There are actually 3 different ways (at least) to do peer to peer with the Metricom radios.
1. Assuming you arn't using the Ricochet network at all and just have a pair of modems and a pair of computers then you can just treat the radios like a regular modem. I've got a pair of the older units and on the back there is a number like xxxx-yyyy. Set one of your systems up to answer calls and plug that number into your dialer you're done. One minor annoyance is that the standard Windows dialer (at least some versions) likes to strip out the "-" but there are plenty of ways to work around that.
2. Star Mode. So far as I know this is only supported under Linux and it basically turns 2 or more of these units into a lan. Look for the STRIP driver in the Linux kernel and have fun.
3. If you do have access to the Ricochet network I believe you can do #1 above through the network and thus get around the distance limitations. My understanding is that this ability was eliminated/changed in later models but I only have the older units and I'm nowhere near any official Ricochet nodes anyways.
As for the range, it depends entirely between what is in between the two nodes. In my particular neighborhood 1/2 mile was about the limit for normal use however if you have a clear view of the other node then you can go much farther.
--
Ray
Re:Linux advocacy: VR3 framework for the Desktop?
on
Agenda, Not Hidden
·
· Score: 1
"Why couldn't Linux developers either in Redhat or some other distro make things this simple for people who're interested in Linux for the home desktop segments?"
Some have been. There are at least a couple of Dedicated Internet Access devices (and Net PCs for the LAN) out there running Linux. Full blown PCs are different because the need to do a lot more.
"No one wants to tar -zxvf foo.tar.gz ; cd $foo;./configure ; make ; make install its too cumbersome and difficult for cluebies as opposed to something like MS' self installing executables."
That's a straw man, that is not necessary to install apps. on linux.
" Palmtops are used for things like tip calculators, unit conversion, to-do lists, notes, storing phone numbers, and the like."
If that were true noone would bother with Palm etc. since there are much less expensive devices that do those tasks just as well or better. The cool thing about the Palm and WinCE devices are the add-on apps.
"No one needs to port Apache to a palmtop. Telnetting? SSH? X Sessions?"
Maybe not but being able to use the exact same calendaring, address book, email, news reader, and even accounting (ie GNUCash) on both your desktop and PDA might have some appeal. Personally I'm looking forward to getting the HP48 emulator going on an Agenda. Since *nix apps. tend to seperate the GUI from the guts of the app. it should be easy to attach a new GUI for those apps. that require it.
If your Linux box craps out every day then something's wrong with your setup. I use both Freebsd & Linux on servers and IMHO both are nearly perfect in terms of stability.
"I'd be a little pissed if I bought software from a company that they claimed to write for my specific application and I found out they just used free code and called it theirs."
This is M$. If they actually had the good sense to some fast reliable BSD code in place of the crap they usually write then I'd consider that a plus.
In order to be a success the XBox will have to as powerful as medium to high end PC. It'll need to be upgradable (not by the end user) at least enough that the manufacturer can use faster processors and improved video on newer models or it will fall behind PCs. Sounds like it might make a nice Linux box:)
"Don't even think about mixing vendors on the same board"
Until very recently Samsung was the only one making any real quantities of RDRAM (for the PC market, Toshiba is producing for the PS2) so multivendor compatability hasn't really been tested.
Are you sure you're not thinking of the timing loop bug in Win95? Basically any K6-2 faster than 350Mhz will show instability in Win95 (but is fine in Win98 and 98SE). There is a patch for some versions of 95 but not all. The problem was that Windows uses a timing loop and the AMD processors just happen to execute that loop twice as fast as Intel CPUs. The same problem can be seen in Intel processors but it doesn't happen until you get to 700Mhz+ and by the time Intel came out with processors that fast MS had Win98 out.
As I said though none of this affects Win98 or Win98SE so I suspect your local shop may be a bit confused.
"An earlier poster mentioned some bad K5 CPU samples. I would go so far as to claim the entire K5 line with its
"PR" rating was a joke. The performance was poor and the failure rate high."
I sold quite a few K5-133 - K5-200 systems without any troubles. They did in fact benchmark just as fast as equivelant Pentium (non-MMX) processors of the day at least on the ZDNet benchmarks that were popular at the time.
"I wonder how
many other chips are in fact overclocked and consequently offer false advertising in the form of fraud?"
The last similar chip that I remember was the PIII-600 Katami. In order to get it up to 600 MHZ Intel specified a higher operating voltage and lower maximum operating temp.... exactly the same stratagies that overclockers typically use.
"I knew that modern hardware seemed more
unstable than it should be from it's past. Is this the reason?"
Most stability problems are software (especially driver) and peripheral related. It's fairly common for a cheap modem/scanner/printer to install a buggy driver or utility that causes an otherwise solid system to become unstable.
Back when Intel & AMD were only at around 600 or so MHZ you would have had a point but not anymore. G4 may be faster clock for clock but it's not even close to twice as fast. In addition, the hard drives and video cards that come with Macs are fairly low end by PC standards.
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There are actually 3 different ways (at least) to do peer to peer with the Metricom radios.
1. Assuming you arn't using the Ricochet network at all and just have a pair of modems and a pair of computers then you can just treat the radios like a regular modem. I've got a pair of the older units and on the back there is a number like xxxx-yyyy. Set one of your systems up to answer calls and plug that number into your dialer you're done. One minor annoyance is that the standard Windows dialer (at least some versions) likes to strip out the "-" but there are plenty of ways to work around that.
2. Star Mode. So far as I know this is only supported under Linux and it basically turns 2 or more of these units into a lan. Look for the STRIP driver in the Linux kernel and have fun.
3. If you do have access to the Ricochet network I believe you can do #1 above through the network and thus get around the distance limitations. My understanding is that this ability was eliminated/changed in later models but I only have the older units and I'm nowhere near any official Ricochet nodes anyways.
As for the range, it depends entirely between what is in between the two nodes. In my particular neighborhood 1/2 mile was about the limit for normal use however if you have a clear view of the other node then you can go much farther.
--
Ray
"Why couldn't Linux developers either in Redhat or some other distro make things this simple for people who're interested in Linux for the home desktop segments?"
;./configure ; make ; make install its too cumbersome and difficult for cluebies as opposed to something like MS' self installing executables."
Some have been. There are at least a couple of Dedicated Internet Access devices (and Net PCs for the LAN) out there running Linux. Full blown PCs are different because the need to do a lot more.
"No one wants to tar -zxvf foo.tar.gz ; cd $foo
That's a straw man, that is not necessary to install apps. on linux.
" Palmtops are used for things like tip calculators, unit conversion, to-do lists, notes, storing phone numbers, and the like."
If that were true noone would bother with Palm etc. since there are much less expensive devices that do those tasks just as well or better. The cool thing about the Palm and WinCE devices are the add-on apps.
"No one needs to port Apache to a palmtop. Telnetting? SSH? X Sessions?"
Maybe not but being able to use the exact same calendaring, address book, email, news reader, and even accounting (ie GNUCash) on both your desktop and PDA might have some appeal. Personally I'm looking forward to getting the HP48 emulator going on an Agenda. Since *nix apps. tend to seperate the GUI from the guts of the app. it should be easy to attach a new GUI for those apps. that require it.
What exactly do you think is wrong with the Agenda's UI? Admitadly the apps. need some work but for the most part it looks and acts like a Palm.
"*I* pay money to send MY data across the wires to SOMEONE ELSE'S SYSTEM (with who knows what type of security model). !?!?!?! "
:)
Just wait until MS contracts with Juno to do it's back end processing
If your Linux box craps out every day then something's wrong with your setup. I use both Freebsd & Linux on servers and IMHO both are nearly perfect in terms of stability.
" would LOVE to pay even a dollar extra per CD-R or a couple of bucks on my ISP connection, assuming that the money went to the ARTISTs THEMSELVES"
So send them a friggin check.
"I'd be a little pissed if I bought software from a company that they claimed to write for my specific application and I found out they just used free code and called it theirs."
This is M$. If they actually had the good sense to some fast reliable BSD code in place of the crap they usually write then I'd consider that a plus.
Normal (ie Radio Shack) stuff is (I think) around .70 W/m K. I've seen some more expensive thermal paste that claims 4-5 W/m K.
Subject says it all :)
I take it someone else pays your dorm fees?
And that's different from most existing closed source software how?
In order to be a success the XBox will have to as powerful as medium to high end PC. It'll need to be upgradable (not by the end user) at least enough that the manufacturer can use faster processors and improved video on newer models or it will fall behind PCs. Sounds like it might make a nice Linux box :)
So OS is going to be on a writable partition and any game will be able to replace bits and pieces of it at will? Can you say DLL HELL!
"Don't even think about mixing vendors on the same board"
Until very recently Samsung was the only one making any real quantities of RDRAM (for the PC market, Toshiba is producing for the PS2) so multivendor compatability hasn't really been tested.
And then get sued by the "other" Ed's for trademark infringment.
"Reminds me way too much of the ploys that AMD once employed in trying to be the first ones out."
What are you talking about? The K5 was late (really late actually) to market and certainly wasn't first at anything.
"We still have a batch of K5s that have the tendency to die at least once every 15 minutes in NT."
And you know the processor is at fault because?
Are you sure you're not thinking of the timing loop bug in Win95? Basically any K6-2 faster than 350Mhz will show instability in Win95 (but is fine in Win98 and 98SE). There is a patch for some versions of 95 but not all. The problem was that Windows uses a timing loop and the AMD processors just happen to execute that loop twice as fast as Intel CPUs. The same problem can be seen in Intel processors but it doesn't happen until you get to 700Mhz+ and by the time Intel came out with processors that fast MS had Win98 out.
As I said though none of this affects Win98 or Win98SE so I suspect your local shop may be a bit confused.
"An earlier poster mentioned some bad K5 CPU samples. I would go so far as to claim the entire K5 line with its
"PR" rating was a joke. The performance was poor and the failure rate high."
I sold quite a few K5-133 - K5-200 systems without any troubles. They did in fact benchmark just as fast as equivelant Pentium (non-MMX) processors of the day at least on the ZDNet benchmarks that were popular at the time.
"I wonder how
many other chips are in fact overclocked and consequently offer false advertising in the form of fraud?"
The last similar chip that I remember was the PIII-600 Katami. In order to get it up to 600 MHZ Intel specified a higher operating voltage and lower maximum operating temp.... exactly the same stratagies that overclockers typically use.
"I knew that modern hardware seemed more
unstable than it should be from it's past. Is this the reason?"
Most stability problems are software (especially driver) and peripheral related. It's fairly common for a cheap modem/scanner/printer to install a buggy driver or utility that causes an otherwise solid system to become unstable.
Back when Intel & AMD were only at around 600 or so MHZ you would have had a point but not anymore. G4 may be faster clock for clock but it's not even close to twice as fast. In addition, the hard drives and video cards that come with Macs are fairly low end by PC standards.
And in addition, Toshiba makes very little SDRAM and currently no DDR-SDRAM so agreeing to pay royalties on those two really doesn't affect them.
"What "bad choices"? So I -HAVE- to buy from a large, well-known company? Most computer retailers list
their components in detail. "
Since when?
"If I buy a P3 that's really a falsely marked P2, how is that a "bad choice"? "
That's called fraud and it's already illegal.
Of course information is much easier to come by and diseminate now then back in 1906.
Of course using DeCSS as part of the process of playing a movie that was sold and purchased for that purpose might not amount to "circumventing".