No strings attached

Since Nancy installed our wireless network in the house, I've had fun roaming the place with my laptop -- I'm writing this sitting up in bed, in fact. (Here's a good article in today's today's SF Chronicle.) And like all new owners of wireless network cards, I've discovered that many owners of home wireless networks don't protect the signal, so that you can pull your car up somewhere near their house and check your email right there. I found a page that lists a few wireless access points in the area, but merely by driving up Noe St. on Saturday I found that I was able to access a connection at the corners of 15th and Noe, and also at 19th, 21st, 23rd and 25th. (That's an affluent neighborhood so I'm not surprised there are so many wireless networks.) And today this NYT article predicts wireless networks with up to ten times the range of current ones. That means that the affluent neighborhoods of a city like San Francisco will be essentially blanketed by wireless networks.

Of course, if you don't have a laptop with a wireless (or "WiFi") network card, you can always get a messaging device like a Blackberry. Yesterday morning I saw a woman -- the president of the congregation, no less -- using one to check email during the slack moments after she had taken communion. (Offically they are not slack moments, but devotional moments. But few are the people who can sustain a meditative state after having eaten and drunk something. And yesterday the sermon was particularly long.) I've resisted the Blackberry so far, but I'll probably get a Handspring with messaging in a couple of years when the price comes down some more.

Today Cris and I will go for a little hike on Mt. Tamalpais to celebrate her brithday and also to scout ash-scattering sites. The weather is supposed to hold until the end of the week, when the rain is supposed to finally start.