Grand Rapids WiFi News
Four Friends Closes
Popular downtown coffee shop Four Friends was forced to close last week. It will be sadly missed by many. For a personal insight into the history and closure of Four Friends, I'd highly recommend reading Karl Swedberg's blog entry "The End of Four Friends". Karl was one of the founders of Four Friends.
Published 07/22/08 : 0 Comments : Read More...
Man (in Alaska) arrested for using library wifi
There's a story making the rounds about a man in Alaska who was arrested, apparently for sitting in a car outside a library using their wifi after hours. You can find the story in the Alaska Journal and commentary at librarian.net and engadget.com. The story raises questions about appropriate use of public wifi, how that is/should be policed, and the place of libraries in providing public wifi. Got any thoughts? Please do share!
Published 03/02/07 : 1 Comments : Read More...
Help Wanted
The time has come for me to move on from Grand Rapids, and this June my wife and I will be packing up and moving (back) to the UK. So I'm looking for a willing individual or two to take over the task of keeping an eye on this site, and looking out for new locations that ought to be added, or existing hotspots needing updates. There's no financial compensation available (the site doesn't cover its hosting costs), but hopefully there's some satisfaction from helping out. And it's really very little work. Interested? Drop me a line at james@grwifi.net
Published 02/28/07 : 0 Comments : Read More...
Librarian Quits Over WiFi
A former Grand Rapids resident emailed to let us know about a surprising WiFi-related story making the news in the librarian world. A library director in New Mexico resigned because she feared her health was at risk from WiFi-related radiation. But fear not, Grand Rapids WiFi users. There is no strong evidence of any health risks from WiFi usage.
Published 01/24/07 : 1 Comments : Read More...
Most Laptops Incompatible With Citywide Plans
According to a number of reports, including this one at mlive.com, Clearwire LLC who will this week be recommended as a provider for the City of Grand Rapids' wireless network intend to set up their network using the emerging "WiMax" (802.16) standard rather than the normal WiFi currently available in the hotspots listed on this site. Most computers that currently have wifi support will need upgrades to be compatible with the system.
Published 12/03/06 : 0 Comments : Read More...
Citywide Vendor Recommendation Announced
The Mayor's Wireless Broadband Advisory Committee have announced today that they will be making a formal recommendation that Clearwire LLC of Kirkland, Washington be granted the contract to provide citywide wireless access for Grand Rapids. No information is yet available as to how long it will take to roll out the service.
Published 12/01/06 : 0 Comments : Read More...
Improved mapping
Today saw another update to the software running this site. Over the past few months there have been very regular upgrades and today's change adds some fixes to the submission system and improved maps on the per-location page which give a much closer view of the area surrounding each hotspot. You can read more about how that's done over here.
Published 10/22/06 : 0 Comments : Read More...
Green WiFi
A new piece on World Changing today profiles Green WiFi, a project "committed to providing solar powered access to global information and educational resources for developing nation K-12 school children striving for knowledge in a digitally divided world." The project shows another dimension of the power of wireless technologies, an interesting insight for those who are enjoying the opportunities WiFi opens up for those of us in the 'developed' world.
Published 10/05/06 : 0 Comments : Read More...
Fon: Organizing Wireless Sharing
FON is a new service aimed at making it easier to get online anywhere by making it simpler to share a wireless connection. By providing a central database of open networks, and hardware to make it easy for people to share their connection but protect their computers and data, they're helping communities provide their own always-on connections.
Published 10/02/06 : 0 Comments : Read More...
Comments Problem
We are currently experiencing a problem with old comments posted on the site not showing up or appearing in the wrong place. We are working on it and hope to have it resolved very soon.
Published 08/15/06 : 0 Comments : Read More...
