Ever since Guglielmo Marconi found a way to send a message across the English Channel without getting so much as a toe wet, making the world more wireless has been the goal of inventors, enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs. However, despite the advances in wireless telecommunications over the last 100 years, getting computers to communicate easily with each other wirelessly has remained a somewhat elusive goal. Security concerns, high prices, and conflicting technologies created a small population of wireless devotees eager to put their techie skills to the test, hut left most people still tethered to their desks. Heady for a revolution worthy of Marconi? Although it's laken its sweet time in getting here, wireless computing is set for a boom. Refined security measures have strengthened the weak links in the chain, and price tags couldn't look more attractive. Added to those powerful incentives for going wireless, there are initiatives afoot to boost the number of hotspots-places like coffee shops and campuses that offer wireless to its denizens and students.
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