Most posters here seem not to have read the details on the Github page, and are missing the point.
This is a way to have encrypted point-to-point communication or (in some cases) network using any radio (or other) transmission equipment that will transmit/receive audio signals and allow you to tap-into the analog audio circuit of the transmitter and receiver. You could use it with:
- telephones (landline kind) - mobile phones - radio transceivers (legal or illegal - the protocol doesn't *require* that you break the law!) - optical communication equipment - free air/fibre - etc. etc. etc.
It just defines a common protocol and means of modulation/demodulation.
They take a whole lot of words to say this, and throw in a lot of revolutionary rhetoric.
And yes, it's very similar to amateur packet radio, except encrypted. So, lots of existing code to draw from.
It's well within the capability of any PC or smartphone today. Although I let my ham license lapse many years ago, I do have a couple of receivers squirreled away somewhere, and a few years ago I experimented with listening-in on amateur packet radio. You just run the output from your receiver into the input of a Soundblaster card (I SAID this was a few years ago...) and the application handles the decoding.
An interesting side-note: If you're near an airport, you can use similar software to decode VHF ACARS transmissions. (The kind that hasn't helped much in locating MH370). Just install some open-source software, hook your scanner up to your PC, tune to the right frequency, and it turns the squawks into somewhat-readable messages.
It's biggest drawback is it's biggest strength, IMO. It DOESN'T define a common frequency, some complex frequency-hopping or spread-spectrum scheme, or even common transmission media. It would be extremely hard for it to gain critical mass. On the other hand, it means there are an awful lot of places one would have to look to find it. It's up to whatever group that wants to communicate to settle on a transmission media and (if applicable) frequency.
I have 4 Samsung SyncMaster 213T monitors, circa 2000. One finally died. The other 3 are going strong. These are IPS monitors, and for some reason IPS went out of favor for years (cost, I suppose) and were hard to find. And few newer ones have as wide a viewing angle.
I left Detroit for San Diego around 1985. I wrote software for various auto-related stuff (CNC, gauging, factory automation, SQC, Variation Analysis...) when I was there, and the experience was invaluable.
The irony is that the percentage of tech works now is likely many times what it was when I was there. The job loss has been in blue-collor factory jobs, support jobs for the closed factories, service and retail to support all those workers, etc. etc. etc.
Yea, my old high school (Cass Tech) got gutted by a scrapper fire. (They built a new school, and the old one was to be turned into Condos...)
If the "primary directive" of the NSA were actually National Security (rather than spying) what they should do would be obvious.
In the interest of national security, should the NSA discover such an exploit, they should quietly work with public and private organizations to get as much of the infrastructure fixed before the exploit becomes generally known.
Instead, though, what we have is that the NSA has likely had free access. Along with the rest of the world's spy agencies. And hackers and crime networks. That doesn't foster national security, IMO.
GoPro: a heck of a lot cheaper, higher resolution, good enough for the cops. Put it in some sort of clip, remove it from the clip for close-ups. Yes, it's dorky. But less dorky than Google Glass.
San Diego developers already use cable service as a criteria when house-hunting. You want to be in a Cox area! Unfortunately, most of the jobs are in Time Warner areas. Now the service will go from bad to worse...
.... the grunge that is going to collect between the modules!
It's really about the stupidest idea I've seen from Google.
Every pluggable/removable part multiplies the opportunity for failure. It's why so many consumer devices now have embedded non-user-removable batteries. (No, *not* to rip-off consumers when they have to pay for service to have the battery replaced. Most of these devices are discarded or removed from service before the battery might need replacement.)
Great. Now we have a bunch of under-insured, illegal jitney drivers, just like any third-world nation...
Read the tales of woe of Uber-X drivers who have lost their personal insurance. Yes, riders and the other driver in an accident are covered by Uber-X, up to an inadequate $100,000.
California Livery law requires $1,000,000 insurance, though, and specific licensing to drive passengers for hire.
These drivers typically have neither of these, though. And personal policies generally specifically exclude driving for hire. So, driver gets in an accident, Uber pays, and driver is now out of a job (or side job) and is uninsurable.
It was a hacked GM X-car with batteries in what was the transmission tunnel, and most of the rest of the underside of the car. And, in fact, it had a full under-pan.
I don't recall it being touted as a safety feature, but instead, it was there to help reduce wind resistance.
I think the major hazard was the potential for chlorine leaks. It leaked on The Today Show. "Oh, that? It's just chlorine, just like in your swimming pool..."
Tell that to the Madison Height, Mi. fire department! (We had them out a few times...)
I avoid Luxottica eyewear, because they have monopolized the industry and hurt small producers. They are on a constant buying binge to buy-up any producer that might gain some traction in showrooms, and make monopolistic demands on retailers.
They make (IMO) poor-quality eyewear at inflated prices. Most of the "designer" labels they make agreements with seem to be OK with this. BTW, you should be able to get any Luxottica products on line for at least half off of retail, because the prices are so inflated. You can get actual quality eyewear for the same price.
Retailers and professionals hate them, but have no choice.
Good one, Google. You really showed us how you do no evil.
March 12, 2014, the day that countless local TV Anchorpersons are celebrating the anniversary of the invention of the Internet! Probably more erroneous statements out of the mouths of Anchorpersons than any other day in history!
Ah, it appears Harris is doing beta testing, and handing these out to police departments to test. So, they don't want the cops blabbing to their competitors.
1. Does Harris have the proper permissions to do this in the wild like this?
2. It'd be an interesting question whether a civil contract like this can trump disclosure requirements. Seems to me there's no way the cops can make use of the results of testing. Maybe they can test, but if they act on it, they have to violate either the NDA or the law.
I know know that FCC regulations in the U.S. are regularly flouted by the use of similar "range booster" devices that you can get at Fry's, etc. but they are illegally imported and sold.
I'd imagine there are exceptions for law enforcement, but I'd also imagine that the law enforcement agency has to at least do some sort of registration with the FCC.
I'm guessing that the manufacturer just doesn't want to get in trouble with the FCC...
Yea, I get it. Google wants to make things more up-to-date by crowd-sourcing data. But you can't trust the "crowd". They need to make sure that new/changed listings are confirmed by multiple independent reports. And it would't hurt to at least glance at Street View to confirm...
"Here comes the Google van! Quick, put up the "FBI" sign!"
^ A much more appropriate analogy, that almost fits.
Add to this the fact that the builder (employer) told the bricklayer (employee) to leave out every other brick on the bottom row in order to save time and expense, and you'd have an analogy that is spot-on...
Modern phones, including Android, iPhone, etc. etc. etc. have this ability. Whether or not a given navigation app uses it is another matter.
You don't have to use wheel sensors or the odometer (did you mean speedometer?), although those are useful inputs.
A more applicable and general term than "dead reckoning" is "sensor fusion".
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about dead reckoning:
"In navigation, dead reckoning (also ded (for deduced) reckoning or DR) is the process of calculating one's current position by using a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time and course."
But we can do better than that, today, and there are a number of sensors that - with the right math - can be "fused" to provide a more accurate estimate of position than would be possible using any one. GPS, then, is just one potential input.
Wikipedia gives a very broad definition, as this isn't just applied to navigation:
"Sensor fusion is the combining of sensory data or data derived from sensory data from disparate sources such that the resulting information is in some sense better than would be possible when these sources were used individually. The term better in this case can mean more accurate, more complete, or more dependable, or refer to the result of an emerging view, such as stereoscopic vision (calculation of depth information by combining two-dimensional images from two cameras at slightly different viewpoints)."
Phones today typically have GPS, accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyro sensors. While additional inputs such as auto speedometer (not very accurate, though, by law only required to be +- 1.5% or so) and wheel sensors might be useful, they certainly aren't required.
I'd assume that major navigation apps already do this, probably using Kalman Filtering:
So, this is nothing new. But, then again - there's no claim that it is. (Just the incorrect reading between the lines here...) They've just conveniently put the needed sensors and a means of performing the calculations in a single chip.
You know, just like Apple did for the iPhone 5S...
Slashdot Mirror
Most posters here seem not to have read the details on the Github page, and are missing the point.
This is a way to have encrypted point-to-point communication or (in some cases) network using any radio (or other) transmission equipment that will transmit/receive audio signals and allow you to tap-into the analog audio circuit of the transmitter and receiver. You could use it with:
- telephones (landline kind)
- mobile phones
- radio transceivers (legal or illegal - the protocol doesn't *require* that you break the law!)
- optical communication equipment - free air/fibre
- etc. etc. etc.
It just defines a common protocol and means of modulation/demodulation.
They take a whole lot of words to say this, and throw in a lot of revolutionary rhetoric.
And yes, it's very similar to amateur packet radio, except encrypted. So, lots of existing code to draw from.
It's well within the capability of any PC or smartphone today. Although I let my ham license lapse many years ago, I do have a couple of receivers squirreled away somewhere, and a few years ago I experimented with listening-in on amateur packet radio. You just run the output from your receiver into the input of a Soundblaster card (I SAID this was a few years ago...) and the application handles the decoding.
An interesting side-note: If you're near an airport, you can use similar software to decode VHF ACARS transmissions. (The kind that hasn't helped much in locating MH370). Just install some open-source software, hook your scanner up to your PC, tune to the right frequency, and it turns the squawks into somewhat-readable messages.
It's biggest drawback is it's biggest strength, IMO. It DOESN'T define a common frequency, some complex frequency-hopping or spread-spectrum scheme, or even common transmission media. It would be extremely hard for it to gain critical mass. On the other hand, it means there are an awful lot of places one would have to look to find it. It's up to whatever group that wants to communicate to settle on a transmission media and (if applicable) frequency.
Well, yea, except for losing a few letters...
(V G E R)
I have 4 Samsung SyncMaster 213T monitors, circa 2000. One finally died. The other 3 are going strong. These are IPS monitors, and for some reason IPS went out of favor for years (cost, I suppose) and were hard to find. And few newer ones have as wide a viewing angle.
While it's long gone, I had a Hammarlund SP-600 SuperPro that had seen 30 years of use before I got it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...
I left Detroit for San Diego around 1985. I wrote software for various auto-related stuff (CNC, gauging, factory automation, SQC, Variation Analysis...) when I was there, and the experience was invaluable.
The irony is that the percentage of tech works now is likely many times what it was when I was there. The job loss has been in blue-collor factory jobs, support jobs for the closed factories, service and retail to support all those workers, etc. etc. etc.
Yea, my old high school (Cass Tech) got gutted by a scrapper fire. (They built a new school, and the old one was to be turned into Condos...)
If the "primary directive" of the NSA were actually National Security (rather than spying) what they should do would be obvious.
In the interest of national security, should the NSA discover such an exploit, they should quietly work with public and private organizations to get as much of the infrastructure fixed before the exploit becomes generally known.
Instead, though, what we have is that the NSA has likely had free access. Along with the rest of the world's spy agencies. And hackers and crime networks. That doesn't foster national security, IMO.
GoPro: a heck of a lot cheaper, higher resolution, good enough for the cops. Put it in some sort of clip, remove it from the clip for close-ups. Yes, it's dorky. But less dorky than Google Glass.
San Diego developers already use cable service as a criteria when house-hunting. You want to be in a Cox area! Unfortunately, most of the jobs are in Time Warner areas. Now the service will go from bad to worse...
-- a lucky South-of-Interstate-8 developer...
.... the grunge that is going to collect between the modules!
It's really about the stupidest idea I've seen from Google.
Every pluggable/removable part multiplies the opportunity for failure. It's why so many consumer devices now have embedded non-user-removable batteries. (No, *not* to rip-off consumers when they have to pay for service to have the battery replaced. Most of these devices are discarded or removed from service before the battery might need replacement.)
Great. Now we have a bunch of under-insured, illegal jitney drivers, just like any third-world nation...
Read the tales of woe of Uber-X drivers who have lost their personal insurance. Yes, riders and the other driver in an accident are covered by Uber-X, up to an inadequate $100,000.
California Livery law requires $1,000,000 insurance, though, and specific licensing to drive passengers for hire.
These drivers typically have neither of these, though. And personal policies generally specifically exclude driving for hire. So, driver gets in an accident, Uber pays, and driver is now out of a job (or side job) and is uninsurable.
I worked on this:
http://www.csmonitor.com/1980/...
It was a hacked GM X-car with batteries in what was the transmission tunnel, and most of the rest of the underside of the car. And, in fact, it had a full under-pan.
I don't recall it being touted as a safety feature, but instead, it was there to help reduce wind resistance.
I think the major hazard was the potential for chlorine leaks. It leaked on The Today Show. "Oh, that? It's just chlorine, just like in your swimming pool..."
Tell that to the Madison Height, Mi. fire department! (We had them out a few times...)
I avoid Luxottica eyewear, because they have monopolized the industry and hurt small producers. They are on a constant buying binge to buy-up any producer that might gain some traction in showrooms, and make monopolistic demands on retailers.
They make (IMO) poor-quality eyewear at inflated prices. Most of the "designer" labels they make agreements with seem to be OK with this. BTW, you should be able to get any Luxottica products on line for at least half off of retail, because the prices are so inflated. You can get actual quality eyewear for the same price.
Retailers and professionals hate them, but have no choice.
Good one, Google. You really showed us how you do no evil.
March 12, 2014, the day that countless local TV Anchorpersons are celebrating the anniversary of the invention of the Internet! Probably more erroneous statements out of the mouths of Anchorpersons than any other day in history!
Why do they need a call center?
They just need a recorded message, and to hire DeForest Kelly to record a one-liner:
"It's dead, Jim!"
Ah, it appears Harris is doing beta testing, and handing these out to police departments to test. So, they don't want the cops blabbing to their competitors.
1. Does Harris have the proper permissions to do this in the wild like this?
2. It'd be an interesting question whether a civil contract like this can trump disclosure requirements. Seems to me there's no way the cops can make use of the results of testing. Maybe they can test, but if they act on it, they have to violate either the NDA or the law.
Are these devices even legal? What country?
I know know that FCC regulations in the U.S. are regularly flouted by the use of similar "range booster" devices that you can get at Fry's, etc. but they are illegally imported and sold.
I'd imagine there are exceptions for law enforcement, but I'd also imagine that the law enforcement agency has to at least do some sort of registration with the FCC.
I'm guessing that the manufacturer just doesn't want to get in trouble with the FCC...
- "I don't understand. How is Google supposed to fix every wrong map listing?"
By relying primarily on official and/or reliable sources.
- Business licenses
- Property tax rolls
- yellow pages listings
Yea, I get it. Google wants to make things more up-to-date by crowd-sourcing data. But you can't trust the "crowd". They need to make sure that new/changed listings are confirmed by multiple independent reports. And it would't hurt to at least glance at Street View to confirm...
"Here comes the Google van! Quick, put up the "FBI" sign!"
^ A much more appropriate analogy, that almost fits.
Add to this the fact that the builder (employer) told the bricklayer (employee) to leave out every other brick on the bottom row in order to save time and expense, and you'd have an analogy that is spot-on...
Oh. These are the people who ruined C|Net?
Haven't been there in years.
"accelerometers can be wrong - due to rotation"
That's why you also have a 3-d gyro.
"deceleration"
Um. Accelerometers measure both acceleration and deceleration...
"and acceleration when there is no feedback"
Like when the user has dropped their phone and broken the accelerometer?
Modern phones, including Android, iPhone, etc. etc. etc. have this ability. Whether or not a given navigation app uses it is another matter.
You don't have to use wheel sensors or the odometer (did you mean speedometer?), although those are useful inputs.
A more applicable and general term than "dead reckoning" is "sensor fusion".
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about dead reckoning:
"In navigation, dead reckoning (also ded (for deduced) reckoning or DR) is the process of calculating one's current position by using a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time and course."
But we can do better than that, today, and there are a number of sensors that - with the right math - can be "fused" to provide a more accurate estimate of position than would be possible using any one. GPS, then, is just one potential input.
Wikipedia gives a very broad definition, as this isn't just applied to navigation:
"Sensor fusion is the combining of sensory data or data derived from sensory data from disparate sources such that the resulting information is in some sense better than would be possible when these sources were used individually. The term better in this case can mean more accurate, more complete, or more dependable, or refer to the result of an emerging view, such as stereoscopic vision (calculation of depth information by combining two-dimensional images from two cameras at slightly different viewpoints)."
Phones today typically have GPS, accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyro sensors. While additional inputs such as auto speedometer (not very accurate, though, by law only required to be +- 1.5% or so) and wheel sensors might be useful, they certainly aren't required.
I'd assume that major navigation apps already do this, probably using Kalman Filtering:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~welch/k...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...
So, this is nothing new. But, then again - there's no claim that it is. (Just the incorrect reading between the lines here...) They've just conveniently put the needed sensors and a means of performing the calculations in a single chip.
You know, just like Apple did for the iPhone 5S...
And why is it that you are owed free content?
Eclipse is the single best argument against the Java language.
So, there are only two kinds of software, eh?
You've got your server software.
And you've got your client software. And your client software is a mess.
Wish I were in "IT" and could sum things up so succinctly.
W3Schools certainly does have a very skewed demographic - given that it's only used by developers not smart enough to block W3Schools.
I suspect the IE figure among those who have blocked them is much lower than 9%.
Of course, a site aimed at developers is not representative of the general public.