Fonero, fonera, olé

I'm sorry for my decreasing posting activities and also sorry for not keeping up my blog relationships that much in the past few weeks. There is just so much going on in my life right now (which I will write about soon) that I barely spend any time on the web. I promise to get better soon, please forgive me for the meantime!

This weekend I did have some time but no Internet connection, because I spent the weekend in the Swiss alps. It was nice - on Sunday we were able to sit in the garden in tank tops and today it was snowing. Is anybody still insisting that no real climate change is happening? Okay, different subject. Back to the Internet connection... I received two comments to my last post from Peluka and Steven regarding my petition for free WLAN all over the world and they both related to FON:

FON is the largest WiFi community in the world. You can become member and share your wireless Internet access at home and, in return, enjoy free WiFi wherever you find another Fon Access Point. Now that's exactly my point! Why should you pay for Internet access on the go when you have already paid for it at home? So FON decided to help create a community of people who get more out of their connection through sharing. They call members of the FON Community "Foneros". To become a Fonero you need to buy "La Fonera". La Fonera is a special kind of WiFi router - a "Social Router". That’s because when you activate your La Fonera, you become part of the FON Community.

FON is creating a bit too many new words at once for my taste, but I guess that's part of a cult they're trying to build up around this service. This is clearly an interesting concept, but of course only works when they manage to build up a huge community. I hope they succeed.
Due to my busy timetable I haven't properly checked the map yet to find out how well "Foneros" are spread over the world and especially whether there are any in the places I often visit (e.g. windsurfing destinations, Swiss alps). But I'll save that task for another day and rather get some sleep now :)
Good night, Dania

Petition for open wireless networks

I'm just sitting in a small café in Utrecht, the Netherlands, waiting for my train back to Zurich, Switzerland. I spent a few days visiting my friend in Den Haag - my computer is with me, as always. Every now and then when I'm visiting a new place I try out whether there is any internet connection available and surprisingly there almost always is! Now, the trouble is that the networks are often secured and not open for anyone to use, which I think sucks.

First of all, in Europe most people pay a flat rate and therefore do not suffer any financial disadvantage when there are some free-riders surfing along. Secondly, people are getting more and more mobile. I don't really have one fix working station, so any nice café or parc can serve as an office as long as my notebook is with me. My WLAN at home is not secured. Anyone visiting my neighbour (or even my neighbour himself) has free access to the Internet. In return I hope that more and more people all over the world open up their connections to me. Thanks again to "Rancho Delfin" that I had Internet connection during my two-weeks holiday in Venezuela!
So, I plead for open free wireless networks. If you have a secured network please rethink and open it up! What goes around comes around.
Dania

WLAN on our patio

Good news: no need for me to post anymore from on old commodore64-like computer with a sticky keyboard and a really slow internet connection. I already tried out yesterday if there would be any wireless network available from our hotel room, but as I expected there wasn't. But surprise: today, sitting on the patio, all of sudden this promising message pops up telling me that a unsecured wireless network is available: Rancho Delfin. So here I am, sitting on the patio and surfing the web... thanks to Rancho Delfin, whoever and wherever you are!
Enough for today, I'm off - from websurfing to windsurfing :)
Have a great day, Dania