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Wireless Link Calculator On A Cell Phone
Casey Halverson writes "Ever been out in the field and wanted to make a quick wireless link calculation, but didn't have a computer or internet connection handy? Or maybe you're just too lazy to turn the thing on? Well now you can, from your xHTML capable cell phone. PocketSOM can calculate a wireless link, telling you your signal strength, whether or not it meets local FCC/IC/EU regulations, and even an expert analysis system that will tell you how you can improve your wireless link and what kind of performance you can expect. People like us (the SeattleWireless admins) are using it right now - here's a screenshot."
This is pointless Any good engineer can do it with a slide rule!
"Ever been out in the field and wanted to make a quick wireless link calculation, but didn't have a computer or internet connection handy?"
Yes, I have that problem all the time! Why should an average Joe like me struggle with complex trigonometry when this handy little device let's me do wireless link calculations in the field like a pro? No more time consuming manual wireless link calculations for me. Are you still doing wireless link calculations with a fiddly old wireless link calculation slide rule? Throw it in the garbage! You don't need it anymore thanks to this handy gizmo. Don't be a laughing stock because you can't do quick wireless link calculations in the field... act now!
By the way, what's a wireless link calculation? (Don't you love it when an article assumes you know exactly what it's talking about?)
Read Pynchon.
WAP / XHTML applications like this can be a lifesaver. Why don't we spend more time deveoping these and less time porting inane games to our phones? (Because games create money)
Just to clear things up: It is a calculator, not a measuring device.
Make sure you keep the image quality high enough to capture every nuance of the subtle faux wood-grain background (and by background I mean 68.3% of the image), not forgetting the coffee cup stain.
Be sure to include the whole of the phone including every dialing digit, because that gives context to the screenshot.
Well done. You passed the 0.5 Mb threshold, but still shy of the 0.6 standard. Try a brightly coloured background (a stained tartan kilt plus sporan should do) next time. Remember you want to get to at least 1.5 Mb so it won't fit on a floppy.
Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
"Ever been out in the field and wanted to make a quick wireless link calculation..."
Umm, no. I have; however, been out in the field and wished my cell phone would get a goddamn signal.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Wouldn't this be better suited as a Java MIDlet? What if you have no signal? What if the server is down? No additional bandwidth charges (for those with carriers that do). And probably quicker response times. And no worries of the site being slashdotted.
Document the calculations and I'll make a MIDlet in a couple of hours. I can find basic equations, but they take into account additional variables (cable loss, receiver related variables) which you don't use.
Welcome to Wireless Link Calculator.
This is free software distributed under the GPL. See COPYING for details.
Enter first number of wireless links
> 5
Enter second number of wireless links
> 3
Together that amounts to 8 wireless links.
Have a nice day.