Thank you, too many people seem to have missed this point. Believe it or not, there are a lot of projector options that will weigh less than the laptop, but it still defeats the purpose here of being able to do a presentation from a pocket-sized device.
This works in some places; the target customers here are power utility folk. Their IT departments have them in permanent lockdown to protect them from themselves. This means that we can only use a USB stick at places that have a dedicated presentations computer which is not connected to the network. Otherwise, it's a 'no foreign hardware' policy.
The netbook may be the only other option. TV out cables are great, except that not all projectors support them. Some of the projectors are old, and only do VGA. So the other option is to lug around a projector, which saves us no money and weighs just as much as the current solution...
The problem's not that they tested the hardware ahead of time... the problem's that the 'Vista Capable' sticker frequently makes it onto computers that have *not* been fully tested... and is not supported under Vista. So the fact that they won't test hardware before stamping it, but they test their marketing hardware beforehand is just another way to skew the results.
So, yes, if they behaved like Apple in the hardware department, things would Just Work. Unfortunately, they market an OS that will presumably run on any hardware that they approve. It doesn't even do that. They're getting put down for *not* doing what Apple does... unless some foolish users are still using that outdated Windows XP. That they're willing to spend some testing time on.
Sure it can be done... but a tuned antenna is much more effective (greater range, etc). One of the reasons they wanted to use the copper to transmit the signals, instead of the airwaves, is that they wouldn't have to pay for licensing of a spectrum. As it is, though, they're using the powerlines as an antenna, just as you suggest, but not very effectively.
Any power engineer worth his salt knows the power lines can be modeled as an RLC network... creating losses. These have been optimized for low frequencies (50-60 Hz). Once you get above 1 kHz, your signal won't propogate more than 500 feet. 1MHz and you're lucky to get 50 feet. BPL doesn't actually use the copper line as a waveguide, but creates a rude radio transmitter in the GHz range, which can cause all kinds of trouble. The reason they're trying this abroad is that it's already been rejected outright in the US.
One of the scenes in the book is the trio of guys controlling the space energy station, attempting to avoid some sort of "ion storm" from defocusing their energy beam (very much akin to this) and blasting the countryside:-P
I got myself a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering... and took a bunch of CS courses along the way because, well, it interested me. Then my embedded systems professor emailed to say there was a local company looking for someone competent at "8051 assembly, C programming, and analog design". I jumped, enthusiastically shook the hand of the CEO of the company (I am the third employee, behind the CEO/President (business dude) and the technical guy), and landed myself a job as "associate software engineer". Here I am, 6 months past my graduation (with a BS), I'm married and have a son, and am working at a software engineering job I love (turns out there's not much analog design here), earning good money (more than your "$40K" number, while only working 40 hours per week... no stock shares involved in my compensation), at 21 years old.
Go ahead and tell me it's impossible for a young guy to make it in the work force. Find something you're good at (and you love to do) and then bust your a** and do the absolute best that you can! If you never refuse advice (ever. Ignoring it is ok.), and you work hard, you can do anything you *truly* want to do. Statistics and junk be damned.
At least you got your "early 20s" part right in your software engineer outlook;)
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Thank you, too many people seem to have missed this point. Believe it or not, there are a lot of projector options that will weigh less than the laptop, but it still defeats the purpose here of being able to do a presentation from a pocket-sized device.
This works in some places; the target customers here are power utility folk. Their IT departments have them in permanent lockdown to protect them from themselves. This means that we can only use a USB stick at places that have a dedicated presentations computer which is not connected to the network. Otherwise, it's a 'no foreign hardware' policy.
The netbook may be the only other option. TV out cables are great, except that not all projectors support them. Some of the projectors are old, and only do VGA. So the other option is to lug around a projector, which saves us no money and weighs just as much as the current solution...
The problem's not that they tested the hardware ahead of time... the problem's that the 'Vista Capable' sticker frequently makes it onto computers that have *not* been fully tested... and is not supported under Vista. So the fact that they won't test hardware before stamping it, but they test their marketing hardware beforehand is just another way to skew the results.
So, yes, if they behaved like Apple in the hardware department, things would Just Work. Unfortunately, they market an OS that will presumably run on any hardware that they approve. It doesn't even do that. They're getting put down for *not* doing what Apple does... unless some foolish users are still using that outdated Windows XP. That they're willing to spend some testing time on.
Sure it can be done... but a tuned antenna is much more effective (greater range, etc). One of the reasons they wanted to use the copper to transmit the signals, instead of the airwaves, is that they wouldn't have to pay for licensing of a spectrum. As it is, though, they're using the powerlines as an antenna, just as you suggest, but not very effectively.
Any power engineer worth his salt knows the power lines can be modeled as an RLC network... creating losses. These have been optimized for low frequencies (50-60 Hz). Once you get above 1 kHz, your signal won't propogate more than 500 feet. 1MHz and you're lucky to get 50 feet. BPL doesn't actually use the copper line as a waveguide, but creates a rude radio transmitter in the GHz range, which can cause all kinds of trouble. The reason they're trying this abroad is that it's already been rejected outright in the US.
vim . will give you a directory listing, you can nav around in using vi commands :)
One of the scenes in the book is the trio of guys controlling the space energy station, attempting to avoid some sort of "ion storm" from defocusing their energy beam (very much akin to this) and blasting the countryside :-P
I got myself a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering... and took a bunch of CS courses along the way because, well, it interested me. Then my embedded systems professor emailed to say there was a local company looking for someone competent at "8051 assembly, C programming, and analog design". I jumped, enthusiastically shook the hand of the CEO of the company (I am the third employee, behind the CEO/President (business dude) and the technical guy), and landed myself a job as "associate software engineer". Here I am, 6 months past my graduation (with a BS), I'm married and have a son, and am working at a software engineering job I love (turns out there's not much analog design here), earning good money (more than your "$40K" number, while only working 40 hours per week... no stock shares involved in my compensation), at 21 years old. Go ahead and tell me it's impossible for a young guy to make it in the work force. Find something you're good at (and you love to do) and then bust your a** and do the absolute best that you can! If you never refuse advice (ever. Ignoring it is ok.), and you work hard, you can do anything you *truly* want to do. Statistics and junk be damned. At least you got your "early 20s" part right in your software engineer outlook ;)