On my second trip to Sundance Film Festival, I had a chance meeting with a gentleman on the icy streets. I recognized the actor immediately and quickly offered him one of my promotional t-shirts. He accepted, tucked the chotsky under his leather coat and then was ushered into a shiny black Cadillac Escalade, where I assume he wiped the snow from his boots with a t-shirt. A film crew was positioned across the street. Ha! I thought they were shooting a Cadillac commercial.

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The road between Jacksonville and Orlando was quite a drive. For the first 45 minutes, I took the A1 highway with the Atlantic Ocean on the left, until I hit St. Augustine and then veered off to the right, and hopped on I-95 headed for Orlando. It was pretty tempting to pull over and get another drink from the Fountain of Youth with Ponce and the boys in St. Augie, but I needed to get back to Orlando.

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Upcoming 802.11v Wireless Standard ‘Greens Up’ WLAN

Trapeze Networks Engineer Tells InterOp New York How

PLEASANTON, Calif., Sept. 19 /PRNewswire/ — The coming IEEE 802.11v standard will introduce new power savings features that will “green up” wireless LANs. This important advance will be explained at the InterOp New York conference by Matthew Gast, Trapeze Networks’ principal engineer, office of the CTO, and the chair of Wi-Fi Alliance Wireless Network Management and Security Technical task groups.

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Before I left the Five Points area of Jacksonville, I was drawn to the freshly painted window of a little coffee shop called L@titudes, with the “at” sign in the name. Hmmm … you think they will have wireless Internet? I’m thinking yes. But, their sign also said “coming soon.” So, I may never know, since I was “leaving now.” No rating.

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T-Mobile USA Announces Commercial 3G Network
Availability in 21 Markets By Mid-October

Company Confirms Launch of UMTS/HSDPA in Major Markets Across the Country and Details Plans for Additional Markets in the Fourth Quarter

BELLEVUE, Wash. – Sept. 18, 2008 – T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced highlights of the company’s wireless network expansion plans, including the deployment of its third-generation (3G) wireless broadband service to 27 major markets in the United States by the end of 2008. The planned expansion is expected to deliver T-Mobile 3G services to more than two-thirds of T-Mobile’s current data customers, with meaningful expansion to additional customers and markets through 2009.

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Then I got to the heart of things … Jacksonville proper. First off, I followed a tip from Ashley at the Old Bridge ice cream shop in Ponte Vedra Beach. She highly recommended the Five Points area, around the bend in the river from downtown Jacksonville. (Old Bridge – new management. No Wi-Fi samples, although I could log on to the Starbucks next door.) Good call on Five Points.

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The next day, I fired up the Wi-Fi Ford 250 Diesel, 4-wheel-drive, King Ranch edition and rolled toward Jacksonville for some urban trucking. But first, I ran across what must be the shopping mecca of north Florida, St. Johns Town Center. As I like to say, there was more Wi-Fi than you could shake a stick at among the best-know retail brands.

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“I ain’t no student of ancient culture …”

Mesopotamia

B-52s

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The first portion of my Jacksonsville tour was marked by a combination of incognito yet in-your-face commuter-ism.

The first time I traveled across the United States, I drove an SUV that was the subtle color of an orange safety-pylon – covered in sponsor logos. This trip, at least during the Jacksonville leg, I wanted something more incognito. Perfect – I drove a Ford F250 diesel, 4-wheel drive – the King Ranch edition, no less. Ha … “No one will notice me in this,” and how politically correct, especially with the Texas plates🙂 I loved it. Did you know if you drive a 4-wheel drive diesel, women wave at you? It was the darnedest thing. I digress …

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As I considered ideas for the testflight of PingWi-Fi, the news of American, Delta, Virgin and other airlines adding in-flight Wi-Fi put a formidable blip on my radar. However, when Travelocity pinged me with an e-mail touting a $150-roundtrip to Florida sunshiny goodness … well … “Please pass the tanning butter!”

Travelocity – despite their gnome – is awarded 6 pings for alerting me to the fact that travel is still affordable.

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