DailyDirt: Is There A Better Word For Wireless?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wired communications are obviously a more reliable connection than any wireless technology (when a wired connection is actually possible or practical), so wirelines aren't going away any time soon. (Well, unless you live on an island off the coast of New Jersey.) But wireless technologies offer some pretty clear advantages, too. Maybe we'll discover some way to make wireless connections just as solid as wired ones, but until then, here are just a few advances for transmitting information without a wire or cable. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
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Filed Under: bandwidth, communication, networks, satellite, t-ray, technology, unregulated spectrum, wifi, wireless
Companies: darpa


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2013 @ 5:05pm

    stupid shadows!

    I'd think it'd be really annoying to have your internet connection interrupted every time someone cast a shadow on your laptop...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2013 @ 5:57pm

    What I found interesting, if I understand correctly, is the higher the frequency, the faster the data transmission rates. The downside is more transmitter power is required to transmit a high frequency signal, than is required for a low frequency signal, over long distances.

    I recently read an article about NASA experimenting with laser transmission technology. Of course, line of sight between the laser transceivers is probably necessary.

    http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/08/02/2352247/nasa-and-esa-to-demonstrate-earth-moon -laser-communication

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 5 Aug 2013 @ 6:48pm

    Seriously?

    If you're really paranoid about someone intercepting your home WiFi network, maybe someday you can set up a wireless network that transmits via visible wavelengths (so a wall would effectively block out would-be eavesdroppers)

    But windows wouldn't. Also, it'd be fucking visible, so unless you were in the mood for a Pink Floyd Planetarium Experience, godsdamn annoying.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2013 @ 7:42pm

    Thank God for fine metal meshes and Ferrite beads LoL

    Food for thought.

    X-Ray back scattering works by catching x-rays bouncing back from something, you can do the same to light coming out from a window and see what the TV is showing or translate that to a data stream.

    Idea: buy or make a circular knitting machine any will do and instead of a fiber thread use wire, there know you can make wire meshed tubes all day long, which become faraday cages.

    e.g.:
    Youtube: Making A Hat in less than 30 minutes on the addi Express Knitting Machine
    by SkacelKnitting

    Imagine instead of a hat, you are doing just a wire tube.

    Cookies for you if you find the video of the geeks from Maker getting a flatbed Brother knitting machine to connect to a computer to make it do patterns automatically.

    Why would you be looking at knitting at all you ask?
    Well, I didn't, I start looking for how to produce biopolymers and then I found out about how rayon is made from cellulose that pass through a spinneret into an acid bath and somehow looking at the machines I found out how knitting machines work, specifically how the needles for those machines are constructed and function, I drifted from one subject to the other and end up looking at people making socks and hats OMG! now I am looking at how clocks are made using DEM that took me to another place about how to produce stents and the designs used which gave me an idea to produce some using aluminum cans in a large scale to see how they work, and I have to look up unclogging of pipes to see if they work the same as the guiding system used by the doctors that use a catheter to put things in you.

    Frak me, sometimes I hate the internet.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2013 @ 7:49pm

    Re:

    By the way the contrast agent used for angiography is iodine, a special form that is treated to be hard to be absorbed by the body so as to not create rare potential hyper/hypo-thyroidism problems.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2013 @ 8:03pm

    next thing they will be doing is using radio waves so high it is called light, and they will be sending it down tiny class tubes !!!!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    David Good (profile), 5 Aug 2013 @ 8:27pm

    If you're that paranoid...

    If you really are worried about your Wi-fi, you could buy some wire mesh and build a faraday cage around your networked area.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Pixelation, 5 Aug 2013 @ 8:35pm

    "Is There A Better Word For Wireless?"

    No.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Aug 2013 @ 5:25am

    A better word for wireless

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    RyanNerd (profile), 6 Aug 2013 @ 5:25am

    TED Video along this line

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. icon
    John Fenderson (profile), 6 Aug 2013 @ 9:37am

    Re: Seriously?

    I wouldn't go for visible light, but the basic idea is sound (and has been around for a long, long time). I'd select a light frequency that windows are opaque to rather than visible light.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. icon
    John Fenderson (profile), 6 Aug 2013 @ 11:59am

    Re:

    Noncontact? No. I agree, I cannot think up a better word than wireless.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. icon
    btrussell (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 4:16am

    Re:

    Yes. Omit it completely, everything that isn't, is retro.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    Wireless industry insider, 8 Aug 2013 @ 10:59am

    Re:

    I clicked on this article hoping for less-redundant synonyms, was disappointed.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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