I never said anything against using the tools at your disposal to watch the movie as you will, that's your business. I find it objectionable that 3rd parties can come along and edit as they will and turn a profit on someone else's IP.
So you are also against any kind of VAR (Value Added Reseller) type of company or relationship? What about OEMs? They make money by taking an original manufacturer's product, putting their sticker on it and selling it as their own at increased price, and value-add by providing support and customizaton.
Atmel's been doing the same thing with their wireless and low-power products. It's ridiculous how much time energy and money gets wasted for marketing.
2) The 64-bit version of Vista removes backwards compatability for 16-bit applications. I dunno about you, but sometimes I get nostalgic for the games I grew up with... and some of those games are good enough that horrible dated graphics don't matter.
I understand the other points, but honestly... If you want to play the old 16-bit applications, run an emulator. There is absolutely no reason to keep the old cruft in the OS just to support the odd nostalgia trip. (I get them too, but I have no problem firing up qemu or xen or vmware)
OpenOffice has been around for at least 8 years, so I fail to see your point. Microsoft Office has proven itself incapable of "upconverting" old file formats with any degree of accuracy or success, and they are constantly redesigning their UI, making it difficult to perform the same actions you were proficient at with older versions.
No thanks. I'll stick with OpenOffice. The only things I truly miss about Microsoft Office are both in Excel; more than 32k rows, and fast graphing. I'm slowly learning gnuplot though; it's pretty much the only thing I ever used Office for, anyway. I far prefer Writer over Word, and the database apps are about on par with each other. PowerPoint still kicks Impresses ass, though, sadly. I can work with Impress though, so long as it doesn't eat my presentations. (there was (is?) a bug in Impress I was able to trip fairly consistently, I'll have to check it out again to see if it's still there.)
I should probably add that this is a machine that was installed about a year ago, but I feel that that should not matter, it performs well enough and I really don't see the point in fixing that which isn't broken.
So you tried to install a new application into a system that needed updates? What happens if you try to install a codec on win32 that wants WMP11 and you only have WMP9? Or an ActiveX control that doesn't work with IE6? How about some C# app that wants not only the runtime but the *newer* dotNet crap? Do you complain that you have to install a bunch of software there, or are you just picking on something silly?
Don't get me wrong; I agree that the Linux community needs to get some of this stuff straightened up right away, but to say that it's a Linux-only or FOSS-only thing is unfair at best.
I'm hoping they come out with a subscription plan like most other music stores. $1/song gets pricey fast. Unencumbered music is the #1 priority for me, with selection being a very close second.
I may be a little off-base here, but isn't 3330kHz considered 80m? CHU operates there (and on 40m and 20m too) and it's not morse-only. I know this because I'm in the middle of building a 40m SSB receiver for it for my brother, who is one of those time geeks from the other article.:-) I can't find a receiver with a Bell 103 demodulator in it, so I'm building one for him. Lots of fun.:-)
I was going to build a heterodyne receiver, but I read that I can just tune a regular DC receiver "off" a little (nobody says how much, but I imagine it's a few hundred Hertz so that the mark/space is the right frequency pair) and run with a single NE602 to do both LO generation and mixing and get him something acceptable.
EX: A coworker was having major issues with a closed source DLL so he decompiled it fixed the bug and then sent the update back to the company. We used his copy until they sent out and update.
I have several concerns with that approach:
time and skill needed to decompile, locate bug, repair bug and patch a binary is orders of magnitude greater than that needed to fix an OSS bug
DMCA violations if you're in the US (or Canada, apparently)
While anything is possible (I reverse engineer shit for a living), it doesn't make everything worth doing. Spending my time fucking around with closed-source software in order to get something to work correctly is not my idea of time well spent.
The KDE organizer/calendaring system is extremely good -- I use it all the time. It supports multiple calendars as well as calendar export and sharing (although I don't use those features)
this is one of the things I dislike about OSS: Interop. I run Linux, love KDE and it's actually my only working environment. I haven't found a good way to get my scheduling stuff to work well with my wife's WinXP laptop, nor either of our Palm systems. Web-based stuff just isn't an option, as it's 99% crap and having to pull up a browser to do anything in a half-assed fashion with iffy javascript is just a pain.
It's nice that the source is out there and I can hack away on it, and I've done that for various projects, but it seems like everyone has their own Very Best Way Of Doing Things and nobody wants to interoperate in any meaningful way.
Dad often took the time to point out how things worked, because he honestly believed his understanding of "how things work" would be of immense value to me. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I was a child of the 8-bit microprocessor revolution; my childhood environment was filled with mysterious digital circuitry, and no manner of traditional tinkering could repair a blown Commodore 6581 SID chip.
Interesting. I'm 31, that puts me about the same age as you from your description and reference to the 6581 in a C64. However, I took the understanding of how things work and it's not only made my career, but it's saved me considerable money through being able to fix my own stuff, whether it be cleaning out the carb on the lawnmower, lubricating the "dogs" on the trimmer so the rip cord will start it, repairing a toilet or a washing machine, or changing the thermostat on my minivan.
My career? Embedded systems design and power electronics engineering. My world is not only full of microcontrollers, DSPs and software, but also very large, very expensive rotating machinery and thousands of Amps and Volts. (A 13kV, 22,000HP natural gas compressor motor was the largest I'd ever seen, but the world is full of 150HP motors on everything from conveyors to pumps to crushers). Knowing how things work or, more importantly, how to be able to peer around a potentially-dangerous system in order to be able to determine how something is working (or not working!) is invaluable. Just because you're dealing with software doesn't mean that your motorcycle, air conditioner, lawn mower or bicycle is unrepairable. You can't be a competent engineer or even a competent designer without being able to figure stuff out, and your software or Verilog logic still needs to be debugged or analyzed. How do you figure out how stuff works? By hanging out with Dad or others who are patient and willing to share their knowledge, and let you scare the shit out of yourself by doing the wrong thing once in a while.:-)
I know my 6 year old boy sure loves it. My 12 year old, however, isn't so enthusiastic. It could just be how you're wired.
Thank you for posting what you'd gone through. Didn't help me at all, as I can already take my Kubuntu desktop and tell it "the CUPS server is 192.168.77.4" and let it do its thing, but I recently got network (i.e. local cups --> remote cups --> printer) working, although it's cheating. I changed my Kubuntu desktop CUPS config to "show printers shared by other cups servers" and restarted... the printer on the Slackware server showed up, and I could print to it just fine. I can't define a remote IPP printer and get it to work, but by letting the local CUPS "find" the remote CUPS server, it seems to be happy enough.
What's kicking my butt time after time is network printing, not printing locally.
How, praytell, did you get it to work??!! I've got a Slack 12 system with a locally-connected Pixma MP530 (GREAT printer, btw, absolutely stellar). I can print from windows to the CUPS spool just fine. I can print from the Slack server just fine. Neither of my Kubuntu machines can print to it, and neither can my other Slack box. If I tell those Kubuntu or other Slack box that their CUPS server is the Slack box with the printer connected, it works great. I cannot, absolutely CANNOT get a box with a locally running CUPS server printing to a remote CUPS queue!
I don't know about you, but CUPS seems to only work when you are directly connected. I cannot get CUPS<-->CUPS-->printer working at all. If I tell my kubuntu machine to use the CUPS server that is connected directly to the printer, great. If I tell my slackware machine to do the same, it works. But either one trying to use their own CUPS server to talk to a remote CUPS printer... fuggedabowdit. Protocol dumps show that it seems to be sending incorrect data, and the CUPS ipp utility program just isn't getting the right parameters from any app. I don't think they've ever tested it.
I'm in Canada, and have been doing SDSL and tarriffed loops for ages. Sure, he can order one, but where's his other endpoint going to be? You could hook up HDSL or HDSL2 endpoints and get T1 speeds, but AFAIK you can't power your loops, and if it's over (I think) 5mi, you're going to have to put repeaters in (and again, power them separately, since they won't like you putting 130VDC on the line.
I can definitely get a business package, and waiting on installation. I'm fairly sure that THAT restriction (Industrial/Commercial districts only) is unique to your local provider, and while it may be a policy that other providers may have, I doubt it's even remotely universal.
Indeed, but you'd mentioned Rogers, which would have assumed had universal policies... heh
I know here, Rogers has business plans which are identical to the residential ones but there's no bandwidth limit AFAIK, where as with the residential there is a 100GB cap and they also throttle torrents.
Unless you live in a zoned industrial area, you cannot get business service. I've tried. They ask for the address, put you on hold, and a manager comes on to tell you that they can't provide business service to a residential address. I gave them my business phone number (which is registered to that address) and even offered my incorporation papers with that address, but no dice. I'm sure if I pushed hard enough I could get it, but it honestly isn't THAT important to me. I stick with DSL with no caps, even though the speed's lower. This is in Waterloo, ON, btw.
What, exactly, is so difficult about dumping and reupping a memory state, I want to know?
If all you were dealing with was memory, I'd agree with you. You've clearly got no concept of what is involved in saving state of numerous hardware subsystems and bringing them back to their former state. I'm no Windows fanboy, but not even Linux has this right.
It's getting much better though. My T60 has no trouble doing this with Kubuntu, and even an ancient Windows box I have has no issue on XP.
I can't disagree with you and your example. But my point was that most people are like you in looking for something specific, like restaurants in a particular area, not just "roast beef." The end result is something useful (a list of local restaurants). I'm ambivalent myself about tying information to specific geography (see my comments earlier on filtered reality) but it's easy to see how this could be useful to many people, as it was to you in your example.
I would love a device where if I've got a hankering for a good steak salad, or "roast beef sandwich" to carry on with the original theme, I could simply enter that in and get a list of locals. It's undeniably difficult to find good local places when you're an out-of-towner. Why is looking for a local chinese restaurant by name any different or more plausible than looking for "chinese food" without a name??
I think my reaction was not so much against tying information to geography, and plenty of intelligent articles have been written on this, as to the breathless enthusiasm which informed the article. It was all hyper-enthusiasm and no skepticism. Like marketing.
Agreed; the article did come off like a marketdroid slobbering all over a new technology and all the ways to sell it, but the idea is sound if you look beyond that. Also, to your last comment about the idiot with the cell phone in the park; there's no getting around idiots. Without a cellphone the same idiot would be talking loudly to anyone within earshot about something inane anyway. I'd love a device which would give me a wikipedia-like interface, maybe with text-to-speech, to tell me more about something and allow me to wander off and learn about something I never knew I wanted to know until the linkages between the individual items led me there.
The much more interesting question is something like this: what is lost by a technology-mediated world and how does it compare to what is gained? What do you lose when you decide when first getting to a national park to grab some device and start a search rather than looking around you.
You're missing the point; Go to the park. Look around. Find something interesting and learn more about it, and about things relating to it than you could on your own, or even with the ranger. Let the ranger talk, ask questions and augment his information with what the device shows you. It's not a replacement for the exercise; it's additional info. If you don't want it, don't use it. But don't pooh-pooh the idea simply because you can't get beyond the technology infiltrating life aspect you seem fixated on.
I was very serious when I mentioned those horrible taped tours that museums sell. As far as I'm concerned they give people a cheap understanding of what's in front of them rather than letting them figure it out for themselves.
This is precisely why I have a love-hate relationship with The History Channel, Discovery, TLC and so on; they give you just enough to get your appetite whetted; this device could work in conjunction with your library and channels such as these to allow you to get a deeper understanding. It's like interactive TV, only done right. You listen to the horrible taped tour and have questions that the tape (obviously) can't answer. Call up the item on the device, see where it leads you. Find an old fart willing to talk to you and augment his information. That's what this is about. The breathless enthusiasm is a bit much, but your seemingly infinite cynicism isn't any better.:-)
I'm curious as to how similar the GSM module is to a CDMA counterpart; Look specifically at smartphones like the treos; they come in both GSM and CDMA models, and the mainboards on them are pretty much identical. I'm willing to bet that if you took the GSM module out of this thing and slapped in a CDMA module from another phone (that uses the modular technology) that you'd be able to use CDMA networks.
Now the CDMA guys have agreements where they won't activate an ESN from another carrier, but if you've got an old or broken CDMA smartphone from someone like Telus, say, you could in theory have this phone on a CDMA network without too much trouble. There'll be some driver work as the commands aren't identical, but they're pretty damned close.
Here in France mobiles can only be simlocked when they're subsidised with a contract, and the carrier has to unlock them if the owner asks it after six month.
That is a straightforward, common-sense solution to the problem. No wonder it'll never catch on over on this side of the pond.:-(
Brother and sister unions over by me are used primarily when management decides not to give a shit about the action of one union. In shops where multiple unions are present, and for whatever reason are fragmented such that a strike would not affect management, having that option is very important. Besides, I don't see why "management is fucking with you -- it's very likely the result of their fucking with you will be confidence to steamroll me" is something that should be illegal. Generally, management will attack in one place and use that to get their foot in the door.
Damn I wish there were an easy way to take discusson into email. heh
I still feel that having a brother/sister union which is otherwise unrelated join in on a strike action as unreasonable. If the meat packers are fighting for better wages and end up striking and the business decides that it can wait it out, why should the electrical union join in? It's none of their damned business!
What I was specifically referring to, however, was the public sector unions -- teachers go on strike and then the public workers down at city hall decide they'll support the teachers and strike as well. That, to me, is completely and horribly wrong. Like your example, they are unrelated to each other. Moreso though, they are public workers, and if my children are no longer in school why should I have to feel the hurt of the current school system through decreased service availability at the DMV?? If it were a private industry I could take my wallet and go elsewhere but when it's government, you're screwed.
Re:Why worry about embedded driver development?
on
Embedded Linux Primer
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· Score: 1
That's what I ended up doing, and I got it to work, although I can't say I fully understand all of the details yet. the PCMCIA system is in an enormous state of flux, and the code is the only place you can really look. I spent a lot of time going through lxr.linux.no, but some documentation would have been helpful.
Re:Why worry about embedded driver development?
on
Embedded Linux Primer
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· Score: 3, Informative
If you want to chase driver development, read Linux Device Drivers, by O'Reilly. It's IMHO the definitive book, and works just the same for embedded Linux. A single chapter in an embedded how-to book could hardly be expected to capture everything you'd need.
I didn't like this book; it stuck to basic network, char and block devices, and while it provided a good deal of detail on these, it completely avoided actual hardware interfacing: PCI (e/x too), PCMCIA, USB, basic memory/interrupt allocation, etc. Unfortunately, those are the trickier bits to driver writing.
It can be challenging for consumers to make educated decisions on any purchase, but even if MS put a full schematic in the box, it wouldn't help 99% of their customers make an educated decision.
Technically speaking, a schematic isn't much help in determining whether a unit will have thermal trouble.:-)
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I never said anything against using the tools at your disposal to watch the movie as you will, that's your business. I find it objectionable that 3rd parties can come along and edit as they will and turn a profit on someone else's IP.
So you are also against any kind of VAR (Value Added Reseller) type of company or relationship? What about OEMs? They make money by taking an original manufacturer's product, putting their sticker on it and selling it as their own at increased price, and value-add by providing support and customizaton.
Atmel's been doing the same thing with their wireless and low-power products. It's ridiculous how much time energy and money gets wasted for marketing.
*sigh*
2) The 64-bit version of Vista removes backwards compatability for 16-bit applications. I dunno about you, but sometimes I get nostalgic for the games I grew up with... and some of those games are good enough that horrible dated graphics don't matter.
I understand the other points, but honestly... If you want to play the old 16-bit applications, run an emulator. There is absolutely no reason to keep the old cruft in the OS just to support the odd nostalgia trip. (I get them too, but I have no problem firing up qemu or xen or vmware)
OpenOffice has been around for at least 8 years, so I fail to see your point. Microsoft Office has proven itself incapable of "upconverting" old file formats with any degree of accuracy or success, and they are constantly redesigning their UI, making it difficult to perform the same actions you were proficient at with older versions.
No thanks. I'll stick with OpenOffice. The only things I truly miss about Microsoft Office are both in Excel; more than 32k rows, and fast graphing. I'm slowly learning gnuplot though; it's pretty much the only thing I ever used Office for, anyway. I far prefer Writer over Word, and the database apps are about on par with each other. PowerPoint still kicks Impresses ass, though, sadly. I can work with Impress though, so long as it doesn't eat my presentations. (there was (is?) a bug in Impress I was able to trip fairly consistently, I'll have to check it out again to see if it's still there.)
I should probably add that this is a machine that was installed about a year ago, but I feel that that should not matter, it performs well enough and I really don't see the point in fixing that which isn't broken.
So you tried to install a new application into a system that needed updates? What happens if you try to install a codec on win32 that wants WMP11 and you only have WMP9? Or an ActiveX control that doesn't work with IE6? How about some C# app that wants not only the runtime but the *newer* dotNet crap? Do you complain that you have to install a bunch of software there, or are you just picking on something silly?
Don't get me wrong; I agree that the Linux community needs to get some of this stuff straightened up right away, but to say that it's a Linux-only or FOSS-only thing is unfair at best.
I'm hoping they come out with a subscription plan like most other music stores. $1/song gets pricey fast. Unencumbered music is the #1 priority for me, with selection being a very close second.
I may be a little off-base here, but isn't 3330kHz considered 80m? CHU operates there (and on 40m and 20m too) and it's not morse-only. I know this because I'm in the middle of building a 40m SSB receiver for it for my brother, who is one of those time geeks from the other article. :-) I can't find a receiver with a Bell 103 demodulator in it, so I'm building one for him. Lots of fun. :-)
I was going to build a heterodyne receiver, but I read that I can just tune a regular DC receiver "off" a little (nobody says how much, but I imagine it's a few hundred Hertz so that the mark/space is the right frequency pair) and run with a single NE602 to do both LO generation and mixing and get him something acceptable.
EX: A coworker was having major issues with a closed source DLL so he decompiled it fixed the bug and then sent the update back to the company. We used his copy until they sent out and update.
I have several concerns with that approach:
While anything is possible (I reverse engineer shit for a living), it doesn't make everything worth doing. Spending my time fucking around with closed-source software in order to get something to work correctly is not my idea of time well spent.
The KDE organizer/calendaring system is extremely good -- I use it all the time. It supports multiple calendars as well as calendar export and sharing (although I don't use those features)
this is one of the things I dislike about OSS: Interop. I run Linux, love KDE and it's actually my only working environment. I haven't found a good way to get my scheduling stuff to work well with my wife's WinXP laptop, nor either of our Palm systems. Web-based stuff just isn't an option, as it's 99% crap and having to pull up a browser to do anything in a half-assed fashion with iffy javascript is just a pain.
It's nice that the source is out there and I can hack away on it, and I've done that for various projects, but it seems like everyone has their own Very Best Way Of Doing Things and nobody wants to interoperate in any meaningful way.
Dad often took the time to point out how things worked, because he honestly believed his understanding of "how things work" would be of immense value to me. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I was a child of the 8-bit microprocessor revolution; my childhood environment was filled with mysterious digital circuitry, and no manner of traditional tinkering could repair a blown Commodore 6581 SID chip.
Interesting. I'm 31, that puts me about the same age as you from your description and reference to the 6581 in a C64. However, I took the understanding of how things work and it's not only made my career, but it's saved me considerable money through being able to fix my own stuff, whether it be cleaning out the carb on the lawnmower, lubricating the "dogs" on the trimmer so the rip cord will start it, repairing a toilet or a washing machine, or changing the thermostat on my minivan.
My career? Embedded systems design and power electronics engineering. My world is not only full of microcontrollers, DSPs and software, but also very large, very expensive rotating machinery and thousands of Amps and Volts. (A 13kV, 22,000HP natural gas compressor motor was the largest I'd ever seen, but the world is full of 150HP motors on everything from conveyors to pumps to crushers). Knowing how things work or, more importantly, how to be able to peer around a potentially-dangerous system in order to be able to determine how something is working (or not working!) is invaluable. Just because you're dealing with software doesn't mean that your motorcycle, air conditioner, lawn mower or bicycle is unrepairable. You can't be a competent engineer or even a competent designer without being able to figure stuff out, and your software or Verilog logic still needs to be debugged or analyzed. How do you figure out how stuff works? By hanging out with Dad or others who are patient and willing to share their knowledge, and let you scare the shit out of yourself by doing the wrong thing once in a while. :-)
I know my 6 year old boy sure loves it. My 12 year old, however, isn't so enthusiastic. It could just be how you're wired.
Nifty little utility, I've installed it. However you are trying to use the "kdesudo" command, when it seems to be "kdesu".
Thank you for posting what you'd gone through. Didn't help me at all, as I can already take my Kubuntu desktop and tell it "the CUPS server is 192.168.77.4" and let it do its thing, but I recently got network (i.e. local cups --> remote cups --> printer) working, although it's cheating. I changed my Kubuntu desktop CUPS config to "show printers shared by other cups servers" and restarted... the printer on the Slackware server showed up, and I could print to it just fine. I can't define a remote IPP printer and get it to work, but by letting the local CUPS "find" the remote CUPS server, it seems to be happy enough.
What's kicking my butt time after time is network printing, not printing locally.
How, praytell, did you get it to work??!! I've got a Slack 12 system with a locally-connected Pixma MP530 (GREAT printer, btw, absolutely stellar). I can print from windows to the CUPS spool just fine. I can print from the Slack server just fine. Neither of my Kubuntu machines can print to it, and neither can my other Slack box. If I tell those Kubuntu or other Slack box that their CUPS server is the Slack box with the printer connected, it works great. I cannot, absolutely CANNOT get a box with a locally running CUPS server printing to a remote CUPS queue!
I don't know about you, but CUPS seems to only work when you are directly connected. I cannot get CUPS<-->CUPS-->printer working at all. If I tell my kubuntu machine to use the CUPS server that is connected directly to the printer, great. If I tell my slackware machine to do the same, it works. But either one trying to use their own CUPS server to talk to a remote CUPS printer... fuggedabowdit. Protocol dumps show that it seems to be sending incorrect data, and the CUPS ipp utility program just isn't getting the right parameters from any app. I don't think they've ever tested it.
I'm in Canada, and have been doing SDSL and tarriffed loops for ages. Sure, he can order one, but where's his other endpoint going to be? You could hook up HDSL or HDSL2 endpoints and get T1 speeds, but AFAIK you can't power your loops, and if it's over (I think) 5mi, you're going to have to put repeaters in (and again, power them separately, since they won't like you putting 130VDC on the line.
I can definitely get a business package, and waiting on installation. I'm fairly sure that THAT restriction (Industrial/Commercial districts only) is unique to your local provider, and while it may be a policy that other providers may have, I doubt it's even remotely universal.
Indeed, but you'd mentioned Rogers, which would have assumed had universal policies... heh
I know here, Rogers has business plans which are identical to the residential ones but there's no bandwidth limit AFAIK, where as with the residential there is a 100GB cap and they also throttle torrents.
Unless you live in a zoned industrial area, you cannot get business service. I've tried. They ask for the address, put you on hold, and a manager comes on to tell you that they can't provide business service to a residential address. I gave them my business phone number (which is registered to that address) and even offered my incorporation papers with that address, but no dice. I'm sure if I pushed hard enough I could get it, but it honestly isn't THAT important to me. I stick with DSL with no caps, even though the speed's lower. This is in Waterloo, ON, btw.
What, exactly, is so difficult about dumping and reupping a memory state, I want to know?
If all you were dealing with was memory, I'd agree with you. You've clearly got no concept of what is involved in saving state of numerous hardware subsystems and bringing them back to their former state. I'm no Windows fanboy, but not even Linux has this right.
It's getting much better though. My T60 has no trouble doing this with Kubuntu, and even an ancient Windows box I have has no issue on XP.
I can't disagree with you and your example. But my point was that most people are like you in looking for something specific, like restaurants in a particular area, not just "roast beef." The end result is something useful (a list of local restaurants). I'm ambivalent myself about tying information to specific geography (see my comments earlier on filtered reality) but it's easy to see how this could be useful to many people, as it was to you in your example.
I would love a device where if I've got a hankering for a good steak salad, or "roast beef sandwich" to carry on with the original theme, I could simply enter that in and get a list of locals. It's undeniably difficult to find good local places when you're an out-of-towner. Why is looking for a local chinese restaurant by name any different or more plausible than looking for "chinese food" without a name??
I think my reaction was not so much against tying information to geography, and plenty of intelligent articles have been written on this, as to the breathless enthusiasm which informed the article. It was all hyper-enthusiasm and no skepticism. Like marketing.
Agreed; the article did come off like a marketdroid slobbering all over a new technology and all the ways to sell it, but the idea is sound if you look beyond that. Also, to your last comment about the idiot with the cell phone in the park; there's no getting around idiots. Without a cellphone the same idiot would be talking loudly to anyone within earshot about something inane anyway. I'd love a device which would give me a wikipedia-like interface, maybe with text-to-speech, to tell me more about something and allow me to wander off and learn about something I never knew I wanted to know until the linkages between the individual items led me there.
The much more interesting question is something like this: what is lost by a technology-mediated world and how does it compare to what is gained? What do you lose when you decide when first getting to a national park to grab some device and start a search rather than looking around you.
You're missing the point; Go to the park. Look around. Find something interesting and learn more about it, and about things relating to it than you could on your own, or even with the ranger. Let the ranger talk, ask questions and augment his information with what the device shows you. It's not a replacement for the exercise; it's additional info. If you don't want it, don't use it. But don't pooh-pooh the idea simply because you can't get beyond the technology infiltrating life aspect you seem fixated on.
I was very serious when I mentioned those horrible taped tours that museums sell. As far as I'm concerned they give people a cheap understanding of what's in front of them rather than letting them figure it out for themselves.
This is precisely why I have a love-hate relationship with The History Channel, Discovery, TLC and so on; they give you just enough to get your appetite whetted; this device could work in conjunction with your library and channels such as these to allow you to get a deeper understanding. It's like interactive TV, only done right. You listen to the horrible taped tour and have questions that the tape (obviously) can't answer. Call up the item on the device, see where it leads you. Find an old fart willing to talk to you and augment his information. That's what this is about. The breathless enthusiasm is a bit much, but your seemingly infinite cynicism isn't any better. :-)
I'm curious as to how similar the GSM module is to a CDMA counterpart; Look specifically at smartphones like the treos; they come in both GSM and CDMA models, and the mainboards on them are pretty much identical. I'm willing to bet that if you took the GSM module out of this thing and slapped in a CDMA module from another phone (that uses the modular technology) that you'd be able to use CDMA networks.
Now the CDMA guys have agreements where they won't activate an ESN from another carrier, but if you've got an old or broken CDMA smartphone from someone like Telus, say, you could in theory have this phone on a CDMA network without too much trouble. There'll be some driver work as the commands aren't identical, but they're pretty damned close.
Here in France mobiles can only be simlocked when they're subsidised with a contract, and the carrier has to unlock them if the owner asks it after six month.
That is a straightforward, common-sense solution to the problem. No wonder it'll never catch on over on this side of the pond. :-(
Brother and sister unions over by me are used primarily when management decides not to give a shit about the action of one union. In shops where multiple unions are present, and for whatever reason are fragmented such that a strike would not affect management, having that option is very important. Besides, I don't see why "management is fucking with you -- it's very likely the result of their fucking with you will be confidence to steamroll me" is something that should be illegal. Generally, management will attack in one place and use that to get their foot in the door.
Damn I wish there were an easy way to take discusson into email. heh
I still feel that having a brother/sister union which is otherwise unrelated join in on a strike action as unreasonable. If the meat packers are fighting for better wages and end up striking and the business decides that it can wait it out, why should the electrical union join in? It's none of their damned business!
What I was specifically referring to, however, was the public sector unions -- teachers go on strike and then the public workers down at city hall decide they'll support the teachers and strike as well. That, to me, is completely and horribly wrong. Like your example, they are unrelated to each other. Moreso though, they are public workers, and if my children are no longer in school why should I have to feel the hurt of the current school system through decreased service availability at the DMV?? If it were a private industry I could take my wallet and go elsewhere but when it's government, you're screwed.
That's what I ended up doing, and I got it to work, although I can't say I fully understand all of the details yet. the PCMCIA system is in an enormous state of flux, and the code is the only place you can really look. I spent a lot of time going through lxr.linux.no, but some documentation would have been helpful.
If you want to chase driver development, read Linux Device Drivers, by O'Reilly. It's IMHO the definitive book, and works just the same for embedded Linux. A single chapter in an embedded how-to book could hardly be expected to capture everything you'd need.
I didn't like this book; it stuck to basic network, char and block devices, and while it provided a good deal of detail on these, it completely avoided actual hardware interfacing: PCI (e/x too), PCMCIA, USB, basic memory/interrupt allocation, etc. Unfortunately, those are the trickier bits to driver writing.
It can be challenging for consumers to make educated decisions on any purchase, but even if MS put a full schematic in the box, it wouldn't help 99% of their customers make an educated decision.
Technically speaking, a schematic isn't much help in determining whether a unit will have thermal trouble. :-)