Following on a cool wireless story where Zapp, Romanian CDMA mobile operator, launched a new service that WiFies Bucharest cabs! That’s a really schrewd move for mobility and innovation.

But I wonder what their ROI is. The business model is based on 10 minutes of free access then pre-paid card access. Given one would spend an average of 25 minutes in a cab, why would one buy a 1h card for just 15minutes? Yeah, ok, it’s good to have later on a different location, but…

I would assume it’s just an image push. (it works!).

Nevertheless cost per cab is:
- router – ASUS WL-500G w. USB port ~$40
- Z010 EvDo modem ~$20
- unlimited in-network airtime

ROI is thereafter obtained after selling ~50 $2/1h prepaid cards of roughly 30-40h usage. A week per cab, maybe, presuming clients buy the cheapest value card – http://zapp.ro/offer/data/zoe/zoecard/

Risks: nearby accidental users that would hop on the 10 minute free airtime. Probably 60% of actual usage per mobile hotspot. Not so bad as routers are set for DoD (dial on demand).

Related: I wanted to plant a hotspot in my car (a Smart ForTwo at the time) and brand it “free hotspot in range of this car”. Never took the time to do it. Envious!

Later edit: Virgil of yottablog goes further with the analysis here. Go read with confidence!

The Safari browser from Apple is now also available for Windows Users.

For those unfamiliar with Macs, Safari promises to be the fastest browser on any platform, a clean interface so you can focus on browsing, uncompromising security and of course the usual browsing standards like pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing. You will also familiarize with nice Aqua elements like the nice blue scrollbar.

Keep in mind it is still in Public Beta.

Grab a bite of Apple! Safari for Windows is available for download here.

Eye candy as it is, Ubuntu+Beryl on my Acer TravelMate 2482NWXMi didn’t allow a resolution change higher than 1024×768. The problem is solved with the 915resolution package. So, if you have the same problem I was facing, just install the package, restart your X server and voilà: 1280×800.

Search for the package:

marius@OliveJuice:~$ sudo aptitude update

marius@OliveJuice:~$ sudo aptitude upgrade

marius@OliveJuice:~$ aptitude search 915resolution
p 915resolution - resolution modification tool for Intel graphic chipset

Install the package:

marius@OliveJuice:~$ sudo aptitude install 915resolution

And now restart your X server by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace on your keyboard, or just reboot Ubuntu. After restarting X, or reboting, go to System > Preferences > Screen Resolution, and select 1280×800.

My second problem today with my lappy, was that I tried watching a movie and couldn’t do it without plugging in my headphones since my laptop speakers wouldn’t work. Everything was fine with a jack plugged in, but the speakers just didn’t want to work, so I did a little bit of digging. First off, let’s see our sound cards:

marius@OliveJuice:~$ lspci | grep Audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

If this matches, you should be on the right path, by following up here. I found on the Ubuntu Bug tracker bug number #94373. Long story told short, I read there, modified 1 file, and voilà: I have sound on the laptop speakers.

root@OliveJuice:~# echo "options snd-hda-intel model=auto" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
root@OliveJuice:~ # rmmod snd-hda-intel
root@OliveJuice:~# modprobe snd-hda-intel

The important thing here, is the first command, the echo redirected to the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file. It adds the snd_hda_intel model=auto. The rmmod command might say that the module is in use, and cannot be unloaded, but that’s hardly a problem. Just reboot, and your speakers should work. Mine sure did.

Now, that was easy wasn’t it? tweak here, tweak there, and thanks to the Open Source community out there, amost everything can be fixed in a matter of minutes if someone already had that problem, or in a matter of days, if this is a new bug. Developers are always ready to help out.

Last night Alexandra wanted a song so much, that I decided to look for it. It’s “Lissie – Bright Side“. The reason for this was this commercial: http://youtube.com/watch?v=4Reb_l8Zw-U or, the second version: http://youtube.com/watch?v=U1ZHk-NZWLw
Gotta wrap it up now, since my Whisher Beta Tester invite mail just popped into my inbox, and I was looking forward to that since yesterday.

Tha! Tha! and don’t forget, Wireless is FUN! ;-)

Yahoo! Mail now offers unlimited storage! Before this very silent -but relevant- upgrade Yahoo! used to offer 1GB of webmail space.
This looks like a determined attempt to hit on GMail which now over 2862.164493 megabytes (and counting). Hmmm…
My Yahoo! email is there for spam-like mail communication. And most of my corporate mail gets dumped locally on a beefy hard drive so storage is not an issue. I doubt most of internet-savvy users still use Yahoo! Mail as their primary e-correspondence client so it’s likely this news to go unnoticed.

This is probably interesting news for those who have an online experience revolving around Yahoo! Messenger (the most popular in Ro, for example) and Yahoo! Mail, but could turn interesting for everyone else who up until now had a Yahoo! account just to be able to sign in to Flickr.

Whisher decided to go back to the drawing board soon after the release of their first WiFi sharing a while back. That development cycle is now over so the Ferran, Mike and their dev. teams invite you to participate in a beta program.
To join in you have to -
+ be knowledgeable in WiFi technologies and networking, we’re not asking for gurus, but we need people who know what an SSID is
+ have at least one laptop computer with WiFi, be it a PC with Windows or a Mac. A desktop with a USB or PCI WiFi adapter is also good.
+ have at least one WiFi access point or router, and be knowledgeable in its configuration and management.
be willing to test a software application and report frequently and consistently using an online bug tracking platform

The guys also offer two prizes, one for the most active tester, and another randomly drawn amongst all participants. The prize for each winner consists of a Linksys WRT300N Wireless-N router and a matching WUSB300N Wireless-N USB adapter, so that you can enjoy Wirelessisfun.com better! :))

To reach the team email them at beta@whisher.com! And don’t forget to tell them we sent you there! ;)

Meraki released a new product, an outdoor wireless repeater that can attach to a solar pannel (sold separately).
The new oddly-shaped repeater is eyecandy and apparently very efficient, touting a range of up to 700meters. Priced at $99 it falls in the cheap wireless devices category. But before you get all hyped up, remember that using these things means you’ll have a cluster of them. Quite pricy. The press release here.