Sifry’s Alerts

>From The Daily Deal:

Wireless networking systems developer Woodside Networks Inc. of Palo
Alto, Calif. said Tuesday that it has raised an additional $4 million
from Nokia Venture Partners, following a $20 million second round
of funding announced in February. The venture firm joins Sevin Rosen
Funds and Accel Partners as backers of Woodside Networks, which has
raised $32 million to date. A developer of wireless local area
networks, Woodside Networks maintains an office in Breukelen, The
Netherlands, in addition to its headquarters in Palo Alto.

Test of the new email-to-blog script I just wrote, called
blogit.

Alan Reiter wrote about us again in his
blog today:

Sputnik info: Yesterday I wrote, very briefly, about Sputnik. If you
want to learn more about Sputnik, check out Glenn Fleishman’s 802.11b
Networking News entry about Sputnik. Glenn says: “Based on what I’ve
seen, they may set a new high-water mark for creating configuration
tools that work, and that average human beings can understand.”

Hmmm, interesting. According to Alan Reiter’s
weblog which he’s been updating
from the Technologic Partners Conference, Mesh Networks is beta testing
a low-cost repeater-router for extending the range of 802.11. Basically,
the MeshNetworks software creates a, well, mesh network, for your
existing WiFi system.

Hmmm, I wonder if this is possible without breaking the 802.11 standard
- In other words, I can see you turning a PC into a black-box repeater,
but I don’t see how they could turn it into a repeater AND still allow
you to use the box as a wireless node on the network. Perhaps I’m
missing something, or perhaps we will all need to download some client
software (that’ll be windoze only, of course). Still, it is an
intriguing idea – they are looking at an embedded product with MSRP of
$60.

Actually, as I read Reiter’s post more carefully (pardon me, I still
haven’t had my morning coffee), it looks like Mesh Networks is trying to
do something like what we’ve done – turn a PC with broadband
connectivity and a WiFi card into a Mesh Networks AP. Well, if that’s
the case, just go and download our
code, it’s free
and available today…

Something to keep an eye on.

So have a look at this link to slashdot.

OK, I’m going to try to update this blog more often by using the new
Blogger Pro email-to-blog interface. Shit, I send out so many tidbit
emails a day, sending it to a blog should actually make my site more
current, and not interfere with my favorite way of e-interaction, email.

Boy, just when you think that Real may be coming round, yet again they remind you that they suck.
Hey look, I’m all for companies making money – ya gotta do that – but the
thumb-our-nose-at-our-customer attitude that just seeps out of the Real website
sucks the big one. Case in point – go and try to get the RealPlayer player
for Linux without using external resources (like Google). Go ahead. Try
to get it. What, no search bar? Windows-only client downloads? No options?
Yup. For those of you who just want it, here’s the form.