>>networkers are giving up on 3G as a data >>services alternative due to high deployment >>costs and slower speeds vs. Wi-Fi.
Uh, excuse me, but 3G (WAN) is not 802.11b/a/g (WLAN). They do not have the same coverage nor target market.
Enjoy your latte while you park your booty at Starbucks (WLAN), but don't expect your web session to go smoothly while your on the #7 out to Shea to catch the lowly Mets lose another one (WAN)...
Mobile - and I mean TRULY mobile - workers need real time dispatch, status updates, messaging, etc and cannot depend on finding an open UAP every 3 minutes. Think field service (cable TV, telephone, LTL trucking, utilities) and you should start to get the picture for WAN's target.
(1) Drive electric car to cut down on pollution (2) Charge electric car when battery runs low (3) Rinse and repeat....
Any of you eco-nazis have a clue where the electricity comes from to recharge your batteries?
I'll make it easy on you - multiple choice:
(1) Coal fired electric plant (2) Nuclear based electric plant (3) Gas fired electric plant (4) Gerbils (5) A big honking windmill
(here's another clue: it sure ain't 4 or 5....)
As for the anti-SUV crowd, yeah right - bitch about the size of someone's vehicle while you heat/cool that 3,000 sq ft home of yours year around.
Find a way to extract energy from hydrogen (and likewise convert it into energy a vehicle can use) that doesn't require more net energy (and waste) in the process and then come talk to me.
--I haven't followed Symbol's stock in over two years,
$35 to $10, upper echelon mgmt kicked/fired/leaving, SEC investigations, criminal/civil charges filed, accounting restatements coming from 1999, 200, and 2001 -- you tell me how they're doing...
I'll tell you what - used to sell monitors from ubid.com on eBay.com (you'd be suprised the markup possible on those eBayers...)
Had MULTIPLE customers inform me that UPS "rolled the monitor" into their home.
NOT ON A DOLLY -- actually ROLLED the box end over end.
25% damage rate and next thing you know I'm out of the monitor arbitrage business.
UPS insurance? What a joke -- they should be jailed for their responses.
That being said, yes, FedEx has been doing realtime for years. This "new" DIAD IV is just a smaller version with some new WAN features. Let's see if Symbol can deliver.
Oh, by the way, I hear the batteries in Pepsi's custom (now the 8000) handheld units are lasting a whopping 2 months.... If true then ----- Doh!
--designing such gizoms where text entry is --important insist of laying out the 'keyboard' --like "A B C D E etc"?
You have to consider the workforce intended to use the device -- not what you think should go into it.
Most mobile workers (blue collar, field service, delivery, etc.) do not 'touch-type' and thus have no clue re: a QWERTY keyboard.
Sure, over time they would learn, but how would you like to be the ops dept wondering why productivity is in the toilet during a new rollout which may take years (especially with 70,000 units)?
>>In order to cover a city, you need a million >>sites; we actually did an analysis of that. And >>every one of them has got to have backhaul.
Not necessarily true. Higher end Wifi vendors have dual radio APs. One radio handles data traffic, the other "hops" wirelessly to other APs eventually back to a wire. All you need is AC power. Imagine a network of these wireless APs with one (or two) root APs that have both 802.11b for data hops and 802.16a for connecting back to the wire.
Let's take a few nuggets from the article and ponder.....
(1) "Ham said he eventually wants to develop an interface between the WLAN radio in the Symbol handheld and the Motorola radio in the police car."
Wants to develop? And he made a purchase decision PRIOR to getting this straight?
There are rugged devices on the market today that fully support integrated WAN (CDMA/1xRTT, GPRS), WLAN, and BT in one device. Motorola private radio networks (Astro) usually have serial DB9 output. Again, there are other rugged device manufacturers that provide rugged vehicle docks with integrated serial DB9. A step further, there are BT enabled GPS units. Did the LAPD put any effort into this decision or are they just dumping budget dollars prior to their fiscal end of year?
(2) "Though the range of WLANs is limited--approximately 300 feet--"
"Will Strauss, an analyst at Forward Concepts, called Ham's plan "a cheap way to get bandwidth" that would allow LAPD units to periodically pick up high-bandwidth data as they pass by police stations equipped with WLAN systems."
Let me see if I understand - with a range of 300 ft best case would be 600 ft while "passing by." (I'll ignore the introduction of directional since I doubt anyone related to the original article can even spell yagi...)
Assuming the car/motorcycle is traveling 20 mph (or about 30ft/sec), each handheld will have about 20 secs to recognize coverage, authenticate, and download.
Yeah, great idea.... Better to put UAPs in doughnut shops if you ask me.
Amazing what those SBL pushers will sell - regardless of fit/use - to their customers.
PowerPoint? Ugh - never has one application "empowered" so many to say so much about nothing. And those damn transitions, sounds, and blends! Shoot me now! Make it quick and painless!
Give me the old Telegraf on VM or CA SuperImage kermitting 1mb files off an XT to 3090 at a whop-whop-whopping 9600baud! ooooh neat - color transparencies! How the hell did you do that (circa 1985)?
While the Segaway is an interesting use of technology, I had to laugh at the hype once we saw "it".
Revolutionary? Hardly. In fact, the majority of the U.S. has no use for it. Think about it - the typical usage profile is short distance with no storage. Doesn't sound like I want to head to the grocery store 5 miles away to carry a week's worth of bacon.
Campus use? Break out all the old "fat chicks on mopeds" for an update.
Corporate use? Talk about the exec perk. I'm sure the minions will love having a boss that can't even walk between meetings.
Police use? Not likely. In fact, isn't San Fran banning these things for use by anyone?
I'll wait a couple of years before I buy my Segway collectible on eBay.....
NASA (the government) is more likely concerned with the technology loss (in other crypto areas) than the possibility this one 'box' could actually be used.
>>Then again, the Nazis using Enigma used keys >>like 'Hitler'
Not exactly possible. Enigma used a 3 letter indicator sequence that were sent twice for double encodement.
Some operators did use the same inital indicator sequence every day. Others would not shift the rotors from the previous days setting thus allowing another 'day' of decodes if found.
Another way decodes occured dealt with the German style of not abbreviating long words/titles and beginning messages with the exact same salutation each day.
Captures of long range weather boats and some U-boats (carrying months of daily keys) were another successful ploy to assist Bletchley Park; especially since the Naval Enigma was much more complex (extra rotors, key rotation, etc.) than Army and standard police/government.
Check "Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II," by Stephen Budiansky, "Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes 1939-1943," by David Kahn, and http://www.xat.nl/enigma/ for some working software simulations.
Slashdot Mirror
>>Don't be so sure about what you hear about language nazis in Canada.
Excellent point as I have only 'heard' and not 'experienced' Quebec.
Then again, I've avoided Quebec due to what I've heard. Kind of a vicious cycle, eh?
I do, however, wish I was capable of speaking a second language.....
>>on their head too much
Canada? maybe
Quebec? NUTSO language nazis
I think I'll stay south of the Canadian border....
If any of you take the time to actually read Austin's response, he took a "pre-indictment" plea.
Allow me to restate for the idiot crowd: HE AGREED TO IT! My take? Austin agreed to it so he could have a "badge of honor" to further his rhetoric.
Now, the judge actually tripled the four month suggestion to one year. His discretion. Bummer, dude.
Get over it, people. This is not another "FREE KEVIN" cause nor is Austin worth the trouble.
err? George Plimpton?
http://www.georgeplimpton.com/
Don't you mean:
http://www.georgeclinton.com/
Read his resume. Graduated in 2001 from OU with a 3.2 in ME and his last work experience is December 2001.
Damn, is the economy in a recession?
They already have the WiFi solution via TMobile. Just negotiate yourself some free daily frappachinos....
The title is completely wrong. While WiFi is the medium, the obvious lax security is the real culprit.
I wonder why we never see sensationalistic headlines such as "100baseT Exposes..." or "Frame Relay Exposes..." or perhaps "Ethernet Exposes" ????
brought to you by the makers of Microsoft BOB...
>>networkers are giving up on 3G as a data
>>services alternative due to high deployment
>>costs and slower speeds vs. Wi-Fi.
Uh, excuse me, but 3G (WAN) is not 802.11b/a/g (WLAN). They do not have the same coverage nor target market.
Enjoy your latte while you park your booty at Starbucks (WLAN), but don't expect your web session to go smoothly while your on the #7 out to Shea to catch the lowly Mets lose another one (WAN)...
Mobile - and I mean TRULY mobile - workers need real time dispatch, status updates, messaging, etc and cannot depend on finding an open UAP every 3 minutes. Think field service (cable TV, telephone, LTL trucking, utilities) and you should start to get the picture for WAN's target.
>>>The real question is whether their network
>>>card will survive 10 seconds at 15 Gs!
No, the real question is what use will they get out of 802.11b once the rocket is out of range?
With their stated goal of 55,000 ft altitude, they'll be without a WLAN connection for approximately 54,500 ft of the journey.
Omni antenna about 500-1000 ft. Directional? Yeah, they are going to manually point the antenna at the rocket.
Sounds like someone isn't thinking.
Just wrap the entire campus with barb wire fence.
Let me get this straight....
(1) Drive electric car to cut down on pollution
(2) Charge electric car when battery runs low
(3) Rinse and repeat....
Any of you eco-nazis have a clue where the electricity comes from to recharge your batteries?
I'll make it easy on you - multiple choice:
(1) Coal fired electric plant
(2) Nuclear based electric plant
(3) Gas fired electric plant
(4) Gerbils
(5) A big honking windmill
(here's another clue: it sure ain't 4 or 5....)
As for the anti-SUV crowd, yeah right - bitch about the size of someone's vehicle while you heat/cool that 3,000 sq ft home of yours year around.
Find a way to extract energy from hydrogen (and likewise convert it into energy a vehicle can use) that doesn't require more net energy (and waste) in the process and then come talk to me.
While not actually a "game", running my first 1200bps BBS (RA then later Wildcat!) started me down the tech path.
Fidonet! Pimp Wars! Solar Realms Elite!
--I haven't followed Symbol's stock in over two years,
$35 to $10, upper echelon mgmt kicked/fired/leaving, SEC investigations, criminal/civil charges filed, accounting restatements coming from 1999, 200, and 2001 -- you tell me how they're doing...
So what?
I'll tell you what - used to sell monitors from ubid.com on eBay.com (you'd be suprised the markup possible on those eBayers...)
Had MULTIPLE customers inform me that UPS "rolled the monitor" into their home.
NOT ON A DOLLY -- actually ROLLED the box end over end.
25% damage rate and next thing you know I'm out of the monitor arbitrage business.
UPS insurance? What a joke -- they should be jailed for their responses.
That being said, yes, FedEx has been doing realtime for years. This "new" DIAD IV is just a smaller version with some new WAN features. Let's see if Symbol can deliver.
Oh, by the way, I hear the batteries in Pepsi's custom (now the 8000) handheld units are lasting a whopping 2 months.... If true then ----- Doh!
--designing such gizoms where text entry is
--important insist of laying out the 'keyboard'
--like "A B C D E etc"?
You have to consider the workforce intended to use the device -- not what you think should go into it.
Most mobile workers (blue collar, field service, delivery, etc.) do not 'touch-type' and thus have no clue re: a QWERTY keyboard.
Sure, over time they would learn, but how would you like to be the ops dept wondering why productivity is in the toilet during a new rollout which may take years (especially with 70,000 units)?
>>In order to cover a city, you need a million
>>sites; we actually did an analysis of that. And
>>every one of them has got to have backhaul.
Not necessarily true. Higher end Wifi vendors have dual radio APs. One radio handles data traffic, the other "hops" wirelessly to other APs eventually back to a wire. All you need is AC power. Imagine a network of these wireless APs with one (or two) root APs that have both 802.11b for data hops and 802.16a for connecting back to the wire.
Let's take a few nuggets from the article and ponder.....
(1) "Ham said he eventually wants to develop an interface between the WLAN radio in the Symbol handheld and the Motorola radio in the police car."
Wants to develop? And he made a purchase decision PRIOR to getting this straight?
There are rugged devices on the market today that fully support integrated WAN (CDMA/1xRTT, GPRS), WLAN, and BT in one device. Motorola private radio networks (Astro) usually have serial DB9 output. Again, there are other rugged device manufacturers that provide rugged vehicle docks with integrated serial DB9. A step further, there are BT enabled GPS units. Did the LAPD put any effort into this decision or are they just dumping budget dollars prior to their fiscal end of year?
(2) "Though the range of WLANs is limited--approximately 300 feet--"
"Will Strauss, an analyst at Forward Concepts, called Ham's plan "a cheap way to get bandwidth" that would allow LAPD units to periodically pick up high-bandwidth data as they pass by police stations equipped with WLAN systems."
Let me see if I understand - with a range of 300 ft best case would be 600 ft while "passing by." (I'll ignore the introduction of directional since I doubt anyone related to the original article can even spell yagi...)
Assuming the car/motorcycle is traveling 20 mph (or about 30ft/sec), each handheld will have about 20 secs to recognize coverage, authenticate, and download.
Yeah, great idea.... Better to put UAPs in doughnut shops if you ask me.
Amazing what those SBL pushers will sell - regardless of fit/use - to their customers.
PowerPoint? Ugh - never has one application "empowered" so many to say so much about nothing. And those damn transitions, sounds, and blends! Shoot me now! Make it quick and painless!
Give me the old Telegraf on VM or CA SuperImage kermitting 1mb files off an XT to 3090 at a whop-whop-whopping 9600baud! ooooh neat - color transparencies! How the hell did you do that (circa 1985)?
WooHoo!
>>I still read it, I appreciate it, I thank you
>>for it.
>>- Jason Scott
>> BBS Documentary
Thanks for the support Jason. Haven't seen an update in a while but you're probably knee-deep in it, right?
Looking forward to it when you're done.
While the Segaway is an interesting use of technology, I had to laugh at the hype once we saw "it".
Revolutionary? Hardly. In fact, the majority of the U.S. has no use for it. Think about it - the typical usage profile is short distance with no storage. Doesn't sound like I want to head to the grocery store 5 miles away to carry a week's worth of bacon.
Campus use? Break out all the old "fat chicks on mopeds" for an update.
Corporate use? Talk about the exec perk. I'm sure the minions will love having a boss that can't even walk between meetings.
Police use? Not likely. In fact, isn't San Fran banning these things for use by anyone?
I'll wait a couple of years before I buy my Segway collectible on eBay.....
Redundant? SCREW you, moderator. So someone listed the website before I did. Are you that pathetic to waste your mod points on a simple dupe?
/. has a daily -1 for dupes, eh?
I guess
SRE and Pimpwars! Many a night spent dialing in at 300b at midnight trying to get my 'turns' info for the day.
SRE developer now works for Google (http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/).
Geez, I loved that game.
Oh, The Pit, too!
The website listed below is a guy personally financing a documentary about BBS'.
I owe my current career (computer engineer) over the fun I had with Mustang Wildcat! and RA back in the 80's.
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/
2400 baud! roXor!
NASA (the government) is more likely concerned with the technology loss (in other crypto areas) than the possibility this one 'box' could actually be used.
>>Then again, the Nazis using Enigma used keys
>>like 'Hitler'
Not exactly possible. Enigma used a 3 letter indicator sequence that were sent twice for double encodement.
Some operators did use the same inital indicator sequence every day. Others would not shift the rotors from the previous days setting thus allowing another 'day' of decodes if found.
Another way decodes occured dealt with the German style of not abbreviating long words/titles and beginning messages with the exact same salutation each day.
Captures of long range weather boats and some U-boats (carrying months of daily keys) were another successful ploy to assist Bletchley Park; especially since the Naval Enigma was much more complex (extra rotors, key rotation, etc.) than Army and standard police/government.
Check "Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II," by Stephen Budiansky, "Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes 1939-1943," by David Kahn, and http://www.xat.nl/enigma/ for some working software simulations.
But can he ferment and 'chocolate' the malt in his accompanying dryer?