Robert X. Cringely discussed something similar on 27 May 2004. His discussion was in the context of VoIP providers trying to get a wi-fi network rolled out, but without the VoIP provider needing to buy & operate thousands of APs.
... the WRT54G with Sveasoft firmware is all you need to become your cul de sac's wireless ISP (WISP). Going further, if a bunch of your friends in town had similarly configured WRT54Gs, they could seamlessly work together...
[...]
There is an obvious business opportunity here, especially for VoIP providers like Vonage, Packet8 and their growing number of competitors. If I was running a VoIP company, I'd find a way to sell my service through all these new Wireless ISPs. The typical neighborhood WISP doesn't really want to do anything beyond keeping the router plugged-in and the bills paid, so I as a VoIP vendor would offer a bundled phone-Internet service for, say, $30 per month. I handle the phone part, do all the billing and split the gross sales with the WISP based the traffic on his router or routers. If one of my users walks around with a WiFi cordless phone, roaming from router to router, it doesn't matter since my IP-based accounting system will simply adjust the payments as needed.
The result is a system with economics with which a traditional local phone company simply can't compete.
That's just one idea how these little routers might be used. The actual killer app will probably be something altogether different, but I am convinced this is the platform that will enable it. And that's because what we are talking about here isn't just what you can do with a WRT54G, but what you will soon be able to do with almost any wireless access point.
The cell-phone seems to lie about signal strength at times; it might show full signal but then right after I dial, it shrinks to two bars.
So I'm not the only one? Using my Motorola v551 on Cingular's network in Seattle, in my house I would often show 2 or 3 bars (out of 5)... not that good, but I should be able to make a call, right? Wrong. About 1 in 3 times, as soon as I hit the send button, the bars would drop to zero and the call would not complete.
Something recently changed (Cingular put up a new site in my nghbhood?), so now I show 4 or 5 bars at home, and they stay at 4 or 5. But I've learned to distrust the bars until I actually place the call. Very annoying.
"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power." -- David Brin
Check out NASA's World Wind software (Windows only). From their main page:
World Wind lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, World Wind lets you experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there.
Virtually visit any place in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps, or along the African Sahara.
Be nice and use the BitTorrent link for the download if you are interested.
Re:A joke from the past
on
Newsy Numbers
·
· Score: 1
A slightly better translation may be more like:
An American and a Russian raced against each other. The American finished first.
Next day, Pravda published: American and Russian in Race. Russian finishes second, American finishes next to last.
To specify in which folder the cache is stored, add the following code to your user.js file:
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.parent_directory", "C:\\Path To Cache");
Remember to use two backslashes for the path separators if you're using Windows, e.g. C:\\Path To Cache instead of C:\Path\Path To Cache.
You can do this more easily by typing about:config in the location bar. This can be easier than trying to edit.js files. Look for the "Filter" field at the top of the about:config page, and enter browser.cache -- that's faster than scrolling.
Hmm, it also looks like there is a "browser.cache.directory" that you may need to set at the same time (on my machine they are almost the same value).
SSL connections are vulnerable to MiTM attacks [...] In a dorm or corporate lan environment, all it takes is one trojaned laptop running a sniffer, and all you CC numbers are belong to us.
A trojaned laptop running a sniffer is not a man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack. SSL is safe against sniffers. For MiTM, you need to compromise a router/switch. Or else compromise a proxy that the network requires you to use for external web-access.
But
far beyond convenience when typing, the important point is that using
templates or generics in collections turns the typesafety of
collections into a compile-time check rather than a runtime
exception.
Templates in C++ go much beyond
typesafe collections. As an earlier poster commented, in
technical circles it's referred to as "parametric polymorphism".
For the layperson, you can think of it as a form of specialized code
generation.
The best example of how much bigger they are than typesafe collections
is the use of templates for traits and policies. Take the classic
reference counted smart pointer, which usually looks like this:
SmartPtr<int> i_sp = new int(5); cout << *i_sp << endl;
What about the question of whether SmartPtrs
should be allowed to hold null pointers? Maybe in some case it's
appropriate, but in others an exception should be thrown if it's
attempted. Rather than having two different SmartPtr
implementation, you add a new template parameters, the
OwnershipPolicy type. The
SmartPtr author than provides types like
AssertCheckStrict and NoCheck. So then your code looks like this:
SmartPtr<int, NoCheck> i_sp = new int(5); SmartPtr<int, AssertCheckStrict> j_sp new int(6);
How would you know if the game was exaggerating?
on
Advergames
·
· Score: 1
For this particular form of advergame (driving the vehicle in your computer), I wonder what kinds of liberties they take with the physics? Allowing the Jeep in the game to drive straight up a cliff would be a dead giveaway, but what if they tweak the traction up by 20%? So you buy the Jeep thinking that it has great traction. But of course in the real world, you'll probably never drive the Jeep that hard, so you never see the deception... Even if a hardcore driver ever noticed the discrepancy in the real world, the advergame maker could probably chalk it up to an unintentional aspect of the physics in the simulation.
I've been using this style for a while. To make it easier to add sites to the trusted zone, download the "Web Accessories" for IE 5.x. This adds an "add to trusted sites" menu option to the "Tools" menu. This makes it easy when you're surfing to add a new site to trusted sites. It also adds an "add to restricted sites" option also.
It works with IE 6 also. Or at least, when I upgraded from 5 to 6, the menu options are still there. Or maybe these menu options are built into IE 6?
A little off topic, but that reminds me of this allegedly true story about unintended consequences:
I worked as an accountant in a paper mill where my boss
decided that it would improve motivation to split a bonus between the
two shifts based on what percentage of the total production each one
accomplished.
The workers quickly realized that it was easier to sabotage the next
shift than to make more paper. Coworkers put glue in locks, loosened
nuts on equipment so it would fall apart, you name it. The bonus scheme
was abandoned after about ten days, to avoid all-out civil war.
Seattle has the same problem. I spend most of my time within the 206 area code. One of my friends lives in 425 but "close enough" that I do not dial a 1. But another friend, who also lives in the 425 area code, lives "too far" away, so I must dial a 1.
Even dumber, if I accidentally dial the 1 for my "close enough" friend, I get a recording that says I do not have to dial a 1. If it's smart enough to play a message telling me it didn't need the 1, why can't it simply ignore it?
My recommendation is to create a "light" version of the site. No frames, no giant tables of contents, simple little graphics at most. If it's a site that updates often, be sure that the user will not have to specify a different URL everyday to get the latest (most current) day.
Then on your "regular" page, offer a link to the light page. That way people can use whatever they want. Personally I use Plucker, but as noted in this thread there are other options.
For an example, take a look at RISKs digest. http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks
Down in the middle they have a link to the latest version of the digest (http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/go/risks/latest). That link is to a much lighter than the "full" version of the latest digest.
Jack McDevitt wrote a sci-fi book Moonfall in 1999 about the effects of a large comet hitting the moon. IANA astronomer/physicist, but the descriptions seem very plausible. Also a reasonably entertaining read.
Perhaps by mapping out where folks have lost vision in their retinas, it may be possible to project the outside world onto the working portions of retina or magnify certain things onto retinas as well.
I read a 15 November 1997 article in Science News magazine, "Supernormal Vision", that discussed mapping the cornea to offer just-in-time correction. It's called adaptive optics. Try Google searches on "adaptive optics vision" or "adaptive optics eye" for more details.
Given the choice between paper and today's generation of e-paper/ink/whatever, I agree that I choose paper.
But the future of e-paper has the promise to beat physical paper. For example, if you leave your paper book on the top of your car and drive off, you've lost the book. If you leave a piece of e-paper with a copy of the book on the top of the car, you've only lost the e-paper, not the book itself. You can get a new piece of e-paper and load it up with a copy of the book from your computer's hard drive (or whereever).
As for power requirements, I think other comments have pointed out that researchers are working on low-power or non-power versions.
As you point out, a particular technology of e-paper may go out of date, but the book sitting on your harddrive will not. If you get a new generation of e-paper, load up the book on the new generation of e-paper. The important distinction is between the display technology of e-paper and the book reader/rendering software that uses this display.
As other's have pointed out, there are still concerns over excessive restrictions on the formats of electronic books distinct from the display technologies. If the book is available only in an "encrypted" format that works only with a particular display technology, then I'd stick with paper. But if the book is available in clear-text, I'd rather display it on a future version of e-paper that they keep promising us...
Somebody else mentioned natural gas for which you are billed by usage. And electicity. And water. And hot water. And telephony. Do those really keep you up at night?
Water: I think I know when I'm using that (barring a leaky toilet perhaps).
Telephony: I know when I'm using my telephone.
Electricity and natural gas: You have a point on this one. But most appliances that drain a substantial amount of electricity have a sticker on them giving expected usage. Barring some kind of mechanical breakdown (rare for most major appliances) the electricity consumption will be near the sticker on the appliance.
I'd love it if my software had a sticker showing estimated network usage. But even that won't work for a web browser.
Metered bandwidth is also problematic for people who's computer is infected by a DDoS. The state of consumer operating systems today make it difficult to detect this state. It is these sorts of deficiencies in software that make people uncomfortable with metered bandwidth.
First let me say that I agree that in the long run we will need to pay for bandwidth used rather than all-you-can eat. However there is a legitimate problem.
One user noted:
it would force me to be worrying all the time "am I downloading something here that's too big? Will I be billed for this?
To which you replied:
By that same logic, shouldn't you be worrying about what it costed you every time you eat a little food as it is? We are adults, we are supposed to be able to budget ourselves, and supposed to be able to handle costs, even when they are incremental.
The difference here is that I can't accidentally eat too much food. But it is easy to accidentally use a bunch of bandwidth (at least given the state of software and networks today).
If we go with a pay-for-what-you-eat model on bandwidth then we will need to have better feedback from our software telling us what we are about to eat before we start.
people start pulling information for no reason other than just to see whats out there
What if the access was logged? In other words, I could find out who was looking at my data? I think that would stop a lot of the casual surfing of personal data.
Consider a restaurant. It's not that hard to listen in on other people's conversations. But it is easy to get caught listening. That's why most people don't do it. Similarly, we need mechanisms to make it easier to catch people looking at our personal data.
Unfortuantely this won't deter people who have little concern for being caught. But at least you'd know that they were looking!
Slashdot Mirror
Robert X. Cringely discussed something similar on 27 May 2004. His discussion was in the context of VoIP providers trying to get a wi-fi network rolled out, but without the VoIP provider needing to buy & operate thousands of APs.
Well, its still up on their website [...] http://www.riaa.com/issues/ask/default.asp#stand
i ssues/ask/default.asp
And if they remove it from their site, don't forget that the Internet Archive is your friend.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.riaa.com/
The cell-phone seems to lie about signal strength at times; it might show full signal but then right after I dial, it shrinks to two bars.
So I'm not the only one? Using my Motorola v551 on Cingular's network in Seattle, in my house I would often show 2 or 3 bars (out of 5)... not that good, but I should be able to make a call, right? Wrong. About 1 in 3 times, as soon as I hit the send button, the bars would drop to zero and the call would not complete.
Something recently changed (Cingular put up a new site in my nghbhood?), so now I show 4 or 5 bars at home, and they stay at 4 or 5. But I've learned to distrust the bars until I actually place the call. Very annoying.
Here's a classic Dilbert, helping the boss solve a network problem.
g 6om.gif
http://img295.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tokenrin
Have you ever heard the phrase, "power corrupts?"
I like this quote:
"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power."
-- David Brin
If you combine this with the Ergodex DX1 I think you'd have the perfect input system.
Check out NASA's World Wind software (Windows only). From their main page:
Be nice and use the BitTorrent link for the download if you are interested.
A slightly better translation may be more like:
An American and a Russian raced against each other. The American finished first.
Next day, Pravda published: American and Russian in Race. Russian finishes second, American finishes next to last.
You can do this more easily by typing about:config in the location bar. This can be easier than trying to edit
Hmm, it also looks like there is a "browser.cache.directory" that you may need to set at the same time (on my machine they are almost the same value).
I want an LCD panel that will let me view this without scaling or cropping
The Viewsonic VP2290b will get you close.
It's a 3840x2400 pixel 22.2 inch wide LCD.
SSL connections are vulnerable to MiTM attacks [...] In a dorm or corporate lan environment, all it takes is one trojaned laptop running a sniffer, and all you CC numbers are belong to us.
A trojaned laptop running a sniffer is not a man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack. SSL is safe against sniffers. For MiTM, you need to compromise a router/switch. Or else compromise a proxy that the network requires you to use for external web-access.
I wonder if the caption was intended to read something like: "[...] pointing to the solution. This image is on her web page."
Templates in C++ go much beyond typesafe collections. As an earlier poster commented, in technical circles it's referred to as "parametric polymorphism". For the layperson, you can think of it as a form of specialized code generation.
The best example of how much bigger they are than typesafe collections is the use of templates for traits and policies. Take the classic reference counted smart pointer, which usually looks like this:
SmartPtr<int> i_sp = new int(5);
cout << *i_sp << endl;
What about the question of whether SmartPtrs should be allowed to hold null pointers? Maybe in some case it's appropriate, but in others an exception should be thrown if it's attempted. Rather than having two different SmartPtr implementation, you add a new template parameters, the OwnershipPolicy type. The SmartPtr author than provides types like AssertCheckStrict and NoCheck. So then your code looks like this:
SmartPtr<int, NoCheck> i_sp = new int(5);
SmartPtr<int, AssertCheckStrict> j_sp new int(6);
This example comes from Alexandrescu's Modern C++ Design, and his Loki framework.
For this particular form of advergame (driving the vehicle in your computer), I wonder what kinds of liberties they take with the physics? Allowing the Jeep in the game to drive straight up a cliff would be a dead giveaway, but what if they tweak the traction up by 20%? So you buy the Jeep thinking that it has great traction. But of course in the real world, you'll probably never drive the Jeep that hard, so you never see the deception... Even if a hardcore driver ever noticed the discrepancy in the real world, the advergame maker could probably chalk it up to an unintentional aspect of the physics in the simulation.
I've been using this style for a while. To make it easier to add sites to the trusted zone, download the "Web Accessories" for IE 5.x. This adds an "add to trusted sites" menu option to the "Tools" menu. This makes it easy when you're surfing to add a new site to trusted sites. It also adds an "add to restricted sites" option also.
It works with IE 6 also. Or at least, when I upgraded from 5 to 6, the menu options are still there. Or maybe these menu options are built into IE 6?
A little off topic, but that reminds me of this allegedly true story about unintended consequences:
This was from Scott Adam's Dilbert Newsletter #44, so you might want to take it with a grain of salt.
Seattle has the same problem. I spend most of my time within the 206 area code. One of my friends lives in 425 but "close enough" that I do not dial a 1. But another friend, who also lives in the 425 area code, lives "too far" away, so I must dial a 1.
Even dumber, if I accidentally dial the 1 for my "close enough" friend, I get a recording that says I do not have to dial a 1. If it's smart enough to play a message telling me it didn't need the 1, why can't it simply ignore it?
Here's a link directly to JPL's press release:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2003/1.cfm
There are several interesting anmiations.
My recommendation is to create a "light" version of the site. No frames, no giant tables of contents, simple little graphics at most. If it's a site that updates often, be sure that the user will not have to specify a different URL everyday to get the latest (most current) day.
Then on your "regular" page, offer a link to the light page. That way people can use whatever they want. Personally I use Plucker, but as noted in this thread there are other options.
For an example, take a look at RISKs digest.
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks
Down in the middle they have a link to the latest version of the digest (http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/go/risks/latest). That link is to a much lighter than the "full" version of the latest digest.
Jack McDevitt wrote a sci-fi book Moonfall in 1999 about the effects of a large comet hitting the moon. IANA astronomer/physicist, but the descriptions seem very plausible. Also a reasonably entertaining read.
Perhaps by mapping out where folks have lost vision in their retinas, it may be possible to project the outside world onto the working portions of retina or magnify certain things onto retinas as well.
I read a 15 November 1997 article in Science News magazine, "Supernormal Vision", that discussed mapping the cornea to offer just-in-time correction. It's called adaptive optics. Try Google searches on "adaptive optics vision" or "adaptive optics eye" for more details.
Given the choice between paper and today's generation of e-paper/ink/whatever, I agree that I choose paper.
But the future of e-paper has the promise to beat physical paper. For example, if you leave your paper book on the top of your car and drive off, you've lost the book. If you leave a piece of e-paper with a copy of the book on the top of the car, you've only lost the e-paper, not the book itself. You can get a new piece of e-paper and load it up with a copy of the book from your computer's hard drive (or whereever).
As for power requirements, I think other comments have pointed out that researchers are working on low-power or non-power versions.
As you point out, a particular technology of e-paper may go out of date, but the book sitting on your harddrive will not. If you get a new generation of e-paper, load up the book on the new generation of e-paper. The important distinction is between the display technology of e-paper and the book reader/rendering software that uses this display.
As other's have pointed out, there are still concerns over excessive restrictions on the formats of electronic books distinct from the display technologies. If the book is available only in an "encrypted" format that works only with a particular display technology, then I'd stick with paper. But if the book is available in clear-text, I'd rather display it on a future version of e-paper that they keep promising us...
Somebody else mentioned natural gas for which you are billed by usage. And electicity. And water. And hot water. And telephony. Do those really keep you up at night?
Water: I think I know when I'm using that (barring a leaky toilet perhaps).
Telephony: I know when I'm using my telephone.
Electricity and natural gas: You have a point on this one. But most appliances that drain a substantial amount of electricity have a sticker on them giving expected usage. Barring some kind of mechanical breakdown (rare for most major appliances) the electricity consumption will be near the sticker on the appliance.
I'd love it if my software had a sticker showing estimated network usage. But even that won't work for a web browser.
Metered bandwidth is also problematic for people who's computer is infected by a DDoS. The state of consumer operating systems today make it difficult to detect this state. It is these sorts of deficiencies in software that make people uncomfortable with metered bandwidth.
First let me say that I agree that in the long run we will need to pay for bandwidth used rather than all-you-can eat. However there is a legitimate problem.
One user noted:
To which you replied:
The difference here is that I can't accidentally eat too much food. But it is easy to accidentally use a bunch of bandwidth (at least given the state of software and networks today).
If we go with a pay-for-what-you-eat model on bandwidth then we will need to have better feedback from our software telling us what we are about to eat before we start.
people start pulling information for no reason other than just to see whats out there
What if the access was logged? In other words, I could find out who was looking at my data? I think that would stop a lot of the casual surfing of personal data.
Consider a restaurant. It's not that hard to listen in on other people's conversations. But it is easy to get caught listening. That's why most people don't do it. Similarly, we need mechanisms to make it easier to catch people looking at our personal data.
Unfortuantely this won't deter people who have little concern for being caught. But at least you'd know that they were looking!