Comments on: Brazilian Professor Invents Solar Powered WiFi Access Point

By: Altenergy

Altenergy — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:33:19 +0000

wow great invention.

By: WiFi Solar: Directo de Brasil

WiFi Solar: Directo de Brasil — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:10:29 +0000

[...] además de ayudar a quienes más lo necesitan. Enlaces Fuente: EcoWordly google_hints = ‘access point,internet gratis,WiFi,wi-fi’; google_header = “”; google_ad_client [...]

By: Supergreengirl

Supergreengirl — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:50:15 +0000

Well, I think that the more important thing besides to the “I did it first attitude” is that now poor kids can have internet access.

Congratulations to Marcelo Zuffo and thanks Levi to inform us about this. And gave us some other links to learn that this type of invents are all around the world.

I think that those nasty comments for other people are out of place, because after checking the links that they provide. It is clear that there are several ways to “create” “invent” a WIFI access point. Moreover, if you read the information of the picture it does not correspond to the invention of the Brazilian Professor.

I suggest to the author of this article provide us with a picture of the “actual” invention.

By: MicroAngelo

MicroAngelo — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:57:10 +0000

Whilst I won’t go as far as some of the other apparently angry comment posters, I will say that you robbed credibility from an otherwise acceptable article by using the word ‘invents’ when you really meant ‘builds’. You might have even been able to get away with ‘creates’ – although you would have to note that this isn’t particularly novel.

However, I would have to correct the poster who said that mesh networks didn’t work well. Yes, the gains are small when you only have a few nodes, but as it grows it gets better and better. The very internet itself is very similar to a mesh! Meshes have the opposite of scaling problems, and I’m confident that they will eventually blanket the planet.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:12:15 +0000

These look exactly like the monstrosities all over the city of St. Louis Park MN. Supposedly St. Louis Park was going to have the first solar powered wifi network in the US. Did I mentioned it failed cause it didn’t work and there are hundreds of these eye sores in the city doing nothing?

By: 800HighTech

800HighTech — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:30:51 +0000

There seems to be lots of renewable energy sources springing up….This is a great idea, lets hope it makes it to the mainstream…..

By: dmhorus

dmhorus — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:08:22 +0000

To think33, I was absolutely directing this 100% at the author and I did look at his credentials. I didnt direct this at the professor who did this project. Its the language and attitude of laypeople and those who really have no reason writing tech blogs that have my wrath.

This guy both obviously and admittedly has no credentials authorizing him to write about anything tech.

By: think33

think33 — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:16:47 +0000

Hey, you young nerds are putting the blame for this article in the wrong place.
It is the author who came up with the headline word, “Invents”. The author is a history major and does not know technology. Some of us old guys do know what is going on. Here is the author’s background:

Levi Novey is a conservation professional who has received a bachelor’s degree in History from Tufts University and a master’s degree in Conservation Social Sciences from the University of Idaho. He worked for the U.S. National Park Service for 10 years, as a park ranger in 6 national parks, as a social science researcher in 5 parks, and as the science communicator for a Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring Network that serves 9 parks. He has authored several scholarly papers as well as several guidebooks to U.S. national parks.

Levi also has taught an undergraduate Environmental Communication Skills course at the University of Idaho, won several photography contests, and regularly enjoys visits to parks, protected areas, historical sites, museums– and just about anywhere where he can learn something new about the world. He currently lives in Peru, with his wife Alicia, and their daughter Coral.

By: Sam

Sam — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:17:28 +0000

There’s nothing inventive in connecting a power source to something that uses power.

Even if it’s solar power.

I mean, look at the photo. He stuch a solar panel on a lamp post and connected it to a battery to power something.

Now there may be something inventive that occurred there, if so, please report it so we know what it is.

Sam

By: dmhorus

dmhorus — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:24:31 +0000

Oh by the way…

Just in case you need a little more proof, heres some plans that have been posted for about 8 years and guess what? A highschool kid made them.

http://www.saunalahti.fi/elepal/antenna1.html

Now go ride a bike to work and write an article on Digg explaining how you invented it. And while youre doing it, try not to make it so obvious that youre all middle-aged coffee-house techies who learn “everything they know” by reading every half-baked, uninformed, knee-jerk blog post made by anyone claiming to be an “expert” on the industry.

Im sure I’ll see one of you in Starbucks telling me all about “the laptop wars” and how youre in on the ground level. Yeah, sell me some motivational tapes you tools.