It is still $50 more a unit. I guess I am too used to the unbox, then ghost down an image thing. I don't even know what a dell actually comes up from the factory anymore. Dell does have a program where they image them according to your image, but if I remember right it is overpriced, and neccesarily slow to react to new threats.
You are absolutely right that HP's reseller network allows it to do some things that Dell just can't do, but at least here well you have to be careful with resellers. Though some of their resellers are utterly useless.
I suppose it is a good deal for smaller businesses but once you have an employee to handle that it gets harder to justify. (Besides there is a really nice program Dell has that allows you to directly request parts and or service if you want to spend $179 per designated person able to call it in.)
I mean I didn't look at them all, but all the ones I looked at were normal to the point of silliness, and the optiplexes are easier to support. Whether or not they are worth the price premium is up to the situation, but it isn't completely worthless.
Optiplex E1 3com 3C905B (basically one of the most supported cards on the planet) Optiplex G1 "" Optiplex GS+ "" Optiplex GX1 "" Optiplex GX1p "" Optiplex GX110 3C905C (driver compatible with b) Optiplex GX150 "" Optiplex GX240 "" Optiplex GX260 Intel 8254x 1000 (well supported though not always by pre sp W2k or XP, then you have to provide drivers from dell's site, a nice card though it does have a few quirks) Optiplex GX260N "" Optiplex GX270 Intel Gigabit 1000 LOM see above Optiplex GX280 Broadcom 57xx Gigabit Integrated Controller. (Not as good as intel, needs drivers, some drivers that look like they should work don't need recent drivers from dell site even post XPsp2) Optiplex N 3com 3C905B (again hard to imagine much more supported) Optiplex NX "" Optiplex NX1 ""
Optiplexes are where it is at in the Dell line. Screw the dimensions.
Unfortunately price wise that is often a bad idea.:(. Best way to get a lower quote if you are a serious purchaser is to call, Dell has sales agents, and the SB and higher ones have the power to cut you a deal. I suppose you can try faxing too. (Dell email quotes seem to suck at least for me). Really even with very good deals calling ALWAYS beats (normal) online price quotes, esp. as quantities go up.
It is kind of scary how PCs ~= Dell right now. But they just pummel the competition. HP doesn't even bother with trying to match dell quotes in my experience, (well they sort of try, but they miss the must beat price by ~20%). Even if you could get a decent quote out of HP I am certain that if you politely asked Dell would find a way to come under it.
Rather FairPlay used to be better then the services that existed, but it isn't any longer. Now MSN music and most other services have the same general outlines (some numbers might be different between services, but the idea is there). So FairPlay is like all the other DRM services. Actually it is a not all that agile version of DRM, from a content manager perspective MS DRM is the best around, but the DRM is not that important it is the actual license it enforces, and that is pretty much the same. Apple's DRM just seems to be an easier target (marketshare differences come into play too, but that is a form of ease).
Getting your files free (as in libre) is just a good idea. As otherwise they really aren't your files. DRM allows some nice models (subsciption based services for example, internet rental), but DRM applied to the normal ownership model is a poor trade.
And I knew you knew that the guidelines exist (lets just stop there in recursion). The sad thing is that the guidelines are actually pretty good. I mean they are fairly basic, and a bit wiggle roomy at times, but still decent stuff. And most people follow most of them most of the time, it is just that most of the time simply allows a bigger suprise when someone doesn't, and if you change scrolling behavior, well the fact that you can resize the window properly using all methods isn't much consolation.
Actually Forecastfox (WeatherFox's current name) uses the The Weather Channel (i.e. weather.com) as its source.) It is however very cool http://forecastfox.mozdev.org/
As to the story, I don't see what the big deal with providing internet access is when there is already a national weather radio service broadcasting this. I mean most people use weatherbug even though it is scary ad bedecked, slow, and when better options exist. Yet they do. So most likely accuweather shouldn't worry.
There is a massive difference between a computer engineer and the expertise of being able to hack short/medium range encrypted communication and inject commands. Hell even picking up the entire feed would be dificult as these are probably frequency agile. In all honesty, you would need to be a military radio person, a hacker, plus being in an area with an in use robot (which is armed and supported by a team of armed soldiers). I doubt there are 20 people in the US who didn't build the thing that could do it by their lonesome.
I was using the word mostly because I felt it had to be said, but didn't want to really say it. I.e. I was publicly saying it to myself. I really shouldn't have because personal attacks are a bad idea even if lightly coded. So, sorry, and honestly I thought better of it quickly, but of course slashdot doesn't have editing facilities.
1)A) they probably use a key system so a straight forward hack will only burn one connection
B) hackers? What hackers, that requires a lot of advanced technology training, not the most prevelant thing in Sadam era Iraq. Also hacking a robot while it is closing in to kill you would be... interesting
2) A) EMP is most effective against unprepared targets. A jammer would probably be easier.
B) almost imposible to imagine them getting all of them
C) EMP is a broadcast (as is jamming), it gives away one's position, which is asking for some high explosive to land on your head.
3) Since it is an assembled unit, hopefully in unassembled form it will be relatively protected, and they won't be massing so a sand storm isn't going to hit much, also millions would be a rounding error, and a small rounding error at that.
Other threats
Paint bombs (cameras covered = disabled robot)
Cameras probably have more trouble detecting trip wires, and mines.
A strong metal wire strung about eight inches high would probably prevent them from moving into a room or enclosed space.
Baka, Striking military targets is not terrorist action. To say it is, is to diminish the horror of attacks upon civilians. As a group they are insurgents, some (maybe many) are war criminals (striking from mosques and the like), some are terrorists (willfully striking civilian targets), but insurgents helpfully contains everything. So that is why it is used.
As for the Iraqis not liking this, well it is probably true, even if the police were hunting a band of criminals with robots in my home town, well robots covering me with automatic weapons would not be the most pleasant situation. That doesn't mean I woduld want them to stop, but it would be bloody freaky.
As for the tactics effectiveness, if it is used with restraint (i.e. mostly on those who are hostile, and not just all the time) then it could work really well, they would hate it, and that is a good thing. Sometimes you have to scare people, and riskless killing from heartless robots would probably break morale very quickly.
The risk would of course if they were used as the face that most iraqis saw of the Coalition, hard to trust somebody who is aiming a weapon at you from a block away. Would you try to help someone who always apears as a robot? Would you risk your life to support them?
There are also fairly serious abuse concerns, I mean if a bunch of guys shoot up someone, eyewitnesses might be able to finger them, but an anonymous robot? It is the perfect tool to frag a comander that you don't like. Or to settle scores. Though that is more novel stuff, give it time, and someone will probably try it.
They have done a lot of viciousness to prevent that. You would unlikely be able to use it out of region and operater. Look at http://www.opencable.com/specifications/
Don't count on it. Most of the research is in the big supercomputer using countries (i.e. US + Japan, and to some extent W. Europe) that much is true. But, textbooks will be made in English, and the trick will be to get the developers when they are learning the stuff, not as a reallignment of skills. Since the SE Asia is doing more degree churning, I don't think it will work in the US's favor. I mean Textbooks in English are already used to teach the CS curiculem world wide.
Oh well look up Linda Tuples if you are bored that is what an APULET seems to be.
Always doubt PR. At one thing the cell architecture should be very good. If the numbers they are turning in are right it is going to be a very powerful player on the gigabit/10gigabit switch market. A cut down version would make a great set top box. I myself am itching to get one to try on some matrix based AI algos. It also sounds like it has a L-tuple implemntation that should allow for some really fun distribution schemes.
Yet all this existed in some form already. You can buy massively powerful DSP cards to plug into your computer and gain some real powerful compute ability. The problem is that not all problems are easily "streamable", and even problems that are streamable, are not often cost free in the conversion. Not only that, but it is a very differen way of thinking about computers, and in general it is a harder way. In other words this will come down almost entirely to the tools for development. That and massive training of developers. (most of which will need a lot of adjustment to the new platform.
On the one hand, it is a nice convenience for those who fly a lot. On the other, it makes the dangerous assumption that anyone who flies more than 25K miles a year (or whatever the qualifying criteria is these days) is somehow less of a threat.No no, you don't see the brilliance of it. It is a tax on terror.
Want to have a shot at international terror? Then fly over 25,000 miles a year, without incident. I mean you can't stop them all, but you can at least make sure you make money off of them.
Actually, I think 5mp are more like $120 for one with optical zoom, but some of that might be dollar loss against world currencies. But I think that is the point, if you bother to hack a camera it might take you a year before you got anything more then "hello world", and tetris type stuff. In the mean time there might well have been 2 (or possibly even 3) product releases by the manufacturer in your chosen camera's product space. So say you have been able to add some sort of bastardized manual focus to the camera that is now either already out of stores or on the clearance shelf. It just isn't all that useful, you know? And your wonderful hack probably won't apply to any of the future models as they switch supliers often. Also most of the things you could add just aren't all that wonderful, at least without some more buttons.
I mean in all honesty, all the cameras I've seen have had upgradeable firmwares, which makes it a cinch to hack. Most of the time it is just a public button combo, and a menu item to flash the firmware. I know of pro development systems that are harder then that.
The only people hacking cameras are the people hacking those "disposable" digital cameras, and even then the technology has changed so much that it is hard to justify. (Wow, you can get a 2mp camera for $15 plus the trouble of making buying a cable, and 0 support, or you can buy a real one for $40 with cables and (theoretically) some support. Of course when they started hacking them, it was more like $100, and so it looked like a good deal.)
Once the digicam market settles down a bit (and it will, there are practical and theoretical limits to both how many megapixels can be added and still have a small indoor capable camera, and how many a human really can percieve.), then there will be enough time to consider hacking. Though who know it could all end up folded into a phone anyways.
Technically there is no restraint from say posting it on a website. Everyone could check it and know where the speed traps were when they left work.
Oh and tampering with government property would depend on how invasive the bug was. A magnet that didn't mar the paint might not rise to the level of a crime. Of course they could probably find something.
It is modestly dangerous because there is no special police power being used. Basically if Joe Sixpack wants to find out where you go at night, and can track you then that is ok. He can put it on a website and say look where my neighbor is. Now while there isn't really any difference between this and an APB as a practical matter an APB requires a police organization, and active interest.
Also interesting is the idea that since this warrantless, if the police have a tracker on you they can ticket you when you are over the posted speed limit, when you don't come to a complete stop at a stop sign, or any of the things that are normally too trivial to bother with.
It isn't a grand renunciation of privacy rights, though that much I agree with, it is more a grey area that was decided strongly for one side. (More or less saying that you can delegate monitoring ability.) Of course if everything went like this it might be worrisome, as it basically says if it can be public then it is public. So if you swear in a corner of the park away from everybody you are violating obscenity laws, etc. It probably won't come to that since the State is held to have an especial interest in maintaining saftey on roadways.
Yeah I can't believe they used the title without dripping irony. You know a discussion about how stereotyping and harrasment is preventing women moving into computers and gaming. Ah well.
I somehow don't see it as lasting long. (I mean selling low grade softcore porn is probably not the best way to get viewers post internet.) Though I never understood the centerfolds in gaming mags that they occasionally put in.
Yeah March until October 27th seems a bit long to me. (And at the time of the breach I was a Tmo subscriber).
I mean I wasn't a sidekick user, and didn't say or send anything all that important over the wap or sms, but still. Oh well doesn't look like they had the CC database compromised, though the identity theft situation is chilling.
Actually a Gatling gun can be used for missile defense, and high speed package delivery.
Decentralizing tracking makes it easier to set up files. It also elminates a single point of failure, and some bandwidth issues of the host (tracking traffic is relatively small, but it can still add up very quickly as peers go into the 10s of thousands.)
Imagine you had a video of a very recent disaster. You could put it on a normal tracker, but you would first have to find one that was willing, and then you would have to hope it could handle the swarm.
Or imagine you have a torrent server for the presidential debates, most of the time your tracker will be idle, but right after releasing your version of the debates it might well fall over, this system would allow your server to be used by other systems as the majority of the time it is not being used, and then lean on other systems during your flash crowd.
Even still SMS actually costs $.10 for most plans to send. Tmobile charges both sending receiving at $.05 so we end up with something like $.10 per sent.
So it ends up being 180 text messages/mo (or less if you have Cingular which is $.10 for every message sent or received). Which is fairly easily doable (esp. since most phones come with an IM client that burns text messages, (and I do mean burns something like 5-7 messages for a logon, more for refreshing the contact list, and of course one for every message, and the messages tend to be much shorter then SMS messages which tend to look more like short notes, "You want to go out at 8 to the movie" vs. "Hey," "Hey" "You free tonight" "yeah" "wanna go to a movie" "sure, what time" "8".)
If you have an IM/SMS crazed child though, well the OGO certainly removes some pain. (it also avoids that problem of prepaid cell service you want the child to always be able to contact home or the parents, but I haven't seen a prepaid plan that allows reservations or such).
Of course the other use that suggests itself is for working with the deaf or mute. Then it is a fine replacement for a cell phone.
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It is still $50 more a unit. I guess I am too used to the unbox, then ghost down an image thing.
I don't even know what a dell actually comes up from the factory anymore. Dell does have a program where they image them according to your image, but if I remember right it is overpriced, and neccesarily slow to react to new threats.
You are absolutely right that HP's reseller network allows it to do some things that Dell just can't do, but at least here well you have to be careful with resellers. Though some of their resellers are utterly useless.
I suppose it is a good deal for smaller businesses but once you have an employee to handle that it gets harder to justify. (Besides there is a really nice program Dell has that allows you to directly request parts and or service if you want to spend $179 per designated person able to call it in.)
It sounds very funny to me.
I mean I didn't look at them all, but all the ones I looked at were normal to the point of silliness, and the optiplexes are easier to support. Whether or not they are worth the price premium is up to the situation, but it isn't completely worthless.
Optiplex E1 3com 3C905B (basically one of the most supported cards on the planet)
Optiplex G1 ""
Optiplex GS+ ""
Optiplex GX1 ""
Optiplex GX1p ""
Optiplex GX110 3C905C (driver compatible with b)
Optiplex GX150 ""
Optiplex GX240 ""
Optiplex GX260 Intel 8254x 1000 (well supported though not always by pre sp W2k or XP, then you have to provide drivers from dell's site, a nice card though it does have a few quirks)
Optiplex GX260N ""
Optiplex GX270 Intel Gigabit 1000 LOM see above
Optiplex GX280 Broadcom 57xx Gigabit Integrated Controller. (Not as good as intel, needs drivers, some drivers that look like they should work don't need recent drivers from dell site even post XPsp2)
Optiplex N 3com 3C905B (again hard to imagine much more supported)
Optiplex NX ""
Optiplex NX1 ""
Optiplexes are where it is at in the Dell line. Screw the dimensions.
:(. Best way to get a lower quote if you are a serious purchaser is to call, Dell has sales agents, and the SB and higher ones have the power to cut you a deal. I suppose you can try faxing too. (Dell email quotes seem to suck at least for me). Really even with very good deals calling ALWAYS beats (normal) online price quotes, esp. as quantities go up.
Unfortunately price wise that is often a bad idea.
It is kind of scary how PCs ~= Dell right now. But they just pummel the competition. HP doesn't even bother with trying to match dell quotes in my experience, (well they sort of try, but they miss the must beat price by ~20%). Even if you could get a decent quote out of HP I am certain that if you politely asked Dell would find a way to come under it.
Rather FairPlay used to be better then the services that existed, but it isn't any longer. Now MSN music and most other services have the same general outlines (some numbers might be different between services, but the idea is there). So FairPlay is like all the other DRM services. Actually it is a not all that agile version of DRM, from a content manager perspective MS DRM is the best around, but the DRM is not that important it is the actual license it enforces, and that is pretty much the same. Apple's DRM just seems to be an easier target (marketshare differences come into play too, but that is a form of ease).
Getting your files free (as in libre) is just a good idea. As otherwise they really aren't your files. DRM allows some nice models (subsciption based services for example, internet rental), but DRM applied to the normal ownership model is a poor trade.
And I knew you knew that the guidelines exist (lets just stop there in recursion). The sad thing is that the guidelines are actually pretty good. I mean they are fairly basic, and a bit wiggle roomy at times, but still decent stuff. And most people follow most of them most of the time, it is just that most of the time simply allows a bigger suprise when someone doesn't, and if you change scrolling behavior, well the fact that you can resize the window properly using all methods isn't much consolation.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url= /library/en-us/dnwue/html/welcome.asp Never ask a hypothetical question that can be answered ;)
Actually Forecastfox (WeatherFox's current name) uses the The Weather Channel (i.e. weather.com) as its source.) It is however very cool http://forecastfox.mozdev.org/
As to the story, I don't see what the big deal with providing internet access is when there is already a national weather radio service broadcasting this. I mean most people use weatherbug even though it is scary ad bedecked, slow, and when better options exist. Yet they do. So most likely accuweather shouldn't worry.
There is a massive difference between a computer engineer and the expertise of being able to hack short/medium range encrypted communication and inject commands. Hell even picking up the entire feed would be dificult as these are probably frequency agile. In all honesty, you would need to be a military radio person, a hacker, plus being in an area with an in use robot (which is armed and supported by a team of armed soldiers). I doubt there are 20 people in the US who didn't build the thing that could do it by their lonesome.
I was using the word mostly because I felt it had to be said, but didn't want to really say it. I.e. I was publicly saying it to myself. I really shouldn't have because personal attacks are a bad idea even if lightly coded. So, sorry, and honestly I thought better of it quickly, but of course slashdot doesn't have editing facilities.
1)A) they probably use a key system so a straight forward hack will only burn one connection
B) hackers? What hackers, that requires a lot of advanced technology training, not the most prevelant thing in Sadam era Iraq. Also hacking a robot while it is closing in to kill you would be... interesting
2) A) EMP is most effective against unprepared targets. A jammer would probably be easier.
B) almost imposible to imagine them getting all of them
C) EMP is a broadcast (as is jamming), it gives away one's position, which is asking for some high explosive to land on your head.
3) Since it is an assembled unit, hopefully in unassembled form it will be relatively protected, and they won't be massing so a sand storm isn't going to hit much, also millions would be a rounding error, and a small rounding error at that.
Other threats
Paint bombs (cameras covered = disabled robot)
Cameras probably have more trouble detecting trip wires, and mines.
A strong metal wire strung about eight inches high would probably prevent them from moving into a room or enclosed space.
Oh didn't it?
You might fool some, but I know deep down, that your heart is stamped "Tycho RC".
Baka, Striking military targets is not terrorist action. To say it is, is to diminish the horror of attacks upon civilians. As a group they are insurgents, some (maybe many) are war criminals (striking from mosques and the like), some are terrorists (willfully striking civilian targets), but insurgents helpfully contains everything. So that is why it is used.
As for the Iraqis not liking this, well it is probably true, even if the police were hunting a band of criminals with robots in my home town, well robots covering me with automatic weapons would not be the most pleasant situation. That doesn't mean I woduld want them to stop, but it would be bloody freaky.
As for the tactics effectiveness, if it is used with restraint (i.e. mostly on those who are hostile, and not just all the time) then it could work really well, they would hate it, and that is a good thing. Sometimes you have to scare people, and riskless killing from heartless robots would probably break morale very quickly.
The risk would of course if they were used as the face that most iraqis saw of the Coalition, hard to trust somebody who is aiming a weapon at you from a block away. Would you try to help someone who always apears as a robot? Would you risk your life to support them?
There are also fairly serious abuse concerns, I mean if a bunch of guys shoot up someone, eyewitnesses might be able to finger them, but an anonymous robot? It is the perfect tool to frag a comander that you don't like. Or to settle scores. Though that is more novel stuff, give it time, and someone will probably try it.
They have done a lot of viciousness to prevent that. You would unlikely be able to use it out of region and operater. Look at http://www.opencable.com/specifications/
Don't count on it. Most of the research is in the big supercomputer using countries (i.e. US + Japan, and to some extent W. Europe) that much is true. But, textbooks will be made in English, and the trick will be to get the developers when they are learning the stuff, not as a reallignment of skills. Since the SE Asia is doing more degree churning, I don't think it will work in the US's favor. I mean Textbooks in English are already used to teach the CS curiculem world wide.
Oh well look up Linda Tuples if you are bored that is what an APULET seems to be.
Always doubt PR. At one thing the cell architecture should be very good. If the numbers they are turning in are right it is going to be a very powerful player on the gigabit/10gigabit switch market. A cut down version would make a great set top box. I myself am itching to get one to try on some matrix based AI algos. It also sounds like it has a L-tuple implemntation that should allow for some really fun distribution schemes.
Yet all this existed in some form already. You can buy massively powerful DSP cards to plug into your computer and gain some real powerful compute ability. The problem is that not all problems are easily "streamable", and even problems that are streamable, are not often cost free in the conversion. Not only that, but it is a very differen way of thinking about computers, and in general it is a harder way. In other words this will come down almost entirely to the tools for development. That and massive training of developers. (most of which will need a lot of adjustment to the new platform.
They are still laughing. You are just too deaf to hear them. :P
What do you think HP stock is?
On the one hand, it is a nice convenience for those who fly a lot. On the other, it makes the dangerous assumption that anyone who flies more than 25K miles a year (or whatever the qualifying criteria is these days) is somehow less of a threat.No no, you don't see the brilliance of it. It is a tax on terror.
Want to have a shot at international terror? Then fly over 25,000 miles a year, without incident. I mean you can't stop them all, but you can at least make sure you make money off of them.
Actually, I think 5mp are more like $120 for one with optical zoom, but some of that might be dollar loss against world currencies. But I think that is the point, if you bother to hack a camera it might take you a year before you got anything more then "hello world", and tetris type stuff. In the mean time there might well have been 2 (or possibly even 3) product releases by the manufacturer in your chosen camera's product space. So say you have been able to add some sort of bastardized manual focus to the camera that is now either already out of stores or on the clearance shelf. It just isn't all that useful, you know? And your wonderful hack probably won't apply to any of the future models as they switch supliers often. Also most of the things you could add just aren't all that wonderful, at least without some more buttons.
I mean in all honesty, all the cameras I've seen have had upgradeable firmwares, which makes it a cinch to hack. Most of the time it is just a public button combo, and a menu item to flash the firmware. I know of pro development systems that are harder then that.
The only people hacking cameras are the people hacking those "disposable" digital cameras, and even then the technology has changed so much that it is hard to justify. (Wow, you can get a 2mp camera for $15 plus the trouble of making buying a cable, and 0 support, or you can buy a real one for $40 with cables and (theoretically) some support. Of course when they started hacking them, it was more like $100, and so it looked like a good deal.)
Once the digicam market settles down a bit (and it will, there are practical and theoretical limits to both how many megapixels can be added and still have a small indoor capable camera, and how many a human really can percieve.), then there will be enough time to consider hacking. Though who know it could all end up folded into a phone anyways.
Technically there is no restraint from say posting it on a website. Everyone could check it and know where the speed traps were when they left work.
Oh and tampering with government property would depend on how invasive the bug was. A magnet that didn't mar the paint might not rise to the level of a crime. Of course they could probably find something.
It is modestly dangerous because there is no special police power being used. Basically if Joe Sixpack wants to find out where you go at night, and can track you then that is ok. He can put it on a website and say look where my neighbor is. Now while there isn't really any difference between this and an APB as a practical matter an APB requires a police organization, and active interest.
Also interesting is the idea that since this warrantless, if the police have a tracker on you they can ticket you when you are over the posted speed limit, when you don't come to a complete stop at a stop sign, or any of the things that are normally too trivial to bother with.
It isn't a grand renunciation of privacy rights, though that much I agree with, it is more a grey area that was decided strongly for one side. (More or less saying that you can delegate monitoring ability.) Of course if everything went like this it might be worrisome, as it basically says if it can be public then it is public. So if you swear in a corner of the park away from everybody you are violating obscenity laws, etc. It probably won't come to that since the State is held to have an especial interest in maintaining saftey on roadways.
Yeah I can't believe they used the title without dripping irony. You know a discussion about how stereotyping and harrasment is preventing women moving into computers and gaming. Ah well.
I somehow don't see it as lasting long. (I mean selling low grade softcore porn is probably not the best way to get viewers post internet.) Though I never understood the centerfolds in gaming mags that they occasionally put in.
Yeah March until October 27th seems a bit long to me. (And at the time of the breach I was a Tmo subscriber).
I mean I wasn't a sidekick user, and didn't say or send anything all that important over the wap or sms, but still. Oh well doesn't look like they had the CC database compromised, though the identity theft situation is chilling.
By Kelly Martin, SecurityFocus ===== Look at the byline.
Yeah that is right syndication.
Actually a Gatling gun can be used for missile defense, and high speed package delivery.
Decentralizing tracking makes it easier to set up files. It also elminates a single point of failure, and some bandwidth issues of the host (tracking traffic is relatively small, but it can still add up very quickly as peers go into the 10s of thousands.)
Imagine you had a video of a very recent disaster. You could put it on a normal tracker, but you would first have to find one that was willing, and then you would have to hope it could handle the swarm.
Or imagine you have a torrent server for the presidential debates, most of the time your tracker will be idle, but right after releasing your version of the debates it might well fall over, this system would allow your server to be used by other systems as the majority of the time it is not being used, and then lean on other systems during your flash crowd.
Oh thanks, not thinking obviously
Even still SMS actually costs $.10 for most plans to send. Tmobile charges both sending receiving at $.05 so we end up with something like $.10 per sent.
So it ends up being 180 text messages/mo (or less if you have Cingular which is $.10 for every message sent or received). Which is fairly easily doable (esp. since most phones come with an IM client that burns text messages, (and I do mean burns something like 5-7 messages for a logon, more for refreshing the contact list, and of course one for every message, and the messages tend to be much shorter then SMS messages which tend to look more like short notes, "You want to go out at 8 to the movie" vs. "Hey," "Hey" "You free tonight" "yeah" "wanna go to a movie" "sure, what time" "8".)
If you have an IM/SMS crazed child though, well the OGO certainly removes some pain. (it also avoids that problem of prepaid cell service you want the child to always be able to contact home or the parents, but I haven't seen a prepaid plan that allows reservations or such).
Of course the other use that suggests itself is for working with the deaf or mute. Then it is a fine replacement for a cell phone.