The breezecom system you use is a specialized point-to-point/point-to-multipoint bridge system. They're designed to go that far. Your overall throughput is probably about 1-2 megs, right? These guys were using a home wi-fi system that is not designed to go more than a few hundred feet. Amplifying a signal like that takes a pretty good amount of thought, especially to get those kinds of throughput figures. Amplifying and transmitting a signal of that nature is like trying to stretch a 1X1 icon to the size of your screen. It comes out all poixelated and fuzzy. Same with this. Those chipsets were not designed to deal with those distances. The article doesn't say anything about lag time, which I would assume to be considerable. They did this in the middle of Vegas, right? I would hate to see the signal to noise ratio in that area. That would make it SO much more interesting.
You know, I submitted this same story, based on the Popular Science article about WASTE: a secure, private P2P system. I never get my articles published. Who's palm do I have to grease to get a decent article put on Slashdot?!?
Any ISPs looking to learn their lesson through these guys should check out this company. They make wireless disaster recovery systems for ISPs. Pretty nifty stuff. AES encryption and Mesh protocol. Cool beans! http://www.wavewireless.com
I think it's time, now that they are showing a soft spot, to really kick it into gear. If the Slashdot community stopped buying (the few) CDs, we could really bring them to their knees. I like the record company on their knees. It makes it easier for me to piss all over them. (Metaphorically speaking of course)
And I've been saying this for a while now. They need to start renting console games. Why not? It's not like they would have to change much around to do it. They would ship in the same packaging, and the fact that most games would require an extended rental time, means they would ship fewer movies per customer, while still getting the same monthly fees.
I did my patriotic (read-rabid PA fan) duty, and wrote Miss Rinda Vas a letter, telling her what bad idea this all was and everything. I got a fairly swift response, including an "original" letter written to the PA staff. Email addresses have been removed to protect the innocent...
Email sent Wed. 4/23--
there is no legal action against them... fyi...
-----Original Message----- From: RV Rinda Vas (1328) Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 9:32 AM To: Subject: RE: Trademark infringement, misuse
Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter. We note that the cartoon has been removed.
I am receiving a good amount of e-mails from the penny-arcade subscribers asking why American Greetings asked you to pull the cartoon. Unfortunately I do not have the resources to respond to them individually so I am passing the answer on to all of you. On April 17, 2003, American Greetings received a complaint about the cartoon namely that it was "creepy" and "offensive." Thereafter, we asked you to remove it.
Note that the target audience for Strawberry is young females (indeed young children). And we do receive complaints from parents and the like over cartoons like yours.
So there you have it.
-----Original Message----- From: Ryan Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 3:55 PM To: Subject: Please Cease and Desist
Dear Rinda Vas-
I am writing to you, as I am sure are many others, to implore you to stop your legal action against Penny Arcade and its creators. As you may or may not be aware, the actions your company has taken against Penny Arcade has already publicized the original event much more than the comic's web site ever would have. Furthermore, several websites have made note of this issue, spreading the issue to more people, not usually associated with the normal Penny Arcade crowd. Feel free to read the articles posted on http://slashdot.org, and other such sites. At Slashdot, you will see the forum that follows every article. Within said forum, you will note a resoundingly negative response to your decision to take legal action. There is even a petition out to boycott your company. The last time I checked that site, the petition was drawing near the 10,000 mark, and climbing.
I am not going to threaten you, or swear at you, as I am sure many others are doing, regarding this issue, but I have to advise you that, from all evidence available, what you are doing does not seem like a smart move. I think you might do well to look into options for reaching a quiet agreement with the owners of Penny Arcade. I am sure they will be happy to make this legal action go away with as little public notice as possible. My advice to you is to try to save face, as your company stands to lose a large amount of business and public appeal by pursuing this petty issue. Thanks for your time.
You know what occurs to me, that the population of the US is staggeringly dependant on cable/satelite TV. This si a good thing in relation to this article. Consider if the FCC were to close the airwaves to TV and restrict them to sattelite and cable. You could then use pretty much all of that band for wireless data, which is where the demand is.
Take downtown Chicago for example. Number of people with a non-cable/satelite TV connection? Close to 0, I'm willing to bet. Number of people with wireless service, almost anyone who knows how to dial a phone.
On the other hand... I subscribe to high Comcast solely on its promise to deliver unlimited high speed access. It seems to me, that the other 99% of the people who are not using their share of the bandwidth could do fine on dialup. I pay more for high speed because of what I have already been promised. Sure I download lots of stuff, but that's the precise reason I signed up for it in the first place. Would it be too far out of the realm of possibility for these giant corporations to take a step back and look at the figures, and see that A.)Bandwidth, as it has been expressed in earlier posts is only able to cost so much due to the fact that it is for the most part a reincarnation of Ma Bell, and that, sooner or later, if they abuse the people that seek them expressly for what they advertise, and then penalize them for using what they are enitled by contract to, they will be run out by smaller, more maneuverable upstarts, and B)If they puched on lobyists and technologists as hard as they push on us for a healthy bottom line, that the proverbial Big Brother of the information age will eventually have to listen and bring down bandwidth prices.
On that note, I know it seems easier to just push on the little guy, because we're smaller, but maybe just passing the buck this time around is not in the best interests of the people that pine for cheap, fast, and dependable internet. And now I shall step off my soapbox so to make myself a better target for the Great Balls Of Fire which will inevitably follow.
Slashdot Mirror
The breezecom system you use is a specialized point-to-point/point-to-multipoint bridge system. They're designed to go that far. Your overall throughput is probably about 1-2 megs, right? These guys were using a home wi-fi system that is not designed to go more than a few hundred feet. Amplifying a signal like that takes a pretty good amount of thought, especially to get those kinds of throughput figures. Amplifying and transmitting a signal of that nature is like trying to stretch a 1X1 icon to the size of your screen. It comes out all poixelated and fuzzy. Same with this. Those chipsets were not designed to deal with those distances. The article doesn't say anything about lag time, which I would assume to be considerable. They did this in the middle of Vegas, right? I would hate to see the signal to noise ratio in that area. That would make it SO much more interesting.
You know, I submitted this same story, based on the Popular Science article about WASTE: a secure, private P2P system. I never get my articles published. Who's palm do I have to grease to get a decent article put on Slashdot?!?
Any ISPs looking to learn their lesson through these guys should check out this company. They make wireless disaster recovery systems for ISPs. Pretty nifty stuff. AES encryption and Mesh protocol. Cool beans!
http://www.wavewireless.com
I think it's time, now that they are showing a soft spot, to really kick it into gear. If the Slashdot community stopped buying (the few) CDs, we could really bring them to their knees. I like the record company on their knees. It makes it easier for me to piss all over them. (Metaphorically speaking of course)
And I've been saying this for a while now. They need to start renting console games. Why not? It's not like they would have to change much around to do it. They would ship in the same packaging, and the fact that most games would require an extended rental time, means they would ship fewer movies per customer, while still getting the same monthly fees.
If you can get it. This is the Cadillac of WarDriving software. Go to their website.
A pee shooter?
I did my patriotic (read-rabid PA fan) duty, and wrote Miss Rinda Vas a letter, telling her what bad idea this all was and everything. I got a fairly swift response, including an "original" letter written to the PA staff. Email addresses have been removed to protect the innocent...
... fyi ...
Email sent Wed. 4/23--
there is no legal action against them
-----Original Message-----
From: RV Rinda Vas (1328)
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 9:32 AM
To: Subject: RE: Trademark infringement, misuse
Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter. We note that the
cartoon has been removed.
I am receiving a good amount of e-mails from the penny-arcade subscribers
asking why American Greetings asked you to pull the cartoon. Unfortunately I
do not have the resources to respond to them individually so I am passing
the answer on to all of you. On April 17, 2003, American Greetings received
a complaint about the cartoon namely that it was "creepy" and "offensive."
Thereafter, we asked you to remove it.
Note that the target audience for Strawberry is young females (indeed young
children). And we do receive complaints from parents and the like over
cartoons like yours.
So there you have it.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 3:55 PM
To:
Subject: Please Cease and Desist
Dear Rinda Vas-
I am writing to you, as I am sure are many others, to implore you to stop
your legal action against Penny Arcade and its creators. As you may or may
not be aware, the actions your company has taken against Penny Arcade has
already publicized the original event much more than the comic's web site
ever would have. Furthermore, several websites have made note of this
issue, spreading the issue to more people, not usually associated with the
normal Penny Arcade crowd. Feel free to read the articles posted on
http://slashdot.org, and other such sites. At Slashdot, you will see the
forum that follows every article. Within said forum, you will note a
resoundingly negative response to your decision to take legal action. There
is even a petition out to boycott your company. The last time I checked
that site, the petition was drawing near the 10,000 mark, and climbing.
I am not going to threaten you, or swear at you, as I am sure many others
are doing, regarding this issue, but I have to advise you that, from all
evidence available, what you are doing does not seem like a smart move. I
think you might do well to look into options for reaching a quiet agreement
with the owners of Penny Arcade. I am sure they will be happy to make this
legal action go away with as little public notice as possible. My advice to
you is to try to save face, as your company stands to lose a large amount of
business and public appeal by pursuing this petty issue. Thanks for your
time.
Ryan
You know what occurs to me, that the population of the US is staggeringly dependant on cable/satelite TV. This si a good thing in relation to this article. Consider if the FCC were to close the airwaves to TV and restrict them to sattelite and cable. You could then use pretty much all of that band for wireless data, which is where the demand is.
Take downtown Chicago for example. Number of people with a non-cable/satelite TV connection? Close to 0, I'm willing to bet. Number of people with wireless service, almost anyone who knows how to dial a phone.
On the other hand...
I subscribe to high Comcast solely on its promise to deliver unlimited high speed access. It seems to me, that the other 99% of the people who are not using their share of the bandwidth could do fine on dialup. I pay more for high speed because of what I have already been promised. Sure I download lots of stuff, but that's the precise reason I signed up for it in the first place. Would it be too far out of the realm of possibility for these giant corporations to take a step back and look at the figures, and see that A.)Bandwidth, as it has been expressed in earlier posts is only able to cost so much due to the fact that it is for the most part a reincarnation of Ma Bell, and that, sooner or later, if they abuse the people that seek them expressly for what they advertise, and then penalize them for using what they are enitled by contract to, they will be run out by smaller, more maneuverable upstarts, and
B)If they puched on lobyists and technologists as hard as they push on us for a healthy bottom line, that the proverbial Big Brother of the information age will eventually have to listen and bring down bandwidth prices.
On that note, I know it seems easier to just push on the little guy, because we're smaller, but maybe just passing the buck this time around is not in the best interests of the people that pine for cheap, fast, and dependable internet. And now I shall step off my soapbox so to make myself a better target for the Great Balls Of Fire which will inevitably follow.