The Next Wave « Rowetel

Hybrid Optical-Microwave Communications

By david, on September 23rd, 2010%

A few weeks ago I visited the ITR at the University of South Australia, where I studied some time ago. My former PhD superviser, Bill Cowley is part of a team working on a interesting new hybrid optical/microwave communications scheme.

Their reasoning is that spectrum is becoming more and more congested. Free Space . . . → Read More: Hybrid Optical-Microwave Communications

Baboons, Mesh networks, and Community

By david, on January 5th, 2010%

At both Village Telco Workshops I had the pleasure of meeting David Carman and Antoine van Gelder, who founded and now administer the Scarborough Wireless User Group (SWUG). Scarborough is located almost on the southern tip of Africa, on the edge of Cape Town, South Africa.

SWUG uses a mesh network to provide Internet access to . . . → Read More: Baboons, Mesh networks, and Community

Kjell Aleklett Lecture

By david, on June 6th, 2009%

Yesterday I took a much needed break from Mesh Potato hacking and pedaled into Adelaide University to see a lecture by Kjell Aleklett, who is the president of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas who is visiting Australia this week.

Couple of important points that I took away:

Kjell explained the physical process by . . . → Read More: Kjell Aleklett Lecture

East Timor – OLPC Pilot

By david, on April 9th, 2009%

One of the main reasons for the February East Timor trip was to assist the Seaton OLPC group investigate a possible OLPC pilot later this year. Here are some thoughts based on my experiences with the OLPC in East Timor:

Everyone we met who saw and played the XO’s (teachers, students of all ages) “got it” . . . → Read More: East Timor – OLPC Pilot

Prototype Village Telco Raided

By david, on February 24th, 2009%

Dabba are a South African company that have been operating a prototype Village Telco network in the Orange Farm township near Johannesburg. It’s fair to say that Dabba inspired much of the Village Telco project. They use unlicensed 2.4 GHz spectrum to run VOIP over Wifi links. The result is disadvantaged . . . → Read More: Prototype Village Telco Raided

Peak Oil and Why Growth is Evil

By david, on November 13th, 2008%

Oil has no future. Really. Just look at this graph of oil discovery (borrowed from this excellent Peak Oil Overview). The graph shows oil discovery (in billions of barrels) per decade.

Now oil discoveries peaked at about 500 billion in the 1960′s, about the time I was born and started crawling towards anything . . . → Read More: Peak Oil and Why Growth is Evil

Open Hardware 3 Years On

By david, on September 27th, 2008%

In 2005 I started working with Asterisk on the Blackfin. This led to the Free Telephony Project, and the idea of using open hardware techniques for telephony. The idea of open hardware (people collaborating to build free hardware designs just like open software) was a big experiment, especially when it came to commercial products. . . . → Read More: Open Hardware 3 Years On

The Mesh Potato Part 1

By david, on September 10th, 2008%

In June 2008 I attended the Village Telco workshop in Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town in June was rainy and cold, however the South African people were really friendly. While in South Africa I also attended . . . → Read More: The Mesh Potato Part 1

WiSPCaR – Wifi Station Power Controller And Reporter

By david, on May 18th, 2008%

It’s amazing what you can do with a 70 cent computer. Actually it’s amazing that there are 70 cent computers! The PIC12F510 is a complete computer – flash program memory, RAM, GPIO pins, internal clock and two A/D converter inputs in a tiny 8 pin chip. All for just 70 cents (Qty 100) . . . → Read More: WiSPCaR – Wifi Station Power Controller And Reporter

Solar Electricity

By david, on May 3rd, 2008%

In early February, my long awaited grid connect PV solar panels were installed by the Solar Shop. Installation took only about half a day. The frames were cut on site, and an electrician wired up the inverter and by 2pm I was getting free electricity from the sun!

Here are the guys at work:

Here . . . → Read More: Solar Electricity

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