Interesting Facts

According to research carried out by the Ultra Parallel Visible Light Communications project, a joint venture between the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Strathclyde, and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council wireless transmission reaching speeds of 10Gbit/s – more than 250 times faster than ‘superfast’ broadband is possible using converted LED lightbulbs. (The technology, cleverly called Li-Fi by Edinburgh University's Prof Harald Haas, would enable existing LED light bulbs to be converted to transmit Li-Fi signals with a single microchip.  The bulbs would have to be kept on to transmit data, but they could be dimmed to the point that they were not visible to humans, and would be more secure than Wi-Fi, as hackers would be unable to access unsecured internet connections from out of sight of the transmitter.) Source    

Wi-fi has been launched on the London Underground for the first time. (Wi-fi is now available at King's Cross and Warren Street stations. The service, provided by Virgin Media, will be free during London 2012, and then free to Virgin Media customers. The following 80 stations should have wi-fi installation by July 2012, just in time for the Olympics:- Aldgate East, Angel, Archway, Arsenal, Barbican, Bayswater, Bermondsey, Bethnal Green, Blackhorse Road, Borough, Brixton, Caledonian Road, Camden Town, Canada Water, Canary Wharf, Canning Town, Chancery Lane, Charing Cross, Clapham North, Covent Garden, Edgware Road (Circle), Elephant & Castle, Embankment, Euston, Euston Square, Finsbury Park, Goodge Street, Green Park, Hammersmith (District/Piccadilly), Heathrow T1-T3, Heathrow T4, High Street Kensington, Highbury & Islington, Holborn, Holland Park, Hyde Park Corner, Kentish Town, Kings Cross/St Pancras, Lambeth North, Lancaster Gate, Leicester Square, Liverpool Str...

In the UK you can be arrested for using someone's wi-fi network without permission. (The Communications Act 2003 says a "person who (a) dishonestly obtains an electronic communications service, and (b) does so with intent to avoid payment of a charge applicable to the provision of that service, is guilty of an offence". This practice is known as piggybacking or mooching. Mind you if you can even find a wifi signal in the UK you're doing ok.)

On 2.5cm2 of your office desk there are 20,961 germs compared with 49 on the same area of a typical toilet seat. (The joy of WiFi is that I can ask you whether you are sitting at your desk now, or if are you surfing on the loo?)