I worked for XO Communications (Nextlink), another Craig McCaw company, during the LMDS push. That is the push that broke the company. They tried to implement LMDS before the equipment was ready and without a complete understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the technology.
I don't think WiMAX will be much different. Much like BPL it is touted as the solution to providing wireless in rural areas. In each case the infrastructure required to implement a Base/Subscriber architecture using fixed infrastructure cannot produce profitable operation within the served area of each fixed base station. The simple mathematics of subscriber density versus cost of infrastructure doesn't work.
The only implementation that makes economic sense for rural areas are multi-carrier (multiband) mesh implementations. It is only by making every node a router that such a network can succeed in the world of economics.
When the Internet was originally built the concept was of symetrical bandwidth. Each new node extended the Internet by another step. For serving rural areas the same logic prevails. We have a historical model of how to build a network. Now lets figure out how to do it right instead of another albatross of Base/Subscriber, or rather more accurately -- Producer/Consumer.
I know that is the problem. By moving a portion of the charges outside the published rate plan they can advertise a lower price while continuing to get higher revenue and margins.
I don't know if the original Minuteman silos were much different than the Titan-II installations. In the Titan-II LCCs the PALs were controlled via a set of thumbwheel switches on a panel. The code signal was set to a butterfly valve that controlled the flow of fuel and oxidizer to the engines.
You can see the panel still in place if you take a tour of the Titan-II museum outside of Tuscon, AZ. Its more than a little strange to walk around the inside of a relatively complete LCC and silo complex.
Tiger 2003 Data - Preprocesed to SHP files
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 1
The TIGER2003 data is available. You can spend the time required t learn it or you can use the online available preconverted ones. You can also use the geocoded files available online. Its the most common US street mapping base among commercial programs so TIGER is worth the time.
Do a couple googles on APRS TIGER 2003 XASTIR and you can find them online.
I'd be interested in hearing more about the antenna configuration used during the flights. I would think that a 6 or 8dbi omni held in the hand of a passenger would get quite different results than an externally mounted antenna.
Has anyone done any flights with a moderately low-gain panel or two externally mounted on the aircraft? I'm sure there would be some FAA (TSO?) issues if it was done on anything other than a homebuilt experimental.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. I don't think the average user equates a computer with a hammer.
The hammer analogy isn't perfect, but its a good start. The next question is what can we do to teach the average user that a computer is a tool? In what ways can we educate people that the computer is just processing and displaying information, rather than some oracle that always speaks the truth?
The problem with both of these is that they require the individual to process, validate, and make logical judgements about information. Based on what I see on a day-to-day basis, this is asking more of the average person than they are willing to give.
I think that would be a rather interesting experiment. You'd likely want to put up a map of the old vs. new computer locations.
You could also do some interesting variations on that. Assuming all the computers are externally identical (and you don't have any FUBAR'd mouse/kb's) just swap identification labels, change the maps, and see if anyone notices the difference.
I don't think we have enough information to draw conclusions based on the article.
- Do the computers that folks were willing to wait for have additional applications loaded?
- Are they perhaps known to be the most stable ones out of a given set?
- Did different machines have different monitors, keyboards, and mice?
- Are they in a location that makes them more desireable (lighting, temperature, lack of people, etc)
There are plenty of factors that influence choices such as this. Unless they took steps to ensure that the computers were 100pct identical in every way, the conclusions they have reached are suspect. The extrapolations they make about people blindingly trusting computers even more so.
A computer is a tool. Just like an artisan may have a favorite tool for a task a user may have a favorite computer for a task. I don't see anything too earth-shattering here.
The key can be found in the article... -- "It's the threat and the possibility that all of these services could migrate to the Internet," said Alexander's aide. "As services migrate to the Internet, you could bundle these services, and the telecom taxes that states currently collect they could no longer collect." -- Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) --
This is simply about the states being afraid of losing a very lucrative revenue source. The thought behind it has nothing to do with with the implementation, the technical reasons for VoIP deployment, or even whether its a Bad Idea (TM) or not. Its all about maintaining tax revenue for the state.
There are legions of accoutants, lawyers, and beauracrats in every state (hell, in every level of government) looking for things that might be taxed to generate revenue. It has nothing to do with whether the tax is smart, appropriate, or germane. Its about finding sources of revenue to support state spending.
Based on reading the article they are talking about a software defined radio (SDR) which is capable of operating discrete carriers and user communities on each of the 3 non-overlapping channels. They are not talking about bonding all 3 channels into a single data link.
Based on the article the chipset will be *capable* of using all 3 non-overlapping 2.4Ghz ISM channels. That will allow the associated users to be split across the 3 channels rather than all on a single channel and competing for access to the channel.
The same tradeoffs that drive WLAN design today will still exist. Its not a panacea, but it does add new possibilities to the engineer's set of available solutions.
By opening up the front end of the radio they can look at the whole band and do some very interesting noise reduction techniques. This is alluded to in the article, but I think its the most promising part of the chipset. The ability to identify and reduce the affects of wideband noise will got a long way to improving reception of WLAN signals....
This thing looks great. Right up to the picture where they show the interface connectors. a DB9 and a standard USB port? Those are some of the most fragile connectors out there. While they are convenient and cheap they are the weakest link in the system.
If you look at a professional Motorola radio or a military radio handset connector you'll see the connectors are sealed with surface contacts and a locking mechanism. Any opening with depth and sliding contacts is going to get full of gunk and the pins will either bend or break.
As discussed on slashdot before - http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/14/165722 5&mode=thread
The FCC has had this report for quite some time. Especially in an election year don't look for your friendly neighborhood congress-critter to upset the NAB.
Hmm where does this fall on the good idea scale? They are talking about running RF signals over miles of unshielded cable. NTIA filed comments strongly opposing it. This horse is dead before the starting gate even opens.
BPL is being touted as bringing broadband internet to rural areas not served by DSL or cable modem. However, if you read the fine print you'll find that the signal can be pushed less distance then either (DSL/cable) technology. This means infrastructure overbuild costs will prevent it being deployed in anything but densely populated areas. The whole rural service thing is just a smoke screen.
VOIP Regulation
Its not broken so why does the FCC need to "fix" it? I can't find too many examples of government utility regulation actually improving things. The CALEA (Communications Assistance to Law Enforement Act) points are moot as a wiretap order would permit them to tap the IP service just as easily as the phone line. The main issue is that the telcos see that "consumers" will now become their own providers and they (telcos) will be pushed to irrelavancy in the long term. Change and adaptation come slower to telcos than it does the music industry.
With any luck the FCC will deliver the coup-de-grace to BPL and keeps its fingers out of VoIP other than to declare IP end-to-end calls as outside the scope of regulation and IP to PSTN as only in regulatory scope at the point of interconnection to the PSTN.
I agree on the rendering of "pretty" maps and additional work on the datasets.
In general, I'm most interested in DRGs and DOQQs. The DRGs are produced directly by USGS, The DOQQs are produced by multiple sources (ie - some states are doing their own updates). I'm happy to pay *REASONABLE* costs of download and copying to CD. What I've seen from most state GIS clearing houses and a certain commercial site don't even pass the smell test of reasonable.
Fortunately I've been able to find free download sites for most of the DRGs I need. DOQQ can be a little harder to find, but doable if you have the time. I've now got 200GB plus of DRG/DOQQ data on one of my servers here at home.
Hmm, maybe time to start a little garage distribution business.............
Its also the key backup comms network medium in the US for a little tiny organization known as FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) - yes I'm being facetious about the "little tiny" part.
FEMA submitted comments to the FCC Notice of Inquiry that pretty much say "if you do this you will disrupt official government communications affecting the health and safety of US citizens". The NTIA didn't like it much either.
I'd say there will be some trials conducted with FEMA and NTIA watching very closely. The first time it increases the noise floor in their receivers 1-2dB BPL will be a dead issue in the US.
Not quite an accurate correlation. If someone starts acting in a way that causes me to fear for my life in the other listed venues I can leave. Once that airplane is at cruising altitude it becomes much more difficult to decide I don't like the social company and depart.
The following makes no excuses for the US Department of the Treasury. They need to stick by their contract with the commenter at the time the comment was posted. This is an explanation of how the whole process works....
The "public comment period" is standard in most US federal government rulemaking actions. Before the advent of access to rulemaking data via the web you were lucky if you knew there was a rulemaking in process unless you were part of an affected industry or had a lobbyist on staff.
Typically, comments were filed by mail, fax, or courier. The courier provision is provided for the convenience of all those lobbyists and interest groups in Washington D.C.
An issue such as changing the tax rates on malt beverages might get something like 10-100 comments filed. The GS-5 (maybe a 7) in charge of handling the comments would log them properly on a 12th generation photocopy of the "comment log sheet" (or some other similar name) and the comments would be either published with personal information removed (via a big black marker) or more likely ceremoniously placed in a large manilla file and trucked to a records vault.
Enter the Internet - Now the rulemaking process is often posted for the whole world to see. Even with a requirement
Now we've moved to having the rulemaking documents available on the Internet. While still requiring postal/fax/courier hard-copy replies this may have raised the comment quantity by an order of magnitude (100-1000). This greatly perplexed the government. Now they were getting comments from ordinary citizens. In fact, it is likely that the majority of the comments came from individual citizens. What are they to do? Not only is the filing clerk overloaded with the number of comments (and having to make a 13th generation of the log sheet to file them all), but they can't just take the lobbyist/interest group positions and claim it as public opinion.
Now open an avenue to submit comments via email. Post the information to a few lists/newsgroups/web sites and suddenly you've got what happened here. The file clerk is totally overwhelmed. They can't do an automated strip of all personal information because they might miss some. They can't hire more people because its not in their budget. If they did hire more people there might not be funds for all those "fact finding" trips to places that coincidentally have excellent golf courses.
Besides the most important point - now the *VAST* majority of the received comments are from individual american citizens. Whats is a government agency to do without the firm and easily heard voice of lobbyists to guide them? They might actually have to *READ* the comments and do some data analysis on what the citizens actually want.
The best way to deal with this is for everyone that commented to send a written formal request that their personally identifiable be removed from the filing direct to the Treasury Department. Then send a similar dead-tree complain to the FTC. A letter to all 3 of your congressmen won't hurt either. It will give them a great opportunity to posture.
Like another respondent my fingerprints have already been volutarily given the the USMC, NCIS, SAPD, DIS, and about 5-6 other agencies I have no clear recollection of at the present time.
If you want to get in your personal vehicle, drive across several state lines, pay cash all the way, never stay in a hotel, and not have the capability to endanger anyone else as a part of that travel (other than lousy driving) then please feel free to do so.
If, on the other hand, you want to get on an airplane for a domestic flight be prepared for some screening. Why? Because you are not getting on a public air carrier with a bunch of other people.
By the same token if you're flying internationally then be prepared to furnish your identity on entrance/exit from all countries along the route. Its just the way it is in the real world.
You can do most or all of this with APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) via ham radio. I had it in my CUCV M-1009 (A military Chevy Blazer with a diesel engine and tough enough to go anywhere) while I was living in Colorado. During my daily commute the other hams could see where I was and my wife could too. During snow storms if I stopped in one place for more than 5 minutes someone would call me on the repeater we used to make sure I was OK.
There have been at least two cases where embedded APRS units were used to recover stolen cars. In California a man was able to give police (once he convinced them he wasn't crazy) the exact track and location of his car. It was recovered with minimal damage while the suspects were still driving it. In Canada the signal was lost as the vehicle drove into a large industrial warehouse. The RCMP went to the location and found a large chop shop with 100+ vehicle in various stages of disassembly.
It was great fun and I'll be installing it in my Bronco and the wife's Mustang over the holidays.
The TNC (terminal node controller), a Kantronics KPC-3+, I usually use has externally controllable outputs (password protected) that you could use to unlock your doors and/or shut off the fuel pump. I don't plan to tie into the fuel pump, but door unlocking would be very nice. Its a simple password system, but you just change it after you use it each time. How often do you lock your keys in the car?
With some creative hacking of Asterisk you could probably get the system to at least read you back the closest cross street of your vehicle's current position. The Bronco will be getting a Toughbook CF-27 to do such things.
The timing isn't right at the moment. Wait for the stock to tank (SEC investigation or 10Q filing). Then the pimp stick will come out.
In my dream world IBM will buy SCO once the stock dips below $0.66US (the price all the execs had their options repriced to), but before they declare bankruptcy. Then IBM could run a charity action and sell the chance to "Fire a SCO executive". I think the bidding would go quite high on who gets to fire Darl McBride. It will also pretty much completely ruin the credibility of those involved on the SCO side.
The whole SCO mess is really pretty simple when you think about it.
Through the IPO and such a bunch of lawyers ended up with a large interest in Caldera/SCO. When they realized they didn't have any revenue from product sales they decided to: A) Find another possible source of revenue. B) Increase the value of their near worthless stock holdings.
So, SCO needed to find a company that A) had a Unix license with them. B) Was a large player in the Linux space. C) (most importantly) Wouldn't blink at the cost of buying them. IBM looked like an attractive target.
Unfortuantely for SCO, IBM didn't blink. They just laughed, gave them a lollipop and told them to run along. Since the stock was ticking up the SCO execs/lawyers (same people) are playing it to the hilt and trying to create an impression that they might be gaining some huge revenues soon. Look what its done to their stock. Also, look at who is suddenly selling stock in SCO.
Pretty soon IBM will give them the bitch-slap they so truly deserve and likely buy their assets pennies on the dollar at a bankruptcy sale.
Until then, lets just recognize this whole fiasco for what it is. Its a pump-and-dump on the stock. Nothing more, nothing less.
Slashdot Mirror
I worked for XO Communications (Nextlink), another Craig McCaw company, during the LMDS push. That is the push that broke the company. They tried to implement LMDS before the equipment was ready and without a complete understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the technology.
I don't think WiMAX will be much different. Much like BPL it is touted as the solution to providing wireless in rural areas. In each case the infrastructure required to implement a Base/Subscriber architecture using fixed infrastructure cannot produce profitable operation within the served area of each fixed base station. The simple mathematics of subscriber density versus cost of infrastructure doesn't work.
The only implementation that makes economic sense for rural areas are multi-carrier (multiband) mesh implementations. It is only by making every node a router that such a network can succeed in the world of economics.
When the Internet was originally built the concept was of symetrical bandwidth. Each new node extended the Internet by another step. For serving rural areas the same logic prevails. We have a historical model of how to build a network. Now lets figure out how to do it right instead of another albatross of Base/Subscriber, or rather more accurately -- Producer/Consumer.
I know that is the problem. By moving a portion of the charges outside the published rate plan they can advertise a lower price while continuing to get higher revenue and margins.
In general they have done 3 things:
1 - Provide a standard 30-day out if the service is sub-par.
2 - Require transparent billing so that consumers are told all the additional fees that will raise the real cost of their mobile bills.
3 - Make sure the contract language is legible.
It creates a level playing field for all vendors and doesn't favor one over another. I don't see what the mobile providers have to complain about.
I don't know if the original Minuteman silos were much different than the Titan-II installations. In the Titan-II LCCs the PALs were controlled via a set of thumbwheel switches on a panel. The code signal was set to a butterfly valve that controlled the flow of fuel and oxidizer to the engines.
You can see the panel still in place if you take a tour of the Titan-II museum outside of Tuscon, AZ. Its more than a little strange to walk around the inside of a relatively complete LCC and silo complex.
The TIGER2003 data is available. You can spend the time required t learn it or you can use the online available preconverted ones. You can also use the geocoded files available online. Its the most common US street mapping base among commercial programs so TIGER is worth the time.
Do a couple googles on APRS TIGER 2003 XASTIR and you can find them online.
I'd be interested in hearing more about the antenna configuration used during the flights. I would think that a 6 or 8dbi omni held in the hand of a passenger would get quite different results than an externally mounted antenna.
Has anyone done any flights with a moderately low-gain panel or two externally mounted on the aircraft? I'm sure there would be some FAA (TSO?) issues if it was done on anything other than a homebuilt experimental.
A decent cheapie is the Deluo:
Deluo
An excellent solid unit for permanent mounting is the Garmin GPS-16. Its got WAAS, 1pps output, and has worked great on several projects I've done.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. I don't think the average user equates a computer with a hammer.
The hammer analogy isn't perfect, but its a good start. The next question is what can we do to teach the average user that a computer is a tool? In what ways can we educate people that the computer is just processing and displaying information, rather than some oracle that always speaks the truth?
The problem with both of these is that they require the individual to process, validate, and make logical judgements about information. Based on what I see on a day-to-day basis, this is asking more of the average person than they are willing to give.
I think that would be a rather interesting experiment. You'd likely want to put up a map of the old vs. new computer locations.
You could also do some interesting variations on that. Assuming all the computers are externally identical (and you don't have any FUBAR'd mouse/kb's) just swap identification labels, change the maps, and see if anyone notices the difference.
I don't think we have enough information to draw conclusions based on the article.
- Do the computers that folks were willing to wait for have additional applications loaded?
- Are they perhaps known to be the most stable ones out of a given set?
- Did different machines have different monitors, keyboards, and mice?
- Are they in a location that makes them more desireable (lighting, temperature, lack of people, etc)
There are plenty of factors that influence choices such as this. Unless they took steps to ensure that the computers were 100pct identical in every way, the conclusions they have reached are suspect. The extrapolations they make about people blindingly trusting computers even more so.
A computer is a tool. Just like an artisan may have a favorite tool for a task a user may have a favorite computer for a task. I don't see anything too earth-shattering here.
The key can be found in the article...
--
"It's the threat and the possibility that all of these services could migrate to the Internet," said Alexander's aide. "As services migrate to the Internet, you could bundle these services, and the telecom taxes that states currently collect they could no longer collect." -- Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
--
This is simply about the states being afraid of losing a very lucrative revenue source. The thought behind it has nothing to do with with the implementation, the technical reasons for VoIP deployment, or even whether its a Bad Idea (TM) or not. Its all about maintaining tax revenue for the state.
There are legions of accoutants, lawyers, and beauracrats in every state (hell, in every level of government) looking for things that might be taxed to generate revenue. It has nothing to do with whether the tax is smart, appropriate, or germane. Its about finding sources of revenue to support state spending.
Based on reading the article they are talking about a software defined radio (SDR) which is capable of operating discrete carriers and user communities on each of the 3 non-overlapping channels. They are not talking about bonding all 3 channels into a single data link.
Based on the article the chipset will be *capable* of using all 3 non-overlapping 2.4Ghz ISM channels. That will allow the associated users to be split across the 3 channels rather than all on a single channel and competing for access to the channel.
The same tradeoffs that drive WLAN design today will still exist. Its not a panacea, but it does add new possibilities to the engineer's set of available solutions.
By opening up the front end of the radio they can look at the whole band and do some very interesting noise reduction techniques. This is alluded to in the article, but I think its the most promising part of the chipset. The ability to identify and reduce the affects of wideband noise will got a long way to improving reception of WLAN signals....
This thing looks great. Right up to the picture where they show the interface connectors. a DB9 and a standard USB port? Those are some of the most fragile connectors out there. While they are convenient and cheap they are the weakest link in the system.
If you look at a professional Motorola radio or a military radio handset connector you'll see the connectors are sealed with surface contacts and a locking mechanism. Any opening with depth and sliding contacts is going to get full of gunk and the pins will either bend or break.
As discussed on slashdot before - http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/14/165722 5&mode=thread
The FCC has had this report for quite some time. Especially in an election year don't look for your friendly neighborhood congress-critter to upset the NAB.
Not to mention DoD, NTIA, and a whole lot more alphabet soup....
Broadband over power line (BPL)
Hmm where does this fall on the good idea scale? They are talking about running RF signals over miles of unshielded cable. NTIA filed comments strongly opposing it. This horse is dead before the starting gate even opens.
BPL is being touted as bringing broadband internet to rural areas not served by DSL or cable modem. However, if you read the fine print you'll find that the signal can be pushed less distance then either (DSL/cable) technology. This means infrastructure overbuild costs will prevent it being deployed in anything but densely populated areas. The whole rural service thing is just a smoke screen.
VOIP Regulation
Its not broken so why does the FCC need to "fix" it? I can't find too many examples of government utility regulation actually improving things. The CALEA (Communications Assistance to Law Enforement Act) points are moot as a wiretap order would permit them to tap the IP service just as easily as the phone line. The main issue is that the telcos see that "consumers" will now become their own providers and they (telcos) will be pushed to irrelavancy in the long term. Change and adaptation come slower to telcos than it does the music industry.
With any luck the FCC will deliver the coup-de-grace to BPL and keeps its fingers out of VoIP other than to declare IP end-to-end calls as outside the scope of regulation and IP to PSTN as only in regulatory scope at the point of interconnection to the PSTN.
Warning - US Centric discussion follows....
I agree on the rendering of "pretty" maps and additional work on the datasets.
In general, I'm most interested in DRGs and DOQQs. The DRGs are produced directly by USGS, The DOQQs are produced by multiple sources (ie - some states are doing their own updates). I'm happy to pay *REASONABLE* costs of download and copying to CD. What I've seen from most state GIS clearing houses and a certain commercial site don't even pass the smell test of reasonable.
Fortunately I've been able to find free download sites for most of the DRGs I need. DOQQ can be a little harder to find, but doable if you have the time. I've now got 200GB plus of DRG/DOQQ data on one of my servers here at home.
Hmm, maybe time to start a little garage distribution business.............
Its also the key backup comms network medium in the US for a little tiny organization known as FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) - yes I'm being facetious about the "little tiny" part.
FEMA submitted comments to the FCC Notice of Inquiry that pretty much say "if you do this you will disrupt official government communications affecting the health and safety of US citizens". The NTIA didn't like it much either.
I'd say there will be some trials conducted with FEMA and NTIA watching very closely. The first time it increases the noise floor in their receivers 1-2dB BPL will be a dead issue in the US.
If the full georegistered archive is made available I'll be pleased. Otherwise it will be just another data-source for ESA to make money off of.
Given all the taxes paid citizens of the ESA member nations it had sure better be made publicly available.
Not quite an accurate correlation. If someone starts acting in a way that causes me to fear for my life in the other listed venues I can leave. Once that airplane is at cruising altitude it becomes much more difficult to decide I don't like the social company and depart.
The following makes no excuses for the US Department of the Treasury. They need to stick by their contract with the commenter at the time the comment was posted. This is an explanation of how the whole process works....
The "public comment period" is standard in most US federal government rulemaking actions. Before the advent of access to rulemaking data via the web you were lucky if you knew there was a rulemaking in process unless you were part of an affected industry or had a lobbyist on staff.
Typically, comments were filed by mail, fax, or courier. The courier provision is provided for the convenience of all those lobbyists and interest groups in Washington D.C.
An issue such as changing the tax rates on malt beverages might get something like 10-100 comments filed. The GS-5 (maybe a 7) in charge of handling the comments would log them properly on a 12th generation photocopy of the "comment log sheet" (or some other similar name) and the comments would be either published with personal information removed (via a big black marker) or more likely ceremoniously placed in a large manilla file and trucked to a records vault.
Enter the Internet - Now the rulemaking process is often posted for the whole world to see. Even with a requirement
Now we've moved to having the rulemaking documents available on the Internet. While still requiring postal/fax/courier hard-copy replies this may have raised the comment quantity by an order of magnitude (100-1000). This greatly perplexed the government. Now they were getting comments from ordinary citizens. In fact, it is likely that the majority of the comments came from individual citizens. What are they to do? Not only is the filing clerk overloaded with the number of comments (and having to make a 13th generation of the log sheet to file them all), but they can't just take the lobbyist/interest group positions and claim it as public opinion.
Now open an avenue to submit comments via email. Post the information to a few lists/newsgroups/web sites and suddenly you've got what happened here. The file clerk is totally overwhelmed. They can't do an automated strip of all personal information because they might miss some. They can't hire more people because its not in their budget. If they did hire more people there might not be funds for all those "fact finding" trips to places that coincidentally have excellent golf courses.
Besides the most important point - now the *VAST* majority of the received comments are from individual american citizens. Whats is a government agency to do without the firm and easily heard voice of lobbyists to guide them? They might actually have to *READ* the comments and do some data analysis on what the citizens actually want.
The best way to deal with this is for everyone that commented to send a written formal request that their personally identifiable be removed from the filing direct to the Treasury Department. Then send a similar dead-tree complain to the FTC. A letter to all 3 of your congressmen won't hurt either. It will give them a great opportunity to posture.
Like another respondent my fingerprints have already been volutarily given the the USMC, NCIS, SAPD, DIS, and about 5-6 other agencies I have no clear recollection of at the present time.
If you want to get in your personal vehicle, drive across several state lines, pay cash all the way, never stay in a hotel, and not have the capability to endanger anyone else as a part of that travel (other than lousy driving) then please feel free to do so.
If, on the other hand, you want to get on an airplane for a domestic flight be prepared for some screening. Why? Because you are not getting on a public air carrier with a bunch of other people.
By the same token if you're flying internationally then be prepared to furnish your identity on entrance/exit from all countries along the route. Its just the way it is in the real world.
You can do most or all of this with APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) via ham radio. I had it in my CUCV M-1009 (A military Chevy Blazer with a diesel engine and tough enough to go anywhere) while I was living in Colorado. During my daily commute the other hams could see where I was and my wife could too. During snow storms if I stopped in one place for more than 5 minutes someone would call me on the repeater we used to make sure I was OK.
There have been at least two cases where embedded APRS units were used to recover stolen cars. In California a man was able to give police (once he convinced them he wasn't crazy) the exact track and location of his car. It was recovered with minimal damage while the suspects were still driving it. In Canada the signal was lost as the vehicle drove into a large industrial warehouse. The RCMP went to the location and found a large chop shop with 100+ vehicle in various stages of disassembly.
It was great fun and I'll be installing it in my Bronco and the wife's Mustang over the holidays.
The TNC (terminal node controller), a Kantronics KPC-3+, I usually use has externally controllable outputs (password protected) that you could use to unlock your doors and/or shut off the fuel pump. I don't plan to tie into the fuel pump, but door unlocking would be very nice. Its a simple password system, but you just change it after you use it each time. How often do you lock your keys in the car?
With some creative hacking of Asterisk you could probably get the system to at least read you back the closest cross street of your vehicle's current position. The Bronco will be getting a Toughbook CF-27 to do such things.
The timing isn't right at the moment. Wait for the stock to tank (SEC investigation or 10Q filing). Then the pimp stick will come out.
In my dream world IBM will buy SCO once the stock dips below $0.66US (the price all the execs had their options repriced to), but before they declare bankruptcy. Then IBM could run a charity action and sell the chance to "Fire a SCO executive". I think the bidding would go quite high on who gets to fire Darl McBride. It will also pretty much completely ruin the credibility of those involved on the SCO side.
The whole SCO mess is really pretty simple when you think about it.
Through the IPO and such a bunch of lawyers ended up with a large interest in Caldera/SCO. When they realized they didn't have any revenue from product sales they decided to: A) Find another possible source of revenue. B) Increase the value of their near worthless stock holdings.
So, SCO needed to find a company that A) had a Unix license with them. B) Was a large player in the Linux space. C) (most importantly) Wouldn't blink at the cost of buying them. IBM looked like an attractive target.
Unfortuantely for SCO, IBM didn't blink. They just laughed, gave them a lollipop and told them to run along. Since the stock was ticking up the SCO execs/lawyers (same people) are playing it to the hilt and trying to create an impression that they might be gaining some huge revenues soon. Look what its done to their stock. Also, look at who is suddenly selling stock in SCO.
Pretty soon IBM will give them the bitch-slap they so truly deserve and likely buy their assets pennies on the dollar at a bankruptcy sale.
Until then, lets just recognize this whole fiasco for what it is. Its a pump-and-dump on the stock. Nothing more, nothing less.