Author Archives: Greg Falken

Shameless Self Promotion

By Greg Falken | Published: March 30, 2008

I have started a new blog, called Internet Newcomer. It is, as the title suggests, a blog of information and advice for Internet beginners. The aim with this site is to build a collection of articles and references that will bridge the knowledge gap that exists for most newcomers to the Internet, allowing them to [...]

Posted in Internet Applications | Leave a comment

Podcast on Community Wireless

By Greg Falken | Published: March 10, 2008

On IT Conversations, Jon Udell interviews Michael Lenczner, co-founder of Île Sans Fil, Montreal’s community wireless network. With over 150 access points and nearly 60,000 users, the project is a huge success, all the more so given that municipal wi-fi projects in other cities have failed to materialize. And yet, Mike questions the value of [...]

Posted in Internet and Society | 1 Comment

Broadband Planning Regional Meeting

By Greg Falken | Published: November 29, 2007

Yesterday, Bob Ingalls and I attended the second planning meeting for an ambitious project, currently called Central Sierra Connect. It is being spearheaded by the Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency (A-TCAA), with funding from the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF). Although the project is in its early stages, its objective is to facilitate broadband availability to [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Will USA Recover Lost Ground In Broadband?

By Greg Falken | Published: July 23, 2007

Pundit “Bob Cringely” cites pressure on regional carriers to improve broadband service and reduce prices over the long term: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070720_002525.html

Posted in Broadband | Leave a comment

$10 DSL from AT&T

By Greg Falken | Published: June 19, 2007

Yahoo! News and The Consumerist are reporting that AT&T, as part of concessions to the FCC for their acquisition of Bell South, are offering basic DSL service for $10 per month, on a one year contract. The plan is called FastAccess on the Bell South web site and it is supposed to be available in [...]

Posted in Broadband | Leave a comment

Wow…just, wow

By Greg Falken | Published: June 7, 2007
Posted in Internet and Society, Internet Applications | Leave a comment

Everything is Miscellaneous

By Greg Falken | Published: May 22, 2007

Google Tech Talks has a new video by one of my favorite authors, David Wineberger, who’s new book is titled Everything is Miscellaneous. Although it’s kind of long (57:00), it’s well worth watching. Here’s the abstract: David Weinberger’s new book covers the breakdown of the established order of ordering. He explains how methods of categorization [...]

Posted in Internet and Society | Leave a comment

State of Tuolumne County Broadband

By Greg Falken | Published: May 22, 2007

Network Sierra has seemed pretty dormant for the last several weeks but there has in fact been activity on the county level that could move the broadband agenda forward. Following the Conxx Presentation made to Network Sierra on April 18th, which was attended by several members of county government, efforts are underway to bring the [...]

Posted in Network Sierra | Leave a comment

RSS In Plain English

By Greg Falken | Published: April 24, 2007

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an incredibly useful technology that’s often not very well understood. Commoncraft has produced this video that does a great low-tech job of covering the basics in 3 1/2 minutes. Click To Play (opens popup) When you’re done, subscribe to this blog!

Posted in Internet Applications | Leave a comment

Conxx Presentation

By Greg Falken | Published: April 22, 2007

On April 18th, representatives from Conxx, Inc. gave a presentation to a general meeting of Network Sierra, which was also attended by several members of county government. Conxx provides a turnkey system for replacing the telco infrastructure in a county or region. Their technology was developed in Alagany County, Maryland and they hope to replicate [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments