On Tuesday, the 31st of July, i started reading Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (1), at a friends house, after they went to bed, and i couldnt sleep. having flipped through a thoroughly empty "do it all" bicycle maintenance book, i went looking for another, somewhat more stimulating - but still light reading - read.

Finishing the meek 200 pager the next day, i was pleased to have read at least the first one, having first peaked my interest into the lore around harry and its admirable complexity and subsequently deciding to move on to the movies, so i could get something in between the minimal excerpt wikipedia provides and the full literature versions originally penned by Rowling. Only, at about the time i got a hold of the fourth movie, and then got a chance to see the fifth in the theatre (the only one id seen on the big screen), i wasnt happy with the prospect of having to wait at least 2 more years to finish the septuplet.

Thus, with my accidental location of the first novel, i some-what begrudgingly set about the task of reading the full story which, mere days before i began, had JUST completed with the publication of the 7th and final chapter. The very next day after i finished the first, i began a 10 day backpacking trip around belgium and holland and, knowing that at least the first and last day would be mostly spent waiting in transit, i picked up number 2. By august 12th, my day of return to this funny little island called angleterre by the french, i had fished 2,3 and 4.

Trying my best to wrest my brain from the series in hopes of finishing my thesis, i failed slightly, succumbing enough to finish book 5 in (an embarrassing) 10 days time. As the next morning of the 23rd dawned - the 26th day of remembrance of my day of arrival on earth - i hastened off to procure book 6 which took me 5 days to finish. sadly, however, i was made to wait a grueling 15+ hours until the book shop opened, at 11am on the day of Wednesday, the 29th - Yesterday.

From about 11 am, until about 7 this morning, i read continuously - baring a few quick meals, and few hours break when a friend stopped by - to finish the novel, in 30 days time, for an average of 4.28 days per book (although, their page counts range from a meager 200 (Philosopher's) to a bulging 950 (Phoenix), so the average doesnt really apply to well.)

Response: I would say that reading them in direct succession, with the biggest lapse between novels being 2 days at the most, has given me a much richer sense of the world rowling depicts, simply because the tidbits and past-references are much fresher in my mind. This was never so much the case as with the last book that, try as i might, i was not allowed to put down; it bears no dog ears.

Generally, the first book is kiddish with the series easily abandoned after words. The second is a transition towards a more complex story arc, with more character development, but could also be a series abandoner, if not rapidly successed by the third. After the fourth, tho, things really begin to kick in, characters having been fleshed out, and the real story being allowed to unfold. Books 6 and 7, like Rowling has said, operate almost as two halves of the same book.

I feel good.

Two rights dont make a wrong, but, in San Francisco, three rights make a left.

- me, on the lack of ability to turn left on most major streets, and the fact that a "san francisco left" is comprised of overshooting your target by one block, then doing 3 rights.

Meraki - "(may-rah-kee), a Greek word that means doing something with soul, creativity, or love" - was founded only a few years ago as an MIT PhD project similar to - and now funded by - Google. Based on mesh network technology, the idea is simply that if you space an array of wireless broadcasts at semi-regular distances, and tune them correctly (to prevent cancellation), you can effectively blanket any region with dependable - and, generally, free - internet access. Democratizing internet access away from the mega-corps means great things for the poor, the technophobic, cafe patrons, park picknickers, wardrivers* and anyone else wishing to get interweb. Once an initial, and fat, supply of internet is provided at one central location (which would assumedly be subsidized by the state, or paid for by some non-profit), the only costs left are paying for the actual broadcasting device (router) and the electricity it needs to run.


In an effort pull the run out from under EarthLink's tentative contract with the City of San Francisco to provide a similar blanket but in a tiered pay scheme, Meraki have decided recently to start giving away their routers to any willing San Franciscan participants who, in turn, will pay for the routers electrical needs (minimal) and maintain them. Of particular interest is Meraki's most recent product debut, a photo-voltaic array that provides electricity for their (assumedly outdoor) routers, ever lessoning the costs of maintenance, and increasing their products sustainability.

Interestingly, and because of the nature of mesh networkings centralized source, the network can only organically - you have to be able to 'smell' the "Free the Net" broadcast, in order to qualify for a relay / router device, which will in turn expand the network, allowing more users to join - kind of like facebook, or gmail back in the day. (As of this moment, at 04.30h San Francisco time, just under 1 percent of the cities inhabitants are logged on via Meraki technology - realtime capture pictured below.)



In my opinion, San Francisco is testbed for their technology to see how effective widespread and free wifi will work - albeit a biased one. Of course, SF is known for its progressive and tech-savvy residents, so the real measure will happen when their network begins to spread to not-so-net-savvy neighborhoods like traditionally penny-pinching 'hoods of Outer and Lower Sunset, and the outright poor neighborhoods of Hunters Point and Bayview. Also problematic, is the city's relative 3D nature - versus a flat town, Meraki's routers have to additionally deal with a vertical broadcast, as well as horizontal. The analogy operates something like a squashed ball; the more flat it gets, the farther out you can broadcast; increasing broadcast in one direction directly reduces the distance the router can broadcast in any other.

It will be interesting to see how long (if ever) that it takes to completely blanket SF. I suspect that, at some point, Meraki will move beyond SF before this happens, and assumedly over to east and south bay.

*Note: On a trip out of SF, across the bay bridge and out towards Davis and Sacramento, Alex Zeh and i decided to attempt a measure of our beloved cities internet interest. Known as Wardriving, the practice entails driving about, registering networks, and hoping for an open one, at which point the driver parks, and email is achieved. More geek than anything else, it is particularly useful for those who dont have a local internet-ready cafe. Starting at Inner Sunset, we traversed the city (in as straight a line as possible), the tally's predictably rising. By the time we hit the bridge (an obviously wifi-free zone, owing to the lack of proximal housing) we had counted 254 networks, AND, to boot, while at the intersection of Fell and Van Ness, we were passed by somebody sitting on a bus who was ALSO wardiving, and for about 5 seconds we had an ad hoc network! (ie, we could share info, but no net access)

What a GEEK town.