McCain flogs off technological history

LOSING CANDIDATE for US President, John McCain is offering you - yes, you! - the chance to finish your Christmas shopping with a tech bargain, courtesy of his failed political campaign.

McCain's campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia is flogging off the leftover kit that it bought with the millions of dollars in taxpayers dosh that funded his bid for the Presidency. We can't help but wonder if the cash should go back to the taxpayers, rather than to the McCain camp, but will leave others better versed in the intricacies of American campaign finance to debate that one.

Regardless, an email sent out by McCain operative Andrew Freeman to campaign staff and volunteers pitched the clearance sale as the chance to "Own a piece of history".

Blackberries, desktops and laptops are all on the chopping block, and the campaign will even accept credit cards.

Want a Blackberry 8700? 30 bucks will do the trick. A 4-gang power strip? That can be yours for just a dollar. A dollar will also get you a pound-weight of ethernet cables, should you so require.

Unfortunately, not everything on offer is a bargain. At $570, there are better machines available new than a second-hand Dell Latitude D820, unless you can pick one up with some campaign data left intact, in which case we suspect it would be worth a pretty penny.

The irony, of course, is that John McCain himself is a famed luddite, once telling reporters that he was internet "illiterate". Although McCain freely admitted that he had "Never felt the particular need to email", it seems that hawking email devices to staffers is now a crucial part of his campaign debt retirement strategy. Or just retirement strategy

Meraki debuts Solar Wi-Fi

WIRELESS NETWORKING solution vendor Meraki has created a solar-powered Wi-Fi kit that will allow companies to build entirely meshed, self-sufficient Wi-Fi networks.

Duly named Meraki Solar, the solar panel plus Wi-Fi node is supposed to make setting up wireless networks doubly wireless, by snipping the power cable too. That will also cut down the cost of running power cables all over the place to plug in your wireless access-point / repeater.

The device itself is intended to be used as a meshed network device and will allow businesses to setup full wireless coverage in hard-to-get places by sticking the antenna and panel module on the end of a pole or on the roof of a building. Once installed, you can remote control the entire operation through Meraki Dashboard, says the company, so you needn't climb on roofs or up lighting poles to configure the kit.

This is not, however, a product for developing countries, although clearly they have more sunlight hours than your average skyscraper in London or New York: the package costs from $848 - without solar panel - to $1497.

If you're in a sunny place you can get away with Meraki's 20W panel, while most of the US and Europe will require the 40W panel to operate. In the UK you'll require your own high-grade solar panel, as it needs to be at least a 60W panel. Most of Great Britain has this limited coverage, but Meraki will have to create a whiskey-powered unit for Scotland.

Let's put it this way. Wi-Fi is a fickle beast as it is, but now it'll stop running altogether if the sun don't shine. Marvelous.