Pa. Company Promises Wireless Power

I've ruminated about this many times before but never thought it would actually happen (so soon I guess?).

It works like this: a transmitter can be placed anywhere--in a lamp, for example, that is plugged into the wall and sits on a table. The transmitter in the lamp sends out a continuous, low RF signal. Anything with either AA or AAA batteries set within its range--and equipped with a Powercast receiver, which is the size of your fingernail--will be continuously charged.

Powercast must be built into new products instead of being an add on (currently) and so far only Phillips has signed on. I wonder if we'll ever be over saturated with RF signals? The spectrum already is so it would have to attempt to avoid interference from 802.11a,b,g,cordless phones etc. Many of the commenters pose similar concerns, but also mention the reduction of batteries in landfills. Clearly there are many possible benefits.
Link (via BoingBoing)

WiPhi Testing

I'm currently connected to the WiPhi network. I do live near the corner of Spring Garden. Signal strength is 80 - 95%. Only my local wireless connection is higher. I've obtained an address and its in the 10.2 range. Currently I have 10.2.15.101, netmask of 255.255.252.0 and default router of 10.2.12.1. Its set to channel 11. I'm curious as to how they planned the channels out, if they're only using 1,6 and 11 or if they chose to use 1,4,8 and 11 or if they let the actual AP choose its channel based on signal interference. I see also there is another network named FeatherSecure which is not supported by my PSP. Completely unrelated, I've found an access point named Cisco_CallForAccess2679188524. I'll follow up on that later. All in all it seems to work well from where I'm sitting.

RFID Theme

Monochrom, a group of goofy "art-technology-philosophy basket weaving enthusiasts" have created a tune dedicated to hacking RFID in the key of the Village People's YMCA. I prefer the "Bratlfettn" version as it keeps more with the original. The "Rohkost" version sounds like an unplugged folk version.

It's fun to hack the RFID
It's fun to hack the RFID
They want to store everything about you
But there's plenty of things you can do

Ownage, it's the way to resist,
I said ownage, let's call it "digital fist"

Link (via BoingBoing)

Free WiPhi

Wireless Philadelphia is well under way and Earthlink is currently offering a free trial run until January 21st. The map above shows the areas currently covered by Earthlink. To log on to the network "simply click on Feather by Earthlink from your computers list of available networks to get surfing." I'll be trying this out when I get home as I should be blanketed in coverage. After the 21st, the plan is only $17.95 per month. Now if only GMail would go completely SSL.

Link