In theory, if enough people/neighborhoods jumped on board in populated areas, a new, non-internet connected network would be created.
I think I remember this call- but wasn't the idea to have an instant neighborhood alert system? I'd be keen on that too.
Wireless mesh networks get faster, not slower, as the number of users increases, as there is more bandwidth available.
And significant work *IS* being done on this area, only it is targeted towards developing nations, not the US. In the US, they want to sell each of us a $59.99 monthly subscription to send data, when it could be done for free through wireless mesh networking.
This is a pretty good article.
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/how-wireless-mesh-networks-work.htm
Now, if I lived in an apt complex I wouldnt want 50 other people hogging my bandwidth, but if a few neighbors want to use it, no problem.
Easy with windows too.
So put an old 802.11b access point on a spare ethernet port, turn on DHCP, packet forwarding and NAT, and rate-limit it. That's what I've done, easy on Linux can't help you with Windows, but out here in suburbia the house-to-house distances are too great.
There is an open ad-hoc "freenet" in a few places even in this hopeless burg, but sadly not near me.
But not at the speeds people expect for that kind of money.
Dialup still works just fine, but people don't choose to use it if there is an alternative available.
The limitations are social, not technological.
The limitations are social, not technological.
Which leads me to conclude that there is some government regulation in the way, or some smart schmucks would have started implementing it already.
Something to keep in mind: Political problems are not solved by technology, any more than a technological problem can be solved by politics.
There is no government regulation in the way, people just want to keep as much Internet as they can for themselves.
Political problems are not solved by technology
I would say that without the internet, we would live in a much less free world today.Technology cannot increase freedom.
Technology cannot increase freedom. |
And so this forum yields yet another candidate for my "dumbest things ever uttered by a human being" list!
112. People anxious to rescue freedom without sacrificing the supposed benefits of technology will suggest naive schemes for some new form of society that would reconcile freedom with technology. Apart from the fact that people who make suggestions seldom propose any practical means by which the new form of society could be set up in the first place, it follows from the fourth principle that even if the new form of society could be once established, it either would collapse or would give results very different from those expected.
I know Ian and the FSP guys have said the Free State Project wouldn't be possible without the internet. The FSP is definately an answer to a political problem.
Yeah, and FTL could still exist without the evolution of homoerectus, except Ian and Mark would be monkeys sitting in a tree throwing poo instead of radio waves. :roll:
I refuse to just accept your claim that monkeys don't enjoy listening to Free Talk Live - a scientific study must be carried out at once!You would be the one to nearly-necro this otherwise mercifully dying thread