Clearly you haven't seen the traffic stats at an cellular operator. I did. WAP traffic is increasing every month.
The problem with WAP was that it was released too early with way too much marketing hype. Most of its problems are now gone - slow and costly transmission is no more so because of GPRS, new phones have big, colorful displays that make the content attractive and even usable and they are on the market in large numbers.
So as much as I despise its clumsy design and disgusting marketing hype it arrived with I won't say it's dead.
OK, but you forget that mobile phone sales are driven by the network operators who subsidize handsets heavily (in return for 1-2 year contracts) while no one subsidizes PDA sales. So this Kyocera might cost $50 (eee.. $49,99) if purchased together with an activation from an operator.
And - as someone has already pointed out - because of the high margin on voice airtime and even higher on GPRS data transmission operators would earn their subsidies back quickly if you actually use the device.
One more thing about old technology - although most hams rely on commercially produced equipment still many of them are capable of building their own. And an operating CW (Morse code only) transmitter can be built from very few and simple components - you could build it by cannibalizing almost any electronic gear for parts - as opposed to a cell phone or a satellite terminal.
Sometimes it is the only way to call for help. In addition, I would suggest calling for help on ham bands, because that's where you have highest chance that someone would be listening. Listening very carefully.
I was surprised to see this post here, since after I read from the article about the mysterious traffic's behaviour stealth P2P system immediately came to my mind. If what you wrote is true then it is a brilliant idea! Keep up the good work! I can't wait until it is released!
Is this connected with.NET failing to deliver its promises and the fact that Smartphone idea met stronger resistance from cellphones vendors (especially Nokia) than MS expected?
These two were - arguably - two biggest things MS pushed in last two years. Does that memo mean they don't have anything else up their sleeve? What then with all the money spent and effort at "Microsoft Labs"?
Justin's case should be a lesson for others who create something either themselves or as a small company: think twice before selling out to a corporation. Most developers or small entrepreneurs who didn't work for a corporation themselves just look at the money they would get and if company's formal existence is sustained they think they would continue to have a decisive voice. However, corporate culture doesn't allow any independence and sooner or later quenches it.
It is not to say that selling your business to a corporation is always a bad thing, however people like Justin should take into account that eventually they won't be allowed to do what they want - unless it is specifically put in the agreement. It is then the question of whether freedom is worth the money one can get from the buyout.
I don't know if Justin had any prior experience with the corporate culture, but he is wiser now - and others can learn from his example.
And - BTW - there was other possibility I think. Had he not sold out to AOL would Nullsoft go bankrupt? With such a product as Winamp it is not likely, they could probably even live if they have made it a shareware.
I tried, but it is harder to get information about ESA than NASA when it comes to budget, as ESA official budget is one thing and budgets of different project are another. So it is good that you (and others) provide additional information and correct the picture.
However, the bigger current ESA budget turns out to be the less important this $1 bn euro donation is.
Yeah, the Nazi government of Germany was up to no good back then, but no one realized what was going on til later (Man of the Year! Amazing! OK, I guess it's one of those things that most people here already knew).
No one? Hm... Read (or listen to) some Churchil speeches from that time (like this one). It seems he knew. Also, Polish secret service was reading Enigma-encrypted German communications, so they too knew quite well what was coming. French secret service knew all along although their politicians believed in the Maginot line too much to do anything real (but some like de Gaulle wrote books about what was to happen to awaken the public).
The "Space Race" was little more than a cold war pissing contest, and It ended decades ago.
And that's a pity. Without a contest we (humans) can't do much more than launch a few men a year into low orbit for a few weeks. Not much progress ever since that pissing contest ended, hm?
I don't like it, but the fact is that people don't care about space exploration unless there is financial gain in sight or a competition ("pissing contest") to be won (especially a military one).
You are not crazy as sales of these gadget-phones clearly show. Most customers want just basic services and even huge marketing campaigns result in a very slow rise of demand for MMS-es & other gadgets.
denying the use of space for intelligence purposes to any other nation at any time
Why do you think it is tragic? It is just another incentive for other nations (especially EU) to put more funds into their space programs. This is actually good news for whole humanity.
Space dominance with no challengers means stagnation (as we all see from the state US space program is in), competition, space race means progress. That's the way it goes with us, humans.
Sorry, but you missed my point. SETI@Home doesn't hurt manned space flight at all. But taking your analogy, I would at least want to know he's coming.
(Actually it was well within Inca's capabilities to defend against Cortez, but their religious beliefs caused them not to fight with Spaniards. They were not sure whether he is not one of their Gods.)
They said they would put "over 1 billion euros" on that. What about some prospective? ESA's budget for 2002 was around 2,8 bn euros. With this sort of money for last four years they were able to put together a mission to Mars - and that's about it. NASA's budget is around 15 bn Euros and it is barely enough to keep the Shuttle fleet flying and make around two scientific missions a year (look for example at the state US Mars exploration is in). And that is not all the money US spends on space - there is also DoD budget.
A single Ariane 5 launch costs around $150 M which is roughly $140 MEuros, so this is good for around ten launches. Proton and Soyuz are cheaper - $80M and $40M respectively. (a table of launch vehicles costs). But of course this money won't be spent directly on launches, you have to have something to launch first.
Europe's space program has been so far driven mostly by France and to some extent Britain. Others were just interested, but with no real substance. All projects of manned missions were dropped along the way (and there were a few - a small shuttle designed by French that was supposed to be Ariane's payload - I forgot the name, German SSTO Sanger plane and similar British project). As a result Europe has no experience in building manned spacecraft - unless they would get it from Russians. I'm afraid that 1 bn Euros won't be enough to put together a manned mission unless it would be just flying Russian spacecrafts with Europe's yellow stars logo painted on them.
If Europe would spend this money on building a GPS-like system, then 1 bn Euros is a significant amount, however again not enough to build the system - and keep it running (Russians build one to guide their warheads but couldn't afford to keep it up).
What is most likely however is that this money won't be spent on a single mission or project. As the article says this money would be "pumped into the sector to overhaul its manufacturing and marketing programmes". It means that it would be divided into many small donations to various projects just to keep the industry afloat. So it is nice, but is far from enough if Europe really wants to be a player in the Space Race.
Location based information is inherently valuable to people.
I see this line used for various Location Based Services in the cellular world and so far I have only seen stupid or useless implementations.
For example finding nearest cinema is useless because I don't go to the movies based on what theatre is closest to me when the thought strikes. In my city I know where most of them are, in another city a street address is useless - even if the phone tells me it is nearby - because I don't know how to get there (I would have to ask somebody anyway).
Same applies to bars. One would have to be a really hard-pressed alcoholic to actually urgently need directions to the closest open bar. I do go to bars for a few drinks with friends but we tend to choose places we know.
And both are real examples of LBS applications that my GSM operator introduced with much hype (ads in TV, on billboards etc.).
I have seen a proposal by one system integrator for a system that would allow a subscriber to get information about location of other subscribers - for example members of family or employees. However, implementing a system that would allow husbands to spy on wives using cellphones raised serious legal doubts and the proposal was rejected.
I suspect that location based information is not useful to people as it is to authorities. Especially if coupled with logging and some statistical analysis.
Do you seriously think they do provide any guarantees?
In the corporate mentality (and government is the worst case of it) it is not important what is in the contract. What counts is the simple fact that there is an external entity (i.e. Microsoft) you can point finger on should something go wrong. As opposed to the situation, when there is no external entity, no contract and someone has to admit that it was they (or their subordinate) who screwed up something. Corporate mentality is about keeping safe within the structure with minimum effort - not about doing something.
I think that is one of the driving forces of outsourcing (apart from the issue of cost savings).
Excuse me, but what's interesting in this story? A guy, who happens to have some interesting ideas and likes to play with toys shifts his interests from games to (other forms of) entertainment. He came to know someone from a TV network and had an idea of a TV show. His friend from the network says "Cute, let's try it" and off they go.
It's nice to see people evolve, but it shouldn't be a sensation that someone doesn't want to develop/design/whatever computer games all his life. Not the kind of stories I expect/. to bring me.
After reading the post, the article and some of the discussion here (>3) I see that it concentrates on bad sides of deregulation.
Situation in Australia is similar to that in Europe, where in most countries telecoms were state owned and then recently privatized, but not split. As a result they are huge organizations that dominate their respective markets and keep the prices up. Situation in Eastern Europe is especially funny - for example calling US from some of those countries costs twice as much as calling them from the US. Everybody in Europe looks at the US' privatized telecommunications market with envy (stories about telephones being installed overnight etc.).
However, most comments in the discussion here are from people in the US that don't like results of their own deregulation and long for more government control.
If both regulation and deregulation are bad then what is the way out of this mess? Or maybe we are missing some points?
Maybe for example telco companies are quite good at what is their traditional, core business (basic voice services - not many complain about those in the US) but can't cope with completely different business of being Internet providers? I think the way net operates (on social level) and needs of net users are something not easily understood by someone with telco mindset. However, they try.
I think each ISP in CA could (should??) set up a sniffer that would detect all telnet sessions with unencrypted log-ins taking place, all unencrypted e-mails, all incidents of e-mail and personal data (like phone numbers, e-mails and the like) being entered in unsecure forms on the WEB (not under SSL) - and notify whoever is concerned. All DSL providers should monitor traffic comming from their customers and notify them as soon as unencrypted POP3 - or any other unencrypted form of data transmission - is detected comming from them.
And everyone should dump ICQ/AIM/Messenger and start using WASTE.
It is way cheaper to analyze radio data, especially in the way SETI@Home does it (using voluntary contributions of computing power and data being a side product of other observations) than to send even a single astronaut into low orbit. We should keep on sending people into space but projects like SETI@Home don't harm that effort any more than other astronomy research.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with WAP was that it was released too early with way too much marketing hype. Most of its problems are now gone - slow and costly transmission is no more so because of GPRS, new phones have big, colorful displays that make the content attractive and even usable and they are on the market in large numbers.
So as much as I despise its clumsy design and disgusting marketing hype it arrived with I won't say it's dead.
You mean this and these?
Kyocera 7135 Smartphone - $499 USD.
OK, but you forget that mobile phone sales are driven by the network operators who subsidize handsets heavily (in return for 1-2 year contracts) while no one subsidizes PDA sales. So this Kyocera might cost $50 (eee.. $49,99) if purchased together with an activation from an operator. And - as someone has already pointed out - because of the high margin on voice airtime and even higher on GPRS data transmission operators would earn their subsidies back quickly if you actually use the device.
Star Wars is just a piece of rebel propaganda. Darth was a quite decent person, although he hated slave traders and hunted them down with no mercy.
Sometimes it is the only way to call for help. In addition, I would suggest calling for help on ham bands, because that's where you have highest chance that someone would be listening. Listening very carefully.
I was surprised to see this post here, since after I read from the article about the mysterious traffic's behaviour stealth P2P system immediately came to my mind. If what you wrote is true then it is a brilliant idea! Keep up the good work! I can't wait until it is released!
Is this connected with .NET failing to deliver its promises and the fact that Smartphone idea met stronger resistance from cellphones vendors (especially Nokia) than MS expected?
These two were - arguably - two biggest things MS pushed in last two years. Does that memo mean they don't have anything else up their sleeve? What then with all the money spent and effort at "Microsoft Labs"?
US forces are starting to look like Imperial Storm Troopers?
That was exactly my first impression when I saw the picture...
US has to invest in military technology is it wants to remain global superpower. There are some potential challengers out there.
Justin's case should be a lesson for others who create something either themselves or as a small company: think twice before selling out to a corporation. Most developers or small entrepreneurs who didn't work for a corporation themselves just look at the money they would get and if company's formal existence is sustained they think they would continue to have a decisive voice. However, corporate culture doesn't allow any independence and sooner or later quenches it.
It is not to say that selling your business to a corporation is always a bad thing, however people like Justin should take into account that eventually they won't be allowed to do what they want - unless it is specifically put in the agreement. It is then the question of whether freedom is worth the money one can get from the buyout.
I don't know if Justin had any prior experience with the corporate culture, but he is wiser now - and others can learn from his example.
And - BTW - there was other possibility I think. Had he not sold out to AOL would Nullsoft go bankrupt? With such a product as Winamp it is not likely, they could probably even live if they have made it a shareware.
I tried, but it is harder to get information about ESA than NASA when it comes to budget, as ESA official budget is one thing and budgets of different project are another. So it is good that you (and others) provide additional information and correct the picture.
However, the bigger current ESA budget turns out to be the less important this $1 bn euro donation is.
Yeah, the Nazi government of Germany was up to no good back then, but no one realized what was going on til later (Man of the Year! Amazing! OK, I guess it's one of those things that most people here already knew).
No one? Hm... Read (or listen to) some Churchil speeches from that time (like this one). It seems he knew. Also, Polish secret service was reading Enigma-encrypted German communications, so they too knew quite well what was coming. French secret service knew all along although their politicians believed in the Maginot line too much to do anything real (but some like de Gaulle wrote books about what was to happen to awaken the public).
The "Space Race" was little more than a cold war pissing contest, and It ended decades ago.
And that's a pity. Without a contest we (humans) can't do much more than launch a few men a year into low orbit for a few weeks. Not much progress ever since that pissing contest ended, hm?
I don't like it, but the fact is that people don't care about space exploration unless there is financial gain in sight or a competition ("pissing contest") to be won (especially a military one).
You are not crazy as sales of these gadget-phones clearly show. Most customers want just basic services and even huge marketing campaigns result in a very slow rise of demand for MMS-es & other gadgets.
denying the use of space for intelligence purposes to any other nation at any time
Why do you think it is tragic? It is just another incentive for other nations (especially EU) to put more funds into their space programs. This is actually good news for whole humanity.
Space dominance with no challengers means stagnation (as we all see from the state US space program is in), competition, space race means progress. That's the way it goes with us, humans.
Sorry, but you missed my point. SETI@Home doesn't hurt manned space flight at all. But taking your analogy, I would at least want to know he's coming.
(Actually it was well within Inca's capabilities to defend against Cortez, but their religious beliefs caused them not to fight with Spaniards. They were not sure whether he is not one of their Gods.)
They said they would put "over 1 billion euros" on that. What about some prospective? ESA's budget for 2002 was around 2,8 bn euros. With this sort of money for last four years they were able to put together a mission to Mars - and that's about it. NASA's budget is around 15 bn Euros and it is barely enough to keep the Shuttle fleet flying and make around two scientific missions a year (look for example at the state US Mars exploration is in). And that is not all the money US spends on space - there is also DoD budget.
A single Ariane 5 launch costs around $150 M which is roughly $140 MEuros, so this is good for around ten launches. Proton and Soyuz are cheaper - $80M and $40M respectively. (a table of launch vehicles costs). But of course this money won't be spent directly on launches, you have to have something to launch first.
Europe's space program has been so far driven mostly by France and to some extent Britain. Others were just interested, but with no real substance. All projects of manned missions were dropped along the way (and there were a few - a small shuttle designed by French that was supposed to be Ariane's payload - I forgot the name, German SSTO Sanger plane and similar British project). As a result Europe has no experience in building manned spacecraft - unless they would get it from Russians. I'm afraid that 1 bn Euros won't be enough to put together a manned mission unless it would be just flying Russian spacecrafts with Europe's yellow stars logo painted on them.
If Europe would spend this money on building a GPS-like system, then 1 bn Euros is a significant amount, however again not enough to build the system - and keep it running (Russians build one to guide their warheads but couldn't afford to keep it up).
What is most likely however is that this money won't be spent on a single mission or project. As the article says this money would be "pumped into the sector to overhaul its manufacturing and marketing programmes". It means that it would be divided into many small donations to various projects just to keep the industry afloat. So it is nice, but is far from enough if Europe really wants to be a player in the Space Race.
And - BTW - Deutsche Telekom's loss for 2002 was "over" 24 billion euros.
I see this line used for various Location Based Services in the cellular world and so far I have only seen stupid or useless implementations.
For example finding nearest cinema is useless because I don't go to the movies based on what theatre is closest to me when the thought strikes. In my city I know where most of them are, in another city a street address is useless - even if the phone tells me it is nearby - because I don't know how to get there (I would have to ask somebody anyway).
Same applies to bars. One would have to be a really hard-pressed alcoholic to actually urgently need directions to the closest open bar. I do go to bars for a few drinks with friends but we tend to choose places we know.
And both are real examples of LBS applications that my GSM operator introduced with much hype (ads in TV, on billboards etc.).
I have seen a proposal by one system integrator for a system that would allow a subscriber to get information about location of other subscribers - for example members of family or employees. However, implementing a system that would allow husbands to spy on wives using cellphones raised serious legal doubts and the proposal was rejected.
I suspect that location based information is not useful to people as it is to authorities. Especially if coupled with logging and some statistical analysis.
Do you seriously think they do provide any guarantees?
In the corporate mentality (and government is the worst case of it) it is not important what is in the contract. What counts is the simple fact that there is an external entity (i.e. Microsoft) you can point finger on should something go wrong. As opposed to the situation, when there is no external entity, no contract and someone has to admit that it was they (or their subordinate) who screwed up something. Corporate mentality is about keeping safe within the structure with minimum effort - not about doing something.
I think that is one of the driving forces of outsourcing (apart from the issue of cost savings).
Excuse me, but what's interesting in this story? A guy, who happens to have some interesting ideas and likes to play with toys shifts his interests from games to (other forms of) entertainment. He came to know someone from a TV network and had an idea of a TV show. His friend from the network says "Cute, let's try it" and off they go.
It's nice to see people evolve, but it shouldn't be a sensation that someone doesn't want to develop/design/whatever computer games all his life. Not the kind of stories I expect /. to bring me.
After reading the post, the article and some of the discussion here (>3) I see that it concentrates on bad sides of deregulation.
Situation in Australia is similar to that in Europe, where in most countries telecoms were state owned and then recently privatized, but not split. As a result they are huge organizations that dominate their respective markets and keep the prices up. Situation in Eastern Europe is especially funny - for example calling US from some of those countries costs twice as much as calling them from the US. Everybody in Europe looks at the US' privatized telecommunications market with envy (stories about telephones being installed overnight etc.).
However, most comments in the discussion here are from people in the US that don't like results of their own deregulation and long for more government control.
If both regulation and deregulation are bad then what is the way out of this mess? Or maybe we are missing some points?
Maybe for example telco companies are quite good at what is their traditional, core business (basic voice services - not many complain about those in the US) but can't cope with completely different business of being Internet providers? I think the way net operates (on social level) and needs of net users are something not easily understood by someone with telco mindset. However, they try.
And everyone should dump ICQ/AIM/Messenger and start using WASTE.
Or maybe I didn't get the joke?
It is way cheaper to analyze radio data, especially in the way SETI@Home does it (using voluntary contributions of computing power and data being a side product of other observations) than to send even a single astronaut into low orbit. We should keep on sending people into space but projects like SETI@Home don't harm that effort any more than other astronomy research.
Bad luck then. This is - to some extent - a game of chance. But you have to play it to have any chance to win.
Looks like P2P networking to me (Person-To-Person of course). [Obvious RIAA reference deleted]