Faster Clearwire a mixed blessing

Excerpts from the blog

Clearwire's upgrade of its network this year will be a mixed blessing for people using its current wireless broadband service.

The new "Clear" service coming to Seattle in the second half of the year will be faster, but it won't work with the current Clearwire modems, spokeswoman Susan Johnston confirmed.

There's no word yet on what Clearwire will give current customers.

Providing a free hardware upgrade would be a nice gesture. But with the Kirkland company trying to stretch its billions to build out its network, it may only offer discounts.

Johnston said via e-mail that Clearwire "will proactively work with its customers to smoothly transition them to these enhanced mobile WiMax services as they become available. Unfortunately, the current modems aren't compatible with mobile WiMax, but we will make the new service and devices as attractive as possible for our existing customers."

Details should come out closer to the Clear service launch.

Also unclear is how long the current service will operate. Johnston wouldn't say, but noted the company now has enough bandwidth for both. Yet, eventually, Clear will take the current service's bandwidth.

"We'll have a transition period," Johnston said. "In other words, our existing customer won't be forced to migrate and upgrade to WiMax."

Not for a while, at least.

A résumé reset

Seattle's Marchex is the latest target of Barry Minkow, a reformed stock scammer who now trolls corporate biographies, looking for false information to expose after he's shorted the stock.

This is according to the latest piece by Al Lewis, a Dow Jones columnist who raised Minkow's profile last month.

In a follow-up piece Wednesday, Lewis shares a new tip from Minkow: Marchex's official biography of Peter Christothoulou, co-founder and chief operating officer, said he received a bachelor's in economics from the University of Washington, but he never graduated.

From the column:

"Christothoulou responded to my questions in an e-mail and promised to fix his corporate bio.

" 'I attended the University of Washington from 1991 to 1995 with Economics as my declared major,' he wrote. 'Because of my father's battle with cancer and subsequent death, I was forced to take a leave ... and despite returning and doubling up on my classes, I ended up one quarter shy of the degree. ... I have always intended to complete the remaining classes, but with work and family obligations, I have not yet been able to do so.' "

Christothoulou's bio has indeed been edited — the UW reference in the last line, visible in a Google cache version, is now gone. He's not alone: All the education references for the executive team were gone Wednesday.

Christothoulou wouldn't discuss the situation when I called. He referred me to a spokeswoman, Leigh McMillan.

"We frankly think there's not that much to say," she said. "We're aware of the situation. We made the appropriate corrections to his bio and now we're getting back to business. He's a co-founder of the company and he has everyone here's full support."

G1 price drop

The Brighthand blog Wednesday called out the latest deal on the G1 — $97.99 for new T-Mobile customers buying through Amazon.com.

T-Mobile USA is still charging $179.99 if you buy direct.

Doesn't it seem like the G1 just launched?

Before you jump at the bargain, consider that the G2 is apparently just around the corner. In January Gizmodo published alleged images of the G2 — which is thinner and doesn't have a physical keyboard — and suggested that it's coming in May.

Finger on tech

This week's most amazing blog item — about a Finnish software developer who lost his finger in a motorcycle accident and replaced it with a prosthetic USB drive — just scratched the surface.

Jerry Jalava's sci-fi finger became a Web sensation after a friend of his blogged about the creation, noting that the drive was loaded with a version of Linux.

Jalava clarified the situation on his blog. For one thing, it's not permanent. For another, it's loaded with more than just the Billix version of Linux. He said:

"First of all it is not attached permanently in to my body; it is removable prosthetic, which has USB memorystick inside it.

"Secondly, when I'm using the USB, I just leave my finger inside the slot and pick it up after I'm ready.

"Currently, I have Billix, CouchDBX and Ajatus installed inside it. I'm planning to use the other prosthetic as a shell for the next version, which will have removable fingertip and RFID tag."

This material has been edited for print publication.

Brier Dudley's blog appears Thursdays. Reach him at 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.