You wouldn't catch me wearing this Wi-Fi Detector Shirt, but it definitely is a very cool t-shirt gadget.  

Forget about cracking open your laptop to find a signal -- the shirt detects wi-fi internet access within your range and displays the strength of the signal right on your chest.  [via BoingBoing]

Low on cash but still wanting to increase the range of your wireless network?  Here is a howto on building your own waveguide WiFi antenna out of a tin can.

The howto for this "Cantenna" seems simple enough -- so simple that I could even put one of these together myself.  What's even more rad is the fact that it's a fairly inexpensive project.

[via digg]

Previously:
Howto: Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, Howto: Make a Robot Car - Part 1: Overview, Howto: Make A Robot Car - Part 2: H-Bridge Details, 125 Mile WiFi Connection, Google Maps and WiFi used for traffice court evidence

Well, newegg came through and I ordered a TRENDnet TEW-443PI (supposedly the easiest wifi card to use under Linux). It works beautifully. Absolutely no hassles, all I had to do is enter my WEP key. No driver messes at all. I'll keep you guys updated until I finish my project.

Cheers.

I saw this and I just knew that Jason would love something like this. I like it because, aside from being cool use of wireless, it's practical. Meaning, it's growing out of the realm of geekdom and wild eyed conjecture.

From CNN:

Wi-Fi on the farm
World's largest hotspot stretches over fields of onions

HERMISTON, Oregon (AP) -- Parked alongside his onion fields, Bob Hale can prop open a laptop and read his e-mail or, with just a keystroke, check the moisture of his crops.

A team participating in the DefCon WiFi shootout broke the world WiFi distance record, extending a connection across over 125 miles.

The incredible thing is that they were able to achieve a full 11Mbps connection over this distance, and it was unamplified!

Doubly cool: they also said they fully expect that this same rig would work at distances of over 300 miles. Considering most folks have trouble just getting a solid connection in their living rooms, that's totally insane!

At each end of the connection was a surplus satellite dish augmented with some custom welded support scaffolding. Team iFibre Redwire were so confident that everything would work, they didn't bother with a closer test-run, but instead headed directly across the Nevada state line to set up their second antenna on a hill in Utah.

If I heard correctly, they used a 3 watt amplified signal while initially aligning the dishes, but then were able to cut the power to the standard 30 milliwatt gain that a normal wifi device would have. The actual cards they used were 300mw capable Z-com pcmcia adapters.  Some sites are saying they ran the connection at 300mw, but I thought I heard them say they had reduced the gain to 30 and were still able to get a strong 11Mbps connection. I may have misunderstood.

They haven't posted additional updates to their site yet, but more details should follow soon. Until then, check out a few pictures I took of one of the dishes, and there are some maps of the site and discussion over at wifi-toys.

I was talking with some friends of mine yesterday about how Minneapolis has just set up a number of automated systems that send tickets to red light runners. Don't get me wrong, I really would like to see people get nailed for running lights, but the automated, big-brother system really freaks me out.

There is so much circumstantial information that is missed by a mere photograph. To not have a human involved to make a judgement call is a real step in the wrong direction. A lot of information is stripped away from the event when an automatic ticket is served.

What's really awesome is when new technologies are used to actually assist justice, not simply increase the number of ticketable offences.

In this story, Google Maps and a spur of the moment WiFi connection successfully assisted a defendant charged with running a red light in NY. He was able to prove to the judge that the officer had mistaken the facts and the violation was dismissed.

[via Make Blog]