"The plaintiffs asked SonicBlue to turn over information on how individuals use the recording devices. SonicBlue said it does not track that information. The magistrate, who is supervising discovery, ordered the company to write software in the next 60 days that would record every ``click'' from every customer's remote control."
When the 3.0 rollout is complete and everyone's on the same code (and presumably locked down the same amount), I'm guessing there will be more motivation for people to work out how to hack it and get all the fun stuff working on series2.
Um, no. A one-time-pad is unbreakable. The idea is that you have a purely random set of bits (the one-time-pad) the same length as the data you want to encrypt. If you decrypt it using every possible one-time-pad you just end up with every possible message of the same length. If your message is "Attack at dawn.", with the wrong key you could decrypt it as "Retreat ASAP !!"
The problems are the "random" bit and distributing the pad from the sender to the recipient.
These guys appear to have a pseudo-random key generation algorithm, which by defintion isn't random at all.
Not correct - What used to be Bellsouth DCS in NC, SC, FL, etc is now Cingular GSM. I'm in NC with Cingular and I have a GSM phone. Cingular's TDMA market is in the midwest, I believe.
VoiceStream and Cingular, the GSM carriers in the US are reasonably clueful. I'm with Cingular and they seem to have their act together. I can SMS some Australian networks, and inbound international roaming works pretty well.
But I think the cross-carrier SMS situation will remain pretty bad. There's very little incentive for the networks to work together when it's all of their interests to keep their solutions proprietory.
Nokia have the best user interfaces, and the smallest phones. My 8290 (8210 equiv) is TINY! I've always found Motorolas to have a cumbersome user interface, and the L series is much bigger than an 82x0.
My Australian SIM is with Telstra, and I did notice a little Telstra GSM1800 activity in the Melbourne CBD, as well as the recently deceased One.Tel. I just object to spending that kind of money on a phone which STILL doesn't support all the GSM standards, when Motorola (whose phones I hate) has been doing it for a couple of years.
There are Nokia GSM1900 models to match most GSM900/1800 models, although they're usually about 9-12 months behind the European release. I'm very happy with my GSM1900 Nokia 8290 with Cingular.
I just wish Nokia would get their act together and make a triband GSM900/1800/1900 phone. With GSM800 on the horizon, perhaps a quadband?
All of Europe, Australia, and most of the rest of the world use GSM, which has had SMS as a standard feature since its inception. So pretty much every handset has had SMS MO (mobile originated) and MT (mobile terminated) support since the mid 90s.
When the networks first offered SMS MO in Australia there was no carrier interoperability - you could only SMS people with the same carrier. Eventually it became more and more popular and the carriers signed interconnect agreements. Some Austrlian networks can't SMS international networks but it all depends on their interconnect and roaming agreements.
The US, with its mix of different standards and extensive Analog network is a different story. CDMA and TDMA now have SMS MO support, but I don't believe SMS MO was part of the original implementation. So there isn't extensive SMS MO support in existing handsets. Some providers like Sprint are using WAP to implement SMS MO!
There isn't enough demand to warrant SMS interconnect agreements, there's no single standard, and from a marketing point of view it's almost a reason to stick with the same network as your friends. In Australia, your phone number prefix indicates that it's both a mobile phone, and which network you subscribe to. So before there was interconnect, you could still tell if you could SMS someone based on their phone number. In the US, it's not obvious from the phone number whether your SMS will make it to its recipient, or just end up in a black hole.
Finally, US cellphone airtime pricing is just time based - there isn't usually a flagfall for originating a call. So it's not really a cost saving to SMS someone instead of calling them, as it is in other parts of the world.
Things will get more consistent as Cingular and AT&T migrate to GSM, but until there are business reasons to support SMS interconnect, the networks in the US will be slow to move.
So where exactly does the article say that they'll be using a wireless connection between the plane and the passengers?
I'm willing to bet that they'll have a lot easier time running ethernet cables to each armrest than getting a wireless solution approved by the FAA. The extra weight and cable-tripping danger didn't seem to bother AA when they retrofitted a DC power outlet in every row. And they don't even charge to use that.
Remember, you can't use electronic devices during takeoff or landing, so I'm not sure how an emergency egress would happen inflight. Even if it did(!), the lan cable is no more hazardous than someone's tray table or bulky luggage removed from the overhead bin.
It's the same document I downloaded in 1998 when I was playing around with an SMS->ICQ gateway. Read the ICQAPI.doc file, it's dated 20/2/98.
Why don't people actually check it out before debating what this all means in light of the FTC?!
This is no more open than the Microsoft Win32 API you can find on MSDN.
As for the submitter's questions about whether it uses SOAP and XML-RPC - why didn't you look at the API, with a 10-second look you can tell that it's just a Win32 DLL interface!
The size of our moon helps stabilize the tilt of the earth's axis, which helps keep our climate consitent. Typing a few words into google, I found this quote on sciencedaily.com:
Mars' "obliquity" -- the tilt of its spin axis -- is known to slowly increase and decrease between about 15 degrees and 35 degrees over a 124,000-year cycle (unlike Earth's tilt, which slowly rocks through a range of only 4 degrees thanks to the stabilizing tuggings of our large Moon).
So our moon played a role in making this place habitable. Tho I'm sure that any suitably large piece of rock would do.
Actually, checking out Channel 4's Scrapheap Challenge page, the poor brits are going to get the US series of Junkyard Wars. But at least they're telling their audience it's definitely not the same show, and there's a new series of "Scrapheap Challenge" in production at the moment, presumably with Llewellen.
While I agree with your argument about publically funded broadcasters making quality TV, Junkyard Wars was not created by the BBC. It was created as Scrapheap Challenge by Channel4 in the UK, a commercial TV station.
But, the fact that the BBC generates such quality programming in general is definitely responsible for the quality of programming coming out of other UK channels such as Channel4 and ITV.
I agree, it's a pity that TLC felt the needed to Americanize the show and produce a version only for the US market. Don't they realize that the fact that it is distinctly british is one of the best things about the show?
The previous series with Robert Llewellen (Kryten) were made as "Scrapheap Challenge" only for the UK market, and were picked up by TLC and renamed for the US. My hope is that they continue to make the UK series with Kryten and these eventually find their way to our US screens.
The series starting this Monday is actually the first british series which hasn't been shown on US TV before. I've seen parts of it on the "Best of Scrapheap Challenge" VHS I ordred from Amazon.co.uk. (The channel4 website also carries the tape but it doesn't deliver internationally).
Slashdot Mirror
Read the article.
"The plaintiffs asked SonicBlue to turn over information on how individuals use the recording devices. SonicBlue said it does not track that information. The magistrate, who is supervising discovery, ordered the company to write software in the next 60 days that would record every ``click'' from every customer's remote control."
Oh no, I don't WATCH tv, my TiVo does it for me. I use my spare time to go to the bookstore.
When the 3.0 rollout is complete and everyone's on the same code (and presumably locked down the same amount), I'm guessing there will be more motivation for people to work out how to hack it and get all the fun stuff working on series2.
http://tivo.lightn.org/
I use it to schedule recordings while I'm at work all the time.
Um, no. A one-time-pad is unbreakable. The idea is that you have a purely random set of bits (the one-time-pad) the same length as the data you want to encrypt. If you decrypt it using every possible one-time-pad you just end up with every possible message of the same length. If your message is "Attack at dawn.", with the wrong key you could decrypt it as "Retreat ASAP !!"
The problems are the "random" bit and distributing the pad from the sender to the recipient.
These guys appear to have a pseudo-random key generation algorithm, which by defintion isn't random at all.
Tivo download site for their mods to GPL'd software
Not correct - What used to be Bellsouth DCS in NC, SC, FL, etc is now Cingular GSM. I'm in NC with Cingular and I have a GSM phone. Cingular's TDMA market is in the midwest, I believe.
VoiceStream and Cingular, the GSM carriers in the US are reasonably clueful. I'm with Cingular and they seem to have their act together. I can SMS some Australian networks, and inbound international roaming works pretty well.
But I think the cross-carrier SMS situation will remain pretty bad. There's very little incentive for the networks to work together when it's all of their interests to keep their solutions proprietory.
Nokia have the best user interfaces, and the smallest phones. My 8290 (8210 equiv) is TINY! I've always found Motorolas to have a cumbersome user interface, and the L series is much bigger than an 82x0.
My Australian SIM is with Telstra, and I did notice a little Telstra GSM1800 activity in the Melbourne CBD, as well as the recently deceased One.Tel. I just object to spending that kind of money on a phone which STILL doesn't support all the GSM standards, when Motorola (whose phones I hate) has been doing it for a couple of years.
BTW you can buy them new and unlocked (ie usable on any GSM network) from Melon Telecoms for $549.99 (the cheapest I've seen).
There are Nokia GSM1900 models to match most GSM900/1800 models, although they're usually about 9-12 months behind the European release. I'm very happy with my GSM1900 Nokia 8290 with Cingular.
I just wish Nokia would get their act together and make a triband GSM900/1800/1900 phone. With GSM800 on the horizon, perhaps a quadband?
All of Europe, Australia, and most of the rest of the world use GSM, which has had SMS as a standard feature since its inception. So pretty much every handset has had SMS MO (mobile originated) and MT (mobile terminated) support since the mid 90s.
When the networks first offered SMS MO in Australia there was no carrier interoperability - you could only SMS people with the same carrier. Eventually it became more and more popular and the carriers signed interconnect agreements. Some Austrlian networks can't SMS international networks but it all depends on their interconnect and roaming agreements.
The US, with its mix of different standards and extensive Analog network is a different story. CDMA and TDMA now have SMS MO support, but I don't believe SMS MO was part of the original implementation. So there isn't extensive SMS MO support in existing handsets. Some providers like Sprint are using WAP to implement SMS MO!
There isn't enough demand to warrant SMS interconnect agreements, there's no single standard, and from a marketing point of view it's almost a reason to stick with the same network as your friends. In Australia, your phone number prefix indicates that it's both a mobile phone, and which network you subscribe to. So before there was interconnect, you could still tell if you could SMS someone based on their phone number. In the US, it's not obvious from the phone number whether your SMS will make it to its recipient, or just end up in a black hole.
Finally, US cellphone airtime pricing is just time based - there isn't usually a flagfall for originating a call. So it's not really a cost saving to SMS someone instead of calling them, as it is in other parts of the world.
Things will get more consistent as Cingular and AT&T migrate to GSM, but until there are business reasons to support SMS interconnect, the networks in the US will be slow to move.
So where exactly does the article say that they'll be using a wireless connection between the plane and the passengers?
I'm willing to bet that they'll have a lot easier time running ethernet cables to each armrest than getting a wireless solution approved by the FAA. The extra weight and cable-tripping danger didn't seem to bother AA when they retrofitted a DC power outlet in every row. And they don't even charge to use that.
Remember, you can't use electronic devices during takeoff or landing, so I'm not sure how an emergency egress would happen inflight. Even if it did(!), the lan cable is no more hazardous than someone's tray table or bulky luggage removed from the overhead bin.
It's the same document I downloaded in 1998 when I was playing around with an SMS->ICQ gateway. Read the ICQAPI.doc file, it's dated 20/2/98.
Why don't people actually check it out before debating what this all means in light of the FTC?!
This is no more open than the Microsoft Win32 API you can find on MSDN.
As for the submitter's questions about whether it uses SOAP and XML-RPC - why didn't you look at the API, with a 10-second look you can tell that it's just a Win32 DLL interface!
Actually, checking out Channel 4's Scrapheap Challenge page, the poor brits are going to get the US series of Junkyard Wars. But at least they're telling their audience it's definitely not the same show, and there's a new series of "Scrapheap Challenge" in production at the moment, presumably with Llewellen.
But, the fact that the BBC generates such quality programming in general is definitely responsible for the quality of programming coming out of other UK channels such as Channel4 and ITV.
I agree, it's a pity that TLC felt the needed to Americanize the show and produce a version only for the US market. Don't they realize that the fact that it is distinctly british is one of the best things about the show?
The previous series with Robert Llewellen (Kryten) were made as "Scrapheap Challenge" only for the UK market, and were picked up by TLC and renamed for the US. My hope is that they continue to make the UK series with Kryten and these eventually find their way to our US screens.
The series starting this Monday is actually the first british series which hasn't been shown on US TV before. I've seen parts of it on the "Best of Scrapheap Challenge" VHS I ordred from Amazon.co.uk. (The channel4 website also carries the tape but it doesn't deliver internationally).