Forget the doctor, I want to be able to use my mobile phone when I'm out. That's one of the reasons I have, get this, a mobile phone.
It's the same scenario as smoking, people want to ban cell phone use in places because they don't like it. But I have to say, I can SMS someone in a movie theater without disturbing those around me, as I should be. I put it on silent and if I get a call that's important I may answer and ask them to hold on a moment as I *go out of the theater*. People act like they've been anally raped because they can hear someone else talk on their cell phone. Stop whining.
Yes there are jackasses. And the jackasses that talk on their cell phones in a movie theater are probably closely tied to the jackasses that talk loudly to their friends in the theater.
If someone is causing a disturbance (cell phone or not), grab an employee and let them know, they'll either tell them to stop or tell them to leave. No RF paint required, no Active Jamming required and people who aren't inconsiderate pricks can still use their mobile phones while they're mobile.
Putting any more effort or money toward assholes is just throwing it in the fucking trash can.
why do we need to broadcast emergency notices in high-definition, and have them decoded by expensive and complicated set-top boxes that will occasionally not work and require a reboot before delivering the proper image?
that's another issue entirely. Weather it's a good idea is separate from the fact that it's happening. They're broadcast in digital format because they've mandated the retirement of analog tv broadcasts. If your analog TV doesn't work anymore it's pretty likely it won't be sitting there on white noise waiting for an emergency broadcast message. These boxes are going to be for the people that otherwise don't have a compelling reason to have a new digital TV and are likely to be the ones best served by having their current one keep working. If they're expensive enough then I'm sure more people will just update their TV. The boxes needing to be rebooted isn't really a political issue. I'm sure the coupons will work for purchases of whichever the person wants. They can figure out if they want a crappy one, a good one, or they just want to get a new TV. Weather they get a good one or a bad one, the coupon is still worth the same amount.
Good point. But isn't the theoretical limit of cable relatively low? That is, doesn't a cable loop typically top out at under 10MB/s, given that most of the bandwidth is reserved for television, etc?
Docsis 1 was capable of 56Mbit max if I'm not mistaken. They're into docsis 3 now and I don't know what the rate is. I do know that MoCA and HPNA v3 can push about 200Mbit through coax in your house. But just like ADSL2+ is capable of 25Mbit (not sure if it's that but I'm sure it's very close) you are limited to a particular loop length. More than 1kft from the CO? You're likely to get less than 8Mbit. Sure that's good but you have an ever increasing number of customers as you radiate outward from the CO or RT the majority of people will be pushed to the low end. The usable loop length is about 12kft and the number of users is going to roughly square with distance.
With Cox they've built out more local gateways (which I believe are connected back with Fiber) to allow for greater capacity and shorter loops while at the same time allowing more customers to have a greater amount of bandwidth. And coax has a lot more bandwidth and noise tolerance than a copper pair.
I know cable was really bad when it was first rolled out. My friend had the premium 3Mbit down with dial-up upload and it was terrible during peak hours. But they've built up significantly. I'm in Phoenix and 12Mbit seems to be available anywhere in the city proper from Cox (about $60 a month). I'm sure it's not the case for most cable providers or most markets, but at least with Cox-Phoenix they've really come to task on the infrastructure side.
Call Qwest, the biggest DSL provider here and you'll get 1.5 Mbit service for $35-40. Depending on where you're located you have to deal with the CO distance and the line quality (there is some very poor copper in their network, the test lines at my office top out at about 800K and we still have to pay business rates on them)
When it's all done, even if Qwest can guarantee me 1.5Mbit for $30 a month (god knows what they'd want to charge for higher speed service closer to the CO) and never bothers to monitor my usage, I can still get more bang for my buck with a $60 cox connection that has a reasonable bandwidth usage policy in place.
But both services have an upper limit on the loop length and both are in no way guaranteed to provide the full bandwidth to the end user if everyone starts to hammer their connections. The best value is really determined by the providers rather than the tech. It does sound to me like you're in a good spot for price/performance, but people that are looking for good service need to examine all the options available. Depending on the provider and the area Cable can be a clear winner even without being "unlimited" service. Other areas, especially if the cable provider isn't making an effort DSL can come out on top easily. The actual connection is really a secondary consideration at this point.
One thing to watch is the Fiber roll outs being planned by the Telcos. Right now the telcos run fiber to the COs and RTs and then go copper from there to the customer. The Cable companies have fiber that penetrates into the neighborhoods at this point then goes coax to the customer. The Telcos have started offering sattelite TV services (AT&T) and plan to do so over fiber if they aren't offering it already (Verizon). The Cable companies are offering phone service as well. Soon enough they'll both offer fiber connections to your house and offer you TV, Phone and internet. At which point there is no difference between then aside from regulation. Until then the only real difference is the last mile medium and the commitments made by the individual companies.
Sorry for the long reply, I figured I might as well cover it all while I have the chance.
Beyond my disdain for most TV to begin with, I am blown away that with all of our current problems -- homelessness and crime on the home front, war fighting and terrorism abroad -- our government is seriously going to spend this much money on upgrading peoples' televisions.
Television has a bit more utility than just playing back $GENERIC_REALITY_SHOW$ while generating revenue from advertisement. It also provides a means for news (regardless of your take on it) and broadcast communication of the normal or emergency variety. Newspapers don't work for emergency broadcast. And if radios were to suddenly stop working (and carried a similar purchase cost for hardware) there would likely be a similar plan in place to keep the current ones functional with a new system.
It's a good idea to keep signals available to current TV owners.
While most DSL providers don't bother trying to track the amount of data you're moving through your connection, they are overselling the available bandwidth based on an average of all users in an area (connections to the DSLAM in the CO or RT) just like any other provider.
I have personally used a DSL connection that synced at 12Mbit and I know with unquestionable certainty had a total of 3Mbit of bandwidth available behind the DSLAM. The speed your DSL modem syncs at and the bandwidth available behind the DSLAM/Router (RedBack et al) need not be related to each other at all. And just like people claim with cable, if everyone on a DSLAM decided to use all their bandwidth it's very likely you wouldn't get anywhere near your "guaranteed" speed.
My Cox High Speed is supposed to be 12Mbit and provided a server is up to task it actually gives me over 13Mbit regardless of time of day.
And, of course, Cox publishes their acceptable bandwidth usage policy where it's readily viewable.
I didn't mean to imply that I thought legislation opening the DRM was preferable to me. I'd like to just see it left alone and if someone can do better, let them.
I just meant that it was likely better than just saying it's illegal and trying to remove it from the market.
Well, Apple has been pretty forthcoming in regards to iTMS. It exists simply to drive iPod sales.
Now, I don't own an iPod yet, but I would bet that any music or video you buy there would work in iTunes on a mac or a PC. If that is the case, it's pretty apparent you aren't required to buy an iPod to use the service or the content.
Granted you can't take it portable on a player of your choice, but that was never promised or advertised.
I don't like DRM, but it seems to me that they're going about this the wrong way. Force them through legislation to license the DRM to other companies if they want, but don't make the existing product 'illegal'.
It was my understanding that the majority of patents involved with the new multi-blade razors are actually for the attachment mechanism design. I have never found an off brand replacement blade set for my mach3, and believe me I've really wanted to. If someone did create a blade refill that would attach to the mach3 handle, they'd likely be sued into non-existence.
Yet another reason for some patent reform. I believe it highly arguable that there is any novel and patentable mechanism in play that would not be apparent to someone versed in the art of swappable razor blades.
The summary says that the fertile pic was chosen 60% more often than expected by pure chance, however the article states it was simply chosen 60% of the time, and that it was "Well beyond random chance" which is quoted in the article that way as well. The author may have known that the term might not be appropriate to describe a 60%/40% split with 30 subjects and 42 judges.
But hey, keep refining and expanding the group and see if the rate stays steady or increases. Could be very interesting.
Let's see how it reacts as your face pushes against the screen
Actually, it mentioned in the keynote summary that it has a proximity sensor that turns off the screen and input system while it's against your ear to prevent errant input and save battery life.
They mentioned that more than half of americans live within 20 miles of their work, and the article indicated they were looking at 6 hours charge time on a 110V circuit. So anyone that lived under 20 miles from work could get there and back on a single charge. However, with a 6 hour charge time one could potentially: charge overnight, Drive about 40 miles to work, charge for 3-4 hours, maybe even disconnect and grab lunch, charge for another 3-4 hours and be topped off for the drive home.
This of course is reliant on that type of usage not being counter to what is healthy for their battery system and your employer's willingness to let you pull 15kWh (depending one where you are I believe that's $2 or less of electricity a day) off their system while you're working. Though I have to say the latter would be a pretty likely benefit for a few employers to offer, especially if it means a tax write-off.
would you ever feel bad about kicking a robot dog?
If the robot is a finite state machine where of all of it's output and processes are strictly defined, there's no chance that it's somehow self-aware or anywhere close to that. There would be no thought at all, just simple comparisons as defined by programming. No problem kicking something like an Aibo, with the exception of repercussions from the person who owned it.
Now if AI gets to the point that it's on par with normal animal brain functionality, then I might worry about it. Of course, an android likely to be made from stuff that's stronger than flesh, and I'd bet that an android made of carbon fiber and titanium isn't going to register a kick a pain, though I'm sure it would do what it could to avoid damage.
I say we worry about it when we actually have something close to animal intelligence and sensory input in out robots. Although it will be interesting when it does get there.
I'm not familiar with what mathematics would be involved, but I would think with 2 or 3 of those (each able to read out data for all 3 axis' simultaneously) in strategic spots oriented on different axis', you could reliably work out any motions that happened. But hey, they got it to work very well and that's the important part.
Perhaps we'll get a better idea if and when someone gives us a real run down of how that wii-mote is laid out.
Is it the lack of ear piece feedback that makes people talk louder into a cell phone?
I was testing some wifi equipment outdoors a couple days ago and someone came walking along the area, talking on a cell phone. We were out in the open along a roadway and an empty field, and I could hear every word he was saying clearly from 150 feet away (he walked along my test range with it's convenient measurement markers). If someone were talking that loud in an airplane seat next to me and I didn't have ear protection I'd probably knock them out.
Then there's a fundamental limitation to accelerometer devices: rotations can't really be distinguished from translations. Just think about it -- a given resultant acceleration vector could be the result of pointing the Wii-mote in any given orientation, added to a specific acceleration in a specific direction. You just don't have enough information to distinguish between the two -- not with accelerometers alone, at least.
I thank you for your knowledgeable post. Out of curiosity, if they were using more than one 3-axis accelerometer like this one would they still have difficulty with determining pure rotation from other movements?
The other big advantage I have heard is that with LiPo, you don't have to encase the batteries as heavily, so more of the weight and volume can actually be taken up with electricity-storing components, instead of as an 'exoskeleton' providing protection for the cells.
I'd imagine this has a lot to do with how the manufacturer decides to package the cells.
My room mate has a few electric RC helicopters and he swapped out the NiMH cells that came with them for bare cell LiPos. They were large flat cells reminiscent of a small stack of playing cards, and they had *no* external casing beyond a flexible plastic covering. Super high capacity for the weight, but you could bend them in half with your hands.
On more than one occasion he had a rough landing that would damage one or more cells. I'm not suggesting that all the LiPos are in the same boat, but it doesn't seem that it's gauranteed that one is going to be better encased than another.
I hit one page looking for a free/open source application (wish I could remember which one it was) and was greeted with a large banner at the top and an audio recording saying my computer was "infected" with internet explorer and I should switch to Firefox to remedy it.
Now I can understand the advantages and disadvantages of Firefox and IE, but annoying me by acting like a jackass isn't the way to convince me to switch.
I will say, after trying IE7 under Vista at work, trying Firefox 2.0, having issues with IE6 remembering my settings and finding out about IETab, the switch was an easy decision for me. Pundit asshattery hurt rather than helped the situation.
while I agree with your view on him not deserving a tasing for resisting without violence, I'll gladly take a taser shot if/when you buy me one to it with. I'll even supply the video equipment.
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When I'm holding it down between my knees, not by anyone seated further than right next to me.
And if they're actually watching the movie, they probably wouldn't notice.
It's not like I'm holding it in front of their face while I type.
Forget the doctor, I want to be able to use my mobile phone when I'm out. That's one of the reasons I have, get this, a mobile phone.
It's the same scenario as smoking, people want to ban cell phone use in places because they don't like it. But I have to say, I can SMS someone in a movie theater without disturbing those around me, as I should be. I put it on silent and if I get a call that's important I may answer and ask them to hold on a moment as I *go out of the theater*. People act like they've been anally raped because they can hear someone else talk on their cell phone. Stop whining.
Yes there are jackasses. And the jackasses that talk on their cell phones in a movie theater are probably closely tied to the jackasses that talk loudly to their friends in the theater.
If someone is causing a disturbance (cell phone or not), grab an employee and let them know, they'll either tell them to stop or tell them to leave. No RF paint required, no Active Jamming required and people who aren't inconsiderate pricks can still use their mobile phones while they're mobile.
Putting any more effort or money toward assholes is just throwing it in the fucking trash can.
With Cox they've built out more local gateways (which I believe are connected back with Fiber) to allow for greater capacity and shorter loops while at the same time allowing more customers to have a greater amount of bandwidth. And coax has a lot more bandwidth and noise tolerance than a copper pair.
I know cable was really bad when it was first rolled out. My friend had the premium 3Mbit down with dial-up upload and it was terrible during peak hours. But they've built up significantly. I'm in Phoenix and 12Mbit seems to be available anywhere in the city proper from Cox (about $60 a month). I'm sure it's not the case for most cable providers or most markets, but at least with Cox-Phoenix they've really come to task on the infrastructure side.
Call Qwest, the biggest DSL provider here and you'll get 1.5 Mbit service for $35-40. Depending on where you're located you have to deal with the CO distance and the line quality (there is some very poor copper in their network, the test lines at my office top out at about 800K and we still have to pay business rates on them)
When it's all done, even if Qwest can guarantee me 1.5Mbit for $30 a month (god knows what they'd want to charge for higher speed service closer to the CO) and never bothers to monitor my usage, I can still get more bang for my buck with a $60 cox connection that has a reasonable bandwidth usage policy in place.
But both services have an upper limit on the loop length and both are in no way guaranteed to provide the full bandwidth to the end user if everyone starts to hammer their connections. The best value is really determined by the providers rather than the tech. It does sound to me like you're in a good spot for price/performance, but people that are looking for good service need to examine all the options available. Depending on the provider and the area Cable can be a clear winner even without being "unlimited" service. Other areas, especially if the cable provider isn't making an effort DSL can come out on top easily. The actual connection is really a secondary consideration at this point.
One thing to watch is the Fiber roll outs being planned by the Telcos. Right now the telcos run fiber to the COs and RTs and then go copper from there to the customer. The Cable companies have fiber that penetrates into the neighborhoods at this point then goes coax to the customer. The Telcos have started offering sattelite TV services (AT&T) and plan to do so over fiber if they aren't offering it already (Verizon). The Cable companies are offering phone service as well. Soon enough they'll both offer fiber connections to your house and offer you TV, Phone and internet. At which point there is no difference between then aside from regulation. Until then the only real difference is the last mile medium and the commitments made by the individual companies.
Sorry for the long reply, I figured I might as well cover it all while I have the chance.
It's a good idea to keep signals available to current TV owners.
While most DSL providers don't bother trying to track the amount of data you're moving through your connection, they are overselling the available bandwidth based on an average of all users in an area (connections to the DSLAM in the CO or RT) just like any other provider.
I have personally used a DSL connection that synced at 12Mbit and I know with unquestionable certainty had a total of 3Mbit of bandwidth available behind the DSLAM. The speed your DSL modem syncs at and the bandwidth available behind the DSLAM/Router (RedBack et al) need not be related to each other at all. And just like people claim with cable, if everyone on a DSLAM decided to use all their bandwidth it's very likely you wouldn't get anywhere near your "guaranteed" speed.
My Cox High Speed is supposed to be 12Mbit and provided a server is up to task it actually gives me over 13Mbit regardless of time of day.
And, of course, Cox publishes their acceptable bandwidth usage policy where it's readily viewable.
They could just tag it with "Yes" instead
(mine are off and it's not worth turning them on to see)
They're just whining at this point.
Knowing a lot of companies re-brand Sony monitors as well, I wonder if they might have manufactured those as well...
I like it, though I have to say I prefer my girlfriend's quote more:
Can you hear this Boston, or shall I turn it up for you?
I didn't mean to imply that I thought legislation opening the DRM was preferable to me. I'd like to just see it left alone and if someone can do better, let them.
I just meant that it was likely better than just saying it's illegal and trying to remove it from the market.
Thanks for the reply.
Well, Apple has been pretty forthcoming in regards to iTMS. It exists simply to drive iPod sales.
Now, I don't own an iPod yet, but I would bet that any music or video you buy there would work in iTunes on a mac or a PC. If that is the case, it's pretty apparent you aren't required to buy an iPod to use the service or the content.
Granted you can't take it portable on a player of your choice, but that was never promised or advertised.
I don't like DRM, but it seems to me that they're going about this the wrong way. Force them through legislation to license the DRM to other companies if they want, but don't make the existing product 'illegal'.
It was my understanding that the majority of patents involved with the new multi-blade razors are actually for the attachment mechanism design. I have never found an off brand replacement blade set for my mach3, and believe me I've really wanted to. If someone did create a blade refill that would attach to the mach3 handle, they'd likely be sued into non-existence.
Yet another reason for some patent reform. I believe it highly arguable that there is any novel and patentable mechanism in play that would not be apparent to someone versed in the art of swappable razor blades.
The summary says that the fertile pic was chosen 60% more often than expected by pure chance, however the article states it was simply chosen 60% of the time, and that it was "Well beyond random chance" which is quoted in the article that way as well. The author may have known that the term might not be appropriate to describe a 60%/40% split with 30 subjects and 42 judges.
But hey, keep refining and expanding the group and see if the rate stays steady or increases. Could be very interesting.
They mentioned that more than half of americans live within 20 miles of their work, and the article indicated they were looking at 6 hours charge time on a 110V circuit. So anyone that lived under 20 miles from work could get there and back on a single charge. However, with a 6 hour charge time one could potentially: charge overnight, Drive about 40 miles to work, charge for 3-4 hours, maybe even disconnect and grab lunch, charge for another 3-4 hours and be topped off for the drive home.
This of course is reliant on that type of usage not being counter to what is healthy for their battery system and your employer's willingness to let you pull 15kWh (depending one where you are I believe that's $2 or less of electricity a day) off their system while you're working. Though I have to say the latter would be a pretty likely benefit for a few employers to offer, especially if it means a tax write-off.
Now if AI gets to the point that it's on par with normal animal brain functionality, then I might worry about it. Of course, an android likely to be made from stuff that's stronger than flesh, and I'd bet that an android made of carbon fiber and titanium isn't going to register a kick a pain, though I'm sure it would do what it could to avoid damage.
I say we worry about it when we actually have something close to animal intelligence and sensory input in out robots. Although it will be interesting when it does get there.
I'm not familiar with what mathematics would be involved, but I would think with 2 or 3 of those (each able to read out data for all 3 axis' simultaneously) in strategic spots oriented on different axis', you could reliably work out any motions that happened. But hey, they got it to work very well and that's the important part.
Perhaps we'll get a better idea if and when someone gives us a real run down of how that wii-mote is laid out.
Is it the lack of ear piece feedback that makes people talk louder into a cell phone?
I was testing some wifi equipment outdoors a couple days ago and someone came walking along the area, talking on a cell phone. We were out in the open along a roadway and an empty field, and I could hear every word he was saying clearly from 150 feet away (he walked along my test range with it's convenient measurement markers). If someone were talking that loud in an airplane seat next to me and I didn't have ear protection I'd probably knock them out.
My room mate has a few electric RC helicopters and he swapped out the NiMH cells that came with them for bare cell LiPos. They were large flat cells reminiscent of a small stack of playing cards, and they had *no* external casing beyond a flexible plastic covering. Super high capacity for the weight, but you could bend them in half with your hands.
On more than one occasion he had a rough landing that would damage one or more cells. I'm not suggesting that all the LiPos are in the same boat, but it doesn't seem that it's gauranteed that one is going to be better encased than another.
I hit one page looking for a free/open source application (wish I could remember which one it was) and was greeted with a large banner at the top and an audio recording saying my computer was "infected" with internet explorer and I should switch to Firefox to remedy it.
Now I can understand the advantages and disadvantages of Firefox and IE, but annoying me by acting like a jackass isn't the way to convince me to switch.
I will say, after trying IE7 under Vista at work, trying Firefox 2.0, having issues with IE6 remembering my settings and finding out about IETab, the switch was an easy decision for me. Pundit asshattery hurt rather than helped the situation.
Ron White said it was the Scotch for people that intend to die penniless. Maybe Kim knows something we don't.
I wonder if his preference for Johnnie Walker (Blue Label I'd imagine) would make it a better or worse Christmas gift for my girlfriend.
while I agree with your view on him not deserving a tasing for resisting without violence, I'll gladly take a taser shot if/when you buy me one to it with. I'll even supply the video equipment.