first of all, thanks for giving publicity to czfree. some people may not realize how publicity works and how useful it may become - please don't take them too seriously.
apart from such utilitarian thoughts, czfree does deserve to be mentioned as it's a great idea which may inspire many and help many to go around the idiotic conditions the czech governent has created for home net users... so many thanks to deu and many thanks to u.s. wifi hardware makers for making this all possible.
two notes from my personal experience:
- the costs. if you have a node to attach to, the costs mentioned on the net may be actually right as you might just have to buy a PC CARD. for building the node, the costs may skyrocket as additional hardware and other supplies are also needed and are not included on the list. you also need an expertise which you usually lack so it's not THAT easy...
- deu. good visionaries don't necessarily make good managers. there're plenty places to get a wifi card and sometimes even $50 more elsewhere may be actually cheaper.
my best advice: go and get your hw elsewhere. a colleague nicknamed 'month' has good contacts to a wholesaler LEVI - find him in the forums, or talk to StB. or, if you'd like to support the czfree, buy 20-pack of orinoco cards on e-bay auction, keep one and sell the rest to czfree members for the low per-unit price.
good luck with czfree. btw, there was a yankee guy with nickname 'mischief' who even wanted to create an english section on czfree... he works in website called prague.tv, if you want to get in touch...
regards
mitch
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There are only 10 types of people in this world:
Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Please do not mistake czfreee.net effort with some communism or whatever. It is a FREE net, however not in the meaning of "free beer" (get st. without working), but free as Freedom - you can connect if you dare.
Same holds for 2.4 GHz band - you have to make an investment to be able to use it, the more you invest, the better you can use it (directional antennas, faster devices like 802.11a , ...). And we want to ulitise visible light band with Ronjas, so plenty room to grow.
And commons are not shared resources, but resources, whose usage is not charged (air, water,...). This makes a bit difference. We know a lot about it, socialistic economy was a textbook example of this "tragedy of commons".
Not socialistic/(tele)communistic "we know what you need and you will be given, just shut up and work", but "If you are smart enough to learn many new things, motivated enough to make a small investment and get really involved (this rulez out loosers fortunatelly), you are in"
Inet connectivity is a commodity, its NOT a Common. Our point is that this commodity is heavily overpriced here (due to historical details), so with sufficient enthusiasm and courage and making many nerds involved, it is an achievable project. And iwhat we are building is MUCH more that ISP
Noone does anything, which does not pay back. But this does! And not only by money, its not the only thing we live for (actually this is just my hope that the investment will pay back in cash, remeber, economy runs on expectations ) but mostly on other values - I really enjoy doing it, I like to meet people of simillar nature, I'm happy I could realise there are people like this in my close surroundings, I like to make a project that RuleZ to put it short.
Geoff, the overcrowded microwave band over Prague can be treated as an exhaustible common. But lightwaves definitely not. I have built at home two optical links and do not think I am polluting something. I just take the connectivity from the air without returning any significant pollution (0.012 Watts of red light that is visible only on the axis).
Anybody can build and install his own Ronja in a crowded city and no interference or bandwidth limitation will occur. There isn,t any tragedy associated with this common, just fun and pleasure
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Neposílejte prosím žádosti o uživatelskou podporu od Ronji na moje PM, ale posílejte je na Ronja mailing list.
Hi Geoff. I don't know if your know what are community networks about ...
At first: you may NOT work with economy. It is because Internet services aren't limited :-)
At second: we are not first and also not the most who use ISM band (see your microwave oven). We are not the first who use it in telecommunication world. For paid Internet access it was used from 1997.
And most important: Do you know, there are some other alternatives ... 10 GHz band is also free, systems in 5 GHz on HIPERLAN2 are also freely allowed. There are also other possibilities: normal light, infrared, laser ... Regardless these new technologies, please see pages of simillar networks (i.e. seattlewireless.net) to see that it works :-)
i really like your lightwaves commons solution - it would seem to be The Answer to an inexhaustible bandwidth commons -- my hat's off to you -- congratulations!
i would very much like to experience the <i>fun and pleasure (and non-polluting!)</i> nature of broadband Internet Ronjaing. Where can i get/buy one? (Sorry, but this hloupý Američan is not the hardware building type.... )
a rooftop rebellion (Prague Business Journal)
09.09.2002 v 09:47
costs ==> growth ==> Success/Disaster?
Commons
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