They are handing it out these Actiontec routers with fiber optic service. It has a coaxial port which is WAN/LAN port (different frequencies for each), WAN ethernet port, and a few LAN ethernet ports. The coaxial LAN and cat5 LAN are bridged.
The TV set top boxes get IP addresses on the LAN via their coaxial connections. So these Verizon controlled boxes actually sit on my LAN in the same subnet as my PCs. They start at 192.168.1.100 while the PCs start at 192.168.1.2. Well I pinged then port scanned these Motorola set top boxes, and at least the HDTV DVR model of the box had it's VxWorks debug port left open. Interesting...
With the right tools I could imagine full access to the drive and the running software. So what does it take to work with this VxWorks debug port?
Some people may want to copy recordings out or enable the USB/Firewire to allow more than the 80GB internal storage included, but I am more curious if this untrusted box is doing anything I don't want on my home network. Few have the special equipment to tap these MOCA (multi-media over coax) wires between the router and the STBs, so this debug port might be a good way to check.
Facebook apps will make Facebook accounts the one login to rule them all. Something Microsoft failed to do with Passport.
I am writing a Facebook app and am surprised by how willing people are to give up their personal info and social network, to send somebody a virtual "gift". They remind me of those cutesy forwards, on steroids, except you can't participate in them unless you add the sending application to your account and give away your data. Every time I think about it, I picture a bunch of lemmings walking off a cliff. Am I overreacting? After all, the apps are just a tool. I don't respond to every spam message a I get, and I tend to ignore forwards.
Here is something I got when I logged in today -
"Marty Mcfly would like to play Texas Holdem Poker with you. If you join, Marty will receive 500 chips. Help out a friend and install Texas Holdem Poker."
Well if I don't join, Marty won't get his 500 chips. Also, not to mention Marty might feel snubbed if I don't want to play poker with him. Decisions, decisions.
The hardcore would question the validity of copyright entirely. If there were no copyright and patent laws, GPL wouldn't be so necessary as code would be leaked/distributed/re-used all the time, open source or not. Though would people make less innovative software if this happend? Or would all the code-reuse allow for innovation to flourish as it made more permutations of existing software technologies possible?
Obviously, the Durabook didnt survive some of the abuse Twinhead initially claimed it should, but lets look at this in real-world terms.
If you find yourself accidentally dropping your laptop 26 times from a height of nearly three feet, you should probably see a doctor. Most of us have probably sent our laptops tumbling only once or twice. Our first Durabook survived three very gnarly drops before something broke off completely (an easily replaceable optical drive faceplate), and at least 10 drops before we started to get some significant hardware failure. It took around 20 drops for the hard drive to fail. Thats some fairly serious protection, especially since the data on that hard drive is often worth more than the laptop itself.
The second unit was more of the same. Although we saw some minor damage within the first 6 drops on both units, all of the essential hardware, including the LCD and hard drive, was still fully functional and the machines had no problem booting. This is a huge testament to the security a form factor like this can give the consumer.
----------------------
So as far as hardened notebooks go, it fairs decently, but marketing's original claims were clearly out of whack with reality.
One recipe this book doesn't cover
on
Rails Recipes
·
· Score: 1
A couple months ago I needed to search for a list of members that fit into all categories checked by users on a web form. Rails recipes was one of several books that I looked to for a pre-packaged solution, but none seemed to cover complex has_and_belongs_to_many queries where multiple criteria must be met. Ultimately I had to use custom SQL, but being not all the familiar with rails/activerecord I wonder if there is a better way.
The SQL statement was generated by iterating over the categories checkboxes from the web form and generating sql fragments for each checked box. Here is what one looked like -
select * from members, categories_members as cm1, categories_members as cm2 where cm1.category_id=3 and cm2.category_id=7;
I'm sure a lot of research is being done in this area, in fact there is lots of interest implement this sort of thing in DSP for robot vision. How much of what this patent covers overlaps with what the others are working on? Is this something completely out from left field or does it fit the trend of where this area research was headed anyway?
Go read broadbandreports.com in the VOIP provider forums, there are a disproportionate number of people who complain about calls breaking up and dropping under comcast, no matter which VOIP provider. After researching for a few hours to pick a VOIP provider for my house, I began to see this pattern and just began to filter out bad reviews from people who had comcast for their ISP. Unfortunately reviewers of VOIP providers don't have to mention which ISP they use, though.
Some people on the site even claimed that the packet loss was there only for VOIP packets, which led them to suspect foul play beyond just the "best effort" routing failing to work.
Made me glad there is no comcast in my area, I already have enough gripes with optimum online capping me at 15k/sec up speed - out of necessity I had assumed - but then offering uncapped service for an extra $10 a month ($60 total w/o cable tv). Now that Verizon FiOS is here for a promotion $30 a month for 30mbit/2mbit, I'm tempted to switch but I don't like them either, because their planning to nickel and dime us just like comcast. Increased costs mean risk, and will result in fewer new ideas being tried and developed, so this is a threat to innovation itself.
We need net neutrality, or something like it. Each area has only one cable and one local telco, and I don't see how we can get more common carriers in here to spur competition. I feel they should be able to prioritize packets, but that perhaps it should be illegal for them to accept money for prioritization, to encourage them to work in the interest of their customers, who are the taxpayers that gave them common carrier status to provide for them in the first place!
People who argue against net neutrality because they feel government regulation is ultimately bad for development do to not realize that internet access has to exist in a free market for that development to happen. Most places I've been have 1 local telco and 1 cable provider, both of whom will soon be competing to offer the same thing, data service.
Both will also be glad to keep a status quo of nickle and diming for new services, ultimately limiting innovation and increasing their profits massively. One just needs a small taste of experience with Verizon or Comcast to realize this, among other offenders. $2 ringtones, $5 caller id, and giant packages of television channels that must be bought wholesale, or not at all, are just some examples. It is sort of like when you go to CompUSA and buy a printer - they make more on the $20-$30 cable "accessory" than the printer itself. Except in the case of common carriers you can't go shop somewhere cheaper, the options are limited by necessity. If they are charging $X for service Y but it costs only $X/10 to provide that service, why would they possibly lower the price barring any real competition? I don't think 2 competitors counts as a real compeition, especially since the stakes can get pretty high. Not just anyone can go put up their own telephone poles, space is too limited to allow that.
Common carriers will just smile and tell you that such "value added" services justify the cost, even when they are not adding much if any value at all. Just look around on broadbandreports.com, and you'll see plenty of reports that Comcast already manages to "lose" packets from competing VOIP providers, and I imagine it isn't going to get better with the lack of ability for others to enter and compete in this market.
If the number of competitors per market were to increase to say, 5, I think I'd be more comfortable tossing aside net neutrality. Perhaps there needs to be some sort of auction where 5 companies bid to for the ability to become common carriers, and then share the costs of bundling 5 fiber lines along each pole, that they would control individually for the next, say, 15-20 years. Bidding could re-open at the end of the term, making way for infrastructure upgrades. I don't work in the telco industry so I'm not sure how feasible this would be, but something needs to be done.
The Israeli military may just need propoganda to account for what's been widely considered a poor showing by it's forces in this "war" - especially considering the legendary status of Israeli military and intelligence. The citizens are not happy and are grumbling, they actually pay attention to what's going on in a conflict, unlike in the U.S, so this just might be to soothe them.
It's hard to trust what either side is saying when so much is at stake. The Hezbollah official who was showing off about their capability probably realizes Israel has the resources to make a far more secure and foolproof communications system, but he cannot pass up the chance to offer encouragement against a very tough enemy.
Hezbollah would like everyone to think about the advancing nature of Hezbollah technology and tactics, while Israeli leaders would like everyone to think of it is as a major fluke, which will be promptly patched up by "next time". The truth of what will probably happen next time is anybody's guess, but I'd rather trust what a military expert has to say than these guys or just any old reporter.
Even for those with a fast cable connection, what is the share ratio on a typical p2p download? I practically never exceed a ratio of 10 and I get around 1 megabit for upload speeds, which is probably more than most cable/dsl customers.
Now if someone is downloading pop music the ratio achieved will typically always be much, much lower, because well, it's popular stuff and therefore prone to having an assload of seeders. These copyright laws were originally aimed at bulk pirates turning a large profit, like the guy selling CDs on Canal St. in NYC Chinatown.
One has to consider what the retail value is of the goods a typical person on the receiving end of an RIAA lawsuit has distributed/shared? At $1 per song it might amount to $10, but more likely half that or less. A greater than 10 share ratio pretty unrealistic in 99% of cases.
What this really is, is cruel and unusual punishment being used to set an example of some poor schmucks to enrich a few people who were already rich enough to manipulate the leviathan to tap the rest of our's hard earned money in the first place. It's true we are not forced to buy their music, but the punishment just doesn't fit the crime.
All this is aside from the fact that the relevance of copyright, which was supposed to encourage access to works, is undergoing challenges in the information age. When copyright was formed nobody claimed the incentive to create works would be greatly diminished without it, just that fewer works would be hoarded by a select few. Well, it's become a lot harder to hoard information and congress needs to wake up and realize it is time for a policy change.
How I see it is that Software Defined Radio and DSP chips will help speed along "convergence". Think of it as "plug and play" (self-negotiating radio interfaces) and Web 2.0 (XML common format metadata exchange/messaging) for physically independent devices.
With all the privacy concerns surrounding RFID, it would be nice to have an RFID scanner that covers more than the dinky 125Khz-ish range that you see used in most hobby kits for home automation. Some kits support 13.56Mhz too, which is what I hear the new passports will use, but there doesn't seem to be much hardware available for the 800-1000Mhz range. Also, what is available isn't as programmable as GNU Radio, which is important for working with RFID tags that use less common or proprietary signalling standards.
The 800-1000Mhz Ultra High Frequency range is important because such tags are currently being used in vehicle tires (@ 915Mhz) and toll booth tags (like ez-pass), and it would be interesting in finding out just what else. They can be read from a distance of a few meters at even 150+ mph speeds.
It's funny this \. article came out today because I was just researching GNU Radio + USRP for this purpose and see that a new transciever daughterboard will be coming out that supports the RFID UHF range. I can't afford it, but hope someone will write the necessary signal processing routines to use RFID with this daughterboard and report back what they find and where.
It'd be nice to have a a program for the wrt54g that scans for new access points regularly, reporting them if they route through the company LAN. Even better would be the ability to automatically gather packets and crack WEP for the route testing part.
I was thinking in terms of read only, there are many sensors that can be checked and parameters that change as equipment ages, and these are often only readable by dealer equipment. Access to diagnostic modes to isolate problem components would be nice too, many cars have this but again, it is locked out except for dealers with the right equipment. A limited write mode to change parameters without leaving EPA bounds or risking damage would be nice too, but I wouldn't expect it. People do "chip" their cars Volkswagens and Audis I've noticed, so it wouldn't be unprecedented.
Also sensor data recorded over time, just like hard drive SMART data can also be used to identify problems as numbers gradually drift over time. What would the day to day application be though? That would be up to the tweakers, but I could think of situations where a custom auxillary computer could use this data - like wheel slip in a low torque situation (notify driver of slipery road), adjusting audio volume for speed, cranking the engine till ~500 rpm is hit (remote/auto start), flashing my LED covered bluetooth enabled hubcaps while changing lanes. I'm sure applications would pop up and neato factor would help sell the car.
The Toyota Corolla was RWD until I think 1986. It's axle housing and transmission were light enough to pick up and move around oneself. It does add weight and reduce cabin space, but a solution is workable.
Civics get around 40mpg highway, which really isn't all that bad. If people just dropped their SUV's for smaller cars, that would go a very long way in reducing carbon output. Being in my 20s, I want something fun and semi-sporty to drive but practical in terms of initial cost, maintainence, and gas mileage. I don't really trust hybrid technology to be as reliable and inexpensive to maintain as simpler models over the long term. I think many of those in my age group and budget range (~$16,000 new) have similar requirements and while there are some cars that mostly fit the bill, what I'd really like is something that fits these critera and is RWD.
I currently drive a Civic, which is nice, but it's not RWD. Why look for RWD? RWD kind of has gotten bad rap over the years, because it can oversteer in wet/icy conditions, or when gassed too hard - the steering becomes so sensitive that the rear end of the car can slip towards the outside of the turning circle. When done in a controlled manner, this can a lot of fun, the rear end of the car literally steers around you, and you feel the car pivoting around from behind. Steering FWD is boring in comparison, the rear end always follows the front end, up by the hood. Now oversteer does not mean that RWD cars handle poorly, just that they become acutely sensitive to steering when on slippery roads or when gassed hard. A good driver understands that he can use this to his advantage, as the same overly sensitive steering that can throw the car off path can be used to correct it.
Search for oversteer or drift and you will find lots more.
Modern tech could also make such a car more practical. On cars equipped with ABS, which is most models these days, stability control can be added to selectively enable/disable oversteer prevention at the push of a button. Software within the car's computer detects oversteer and cuts engine spark/power and/or hits the brakes on individual wheels (using the ABS hardware) to largely cut out out oversteer. Car review magazines refer to stability control as the "nanny," for good reason. This sort of tech would help make a compact RWD car attractive to a wider range of buyers, who might not want to be so conscientious of their driving all the time, but want to have some fun once in a while.
Another thing that could widen the appeal of such a car would be to make it tweakable, say through adding a USB engine computer interface, or offering an MP3 capable stereo option that has USB inputs for external drives and takes customizable firmware. While this would most definitely appeal to the \. crowd, I think over time the appeal could carry over to a wider audience, as youth today are much more tech saavy and a lot of customizations could be made by third parties. Neither of these options would cost a ton, and could translate into some serious sales.
I hope Honda will eventually make such a car, perhaps in the same class as it's new budget Fit model, but that doesn't seem likely. If anyone takes the leap I think it will be Nissan, they have been doing more unconvential designs lately, being the underdog. They still don't match the quality of the big two Japanese auto makers, but I would serisouly consider it if such a model arrived.
Scratch that, I need to learn to read the article first. I had been waiting for a relevant \. article to ask this question. Still it is strange that the page dissapeared.
I read in some articles that according to papers filed with the court, they are using a piece of equipment called the Narus STA 6400. I googled for this model and the first result is the following -
NARUS Delivers Industry's Most Scalable Internet Business... Fully configured, the Model 6400 captures application-layer usage details via NARUS Semantic Traffic Analysis (STA) on up to six full-duplex 100 BaseT... www.findwealth.com/narus-delivers-industrys-most-s calable-160875pr.html - 27k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages
This page has dissapeared from the server and it can't be found in google cache. Does anyone know much about this model? What sort of processing power is behind it and what are it's capabilities? It looks to have the ability to sniff through 600 mbps each up and downstream from the snippet above, but little else is known.
Also, only this first google result seems to have relevant info on this device. If anyone here has more info, please post. A lot of us are curious, especially considering that the administration has been saying they only sniffed suspicious communications.
"What Rudduck developed are fasteners analogous to locks in doors, only in this case messages are sent electronically to engage the parts to lock or unlock. A quick electrical charge triggered remotely by a device or computer may move the part to lock, while another jolt disengages the unit.
Instead of nuts and bolts to hold two things together, these fasteners use hooks, latches and so-called smart materials that can change shape on command."
This sounds like nothing more than radio controlled solenoids, similar to what we see in remotely controlled apartment building entrance doors and in automobile power locks. A solenoid is just a coil that is electro-magnetized on demand to push or pull a metal bar through it's center. This bar usually moves something attached to it or touches a contact to close a high current circuit loop, like in a car starter motor. My guess is that the solenoid in a "smart fastener" would push open a latch or release some hooks.
So why all the talk about "smart materials", "intelligent bolts", and materials that "change shape on demand"? It sounds like a bunch of pie in the sky market speak to me, not unlike what is heard in articles written by corporate PR agencys. Such articles are often given to lazy, disinterested journalists as neat & easy pre-packaged stories.
This story has no substance - buzzwords are rampant and technical detail is non-existant. Yet the slashdot editors are proudly proclaiming they broke the story 2 years ago. Even worst, the story is being pitched as using exotic technology that allows self-threading bolts of some kind. The same false pitch was used last time as well. I bet this sort of "mistake" generates lots of $$$^H^H^H click thoughs though.
I got into the beta program but my registrar, Directnic, doesn't host DNS MX records for me. The MX records of course need to point to Google's servers, but right now they point to Directnic's servers, because I use a forwarding service they provide. This service allows filter based forwarding that is far more cumbersome for them than allowing users to set MX records themselves, so I don't see why the option isn't there.
Does anyone know a cheap registrar that will host DNS and let users set their own MX records? I'd rather not have to pay for and keep track of a separate DNS service.
Still, I think it's a good thing, although killing DRM is not the way. Opening it is. I mean, if you open it up, by publicating specifications, the others can use it too. Like Real did with Rhapsody.
Open standards are good, but government mandated open standards? This is short sighted, the government should have no business protecting proprietary formats or enforcing open formats. If people want to tolerate proprietary formats, that is their business. No one is forcing them in this case, as Apple has not abused their dominant position to hurt competitors, open or not. I'm no Apple fanboy, but they earned their market position fair and square, and don't deserve this kind of meddling.
On the other hand it is not fair that Apple has overreaching government protection for their proprietary format, but the government has only themselves to blame for creating that racket.
This sort of protection, where DRM is protected from reverse engineering while simultaneously requiring DRM to be open only serves to do two things in the long run -
A) Corrupt government by catering to monied interests
B) Shoehorn markets and technology onto an unsustainable path by creating government interdependence
So let me get this straight. They want to dissallow breaking DRM via DMCA like measures, but force companies to open up their DRM for anyone to use. It seems like some sort of bad compromise is being attemped between having DMCA like measures and making sure there is healthy competition.
The real question is why have DMCA like measures in the first place? They don't stop content from being pirated anyhow, and just assist the industry in nickel and diming us.
This sounds like a government solution to a government created problem, as Apple hasn't done anything to my knowledge to abuse their position. If the government is protecting DRM from being reverse engineered, they are the ones screwing up fair use and turning the market lopsided, and Apple is perfectly within their rights under the law.
Slashdot Mirror
They are handing it out these Actiontec routers with fiber optic service. It has a coaxial port which is WAN/LAN port (different frequencies for each), WAN ethernet port, and a few LAN ethernet ports. The coaxial LAN and cat5 LAN are bridged.
The TV set top boxes get IP addresses on the LAN via their coaxial connections. So these Verizon controlled boxes actually sit on my LAN in the same subnet as my PCs. They start at 192.168.1.100 while the PCs start at 192.168.1.2. Well I pinged then port scanned these Motorola set top boxes, and at least the HDTV DVR model of the box had it's VxWorks debug port left open. Interesting...
With the right tools I could imagine full access to the drive and the running software. So what does it take to work with this VxWorks debug port?
Some people may want to copy recordings out or enable the USB/Firewire to allow more than the 80GB internal storage included, but I am more curious if this untrusted box is doing anything I don't want on my home network. Few have the special equipment to tap these MOCA (multi-media over coax) wires between the router and the STBs, so this debug port might be a good way to check.
Facebook apps will make Facebook accounts the one login to rule them all. Something Microsoft failed to do with Passport.
I am writing a Facebook app and am surprised by how willing people are to give up their personal info and social network, to send somebody a virtual "gift". They remind me of those cutesy forwards, on steroids, except you can't participate in them unless you add the sending application to your account and give away your data. Every time I think about it, I picture a bunch of lemmings walking off a cliff. Am I overreacting? After all, the apps are just a tool. I don't respond to every spam message a I get, and I tend to ignore forwards.
Here is something I got when I logged in today -
"Marty Mcfly would like to play Texas Holdem Poker with you. If you join, Marty will receive 500 chips. Help out a friend and install Texas Holdem Poker."
Well if I don't join, Marty won't get his 500 chips. Also, not to mention Marty might feel snubbed if I don't want to play poker with him. Decisions, decisions.
The hardcore would question the validity of copyright entirely. If there were no copyright and patent laws, GPL wouldn't be so necessary as code would be leaked/distributed/re-used all the time, open source or not. Though would people make less innovative software if this happend? Or would all the code-reuse allow for innovation to flourish as it made more permutations of existing software technologies possible?
Did this really happen? Or is this some submitter's idea of a joke?
Summary
Obviously, the Durabook didnt survive some of the abuse Twinhead initially claimed it should, but lets look at this in real-world terms.
If you find yourself accidentally dropping your laptop 26 times from a height of nearly three feet, you should probably see a doctor. Most of us have probably sent our laptops tumbling only once or twice. Our first Durabook survived three very gnarly drops before something broke off completely (an easily replaceable optical drive faceplate), and at least 10 drops before we started to get some significant hardware failure. It took around 20 drops for the hard drive to fail. Thats some fairly serious protection, especially since the data on that hard drive is often worth more than the laptop itself.
The second unit was more of the same. Although we saw some minor damage within the first 6 drops on both units, all of the essential hardware, including the LCD and hard drive, was still fully functional and the machines had no problem booting. This is a huge testament to the security a form factor like this can give the consumer.
----------------------
So as far as hardened notebooks go, it fairs decently, but marketing's original claims were clearly out of whack with reality.
A couple months ago I needed to search for a list of members that fit into all categories checked by users on a web form. Rails recipes was one of several books that I looked to for a pre-packaged solution, but none seemed to cover complex has_and_belongs_to_many queries where multiple criteria must be met. Ultimately I had to use custom SQL, but being not all the familiar with rails/activerecord I wonder if there is a better way.
The SQL statement was generated by iterating over the categories checkboxes from the web form and generating sql fragments for each checked box. Here is what one looked like -
select * from members, categories_members as cm1, categories_members as cm2 where cm1.category_id=3 and cm2.category_id=7;
Anyone got a better/cleaner solution?
I'm sure a lot of research is being done in this area, in fact there is lots of interest implement this sort of thing in DSP for robot vision. How much of what this patent covers overlaps with what the others are working on? Is this something completely out from left field or does it fit the trend of where this area research was headed anyway?
Go read broadbandreports.com in the VOIP provider forums, there are a disproportionate number of people who complain about calls breaking up and dropping under comcast, no matter which VOIP provider. After researching for a few hours to pick a VOIP provider for my house, I began to see this pattern and just began to filter out bad reviews from people who had comcast for their ISP. Unfortunately reviewers of VOIP providers don't have to mention which ISP they use, though.
Some people on the site even claimed that the packet loss was there only for VOIP packets, which led them to suspect foul play beyond just the "best effort" routing failing to work.
Made me glad there is no comcast in my area, I already have enough gripes with optimum online capping me at 15k/sec up speed - out of necessity I had assumed - but then offering uncapped service for an extra $10 a month ($60 total w/o cable tv). Now that Verizon FiOS is here for a promotion $30 a month for 30mbit/2mbit, I'm tempted to switch but I don't like them either, because their planning to nickel and dime us just like comcast. Increased costs mean risk, and will result in fewer new ideas being tried and developed, so this is a threat to innovation itself.
We need net neutrality, or something like it. Each area has only one cable and one local telco, and I don't see how we can get more common carriers in here to spur competition. I feel they should be able to prioritize packets, but that perhaps it should be illegal for them to accept money for prioritization, to encourage them to work in the interest of their customers, who are the taxpayers that gave them common carrier status to provide for them in the first place!
..repeat after me..
People who argue against net neutrality because they feel government regulation is ultimately bad for development do to not realize that internet access has to exist in a free market for that development to happen. Most places I've been have 1 local telco and 1 cable provider, both of whom will soon be competing to offer the same thing, data service.
Both will also be glad to keep a status quo of nickle and diming for new services, ultimately limiting innovation and increasing their profits massively. One just needs a small taste of experience with Verizon or Comcast to realize this, among other offenders. $2 ringtones, $5 caller id, and giant packages of television channels that must be bought wholesale, or not at all, are just some examples. It is sort of like when you go to CompUSA and buy a printer - they make more on the $20-$30 cable "accessory" than the printer itself. Except in the case of common carriers you can't go shop somewhere cheaper, the options are limited by necessity. If they are charging $X for service Y but it costs only $X/10 to provide that service, why would they possibly lower the price barring any real competition? I don't think 2 competitors counts as a real compeition, especially since the stakes can get pretty high. Not just anyone can go put up their own telephone poles, space is too limited to allow that.
Common carriers will just smile and tell you that such "value added" services justify the cost, even when they are not adding much if any value at all. Just look around on broadbandreports.com, and you'll see plenty of reports that Comcast already manages to "lose" packets from competing VOIP providers, and I imagine it isn't going to get better with the lack of ability for others to enter and compete in this market.
If the number of competitors per market were to increase to say, 5, I think I'd be more comfortable tossing aside net neutrality. Perhaps there needs to be some sort of auction where 5 companies bid to for the ability to become common carriers, and then share the costs of bundling 5 fiber lines along each pole, that they would control individually for the next, say, 15-20 years. Bidding could re-open at the end of the term, making way for infrastructure upgrades. I don't work in the telco industry so I'm not sure how feasible this would be, but something needs to be done.
The Israeli military may just need propoganda to account for what's been widely considered a poor showing by it's forces in this "war" - especially considering the legendary status of Israeli military and intelligence. The citizens are not happy and are grumbling, they actually pay attention to what's going on in a conflict, unlike in the U.S, so this just might be to soothe them.
It's hard to trust what either side is saying when so much is at stake. The Hezbollah official who was showing off about their capability probably realizes Israel has the resources to make a far more secure and foolproof communications system, but he cannot pass up the chance to offer encouragement against a very tough enemy.
Hezbollah would like everyone to think about the advancing nature of Hezbollah technology and tactics, while Israeli leaders would like everyone to think of it is as a major fluke, which will be promptly patched up by "next time". The truth of what will probably happen next time is anybody's guess, but I'd rather trust what a military expert has to say than these guys or just any old reporter.
Even for those with a fast cable connection, what is the share ratio on a typical p2p download? I practically never exceed a ratio of 10 and I get around 1 megabit for upload speeds, which is probably more than most cable/dsl customers.
Now if someone is downloading pop music the ratio achieved will typically always be much, much lower, because well, it's popular stuff and therefore prone to having an assload of seeders. These copyright laws were originally aimed at bulk pirates turning a large profit, like the guy selling CDs on Canal St. in NYC Chinatown.
One has to consider what the retail value is of the goods a typical person on the receiving end of an RIAA lawsuit has distributed/shared? At $1 per song it might amount to $10, but more likely half that or less. A greater than 10 share ratio pretty unrealistic in 99% of cases.
What this really is, is cruel and unusual punishment being used to set an example of some poor schmucks to enrich a few people who were already rich enough to manipulate the leviathan to tap the rest of our's hard earned money in the first place. It's true we are not forced to buy their music, but the punishment just doesn't fit the crime.
All this is aside from the fact that the relevance of copyright, which was supposed to encourage access to works, is undergoing challenges in the information age. When copyright was formed nobody claimed the incentive to create works would be greatly diminished without it, just that fewer works would be hoarded by a select few. Well, it's become a lot harder to hoard information and congress needs to wake up and realize it is time for a policy change.
What's the definition of mental adulthood?
How I see it is that Software Defined Radio and DSP chips will help speed along "convergence". Think of it as "plug and play" (self-negotiating radio interfaces) and Web 2.0 (XML common format metadata exchange/messaging) for physically independent devices.
With all the privacy concerns surrounding RFID, it would be nice to have an RFID scanner that covers more than the dinky 125Khz-ish range that you see used in most hobby kits for home automation. Some kits support 13.56Mhz too, which is what I hear the new passports will use, but there doesn't seem to be much hardware available for the 800-1000Mhz range. Also, what is available isn't as programmable as GNU Radio, which is important for working with RFID tags that use less common or proprietary signalling standards.
p heral
The 800-1000Mhz Ultra High Frequency range is important because such tags are currently being used in vehicle tires (@ 915Mhz) and toll booth tags (like ez-pass), and it would be interesting in finding out just what else. They can be read from a distance of a few meters at even 150+ mph speeds.
It's funny this \. article came out today because I was just researching GNU Radio + USRP for this purpose and see that a new transciever daughterboard will be coming out that supports the RFID UHF range. I can't afford it, but hope someone will write the necessary signal processing routines to use RFID with this daughterboard and report back what they find and where.
The link below announces an upcoming 800-1000Mhz transciever daughterboard for the USRP -
http://comsec.com/wiki?UniversalSoftwareRadioPeri
Also if someone knows a cheaper than ~$700 way to pull off reading UHF RFID tags, speak up.
It'd be nice to have a a program for the wrt54g that scans for new access points regularly, reporting them if they route through the company LAN. Even better would be the ability to automatically gather packets and crack WEP for the route testing part.
I was thinking in terms of read only, there are many sensors that can be checked and parameters that change as equipment ages, and these are often only readable by dealer equipment. Access to diagnostic modes to isolate problem components would be nice too, many cars have this but again, it is locked out except for dealers with the right equipment. A limited write mode to change parameters without leaving EPA bounds or risking damage would be nice too, but I wouldn't expect it. People do "chip" their cars Volkswagens and Audis I've noticed, so it wouldn't be unprecedented.
Also sensor data recorded over time, just like hard drive SMART data can also be used to identify problems as numbers gradually drift over time. What would the day to day application be though? That would be up to the tweakers, but I could think of situations where a custom auxillary computer could use this data - like wheel slip in a low torque situation (notify driver of slipery road), adjusting audio volume for speed, cranking the engine till ~500 rpm is hit (remote/auto start), flashing my LED covered bluetooth enabled hubcaps while changing lanes. I'm sure applications would pop up and neato factor would help sell the car.
The Toyota Corolla was RWD until I think 1986. It's axle housing and transmission were light enough to pick up and move around oneself. It does add weight and reduce cabin space, but a solution is workable.
Civics get around 40mpg highway, which really isn't all that bad. If people just dropped their SUV's for smaller cars, that would go a very long way in reducing carbon output. Being in my 20s, I want something fun and semi-sporty to drive but practical in terms of initial cost, maintainence, and gas mileage. I don't really trust hybrid technology to be as reliable and inexpensive to maintain as simpler models over the long term. I think many of those in my age group and budget range (~$16,000 new) have similar requirements and while there are some cars that mostly fit the bill, what I'd really like is something that fits these critera and is RWD.
8 7883460710&q=oversteer&pl=true
I currently drive a Civic, which is nice, but it's not RWD. Why look for RWD? RWD kind of has gotten bad rap over the years, because it can oversteer in wet/icy conditions, or when gassed too hard - the steering becomes so sensitive that the rear end of the car can slip towards the outside of the turning circle. When done in a controlled manner, this can a lot of fun, the rear end of the car literally steers around you, and you feel the car pivoting around from behind. Steering FWD is boring in comparison, the rear end always follows the front end, up by the hood. Now oversteer does not mean that RWD cars handle poorly, just that they become acutely sensitive to steering when on slippery roads or when gassed hard. A good driver understands that he can use this to his advantage, as the same overly sensitive steering that can throw the car off path can be used to correct it.
Here is a google video demonstrating oversteer -
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-25708751
Search for oversteer or drift and you will find lots more.
Modern tech could also make such a car more practical. On cars equipped with ABS, which is most models these days, stability control can be added to selectively enable/disable oversteer prevention at the push of a button. Software within the car's computer detects oversteer and cuts engine spark/power and/or hits the brakes on individual wheels (using the ABS hardware) to largely cut out out oversteer. Car review magazines refer to stability control as the "nanny," for good reason. This sort of tech would help make a compact RWD car attractive to a wider range of buyers, who might not want to be so conscientious of their driving all the time, but want to have some fun once in a while.
Another thing that could widen the appeal of such a car would be to make it tweakable, say through adding a USB engine computer interface, or offering an MP3 capable stereo option that has USB inputs for external drives and takes customizable firmware. While this would most definitely appeal to the \. crowd, I think over time the appeal could carry over to a wider audience, as youth today are much more tech saavy and a lot of customizations could be made by third parties. Neither of these options would cost a ton, and could translate into some serious sales.
I hope Honda will eventually make such a car, perhaps in the same class as it's new budget Fit model, but that doesn't seem likely. If anyone takes the leap I think it will be Nissan, they have been doing more unconvential designs lately, being the underdog. They still don't match the quality of the big two Japanese auto makers, but I would serisouly consider it if such a model arrived.
Scratch that, I need to learn to read the article first. I had been waiting for a relevant \. article to ask this question. Still it is strange that the page dissapeared.
This page has dissapeared from the server and it can't be found in google cache. Does anyone know much about this model? What sort of processing power is behind it and what are it's capabilities? It looks to have the ability to sniff through 600 mbps each up and downstream from the snippet above, but little else is known.
Also, only this first google result seems to have relevant info on this device. If anyone here has more info, please post. A lot of us are curious, especially considering that the administration has been saying they only sniffed suspicious communications.
Yada yada yada.. And I'm not talking about your balls. You will need creativity.
0 00932.html
And for that...
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/
Easier said than done though.
This sounds like nothing more than radio controlled solenoids, similar to what we see in remotely controlled apartment building entrance doors and in automobile power locks. A solenoid is just a coil that is electro-magnetized on demand to push or pull a metal bar through it's center. This bar usually moves something attached to it or touches a contact to close a high current circuit loop, like in a car starter motor. My guess is that the solenoid in a "smart fastener" would push open a latch or release some hooks.
So why all the talk about "smart materials", "intelligent bolts", and materials that "change shape on demand"? It sounds like a bunch of pie in the sky market speak to me, not unlike what is heard in articles written by corporate PR agencys. Such articles are often given to lazy, disinterested journalists as neat & easy pre-packaged stories.
This story has no substance - buzzwords are rampant and technical detail is non-existant. Yet the slashdot editors are proudly proclaiming they broke the story 2 years ago. Even worst, the story is being pitched as using exotic technology that allows self-threading bolts of some kind. The same false pitch was used last time as well. I bet this sort of "mistake" generates lots of $$$^H^H^H click thoughs though.
I got into the beta program but my registrar, Directnic, doesn't host DNS MX records for me. The MX records of course need to point to Google's servers, but right now they point to Directnic's servers, because I use a forwarding service they provide. This service allows filter based forwarding that is far more cumbersome for them than allowing users to set MX records themselves, so I don't see why the option isn't there.
Does anyone know a cheap registrar that will host DNS and let users set their own MX records? I'd rather not have to pay for and keep track of a separate DNS service.
On the other hand it is not fair that Apple has overreaching government protection for their proprietary format, but the government has only themselves to blame for creating that racket.
This sort of protection, where DRM is protected from reverse engineering while simultaneously requiring DRM to be open only serves to do two things in the long run -
A) Corrupt government by catering to monied interests
B) Shoehorn markets and technology onto an unsustainable path by creating government interdependence
Please, stop the insanity.
So let me get this straight. They want to dissallow breaking DRM via DMCA like measures, but force companies to open up their DRM for anyone to use. It seems like some sort of bad compromise is being attemped between having DMCA like measures and making sure there is healthy competition.
The real question is why have DMCA like measures in the first place? They don't stop content from being pirated anyhow, and just assist the industry in nickel and diming us.
This sounds like a government solution to a government created problem, as Apple hasn't done anything to my knowledge to abuse their position. If the government is protecting DRM from being reverse engineered, they are the ones screwing up fair use and turning the market lopsided, and Apple is perfectly within their rights under the law.