From the Notacon site:

In order to simplify things for everyone, we have 2 basic registration levels, one with swag, the other with just the badge. With either registration, you can opt to pre-order a Notacon t-shirt via a drop-down option on the registration page.

The swag bag in the premier registration package not only will give you tons of goodies, but will also include a couple of meal vouchers that are good at the hotel to make sure you get at least some good meals over the course of the weekend. We will continue, of course, to have our con suite with complimentary sodas and snacks, but if you want something more substantial, think about the premier package!

$100 for the premium package. Not bad at all. There will be 600 tickets made available for the ‘09 show in Cleveland.

Article Link

Akron is pretty ecstatic about the new Knight center, which will be built in its midst, as not only will the city become a center of thought about linking up communities, but a wireless project of its own will now be completed more rapidly. The Knight Foundation is putting in $625,000 towards the $2.2m project to unwire 10 sq mi. Other funds are coming from the city and the University of Akron. Akron's local paper, the Beacon Journal, was the first newspaper owned by the Knight family. [link via Daniel McKimm]

Parks across the U.S.--about 194 of 3,208--have Wi-Fi, but why? This USA Today article enumerates what parks in which states offer Internet access, but are hard-pressed to explain why it's useful. I do like the idea myself of having a lifeline back to people and information even when I'm away from it all, but it's hardly a necessity.

USA Today also runs down some transportation-Fi: The newspaper runs through a list of where Wi-Fi is available on various means of transit.

One of the knocks against outsourcing applications and storage has always been control or rather the lack of it.  Whether I am referring back to my Interliant days where we stored customers Lotus Notes and PeopleSoft financials data or Qualys storing their customers vulnerability data or as Douglas Schweitzer  over at ComputerWorld points out, Google's plan to pilot a program with the world renowned Cleveland Clinic to store patients medical records on line, the idea of confidential, sensitive data being out of your direct and sole control scares many people. Never mind that the data may be more secure with the controls these SaaS providers put in place to than it would be in your own location.  There is just something about the concept that deep down instinctually turns people off.

To be fair, the SaaS industry has done many things to overcome this bias.  3rd party audits of security procedures have helped.  Also having the data encrypted with only you holding the key helps get many people comfortable.  In fact over the last few years, I think on the whole we are seeing more and more IT and risk management departments getting comfortable with outsourcing their applications and the storage of this sensitive data. There are still some last bastions of holdouts, such as the US government with vulnerability data.  But as I say, by and large it is much more acceptable.  However, every time we take this paradigm to another market, such as confidential medical data the whispers and old doubts surface again.  I think if we are truly going to see the Google Apps or Microsoft Live office stuff really take off, people are going to have to get over this phobia.  Whether they do or not will go a long way towards determining if this is just a passing fad or the longterm future of the software industry.

One of the knocks against outsourcing applications and storage has always been control or rather the lack of it.  Whether I am referring back to my Interliant days where we stored customers Lotus Notes and PeopleSoft financials data or Qualys storing their customers vulnerability data or as Douglas Schweitzer  over at ComputerWorld points out, Google's plan to pilot a program with the world renowned Cleveland Clinic to store patients medical records on line, the idea of confidential, sensitive data being out of your direct and sole control scares many people. Never mind that the data may be more secure with the controls these SaaS providers put in place to than it would be in your own location.  There is just something about the concept that deep down instinctually turns people off.

To be fair, the SaaS industry has done many things to overcome this bias.  3rd party audits of security procedures have helped.  Also having the data encrypted with only you holding the key helps get many people comfortable.  In fact over the last few years, I think on the whole we are seeing more and more IT and risk management departments getting comfortable with outsourcing their applications and the storage of this sensitive data. There are still some last bastions of holdouts, such as the US government with vulnerability data.  But as I say, by and large it is much more acceptable.  However, every time we take this paradigm to another market, such as confidential medical data the whispers and old doubts surface again.  I think if we are truly going to see the Google Apps or Microsoft Live office stuff really take off, people are going to have to get over this phobia.  Whether they do or not will go a long way towards determining if this is just a passing fad or the longterm future of the software industry.