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August 2002: Paul Smith - On the (un)Wired Generation.
In 1904 (incidentally, the same year as the invention of the answerphone) John Ambrose Fleming adapted Edison's light bulb to create the thermionic valve, or Diode. This handy wee device could detect and amplify radio waves, resulting in the ability to utilise frequency and amplitude changing pitch and volume signals (i.e. speech) rather than just Morse code. Now you know whom to thank the next time your mobile rings just prior to orgasm.
Everything seems to be wireless these days. TV remote controls used to have a handy lead for tripping up elderly relatives and doing well on the inheritance, but sadly no more. I've a friend who lives in a flat so small she can touch all four walls at the same time, and even she has a cordless 'phone. Why? The only place one with a 2m lead wouldn't reach is out onto the balcony, which she hasn't got. I've even got a Hoover without a cord. I'm hoping this trend doesn't extend to feminine hygiene products because the one thing the world can do without is a tampon with no strings attached. And computer networks, as you can read about elsewhere in this issue, have joined the lead-free parade.
I'd not even heard of wireless networking before I noticed a little switch on the side of my laptop with a picture of a radio mast next to it. Now, a scant few months later I know I've only got 802.11b (11Mbit per second) connectivity, rather than the more desirable 802.11a (54Mbit/p/s) standard. I could rush out and buy a faster Intel, Cisco, 3Com or Agere PCMCIA card for about £70, but I'd still need an Access Point (£300ish) and a PCI card for my trusty dusty desktop (£80) to let me roam the house at will whilst file and application sharing or 'net surfing. If someone says 'Orinoco' to me, I no longer start singing "Underground, over-ground…" to them and I can convincingly fake talking knowledgably about the perceived -but scientifically very vague- health risks of the technology. I even know the rapidly falling costs of these gadgets means they're starting to appear in less swanky offices and even technophiles homes. And you just thought I was a pretty face, didn't you?
Speaking of the health risks, we were a bit wary of mobiles a couple of years ago, due to the suggestion that they could turn our brains inside out and serve them up steaming with a side order of fries. Wireless networks use very similar digital broadcasting technology (high frequency / short radio wavelength radiation) to mobile 'phones. So if I were you I'd site the Access Point well away from my goolies, just to be on the safe side.
Now that it's almost 100 years after Fleming's discovery and we're back to transmitting 0's and 1's rather than the dots and dashes he spent years of his life seeking to supplant. It makes you wonder why he bothered really.
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495 broadly wireless words Dale. I hope you think they're good ones, or at least good enough to print. Anyway, there is a bit of education in there.
Cheers
Paul