802.16a is the IEEE standard for broadband wireless access (WMAN, BWA or WLL) in the U-NII band, which some hope will rival the impact of the 802.11 standards family. The 802.16a standards group is meeting in San Jose this week. The standards draft itself was apparently finalized in October by a small delegated working group including representatives of Wi-LAN, Alvarion, Conexant, Interdigital, Nokia (ex-Rooftop), RunCom of Isreal, BeamReach and Raze Technology.

802.16a is based on a DOCSIS derived MAC and OFDM based PHY. Here's an overview of the standards warfare that led up to 802.16a. 802.11 Planet has a tutorial on OFDM, which is also used in the 802.11a PHY.

OFDM has had plenty of advocates and detractors in the BWA marketplace. Two venture funded startups with proprietary flavors of OFDM in this market are Flarion and NextNet. Still to be heard from: the members of the Broadband Wireless Internet Forum, previously dissidents from the standard and including heavy hitters like TI, Broadcom and Cisco. How many teams are out there cooking 802.16a chip solutions right now?
11:10:05 PM    

Just as an insurmountable robo-pet gap was opening up between the US and Japan, the University of Washington and Purdue University combine to study the use of AIBO as a companion for the elderly. Brought to you by the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at the Purdue School of Veterinary Medicine. Apparently the definition of 'animal' has gotten rather flexible since I left Indiana...
10:45:48 PM    

According to the WaPo, every mail account on the Iraqi ISP got hit with an e-mail suggesting that it would be a bad idea to help Saddam use weapons of mass destruction, and a good idea to tell us where they are hidden.

I wonder who might have done a thing like that?

The word from the Baghdad blogger is that while access to the ISP is not so privileged as WaPo makes out - cash is the main requirement - the mail server is indeed off the air.

There you have it, folks. The first publicly visible shot in the cyberwar.
10:25:13 PM    

For those alarmed and offended by Admiral John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness project at DARPA.: Make sure the world knows all about the Admiral - plastic stickers with his address, phone number, house price and more! I personally think the controversy is a bit overblown considering the stage of development and likelihood of practicality, but this is very cute way of making the point that transparency cuts both ways. (Found via Instapundit.)
10:00:03 PM