Follow up on Bob's original posting is at http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040603.html
"June 3, 2004 Engines of Change By Robert X. Cringely Sometimes all it takes for change to happen is a catalyst. Last week, I wrote about third-party firmware for Linksys and other wireless routers, and this week, real actions are happening as a result of that column. While the Slashdot crowd argued about what is or isn't technically or legally possible, a reader from San Francisco literally jumped into the wireless ISP business. A major VoIP provider contacted me looking for possible partners. And groups in Mexico and China want to see if the technology can be applied in those countries to bring cheap phone service to where there is today no phone service at all. ..." So for this week's thread which direclty generated over ten responses and nearly twenty if you count the other threads the moral would be some people see an idea and try to find fault with it. While others take the same idea and go out to make money with it. John Oram Bob George wrote: > A few years back, there was some discussion on the list about using > low-resource systems to provide services in areas with little > infrastructure. While this article is mostly about neighborhood > wireless-phone access for toll-bypass (beating the phone company), there > are plenty of ways that the same technique could be adapted to areas > with almost no wired infrastructure to start with. > > In short: Linux has been adapted to inexpensive (< $70) Linksys wireless > routers to provide VoIP capabilities in a low-power, rugged form factor: > > http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040527.html > > - Bob > >
