I think this is basically a US idea that borders are a liminal space. I don't know of anywhere else that acts like this and I travel widely (surprised that Canada gave a problem to the OP). Everywhere I've travelled, the borders are subject to the same law as anywhere else. In the Schengen subset of the EU, borders are open to the extent that I've crossed them at 80mph.
BTW, in the UK we have had a problem with "Customs and Excise" which is nothing to do with a liminal border area. They were established before the idea of due process in the modern sense, and have or had the right to seize goods permanently without a warrant or court approval. This caused problems a few years ago when they started confiscating peoples cars when they started exercising a new right to bring in large quantities of alcohol for strictly private consumption - e.g. a middle-aged lady losing her Range Rover when she brought in a load of wine for her daughter's wedding. I'd not sure where this stands now as they've been re-orged into the Inland Revenue.
I set up my E70 with Asterisk over WLAN last night. It worked, to the extent of being able to hear the test voice menu system and navigate it. I've only got one extension set up at the moment, so I've not had the chance to do a two way call yet. The main problem I had was that audio quality was very poor - ok most of the time, but then bursts of "static" which lost a couple of seconds of sound. I was about 15 feet away from my DG834G access point, so signal strength was not an issue, and there was nothing else demanding running on the server.
Disclaimer - I work for a mobile phone network, and this does not represent anyone's views but my own.
Love it? I've been up in Arctic Sweden, three days walk from the nearest road, and come across a bothy. Apart from the sleeping quarters, there are two other buildings: the outside earth closet with expanded polystyrene seat; and the bastu. They must helicopter the wood in!
but how the hell are they going to read the ballot?
India manages to run a much larger democracy with a low level of literacy, by representing each party with a logo. I think this is normal in most democracies - in the UK, for instance, the voting slips are marked with party logos as well as the names and affiliations of the candidates.
I don't agree with your association of illiteracy with "brain-dead". There can be many reasons why people can't read, and in general being illiterate doesn't mean being stupid. Yes, they may not be as clever as you - but would you agree with me if I proposed dis-enfranchising anyone lacking a doctorate froma first-rank university?
If RMS had followed the normal scientific model (aka the BSD model) in allowing research to be used by anyone, at any time, for the overall good of humanity, then proprietory software would be dead now.
You do know that M$ used BSD-licenced code for their IP stack and Internet Explorer, don't you?
Why on earth shouldn't they earn money on work they did years ago? It's called an investment! If you're the buyer, it's up to you to negotiate a contract that makes commercial sense for you: I usually do things like a ceiling on the renewal price for several years (basically an option to renew maintenance), agreed man-day rates for change requests and so on. And you've got to either have an exit plan or a business case that allows you to walk away after the contract period and still make a profit.
There's no concept of a "reasonable" commercial contract in most jurisdictions (contracts with private individuals often get more protection). There's no such thing as a "fair" price either in most cases - you do a deal if both parties believe that they will get something that's worth more to them than they are handing over to get it, and they can't get a better deal elsewhere. Business still works ok even when both parties are amoral, partly because companies trade on their reputation, partly because repeat business is important.
Yes, but here's the catch: the tests don't verify that it's your DNA. They look for a match on a number of alleles, not on the whole molecule. That means that perhaps one person in a million matches. Now if there's something else to make you a suspect, that's very strong supporting evidence. If on the other hand this is the only evidence against you, it's very weak. Assuming the USA has a population has a population of 220M, that means that there are about 220 other people who would match, but you've been pulled in because your DNA is in a database and theirs isn't. Fingerprints work on a similar basis: even if you assume that a fingerprint is unique (and although this is often claimed, I've never seen supporting evidence), the comparison only uses a limited number of points, which makes it a probabilistic comparison.
Yes, but OS X is just recognising canned phrases - much easier (and far less useful) than recognising words in a stream of natural-language dictation. I like MacOS, but this is something I really miss.
The other aspect which is worth mentioning is the antenna housing: this is done with a dome on the outside of the plane. This means that it would need type approval for each aircraft type. I'm not sure how many aircraft types are supported, but they do Airbus as well as Boeing (strange, but true!).
For some reason, my mind start playing "I am the very model of a modern major general" when I started reading that, then hit a parse failure when the metre failed to match.
Not strictly true - we can do it the US way as well if we need to. I work for a mobile telco, and we don't have desk phones. I have a "mobile" number - works as you would expect. I also have a geographical number that rings through to my mobile, and an incoming caller only pays at land-line rates, with my company account picking up the difference. The point is to have something that behaves like a normal PABX but terminates on mobiles rather than fixed extensions (there are other features like hunt groups, out of hours white lists etc which make it a nice system).
Another more common case is if you are roaming abroad and someone calls you from home - they only pay as if you were in your home country, and you pick up the difference.
You're implicitly assuming that "theft" is defined exclusively by law. The concepts of theft and property are much older than law, and its not unreasonable for some people to have a definition in mind which doesn't completely coincide with the law of whatever country you are in. To give an example: the Zimbabwean government has been taking posession of farms owned by white Zimbabwean citizens. Some people may say this is theft, others may say that it is a revolutionary act. In either case though, it's not really relevant whether the government passed legislation to legalise the action.
For what it's worth, I think that copyright infringement is a type of theft. The infringer may argue that by taking a copy they don't cause anyone to lose money, since they wouldn't have bought the music anyway. I doubt this: I think (but cannot prove) that in some cases they would have bought the music, so that the owner loses potential revenue corresponding to perhaps 10% of the value of the copies.
The infringer may argue (and frequently does) that they go on to buy music which they would otherwise not have bought. Fine: but isn't it up to the owner to decide whether they believe that they will be better off if they allow copying? In software terms: some companies choose to issue software as shareware, gambling that the reduction in marketing costs will offset the lost revenue in unpaid copies. That's their choice, but it's not obvious that anyone else has the right to make the choice for them.
I'm sorry, but I can't take this as a serious answer to the problem of being laid off, because your preparations cost too much and restrict your options and your mobility. You're taking savings (flexible) and converting them to single-purpose items that you probably won't use, and you're nailing your feet to the floor with non-portable assets
Backup solar power? Mains power is cheap. Keep the money in the bank, spend it on mains if you have to.
Food stores? Really bad idea if all you're worried about is being laid off. If you've kept the money as savings, you can buy the food when you need it. If you buy food now, it's a wasting asset (i.e. its value declines because some of it goes off).
Pay off the house? No, keep a substantial chunk of the money on deposit where you can get at it for emergencies, and only after that pay off more than you have to on the house. You may get a lower interest on deposit than you're paying on the mortgage, but if you're looking for work, you are likely to need cash.
This sort of advice is only useful if you think that the whole of civilisation is going to collapse. As a preparation for personal financial problems, it's foolish.
My own opinion is that there are no reliable "home" routers, wireless or otherwise. If you want something that will actually work rather than a $100 hodge podge of cheap microprocessor, buggy code, solder, plastic and hope, get a proper business model, because the home versions are not worth your time.
Ah, the Lightning - two honking big engines with a couple of control surfaces stuck on the side and a man sitting in the inlet tract: the antithesis of Concorde. BTW, I take it we're going to keep quiet about the P1 that was down to normal reserve after seven minutes of an aerobatic display?
Even more ironic: most of the companies see running their services over IP as being the future. The technology is called IMS - it's an extension of SIP to the telco technical environment.
Yes, assuming you're comparing it with GSM/GPRS. I've not measured it, but 3G is better by design for this. GSM uses time slices to share the same frequency over up to eight devices on a single cell, and this introduces unavoidable latency. The common forms of 3G use CDMA, a technology which allows all the devices to send and recv simultaneously.
T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange and O2 all have nearly 100% coverage of the population, using separate infrastructure. Exactly how much competition would satisfy you?
I know I've seen a lot of messages here pushing government-run WiFi. I think it's just repeating the mistakes of the past. We've spend 25 years getting away from state monopoly telephone companies (the US was an exception in this). I've yet to hear anyone say a good thing about their service - no, strike that, there was one case. The "New Scientist" once asked its readers for any positive comments on British Telecom, then the monopoly incumbent. A bottle of champagne was on offer. It received one response - from the Samaritans.
The problem I fear with WiFi funded or subsidised by taxes is that it will be impossible for a local competitor to operate profitably (and yes, we're in it for the profit: we've got staff costs and shareholders to pay). Without a competitor, there's no incentive to offer decent service, other than during the initial selection process. I'm pretty sure that two years down the line, this is what you will be complaining about.
The other problem is one of fairness, and here I can understand conflicting views. The main non-local competition to municipal WiFi is from 3G operators, who have paid eye-watering sums to the government for their licences. Fair competition is no problem. Competition from unfunded competitors using WiFi in the unlicenced spectrum (hence avoiding the licence costs) is also fair enough: we've got the the same opportunity as anyone else and we're not looking to anyone to guarantee our business models will continue to be viable (I personally disagree with T-Mobile's policy in this article, but there's enough competition to allow the market to sort that out). Using tax money to fund a competitor, on the other hand, crosses a line in my opinion.
The above is very much my own opinion, and does not represent my employer.
arguably intuitive editor
Errm, you might want to check on the definition of "intuitive". I'd dread to meet someone who could immediately use vi without any tuition!
I forgot to answer your second point. I work for a large non-US GSM operator. We're very happy for you to swap your SIM around: you're paying for the time, not to rent a phone. I swap SIMs between three phones - for instance when I'm travelling I take a video phone to call my wife, but at work I use a Nokia 9300. I also use my SIM for test purposes in loads of other phones with no problems. If your SIM wears our (mine never has) we'll replace it over the counter and free.
One of the other respondents mentioned SIM-locked phones (actually they are locked to a network, not a specific SIM). Yes, they exist, mainly on high-end consumer phones. Fairly silly in my opinion, because those phones are usually custom-built and bought to tie in with value-added services, which the owner will lose if they go off-network. In my company, and the few others I know about for certain, it's possible to get them unlocked free after a year, or for a fee during the first year. There is also a thriving grey market in third parties unlocking phones
Slashdot Mirror
That sounds more like UUCP paths than SMTP.
BTW, in the UK we have had a problem with "Customs and Excise" which is nothing to do with a liminal border area. They were established before the idea of due process in the modern sense, and have or had the right to seize goods permanently without a warrant or court approval. This caused problems a few years ago when they started confiscating peoples cars when they started exercising a new right to bring in large quantities of alcohol for strictly private consumption - e.g. a middle-aged lady losing her Range Rover when she brought in a load of wine for her daughter's wedding. I'd not sure where this stands now as they've been re-orged into the Inland Revenue.
Disclaimer - I work for a mobile phone network, and this does not represent anyone's views but my own.
Love it? I've been up in Arctic Sweden, three days walk from the nearest road, and come across a bothy. Apart from the sleeping quarters, there are two other buildings: the outside earth closet with expanded polystyrene seat; and the bastu. They must helicopter the wood in!
Microsoftes eunt domus!
India manages to run a much larger democracy with a low level of literacy, by representing each party with a logo. I think this is normal in most democracies - in the UK, for instance, the voting slips are marked with party logos as well as the names and affiliations of the candidates.
I don't agree with your association of illiteracy with "brain-dead". There can be many reasons why people can't read, and in general being illiterate doesn't mean being stupid. Yes, they may not be as clever as you - but would you agree with me if I proposed dis-enfranchising anyone lacking a doctorate froma first-rank university?
Huh? I-- I don't know that. Aiiiiiigh!
You do know that M$ used BSD-licenced code for their IP stack and Internet Explorer, don't you?
There's no concept of a "reasonable" commercial contract in most jurisdictions (contracts with private individuals often get more protection). There's no such thing as a "fair" price either in most cases - you do a deal if both parties believe that they will get something that's worth more to them than they are handing over to get it, and they can't get a better deal elsewhere. Business still works ok even when both parties are amoral, partly because companies trade on their reputation, partly because repeat business is important.
Yes, but here's the catch: the tests don't verify that it's your DNA. They look for a match on a number of alleles, not on the whole molecule. That means that perhaps one person in a million matches. Now if there's something else to make you a suspect, that's very strong supporting evidence. If on the other hand this is the only evidence against you, it's very weak. Assuming the USA has a population has a population of 220M, that means that there are about 220 other people who would match, but you've been pulled in because your DNA is in a database and theirs isn't. Fingerprints work on a similar basis: even if you assume that a fingerprint is unique (and although this is often claimed, I've never seen supporting evidence), the comparison only uses a limited number of points, which makes it a probabilistic comparison.
Yes, but OS X is just recognising canned phrases - much easier (and far less useful) than recognising words in a stream of natural-language dictation. I like MacOS, but this is something I really miss.
The other aspect which is worth mentioning is the antenna housing: this is done with a dome on the outside of the plane. This means that it would need type approval for each aircraft type. I'm not sure how many aircraft types are supported, but they do Airbus as well as Boeing (strange, but true!).
For some reason, my mind start playing "I am the very model of a modern major general" when I started reading that, then hit a parse failure when the metre failed to match.
Another more common case is if you are roaming abroad and someone calls you from home - they only pay as if you were in your home country, and you pick up the difference.
For what it's worth, I think that copyright infringement is a type of theft. The infringer may argue that by taking a copy they don't cause anyone to lose money, since they wouldn't have bought the music anyway. I doubt this: I think (but cannot prove) that in some cases they would have bought the music, so that the owner loses potential revenue corresponding to perhaps 10% of the value of the copies.
The infringer may argue (and frequently does) that they go on to buy music which they would otherwise not have bought. Fine: but isn't it up to the owner to decide whether they believe that they will be better off if they allow copying? In software terms: some companies choose to issue software as shareware, gambling that the reduction in marketing costs will offset the lost revenue in unpaid copies. That's their choice, but it's not obvious that anyone else has the right to make the choice for them.
- Backup solar power? Mains power is cheap. Keep the money in the bank, spend it on mains if you have to.
- Food stores? Really bad idea if all you're worried about is being laid off. If you've kept the money as savings, you can buy the food when you need it. If you buy food now, it's a wasting asset (i.e. its value declines because some of it goes off).
- Pay off the house? No, keep a substantial chunk of the money on deposit where you can get at it for emergencies, and only after that pay off more than you have to on the house. You may get a lower interest on deposit than you're paying on the mortgage, but if you're looking for work, you are likely to need cash.
This sort of advice is only useful if you think that the whole of civilisation is going to collapse. As a preparation for personal financial problems, it's foolish.I've had the reverse experience. I've tried using Cisco 700 and 800 series ADSL routers, and had very poor service (dropped packets, and dropped connections). I've used Belkin and Netgear routers on the same line, which performed without any visible problems. My ISP () provides very good instrumentation for the connection, so it's possible to get a graph of dropouts over time.
Yes, well, market theory does assume some degree of rationality in the participants! Is there a reason they don't offer DSL?
Ah, the Lightning - two honking big engines with a couple of control surfaces stuck on the side and a man sitting in the inlet tract: the antithesis of Concorde. BTW, I take it we're going to keep quiet about the P1 that was down to normal reserve after seven minutes of an aerobatic display?
Even more ironic: most of the companies see running their services over IP as being the future. The technology is called IMS - it's an extension of SIP to the telco technical environment.
Yes, assuming you're comparing it with GSM/GPRS. I've not measured it, but 3G is better by design for this. GSM uses time slices to share the same frequency over up to eight devices on a single cell, and this introduces unavoidable latency. The common forms of 3G use CDMA, a technology which allows all the devices to send and recv simultaneously.
T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange and O2 all have nearly 100% coverage of the population, using separate infrastructure. Exactly how much competition would satisfy you?
I know I've seen a lot of messages here pushing government-run WiFi. I think it's just repeating the mistakes of the past. We've spend 25 years getting away from state monopoly telephone companies (the US was an exception in this). I've yet to hear anyone say a good thing about their service - no, strike that, there was one case. The "New Scientist" once asked its readers for any positive comments on British Telecom, then the monopoly incumbent. A bottle of champagne was on offer. It received one response - from the Samaritans.
The problem I fear with WiFi funded or subsidised by taxes is that it will be impossible for a local competitor to operate profitably (and yes, we're in it for the profit: we've got staff costs and shareholders to pay). Without a competitor, there's no incentive to offer decent service, other than during the initial selection process. I'm pretty sure that two years down the line, this is what you will be complaining about.
The other problem is one of fairness, and here I can understand conflicting views. The main non-local competition to municipal WiFi is from 3G operators, who have paid eye-watering sums to the government for their licences. Fair competition is no problem. Competition from unfunded competitors using WiFi in the unlicenced spectrum (hence avoiding the licence costs) is also fair enough: we've got the the same opportunity as anyone else and we're not looking to anyone to guarantee our business models will continue to be viable (I personally disagree with T-Mobile's policy in this article, but there's enough competition to allow the market to sort that out). Using tax money to fund a competitor, on the other hand, crosses a line in my opinion.
The above is very much my own opinion, and does not represent my employer.
arguably intuitive editor
Errm, you might want to check on the definition of "intuitive". I'd dread to meet someone who could immediately use vi without any tuition!
One of the other respondents mentioned SIM-locked phones (actually they are locked to a network, not a specific SIM). Yes, they exist, mainly on high-end consumer phones. Fairly silly in my opinion, because those phones are usually custom-built and bought to tie in with value-added services, which the owner will lose if they go off-network. In my company, and the few others I know about for certain, it's possible to get them unlocked free after a year, or for a fee during the first year. There is also a thriving grey market in third parties unlocking phones