European firms could have jumped straight to 3G, but all firms concerned got together and decided that it would be more profitable to force consumers through an extra upgrade cycle, so switched their attention to 2.5G, which is the Windows ME of the phone world.
Perhaps a little clarification is in order here. 2.5G (GPRS) is little more than adding an IP packet switched backbone to a normal 2G (GSM) system. You just need to make a few updates to the GSM system and those nifty GPRS phones will use the packet switched backbone for data and the circuit switched backbone for voice. 3G (UMTS) is taking that infrastructure and replacing the base stations (antenna towers & the equipment that runs them) and base station controllers (connects many base stations together). Both 2.5G and 3G will coexist with 2G services. Once enough people switch to 3G phones and VoIP is deemed good enough, the circuit switched backbone will be removed and all services (voice and data) will travel over the packet switched backbone.
Yeah, it's more fun to think of it as a conspiracy to extort more money from consumers, but the reality is that service providers don't have the money to make the switch all at once, so they are upgrading piece-by-piece.
I have a CS degree and can tell you without a doubt that having a well rounded degree is very important. Here's why:
First, you have to sign up for "fluff" classes so you have free time on Friday and Saturday nights.
Second, you need those skills learned in your communication/psychology classes to meet/pick up girls at the party/bar.
Third, you need to pay attention in Astronomy class so you can point out constellations and a little mythology behind them to that girl you picked up in step two. God, if only more people knew how easy it was...
In the United States, the ZIP code narrows you down to about which city you live in, though most cities of over 50,000 people will have more than one ZIP code. The ZIP+4 that the post office is pushing narrows you down to (I think) 8 or so residences at the most (usually in the case of apartment buildings). Especially in the smaller cities, the ZIP+4 number usually identifies the exact house (if you live in a house).
Whether my apartment windows are closed or open, I can hear O'Hare airport over the sound of my computer. It sucks ass, so much that when my lease runs out I will be moving farther away and will definitely make sure I am not directly under any approach paths. And then I will work on a quieter computer.
The sidewalks all over my University campus have been chalked on since long before I got here. And yes, the Linux Users Group here does it, so IBM can't claim to be the first. Of course, we use actual sidewalk chalk, the stuff you buy at Walmart for $5 a bucket. I always wondered why I never saw this stuff on big city sidewalks.
I may be wrong, but I don't think the Army posted this to Slashdot. More likely is that johndeerejedi posted this to Slashdot, and johndeerejedi doesn't control the Army website, nor does johndeerejedi make video encoding decisions for the Army.
Good point though. It would be nice if everyone could watch the videos.
Re:Why Vehicles Like This Will Never Succeed
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Fiddler on the RUF
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· Score: 1
Exactly. I love the fact that if I want to go into the city to catch a ballgame or something, I can just take the train. But I am never going to get rid of my car, which can go anywhere I want it to go and has an unlimited range (so long as there are gas stations every few hundred miles), and go with something that is less functional. And, believe it or not, I like to drive. I want a car that is fun to drive. Hell, I refuse to buy a car with an automatic transmission. You want me to buy this?
I wouldn't say "get a liberal arts degree", but the point about learning to communicate is extremely important. I am a Computer Science major, and at my school we had to take quite a few "liberal arts" courses. I wanted to experience that (and meet some women) so I took a wide variety of them. Foreign languages, English, Communications, Political Science, Music Theory, and Economics. I would have been bored out of my mind if I majored in any of these (although I am minoring in Economics), but each were definitely worthwhile in that I had to communicate effectively with non-geeks. I can be within inches of a beautiful women who is almost busting out of her shirt and still look her in the eye when talking. In other words, I can fit into a society/corporate environment where the "geeks" are a small minority. Quite a few people are surprised to learn that I am a Computer Science major.
I wouldn't recommend skipping the CS or CE degree - the grounding in computer fundamentals and theory you learn will be invaluable later on, but make sure you get a healthy dose of liberal arts courses. As an added plus, they can usually help to pad your GPA.
You know, I've heard that it would be good to start using crypto as much as possible, so that the noise added makes it hard to determine which encrypted data is important and which is just someone saying "hi" to their friend. Why haven't I heard of something like mod_ssl support in sendmail? If sendmail and other email servers were to try connecting securely by default and if the destination server didn't support it then switch to unencrypted mode, we would introduce more and more noise as this would catch on, slowly but surely (email is a large portion of the traffic on the net). I don't have the time or knowledge (I could learn if I had time) to implement something like this, but I'm sure that some people do.
BTW, if this is already happening, I haven't heard about it. Perhaps some advertisement of it's existance is needed.
I'm not sure if I should say this or not...
I interviewed with Motorola recently and I saw some of the cool stuff they are working on. A lot of it was really cool and some of it was a long ways from being ready for market. Anyway, as far as these phones go, I was told that Motorola was considering releasing an SDK so you can write your own apps for these things. And with the wireless internet capabilities, sharing the apps would be very easy.
Hey, I'm pullin' for ya, Cali! My electric heat is set to 62 degrees. I sleep under two blankets and I wear a sweater every day. I turn out the lights when I leave the room. I turn off that monster Pentium III with the 21" monitor when I leave work. And I'm running dnetc on a G4 instead of a P3 - it uses less electricity and runs an OS with power-saving features that work more than half the time(as opposed to Linux and Windows - just my observations; not scientific). It shuts everything off that it can and stores it's data in a RAM disk - no hard drive needed.
And it's all for you, citizens of California. I'm not conserving electricity because I would rather pay less, I'm doing it so you can stay set in your ways, California. Forget that energy prices are rising everywhere else, California. Just pay what you think is fair and keep those wonderful, thought-provoking movies coming.
Re:This is the nicest one I know...
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Infiltration
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· Score: 1
Growing up, there was one of these about a mile and a half from my house. Surprisingly, exploring it wasn't one of the dumb things my friends and I did. The rumor was that this one was flooded and then sealed off. I guess we just believed that. The interesting thing was that every so often, you would see a car parked just outside the gates, which would be open slightly.
That reminds me of the sign at the gates - "Property of U.S. Army. No Trespassing" -very faded, but still readable. That was one of the signs on my list of stealing (along with the Neighborhood Watch sign - you're not watching very well, are you?). Maybe next time I go see my parents I'll have to make a short detour...
This is a great idea, but I see one problem - Who prints them? Its not economical to print out enough copies for all of your students. And don't even think about "a computer in front of every student". You would need to get a publisher on board that would be willing to print public domain texts. That might not be so hard, though. Not having to pay royalties might be attractive to a publisher.
Teachers would probably love this. My Mom was once chosen to help pick which book a school system used. She had to read 5 or 6 books and then everybody got together and discussed what they liked and didn't like about each book and which one would fit into the lesson plans, etc. It was not a fun ordeal for her. However, I bet that every single teacher would love to spend that textbook adoption time going over the available material, making necessary changes, and then placing an order with the publisher for the number of copies wanted.
State regulations would get in the way at first, but if this project gets good, teachers would be guaranteed to like it and put pressure on the state legislature to put the proper changes in effect so adoption boards can approve of this. And a few "for the children" advertising campaigns would help, although it would be very ironic that a "for the children" campaign would actually be "for the children". Oh, and don't forget about the almighty dollar. The state legislatures are going to jump at anything that gives them higher quality at lower prices and everyone knows how much they hate spending on schools. I had the opportunity to have two teachers for parents, and believe me they complain about lack of resources, crappy books, etc. A lot. Make this project good and the teachers will support it. Teachers are very influential. And don't mess with them, they're Union.
One last thing. If it is going to work, you have to get teachers involved. Teachers can figure out a lot, but you should probably make the project as technophobe-friendly as possible.
Since this an Apple news item, I think I should reply. I have an MS Intellimouse Explorer and to work with OS 9, I needed to download drivers from MS (why didn't they just put them on the CD it came with?). On OS X PB, I didn't need drivers for it to work, though not all apps support the scroll wheel. I use OmniWeb instead of IE on OS X because OmniWeb works with the wheel. And I agree, now that I've used a wheel mouse, there is no going back.
Apple was going for the lightest laptop that it could get. Titanium has a high strength - to - weight ratio, so it deserves consideration. If you read some of the info, you will see that it uses a carbon fiber frame to increase strenght and rigidity. My guess is that Apple used as little titanium per laptop as possible.
Also, Apple is anything but anti-environment. Check out Apple's environment site. Read some of the case studies. Bottom line - Apple is probably the most environmental-friendly computer company on the Earth. All of their computers exceed Energy Star requirements, and are designed to be easily disasembled and recycled. A very interesting case study is their PowerMac G4 (161 KB).
Consider - F1 cars are designed more or less from the ground up with all custom parts. Not only that, but racing cars have to be safer than a normal car - it is not uncommon for a racing car to slam into a wall at 200+ MPH. Can this design model be used to design cars for the consumer market? I think it could do this well - after all, components, chassis, etc. are usually shared across many models and sometimes brands.
I remember reading something about Ford using a room full of supercomputers to do modeling. This should be the standard method for designing a car these days - model the whole thing using the F1 modeling software and crash test using supercopmuter modeling. Add in the fact that since you're using computer modeling to design the cars, you can engineer the cars to tighter tolerances and get a much more reliable car. I'm surprised that we don't hear of more companies taking advantage of this.
This reminds me of my high school days, working at a restaurant that had those microwaves with no windows or displays. With the constant background noise of the restaurant, you had no way of knowing if the microwave was running. The problem was, the microwaves were positioned in such a way that it was common to brush up against it in passing, hitting one of the buttons that turned it on. After a few minutes of running with nothing in it, the plastic tray inside the microwave caught on fire, and you didn't know it until smoke started coming out. It was always a funny site for someone to open the door and see flames shoot out of it. It was even funnier when, as some sort of stupid reaction, the person would grab the tray and toss it away from them. It usually landed in the deep fryer. We didn't do much cookin' those days, and cleaning up was a bitch, but I sure enjoyed it.
This may not cut down on the amount of "friendly fire", but it will make it less costly. However, less costly money-wise is not what the military is overly concerned about. Not having to replace soldiers that spent months or years in training is very important, and the loss of morale associated with "friendly fire" is greatly reduced when you lose only equipment, not people. I believe one of the reasons the US prefers to bomb the hell out of places and then put people on the ground is to reduce the number of (American) people that die. After all, its easier to replace the airplane or gun than the person flying or shooting it.
At my polling place (Fairfield Township, Tipp. County, Indiana) we had ballots that were very similar to those in Palm Beach. When I went in and identified myself, I was shown the sample ballot in one of the voting machines. I was asked if I was familiar with it and knew how to use it. I had only voted absentee before so I said no but I could figure it out. Not good enough. Before they would give me my ballot, one of the ladies went through the entire ballot and explained exactly how to do it. I havent heard anybody complaining about confusing ballots in Indiana...
But you see the voters in the military have the advantage of experiencing first-hand the shape of the military. Every one I know that is in the military or recently got out (guess why) would agree with Bush's assesment of our military readiness.
No one got the majority in the last election (or the one before that, I think). I suspect that a lot of Gore supporters will be blaming Nader for this, but remember that Perot took the last two elections away from the Republicans. What goes around comes around.
The absentee votes will make a big difference in Florida. Remember that many of the members of our military are overseas and thus voting absentee and are also based out of Florida. A good percentage of those in the military are Republican, so this will make a large difference in Florida (and other states with large military populations that are currently overseas).
As of 9:51 ET, Florida has Bush at 51% and Gore at 47%, but all the media outlets have Gore as the winner.
Democrats are seen to be on the side of the trial lawyers, and Republicans are on the side of big business. This would imply that neither are on the side of the consumers. Generally the way it goes. This Boucher guy (from Virginia, I think) really looks to be on the side of the consumer. He introduces this, and the other day (or week) he introduces a bill which would make My.MP3.com (music streamed from online databases to consumers over the internet) totally legal.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, it's more fun to think of it as a conspiracy to extort more money from consumers, but the reality is that service providers don't have the money to make the switch all at once, so they are upgrading piece-by-piece.
I have a CS degree and can tell you without a doubt that having a well rounded degree is very important. Here's why:
First, you have to sign up for "fluff" classes so you have free time on Friday and Saturday nights.
Second, you need those skills learned in your communication/psychology classes to meet/pick up girls at the party/bar.
Third, you need to pay attention in Astronomy class so you can point out constellations and a little mythology behind them to that girl you picked up in step two. God, if only more people knew how easy it was...
That was 5 words, Steve. I wonder what he comes up with when he counts his money?
In the United States, the ZIP code narrows you down to about which city you live in, though most cities of over 50,000 people will have more than one ZIP code. The ZIP+4 that the post office is pushing narrows you down to (I think) 8 or so residences at the most (usually in the case of apartment buildings). Especially in the smaller cities, the ZIP+4 number usually identifies the exact house (if you live in a house).
Whether my apartment windows are closed or open, I can hear O'Hare airport over the sound of my computer. It sucks ass, so much that when my lease runs out I will be moving farther away and will definitely make sure I am not directly under any approach paths. And then I will work on a quieter computer.
The sidewalks all over my University campus have been chalked on since long before I got here. And yes, the Linux Users Group here does it, so IBM can't claim to be the first. Of course, we use actual sidewalk chalk, the stuff you buy at Walmart for $5 a bucket. I always wondered why I never saw this stuff on big city sidewalks.
I may be wrong, but I don't think the Army posted this to Slashdot. More likely is that johndeerejedi posted this to Slashdot, and johndeerejedi doesn't control the Army website, nor does johndeerejedi make video encoding decisions for the Army.
Good point though. It would be nice if everyone could watch the videos.
Exactly. I love the fact that if I want to go into the city to catch a ballgame or something, I can just take the train. But I am never going to get rid of my car, which can go anywhere I want it to go and has an unlimited range (so long as there are gas stations every few hundred miles), and go with something that is less functional. And, believe it or not, I like to drive. I want a car that is fun to drive. Hell, I refuse to buy a car with an automatic transmission. You want me to buy this?
I wouldn't recommend skipping the CS or CE degree - the grounding in computer fundamentals and theory you learn will be invaluable later on, but make sure you get a healthy dose of liberal arts courses. As an added plus, they can usually help to pad your GPA.
BTW, if this is already happening, I haven't heard about it. Perhaps some advertisement of it's existance is needed.
I'm not sure if I should say this or not... I interviewed with Motorola recently and I saw some of the cool stuff they are working on. A lot of it was really cool and some of it was a long ways from being ready for market. Anyway, as far as these phones go, I was told that Motorola was considering releasing an SDK so you can write your own apps for these things. And with the wireless internet capabilities, sharing the apps would be very easy.
And it's all for you, citizens of California. I'm not conserving electricity because I would rather pay less, I'm doing it so you can stay set in your ways, California. Forget that energy prices are rising everywhere else, California. Just pay what you think is fair and keep those wonderful, thought-provoking movies coming.
That reminds me of the sign at the gates - "Property of U.S. Army. No Trespassing" -very faded, but still readable. That was one of the signs on my list of stealing (along with the Neighborhood Watch sign - you're not watching very well, are you?). Maybe next time I go see my parents I'll have to make a short detour...
Teachers would probably love this. My Mom was once chosen to help pick which book a school system used. She had to read 5 or 6 books and then everybody got together and discussed what they liked and didn't like about each book and which one would fit into the lesson plans, etc. It was not a fun ordeal for her. However, I bet that every single teacher would love to spend that textbook adoption time going over the available material, making necessary changes, and then placing an order with the publisher for the number of copies wanted.
State regulations would get in the way at first, but if this project gets good, teachers would be guaranteed to like it and put pressure on the state legislature to put the proper changes in effect so adoption boards can approve of this. And a few "for the children" advertising campaigns would help, although it would be very ironic that a "for the children" campaign would actually be "for the children". Oh, and don't forget about the almighty dollar. The state legislatures are going to jump at anything that gives them higher quality at lower prices and everyone knows how much they hate spending on schools. I had the opportunity to have two teachers for parents, and believe me they complain about lack of resources, crappy books, etc. A lot. Make this project good and the teachers will support it. Teachers are very influential. And don't mess with them, they're Union.
One last thing. If it is going to work, you have to get teachers involved. Teachers can figure out a lot, but you should probably make the project as technophobe-friendly as possible.
BTW, the two side buttons don't work in OS X.
Also, Apple is anything but anti-environment. Check out Apple's environment site. Read some of the case studies. Bottom line - Apple is probably the most environmental-friendly computer company on the Earth. All of their computers exceed Energy Star requirements, and are designed to be easily disasembled and recycled. A very interesting case study is their PowerMac G4 (161 KB).
I remember reading something about Ford using a room full of supercomputers to do modeling. This should be the standard method for designing a car these days - model the whole thing using the F1 modeling software and crash test using supercopmuter modeling. Add in the fact that since you're using computer modeling to design the cars, you can engineer the cars to tighter tolerances and get a much more reliable car. I'm surprised that we don't hear of more companies taking advantage of this.
This reminds me of my high school days, working at a restaurant that had those microwaves with no windows or displays. With the constant background noise of the restaurant, you had no way of knowing if the microwave was running. The problem was, the microwaves were positioned in such a way that it was common to brush up against it in passing, hitting one of the buttons that turned it on. After a few minutes of running with nothing in it, the plastic tray inside the microwave caught on fire, and you didn't know it until smoke started coming out. It was always a funny site for someone to open the door and see flames shoot out of it. It was even funnier when, as some sort of stupid reaction, the person would grab the tray and toss it away from them. It usually landed in the deep fryer. We didn't do much cookin' those days, and cleaning up was a bitch, but I sure enjoyed it.
At least Bush will preserve our ability to take up arms against him.
This may not cut down on the amount of "friendly fire", but it will make it less costly. However, less costly money-wise is not what the military is overly concerned about. Not having to replace soldiers that spent months or years in training is very important, and the loss of morale associated with "friendly fire" is greatly reduced when you lose only equipment, not people. I believe one of the reasons the US prefers to bomb the hell out of places and then put people on the ground is to reduce the number of (American) people that die. After all, its easier to replace the airplane or gun than the person flying or shooting it.
At my polling place (Fairfield Township, Tipp. County, Indiana) we had ballots that were very similar to those in Palm Beach. When I went in and identified myself, I was shown the sample ballot in one of the voting machines. I was asked if I was familiar with it and knew how to use it. I had only voted absentee before so I said no but I could figure it out. Not good enough. Before they would give me my ballot, one of the ladies went through the entire ballot and explained exactly how to do it. I havent heard anybody complaining about confusing ballots in Indiana...
But you see the voters in the military have the advantage of experiencing first-hand the shape of the military. Every one I know that is in the military or recently got out (guess why) would agree with Bush's assesment of our military readiness.
No one got the majority in the last election (or the one before that, I think). I suspect that a lot of Gore supporters will be blaming Nader for this, but remember that Perot took the last two elections away from the Republicans. What goes around comes around.
The absentee votes will make a big difference in Florida. Remember that many of the members of our military are overseas and thus voting absentee and are also based out of Florida. A good percentage of those in the military are Republican, so this will make a large difference in Florida (and other states with large military populations that are currently overseas). As of 9:51 ET, Florida has Bush at 51% and Gore at 47%, but all the media outlets have Gore as the winner.
Democrats are seen to be on the side of the trial lawyers, and Republicans are on the side of big business. This would imply that neither are on the side of the consumers. Generally the way it goes. This Boucher guy (from Virginia, I think) really looks to be on the side of the consumer. He introduces this, and the other day (or week) he introduces a bill which would make My.MP3.com (music streamed from online databases to consumers over the internet) totally legal.