I had an apartment with no balcony and a Southern facing window.
I had line of sight to the primary sat, but the signal would not go through the glass. I just went to good ol' Home Depot and bought a sheet of plexiglass and some 2x4's. After building a simple frame and inserting it into the window I was good to go.
My first attempt involved 2 spaced sheets of plexiglass, but I couldn't get a signal. 1 sheet worked great.
I lost about 10 points of signal, rain fade was hardly a problem.
Motorola iDEN phones (used by Nextel, Telus, and Southern Linc) have stand alone GPS receives in them.
If you are in their coverage area the aGPS features are used to provide faster acquisition.
But it will also determine your position if you wander out of the coverage area. There is even an option to spit out NMEA out the USB/serial port on the phone.
It is available on these phones i88s, i58sr, i205, i305, i530, and i73X.
On my i730, I have found the GPS receiver to be very sensitive. In a single story home I can even get my position inside. It also reports an accuracy around 2-3m. Not bad.
Does anyone make a very small Bluetooth keychain type device? I really like the "Proximity Sensor" mode... but I don't want to need a Sony/Ecicson phone to use it...:-)
Something like a keyless entry keychain, but with Bluetooth... someone must make one, right?!?
"Statements of coverage area indicate a knowledge of how the wireless companies have deployed sites. Which carriers have shared this information with the author? "
Actually, with info from the FCC, you can figure it out. For example...
You are missing my point... the RAM way would be far less prone to failure. Remember that/. article about google using tons of RAM and no HD's... Hard Drives fail far too often.
When is the last time you had a stick of RAM die? As long as it is powered, it would work. Speed and low latency would just be perks.
Keeping it powered would be an issue, but not a big one. The "drive" could have an internal battery and be fed from an external power supply.
Using RAM over flash has advantages too... flash wears out, RAM doesn't (or at least nowhere near as fast:-).
Speed isn't my biggest concern... it is reliability. HD are one of last mechanical parts of the PC left... it would be nice to kiss the mechanical part good bye...
Why hasn't anyone developed a device that has DIMM slots for PCXXXX RAM and an IDE/Firewire/USB interface on it?
Seems like that would be the way to go... stick a battery on it, and give it an external power supply... then you have VERY fast and extremely reliable storage. (As long as it is powered).
I have had enough hard drives fail that I would love to have one... maybe once MRAM comes out these devices will start popping up.
They are in use, but until recently computing power hadn't caught up so DSP's were needed...
Good old Moore's Law has come to the rescue again.
The best part of SDR is it lets you design/test NEW modulation techniques changing hardware... maybe someone will cook up a new modulation scheme optimized for P2P MP3 and prOn sharing. (j/k).
It is some pretty neat stuff, and I hope more companies pick up on this. Maybe someone could create a universal cell phone that reconfigures itself to the network is on (FPGA based possibly). The RF hardware could stay fixed in the shell of the phone, the software could do the rrest...
It allows you to encode/decode different signals on the airwaves...
For example, they have demonstrated it decoding two FM radio broadcasts at the same time using their ADC and a cable modem tuner.
It replaces the hardware components involved in decoding signals... you could built a cell phone that only needs a tuner and and ADC, the rest in software. Depending on the tuning range of the tuner you use, your computer could become MANY different kinds of radios.
That is the cool thing about SDR... when a new fancy modulation technique comes along, you only have to upgrade the software... cell companies love this. I would assume those base stations can get pricey...
Making a big switch like that is asking a lot of these debt-heavy companies. That is why I am glad Nextel is sticking to iDEN (TDMA) for now.
Another problem is there are too many damn cell companies...:-) It is ridiculous to see 4 towers right next to eachother doing almost the same thing. Oh well, I digress.
Don't be so down on TDMA... you just can't beat its spectral efficiency. With spectrum costing millions (maybe billions) these days... seems like you would want to be with the guys that are using it wisely.
They have a "Data Only" option that gives you all the wireless data features they offer. (AOL, email, 2way, text messages, web, address book) It is $25/month to add to any other plan.
There are 2 other plans, Premium and Standard.
Premium provides: 500 Anytime Minutes 100 Direct Connect Minutes 300 Text Messages 5 Meg of Data Caller ID Voicemail $44.99/month
Standard provides: 100 Anytime Minutes 100 Direct Connect Minutes 300 Text Messages 1 Meg of Data Caller ID Voicemail $30.99/month
It looks pricey, but I could easily justify it with the "coolness" factor. Compared to rent/mortgage/electric bill it is nothing.:-)
Having seen it, I must say it is a nice phone. I fixes must of my biggest complaints against the i90c. (Overall, an excellent phone)
I find text entry isn't that bad when using T9. For quick replies, it is quite nice.
It should also be mentioned some of the features Nextel can give you. If you sign up for the developer plan (http://developer.nextel.com) you get 5 MB worth of data and a ROUTABLE IP for the phone. Neat stuff.
Having used both Canopy and Breezecom hardware, Canopy wins hands down. I am about 2 miles away from a site, and I still get 99% downlink and uplink efficiency... it is FAST. Very fast.
Not to mention the unit is about the size of a shoe (unlike the home-base sized Breezecom stuff), gets power over ethernet, and has a nice web interface.
Slashdot Mirror
Same way an SUV does, crash and burn. :-)
I think you mean A-GPS (Assisted GPS).
That is what is in some of the E911 phones. IIRC it is only needed for Phase II of E911.
Some of the phones (mostly Motorola iDEN phones) have full GPS receivers in them so they can work off the cell network too.
It really depends on the type of glass used in the window. Glass that has a high lead content won't pass RF.
As far as I can tell, you won't know until you try...
I had an apartment with no balcony and a Southern facing window.
I had line of sight to the primary sat, but the signal would not go through the glass. I just went to good ol' Home Depot and bought a sheet of plexiglass and some 2x4's. After building a simple frame and inserting it into the window I was good to go.
My first attempt involved 2 spaced sheets of plexiglass, but I couldn't get a signal. 1 sheet worked great.
I lost about 10 points of signal, rain fade was hardly a problem.
Motorola iDEN phones (used by Nextel, Telus, and Southern Linc) have stand alone GPS receives in them.
If you are in their coverage area the aGPS features are used to provide faster acquisition.
But it will also determine your position if you wander out of the coverage area. There is even an option to spit out NMEA out the USB/serial port on the phone.
It is available on these phones i88s, i58sr, i205, i305, i530, and i73X.
On my i730, I have found the GPS receiver to be very sensitive. In a single story home I can even get my position inside. It also reports an accuracy around 2-3m. Not bad.
All-
:-)
Does anyone make a very small Bluetooth keychain type device? I really like the "Proximity Sensor" mode... but I don't want to need a Sony/Ecicson phone to use it...
Something like a keyless entry keychain, but with Bluetooth... someone must make one, right?!?
Later,
-Affe
"Statements of coverage area indicate a knowledge of how the wireless companies have deployed sites. Which carriers have shared this information with the author? "
Actually, with info from the FCC, you can figure it out. For example...
Nextel Coverage Maps (Transmitter Locations)
Have fun!
Did you have any problems with the carpet getting all oily?
I was thinking about setting one up this weekend using dry ice and a Target fog machine...
I figure the dry ice should cool it down enough so it clings the to floor longer...
You are missing my point... the RAM way would be far less prone to failure. Remember that /. article about google using tons of RAM and no HD's... Hard Drives fail far too often.
:-).
When is the last time you had a stick of RAM die? As long as it is powered, it would work. Speed and low latency would just be perks.
Keeping it powered would be an issue, but not a big one. The "drive" could have an internal battery and be fed from an external power supply.
Using RAM over flash has advantages too... flash wears out, RAM doesn't (or at least nowhere near as fast
Later.
Don't RAID controllers use the PCI bus?
Thousands isn't _that_ bad... but it would be a sure deal if they were around $500. :-)
How much power do they draw? How long could a fairly small (300VA) UPS keep it going?
Just wondering, maybe you have experience with that...
What's the damage on one of those... they look expensive.
The PCI interface is nice, but IDE would be cooler... only because it could use a regular IDE driver...
Those cards do look REALLY nice...
These guys look like they have a nice product, but I assume it will be a little pricey...
http://www.bitmicro.com/products_edide.html
Speed isn't my biggest concern... it is reliability. HD are one of last mechanical parts of the PC left... it would be nice to kiss the mechanical part good bye...
Why hasn't anyone developed a device that has DIMM slots for PCXXXX RAM and an IDE/Firewire/USB interface on it?
Seems like that would be the way to go... stick a battery on it, and give it an external power supply... then you have VERY fast and extremely reliable storage. (As long as it is powered).
I have had enough hard drives fail that I would love to have one... maybe once MRAM comes out these devices will start popping up.
Ryan
Think about... this could pave the way for secure cell phones. If you have access to the bits, you can encrypt them...
Ryan
They are in use, but until recently computing power hadn't caught up so DSP's were needed...
Good old Moore's Law has come to the rescue again.
The best part of SDR is it lets you design/test NEW modulation techniques changing hardware... maybe someone will cook up a new modulation scheme optimized for P2P MP3 and prOn sharing. (j/k).
It is some pretty neat stuff, and I hope more companies pick up on this. Maybe someone could create a universal cell phone that reconfigures itself to the network is on (FPGA based possibly). The RF hardware could stay fixed in the shell of the phone, the software could do the rrest...
It allows you to encode/decode different signals on the airwaves...
For example, they have demonstrated it decoding two FM radio broadcasts at the same time using their ADC and a cable modem tuner.
It replaces the hardware components involved in decoding signals... you could built a cell phone that only needs a tuner and and ADC, the rest in software. Depending on the tuning range of the tuner you use, your computer could become MANY different kinds of radios.
That is the cool thing about SDR... when a new fancy modulation technique comes along, you only have to upgrade the software... cell companies love this. I would assume those base stations can get pricey...
Making a big switch like that is asking a lot of these debt-heavy companies. That is why I am glad Nextel is sticking to iDEN (TDMA) for now.
:-) It is ridiculous to see 4 towers right next to eachother doing almost the same thing. Oh well, I digress.
Another problem is there are too many damn cell companies...
Don't be so down on TDMA... you just can't beat its spectral efficiency. With spectrum costing millions (maybe billions) these days... seems like you would want to be with the guys that are using it wisely.
They have a "Data Only" option that gives you all the wireless data features they offer. (AOL, email, 2way, text messages, web, address book) It is $25/month to add to any other plan.
:-)
There are 2 other plans, Premium and Standard.
Premium provides:
500 Anytime Minutes
100 Direct Connect Minutes
300 Text Messages
5 Meg of Data
Caller ID
Voicemail
$44.99/month
Standard provides:
100 Anytime Minutes
100 Direct Connect Minutes
300 Text Messages
1 Meg of Data
Caller ID
Voicemail
$30.99/month
It looks pricey, but I could easily justify it with the "coolness" factor. Compared to rent/mortgage/electric bill it is nothing.
Later.
Too bad iDEN was around FAR before Apple went on its "i" kick. :-)
Having seen it, I must say it is a nice phone. I fixes must of my biggest complaints against the i90c. (Overall, an excellent phone)
I find text entry isn't that bad when using T9. For quick replies, it is quite nice.
It should also be mentioned some of the features Nextel can give you. If you sign up for the developer plan (http://developer.nextel.com) you get 5 MB worth of data and a ROUTABLE IP for the phone. Neat stuff.
Just a thought...
Having used both Canopy and Breezecom hardware, Canopy wins hands down. I am about 2 miles away from a site, and I still get 99% downlink and uplink efficiency... it is FAST. Very fast.
Not to mention the unit is about the size of a shoe (unlike the home-base sized Breezecom stuff), gets power over ethernet, and has a nice web interface.
For what it does, it is very cheap.
What about extracting right from the hard drive? That way you don't need to wait for the video to be transfered over the network.
You could record a bunch of stuff, shutdown and grab the files...