802.11n is here… well, at least 802.11pre-N is here. 802.11n promises greater throughput (a minimum of 100 Mbit/s) and — probably more important — greater range than 802.11a/b/g devices.

CNet has a review of Belkin’s wireless pre-N router which they give pretty high marks. Of course, as with most pre-specification-finalization devices, you have to use Belkin’s Pre-N adapter in combination with the router to enjoy 802.11pre-N benefits. That said, the Belkin router is backwards compatible with 802.11b/g gear.

The 802.11n specification is due to be finalized by the end of 2005. EETimes has a pretty good article on this process.

The New York Times has an article today on ThinkEquity Partners’, a boutique investment bank, launching of its ‘research’ blog. It seems likely that ThinkEquity pitched the Times on this story to get some PR — just another sign that blogging is the real deal.

Mr. Moe (ThinkEquity’s co-founder) said he did not see an immediate way to make money from the blog, but viewed it as a way to generate ideas - the lifeblood of research and investment banking.

“Our mission is to identify and partner with the stars of tomorrow, today,” he said.

He said he got the idea from Tony Perkins, a founder and former editor of Red Herring magazine who has started AlwaysOn, which is using blogs to discuss business and technology issues.

Generically, blogging could be a way to make investment banking research more relevant especially after the recent stock market crash where it was found that many investment banking firms were guilty (hey, the top investment banking firms coughed up $1.4 billion in fines) of writing research statements solely to win investment banking business — just a slight conflict of interest.

I’ve read a little of the ThinkEquity blog, and it’s got some good stuff.

Recently, I’ve been reading about and listening to (i.e., podcasts) a lot of conversations on wireless infrastructure. The topics discussed have been more ‘WiFi-ish’ (i.e., WiFi, WiMax, et al.) than ‘cellular’ (e.g., GSM, Edge, 3G, etc.) for lack of better terms.

The Economist had a recent article discussing the closed nature of wireless chipsets. Here’s the quote that counts.

Openness is coming to the wireless world, too. Cheap and powerful devices that use unlicensed and lightly regulated parts of the radio spectrum are proliferating. But there is a problem. Though the spectrum is open, the microprocessor chips that drive the devices which use it are not. The interface information—the technical data needed to write software that would allow those chips to be used in novel ways—is normally kept secret by manufacturers. The result could be a lot less innovation in the open wireless world than in the open wired one.

Dana Blankenhorn at Accelerating Change 2004 talks about this lack of openness or lack of a ‘wireless platform.’ By platform he means something you can write to and change (he says we are currently stuck in a world of point solutions… that is, access points). Of course, I am paraphrasing, so it’s probably best to listen to him directly here.¹

Also on IT Conversations and also from Accelerating Change is Dewayne Hendricks’ talk on the history of wireless, various non-traditional forms of creating wireless infrastructure (e.g., Amateur Packet Radio) and California’s Gigabit or Bust initiative among other topics. Here’s the audio clip of his talk. Information on the full panel discussion can be found here.

And today in the New York Times, there is an article on the City of Philadelphia’s efforts to blanket the city in WiFi. Philadelphia is hoping that ubiquitous WiFi coverage will attract business and enable Internet access for disadvantaged groups. Naysayers — such as the local DSL and cable companies — argue that the City should not be in this (i.e., their) business. Regardless of the arguments for or against this project, I see it as a great, large-scale experiment in pervasive Internet access. Even if it doesn’t work out as the city would like, I am sure that a lot of useful information will come from this.

¹ This link is to a MP3 audio clip of IT Conversations’ recording of Mr. Blankenhorn on the Pervasive Computing Panel at the Accelerating Change held in early November 2004. I used IT Conversations “clipping service”: to excerpt Mr. Blankenhorn’s discussion from the full panel talk. You can make audio clips on IT Conversations by clicking on the Clip link on the detail page that describes the audio. Then simply put in the start time and end time to create a URL of the clip you are interested in. Very cool.