Using caps doesn't really make your argument any stronger.
WHAT do you think would be stronger, and WHY? RAM is effectively non-volatile, so long as you don't turn off the power. I never power down my notebook, so it effectively has non-volatile RAM. Ditto for my desktop at the lab.
So if you really think non-volatile RAM makes everything sooo much faster, use the sleep function on your computer.
You're making the same mistake as everyone else: "With an IP connection...."
Current internet connections are considered noncritical. They don't have to have the uptime that the POTS system does. Barring some insane official stupidity, the phone company would have to match the POTS reliability with their new IP lines. I really don't think AT&T is asking permission to just turn off the POTS system and replace it with VoIP over whatever internet connection the customer happens to be using.
If they simply turn all POTS lines into DSL lines then your alarm has an always on connection - it doesn't just dial up when there's a problem. Paranoid customers could check to see that everything is okay, the system could be monitored constantly to identify WHEN there's a connectivity problem, etc. Best yet, the alarm system itself doesn't need to have a built in modem.
I think you're WAY overly optimistic. AT&T isn't going to replace all their copper wires with cell connections. No way.
What they don't want to do is maintain banks of what are effectively modems, one for each landline. Most telecom companies have switched to IP networks, except for the last bit to the subscriber, because they're more efficient and way easier to deal with. AT&T wants to get rid of that last bit of analog.
1) Migrate into the 21st century. The disappearance of POTS lines will encourage this much needed change.
2) Credit card companies are switching everyone over to smart card enabled machines anyway. Best to make them all IP enabled while they're at it.
3) Migrate into the 21st century. Security systems could be made MUCH better if they use an IP connection instead.
4) VoIP is just as reliable as the POTS protocol (I can never remember what order the S and T come in). What you mean is that current broadband connections are not as reliable as POTS. When POTS is phased out, it's replacement will have to meet that reliability standard, either with beefed up broadband or with dedicated VoIP lines.
The POTS based credit card terminals are REALLY annoying. They're basically an IP terminal with a modem, so you have to wait for the modem to dial each time.
Fax machines should have been obsolete a long time ago. Good riddance.
"Still sounds like a rip-off. I just pay a specialized VoIP provider, such as unlimitel.ca or voip.ms, for a "by the minute" SIP/IAX2 account. It has a 3.50$/month base fee and 1.1cent/minute for north-american calls. "
Or Skype is $2.50/month (or $3.00?) for unlimited calling in North America.
It's because the average Slashdotter seems to think that "Voice Over Internet Protocol" means "phone calls over broadband Internet."
VoIP doesn't really require broadband and doesn't have to travel over the Internet. Most of my POTS calls are in fact VoIP calls as soon as they hit the local substation.
"And this is why VoIP and TVoIP aren't going to make POTS and cable systems obsolete in the near future."
What makes you think VoIP is so different? The simplest and cheapest solution to your objection would be to just run a digital signal on the copper wire that the POTS runs on now. There you go, VoIP.
I'm sure AT&T wants public funding to upgrade those old POTS lines, but there's no reason they couldn't give everyone who has POTS a VoIP line.
Seriously. It looks like a decent smart phone, but it's not the second coming of Jesus.
BTW - I like how you make a big deal out of the "phone icon" on the N900. Guess what? The iPhone (and I assume the Droid) have the same phone icon (well, it's green on an iPhone)!
Apparently the ones that were locked to the carrier couldn't do it, but my unlocked Razr happily synced with my powerbook/mbp via bluetooth, including contacts. I could even use it with Salling Clicker as a remote control. The text messaging via the computer didn't work though.
Wikipedia implies that "human" can and is also used to refer to the genus homo, not just the species and subspecies sapiens sapiens.
Anyway, you're still making things up. There's no evidence to indicate that we'd even notice a pole reversal except for pretty lights in the sky at latitudes we normally don't see them, and compasses not working so well. If you've got any credible evidence to the contrary, it's time to pony it up.
PS: "Actually without a magnetic field, and the generated magnetosphere, pretty much all life on earth will die" is pretty hard to translate into "without a magnetosphere, a whole shitload of people will die."
It depends on your definition of "human." The human lineage has been around for some three million years.
Anyway, you're clearly nitpicking because you got caught saying something silly. Clearly "pretty much all life on earth will die" is incorrect since life on Earth has certainly lived through a lot of pole reversals. We don't even find any significant extinction events associated with them.
There has to be more to it than that. If the "encryption" literally uses a substitution cypher or something that depends on a "codebook" then that codebook would have to be stored on every device and would be fairly trivial to discover and copy (not to mention any reasonable codebook would have crushed the available memory in any mobile devices back when GSM was invented). There would also be nothing theoretical about decrypting messages.
I think the article author is using the term figuratively.
Current thinking is not that the generator stops and starts, nor that the poles cross over in the core or even wander along the surface until they flip. The idea is that the dipole field weakens while higher order fields intensify, so we end up with multiple poles all over. Eventually the dipole field strengthens again, with the opposite polarity.
There have been several cases of people trying the "helpful malware" trick. The most recent widely publicized incident I remember was the guy who wrote some code to exploit jailbroken iphones with default passwords and replace the wallpaper with a warning to change the password.
We have exceptions where, if your business makes less than a certain amount, you aren't required to collect sales tax at all, because it really would be a significant cost to a small business or individual. It also works well for the jurisdiction because they get tax money but can still benefit from the economic activity of very small businesses, both electronic and physical. A similar system would seem to be a good solution to your problem.
Yes, out in the boonies was not 3G, but your point was that the phone is trash. It isn't. It's no 3G performance is excellent.
I'm actually sitting in the basement of my grandmother's townhouse in Toronto at the moment, with large residential towers literally surrounding the place. Full 3G signal, and good data and voice performance. My Razor was spotty in the basement, good everywhere above ground.
In my experience your point about the phone being junk just doesn't seem to hold up. Combined with your assertion that you can't expect to drive without dropped calls (something I've never experienced, either in major cities or out in the middle of nowhere, including in the mountains), it seems much more likely that the network is the problem.
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Using caps doesn't really make your argument any stronger.
WHAT do you think would be stronger, and WHY? RAM is effectively non-volatile, so long as you don't turn off the power. I never power down my notebook, so it effectively has non-volatile RAM. Ditto for my desktop at the lab.
So if you really think non-volatile RAM makes everything sooo much faster, use the sleep function on your computer.
"Imagine how different operating systems and programs would be if we could make RAM non-volatile."
Pretty much like they are now? Does anyone actually cold boot their machines anymore?
Now, if RAM were as cheap as hard disks....
You're making the same mistake as everyone else: "With an IP connection...."
Current internet connections are considered noncritical. They don't have to have the uptime that the POTS system does. Barring some insane official stupidity, the phone company would have to match the POTS reliability with their new IP lines. I really don't think AT&T is asking permission to just turn off the POTS system and replace it with VoIP over whatever internet connection the customer happens to be using.
If they simply turn all POTS lines into DSL lines then your alarm has an always on connection - it doesn't just dial up when there's a problem. Paranoid customers could check to see that everything is okay, the system could be monitored constantly to identify WHEN there's a connectivity problem, etc. Best yet, the alarm system itself doesn't need to have a built in modem.
I think you're WAY overly optimistic. AT&T isn't going to replace all their copper wires with cell connections. No way.
What they don't want to do is maintain banks of what are effectively modems, one for each landline. Most telecom companies have switched to IP networks, except for the last bit to the subscriber, because they're more efficient and way easier to deal with. AT&T wants to get rid of that last bit of analog.
1) Migrate into the 21st century. The disappearance of POTS lines will encourage this much needed change.
2) Credit card companies are switching everyone over to smart card enabled machines anyway. Best to make them all IP enabled while they're at it.
3) Migrate into the 21st century. Security systems could be made MUCH better if they use an IP connection instead.
4) VoIP is just as reliable as the POTS protocol (I can never remember what order the S and T come in). What you mean is that current broadband connections are not as reliable as POTS. When POTS is phased out, it's replacement will have to meet that reliability standard, either with beefed up broadband or with dedicated VoIP lines.
Which is silly. Businesses have a way of dropping their ridiculous habits as soon as someone comes along and makes them.
The POTS based credit card terminals are REALLY annoying. They're basically an IP terminal with a modem, so you have to wait for the modem to dial each time.
Fax machines should have been obsolete a long time ago. Good riddance.
"powering and charging cordless phone base and receiver typically used with VOIP"
Your cordless phone doesn't work so well with POTS, why would you expect it to with VoIP?
"Still sounds like a rip-off. I just pay a specialized VoIP provider, such as unlimitel.ca or voip.ms, for a "by the minute" SIP/IAX2 account. It has a 3.50$/month base fee and 1.1cent/minute for north-american calls. "
Or Skype is $2.50/month (or $3.00?) for unlimited calling in North America.
It's because the average Slashdotter seems to think that "Voice Over Internet Protocol" means "phone calls over broadband Internet."
VoIP doesn't really require broadband and doesn't have to travel over the Internet. Most of my POTS calls are in fact VoIP calls as soon as they hit the local substation.
"And this is why VoIP and TVoIP aren't going to make POTS and cable systems obsolete in the near future."
What makes you think VoIP is so different? The simplest and cheapest solution to your objection would be to just run a digital signal on the copper wire that the POTS runs on now. There you go, VoIP.
I'm sure AT&T wants public funding to upgrade those old POTS lines, but there's no reason they couldn't give everyone who has POTS a VoIP line.
"but what about the fiber hubs? How long is their backup?"
About as long as the POTS substations, I guess.
So it's a Droid? Or an iPhone with Linux?
Seriously. It looks like a decent smart phone, but it's not the second coming of Jesus.
BTW - I like how you make a big deal out of the "phone icon" on the N900. Guess what? The iPhone (and I assume the Droid) have the same phone icon (well, it's green on an iPhone)!
He had to prove he didn't peek.
Apparently the ones that were locked to the carrier couldn't do it, but my unlocked Razr happily synced with my powerbook/mbp via bluetooth, including contacts. I could even use it with Salling Clicker as a remote control. The text messaging via the computer didn't work though.
Wikipedia implies that "human" can and is also used to refer to the genus homo, not just the species and subspecies sapiens sapiens.
Anyway, you're still making things up. There's no evidence to indicate that we'd even notice a pole reversal except for pretty lights in the sky at latitudes we normally don't see them, and compasses not working so well. If you've got any credible evidence to the contrary, it's time to pony it up.
PS: "Actually without a magnetic field, and the generated magnetosphere, pretty much all life on earth will die" is pretty hard to translate into "without a magnetosphere, a whole shitload of people will die."
It depends on your definition of "human." The human lineage has been around for some three million years.
Anyway, you're clearly nitpicking because you got caught saying something silly. Clearly "pretty much all life on earth will die" is incorrect since life on Earth has certainly lived through a lot of pole reversals. We don't even find any significant extinction events associated with them.
There has to be more to it than that. If the "encryption" literally uses a substitution cypher or something that depends on a "codebook" then that codebook would have to be stored on every device and would be fairly trivial to discover and copy (not to mention any reasonable codebook would have crushed the available memory in any mobile devices back when GSM was invented). There would also be nothing theoretical about decrypting messages.
I think the article author is using the term figuratively.
Nobody cares about the boring stuff he says officially. The juicy stuff is in the text messages he sends to his mistress.
Current thinking is not that the generator stops and starts, nor that the poles cross over in the core or even wander along the surface until they flip. The idea is that the dipole field weakens while higher order fields intensify, so we end up with multiple poles all over. Eventually the dipole field strengthens again, with the opposite polarity.
If only we had some nuclear weapons.
Odd, since even humans have lived through pole reversals before.
There have been several cases of people trying the "helpful malware" trick. The most recent widely publicized incident I remember was the guy who wrote some code to exploit jailbroken iphones with default passwords and replace the wallpaper with a warning to change the password.
We have exceptions where, if your business makes less than a certain amount, you aren't required to collect sales tax at all, because it really would be a significant cost to a small business or individual. It also works well for the jurisdiction because they get tax money but can still benefit from the economic activity of very small businesses, both electronic and physical. A similar system would seem to be a good solution to your problem.
Yes, out in the boonies was not 3G, but your point was that the phone is trash. It isn't. It's no 3G performance is excellent.
I'm actually sitting in the basement of my grandmother's townhouse in Toronto at the moment, with large residential towers literally surrounding the place. Full 3G signal, and good data and voice performance. My Razor was spotty in the basement, good everywhere above ground.
In my experience your point about the phone being junk just doesn't seem to hold up. Combined with your assertion that you can't expect to drive without dropped calls (something I've never experienced, either in major cities or out in the middle of nowhere, including in the mountains), it seems much more likely that the network is the problem.