Motorola makes a product that streams video back from first responder vehicles over mesh networks that has been available for a couple years now. One of the customers is the LAPD.
The iDEN service itself runs over an IP network, so Verizon (plus AT&T and Sprint, who are also working on their own PTT services) are basically duplicating Nextel's setup.
Just because they both run IP doesn't mean they're anything alike. In Nextel's network, the dispatch calls are carried around between base stations and controllers on an IP network, yes. On Verizon's, the calls are carried on their wireless data IP network, which itself is carried on top of another, existing infrastructure network - basically like IP over IP. It's that extra layer that makes it so much more difficult for Verizon to be competitive in regards to call setup time versus Nextel.
My understanding is that there's a 3-5 second delay when you first try to connect to another user with Verizon. I'm sure most people don't think that's a big deal, but if you've used Nextel's, I'm sure you'd notice a big difference. On Nextel, it's less than a second, which is short enough to feel instantaneous.
Nextel is a combination of a trunked two way radio system and a cellular system. Nearly every piece of infrastructure in Nextel's system has special capabilities designed into it to handle direct connect calls, which makes it extremely fast.
From an infrastructure standpoint, there are many, many important differences between Verizon and Nextel. Nextel's push-to-talk was designed in; Verizon's was bolted on. That being said, I haven't tried Verizon's yet, so I can't speak to its performance.
Apparently it's outrageously expensive for the materials kit, $8000 Canadian (over $5000 USD).
It is expensive, however nearly every FIRST team is backed by a corporate sponsor that usually covers most or all of the cost.
And being that the robots apparently aren't autonomous
There is a period of each match this year which is autonomous.
you aren't really learning a whole lot about robotics
Learning about robotics is not a goal of FIRST. Not really even a minor goal. The goal of FIRST is to promote interest in science and technology among high school students with the hope that they will choose to pursue a career in the field after college. You should probably visit a FIRST competition before you say kids aren't learning alot. They learn that working in science and technology is fun, and they learn about what it's like to work on a "real world" type project with real deadlines, limited budgets, and limited resources.
PCS is not a protocol, it's a frequency band. Sprint uses CDMA, same as Verizon. The only thing is Sprint restricts you to phones which they have the ID of in their database. It has nothing to do with the capabilities of the handset.
Actually, the FIRST National Championship of 1998 was streamed live on the web... I remember watching it from my dorm room (I was a team member throughout high school).
Several people in my hometown have these systems. There's a network of pipes under the driveway with hot water running through them. It actually works OK. Not only that, the city itself did this with the downtown area. It's called Snowmelt. They use the warm water discharge from the power plant and run it under the streets and sidewalks downtown, and voila! no snow. All the water runoff goes the same place it does when it rains: down the drain.
I also participated in this program for 3 years in high school. I pretty much had already decided to go to college for engineering, but there's things I learned in FIRST that I still use. The biggest thing I gained was exposure to the working world, along with deadlines and problems and everything else. FIRST is truely a great program.
Also, I must say Dean does one heck of a job of it. You should see the show they put on at Disney World for the national finals. I last participated a couple of years ago, and even then they had 3 huge tents (the size of football fields) set up for the competition, complete with laser light shows and everything. It really was as great as any sporting event I've ever been to. And as they improved it every year that I participated, I imagine it's become quite a show since I left.
Reading this piece brought back some nice memories of high school. I'd have to say FIRST was the most rewarding and useful experience I had back then. It's a lot more educational than working story problems in math class. (I know that stuff is important, too, but it just doesn't have the same kind of hands on feel to it...)
For more information about the endmass (the other end of the tether from the satellite) check out this page. The endmass will be running a radiation-hardened 386 which will be collecting information from an on-board GPS receiver and a magnetometer as well as a few other things. This information will be relayed down to Earth and compared with the data from the ProSEDS satellite to determine how the tether is oriented, etc.
If they're already using Windows machines anyway, have them use QBASIC. It's got the simplicity of BASIC but also includes functions and subroutines, so after they get bored of the really simple stuff, you can teach them a little more about structure. QBASIC.EXE should be on the Windows CD-ROM somewhere in the OLDMSDOS folder...
I've been checking into something like this as well. I need about a 1/2 mile link, but it's not line of sight. Is there any chance that directional antennas will do the trick anyway?
The ENIAC is in pieces, which are scattered everywhere.. I know this since one piece of it sits about 500 yards away from me right now at the University of Michigan.
This is simply not true. I go to the University of Michigan, and the athletic department has a ".com" website (www.mgoblue.com) that they regularly advertise during football games. Clearly the NCAA has no problem with this. Also, I don't believe there is any requirement that an organization be commercial to have a ".com" domain name, it's just a suggestion.
Re:NSA got all the Math Majors (no pun intended)
on
GPS Rollover Tonight
·
· Score: 1
Well, the missing.013 comes from the fact that GPS time "began" on January 6 1980, not January 1. So, Their math is correct, but they should have noted it as
These types of machines have been around for a while, and they are used just as you said. One company that I'm familiar with uses it to scan prototypes made of clay, because they found that trying to draw the products in CAD was way too time consuming (their product involves many complex shapes that are hard to model in a computer). There's many types of machines like this to "scan" in a 3D part into the computer. There's machines like this one that actually touch the object to map it, there's ones that use a laser to check the distance from the tip down to the part, etc. There's even a nifty box that you put a part in and it has several speakers that generate sound waves and then microphones pick up the reflections, and... but supposedly it doesn't work too well.
Some people (who haven't been brainwashed by MS) actually like the ability to tune these settings the way they want to.. One of the reasons that a lot of people like Linux is because they can actually control things such as this, instead of having some "smart" code that thinks it knows better than a real live human being...
Funny, I wouldn't say that USB has really taken off yet. The reason no one gave a sh*t about it until the iMac is because when the iMac came along, there wasn't a choice. The darn thing has USB keyboard and mouse (both of which are extremely too small, BTW) and the only good way to get any sort of removable storage for the thing is over USB....
And, if everyone thinks they make such great network computers, they should start reading all the complaining going on around here at my university where they recently replaced hundreds of apple's with the new iMacs... All the general student population is extremely upset over not having a floppy drive. Yes, yes I know, we're not supposed to need one anymore and such, but the students that are complaining about it are "normal" users for whom the iMac is targetted. They're students who want to be able to save to disk to bring papers home to work on and such.
Yes, you may have a point, however his past track record isn't good... The whole "inventing the internet" thing came out of his own mouth, remember....
Slashdot Mirror
Or alternatively take a look at VEX Robotics equipment, especially the new VEX IQ line:
http://www.vexrobotics.com/
The VEX IQ stuff is on par price-wise with the Lego but appears more advanced and more capable than the Lego sets.
Motorola makes a product that streams video back from first responder vehicles over mesh networks that has been available for a couple years now. One of the customers is the LAPD.
http://www.motorola.com/business/US-EN/Mobile+Video+Sharing_US-EN.do?vgnextoid=c5dc23805ae46110VgnVCM1000008406b00aRCRD
How about sending takedown notices to the stores selling the CDs?
The iDEN service itself runs over an IP network, so Verizon (plus AT&T and Sprint, who are also working on their own PTT services) are basically duplicating Nextel's setup.
Just because they both run IP doesn't mean they're anything alike. In Nextel's network, the dispatch calls are carried around between base stations and controllers on an IP network, yes. On Verizon's, the calls are carried on their wireless data IP network, which itself is carried on top of another, existing infrastructure network - basically like IP over IP. It's that extra layer that makes it so much more difficult for Verizon to be competitive in regards to call setup time versus Nextel.
My understanding is that there's a 3-5 second delay when you first try to connect to another user with Verizon. I'm sure most people don't think that's a big deal, but if you've used Nextel's, I'm sure you'd notice a big difference. On Nextel, it's less than a second, which is short enough to feel instantaneous.
Nextel is a combination of a trunked two way radio system and a cellular system. Nearly every piece of infrastructure in Nextel's system has special capabilities designed into it to handle direct connect calls, which makes it extremely fast.
From an infrastructure standpoint, there are many, many important differences between Verizon and Nextel. Nextel's push-to-talk was designed in; Verizon's was bolted on. That being said, I haven't tried Verizon's yet, so I can't speak to its performance.
Apparently it's outrageously expensive for the materials kit, $8000 Canadian (over $5000 USD).
It is expensive, however nearly every FIRST team is backed by a corporate sponsor that usually covers most or all of the cost.
And being that the robots apparently aren't autonomous
There is a period of each match this year which is autonomous.
you aren't really learning a whole lot about robotics
Learning about robotics is not a goal of FIRST. Not really even a minor goal. The goal of FIRST is to promote interest in science and technology among high school students with the hope that they will choose to pursue a career in the field after college. You should probably visit a FIRST competition before you say kids aren't learning alot. They learn that working in science and technology is fun, and they learn about what it's like to work on a "real world" type project with real deadlines, limited budgets, and limited resources.
Is this a first?
Nope, the Empeg and Rio Receiver (which both run Linux) can play WMA files.
PCS is not a protocol, it's a frequency band. Sprint uses CDMA, same as Verizon. The only thing is Sprint restricts you to phones which they have the ID of in their database. It has nothing to do with the capabilities of the handset.
Congrats to everyone on the U-M Solar Car team!
Hail! Hail! to Michigan, the Leaders and Best!
Actually, the FIRST National Championship of 1998 was streamed live on the web... I remember watching it from my dorm room (I was a team member throughout high school).
Actually, we have seen it before, but it's http://www.usfirst.org
Several people in my hometown have these systems. There's a network of pipes under the driveway with hot water running through them. It actually works OK. Not only that, the city itself did this with the downtown area. It's called Snowmelt. They use the warm water discharge from the power plant and run it under the streets and sidewalks downtown, and voila! no snow. All the water runoff goes the same place it does when it rains: down the drain.
I also participated in this program for 3 years in high school. I pretty much had already decided to go to college for engineering, but there's things I learned in FIRST that I still use. The biggest thing I gained was exposure to the working world, along with deadlines and problems and everything else. FIRST is truely a great program. Also, I must say Dean does one heck of a job of it. You should see the show they put on at Disney World for the national finals. I last participated a couple of years ago, and even then they had 3 huge tents (the size of football fields) set up for the competition, complete with laser light shows and everything. It really was as great as any sporting event I've ever been to. And as they improved it every year that I participated, I imagine it's become quite a show since I left. Reading this piece brought back some nice memories of high school. I'd have to say FIRST was the most rewarding and useful experience I had back then. It's a lot more educational than working story problems in math class. (I know that stuff is important, too, but it just doesn't have the same kind of hands on feel to it...)
Sorry, screwed up the link. Try this.
For more information about the endmass (the other end of the tether from the satellite) check out this page. The endmass will be running a radiation-hardened 386 which will be collecting information from an on-board GPS receiver and a magnetometer as well as a few other things. This information will be relayed down to Earth and compared with the data from the ProSEDS satellite to determine how the tether is oriented, etc.
If they're already using Windows machines anyway, have them use QBASIC. It's got the simplicity of BASIC but also includes functions and subroutines, so after they get bored of the really simple stuff, you can teach them a little more about structure. QBASIC.EXE should be on the Windows CD-ROM somewhere in the OLDMSDOS folder...
I've been checking into something like this as well. I need about a 1/2 mile link, but it's not line of sight. Is there any chance that directional antennas will do the trick anyway?
The ENIAC is in pieces, which are scattered everywhere.. I know this since one piece of it sits about 500 yards away from me right now at the University of Michigan.
This is simply not true. I go to the University of Michigan, and the athletic department has a ".com" website (www.mgoblue.com) that they regularly advertise during football games. Clearly the NCAA has no problem with this. Also, I don't believe there is any requirement that an organization be commercial to have a ".com" domain name, it's just a suggestion.
Well, the missing .013 comes from the fact that GPS time "began" on January 6 1980, not January 1. So, Their math is correct, but they should have noted it as
1980.013
+19.625
--------
1999.638
These types of machines have been around for a while, and they are used just as you said. One company that I'm familiar with uses it to scan prototypes made of clay, because they found that trying to draw the products in CAD was way too time consuming (their product involves many complex shapes that are hard to model in a computer). There's many types of machines like this to "scan" in a 3D part into the computer. There's machines like this one that actually touch the object to map it, there's ones that use a laser to check the distance from the tip down to the part, etc. There's even a nifty box that you put a part in and it has several speakers that generate sound waves and then microphones pick up the reflections, and... but supposedly it doesn't work too well.
Some people (who haven't been brainwashed by MS) actually like the ability to tune these settings the way they want to.. One of the reasons that a lot of people like Linux is because they can actually control things such as this, instead of having some "smart" code that thinks it knows better than a real live human being...
Funny, I wouldn't say that USB has really taken off yet. The reason no one gave a sh*t about it until the iMac is because when the iMac came along, there wasn't a choice. The darn thing has USB keyboard and mouse (both of which are extremely too small, BTW) and the only good way to get any sort of removable storage for the thing is over USB....
And, if everyone thinks they make such great network computers, they should start reading all the complaining going on around here at my university where they recently replaced hundreds of apple's with the new iMacs... All the general student population is extremely upset over not having a floppy drive. Yes, yes I know, we're not supposed to need one anymore and such, but the students that are complaining about it are "normal" users for whom the iMac is targetted. They're students who want to be able to save to disk to bring papers home to work on and such.
Yes, you may have a point, however his past track record isn't good... The whole "inventing the internet" thing came out of his own mouth, remember....
Yeah, well, most places do....