Walt Disney World has been wired for wireless! A Disney IT exec reveals that the Park has been seeded with some 200 802.11b base-stations, which are used primarily to offer credit-card approval to kiosks and ice-cream wagons.
(Aside: Boy, I sure hope they aren’t relying on on WEP for security there, even if it is 128-bit; they’d better be working tunneled through SSH or similar)
They’re also using WiFi to put census machines at the foot of the gangplanks of their cruise-ships during landfalls. When a passanger debarks, she swipes her room-key as she steps off the gangplank. When it’s anchors a-weigh, the ship’s captain knows exactly which passengers he’s abandoning to starve on a deserted pleasure-island (or, conversely, who he needs to hang around for).
(Aside Mark II: Yes, they could put the machine at the top of the gangplank without wireless. That wouldn’t be as cool. That is all)
Of course, all this tasty WiFi bandwidth is reserved for the private use of Disney’s castmembers. Disney’s worried that by offering Internet service to their guests, they’ll end up with a park full of porn-downloading geeks hogging the old-people benches and crawling around looking for an AC outlet.
Speaking of, here in NYC, I’ve been going nuts with my iBook’s wireless link and the MobileStar service at Starbuck’s. There’s basically a Stinkbuck’s on every block in Manhattan, and I have yet to successfully resist the temptation to whip out my iBook as I walk past each and check my mail. There’s a baseline of caffeine consumption expected from those who tie up tables inside, so I’ve been avoiding that except when my battery runs down and I need an AC outlet — even so, I’ve been consuming on the order of 60 ounces of caffeinated beverage every day since I got here.
I may have to switch to the proliferate community wireless networks, if only to spare my stomach lining. Right now, I’m logged into someone named “Deb”‘s AirPort base-station, which is connected to a RoadRunner cable modem and running firmware V3.64. This Deb person is presumably within 300’ of my cousin’s flat on the 11th floor of an apartment building at 27th and Lex. I assume it’s in one of the line-of-sight apartment buildings, since I only get signal when I’m sitting near my cousin’s window, and not at all on the ground or in the living room. Thanks, Deb, who and where ever you are.
(Aside Mark III: On the cab-ride in from Penn Station last week, I was able to log in to a different 802.11 network at each red light and check my mail)
(Thanks, Raphael!)