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Wi-Fi, Linux, And VoIP In Canada
WEFUNK writes "Canadian Business magazine has a cover story promoting Wi-Fi, VoIP, and Linux as 'Stuff that Works: 3 hot technologies that live up to their hype.' The article goes on to describe a number of Canadian success stories, ranging from Spotnik Mobile's growing network of Wi-Fi hotspots to the Canadian National Railway's use of Linux since 1993, and quantifies the benefits of VoIP to a Canadian insurance company's call centre. The article also includes some shipment numbers for Linux servers in Canada, mentions the growing number of Linux apps, and nicely downplays the SCO debacle."
I know that intel's facilities use VoIP for thier internal phone calls. I heard they had problems with the clarity, and had to add noise creation mechanisms to the chips because people thought the other party had hung up due to beautiful silence. :)
So this is one of those "look into the crystal ball" articles. A quick look at the numbers show that Linux adoption is levelling off, as are all server OSs across the board (with Solaris and BSD (is dying!)) actually decreasing in market share).
So you've got two technologies that are succeeding here, WiFi and VoIP. And you've got one that's doing okay, Linux.
It's certainly not 1998 and Linux is the new hot thing. It is 2003 and it is the old OS with a good rep. It hasn't lived up to all of its hype (it still sucks as a desktop OS despite your mama's running of it at home), but it has nicely fit a niche in server software that was completely dominated by some big names like IBM and Sun previously. That's not too bad.
I have been pwned because my
Can anyone recommend some good books on it - more overview stuff?
I'm serious - I'd like to read something good on it. I understand the basics - voice sent over IP, but want to read about whatever other abilities it has that makes it so damn complex. It seems pretty simple to me.
I guess a lot of the complexity comes from tying it into the POTS, but in my simple mind, a headset on a PC and some H.323/T.120/whatever spec it is software would take care of it on the client end.
Though it seems a lot of the stuff seems to be special network gear to tie it into the current POTS headsets. To me, someone could make a killing by just making a server with a PRI connector or two and client software. Sell headsets for $20 and profit.
Or am I really oversimplifying it?
In my city (~50 000 residents) we have one of the largest call centres in north america. For those of you who don't know, its telemarketing.
:-)
At any one time, there are 500 people actively dialing on the floor, and all are using VoIP for their outgoing call. It's quite amazing the network set up they have, as the only problem they ever seem to have is people knocking out fibre lines via car crashed
A portion of the transmit audio is also mixed in to the receive audio. If you don't do this, people think the phone is broken. Analog phones do this by unbalancing the hybrid that separates transmit and receive audio.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I am a poor student too, but managed to get a cheap laptop while in japan. I would love WiFi at the coffee shop, just not at the bar. A bar can be your place to get away. Then again, you don't have to do all your work on a computer, paper works well too!
And, of course, I use Linux for all serious tasks on my home network. Gateway, router, DNS, email, desktop, printserver. I have a couple of Winboxen for lite gaming, but that's it. Still trying to get Linux in the door at work. I know Citrix runs on Unix, but does anyone know if it has a Linux port yet?
You are not the customer.
Anyways, they're also building up a campus-wide wireless network for students and staff to use. This makes it so much easier to play online games during lectures :-)
I must say, Linux and WiFi have made my life easier and I hope it spreads even further.
There are a ton of reasons to use wifi in a coffee shop, much less anywhere else. Perhaps you should learn to treat wifi as a powerful tool which people can use 24/7. It is not too much. Wifi has alrady caught on, and begs for others (like yourself) to get onboard.
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
Saying "...not an inexpensive..." is a double negative, and double negatives used without a clear purpose tend to be needlessly confusing. The author could have written, "...not a cheap..." and it would carry an identical meaning, but be far more readable.
Read the same sentence again, substituting "cheap" for "inexpensive" and see how much more readable it is.
The author's point was fine. He just said it in a needlessly clumsy way, using a double negative without reason.
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Supposedly, these are professional writers having their text marked up by professional editors. Something that amateurish in a story's lead is a tip-off that the article's content may suffer from the same ineptitude as its style. And it did.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
Heh, this article is somewhat apropos for me. I just returned from Montreal, where I stayed for ten days in a condo. I brought my laptop and wireless card with me, thinking I might go to a hotspot and check my mail.
As it turns out, I had access to wireless right in the condo. It wasn't exactly a very strong signal, but it was good enough to surf and check my e-mail.
I noticed that the poor bastard that was running it happened to have the same wireless AP (an SMC Barricade) that I have. On a hunch, I checked the web server it runs, and he hadn't even set a password!
Had I known where it was coming from, I would have told them about it. As it was, my French sucks, and I didn't feel like knocking on a bunch of doors trying to explain wireless security. At any rate, they hadn't set up their timezone properly, so I did that for them....