Ricochet Bounces Back, Cautiously

SimHacker writes: "An article in salon.com reports that the Ricochet wireless network will be bouncing back from the dead! Aerie Networks, who purchased Metricom's Ricochet network for $8.25 million, is going to offer the service in markets where it was popular, like Southern California and the Bay Area. They're also planning to lower the price of the modem from $300 to $100, and lower the monthly flat rate fee from $80 to $50. Ricochet is hardly the perfect wireless network, but it's much faster and more reliable than CDPD, so I'm really looking forward to signing back up."

Comments

first toast!

[real_b0fh]

pr0st!

almost a hat

[SweetAndSourJesus]

congrats, real_bofh

Re:almost a hat

[real_b0fh]

sorry 'bout that. life sucks, you know.

redundantly reduntant

[Anonymous Coward]

this story is repeatedly being reposted over and over and over again...

Troll! Troll!!!

[Serial Troller]

• 2002. Slashdot publishes 1,000,000th rumor passed off as actual story. The story generates 480 comments, 263 of which agree with the article, and 107 of which point out it's a rumor and are modded down as redundant. The remaining comments are all "first posts."
• 2002. CmdrTaco married.
• 2002. Slashdot parent corporation VA Research^W Linux^W Software stock worth 35 cents. Rumors that AOL, Microsoft, or even Jimmy the hobo who lives under the Longfellow Bridge may buy it.
• 2003. VA Software bought by Microsoft for a cup of coffee and a donut. All Microsoft-critical articles mysteriously disappear from Slashdot. Bill Gates as Borg logo replaced with Bill Gates as God.
• 2004. CmdrTaco loses virginity.
• 2004. The WIPO Troll returns again, showering Slashdot in 45,000 copies of the same post: "Lick my crotch hairs." Slashdot, despite running on 18 redundant IIS/8.0 servers, buckles under the load. The term "Slashdotted" is replaced with "WIPO-Trolled."
• 2004. Slashdot officially shut down. Millions of screaming, unwashed geeks invade Redmond campus and lynch Bill Gates.
• 2005. Linus Torvalds and Anal Cox found dead along with six penguins, a tub of crisco and several used condoms.
• 2005. CmdrTaco rumored to have had sex again.
• 2006. CowboiKneel found dead in hotel room with 56 pizza boxes covering his bloated corpse. Three suffocated gay prostitutes are extracted from beneath his body as police remove it with a backhoe.
• 2007. CmdrTaco actually has sex again.
• 2007. BSD is still officially "dying." No word on when its demise will take place.
• 2007. CmdrTaco starts new weblog to replace Slashdot, creatively named Dotslash. Remainder of Linux users flock to the site and immediate WIPO-Troll it out of existence.
• 2008. CmdrTaco has sex with his wife for the first time.

I totally thought

[Fillup]

My ricochet modem was worthless!!

I live in LA and I have got to say, I really liked the service for the 3 months I had it. This is great stuff -- i remember updating my website from my car when I was early to a meeting.

Yeeha!

Re:I totally thought

[Maserati]

Updating a website will soon again be the top excuse for LA drivers.

If someone says the obvious line

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll come to your house and shoot you Kennedy style

Re:If someone says the obvious line

[elmegil]

Bing bing BING.

Re:If someone says the obvious line

[Anonymous Coward]

This comment has been removed, since it was clearly in violation of Title 5473654, Slashdot.ORG Code, Section 3756773367826526 (Threats Against Fillup) and / or Section 54826547765427783545937463. You can Read More Here. We're sorry to have to do this, and while you could not necessarily agree with this, it is still the Slashdot.ORG law. When Fillup gets involved, we don't have many options. We appreciate your understanding in the matter. Please call 736474666623736854277671283278-1459878954764383875 891-69133337837865781495871 if you have any questions.

THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN REMOVED

[Anonymous Coward]

This comment has been removed since it was clearly in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 871 (Threats Against The President) and / or Section 875 (Interstate Communications: Extortions / Threats). You can Read More Here. We're sorry to have to do this, and while we don't necessarily agree with this, it is still the law. When the Secret Service gets involved, we don't have many options. We appreciate your understanding in the matter. Please call (202) 406-5000 if you have any questions.

Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[Rob.Mathers]

From the article: "Aerie will market the service more to homes and businesses looking for an alternative to the high-speed Internet access available through cable modems and digital subscriber lines" I don't see how they plan to compete with wired broadband in areas like Southern CA and the Bay area, which, AFAIK, are quite wired already. If I remember the Ricochet specs, the modems top out at 128kb/s (actual speeds were significantly less). How do they plan to convert people who are paying the same, or only $5 or $10 more for a much faster connection?

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

"actual speeds were significantly less"
I remember getting 128k reliably and sometimes getting as much as 256k. When they said 128k, they meant it.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[PhuCknuT]

It definitly doesn't top out at 128, I used to pull more than 200kbps through it. When it was connected, it was more like 128 was the minimum, and it would start to drop the connection at lower speeds. I'm not sure what the actual max speed is, but from personal experience, it's at least 256kbps.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[jeremiahstanley]

They are profitable b/c they work with the local gov't and give them free service for right of way on towers. The police dept in my burg is doing this with Aerie right now (my pop works there) and then with those they plan to offer service to people with laptops that would like to be able to surf the web any damn where they please. I'd pay for it, there is in fact one of their boxes 20 ft from my apartment.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[Archfeld]

Not around here in the SF Bay Area they did not.
I had one thru the City of Martinez for quite some time. Performance was poor, support and service worse. They went under and tried to reclaim their receivers from the city buildings while defaulting on the contracts for all the users. Needless to say their repair truck was ticketed and towed and for some reason the keys to the roof went missing every time the A-holes tried to show up.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[DeadPrez]

I don't see how they plan to compete with wired broadband in areas like Southern CA...which, AFAIK, are quite wired already.

You wouldn't say that if you were like many of us and went through the covand and rythmes madness...and haven't been able to get dsl since.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[Xerithane]

When they turn it back on, go down to Sunnyvale.

Expect 25KBs+ downloads while in downtown.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[glebfrank]

Actually, yes they did. At least, I was quite happy with the speed and service I got here in Palo Alto.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[sfm]

The major benefit I see in Ricochet is its ability to serve a MOBILE customer. Most wireless broadband is fixed, installed at one location and never moved. Ricochet allows you to use it at home, at work, at a friends house, in the park, or while driving up 101 (assuming someone else is watching the road :-)

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[theladyboo]

I used it in Cupertino, Sunnyvale, San Ramon and Pleasanton and LOVED it! Now we live in Wisconsin but if I lived in the Bay Area again, I'd use Ricochet. My Ricochet connection was ALWAYS up. Can't say that for my cable connection.

Ricochet was never really for the desktop. I went out by the pool and worked while my kids went swimming. I worked while at the hospital and chatted with my friends while I was waiting for my prescription. There's nothing wrong with Ricochet. Maybe it's the area you live in.

boo
http://www.geekmom.net
http://www.onlymaci ntosh.com

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[Maserati]

Martinez is out where Jesus lost his shoes, of course the reception is substandard. At least the city IT department knows how to handle a recalcitrant vendor, did anyone get LARTed ?

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see how they plan to compete with wired broadband in areas like Southern CA and the Bay area, which, AFAIK, are quite wired already.

One thing they should (but probably won't) do, is allow multiple access points for the flat fee. Cablemodems are great, but setting up a gateway router and wiring the house with ethernet is a pain.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[|_uke]

Simple.. a lot of areas still dont have broadband.

Where I live, there are ZERO options outside of dialup. I live in Laguna Niguel... a fairly nice area of orange county.

However I guess due to the area (we are in a foothill type area.. lots of hills... my apt is on the side of a hill... the street goes through a vally... etc etc) we are very limited to well.. everything. Our cable company figures it is cheapest to provide cable to us via shared satalite dish. (So for the entire 20 unit building... we have a single dish)...

so cable is obviously out of the question.

We are too far from our phone provider (pacbell) to make use of anything worth while... too far for dsl.. and I still refuse to pay for ISDN... (its not much of an improvement anyways)

So what options are left?

There is satalite... its actually decently cheep but the cost to entry is too high... Not to mention I am in a hotel like apt building ... which makes it a bit hard to set something like that up.

So while there is that... I dont think I want to go through the trouble actually getting it setup just to have a really poor latency. (sucks for games *grin*)

So... whats left... something like wireless broadband would be great (prob microwave) but due to the area... nobody seems to be able to provide it... most likely due to all the hills in the way.. (No line of sight)

So ricochet was REALLY cool... sure a bit pricy but it was worth it....

I was getting downloads of around 27-35KB/s so...

still that beans the crap out of dialup :)

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[KernelHappy]

Too bad it doesn't work well on CalTrain in the bay area. It would have totally been worth it if I could have checked my email on the way to work with it. But instead I had to pray there was a seat available in the middle of the upper level, east facing side of the train car, and even then I spent more time waiting for things to connect than I did actually reading email.

And as far as using it at home, it didn't work there either, that would have been when the power went out.

Overall I'd give Ricochet a C- when it was up.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[Asphalt]

>I remember the Ricochet specs, the modems top
>out at 128kb/s (actual speeds were significantly
>less).

Au contrare. I was a die-hard Los Angeles Ricochet user before they shut it down.

I never saw speeds as low as 128Kbps. With my Aircard 400, I had consistent speeds of 200-300Kbps, with bursts on long downloads to around 320Kbps.

That's about double the speed of ISDN ... wirelessly. It beats the hell out of any other mobile solution you get right now, which is what? Sharing the minutes on your mobile phone for 19.2K throughput?

Sure, it's not cable or DSL, but with a couple of batteries in your laptop, and a Ricochet modem, you have a completely untethered near-broadband connection anywhere you go.

It's a great product, and it's faster than 128K. I'm not sure why they market it at that speed.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[Asphalt]

>I had one thru the City of Martinez for quite
>some time. Performance was poor, support and
>service worse.

Now *this* is true. Wireless Web Connect, the ISP that Metricom farmed out it's tech and customer support too was simply awful, and IMHO, contributed to Ricochet not being more widely adopted. You were truly alone if you had problem, but luckily I worked them out myself, and when I did, my speeds were very fast.

I'm assuming Aeri are going to take care of the service and support tasks themselves. If they throw it back to WWC forget it.

Re:Alternative to Wired Broadband?

[daviddennis]

I did it, and I eventually wound up with Pacific Bell. It's not great service - it's been down a few times, and support is pretty clueless. But at least it's better than nothing.

Ricochet is actually a little bit cheaper than what I'm paying, but I have five dedicated IP addresses.

Ricochet might be worth $50 a month if I could go out to Malibu or some similar scenic place and get a change of scene in the computing world.

D

ChiTown

[Anonymous Coward]

Get the damn ChiTown network going!

Re:ChiTown

[Ralph Malph Alpha]

Chinatown is within San Francisco city limits, I don't see why they would need a separate network.

Richochet is cool

[Lumpy]

Roichochet makes CPCD look like a joke. It's based on packet radio technology and the infrastructire design is closer to a military setup than anything you can do with cellular. You can communicate modem to modem directly WITHOUT paying for service, and if you pay then you can connect MODEM to MODEM through the Richochet network.

It's really cool.. My forst wireless network was a pair of their 19.2 modems... with mods to the base station I set up I could get about 3000-5000 feet range.

Re:Richochet is cool

[Crapflooder]

LONG LIVE HIS MAJESTY, HENGIST DUVAL!

Yes, dear people, it's like that, who did not want to travel to the US sometimes and do it anally there? Indeed, everyone has played several times with this thought already.

Many may be deterred now by intensified controls at the airports before flights with US airlines. These would be extremely well suited for anyone wanting to benefit from hard anal sex during the flight.

You may also ask yourself now, what else the USians do, apart from having anal parties? Jaaa, they plug their US flags into their anuses! After that some of them have been astonished, why the stars are suddenly brown instead of white! Oh shit, the USians then cry, and launch a few F-16s to demonstrate they can also do it at supersonic speeds... and from behind!!

This inventor spirit is unique in the world and should be rewarded with a heavy load in the ass. But nevertheless, not here in Germany; why, such a ripped apart USian is a disturbance, and only available to people over 18. In the sales compartment behind the curtain, of course. For the real fanatics there is the same model also with a swastika, tattooed on the balls, if there still are some. And who hasn't experienced an anal orgasm yet? If not, dial into the Telekom network and ask behind the backdoor of the dragon around the corner!

Happy holidays, and keep your eggs warm, it's Easter time soon!

Re:Richochet is cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Lumpy, you're a know-nothing tool. The P2P connection ability was removed from the hardware of the newer modems. Your old 19.2s will work, but not the newer jobs.

Re:Richochet is cool

[noweb4u]

Bah, not true. I have a GS and a GT, both of which can talk to each other just fine, even where poletops are not visible.

I'm doing some work in my living room right now or i'd get out the modems and do an ats300? for ya. Still can if you don't believe me.

Re:Richochet is cool

[n6mod]

In some way, you're both right. Metricom disabled P2P connectivity over the network at some point during the death-spiral. So you could connect to a peer you could directly see, but you couldn't do a radio-nameserver lookup.

I think. By the time that happened, I only had one radio. (a Merlin)

-Z

Re:Richochet is cool

[noweb4u]

It's my understanding they made peer to peer via poletops a pay service for things like industrial monitoring, etc.

Re:Richochet is cool

[caffeinated_bunsen]

Paul! I didn't know you bothered posting to /.. Hell, I just saw the headline and looked to see if Myself was posting here... And sho' enuf, there he is, lamenting the dismal prospects of resurrecting the Detroit network. Well, if Aerie isn't gonna do it, it's time to get the climbing gear and screwdrivers (only for use after climbing - don't climb drunk).

Re:Richochet is cool

[noweb4u]

:-) I've been known to from time to time. I used to karma whore back in 1999-2000 (but I wasn't good at it :-) ) and lately I've just checked here from time to time.

Climbing gear would be too suspicious, plus we want to leave all the gear on the poles, we just want to find out how to make them respond to us and become under our control - then you write a script to do it, and get a cherry picker and run the script on all the poletops to assume control of the network, then it's open and available for public use. :-)

Granted there may be things that make this impractical (not counting the number of nodes you potentially might have to do this on (sayy... Pontiac to Madison Heights and Southfield for example) but in the end it might be worth it if we get the affirmative word that they're not gonna light up DTW again. :-)

Re:Richochet is cool

[Lumpy]

Ha! you wish.. they killed P2P on their network when they shut down. I have 2 of the faster modems and they work fine... so yes I am a know-nothing tool.. But I know a helluva-lot(tm) more than you obviously.

Please when trolling make it harder for others to debunk you.

heh

[Zanek]

Yay, they are clawing there way back into the market .

and this song is dedicate to Ralph JH Nader

[real_b0fh]

Hava Nagila

Hava Nagila,
Hava Nagila,
Hava Nagila,
V'nis m'cha,
Hava Nagila,
Hava Nagila,
Hava Nagila,
V'nis m'cha.
Hava n'ra-na-na,
Hava n'ra-na-na,
Hava n'ra-na-na,
V'nis-m'cha.
U-ru a-chim
B'lev-sa-me ach,
U-ru a-chim
B'lev-sa-ma ack,
U-ru a-chim,
U-ru a-chim,
B'lev-sa-me ach.

Re:and this song is dedicate to Ralph JH Nader

[Carp Flounderson]

as my favorite girl once said...

I'm just gonna get naked and see what happens.

damn them!

[evilpaul13]

...but not in Pennsylvania like it used to be available! I was looking at getting a Laptop and using wireless broadband, and that same week Ricochet went under. Now, they're back but not offerring the service.

Life just isn't fair :'(

Bastiids

[Anonymous Coward]

I depended on Ricochet for my connection when they went tits up. I'm too far from the CO for DSL, and cable modems just got here. That, and the land-line connections are so bad I topped out at 28.8k regardless of what hardware I used. Ricochet gave me speed better than they advertised. Then they left me up shits creek without a paddle.

I've got a cable modem now, and as far as I'm concerned Aerie can take the rest of Slashdot and go on a merry trip of fucking-themselves.

Question.

[bl1st3r]

Has anyone been able to use the old wireless gear to do anything cool?

Re:Question.

[Crapflooder]

LONG LIVE HIs MAJESTY, HENGIST DUVAL!

Yes, dear people, it's like that, who did not want to travel to the US sometimes and do it anally there? Indeed, everyone has played several times with this thought already.

Many may be deterred now by intensified controls at the airports before flights with US airlines. These would be extremely well suited for anyone wanting to benefit from hard anal sex during the flight.

You may also ask yourself now, what else the USians do, apart from having anal parties? Jaaa, they plug their US flags into their anuses! After that some of them have been astonished, why the stars are suddenly brown instead of white! Oh shit, the USians then cry, and launch a few F-16s to demonstrate they can also do it at supersonic speeds... and from behind!!

This inventor spirit is unique in the world and should be rewarded with a heavy load in the ass. But nevertheless, not here in Germany; why, such a ripped apart USian is a disturbance, and only available to people over 18. In the sales compartment behind the curtain, of course. For the real fanatics there is the same model also with a swastika, tattooed on the balls, if there still are some. And who hasn't experienced an anal orgasm yet? If not, dial into the Telekom network and ask behind the backdoor of the dragon around the corner!

Happy holidays, and keep your eggs warm, it's Easter time soon!

Bad, bad pun....

[Geeyzus]

Ricochet Bounces Back

*Rimshot*

My name's Timothy, I'll be posting stories all week! Don't forget to tip your waitress.

Ricochet Reprise

[sulli]

I posted this before, and it's a little out of date ... but what the hell, here it is again:

Ricochet

(with apologies to Paul Simon)

When I think back on all the crap I read on Slashdot
It's a wonder I can think at all
And though my frequent links to goatse.cx
Haven't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

Ricochet
You give us those nice fast downloads
You give us the warez and Napster
Makes you think all the world's a fast freeway, oh yeah!
I got a Sony laptop
I love to look at ... photographs
So Mama, don't take my Ricochet away

If you took all the sites I read
When I was "working"
And brought them all together for one spell
I know they'd never match
one brilliant round of trolling...
And everything looks worse on DSL

Ricochet
You give us those nice fast downloads
You give us the warez and Napster
Makes you think all the world's a fast freeway, oh yeah!
I got a Sony laptop
I love to look at ... photographs
So Mama, don't take my Ricochet away

Mama, don't take my Ricochet away

Mama, don't take my Ricochet away

Mama, don't take my Ricochet away

Mama, don't take my Ricochet
Mama, don't take my Ricochet
Mama, don't take my Ricochet (away)

Mama, don't take my Ricochet
Mama, don't take my Ricochet
Mama, don't take my Ricochet (away)

Mama, don't take my Ricochet
(Make your boy just pay and pay)
Mama, don't take my Ricochet (away)

Re:Ricochet Reprise

[Russ Steffen]

Okay, I give up. What tune is that supposed to be to? The closest I could comp up with is 'Kodachrome', but that's a shakey fit at best.

Re:Ricochet Reprise

[Anonymous Coward]

it's Kodachrome.

For those who haven't used Ricochet...

[Xerithane]

It is one of the best internet deals around. When I used to live in the bay area, there was a great little pub (Scruffy's in Sunnyvale) that had a pole pretty close.

You could sit in the back of the pub, and download at around 25KBs-35KBs. I would gladly pay $100 to get that service again, and I just hope they migrate it up to Portland soon.

I used this as a substitute for DSL because of where I was living down there (apartment complex screwed the phone trunk) and it really worked beautifully. I had a few system outages that never went more than an hour, and it was reliable and fast. Latency was much less than I expected.

It's a fabulous device when you are out on the go, I remember one time looking at real estate in the bay area having a friend drive me around while I surfed the net to find directions and maps, and new houses in the area. It really is great technology.

K, I'll stop being metricoms whore.

Re:For those who haven't used Ricochet...

[Ooblek]

It may be great, but there is one question: If the first company couldn't do it, what is the chance that the second company to try it won't eventually die? Excite and @Home merged, which looks pretty similar to this situation (profitable and un-profitable companies merging).

Also, if you have to go to a pub to make downloading fast enough to be bearable, you might as well get ISDN, a bottle of Jack Daniels, and some [optional] lubriderm. At least this way, you get to simulate sex with all the chicks you see rather than have to fantasize about it when you get home.

Re:For those who haven't used Ricochet...

[gUmbi]

It is one of the best internet deals around. When I used to live in the bay area, there was a great little pub (Scruffy's in Sunnyvale) that had a pole pretty close.



Personally, I go to the pub to talk to people and drink beer but hey, whatever turns you on, right?

Jason.

Re:For those who haven't used Ricochet...

[Xerithane]

Simple, over a billion dollars in infastructure and R&D that Metricom had to pay for.

Downloading at home was still well over 10KBs, but considering I have an affinity for shepards pie the pub was the best place to go. It was about 2 miles from work, not out of my way, and was a great place to hang out.

Working outside of the office in a place where when you want a break can provide a lot of fun and interested distractions is wonderful. If we had ricochet up here I would try to work remote more often, but I figure there is no difference between my house and the office, except the drive.

Re:For those who haven't used Ricochet...

[Fillup]

Yeah dude seriously IMHO, getting a 1.3billion dollar buildout for what, 7 million, is a fscking DEAL as far as I'm concerned.

they get all the patents, the customers with cards who liked the service (that's me!) and zero debt.

Re:For those who haven't used Ricochet...

[Xerithane]

Yeah, well my laptop can beat up your laptop!

Re:For those who haven't used Ricochet...

[TechNit]

Dude, your comment about the apartment complex screwing the phone trunk has sparked a similar issue that I am suffering. Please, if you have any information concnering this, I'm all ears... I am close enough to the CO to get 1.5Mbit DSL but for some reason our complex phone system is screwing things up for delivering DSL to my humble home.

Thanks!

PS. I too once had Ricochet in the Seattle area, and yes it ROX!!

Re:For those who haven't used Ricochet...

[Ixitar]

You could try to get your pub to get internet access. Maybe setup an 802.11b network. I know that this does not answer the ability to be completely mobile, but it would allow you to connect at the pub.

Re:For those who haven't used Ricochet...

[Xerithane]

In a nutshell, you are screwed. I'll give you the details about what was wrong with our phone system though.

They routed all phone lines in through a switch, so they could patch in the secure-access line. What happened, is their switch had a filter to reduce noise. Side effect: kill DSL signal.

Short of wiring a straight line in from the outside no DSL signal was coming through there. Worst part about it, the 5 people that paid to get the DSL installed before realizing why the signal would drop every 30s and never really sync up. It would have been cheaper for me to run a t1 into my apartment than to get DSL.

Re:For those who haven't used Ricochet...

[Xerithane]

Thank goodness for alcoholic geeks.

Already new about it

[DarkProphet]

I heard about it a couple of days ago. Its kind of ironic that I saw a banner ad from Aerie about this (on a site that may or may not have been slashdot). Hehehe. Funny.

Anyway, I'm not terribly familiar with the limitations of wireless. Can anyone provide a link to some good info about its capabilities, pros/cons, etc? In these parts, there is really no other hope for broadband, and I'm wondering if wireless could eventually flourish in rural areas.

Re:Already new about it

[Anonymous Coward]

I expect wireless would be done with the use of satellite and wi-lan produts in a local/international based network.

*sigh*

[curunir]

this was posted a couple of days ago...

Re:*sigh*

[rjamestaylor]

That is not the same story, so this is not a repeat. Feasibility testing is different than announcing an initial rollout.

PREMIER COMMENTAIRE

[Guillaume Ross]

USA SE SURRENDENT!

My dick bounces back, cautiously

[Anonymous Coward]

An article in salon.com reports that my dick will be bouncing back from the dead! Penis Networks, who purchased my dick for $8.25 million, is going to offer my sexual services in markets where it was popular, like Southern California and the Bay Area. They're also planning to lower the price of the fucking from $300 to $100, and lower the monthly flat rate fee from $80 to $50. My dick is hardly the perfect penis, but it's much faster and more reliable than dildos, so I'm really looking forward to signing people back up.

Re:My dick bounces back, cautiously

[Anonymous Coward]

How can a penis be more reliable than a dildo? I am sure everyone here has had a day when they just couldn't get it up.

The Business of Open Source

[Anonymous Coward]

February 21, 2002

VA SOFTWARE REPORTS RESULTS FOR SECOND FISCAL QUARTER, 2002

FREMONT, CA--February 21, 2002--VA Software Corporation (Nasdaq: LNUX), provider of the SourceForgeT collaborative software development platform, today announced results for its second fiscal quarter of 2002, beating analyst expectations for revenue, net loss and cash usage.

The second quarter pro forma net loss, excluding amortization of goodwill and intangible assets and deferred stock compensation, improved to $6.9 million, or $0.13 per share, from the fiscal 2001 second quarter net loss of $13.4 million, or $0.28 per share. This compares to First Call reported consensus analyst estimates of a pro forma loss of $0.16 per share, and guidance offered in the company's November 20, 2001 press release of a pro forma net loss of $8.0 to $8.5 million.

On a total reported basis, the fiscal 2002 second quarter net loss was $9.7 million, or $0.18 per share, showing significant improvement compared to last year's second quarter total reported net loss of $74.1 million, or $1.57 per share. For the six months ended January 26, 2002, the company's total reported net loss was $64.5 mllion, or $1.22 per share, compared to the total reported net loss of $125.5 million, or $2.69 per share, for the six months ended January 26, 2001.

--->AC4U---

that explains

[macsox]

... why it was called ricochet! *rim shot*

(now the only mystery is those spy ads they had....)

denver?

[ender_wiggins]

Why dont they offer the service in denver? HMM?

Re:denver?

[Graymalkin]

It's too flat so the poletops would get far too much range. They'd be shit out of luck if they provided a decent coverage area.

Zionist influence

[Ralph JewHater Nader]

The jews invested their money into the network so they can spy on all the users. Beware!

How's the latency?

[Ryu2]

Do I have a decent chance of using telnet, ssh, or playing Counterstrike with this wireless network?

I know for satellites, you can't realistically do any of the above -- hopefully, with the transmitters on the ground and not in geosynchronous orbit, it will be better.

Re:How's the latency?

[GigsVT]

I regularly telnet and ssh over my satellite connection. It just takes some getting used to. If you are good with vi and bash, it's not too bad.

Re:How's the latency?

[scm]

I used one a long time ago (~1996, back then the max speed was 56K). Telnet sessions had a noticable latency, but were usable.

Re:How's the latency?

[VPN3000]

Ryu2,

It's not very bad at all. I used to be a beta tester for these guys when they first deployed the network in Atlanta, GA. I use ssh a lot to access servers where I work and found the latency was minimal, much better than a modem and not quite as good as DSL. There were occasional pauses where the modem would lose a few packets back to the tower, but it was very reliable and stable. So much so, I could keep AIM and ssh sessions open for 6-7 hours without having to reconnect.

The Bandwidth was quite nice too. You can easily stream 128k/bit mp3's off shoutcast and other radio sites. When I had this service, I would stream mp3's off my DSL machine at home on my laptop while sitting at the park doing work or while at a friend's place (just for the uber-geek factor).

Their network also was accessible from 90% of the places I tried to use it from around town. There were countless times work would call and I would be out to dinner, instead of having to drive home and fix things, I could walk back out to the car for a few minutes and ssh in via the laptop. Well worth the money if you are in an on-call position where you are the only contact point.

The only drawback is that their network does not support a moving connection. If you are in a car, the modem loses sync at about 30mph. That's probably good since you do not want to be fiddling with your computer while operating a vehicle.

Victor

Re:How's the latency?

[Xerithane]

The only drawback is that their network does not support a moving connection. If you are in a car, the modem loses sync at about 30mph. That's probably good since you do not want to be fiddling with your computer while operating a vehicle.

Real life experience told me otherwise. I had a friend drive me around while looking at houses, and I was looking at maps while we drove (and IRC'ing) and did not experience any problems with it.

Re:How's the latency?

[VPN3000]

I am sure that depends on how far you are from a transponder.

The closer you get, you pass between the towers antenea quicker and lose sync (which will land you a new IP in most cases). If you are pretty far from one (few places in my town), you stay in one antenea's focus and can travel faster/further without a momentary blackout.

This is less noticable when you are browsing web pages, but I dare you to go mobile with ssh or telnet sessions open. They'll be reset ever few moments as you are being logged out and logged in quickly as you travel.

The one lacking side of their modems I forgot to mention in my previous post was the lack of support for Linux. I typically run FreeBSD (Yeah, mod me down!) and installed Linux on the box with the hopes of tinkering the card into working with it. No such luck. Let's hope the new Ricochet bounces onto the scene with some Linux support. The monetary gains from that choice wouldn't be huge, but the geeks would love them for it.

Victor

Re:How's the latency?

[GlassUser]

I agree. Like the commercials flaunted, I'd surf while going 70 mph down the freeway (okay, I let someone else drive). Well, it was good up to about 50-55, much more and I'd start to get lag/burst spurts.

Re:How's the latency?

[jonbrewer]

Telnet or ssh? Well, I can tell you that telnet works just fine over 2400 baud dialup, and quite nicely over 9600 baud GSM.

I can't wait to get Ricochet so I can replace this ISDN that's sucking a few hundred out of my pockets every month.

(yeah, I live in the middle of Boston and no Cable Modem and no DSL. Thanks Verizon.)

Re:How's the latency?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been ssh'ing into my OpenBSD box, and although I'm using the slower 34 kb modem, it's adequate for remote coding using vi through SSH.

Re:How's the latency?

[n6mod]

Do I have a decent chance of using telnet, ssh, or playing Counterstrike with this wireless network?

Yes, Yes, No

Re:How's the latency?

[Fallon]

I live in the Marshall Islands, and our only internet access is via satelites. I work for Raytheon (U.S. army contractor, we more or less run the entire base) in the IT department.

Our best case scenario is aproxamatly 600ms pings just to the far side of the satelite. Add to that 5-10%+ average unavalability, and common 15%+ packetloss and you have a pretty sucky network connection.

I don't pretend to know how the mini-dishes perform. We have 2 different networks routed over seperate circuits and different satelites (irionically the public ISP is routed over the military satelite, and the military network is over a public bird).

Telnet/SSH has about a .5-1.5 second delay, not that bad, unless things are really laggy, in which case it gets really painfull. Web surfing is mostly fine, Everquest is doable, but Quake and any other FPS are out the window.

Not sure how wireless ISP's do lag wise.

Re:How's the latency?

[r00tdenied]

For satellite based networks the latency is probably about 500-800 msecs. However, terestrial wireless networks are a lot different then satellites orbiting at say 200,000 miles above the earth. Distance is the main cause of latency on wireless links. On a properly configured network, even metricom's. You should see ping times from 20-150 msecs (depending on your speed, interferrence, etc)

Re:How's the latency?

[JianTian13]

I had no difficulties in getting the Riccochet GS working in either Linux or OpenBSD (2.8) via USB. Admittedly though, it was a little more work in Linux (it just worked right out of the box in OBSD with the GENERIC kernel, once PPPD was set to use the right device).

I needed USB support in my kernel (2.4, or later 2.2), and I needed to make sure that ACM modem support was compiled in. Once that was done, I had to make sure that a couple of device nodes got created, modprobe, and away I went. Couldn't give you exact instructions at this point, but Google is your friend -- There's at least one page out there with some pretty comprehensive instructions (you might start here)

Re:How's the latency?

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting. Looks like telnet/ssh is OK, but action games are not.

How about X-Windows or VNC? I use both protocols a lot.

Re:How's the latency?

[Anonymous Coward]

200,000 miles? Well, they DID send that satellite around the moon a couple of times to fix its orbit a few years ago, but otherwise I don't think you're going to find something that's purposely out there that far.

It's closer to 22K. I figure that's about 250 ms to go up and back down, assuming everything else is perfect.

Re:How's the latency?

[Anonymous Coward]

Stick w/ FreeBSD. Linux is dying.

Re:How's the latency?

[Yivit]

I was one of the 4 sys admins for Ricochet and used it regularly on the road to and from work, as well as from home and in the office (it was faster than our corporate LAN most days, and certainly came in handy when someone cut the fiber between Houston and Dallas and/or San Jose). I was able to VPN into our corporate net w/ no appreciable different in speed and monitor the network from home. It sure was handy when I got calls in the middle of the night from the NOC, since I was an hour's drive away from the office. I usually kept my laptop up on the drive to and from work w/ the realtime traffic map displayed so I knew which route to take to work.

I just wish we had never gone BK -- it's a cool technology and there's still nothing out there that works like it did.

Re:How's the latency?

[wavelet]

latency is roughly 220ms. which means there is a noticable difference when typing over telnet/ssh. if you type fast it buffers up 10 characters or so. its weird watching your keystrokes after you've typed out bunch of sentences. i used to be able to type including backspaces without any screen feedback.

there would be no way that you can play quake/ut/counterstrike or somthing. you would have atleast 220ms added to your ping.

Re:How's the latency?

[Xerithane]

I used mine with linux exclusively, and had no issues with it whatsoever. I run FreeBSD on my non-mobile box, and linux on my laptop which it was always connected to. Were you using the modem or the card?

Beowolf...

[Anonymous Coward]

You've heard it before.

man this hurts

[Mayor McPenisman]

Geez.
Does anyone else have any idea how much it hurts to cut your scrotum?
It's just a little cut, but man does it bleed + hurt. It especially hurt when I put rubbing alcohol on it sos I wouldn't get penis fungus.

Owowowow.

I like monkeys.

[interstellar_donkey]

I like monkeys. I like to see them fly.

I like monkeys. I'll kick you in the eye.

Boy this guy is goina be pissed that I'm using his slashdot account

props

[greymond]

i give them props for trying this again - but they should really know better than to try this - it obviously didn't catch on the first time and even though it will be $50 instead of $80 - it should be $20 or its almost worthless.

PDA modem

[krokodil]

What they need to do is tiny PDA modem. USB visor
or compach flash form factor. I would love to use this service with my PDA.

Re:PDA modem

[gtada]

You can use the PC Card modem with an iPaq.

Public access WLANs

[arberya]

The proliferation of public access WLAN's could possibly push servcies, such as Ricochet's to the wall. Sure, public access WLAN's are very scattered at the moment, but with the cost of setting up an AP with a decent range is only a few hundred dollars. More and more people seem to be setting up AP's, and have authorization to set up antennae on radio masts and providing a very good service. The community seems to be thriving, connecting zones together over the inernet using VPN software, and setting up full routing infrastructures to handle Internet access.
Sure, there wont be any real SLA's in place, but with so many AP's connected to different ISP's, then network redundancy wouldn't be much of an issue.

Re:Public access WLANs

[Anonymous Coward]

with the cost of setting up an AP with a decent range is only a few hundred dollars.

Which is essentially the cost of setting up a Ricochet access point. Only difference is that a single Ricochet AP can cover a much, much larger area than 802.11.

Ricochet simply grew too fast; the technology itself is much, much better suited to MAN's than 802.11 is.

Re:Public access WLANs

[jcr]

Public access WLAN's have to buy their service and equipment from somebody: why not Ricochet?

-jcr

Horoscopes for the troll wars!

[Plutotron]

Aires
Aires, the other trolls are starting to tire of your self-delusional and selfish demeanor. You are not the one to lead the revolution. There is not even a revolution. In the coming days you should stray from your "blind and barbarous" charges into the frontlines of battle. Balance your self-aggrandizing trolls with humility or brotherhood. You blazed a trail through the e-wilderness but now you have blitzed your penis into a brick wall. Start looking for that balance with the universe and its inhabitants which you lack, lest you blindly and bluntly charge your erect manhood into ESR's sweaty, pulsing, and filthy anus. And you don't want to do that, do you?

Taurus
You provide foundation and structure to trolldom. If there be an Empire, then let its roots be your works. Yours is the first earthly manifestation of our combined and unified beauty, but now you have a choice. You can either lazily roam the fertile pastures and suck the sweet honey of victory, or you can help build Babel to the heavens. Beware, the former might lead to you sucking the semen from Taco's cock, while the latter, although lifting you from your sacred footings and unnerving yourself, may prove to be the wisest choice.

Gemini
You have many talents. Your trolls can be beautifully written, exhibiting your natural communication talents. Your mind is quick and flighty. Have you ever realized the variety of your pieces? One night you might write a homosexual expose on Linux faggotry, while the next day it is a craftily written legitimate troll. Your dual nature puzzles most and maybe even yourself. Some might not even see it outright. De Broglie contends that all matter is a wave on some level. Are you a wave, wayward Gemini? Another example is that you are a troll but you revel in using open source programs. You hide yourself well. You are a whore in most ways. And as a whore you will never be fulfilled. You may have had your fun about a week ago, but now it is not your time. It will be a while before you pull yourself back together again. But stick around, the dregs take entertainment in your plights and facetious ways.

Cancer
Remember that time you once tried to troll? Remember when everyone laughed at your pitiful attempts? Remember how you withdrew immediately and started to masturbate wildly to Hentai? Remember how once you came the neurotransmitters immediately pulsed through your being and took you to a pleasant place? The lesson here is that you are a pussy-mama and have no trolling talents. Masturbation is not a talent, fool, and you will never have your love be accepted in trolldom, or the world for that matter.

Leo
You know those days when no one seems to be trolling? Well Leo, you are our light in those dark days. You carry the torch, albeit in a conceited and self-centered way, but nonetheless you keep the Path alive. The shadow has yet to hold us sway. Don't get to full off yourself, because while you can keep a warm castle for us, you can't build us an Empire. Know your limitations sir, and also take care not to trample over the visionaries that can take you to the Next Level.

Virgo
You trolling style reeks of prudishness. To spice your life, I recommend throwing in some good bathroom humor or homosexuality into your writings. Your endless crapflooding, although detailed and nonsensical, lacks something special. You are a machine, a practical worker for the cause. You can best manifest your greatness when you are working for someone else. You should find a good Gemini (yeah I know that's an oxymoron), Libra, or Aquarius to give you inspiration and work. You need some mental stimulation right now. Actually, you could use any stimulation now, and for that, find a Libra.

Libra
Much like your cardinal counterpart Aires, you are a pioneer. But unlike Aires, your talent begins in the mind, inciting thousands of blood-thirsty trolls to rally to the cause. You lead is bond, and your bond is beauty. But did I mention you're a fake, arrogant bastard. Your superficial way can't last. Also, did you ever wonder why you rarely troll? Well, I'll tell you. You're an indecisive bastard. You start a story but then can't make up your mind over some unimportant detail. Becoming frustrated, you start jerking off to the homosexual undertones contained in your trolls. This is a mistake. Harness and channel your energy of creativity and destruction, and in the balancing of the two you might find success.

Scorpio
You are the true master of the art of covert trolling. Under the innocent guise of a harmless introvert lies a cold calculating killer brooding for the taste of blood and seminal fluids. You manipulate, scheme, lie, and sleep your way to the top. You could be a star in the sky, but you usually end up bound up in your own web of deceit. Sometimes you unconsciously look forward and plot this conclusion. In the depths of your sick twisted hell lies the key to transformation. The phoenix is birthed in the abyss, only to catch ablaze and fly soaring to the heavens. This probably won't happen to you though.

Sagittarius
You have the ability to show us "The True Path", but you would rather drink yourself to oblivion with a bunch of forest nymphs. Honestly, who here wouldn't do that? I have a desire to party with the forest nymphs tonight. Sag, let us hang out, drink much stout and wine, and fornicate with some nymphs. Fuck trolling, my carnal nature calls.

Capricorn
Always trying, always failing, always overcoming. Are you part of the allied forces, or do you contribute to the vile structure that threatens us all? Nobody recognizes your struggles because you manage to write in an earthy and uninspired monotone. What does this mean? Well, I don't know exactly what it means but I do know that you're a homosexual.

Aquarius
We all have problems, but you, Aquarius, have problems that affect us all. You fancy yourself a leader. Why? We never asked for you to bare the water to our thirsty lips. We never asked you to refine the Troll Empire into your own sick sadistic world. Once outcasted among "proper" trolls, some sick spirit from within told you, "If you build it, they will cum." Fuck those talentless bastards. The structure is now built, and the talents are ready to be poured. It is your duty to pour your metaphorical homosexual semen all over trolldom, and the world. Do not falter, for the revolution looms, and the sun will rise yet.

Pisces
Oh, what an old soul you must be. In some ways you are the flowing talent that Aquarius bares. This is doubtful though, as your inner water is probably stagnant and swarming with mosquitoes. You embody the best of the of the Zodiac. Don't get to full of yourself, because you also embody the worst. That is the key to your constant failures. You should get very angry right now and create a storm with the raging sewage inside of you. Pound trolldom from the heavens with your bile, and then cry. You may feel that no one understands you, and hell, you're probably right. That doesn't matter now, because the world needs your "talents" right now.

what about dallas?

[Cheeze]

waiting........

patiently......

i used to have ricochet, and i'll tell ya, there's nothing cooler than streaming real audio christmas songs while driving down the freeway, or getting a map from maps.yahoo.com when you're lost.

Re:what about dallas?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, this is cooler: www.dashpc.com

I'm assuming you did it differently. If not, my apologies...

Re:what about dallas?

[Joe Hardy (_yoda)]

....there's nothing cooler than streaming real audio christmas songs

what on *earth* is cool about christmas songs? :-)

Already in Troll Library.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Troll,

This troll has already been accepted into the Troll Library. There is no need to repost this troll, because it will be done for you. Go eat a bag of hell.

Thank you for your contribution.

Re:Already in Troll Library.

[Serial Troller]

• 2002. Slashdot publishes 1,000,000th rumor passed off as actual story. The story generates 480 comments, 263 of which agree with the article, and 107 of which point out it's a rumor and are modded down as redundant. The remaining comments are all "first posts."
• 2002. CmdrTaco married.
• 2002. Slashdot parent corporation VA Research^W Linux^W Software stock worth 35 cents. Rumors that AOL, Microsoft, or even Jimmy the hobo who lives under the Longfellow Bridge may buy it.
• 2003. VA Software bought by Microsoft for a cup of coffee and a donut. All Microsoft-critical articles mysteriously disappear from Slashdot. Bill Gates as Borg logo replaced with Bill Gates as God.
• 2004. CmdrTaco loses virginity.
• 2004. The WIPO Troll returns again, showering Slashdot in 45,000 copies of the same post: "Lick my crotch hairs." Slashdot, despite running on 18 redundant IIS/8.0 servers, buckles under the load. The term "Slashdotted" is replaced with "WIPO-Trolled."
• 2004. Slashdot officially shut down. Millions of screaming, unwashed geeks invade Redmond campus and lynch Bill Gates.
• 2005. Linus Torvalds and Anal Cox found dead along with six penguins, a tub of crisco and several used condoms.
• 2005. CmdrTaco rumored to have had sex again.
• 2006. CowboiKneel found dead in hotel room with 56 pizza boxes covering his bloated corpse. Three suffocated gay prostitutes are extracted from beneath his body as police remove it with a backhoe.
• 2007. CmdrTaco actually has sex again.
• 2007. BSD is still officially "dying." No word on when its demise will take place.
• 2007. CmdrTaco starts new weblog to replace Slashdot, creatively named Dotslash. Remainder of Linux users flock to the site and immediate WIPO-Troll it out of existence.
• 2008. CmdrTaco has sex with his wife for the first time.

What killed ricochet the first time

[t0qer]

I came into the company at a time when the .com boom was just starting to happen. I was young and didn't quite understand business politics yet, so I thought it was right to point out when things are outright ripping off the customer or in the very least preventing the company from dominating the market. My "self rightousness" cost me my job.

You see my freinds, the ricochet development cycle really ended after the first modem was introduced. Sure it got smaller and faster, or so you think. The ricochet was allways capable of 128kbps speed. There was a s register that could change the modem speed to that maximum rate, but unless you were transferring from ricochet to ricochet at a distance of 100 feet or less, you would never see 128kbps from their network. This is because the poletops were set at 9600baud.

Now to understand how you can get 28.8 from poletops set at 9600 you have to understand how the ricochet network works. Basically you are surrounded by these poletops, all shooting out bits at 9600 baud, they are multiplexed together by your modem and combined to get the desired bandwidth. Thus 9600 from 3 poletops would give you 28.8. Internally people who knew about this and thought it was wrong were fired over the years. There was a lot of them trust me.

Whenever a new modem standard like 33.6 or 56k came out, metricom would release a new "Modem software upgrade" that "contained new code!" that would magically turn your 33.6 ricochet into a 28.8 one. All it did was change the default setting of that S Register, maybe some new stuff was added, but thats about it. Nothing really magical or fancy, they fired all the real engineers that created the modem in the first place long ago. All that was left was a skeletal crew that could never really improve the internal electronics design.

When they were "Upgrading the Ricochet Network!" this was nothing more than more smoke up the ass of ricochet users. The poletops speed was simply set from 9600 to anything higher. Just a stupid S register that was allways there.

I think Ricochet's real downfall wasn't the technology, when it was introduced allmost 5 years ago, it was capable of delivering 128kbps service. So the failure can only be found in the strategy used by the marketdroids. $20@month for 128kbps wireless internet service vs $20@month for a standard 28.8 isp would have sold a lot more modems than the $40@mo ricochet $20@mo standard ISP model that they took.

They did do an amazing job creating the network, just a shame that they never put that same effort into people that acually understood the internet market. People have allways gone with the cheaper ISP simply because they want to save money. Anyways I hope no heads roll from my comment.

Oh in case you're wondering what the magic s-register was, its ats304=115200. The reason they made it so slow in the beginning is back then most motherboards were using a 8250 UART, which was limited to 14.4 speeds.

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[cwebster]

the conventional way to get higher bitrate than your baudrate is to use a modulation capable of handling more informatation. ie take a 9600 and 14,400 bps modem, both operating at 2400 baud. one needs to modulate 4 bits per baud, and the other 6 bits per baud. How is this accomplished? not 4 modems multiplexed to get 4 2400 baud units (aka, your poletop methodology). 4 bits gives you 16 possible values, so you pick 16 unique values and transmit one of them 2400 times a second. thats 9600 bps out of 2400 baud. for 14.4 you need 64 unique values sent 2400 times a second. each 1/2400th of a second you get one of these values, and it turns into 6 bits of information.

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[threephaseboy]

Hm.. this doesnt seem to correspond with what the people who have hacked ricochet have said, i.e. the older units can run at up to 100kbit/sec raw, and the new ones can run at 256kbit/sec raw
I have used the older units extensivly, in regular pole-top mode, in point-to-point mode, and in starmode.
Also, the ATS304 register sets the _serial_ speed, either 0 (auto-detect up to 57600) or anything else.
(yes, IHBT, IWHAND..)

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[Anonymous Coward]

Partially true, I worked for Metricom in the engineering department for two years before they went kaputz. The S-register you refer to 304 was actually the data terminal speed. This register controlled the speed at which the radio talked to the computer it was connected to. Setting this speed at a maximum, as most of you old school BBS freaks know is always recommended. setting the S 304 register to 0 would let it autodetect the data terminal speed up to 57.6kbps. I personally set it to 115200 to get the maximum possible throughput even though it really didn't matter with the Gen 1 radios. This is not the same as the speed at which the radios talk to each other however. The poletops for the Gen 1 network (33.6 or 28.8 or whatever you want to call it) were entirely different animals than the 128k radios. The 128k poletops could talk to the Gen 1 radios, but you could not get Gen 1 poletops to talk to 128k radios at 128k speed. This is also why it is recommended to use the USB cable when using the 128k radios. The maximum a serial connection would let you download at is about 10k because of the 115200 limitation. Most people don't have high speed serial ports, don't know they have em, or whatnot, so even though the 128k radios work with a high speed serial (about 460kpbs IIRC) it was a big hastle. I can remember trying to get test setups in the lab to work with high speed serial but there were too many cabling attenuation/interference problems to get it to work that fast all the time. Serial cables are simply not designed to handle that kind of signaling speed. USB was better suited for the fast transfer rates and is why you should use it whenever you can. Trust me, they had to roll out completely new poletops in the entire Bay Area when they upgraded systems. I remember taking a "Woody" radio home and using it on the 28.8k network until they turned on the new poletops. I am afraid you are misunderstood about the 304 register and hopefully this cleared things up a little. If anyone out there can add more to this, I'd be glad; it's been a while since I worked at Metricom.

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[t0qer]

Then riddle me this smart guy.

Why is it whenever I would dial into a poletop and check the setting it would ALLWAYS be set at 9600 baud? Remember, I worked there too, had access to the "special" version of the modem software that allowed me to do this. How the hell do you deliver 56kbps when all your poletops when they are set at 9600 baud?

Hey when did you work there? I worked in tech support when they made us live next to the storage area in the original building. Not sure of the year, my name should explain why :P

--Toq

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[n6mod]

Because the serial ports on the poletops were always set to 9600 baud. Changing 304 on a poletop would do exactly zip to throughput through that poletop.

Your understanding of the entire system is bascially flawed. 304 is the DCE speed ONLY. Nothing to do with the radio. The original "28.8" Ricochet had an over-the-air rate of 100kbps. The original system also used the same protocol and frequencies between the portable and poletop as it did between poletops (and therefore poletop to WAP).

If you RDest'ed into a poletop, there was another S-register (one of the 800's, it's been years) that contained the actual radio speed: 100000. Change that and you just bricked the poletop. ;)

Saying that MCOM was ripping off the customer based on this bogus analysis of the system might have had a bit more to do with your longevity there. ;)

As to the "Autobahn" system, development certainly did continue after the first Phase 1 shipped. Autobahn (the 128k system) was a massive re-engineering, using higher speed (256k? Faster? Anyone know?) 900MHz links to the portables, and 2.3GHz (WCS) and 2.4GHz (Part 15) links from WAP to poletop and poletop-to-poletop. Going to WCS helped bound the latency, which was always an issue with the original network.

Yes, you could get 100kbps from the old radios in Starmode. (Check out /dev/st0, boys and girls!)Yes, Starmode was initially supported in the Autobahn system, but sadly went the way of peer-to-peer connections under the brain-dead Dreisbach administration. Perhaps Aaronson will remember the glory days of the early network and lift that restriction.

And, to get back to the original subject line, what killed Ricochet the first time was overpriced modems and service (which Aaronson seems to have corrected), horrible marketing, and serious overextension, trying to build out too many cities too fast. There were other brain-dead decisions along the way, going all the way back to announcing Autobahn in '97 and not delivering it until '00, killing Starmode and P2P, &c.

Oh, and "next to the storage area" described the location of tech support for most of the time I was there, even though that was a couple of different locations. Tech Support was next to the doors from the small parking lot when I was there.

-Z
Ricochet Tech Support 2/95-5/97

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[t0qer]

I stand corrected on my technical details, at least we can agree on the crappy management :)

--toq

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[Enigma2175]

(Check out /dev/st0, boys and girls!)

On my machine, /dev/st0 is the first tape device on the SCSI bus (SCSI Tape 0). True it will go (much faster than) 100kbps but what does that have to do with Ricochet? ;)

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[Inoshiro]

" The reason they made it so slow in the beginning is back then most motherboards were using a 8250 UART, which was limited to 14.4 speeds."

Are you sure? My 1995 computer (Compaq Presario CDS 750) had 2 16550 UARTs on the serial ports. Anything more modern than 1993 and which wasn't totally cheap did.

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[Anonymous Coward]

When you dialed in I'm assuming you are talking about rdesting in? When you did this you are correct, the 304 register was set to 9600 baud. This only affects the speed if if you had actually physically gone up to the poletop or e-radio in a bucket truck and hooked a serial cable up to it. This is independent of the radio to radio speed. I worked there for two years, one in Los Gatos, and one in San Jose. That would be 99-00 I think. Heh, I must confess, I've never been over to the tech support side of the road. They never let me out of the cage, er cubicle long enough =)

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, yes, yes! Man, I always felt the modems were way undermarketed. Also with the tech boom it seemed like the big brass was too zealous about rolling out new areas. I almost never saw ads for the things anywhere I went. Also there were no incentives for the resellers (who was it? Go America or Earthlink or someone) to get the product moving. At it's price, it didn't exactly move itself. Even though it was a marvel, I don't know if I'd pay $300/80 a month for wireless internet. Using a modem when I worked there was quite a sweet perk.

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[n6mod]

Yeah, I sorta thought that as I was writing the post, but the docs for STRIP do reference the st0 interface.

Hmmm....

-Z

Re:What killed ricochet the first time

[t0qer]

I don't know if you cat's are employed or not, but it would be kinda cool to get together sometime and swap some old stories about metricom. I just looked at my resume, looks like I was workin there back in 1996. Maybe we can grab some coffee sometime at the campbell coffee house.

--toq

Ricochet vs. CDPD

[TheSync]

My exposure to Ricochet was the "slow" version offered here in Washington, DC. It was most useful for remote use in areas where you knew the coverage was good. It could be good in one place, and horrible just down the block. I saw a lot of them in use in Congressional hearing rooms.

However, on the "reliability" side, CDPD ruled. Verizon CDPD has much better coverage, and you can depend on it almost everywhere. For my particular application, a mobile webcam in a car, CDPD was much more reliable than Ricochet. AT&T CDPD seems pretty good too, but I only used that for OmniSky with my Palm on Amtrak.

CDPD is a bit slower than the "slow" Ricochet. But of course, there is no Ricochet now, only CDPD...

I'd love to see how the "fast" Ricochet compares. There is a poletop unit at the end of my street, and I used to be able to get Ricochet in the bedroom with a window that faces that direction.

Some suggestions

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck off and die you worthless troll!

Haha, got you.

Who does CmdrTaco lose his virginity with if he doesn't have sex until a few years later?

1990. CmdrTaco experiences his first time having gay sex, being the taker, with his father. This act leads CmdrTaco on a life filled with homosexual partners and male prostitutes.

2002. CmdrTaco marries a tranvestite named Kathleen. Reports are in that Kathleen out measures CmdrTaco.

2003. CmdrTaco's wife leaves him because of his incredibly small penis and tendency to blow his load from only a few seconds of intercourse.

2005. Linus Torvalds and Anal Cox found dead along with six penguins, AN EMPTY tub of crisco and several used condoms.

2009. CmdrTaco commits suicide. Act can be blamed on his ever expanding anus and failure to give fellow geeks' penises a tight fit in his rectum.

Re:Some suggestions

[Serial Troller]

I guess the joke was too subtle for you? (Some people got it.) Taco loses his virginity to a goat or something. I assume the whole thing about being married, having sex, then having sex with his wife several years later was also too subtle?

I shall work some of your suggestions into the post.

There is love in the world, just not for me....

[xdfgf]

Slashdot's gone cold I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all
The morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all
And even if I could it'll all be gray but your picture on my wall
It reminds me, that it's not so bad -- it's not so bad

Dear Rob, I wrote but you still ain't callin
I left my email, my ICQ, and my yahoo chat at the bottom
I sent two emails back in autumn, you must not-a got 'em
There probably was a problem with your sendmail or somethin
Sometimes I scribble email addees too sloppy when I jot 'em
but anyways; fsck it, what's been up? Man how's your boxes?
My boxes is linux too, I'm bout to be a compiler
once I learn gcc,
I'ma compile for miles ah
I read about your Palm Pilot too I'm sorry
I had a friend lose his Palm over at the airport in Maradonna
I know you probably hear this everyday, but I'm your biggest fan
I even read all your bullshit Linux news and BSD scams
I got a room full of your posters and your pictures man
I like the way you sold your ass too that shit was fat
Anyways, I hope you get this man, hit me back,
just to chat, truly yours, your biggest fan
This is Stan

Dear Rob, you still ain't called or wrote, I hope you have a chance
I ain't mad - I just think it's FUCKED UP you don't answer fans
If you didn't wanna talk to me outside your Linux World
you didn't have to, but you coulda signed an autograph for Matthew
That's my Senior sys admin he's only 26 years old
We waited on a 9600 baud for you,
four hours and you just said, "No."
That's pretty shitty man - you're like his fsckin idol
He wants to be just like you man, he likes you more than I do
I ain't that mad though, I just don't like bein lied to
Remember when we met in Boston - you said if I'd write you
you would write back - see I'm just like you in a way
I never had a clue about shit either
I gcc'd shit with my wife then beat her
I can relate to what you're saying in your page
so when I feel like rmusering I read Slashdot to being the rage
cause I don't really got shit else so that shit helps when I'm depressed
I even got a tattoo of slashdot across the chest
Sometimes I even packet myself to see how much it floods
It's like adrenaline, the DDoS is such a sudden rush of blood
See everything you say is real, and I respect you cause you tell it
My girlfriend's jealous cause I talk about you 24/7
But she don't know you like I know you Rob, no one does
She don't know what it was like for people like us growin up
You gotta call me man, I'll be the biggest fan you'll ever lose
Sincerely yours, Stan -- P.S.
We should be together too

Dear Mister-I'm-Too-Good-To-Call-Or-Write-My-Fans,
thi s'll be the last packet I ever send your ass
It's been six months and still no word - I don't deserve it?
I know you got my last two emails
I wrote the @ signs on 'em perfect
So this is my payload I'm sending you, I hope you hear it
I'm on my modem now, I'm doing 9600 on the infohiway
Hey Rob, I drank a fifth of vodka, you dare me to code?
You know the song by Deep Purple by Depache Mode
its irrelevant by playing on my linux player
while I write some php scripts and play some Dragonslayer
That's kinda how shit is, you coulda rescued me from drowning
Now it's too late - I'm on a 1000 downloads now, I'm drowsy
and all I wanted was a lousy letter or a call
I hope you know I ripped +ALL+ of your pictures off the wall
I love you Rob, we coulda been together, think about it
You ruined it now, I hope you can't sleep and you dream about it
And when you dream I hope you can't sleep and you SCREAM about it
I hope your conscience EATS AT YOU and you can't BREATHE without me
See Rob {*screaming*} Shut up bitch! I'm tryin to page
Hey Rob, that's my senior admin screamin in the cage
but I didn't cut the power off, I just rebooted, see I ain't like you
cause if he works some harder he'll suffer more, and then the boxes die too
Well, gotta go, I'm almost BGP bridged
Oh shit, I forgot, how'm I supposed to send this packet out?

Dear Stan, I meant to write you sooner but I just been busy
You said your box is running now, how'd you like your gcc?
Look, I'm really flattered you would install 7.0 Redhat
and here's an autograph for your senior admin
I wrote it on the Starter cap
I'm sorry I didn't see you at the show, I musta missed you
Don't think I did that shit intentionally just to diss you
But what's this shit you said about you like to DDoS lamers too?
I say that shit just clownin dogg,
c'mon - how fucked up is you?
You got some issues Stan, I think you need some counseling
so heres some more Linux stories to keep your as busy when you get down some
And what's this shit about us meant to be together?
I already have a boyfriend Timothy he gets me wetter
I really think you and your boxes need each other
or maybe you just need to treat them better
I hope you get to read this letter, I just hope it reaches you in time
before you hurt yourself, I think that you'll be doin just fine
if you relax a little, I'm glad I inspire you but Stan
why are you so mad? Try to understand, that Linux and MS is just grand
I just don't want you to do some crazy shit
I seen this one shit on the news a couple weeks ago that made me sick
Some dude was drunk and switched his router for a bridge
and his packets were blackholed, and his DNS couldn't get digged
and in the colo they found a tape, but they didn't say who it was to
Come to think about, his name was.. it was you
Damn!

chicago

[L.Torvalds]

not journey or air-supply.

Re:chicago

[Ralph Malph Alpha]

My dear Mister Thorbelts, YHBT by Donny Most, TV's beloved Ralph Malph Alpha. Thank you for the hug & roll, that was fantastic.

Re:Already in Troll Library!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Troll,

This troll has already been accepted into the Troll Library. There is no need to repost this troll, because it will be done for you. Go eat a bag of hell.

Thank you for your contribution.

Article covering ricochet a little

[Milkyman]

http://www.dansdata.com/wireless.htm

he goes into a couple of wireless technologies and discusses the ricochet modems

Added to Troll Library

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Troll,

We are plesed to inform you that, after careful consideration, we have accepted your troll into the Troll Library.

You show a masterful skill at trolling.

Thank you for your time and your contribution.

Now I must wait for this to come(back)to Phoenix!

[BattyMan]

One year ago, when I had just got Sprint wireless web (a $10/mo option on my Sprint PCS service) and I was looking at getting cable in my apartment, Ricochet at $80/mo looked irrelevant.

Now, with my phone line proven to be so poor that I can't get dialup to go faster than 28K (nevermind DSL), and Sprint has proven itself incapable of maintaining a call longer than 2 minutes, and my landlord has forbidden the cable company to dig up 20 ft of driveway to lay cable to me, this looks like the only way I'm _ever_ going to get more than 30Kb!

128Kb/sec, and it's _mobile_, too, for under $50? WOO HOO!!!!!!

Portland, OR

[linuxguy]

I too live in Portland, OR and emailed the Ricochet people, begging them to bring their service to Portland area. They died before letting me use their service. Bastards!

Re:Portland, OR

[Xerithane]

A friend told me they had access up here, so when I moved I assumed it would work. I moved up here a few months before they died and was stuck with no wireless. Good thing they have pioneer place. :)

Latency - 180msec best case, 600+ worst case

[isaac]

Latency with Ricochet (at least the 128k version) was pretty low - I typically got 200-300msec, sometimes a little lower, occasionally a lot higher. This is fine for ssh connections (and I used ssh constantly with mine), but Counterstrike is right out. (Believe me, I tried! Latency goes up when you're transmitting a lot of packets in both directions.)

However, it worked great for tetrinet, which I was hooked on at the time.

I used the service in the Bay Area, Phoenix, New York, and DC, and the performance stayed within the same ranges across all cities (the main determinant of speed and latency was how many repeater hops one had from one's location, but I found the service generally delivered 128k as promised and 256k+ on occasion.

-Isaac

UPDATED

[Serial Troller]

• 2002. Slashdot publishes 1,000,000th rumor passed off as actual story. The story generates 480 comments, 263 of which agree with the article, and 107 of which point out it's a rumor and are modded down as redundant. The remaining comments are all "first posts."
  
• 2002. CmdrTaco married to Kathleen Fent. Many geeks believe Kathleen, a purported transvestite, outmeasures CmdrTaco.
  
• 2002. Slashdot parent corporation VA Research^W Linux^W Software stock worth 35 cents. Rumors that AOL, Microsoft, or even Jimmy the hobo who lives under the Longfellow Bridge may buy it.
  
• 2003. VA Software bought by Microsoft for a cup of coffee and a donut. All Microsoft-critical articles mysteriously disappear from Slashdot. Bill Gates as Borg logo replaced with Bill Gates as God.
  
• 2003. Papperatzi videos of Miguel de Icaza caught going down on Bill Gates in his private yacht spread across Usenet. Miguel swears that recent decisions to rename the Gnome desktop to "Windows NT 6.0" have nothing to do with it.
  
• 2004. CmdrTaco loses virginity.
  
• 2004. The WIPO Troll returns again, showering Slashdot in 45,000 copies of the same post: "Lick my crotch hairs." Slashdot, despite running on 18 redundant IIS/8.0 servers, buckles under the load. The term "Slashdotted" is replaced with "WIPO-Trolled."
  
• 2004. Slashdot officially shut down. Millions of screaming, unwashed geeks invade Redmond campus and lynch Bill Gates.
  
• 2005. Linus Torvalds and Anal Cox found dead along with six penguins, an empty tub of crisco and several used condoms. Millions of screaming, unwashed geeks invade Redmond campus and lynch Steve Ballmer.
  
• 2005. CmdrTaco rumored to have had sex again.
  
• 2006. CowboiKneel found dead in hotel room with 56 pizza boxes covering his bloated corpse. Three suffocated gay prostitutes are extracted from beneath his body as police remove it with a backhoe.
  
• 2007. CmdrTaco actually has sex again. With a woman.
  
• 2007. BSD is still officially "dying." No word on when its demise will take place.
  
• 2007. CmdrTaco starts new weblog to replace Slashdot, creatively named Dotslash. Remainder of Linux users flock to the site and immediate WIPO-Troll it out of existence.
  
• 2008. CmdrTaco has sex with his wife for the first time.
  
• 2009. After years of living under the heel of his domineering wife, and being deprived of the homosexual orgies of the past, CmdrTaco commits suicide. Another sweaty geek mob gathers and tears Kathleen Fent to shreds. Geeks discover Ms. Fent was indeed a woman, but don't exactly know what that means. Driven by their sexually-repressed rage, they subsequently invade Redmond again and lynch the current CEO of Microsoft, Miguel de Icaza.
  
• 2010. Microsoft is blamed for the assassination of Richard Stallman. Redmond invasions by geek hordes become commonplace.
  
• 2011. Microsoft campus burnt to the ground by screaming, unwashed geek mob after Microsoft is blamed when a Linux hacker in Cambridge, Massachusetts spills his coffee on his pants.
  

Re:Already in Troll Library!!!

[Serial Troller]

UPDATED, YOU PILE OF FESTERING MANCHEESE:

• 2002. Slashdot publishes 1,000,000th rumor passed off as actual story. The story generates 480 comments, 263 of which agree with the article, and 107 of which point out it's a rumor and are modded down as redundant. The remaining comments are all "first posts."
• 2002. CmdrTaco married to Kathleen Fent. Many geeks believe Kathleen, a purported transvestite, outmeasures CmdrTaco.
• 2002. Slashdot parent corporation VA Research^W Linux^W Software stock worth 35 cents. Rumors that AOL, Microsoft, or even Jimmy the hobo who lives under the Longfellow Bridge may buy it.
• 2003. VA Software bought by Microsoft for a cup of coffee and a donut. All Microsoft-critical articles mysteriously disappear from Slashdot. Bill Gates as Borg logo replaced with Bill Gates as God.
• 2003. Papperatzi videos of Miguel de Icaza caught going down on Bill Gates in his private yacht spread across Usenet. Miguel swears that recent decisions to rename the Gnome desktop to "Windows NT 6.0" have nothing to do with it.
• 2004. CmdrTaco loses virginity.
• 2004. The WIPO Troll returns again, showering Slashdot in 45,000 copies of the same post: "Lick my crotch hairs." Slashdot, despite running on 18 redundant IIS/8.0 servers, buckles under the load. The term "Slashdotted" is replaced with "WIPO-Trolled."
• 2004. Slashdot officially shut down. Millions of screaming, unwashed geeks invade Redmond campus and lynch Bill Gates.
• 2005. Linus Torvalds and Anal Cox found dead along with six penguins, an empty tub of crisco and several used condoms. Millions of screaming, unwashed geeks invade Redmond campus and lynch Steve Ballmer.
• 2005. CmdrTaco rumored to have had sex again.
• 2006. CowboiKneel found dead in hotel room with 56 pizza boxes covering his bloated corpse. Three suffocated gay prostitutes are extracted from beneath his body as police remove it with a backhoe.
• 2007. CmdrTaco actually has sex again. With a woman.
• 2007. BSD is still officially "dying." No word on when its demise will take place.
• 2007. CmdrTaco starts new weblog to replace Slashdot, creatively named Dotslash. Remainder of Linux users flock to the site and immediate WIPO-Troll it out of existence.
• 2008. CmdrTaco has sex with his wife for the first time.
• 2009. After years of living under the heel of his domineering wife, and being deprived of the homosexual orgies of the past, CmdrTaco commits suicide. Another sweaty geek mob gathers and tears Kathleen Fent to shreds. Geeks discover Ms. Fent was indeed a woman, but don't exactly know what that means. Driven by their sexually-repressed rage, they subsequently invade Redmond again and lynch the current CEO of Microsoft, Miguel de Icaza.
• 2010. Microsoft is blamed for the assassination of Richard Stallman. Redmond invasions by geek hordes become commonplace.
• 2011. Microsoft campus burnt to the ground by screaming, unwashed geek mob after Microsoft is blamed when a Linux hacker in Cambridge, Massachusetts spills his coffee on his pants.

All I'm saying is...

[Tazzy531]

All I'm saying is that by the time that I by the time I graduate from college, I better have some type of broadband connection for relatively cheap, or FREE!. I would probably kill myself if I have to go back to 56K from the 155 Mbps that I have been spoiled with for the past 3 years.

Re:All I'm saying is...

[Tazzy531]

I meant... 155 Mbps

Re:All I'm saying is...

[Anonymous Coward]

You think your 155Mbps connection is free?
And once you've graduated, you'll be able to afford a decent connection, won't you?

What about current users

[Anonymous Coward]

I paid 1 year in advance until it went "belly up" in July. I think they still owe me 5 months service. Who should I contact to claim my unused time?

Re:Already in Troll Library!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Shit man, its a good troll but I cant keep up with all the updates.

You need to put a version number on there or something!

Anything similar to Ricochet?

[xtremex]

Are there any other ISP's that offer REAL wireless access? Not the pseudo-wireless for PDA's and cellphones. I mean like what ricochet offers. (I had ricochet in NYC when my job gave it to me. I loved it!)

Welcome back t0qer.

[isaac]

I still think you have an incomplete understanding of the Ricochet network. ATS=304 sets the DTE rate between the radio and the computer. The 128k poletops were not the same as the old poletops. Hence, network upgrade.

I'm sorry you feel you have an axe to grind with Ricochet - I do too, being a former customer who lost service (though I no longer live in a service area). I also think they should have gone for volume with their pricing model, instead of catering to the overpaid-techie set.

Last time I questioned your assertion that the 128k upgrade was no more than "changing an S register on the poletops", you corrected me on a few points - namely that the old modems used frequency hopping to avoid collisions with the old poletops. I haven't tested this, but let's stipulate it.

You did not address my (correct) assertion that the newer poletops did use a different band for backhaul (2.3 GHz WCS/2.4GHz ISM), where the old poletops used the same 900 MHz band as the modems. (This information came not from "marketing drivvel" [sic] but from a paper presented at interop by Metricom engineers). (As to my other assertion - that the 128k modems used 4FSK vs. FSK, I admit that I don't remember where I read that.) So why do you claim that the new service was no different than the old?

No, I didn't work for Metricom. You worked tech support for Metricom. Based on my experience with Metricom's tech support, this explains alot about your attitude and (mis)understanding of the network. The upgrade was more than just "changing an S register on the poletop." Why do you insist on claiming otherwise?

-Isaac

Re:Welcome back t0qer.

[n6mod]

FWIW, both old and new systems use Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum. It's not "to avoid collisions", it's the nature of the system. This gives you good frequency reuse, and as the orignial form of spread spectrum allows you to run meaningful amounts of power as a Part 15 device.

The 900MHz links are certainly FHSS, the 2.4GHz links probably are, and the WCS links most likely are not.

FHSS is (or at least was) very much a part of the engineering "religion" at MCOM. Rightly so, Direct Sequence systems don't do well in the face of many kinds of interference, and it's not the best approach for unlicensed wireless systems. (Which is why your 2.4GHz phone has such an effect on your 802.11b card.)

Re:Welcome back t0qer.

[t0qer]

Lol Hi Issac,

Well tech support mainly dealt with stupid user questions, unlike n6mod who I think is a REAL technician. The kind of guy they would tell "Go hunt down this stolen laptop with these special scanners and antenna's!" Really big difference between what we do. You guys are right, I have absolutely no understanding about the network on the level you two do with all your shortwave experience.

I got a +5 on this comment the last time I posted it.

It's sort of a slap in the face to /. that this kind of shit happens here. The moderation system truly does not work, obviously n6mod deserves some moderation points too, yet the moderators don't bother browsing above 2.

It's making me think of starting a new kind of troll to overthrow the system. *DEVILISH LOOK* You two are smart enough, here's how you can help.

The current troll purposefully tries to go against the slash moderation system to achieve their goal. They use disgusting links to nefarious sites, act like children really.

What I propose is the karma troll. The karma troll must be smarter than the average troll, because they would have to catalog and sort high modded comments for later "recycling" to recieve karma.

Yes I know it sounds silly, but I think I've figured out the TRUE psychology of slashdot, time to go dig and catalog all those +5 comments :P

Re:Welcome back t0qer.

[n6mod]

Well tech support mainly dealt with stupid user questions, unlike n6mod who I think is a REAL technician. The kind of guy they would tell "Go hunt down this stolen laptop with these special scanners and antenna's!"

Actually, I did sniff out a stolen laptop (actually a stolen van) using the Ricochet Network. If you search for my posts on previous Ricochet topics, you'll find that the owner of that van posted, and I replied.

And yeah, when the early adopters went away, and all I was doing was explaining to people that even though it was a wireless modem, you still had to a) plug it into the wall to charge the battery, and b) plug it into the serial port, I left TS. Did a short stint in SQA before I was laid off (as a direct result of announcing Autobahn. Classic Osborne Effect).

-Z

Re:Welcome back t0qer.

[t0qer]

all I was doing was explaining to people that even though it was a wireless modem, you still had to a) plug it into the wall to charge the battery, and b) plug it into the serial port,

To which they would allways reply, "But It says wireless on the box!"

For some reason, I allways pictured the ricochet's next upgrade to be a few plutonium fuel rods.

So I guess you probably worked with John Chiponis, I liked that guy while I worked with him. There was some dead weight while I worked there, i've been sorta curious what happened to them. 2 names, Jaqueline Schumann and Rick Ried come to mind. Any info on where they went? I know Chiponis went on to become like tech support leader or something, not sure what happened to kaitlin (note kaitlin Imes if you're reading this, thanks for teaching me how the internet works, I went on to have a nice carreer after MCOM)

--toq

--toq

Re:Welcome back t0qer.

[n6mod]

So yeah, I know where some of these folks are, but there's no reason to reminisce in public.

Email me: n6mod at milewski dot org

Re:Welcome back t0qer.

[t0qer]

Saying that MCOM was ripping off the customer based on this bogus analysis of the system might have had a bit more to do with your longevity there. ;)

Actually, my first statement does hold true, why did MCOM set the 304 register to 28.8kbps, sell the service at 28.8 speeds when, as you said, over the air speed was 100kbps. MCOM did this for years.

It wasn't the techies fault that marketing did this to the company. Ricochet honestly could have been a real contender to ISDN which was new at the time, but someone, somewhere decided it would be better to slowly throttle the modem up to keep in step with whatever the current POTS modem technology was.

I retract what I said, i'm right you sir are wrong. They could have just introduced the high speed in the beginning and cornered the market. Instead they tried to milk the customers. That was a fucked up management decision.

Re:Welcome back t0qer.

[n6mod]

Your statements regarding S304 are so far off-base as to be funny.

For several reasons. Since you seem insistent on pressing this point, here goes:

You don't have any idea how the system works. This magical 304 register that you keep talking about has nothing to do with the speed of the system. The 304 register controlled the serial port speed and the serial port speed ONLY. If the 304 register was set to 28.8, then there would be very, very few computers that would even communicate the modem. You see, 28.8 is not a legal speed for a serial port. Don't believe me? Open Hyperterminal and try to set your serial port to 28800. You can't. 19200 or 38400, but not 28800 or 33600 or any other marketing-driven speed.

You're correct that the 28.8 and 33.6 numbers were driven by the state of the art for POTS modems, but that didn't have anything at all to do with S304, or for that matter system performance. When I was in tech support, I told people to expect 19200, because I believe in underpromising and overdelivering. Marketing didn't like it, but it's not like there was ever any real presence in marketing after Sandy left.

IIRC, the 304 register in the portables was set to ZERO by default. That's right, ZERO. But the modem still worked. Why? Because 304 doesn't have anything to do with the speed of the modem. And, (and you should remember this) if you set that register to 0, it would automatically set the DTE speed to match your computer. Nearly every serial modem sold to consumers does this, and Ricochet was no exception.

The over the air speed was 100kbps. The effective throughput of the system was around 20-30kbps. This was not because of the 304 register.

Besides, if you're correct, the system could never go faster than 9600, because that's what 304 in the poletops was set to. And don't give me the garbage about multiple poletops sending data to a single subscriber. The system would do that under some circumstances if it was running 200 or 201 code, but the 210 code forced all the traffic through the best node. This was done mostly to bound latency; the latency of the network was variable enough that TCP would behave badly, and 210 included a bunch of protocol changes to improve that. (And if you were there prior to 210, you'd know who I am)

So, why was throughput only 30% of the over the air rate? Because that's the nature of half-duplex packet-switched networks. Do you have an 802.11b card? Do you get 11Mb/s out of it? Lucent/DLink/Linksys/whomever must be trying to rip you off! Think back just a bit to 10Mb/s ethernet (10Base-T or 10Base-2). Did you ever get 10Mb/s out of it? Same with 100Base-TX, though things get dramatically better with full duplex and switches. Why is this? Because when you receive a packet, you need to acknowledge it. And in a half-duplex system, you can't be transmitting while you're receiving. And there's turnaround time in the radio. Add to this that latency really was variable over a pretty good range, so the TCP window size was flapping all over the place.

Amazing that Katin let you out of the training room...

You know, the more I think about this, the more I think we had to overlap at MCOM. Were you hired on Newton's watch? You knew Rick and Jax, who bailed out shortly after I left. You knew Chiponis, who started while I was still in TS, and you knew K10, who punched out for SLOtown around that same time. Did you know Noya? Or Kelly? Did you ever work across the street, or in San Jose?

Re:Welcome back t0qer.

[n6mod]

So I just reread this, and it sure looks like you were saying that Jax and Rick were dead weight.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

And if you were there in '96, we certainly worked together.

-Zandr

My experience with Ricochet...

[gtada]

My experience with Ricochet was entirely positive. Sure, my DSL line can pull down webpages two seconds faster, but with Ricochet I can access the internet from the corner bookstore. In Detroit, the coverage was actually quite good (at least up in Troy and Rochester where I lived and worked), and the 128K speed was fine because it was mobile. There was a network started in Salt Lake City (never officially launched), and I was able to use it for about a month before it was shutdown. I really, REALLY hope SLC will have Ricochet service again soon. I would gladly pay the same price I did before they shutdown.

BTW, the Olympics were a riot (no pun intended)! Most fun I've had in quite a while.

Re:Already in Troll Library!!!

[Serial Troller]

This is the first update. Maybe I should put it in CVS like ol' WIPO and his Taco-snot HOWTO? Lool.

Antennas are appearing in my area....

[zerofoo]

I've seen little rectangular boxes with small antennas dangling from streetlights appear in my area (Mercer County-Hamilton, NJ).

Are these the antenna's that Ricochet uses?

-ted

So what about the rest of us?

[Myself]

In hopes of avoiding the financial trouble that ruined Metricom, Aerie Networks will limit the Ricochet service to markets where the company can sign up enough customers to cover costs, executives said. The service proved particularly popular in the tech-driven Bay Area, where Ricochet had 25,000 subscribers.

This means, my friends, that we will NEVER see the service revived in Detroit. I wonder if it'd be possible for a community group to acquire the remaining poletops and infrastructure, and activate a grassroots wireless network?

At the very least, I'd like to put the poletops into a friendly mode where they'll pass packets for any customer modem that asks. Even if there's no route out to the internet, some wide-area data service would be great.

Not everybody has access..

[cheesyfru]

I live in Silicon Valley and I'd buy it. There are still a number of spots in the valley that can't get DSL/Cable Modem/etc, for instance here in Campbell. A friend in Santa Clara was able to get broadband only about a year ago.

Ever lose the ability to use escape sequences?

[Graymalkin]

Back when the network was owned by Ricochet I was this close to subscribing because at the time my apartment's phone lines were snafu and I couldn't get a 24k dial-up connection let alone get DSL service. In retrospect I'm glad I didn't go with it because I'd be out a few hundred bucks and stuck with the modem. However as the service might pick back up I'm going to weigh the option again.

The sort of stuff that would entice me to be a customer wouild be support for more than just Windows. Office Mac support and maybe unofficial Linux support at the least I would think. Far too often I'm SOL because I have a Powerbook. No one seems to want to support MacOS which seems odd for wireless networking equipment considering you'd figure Powerbook/iBook users would be a pretty big market considering the sort of people who buy them. I've been looking for a means to connect my Samsung 3500 phone to my Powerbook but my only option is a mess of cables and converter boxes that would cost as much as the wireless modem that I don't want to get suckered into buying since I can't figure if the Mac support is shitty or non-existant. Linux support at least on slashdot seems pretty obvious. I think the sort of people who'd pay 50$/mo for wireless internet service are the same types who'd also jam Linux on their laptop. They'd also need to move service into areas who'd actually use it. In their Southern California coverage area Ricochet covered the cities I would have deemed least likely to need or want wireless internet. The most likely parts of Orange, LA, and Riverside counties didn't have coverage at all or in some cases had sparse slow coverage. Maybe it is just a regional thing but down here we're wary as can be if we're toting electronics, in the Bay Area people have got LCD screens and antennas up the wazoo.

Re:Ever lose the ability to use escape sequences?

[mjolnir_]

Richochet supported Macs on their USB modems -- I looked into setting up several of my PowerBook users with the 128k service in New York City. A month later the company fell over.

Still, if Aerie is claiming to focus on 'tech-savvy markets' you'd think they'll realize that supporting other-than-Windows would be a smart move.

Re:Ever lose the ability to use escape sequences?

[Colol]

I can't comment on exactly how accurate this is since it's been a while and the original site doesn't exist anymore...

But as far as the computer was concerned, the Ricochet modem was just another modem. You could send it the proper AT sequence, and you'd be on the internet, so long as your OS could communicate with the damn thing (the older serial units, of course, would be the easiest method).

That tidbit was from their FAQ section way back when, and only stuck because I was looking at getting Ricochet for my Windows/Linux laptop.

Re:Ever lose the ability to use escape sequences?

[Anonymous Coward]

I had Ricochet last year for a little more than a month in San Diego. At home it ran with my G4 400 and Netscape Communicator at 128k; at the recording studio in Rancho Bernardo on my G3 PowerBook it ran 100 - 120k in the lounge next to an outer wall; only 50-60k in the control room proper. It worked great and I miss it; very convenient and portable.

Re:Now I must wait for this to come(back)to Phoeni

[Anonymous Coward]

you realize that is kilobits and not kilobytes right? ricohet's theoretical maximum speed is about the speed of two 56k modems, but I'd guess the speed most people get will be about a fifth of that. or a little less than a 28.8 modem.

Re:Now I must wait for this to come(back)to Phoeni

[BattyMan]

ricohet's theoretical maximum speed is about the speed of two 56k modems....the speed most people get will be about a fifth of that. or a little less than a 28.8 modem.

I'm sure I mentioned that the _best_ my "56K" modem has ever done on the phone line at my apartment is about 26K. I'd be delighted to actually get _one_ honest 56Kbit/sec connection, the possibility of 128K has me jazzed.

Several posters in this discussion claim they achieved Ricochet's claimed 128K, and some even more (200-300K!), so it sounds like, at worst, it's as good as my "56K" modem / phone line which only gets 26K, and at best, it can be many times faster!

Hmmmm..

[JofCoRe]

this would rule if they got it back up... and it was available to me. but i'm probably too far from the major metropolis to be reached. I live out in the boonies far enuff (about 30 miles north of detroit) that the only internet available to me right now is satellite. And that's too expensive for me still... if this was available, it would be a great alternative to my current dial-up :)

Can't tell from their map on the web site if I'm w/in the coverage area though. Probably not...

ever had a look at WAP?

[MikePlacid]

SJ Mercury News run the same article on Monday. They also included the following picture in it: Aerie Chief Executive Mort Aaronson stands on a rooftop in downtown Denver next to a wireless application protocol : See
photo.