A lot of people, particularly from SE Asia are well aware of these benefits - I know some of them send their kids to Australia in high school, which allows them to do VCE/HSC/etc whilst building up enough 'citizenship' years to gain citizenship and as a result be eligible for full HECS advantages.
However, I haven't really noticed a great deal of USA students at our unis - probably because I'm guessing their system is pretty decent as well.
The 'keep-alive' stuff you are referring to is the Periodic Location Update (which occurs at an operator defined time interval - which is usually large - mine is 8 hours).
The MS does not always transmit a standard Location Update when changing cells - only when changing Location Area (LA) - which also can be a large geographical area.
(Remember we are talking about non-GPRS attached MSes).
I should clear a few things up in relation to the GSM myths:
(Please note the following applies to MSes not GPRS-attached. A completely different and more complicated explanation would be required.)
* The pulsing sound is a result of bursts being transmitted over the radio interface (certain bursts must always be transmitted, even if no user data is carried - i.e. no-one talking), thus, this is why is always sounds like the same pattern. If you start talking the GSM phone will emit a more constant stream.
* The GSM MS (mobile station) does not choose its own output power. Instead, this is always ordered by the BSS (usually when the BSS experiences significantly high error rates or low RX signal strength).
* When the MS is not in a call (idle mode), it NEVER transmits when it loses contact with the network. EVER.
* The myth about fast moving MSes causing problems with the ground network does *not* apply to GSM.
GSM also has a feature called "Cell Broadcast" which consists of multiple topic numbers (you can filter though) which is like a teletext system, but for phones. They can be broadcast by a single base station or a group of base stations in a local area.
You either receive the message in two ways (depends on phone, and phone settings).
i. as a 'message' in an SMS like manner ii. directly on the phone's idle screen (scrolls if it doesn't fit).
In Australia most carriers broadcast the name of the suburb or landmark you are in/nearby. For example, at my uni, "RMIT" appears on my phone. At the nearby underground station, "Melbourne Central" (the name of the station) appears on my phone. At street level, I get the suburb name (e.g. "Carlton" or whatever it is).
However, at various points in the past, this system has been used for local area advertising.
Yes, any GSM phone is required to be able to make a call to '112' whether a SIM / PIN code is present or not. It simply sets the "EMERGENCY" cause establishment in the CHANNEL REQUEST message, and it is up to the network to decide whether or not to allow emergency calls (most do).
At the risk of losing my karma, due to saying anything slightly anti-USA:
Another post typical of American arrogance. You are so ignorant of the fact that when it comes to mobile phones it is a completely different culture in other regions of the world - UK, Asia, Australia.
As for your 3G comment, you clearly have no idea. 3G (3GSM/UMTS) networks are going live, in current GSM-Phase2+ countries, but GSM-Phase2+ is going to be around for a very long time. In fact 3GSM is just another evolution really on top of EDGE, which in turn was an evolution upon GPRS. Most newer handsets supporting UMTS can transparently roam GSM/GPRS/EGPRS networks and even hand over whilst in a CSD connection.
It will be a significant amount of time before the UMTS networks will have a coverage footprint even on the same scale as GSM.
Actually a decent way to protect your anonymity in Australia is to purchase a prepaid GSM SIM card, prepaid Internet (using false ID, or none - store people don't care), get a couple-year-old GSM phone with CSD/GPRS data capabilities, but old enough for the IMEI to be changable and you're set.
The GSM authentication comments are not entirely true.
When the radio-connection has been established, the network sends a unique 128-bit key (RAND) to the MS (phone). The phone then uses the A3/A8 algorithm implementation, together with the RAND and an internal key stored only in the SIM (and the network's AuC) known as the Ki. This algorithm produces a 32-bit SRES (authentication check) and a 64-bit Kc (data encryption key).
RAND is sent in an AUTHENTICATION REQUEST message, and the computed SRES is sent back in an AUTHENTICATION RESPONSE. The Kc is not returned (as the network already knows it, the SRES is sent to confirm that the MS is who it says it is).
In theory, the attacker could ignore the response and begin an unciphered radio connection. However, ciphering forms an implicit form of two-way authentication. Since the Kc is used to encrypt calls, and the real Kc is not known by the network, the phone would start encrypting bursts (packets) and the network would not be able to decrypt them, hence communication would fail.
Of course, the network could simply avoid encryption by specifying no algorithm in CIPERING MODE COMMAND message, however most phones would display a warning to the user that the session is not encrypted, and hence the attack is known.
Is encrypted, however some versions of the algorithm (A5/1) are flawed, not to mention the authentication/key generation A3/A8 (implementation specific, but most telcos use COMP128)
Australia has had digital TV over free to air (in the cities at least) since 2001. However, 2 years after the digital deadline, we still aren't that much closer to digital TV.
It's the chicken-and-egg problem. If people don't have enough reasons to get digital TV, then they don't get one. If the networks don't have enough viewers on digital, they don't spend money on the digital content.
We are slowly starting to see some improvement. Almost all local content and much overseas content is displayed in at least 16x9 SD. Some channels (ABC) are experimenting with multicasting (multiple broadcasts). Nine is starting to offer a lot of HD broadcasts (there is a minimum of 1040 hours per year required).
Most digital TV viewers though are using a set top decoder on their 4:3 analog TV. While this is definitely a step forward, it doesn't do HDTV any favors yet.
Our deadline for transition to digital is 2008, but by the looks of things, analog TV sets are still going to be common in 5 years time, so that deadline is likely to be extended.
Re:Don't get it too close to the Speakers...
on
Cashless Society
·
· Score: 1
These are smartcards, not magnetic strip cards.
US paper cash is hardly what I would describe as 'reliable'.
Re:What about ad-hoc cash transfers?
on
Cashless Society
·
· Score: 1
Yes, I never understood why the Americans still keep their paper money. Too much historical/cultural value?
Re:Australia hasn't had paper money for 10 years!
on
Cashless Society
·
· Score: 1
Actually the money is 100% without a doubt plastic. It is extremely hard to tear, is waterproo, don't crease very easily, and doesn't get all disgusting.
We've had it so long, I found it hard to believe other countries still use paper. I recently handled some US currency, and, no offense to the nice US people here, but it is the most disgusting, filthy stuff I've ever touched. I felt like washing my hands afterwards.
Re:how about a cell phone jammer?
on
GPS Jamming for $50
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Yes the problem is not the phones, it's that (no trolling here, I'm quite serious), it's the idiots who don't put them into silent when appropriate.
Particularly in the US, it seems phones are a major problem in cinemas, whereas, believe it or not US slashdotters, they are only a minor problem in some other places.
Something I forgot to comment on, was your comparison of voice quality.
I'm not sure which standard you are referring to, but have you heard the quality of the EFR (enhanced full rate) codec on GSM? I would easily say that overall it sounds much crisper and cleaner than any analog technology.
I don't know what the point of this article is. It is re-iterating (in some cases exaggerating) stuff we already knew. The rest of the world had this discussion at least 10 years ago. As a result, we standardized on GSM.
In Australia we discouraged the use of Analog phones in the mid 90s, and the analog networks were shutdown in 99.
Before this time GSM was gaining huge momentum, with three GSM networks rapidly expanding their coverage. The majority of the urban population were pleased with the technology, however the rural population were less than amused. As a result, CDMA technology was deployed by Telstra which is a digital system, but offering performance characteristics closer to analog.
One problem with GSM in rural areas is the timing advance issue, which limits the maximum range of dedicated mode (2-way communication) to about 35km, typically. The GSM range limitation is not, contrary to popular belief, a power output limitation.
I'm getting a little offtopic here, but I'll quickly explain the problem: The timing advance problem is a result of using fine-grained timeslots. The timing advance parameter is the number of symbol periods the MS (phone) must advance the transmission to avoid colliding with other timeslots. The maximum value is 63 symbol periods, which was chosen to allow the MS plenty of time to measure other cells when not transmitting and receiving.
Additionally, GSM offers Short-Messaging-Service, GPRS (packet switched data), far more efficient spectrum use, EDGE (high speed GPRS using 8PSK modulation).
The population and population density of the US is far better for deploying GSM networks than Australia, so if Australia can do it, I can't see why the US can't.
Actually the last time I checked, the kernel had to be recompiled to change the HZ variable. Not trolling or anything, but it's been pointed out FreeBSD has this as a sysctl parameter. Hopefully Linux will offer this (correct me if I'm wrong!).
Also, you don't necessarily have to increase the clock frequency by a whole order of magnitude. A fair compromise could be 200Hz, or 250Hz, or 500Hz. A typical workstation running X-Windows could use 250 or 500, for example.
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of people, particularly from SE Asia are well aware of these benefits - I know some of them send their kids to Australia in high school, which allows them to do VCE/HSC/etc whilst building up enough 'citizenship' years to gain citizenship and as a result be eligible for full HECS advantages.
However, I haven't really noticed a great deal of USA students at our unis - probably because I'm guessing their system is pretty decent as well.
The 'keep-alive' stuff you are referring to is the Periodic Location Update (which occurs at an operator defined time interval - which is usually large - mine is 8 hours).
The MS does not always transmit a standard Location Update when changing cells - only when changing Location Area (LA) - which also can be a large geographical area.
(Remember we are talking about non-GPRS attached MSes).
I should clear a few things up in relation to the GSM myths:
(Please note the following applies to MSes not GPRS-attached. A completely different and more complicated explanation would be required.)
* The pulsing sound is a result of bursts being transmitted over the radio interface (certain bursts must always be transmitted, even if no user data is carried - i.e. no-one talking), thus, this is why is always sounds like the same pattern. If you start talking the GSM phone will emit a more constant stream.
* The GSM MS (mobile station) does not choose its own output power. Instead, this is always ordered by the BSS (usually when the BSS experiences significantly high error rates or low RX signal strength).
* When the MS is not in a call (idle mode), it NEVER transmits when it loses contact with the network. EVER.
* The myth about fast moving MSes causing problems with the ground network does *not* apply to GSM.
I would be surprised if we did.
Actually this actually happen in other countries.
GSM also has a feature called "Cell Broadcast" which consists of multiple topic numbers (you can filter though) which is like a teletext system, but for phones. They can be broadcast by a single base station or a group of base stations in a local area.
You either receive the message in two ways (depends on phone, and phone settings).
i. as a 'message' in an SMS like manner
ii. directly on the phone's idle screen (scrolls if it doesn't fit).
In Australia most carriers broadcast the name of the suburb or landmark you are in/nearby. For example, at my uni, "RMIT" appears on my phone. At the nearby underground station, "Melbourne Central" (the name of the station) appears on my phone. At street level, I get the suburb name (e.g. "Carlton" or whatever it is).
However, at various points in the past, this system has been used for local area advertising.
These days "GSM" can include the various 'spin-off' technologies that define GSM Phase 2+, such as GPRS, EGPRS (EDGE), HSCSD, etc.
In this case GPRS is also included within the GSM definition.
Yes, any GSM phone is required to be able to make a call to '112' whether a SIM / PIN code is present or not. It simply sets the "EMERGENCY" cause establishment in the CHANNEL REQUEST message, and it is up to the network to decide whether or not to allow emergency calls (most do).
And no one likes people who don't read the comment.
He wasn't saying it was possible, but that it was hardly a long way off for Windows NT.
Bah, poms, yanks - they both whinge about everything, just in different ways.
At the risk of losing my karma, due to saying anything slightly anti-USA:
Another post typical of American arrogance. You are so ignorant of the fact that when it comes to mobile phones it is a completely different culture in other regions of the world - UK, Asia, Australia.
As for your 3G comment, you clearly have no idea. 3G (3GSM/UMTS) networks are going live, in current GSM-Phase2+ countries, but GSM-Phase2+ is going to be around for a very long time. In fact 3GSM is just another evolution really on top of EDGE, which in turn was an evolution upon GPRS. Most newer handsets supporting UMTS can transparently roam GSM/GPRS/EGPRS networks and even hand over whilst in a CSD connection.
It will be a significant amount of time before the UMTS networks will have a coverage footprint even on the same scale as GSM.
Actually a decent way to protect your anonymity in Australia is to purchase a prepaid GSM SIM card, prepaid Internet (using false ID, or none - store people don't care), get a couple-year-old GSM phone with CSD/GPRS data capabilities, but old enough for the IMEI to be changable and you're set.
The GSM authentication comments are not entirely true.
When the radio-connection has been established, the network sends a unique 128-bit key (RAND) to the MS (phone). The phone then uses the A3/A8 algorithm implementation, together with the RAND and an internal key stored only in the SIM (and the network's AuC) known as the Ki. This algorithm produces a 32-bit SRES (authentication check) and a 64-bit Kc (data encryption key).
RAND is sent in an AUTHENTICATION REQUEST message, and the computed SRES is sent back in an AUTHENTICATION RESPONSE. The Kc is not returned (as the network already knows it, the SRES is sent to confirm that the MS is who it says it is).
In theory, the attacker could ignore the response and begin an unciphered radio connection. However, ciphering forms an implicit form of two-way authentication. Since the Kc is used to encrypt calls, and the real Kc is not known by the network, the phone would start encrypting bursts (packets) and the network would not be able to decrypt them, hence communication would fail.
Of course, the network could simply avoid encryption by specifying no algorithm in CIPERING MODE COMMAND message, however most phones would display a warning to the user that the session is not encrypted, and hence the attack is known.
GSM/TDMA mobile phone traffic
I have no idea.
Is encrypted, however some versions of the algorithm (A5/1) are flawed, not to mention the authentication/key generation A3/A8 (implementation specific, but most telcos use COMP128)
Australia has had digital TV over free to air (in the cities at least) since 2001. However, 2 years after the digital deadline, we still aren't that much closer to digital TV.
It's the chicken-and-egg problem. If people don't have enough reasons to get digital TV, then they don't get one. If the networks don't have enough viewers on digital, they don't spend money on the digital content.
We are slowly starting to see some improvement. Almost all local content and much overseas content is displayed in at least 16x9 SD. Some channels (ABC) are experimenting with multicasting (multiple broadcasts). Nine is starting to offer a lot of HD broadcasts (there is a minimum of 1040 hours per year required).
Most digital TV viewers though are using a set top decoder on their 4:3 analog TV. While this is definitely a step forward, it doesn't do HDTV any favors yet.
Our deadline for transition to digital is 2008, but by the looks of things, analog TV sets are still going to be common in 5 years time, so that deadline is likely to be extended.
These are smartcards, not magnetic strip cards.
US paper cash is hardly what I would describe as 'reliable'.
Yes, I never understood why the Americans still keep their paper money. Too much historical/cultural value?
Actually the money is 100% without a doubt plastic. It is extremely hard to tear, is waterproo, don't crease very easily, and doesn't get all disgusting.
We've had it so long, I found it hard to believe other countries still use paper. I recently handled some US currency, and, no offense to the nice US people here, but it is the most disgusting, filthy stuff I've ever touched. I felt like washing my hands afterwards.
Yes the problem is not the phones, it's that (no trolling here, I'm quite serious), it's the idiots who don't put them into silent when appropriate.
Particularly in the US, it seems phones are a major problem in cinemas, whereas, believe it or not US slashdotters, they are only a minor problem in some other places.
Something I forgot to comment on, was your comparison of voice quality.
I'm not sure which standard you are referring to, but have you heard the quality of the EFR (enhanced full rate) codec on GSM? I would easily say that overall it sounds much crisper and cleaner than any analog technology.
I don't know what the point of this article is. It is re-iterating (in some cases exaggerating) stuff we already knew. The rest of the world had this discussion at least 10 years ago. As a result, we standardized on GSM.
In Australia we discouraged the use of Analog phones in the mid 90s, and the analog networks were shutdown in 99.
Before this time GSM was gaining huge momentum, with three GSM networks rapidly expanding their coverage. The majority of the urban population were pleased with the technology, however the rural population were less than amused. As a result, CDMA technology was deployed by Telstra which is a digital system, but offering performance characteristics closer to analog.
One problem with GSM in rural areas is the timing advance issue, which limits the maximum range of dedicated mode (2-way communication) to about 35km, typically. The GSM range limitation is not, contrary to popular belief, a power output limitation.
I'm getting a little offtopic here, but I'll quickly explain the problem: The timing advance problem is a result of using fine-grained timeslots. The timing advance parameter is the number of symbol periods the MS (phone) must advance the transmission to avoid colliding with other timeslots. The maximum value is 63 symbol periods, which was chosen to allow the MS plenty of time to measure other cells when not transmitting and receiving.
Additionally, GSM offers Short-Messaging-Service, GPRS (packet switched data), far more efficient spectrum use, EDGE (high speed GPRS using 8PSK modulation).
The population and population density of the US is far better for deploying GSM networks than Australia, so if Australia can do it, I can't see why the US can't.
That's very true.
Here in Melbourne, Australia, at my local shopping centre, I noted that most of the ATMs run OS/2 the last time there was a power outage.
--jquirke
Hmm are you the admin of Mirror.AARNET by any chance?
Wake me up when the US follows the rest of the world standards... oh wait I might as well be dead..
--quirky
Don't you mean this?
--quirky
Actually the last time I checked, the kernel had to be recompiled to change the HZ variable. Not trolling or anything, but it's been pointed out FreeBSD has this as a sysctl parameter. Hopefully Linux will offer this (correct me if I'm wrong!).
Also, you don't necessarily have to increase the clock frequency by a whole order of magnitude. A fair compromise could be 200Hz, or 250Hz, or 500Hz. A typical workstation running X-Windows could use 250 or 500, for example.