Wireless Alphabet Soup

If you thought having 802.11a, b, and g to choose from was too much, get ready for your wireless future:

In July 2005, the FCC opened up the use of the 3.65-3.7 GHz band for public use, previously reserved for fixed satellite service networks. The 802.11y working group will develop a standard to use this band for 802.11 wireless networking while introducing a standards-based mechanism to avoid interfering with existing use of this spectrum. Benefit: More frequency space means more available channels, which is nice since 2.4 GHz is pretty crowded (one of my students recently found 960+ 802.11b/g AP's in downtown LA in 20 minutes of walking around the hotel). A standardized interference avoidance mechanism will also streamline the adoption of new frequencies in the future.

With the addition of 802.11y as a physical layer option for wireless networks, we'll likely see some new combination cards within the next few years to support this frequency. With the addition of 802.11n for MIMO, 802.11e for European 5 GHz networks and 802.11j cards for Japanese 4.9 GHz networks, we'll end up with 802.11a/b/e/g/j/n/y cards. Awesome!

New Home Phone #

We have a new home phone number, we've relied on our cell phones for the last few years, but don't always have them on us, or have them charged or turned on when people are trying to call. So, if you're trying to reach us at home, use (319)-553-1210, which is actually service provided by Vonage over my cable modem.

On the Farm

I'm spending this week in Ventura, Iowa, helping my grandparents bring in the harvest. My dad flew out from Las Vegas to help too. I've spent the last two afternoons chopping corn stalks, which is damned near impossible to screw up, which is probably why they gave me that job...

Multiple buildings set ablaze at UNI

In a spectacular case of "ruining it for everyone", some jackass(es) decided to set fire to three University of Northern Iowa buildings last night during the annual Homecoming celebration. Fortunately, no one was hurt, property damage wasn't as bad as it could have been, and my tape backups had already run for the weekend, so all the servers in those buildings have good copies on tape. Doesn't sound like we lost any servers to the fires, but I'm guessing some may need a good cleaning to get the smoke from their innards.

UNI's President retiring

The President of our University, Robert Koob, announced his retirement this morning. I introduced him to speak at an event yesterday, and during his talk, he alluded to an announcement that would be coming, but I didn't think this was it. We should be in for some changes at work, which is both exciting and scary. Now we're not only going to be getting a new Provost, but a new President as well.