I soon learned that the gray box is one of 3,000 transceivers that Metricom, a company based in San Jose, Calif., had recently installed on streetlights and utility poles across New York City.

• 我很快就知道，那灰色盒子是由都会传讯公司（总部在加州圣荷西市，已在2000年7月请求破产清算）装设的无线电收发器。