Next we'll learn that smog controls were a historical prank perpetrated by E Clampus Vitus chapter 33MPG...
We'll call the main part the 'ECV valve', that should clue them in. And if not, just think of all the beer they'll pay for..."
Not only has the IEEE jumped on the bandwagon, but we're likely to find a sympathetic ear in the FCC. This story profiles the new head of the FCC (Michael Powell, who is General Colin Powell's son):
Powell, 39, will help craft the rules of the road to a new digital promised land, where the lines between computers and entertainment devices blur and consumers have access to a vast array of new services.
A die-hard Republican free-marketeer, he aims to do so with as little government intrusion as possible.
It seems that an overly restrictive DMCA would get in the way of his plans as well, and he's well received on Capital Hill.
Sprint tried this approach for a broadband ISP and abandonded it due to limited profitability. "Sprint remains hopeful that the advantages of the next-generation of fixed wireless technology, which includes self installation, no line of sight limitations, increased capacity, and the ability to offer voice services will make fixed wireless a viable consumer broadband product."
Nokia is making a go at building wireless broadband solutions.
OK, so the original article was about wireless cable distribution with data as a bonus. The "business plan" of going head to head with the cable companies just on price seems unlikely to work, especially with the FCC deciding the spectrum would be auctioned off.
You too can request a custom plate design, if you can get 250 Nevadans to promise to buy it:
A number of charitable organizations and causes have proposed special license plates which may or may not actually be issued, depending on public demand for them. These are called "Letter of Intent" plates.
Motorists interested in seeing the plates produced fill out a Letter of Intent stating they would purchase a set. A given type of plate will be produced if the Department receives more than 250 requests for it before the date listed on the form.
Yes, reaching at least parity on all those points and substantially undercutting the cost of Windows could lead to quite a bit of adoption.
But, MS Windows is "cheap to free" in the minds of most people -- bundled in with their new Intel boxes, or sold in OEM packages for around $100. Most people will count the learning curve for a new OS, the need to change applications, and possibly the download/install time as worth putting at least $100 in Microsoft's pocket to stay with something "familiar".
Gates' testimony basically comes down to if we can't have everything, all we built will crumble to dust. That would make many/.-ers happy, but it's unlikely to happen.
Look at Everett Rogers' work on the diffusion of innovations. Basically, once an innovation has been picked up by about 25% of the available market, network effects (people talking to each other) take over and adoption becomes virtually unstoppable. Just the use of MS Office gives Windows a thoroughly entrenched position.
Can MS be dislodged? Let's say that the various *NIX factions get organized enough to make a serious run at displacing MS Windows. Rogers lists 5 conditions that are required for an innovation to be successful, and they place alternate operating systems at a disadvantage (definitions from Rogers' site, italicized comments mine):
Relative advantage: the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes. Unless an alternative can show a substantial increase in uptime, a far more attractive UI, and seamless installation, it won't play in the mass market.
Compatibility: the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters. It has to run MS Office and whatever motley collection of apps people have gathered over the years.
Complexity: the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use. Self-explanatory.
Trialability: the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis. OK, Windows fails this too -- but people don't even know there's an alternative to be tried. Where's the *NIX equivalent of AOL's "1000 free hours" preview?
Observability: the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others. If you adopt *NIX, how will this improve your life in ways that are clearly visible to others, including (and especially) non-techies?
So, anyone want to make Gates' nightmares come true?
While feeling ther demise of electronic tinkering -- my son doesn't mess around with electronics and science the way I did as a child -- I realized the tinkering has gone into other areas. We build robots with Lego Mindstorms. We design model rockets with Rocksim and fly with a local club. We design electronic payloads together -- he comes up with the concept for the booster, and I refine it while figuring out how to fit in the electronics. (We're currently mounting lights inside a ShroxAlien 8 for night flying.)
Adult "born again rocketeers" are building larger, faster, and more powerful rockets -- and the kids are following suit.
In all these cases, we've taken the manufacturing boom and used it to support our hobbies. It's not the same as tinkering with low-level parts and raw materials, but in the end you still learn a whole lot about physics, materials science, electronics, etc.
I expected the burn itself would be clean, though I wondered if H2 would be more likely to light (and/or explode) than oil. On the other hand, the drillers are acustomed to drilling for natural gas, which would be handled relatively the same, so you're right.
As for hysteria -- I wouldn't be surprised to see somebody say Hindenburg.
If you thought oil well fires were spectacular, I wonder what a hydrogen well fire would look like.
Just to assuage public opinion, they'll have to drill far away from public places. That runs up the cost of packaging and transporting the hydrogen, making it tough to do this as "economically" as oil drilling today. (OK, nobody counts all the costs of oil drilling, e.g. smog control in all those cars, higher healthcare costs, etc.)
Another possibility would be to put electrical generation next to the H2 mines and take advantage of the electrical distribution grid.
Maybe we'll see H2 fuel when the oil supplies have dwindled far enough to force a look at alternative sources. Maybe.
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).
I love that they've done this on a shoestring, but the demands of deploying and supporting an end-user-device-cum-platform can crush a company. At a minimum, they'll need to issue patches in a form that can be installed without comprimising uptime, and VARs will demand "development kits" which are workable, documented, and supported.
Both of these are crucial. If even a few devices are hacked, you can kiss commercial adoption goodbye. If development requires too much time, the VARs will look for other platforms -- they tend to be small outfits without much time for puzzling out the source code. (I used to build development kits for well-funded OEMs, and even they rode us mercilessly for better documentation, support, and frequent updates.)
I hope they find a stable funding source and the best people they can. This is a worthy idea that deserves to work.
Virtually all of the posters here are saying my keyboarding is faster than my handwriting. Sure, you've learned that skill (even mastered it, which is a non-trivial task), but what about the people who haven't?
One of the reasons the Palm Pilot did so well is it was easy to learn and use. You can learn Graffiti in an hour or so, and using it becomes automatic within a couple of days.
A piece of equipment that uses familiar input devices (pens) is poised to gather more customers than a keyboard-based one. It may tick-off the techno literati (the same ones who scoff at AOL's customer's as simpletons) but businesses will continue to look for ways to reach a mass market. AOL, Microsoft, Motorola, et. al. would rather have the customers (and their cash) than slash-dotters' approval.
(Besides, the article points out that pens are targeted at mobile phones and sub-notebook mobile computing devices. On-screen keyboards are uniformely awful, and fold-out ones are simply awkward.)
Slashdot Mirror
Next we'll learn that smog controls were a historical prank perpetrated by E Clampus Vitus chapter 33MPG... We'll call the main part the 'ECV valve', that should clue them in. And if not, just think of all the beer they'll pay for..."
Nokia is making a go at building wireless broadband solutions. OK, so the original article was about wireless cable distribution with data as a bonus. The "business plan" of going head to head with the cable companies just on price seems unlikely to work, especially with the FCC deciding the spectrum would be auctioned off.
(See Nevada License Plates)
On the other hand, you'd have to get the Legislature's approval...
But, MS Windows is "cheap to free" in the minds of most people -- bundled in with their new Intel boxes, or sold in OEM packages for around $100. Most people will count the learning curve for a new OS, the need to change applications, and possibly the download/install time as worth putting at least $100 in Microsoft's pocket to stay with something "familiar".
Look at Everett Rogers' work on the diffusion of innovations. Basically, once an innovation has been picked up by about 25% of the available market, network effects (people talking to each other) take over and adoption becomes virtually unstoppable. Just the use of MS Office gives Windows a thoroughly entrenched position.
Can MS be dislodged? Let's say that the various *NIX factions get organized enough to make a serious run at displacing MS Windows. Rogers lists 5 conditions that are required for an innovation to be successful, and they place alternate operating systems at a disadvantage (definitions from Rogers' site, italicized comments mine):
So, anyone want to make Gates' nightmares come true?
Adult "born again rocketeers" are building larger, faster, and more powerful rockets -- and the kids are following suit.
In all these cases, we've taken the manufacturing boom and used it to support our hobbies. It's not the same as tinkering with low-level parts and raw materials, but in the end you still learn a whole lot about physics, materials science, electronics, etc.
I expected the burn itself would be clean, though I wondered if H2 would be more likely to light (and/or explode) than oil. On the other hand, the drillers are acustomed to drilling for natural gas, which would be handled relatively the same, so you're right.
As for hysteria -- I wouldn't be surprised to see somebody say Hindenburg.
Thanks for the feedback.
Just to assuage public opinion, they'll have to drill far away from public places. That runs up the cost of packaging and transporting the hydrogen, making it tough to do this as "economically" as oil drilling today. (OK, nobody counts all the costs of oil drilling, e.g. smog control in all those cars, higher healthcare costs, etc.)
Another possibility would be to put electrical generation next to the H2 mines and take advantage of the electrical distribution grid.
Maybe we'll see H2 fuel when the oil supplies have dwindled far enough to force a look at alternative sources. Maybe.
I love that they've done this on a shoestring, but the demands of deploying and supporting an end-user-device-cum-platform can crush a company. At a minimum, they'll need to issue patches in a form that can be installed without comprimising uptime, and VARs will demand "development kits" which are workable, documented, and supported.
Both of these are crucial. If even a few devices are hacked, you can kiss commercial adoption goodbye. If development requires too much time, the VARs will look for other platforms -- they tend to be small outfits without much time for puzzling out the source code. (I used to build development kits for well-funded OEMs, and even they rode us mercilessly for better documentation, support, and frequent updates.)
I hope they find a stable funding source and the best people they can. This is a worthy idea that deserves to work.
One of the reasons the Palm Pilot did so well is it was easy to learn and use. You can learn Graffiti in an hour or so, and using it becomes automatic within a couple of days.
A piece of equipment that uses familiar input devices (pens) is poised to gather more customers than a keyboard-based one. It may tick-off the techno literati (the same ones who scoff at AOL's customer's as simpletons) but businesses will continue to look for ways to reach a mass market. AOL, Microsoft, Motorola, et. al. would rather have the customers (and their cash) than slash-dotters' approval.
(Besides, the article points out that pens are targeted at mobile phones and sub-notebook mobile computing devices. On-screen keyboards are uniformely awful, and fold-out ones are simply awkward.)