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A House Divided: UWB's Double Standards

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the battle-of-the-standards dept.

Mai writes "What happens when two coalitions within a standard come into conflict, and it doesn't get resolved quickly? The ultrawideband technology standard shows you."

13 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Answer to the question... by testing124 · · Score: 5, Funny

    DVD+/-RW happens.

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    1. Re:Answer to the question... by Gherald · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't forget Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD.

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  2. A fight to the death? by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is that the answer? Because let me tell you, a bunch of geeks in a hand-to-hand fight to the death would kick ass. Pay per view ratings would be through the roof!

  3. We're Not Sure... by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Funny

    We don't have all the answers, but we know it involves executives from Intel and Motorola sticking their hands up the FTC and ITU commissioners' asses and some sort of sock-puppet Kabuki theatre.

  4. Of course it's divided. by FireballX301 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It was considered a military secret early on, because it has applications such as "spotting stealth planes" and "looking through walls."

    They can't decide which.

  5. Hideous flashback... by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    "ultrawideband" made me think of my ex-wife's ass.

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    1. Re:Hideous flashback... by hobbesx · · Score: 5, Funny
      "ultrawideband" made me think of my ex-wife's ass.


      So, you had competing standards, and it saw lots of bandwidth?

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  6. Standards? by TubaJon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Double standards...It's like when me and a friend turn in the exact same homework, and he gets an A+ while I get a B-.

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  7. Re:Why wait? by eln · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Trust me, as someone who was working for an ISP that chose the k56 flex standard, it was a very very bad thing. Our tech support calls went through the roof, because k56 flex never really worked right. Those were the days when every ISP out there had these big books of modem init strings that they had to use on (it seemed) every other call. Let me tell you, trying 15 different init strings with people who only had one phone line in their house was no picnic. While the rush to 56k may have been good for the industry, it sure sucked for those of us working in the trenches at the time.

  8. Implications for SETI? by SpamJunkie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the article:

    a signal spread out so broadly that it just looks like background noise if you aren't the one it's aimed at.

    Would pose a problem for SETI if this is what all the other intelligent civilizations are doing.

    1. Re:Implications for SETI? by tetromino · · Score: 5, Insightful

      a signal spread out so broadly that it just looks like background noise if you aren't the one it's aimed at.

      Would pose a problem for SETI if this is what all the other intelligent civilizations are doing.

      If SETI can detect any sign of an alien DVD player communicating with an alien TV set on Tau Ceti, I would guess that SETI is using a time machine to import radio telescopes from AD 2500 (in which case, they might as well be importing hyperspace drives).

      Seriosly though, high-power, unfocused, inefficient and uncompressed radio signals - the sort of thing SETI might be able to detect - are on the way out. Nowadays, signals travel over cables, or bounce from sattelites, and in any case use compression techniques that make the signal totally useless unless you know the protocol spec.

      Perhaps the best sign of a high-technology civilization that we can detect is a planet that suddenly emits a burst of gamma rays and then stops emitting any signals forever...

  9. Two coalitions enter! One coalition leaves! by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 4, Funny
    What happens when two coalitions within a standard come into conflict, and it doesn't get resolved quickly?

    Bloodshed? Radiological bombs? Thunderdome? Dogs and cat sleeping together? Befuddled Slashdot posts? Snow in California? More Star Wars prequels? The Battle Of Hastings? The Magna Carta? The Cotton Gin? I dunno, man! I wasn't expecting a quiz! You're harshing my buzz!

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  10. That's what you get. by Dylan+Thomas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's what you get when you put the standard before the technology. Step one: let companies use whatever standard is convenient for them, and sell their products to whomever they can convince to buy. Step two: once the market has tested the products, standardize based on best current practices.

    Sure, it has the net result of lots of poor guys owning a collection of relatively useless Betamax videos, but really, I'd rather own an obsolete product because it made its best shot and failed than own a mediocre product because it conformed to a political compromise that had no market time behind it. (And furthermore, it encourages the Betamax owners to switch to DVD more quickly than the content and universally supported VHS owners, thereby even further spurring development.)

    For real life examples, read some W3C Recommendations. The ones that were presented as ready-made standards before any market was actually implementing them (like PICS) are lovely pieces of technological poetry. The ones which were widely tested in the market and implemented first, even if in lots of non-compatible subversions, and only then standardized (like HTML), on the other hand, are actually used.

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