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It’s been a year since Google started offering free WiFi in Mountain View, California. Their mesh network uses 400 access points scattered around the city to support 15000 users each month. There’s more details in Google’s blog post.

Meanwhile, there isn’t much news about Earthlink’s WiFi project in Chinatown, just a few steps away from my office. I discussed this effort on May 26. The project was announced last summer in several articles, and Hawaiian Electric was a partner. HECO was considering WiFi as one medium for smart electric meters, which I discussed on June 11.

If Anaheim can build out a wireless network for its residents, as discussed in this Wired article, Honolulu could do the same. In the meantime, Road Runner has been adding WiFi Speed Zones for its customers, and is allowing residential users to hook La Fonera mesh routers to their existing cable modem connections.

Meanwhile, Clearwire and the mobile telcos are still marketing their laptop data cards. These devices tap the mobile phone network to deliver a connection in the 50-300 mbps range. It’s not as fast as WiFi, but these connections tend to be more secure than a WiFi connection through an unknown router.

This is all leading up to a reallocation of the wireless spectrum in the US, as mentioned in GoingWiMax. Rumors are popping up again that Google is developing its own mobile device or gPhone.

Given Google’s net-centric business model, a gPhone might need a fast wireless connection. Judging from the photos, it might also need some design work.

I’ve decided to use TurnItIn.com for my Fall 2007 IS 6100-EO and IS 7010-EO courses.  I considered using WebCT, as I mentioned on July 20. However, the setup time for WebCT is more than I can handle.

Also, the new installation of WebCT is asking users the usual set of questions about Java.

I’m finishing the syllabi today, and should have those posted the IS 6100 and IS 7010 course pages by Tuesday.

I have set up the TurnItIn.com sections for each course. Students must sign themselves into their section to turn in assignments and see their grades.  The appropriate course page link above has more information about the signin process.

According to Reuters, paper airline tickets will be phased out by June 1, 2008. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has placed its last order for blank paper tickets. Almost every airline uses IATA tickets when an international traveller requests paper tickets. I still have a few paper ticket stubs that I’ve saved. They’re in a box, with some old postage stamps and punch cards.

The airlines have been preparing for a full conversion to e-tickets, so this news was not a big surprise. Even so, there will always be some travelers who will be shocked when their airline or travel agent doesn’t given them a paper ticket.

In today’s Honolulu Advertiser, a story revealed Hawaiian Telcom’s plans to sell DSL accounts without a traditional voice landline. In the industry, this is called naked DSL, and it has been available from HawTel since July.

It’s another attempt to recapture former HawTel customers while the company’s upcoming IPTV service languishes in testing. Many households have switched off their HawTel landlines, eliminating them from HawTel’s current DSL service.

These residential customers rely on cell phones for their voice service. Oceanic Time Warner has captured many of the residential Internet customers statewide, while Clearwire is making some gains in Honolulu.

A baffling enrollment process

Customers who don’t have a landline will have to call Hawaiian Tel to get their naked DSL, as the current signup page asks users to enter their landline phone number. Wouldn’t HawTel want to make the signup process as easy as possible for customers who don’t have a landline, especially after HawTel’s poor performance in answering customer service calls during 2006?

Based on CEO Mike Ruley’s comments in today’s article, HawTel management wants to take advantage of recent reports that rated HawTel’s DSL at a faster speed than Oceanic Time Warner’s Road Runner service. HawTel plans to increase its download speeds to peaks of 7 t0 11 mbps next month, with upload speeds of up to 1 mbps. This is assymetric DSL, which is suitable for home service. it’s not a good choice for businesses. These are faster speeds than Oceanic Time Warner’s current residential service. However, Time Warner offers a turbo option for some mainland customers that offers comparable speeds to HawTel’s new levels.

TV through your landline

HawTel’s IPTV service will need the faster connections, especially as consumers demand more HDTV channels. HawTel could sell customers a bundle that includes DSL, TV and voice services. Oceanic Time Warner has been selling a similar bundle in Hawaii for the last 2 years. Customer lock-in is easier to achieve with bundled services.

Pacific LightNet has been testing a symmetric DSL service that offers 2 mbps speeds for uploads and downloads. At US$150 per month, PLN’s SDSL is expensive, but it can support a small or home office.

Here’s a brief article from BusinessWeek about Bionade, a soft drink that is organic, brewed, tasty and very popular in Germany.

I want some. Perhaps I’d like the ginger-orange flavor best.