CDMA phones also have true GPS receivers in them. They switch from CDMA to GPS band, having been clued-in by the cell towers regarding which sats are likely in-view.
Then they receive the code stream from the GPS sats for a while, correlate them, and send them to the (SnapTrak?) basestation computer to resolve to a location. Whether the CDMA network sends the resolved location to your phone or not is up to them. For E-911, they just keep it and pass it on to the emergency services. For user $paid$ services, they might share the location with your phone.
Note that this isn't a 'stream' of location determinations, but a one-shot fix. To have an NMEA stream not dependant on the network would require a local correlator and solver in the phone.
The Solarbotics server is under a bit of stress, so here's a torrent for all four video files, 42.7MB total.
Because there are never enough Award shows..
on
Digital Oscars Awarded
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Seriously, is there any other industry that does as much back-patting and self-stroking as Hollywood?
These are some seriously affirmation-hungry groups that just live for the moment to tell everyone "what a great opportunity it was to work with such a great professional" blah blah.
Soon they're going to have a hard time fitting any new "content" in between the award shows.
Sounds like a neat program. Unfortunately, it sounds like a festering mound of virus that would singlehandedly OWN any machine it touches and any unfortunate user too impatient or stupid not to click "AGREE: Totally Hose My Machine". I'm quoting the EULA here, not making this stuff up. Gator's spyware is green with envy:
By accepting this agreement, I certify the following:
4) I understand that by accepting these terms and conditions, this program will be installed on my computer and my web browser home and search page will be changed in order to allow me access.
5) I also acknowledge that a Desktop toolbar will be installed on this system as a stand-alone module and that the Desktop toolbar will update itself from time to time in accordance with the EULA Privacy Policy.
6) I further understand that an accessory tool bar will be added to my web browser which will remain visible as long as the software is installed and agree that I wish to use your search engine for my web browsers auto search option and default error age.
7) To insure you always have the latest version and for your convenience this software will automatically update itself from time to time once installed in accordance with this EULA and Privacy Policy.
8) If you decide to change your homepage or search page at a later date this information ?the url? will be sent back to our servers and a pass-through toolbar will be installed at the bottom of your web browser. This toolbar will remain active as long as this software is installed on your system.
9) I understand that, by accepting these terms and conditions, bookmarks will be added to my system, which may be removed manually or via un-installation of the software.
10) In order for us to keep this software free, from time to time promotional offers from our sponsors will be displayed to you.
11) To prevent your browser from becoming cluttered when our toolbar is installed, any other toolbars you currently have visible will be deactivated. They can be restored manually through the IE view menu.
12) In order for this software to function properly, If incorrect host-file entries are detected for this software's related domain names, those entries will be removed.
13) If you wish to uninstall this software you may do so at any time by going to your start menu, Control Panel, Add / Remove Programs, and then selecting this application. Additionally a separate uninstaller may be downloaded from the website the Sponsor Software installs in your web browser, or you mail email support@lop.com for further assistance.
14) Bookmarking to a page on this server/site whereby this warning page is by-passed shall constitute an implicit acceptance of the foregoing terms herein set forth.
If you don't even know which software or machine is communicating with which outside hosts, don't be surprised when you find out some inside box is relaying spam or leaving out the welcome mat for unwelcomed visitors.
In any case, what exactly prevents you from naming the offending software? Why speak in generalities and obfuscation?
I've always been under the impression that borrowing code from a GPL based package was acceptable, as long as credit is given where credit is due.
Uh, no. You need to go read your license agreement, usually called "COPYING" in the source tree. It's quite readable, and very clear about what you must do to "borrow code". It's more than just giving credit.
After all, that GPL code you're borrowing.. I'll bet you find it handy that you have the entire source code, and not just a useless footnote giving credit to some author. You are expected to pass on the same freedom with your software, not a 'credit'.
I've been pretty happy with my sample of *two* Fujitsu MPG3409AT drives. They're silent, run cool, and serve up 40GB each without hassle for about three years so far.
My beef is with the IBM Deathstar GXP drives.. the 60 and 75GB drives last 1 to 6 months, and then get read errors. I have one drive that has been RMA'd four times. I don't dare install the replacement drive.
I pop the CF card out of my Nex II and put it in a Lexar Firewire CF writer (whopping $50), and it writes around 3 MBytes/second sustained.
With a 512MB card, it really matters. If you already have firewire for video editing, it makes sense to use it for CF too. Great for dumping pictures off the CF card from the digital camera as well (4MBytes/sec read).
Let me get this straight.. you record (from analog) the GTA3 soundtracks to Minidisc, then play them (analog) into your PC where you digitize them again (third generation) and compress them to MP3 files.
You do know that the GTA3 radio stations are just MP3 files to begin with, right? Check out your GTA3 sounds directory. I dunno, might be easier.
I had a jeweler once tell me that an engagement diamond is an "investment". I had to laugh.. do you wait 10 years and sell it for a profit?
It's a symbol. A symbol that you really will spend thousands of dollars on a rock to decorate her finger.
And don't kid yourself.. she wants one -- badly. As big a one as you can afford, since her friends will be looking at it to measure your worth.
You can wish and pretend that we're beyond that, and that it's not really so, but then wake up and buy the best diamond you can afford. If you ever live to regret it, it will be the least of your expense and headaches anyway.
A RAID mirror will only save you from hardware failure.
If you accidentally nuke your files, get hit by a virus, or Windows eats intself (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE), you will have two very excellent copies of the same missing/damaged data.
No explanation or proof was ever really given to any of these claims. Franklin himself ignored all of the controversy and continued to play the instrument until the end of his life with none of the symptoms mentioned.
I had a similar craft called the "UFO", which was maybe 50% larger than this one, but exactly the same design. Four props, two counter-rotating, with fancy stabilization electronics.
I've flow planes, gliders, gas helicopters, electric helicopters, and mini helicopters, but this 4-bladed craft was harder than any of them.
The problem is with yaw stability. Any time I tried to do a fast straight flyby, the craft would slightly rotate (yaw) in the wind. It's exceedingly hard to visually see which leg is the "nose" and keep it forward.
That, and the flight times are abysmally low. The four motors weigh quite a bit, and use a huge amount of power to stay airborne.
That, with the difficulty in forward flight makes one prefer hovering, where power is used even faster.
All in all, a nice idea, but I threw mine out after crashing it repeatedly from disorientation. I even tried spraypainting the nose leg orange, no luck. It's that very slow sneaky rotation that gets the controls all goofed up.
A helicopter has a tail fin that helps orient it nose-to-the-wind in flight. This craft needs something like that before it can fly figure eights with the same ease.
If you're looking for fingerprint login that integrates well with Win2k, check into the DigitalPersona U.are.U stuff.
I have their inexpensive "UareU Pro" system, and it works great for (literally) one-touch Win2k logins. You can integrate it with your domain server to make fingerprint logins universal, but even just on a local workstation, it works fine. Unfortunately, zero Linux support.
You can use the fingerprint biometrics for an encrypted virtual drive with additional software, but without any documentation or peer review of their encrypted storage, it's impossible to evaluate their security.
The "black paper" makes this conclusion about shared-secret authentication as part of association:
"By passively listening to the conversation, an attacker can obtain two of the three variables in the authentication equation; the clear text challenge string and what the challenge string looks like after it has been encrypted. By plugging these values into the RC4 equations, the attacker can easily solve for the shared authentication key. "
Actually, this is not what their referenced whitepaper describes at all. By observing the authentication sequence, an attacker can forge an authentication by responding correctly to the challenge without knowing the WEP key. This is made possible by the amateur 802.11b authentication scheme, not because RC4 is easily 'solved'.
So, while the shared secret authentication does not hinder a determined attack, it is incorrect to say that it weakens security at all. In the case of unenthusiastic stumblers, it may hinder casual associations with your AP.
To recommend an "open authentication" scheme for improved security seems like bad advice.
The MAC address is required to be unencrypted, even when using WEP... no need to crack anything there.
Most WiFi cards make it trivial to override the MAC and set it to anything you'd like, so "closed MAC access" doesn't give you any added security.
It's easy to tell the lasers from the LEDs
on
LEDs for the Blind
·
· Score: 2
The light from a regular LED looks nothing like that from a Laser Diode. Even the cheapest laser pointer has wonderful "scintillation", where the lighted area appears to sparkle.
This is caused by head and eye motion changing the light pathlength and interference patterns. It gives laser light a unique sparkle and shimmer that ordinary LEDs can only aspire to.
So the LED on the optical mouse is clearly not a laser, just ordinary light for lighting up the mousepad. And the cheapest $2.99 laser pointer really is a laser.
Imagine you're in the middle of running a make process when the local clock gets slammed with ntpdate (or rdate). If the clock was set back, it's quite possible that you now have recent files that are stamped slightly in the future. Perhaps a recently created file is even older than the parent files that generated them.
By using a one-shot clock adjustment like ntpdate, you're causing incongrous (not monotonic) timing. That can impact things that depend on one event being before another, like make.
I'm not making this up, since we actually had this problem on some old SunOS servers. If you run very long make processes (like X11 world) and you update the clocks regularly for sync, it's easy to get make all confused. In any case, my point was that it's best to use more gradual sync programs, like ntpd, if you can.
Most cablemodem/DSL head-end routers have the time
on
Do You Have The Time?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
If you're on cable or DSL, most of the upstream routers run proper NTP servers, and they're just a hop away. The bandwidth for running an NTP client is minimal.
To find the nearest NTP server, to a traceroute to a few non-local hosts. Then start at your nearest router and ping each one for a time server using something like 'ntptrace'.
Near-perfect accuracy, just a trickle of data, and your provider will thank you for using nearby machinery.
Re:ntpdate [server] in crontab...
on
Do You Have The Time?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Consider running a proper NTP daemon instead.
It has the advantage of not jerking your clock around every time you sync. It makes calculated "smooth" adjustments to keep your clock accurate. It can also use multiple servers.
It's the difference between a perfectly-ticking clock, and one that gets manually reset twice a day to make it (temporarily) accurate.
The biggest impact this will have is if you do file access across the network or need your timestamps to be reliable. Depending on how much your clock drifts, that ntpdate adjustment could back up several seconds. This can wreck havok on timestamp-dependent things, like "make".
Most ntpd distributions make this easier to set up than a crontab entry anyway.:)
Speak for yourself, I say. If there was only one requirement for a phone, then you'd have only one kind to choose from.
This phone rocks. I don't bother taking a laptop on short business trips anymore. I can check email and even reply without waiting for something to boot up and connect. I can usually do a quick mailcheck and send a short reply in less time than it takes to connect a phone jack and boot Windows!
When it's time to board the plane, just snap it shut and slip it in your pocket or bag.
Just like belt sanders, these things do have a use, even if you don't happen to need one.
Slashdot Mirror
CDMA phones also have true GPS receivers in them. They switch from CDMA to GPS band, having been clued-in by the cell towers regarding which sats are likely in-view.
Then they receive the code stream from the GPS sats for a while, correlate them, and send them to the (SnapTrak?) basestation computer to resolve to a location. Whether the CDMA network sends the resolved location to your phone or not is up to them. For E-911, they just keep it and pass it on to the emergency services. For user $paid$ services, they might share the location with your phone.
Note that this isn't a 'stream' of location determinations, but a one-shot fix. To have an NMEA stream not dependant on the network would require a local correlator and solver in the phone.
Where do you see $89.99 at Toysrus? It's coming up $99.99 here.
The Solarbotics server is under a bit of stress, so here's a torrent for all four video files, 42.7MB total.
Seriously, is there any other industry that does as much back-patting and self-stroking as Hollywood?
These are some seriously affirmation-hungry groups that just live for the moment to tell everyone "what a great opportunity it was to work with such a great professional" blah blah.
Soon they're going to have a hard time fitting any new "content" in between the award shows.
Sounds like a neat program. Unfortunately, it sounds like a festering mound of virus that would singlehandedly OWN any machine it touches and any unfortunate user too impatient or stupid not to click "AGREE: Totally Hose My Machine". I'm quoting the EULA here, not making this stuff up. Gator's spyware is green with envy:
By accepting this agreement, I certify the following:
4) I understand that by accepting these terms and conditions, this program will be installed on my computer and my web browser home and search page will be changed in order to allow me access.
5) I also acknowledge that a Desktop toolbar will be installed on this system as a stand-alone module and that the Desktop toolbar will update itself from time to time in accordance with the EULA Privacy Policy.
6) I further understand that an accessory tool bar will be added to my web browser which will remain visible as long as the software is installed and agree that I wish to use your search engine for my
web browsers auto search option and default error age.
7) To insure you always have the latest version and for your convenience this software will automatically update itself from time to
time once installed in accordance with this EULA and Privacy Policy.
8) If you decide to change your homepage or search page at a later date this information ?the url? will be sent back to our servers and a pass-through toolbar will be installed at the bottom of your web
browser. This toolbar will remain active as long as this software is installed on your system.
9) I understand that, by accepting these terms and conditions, bookmarks will be added to my system, which may be removed manually or via un-installation of the software.
10) In order for us to keep this software free, from time to time promotional offers from our sponsors will be displayed to you.
11) To prevent your browser from becoming cluttered when our toolbar is installed, any other toolbars you currently have visible will
be deactivated. They can be restored manually through the IE view menu.
12) In order for this software to function properly, If incorrect host-file entries are detected for this software's related domain
names, those entries will be removed.
13) If you wish to uninstall this software you may do so at any time by going to your start menu, Control Panel, Add / Remove Programs, and then selecting this application. Additionally a separate uninstaller may be downloaded from the website the Sponsor Software installs
in your web browser, or you mail email support@lop.com for further assistance.
14) Bookmarking to a page on this server/site whereby this warning page is by-passed shall constitute an implicit acceptance of the
foregoing terms herein set forth.
And it does go on.
you need to tighten up your firewall!
If you don't even know which software or machine is communicating with which outside hosts, don't be surprised when you find out some inside box is relaying spam or leaving out the welcome mat for unwelcomed visitors.
In any case, what exactly prevents you from naming the offending software? Why speak in generalities and obfuscation?
Uh, no. You need to go read your license agreement, usually called "COPYING" in the source tree. It's quite readable, and very clear about what you must do to "borrow code". It's more than just giving credit.
After all, that GPL code you're borrowing.. I'll bet you find it handy that you have the entire source code, and not just a useless footnote giving credit to some author. You are expected to pass on the same freedom with your software, not a 'credit'.
I've been pretty happy with my sample of *two* Fujitsu MPG3409AT drives. They're silent, run cool, and serve up 40GB each without hassle for about three years so far.
My beef is with the IBM Deathstar GXP drives.. the 60 and 75GB drives last 1 to 6 months, and then get read errors. I have one drive that has been RMA'd four times. I don't dare install the replacement drive.
I'm going to take a wild guess that most of us have not ordered from Avon before, right?
Use the coupon code "FIRSTORDER" to save 15% ($3) this fine cosmetic product.
An awesome geek stocking stuffer. I'm sure I'll pay for it in Avon spam and catalogs..
Are you kidding? CF is much faster than USB 1.1.
I pop the CF card out of my Nex II and put it in a Lexar Firewire CF writer (whopping $50), and it writes around 3 MBytes/second sustained.
With a 512MB card, it really matters. If you already have firewire for video editing, it makes sense to use it for CF too. Great for dumping pictures off the CF card from the digital camera as well (4MBytes/sec read).
Same here.. I couldn't get a GeForce2 or PNY GeForce3 to drive the DVI on an FP2000 without speckle and snow, even at lower resolutions.
A PNY GeForce4 4200 did the trick, though. Tack-sharp 1600x1200, no problem.
I'm starting to wonder if DVI isn't so standardized.
Let me get this straight.. you record (from analog) the GTA3 soundtracks to Minidisc, then play them (analog) into your PC where you digitize them again (third generation) and compress them to MP3 files.
You do know that the GTA3 radio stations are just MP3 files to begin with, right? Check out your GTA3 sounds directory. I dunno, might be easier.
I had a jeweler once tell me that an engagement diamond is an "investment". I had to laugh.. do you wait 10 years and sell it for a profit?
It's a symbol. A symbol that you really will spend thousands of dollars on a rock to decorate her finger.
And don't kid yourself.. she wants one -- badly. As big a one as you can afford, since her friends will be looking at it to measure your worth.
You can wish and pretend that we're beyond that, and that it's not really so, but then wake up and buy the best diamond you can afford. If you ever live to regret it, it will be the least of your expense and headaches anyway.
A RAID mirror will only save you from hardware failure.
If you accidentally nuke your files, get hit by a virus, or Windows eats intself (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE), you will have two very excellent copies of the same missing/damaged data.
You need real backups, not a RAID mirror.
I had a similar craft called the "UFO", which was maybe 50% larger than this one, but exactly the same design. Four props, two counter-rotating, with fancy stabilization electronics.
I've flow planes, gliders, gas helicopters, electric helicopters, and mini helicopters, but this 4-bladed craft was harder than any of them.
The problem is with yaw stability. Any time I tried to do a fast straight flyby, the craft would slightly rotate (yaw) in the wind. It's exceedingly hard to visually see which leg is the "nose" and keep it forward.
That, and the flight times are abysmally low. The four motors weigh quite a bit, and use a huge amount of power to stay airborne.
That, with the difficulty in forward flight makes one prefer hovering, where power is used even faster.
All in all, a nice idea, but I threw mine out after crashing it repeatedly from disorientation. I even tried spraypainting the nose leg orange, no luck. It's that very slow sneaky rotation that gets the controls all goofed up.
A helicopter has a tail fin that helps orient it nose-to-the-wind in flight. This craft needs something like that before it can fly figure eights with the same ease.
If you're looking for fingerprint login that integrates well with Win2k, check into the DigitalPersona U.are.U stuff.
I have their inexpensive "UareU Pro" system, and it works great for (literally) one-touch Win2k logins. You can integrate it with your domain server to make fingerprint logins universal, but even just on a local workstation, it works fine.
Unfortunately, zero Linux support.
You can use the fingerprint biometrics for an encrypted virtual drive with additional software, but without any documentation or peer review of their encrypted storage, it's impossible to evaluate their security.
The "black paper" makes this conclusion about shared-secret authentication as part of association:
"By passively listening to the conversation, an attacker can obtain two of the three variables in the authentication equation; the clear text challenge string and what the challenge string looks like after it has been encrypted. By plugging these values into the RC4 equations, the attacker can easily solve for the shared authentication key. "
Actually, this is not what their referenced whitepaper describes at all. By observing the authentication sequence, an attacker can forge an authentication by responding correctly to the challenge without knowing the WEP key. This is made possible by the amateur 802.11b authentication scheme, not because RC4 is easily 'solved'.
So, while the shared secret authentication does not hinder a determined attack, it is incorrect to say that it weakens security at all. In the case of unenthusiastic stumblers, it may hinder casual associations with your AP.
To recommend an "open authentication" scheme for improved security seems like bad advice.
The MAC address is required to be unencrypted, even when using WEP... no need to crack anything there.
Most WiFi cards make it trivial to override the MAC and set it to anything you'd like, so "closed MAC access" doesn't give you any added security.
The light from a regular LED looks nothing like that from a Laser Diode. Even the cheapest laser pointer has wonderful "scintillation", where the lighted area appears to sparkle.
This is caused by head and eye motion changing the light pathlength and interference patterns. It gives laser light a unique sparkle and shimmer that ordinary LEDs can only aspire to.
So the LED on the optical mouse is clearly not a laser, just ordinary light for lighting up the mousepad. And the cheapest $2.99 laser pointer really is a laser.
Imagine you're in the middle of running a make process when the local clock gets slammed with ntpdate (or rdate). If the clock was set back, it's quite possible that you now have recent files that are stamped slightly in the future. Perhaps a recently created file is even older than the parent files that generated them.
By using a one-shot clock adjustment like ntpdate, you're causing incongrous (not monotonic) timing. That can impact things that depend on one event being before another, like make.
I'm not making this up, since we actually had this problem on some old SunOS servers. If you run very long make processes (like X11 world) and you update the clocks regularly for sync, it's easy to get make all confused.
In any case, my point was that it's best to use more gradual sync programs, like ntpd, if you can.
If you're on cable or DSL, most of the upstream routers run proper NTP servers, and they're just a hop away. The bandwidth for running an NTP client is minimal.
To find the nearest NTP server, to a traceroute to a few non-local hosts. Then start at your nearest router and ping each one for a time server using something like 'ntptrace'.
Near-perfect accuracy, just a trickle of data, and your provider will thank you for using nearby machinery.
Consider running a proper NTP daemon instead.
:)
It has the advantage of not jerking your clock around every time you sync. It makes calculated "smooth" adjustments to keep your clock accurate. It can also use multiple servers.
It's the difference between a perfectly-ticking clock, and one that gets manually reset twice a day to make it (temporarily) accurate.
The biggest impact this will have is if you do file access across the network or need your timestamps to be reliable. Depending on how much your clock drifts, that ntpdate adjustment could back up several seconds. This can wreck havok on timestamp-dependent things, like "make".
Most ntpd distributions make this easier to set up than a crontab entry anyway.
It has the exact same connector on the bottom, so your widgets might work on the new one.
Speak for yourself, I say. If there was only one requirement for a phone, then you'd have only one kind to choose from.
This phone rocks. I don't bother taking a laptop on short business trips anymore. I can check email and even reply without waiting for something to boot up and connect. I can usually do a quick mailcheck and send a short reply in less time than it takes to connect a phone jack and boot Windows!
When it's time to board the plane, just snap it shut and slip it in your pocket or bag.
Just like belt sanders, these things do have a use, even if you don't happen to need one.