Researcher dissmiss Bee story

Now nobody really cares that RF may affect the bees as long as it open source, eh? Well the scientist finally responded to the article. "It's not my fault if people misinterpret our data," said Kimmel. "Ever since The Independent wrote their article, for which they never called or wrote to us, none of us have been able to do any of our work because all our time has been spent in phone calls and e-mails trying to set things straight. This is a horror story for every researcher to have your study reduced to this. Now we are trying to force things back to normal."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/22/news/wireless23.php

It turns out that the Independent misrepresented the results of the study that these folks made. It turns out that these guys were talking about a DECT base station put inside or attached outside of the hive. Those have different protocols and use different frequencies.

So continue using wi-fi, Locustworld and Trixbox, everything is AOK

Don

Bees impacted by Wireless

Ok so I had to wait for a few days before the media came up with a good article regarding Bees and Cell phone or mobile technology. The National Post indicated that a small study using high frequency radiation from a mobile phone has disrupted a hive. Please see http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/news/gizmos/story.html?id=0285cf81-46d2-4636-aea7-dc02157a1d77&k=86662

The Canada.com article says "The small study, led by Prof. Jochen Kuhn of Landau University, suggests that radiation from widely used cellphones may mess up the bees’ homing abilities by interfering with the neurological mechanisms that govern learning and memory. It also appears to disrupt the insects’ ability to communicate with each other. To conduct the study, Kuhn placed cellphone handsets near hives and observed that radiation in the frequency range of 900 to 1800 megahertz caused the bees to avoid their homes. "

If any Ontario Bee producer would like to use a wireless Mesh at the 2.4 Ghz range to test if the wireless mesh disrupts the hive I would provide the equipment. Since I don't have ample supply I will limited to only a hand full request.

Contact Don at 647-476-2231 ext 2000 or email me at don@moskaluk.com I would like to observe if Wi-Fi signals disrupts the hive.

Really this is my very last bee blog

Ok so I over reacted regarding the Bee and cell phone stories. Today on CTV they did have a report that Ontario Bees are declining but they did not mention anything about cell phones. They did report that that bee keepers are looking for government help on the honey production decrease and that they are working with University of Guelph to determine the problem. Yeah for less speculation. I see that CBC also reported the bee story. In Manitoba they aren't have a bee and cellphone problem, I guess there aren't any cell phones in Manitoba (yeah right) please see http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/04/18/bee-colony.html

But I've notice that in the UK some one reacted to the story and said it wasn't the cell phone but the wireless broadband. If you hear about bees and wireless mesh please call at 647-476-2231 ext 2005 or email mail don@moskaluk.com I would really like to hear about wireless mesh and bees.

Bees and Mobiles

Yet again the story of Bees and Mobiles ie cell phones is growing strong. Here is a new article indicating that mites are killing off the bees. Go figure, scientific evidence and the story still reads cell phones. http://www.thisishertfordshire.co.uk/news/stalbans/display.var.1335041.0.mobiles_not_affecting_bees.php

Bees and Cell phones again

Once I read this article a few days ago I knew it would pick up momentum. Check out the top story from CTV http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070416/bees_cellphones_070416/20070416?hub=TopStories

It starts by saying it is a theory. You know I've observe a Bee once came by my wi-fi antenna and crawl on the antenna while it was on. Maybe I should come out with a theory that Wi-Fi mesh attracks bees from the hive and cell phones repel them. Sorry about the nonsense. I just hope some scientist can go and determine with all different frequencies of cell phones from different parts of the world with different bee species can show a general correlation with bees leaving the hive. Better yet can you imagine killer bees attacking a person, all they would have to do is pull out their cell phone and call the media.

PDA soft phone for Trixbox aka Asterisk

Check this link out for wi-fi telephones and PDA soft phone http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-VOIP+Phones

I use voip-info a main source of information mostly VOIP. What I like about this website is that it is not just asterisk but mostly all voip. It is a excellent repository of information.

A lack of knowledge creates speculation

I have been always concern about 802.11b radiation and how it will affect us in the short and long haul. My concerns are related to the amount of knowledge that is available for Wi-Fi signals. Through the years I heard a lot of speculations on the effects of Wi-Fi with no physical results from any creditable experiments. People theories always revolve around fear and what sells in newspapers are the headlines that go with that fear. I read today an article http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece that was feature in Slashdot regarding cell phones and the affect on bee population. Now I’m not one to dismiss anyone observation but to indicated that cell phone disrupt the bee population is a concern. First the article is not creditable for various reasons. They are based on speculation and not on scientific fact. I guess the article in few months will be rewritten to also include Wi-Fi.

Private VPN works with Locustworld Wireless Mesh

Almost every time I talk to someone about wireless they always ask me about security. I believe it is the number one question i.e. that is it secure, then I get does it work, and then is faster than DSL. It is strange that people do not ask the DSL provider the same question. Is it secure? In most case when people connect up to the wireless mesh the do it by an unsecured encryption such that they do not use VPN. One of the features of Locustworld is to be able to connect using VPN for additional security. Adding VoIP this adds to the security of the call. But wait if you VPN to a MeshAP can you VPN to your work or another secured system? Well this morning I was able to VPN to my work through Locustworld. I have read many times that this was not possible. Well if you use proprietary VPN like Cisco it will work through Locustworld. I’ve tested and it work well. When security is paramount Locustworld surprising has delivered. This is great news.

To SIP or to IAX that is the question

Using Trixbox aka Asterisk with in the Locustworld’s wireless mesh has some great features. Using SIP has with in the Mesh works as well as Asterisk IAX. Asterisk IAX has the ability to transverse through NAT firewall and a single port. I currently am using IAX because of the availability in and out side the of the mesh cloud. Ok I better explain myself. I use softphones on my wireless mesh. I connect the softphone to an open source pbx (asterisk). Using softphone that is installed on my pc and laptops I am able to make VoIP telephone calls to POTs and with in my wireless mesh internet service. SIP and IAX are used as protocols that are used to connect the softphone to pbx. SIP is very popular and also has some amazing features like video. IAX is only popular with the Asterisk community but has larger benefits for using IAX beyond the LAN or Wireless LAN.

Currently there is no difference in quality with SIP and IAX the difference is the ability for IAX to transverse routers better than SIP. SIP has a large community of user and developers and provides a better softphone in terms of operations and features aka video. The comparison between SIP and IAX can go on and on. Currently I am using eyebeam for SIP and iaxlite for IAX. I like the simplicity of iaxlite. It does what it supposed to do with out all the bells and whistles. However I do like using Counterpaths’ Eyebeam product. Two products that do similar function but differently. Is the question which product is better or which protocol is better? Both products do the job for me. I would like IAX product to also work with eyebeam but it does not. Wireless Mesh has built in SIP features and does not support IAX native. That is to say it doesn’t have any IAX features but IAX does work with wireless mesh.

The Answer: SIP and IAX for now