The huge key factor in the linked article is "warrants."
Rather than a mass collection of data on the off chance some number of things in the data might be useful sometime, this is a very targeted search for a very specific document discovered via a search with a properly issued warrant. There are checks and balances in the system for reasons. Currently, things have swung to far to "collect everything in case we need it!" On the other side of the spectrum is "Collect nothing. Privacy is absolute." Somewhere in the middle is the appropriate area that balances the needs of societal protection against individual privacy rights. That pendulum will always swing. Wherever it happens to be, some group will always be unhappy.
"Market Rates" are usually quite slanted in the favor of employers. The market rates are also depressed artificially by the H1-B workers already in the country. The legal departments at tech firms tend to be careful to speak of "shortages of qualified applicants." In this case, "shortage" means people willing to work in the location for the amount offered.
I'd like to see the hiring organizations increase salary by 20-50% over "market rates" in steps and see how many qualified candidates they get. Welcome to the free market and supply and demand in the labor market.
Isn't part of the hacker ethos that the code rules? Who cares the age, sex, color, national origin, or creed of the writer? Do any of these factors make for better or worse code? If not, then differentiators based on those factors have no place in the hacker culture.
Any type of harassment needs to be dealt with rapidly, firmly, and appropriately. At the hacker cons I've attended, I've been fortunate to attend sessions with female presenters. I've also had the opportunity to interact with female attendees and found them to be logical, intelligent, and well spoken. I go to such cons to learn, network, and have some fun. Playing grabass just isn't on the menu. Such things are the province of small minds with no social skills. I'm all for harassers getting a swift kick - or several. I have a feeling though that the goons wouldn't be enamored with that idea.
I'm old enough to have been in the military before, during, and after the 1991 Tailhook incident. Hopefully the pendulum won't swing so far in the other direction that personnel are tossed and/or banned based on unsubstantiated allegations. There are very real incidents that need to be dealt with firmly. There are also invented incidents that should result in sanctions against the person making the false allegations.
Some classes are enhanced by interaction with the professor, other students, and invaluable hands-on lab time. Other classes can be completed online without losing any of the value. Take for example the common core classes of mathematics, liberal arts, history, etc. Does the student gain anything by physically sitting in a classroom? If these classes can be taken care of online for little cost then the student's scarce time and treasure can be leveraged to attend only the courses which benefit from interaction and lab time in a physical university setting.
The key is to select the appropriate tool for the appropriate task. Online isn't always the answer. In residence isn't always the answer. Having additional tools and methods available can make things more efficient.
When it comes to Netflix competitors, there are two main issues in the game:
1) Will they exempt Netflix content from their data caps - No. For as long as possible, providers with competing VoD services will continue to count the Netflix content against data caps while exempting their own offerings. This one is a no-brainer.
2) Will they provide the space, power, and cooling to host the boxes within their networks - Yes. Whatever their competing offerings, bandwidth still costs money. At the very least, peering with Netflix at the listed exchange points will likely reduce transit costs. Given the somewhat sparse availability of peering points, I expect to see large metro ISPs consider putting the devices in their datacenters.
Now you have a DSA with 10 customers on it, 5 wanted 3MB service, the feds paid to have 2 T1 lines installed. That will work, and they likely wont have any bandwidth problems. Fast forward 3 years. You now have 10 customers on the DSA, they ALL have 5MB service and ALL have netflix accounts. Hence the situation you are in. The customers demand the ISP upgrade. Those 10 customers combined are paying about $350/month total. To add more trunks to the DSA will cost $300k. It's not hard to do the math there... it's not going to happen. So then they go to the local government and ask them to complain again... the local government says "You have internet, what are you complaining about?" and the feds? They got their 95%+ served number for the next election, they don't care about you.
Having worked for a DLEC and a couple of CLECs, Charliemopps very likely hit the nail on the head. The DSLAM or DSA (equivalent in this case) is likely fed with 2-4 DS1s on an IMUX. During the day, you have little contention for the 3-6Mbps of bandwidth. In the evening, when everyone else comes home, your speed drops significantly. This is normal and expected. It only takes a few customers running bandwidth intensive apps to consume the available bandwidth. There are solutions to prevent a few piggy users from consuming almost all the bandwidth. Those solutions require deployment of either hardware or software and additional management. Given that the ISP/telco is almost certainly losing money on the service they are currently providing, they are unlikely to deploy those capabilities to the local CO.
If you do some digging and troubleshooting, is there a pingable address on the DSLAM or does it pass through at Layer-2? If you can ping the DSLAM and beyond it, you can figure out whether the slowdown is on your subscriber loop or on the connection from the DSLAM deeper into the ISPs network. Opening trouble tickets on your subscriber loop isn't going to fix a bandwidth contention issue. While it is possible there is an issue on the subscriber loop, my money is on bandwidth contention from the DSLAM. You might get some attention to a bandwidth contention issue with the trouble tickets. The IMUX equipment I'm familiar with ranges from 4-8 DS1s. If the IMUX isn't already maxed out on DS1 interfaces, you may see some relief. If the IMUX is already maxed out, you're probably not going to see much change. In a money losing situation, you're unlikely to see an upgrade to DS-3 backhaul or anything faster for a rural DSLAM.
Here is the link to the actual bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:s786: . The gist is that Sen. Santorum wants to prevent the NWS from distributing data which could be provided by a commercial service.
The bill also calls out prohibitions on persons making use of weather data which may efffect a market before an official warning or notice is issued by the NWS. Great - just what we need - all weather warnings will now need to be reviewed by government counsel before issue.
Especially since he's talking about DSSS as helping alleviate dead-spots by "spreading the transmission in 360-degrees". He's not even talking about the antenna, much less the terrain. Besides matching the "spread" in the FLA (four-letter acro...) there is no correlation.
I've got an excellent vertically polarized high-gain antenna on my ISM base station radio that does a great job of spreading my radiation through 360-degrees of azimuth on my OFDM PtoMP implementation.
Now, while that does sound cooler than "I've got a 14dBi omni on my WRT54GS", I don't think its going to spell the end of the FCC.:P
I just finished reading the original article. It not only makes a few errors, but also makes connections and leaps that are invalid or unwarranted.
Example:
(DSS). These innovations were designed to increase security by eliminating potential eavesdropping (e.g. listening to your neighbors conversations) and to increase the effective range of the phone
(e.g. spreading the transmission in 360-degrees so there were no dead spots).
(Emphasis added) While DSS can do many wonderful things for your signal, "spreading the transmission in 360-degrees" isn't one of them.
The best part (aside from the low service bills and never going over your allocated minutes) is that you have become independent to the State-planned and controlled grid.
This is primarily due to the encryption algorithm (AES) included in Skype (and others) which are so advanced that it would take years for the numerous supercomputers at State agencies (e.g. FBI) to crack just one conversation you have throughout the day let alone the thousands you have each year.
(emphasis added) AES voice encryption is a good thing. How will that be the primary factor allowing independence from the regulated terrestrial telco infrastructure?
The overall message of the article is interesting, but it appears to wander throughout the technical communications landscape. Throwing in multiple buzzwords in close proximity does not mean it makes sense.
Originally, the FCC was filled with engineers. Currently, the leadership of the FCC is dominated by lawyers. Until that trend reverses itself we shouldn't expect to see fundamental changes in spectrum licensing unless its ordered by congress.
The FCC isn't going to regulate itself out of a job. Such a thing would be the antithesis of government. There will always be services that fall under the regulation of the FCC, and users who are not willing to expend the required brain-power to make something better work.
Do some searches for "adapative radio" or "cognizant radio" and you'll find things which really could stand spectrum allocation on its head.
Satellite Internet is already available and not that uncommon. Take a look at http://www.satsig.net/. We use satellite Internet here in Iraq and it works rather well once you adjust your systems to deal with the latency. I've got VoIP running quite well with it.
The article is more than a little short on salient information. I'd take a guess that they will focus a very high gain spotbeam on the Japanese home islands and provide a few wide coverage transponders as well. That will give them the power density to use small earth terminals within Japan.
Pricing is going to be the likely downfall of such a consumer oriented system. Relative to terrestrial broadband networks, satellite Internet is very expensive. For my current service, I pay ~$700/mo for 1M down and 256K up. Thats at a 10:1 contention ratio on a Linkstar (DVB-RCS MF-TDMA) system. Other plans are cheaper, but as the contention ratio goes up, the service delivered is only really suitable for very bursty non-realtime traffic.
It seems unclear from the press release whether the upcoming R&O, which doesn't seem to have been published yet, removes the requirement for ILECs to share copper pairs as UNEs or simply removed the requirement to share DSLAM ports as UNEs.
I find this section from the press release more chilling on a long-term basis: "The Order also requires facilities-based providers to contribute to existing universal service mechanisms based on their current levels of reported revenues for the DSL transmission for a 270-day period after the effective date of the Order or until the Commission adopts new contribution rules, whichever occurs earlier. If the Commission is unable to complete new contribution rules within the 270-day period, the Commission will take whatever action is necessary to preserve existing funding levels, including extending the 270-day period or expanding the contribution base."
(Emphasis Added)
This is the FCC putting everyone on notice that they may expand the list of services/providers which pay into USF. That is a step that I don't want to see happen. While USF is a nice theory, in practice it is used as a method to defray costs for the incumbent telcos in serving desired markets. Can anyone provide several examples of rural CLECs or WISPs receiving USF dollars to support their efforts?
Yes, I actually did live in London. About 3 blocks from the West Hampstead tube stop on the Jubilee line to be exact.
I chose a flat that came with an almost US sized refrigerator just for that reason. The washer/dryer were still a combined unit that could almost wash/dry a pair of jeans in a day, but my refrigerator was great.
I also spent 2 years up in Scotland. There I had one of the Lillipuian friges - such things are not fit for a uni dorm room, much less a real kitchen.
I had the same problem (substitutions). I started hitting the NoSubstitutes button (or whatever it was called) and waited until the next order to see if they had it yet.
This seems like the perfect implementation of an affinity program. I find the closing parapgraphs regarding the OFTs interest troubling.
Tesco is a public company listening to customers, providing them with the goods and services they desire, and doing so for a fair price. Somehow to a group of people (and the OFT) that is improper. Since when did the "small shops" receive some type of right to exist and operate? If Tesco provided a better value for customers then that is where the customers will go.
I did the majority of my grocery shopping in Tesco while living in the UK. The stores were good, and I could even get home delivery. There were a couple small corner shops on the way home from the tube station as well. If I needed a loaf of bread, carton of OJ, or a pack of smokes they were a good quick stop. If stocking up my pantry/fridge for the week I'd go to Tesco. The small shops didn't have the products I wanted to buy.
IIRC, the soviets hand launched a few satellites known as "Iskra" from the Salyut-7 manned station. They were relatively short lived, but gave 2-way communications to properly equipped stations.
I find it highly ironic that a company such as Sys-con denigrates blogs as "not real journalism" while posting a link to start a blog on their home page.
The proper way to respond is to vote with your dollars.
1 - If you currently subscribe to a Sys-Con publication, cancel the subscription. Don't do this via email or a web form. Do it via a published toll-free number (this drives their telco costs)
2 - Check the advertisers list. If you've got a receipt for a purchase from a competitor laying around, send the advertising department of the Sys-con advertiser a POLITE and business-like letter. In that letter state that the broad facts of the case and that due to their continued support of Sys-con you've decided to make your purchases elsewhere.
Avoid the temptation to threaten fire brimstone, retribution, or DoS attacks. Such tactics are not in the best interests of anyone concerned. The LW senior editorial staff left via the moral high-road. Please ensure that any community reaction joins them there.
One of the military traditions not often mentioned is your "Porn Buddy". (OK, get your minds out of the gutter) If you are killed, this is the buddy that goes through your personal effects and pulls out anything that your family doesn't need to see.
Now that we're in the 21st century we need to expand the duties to include cleaning the things out of email accounts that you don't want your family to see.
I've always had someone hold a few letters to be sent in that unfortunate event when I've deployed. I've already added my various IDs and passwords to this one.
Take a quick surf over to Ebay and pick up several of the old Metricom Ricochet modems. With the USB connected GS series, a few kernel/net-tools patches, and external antennas you can setup a nice little peer to peer ad-hoc network. The radios will network without additional config and the datarates are 128K+ with the USB connection.
They go for anywhere from $1 for the PCMCIA cards to $5-10 for the GS versions. Lots cheaper a very hacker/experimenter friendly.
No matter how many cellular towers you have there is still the matter of the MSC (Mobile Switching Center) which is the hub of the system. The MSC is where mobile-to-mobile calls get routed between towers and mobile-offnet calls get routed to the LEC (Local Exchange Carrier) for local termination, or to the chosen IXC (Inter eXchange Carrier) for long-distance termination.
Most towers are simply spokes hubbed back to the MSC. If that connection to the MSC is lost the cell is pretty much useless. If the MSC loses its connection to the landline LEC and IXC networks then you can't originate/terminate calls outside that provider's network.
In many/most markets the mobile phone companies do not have direct interconnection to exchange traffic (calls) between each other. All calls between mobile carriers go through a LEC switch called the Access Tandem.
You will also fail to complete a call if the land-line infrastructure between the LEC and/or IXC switches is overloaded. I've seen networks which were only trunked to the Access Tandem and maybe 1-5 additional LEC switches (LSOs - Local Serving Offices). Its not hard at all to saturate the connectivity from the Access Tandem out to popular LSOs.
The long and short of it, there isn't any single magic bullet that will enable a telecommunications network to survive a 9/11 scale event. There are too many links in the chain that have to keep working. That being said there are steps that can be taken to make a network more resilient to such events, and often these actually save the provider a cost savings.
Slashdot Mirror
The huge key factor in the linked article is "warrants."
Rather than a mass collection of data on the off chance some number of things in the data might be useful sometime, this is a very targeted search for a very specific document discovered via a search with a properly issued warrant. There are checks and balances in the system for reasons. Currently, things have swung to far to "collect everything in case we need it!" On the other side of the spectrum is "Collect nothing. Privacy is absolute." Somewhere in the middle is the appropriate area that balances the needs of societal protection against individual privacy rights. That pendulum will always swing. Wherever it happens to be, some group will always be unhappy.
"Market Rates" are usually quite slanted in the favor of employers. The market rates are also depressed artificially by the H1-B workers already in the country. The legal departments at tech firms tend to be careful to speak of "shortages of qualified applicants." In this case, "shortage" means people willing to work in the location for the amount offered.
I'd like to see the hiring organizations increase salary by 20-50% over "market rates" in steps and see how many qualified candidates they get. Welcome to the free market and supply and demand in the labor market.
I've hung out with female feds at two different events. Alas, nobody tried to grab them. That would have been fun to watch.
Isn't part of the hacker ethos that the code rules? Who cares the age, sex, color, national origin, or creed of the writer? Do any of these factors make for better or worse code? If not, then differentiators based on those factors have no place in the hacker culture.
Any type of harassment needs to be dealt with rapidly, firmly, and appropriately. At the hacker cons I've attended, I've been fortunate to attend sessions with female presenters. I've also had the opportunity to interact with female attendees and found them to be logical, intelligent, and well spoken. I go to such cons to learn, network, and have some fun. Playing grabass just isn't on the menu. Such things are the province of small minds with no social skills. I'm all for harassers getting a swift kick - or several. I have a feeling though that the goons wouldn't be enamored with that idea.
I'm old enough to have been in the military before, during, and after the 1991 Tailhook incident. Hopefully the pendulum won't swing so far in the other direction that personnel are tossed and/or banned based on unsubstantiated allegations. There are very real incidents that need to be dealt with firmly. There are also invented incidents that should result in sanctions against the person making the false allegations.
-ZPO
No they're serious, and don't call me Shirley.
Some classes are enhanced by interaction with the professor, other students, and invaluable hands-on lab time. Other classes can be completed online without losing any of the value. Take for example the common core classes of mathematics, liberal arts, history, etc. Does the student gain anything by physically sitting in a classroom? If these classes can be taken care of online for little cost then the student's scarce time and treasure can be leveraged to attend only the courses which benefit from interaction and lab time in a physical university setting.
The key is to select the appropriate tool for the appropriate task. Online isn't always the answer. In residence isn't always the answer. Having additional tools and methods available can make things more efficient.
When it comes to Netflix competitors, there are two main issues in the game:
1) Will they exempt Netflix content from their data caps - No. For as long as possible, providers with competing VoD services will continue to count the Netflix content against data caps while exempting their own offerings. This one is a no-brainer.
2) Will they provide the space, power, and cooling to host the boxes within their networks - Yes. Whatever their competing offerings, bandwidth still costs money. At the very least, peering with Netflix at the listed exchange points will likely reduce transit costs. Given the somewhat sparse availability of peering points, I expect to see large metro ISPs consider putting the devices in their datacenters.
Now you have a DSA with 10 customers on it, 5 wanted 3MB service, the feds paid to have 2 T1 lines installed. That will work, and they likely wont have any bandwidth problems. Fast forward 3 years. You now have 10 customers on the DSA, they ALL have 5MB service and ALL have netflix accounts. Hence the situation you are in. The customers demand the ISP upgrade. Those 10 customers combined are paying about $350/month total. To add more trunks to the DSA will cost $300k. It's not hard to do the math there... it's not going to happen. So then they go to the local government and ask them to complain again... the local government says "You have internet, what are you complaining about?" and the feds? They got their 95%+ served number for the next election, they don't care about you.
Having worked for a DLEC and a couple of CLECs, Charliemopps very likely hit the nail on the head. The DSLAM or DSA (equivalent in this case) is likely fed with 2-4 DS1s on an IMUX. During the day, you have little contention for the 3-6Mbps of bandwidth. In the evening, when everyone else comes home, your speed drops significantly. This is normal and expected. It only takes a few customers running bandwidth intensive apps to consume the available bandwidth. There are solutions to prevent a few piggy users from consuming almost all the bandwidth. Those solutions require deployment of either hardware or software and additional management. Given that the ISP/telco is almost certainly losing money on the service they are currently providing, they are unlikely to deploy those capabilities to the local CO.
If you do some digging and troubleshooting, is there a pingable address on the DSLAM or does it pass through at Layer-2? If you can ping the DSLAM and beyond it, you can figure out whether the slowdown is on your subscriber loop or on the connection from the DSLAM deeper into the ISPs network. Opening trouble tickets on your subscriber loop isn't going to fix a bandwidth contention issue. While it is possible there is an issue on the subscriber loop, my money is on bandwidth contention from the DSLAM. You might get some attention to a bandwidth contention issue with the trouble tickets. The IMUX equipment I'm familiar with ranges from 4-8 DS1s. If the IMUX isn't already maxed out on DS1 interfaces, you may see some relief. If the IMUX is already maxed out, you're probably not going to see much change. In a money losing situation, you're unlikely to see an upgrade to DS-3 backhaul or anything faster for a rural DSLAM.
-ZPO
Here is the link to the actual bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:s786: . The gist is that Sen. Santorum wants to prevent the NWS from distributing data which could be provided by a commercial service.
The bill also calls out prohibitions on persons making use of weather data which may efffect a market before an official warning or notice is issued by the NWS. Great - just what we need - all weather warnings will now need to be reviewed by government counsel before issue.
Especially since he's talking about DSSS as helping alleviate dead-spots by "spreading the transmission in 360-degrees". He's not even talking about the antenna, much less the terrain. Besides matching the "spread" in the FLA (four-letter acro...) there is no correlation.
:P
I've got an excellent vertically polarized high-gain antenna on my ISM base station radio that does a great job of spreading my radiation through 360-degrees of azimuth on my OFDM PtoMP implementation.
Now, while that does sound cooler than "I've got a 14dBi omni on my WRT54GS", I don't think its going to spell the end of the FCC.
Example:
(Emphasis added) While DSS can do many wonderful things for your signal, "spreading the transmission in 360-degrees" isn't one of them.
(emphasis added) AES voice encryption is a good thing. How will that be the primary factor allowing independence from the regulated terrestrial telco infrastructure?
The overall message of the article is interesting, but it appears to wander throughout the technical communications landscape. Throwing in multiple buzzwords in close proximity does not mean it makes sense.
Originally, the FCC was filled with engineers. Currently, the leadership of the FCC is dominated by lawyers. Until that trend reverses itself we shouldn't expect to see fundamental changes in spectrum licensing unless its ordered by congress.
The FCC isn't going to regulate itself out of a job. Such a thing would be the antithesis of government. There will always be services that fall under the regulation of the FCC, and users who are not willing to expend the required brain-power to make something better work.
Do some searches for "adapative radio" or "cognizant radio" and you'll find things which really could stand spectrum allocation on its head.
Satellite Internet is already available and not that uncommon. Take a look at http://www.satsig.net/. We use satellite Internet here in Iraq and it works rather well once you adjust your systems to deal with the latency. I've got VoIP running quite well with it.
The article is more than a little short on salient information. I'd take a guess that they will focus a very high gain spotbeam on the Japanese home islands and provide a few wide coverage transponders as well. That will give them the power density to use small earth terminals within Japan.
Pricing is going to be the likely downfall of such a consumer oriented system. Relative to terrestrial broadband networks, satellite Internet is very expensive. For my current service, I pay ~$700/mo for 1M down and 256K up. Thats at a 10:1 contention ratio on a Linkstar (DVB-RCS MF-TDMA) system. Other plans are cheaper, but as the contention ratio goes up, the service delivered is only really suitable for very bursty non-realtime traffic.
It seems unclear from the press release whether the upcoming R&O, which doesn't seem to have been published yet, removes the requirement for ILECs to share copper pairs as UNEs or simply removed the requirement to share DSLAM ports as UNEs.
I find this section from the press release more chilling on a long-term basis:
"The Order also requires facilities-based providers to contribute to existing universal service mechanisms based on their current levels of reported revenues for the DSL transmission for a 270-day period after the effective date of the Order or until the Commission adopts new contribution rules, whichever occurs earlier. If the Commission is unable to complete new contribution rules within the 270-day period, the Commission will take whatever action is necessary to preserve existing funding levels, including extending the 270-day period or expanding the contribution base."
(Emphasis Added)
This is the FCC putting everyone on notice that they may expand the list of services/providers which pay into USF. That is a step that I don't want to see happen. While USF is a nice theory, in practice it is used as a method to defray costs for the incumbent telcos in serving desired markets. Can anyone provide several examples of rural CLECs or WISPs receiving USF dollars to support their efforts?
Yes, I actually did live in London. About 3 blocks from the West Hampstead tube stop on the Jubilee line to be exact.
I chose a flat that came with an almost US sized refrigerator just for that reason. The washer/dryer were still a combined unit that could almost wash/dry a pair of jeans in a day, but my refrigerator was great.
I also spent 2 years up in Scotland. There I had one of the Lillipuian friges - such things are not fit for a uni dorm room, much less a real kitchen.
I had the same problem (substitutions). I started hitting the NoSubstitutes button (or whatever it was called) and waited until the next order to see if they had it yet.
Come home safe travellers.
This seems like the perfect implementation of an affinity program. I find the closing parapgraphs regarding the OFTs interest troubling.
Tesco is a public company listening to customers, providing them with the goods and services they desire, and doing so for a fair price. Somehow to a group of people (and the OFT) that is improper. Since when did the "small shops" receive some type of right to exist and operate? If Tesco provided a better value for customers then that is where the customers will go.
I did the majority of my grocery shopping in Tesco while living in the UK. The stores were good, and I could even get home delivery. There were a couple small corner shops on the way home from the tube station as well. If I needed a loaf of bread, carton of OJ, or a pack of smokes they were a good quick stop. If stocking up my pantry/fridge for the week I'd go to Tesco. The small shops didn't have the products I wanted to buy.
IIRC, the soviets hand launched a few satellites known as "Iskra" from the Salyut-7 manned station. They were relatively short lived, but gave 2-way communications to properly equipped stations.
S ats.htmlA quick synopsis of hand-launched sats
http://www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/HandLaunched
I find it highly ironic that a company such as Sys-con denigrates blogs as "not real journalism" while posting a link to start a blog on their home page.
The proper way to respond is to vote with your dollars.
1 - If you currently subscribe to a Sys-Con publication, cancel the subscription. Don't do this via email or a web form. Do it via a published toll-free number (this drives their telco costs)
2 - Check the advertisers list. If you've got a receipt for a purchase from a competitor laying around, send the advertising department of the Sys-con advertiser a POLITE and business-like letter. In that letter state that the broad facts of the case and that due to their continued support of Sys-con you've decided to make your purchases elsewhere.
Avoid the temptation to threaten fire brimstone, retribution, or DoS attacks. Such tactics are not in the best interests of anyone concerned. The LW senior editorial staff left via the moral high-road. Please ensure that any community reaction joins them there.
Given Rutan's history I think we're pretty safe from that. Its a very real concern though.
I've got a perfect plan for a coup (er, I mean "reorganization")...
Now, if all the members of the board would please line up against this brick wall. Its for a group photo, really....
I applaud his decision to send it straight to the Smithsonian. It shows he's a realist and understands the experimental nature of the project.
SpaceshipOne was a concept demonstrator. For him, its time to move on to the production version.
One of the military traditions not often mentioned is your "Porn Buddy". (OK, get your minds out of the gutter) If you are killed, this is the buddy that goes through your personal effects and pulls out anything that your family doesn't need to see.
Now that we're in the 21st century we need to expand the duties to include cleaning the things out of email accounts that you don't want your family to see.
I've always had someone hold a few letters to be sent in that unfortunate event when I've deployed. I've already added my various IDs and passwords to this one.
Take a quick surf over to Ebay and pick up several of the old Metricom Ricochet modems. With the USB connected GS series, a few kernel/net-tools patches, and external antennas you can setup a nice little peer to peer ad-hoc network. The radios will network without additional config and the datarates are 128K+ with the USB connection.
They go for anywhere from $1 for the PCMCIA cards to $5-10 for the GS versions. Lots cheaper a very hacker/experimenter friendly.
No matter how many cellular towers you have there is still the matter of the MSC (Mobile Switching Center) which is the hub of the system. The MSC is where mobile-to-mobile calls get routed between towers and mobile-offnet calls get routed to the LEC (Local Exchange Carrier) for local termination, or to the chosen IXC (Inter eXchange Carrier) for long-distance termination.
Most towers are simply spokes hubbed back to the MSC. If that connection to the MSC is lost the cell is pretty much useless. If the MSC loses its connection to the landline LEC and IXC networks then you can't originate/terminate calls outside that provider's network.
In many/most markets the mobile phone companies do not have direct interconnection to exchange traffic (calls) between each other. All calls between mobile carriers go through a LEC switch called the Access Tandem.
You will also fail to complete a call if the land-line infrastructure between the LEC and/or IXC switches is overloaded. I've seen networks which were only trunked to the Access Tandem and maybe 1-5 additional LEC switches (LSOs - Local Serving Offices). Its not hard at all to saturate the connectivity from the Access Tandem out to popular LSOs.
The long and short of it, there isn't any single magic bullet that will enable a telecommunications network to survive a 9/11 scale event. There are too many links in the chain that have to keep working. That being said there are steps that can be taken to make a network more resilient to such events, and often these actually save the provider a cost savings.