The day local subscribers are offered digital phones is not far off. With divestiture, the offspring of AT&T can feel the hot breath of competition on their necks for the first time. These AT&T orphans will be offering a whole gamut of new products and services-lest someone else do it first. Answering the phone could become a major decision as you struggle to remember whose number is showing on the display and whether this person is owed any money.
Not that there will be any real reason to leave the house. With the right peripherals, shopping will be no problem. Merchants will be able to fax their catalogs over the phone. And you'll be able to use the phone to make the bank transfers to pay for the stuff. Indeed, whole appliance factories could be rigged to "build on order."
I posted a nearly identical question a while ago, when AOL (and others) started to reject SMTP connections from what they determined were dynamically assigned IP addresses. Take a look at the thread:
I was hoping to find a "virtual" mail ISP which would allow me to relay my outgoing mail (preferably in a encrypted tunnel, but I'm not holding my breath). Instead, I ended up configuring postfix to relay only mail destined to problem addresses (mostly aol properties) through my ISP's SMTP relay. I know this isn't the same problem you're having, but some of the solutions are the same.
iPoding: Sterophile iPod Review - Fabricated!
on
iPods are for Audiophiles
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
But, what is stunning is the obvious fabrication. The twelfth paragraph reads: "The person who said 'Beauty is only skin deep' certainly never popped the cover off an iPod. The design is just as jewel-like inside as out--packed, but definitely a gem of space conservation." It's just that anyone who has actually popped the cover off would know that Wes did no such thing. He goes on to describe the innards of the pre-Dock iPod:
Why does there need to be a bezel between the LCD panels? Is it possible make LCDs where the glass from one panel will touch the glass from the next? Granted, at that point you're no longer talking about creating a system from off-the-shelf components, but if I'm about to spend $150k on a setup like this, I hope that price will include *some* cusomization.
...how long until the industry realizes that the MPAA, RIAA, etc. is no longer necessary? In response to the MPAA, this group of RICH, POWERFUL directors shoud take their fortunes and create a wholly independent film scene. Create their own studios, distribution facilities, theaters -- EVERYTHING. Leave out the MPAA. Leave out the $6 sodas and $8 popcorns and $10 tickets and screens-smaller-than-my-tv and anything else which corporate greed has given us to increase their profits and reduce our experience.
These ARTISTS are in a position to reform the industry into supporting the values of the artists and consumers over those of the shareholders and executives. When I'm not contributing to Valenti's gold-plated hot tubs, downloading video/audio warez won't be as fun.
So if we're now able to make carrier-quality telecom equipment that runs on fairly run-of-the-mill PCs, why are we still paying $50/mo to our mobile phone companies? Think of the revolution that's happening with 802.11, and now imagine a Linksys GSM Router sitting at home next to your Wi-Fi box. Of course our governments would never allow this to take place; who would pay billions to claim stake to the airwaves if we could build our own homegrown networks?
In reality, we'd probably NOT have personal GSM routers as I mentioned above... instead, we'd have community organizations sponsoring local sites, paid for and maintained by their users. Interconnected with other communities, it would form a massive network of telecom co-ops. If linked by microwave, you might not even need to involve your local utilities one bit.
I'm not suggesting that we dismantle the existing mobile networks; however, they are truly OUR airwaves. If we could see to it that a mobile network running on hardware like this were to be built using non- or minimally-licensed (community licensed?) bandwidth, a couple of years of network instability and growth could build a true grass-roots, free-as-in-speech-AND-beer telecom network.
I'm always surprised when I see a ham with a vanity plate on their vehicle with their call sign. It's pretty trivial to look that up and call them on their bad driving. But as far as I can remember, most hams I know are at least half decent drivers.
As a ham, I'm not thrilled that my address is listed for all to see, but I must admit that it's kinda nice to be able to do a zip lookup and find others from my community who are into radio. If it were voluntary, I always wonder how many of us would contribute our info. Of course, I've changed addresses about a half dozen times since I got my license, so the address on file is woefully out of date. Hmm. Guess that answers my question.
Funny... *everyone* I know in the city couldn't use their cell phone reliably from the time the power went out until sometime friday -- and that's only because the power started to be restored at that point. Where I live, we didn't get power back until friday night. My verizon phone, normally with full 1x digital signal strength, was registering ONE BAR of ANALOG service mid day Friday - and wasn't at all usable when I tried to place a call. And I'm fairly certain that the t-mobile cabinet o' gear in the basement of my building doesn't have diesel, and was out of juice by friday morning.
Meanwhile, I was up and running on ham the entire time. I'm not saying ham radio is for everyone, but it served me well. It's nice to not have to rely upon a third party to transport my voice during an emergency.
And besides, what good will a cell phone do if your towers go down like they did when the WTC fell? Ham radio had comms flowing in and out of ground zero in under 3 hours then.
I'm a ham, although not a particularly active one, who was in NYC (just above Union Sq.) when the towers fell. Sad to sad, it was actually AIM which provided me with the most reliable contact with my family and friends during and after the tragedy. Phone calls were next to impossible for most of the 11th, and cell phones weren't much better due to congestion. But through my cable modem, I was AIMing the entire time without interruption.
Regardless, I feel that it'd be irresponsible to allow BPL to come online until some way to resolve this issue of interference is resolved. After all, if you're just going to allow this technology to come along and render a large swath of spectrum unusable, why not just re-allocate the band for long-range wireless data and not bother with wires at all?
Are the headphones *really* that amazing? I have a pair with my iPod, but I haven't even broken them out of the packaging yet, primarily because I don't want those blindingly bright white things advertising that I'm using the iPod to everyone around me (on the subway). I'm using a pair of Sony buds now, and though I'm not totally happy with them, I always though it was the iPod at fault, not the Sony buds (which I was very happy with using with minidisc).
I'm considering selling the iPod buds and buying a nice pair of someone elses. Tips under $40?
Take a look here for some specs. Unfortunately, this receiver has been out for a few years now, and has never had reviews that are all that stunning. Complaints are generally regarding poor sensitivity, which as a owner of a IC-Q7A (Icom's ham version of the IC-R2), doesn't surprise me one bit.
What always surprised me was the crummy UI on this thing. You've got a full color dot matrix display on the thing -- why isn't there a sophisticated OS, slick icons, and on-screen help guide? Why isn't there a flashable ROM for OS upgrades? How about a smartmedia slot to store screenshots? It's almost as if they're afraid to sell too many of the things, so they cripple it my making it cryptic to use, with a lousy UI, and no features.
I bought the 5500 when HSN was clearing them out a few months ago... but I ended up returning it. While I really loved being able to hold linux in my hand, I quickly realized that it just wasn't a replacement for my Palm Vx.
The most limiting factor was battery life... which the 5600 claims to improve. Any linux geek who will play with one of these things will be playing HARD... ogg decoding, game playing, etc. These things burn up battery life, and you quickly need to make a run for the nearest AC plug.
The other thing that discouraged me was filesystem management. Installing packages wasn't smooth and required some fancy footwork to install them on CF/MMC cards. And if you drain your battery and don't recharge within 24 hours (perhaps less), you'll lose anything not in flash ROM or on a memory card. Sure it's the same with any other PDA... but my palm can go for weeks w/o a charge... and I can recharge it with a 9v battery if I'm desperate.
There are hacks to setup backups to a CF card or whatever, and hacks for wireless connectivity, and hacks for getting X apps to run, and hacks... and hacks... but you start to realize that the entire thing is about hacks... it's not clean. It made me miss my Newton. Flexibility? No... but sure was slick!
Two things would have made me keep it: 1. Better battery life (fixed in 5600?) 2. Ability to boot off the CF card and turn the device into a full-speed, fully functioning palm emulator (the ones I tried had serious limitations). A dual-boot pda!
Just my $.02 - I look forward to trying again in a couple of years:)
Perhaps a few of the 30(?) pins on the dock connector provide SPDIF in/out? Many "pro" tapers (phish, pearl jam, etc.) use external A/Ds on their decks anyway. This would eliminate hard drive noise.
My fantasy: iPod would record uncompressed 24bit/96k audio from an external (portable) A/D converter. I suppose I'd accept 16bit/44.1k:)
My super-fantasy: iPod would act as a "smart" DV drive, allowing me to use the iPod to record video directly from my DV camera, and then letting me edit it (even if just cuts only) on the fly right from the iPod (using the camera's viewfinder or video out as the display).
Apple would never do any of these. I can only hope that a firmware hack (something similar to the linux for ipod project?) will appear, allowing enthusiasts to add features such as those I list above.
Er, not so daft really. I've got a laptop without firewire, a PC at work without firewire, my folk's PC and inlaw's PC (when we travel back home) without firewire, and friends without firewire. So then... one $19 cable, or one $19 PCI card (plus one $xx PCMCIA card) which I need to insert and remove each time I want to load a few tracks?
Don't get me wrong -- I love firewire and have it on our machines at home... but that's only because we have DV camcorders. Sadly, most PC users have no other use for it now that USB 2.0 hard drives and other peripherals are showing up.
Wait -- they fired him? I was under the impression that he left on his own will and went to work for Sonicblue/Replay. Does anyone know if he left, or if he was fired?
1) Ex-Radio Shack employee. Big time (relative to base pay) commission on service plans. The most popular was selling a 3-yr $20 plan for $20 (on sale from $40) headphones. Someone bought three headphones and one plan. She would come in once every few weeks or so and replace the headphone du jour her kids beat up.
2) After having issues with a 36" TV just after the warranty ran out, I decided to buy a new set and *wanted* a service plan. In response to my questions, the droid at PC Richard (NY chain, like CC and BB) told me that 1) They never use refurb parts in repair, 2) They will come to my place to pickup/dropoff, 3) The extended warranty will begin after the manufacturers ends. As I walked out the door, I read the details on the extended warranty info card. Amongst other disappointments, it said they reserve the right to use refurbished parts, they expect delivery of the product to their service center, and the warranty begins immediately - and you must take advantage of the manufacturer's warranty before you use extended one. I turned around and got my money back on that IMMEDIATELY. The best part was when everyone in the store thought I was crazy, and the manager telling me "we have a lot of problems with these sets".
3) I must have been on crack when I paid for an extended warranty on my portable minidisc player a few years ago. But when the thing died about a month ago, I brought it to the repair center. They told me it was unfixable and wrote me a check for the original purchase price. Go figure.
Note that many states have laws requiring stores to give you back a pro-rated amount on your warranty plan if you decide to cancel it down the road.
Lastly, if you have home or renters insurance, you should call your agent and find out if the item you're thinking of buying is covered in case of damage or theft. You should also find out your deductable. If you don't have home/renters insurance, THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE BUYING INSTEAD OF THAT WARRANTY! After an apt. caught fire a few floors under ours, no fire damage occurred to ours, but plenty of smoke went through our place. The insurance company paid for a week at a hotel, including meals, while we were out of our place. They also paid for cleaning of the apartment, dry-cleaning ALL of our clothes, towels, sheets, pillows, etc., and internal cleaning of all electronic equipment. We were paying about $160/yr for this coverage. WELL WORTH IT.
Check out Circuit Cellar Magazine -- they are a steady stream of articles and advertisements covering just the thing you want to do.
While you're reading it, also pay attention to PIC Chips and Basic Stamps, which would be a great way to control your orbs without needing a PC (especially the cheaper PIC chips from someone like Microchip Technology)
If you're married to the PC concept, you'll also find advertisements for devices which are controllable via USB. Kinda nice for furure serial-less PCs.
Lastly, though it's a bit out of date at this point, take a look at "Controlling the World With Yor PC" by Paul Bergsmann (ISBN: 1878707159). Great stuff about parallel port interfacing.
Firewire Macs have this neat feature where you can boot them into target mode - which essentially turns your Mac into a really expensive firewire enclosure. Is there anything like this available for Linux?
As for increasing my $13/month to Tivo for new services... I'd consider a one-time charge to add software to it, similar to when I install an application onto my PC. But not a monthly billed increase.
Strange that you say that, when your past actions don't indicate that you really feel that way. You could have purchased the lifetime service from TiVo, and saved money already. Yet you pay the monthly fee.
Strange? That's not how I see it. Two and a half years ago, nobody knew if this Tivo thing would work out.
Anyway, I feel that paying a monthly fee for updated TV listings and system software is worth more to me than paying monthly to access my own photos and music. Once Tivo stops deploying new software for my 1st gen unit, the current $13 fee will be less justified (and I will seek out another, perhaps competing, PVR).
At this point, I'm not about to go for the lifetime subscription. There's a growing chance my aging Tivo will bite it sooner rather than later... or that someone else will come along with something better.
I've been a Tivo subscriber for 2.5 years now, and while I love my Tivo (Series 1, 90+ hours), $13 a month is starting to get old. I don't understand who would be willing to spend yet more to play music and view pictures.
Really, there are too many things competing for a consumer's monthy share of the paycheck. There's cable/satellite. Cell phone. Bill payment service. Bank fees. The ISP. Tivo. Gym membership. Subscriptions to various web sites. And it's been said that the world's favorite operating system and supporting programs will be billed monthly in the not-too-distant future. With an economy in not-top-shape (here in the US, anyway) and the unemployment rate rising, who can afford to pay for all these monthly services?
As for increasing my $13/month to Tivo for new services... I'd consider a one-time charge to add software to it, similar to when I install an application onto my PC. But not a monthly billed increase.
Taking a second look at my post, I should clarify that the NYCwireless Cloud SIG has nothing to do with the Locustworld MeshAP project, nor am I aware that they are using it. I was merely trying to point out that the SIG exists to promote a wireless backbone. I don't think it endorses any package.
Locustworld is a great starting point. This project needs more press. From their site:
Our mission is simple. We like this wireless technology, there is a huge potential in free community networks, as idealised by www.communitywireless.org We will research and make this technology available to everyone at the lowest cost we can. Wherever possible, this will be at the cost of parts. In other words, we're working totally for free here, even charity workers get paid! Where required, we will also help by providing live prototype networks and application development. Our primary interest is simply in providing the enabling technology to make this dream work. All the plans for building or modifying all our units will eventually be available as will the software itself. We hope to distribute this under an opensource license so that others can improve our work.
Their goal is to provide free software to setup just the type of wireless community network you're looking for. Though their software package can be used with generic hardware, they're also selling a specialized embedded-esque box explictly for use with this project.
Slashdot Mirror
I should have also posted that these exerpts are in Digital Deli, from the contribution "The Telephone System of the Future" by Lamont Wood.
The day local subscribers are offered digital phones is not far off. With divestiture, the offspring of AT&T can feel the hot breath of competition on their necks for the first time. These AT&T orphans will be offering a whole gamut of new products and services-lest someone else do it first.
Answering the phone could become a major decision as you struggle to remember whose number is showing on the display and whether this person is owed any money.
Not that there will be any real reason to leave the house. With the right peripherals, shopping will be no problem. Merchants will be able to fax their catalogs over the phone. And you'll be able to use the phone to make the bank transfers to pay for the stuff. Indeed, whole appliance factories could be rigged to "build on order."
I posted a nearly identical question a while ago, when AOL (and others) started to reject SMTP connections from what they determined were dynamically assigned IP addresses. Take a look at the thread:
/ 23 27248&mode=nested&tid=126
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/19
I was hoping to find a "virtual" mail ISP which would allow me to relay my outgoing mail (preferably in a encrypted tunnel, but I'm not holding my breath). Instead, I ended up configuring postfix to relay only mail destined to problem addresses (mostly aol properties) through my ISP's SMTP relay. I know this isn't the same problem you're having, but some of the solutions are the same.
Why does there need to be a bezel between the LCD panels? Is it possible make LCDs where the glass from one panel will touch the glass from the next? Granted, at that point you're no longer talking about creating a system from off-the-shelf components, but if I'm about to spend $150k on a setup like this, I hope that price will include *some* cusomization.
...how long until the industry realizes that the MPAA, RIAA, etc. is no longer necessary? In response to the MPAA, this group of RICH, POWERFUL directors shoud take their fortunes and create a wholly independent film scene. Create their own studios, distribution facilities, theaters -- EVERYTHING. Leave out the MPAA. Leave out the $6 sodas and $8 popcorns and $10 tickets and screens-smaller-than-my-tv and anything else which corporate greed has given us to increase their profits and reduce our experience.
These ARTISTS are in a position to reform the industry into supporting the values of the artists and consumers over those of the shareholders and executives. When I'm not contributing to Valenti's gold-plated hot tubs, downloading video/audio warez won't be as fun.
So if we're now able to make carrier-quality telecom equipment that runs on fairly run-of-the-mill PCs, why are we still paying $50/mo to our mobile phone companies? Think of the revolution that's happening with 802.11, and now imagine a Linksys GSM Router sitting at home next to your Wi-Fi box. Of course our governments would never allow this to take place; who would pay billions to claim stake to the airwaves if we could build our own homegrown networks?
In reality, we'd probably NOT have personal GSM routers as I mentioned above... instead, we'd have community organizations sponsoring local sites, paid for and maintained by their users. Interconnected with other communities, it would form a massive network of telecom co-ops. If linked by microwave, you might not even need to involve your local utilities one bit.
I'm not suggesting that we dismantle the existing mobile networks; however, they are truly OUR airwaves. If we could see to it that a mobile network running on hardware like this were to be built using non- or minimally-licensed (community licensed?) bandwidth, a couple of years of network instability and growth could build a true grass-roots, free-as-in-speech-AND-beer telecom network.
Who's with me?
I'm always surprised when I see a ham with a vanity plate on their vehicle with their call sign. It's pretty trivial to look that up and call them on their bad driving. But as far as I can remember, most hams I know are at least half decent drivers.
As a ham, I'm not thrilled that my address is listed for all to see, but I must admit that it's kinda nice to be able to do a zip lookup and find others from my community who are into radio. If it were voluntary, I always wonder how many of us would contribute our info. Of course, I've changed addresses about a half dozen times since I got my license, so the address on file is woefully out of date. Hmm. Guess that answers my question.
Funny... *everyone* I know in the city couldn't use their cell phone reliably from the time the power went out until sometime friday -- and that's only because the power started to be restored at that point. Where I live, we didn't get power back until friday night. My verizon phone, normally with full 1x digital signal strength, was registering ONE BAR of ANALOG service mid day Friday - and wasn't at all usable when I tried to place a call. And I'm fairly certain that the t-mobile cabinet o' gear in the basement of my building doesn't have diesel, and was out of juice by friday morning.
Meanwhile, I was up and running on ham the entire time. I'm not saying ham radio is for everyone, but it served me well. It's nice to not have to rely upon a third party to transport my voice during an emergency.
I'm a ham, although not a particularly active one, who was in NYC (just above Union Sq.) when the towers fell. Sad to sad, it was actually AIM which provided me with the most reliable contact with my family and friends during and after the tragedy. Phone calls were next to impossible for most of the 11th, and cell phones weren't much better due to congestion. But through my cable modem, I was AIMing the entire time without interruption.
Regardless, I feel that it'd be irresponsible to allow BPL to come online until some way to resolve this issue of interference is resolved. After all, if you're just going to allow this technology to come along and render a large swath of spectrum unusable, why not just re-allocate the band for long-range wireless data and not bother with wires at all?
Are the headphones *really* that amazing? I have a pair with my iPod, but I haven't even broken them out of the packaging yet, primarily because I don't want those blindingly bright white things advertising that I'm using the iPod to everyone around me (on the subway). I'm using a pair of Sony buds now, and though I'm not totally happy with them, I always though it was the iPod at fault, not the Sony buds (which I was very happy with using with minidisc).
I'm considering selling the iPod buds and buying a nice pair of someone elses. Tips under $40?
Take a look here for some specs. Unfortunately, this receiver has been out for a few years now, and has never had reviews that are all that stunning. Complaints are generally regarding poor sensitivity, which as a owner of a IC-Q7A (Icom's ham version of the IC-R2), doesn't surprise me one bit.
What always surprised me was the crummy UI on this thing. You've got a full color dot matrix display on the thing -- why isn't there a sophisticated OS, slick icons, and on-screen help guide? Why isn't there a flashable ROM for OS upgrades? How about a smartmedia slot to store screenshots? It's almost as if they're afraid to sell too many of the things, so they cripple it my making it cryptic to use, with a lousy UI, and no features.
I bought the 5500 when HSN was clearing them out a few months ago... but I ended up returning it. While I really loved being able to hold linux in my hand, I quickly realized that it just wasn't a replacement for my Palm Vx.
:)
The most limiting factor was battery life... which the 5600 claims to improve. Any linux geek who will play with one of these things will be playing HARD... ogg decoding, game playing, etc. These things burn up battery life, and you quickly need to make a run for the nearest AC plug.
The other thing that discouraged me was filesystem management. Installing packages wasn't smooth and required some fancy footwork to install them on CF/MMC cards. And if you drain your battery and don't recharge within 24 hours (perhaps less), you'll lose anything not in flash ROM or on a memory card. Sure it's the same with any other PDA... but my palm can go for weeks w/o a charge... and I can recharge it with a 9v battery if I'm desperate.
There are hacks to setup backups to a CF card or whatever, and hacks for wireless connectivity, and hacks for getting X apps to run, and hacks... and hacks... but you start to realize that the entire thing is about hacks... it's not clean. It made me miss my Newton. Flexibility? No... but sure was slick!
Two things would have made me keep it:
1. Better battery life (fixed in 5600?)
2. Ability to boot off the CF card and turn the device into a full-speed, fully functioning palm emulator (the ones I tried had serious limitations). A dual-boot pda!
Just my $.02 - I look forward to trying again in a couple of years
Perhaps a few of the 30(?) pins on the dock connector provide SPDIF in/out? Many "pro" tapers (phish, pearl jam, etc.) use external A/Ds on their decks anyway. This would eliminate hard drive noise.
:)
My fantasy: iPod would record uncompressed 24bit/96k audio from an external (portable) A/D converter. I suppose I'd accept 16bit/44.1k
My super-fantasy: iPod would act as a "smart" DV drive, allowing me to use the iPod to record video directly from my DV camera, and then letting me edit it (even if just cuts only) on the fly right from the iPod (using the camera's viewfinder or video out as the display).
Apple would never do any of these. I can only hope that a firmware hack (something similar to the linux for ipod project?) will appear, allowing enthusiasts to add features such as those I list above.
Er, not so daft really. I've got a laptop without firewire, a PC at work without firewire, my folk's PC and inlaw's PC (when we travel back home) without firewire, and friends without firewire. So then... one $19 cable, or one $19 PCI card (plus one $xx PCMCIA card) which I need to insert and remove each time I want to load a few tracks?
Don't get me wrong -- I love firewire and have it on our machines at home... but that's only because we have DV camcorders. Sadly, most PC users have no other use for it now that USB 2.0 hard drives and other peripherals are showing up.
Kudos to Apple for including this flexibility!
Wait -- they fired him? I was under the impression that he left on his own will and went to work for Sonicblue/Replay. Does anyone know if he left, or if he was fired?
1) Ex-Radio Shack employee. Big time (relative to base pay) commission on service plans. The most popular was selling a 3-yr $20 plan for $20 (on sale from $40) headphones. Someone bought three headphones and one plan. She would come in once every few weeks or so and replace the headphone du jour her kids beat up.
2) After having issues with a 36" TV just after the warranty ran out, I decided to buy a new set and *wanted* a service plan. In response to my questions, the droid at PC Richard (NY chain, like CC and BB) told me that 1) They never use refurb parts in repair, 2) They will come to my place to pickup/dropoff, 3) The extended warranty will begin after the manufacturers ends. As I walked out the door, I read the details on the extended warranty info card. Amongst other disappointments, it said they reserve the right to use refurbished parts, they expect delivery of the product to their service center, and the warranty begins immediately - and you must take advantage of the manufacturer's warranty before you use extended one. I turned around and got my money back on that IMMEDIATELY. The best part was when everyone in the store thought I was crazy, and the manager telling me "we have a lot of problems with these sets".
3) I must have been on crack when I paid for an extended warranty on my portable minidisc player a few years ago. But when the thing died about a month ago, I brought it to the repair center. They told me it was unfixable and wrote me a check for the original purchase price. Go figure.
Note that many states have laws requiring stores to give you back a pro-rated amount on your warranty plan if you decide to cancel it down the road.
Lastly, if you have home or renters insurance, you should call your agent and find out if the item you're thinking of buying is covered in case of damage or theft. You should also find out your deductable. If you don't have home/renters insurance, THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE BUYING INSTEAD OF THAT WARRANTY! After an apt. caught fire a few floors under ours, no fire damage occurred to ours, but plenty of smoke went through our place. The insurance company paid for a week at a hotel, including meals, while we were out of our place. They also paid for cleaning of the apartment, dry-cleaning ALL of our clothes, towels, sheets, pillows, etc., and internal cleaning of all electronic equipment. We were paying about $160/yr for this coverage. WELL WORTH IT.
Check out Circuit Cellar Magazine -- they are a steady stream of articles and advertisements covering just the thing you want to do.
While you're reading it, also pay attention to PIC Chips and Basic Stamps, which would be a great way to control your orbs without needing a PC (especially the cheaper PIC chips from someone like Microchip Technology)
If you're married to the PC concept, you'll also find advertisements for devices which are controllable via USB. Kinda nice for furure serial-less PCs.
Lastly, though it's a bit out of date at this point, take a look at "Controlling the World With Yor PC" by Paul Bergsmann (ISBN: 1878707159). Great stuff about parallel port interfacing.
Good luck!
Again, when did DRM become a *feature* for end users? And exactly what are they using DRM for here... ringtones?
Firewire Macs have this neat feature where you can boot them into target mode - which essentially turns your Mac into a really expensive firewire enclosure. Is there anything like this available for Linux?
They're not gone... they've just gone hi-tech.
Take a look at:
Power Ball. I've got one -- it rocks.
Strange? That's not how I see it. Two and a half years ago, nobody knew if this Tivo thing would work out.
Anyway, I feel that paying a monthly fee for updated TV listings and system software is worth more to me than paying monthly to access my own photos and music. Once Tivo stops deploying new software for my 1st gen unit, the current $13 fee will be less justified (and I will seek out another, perhaps competing, PVR).
At this point, I'm not about to go for the lifetime subscription. There's a growing chance my aging Tivo will bite it sooner rather than later... or that someone else will come along with something better.
I've been a Tivo subscriber for 2.5 years now, and while I love my Tivo (Series 1, 90+ hours), $13 a month is starting to get old. I don't understand who would be willing to spend yet more to play music and view pictures.
Really, there are too many things competing for a consumer's monthy share of the paycheck. There's cable/satellite. Cell phone. Bill payment service. Bank fees. The ISP. Tivo. Gym membership. Subscriptions to various web sites. And it's been said that the world's favorite operating system and supporting programs will be billed monthly in the not-too-distant future. With an economy in not-top-shape (here in the US, anyway) and the unemployment rate rising, who can afford to pay for all these monthly services?
As for increasing my $13/month to Tivo for new services... I'd consider a one-time charge to add software to it, similar to when I install an application onto my PC. But not a monthly billed increase.
Taking a second look at my post, I should clarify that the NYCwireless Cloud SIG has nothing to do with the Locustworld MeshAP project, nor am I aware that they are using it. I was merely trying to point out that the SIG exists to promote a wireless backbone. I don't think it endorses any package.
Their goal is to provide free software to setup just the type of wireless community network you're looking for. Though their software package can be used with generic hardware, they're also selling a specialized embedded-esque box explictly for use with this project.
In NYC, the NYCwireless group has a "wireless cloud" SIG which is (slowly?) trying to accomplish just this task.
Good luck!