Yesterday I got into the elevator on the ground floor of building 14 on the Cisco San Jose campus. I parked my car and made my way to the elevator bank. The elevator arrived, I hit the #4 (for the floor that I work on), and the doors began to close. Right before they were completely shut, someone stuck their hand in, the doors opened (I was bummed out cause I had waited a while), and a person came in the elevator car with me. Then he hit the number 2. Now -- obviously I could have taken the stairs up to the fourth floor, but it is a long way up… but one freaking flight of stairs??? I couldn’t help myself…”Dude,” I asked the guy looking really concerned, “Are your legs okay?”"Yeah, they’re fine,” he answered.”So why didn’t you take the stairs?”He was incredulous…”That is the most insensitive thing I have ever had someone ask me,” he said as the doors opened and he left the elevator. This exchange got me to thinking about sensors, and what will be the best way to deploy them… Read More »

In keeping with Matt Glenn’s ‘car themed’ blogs (1, 2) last week -- here’s an example of an implementation of Wi-Fi with cars……Newsweek’s March 5th article titled”Marketing: Ads Made for You“.This article describes how individuals, zipping by in their cars, can activate a billboard to display messaging that is personalized just for them. This is made possible by a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag on the car that is detected by a wireless infrastructure that includes location services. The article goes on to talk about using RFID in supermarkets to push out advertising to shopping carts based on their location within the store. RFID is changing the way we run businesses, communicate, and track items, events, and people…. Read More »

It is tax time again. Time to go visit your accountant, buy some tax software, or just do it online. It is during this time of year that I usually take up new hobbies -- anything to keep me away from the ritual of tax preparation. My family has a $10 opt-in pool on when I will announce to them what I’ll be doing that year to avoid getting my taxes ready. The person who is closest to the date without going over (Price is Right rules) wins the pool. Here are some examples of past hobbies:* A trip to Costa Rica to relearn surfing * Learning to ride a unicycle* Going on the road with Phish for a month* My vision quest to Tibet This year I’ve taken up a new hobby, visiting Second Life. What’s great about wireless is that I can constantly live in second life so that I don’t have to live my real one. Read More »

In The World is Flat, Tom Friedman writes about how human as well as digital”software” is required to make a society work. This includes: medical care, education, effective legal systems, etc.I am just back from my first trip to Dubai and can affirm that the Emirates, in addition to building the world’s largest buildings and shopping malls, are pioneering another first: transforming human software into a service through importing and maintaing human talent. Read More »

I’m on a car thing- Specifically how to merge cars and wireless- Wireless enables mobility, and the most mobile thing I have is my car. So bringing the two together, so that I can stay mobile, seems like a pretty good thing. Willie Nelson once sang,”You are always on my mind-”Right now I’m singing,”My car is on my mind-”Here’s why- I have two cars. One looks like this and the other looks like this- The more expensive one is currently in the shop, which means I’m a racking up bills and thinking about my youth.When I was younger I used to love to give my cars tune-ups, change the oil, and swap the brakes out- that sort of thing. Any of you real ‘gear heads’ out there will agree that there is no feeling (or smell) quite as sweet as dumping a few quarts of syrupy black goodness into the local sewer so it can make its way out to sea. Read More »