I know that we are really starting to venture into "off-topic" land here, but these lights for your bike wheels look really cool. I don't have any first hand experience using them, but if you're looking to spend some money lighting up your bike, then this might be an investment...
Yea, I did it. I just finished posting the pictures to my Mac.com website.
Hopefully later, I'll add a bit of commentary on what time each photo was taken (you can look at the EXIF data for that information). I'm located in Southern California (San Diego) and all pictures were taken with my Cannon Powershot S30 digital Camera through a set of sun-watching glasses I picked up at the local astronomy store.
GPRS is voice & data. CDPD was the data only model.
I guess you *could* put voice over GPRS, but it certainly wasn't intended for it...It does support Ip, so I guess you could do Voice over Ip, but I don't know that it would be up to the Quality of service that customers would expect.
Its hard to get all the phone vendors to offer their color 3G phones in cdma/tdma models. With 80% of the world being GSM, they only have to make small modifications to make the phones work on GPRS networks
While much of Europe is using GSM, only a minority of the USA is using GSM. In most places in the US (IIRC), AT&T, Cingular, etc are still using the TDMA technology to provide voice service. There are even companies that don't make phones for GSM!
Also, saying something like "80% of the world uses" as an argument doesn't fly to well on Slashdot. At least 90% of the world uses Windows, but that doesn't mean it's the best choice.
No, GPRS is not 2G. The 2.5G hardware is fully upgradeable to 3G.
GPRS itself is a 3G style of network, but it is for data only (at least so far in the USA). All voice calls go over the existing TDMA/GSM networks that the operators already have installed.
Color displays, high speed internet, I-mode, etc.. ATTWS has it out NOW due to GPRS
Those features aren't out because of GPRS, Verizon has similiar features in its phones if you are on one of the supported CDMA 2000 networks of theirs. (I haven't heard anything on Sprint's 3G network). I don't know the rollout size of AT&T's GPRS network compared to Verizons, etc, but I'm guessing it's similiar in size.
I'm not saying one technology is going to be better than the other (let's wait about 2 years before jumping to a conclusion). However, each technology is going to provide benefits and drawbacks compared to the other. However, much of your arguments are based on 1) cost of network upgrades, which is mainly an issue of how upgradeable the vendor's hardware is and 2) The cool services that *ALL* 3G networks will provide.
Sprint,Verizon have to do 2 steps to get to full GSM, This is a more expensive, and slower option
You do realize that Sprint, Verizon, etc, all use a different techonology called CDMA to provide their network services. They are currently using CDMA One, but are currently upgrading to the CDMA 2000 standard known as 1xRTT. This is backwards compatible with earlier CDMA implementations
That said, GSM is really a 2G system. The GPRS upgradge that Cingular, Voicestream, AT&T, etc are doing is really a 2.5G network technology. I feel that eventually these providers will upgrade to a full 3G network, likely CDMA 2000 or WCDMA (w=wideband). This upgrade will break backwards compatibility with previous generations of phones.
There appears to be a project like this going on right now. I can't find the link for product info right now, but some schools (University of Georgia, and Cal Tech IIRC) are placing a large number (again, can't find the link) of 1 meter telescopes up in the hills around the Mount Wilson Observetory.
It's on the Mount Wilson webpage, but that appears to be down right now. Also, for some extra geek/slashdot points, they appear to be doing all of this with some sort of linux distro...
If I can find it, I'll post a reply to this message...
Don't forget wireless companies such as Ericsson, Nokia, etc, who are promoting their bluetooth standard. They also have a vested monitary interest in 2.4GHz...
Although I don't live in that area, it doesn't suprise me that they are using the term "1x" What they are actually referring to is "CDMA 2000-1XEV". The "EV" stands for "Enhanced Voice". It has a maximum data capability of 144kbps.
For all of the posters that have requested higher data-rates; don't worry, it's coming:
WCDMA: Wideband CDMA. It wil start to appear in Europe and some US networks later this year (IIRC). It will have a maximum data rate of 384Kbps (IIRC). However, it uses almost 5MHz of the spectrum (~2.5 forward link + ~2.5 on the reverse link)
1X-EV+DO: The add-on to the CDMA standard should allow data rates of between 1 & 2 Mbps. It's commonly reffered to as High Data Rate (HDR) and could appear late this year or sometime next year.
1xDV: This probably won't be out until 2003-2004 timeframe, but it should offer enhanced voice and data speeds. I don't think that the spec is totally finalized, but it could provide data speeds up to 10Mbps.
Also, I'm sure that your college had an embedded systems course of some sort. Go talk to the professor that teaches that class. Ask him/her if they know of any job openings in that field.
Also, since this is Slashdot, maybe you should play with one of the Real-Time Linux Operating Systems and become familiar with them. Learn what it means to have a Real-Time OS, about Threads and critical sections, etc. The more you know, the more likely someone will hire you:-)
I think that there was a typo someplace in that article. At first, it says Nintendo sold 602,000 consoles in the time period, but later it quotes the Nintendo spokesperson as saying that "We've sold over 800,000 GameCubes in the U.S. to date, and we will ship 1.3 million units by Christmas"
Just from what I've seen at the retailers, and Nintendo's earlier 750,000 quote, I'm taking a guess that they have acutally sold 802,000 during the first few weeks.
I can understand why they're annoyed to be told, "It's free and it's my spare-time hobby so deal with it."
I know which direction you are going, but I don't think that the article is addressing those type of people that go to the local store, see a Red Hat (or insert your favorite retail linux here) Linux display and purchase it.
Those people get to call Red Hat for support (that's why you *buy* the retail version) and to complain. The article is addressing the people who downloaded a linux-iso, installed it and are now expecting a free version of M$ Word. It's not going to happen, and the article is trying to set those people straight....IMHO:-)
The one thing that 3G is going to do for me is FINALLY provide a decent wireless service for my PDA that i can pay for along with my cell phone.
Heh, I'm sure with the wonderfulproviders that exist in the United States, you will probably have the luxary of paying for the added services on a "per-byte" basis...
I don't think that NASA was expecting much from that picture. They really weren't looking for anything, just testing the camera. As someone else said, this photograph was taken from like 22,000k from the planet, but it won't settle into its orbit (at about 400k???) until sometime in Jan/Feb.
That said, I think that the picture is pretty cool. Just by looking at it, you can see the differences in temp between the dark side of the planet and the light side. Also, you can see how cold the CO2 polar ice caps are.
The two things that I found most interesting were:
1. At the top of the photo, you can see a little streak of blue. I belive that is the atmosphere. It's pretty cold!
2. The polar region of Mars is habitiable during the day! If you look at the temp scale, red corresponds to 0 degrees celcius. That's the freezing point (on earth) of water. People are able to survive in those conditions!
Pay with a Postal Money order from the United States Postal Service. (I don't know how it works outside the USA...but I'm sure that there are simliar systems in place elsewhere). Since it is sent via mail, it constitues Mail Fraud, which happens to be a Felony. I know of a friend who had to bust some seller after he realized that the seller was a deadbeat. Once my friend filed the papers with the Post Office, there was nothing the seller could do.
GPRS is starting to be rolled out in the USA (IIRC). AT&T Wireless began rolling it out in Seattle, and presumably, the rest of the USA (I have no knowledge of the rest of North America, including Canada & Mexico).
Also, larger cell phone companies like Sprint, Verizon, etc, are beginning to test their CDMA2000 networks, I'm sure too, which (according to theory) will provide significantly higher data rates and better voice clarity.
Re:Real Programmers...
on
VIM 6.0 is Out
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Yea, I'm not quite that good yet. I'm still using sed:-)
Here in San Diego, CA, the US-Mexico border is open, but it is on Level 1 security (the highest level, which means you will get searched). Supposedly, officials are guessing it will take at least 3 hours to cross the border, possibly longer. It won't be fun tonight if you have to cross the border...
"I think it's reasonable to set standards that insure the school system doesn't waste its time on people who don't care"
It is extremely hard to set "standards" that are fair to all people involved. If you expect certain people to get good test scores on a "standardized test", then a significant portion of the population will learn just enough to pass the tests.
If we expect people to hold a certain GPA, then parents will flip out that their "brilliant" child couldn't have gotten a C- and not made it to the next level. They will blame it on the teacher (which wouldn't be *totally* unfounded, because not everybody teaches and learns the same way...)
The easiest and most favorable solution to the problem would be to *not* limit the amount a student can learn. Too often in my High School career, we were only allowed to learn what was in the text books, and any information presented outside of that context was deemed inapporpriate for the classroom.
This isn't the first time I've mentioned this, and most people respond, "well, how do we reflect this for college admissions." First, by even implying that this is for "further" education would make people that *don't* want to learn go through these programs and ruin the enviroment for those who do.
Secondly, does going to San Diego State University (where I went to school...it is known more for its parties than its academics) make you any dumber than if you attended a school like Cal-Tech, Harvard, MIT, etc? Intellectual stimulation shouldn't be about getting into the best college or getting the best job, but just the satisfaction of understanding something that you didn't understand before...
Although my machine is currently running Mandrake 7.2 (I can't vouch for 8.0 & greater, but I'd assume it is the same), Mandrake gives you the option of what file systems you would like to install. You even have more choices than what you listed above...
ext2, ext3, XFS, Reiser, UFS, HFS (Mac), etc. I'd guess that there are 40 different filesystems for you to chose from...
Although I've never used their products for anything but Mac and Palm development, I've had lots of success with Metrowerks Codewarrior. They have Win32, Mac, Solaris and Linux versions available (...and versions for the PS2, Nintendo 64, etc).
Before I became a computer nerd, I worked on several construction sites. While I don't like the system mentioned above, I don't agree that he lost any respect by having the cops come interrage him.
It is quite common for it to happen on job sites (I'd guess at least once every other week someone gets arrested). I remember when we would work with other contractors (air conditioning, roofing, etc), we would begin to recognize each other's groups, and we knew several people from other contracting sites. It was always funny to ask "Where is Bob" and have the response "oh, he's in jail for 6 months"...
Worst thing that could have happened.
on
Adobe Backs Down
·
· Score: 5
I really would have liked to have seen this go to court. While I feel for Dmitry's family, I think that his case could have been used to overturn the DMCA. (Imagine the headline: Russian tried for giving illegal speech according to Adobe).
While this still may go to trial at the US government level, it seems it won't have as much affect on making citizens realize what is happening.
While I don't disagree with your bug report, I want to point out that at 5PM PST, it offically becomes July 20th on GMT. Unless the attack begins on the 21st, I'm still assuming whitehouse.gov will be inaccessable tonight:-)
Slashdot Mirror
I know that we are really starting to venture into "off-topic" land here, but these lights for your bike wheels look really cool. I don't have any first hand experience using them, but if you're looking to spend some money lighting up your bike, then this might be an investment...
can't think of any way that Apple uses its installed base for business reasons
.Mac for business reasons (formerly iTools), now that they are charging $100 for those services.
You could make that argument that they are promoting
Yea, I did it. I just finished posting the pictures to my Mac.com website.
Hopefully later, I'll add a bit of commentary on what time each photo was taken (you can look at the EXIF data for that information). I'm located in Southern California (San Diego) and all pictures were taken with my Cannon Powershot S30 digital Camera through a set of sun-watching glasses I picked up at the local astronomy store.
http://homepage.mac.com/smitty825/solareclipse/
GPRS is voice & data. CDPD was the data only model.
I guess you *could* put voice over GPRS, but it certainly wasn't intended for it...It does support Ip, so I guess you could do Voice over Ip, but I don't know that it would be up to the Quality of service that customers would expect.
Its hard to get all the phone vendors to offer their color 3G phones in cdma/tdma models. With 80% of the world being GSM, they only have to make small modifications to make the phones work on GPRS networks
While much of Europe is using GSM, only a minority of the USA is using GSM. In most places in the US (IIRC), AT&T, Cingular, etc are still using the TDMA technology to provide voice service. There are even companies that don't make phones for GSM!
Also, saying something like "80% of the world uses" as an argument doesn't fly to well on Slashdot. At least 90% of the world uses Windows, but that doesn't mean it's the best choice.
No, GPRS is not 2G. The 2.5G hardware is fully upgradeable to 3G.
GPRS itself is a 3G style of network, but it is for data only (at least so far in the USA). All voice calls go over the existing TDMA/GSM networks that the operators already have installed.
Color displays, high speed internet, I-mode, etc.. ATTWS has it out NOW due to GPRS
Those features aren't out because of GPRS, Verizon has similiar features in its phones if you are on one of the supported CDMA 2000 networks of theirs. (I haven't heard anything on Sprint's 3G network). I don't know the rollout size of AT&T's GPRS network compared to Verizons, etc, but I'm guessing it's similiar in size.
I'm not saying one technology is going to be better than the other (let's wait about 2 years before jumping to a conclusion). However, each technology is going to provide benefits and drawbacks compared to the other. However, much of your arguments are based on 1) cost of network upgrades, which is mainly an issue of how upgradeable the vendor's hardware is and 2) The cool services that *ALL* 3G networks will provide.
Sprint,Verizon have to do 2 steps to get to full GSM, This is a more expensive, and slower option
You do realize that Sprint, Verizon, etc, all use a different techonology called CDMA to provide their network services. They are currently using CDMA One, but are currently upgrading to the CDMA 2000 standard known as 1xRTT. This is backwards compatible with earlier CDMA implementations
That said, GSM is really a 2G system. The GPRS upgradge that Cingular, Voicestream, AT&T, etc are doing is really a 2.5G network technology. I feel that eventually these providers will upgrade to a full 3G network, likely CDMA 2000 or WCDMA (w=wideband). This upgrade will break backwards compatibility with previous generations of phones.
Ah, ha! I found it :-)
See the CHARA site here
There appears to be a project like this going on right now. I can't find the link for product info right now, but some schools (University of Georgia, and Cal Tech IIRC) are placing a large number (again, can't find the link) of 1 meter telescopes up in the hills around the Mount Wilson Observetory.
It's on the Mount Wilson webpage, but that appears to be down right now. Also, for some extra geek/slashdot points, they appear to be doing all of this with some sort of linux distro...
If I can find it, I'll post a reply to this message...
Don't forget wireless companies such as Ericsson, Nokia, etc, who are promoting their bluetooth standard. They also have a vested monitary interest in 2.4GHz...
Although I don't live in that area, it doesn't suprise me that they are using the term "1x" What they are actually referring to is "CDMA 2000-1XEV". The "EV" stands for "Enhanced Voice". It has a maximum data capability of 144kbps.
For all of the posters that have requested higher data-rates; don't worry, it's coming:
WCDMA: Wideband CDMA. It wil start to appear in Europe and some US networks later this year (IIRC). It will have a maximum data rate of 384Kbps (IIRC). However, it uses almost 5MHz of the spectrum (~2.5 forward link + ~2.5 on the reverse link)
1X-EV+DO: The add-on to the CDMA standard should allow data rates of between 1 & 2 Mbps. It's commonly reffered to as High Data Rate (HDR) and could appear late this year or sometime next year.
1xDV: This probably won't be out until 2003-2004 timeframe, but it should offer enhanced voice and data speeds. I don't think that the spec is totally finalized, but it could provide data speeds up to 10Mbps.
Also, I'm sure that your college had an embedded systems course of some sort. Go talk to the professor that teaches that class. Ask him/her if they know of any job openings in that field.
:-)
Also, since this is Slashdot, maybe you should play with one of the Real-Time Linux Operating Systems and become familiar with them. Learn what it means to have a Real-Time OS, about Threads and critical sections, etc. The more you know, the more likely someone will hire you
I think that there was a typo someplace in that article. At first, it says Nintendo sold 602,000 consoles in the time period, but later it quotes the Nintendo spokesperson as saying that "We've sold over 800,000 GameCubes in the U.S. to date, and we will ship 1.3 million units by Christmas"
Just from what I've seen at the retailers, and Nintendo's earlier 750,000 quote, I'm taking a guess that they have acutally sold 802,000 during the first few weeks.
I can understand why they're annoyed to be told, "It's free and it's my spare-time hobby so deal with it."
:-)
I know which direction you are going, but I don't think that the article is addressing those type of people that go to the local store, see a Red Hat (or insert your favorite retail linux here) Linux display and purchase it.
Those people get to call Red Hat for support (that's why you *buy* the retail version) and to complain. The article is addressing the people who downloaded a linux-iso, installed it and are now expecting a free version of M$ Word. It's not going to happen, and the article is trying to set those people straight....IMHO
The one thing that 3G is going to do for me is FINALLY provide a decent wireless service for my PDA that i can pay for along with my cell phone.
Heh, I'm sure with the wonderful providers that exist in the United States, you will probably have the luxary of paying for the added services on a "per-byte" basis...
I don't think that NASA was expecting much from that picture. They really weren't looking for anything, just testing the camera. As someone else said, this photograph was taken from like 22,000k from the planet, but it won't settle into its orbit (at about 400k???) until sometime in Jan/Feb.
That said, I think that the picture is pretty cool. Just by looking at it, you can see the differences in temp between the dark side of the planet and the light side. Also, you can see how cold the CO2 polar ice caps are.
The two things that I found most interesting were:
1. At the top of the photo, you can see a little streak of blue. I belive that is the atmosphere. It's pretty cold!
2. The polar region of Mars is habitiable during the day! If you look at the temp scale, red corresponds to 0 degrees celcius. That's the freezing point (on earth) of water. People are able to survive in those conditions!
Pay with a Postal Money order from the United States Postal Service. (I don't know how it works outside the USA...but I'm sure that there are simliar systems in place elsewhere). Since it is sent via mail, it constitues Mail Fraud, which happens to be a Felony. I know of a friend who had to bust some seller after he realized that the seller was a deadbeat. Once my friend filed the papers with the Post Office, there was nothing the seller could do.
GPRS is starting to be rolled out in the USA (IIRC). AT&T Wireless began rolling it out in Seattle, and presumably, the rest of the USA (I have no knowledge of the rest of North America, including Canada & Mexico).
Also, larger cell phone companies like Sprint, Verizon, etc, are beginning to test their CDMA2000 networks, I'm sure too, which (according to theory) will provide significantly higher data rates and better voice clarity.
Yea, I'm not quite that good yet. I'm still using sed :-)
Here in San Diego, CA, the US-Mexico border is open, but it is on Level 1 security (the highest level, which means you will get searched). Supposedly, officials are guessing it will take at least 3 hours to cross the border, possibly longer. It won't be fun tonight if you have to cross the border...
"I think it's reasonable to set standards that insure the school system doesn't waste its time on people who don't care"
It is extremely hard to set "standards" that are fair to all people involved. If you expect certain people to get good test scores on a "standardized test", then a significant portion of the population will learn just enough to pass the tests.
If we expect people to hold a certain GPA, then parents will flip out that their "brilliant" child couldn't have gotten a C- and not made it to the next level. They will blame it on the teacher (which wouldn't be *totally* unfounded, because not everybody teaches and learns the same way...)
The easiest and most favorable solution to the problem would be to *not* limit the amount a student can learn. Too often in my High School career, we were only allowed to learn what was in the text books, and any information presented outside of that context was deemed inapporpriate for the classroom.
This isn't the first time I've mentioned this, and most people respond, "well, how do we reflect this for college admissions." First, by even implying that this is for "further" education would make people that *don't* want to learn go through these programs and ruin the enviroment for those who do.
Secondly, does going to San Diego State University (where I went to school...it is known more for its parties than its academics) make you any dumber than if you attended a school like Cal-Tech, Harvard, MIT, etc? Intellectual stimulation shouldn't be about getting into the best college or getting the best job, but just the satisfaction of understanding something that you didn't understand before...
Although my machine is currently running Mandrake 7.2 (I can't vouch for 8.0 & greater, but I'd assume it is the same), Mandrake gives you the option of what file systems you would like to install. You even have more choices than what you listed above...
ext2, ext3, XFS, Reiser, UFS, HFS (Mac), etc. I'd guess that there are 40 different filesystems for you to chose from...
Although I've never used their products for anything but Mac and Palm development, I've had lots of success with Metrowerks Codewarrior. They have Win32, Mac, Solaris and Linux versions available (...and versions for the PS2, Nintendo 64, etc).
Before I became a computer nerd, I worked on several construction sites. While I don't like the system mentioned above, I don't agree that he lost any respect by having the cops come interrage him.
It is quite common for it to happen on job sites (I'd guess at least once every other week someone gets arrested). I remember when we would work with other contractors (air conditioning, roofing, etc), we would begin to recognize each other's groups, and we knew several people from other contracting sites. It was always funny to ask "Where is Bob" and have the response "oh, he's in jail for 6 months"...
I really would have liked to have seen this go to court. While I feel for Dmitry's family, I think that his case could have been used to overturn the DMCA. (Imagine the headline: Russian tried for giving illegal speech according to Adobe).
While this still may go to trial at the US government level, it seems it won't have as much affect on making citizens realize what is happening.
While I don't disagree with your bug report, I want to point out that at 5PM PST, it offically becomes July 20th on GMT. Unless the attack begins on the 21st, I'm still assuming whitehouse.gov will be inaccessable tonight :-)