Hotels use exactly this technique (though not on wireless) when you buy a day of high-speed access through an in-room cable modem or adsl modem. Cisco's uBR devices (Cable Modem Termination System or CMTS) have had this capability for a LONG time
My bigger question is: If it took 4 years to get the patent, what kind of wireless networking does it refer too? Probably not 802.11! Does the word hot-spot actually show up in the literature? That's a relatively new addition to our technical lexicon.
I've got three Walgreen's Pure Digital camera's on their way to PA right now... at $9.99 each. And the codeman has hacked a smart-media card into them. If we can get the USB port working, I'll be flying my parafoil with them in the spring.
There are two must-read items for people who want to understand nano-technology; Richard Feinmans 1959 paper "There's room at the bottom" and Eric K. Drexler's "Engines of Creation" (from the 1980s).
While Feinman doesn't touch on the negatives of nano-technology, much of Drexler's ground breaking book is related to developing nano-machines WITHOUT risk to the human race.
This can also be added (along with location and speed tracking) to any car through a MobileGuardian dealership (MobileGuardian is a GPS/Cellemetry combination from Numerex).
Yes, I know it's tacky to respond to your own post. First, I don't work for a cable company, I just have business ties, so please don't kill me because I can talk about the technology.
I didn't say that you couldn't hack the unit ala videocipher for SAT broadcasts. I said I'd be surprised if you could receive on most cable networks. It WOULD be wonderful if the card reader could provide you the necessary keys to decrypt the signal. The cable industry itself desparately wants an open standards based set-top. They're currently locked into SA, GI (now Motorola) and anyone who has licensed technology from the big two.
I don't tend to think that the cable companies will be going out-of-business, but they'd better wise up! If they play their cards correctly, they should win the telecom war. Their HFC (Hybrid Fiber/Coax) plants have far more available bandwidth than the phone companies copper loop and whether wireless can compete remains to be seen. Satellite is a good ONE-WAY technology, but won't be able to provide the Video-On-Demand (VOD) and even fancier interactive services. Want a look at the future, check out Time-Warner's MaestroTV.
I work with Scientific Atlanta and Motorola set-tops every day and can tell you that there are serious limitations to the hackability of any unit like this.
Each vendor has their own proprietary encryption format (for the content) and will only work with QPSK and QAM headend equipment that they manufacture. There is very little unencrypted content on CATV networks as digital service is generally an extra charge service. You also need to be provisioned in their billing system.
I suspect that the hackability of this unit stops at controlling the behavior of the device. I would be very surprised if anyone managed to receive free pay services the way those who built sync inverters, tone strippers, etc to receive free analog pay channels.
"Cut codes" is an appropriate phrase to describe the Muncing (now there's a good slang) I do to remove the unnecessary complexity often found in "noobs" coding (and often the source of the bugs). "Simplicity is Elegance"
No only am I waiting to see it on a big screen (anyone know if and where it will be on IMAX - That's how I first saw Episode I - whew), but I plan on rewatching TFOTRs the day before.
I work in the CATV industry and the statement 'Thesystem never knows what the viewer is watching since the headend never knows specifics about what the set-top box is doing,' is blatantly false.
Think about it for a moment... if you order an IPPV (Impulse Pay Per View) or VOD (Video on Demand) movie, the system knows what extra charges to put on your bill, doesn't it.
We can read the frequency out of both the SA (Scientific Atlanta) and Motorola set-tops as well as its power-up state. No, we can't tell whether you went to the fridge during the commercial, but we can tell if you didn't). Correlating this information with what we know about the Head-end programming and its easy to create a database of what people (or a person) are watching.
There is even a company (called Navic) whose entire business model is to collect data from digital set-tops and provide Nieson like viewing statistics to the cable providers.
Don't be confused between what people say they are or aren't doing and what they CAN do.
It is about time to create a community development project that allows the blocking of Microsoft owned domains.
Since I use SquidGuard to keep my kids safe (and to block ads), I was wondering if there was interest in creating a list of M$ domains that could be blocked as well.
Starting with Solaris 8, Sun has released OpenSSH as part of its offering. I think that a valid argument would be: "If Sun's research and development department believes OpenSSH is stable, why can't we use it as well".
PuTTY is a great client for M$ ( ---- free bonus ).
I have a development unit of the Sharp Zaurus... and it is sweeeeeeet.
The user software is still being fine tuned (for consistancy and "missing" functionality, but when the consumer version is released... watch out.
Go over to ZaurusZone to check out what the open source community is doing (the entire shabang).
Sorry I can't give you links to the developer sites, but I will say that the Trolltech contest alone will result in 1000s of available (and many free) applications.
I don't see the $100 price point being met. If they bought today's technology in seven years, they would have a chance... but today's technology won't be around in seven years.
What would they need today? A GPS, wireless link and a handheld would run them say $600 (come on, its the government... we know they won't purchase the cheapest PDA. At a minimum, they'll want color). This would require the current prices to drop by a factor of six.
Think about the computer industry. The price of a PC has only dropped by about half during the last seven years, and the top of the line models still push the same $4k - $5k price of the original PC. I think that we will see a similar price structure for PDAs in 2010... $300 for the technology that they need.
What holds the prices in check? You constantly need more CPU and memory/storage to perform the same functions!
The funniest part of this story is that they're trying to limit the cost of the PDAs to $100 dollars (or a $50M total price tag) but they will go spend $200M to have an inept consulting firm write the software... which then won't work anyway.
I'm sitting here trying to envision the architecture and detailed design documents that a large software project requires when so many languages are involved.
With more than one developer, this would also put a significant strain on the person in charge of maintaining (and levelling) the development schedule. Whew!
Other that the description of multiple "amplification" stages, how is this different that an APD (avalanche photo diode)? APDs have such a high gain that they are actually unstable for applications where there are an abundance of photons hitting the detector.
Cool idea! How do we create the vertical scanning rate of 60Hz. I suppose the beam could be sent across another mirror (either vibrating of rotating that provides that proper refresh rate for the vertical retrace.
This still leaves us with the problem of getting enough optical power (light) onto the mirrors from a single set of LEDs. Lasers (contrary to the hilarious post made earlier) would produce alot of light and shouldn't cause "burn-in" unless the mirrors failed.
So far, I'd say that the rotating mirror, combined with a row of LEDs would be the best combination.
I have been involved in the CATV broadcast business (as an engineer) for 10 years and believe that I can provide some information that will help your proposed development.
A TV scans across (the horizontal refresh rate) the picture tube at 15.7 KHz. The mirror would have to match this rate to reproduce a picture from a convention broadcast facility, so it would have to vibrate across the chosen field of view 15,700 times per second. I don't know the physics involved behind making a mirror move that fast, but it sure would sound awful, since its vibration would cause compression waves in the air at a very high pitch.
The TV scans from the top of the screen to the bottom (the vertical trace and retrace) 60 times per second. The mirror would therefore also have to deflect up and down 60 times a second. In my opinion, that makes the mirror movement pretty complicated.
Don't despair, all is not lost! I remember seeing an early head mounted display that used a column of pixels and a mirror that vibrated left and right 60 times per second. I think that a pretty good image could be created by making a row of 640 clusters of LEDs (each cluster being 3 LEDs - a red, green and blue) and scanning the mirror up and down 30 times per second (Only 30 instead of 60 because you can paint both the odd and even frames at the same time). There would be some electronics involved, since the horizontal picture image must be captured and store in the LEDs. This also has the advantage of providing way more light than 3 LEDs, so you'd have a brighter image.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought it was Randall L. Waterhouse
My bigger question is: If it took 4 years to get the patent, what kind of wireless networking does it refer too? Probably not 802.11! Does the word hot-spot actually show up in the literature? That's a relatively new addition to our technical lexicon.
I've got three Walgreen's Pure Digital camera's on their way to PA right now ... at $9.99 each. And the codeman has hacked a smart-media card into them. If we can get the USB port working, I'll be flying my parafoil with them in the spring.
Only 1,000,000 more to go!
While Feinman doesn't touch on the negatives of nano-technology, much of Drexler's ground breaking book is related to developing nano-machines WITHOUT risk to the human race.
This can also be added (along with location and speed tracking) to any car through a MobileGuardian dealership (MobileGuardian is a GPS/Cellemetry combination from Numerex).
I am not affiliated!
I didn't say that you couldn't hack the unit ala videocipher for SAT broadcasts. I said I'd be surprised if you could receive on most cable networks. It WOULD be wonderful if the card reader could provide you the necessary keys to decrypt the signal. The cable industry itself desparately wants an open standards based set-top. They're currently locked into SA, GI (now Motorola) and anyone who has licensed technology from the big two.
I don't tend to think that the cable companies will be going out-of-business, but they'd better wise up! If they play their cards correctly, they should win the telecom war. Their HFC (Hybrid Fiber/Coax) plants have far more available bandwidth than the phone companies copper loop and whether wireless can compete remains to be seen. Satellite is a good ONE-WAY technology, but won't be able to provide the Video-On-Demand (VOD) and even fancier interactive services. Want a look at the future, check out Time-Warner's MaestroTV.
Each vendor has their own proprietary encryption format (for the content) and will only work with QPSK and QAM headend equipment that they manufacture. There is very little unencrypted content on CATV networks as digital service is generally an extra charge service. You also need to be provisioned in their billing system.
I suspect that the hackability of this unit stops at controlling the behavior of the device. I would be very surprised if anyone managed to receive free pay services the way those who built sync inverters, tone strippers, etc to receive free analog pay channels.
Please let me know if anyone has success!
you are your girlfriend's Yahoo :)
"Cut codes" is an appropriate phrase to describe the Muncing (now there's a good slang) I do to remove the unnecessary complexity often found in "noobs" coding (and often the source of the bugs). "Simplicity is Elegance"
How can any of you "Anonymous Cowards" claim a FP? Seems like kind of an empty victory to me.
I guess we'll see!
is why did your mother let you live!
Who is Tom Lehrer and why is he a genius?
The subject says it all!
No only am I waiting to see it on a big screen (anyone know if and where it will be on IMAX - That's how I first saw Episode I - whew), but I plan on rewatching TFOTRs the day before.
I work in the CATV industry and the statement 'Thesystem never knows what the viewer is watching since the headend never knows specifics about what the set-top box is doing,' is blatantly false.
Think about it for a moment ... if you order an IPPV (Impulse Pay Per View) or VOD (Video on Demand) movie, the system knows what extra charges to put on your bill, doesn't it.
We can read the frequency out of both the SA (Scientific Atlanta) and Motorola set-tops as well as its power-up state. No, we can't tell whether you went to the fridge during the commercial, but we can tell if you didn't). Correlating this information with what we know about the Head-end programming and its easy to create a database of what people (or a person) are watching.
There is even a company (called Navic) whose entire business model is to collect data from digital set-tops and provide Nieson like viewing
statistics to the cable providers.
Don't be confused between what people say they
are or aren't doing and what they CAN do.
Since I use SquidGuard to keep my kids safe (and to block ads), I was wondering if there was interest in creating a list of M$ domains that could be blocked as well.
Starting with Solaris 8, Sun has released OpenSSH as part of its offering. I think that a valid argument would be: "If Sun's research and development department believes OpenSSH is stable, why can't we use it as well".
PuTTY is a great client for M$ ( ---- free bonus ).
smoyer
I have a development unit of the Sharp Zaurus ... and it is sweeeeeeet.
... watch out.
The user software is still being fine tuned (for consistancy and "missing" functionality, but when the consumer version is released
Go over to ZaurusZone to check out what the open source community is doing (the entire shabang).
Sorry I can't give you links to the developer sites, but I will say that the Trolltech contest alone will result in 1000s of available (and many free) applications.
What would they need today? A GPS, wireless link and a handheld would run them say $600 (come on, its the government
Think about the computer industry. The price of a PC has only dropped by about half during the last seven years, and the top of the line models still push the same $4k - $5k price of the original PC. I think that we will see a similar price structure for PDAs in 2010
What holds the prices in check? You constantly need more CPU and memory/storage to perform the same functions!
The funniest part of this story is that they're trying to limit the cost of the PDAs to $100 dollars (or a $50M total price tag) but they will go spend $200M to have an inept consulting firm write the software
Open source census software anyone?
With more than one developer, this would also put a significant strain on the person in charge of maintaining (and levelling) the development schedule. Whew!
Other that the description of multiple "amplification" stages, how is this different that an APD (avalanche photo diode)? APDs have such a high gain that they are actually unstable for applications where there are an abundance of photons hitting the detector.
This still leaves us with the problem of getting enough optical power (light) onto the mirrors from a single set of LEDs. Lasers (contrary to the hilarious post made earlier) would produce alot of light and shouldn't cause "burn-in" unless the mirrors failed.
So far, I'd say that the rotating mirror, combined with a row of LEDs would be the best combination.
A TV scans across (the horizontal refresh rate) the picture tube at 15.7 KHz. The mirror would have to match this rate to reproduce a picture from a convention broadcast facility, so it would have to vibrate across the chosen field of view 15,700 times per second. I don't know the physics involved behind making a mirror move that fast, but it sure would sound awful, since its vibration would cause compression waves in the air at a very high pitch.
The TV scans from the top of the screen to the bottom (the vertical trace and retrace) 60 times per second. The mirror would therefore also have to deflect up and down 60 times a second. In my opinion, that makes the mirror movement pretty complicated.
Don't despair, all is not lost! I remember seeing an early head mounted display that used a column of pixels and a mirror that vibrated left and right 60 times per second. I think that a pretty good image could be created by making a row of 640 clusters of LEDs (each cluster being 3 LEDs - a red, green and blue) and scanning the mirror up and down 30 times per second (Only 30 instead of 60 because you can paint both the odd and even frames at the same time). There would be some electronics involved, since the horizontal picture image must be captured and store in the LEDs. This also has the advantage of providing way more light than 3 LEDs, so you'd have a brighter image.
Good luck