Bill Drew

NYPL offers Guest Access to Homeless!

I got this e-mail from Susan Kent:

The recent article in “City Limit”s about Internet access in public
libraries mischaracterized the policies of The New York Public Library.
Internet usage is available equally to everyone, including homeless
individuals who don’t have a library card or permanent address. Anyone
without a library card may ask for a “guest pass” which will provide access
to the Internet under the same terms as library card holders.

Susan Kent
Director and Chief Executive
The Branch Libraries
The New York Public Library

802.11n Draft 1.0 approved

Wi-Fi Net News is reporting that Draft 1.0 of 802.11n standard was approved yesterday. 

From Wikipedia:

802.11n

In January 2004 IEEE announced that it had formed a new 802.11 Task Group (TGn) to develop a new amendment to the 802.11 standard for local-area wireless networks. The real data throughput is estimated to reach a theoretical 540 Mbit/s (which may require an even higher raw data rate at the physical layer), and should be up to 40 times faster than 802.11b, and near 10 times faster than 802.11a or 802.11g. It is projected that 802.11n will also offer a better operating distance than current networks.

There were two competing proposals of the 802.11n standard: WWiSE (World-Wide Spectrum Efficiency), backed by companies including Broadcom, and TGn Sync backed by Intel and Philips.

Previous competitors TGnSync, WWiSE, and a third group, MITMOT, said in late July 2005 that they would merge their respective proposals as a draft which would be sent to the IEEE in September; a final version will be submitted in November. The standardization process is expected to be completed by the second half of 2006.

802.11n builds upon previous 802.11 standards by adding MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output). MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to allow for increased data throughput through spatial multiplexing and increased range by exploiting the spatial diversity, perhaps through coding schemes like Alamouti coding.

The Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) [3] was formed to help accelerate the IEEE 802.11n development process and promote a technology specification for interoperability of next-generation wireless local area networking (WLAN) products.

On January 19, 2006, the IEEE 802.11n Working Group approved the EWC’s specification as the draft approval of 802.11n.

Wi-Fi Networking News: Breaking News: 802.11n Draft 1.0 Approved

Breaking News: 802.11n Draft 1.0 Approved By Glenn Fleishman The IEEE approved draft 1.0 of 802.11n yesterday: The IEEE voted in January to accept a proposal—largely that of the Enhanced Wireless Consortium with some changes—as a pre-1.0 draft. That near-unanimous vote was the first step in finalizing 802.11n, which has been under discussion for years and which appeared to be heading to a deadlock. The EWC proposal was quietly built by four chipmakers—Atheros, Broadcom, Intel, and Marvell—and then sold back into a joint proposal group that was trying to harmonize competing efforts.

Wi-Fi Net News is reporting that Draft 1.0 of 802.11n standard was approved yesterday. 

From Wikipedia:

802.11n

In January 2004 IEEE announced that it had formed a new 802.11 Task Group (TGn) to develop a new amendment to the 802.11 standard for local-area wireless networks. The real data throughput is estimated to reach a theoretical 540 Mbit/s (which may require an even higher raw data rate at the physical layer), and should be up to 40 times faster than 802.11b, and near 10 times faster than 802.11a or 802.11g. It is projected that 802.11n will also offer a better operating distance than current networks.

There were two competing proposals of the 802.11n standard: WWiSE (World-Wide Spectrum Efficiency), backed by companies including Broadcom, and TGn Sync backed by Intel and Philips.

Previous competitors TGnSync, WWiSE, and a third group, MITMOT, said in late July 2005 that they would merge their respective proposals as a draft which would be sent to the IEEE in September; a final version will be submitted in November. The standardization process is expected to be completed by the second half of 2006.

802.11n builds upon previous 802.11 standards by adding MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output). MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to allow for increased data throughput through spatial multiplexing and increased range by exploiting the spatial diversity, perhaps through coding schemes like Alamouti coding.

The Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) [3] was formed to help accelerate the IEEE 802.11n development process and promote a technology specification for interoperability of next-generation wireless local area networking (WLAN) products.

On January 19, 2006, the IEEE 802.11n Working Group approved the EWC’s specification as the draft approval of 802.11n.

Wi-Fi Networking News: Breaking News: 802.11n Draft 1.0 Approved

Breaking News: 802.11n Draft 1.0 Approved By Glenn Fleishman The IEEE approved draft 1.0 of 802.11n yesterday: The IEEE voted in January to accept a proposal—largely that of the Enhanced Wireless Consortium with some changes—as a pre-1.0 draft. That near-unanimous vote was the first step in finalizing 802.11n, which has been under discussion for years and which appeared to be heading to a deadlock. The EWC proposal was quietly built by four chipmakers—Atheros, Broadcom, Intel, and Marvell—and then sold back into a joint proposal group that was trying to harmonize competing efforts.

Queens Library program aims to reduce fines, increase reading

This was reported on the NYLINE discussion list by JoAnne King of Queens Library:

Queens Library’s “Read Away Your Fines” program helps young customers
restore borrowing privileges when their library accounts have been
frozen due to fines and fees. It’s not amnesty; it’s “Read Away Your
Fines.”

To learn more, go to

ABC News, where the story was covered this week.

No more e-mail for Blackberry?

I’m glad I did not buy a Blackberry!  Those of you that own them will need to find a new way to get your e-mail. U.S. Supreme Court rejects RIM’s appeal: The prospect of a wide-scale shutdown of the BlackBerry mobile e-mail service is closer to becoming reality, as the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request to review a major patent infringement ruling against BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion.

Over and over again!

In a post on It’s all good, Alane of OCLC fame talks about a study commissioned by ALA in 1949, The Public Library Inquiry and published in The Library’s Public..  She compares that study to OCLC’s Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources . Many things have not changed including the fact that we ignore such studies and then complain about the same things over and over again.  This includes such observations that “book reading is not an activity of the majority of the population” and the majority of people would go to friends and experts before going to the library or other mass media for information.  We love to commission studies and then ignore them so that we continue to the same mistakes over and over. You must read the full post at:
It’s all good: Alane’s Back….

Can Wi-Fi make it in Manhattan? | Tech News on ZDNet

It looks like NYC is considering municipal wifi as part of its broadband strategy. Keep an eye on this story.

Can Wi-Fi make it in Manhattan? | Tech News on ZDNet:

If Wi-Fi can make it in New York, it can make it anywhere.

New York City lawmakers are taking a long, hard look at using 802.11-based Wi-Fi or some other technology to get the city’s roughly 8 million citizens access to broadband.

New York’s interest in municipal broadband comes just as the citywide Wi-Fi buzz hits a fever pitch. Other cities, such as Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Francisco, have already started down the Wi-Fi path, but if New York builds out its own Wi-Fi network, it will be the biggest deployment of municipal Wi-Fi in the country, and perhaps the world.

Radical Militant Librarians

NPR and the NY Times both have reports today on the top secret FISA courts, FBI, and radical, militant librarians. The FBI is whining about “radical, militant librarians.” Lets all wear that label proudly! Be sure to contact your senators and representatives in Congress to vote against the compromise bill for renewal of the Patriot Act. It is time to keep our eyes and ears open and let the world know that librarians are a strong group and are radical in our support of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

Radical, Militant Librarians: from NY Times–

One internal F.B.I. message, sent in October 2003, criticized the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review at the Justice Department, which reviews and approves terrorist warrants, as regularly blocking requests from the F.B.I. to use a section of the antiterrorism law that gave the bureau broader authority to demand records from institutions like banks, Internet providers and libraries.

“While radical militant librarians kick us around, true terrorists benefit from OIPR’s failure to let us use the tools given to us,” read the e-mail message, which was sent by an unidentified F.B.I. official. “This should be an OIPR priority!!!”

Wanted: Content and Authors for Wireless Libraries Blog

When I started the Wireless Libraries blog, I put out a call looking for people willing to write content related to wireless networks in libraries. Several volunteered but never provided any content. Is there anyone out there willing to be an author on this blog to provide content on an occasional or regular basis? Anyone can send me stuff to post as well if you do not want to be an author with privileges to post here. Send me content or ideas for content to: [email protected] with an appropriate subject line such as “content for wireless libraries.”

Bill Drew

Call for proposals – Code4lib 2006

I saw this posted in several lists but not on any
blogs.

Call for proposals – Code4lib 2006

We are
now accepting proposals for prepared talks for Code4lib 2006. [1] Code4lib 2006
is a loosely structured conference for library technologists
to commune,
gather/create/share ideas and software, be inspired, and forge
collaborations. It is also an outgrowth of the Access HackFest, wrapped
into a conference-ish format. It is *the* event for technologists building
digital libraries and digital information systems, tools, and
software.

At least six time slots will be available for prepared
talks. We will choose from among the proposals based on diversity of
topics, usefulness, wow factor, and potential impact.

Proposals of 75
words or less are being accepted for review now. 
Please send your name,
email address, and proposal to code4libcon. [2]

We cannot accept every
prepared talk proposal, but multiple lightning 
talk sessions will
provide everyone who wishes to present with ample 
opportunity to show
off. The proposal deadline is January 2, 2006, and proposers 
will be
notified by January 9, 2006.

Prepared Talk
Information

Prepared talks are 20 minutes, and must center on
“tools” (some cool new
software, software library or integration platform),
“specs” (how to 
get the most out of some protocols, or proposals for
new ones), or 
“challenges” (One or more big problems we should
collectively address). We will evaluate
proposals on criteria of usefulness,
newness, geekiness, and diversity of topics.

[1] http://www.code4lib.org/2006
[2] https://lists.gatech.edu/sympa/info/code4libcon

Again,
proposals should be sent to [2].