Welcome to the Louisville Restaurants Forum, a civil place for the intelligent discussion of the local restaurant scene and just about any other topic related to food and drink in and around Louisville.
User avatar
User

Robin Garr

{ RANK }

Forum host

Posts

22984

Joined

Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:38 pm

Location

Crescent Hill

LEO's Eat'N'Blog: Does wireless come with that shake?

by Robin Garr » Wed Apr 04, 2007 3:07 pm

<table border="0" align="left" width="260"><tr><td><img src="http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/browdy.jpg" border="1" align="right"></td></tr><tr><td>James Browdy, who's retired from his job at Audubon Hospital, says he visits the Heine Bros. at Eastern Parkway and Bardstown Road four or five days to check out jazz videos through a Wi-Fi connection. Photos by Richard Meadows.</td></tr></table>LEO's Eat 'n' Blog with Louisville HotBytes

While I'm over here in Italy checking out the wine and food and trying to find a WiFi hotspot so I can call home, Eat 'N' Blog contributor RICHARD MEADOWS has been toting his notebook computer around Louisville, checking out the state of the wireless Internet art at local eateries and watering holes.

Richard, a foodie and computer geek with plenty of opinions about both, has been surfing the WiFi waves since the 'Net first went wireless. Here's his irreverent report:

Sitting at <b>Heine Brothers Coffee</b> in the Highlands one cold, blustery evening, I looked up from my laptop and realized that the place was chock full of WiFi users, all gazing at their own laptops. One, obviously a student, had books, notes and notebooks all around as he researched a project. Another was concentrating on a news article, and a third sported a headset mic and was carrying on a conversation with someone, somewhere out there on the Info Highway. You've got your WOW players, your business people reading e-mail and even folks playing games on wireless Nintendo against opponents who-knows-where.

WiFi - short for "wireless fidelity" - allows you to connect directly to the Internet without plugging in a modem, assuming your computer has built-in wireless technology or a wireless card. Sometimes at blazing speeds (up to 54bps, in tech talk), WiFi allows on-the-go computer users to log on and read their e-mail, collaborate, read news and do all the things you can do when you're plugged in to the 'Net.

Full report in LEO and on LouisvilleHotBytes.
User avatar
User

R. N. Dominick

{ RANK }

Foodie

Posts

45

Joined

Fri Mar 02, 2007 9:17 am

Location

Louisville, KY

Re: LEO's Eat'N'Blog: Does wireless come with that shake?

by R. N. Dominick » Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:03 am

Robin Garr wrote:Sometimes at blazing speeds (up to 54bps, in tech talk)

I hate to nitpick, but 54 bits per second? Not really "blazing speeds". I think what's meant here is "54Mbps" (i.e. 802.11g speeds) which is 1,000,000 times faster than 54bps.
User avatar
User

Robin Garr

{ RANK }

Forum host

Posts

22984

Joined

Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:38 pm

Location

Crescent Hill

Re: LEO's Eat'N'Blog: Does wireless come with that shake?

by Robin Garr » Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:15 am

R. N. Dominick wrote:
Robin Garr wrote:Sometimes at blazing speeds (up to 54bps, in tech talk)

I hate to nitpick, but 54 bits per second? Not really "blazing speeds". I think what's meant here is "54Mbps" (i.e. 802.11g speeds) which is 1,000,000 times faster than 54bps.


You're right, of course. Got by the writer, the first editor (me) and LEO's editors. D'oh!
no avatar
User

Ryan G.

{ RANK }

Foodie

Posts

14

Joined

Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:59 pm

Re: LEO's Eat'N'Blog: Does wireless come with that shake?

by Ryan G. » Thu Apr 05, 2007 3:22 pm

Robin Garr wrote:WiFi - short for "wireless fidelity" - allows you to connect directly to the Internet without plugging in a modem...


Not trying to pile on with the nitpicks, but here is another. Consider this more of a public service announcement from a computer geek and/or an attempt to address a common (in my profession) misconception...

Wi-Fi is not short for wireless fidelity. At least according to Phil Belanger, who is a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance.

http://boingboing.net/2005/11/08/wifi_i ... _for_.html
no avatar
User

RichardM

{ RANK }

Foodie

Posts

424

Joined

Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:18 am

Location

Louisville, KY

Re: LEO's Eat'N'Blog: Does wireless come with that shake?

by RichardM » Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:49 pm

R. N. Dominick wrote:
Robin Garr wrote:Sometimes at blazing speeds (up to 54bps, in tech talk)

I hate to nitpick, but 54 bits per second? Not really "blazing speeds". I think what's meant here is "54Mbps" (i.e. 802.11g speeds) which is 1,000,000 times faster than 54bps.


OH! WOW! Geeeze.... talk about why you should not proofread your own writing. I went back and checked my orignal work and sure enough I am the one who dropped the "M" from that statement.

I have removed one of my geek stripes.

Richard
Richard Lord Meadows, Earl of Vienna, Marquess of Morgantown and Westover, Baronet of Parkersburg, and West Virginia’s Ambassador to the Portland Neighborhood.
no avatar
User

RichardM

{ RANK }

Foodie

Posts

424

Joined

Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:18 am

Location

Louisville, KY

Re: LEO's Eat'N'Blog: Does wireless come with that shake?

by RichardM » Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:18 pm

Ryan G. wrote:
Wi-Fi is not short for wireless fidelity. At least according to Phil Belanger, who is a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance.

http://boingboing.net/2005/11/08/wifi_i ... _for_.html


I guess if you take your citation as gospel you could argue that it doesn't, even tho the Alliance used it orignally and contributed to the common acceptance of the that 'definition' before dropping it.
FROM YOUR CITATION: "So we compromised and agreed to include the tag line "The Standard for Wireless Fidelity" along with the name. "
Does it actually mean Wireless Fidelity? Probably not, but is it commonly used, definitely so.

And, you can also look at:
http://www.bl.uk/about/strategic/glossary.html
http://www.moto-zone.com.au/motoglossar ... ossary.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiFi

I do like your citation. Having been around since Robin, Ric and I were surfing... no we were not surfing... since we were online at the blazing speed of 300 baud, at night on CI$ I do know how things get accepted as true when in fact there might be some basis of truth in what is believed.

You're not an oldtimer if you haven't let your computer and modem run and downloading a file from CI$ all night long only to have 64 bits left to down load at 300 baud when the clock would roll over to 0700 and your account got disconnected. No it didn't save it. No you could not, at least initially, log back in at 1800 and pick back up to finish those last bits. You just started all over again, and that is all you could do - download a file. No multi-tasking.

Richard
Richard Lord Meadows, Earl of Vienna, Marquess of Morgantown and Westover, Baronet of Parkersburg, and West Virginia’s Ambassador to the Portland Neighborhood.
User avatar
User

Charles W.

{ RANK }

Foodie

Posts

970

Joined

Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:53 pm

Location

Schnitzelburg

Re: LEO's Eat'N'Blog: Does wireless come with that shake?

by Charles W. » Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:21 pm

Ryan G. wrote:
Robin Garr wrote:WiFi - short for "wireless fidelity" - allows you to connect directly to the Internet without plugging in a modem...


Not trying to pile on with the nitpicks, but here is another. Consider this more of a public service announcement from a computer geek and/or an attempt to address a common (in my profession) misconception...

Wi-Fi is not short for wireless fidelity. At least according to Phil Belanger, who is a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance.

http://boingboing.net/2005/11/08/wifi_i ... _for_.html


However, if the group that first used the term used a tagline for a year "the standard for wireless fidelity," you can hardly blame folks for thinking it stands for that.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 42 guests

Powered by phpBB ® | phpBB3 Style by KomiDesign