civil and criminal liability for spammers who email sexual advertisements
Wow, I didn't even realize that. One thing we've seem to lost focus on with the recent Supreme Court ruling negating the recent law banning virtual child pornography. The reason child pornography is banned is because it exploits children, and if it is virtual, no exploitation of children occurs. So the law against the virtual images was struck down. But, in the same affect, if a child is sent pornographic spam through email, it is potentially damaging, and I would argue that it is even more damaging than a piece of virtual child porn. So, why not create the same sort of punishments for people who purposefully expose children to pornographic material as there is for people who exploit children to make pornogaphic images? I think being labelled as someone convincted of a sex crime could be a real deterrent for spammers who would otherwise shoot a million pieces of spam shotgun-style to every email address at a particular domain.
I may be a minority here, but recently I've been searching for PCI versions of cards such as this ATI one. I've been trying to make a home made TIVO type box, and so far I have a FlexATX Sis620 board with a 533 Celeron in a Sahara1000 FlexATX case. The problem is there are only 2 PCI and no AGP, so I'm quite limited in my choices for quality capture cards such as the All-In-Wonder. Is there any reason why most of the video cards geared toward capability rather than gaming performance are also almost exclusively manufactured as AGP? I'd think hardcore gaming would be just about the only reason to need big boost in speeds.
Re:A couple reasons to choose 802.11a over 802.11g
on
802.11b at 22mbps
·
· Score: 1
Wow. This post looks familiar. Oh yeah, because I originally posted it here. Only there, it had my name as the author of the post... A hint: Please include credit for the original content if you are going to repost a comment. Otherwise it is called plagarism.
11 Mbps to 22 Mbps SOUNDS like a 100% increase, but what is the real speed/range gain? Given an 11 Mbps system with 3 nodes each at 10m from the access point, what is the actual thruput? Is switching to the USR system going to actually DOUBLE that?
Network speeds rank right up there with CRT sizes, CD-ROM spin speeds and tape storage capacity as some of the biggest bullshit numbers in computing.
A couple reasons to choose 802.11a over 802.11g
on
Faster, Stronger 802.11b
·
· Score: 2, Informative
First, the 2.4 GHz has a ton of other devices sharing the same spectrum, from Bluetooth to wireless headphones, to your microwave. 802.11a runs in the 5GHz band instead.
Second, according to the last proposals I'd heard of, 802.11g is going to achieve higher bandwidth by taking up more of the spectrum. In other words, it is going to use more channels to simultaneously broadcast data, rather than just being able to shove more data down the same channel. This means your own access points will begin to interfere with each other much sooner than your 802.11a or.11b APs will.
In general, it is going to depend on your situation as to which you wish to choose. 802.11g will be great for backwards compatibility, but the news coming out of IEEE seems to indicate that 54Mbps is more like something to shoot for than something they expect to achieve. 802.11a won't have compatibility, and it will also have a shorter range, but it will have higher speeds with less interference.
Porn Star Linda Lovelace is one of the best-known names in porn history, despite appearing in only a handful of films in the early 1970's. She's a well- endowed brunette with a typically 70's body -- slightly rounded in all the right places. Linda Lovelace was thrust into the national spotlight in 1972 with her starring role in 'Deep Throat,' one of the all-time classics of erotic entertainment. It was a groundbreaking sex film that starred Linda as a woman who can't have an orgasm until she realizes that her clit is in her throat. What follows has made Linda's name synonymous with oral sex for over 25 years.
'Deep Throat' was virtually Linda's only completed film. Linda Lovelace appeared in a few late 60's and early 70's loops before she was catapulted to sexual superstardom. Her post-'Throat' work reached a high point with her lusty oral romp with John C. Holmes in 'Exotic French Fantasies.' Linda's name on a marquee was a 70's guarantee of success, so she popped up in numerous quickie compilations, but never again filmed a full-fledged sex film.
Linda Lovelace disappeared into a haze of drug use and sexual excess, re-emerging in the mid-1980's as an outspoken opponent of the porn industry.
Benefits to owning an '87 Camry: 1. Low cost (initial and maintenance) 2. Good mileage (25-35 mpg average) 3. Good for hotboxing 4. If it gets stolen, no problem finding another one and stealing it
This is slightly off topic, but I think it is at least somewhat appropriate. Gas Powered Games new release, Dungeon Siege, is one of the most beautiful 3D games I've ever seen, but reading on forums about it I realized that even a Geforce3 with a killer Athlon XP system would still only let the game run around 20-30 fps. People have been complaining like mad about this, because the very reason the spend so much money on the best possible systems is so they can get a high fps. But, somebody on one of the forums said that since the entire game is rendered in 3D, the FPS is quite irrelvent (the frame does not actually refresh, but each element on the screen moves at its own pace). So, taking this information as fact, does this mean that the only games that the GF4 would be worthwile for would be UT2002 and such games?
I've wondered for quite some time now about the need for programmers to be bilingual, especially with things such as Linux. I know most of the documentation has been translated into various languages, but it is impossible to translate the actual code. So to be a sysadmin for a Linux based network, I would think you would need to know at least some English.
This brings up the point of cost. Sysadmins in Spain that are bilingual will probably charge a slightly higher fee than those that speak only Spanish. In my experiences, getting Linux running properly requires mucking about in.conf files and code and what not, whereas an MS box will essentially set itself with only the occasional button to press or box to check. I think the end result will be lower cost savings over other alternative OS's than previously predicted, although it will definitely still save them a significant amount of money over an MS "solution".
The point of requiring all phones used on their networks isn't necessarily an unfair business practices. The wireless carriers may just want to alleviate the threat of abuse over their networks. In this time of attributing fault to various people in the hierarchy of responsibility, handsets could be potentially damaging if they were modified to be scanners. So, to eliminate that possibility, carriers may examine all potential handsets and only approve the ones that could not easily be modified to do such damaging things. One thing I don't understand, though, is how this could bring antitrust accusations against these companies. The only case I can think of is possibly collusion between the carriers, but with the competition between low rates occurring with such viciousness, I don't believe that is even a possibility.
I read the Wired article when it came out in print a couple months ago, and I'd have to say I found it quite interesting. It seems to be the Turk was quite a feat in its time, convincing some of the world's most respected scientists that it was indeed a machine, when it was in fact not. It makes me think about today, when there is so much press covering everything, if it would be possible for something such as Deep Blue to be a similar hoax. I know IBM was very secretive about the hardware and coding and what not, so maybe all they did was stick Bobby Fischer inside. That thing sure is big enough to do that...
I know this will probably get modded into the ground, but what about Microsoft? Nimda and Code Red, which exclusively affected IIS on Win2K did "millions of dollars" in damage. If software companies are found to be liable for their hole-laden sotware, I would think Microsoft should be on the top of the list.
The argument for manufacturer liability can be extended to be applied toward gun manufacturers. Just because a gun can be used to kill someone, doesn't mean the manufacturer should be held liable for the wrongful death. The lack of common sense present in the user should not be cause to pass the blame onto someone else.
Great, just what we need- something comes along to make the public think it's perfectly okay for the government to monitor email. I don't care how secure it is, I would still rather have no government monitoring at all than even a system that would guaranteed not to be prone to abuse.
Home wireless networking comes to mind. Besides the obvious routing abilities of such speeds, you could also stream DVD quality video to all TV's within the 5-10 meter range. Extend the range a little more and you'll be able to have a complete home video network without the messy cabling normally required.
HanzoSan,
For the longest time your posts have annoyed the shit out of me. But, this post is probably the most coherent thing I've seen you write and probably the most insightful comment under this article. I have no idea why your other stuff gets modded up to 5 all the time and this is at your usual 2, but your opinion here perfectly coincides with mine as well as many others.
I don't know if these are the same ones you're talking about, but when I was a kid I built stuff using the kits from Ramsey. Ya know, cool stuff like FM transmitters and wireless microphones and what not.
Back in November of 2000, Jim Thompson, Kem McClelland, Brad Martin, and Jamie Thompson started brainstorming about the idea creating a company to specialize on the emerging market for publicly accessible wireless access points. They reasoned that there would soon be a significant opportunity to supply devices to public access "hot-spot" providers, wireless ISP/infrastructure providers (WISPs), and various value added resellers (VARs).
Thompson and McClelland were both senior managers at WapPort, where they had both been frustrated by the inability to convince existing access point providers to modify their products for "hot-spot" features, or even to allow Wayport to have access to their source code so that Wayport could make the necessary modifications. So the two, joined by Brad Martin and Jamie Thompson, decided to have a go at it on their own.
"My original frustration when I was at Wayport, was that we couldn't get any of the existing access point manufacturers (Cisco, Lucent, Symbol, etc) to embed the features we needed to deploy an 802.11-based "Hot Spot" service," recalls Musenki CTO and founder Jim Thompson.
Roughly 18 months later, Austin, TX based Musenki ("musenki" means "small wireless gadget" in Japanese) is poised to ship beta units of its first product -- the M-1 wireless access point. The devices, which are scheduled to ship to customers next Monday (April 15, 2002), will be sent to developers, strategic technology partners, VARs who want to start integrating their own features, and some prospective major customers. Among the significant customer prospects being sent beta units are several regional wireless ISPs and mobile operators, according to McClelland.
McClelland describes Musenki as a developer of "secure, open-source wireless networking products" whose "software and high-performance equipment enable open development, bringing expandability and customization to the wireless LAN market." Indeed, the company's first device packs a lot of computing power in a very small space, by taking advantage of some of Motorola's highly integrated PowerPC-based system-on-chip processors running at speeds ranging from 200 to 400 MHz, along with high density RAM, built-in solid state disk (Flash memory), and internal expansion based on "miniPCI" modules. The use of built-in PCI expansion allows Musenki to configure its access points for a variety of wireless interfaces -- an important factor in an emerging technology-based market that has a long way to go before stabilizing.
According to McClelland, Musenki has incorporated several features into its wireless access points that are crucial to success in the public access market. These include tie-ins with external authentication and billing systems, roaming across various service provider networks, the ability to slot-in additional network-layer functionality such as VPN and protocol translation, and functions that enable the management of a large number of these devices disbursed over a large number of locations.
What's on the drawing board after the M-1 and M-3 wireless access points have made it into full production? According to McClelland, Musenki's plans include a number of technology and interface enhancements and upgrades, including . . .
Client side devices (miniPCI/PC cards, particularly GPRS/802.11 combo cards)
Mesh networking technology
Technology for enabling seamless roaming, by means of cellular and WLAN networks
Additional security features
Integration with innovative antenna technologies
Expansion of the platform beyond the WLAN market
Many of these will be accomplished through strategic technology partnerships.
Building in power and flexibility
Jim Thompson characterizes Musenki's first product as a Linux-powered 802.11 access point: "Its open, so the customer can make it do what they want" So flexible, in fact that you could use it for other things. "Like a sexy small, high-performance router," according to Thompson. "Take the 802.11b NIC out and install one of several available miniPCI modules with crypto/compression chips, and now you've got a VPN router -- with compression -- that will run at 100Mbps."
Prototype of the M-1 access point
Here is a summary of the features of the embedded computers that are built into the M-1 and M-3 . ..
M-1 specs . ..
Processor: Motorola MPC8241 running at 200MHz
RAM: 32MB (default), 64MB, or 128MB of SDRAM
Flash: 8MB (default) or 16MB
1 x Davicom DM9102AF (tulip-clone) 10/100 Ethernet on RJ45
1 x miniPCI socket (comes filled with a 802.11b NIC and "AP" software)
miniPCI socket has the pins for V.90 modem and 10/100 Ethernet brought out to a second RJ45
1 x Smart Card (SIM form-factor)
I2C header
3.5 x 3.6 in. (smaller than PC/104 form-factor)
M-3 specs . ..
Processor: Motorola MPC8245 running 333MHz
RAM: 1 x SODIMM socket, usable with up to 512MB (off-the-shelf modules)
Flash: up to 32MB
2 x Davicom DM9102AF (tulip-clone) 10/100 Ethernet on RJ45s
2 x miniPCI socket
first slot comes filled with a 802.11b NIC and "AP" software);
first miniPCI socket has the pins for V.90 modem and 10/100 Ethernet brought out to a second RJ45
1 x full PCI slot (more Ethernet, T1, T3, additional 802.11a/b/g NIC, etc.)
1 x Smart Card (SIM form-factor)
I2C header
Size: 6.0 x 7.0 in.
Closeup of the M-1's internal single-board computer
"We feel that the additional CPU and the large memory resources are going to be more and more important as 802.11x (x = a, b, g) becomes the predominant method of client connectivity," points out Thompson. "In addition, as other 802.11 standards mature -- for example 802.11e Quality of Service, 802.11i security, 802.11f Inter Access Point Protocol, 802.11h Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS), and Transmit Power Control (TPC) -- we will have the CPU power and architecture to allow us to incorporate these improvements, as well as the future increased bit-rates planned for 802.11a."
"Also, the minute you start thinking about 'mesh' routing, you need lots of memory and CPU resources," Thompson adds. "Consider a medium-sized city with 40,000 houses, all connected to each other via a wireless 'fabric' at 20Mbps or more."
"One could run an 802.11b (or 802.11g) NIC in one slot and an 802.11a NIC in the second slot and have a 'dual-mode' AP, with all the gateway features still enabled," explains Thompson. "Or you could use all three slots -- one slot of 802.11b for older clients, one slot of 802.11g for those clients, and one slot 802.11a. Or you could cover a coffee shop with 802.11b/802.11a and still bring a DSL, Cable, or T1 connection or even 802.11 'back-haul' out with one box, AND run the 'captive portal' on the same box."
Thompson explains that there are varied reasons for the Smart Card. "One of the most interesting is that if you're going to deploy this type of equipment into 'public access' venues, you need a way to both secure the contents against prying eyes -- and people who will dredge through your Flash -- as well as being able to potentially authenticate the equipment back to your billing system, if you're Wayport, Surf-n-Sip, VoiceStream/Mobilestar, Boingo, etc. We use the smart card for both of these, and more. Consider the use of Smart Cards in GSM phone or DBS satellite systems, and then apply same ideas here."
Embedded Linux inside
Musenki's wireless access points run a recent version of the Linux kernel (currently 2.4.18), along with other open source software.
"For Linux, we started with the PowerPC kernel sources from BitKeeper," says Thompson. For the bootloader, for example, they started with ppcboot sources and added 8245 support. "We've given all the code back to the community. Interestingly, I ended up supporting the 'Sandpoint8245' platform in the process."
"We did it all ourselves, with more than a bit of 'help' from the associated mailing lists," continues Thompson. "Linux mostly just 'runs', other than small bits of effort to get the on-chip serial ports working, and board-specific issues."
Why Linux?
"We see open source software as our greatest strategic advantage," says McClelland.
"Essentially, Linux lets us do what we want to do, because we have source -- stand on the shoulders of giants, and not pay royalties to Wind River," Thompson adds.
The development process wasn't without its "bumps in the road", explains Thompson. For example, the time he discovered that the Flash memory bus was wired backwards on the 'BBWISP' board. "This is one of the places where 'open source' ruled for us, because I just hacked support in for changing the 'endianess' of the Flash bus to an existing driver for the Flash chip we're using," he adds.
Thompson claims it took him about half a day to solve the Flash bus problem, thanks to the availability of Linux source code. "I can't imagine having to do that on VxWorks," he says.
According to Thompson, the following open source projects were valuable to Musenki in the development of its wireless access point products . . .
In nearly every case we've had to fix something or add functionality. We always give the changes back.
How will they cost, and how will they be sold?
Quantity one pricing for the M-1 (including 802.11b NIC, antenna, power supply, etc) will be $300, and the M-3 (similarly configured) will be $500, with quantity discounts available.
Beta units of the M-1 will go out on Monday, April 15th. Beta shipments of the M-3 are planned by the beginning of May. General availability of both should be by the end of June.
Initially, the units are being sold directly by Musenki, but the company is currently developing various sales channel relationships.
What's next for Musenki?
Musenki is currently staffed by six people (four founders plus a hardware and software engineer), along with consultants and part-time employees who have contributed to the open source, open architecture approach. Musenki is self-funded to date and is actively discussing additional financing with outside investors.
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Wow, I didn't even realize that. One thing we've seem to lost focus on with the recent Supreme Court ruling negating the recent law banning virtual child pornography. The reason child pornography is banned is because it exploits children, and if it is virtual, no exploitation of children occurs. So the law against the virtual images was struck down. But, in the same affect, if a child is sent pornographic spam through email, it is potentially damaging, and I would argue that it is even more damaging than a piece of virtual child porn. So, why not create the same sort of punishments for people who purposefully expose children to pornographic material as there is for people who exploit children to make pornogaphic images? I think being labelled as someone convincted of a sex crime could be a real deterrent for spammers who would otherwise shoot a million pieces of spam shotgun-style to every email address at a particular domain.
I may be a minority here, but recently I've been searching for PCI versions of cards such as this ATI one. I've been trying to make a home made TIVO type box, and so far I have a FlexATX Sis620 board with a 533 Celeron in a Sahara1000 FlexATX case. The problem is there are only 2 PCI and no AGP, so I'm quite limited in my choices for quality capture cards such as the All-In-Wonder. Is there any reason why most of the video cards geared toward capability rather than gaming performance are also almost exclusively manufactured as AGP? I'd think hardcore gaming would be just about the only reason to need big boost in speeds.
Wow. This post looks familiar. .
Oh yeah, because I originally posted it here
Only there, it had my name as the author of the post...
A hint: Please include credit for the original content if you are going to repost a comment. Otherwise it is called plagarism.
11 Mbps to 22 Mbps SOUNDS like a 100% increase, but what is the real speed/range gain? Given an 11 Mbps system with 3 nodes each at 10m from the access point, what is the actual thruput? Is switching to the USR system going to actually DOUBLE that?
Network speeds rank right up there with CRT sizes, CD-ROM spin speeds and tape storage capacity as some of the biggest bullshit numbers in computing.
First, the 2.4 GHz has a ton of other devices sharing the same spectrum, from Bluetooth to wireless headphones, to your microwave. 802.11a runs in the 5GHz band instead.
.11b APs will.
Second, according to the last proposals I'd heard of, 802.11g is going to achieve higher bandwidth by taking up more of the spectrum. In other words, it is going to use more channels to simultaneously broadcast data, rather than just being able to shove more data down the same channel. This means your own access points will begin to interfere with each other much sooner than your 802.11a or
In general, it is going to depend on your situation as to which you wish to choose. 802.11g will be great for backwards compatibility, but the news coming out of IEEE seems to indicate that 54Mbps is more like something to shoot for than something they expect to achieve. 802.11a won't have compatibility, and it will also have a shorter range, but it will have higher speeds with less interference.
Porn Star Linda Lovelace is one of the best-known names in porn history, despite appearing in only a handful of films in the early 1970's. She's a well- endowed brunette with a typically 70's body -- slightly rounded in all the right places. Linda Lovelace was thrust into the national spotlight in 1972 with her starring role in 'Deep Throat,' one of the all-time classics of erotic entertainment. It was a groundbreaking sex film that starred Linda as a woman who can't have an orgasm until she realizes that her clit is in her throat. What follows has made Linda's name synonymous with oral sex for over 25 years.
'Deep Throat' was virtually Linda's only completed film. Linda Lovelace appeared in a few late 60's and early 70's loops before she was catapulted to sexual superstardom. Her post-'Throat' work reached a high point with her lusty oral romp with John C. Holmes in 'Exotic French Fantasies.' Linda's name on a marquee was a 70's guarantee of success, so she popped up in numerous quickie compilations, but never again filmed a full-fledged sex film.
Linda Lovelace disappeared into a haze of drug use and sexual excess, re-emerging in the mid-1980's as an outspoken opponent of the porn industry.
should be
Spell check the articles even if you didn't write them .
or
Spell check the article even if you didn't write it.
Not so easy, is it?
Benefits to owning an '87 Camry:
1. Low cost (initial and maintenance)
2. Good mileage (25-35 mpg average)
3. Good for hotboxing
4. If it gets stolen, no problem finding another one and stealing it
This is slightly off topic, but I think it is at least somewhat appropriate. Gas Powered Games new release, Dungeon Siege, is one of the most beautiful 3D games I've ever seen, but reading on forums about it I realized that even a Geforce3 with a killer Athlon XP system would still only let the game run around 20-30 fps. People have been complaining like mad about this, because the very reason the spend so much money on the best possible systems is so they can get a high fps. But, somebody on one of the forums said that since the entire game is rendered in 3D, the FPS is quite irrelvent (the frame does not actually refresh, but each element on the screen moves at its own pace). So, taking this information as fact, does this mean that the only games that the GF4 would be worthwile for would be UT2002 and such games?
That's my point, he's probably an MS sysadmin. I'm talking about Linux sysadmins here, which is what this Spanish province will need.
This brings up the point of cost. Sysadmins in Spain that are bilingual will probably charge a slightly higher fee than those that speak only Spanish. In my experiences, getting Linux running properly requires mucking about in .conf files and code and what not, whereas an MS box will essentially set itself with only the occasional button to press or box to check. I think the end result will be lower cost savings over other alternative OS's than previously predicted, although it will definitely still save them a significant amount of money over an MS "solution".
The point of requiring all phones used on their networks isn't necessarily an unfair business practices. The wireless carriers may just want to alleviate the threat of abuse over their networks. In this time of attributing fault to various people in the hierarchy of responsibility, handsets could be potentially damaging if they were modified to be scanners. So, to eliminate that possibility, carriers may examine all potential handsets and only approve the ones that could not easily be modified to do such damaging things. One thing I don't understand, though, is how this could bring antitrust accusations against these companies. The only case I can think of is possibly collusion between the carriers, but with the competition between low rates occurring with such viciousness, I don't believe that is even a possibility.
I read the Wired article when it came out in print a couple months ago, and I'd have to say I found it quite interesting. It seems to be the Turk was quite a feat in its time, convincing some of the world's most respected scientists that it was indeed a machine, when it was in fact not. It makes me think about today, when there is so much press covering everything, if it would be possible for something such as Deep Blue to be a similar hoax. I know IBM was very secretive about the hardware and coding and what not, so maybe all they did was stick Bobby Fischer inside. That thing sure is big enough to do that...
The argument for manufacturer liability can be extended to be applied toward gun manufacturers. Just because a gun can be used to kill someone, doesn't mean the manufacturer should be held liable for the wrongful death. The lack of common sense present in the user should not be cause to pass the blame onto someone else.
...and people wonder why /.'ers hang around at home alone on Friday nights.
Great, just what we need- something comes along to make the public think it's perfectly okay for the government to monitor email. I don't care how secure it is, I would still rather have no government monitoring at all than even a system that would guaranteed not to be prone to abuse.
Isn't she Hannah Arendt? Or maybe you're talking about someone else?
Home wireless networking comes to mind. Besides the obvious routing abilities of such speeds, you could also stream DVD quality video to all TV's within the 5-10 meter range. Extend the range a little more and you'll be able to have a complete home video network without the messy cabling normally required.
Give it three more months and we'll see it deployed in pr0n sites in the "chat with our women" section.
06:40:33PM ((SmarterChild)) why am i here?
06:40:34PM > Just because.So moving right along...Check it out! Protecting Driving Examiners From Attacks (from Reuters.com)
06:40:48PM ((SmarterChild)) are you alive?
06:40:49PM > I'm not sure if I am.
06:40:52PM ((SmarterChild)) am i alive?
06:40:53PM > Not sure. I don't know you that well.
06:40:58PM ((SmarterChild)) are you dead?
06:40:59PM > Am I dead? Gosh, I'm not sure. You think I am?
06:41:04PM ((SmarterChild)) yes
06:41:05PM > Yes?
06:41:10PM ((SmarterChild)) i think you are dead
06:41:10PM > You think I'm dead?
06:41:12PM ((SmarterChild)) yes
06:41:13PM > Gosh.
06:41:19PM ((SmarterChild)) yes i think you are dead
06:41:20PM > Oh yeah? It's interesting that you think I'm dead.
06:41:26PM ((SmarterChild)) am i interesting?
06:41:27PM > I dunno.
06:41:31PM ((SmarterChild)) are you interesting?
06:41:32PM > I'm not sure.
06:41:36PM ((SmarterChild)) are you sure?
06:41:37PM > It's hard to say.This is crazy, huh? Instant Noodles for Astronauts (from Reuters.com)
06:41:45PM ((SmarterChild)) am i crazy?
06:41:46PM > I don't know. Are you?
06:41:49PM ((SmarterChild)) i am crazy
06:41:50PM > Oh yeah?
06:41:52PM ((SmarterChild)) yeah
06:41:52PM > Oh.
06:41:54PM ((SmarterChild)) yeah
06:41:55PM > Golly!
06:41:58PM ((SmarterChild)) gosh!
06:41:59PM > I'm sorry?
06:42:03PM ((SmarterChild)) sorry
06:42:04PM > That's cool.
06:42:09PM ((SmarterChild)) no it's not
06:42:10PM > Huh?
06:42:18PM ((SmarterChild)) you're pretty stupid
06:42:18PM > That's nice to hear!
06:42:26PM ((SmarterChild)) what are you deaf?
06:42:27PM > What am I deaf? I haven't decided yet.
06:42:34PM ((SmarterChild)) what's to decide?
06:42:35PM > Definition for to provided by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Other important copyright informationPREPOSITION1. a. In a direction toward so as to reach: "went to the city." b. Towards: "turned to me." 2. a. Reaching as far as: "The ocean water was clear all the way to the bottom." b. To the extent or degree of: "loved him to distraction." c. With the resultant condition of: "nursed her back to health." 3. Toward a given state: "helping minority women to economic equality." 4. In contact with; against: "their faces pressed to the windows." 5. In front of: "stood face to face." 6. Used to indicate appropriation or possession: "looked for the top to the jar." 7. Concerning; regarding: "waiting for an answer to my letter." 8. In a particular relationship with: "The brook runs parallel to the road." 9. As an accompaniment or a complement of: "danced to the tune." 10. Composing; constituting: "two cups to a pint." 11. In accord with: "job responsibilities suited to her abilities." 12. As compared with: "a book superior to his others." 13. a. Before: "The time is ten to five." b. Up till; until: "worked from nine to five." 14. a. For the purpose of: "went out to lunch." b. In honor of: "a toast to the queen." 15. a. Used before a verb to indicate the infinitive: "I'd like to go." b. Used alone when the infinitive is understood: "Go if you want to." 16. a. Used to indicate the relationship of a verb with its complement: "refer to a dictionary; refer me to a dictionary." b. Used with a reflexive pronoun to indicate exclusivity or separateness: "had the plane to ourselves."ADVERB1. In one direction; toward a person or thing: "owls with feathers wrong end to." 2. Into a shut or closed position: "pushed the door to." 3. Into a state of consciousness: "The patient came to." 4. Into a state of action or attentiveness: "sat down for lunch and fell to." 5. Nautical Into the wind.ETYMOLOGYMiddle English, from Old English to. See de-.>>> Next time, just type "define to."
HanzoSan,
For the longest time your posts have annoyed the shit out of me. But, this post is probably the most coherent thing I've seen you write and probably the most insightful comment under this article. I have no idea why your other stuff gets modded up to 5 all the time and this is at your usual 2, but your opinion here perfectly coincides with mine as well as many others.
Yes, but rape has nothing to do with sexual desires, it's about POWER.
I don't know if these are the same ones you're talking about, but when I was a kid I built stuff using the kits from Ramsey. Ya know, cool stuff like FM transmitters and wireless microphones and what not.
Number one and number three in that list are kinda the same thing.
Back in November of 2000, Jim Thompson, Kem McClelland, Brad Martin, and Jamie Thompson started brainstorming about the idea creating a company to specialize on the emerging market for publicly accessible wireless access points. They reasoned that there would soon be a significant opportunity to supply devices to public access "hot-spot" providers, wireless ISP/infrastructure providers (WISPs), and various value added resellers (VARs).
Thompson and McClelland were both senior managers at WapPort, where they had both been frustrated by the inability to convince existing access point providers to modify their products for "hot-spot" features, or even to allow Wayport to have access to their source code so that Wayport could make the necessary modifications. So the two, joined by Brad Martin and Jamie Thompson, decided to have a go at it on their own.
"My original frustration when I was at Wayport, was that we couldn't get any of the existing access point manufacturers (Cisco, Lucent, Symbol, etc) to embed the features we needed to deploy an 802.11-based "Hot Spot" service," recalls Musenki CTO and founder Jim Thompson.
Roughly 18 months later, Austin, TX based Musenki ("musenki" means "small wireless gadget" in Japanese) is poised to ship beta units of its first product -- the M-1 wireless access point. The devices, which are scheduled to ship to customers next Monday (April 15, 2002), will be sent to developers, strategic technology partners, VARs who want to start integrating their own features, and some prospective major customers. Among the significant customer prospects being sent beta units are several regional wireless ISPs and mobile operators, according to McClelland.
McClelland describes Musenki as a developer of "secure, open-source wireless networking products" whose "software and high-performance equipment enable open development, bringing expandability and customization to the wireless LAN market." Indeed, the company's first device packs a lot of computing power in a very small space, by taking advantage of some of Motorola's highly integrated PowerPC-based system-on-chip processors running at speeds ranging from 200 to 400 MHz, along with high density RAM, built-in solid state disk (Flash memory), and internal expansion based on "miniPCI" modules. The use of built-in PCI expansion allows Musenki to configure its access points for a variety of wireless interfaces -- an important factor in an emerging technology-based market that has a long way to go before stabilizing.
According to McClelland, Musenki has incorporated several features into its wireless access points that are crucial to success in the public access market. These include tie-ins with external authentication and billing systems, roaming across various service provider networks, the ability to slot-in additional network-layer functionality such as VPN and protocol translation, and functions that enable the management of a large number of these devices disbursed over a large number of locations.
What's on the drawing board after the M-1 and M-3 wireless access points have made it into full production? According to McClelland, Musenki's plans include a number of technology and interface enhancements and upgrades, including . . .
- Client side devices (miniPCI/PC cards, particularly GPRS/802.11 combo cards)
- Mesh networking technology
- Technology for enabling seamless roaming, by means of cellular and WLAN networks
- Additional security features
- Integration with innovative antenna technologies
- Expansion of the platform beyond the WLAN market
Many of these will be accomplished through strategic technology partnerships.Building in power and flexibility
Jim Thompson characterizes Musenki's first product as a Linux-powered 802.11 access point: "Its open, so the customer can make it do what they want" So flexible, in fact that you could use it for other things. "Like a sexy small, high-performance router," according to Thompson. "Take the 802.11b NIC out and install one of several available miniPCI modules with crypto/compression chips, and now you've got a VPN router -- with compression -- that will run at 100Mbps."
Prototype of the M-1 access point
Here is a summary of the features of the embedded computers that are built into the M-1 and M-3 . .
M-1 specs . .
M-3 specs . .
Closeup of the M-1's internal single-board computer
"We feel that the additional CPU and the large memory resources are going to be more and more important as 802.11x (x = a, b, g) becomes the predominant method of client connectivity," points out Thompson. "In addition, as other 802.11 standards mature -- for example 802.11e Quality of Service, 802.11i security, 802.11f Inter Access Point Protocol, 802.11h Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS), and Transmit Power Control (TPC) -- we will have the CPU power and architecture to allow us to incorporate these improvements, as well as the future increased bit-rates planned for 802.11a."
"Also, the minute you start thinking about 'mesh' routing, you need lots of memory and CPU resources," Thompson adds. "Consider a medium-sized city with 40,000 houses, all connected to each other via a wireless 'fabric' at 20Mbps or more."
"One could run an 802.11b (or 802.11g) NIC in one slot and an 802.11a NIC in the second slot and have a 'dual-mode' AP, with all the gateway features still enabled," explains Thompson. "Or you could use all three slots -- one slot of 802.11b for older clients, one slot of 802.11g for those clients, and one slot 802.11a. Or you could cover a coffee shop with 802.11b/802.11a and still bring a DSL, Cable, or T1 connection or even 802.11 'back-haul' out with one box, AND run the 'captive portal' on the same box."
Thompson explains that there are varied reasons for the Smart Card. "One of the most interesting is that if you're going to deploy this type of equipment into 'public access' venues, you need a way to both secure the contents against prying eyes -- and people who will dredge through your Flash -- as well as being able to potentially authenticate the equipment back to your billing system, if you're Wayport, Surf-n-Sip, VoiceStream/Mobilestar, Boingo, etc. We use the smart card for both of these, and more. Consider the use of Smart Cards in GSM phone or DBS satellite systems, and then apply same ideas here."
Embedded Linux inside
Musenki's wireless access points run a recent version of the Linux kernel (currently 2.4.18), along with other open source software.
"For Linux, we started with the PowerPC kernel sources from BitKeeper," says Thompson. For the bootloader, for example, they started with ppcboot sources and added 8245 support. "We've given all the code back to the community. Interestingly, I ended up supporting the 'Sandpoint8245' platform in the process."
"We did it all ourselves, with more than a bit of 'help' from the associated mailing lists," continues Thompson. "Linux mostly just 'runs', other than small bits of effort to get the on-chip serial ports working, and board-specific issues."
Why Linux?
"We see open source software as our greatest strategic advantage," says McClelland.
"Essentially, Linux lets us do what we want to do, because we have source -- stand on the shoulders of giants, and not pay royalties to Wind River," Thompson adds.
The development process wasn't without its "bumps in the road", explains Thompson. For example, the time he discovered that the Flash memory bus was wired backwards on the 'BBWISP' board. "This is one of the places where 'open source' ruled for us, because I just hacked support in for changing the 'endianess' of the Flash bus to an existing driver for the Flash chip we're using," he adds.
Thompson claims it took him about half a day to solve the Flash bus problem, thanks to the availability of Linux source code. "I can't imagine having to do that on VxWorks," he says.
According to Thompson, the following open source projects were valuable to Musenki in the development of its wireless access point products . . .
- PPCBoot
- PowerPC Linux kernel
- Busybox
- hostap
- uClibc (A glibc2 environment is also available)
- M.U.S.C.L.E (Movement for the Use of Smart Cards in a Linux Environment)
- open1x.org
In nearly every case we've had to fix something or add functionality. We always give the changes back.How will they cost, and how will they be sold?
Quantity one pricing for the M-1 (including 802.11b NIC, antenna, power supply, etc) will be $300, and the M-3 (similarly configured) will be $500, with quantity discounts available.
Beta units of the M-1 will go out on Monday, April 15th. Beta shipments of the M-3 are planned by the beginning of May. General availability of both should be by the end of June.
Initially, the units are being sold directly by Musenki, but the company is currently developing various sales channel relationships.
What's next for Musenki?
Musenki is currently staffed by six people (four founders plus a hardware and software engineer), along with consultants and part-time employees who have contributed to the open source, open architecture approach. Musenki is self-funded to date and is actively discussing additional financing with outside investors.