LIVEdigitally

Daily Archives: December 16, 2005

New Hi Gain Antenna

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The HWU8DD is designed to connect your desktop computer or laptop easily to any Wireless-B or Wireless-G network via a USB connection. Hawking’s award winning Hi-GainTM Antenna technology extends wireless connection distances by up to 300%. The HWU8DD is equipped with a new 8dBi Directional Dish antenna that provides more distance and better speeds than other wireless adapters on the market. The Hi-Gain Wireless-G Dish Adapter is the only wireless adapter to integrate the distance benefits of wireless Dish Technology with WiFi networking. The built-in LED signal strength indicators provide network signal information to pinpoint the strongest signal available within your area.

Read the original press release.

You've Got Mail…And More!

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Los Angeles County health officials have opened an internet website on which users can anonymously notify their sex partner of having been infected with a sexually transmitted disease.

The site, www.InSPOTLA.org, which opened on Wednesday, offers different types of electronic postcards to simultaneously e-mail up to six sexual partners of being infected with an STD.

“You’re too hot to be out of action,” reads one card, featuring the back of a handsome man covering his behind with a towel. “I got diagnosed with an STD since we played. You might want to get checked too.”

The site gives information about several of the most common STDs and how to prevent them.

Another card reads: “It’s not what you brought to the party, it’s what you left with. I left with an STD. You might have too. Get checked soon.”

The internet is all about bringing people together with common interests, but I’m not sure anyone saw this one coming. Who knows, perhaps this will catch on in other states as well. Leave it to California to lead the way!
From Doc To Doc.

Wireless USB

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Wisair is determined to take USB cables off of the personal computer. The company has taken another step in the Ultra Wideband (UWB) industry with the release of a Wireless Universal Serial Bus (WUSB) reference design.

The new reference design includes a WUSB PC dongle and a WUSB hub, providing consumer electronics and peripheral manufacturers with the means to offer customers wireless connectivity to existing USB-enabled devices.

Printers, scanners, remote hard disk drives, digital cameras and mobile phones are able to plug directly into the WUSB Hub and receive wireless connectivity to a PC. The WUSB Hub replaces any wireline USB connection with a wireless connection.

We had heard that wireless was the direction for the 3rd generation of USB products, but this is the first actual product I’ve seen. Between the omnipresent WiFi, and the sexy Bluetooth products, Wireless USB may be a little late to this wireless party. On the other hand, most of the Bluetooth gear is expensive, and most computers do not ship with a Bluetooth transmitter built in. If the USB folks could integrate their transmitter into their existing USB chips, and the new computers shipped with it built in, they may leap frog Bluetooth in this game. In the meantime, I look forward to not having so many cables around my desk!

See here, here, and here for more info.