ T1 connection with the mesh. From our Experiences with  using
>>> open source software to load share and balance multiple
>>>connections like this you get a neat effect of the customer seeing  a
>>> LARGE pipe to the internet with extreme redundancy which is a  great
>>> foundation for VoIP and a Utility like reliability.
>>>
>>>We are working with a local Mesh ISP www.ournet.co.za out of Cape
>>> town South Africa. We are just about to approach www.ubuntu.com
>>> http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/ with a proposal for
>>>development of media center and media extenders with mesh node
>>>software bundled with Ubuntu. We are proposing that Our Net mesh  ISP
>>> in Cape Town could be one of the pilots along with others
>>>around the world and the hardware could be assembled in SA creating
>>> local jobs.
>>>
>>>Thanks to your article we now have Mesh networks from all over the
>>> world as Friends to compare and co-ordinate a collective effort to
>>> create the "best of breed" of future hardware and software with
>>> combined lobbying and buying power.
>>>
>>>PS. Sascha plans a National installation of his next gen of Mesh this
>>> April!!
>>>
>>>PS. PS. Sascha.... the guy who contacted me last night for the mesh
>>> installs in South Asia grew up in YOUR town.
>>
>>--
>>Sascha Meinrath
>>President                 *   Project Coordinator   *   Policy Analyst
>> Acorn Worker Collective  ***  CU Wireless Network  ***  Free Press
>> www.acorncollective.com   *   www.cuwireless.net    *
>> www.freepress.net