Like Skype, PocketSkype can be used to make free, unlimited, and unmetered calls anywhere in the world.
For some values of anywhere. As long as anywhere means "another Skype client" or "paying for a PSTN termination".
Skype rhymes with Hype for a good reason.
On the contrary, it's a post about how patents can be misused or abused to give one company an [unfair] advantage over its rivals.
That was the whole idea behind them. It might be just that a 20 year term of protection is too stringent for things like computer science innovations. However, withness the revolution in textiles when the original Gore patent rant our on Gore-Tex a few years back. Radical improvement in the quality of the 'competeing' fabrics, many of which were simply Teflon-laminate membranes made by someone other than Gore.
You could build an argument that Gore deserved to earn significant revenues for their pioneering work in the textiles field. That's what the patent process is supposed to look like. Since the innovation is clearly documented, at the end of the term, everyone benefits. It's definately a double edged sword.
Patents might have problems, especially when someone is granted a patent for non-novel techniques, or worse, something with demonstrable prior-art. This is when the system starts to break down. Combined with the Bog Business technique of cross licensing you can really lock out the little guys. Those practises are more a problem that the underlying concept.
There have been much higher security versions of these things.
Sandia Labs developed a seal technology around fiber bundles and routing.
There are even commercial devices based on this today.
If the APS cameras are comparable in price and quality to traditional 35mm cameras,
This is exactly where they fall down, the quality cannot hold a candle to even an inexpensive 35mm camera. I noticed very poor grain and colour with my APS system, which I used for 5 years before returning to 35mm. The Olympus Stylus Epic (non Zoom) is really hard to beat, and cheap.
I don't think this has anything to do with the demise of film. It's about no longer producing products that aren't as profitable as they'd like. If they stopped making 35mm film, then we'd have something notable.
There is something interesting in the press release; Kodak indicates that they will:
[c]ontinue to manufacture APS films, consistent with consumer demand[.]
This looks like an indirect reference to plans for phasing out the production of APS films, which have never caught on to the degree that the industry had hoped.
... From what I understand, much of earth based radio communication relies on bouncing signals off of the upper atmosphere and other "tricks"....
Ionospheric refraction (or bounce) is really only applicable to longer wavelengths. The MER radios are operating in the X-band region, therefore there would be little ionospheric interaction in this region. Moreover, I don't think Mars has an ionosphere. Earth's ionosphere won't be an issue since the signal's angle of incidence will be arbitrarily large at a point in time over the reception window.
Other than this being the least interesting news for nerds story I've EVER seen, here are some serious suggestions (in my personal order of preference).
1) Tatami * (all the anatomically correct goodness of a Birkenstock in a dressy shoe).
2) Birkenstock (they do make shoes too you know).
3) Rockports.
Numbers (1) and (2) have basically been the only things on my feet other than specialty sportswear for the last 15 year. They are awesome. The Tatami's don't even raise suspicion. There are variants that look just like a fine dress shoe. (Because they are -- leather soles and all). Your feet with thank you, over and over and over. Your wallet? It might not talk to you for a week.
Many of the people responding to this thread are missing the big picture.
There will always be a screw-you-I'm-doing-this-the-OSS-way-with-crypto solution available. What does this solution cost? Well you might think it's free.
It isn't.
By adopting some OSS mechanism to communicate with whomever you choose, you impose a burden on the other party, namely, they have to install and have access to the same (or compatible) OSS VoIP software.
While this might be great for you and your hacker buddies, it won't help you call your parents, grandma, or your fiancee. It also won't help you call your doctor, lawyer, investment partner, stock broker or bank.
Wait, there's more going on here.
There are technical implication for the service providers. Most of the better designed VoIP protocols (like SIP, as an example) are all about establishing sessions. There is a location service somewhere that a user-agent (UA) (phone) can find, based on the number or URI that you call. This location service will either proxy your connection request to the other client, or it will redirect your user-agent to contact the other party directly. (Think HTTP 302 response code -- in fact -- SIP uses the same structure).
Once your UA has contacted the other party, some handshaking happens where you try to figure out what CODECs you will use to exchange audio, video, facsimile, IMs etc. Then end result is a collection of sessions directly between the user-agents that called one another.
Let me make that REALLY clear. Beyond the proxy / location service, the VSP (voice provider) is not in ANY way involved in the media flows. Why should it be? It doesn't care.
Enter CALEA requirements -- which are really poorly laid our I might add -- suddenly the VSP must carry the media and relay it to the other party and optionally duplicate each CODEC frame and send it to some black box (or red box as the case may be).
This has serious consequences on bandwidth consumption for VSPs.
But they can just do this when there is a tap! (You object)
And I counter with the fact that such an arrangement violates the CALEA requirements that a party subject to monitoring cannot know that they are under surveillance. End result? All media MUST flow through a choke point from which it could be duplicated.
This has catastrophic consequences on the bandwidth a VSP can expect to need to meet their service levels.
This may or may not be a Good Thing. I think it is NOT a Good Thing. One thing is certain, this issue is a very Material Thing for VSPs.
Yes, BUT;
Asterisk has some growing up to do. It isn't a standards BASED system. Sure, it implements standards, but the SIP support was ad-hoc and an afterthought. I'm not trying to take away from the amazing accomplishments on this project, however before it storms the masses, it's going to have to speak SIP at the expected interoperable level that we all expact from Apache and HTTP. Imagine if you could only view Apache pages in Mozilla, or, that images wouldn't work in IE, only Mozilla. These are real problems. Once Asterisk has that level of interoperability with OTHER IP based voice systems, it will be posed to really clean up. Exciting indeed, but some time will have to pass first.
This headset is the most comfortable headset I've ever worn. I've had it on for 20hr days and it's still bearable. Oh, that's not what you had in mind? But it's got great urban 'curb appeal'.
Works VERY well, as long as your service provider has some sort of NAT traversal mechanism, or you are on the public network.
Many companies manufacture these devices. Many work REALLY well. Others do not.
(I'm biased -- I work for one of these manufacturers).
Google has information about these products.
I'd always seen the hope and potential for VoIP as similar to my hopes and potentials for WiFi: low-to-no-cost community networks that could be used to get everybody wired... unlike what's currently happening, just another area for corporate intervention.
Services are only available to people in the US. We just can't trust people in other countries yet.
Ugh. So frustrating. So many updates to iTunes, yet I still cannot purchase music. If the retailers aren't careful, they might forget that they are excluding 1/2 the world's market by not permitting EC, UK, Canadian and Asian countries from participating.
I can't talk about Eudora but Outlook has it:
View > Current view > By conversation topic
Doesn't work very well when the subject line is changed
That isn't threading, it's a variant on 'sort by subject'. True threading will make use of the In-Reply-To: headers, and it is sweet.
Apple'sMail.app does a wonderful job of doing one thing, and doing it well. The integration with the contact database (AddressBook.app) is nice, but the functionality is in two separate places, leaving each to do their jobs well.
IMHO, the thing that's hot about the Threading Visualization stuff at the Watson Research group is the iconic threading diagram that shows the current message's disposition with respect to outstanding replies and position in thread. All in a mini, easy to see graphic.
In fact, you are wrong. About 90% of PSTN traffic in Europe and North America these days is still over Common Channel Signalling System 7 (SS/7). This is a purely circuit switched system. The PSTN / POTS providers are still looking towards packet switched infrastructures for many of their advantages, but it isn't all there just yet.
Er -- H.323 and SIP are completely unrelated animals, other than the fact that they establish RTP streams between locations on the internet.
Saying SIP is the evolution of H.323 is akin to saying Solaris is the evolution of TOPS-10. They both attempt to solve similar problems, but they aren't directly related. Or that VoIP is an evoutionary product of SS/7 or TDM voice systems. Again, similar problem domain, completely different solution.
The wireless world, especially people moving towards 3GPP are using SIP and SIMPLE (The SIP IM extensions). Microsoft, CISCO, Ericsson, Nokia, IBM, Motorla etc are all using SIP/SIMPLE. Jabber has some traction in some areas, but SIMPLE has the massive advantage in that the VoIP infrastructure that uses SIP that many CLECs, Fortune 500 and more than a couple ILECs are deploying will work with SIMPLE too.
This is too big a deal to ignore. SIP+SIMPLE will be a powerful platform and in many cases, already is.
This isn't about Jabber vs. SIMPLE or Microsoft vs the world. SIP/SIMPLE is going to be able to leverage an amazing installed base of VoIP infractructure that Jabber will not have access to.
Oh, lovely -- think about the poor buggers with implants -- like myself. I have over 2 kg of 'steel' (chrome-vanadium) implanted in my left femur. Ugh -- that's going to do a whole lot more than tingle.
BBQ anyone?
Turns out you need an ACM subscriptiong to the link to the PDF above. Ken Thompson has been kind enough to post a link to a free online version in the classics library at the ACM.
It is really well worth the read. The short form is that there exists a way to subvert the compiler such that it is no longer trustable and it will build a back door into the OS forevermore. This paper is a must read.
I use my 802.11g for networking and wireless periphs. This means @ work I just sit down and plug the power into the machine. It figures the rest out. I really is a nice setup. Same at home.
Slashdot Mirror
For some values of anywhere. As long as anywhere means "another Skype client" or "paying for a PSTN termination".
Skype rhymes with Hype for a good reason.
That was the whole idea behind them. It might be just that a 20 year term of protection is too stringent for things like computer science innovations. However, withness the revolution in textiles when the original Gore patent rant our on Gore-Tex a few years back. Radical improvement in the quality of the 'competeing' fabrics, many of which were simply Teflon-laminate membranes made by someone other than Gore.
You could build an argument that Gore deserved to earn significant revenues for their pioneering work in the textiles field. That's what the patent process is supposed to look like. Since the innovation is clearly documented, at the end of the term, everyone benefits. It's definately a double edged sword.
Patents might have problems, especially when someone is granted a patent for non-novel techniques, or worse, something with demonstrable prior-art. This is when the system starts to break down. Combined with the Bog Business technique of cross licensing you can really lock out the little guys. Those practises are more a problem that the underlying concept.
There have been much higher security versions of these things. Sandia Labs developed a seal technology around fiber bundles and routing.
There are even commercial devices based on this today.
This is exactly where they fall down, the quality cannot hold a candle to even an inexpensive 35mm camera. I noticed very poor grain and colour with my APS system, which I used for 5 years before returning to 35mm. The Olympus Stylus Epic (non Zoom) is really hard to beat, and cheap.
I don't think this has anything to do with the demise of film. It's about no longer producing products that aren't as profitable as they'd like. If they stopped making 35mm film, then we'd have something notable.
There is something interesting in the press release; Kodak indicates that they will
This looks like an indirect reference to plans for phasing out the production of APS films, which have never caught on to the degree that the industry had hoped.
And you're surprised because?
Ionospheric refraction (or bounce) is really only applicable to longer wavelengths. The MER radios are operating in the X-band region, therefore there would be little ionospheric interaction in this region. Moreover, I don't think Mars has an ionosphere. Earth's ionosphere won't be an issue since the signal's angle of incidence will be arbitrarily large at a point in time over the reception window.
Read the RFC. :-) This is *exactly* what's been done in IPv6. There is a network prefix that maps v4 to v6 space.
Other than this being the least interesting news for nerds story I've EVER seen, here are some serious suggestions (in my personal order of preference).
1) Tatami * (all the anatomically correct goodness of a Birkenstock in a dressy shoe).
2) Birkenstock (they do make shoes too you know).
3) Rockports.
Numbers (1) and (2) have basically been the only things on my feet other than specialty sportswear for the last 15 year. They are awesome. The Tatami's don't even raise suspicion. There are variants that look just like a fine dress shoe. (Because they are -- leather soles and all).
Your feet with thank you, over and over and over. Your wallet? It might not talk to you for a week.
* Tatami is made by Birkenstock.
Many of the people responding to this thread are missing the big picture.
There will always be a screw-you-I'm-doing-this-the-OSS-way-with-crypto solution available. What does this solution cost? Well you might think it's free.
It isn't.
By adopting some OSS mechanism to communicate with whomever you choose, you impose a burden on the other party, namely, they have to install and have access to the same (or compatible) OSS VoIP software.
While this might be great for you and your hacker buddies, it won't help you call your parents, grandma, or your fiancee. It also won't help you call your doctor, lawyer, investment partner, stock broker or bank.
Wait, there's more going on here.
There are technical implication for the service providers. Most of the better designed VoIP protocols (like SIP, as an example) are all about establishing sessions. There is a location service somewhere that a user-agent (UA) (phone) can find, based on the number or URI that you call. This location service will either proxy your connection request to the other client, or it will redirect your user-agent to contact the other party directly. (Think HTTP 302 response code -- in fact -- SIP uses the same structure).
Once your UA has contacted the other party, some handshaking happens where you try to figure out what CODECs you will use to exchange audio, video, facsimile, IMs etc. Then end result is a collection of sessions directly between the user-agents that called one another.
Let me make that REALLY clear. Beyond the proxy / location service, the VSP (voice provider) is not in ANY way involved in the media flows. Why should it be? It doesn't care.
Enter CALEA requirements -- which are really poorly laid our I might add -- suddenly the VSP must carry the media and relay it to the other party and optionally duplicate each CODEC frame and send it to some black box (or red box as the case may be).
This has serious consequences on bandwidth consumption for VSPs.
But they can just do this when there is a tap! (You object)
And I counter with the fact that such an arrangement violates the CALEA requirements that a party subject to monitoring cannot know that they are under surveillance. End result? All media MUST flow through a choke point from which it could be duplicated.
This has catastrophic consequences on the bandwidth a VSP can expect to need to meet their service levels.
This may or may not be a Good Thing. I think it is NOT a Good Thing. One thing is certain, this issue is a very Material Thing for VSPs.
Yes, BUT; Asterisk has some growing up to do. It isn't a standards BASED system. Sure, it implements standards, but the SIP support was ad-hoc and an afterthought. I'm not trying to take away from the amazing accomplishments on this project, however before it storms the masses, it's going to have to speak SIP at the expected interoperable level that we all expact from Apache and HTTP. Imagine if you could only view Apache pages in Mozilla, or, that images wouldn't work in IE, only Mozilla. These are real problems. Once Asterisk has that level of interoperability with OTHER IP based voice systems, it will be posed to really clean up. Exciting indeed, but some time will have to pass first.
This headset is the most comfortable headset I've ever worn. I've had it on for 20hr days and it's still bearable. Oh, that's not what you had in mind? But it's got great urban 'curb appeal'.
Been there, done that. It wasn't pretty. I got suckered too. er, I mean "I was an early adopter".
How many Newton owners does it take to change a lightbulb?
Thee to eat lemons, axe gravy soup.
Works VERY well, as long as your service provider has some sort of NAT traversal mechanism, or you are on the public network.
Many companies manufacture these devices. Many work REALLY well. Others do not. (I'm biased -- I work for one of these manufacturers).
Google has information about these products.
Hmm. What about these guys?
Ugh. So frustrating. So many updates to iTunes, yet I still cannot purchase music. If the retailers aren't careful, they might forget that they are excluding 1/2 the world's market by not permitting EC, UK, Canadian and Asian countries from participating.
Then again, you just cannot trust those crazy beaver loving weirdos to the North. There's trouble brewing up there in Soviet Canuckistan.
That isn't threading, it's a variant on 'sort by subject'. True threading will make use of the In-Reply-To: headers, and it is sweet.
Apple's Mail.app does a wonderful job of doing one thing, and doing it well. The integration with the contact database ( AddressBook.app ) is nice, but the functionality is in two separate places, leaving each to do their jobs well.
IMHO, the thing that's hot about the Threading Visualization stuff at the Watson Research group is the iconic threading diagram that shows the current message's disposition with respect to outstanding replies and position in thread. All in a mini, easy to see graphic.
The paper at IBM's Watson Research is excellent.
Ericsson provides a good overview of signalling technologies for those who are curious.
Performance Technologies has an excellent overview of the popular VoIP technologies, although it appears slightly our of date.
For those who want to read more about SIP, there are many places to go, including:
- VOVIDA
- RFC 3261 -- Session Initiation Protocol
- RFC 3263 -- Location of SIP Services
- The SIP Working Group Charter
- Additional SIP WG Info
And items for the future of SIP are debated in other places:Er -- H.323 and SIP are completely unrelated animals, other than the fact that they establish RTP streams between locations on the internet. Saying SIP is the evolution of H.323 is akin to saying Solaris is the evolution of TOPS-10. They both attempt to solve similar problems, but they aren't directly related. Or that VoIP is an evoutionary product of SS/7 or TDM voice systems. Again, similar problem domain, completely different solution.
The wireless world, especially people moving towards 3GPP are using SIP and SIMPLE (The SIP IM extensions). Microsoft, CISCO, Ericsson, Nokia, IBM, Motorla etc are all using SIP/SIMPLE. Jabber has some traction in some areas, but SIMPLE has the massive advantage in that the VoIP infrastructure that uses SIP that many CLECs, Fortune 500 and more than a couple ILECs are deploying will work with SIMPLE too.
This is too big a deal to ignore. SIP+SIMPLE will be a powerful platform and in many cases, already is.
This isn't about Jabber vs. SIMPLE or Microsoft vs the world. SIP/SIMPLE is going to be able to leverage an amazing installed base of VoIP infractructure that Jabber will not have access to.
Oh, lovely -- think about the poor buggers with implants -- like myself. I have over 2 kg of 'steel' (chrome-vanadium) implanted in my left femur. Ugh -- that's going to do a whole lot more than tingle.
BBQ anyone?
Turns out you need an ACM subscriptiong to the link to the PDF above.
Ken Thompson has been kind enough to post a link to a free online version in the classics library at the ACM.
Of course, at some point, we do have to trust someone.
Ken Thompson wrote an original speculative essay on this for CACM back in 1984 of all years.
It is really well worth the read. The short form is that there exists a way to subvert the compiler such that it is no longer trustable and it will build a back door into the OS forevermore. This paper is a must read.
I use my 802.11g for networking and wireless periphs. This means @ work I just sit down and plug the power into the machine. It figures the rest out. I really is a nice setup. Same at home.