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I use an AirPort. by Lazaru5 · 2000-09-18 23:42 · Score: 2 · on Apple Airport Vs. Orinoco RG-1000?

1.How does the coverage of the two compare? Are the wireless transmitters essentially the same? (Both seem to use Orinoco Silver cards, though the RG-1000's card isn't removable.)

Yes, they are essentially the same. As you alluded to, you can replace the Silver card in the AirPort with a Gold for 128bit encryption. (As a hack previously mentioned on Slashdot, not supported by Apple.) With Line-of-Sight I get probably close to the 300 feet mark. I got much less when cutting a corner down the hall in my apartment building, but you're talking 10 walls and 5 apartment's worth of radio interference. I walked around the parking lot with no problems.

2.I've seen the stories about extending coverage by hooking an external antenna to the Apple Airports. Can an external antenna be attached to the RG-1000? If so, with or without hacking?

The AirPort antenna hack used an Orinoco antenna, so I sould assume the antenna's intended use is for with other Orinoco products. Check to be sure.

3.The Orinoco FAQ says that about 30 clients can be supported by a single RG-1000. Apple's specs suggests 10 clients max. Has anyone used more then 10 clients with an Apple Airport and if so how well did it work?

Who knows if this is a licensing thing or what. I would assume you can support whatever 802.11b under these cards support, but if it's limited by the software then I can't say. I only have one wireless device myself. If it's a problem, buy three AirPorts. :) You'd pay the same price and could extend the coverage using what Apple calls Roaming (each base station must be wired to the ethernet though.)

4.Both products can do NAT. Can you configure filters or open up ports with the utilities provided with either?

The AirPort does provide port mapping (redirecting ports on the external public IP to internal machines) but does not do packet filtering. It does have access control but this is for controlling which wireless devices may use the network (Using MAC addresses.) You should be doing packet filtering on your router (You run OpenBSD right? :) anyway.

Now for my own notes. I got an AirPort because my wife got an iBook for college (Those biologists tend to use Macs so she wanted to be compatible.) It's easier to get our LAN into her office using wireless than it is for me to string CAT5 up all over (It's an apartment so I can't go through the walls.) I also intend to get my own laptop soon and working (I work at home) from the balcony just sounds sweet.

At the time, the only way to configure the AirPort base station was to use Apple's configurator. At the heart of it though, it's just an SNMP device, and so of course someone has written a Java configurator that'll let you config it from anywhere. It works wonderfully. Grab it here. (It's also in the FreeBSD Ports collection if you happen to run that. :) One thing that I'm not sure of is if you can configure the AirPort from scratch using this. A quick note to the author could determine that.

I couldn't be happier with the thing, especially considering that it's some $500 cheaper than everything else out there. You can't beat that. V.90 modem and Ethernet. NAT or Bridge. It'll even do NAT for your ethernet if you connnect using it's modem. It's damned cute too. I think the only problem I have with it is lack of diagnostics when connecting using the modem.

No Mac required by geoGIF · 2000-09-11 22:02 · Score: 2 · on Alternative Wireless Networks

I've been using my Airport with Linux for several months now. It works great. It is useful to have a Mac to initially configure the Airport base station, but not necessary. I borrowed a Mac laptop from work to set mine up the first time. Several weeks ago I was messing with my configuration and got everything munged up; not feeling like driving to the office to borrow the laptop again, I found a Java Airport configurator. Works perfectly from both Win32 and Linux: no Mac required.

Re:similar experience by schnurble · 2000-08-26 18:38 · Score: 2 · on Coding Classes & Required Development Environments?

Unfortunately, at Drexel University, they crammed CodeWarrior down our throats. In our first C++ class, if we didnt turn in CodeWarrior project files, we would lose 50 points (give or take, it's been a while). And the reason? "It makes it easier for the TA's." Give me a break. I had three programming classes, a physics class, calculus class, and history class that term. I didn't even have a machine that would RUN CodeWarrior for Windows, or Mac for that matter. I used pico/jed/vi and g++ on my dinky 486 linux box. And my code was cleaner, faster, and tighter than any other students' code. I eventually had to go to the professor and DEMAND he regrade my projects, because I was getting shafted out of my points just because I didn't use CW. Of course, he preferred solaris to windows, so that helped.

The moral of the story? Sometimes, even begging wont get the TA's to let you use what you want. You may get stuck with the shitty tools.

Archimedes's Cattle Puzzle by Karmageddon · 2000-07-11 18:51 · Score: 2 · on Archimedes' Lost Words Yield To RIT Scientists

I followed the link from the news page to a site about Archimedes and they had this pretty cool Cattle Puzzle that Archimedes created.

Re:That's not an Archimedes original. by Yaruar · 2000-07-11 18:48 · Score: 3 · on Archimedes' Lost Words Yield To RIT Scientists

William of Moerbeke (1215-1286) was archbishop of Corinth and a classical scholar whose Latin translations of Greek works played an important role in the transmission of Greek knowledge to medieval Europe. He had two Greek manuscripts of the works of Archimedes and he made his Latin translations from these manuscripts. The first of the two Greek manuscripts has not been seen since 1311 when presumably it was destroyed. The second manuscript survived longer and was certainly around until the 16th century after which it too vanished. In the years between the time When William of Moerbeke made his Latin translation and its disappearance this second manuscript was copied several times and some of these copies survive. Up until 1899 Heiberg had found no sources of Archimedes' works which were not based on the Latin translations by William of Moerbeke or on the copies of the second Greek manuscript which he used in his translation.

Source for text

Other links of interest.....

Where link was located

More info

My point was that other sources exist, I know the arabic scholars created a vast wealth of knowledge, but translations from the greek were made at much later dates than that which we base our work on.

HTH

Wine Logo? by wunderhorn1 · 2000-05-28 22:32 · Score: 2 · on Wine Works Towards 1.0

The WINE logo on Slashdot is looking kinda ugly. Couldn't someone please smooth out those jagged edges?

Hemos, Malda, whoever: Use this: topicwine.gif or even better, this: topicwine.jpg
Using a gif is just inexcusable here. The jpeg format compressed it much better, and have we forgotten about the UNISYS GIF patent issue so quickly?

OT RANT: It seems as if /. talks big about how they are going to boycott this, that, or the other, but then a couple weeks later we see movie reviews and gifs being used where they don't even belong. Come on! If we're going to seriously take on companies' bullying over IP issues, we need to have a unified front!
/OT RANT
KARMA--;

And really, who is responsible for that color scheme?

All else aside, I think WINE could be THE Killer App for Linux, as far as getting it established on the desktop of the average user is concerned.

Cheers,
Tim

Wine Logo? by wunderhorn1 · 2000-05-28 22:32 · Score: 2 · on Wine Works Towards 1.0

The WINE logo on Slashdot is looking kinda ugly. Couldn't someone please smooth out those jagged edges?

Hemos, Malda, whoever: Use this: topicwine.gif or even better, this: topicwine.jpg
Using a gif is just inexcusable here. The jpeg format compressed it much better, and have we forgotten about the UNISYS GIF patent issue so quickly?

OT RANT: It seems as if /. talks big about how they are going to boycott this, that, or the other, but then a couple weeks later we see movie reviews and gifs being used where they don't even belong. Come on! If we're going to seriously take on companies' bullying over IP issues, we need to have a unified front!
/OT RANT
KARMA--;

And really, who is responsible for that color scheme?

All else aside, I think WINE could be THE Killer App for Linux, as far as getting it established on the desktop of the average user is concerned.

Cheers,
Tim

Finally... a story where this is *not* offtopic... by Anonymous Coward · 2000-05-19 20:38 · Score: 5 · on Oxford Yanks Student Page Over Spoof DeCSS

and I'm asleep at the keyboard. Doh!

Oh well... here it is.
Add your own, and spread this far and wide:

This announcement brought to you by the DeCSS Polar Bear.

SDSS by MustardMan · 2000-04-17 20:46 · Score: 1 · on Democratizing Space

I had the rare opportunity to study under one of the people involved with this project. Dr. Michael Vogeley, at Drexel University, actually presented a colloquium to us on this very subject. The methods they are using to detect and study some of these objects are actually quite ingenius, using plates with holes packed with optic fiber directing light from specific areas of the sky into the CCD's so that more light can be gathered on that one area and more distant objects studied. Not to mention, their lofty goal of mapping the largest chunk of the local universe ever mapped will be coming in a WELL below what most research projects are costing these days. This was easily the most fascinating colloquim I have ever attended at Drexel. If anyone here ever has a chance to attend a seminar or lecture (or better yet, a class) by Dr. Vogeley, I strongly suggest doing so.

Tell a man that there are 400 Billion stars and he'll believe you

Time for Slashdot to take a stand... by Anonymous Coward · 2000-04-05 03:12 · Score: 4 · on MPAA Files Another Injunction Against 2600

The following is a list of all the mirrors from the 2600 site.

What can we do? by Colbey · 2000-01-31 01:38 · Score: 1 · on Interview: Jon Johansen of deCSS Fame (UPDATED)

What can the concerned open-source community do in the fights against the DVD CCA, the MPAA, and the RIAA? A lot of people are posting their copies of the DeCSS source, but is that enough? Any other suggestions?

--Josh Rosenberg (Colbey)

Re:One for all those grrls out there... by cheese63 · 2000-01-03 23:45 · Score: 1 · on Special Interview: Rob Malda and Jeff Bates

haha. i'll contribute as a "man of /.":

Mr. October

Drexel has a BS and MS in IT, WTF? by Anonymous Coward · 1999-10-09 22:59 · Score: 0 · on High Intensity Computer Colleges?

I am currently majoring in Information Technology at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. They have an entire college here devoted to "Information Science and Technology". Drexel offers BS and MS degrees in Information Technology. check it out http://www.cis.drexel.edu/ And I know there are plenty more universities out there that also offer these degrees. I don't think you did your homework very well...

Go to Drexel University by Anonymous Coward · 1999-10-09 22:49 · Score: 0 · on High Intensity Computer Colleges?

Drexel has a great Computer Science and Information Systems Technology curricula. US News and World Report has rated Drexel the number one school in the country for Information Systems Technology. In addition, Drexel has a great co-op program which gives a large amount of hands on, real world experience in the CS and IT areas. By the time you graduate you will have more knowledge and experience than other collge graduates in CS and IT. I should know, I work with 2 CMU guys that make less than me! check it out at http://www.drexel.edu

On the Economics of Software Development by LL · 1999-09-27 00:37 · Score: 3 · on Ask Eric S. Raymond Anything

In your paper The Magic Cauldron you talk about the sale value (final cost to consumer) and use value (what economics would consider a capital good). Modern capitalist societies have evolved very complex and sophisticated instruments (a la the profit motive) to price these goods and signal to the market what is valued. With OpenSource, this pricing information is missing and thus time/effort is spent on "sexy" projects like 3D interfaces (what economists call malinvestments) instead of really important stuff like good optimising compilers.

Question 1) Pricing of OpenSource Software How can OpenSource software be fairly priced given that it is always possible to undercut a distributor?

Question 2) Distribution of Resources Instead of vertically integrating all the profits at the sale end (distributions like Red Hat), how can the creators of the intermediate goods get enough funding to continue refining their products?

Question 3) Scaling to Megaprojects Given the limitations of no capital pool of funding so that intermediate software can maintained, will OpenSource projects be limited to "small" projects that can be supported by 1-6 key designers and wouldn't this be an inherent constraint?

Question 4) Bazaar Rules of Conduct At the moment, the Software Bazaar is controlled by gentleman rules of conduct (no encroaching on projects, equal sharing, etc). Do you see this continuing with the increasing commercialisation (and potential moral corruption) of the hacker's "gift culture"?

Question 5) Software Patent Roadblocks In a situation where time-to-market is becoming a key factor in dominating the bulk of the profits (see some notes on game theory of software patents), how can OpenSource work around limitations of key locks on irreplaceable algorithms?

Question 6) Freedom to Copy. While big companies like SGI have the resources and name-brand equity to release and protect their OpenSource efforts, how will smaller entry level players survive long enough without their ideas being poached by bigger companies?

LL

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