Rather than use a hacked non-standard modification of 802.11b, why not use 802.11g? It offers the same transfer speeds as 802.11a, but was designed to be compatible with existing 802.11b networks. So you can upgrade an existing 802.11b network to 802.11g gradually. With 802.11a, you have to rip out your old 802.11b wireless network and replace everything.
I for one will gladly pay twice as much for DVD content as I would for equivalent VHS content; the extensive capabilities of the DVD format make the medium that much more valuable.
That's missing the whole point. Of course DVDs are better than VHS, and the companies put more work into a DVD release than a VHS release. So they should cost more--I'm willing to pay it. But all DVDs should cost the same--the cost of a buying DVD shouldn't depend on who you are, and that's exactly what they were trying to do. If you're a regular guy, you pay X amount, but if you're a video rental guy, you have to pay twice as much for the SAME thing in a different color package.
Since I'm not in Australia, this doesn't affect me directly, but it's still a moral victory (now if we can just convince a judge in the US to accept an Australian court finding as precedent...)
Basically, the decision ruled that DVD movies cannot be treated as software simply because they are digitally recorded, and because DVD players have processors. I wonder if now AOL Time Warner will try to "modify" the DVD standard in order to make DVDs into "software" so they can go ahead with their scheme anyway. I doubt customers (meaning me) would go for that, since it would probably mean that people would have to get newer-model DVD players, but I wouldn't put it past them to try it.
A branch of science that is often forgotten is linguistics, the study of languages. With the advent of global communications technologies that make it possible to talk to people half-way around the world, language translation is extremely important. A double major in linguistics and artificial intelligence would give one the skills needed to begin work on automated computer translation systems--if you can produce one that is accurate and fast, there is a huge worldwide market for it.
OK, according to the guy's website, his ASCII art includes 24,140 letters (that's A-Z, not counting numbers or other characters.) He lists the amount of each letter used, which I added to find the total.
Now, let's compare the frequency of letters in his mosaic to the frequency of those same letters in the English language, using data from this website.
Feel free to calculate and post the rest yourself. Use your favorite non-English language if you like. YMMV.
Slashdotted--but here's some information
on
Physical ASCII Mosaic
·
· Score: 3, Informative
His server is slashdotted already, but I managed to get a few paragraphs describing his experience with Legos. It doesn't apply directly to the particular Lego creation that prompted this story on Slashdot, but at least it's something. Enjoy.
I can clearly remember receiving and playing with my first LEGO toy. It was back in the mid-70's, and the set was a simple 'Rescue Unit' white helicopter and ambulance. For the next several years my birthday and Christmas gift lists were dominated by LEGO toys, and throughout the year I would dutifully save my allowance and then trek up to the nearby hobby store (through the woods, over the railroad tracks), and eagerly pick out my next set. This was during the age of the Classic Space sets, the 'Yellow Knight's Castle' (which I never had, but my LEGO-and-longtime-friend Steve did), and such.
I was careful with my LEGO bricks... I never threw them about, or lost them, or tried to feed them to the cat. In fact, after all those years of feverish play, I think only 5 bricks were misplaced and 2 or 3 broken.
Unfortunately I was not as meticulous with the original boxes (who thinks of being a collector when one is only 7 or 8 years old?). Most of the instruction booklets I kept, and I even sorted many of the pieces into separate containers (though, back then, I sorted by color first, which I have since realized is not the best way to go).
They were those containers through which I rummaged before school, waking up my parents ('rattle, rattle, scrunnnnmmmm, rattle') as early as five o'clock in the morning.
But alas, at some point other diversions came into my life and the LEGO toys were put in a toybox and virtually forgotten (well, not forgotten, but certainly ignored).
Then, in mid-1999 (I was now 28 years old), I extracted the bricks from my parents' home, and my LEGO renaissance began. I rebuilt all my old sets and started buying bricks in bulk so as to create large sculptures. Such sculptures had bounced around in my head ever since reading an article about the original LEGOLAND (in Denmark) in a National Geographic WORLD magazine as a kid.
As an adult (AFOL -- Adult Fan of LEGO, as the terminology goes) I was no longer really interested in buying the LEGO sets (the new space sets, the ninja sets, the rock raiders...); they did not seem as cool as my childhood sets (I won't digress into that ongoing debate). No, I just wanted to build sculptures.
And so I did (and do).
And, of course, I had to make a webpage to document my renewed LEGO habit...
What's most appealing about UWB is not it's promise of high bandwidth, but it's promise of a secure wireless protocol. According to the article, "UWB is pretty much immune to eavesdropping, is equally immune to interference or jamming, and because its broad frequency range includes the ultra-low frequencies used to communicate with submerged submarines, UWB can be used easily in buildings and even underground." With all the problems with the inherently insecure 802.11b wireless protocol, UWB sounds mighty appealing based on security alone, and when you consider its greater bandwidth that makes it doublely attractive.
Better security and more bandwidth? It sounds too good to be true. (It also sounds expensive.) Here's to hoping it's for real.
As with any revolutionary new product/technology, I am skeptical--but I so much want to believe! I need bandwidth desparately. As a university student as an engineering/computer science school would think I would be blessed with lots and lots of bandwidth, but you'd be wrong. For 800+ on-campus students, half a dozen computer labs, and all the professors, we have just 2 T1 lines, one of which seems to work only sporadically. And I can't get cable or DSL in the residence halls.
So you can understand why people like me need easy access to high bandwidth. And if UWB lives up to the hype in the article (here's to hoping!) that might just solve my problem--my university can buy lots of UWB and let the students download and run web servers to their hearts content.
Alas, it will probably never come to pass. It's just too good to be true.
If LindowsOS is a Linux based system that uses Wine to run Windows programs, how is it that Lindows can charge $99 per copy? Linux and Wine are GPL software, and can be distributed freely, so what part of LindowsOS is the part that is worth $99 per copy? I can maybe see $99 for a CD set (after all, programmers need to eat) but shouldn't we be able to make as many copies as we want, just like with other Linux distributions?
However, I'm interested to see how the final release performs. If it runs Windows programs well and if it is also a full (meaning not dumbed down) Linux distribution, I may get a copy to try it out. StarOffice and KOffice are OK, but I'd like to be able to run Microsoft Office too.
The DMA has an interesting Consumer FAQ page, which has some good information (although there is some propaganda mixed in, so read it with a grain of salt.)
For those who are suffering from telemarketers, you can call the National Opt-Out Center at 1-888-5OPT-OUT to be put on a no-calling list, or you can contact the Telephone Preference Service
I used to get a lot of telemarketing calls, but about a year ago I started asking every caller to place me on their no-call list. Since then I've gotten far fewer calls. My spam, on the other hand, is increasing all the time. So far I've been able to keep it under control, but I'm going to keep the e-MPS in mind for the future. (Maybe I'll set up a new email account to test its effectiveness.)
I'm encouraged to see the DMA taking steps to establish regulations on the commercial use of email, but I can't see my daily spam levels dropping anytime soon. Many of the companies they represent already have fair and decent policies in place, and the companies that are sending me spam now aren't likely to be stopped by the DMA.
However, the DMA is still doing a good thing. One thing that wasn't mentioned in the article was if the DMA will set up a way to lodge complaints against companies that break the regulations. If there isn't an efficient way to report and deal with policy infractions, the policies are next to useless.
In a press conference earlier today, an Intel spokeman confirmed rumors that their latest processor, the 64-bit "Yamhill" is manufactured not from traditional silicon, but is made entirely from yams.
I think this problem is more easily solved in hardware than in software. With recent advances in solid-state memory, hopefully a standard can be worked out so that solid-state memory can replace or complement volatile memory (i.e., RAM as we know it.) Solid-state memory could would survive a power outage, and you could pick up where you left off.
The disadvantages are speed (solid-state memory is getting faster all the time, but it is still slower than volatile RAM), cost, and lack of current standardized implementations (I'm not even sure there are any working implementations.)
For some background research in solid-state memory, check out this site (it's a bit old, but still interesting.
While the true definition of spam is a tricky question that probably few people agree on, I think most people would agree that spam is "unsolicited commercial email" (see the CAUCE FAQ for more info.)
I don't think (at least according to the above definition of spam) that emailing your resume to a couple dozen people constitutes as spam. (It's a really stupid idea, though.) If you send your resume to a company through snail mail, they wouldn't consider it junk mail. If you send it through email (and you're sending it to just them, not to the whole world) they probably won't sue you for sending them junk mail. Just the same, it's probably better to send a real paper resume--it shows you put some effort into it other than point-and-click.
Given Microsoft's business success record (legal or not, they make a lot of money) if Microsoft says they are going to focus on security, that should be taken seriously. I have no doubts that if Microsoft wants to, they can make products as secure as their competitors' software. (After all, when Microsoft decided to kill Netscape, they did so fairly well. If they decide to be secure, they can do that too.)
The question is, how badly do they want security? Their new focus on security may require them to make their new software and OS less backwards-compatible, or not quite as user-friendly. Microsoft may have trouble seeing their products' ease of use drop in the short run--they've put a lot of work into making Windows easy to use. So basically it comes down to this: are they willing to sacrifice some ease of use (and beef up their technical support) in order to produce more secure products? If so, great. If not, then it's all just propaganda.
"Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" has today been replaced with "Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft." However, in the case of the IBM iServers and zServers, Linux is replacing a proprietary Unix, not a Microsoft OS.
This is a step forward for Linux (although perhaps a smaller one that at first glance, because you already could get IBM servers with Linux--these are just the first Linux-only servers) but not a step backwards for Microsoft.
That seems to be the trend now, anyway--remember when Amazon said they saved millions of dollars by using Linux? Those Linux systems replaced Unix systems, not Microsoft Windows systems.
It's not clear (at least from the sketchy information in the article) if there will be an Open Source/free version, but I hope so, and here's why: currently my university requires us to use Windows in our computer science classes, mainly because Microsoft gives us a lot of expensive software for free (if Microsoft makes it, students probably have access to it--Visual Studio 6, Visual SourceSafe, SQL Server, Windows XP Pro,...)
That leaves people like me--who prefer to run Linux instead of Windows--at a disadvantage. I have to have a dual boot system, and I have to reboot to Windows every time I need to hack out some code for a class. Now, if Borland releases their C++ for Linux and makes it free, I know I could convince a couple of my professors to ditch the Microsoft stuff and use teach the class using Linux and Borland. That would enable me--and the rest of the university--to gain some practical experience coding on the Linux platform, and not just on Windows. Don't get me wrong, there isn't anything wrong with knowing how to code using Windows and Microsoft Visual Studio (in fact it's probably a good resume item), but I'd like to get familiar with some alternatives before I enter the workforce.
This is a direct quote from the article, but since it was the very last paragraph and probably not everyone read that far, I think it's worth repeating:
If you haven't made your comment in U.S. v. Microsoft, you have three days to do so. The e- mail address is microsoft.atr@usdoj.gov while the fax numbers are 1-202-307-1454 and 1-202- 616-9937. As Judge Bork noted, your comment's effectiveness is a function of how intelligently it is rendered. I've received copies of many of the comments sent by readers of this column, and I'm truly impressed. Now we need to multiply them by a hundred or so.
As some of you know, the proposed ruling in the Microsoft case has some major problems. According to the article, former Supreme Court appointee Judge Robert H. Bork--thinks "it gives it a clearroad to further monopolies. They can do to all kinds of products nowwhat they did to the browser."
Now the question is, will anything be done about it?
The fact that Loki is going under shouldn't be a surprise: they filed for bankruptcy in August of 2001, according to this Register article.
Anyway, this might be a good opportunity to buy some Loki releases cheap. However, according to the article, we shouldn't expect discounts right away. Scott Draeker said "I don't think there will be any huge discounts right away -- maybe in six months..."
Comcast doesn't really care one way or the other about you using NAT to connect multiple computers. They are just simply trying to do what so many other broadband companies have failed to do: stay in business and make a profit. They have seen what has happened to several other large broadband companies that have gone under, and they realized that they have to make a profit now!
Charging people a little extra to connect multiple computers can bring in a little more money to keep the company afloat. And tracking down violators will--hopefully--result in those people agreeing to pay the extra amount. Comcast is not trying to alienate customers, they are trying to keep customers happy by staying in business
On the very bottom of the FreeBSD 4.5 Release page, there the following: "It's been pointed out that this table is rather boring. Bruce Mah gave a slightly more interesting rendition of the 12 days of Code- Freeze.".
An excerpt from that poem:
> As promised we've now entered the code freeze for RELENG_4. Please
> submit all MFC requests to re@FreeBSD.org before committing to this
> branch.
For your hacking and/or holiday pleasure, I give you: "The Twelve Days of Code-Freeze"
Sung to the tune of:"The Twelve Days of Christmas"
Words by:bmah@freebsd.org
On the first day of code-freeze, my -hackers gave to me:
A bad patch in the src/ tree.
On the second day of code-freeze, my -hackers gave to me:
Two flamewars,
And a bad patch in the src/ tree.
On the third day of code-freeze, my -hackers gave to me:
Three bikesheds,
Two flamewars,
And a bad patch in the src/ tree.
On the fourth day of code-freeze, my -hackers gave to me:
Four broken worlds,
Three bikesheds,
Two flamewars,
And a bad patch in the src/ tree.
While I like the idea of making my Mozilla browsing experience more aesthetically pleasing, I am not willing to sacrifice stability.
This new patch is great, but you shouldn't update yet. Wait until it's merged into the official release. Unless, of course, you like to try out new things, in which case go get the update.
Anyway, I look forward to getting the final version of this. (Until then, I'll just have to buy a bigger monitor.)
The internet may be revolutionizing the Western world, but it still has a long way to go until it affects the lives of those elsewhere, such as Asia and Africa. Having lived in the Philippines for 4 years (1996-1999, and a three-week trip just a month ago) I know that internet access is painfully scarce. It is available in the largest cities (Manila, Davao City,...) but not elsewhere. And what is available is dreadfully slow--I can remember waiting around 5 minutes for Google to load so I could type in my search entry. Even on my trip last month there were times I couldn't even get Google to load at all.
So, although the internet may be changing a part of the world, there is a great portion of the world that has not been impacted by the internet--it is either too slow to be useful, or simply not available at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds to me like a great alternative to 802.11a
Rather than use a hacked non-standard modification of 802.11b, why not use 802.11g? It offers the same transfer speeds as 802.11a, but was designed to be compatible with existing 802.11b networks. So you can upgrade an existing 802.11b network to 802.11g gradually. With 802.11a, you have to rip out your old 802.11b wireless network and replace everything.
That's missing the whole point. Of course DVDs are better than VHS, and the companies put more work into a DVD release than a VHS release. So they should cost more--I'm willing to pay it. But all DVDs should cost the same--the cost of a buying DVD shouldn't depend on who you are, and that's exactly what they were trying to do. If you're a regular guy, you pay X amount, but if you're a video rental guy, you have to pay twice as much for the SAME thing in a different color package.
Since I'm not in Australia, this doesn't affect me directly, but it's still a moral victory (now if we can just convince a judge in the US to accept an Australian court finding as precedent...)
Basically, the decision ruled that DVD movies cannot be treated as software simply because they are digitally recorded, and because DVD players have processors. I wonder if now AOL Time Warner will try to "modify" the DVD standard in order to make DVDs into "software" so they can go ahead with their scheme anyway. I doubt customers (meaning me) would go for that, since it would probably mean that people would have to get newer-model DVD players, but I wouldn't put it past them to try it.
A branch of science that is often forgotten is linguistics, the study of languages. With the advent of global communications technologies that make it possible to talk to people half-way around the world, language translation is extremely important. A double major in linguistics and artificial intelligence would give one the skills needed to begin work on automated computer translation systems--if you can produce one that is accurate and fast, there is a huge worldwide market for it.
Here's a link to a mirror of the original image that he used to make his ASCII mosaic.
OK, according to the guy's website, his ASCII art includes 24,140 letters (that's A-Z, not counting numbers or other characters.) He lists the amount of each letter used, which I added to find the total.
.3438 % ----> 8.151 %
.4515 % ----> 1.440 %
.0994 % ----> 2.758 %
.6214 % ----> .0770 %
Now, let's compare the frequency of letters in his mosaic to the frequency of those same letters in the English language, using data from this website.
Letter----Mosaic-------English
'A' ---->
'B' ---->
'C' ---->
...
'G' ----> 7.668 % ----> 1.994 %
...
'Y' ----> 11.52 % ----> 1.982 %
'Z' ---->
Feel free to calculate and post the rest yourself. Use your favorite non-English language if you like. YMMV.
What's most appealing about UWB is not it's promise of high bandwidth, but it's promise of a secure wireless protocol. According to the article, "UWB is pretty much immune to eavesdropping, is equally immune to interference or jamming, and because its broad frequency range includes the ultra-low frequencies used to communicate with submerged submarines, UWB can be used easily in buildings and even underground." With all the problems with the inherently insecure 802.11b wireless protocol, UWB sounds mighty appealing based on security alone, and when you consider its greater bandwidth that makes it doublely attractive.
Better security and more bandwidth? It sounds too good to be true. (It also sounds expensive.) Here's to hoping it's for real.
As with any revolutionary new product/technology, I am skeptical--but I so much want to believe! I need bandwidth desparately. As a university student as an engineering/computer science school would think I would be blessed with lots and lots of bandwidth, but you'd be wrong. For 800+ on-campus students, half a dozen computer labs, and all the professors, we have just 2 T1 lines, one of which seems to work only sporadically. And I can't get cable or DSL in the residence halls.
So you can understand why people like me need easy access to high bandwidth. And if UWB lives up to the hype in the article (here's to hoping!) that might just solve my problem--my university can buy lots of UWB and let the students download and run web servers to their hearts content.
Alas, it will probably never come to pass. It's just too good to be true.
If LindowsOS is a Linux based system that uses Wine to run Windows programs, how is it that Lindows can charge $99 per copy? Linux and Wine are GPL software, and can be distributed freely, so what part of LindowsOS is the part that is worth $99 per copy? I can maybe see $99 for a CD set (after all, programmers need to eat) but shouldn't we be able to make as many copies as we want, just like with other Linux distributions?
However, I'm interested to see how the final release performs. If it runs Windows programs well and if it is also a full (meaning not dumbed down) Linux distribution, I may get a copy to try it out. StarOffice and KOffice are OK, but I'd like to be able to run Microsoft Office too.
The DMA has an interesting Consumer FAQ page, which has some good information (although there is some propaganda mixed in, so read it with a grain of salt.)
For those who are suffering from telemarketers, you can call the National Opt-Out Center at 1-888-5OPT-OUT to be put on a no-calling list, or you can contact the Telephone Preference Service
There's not much information on getting off of email lists, but they do suggest the e-Mail Preference Service (e-MPS).
I used to get a lot of telemarketing calls, but about a year ago I started asking every caller to place me on their no-call list. Since then I've gotten far fewer calls. My spam, on the other hand, is increasing all the time. So far I've been able to keep it under control, but I'm going to keep the e-MPS in mind for the future. (Maybe I'll set up a new email account to test its effectiveness.)
I'm encouraged to see the DMA taking steps to establish regulations on the commercial use of email, but I can't see my daily spam levels dropping anytime soon. Many of the companies they represent already have fair and decent policies in place, and the companies that are sending me spam now aren't likely to be stopped by the DMA.
However, the DMA is still doing a good thing. One thing that wasn't mentioned in the article was if the DMA will set up a way to lodge complaints against companies that break the regulations. If there isn't an efficient way to report and deal with policy infractions, the policies are next to useless.
In a press conference earlier today, an Intel spokeman confirmed rumors that their latest processor, the 64-bit "Yamhill" is manufactured not from traditional silicon, but is made entirely from yams.
I think this problem is more easily solved in hardware than in software. With recent advances in solid-state memory, hopefully a standard can be worked out so that solid-state memory can replace or complement volatile memory (i.e., RAM as we know it.) Solid-state memory could would survive a power outage, and you could pick up where you left off.
The disadvantages are speed (solid-state memory is getting faster all the time, but it is still slower than volatile RAM), cost, and lack of current standardized implementations (I'm not even sure there are any working implementations.)
For some background research in solid-state memory, check out this site (it's a bit old, but still interesting.
While the true definition of spam is a tricky question that probably few people agree on, I think most people would agree that spam is "unsolicited commercial email" (see the CAUCE FAQ for more info.)
I don't think (at least according to the above definition of spam) that emailing your resume to a couple dozen people constitutes as spam. (It's a really stupid idea, though.) If you send your resume to a company through snail mail, they wouldn't consider it junk mail. If you send it through email (and you're sending it to just them, not to the whole world) they probably won't sue you for sending them junk mail. Just the same, it's probably better to send a real paper resume--it shows you put some effort into it other than point-and-click.
Given Microsoft's business success record (legal or not, they make a lot of money) if Microsoft says they are going to focus on security, that should be taken seriously. I have no doubts that if Microsoft wants to, they can make products as secure as their competitors' software. (After all, when Microsoft decided to kill Netscape, they did so fairly well. If they decide to be secure, they can do that too.)
The question is, how badly do they want security? Their new focus on security may require them to make their new software and OS less backwards-compatible, or not quite as user-friendly. Microsoft may have trouble seeing their products' ease of use drop in the short run--they've put a lot of work into making Windows easy to use. So basically it comes down to this: are they willing to sacrifice some ease of use (and beef up their technical support) in order to produce more secure products? If so, great. If not, then it's all just propaganda.
"Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" has today been replaced with "Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft." However, in the case of the IBM iServers and zServers, Linux is replacing a proprietary Unix, not a Microsoft OS.
This is a step forward for Linux (although perhaps a smaller one that at first glance, because you already could get IBM servers with Linux--these are just the first Linux-only servers) but not a step backwards for Microsoft.
That seems to be the trend now, anyway--remember when Amazon said they saved millions of dollars by using Linux? Those Linux systems replaced Unix systems, not Microsoft Windows systems.
It's not clear (at least from the sketchy information in the article) if there will be an Open Source/free version, but I hope so, and here's why: currently my university requires us to use Windows in our computer science classes, mainly because Microsoft gives us a lot of expensive software for free (if Microsoft makes it, students probably have access to it--Visual Studio 6, Visual SourceSafe, SQL Server, Windows XP Pro, ...)
That leaves people like me--who prefer to run Linux instead of Windows--at a disadvantage. I have to have a dual boot system, and I have to reboot to Windows every time I need to hack out some code for a class. Now, if Borland releases their C++ for Linux and makes it free, I know I could convince a couple of my professors to ditch the Microsoft stuff and use teach the class using Linux and Borland. That would enable me--and the rest of the university--to gain some practical experience coding on the Linux platform, and not just on Windows. Don't get me wrong, there isn't anything wrong with knowing how to code using Windows and Microsoft Visual Studio (in fact it's probably a good resume item), but I'd like to get familiar with some alternatives before I enter the workforce.
As some of you know, the proposed ruling in the Microsoft case has some major problems. According to the article, former Supreme Court appointee Judge Robert H. Bork--thinks "it gives it a clearroad to further monopolies. They can do to all kinds of products nowwhat they did to the browser."
Now the question is, will anything be done about it?
The fact that Loki is going under shouldn't be a surprise: they filed for bankruptcy in August of 2001, according to this Register article.
Anyway, this might be a good opportunity to buy some Loki releases cheap. However, according to the article, we shouldn't expect discounts right away. Scott Draeker said "I don't think there will be any huge discounts right away -- maybe in six months..."
Comcast doesn't really care one way or the other about you using NAT to connect multiple computers. They are just simply trying to do what so many other broadband companies have failed to do: stay in business and make a profit. They have seen what has happened to several other large broadband companies that have gone under, and they realized that they have to make a profit now!
Charging people a little extra to connect multiple computers can bring in a little more money to keep the company afloat. And tracking down violators will--hopefully--result in those people agreeing to pay the extra amount. Comcast is not trying to alienate customers, they are trying to keep customers happy by staying in business
An excerpt from that poem:
Check this page for the rest.
While I like the idea of making my Mozilla browsing experience more aesthetically pleasing, I am not willing to sacrifice stability.
This new patch is great, but you shouldn't update yet. Wait until it's merged into the official release. Unless, of course, you like to try out new things, in which case go get the update.
Anyway, I look forward to getting the final version of this. (Until then, I'll just have to buy a bigger monitor.)
The internet may be revolutionizing the Western world, but it still has a long way to go until it affects the lives of those elsewhere, such as Asia and Africa. Having lived in the Philippines for 4 years (1996-1999, and a three-week trip just a month ago) I know that internet access is painfully scarce. It is available in the largest cities (Manila, Davao City, ...) but not elsewhere. And what is available is dreadfully slow--I can remember waiting around 5 minutes for Google to load so I could type in my search entry. Even on my trip last month there were times I couldn't even get Google to load at all.
So, although the internet may be changing a part of the world, there is a great portion of the world that has not been impacted by the internet--it is either too slow to be useful, or simply not available at all.