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Posted - September 13 2009 : 12:26:39
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Question: My notebook has wireless, how come I can’t use that wherever I am?
Answer: This is a good question and one I used to get a lot. It's unfortunate that the word "wireless" doesn't necessarily convey any idea of distance. "Cordless" conveys a notion of short-range like a cordless phone in your house. Wireless usually makes us think of our cell phones, which can be used long-range. In the world of networking, wireless means anything more than about 50-60 feet. When notebooks began to include wireless, there was a confusion of those usages. A normal notebook can only use wireless in a wireless "hot spot" where the owner of the place has installed compatible devices for Internet access. Most, but not all, of these are free, and you can use your laptop, notebook, or netbook wherever any of these hotspots are. That being said, a few notebooks and netbooks are available now that have cellular wireless built-in in addition to WiFi. Verizon has a netbook, and Dell sells a notebook with one. But for everyone else, if you want to be able to connect to the Internet from just about anywhere, you'll need what’s called a 3G card. It plugs into your notebook and gets you connected to the Internet through the cellular network. Another, highly restricted, option is called tethering, where you connect a smart phone to your notebook and use the phone's data plan to get Internet access. Most carriers restrict this, because they'd rather sell you another plan.
Cool Site: Project Gutenberg: A few shows back I mentioned rediscovering books. Well, I've found a site that can help you build your library of classics in e-book form. An e-book is an electronic book that you can get access to in any of several formats. One of the things about this site is that the books are free. They're free not only as in free of charge, but also free as in freedom. You may do as you wish with most of these 30,000 e-books because their copyright has expired. Some copyrights aren't expired in other countries, so read the first page of the book and be sure if you don't live in the US. Because the copyrights have expired, the books are necessarily old, some I saw dating back to 1617, but most were late 19th and early 20th century publications. I'm looking for some of the history books just so I can compare them to my son’s books.
Cool Gadget: Dish Network Media Center Tuner: This past week there was a big consumer electronics show called CEDIA, they have it every year. One of the things shown this year was from Dish Network and is a TV tuner for Dish Network that can work with your Windows 7 computer. Finally, we'll be able to record high definition digital TV from something besides an antenna. The device was only a prototype, so no word on the pricing or availability yet, but if you have a Media Center PC and Dish Network, you may soon be able to enjoy High Def programming on your schedule. It may even offer, Dish hasn’t decided yet, Video on Demand and Pay per View recording also. I’m not sure why you’d want to time-shift Video On Demand, though unless it was for the pause and rewind features.
It's All "Geek" To Me: Blogosphere: The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions.
Links
Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org
Dish Network Media Center Tuner on Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/10/dish-network-media-center-tuner-hands-on/
Blogosphere on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogosphere |
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