Roland Tanglao's Weblog

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Four months ago, a small startup in Silicon Valley named Meraki (Greek for “doing it with love”) for unveiled a cute little device, a wireless router that they simply named the Mini. Inside it has a RISC CPU running a custom version of LINUX which handles all of the routing tasks. That’s where it gets interesting. You see, Meraki have pioneered a new technology known as “wireless mesh networking”. You can power up a Mini in anywhere you like, and if there’s another Mini within distance – and these devices can reach nearly half a kilometer, outdoors – it will connect to it, share routing information, and route packets from one to another – all without any need to configure anything at all. Add another, and another, and another, and all of a sudden you’ve created a very wide area WiFi network. Only one of the Minis needs to be connected to the Internet as a gateway; the others will find it and route traffic through it. The Minis are small – and they’re also cheap. For just $49 dollars US, you can order one complete with an Australian wall wart. That’s cheaper than most access points out there, and because of the mesh networking, it does a whole lot more.

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After a half hour delay and some lunch and some badly needed ice coffee (it's positively tropical here today by Vancouver standards!), I am here at the Adante Hotel (no aircon but I love the heat and it's nice and cool in my room!) at 610 Geary (thanks Petrina!) working away on their free internet (no WiFi in the rooms). Looking forward to meeting with the peeps tonight at 6:45p.m.ish and to tomorrow's Bloggercon. Give me a call at 604 729 7924 if you want to meet up!

I'm at Vancouver waiting for my (delayed) flight to San Francisco for BloggerCon IV and BarCamp San Francisco and my sleep deprived brain is reflecting nostalgically on previous BloggerCons especially the first one back in October 2003 in Boston:

• 2003 seems so far away. Much has changed and much has stayed the same. But one thing seems to be constant. Almost everybody I met at BloggerCon I way back :-) in 2003 have profited in some way indirectly (not usually directly) from their blog.
• I remember being in a cab with Doc Searls, Britt Blaser and Dan Gillmor and speaking with the cabbie on why he was voting Republican. It was then (in a rare feat of prescience) that I knew that the 2004 election was lost for the Democrats.
• Speaking of Britt, I sure wish he could make it to BloggerCon IV. But I bet he's busy with Orgware and Podslam and his other ventures after an all too brief vacation in Ireland
• I remember meeting Joey (love to hear that accordion belting out Iko Iko Friday and Saturday but alas he's not coming) and Wendy (who did a stellar job of organizing the first BloggerCon) and sharing Indian food with them and Dave and many others and now they are married and live in Toronto.
• Had great conversations with Susan Mernit, Deeje Cooley and Scott Johnson over Indian food.
• Met the proud papa, wine lover med musings guy Enoch Choi who the kid, Barb and I had the pleasure of lunching with and his family at BloggerCon III.