Slashdot Mirror


User: Caviller

Caviller's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
30
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 30

  1. If ever this phrase was true:

    "I want what he is smoking..."

    Because it would be nice to be that far our of reality sometimes.

  2. This is what i get for Slashdotting without sleeping for 24 hours.....

    Lets try the correct link: Apollo

  3. While what you say is true to a degree, young engineers do have advantanges.

    Look what a bunch of very young engineers pulled off almost 50 years ago Apollo

    I have noticed that as engineers go through their careers, their view of how and what can be done does narrow over time. Young engineers are not "set in their ways" and can do the "outside the box" development/research thinking that engineers with 20+ years don't seem or want to do. The old "We've done it for 20 years like this, why would we try something new when we know this way so well." is what I think Dyson is trying to avoid......that and cheaper labor/no family commitments....but that is a whole other topic.

  4. Re:Bad Management on WiFi Offloading is Skyrocketing · · Score: 1

    I use a program called 'WiFi SNR' on android. What it says is usually what my more expensive equipment at work says.

  5. Re:Bad Management on WiFi Offloading is Skyrocketing · · Score: 1

    Well....simply put...the insane amount of DMCA notices make it not worth while. Hey i understand, this is the students basically home connection and that's why only bittorrent is blocked (and ah...we do allow connections to proxies and vpns.....as long as the source ip is not on our range for the stupid DMCA take down bots....i'm good...they are paying for the connection after all). Go look at a lot of campus housing network services around the US. We are probably the most open....any device, any use (except bit torrent). And just because we have the excess capacity...we do full idp inspection for all virus,works,malware,etc.... We really do try to make the students have great service. There are a few universities up north that i know of that only allowed filtered http and https. No streaming videos (youtube,netflix,etc...) are allowed....no game systems....appleTVs...... Would suck to go there! And for info to back it up...i got 325 freaking notices in 1 week.....the bit torrent blocks started an hour later.

  6. Bad Management on WiFi Offloading is Skyrocketing · · Score: 5, Informative

    I run the campus and dorm WiFi system at the university that i work at. We have many 250 room(500-750 people) residence halls that use around 30 3x3 802.11N dual band (2.4 and 5.8) access points each (we have a total of ~270 APs in 9 halls). The 2.4Ghz band is perfectly usable ALL of the time(at least 1.5Mbps usable data throughput at all times). Our students usually have around 2000-2500 devices on each band (we allow EVERYTHING except bit torrent) with game systems/appleTV/anything....we do not disallow any device as long as it doesn't impact other people.

    Now how do we keep 2.4 usable in an environment like that? We manage the crap out of it. First we only allow channels 1,6,and 11 to be used. This keeps anyone from stepping on two channels at once. We also (and this one helped a lot!) turned the N protocol bandwidth width to 20Mhz instead of 40Mhz. At 20Mhz, you have 3 completely separate channels. When the width is 40Mhz you basically chew up 2 open channels at once.....so all channels are always walking over each other. Although this does decrease raw throughput of a client, it almost doubles the amount of usable connections per radio and helps a lot with the further away users from the AP. We also do 5 minute power and channel tuning where the system keeps all that balanced as usage differs. We also do not allow anything slower then 11Mbs to connect at all. This has a two fold benefit. One being that it makes sure the client/AP stays with the closest one to it and two...and this is the HUGE biggie....it increases the efficiency of the 802.11 time slice distribution. 5.5Mbps requires 10ms per client in radio chat time that the client gets regardless of how much data it is sending or receiving. 2 and 1Mbps requires 20ms! The old 802.11b is horribly inefficient and actually causes less clients to be able to connect to a given AP. Turing of everything but 11Mbps increased AP/client concentrations around 40%. Another thing we do is NOT impose is per connection speed limits. We found this reduces amount of usable connections per AP(about 10%) and slows down everybody for no benefit 802.11 is good at balancing throughput between all clients already. We also force transfer anyone off the 2.4 band that is 5.8 capable. The last thing we do is have alarms for when the system shows very high levels of interference on the 2.4 band. Sometimes this is a bad cordless telephone or something but 90% of the time......it is a stupid microwave that went bad. In dense university living areas, they are EVERYWHERE!! Especially since the students buy the cheapest ones they can find. One bad microwave will kill 2.4 in an entire area.

    Now...all that being said...when people tell me that 2.4 is crowded and slow because it is unlicensed, I tell them no....it's just managed very, very badly. I have been wishing that one day in the future...hopefully soon as i have requested it during the public comment phase of the last few 802.11 standards...that good spectrum management would be added to the WIFI standards to help with this. The best they do now is look around and try not to be on the same channel. I wish there could be some extremely low level protocol where all access points as part of spec, discuss the rf environment and attempt to keep it sane instead of the apartment fun of 100's of APs all blasting at MAX power to try and get it's voice heard over everyone else's voice. Last time i went to a friends apartment, he was complaining his wifi was slow. When i looked at the rf information.....the noise floor was freaking -62dbm. I told him it will never work right in that environment.

  7. Re:why dont they spin it? and land it in a silo? on Longer Video Shows How Incredibly Close Falcon Stage Came To Successful Landing · · Score: 1

    Yes, that would help stabilize the rocket...but unfortunately...it would cause centrifugal forces on the fuel and cause the fuel to pull away from the fuel pickup at the bottom center of the tank. They are already quite low on fuel at this point so it won't take much spin to kill the engines.

  8. DSL might very well be available there on Comcast's Incompetence, Lack of Broadband May Force Developer To Sell Home · · Score: 5, Informative

    DSL might very well be available there but for "new development", there is a trick you have to do in order to get it.

    When i moved into my new house a few years ago, I was told that there is no DSL service in my area. I told them that it was BS since the CO is less then a mile from my house (i pass it going to and from work each day) and the dang pedistal was in my front yard. Over and over again..."Sir we don't serve your address/area and have no plans on doing so." Each time i respond..."You put a new pedistal in my subdivision when the road/utilities were layed....want the number off the pedistal?" Them..."No sir since we have no service there...." This went on for three damn months threw 3! different support levels.

    Finally, i realized that by law, they HAVE to hook me up if i requested standard POTS phone service. I called, gave them the address, they told me they don't have service there and would have to set up a service man to survey and figure out how to get me phone service where i live. The next day the guy came out and said..."Well this is easier then i thought....you just need a line buried from the ped to the house (50ft). He was done in 10 min. I then asked if DSL was available here. He told me yea, it's just down the road, want me to turn that on too and add it to your bill, i have a new modem in my truck. 20 minutes later....i had 12Mbits DSL service to my house.

    I then asked why in the world i could not get this done MONTHS ago. He said that if a address never had regular home phone service, as far as ATT was concerned, DSL was not and never would be available. There system was incapable of turning up dsl before phone service....the computer system would just plain not even allow it.

    The next day...i canceled my home phone and kept the DSL

    So my advice to you is that get the mandated by law to provide POTS phone line, and then see if magically you can get DSL service now. I would not be surprised if you can now get it. When I told all my neighbors (who have been trying to months like me) how to do it, BAM!, a few weeks straight of ATT trucks at all the houses, and a whole lot of very thankful neighbors.

  9. Re:*SIGH* now if only the teclos would deploy it.. on Alcatel-Lucent Gives DSL Networks a Gigabit Boost · · Score: 1

    I work for a univerity that just overhauled our DSL system with VDSL2. One 24-port DSLAM (VDSL2 with ADSL2+ fallback) costs us $4K......without any educational pricing. We are getting stable 20/5 connections within 5000 feet. And our copper plant is 40+ years old!!!

  10. Re:iPhone on Sprint Details Shift To LTE · · Score: 1

    Doh! i can't believe i wrote that....i know better...ug. Why did Apple have to go confuse everything witht he 3G labled iPhone.

  11. iPhone on Sprint Details Shift To LTE · · Score: 1

    Wait What Hu????

    I throught that Sprint was about to get the iPhone that worked with their 4G offerings now??? So everyone that buys one now will have to buy a new phone for the new system in 1 year??? Me thinks someone did not think this through long enough.

  12. Civ on Neal Stephenson On 'Innovation Starvation' · · Score: 1

    From the third paragraph:

    Space Exploration is an important example of this. We emphasize Capitalism as the best engine for innovation, but it was Socialism that took man to the Moon. Capitalism is only just now reaching space, 40 years later. Teamwork accomplishes great things, but in America we emphasize individualism and personal profit, which are great motivators, but create silos of productivity that are disadvantaged for lacking the cross-pollination of ideas that comes with collaboration

    Unfortunally, this is the EXACT reason anyone playing the Civilization game would usually go Monarchy -> Communism till all science goals was achieved -> Fundamentalism to rake in the cash.

    ANYBODY that chose Capitalism would usually have lots of money...but their science would tank into oblivion and the only way they could win was to kill the other civilizations before they got there spaceship built first.

    Kinda scarry how well the game has fortold the future considering it came out in 1996.

  13. THIS on Appropriations Bill Threatens Future Space Science Missions · · Score: 1

    This is what scares the living shit out of me 100 times more over then ANY nuclear reactor launch could ever do. People who say "Smart person A says this, it's what i believe too, so it's the only truth outthere and everyone else is WRONG!!!"

    God save humanity...

  14. Over time? on Sandy Bridge Chipset Shipments Halted Due To Bug · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I RTFA and I for the life of me can't figure out if it's a "The longer the uptime the worse the degrading...and a reboot will start the process over?" or "You will use this and it will get worse and worse untill the chip burns out..."

    I hope to god it's the first one...If not this might beat the floating point error by a mile!

  15. Mind-boggling...Really? on iFixit Moves Into Console Repair · · Score: 1

    'This is routine maintenance, and it's mind-boggling that the manufacturers don't provide people with an easy way to open the case up and blow it out.'

    Really? It seems pretty simple to me:

    1. Build product.
    2. Make product so that it's life is artifically gimped by not being able to do the easiest of things like 'blow it out'.
    3. When product dies early, customer spends more money to replace originaly gimped product.
    4. Rinse, repeat.

    Seriously, they seem to build most 'consumer electronics' to die on a predetermined schedule. If they built them to last, then the companys would not get any extra money from multiple purchases...and well...they can't have that now can they.

  16. Bingo! on The Recovery Disc Rip-Off · · Score: 1

    "One customer recently found his hard drive had gone, but by the time he'd paid £50 for the recovery disc, paid for a new hard drive and paid for the labour of installing the device, it made more sense to buy a new machine.""

    And that about sums up why the discs are going by by. Why recover when you can buy new!!

  17. Tripod for showers! on Equatorial Mounts For Budget Astrophotography? · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm not trying to troll or be mean spirited, but take it for me, any EQ mount that is in the price range you are looking for is going to drive you absolutely bonkers...at least in the 'motorized' category. You can get close to the upper price range on a manual EQ but it would only be good enough to piggyback a camera. I have been in the hobby (astrophotography) for about 10 years now and have lived through the pain of the cheaper mounts. Unfortunally, cheap mounts are only good for one thing...making you so fed up with them that you eventually get tired of trying and give up....and keep you from actually watching the shower since you will be constantly messing with the mount.

    For what you seem to what to do from the summary above you could accomplish with the following :

    1. Stick the camera on a normal tripod and aim where the meteors are originating from with the widest angle lens you have.
    2. Take 10 sec shots after ten second shots with an ISO of at least 800, while adjusting for position every 10 or so minutes so that you keep the general area of the sky in view.
    3. The next day, use an astrophoto stacking program RegiStax to 'stitch' together your images made the previous night.

    You would be surprised how good the pictures will actually come out...and for the price of a $50 tripod.

    Now, barring that you are dead set on an EQ mount for this, I have only one piece of advice. In the land of EQ mounts, the heavier the better (less shaking, better stepping motors). And the heavier it is, the more expensive it is. There is just no getting around it. I currently have this mount and it required a complete tear down, polishing, and rebuild before it was even capable of astrophotography...and that's at $600!!

  18. Re:More Info & Dashboard on Global Warming 'Undeniable,' Report Says · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And this comment:

    1) climate is warming to a point of unnatural irreversible damage

    is the reason people don't want to listen to the 'climate' scientists.

    1) Unnatural - What the hell gives them the right to decide what is natural or unnatural? Thew world has been MUCH MUCH hotter and MUCH MUCH colder then it is today. So where do you draw the line between natural and unnatural?

    2) Irreversible - Once again, see above...the planet has been on both ends of the spectrium and, if you look out a window today, it has reversed.

    3) Damage - To apply the word damage means that something is out of norms. Consider the planet has been both hotter and colder then it is today...I say that no 'damage' has occurred...

    Global warming and cooling is a natural cycle that our planet goes through; study after study shows that. The problem for us, is that our species evolved at this, roughly, current level. If it goes too far in either direction, we have two choices... Adapt or die! Every other animal or plant on this planet has to do this so why do we think we are special?

  19. What's next....? on George Lucas C&Ds 'Lightsaber Laser' · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can see it now....

    Scientist: We developed Hyperdrive!!
    George: Nope...I did...didn't you see my movie...geesh.

    I think George is heading down the path of the Dark Side....

  20. Holodeck? on One Video Card, 12 Monitors · · Score: 1

    Actually...12 ports is the perfect number for a stereoscoptic cube. A single card that can do that has never been seen until today. We might finally be getting to the GPU power levels needed for a mostly realistic, true 3D environment, and all of that out of just a single machine instead of the many machines needed now. That my friends is progress!

  21. Re:Excellent on Linux 2.6.34 Released · · Score: 1

    I don't know if I should WOOOSH, Laugh, or Cry on this one...

  22. Already been done for years. on Balloon and Duct Tape Deliver Great Space Photos · · Score: 4, Informative

    This has bee done for year by amateurs. I have been following these people for atleast a couple of years: BEAR

    They have some AWESOME video of their attempts.

    I wonder why NASA is just now finding about about this stuff???

  23. Better Test? on FCC Asks You To Test Your Broadband Speeds · · Score: 1

    This is fine and all...except that the ISPs just move the test servers to high priority and make it look like everyone is getting their advertised speeds.

    If they want a real test they should connect to 5 random test servers with daily changing IP addresses, scattered all over the country, and perferabably all on differnet networks( LV3, Sprint, etc...) while downloading a 100Mb bittorrent file, and then adding all the speeds together to come up with the actual throughput. That would atleast be a more true test of what the ISP's customers are actualy getting.

  24. THE Windows Activation Technologies on Anti-Piracy Windows 7 Update Phones Home Quarterly · · Score: 1

    Thank god they left the 'THE' off the begining of it

    Customer Service: What can I help you with today.

    Customer: Your TWAT broke my computer!!

    Customer Service: "FILL_IN_THE_BLANK"

  25. Waiting on this story... on Microsoft Patents Sudo's Behavior · · Score: 1

    Company X patents government.

    Company X today has patented the business process know as 'government'. Governments are now required to give X dollars in license feeds per year to Company X in order to stay a sovereign country. Failure to pay fees will result in abandoning you right to sovereignty and becomming a subsideary of Company X. USPTO's response said that this will spur inovation and development of countries by helping them all work as one instead of all the different types there are today.


    Comments:

    Well....(Score: 5, Sad)
    Aparently America has already forgot to pay the fees....lol, i kid,i kid....maybe ;)