warchalking

[Tim McGuire]

This appeared in a forum on warchalking 
(http://www.blackbeltjones.com/warchalking/), a system for leaving
chalk markings in public spaces where wireless access points can be
found:

"Which brings me to my nomination for the Patron Saint of Warchalkers:

Thomas Pynchon. The prescient Mr. Pynchon's "Crying of Lot 49"
described similar cryptic scribbles by members of a secret underground
postal system, long before the rise of the net. (Published 3 years
before the traditional 1969 birthday of the net.) Alas, I'm not sure if
the trystero would work for wifiti, but it certainly would add an air
mystery (and literary history) to the endeavor."


and....

"In London today a gang war broke out over a territorial dispute.
However, the territory was not physical space, but a wireless cloud of
bandwidth. The dispute erupted when a Wi-fi user of a local free network
connection accused another of dropping in on his wave. "Not only did
this newbie drop in, he launched a p2p flood.", said one of the local
Wibos.

Several laptops were broken in the fight, and one Wibo was taken to
hospital for the removal of a PCMCIA Card. Residents of the casual cafe
strip expressed some distress at the increase chalk markings that have
appeared, and the rise of threatening looking white bespeckled males."

OK. Maybe not. But I think it's worth while setting some ground rules
for the use of the Wi-fi freenets that are popping up, especially with
the increased profile via warchalking.


Tim McGuire
http://radio.weblogs.com/0108008