[Cu-wireless] a new member of the list

[Ralph Johnson]

I just joined the list, and I'd like to introduce myself.
I'd like to help make a community wireless system for CU
a reality, but I'm not into hacking hardware.  Playing with
antennas looks like fun, but I am all thumbs and am a lot
better with software than hardware.  I've got an ethernet
in my basement with four Macs and an NT box on it and a
cable modem to the outside world.  My latest Mac is an iBook
with an airport modem, and I have enjoyed using it on campus.
My neighbor also has a couple of Macs but just using the
telephone to connect to the internet.  So, I think I am
going to set up an airport hub in my house and make sure
my neighbor can use it, too.  I'll enjoy reading my e-mail
in bed without having to come downstairs in the morning.
But now I can convince myself that it is not just a neat toy,
I'll be helping my neighbor.

I am happy with the cable modem, except for those periods when
it is down.  I don't really need a wireless connection from
my house to yours.  But it would be cool!  Why ship bits through
Chicago if I just want to send them a few blocks?  I'd love to
be able to go to the park and be connected to the internet.

But my real interest is software, not hardware.  I can think of
a bunch of projects.  For example, there must be some neat PDA
applications that would require the whole town to be wireless.
I'd be a lot happier sharing my internet connection if I
could make sure that I had priority using it, which probably 
means some new router software.  And we could probably make
better use of our internet bandwidth if we had some sort of
cache on this side of the bottleneck that we would share.  I
know that I'm putting the cart before the horse, since there
is no use for software until the network is in place, but that
just goes to show I'm more interested in software.  Pringle
cans are cool, but I'd rather buy my hardware than build it.

I'll try to come to one of the Sunday afternoon meetings and
meet you guys.  When I read the e-mail archive, it sounds like
you are having fun!

Ralph Johnson
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/johnson