The bandwidth is not for 802.11a alone. It is an open band -> anyone can use it for anything -> lots of non-data interference which cannot be controlled.
By restricting the band to data ALONE, much better use could be made of the spectrum.
It is called entropy, if you find a way around it tell the rest of us, k?
EVERYTHING in life, let me repeat that, EVERYTHING in life takes more energy then you get out of it, logging included. You never get more then what you put in.
And next you're going to tell me that NO nuclear reactor can produce energy? Or that pumping oil from the ground takes MORE energy than we get out of the oil?
You may think that you know thermodynamics, but you DON'T!!!
Computers are, as all of you know well, extremely useful tools for management, getting information and communication. But, you ask, why is this needed for the poor?
Let me tell you one area where it could be useful. Many, many times in the past, there have been growth of some vegetable or fruit, in quantities much larger than usual. Normally this follows a period of scarcity of that item (perhaps due to some disease). Once the farmers see that the price of some particular produce is very high, all of them start growing the same. Note that farm holdings are extremely fragmented in India. So when the harvest comes in, compared to the amount available, there is little demand. Most of the produce just rots on the plant, as it cost of picking the produce is more than the sale price. I have seen this happening many times. Imagine, if you will, an index of areas of cultivation of a particular crop. This would not be too difficult to make, at least on a rough basis, say per village. If all the farmers could see this information, then they could avoid these periods of excesses and scarcities.
The above was just one example where it could be useful. There are some organisations planning wireless internet through buses!!! Every time the bus passes through the village, the people in the village could download information off the bus. So they would get 'up-to-date' information say twice a day. Since long distance phone calls are expensive, emails could and probably would be quite a killer app there.
Even now, there are pilot trials going on where eye doctors, remotely view the patients' eyes with web-cams and recommend medication or ask them to come for further diagnosis/treatment.
In this case, I truly believe that once this becomes popular, there can be very useful applications benefitting the common people.
Good points. But they have put the requirements into the law. Not just specified that OS is the way to go. You said...
For example, given that having data in open formats is of critical importance, wouldn't it make sense to legislate that any software the government uses has to store data in a format which is publicly documented?
Not only does the format itself matter but also the tools you use to change the files. Tomorrow if the vendor switches to a pay-by month model and you no longer get any support for the old versions what can you do? Stick with the old version with all its bugs? Write a whole new sw with all the functionalities of the the old one? All these are pretty tough alternatives....
This legislator seems to be the smartest one on the block....
The reasons he gives for the Peruvian govt. to go with Open Source rather than proprietary SW are to the point. He blasts each and every point made by the MS rep. The whole Bill is specifying the standards for purchase of SW by the govt. alone, and he uses that to cudgel MS completely.
The main points for the use of OS are...
Free access to public information by the citizen.
Permanence of public data.
Security of the State and citizens.
He then goes on to say how MS does not provide these and how OS is a better alternative. He makes it sound like a crime for a govt. to NOT use OS/open standard protocols.
The way he has used MS's points against itself and shown the contradiction between their various points was almost funny. It sounds like a school teached administering a sound whipping to a truant.
Richard Hughes of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US said that on paper, Lamas-Linares' result does not make quantum cryptography any less impervious to eavesdropping. Copying a quantum-encoded transmission with five-sixth's fidelity is not the same as decoding five out of every six letters in the message.
So long as the two communicating parties (Alice and Bob) assume any potential eavesdropper (Eve) can quantum clone, then Alice and Bob can still deploy mathematical tricks to amplify the privacy of their message beyond Eve's ability to decode.
The important this is that there are theoretical restrictions which prevent quantum cloning from reducing the security of quantum cryptography.
Is that the same IBM that works on PHYSICAL SYSTEMS like nano-tech, and writing their name with individual atoms? Don't they deserve their patents for that?
A lot of people here seem to say that the net is needed at each home and that most people will never be able to afford that, so they will never have access to the net.
What is possible and helpful is community shared internet/information access. After all isn't the internet abut information?
This is what is happening in the developing countries with cyber-cafes. In Bangladesh, because of the poor phone infrastructure, there are people who operate pay-phones, but with CELL phones because the infrastructure to provide land-lines is simply too expensive but setting up the base stations is cheaper. In India Wireless in Local Loop is picking up as a big concept, due to the low cost of deployment. As one Professor in India said, "The developed nations do not need to reduce the costs any further for the basics, 40$ per phone line is fine for them, but we need to use the latest technology, not to increase the features but to reduce the cost." And this needs to be done by the developing countries as no company in the deveoped world will take this on (low profits).
But till this happens, the developing world will be a part of the digital have-nots, and there will be a digital divide.
The Congress today found out that the Earth is round.
Seriously folks, with the money they are making, the the arguments against them and the turning tide of public opinion on one side and their soft money contributions on the other.... I hope we the public win.....
May be as Chris Sprigman says, this may happen if campaign reform takes place.
Actually I think most of the cyber-cafes have pirated win 95/98 or whatever. I really wish MS starts cracking down hard on them. That way they would definitely switch to Linux.
Since all you need is a small room, a broadband connection (usually ISDN, rarely DSL) and a few computers competition is quite fierce. The systems have to be really low cost and I think purchasing a legal copy of Win x would drive them out of business.
Gaming is quite good but not to the level of Korea etc.
Err... yes they can. The telephony sector was a government monopoly. India was (is) a socialist state. That is not truly capitalistic. Only now the government has allowed competition in the local loop, and telephony in general. The international long-distance market was recently privatised (meaning competition from private companies) and so too the domestic long distance.
VoIP is legal from March 1st or something. The only condition is that service providers must state if the call is toll quality or not in their ads.
The cost of long distance was high in order to cross subsidize the rural areas. They are slowly giving up on this, although quite a large portion of the country now has telephony access due to this.
And although systems are expensive, and most college students do not have computers/internet access from home, there are hundreds of internet cafes in each city. The rate for access is around 25c to 50c an hour. They also allow gaming, voice chat etc. Since the cost of local and international long distance is quite high in India (cross-subsidizing the rural areas) a lot of illegal (currently) voice chat takes place in the browsing cafes.
Most students in the cities have email and access the net quite regularly, if only for gaming or chat through these cyber-cafes and not at home. Also gives privacy;-)....
And once the government legalises VoIP there is definitely going to be a huge boom in the use of the cyber-cafes.
I am pretty sure that this must be the case in most developing economies. Of course like this article says it needs to become a productivity tool.
One of the worlds only elected Communist party, currently rules in West Bengal. The Communist party was also in and out of power in another state (Kerala) in India. The Communists also hold some seats in the Parliament. We've seen communism and we ain't it.
Slashdot Mirror
The bandwidth is not for 802.11a alone. It is an open band -> anyone can use it for anything -> lots of non-data interference which cannot be controlled.
By restricting the band to data ALONE, much better use could be made of the spectrum.
And next you're going to tell me that NO nuclear reactor can produce energy? Or that pumping oil from the ground takes MORE energy than we get out of the oil?
You may think that you know thermodynamics, but you DON'T!!!
Equilateral triangles WILL fall through. The height of the triangle is less than the side. Hence you just need to tip it in....
Let me tell you one area where it could be useful. Many, many times in the past, there have been growth of some vegetable or fruit, in quantities much larger than usual. Normally this follows a period of scarcity of that item (perhaps due to some disease). Once the farmers see that the price of some particular produce is very high, all of them start growing the same. Note that farm holdings are extremely fragmented in India. So when the harvest comes in, compared to the amount available, there is little demand. Most of the produce just rots on the plant, as it cost of picking the produce is more than the sale price. I have seen this happening many times. Imagine, if you will, an index of areas of cultivation of a particular crop. This would not be too difficult to make, at least on a rough basis, say per village. If all the farmers could see this information, then they could avoid these periods of excesses and scarcities.
The above was just one example where it could be useful. There are some organisations planning wireless internet through buses!!! Every time the bus passes through the village, the people in the village could download information off the bus. So they would get 'up-to-date' information say twice a day. Since long distance phone calls are expensive, emails could and probably would be quite a killer app there.
Even now, there are pilot trials going on where eye doctors, remotely view the patients' eyes with web-cams and recommend medication or ask them to come for further diagnosis/treatment.
In this case, I truly believe that once this becomes popular, there can be very useful applications benefitting the common people.
ha ha ha lamenesss filter crapping...
hoo hooo hoo..... he he he
The reasons he gives for the Peruvian govt. to go with Open Source rather than proprietary SW are to the point. He blasts each and every point made by the MS rep. The whole Bill is specifying the standards for purchase of SW by the govt. alone, and he uses that to cudgel MS completely.
The main points for the use of OS are...
Free access to public information by the citizen.
Permanence of public data.
Security of the State and citizens.
He then goes on to say how MS does not provide these and how OS is a better alternative. He makes it sound like a crime for a govt. to NOT use OS/open standard protocols.
The way he has used MS's points against itself and shown the contradiction between their various points was almost funny. It sounds like a school teached administering a sound whipping to a truant.
You have gotta read this....
Google cache....
May be cos it IS in English? ;-)
Sounds like a plan to me...
The important this is that there are theoretical restrictions which prevent quantum cloning from reducing the security of quantum cryptography.
That means WITHOUT FIBRE
Which means you dont need to dig holes and most of the assumptions of the poster are invalidated.
Read the article first people.
But if that wasn't satire, then I'm sad for the 'ok I'm bending over, shove it in' attitude he's got.
Is that the same IBM that works on PHYSICAL SYSTEMS like nano-tech, and writing their name with individual atoms? Don't they deserve their patents for that?
How bout the fact that it was demonstrated at OFC, this week????
In front of most of the worlds Optical Companies?
Now this is a great idea... Two birds in one fell swoop... Never mind I think Im mixing drinks here...
Read the same article on an optical trade publication, Light Reading at OFS: What Fiber Glut?.
More interestingly read the comments of some industry people.
This is just marketing hype folks!!!
The damn site is /.
This is probably going to end up costing you moderator status... IF you think it is interesting i.e.
What is possible and helpful is community shared internet/information access. After all isn't the internet abut information?
This is what is happening in the developing countries with cyber-cafes. In Bangladesh, because of the poor phone infrastructure, there are people who operate pay-phones, but with CELL phones because the infrastructure to provide land-lines is simply too expensive but setting up the base stations is cheaper. In India Wireless in Local Loop is picking up as a big concept, due to the low cost of deployment. As one Professor in India said, "The developed nations do not need to reduce the costs any further for the basics, 40$ per phone line is fine for them, but we need to use the latest technology, not to increase the features but to reduce the cost." And this needs to be done by the developing countries as no company in the deveoped world will take this on (low profits).
But till this happens, the developing world will be a part of the digital have-nots, and there will be a digital divide.
Seriously folks, with the money they are making, the the arguments against them and the turning tide of public opinion on one side and their soft money contributions on the other.... I hope we the public win.....
May be as Chris Sprigman says, this may happen if campaign reform takes place.
Since all you need is a small room, a broadband connection (usually ISDN, rarely DSL) and a few computers competition is quite fierce. The systems have to be really low cost and I think purchasing a legal copy of Win x would drive them out of business.
Gaming is quite good but not to the level of Korea etc.
VoIP is legal from March 1st or something. The only condition is that service providers must state if the call is toll quality or not in their ads.
The cost of long distance was high in order to cross subsidize the rural areas. They are slowly giving up on this, although quite a large portion of the country now has telephony access due to this.
Most students in the cities have email and access the net quite regularly, if only for gaming or chat through these cyber-cafes and not at home. Also gives privacy
And once the government legalises VoIP there is definitely going to be a huge boom in the use of the cyber-cafes.
I am pretty sure that this must be the case in most developing economies. Of course like this article says it needs to become a productivity tool.
One of the worlds only elected Communist party, currently rules in West Bengal. The Communist party was also in and out of power in another state (Kerala) in India. The Communists also hold some seats in the Parliament. We've seen communism and we ain't it.
Never mind, I guess it was a temporary problem with my connection at the university.