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To: BDR who wrote (39028)	2/7/2001 9:54:48 AM
From: Judith Williams	Respond to of 54805

Dale-- reduce the total cost Yep. That's how it should have read. Light signals lose their strength over distances and have to be bumped up. The longer you can go without doing that (filter/amplifiers), the cheaper the installation is. --Judith

To: BDR who wrote (39028)	2/15/2001 12:00:26 PM
From: BDR	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

NY Times tech columnist on wireless networks in his weekly Circuits email. Not sure if there is a gorilla in there but I don't see any mention of Metricom. (g) From the Desk of David Pogue: The Promise of Wireless ======================================================== I was in Arizona this week, attending my first Demo conference: an annual event in which 800 high-tech executives, reporters, venture capitalists and analysts gather to watch 32 hand-picked companies demonstrate their products in progress. (The full story is here: nytimes.com. Although not a word was said about it at the show, I witnessed a high-tech event unfolding before my very eyes: the birth of wireless networks in public places. The public spaces at this technology show, for example, were equipped with base stations that transmit and receive data wirelessly, using a technology standard that Apple calls AirPort, and the Windows world calls 802.11. If your laptop has an AirPort or 802.11 card installed, you have an instantaneous, high-speed, wireless Internet connection without having to plug anything in. (You have to adjust only one software setting.) A surprisingly large percentage of the audience took advantage of these hidden base stations. A show of hands indicated that perhaps a quarter of the audience was quietly surfing Web sites and sending e-mail during the onstage presentations, etiquette be damned. Conference organizers loaned wireless PC cards to some attendees, many of whom are high-income, high-tech workers. But wireless access in public places is by no means confined to geek gatherings. An increasing number of airport lounges, upscale coffee shops and hotels are installing wireless networks for the convenience of their digitally literate patrons. If you belong to the laptop generation, you can look forward to a world of free, instant wireless access wherever you go. On second thought, the access might be sponsored, intermittent and limited to major cities, but you get the basic point. At $100 each, AirPort/802.11 cards for laptops aren't cheap. Fortunately there's another, less expensive, competing wireless technology that may soon also sprout in public places. It's called Bluetooth, a long-delayed, short-range radio system intended to replace the rat's nest of cables that now connect our computers, printers and other desktop electronics. I was surprised to hear from representatives of Palm Computing, maker of Palm handhelds, that the same kinds of public, commercial spaces (hotels, airport lounges, your local Starbucks) may soon be installing Bluetooth transmitters. The idea here is especially enticing. When you're in range of such a transmitter, you can check your e-mail or a Web site not only with your laptop, but with your handheld as well. Computer magazines and industry pundits have been predicting this kind of nerd nirvana for years now; what surprises me is how close we are. By early summer, you should be able to add a special hard case to your Palm V that is actually a Bluetooth transmitter. By 2002, every Palm handheld will come with built-in Bluetooth circuitry. The movement by airports and hotels to install wireless Internet gateways is worth cheering. Nobody will mourn the loss of cables, especially when it comes to palmtops and laptops. The sooner the wireless Internet becomes available at high speed and low hassle, the sooner we dip into its real potential.