Since Acrobat 7 is now out, wifi is not really so crucial. Adobe seemed to assume broadband as a future when designing Acrobat 5 and 6. Not sure of the dates here, but see 'Network Publishing' as an idea. Now with 7 the comment features in Reader can be activated offline. Also forms can be completed offline and the data sent as XML so the files are small. Maybe server software really needs little bandwidth but my previous impression was that Adobe assume people are online all the time, an aspect of broadband.

wifi and satellite have been a possible solution for rural broadband. However in the UK, BT have eventully decided to activate all exchanges anyway. Maybe wifi helped to encourage this.

By the way, PC World have moved from Exe Bridge to near Tesco and the M5. This is still part of Exeter but not city centre. As of earlier this week BT have still not installed their wifi access, I think it is called Openzone. Lots of home networking including wifi. So Exeter is moving backwards at the moment. PC World was the only site with wifi and technical support.

Plan A is still to work on Animex, a digital fringe for Animated Exeter. Based at Life Bytes, 24 Paris Street. Mostly stuff that has already been downloaded, stored to disc, copied to CD.

This will connect with mobile devices, wifi etc. later

'wi-fi Exeter' is on hold thill Jan or Feb. At Life Bytes there are now a lot of large files for animation. Bandwidth is not really on a scale to cope with animation. The plan is to find and sort a mass of stuff and then look at streaming in Feb.

Last year we just had a laptop at the Phoenix with stored stuff. This is still part of the vision of future wifi though.

http://www.acrobat-services.co.uk/animation

Guy Kewney has been drawn into the world of e-books. He is persuaded that a device for reading e-books will be widely available and cheap within four years. This will have a wireless link to the web obviously. See report at Afaics.

Not exactly on topic for Exeter, but it will reach here eventually.

wi-fi works on trains, so it is thought

Guy Kewney reports that wi-fi has been known to work on trains to Scotland, but he has yet to actually find a train he can travel on.

http://www.guykewney.com/articles/041011-gner.html

My guess is that a lot of wi-fi is like this. It can actually work but for a lot of reasons few people use it.

Exeter is no exception to this.

Freespot is installed at the Peter Chalk Centre. Too soon to judge what effect this will have. Paul Burgess is on the KMS stand in the exhibition part but seems to be spending most of his time on technical support. Configuring laptops and PDAs is still a problem.

Paul Burgess is usually at Broadband in Rural Areas-
http://www.broadbandinruralareas.co.uk/
Exeter benefits from being near rural areas where there is some policy for broadband support.

There will not be an organised visit this week. It is clearly working as there were several people using it earlier today. So I think there is a start on 'wi-fi Exeter' but still a lot to learn from other places.

Tomorrow I will be at an Open Source meeting in London
http://www.lasa.org.uk/it/penguin/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage
People from Psand suggested I attend. They actually know about wi-fi and satellite broadband, using open source software.

Until recently I thought of Amsterdam as being more or less at the centre of actual broadband in Europe. The Seybold Seminars have had a basis in reality as if people there actually used the technology they speak about.

Now items like this report suggest the reality of wi-fi might be just as far from the claims as in Exeter

http://www.guykewney.com/articles/040910-wireless.html

The Freespot in the Southgate Hotel is working. So as a conference centre it might be an alternative to the RAI.

John Traxler will talk on "Using Handheld Computers to Support Study Skills" tomorrow during Alt-C. There is a PDF on the web that explains some background.

http://www.ics.ltsn.ac.uk/pub/ltsn5/papers/john%20traxler%2014.pdf

I found this through Google. The Wolverhampton search finds several other things for "handheld", including this about games.

http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1822/ijigsconf.htm

There is an internet cafe as part of Alt-C, part of the library on the right as you go in. It is also confirmed that there will be wi-fi in the Peter Chalk Centre.

Not sure how many people might visit Life Bytes. It seems a more self-contained event than the Science Fest. Still, as the library calls itself an internet cafe for the occasion maybe one with actual coffee is within the scope.

Joke. Man walks into a library
Man "I'd like some fish and chips please"
Librarian " You do realise this is a library."
Man (whispers) "I'd like some fish and chips please."

This is to test if the comments are there.

There was the first actual check during Thursday. Actual visit to Freespot at Southgate Hotel ( working fine) , the BT phone box and an IT Box. Both the latter showed a signal but we did not actually use the web. Our impression was that there is not much use made of these. Full report next week.

Freespot seems a good option that may develop. Should be at the Peter Chalk building next week so we may check this also. If you're in Exeter, call in at Life Bytes or else this blog should be updated.

Photos

Meanwhile the claims for wi-fi continue to escalate-

This from 'Good Morning Silicon Valley' archive

Despite much evidence to the contrary, Intel appears to be hitting at least a few of its deadlines. The company said Tuesday that it has begin sampling its new WiMax chip, Rosedale, and expects that it will be offered as an option on the Centrino platform by 2006. Based on the 802.16 WiMax specifications, Rosedale promises to deliver two-way Internet access at speeds of up to 75 megabits per second over distances as great as 10 miles. It's an emerging standard, and one that promises to transform connectivity. "WiMax will be to DSL what cellular was to landlines: a more convenient, lower cost technology,"
. "We predict the same kind of growth for WiMax as was seen with Wi-Fi. By 2008 we think that 8 percent of all internet connections will be via WiMax." said Intel president Paul Otellini

Intel is the source for the idea that Exeter is a centre of wi-fi hotspots. The phrase 'spurious claims' has been used at The Register. Maybe it is just a matter of timing. There will be some wi-fi in Exeter sometime in the future. Something has started already but things are still on a small scale.

Probably the check of phone boxes and IT boxes in central Exeter will be on Thursday, starting in the afternoon. Check this blog or ask at Liofe Bytes.

The expectation is that Freespot will be available at the Peter Chalk Conference Centre in time for Alt-C next week. If this is the only web access there may be some people who have not brought a laptop so may like to visit Life Bytes.

24 Paris Street, just a bit further than the High Street.

There is an internet cafe as part of the BA Science Festival. Just past the registration desk as you go in to Devonshire House. They have some handouts about our tests for wifi Exeter and they will be kept up to date of any further movements during the week. No wifi as such but the aim is for wifi to be available at the Peter Chalk Centre by next week for Alt-C.

Meanwhile Psand are working on a broadcast from Dorset next Sunday. There is an aim to connect an internet cafe in Exeter with events such as Animated Exeter and/or Vibraphonic. One problem is that Life Bytes may come to an end with the current building in December. So things happen out of time and space. Psand will also be at a conference next week in London-
Lasa's Penguin Day(http://www.lasa.org.uk/it/penguin/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage) withBristol Wireless to talk and listen. A lot has happened in Brstol around wireless. There will be streaming media from Barcelona in October - the D-Form festival (www.deform.org). Suggest this is benchmarked in Exeter to check out how internet stuff could fit with sound and animation.

This blog will be kept fairly up to date during this week. Info also probably at Life Bytes, 24 Paris Street.

Life Bytes is now active. They will get some new kit next week suitable for a Doom event over the bank holiday. They can cope fine with email and browsing. Some people are asking to connect their own laptop computers to the network. No sign of wi-fi or much demand. No feedback so far that people would prefer to use wi-fi somewhere else.

So what is going on? Is 'wi-fi Exeter' unusual or is there actually much less use of wi-fi than is often reported?

I am going to start again assuming general ignorance. The Science Festival comes up in September. There must be a few people who actually understand how wi-fi works. Probably it is fairly easy once you get used to it. The people at Life Bytes seem supportive of more exploration. Times and dates will follow.

Science Fest website

Life Bytes on Paris Street is likely to open later this week. The painting is done, the cable exists, BT are expected to install ADSL on Wednesday.

'Wi-Fi Exeter' will be a subject for discussion.

http://www.life-bytes.co.uk

01392 848781

More evidence that wi-fi could be free in future

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/07/02/loc_downs02.html

Maggie Downs confesses that she has no understanding of how this stuff works. But anyone could understand her argument.

If Cincinnati, why not Exeter? Some time later, probably.

As Life Bytes is now more likely - in fact a telephone is now installed at 24 Paris Street according to reliable sources - maybe Exeter will go back to cyber cafe style for a while. But wi-fi should be on the agenda, and free wi-fi part of the discussion. People who sit around at Life Bytes and talk about this may also drink coffee. Will this cover the rent?

Couple of new things.

There may be a games based internet cafe in Exeter for a while. Parts of Paris Street are to be demolished as part of the new Exeter must change sequence. The High Street is hard to walk through. There is no way to Southernhay from the Cathedral Green. The Post Office will soon be on the edge of the centre.

However the upside of this is that a short rent for six months might be afforded by renting computers. Apparently networked games has a following. Personally I am not convinced there is demand in Exeter to get a cafe through the winter but the bulldozers should arrive by Feb anyway.

For details contact David Gedrych david@life-bytes.co.uk

Second thing is that BT seem to have changed policy with their phone boxes. On South Street you can now use their screen and keyboard for minimum 30p for 15 minutes. This works aout at £1.20 an hour, much less than £6 an hour for wi-fi. Also with wi-fi you have to buy the time online with a credit card, then remember or copy a user name and password. 30p in cash is enough to check out a page or two.

So the combination of events suggests another timewarp. wi-fi may be the future but a cafe is another choice while it lasts.

wi-fi "across the straits of Gibraltar" seems to have worked ok

According to slashdot, this wi-fi link has worked

in case that fails to link, it should connect to

http://mirror.us.psand.net/fadaiat/photos/index.html

http://www.flakey.info/tarifa/

The actual content is still arriving, I think. I am travelling at the moment and have found Radio Vague / Psand streaming to be not there at all. I guess this is because others are trying to connect. The Fadaiat sites have much material already available.

Meanwhile there is no news on the Cathedral Green. Maybe the problems of blocking out all and any undesirable content proved impossible.

Th@t PC has moved to St George's Market on Fore Street so if you need web access head towards Exe bridge from the cathedral and look out on left. No wi-fi as yet.

I have started to update Internet Express site, recently rediscovered.


There is a news item there based on a Stephen Timms presentation at Internet World. He explained about a pilot project for wi-fi in rural libraries. There are ten sites, one in Launceston. Maybe wi-fi awareness will just happen over the summer and by around September it will be commonplace.

Psand are somewhere near Gibraltar at the moment, working on wi-fi and satellite for Fadaiat. More reports later.

I have signed up for some newsletters looking for new ideas. 'Good Morning silicon Valley' seemed like a good idea. The first one includes news from North Devon.

"
Intel has commissioned a 1.7 Ghz, Wi-Fi surf board, debuting today at a sports and music festival in North Devon, England. The 9-foot, 4-inch board is equipped with a tablet laptop with an 80 Gb drive, a video camera and solar panels, all packaged in a sealed design that doesn't interfere with the ride or feel. "It's all about giving people the freedom to get online when and where they want," said Tim Hatch, Intel's consumer marketing manager.
"

These Intel people are the source for the idea that Exeter is a centre for wi-fi in the UK. I recently checked the Globe pub in Newtown, not far from the Exeter City council offices. No sign of activity via wi-fi. Could it be that the UK just has a lot of games machines in pubs, some of which might be used for wireless networking if anyone knew how to?

Comment from John Paczkowski of siliconvalley.com

"
Well, OK, as long as this remains a novelty item; live telemetry from inside a curl could be pretty neat. But if you ever end up so bored on your board that you feel compelled to read e-mail, it's time for a visit to your spiritual guide for a values check-up.
"
surf site