Caller-ID uses Bell 202 modem protocol, which is a simple 1200 bps FSK scheme. You could decode that in software or use a simple FSK demod circuit. It's 1200 Hz for Mark and 2200 Hz for Space.
Of course. But would you rather spend $20 on an external modem with all that (and more) built in, or would you rather spend hours/days building and troubleshooting a telephone interface, demodulator, and firmware for it? For a one-off I don't see the advantage.
To lead off, a suitable software/computer prototype can be made with a computer and modem. Most modems can be put into a "report caller ID" mode. Make some simple C software to listen ot the serial port, and control the relay going to the regular phones using the parallel port.
Once you have a suitable software prototype, use a PIC or AVR to talk to the modem and control the relay. At this point you've got an easy, simple system that does what you want it to do - but you've probably got to update it tediously by reprogramming the micro. Add an LCD and keypad and you can do it by hand.
Alternately use a Rabbit core module with ethernet and rabbit web ( http://www.rabbit.com/ I work for them) and keep the list up to date over the network. It would also give you quite a bit more power with less work than the PIC or AVR, but it's more expensive. As always one trades fastcheapgood.
I'd leave the answering machine always connected to the phone line. Block the ring from the other phones until the caller ID is decoded. It gives you one less ring to answer the phone in, but that's a price you may just have to pay.
Winradio seems to have a max IF of 15kHz. Far, far too small to do anything with TV, much less GPS and other fun things. Perhaps there are models I didn't see (very brief visit).
Software defined radio is nothing new. What's new is that there are more hands in the pot - more people trying to do cheaper generalized stuff with it, as opposed to bog standard radio (voice, CW, etc) communication, and putting the hardware together in such a state that software developers can hack at it without any electronics knowledge.
You've no doubt noticed the general trend of cheapness. It's cheap to make a programmer work hard and develop a feature so that you can reduce the hardware by 1 chip and save millions in the margin. Further, sofware can reconfigure itself much more easily, quickly, and cheaply.
So winradio is as important as all those other "generic reciever computer radios" but this is different and for many applications more powerful.
For those that are curious, I looked up the cost of the components.
Buying the chips in small quantities leads to about $100 just for the 4 main chips (two analog interface chips, one FPGA, one USB microcontroller). The PCB is likely to be around $20 if it's more than a two layer and in small quantities. The labor to assemble just a few of them is likely $50-$100.
$550 isn't a bad price. But there's a reason the PCB isn't open sourced like all the other design files - the company wants (needs) to make money and recoup its investment.
Still, one sufficiently motivated could reduce the cost of the entire board and probably include the popular generic modules to the $200 range if they were able to get a comitment to purchase from say 100 people.
It's a neat concept, and one I'd like to get into, but right now it's not something that you use so much as tinker with. It's for researchers and hobbyists. Once there is real time hdtv decoder software in linux that runs with this, and a good tv/radio record/pause/skip program, as well as a nice simple scanner application then it will become something worth having for the general linux hacker.
I think someone could make a good bit of money if they made a small module that just had one A/D interface, the FPGA, a cable modem tuner, and the usb microcontroller. It could sell for $100, which would be cheap enough for regular hackers to get it and start making really cool tv/radio applications for.
You are confusing the World Trade Organization with some other entity. The only things the WTO concerns itself with is trade treaties and pacts. It is entirely economic in nature, and it is driven in part by IP rights.
The only things you might be able to say bad about China that the WTO might possibly consider is the high level of copyright infringment. They do, however, have copyright law that is in line with WTO standards and make some attempt at enforcement, therefore they are within the WTO.
Of course, the real reason they are in the WTO is so we (the US and EU) can push them around as far as tariffs, inport/export fees and taxes, subsidies, etc. You see, we are very dependant on much more of the stuff coming out of china than we are of the stuff coming out of russia (oil notwishtanding).
As bad as their human rights situation is, it really has little to do with the WTO. Well, except in the fact that if their human rights were better there may conceivably be less need for the citizens to violate IP.
I don't think the security people are as trusting in black box technology as you seem to indicate.
Like everything else there is a cost/security decision that has to be made. One could invest in a system that would use all three possibly keys (biometrics, passcode, key), or one could invest in a regular tumbler lock with 6 tumblers.
The reality is that of the population that wants to break into your office, most of them would be stopped by the lock - they don't want to break in badly enough to obtain and learn to use lock picking tools. They'd rather social engineer a way in.
Of the population that wants to break in, more would be stopped by the more secure system, but the improvement might only by perhaps 1-5% fewer possible break-ins. Again, a social engineering trick is also going to work here depending on the people who have legitimate access.
The RFID is going to be, for quite some time (measured in years) better than the tumbler lock. Simply because most of the possible miscreants would rather employ a social hack than obtain and learn to use the equipment necessary to conduct and electronic attack. Further, social hacks are much easier to defend if caught. If caught with electronic RFID hacking equipment, you're going to be hard pressed to prove that you use it on a day to day basis for legitimate purposes. Eventually cell phones will be used for these attacks, but again that's several years down the road.
For right now the cost is more than the tumbler lock, and the security is measurably greater. It's not a double digit improvement, though - few security advances are, and even fewer organizations need a double digit improvment.
1. Buy suitable laptop
2. Disconnect and remove display
3. Disconnect keyboard and mouse pad
You can get very powerful laptops now, put lots of memory in them, and be set. There are laptops that have the option of a second hard drive (raid or normal), and there are those that allow a second hard drive in one of the drive bays.
Removing the screen will make the laptop thinner. Disconnecting the keyboard will prevent accidental keypresses. The external monitor port and USB ports can be used when you need a head. The battery is useful for power outages. The wireless network is useful for internet access or wireless development (why create a wired network for development?).
If you don't need the battery backup, then remove the batteries for a significant weight savings.
A laptop is about the least expensive solution in the form factor you need. A rack mount is more expensive, larger, and heavier. Even the mac mini is large and heavy. Other computers aren't going to be as light and small, even though they may be cheaper.
If you don't need a powerful server, a good used laptop is very inexpensive.
Did you also stop buying Belkin when they added sw to their routers that, about one week into operation, would randomly redirect a web page request to an advertisement for their filtering service?
How about Linksys? They've done some mean things too.
And every other company out there.
Your tactics will not impact d-link. Not only that, they are unsustainable, if you want to buy any technological equipment, that is. Eventually everyone will be on your lit shist. Then you'll start trying to figure out which one is "least evil" or perhaps which one hasn't been substantially evil for the longest period of time.
At the end of the day, someone on some project made a set of assumptions, and based a poor decision on those assumptions. It's impacted someone else quite significantly, and they have remedied that.
Personally I'm glad that they eventually remedied their situation. They will make more mistakes in the future, but it's not because they are malicious, or stupid - it's just a mistake. Even with all the history we see about time servers and routers, they may have not seen that at the right time in the project that produced that code.
Given that, the only thing that we can really blame them for is the poor response to the initial problem report, and the time it took to realize the enormity of the problem and make amends.
The correct tool is called a brain, but first the brain must be configured properly.
Deadlocks are one symptom of poor program logic, and are designed into the program due to lack of proper controls. They frequently occur when a program is not designed before it is written.
See "dining philosophers" for an explanation of this, and several methods to prevent this situation.
Tracing tools are all well and good, but if one starts out with correct logic in the first place then one won't spend more time debugging than programming.
Always remember that a digital computer is a logical computing device. If you give it a series of instructions which do not ALWAYS have a logical solution, then it will choke... eventually.
It's not a frontier anymore the way electronics is not a frontier anymore.
Many, if not most, EEs go into college with no practical electronic experience whatsoever. In times of yesteryear you weren't an EE until you built your own radio in your basement, etc.
Many, if not most, computer scientists of the next generation will go into computer science with no practical programming experience whatsoever. The only advantage here is that most already have all they need to try it out if they want to, and online tutorials telling them where to get the tools, and how to get started.
In other words, computer programming is now a job just like accounting, and programmers are commodities. The frontier is no longer the frontier, it's the middle of the city. Sure, there are a few people building on the outskirts, but only 1 out of 100 of those projects will be incorporated into the programming lexicon.
So, no, kids don't program unless parents or teachers help them to do so. Computers are now used as tools in school, not as experimental learning stations.
It's part of the natural progression of a profession. First it's neat, hobbyist level craftsmanship. Then companies start pursuing it. Then it becomes highly paid. Then colleges/universities start teaching it as an accredited program towards a profession. Then it becomes commonplace.
Given that it exports to google earth, and the google earth format is understood (if I understand correctly) then one should be able to create a program to convert from google earth to a number of other formats.
The limitation remains on features that don't get exported to google earth.
It strikes me as odd that we constantly compare MMOGs to other games or services regardless of the validity of the comparison.
So what you're saying, essentially, is that my economic perspective is wrong, and yours is right, and since your perspective is that Blizzard is providing adequate entertainment for a fair fee, then I have no reason to complain?
Wow, you really believe the world does revolve around you.
If you are happy about the service you are getting, then it seems odd that you'd take time to complain about the complainers. Why don't you stop complaining and, like the silent majority, relax? If this isn't your fight then why are you so keen to weigh in on the matter?
As for my part, I play perhaps 10-20 hours a month. I have a lot of other things on my plate right now, so I have to schedule my play time.
Out of the last 10 times I have attempted to play, I could not login 4 of those times at all during the 4 hours I scheduled and was disconnected 2 times and was not able to log back on for the remaining time I had scheduled. When I have been able to play uninterrupted it has not been without frustrating problems (pauses in game play, etc).
I would accept these problems if Blizzard simply gave immediate notice of a problem, a time frame for the problem to be fixed, and stopped them from recurring. As it is they don't talk about a problem until after 2-4 hours after it starts, and they don't give a time frame for repair.
This isn't a waiting-queue issue. And apparantly it isn't temporary growing pains. This has been going on for over a month now.
I'm glad you're happy with your service - lots of people are, including my wife who doesn't have such a difficult schedule for play time. I'm not happy. Don't tell me that I don't deserve better service. Yes, if this issue doesn't clear up by the time my subscription comes due then I'm not re-subscribing.
Just like with nine women you can have a baby in one month.
They've had nine months. They should be having a baby every month now.
Downtime is either being caused by poor design, hardware/software limitations, or bandwidth limitations.
These are not things that are unknown, or uncontrollable.
If this project is too complex to get a firm handle on the problems, and the work force can't be scaled to meet the demands, then your only avenue for relief is to scale back the complexity.
Otherwise you're admitting that you are managing the project poorly.
For those that don't play, keep in mind that this is an ongoing, crippling (ie, showstopper) situation. This isn't occasional short downtime.
It's as if every time there's a crash they have to run a WoW style FSCK on the world image before they can bring it back up.
I know I'd be much happier if they at minimum
1) Acknowledged any downtime immediately (ie, if I can't get on then there should be a status message about it - not four hours later)
2) Described, briefly, what stage they are at in troublshooting (ie, is the problem understood? Is the fix being implemented? Has anyone even been notified?)
3) Gave a time frame. (Will be accepting logins within the hour, within 5 hours, within 24 hours.)
I don't know, maybe everyone else has copious amounts of free time, and the ability to play whenever they want. I have to schedule time for myself to play WoW. When I can't play I essentially lose that opportunity - I can't just swap things around.
At least throw us a bone and give us the information we're all begging for, since you certainly aren't going to give us back our time or money.
Don't anyone mistake this for what it is: a robot that overrides your control inputs.
Ah yes, the "control freak" response, also used by the "robots are taking over our jobs" people.
Let's think this through. If you want to tune the station on your radio, would you rather 1) turn a dial or 2) tune the PLL by hand because, after all, there's a "robot" that doesn't allow you to tune in non-standard frequencies and it is making decisions for you how best to tune to stations that may not be exactly on frequency.
Silly example, sure. Moving along - is it possible for any pilot today to control a modern jet fighter craft? No - a complex computer system takes the pilot direction, and uses it to change the control surfaces. If the computer goes - pfft! - so does te rest of the plane.
Maybe a little too far fetched? Ok, then we'll bring it back a little bit. Instead of ABS, you'll get four displays on your dashboard telling you the exact rotational speed of each wheel. You'll also get four brake pads. Now you have ultimate control, and don't need to let the silly ABS robot decide whether one wheel is slipping enough to brake a little bit.
Modern technology allows for some stunning new abilities and features. These are meant to enable the user to do more than with older technology. It would not be possible to manually control all the features of this vehicle, and it does enable the driver to do more than they would normally be able to do (ie, go around a 90 degree small radius turn at 60mph without losing control).
Don't anyone mistake this for anything other than what it is: extending the ability of a human being without special training.
After all, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp" - Robert Browning.
So you hit a deer with your ABS-equipped car: does it occur to you that, perhaps, without ABS, you'd have hit the deer a lot faster?
Chances are good that he would rather lose control of the car and not hit the deer, than still be able to steer and hit the deer.
ABS doesn't necessarily reduce stopping distance - in theory it gives you the minimum stopping distance your particular friction (tire+road) will allow while still giving you the ability to control the car.
That being said, it is true that in most situations ABS will stop you more quickly since the maximum friction is attained when the wheels are not slipping.
It is more likely that he would have still hit the deer even without ABS.
Not any more than X10. See below for reasons why home automation in general, and these two specific products, has not yet taken off.
What's the community's consensus on home automation?
It would be great if it was:
* Cheap (less than 2 * the cost of existing switches and plugs)
* Easy to install and configure for both new homes and retrofits
* Super-reliable - not controllable from other sources, no chance of interference, no chance of failure after power outages, brownouts, etc, can survive multiple lightning strikes and other destructive conditions, falls back to a simple, obvious control state when there's a problem
* Secure
* Works like current technology - guests or prospective home buyers won't be left wondering what the extra buttons do, nor will they wonder how the light is supposed to go on.
* Handles all common types of electrical lighting and appliances correctly automatically - you won't have to worry about plugging a flourescent lamp or fan in where a dimmer module is - it detects it and controls it appropiately
The primary keys being that they be intuitive (ie, simulate normal dumb technology), cheap, and easy to install.
So far every system has failed in nearly every respect. I've been considering the problem for many years, hoping to design my own home automation system, but even if I ignore the installation and cheap aspects (since I'll be doing both with no intent to commercialize) it's difficult to make it so simple that anyone can use it, nevermind meeting the other goals.
So-
Home automation is something that is still very niche. It's expensive, non-trivial to setup, and therefore will not make a huge penetration in the market for some time.
Eventually it'll happen, but certainly not with these systems. The biggest advantage they have is no need for seperate or additional wiring. Insteon has a huge advantage over X-10 due to the wireless capability. Change that to Zigbee, manufacture plug units that are installed in the wall instead of plugged into it, build out the system options to include HVAC, garage door, sprinkler, whole house power consumption monitoring, very secure internet/cell phone access and monitoring, and drop the price to $3-$10 per module in small quantities ($2-$5 in hundred lots) and it'll be killer.
As the "internet generation" gets older we'll see more and more interest in this and the non-trivial setup will become less of an issue. The other issues still need to be addressed.
It sounds like fun! Make them sick as well, so they can't play at their level, and all the items they own or get during the time of the banishment become infected so they are useless or damaging to other players (makes it hard for them to open a new account and transfer all their loot).
And better yet, they could then be slowly pushed to the banishment zone where their characters slowly turn into NPCs that others can defeat to receive the loot untainted.
It doesn't really matter to him, I suspect, since he's working 7 days a week I doubt he sees much of his kids at all.
Chances are good his kids know exactly what he does, and perhaps feel some sense of shame since he does something that he so disapproves of that he doesn't want to tell them.
But it's ok, since they've got their own computers and the internet to babysit them.
Ideally this'll be set up so when an editor goes into the submission bin stories are grouped according to the relationship they have to each other (5 stories pointing to the same link, for instance) and the best one can be chosen. Later if any other stories come in it will show that the link has already been used, and they can either be rejected or put aside for the occasional slashdot follow up link story.
In the end, this is a feature for the editors, not a general bookmarking service.
Slashdot Mirror
Caller-ID uses Bell 202 modem protocol, which is a simple 1200 bps FSK scheme. You could decode that in software or use a simple FSK demod circuit. It's 1200 Hz for Mark and 2200 Hz for Space.
Of course. But would you rather spend $20 on an external modem with all that (and more) built in, or would you rather spend hours/days building and troubleshooting a telephone interface, demodulator, and firmware for it? For a one-off I don't see the advantage.
-Adam
To lead off, a suitable software/computer prototype can be made with a computer and modem. Most modems can be put into a "report caller ID" mode. Make some simple C software to listen ot the serial port, and control the relay going to the regular phones using the parallel port.
Once you have a suitable software prototype, use a PIC or AVR to talk to the modem and control the relay. At this point you've got an easy, simple system that does what you want it to do - but you've probably got to update it tediously by reprogramming the micro. Add an LCD and keypad and you can do it by hand.
Alternately use a Rabbit core module with ethernet and rabbit web ( http://www.rabbit.com/ I work for them) and keep the list up to date over the network. It would also give you quite a bit more power with less work than the PIC or AVR, but it's more expensive. As always one trades fastcheapgood.
I'd leave the answering machine always connected to the phone line. Block the ring from the other phones until the caller ID is decoded. It gives you one less ring to answer the phone in, but that's a price you may just have to pay.
-Adam
Winradio seems to have a max IF of 15kHz. Far, far too small to do anything with TV, much less GPS and other fun things. Perhaps there are models I didn't see (very brief visit).
Software defined radio is nothing new. What's new is that there are more hands in the pot - more people trying to do cheaper generalized stuff with it, as opposed to bog standard radio (voice, CW, etc) communication, and putting the hardware together in such a state that software developers can hack at it without any electronics knowledge.
You've no doubt noticed the general trend of cheapness. It's cheap to make a programmer work hard and develop a feature so that you can reduce the hardware by 1 chip and save millions in the margin. Further, sofware can reconfigure itself much more easily, quickly, and cheaply.
So winradio is as important as all those other "generic reciever computer radios" but this is different and for many applications more powerful.
-Adam
For those that are curious, I looked up the cost of the components.
Buying the chips in small quantities leads to about $100 just for the 4 main chips (two analog interface chips, one FPGA, one USB microcontroller). The PCB is likely to be around $20 if it's more than a two layer and in small quantities. The labor to assemble just a few of them is likely $50-$100.
$550 isn't a bad price. But there's a reason the PCB isn't open sourced like all the other design files - the company wants (needs) to make money and recoup its investment.
Still, one sufficiently motivated could reduce the cost of the entire board and probably include the popular generic modules to the $200 range if they were able to get a comitment to purchase from say 100 people.
It's a neat concept, and one I'd like to get into, but right now it's not something that you use so much as tinker with. It's for researchers and hobbyists. Once there is real time hdtv decoder software in linux that runs with this, and a good tv/radio record/pause/skip program, as well as a nice simple scanner application then it will become something worth having for the general linux hacker.
I think someone could make a good bit of money if they made a small module that just had one A/D interface, the FPGA, a cable modem tuner, and the usb microcontroller. It could sell for $100, which would be cheap enough for regular hackers to get it and start making really cool tv/radio applications for.
-Adam
You are confusing the World Trade Organization with some other entity. The only things the WTO concerns itself with is trade treaties and pacts. It is entirely economic in nature, and it is driven in part by IP rights.
The only things you might be able to say bad about China that the WTO might possibly consider is the high level of copyright infringment. They do, however, have copyright law that is in line with WTO standards and make some attempt at enforcement, therefore they are within the WTO.
Of course, the real reason they are in the WTO is so we (the US and EU) can push them around as far as tariffs, inport/export fees and taxes, subsidies, etc. You see, we are very dependant on much more of the stuff coming out of china than we are of the stuff coming out of russia (oil notwishtanding).
As bad as their human rights situation is, it really has little to do with the WTO. Well, except in the fact that if their human rights were better there may conceivably be less need for the citizens to violate IP.
-Adam
I don't think the security people are as trusting in black box technology as you seem to indicate.
Like everything else there is a cost/security decision that has to be made. One could invest in a system that would use all three possibly keys (biometrics, passcode, key), or one could invest in a regular tumbler lock with 6 tumblers.
The reality is that of the population that wants to break into your office, most of them would be stopped by the lock - they don't want to break in badly enough to obtain and learn to use lock picking tools. They'd rather social engineer a way in.
Of the population that wants to break in, more would be stopped by the more secure system, but the improvement might only by perhaps 1-5% fewer possible break-ins. Again, a social engineering trick is also going to work here depending on the people who have legitimate access.
The RFID is going to be, for quite some time (measured in years) better than the tumbler lock. Simply because most of the possible miscreants would rather employ a social hack than obtain and learn to use the equipment necessary to conduct and electronic attack. Further, social hacks are much easier to defend if caught. If caught with electronic RFID hacking equipment, you're going to be hard pressed to prove that you use it on a day to day basis for legitimate purposes. Eventually cell phones will be used for these attacks, but again that's several years down the road.
For right now the cost is more than the tumbler lock, and the security is measurably greater. It's not a double digit improvement, though - few security advances are, and even fewer organizations need a double digit improvment.
-Adam
The revolution is called Open Source. And its leader? Linus Torvalds, the reclusive founder of Linux.
CNN just likes to drive RMS batty.
And really, who doesn't?
-Adam
diapers down to under 10 cents.
Yeah, but that's way up since they started advertising on the outside of the diaper! It's all about placement, people.
B -Adam
1. Buy suitable laptop
2. Disconnect and remove display
3. Disconnect keyboard and mouse pad
You can get very powerful laptops now, put lots of memory in them, and be set. There are laptops that have the option of a second hard drive (raid or normal), and there are those that allow a second hard drive in one of the drive bays.
Removing the screen will make the laptop thinner. Disconnecting the keyboard will prevent accidental keypresses. The external monitor port and USB ports can be used when you need a head. The battery is useful for power outages. The wireless network is useful for internet access or wireless development (why create a wired network for development?).
If you don't need the battery backup, then remove the batteries for a significant weight savings.
A laptop is about the least expensive solution in the form factor you need. A rack mount is more expensive, larger, and heavier. Even the mac mini is large and heavy. Other computers aren't going to be as light and small, even though they may be cheaper.
If you don't need a powerful server, a good used laptop is very inexpensive.
-Adam
You would need to hire day laborers just to get all the cash into your rental truck.
And you just know they'll stiff you!
-Adam
For those in america: Denmark is not the capital of sweden ;-)
Also, the language is not "denmarkish", it's danish.
Also, the nation is not "daneland" nor is it "danishia"
Thank you.
-Adam
Did you also stop buying Belkin when they added sw to their routers that, about one week into operation, would randomly redirect a web page request to an advertisement for their filtering service?
How about Linksys? They've done some mean things too.
And every other company out there.
Your tactics will not impact d-link. Not only that, they are unsustainable, if you want to buy any technological equipment, that is. Eventually everyone will be on your lit shist. Then you'll start trying to figure out which one is "least evil" or perhaps which one hasn't been substantially evil for the longest period of time.
At the end of the day, someone on some project made a set of assumptions, and based a poor decision on those assumptions. It's impacted someone else quite significantly, and they have remedied that.
Personally I'm glad that they eventually remedied their situation. They will make more mistakes in the future, but it's not because they are malicious, or stupid - it's just a mistake. Even with all the history we see about time servers and routers, they may have not seen that at the right time in the project that produced that code.
Given that, the only thing that we can really blame them for is the poor response to the initial problem report, and the time it took to realize the enormity of the problem and make amends.
-Adam
Mirror
-Adam
Use the right tool
... eventually.
The correct tool is called a brain, but first the brain must be configured properly.
Deadlocks are one symptom of poor program logic, and are designed into the program due to lack of proper controls. They frequently occur when a program is not designed before it is written.
See "dining philosophers" for an explanation of this, and several methods to prevent this situation.
Tracing tools are all well and good, but if one starts out with correct logic in the first place then one won't spend more time debugging than programming.
Always remember that a digital computer is a logical computing device. If you give it a series of instructions which do not ALWAYS have a logical solution, then it will choke
-Adam
It's not a frontier anymore the way electronics is not a frontier anymore.
Many, if not most, EEs go into college with no practical electronic experience whatsoever. In times of yesteryear you weren't an EE until you built your own radio in your basement, etc.
Many, if not most, computer scientists of the next generation will go into computer science with no practical programming experience whatsoever. The only advantage here is that most already have all they need to try it out if they want to, and online tutorials telling them where to get the tools, and how to get started.
In other words, computer programming is now a job just like accounting, and programmers are commodities. The frontier is no longer the frontier, it's the middle of the city. Sure, there are a few people building on the outskirts, but only 1 out of 100 of those projects will be incorporated into the programming lexicon.
So, no, kids don't program unless parents or teachers help them to do so. Computers are now used as tools in school, not as experimental learning stations.
It's part of the natural progression of a profession. First it's neat, hobbyist level craftsmanship. Then companies start pursuing it. Then it becomes highly paid. Then colleges/universities start teaching it as an accredited program towards a profession. Then it becomes commonplace.
-Adam
Given that it exports to google earth, and the google earth format is understood (if I understand correctly) then one should be able to create a program to convert from google earth to a number of other formats.
The limitation remains on features that don't get exported to google earth.
-Adam
It strikes me as odd that we constantly compare MMOGs to other games or services regardless of the validity of the comparison.
So what you're saying, essentially, is that my economic perspective is wrong, and yours is right, and since your perspective is that Blizzard is providing adequate entertainment for a fair fee, then I have no reason to complain?
Wow, you really believe the world does revolve around you.
If you are happy about the service you are getting, then it seems odd that you'd take time to complain about the complainers. Why don't you stop complaining and, like the silent majority, relax? If this isn't your fight then why are you so keen to weigh in on the matter?
As for my part, I play perhaps 10-20 hours a month. I have a lot of other things on my plate right now, so I have to schedule my play time.
Out of the last 10 times I have attempted to play, I could not login 4 of those times at all during the 4 hours I scheduled and was disconnected 2 times and was not able to log back on for the remaining time I had scheduled. When I have been able to play uninterrupted it has not been without frustrating problems (pauses in game play, etc).
I would accept these problems if Blizzard simply gave immediate notice of a problem, a time frame for the problem to be fixed, and stopped them from recurring. As it is they don't talk about a problem until after 2-4 hours after it starts, and they don't give a time frame for repair.
This isn't a waiting-queue issue. And apparantly it isn't temporary growing pains. This has been going on for over a month now.
I'm glad you're happy with your service - lots of people are, including my wife who doesn't have such a difficult schedule for play time. I'm not happy. Don't tell me that I don't deserve better service. Yes, if this issue doesn't clear up by the time my subscription comes due then I'm not re-subscribing.
-Adam
Just like with nine women you can have a baby in one month.
They've had nine months. They should be having a baby every month now.
Downtime is either being caused by poor design, hardware/software limitations, or bandwidth limitations.
These are not things that are unknown, or uncontrollable.
If this project is too complex to get a firm handle on the problems, and the work force can't be scaled to meet the demands, then your only avenue for relief is to scale back the complexity.
Otherwise you're admitting that you are managing the project poorly.
For those that don't play, keep in mind that this is an ongoing, crippling (ie, showstopper) situation. This isn't occasional short downtime.
It's as if every time there's a crash they have to run a WoW style FSCK on the world image before they can bring it back up.
I know I'd be much happier if they at minimum
1) Acknowledged any downtime immediately (ie, if I can't get on then there should be a status message about it - not four hours later)
2) Described, briefly, what stage they are at in troublshooting (ie, is the problem understood? Is the fix being implemented? Has anyone even been notified?)
3) Gave a time frame. (Will be accepting logins within the hour, within 5 hours, within 24 hours.)
I don't know, maybe everyone else has copious amounts of free time, and the ability to play whenever they want. I have to schedule time for myself to play WoW. When I can't play I essentially lose that opportunity - I can't just swap things around.
At least throw us a bone and give us the information we're all begging for, since you certainly aren't going to give us back our time or money.
-Adam
Don't anyone mistake this for what it is: a robot that overrides your control inputs.
Ah yes, the "control freak" response, also used by the "robots are taking over our jobs" people.
Let's think this through. If you want to tune the station on your radio, would you rather 1) turn a dial or 2) tune the PLL by hand because, after all, there's a "robot" that doesn't allow you to tune in non-standard frequencies and it is making decisions for you how best to tune to stations that may not be exactly on frequency.
Silly example, sure. Moving along - is it possible for any pilot today to control a modern jet fighter craft? No - a complex computer system takes the pilot direction, and uses it to change the control surfaces. If the computer goes - pfft! - so does te rest of the plane.
Maybe a little too far fetched? Ok, then we'll bring it back a little bit. Instead of ABS, you'll get four displays on your dashboard telling you the exact rotational speed of each wheel. You'll also get four brake pads. Now you have ultimate control, and don't need to let the silly ABS robot decide whether one wheel is slipping enough to brake a little bit.
Modern technology allows for some stunning new abilities and features. These are meant to enable the user to do more than with older technology. It would not be possible to manually control all the features of this vehicle, and it does enable the driver to do more than they would normally be able to do (ie, go around a 90 degree small radius turn at 60mph without losing control).
Don't anyone mistake this for anything other than what it is: extending the ability of a human being without special training.
After all, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp" - Robert Browning.
-Adam
So you hit a deer with your ABS-equipped car: does it occur to you that, perhaps, without ABS, you'd have hit the deer a lot faster?
Chances are good that he would rather lose control of the car and not hit the deer, than still be able to steer and hit the deer.
ABS doesn't necessarily reduce stopping distance - in theory it gives you the minimum stopping distance your particular friction (tire+road) will allow while still giving you the ability to control the car.
That being said, it is true that in most situations ABS will stop you more quickly since the maximum friction is attained when the wheels are not slipping.
It is more likely that he would have still hit the deer even without ABS.
-Adam
Is this new technology going to take off?
Not any more than X10. See below for reasons why home automation in general, and these two specific products, has not yet taken off.
What's the community's consensus on home automation?
It would be great if it was:
* Cheap (less than 2 * the cost of existing switches and plugs)
* Easy to install and configure for both new homes and retrofits
* Super-reliable - not controllable from other sources, no chance of interference, no chance of failure after power outages, brownouts, etc, can survive multiple lightning strikes and other destructive conditions, falls back to a simple, obvious control state when there's a problem
* Secure
* Works like current technology - guests or prospective home buyers won't be left wondering what the extra buttons do, nor will they wonder how the light is supposed to go on.
* Handles all common types of electrical lighting and appliances correctly automatically - you won't have to worry about plugging a flourescent lamp or fan in where a dimmer module is - it detects it and controls it appropiately
The primary keys being that they be intuitive (ie, simulate normal dumb technology), cheap, and easy to install.
So far every system has failed in nearly every respect. I've been considering the problem for many years, hoping to design my own home automation system, but even if I ignore the installation and cheap aspects (since I'll be doing both with no intent to commercialize) it's difficult to make it so simple that anyone can use it, nevermind meeting the other goals.
So-
Home automation is something that is still very niche. It's expensive, non-trivial to setup, and therefore will not make a huge penetration in the market for some time.
Eventually it'll happen, but certainly not with these systems. The biggest advantage they have is no need for seperate or additional wiring. Insteon has a huge advantage over X-10 due to the wireless capability. Change that to Zigbee, manufacture plug units that are installed in the wall instead of plugged into it, build out the system options to include HVAC, garage door, sprinkler, whole house power consumption monitoring, very secure internet/cell phone access and monitoring, and drop the price to $3-$10 per module in small quantities ($2-$5 in hundred lots) and it'll be killer.
As the "internet generation" gets older we'll see more and more interest in this and the non-trivial setup will become less of an issue. The other issues still need to be addressed.
-Adam
It sounds like fun! Make them sick as well, so they can't play at their level, and all the items they own or get during the time of the banishment become infected so they are useless or damaging to other players (makes it hard for them to open a new account and transfer all their loot).
And better yet, they could then be slowly pushed to the banishment zone where their characters slowly turn into NPCs that others can defeat to receive the loot untainted.
I like it!
-Adam
It doesn't really matter to him, I suspect, since he's working 7 days a week I doubt he sees much of his kids at all.
Chances are good his kids know exactly what he does, and perhaps feel some sense of shame since he does something that he so disapproves of that he doesn't want to tell them.
But it's ok, since they've got their own computers and the internet to babysit them.
-Adam
Ideally this'll be set up so when an editor goes into the submission bin stories are grouped according to the relationship they have to each other (5 stories pointing to the same link, for instance) and the best one can be chosen. Later if any other stories come in it will show that the link has already been used, and they can either be rejected or put aside for the occasional slashdot follow up link story.
In the end, this is a feature for the editors, not a general bookmarking service.
-Adam
Sounds like shareware or crippleware. A "professional" software company can't put out shareware... can it?
-Adam