Comment Re:Intel's primary WLAN campus project (Score 1) 29
Hi all,
Got a little time so I want to address one of the items in this post - the "disconnect". There are actually two subjects there. One is about wireless not meeting LAN speeds and the other is the need to have "always connected" devices that can get you in touch with your online resources. I hope I got the drift right.
On the first - yes, wireless does not today and will not in the foreseeable future (even with 802.11n) meet LAN standards for speed, transmission reliability and denial of service resilience but on the other hand do you want to only be able to access those resources when you happen to have a suitable LAN connection and a host computer host your VM?
Again stating my own feeling - I would not. I am writing this lying on my living room couch because it is more convenient, can I get a wire drop here? Likely. Can I get one in the other rooms? Maybe. Can I get one near tables in the cafeteria at work? More difficult. On the train? Unlikely.
The simple truth is that our study shows users don't care that much about raw speed unless they happen to want to download a big ISO or video file and they care a great deal about being able to just do their work wherever they are so the balance to me is clearly in the mobility side.
Another small example of mine - I had to pick up my girl from her kindergarten one day, pick up time is 16:00 and I was at work. How far is work? Well at about 14:30 it is 25 minutes away and at about 15:00 it starts being 45 minutes away. I also cannot risk being late so leaving at 15:00 is already pushing it.
Without my mobility options - leave work 15:00, race to get in time and risk a heart attack.
With mobility options - left at 14:30, got to a coffee shop near her kindergarten 14:55 and enjoyed my coffee while cleaning up some E-mail stuff for an hour. 30 minutes of productivity gained and a world of difference in feeling. Goes to what Intel terms work life effectiveness.
Now to the other part - firing up your notebook just to see if you have a meeting or check if you have a recent mail - another on the mark note. I absolutely agree, arriving on campus in the morning and having to endure the resume or (god forbid) boot to find out which conference room you are late too is enough to want thing different. I think this is well realized by both Intel and the people developing the OS. Just as an example take Vista's side show option which is built specifically with this in mind. Or look at the new class of ultra mobile devices being worked on that aim to get an "always connected" experience. There is a lot more besides these two examples and I think in a few years this unhappy experience may go down in history.
The discussion of UMPC (Ultra mobile PC) of course opens the door for a discussion on form factors, why the PDA did not work for you and what may but that is for another post. Good (my) night to you all.
-- Omer
Got a little time so I want to address one of the items in this post - the "disconnect". There are actually two subjects there. One is about wireless not meeting LAN speeds and the other is the need to have "always connected" devices that can get you in touch with your online resources. I hope I got the drift right.
On the first - yes, wireless does not today and will not in the foreseeable future (even with 802.11n) meet LAN standards for speed, transmission reliability and denial of service resilience but on the other hand do you want to only be able to access those resources when you happen to have a suitable LAN connection and a host computer host your VM?
Again stating my own feeling - I would not. I am writing this lying on my living room couch because it is more convenient, can I get a wire drop here? Likely. Can I get one in the other rooms? Maybe. Can I get one near tables in the cafeteria at work? More difficult. On the train? Unlikely.
The simple truth is that our study shows users don't care that much about raw speed unless they happen to want to download a big ISO or video file and they care a great deal about being able to just do their work wherever they are so the balance to me is clearly in the mobility side.
Another small example of mine - I had to pick up my girl from her kindergarten one day, pick up time is 16:00 and I was at work. How far is work? Well at about 14:30 it is 25 minutes away and at about 15:00 it starts being 45 minutes away. I also cannot risk being late so leaving at 15:00 is already pushing it.
Without my mobility options - leave work 15:00, race to get in time and risk a heart attack.
With mobility options - left at 14:30, got to a coffee shop near her kindergarten 14:55 and enjoyed my coffee while cleaning up some E-mail stuff for an hour. 30 minutes of productivity gained and a world of difference in feeling. Goes to what Intel terms work life effectiveness.
Now to the other part - firing up your notebook just to see if you have a meeting or check if you have a recent mail - another on the mark note. I absolutely agree, arriving on campus in the morning and having to endure the resume or (god forbid) boot to find out which conference room you are late too is enough to want thing different. I think this is well realized by both Intel and the people developing the OS. Just as an example take Vista's side show option which is built specifically with this in mind. Or look at the new class of ultra mobile devices being worked on that aim to get an "always connected" experience. There is a lot more besides these two examples and I think in a few years this unhappy experience may go down in history.
The discussion of UMPC (Ultra mobile PC) of course opens the door for a discussion on form factors, why the PDA did not work for you and what may but that is for another post. Good (my) night to you all.
-- Omer
