Contrary to popular belief, there -are- people here who have not read the books. Spoiling any aspect of the movie (regardless of chronology) could at least in some way be tagged as a spoiler.
Not a big spoiler, granted, but just a suggestion before this thread goes crazy.
I agree with you on Microsoft - however I'm willing to bet "contracting out the piddly stuff" is yet another way to sell their OS and other products. Think about it -- they get to use their OS for free, but third parties do not. So, lets say Microsoft only contracts with people who run Windows, and they farm out mailing lists to some company. Given proven lack of performance, said company probably needs to purchase a rack or two full of servers, all loaded with Windows Server, probably Exchange and SQL, etc.
So, third party gets a big contract, Microsoft sells a few tens of thousands of dollars worth of software and license, and both parties are happy.
I am the network engineer & co-owner of a small ISP (coastalwave.net) in northern Ohio, with a coverage area of 5 counties or so via wireless. I have null routed the IP address, and will be switching to patched dnscache & bind when I have a chance.
One of our two upstreams (Amplex.net) has redirected traffic to that IP to their own internal site, with a link to a google search and a link explaining the controversy.
It was a very recent ruling (as in this month), I read it in the Port Clinton News Herald and Sandusky Register. The News Herald has a very poor website, and the Register is paid registration only online. I'm sure more information will pop up online shortly or will make its way to national news eventually...
They have a long list of other problems...
on
Blackout Week Continues
·
· Score: 5, Informative
I live a few miles away from Davis Besse, one of FirstEnergy's nuclear plants. In Feb 2002, they shut it down for maintenance (and I believe refueling). They found that boric acid had almost completely eaten through the steel cap on top of the reactor. A few more months and bad things would have happened. It's a very controversial issue around the area (Ottawa County, Ohio) as most area residents don't want to see the plant restarted.
FirstEnergy was also recently found guilty of breaking pollution laws when they rebuilt a power plant and did not install modernized scrubbers. No ruling on what they will be fined has come out yet.
Here is an AP article with a bit more info, and an article detailing the hole in the reactor vessel. TONS more info available via 'davis besse' on google.
I'm sorry, but I've always found it rediculous that people host websites on their ADSL connections. Sure it has a coolness factor, but when dirt cheap domain hosting is available from companies with TONS of bandwidth to spare, why host your page on something that most likely has a 128k-256k upstream available.
In my opinion, if you host ANY site on your low bandwidth connection, you are quite simply asking for it. If you don't expect people to look at your site, don't post it. If you DO expect people to look at your site, make sure they will be able to regardless if it's from Joe Bloe's link page or from Slashdot.
24dbi grid dishes (almost identical to the ones pictured in the article) for $100-$150.
now if you're looking for a solid dish, you'll be spending a fair amoutn of $$$. the ones in the pictures look like run of the mill grid antennas.
also, it looks like they may be using some amplification. the small grey box to the left of the orinoco box looks like an amplifier. note that with 24dbi of gain (so i estimate) on the antenna, any amplification whatsoever would put the ERP over legal limits. it's possible the fcc limitations don't apply since this is educational/scientific.
if they are using amplification, that's several hundred dollars per end.
Really surprised me. I found him roaming my apartment complex years ago. He would keep finding hair bands (had a female roomate) and bringing them to me. I thought it was really strange. So I finally threw one of them - he ran, grabbed it, and brought it back. I've never seen such a thing - whoever had him before must have trained him.
He's usually ultra-lazy. He's laying at the foot of my bed sleeping as I type this. Glad to know I'm not the only one with a cat that fetches!
Unfortunately, not every cable company will allow this.
Instead of Time Warner, Adelphia, or any of the big guys, we have a moderately sized local cable provider who does everything in house. Their policy is simple - an appointment must be made for anything.
About a year ago, I cancelled my cable connection and changed to DSL. My DSL connection was absolutely wrechid, so I switched back to cable. I stopped by the cable office and asked for a modem. Even though I explained that the outlet is still there, the computer is still configured, and everything was ready, they -HAD- to send an installed.
Luckily the installers have always been pretty understanding. When I showed him my Linux box, he said "you're probably better off configuring this than me.":) When I did have them once set it up on a Windows machine, they did not put on any type of software at all, it was all basic.
My recommendation - stay away from any provider that would accept EULA's and install software without giving the customer any other option. Even without the software, who knows what other types of things you might be agreeing to by using their service. If you have DSL available, find a reliable local ISP that resells it. Then you can usually get goodies like IP blocks, and you can get to know your tech support staff directly.
It's worth noting that part of the FCC sale agreement of the 25-Mhz chunk of "digital satellite radio" space was that the two companies must develop compatible technology, and have radios available to work with both networks, within a certain number of years. I think it was somewhere in the 2-5 year range.
I must say that is strange. I've had XM for several months, and I rarely loose coverage. In the small town of Port Clinton, OH, there is only one spot near a large building where signal fades for about 2 seconds. Other than that, and under sometimes under awnings at gas stations, I never loose signal.
In bigger areas, they have terrestrial repeaters. I've been in parking garages, under gas station awnings, and under bridges in Toledo, OH and Chicago, IL, both without interruption of service.
Maybe the service worked poorly for you, but I myself would be very disappointed to loose the XM programming, which is currently accounts for 80% of my listening time.
A lot of people (but not myself) would disagree. Look at the telephone companies. While most of the long distance services used to go over microwave hops, the telco's are rapidly decomissioning microwave sites. There was even a recent article entitled Discarded AT&T Microwave Bunkers For Sale. We're talking high speed links as well.
To me, this is taking a step backwords in technology, but to the telco's, fiber optics is the preferred choice.
Or, take that old p-200 laying around, throw a stripped down win9x on it and build it up specifically for p2p stuff. just dump your downloads over the network once you're done and shut the box down.
My concern would be this -- what happens when you want to play a PS2 game, but your PS2 is busy recording one of your scheduled programs? Seems rather inconvenient to me. For as cheap as TiVo's are, I rather have the convenience of TiVo doing it's own thing and allowing me to use my game console whenever I want without interrupting a recording.
Now if the PS/2 is just a playback device, with the PC doing the recording, that may not be an issue. I still prefer an all in one box to take care of business.
If you want to "target greedy business", hit the phone companies and the cable providers, who make it damn difficult for a small local wireless provider like ourselves to compete. Verizon wants you to purchase a DS-3 to their ATM network to provide DSL, and their wholesale DSL circuit costs are only about $10 less (if even) than their retail price. In some "special promotion" cases, the wholesale cost is less than what they retail it for. Cable companies won't even talk to you if you try to talk to them.
Now, who is the "big evil commercial interest" here? Us, a small, local wireless-only ISP, or Verizon and Adelphia, big-time companies that can run at a loss for years to hold the little guys back?
Trust me, our monthly fees barely cover what goes into supporting it. I don't see how someone can provide free wireless without sharing a cable or dsl connection, which providers generally don't allow in their policies.
Finally, all of these people putting up significant time and money to provide free wireless have to be making money somewhere to support the costs. How are their companies or employers doing anything less evil than we are?
Who needs a Lexus? I can get a 89 Cavalier for under $1,000. It will get me to work just fine too. I don't need automatic climate control, I can just turn the knob to "blue" if I'm warm. Rolling down the windows is mechanical, so it doesn't require any electricity like power locks do. You still need to turn a wheel and operate a transmission, so it's the same thing.
Nobody really NEEDS any of the luxury items that exist. But they are still there, and lots of people still buy them or desire them.
3: I never knew this guy was not happy with his salary. He never said anything, he's always productive and seems generally satisfied with his employment here. I know he makes less than he's worth, but he's performing so well and has never asked for a raise.
Think of it this way. If you went to buy a car, and the car was in obviously perfect condition, but it was $5,000 under bluebook value, would you give the seller an extra $5,000 so that they are making what the car is worth, or would you pay what they are asking because it's such a good deal for quality, reliable transportation at less than market value?
Employers know exactly what you are worth, in some cases down to the dollar.
The car is a 99 Honda Accord LX. I plan on spending around $200 on a decent set of components, and probably getting some Q-Forms kickpanel replacements to mount them.
And by the way, after reading the very helpful comments in this thread, I've decided to go with XM for a number of reasons, namely price of hardware, better variety of channels I like, they have Art Bell, several good reviews from XM subscribers, and several reassuring comments that Clear Channel's stake is not big enough to warrant overlord programming control.
I forgot to mention when I typed my Ask Slashdot question that this is just the first step in my audio system. Much more planned.
Even a set of $99 infiniti's from your local Circuit City would sound better than stock paper cone speakers. I will be investing a bit more than that, but if anyone is seriously considering the quality upgrade of XM, you should definitely fix the other "weak" links in the system.
On the Apache thing - I don't think most content providers would like to provide a "way out". They rather provide links within to keep them in their site.
Would be a nice addition to the "google toolbar" though.
I'm getting tired of reading about this twice per day. It's a simple business tactic. Sell a new product at below cost, get everyone on board, and then raise rates. They reel you in, show you that their product is 1000000 times better than dialup, and then raise costs. It's business, and it seems to be working. How many people here would ever go back to dialup now that you've experienced broadband? A very small percentage. You can bitch all you want, but it's going to keep going up until they reach the point where they will start loosing money if they raise rates further.
For every person who has complained that their broadband rates have gone up - how many of you have cancelled your broadband? That's about all you can do to show your objection, and you'd be crying if you had to dig out the ole' analog modem.
I don't see why this always comes as a surprise. No matter how much you oversell your bandwidth, you can't make money charging $35/month for a 1 meg pipe.
I run a wireless ISP, and we did option #3. It took me about 10 hours to get a simple version running, and I've done various upgrades since then (RADIUS auth, provision for public ip's, etc).
Here's what you need to roll your own:
* Linux box with iptables (we use ipchains, but just because we haven't upgraded to the 2.4 kernel). * Apache (mod_rewrite a must) * PHP (or scripting language of choice) * Squid * sudo (so that ipchains can be run as the web user)
Simply add a rule to redirect your entire private subnet to local port 80. You will need to have mod_rewrite change everything to/login.php or whatever so that they always go to your login page.
When someone auths, you need 2 rules - one to redirect port 80 to the squid port instead of local port 80, and one to NAT everything else. These should go at the top as to overcome the "redirect all to apache" rule.
We have a script that runs every 5 minutes. It goes through a sql table of people currently logged in, compares their ip to mac to make sure no one "hijaked" an IP when someone turned off their machine, does some other security checks for the same purpose. It also pings them, and removes the rules if they are no longer active. Be careful, this breaks when people use personal firewalls and stuff. Looking for a better solution to this actually - anyone?
If you need more help, let me know. I can't release our code as we have a product on it, but I'd be happy to help out. We also have an RF engineer on staff, I might be able to ask him a question or two.
If you take 2 very narrow beamwidth sector antennas, and have 2 on each pole pointing in each direction, then you only cover the track. This highly increases your dbi. Also the power limits on directional antennas are more leniant, meaning you can pump something like 250mw to the antennas as opposed to 100.
Still, you'd need one about every few miles, making it rather inconvenient and costly.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean they'll "terminate" SGI's, not SCO's, right?
Contrary to popular belief, there -are- people here who have not read the books. Spoiling any aspect of the movie (regardless of chronology) could at least in some way be tagged as a spoiler.
Not a big spoiler, granted, but just a suggestion before this thread goes crazy.
I agree with you on Microsoft - however I'm willing to bet "contracting out the piddly stuff" is yet another way to sell their OS and other products. Think about it -- they get to use their OS for free, but third parties do not. So, lets say Microsoft only contracts with people who run Windows, and they farm out mailing lists to some company. Given proven lack of performance, said company probably needs to purchase a rack or two full of servers, all loaded with Windows Server, probably Exchange and SQL, etc.
So, third party gets a big contract, Microsoft sells a few tens of thousands of dollars worth of software and license, and both parties are happy.
I am the network engineer & co-owner of a small ISP (coastalwave.net) in northern Ohio, with a coverage area of 5 counties or so via wireless. I have null routed the IP address, and will be switching to patched dnscache & bind when I have a chance.
One of our two upstreams (Amplex.net) has redirected traffic to that IP to their own internal site, with a link to a google search and a link explaining the controversy.
It was a very recent ruling (as in this month), I read it in the Port Clinton News Herald and Sandusky Register. The News Herald has a very poor website, and the Register is paid registration only online. I'm sure more information will pop up online shortly or will make its way to national news eventually...
I live a few miles away from Davis Besse, one of FirstEnergy's nuclear plants. In Feb 2002, they shut it down for maintenance (and I believe refueling). They found that boric acid had almost completely eaten through the steel cap on top of the reactor. A few more months and bad things would have happened. It's a very controversial issue around the area (Ottawa County, Ohio) as most area residents don't want to see the plant restarted.
FirstEnergy was also recently found guilty of breaking pollution laws when they rebuilt a power plant and did not install modernized scrubbers. No ruling on what they will be fined has come out yet.
Here is an AP article with a bit more info, and an article detailing the hole in the reactor vessel. TONS more info available via 'davis besse' on google.
I'm sorry, but I've always found it rediculous that people host websites on their ADSL connections. Sure it has a coolness factor, but when dirt cheap domain hosting is available from companies with TONS of bandwidth to spare, why host your page on something that most likely has a 128k-256k upstream available.
In my opinion, if you host ANY site on your low bandwidth connection, you are quite simply asking for it. If you don't expect people to look at your site, don't post it. If you DO expect people to look at your site, make sure they will be able to regardless if it's from Joe Bloe's link page or from Slashdot.
"...the personnel working [on it] primarily have expertise in computers and not radio technology."
Sounds like most local / regional wireless ISP's.. Or rather, dialup ISP's that try/tried wireless as a cheap alternative to DSL.
www.hyperlinktech.com
24dbi grid dishes (almost identical to the ones pictured in the article) for $100-$150.
now if you're looking for a solid dish, you'll be spending a fair amoutn of $$$. the ones in the pictures look like run of the mill grid antennas.
also, it looks like they may be using some amplification. the small grey box to the left of the orinoco box looks like an amplifier. note that with 24dbi of gain (so i estimate) on the antenna, any amplification whatsoever would put the ERP over legal limits. it's possible the fcc limitations don't apply since this is educational/scientific.
if they are using amplification, that's several hundred dollars per end.
Really surprised me. I found him roaming my apartment complex years ago. He would keep finding hair bands (had a female roomate) and bringing them to me. I thought it was really strange. So I finally threw one of them - he ran, grabbed it, and brought it back. I've never seen such a thing - whoever had him before must have trained him.
He's usually ultra-lazy. He's laying at the foot of my bed sleeping as I type this. Glad to know I'm not the only one with a cat that fetches!
slash dot at matt dot sh
Unfortunately, not every cable company will allow this.
:) When I did have them once set it up on a Windows machine, they did not put on any type of software at all, it was all basic.
Instead of Time Warner, Adelphia, or any of the big guys, we have a moderately sized local cable provider who does everything in house. Their policy is simple - an appointment must be made for anything.
About a year ago, I cancelled my cable connection and changed to DSL. My DSL connection was absolutely wrechid, so I switched back to cable. I stopped by the cable office and asked for a modem. Even though I explained that the outlet is still there, the computer is still configured, and everything was ready, they -HAD- to send an installed.
Luckily the installers have always been pretty understanding. When I showed him my Linux box, he said "you're probably better off configuring this than me."
My recommendation - stay away from any provider that would accept EULA's and install software without giving the customer any other option. Even without the software, who knows what other types of things you might be agreeing to by using their service. If you have DSL available, find a reliable local ISP that resells it. Then you can usually get goodies like IP blocks, and you can get to know your tech support staff directly.
It's worth noting that part of the FCC sale agreement of the 25-Mhz chunk of "digital satellite radio" space was that the two companies must develop compatible technology, and have radios available to work with both networks, within a certain number of years. I think it was somewhere in the 2-5 year range.
I must say that is strange. I've had XM for several months, and I rarely loose coverage. In the small town of Port Clinton, OH, there is only one spot near a large building where signal fades for about 2 seconds. Other than that, and under sometimes under awnings at gas stations, I never loose signal.
In bigger areas, they have terrestrial repeaters. I've been in parking garages, under gas station awnings, and under bridges in Toledo, OH and Chicago, IL, both without interruption of service.
Maybe the service worked poorly for you, but I myself would be very disappointed to loose the XM programming, which is currently accounts for 80% of my listening time.
A lot of people (but not myself) would disagree. Look at the telephone companies. While most of the long distance services used to go over microwave hops, the telco's are rapidly decomissioning microwave sites. There was even a recent article entitled Discarded AT&T Microwave Bunkers For Sale. We're talking high speed links as well.
To me, this is taking a step backwords in technology, but to the telco's, fiber optics is the preferred choice.
Or, take that old p-200 laying around, throw a stripped down win9x on it and build it up specifically for p2p stuff. just dump your downloads over the network once you're done and shut the box down.
My concern would be this -- what happens when you want to play a PS2 game, but your PS2 is busy recording one of your scheduled programs? Seems rather inconvenient to me. For as cheap as TiVo's are, I rather have the convenience of TiVo doing it's own thing and allowing me to use my game console whenever I want without interrupting a recording.
Now if the PS/2 is just a playback device, with the PC doing the recording, that may not be an issue. I still prefer an all in one box to take care of business.
If you want to "target greedy business", hit the phone companies and the cable providers, who make it damn difficult for a small local wireless provider like ourselves to compete. Verizon wants you to purchase a DS-3 to their ATM network to provide DSL, and their wholesale DSL circuit costs are only about $10 less (if even) than their retail price. In some "special promotion" cases, the wholesale cost is less than what they retail it for. Cable companies won't even talk to you if you try to talk to them.
Now, who is the "big evil commercial interest" here? Us, a small, local wireless-only ISP, or Verizon and Adelphia, big-time companies that can run at a loss for years to hold the little guys back?
Trust me, our monthly fees barely cover what goes into supporting it. I don't see how someone can provide free wireless without sharing a cable or dsl connection, which providers generally don't allow in their policies.
Finally, all of these people putting up significant time and money to provide free wireless have to be making money somewhere to support the costs. How are their companies or employers doing anything less evil than we are?
Who needs a Lexus? I can get a 89 Cavalier for under $1,000. It will get me to work just fine too. I don't need automatic climate control, I can just turn the knob to "blue" if I'm warm. Rolling down the windows is mechanical, so it doesn't require any electricity like power locks do. You still need to turn a wheel and operate a transmission, so it's the same thing.
Nobody really NEEDS any of the luxury items that exist. But they are still there, and lots of people still buy them or desire them.
Or:
3: I never knew this guy was not happy with his salary. He never said anything, he's always productive and seems generally satisfied with his employment here. I know he makes less than he's worth, but he's performing so well and has never asked for a raise.
Think of it this way. If you went to buy a car, and the car was in obviously perfect condition, but it was $5,000 under bluebook value, would you give the seller an extra $5,000 so that they are making what the car is worth, or would you pay what they are asking because it's such a good deal for quality, reliable transportation at less than market value?
Employers know exactly what you are worth, in some cases down to the dollar.
The car is a 99 Honda Accord LX. I plan on spending around $200 on a decent set of components, and probably getting some Q-Forms kickpanel replacements to mount them.
And by the way, after reading the very helpful comments in this thread, I've decided to go with XM for a number of reasons, namely price of hardware, better variety of channels I like, they have Art Bell, several good reviews from XM subscribers, and several reassuring comments that Clear Channel's stake is not big enough to warrant overlord programming control.
This is a very good point, thank you.
I forgot to mention when I typed my Ask Slashdot question that this is just the first step in my audio system. Much more planned.
Even a set of $99 infiniti's from your local Circuit City would sound better than stock paper cone speakers. I will be investing a bit more than that, but if anyone is seriously considering the quality upgrade of XM, you should definitely fix the other "weak" links in the system.
On the Apache thing - I don't think most content providers would like to provide a "way out". They rather provide links within to keep them in their site.
Would be a nice addition to the "google toolbar" though.
I'm getting tired of reading about this twice per day. It's a simple business tactic. Sell a new product at below cost, get everyone on board, and then raise rates. They reel you in, show you that their product is 1000000 times better than dialup, and then raise costs. It's business, and it seems to be working. How many people here would ever go back to dialup now that you've experienced broadband? A very small percentage. You can bitch all you want, but it's going to keep going up until they reach the point where they will start loosing money if they raise rates further.
For every person who has complained that their broadband rates have gone up - how many of you have cancelled your broadband? That's about all you can do to show your objection, and you'd be crying if you had to dig out the ole' analog modem.
I don't see why this always comes as a surprise. No matter how much you oversell your bandwidth, you can't make money charging $35/month for a 1 meg pipe.
I run a wireless ISP, and we did option #3. It took me about 10 hours to get a simple version running, and I've done various upgrades since then (RADIUS auth, provision for public ip's, etc).
/login.php or whatever so that they always go to your login page.
Here's what you need to roll your own:
* Linux box with iptables (we use ipchains, but just because we haven't upgraded to the 2.4 kernel).
* Apache (mod_rewrite a must)
* PHP (or scripting language of choice)
* Squid
* sudo (so that ipchains can be run as the web user)
Simply add a rule to redirect your entire private subnet to local port 80. You will need to have mod_rewrite change everything to
When someone auths, you need 2 rules - one to redirect port 80 to the squid port instead of local port 80, and one to NAT everything else. These should go at the top as to overcome the "redirect all to apache" rule.
We have a script that runs every 5 minutes. It goes through a sql table of people currently logged in, compares their ip to mac to make sure no one "hijaked" an IP when someone turned off their machine, does some other security checks for the same purpose. It also pings them, and removes the rules if they are no longer active. Be careful, this breaks when people use personal firewalls and stuff. Looking for a better solution to this actually - anyone?
If you need more help, let me know. I can't release our code as we have a product on it, but I'd be happy to help out. We also have an RF engineer on staff, I might be able to ask him a question or two.
net dot coastalwave at admin
(reverse, yadda yadda)
If you use omni antennas, yes.
If you take 2 very narrow beamwidth sector antennas, and have 2 on each pole pointing in each direction, then you only cover the track. This highly increases your dbi. Also the power limits on directional antennas are more leniant, meaning you can pump something like 250mw to the antennas as opposed to 100.
Still, you'd need one about every few miles, making it rather inconvenient and costly.