Jeez, with virus scanners, several types of automatic updates, and other gadgety things polluting the standard corporate desktop, it is a wonder that people can get any work done on their PCs anyway. Six Inches of Air.
IBM is a very large company. They make and do all kinds of things, and lots of them are patentable. I'll bet there are people who get a bit of commission if they make a certain number of patents.
Also, they do some very wonderful things that deserve a patent. Wasn't there one last week?
Hay, at least it isn't Verizon. Everyone has been in their pockets, and we all know that if it were up to Verizon, there would be no WiFi, no WiMax, and we'd still be using unshielded untwisted copper pairs for our (AOL-based metered) Internet.
In my opinion, someone with ties is fine, as long as it isn't Verizon. Anyone but them.
I like to drink coffee, and I also like energy drinks.
I really liked the 5-hour energy, which has a bunch of B vitamins, and also enzymes -- a different approach to energy. I find this keeps me going all day, if I drink one sortof in the morning.
Redbull makes me crash from the caffeine. I also can't drink more than three of them at once (Bleah!).
I like the beverage called Cocaine, which had a bit of capsaicin. I don't remember what else was in it. They've since stopped selling that in stores around here.
Also, love your sig =_)
I think the HDHomeRun does this, and over ethernet too. Also, you can hit the thing from whichever platform has network-based MPEG decoding, if I am not mistaken -- and two tuners too. MythTV friggin' rocks.
On February 17th, 2009, BROADCAST TV IS GOING DOWN. PERIOD. END OF STORY.
Actually, only full-power stations are going digital. Low-Power (LPTV) stations, shopping channels, churchee channels, and the odd Wierd Al styled UHF stations will still be broadcasting analog. The It's Alive Show FTW!
There were a bunch of entries I tried to add to Wikipedia. I went to repost the links to one of my projects (WiFiMaps.com) in the wardriving section, only to be deleted within seconds by some spam nazi. I tried to add an article about my grandfather (one of Duke Ellington's road managers), only to be deleted. Spelling corrections, link adjustments, and other edits quietly deleted, and my account being flagged as spam -- I've had accounts longer than some of these admins. They freaking deleted the article on spam nazis multiple times!
I am unable to contribute to Wikipedia because of this. Great idea, great resource, but it is no longer the Encyclopedia that Anyone can edit. I maybe have time and energy to do spelling corrections, fix links -- stuff like that. I don't' have the time and energy to fight some admin for weeks to have a link go to a (more appropriate) article, or add something that should already be up there. I don't bother anymore.
Are they looking at this thing with their eyes, or with software? I realize there is some sort of processing in order to get an appropriate image out of the telescope. I also wonder how many users are pouring over the images they produce, if indeed they do publish them all.
My SO does image analysis on cells, identifying where a chemical label is being transmitted (florescence and electron). She does this with her eyes, and there isn't any automation. It would seem that a similar and equally rudimentary shape-detection software should be able to pick things like this our of larger gobs of data. Compare this with an index of known object-locations. I can't imagine this would be so far fetched that they can't automate this kind of detection.
Excellent! I'm happy to see a senator doing something for the people. Unfortunately, I am not one of his constituents.
I'll bet he has kids or grandkids that do lots of SMS messaging, and has noticed the increase in the bills. I wonder when a senator is going to get pissed off at Comcast.
Living atop the south hill in Pittsburgh, I pick up just about every station listed on TVFool.com, both analog and digital. I'm using a homebuilt antennas, HDHR, and MythTV (FTW!). In fact, I think I get only one single channel from (evil) Comcast Cable that I don't get from an antenna -- TBS. Reception totally depends on where you are, and your ability to pull in the signals.
Next project is to build a Yagi to get the PBS stations from Ohio, and see if they have any UK Sci Fi.
SoSider here, and I pay $45 for Cable Internet at 10Mbps/300Kbps, and an additional $12 for basic cable. Basic Cable has just had 4 channels dropped from the analog lineup, but we still pay the same price. Cable Internet goes to $65/month if I drop the Basic Cable. If that cap is real, I'm cutting it pretty close at about 72Kbps sustained for the month.
DSL is a freaking joke here in this city if it is under 1Mbps. That's not broadband, that's a poor excuse for the crappiest of Internet.
Alternatives to Comcast Internet? None. FIOS isn't available, and I can't subscribe to the competing cable company which serves the nice folks across the freaking street! Did I mention that DSL is a bad joke?
Maybe I should contact the Pittsburgh Wireless Community about this. Oh wait...
Here in Pittsburgh, Comcast dropped 4 channels from their analog lineup, and are charging customers the same price. I didn't care about two of them, but BET, G4, TruTV, and (believe it or not) The Style Network were all channels that had shows we watched.
I talked to a Comcast drone over the phone about this, and he said that it was a business decision to allow for more HD channels. I realize that there is a difference between wireless carriers and cable TV companies, but the concept is the same -- we're being invited to pay more for less.
Now, I get one single channel from Cable that I do not get over the air -- TBS. There aren't any competitors I can switch to, even though a separate cable company services the folks across the street. Friggin' sucks!
Probably not evolved there, but it might be a good habitat where something can thrive. I'd imagine that they would have to be pretty efficient to deal with an environment with a low energy state (as you point out). I imagine that a lifeform such as that may be useful here on earth.
Seconded. Looks like a wire-mesh nightmade form Naked Lunch, but works quite well if you build it right. There are some other variants that may be more tolerant to it not being precise.
Treat it as a sculpture.
Sure, their hotspots are still all over, but their business shut down and went away, dumped their hosting and ISP customers. Aren't you on the WPLUG list?
blanketing the whole city is it COSTS TOO MUCH to do that with WiFi
By using DSL to provide the access at each site, then yes -- it is too expensive. I would think that it would be easier to use bridge/repeaters in convenient places -- but then again you get into saturation, and that ends up being expensive. This is also ignoring the fact that people don't want anything installed on their buildings; airora.com ran into that trouble in Boston (I was one of their customers).
If you want trully ubiquitous "free" wireless, YOU can pay for it.
In a similar way that Jon from shadyside wireless is doing -- I am paying for it. I am paying for equipment, batteries, and solar panels. I may not have a bunch of extra grand to throw at equipement, but I have been kinda quietly hacking things together. Then again, there's no one out there to connect to, but at the very least it will make an interesting blog post. It's also too bad that Goodwill no longer sells WiFi equipment.
*googelstalks you* Ahh. Maybe I can have Bryan walk over and bop you for your silliness.
This isn't really new, there have been people doing this kind of thing for years. Check Seattle Wireless dot net for their experiences. I'm sure there are others.
I am one of those long-time WiFi zealots, and it is clear to me that people just don't want free ubiquitous wireless internet -- or they just don't care.
Here in Pittsburgh, there is occasional talk of some group trying to do this. There have been some people who have received funding, but they waste it, and their project evaporates. Between ten and twenty (or more) companies start off here, and either fade away, or move to some other city. telerama, hobnob are the two that stick out (for which I remember URLs to).
Largest public network here is run by ONE GUY who just went and built it himself, Shadyside WiFi.
Otherwise, there is chatter on some of the local lists, but by and large, nobody wants free city-wide wireless Internet. Just me.
I always tell the joke that engineers' sons become rock musicians, and musicians' sons become engineers. It's the whole rebel-against-the-folks thing.
My grandfather was an engineer (and a blind electrician for a while -- no shit!). He told my dad, "Son, you can be anything you want in the whole world, except a musician." My father has been playing piano professionally for the last 40 years, and told me the same thing.
While I grew up in recording studios and such, I found myself always being more interested in computers. I could probably have made more money in a bar-band than as a sysadmin. I like working with developers (and robots) more though.
America is a very large country. To roll-out fiber optics (to the curb!) would be very expensive for a nation that still has a very large number of solely dial-up users.
Hi. Here in Pennsylvania, we already paid Bell/Verizon multiple billion dollars to have fiber rolled out. That was 15 years ago. We're still waiting.
I don't know many details about these robots, even though I walk by one of the units described in the article every couple of days. Some of these machines are robots, and are able to operate autonomously with some simple instructions -- get from here to there and avoid obstacles, maybe a couple of other simple functions. Sometimes you can watch what the thing is doing, or update its instructions while it is already running a program. In some instances it makes sense to have an operator drive it like a video game remotely. This depends on the requirements for the unit.
There are some very admiral scientists working on these things. They are making stuff that has never been made before, and for a very specific purpose that is handed down by the government. In doing that, they solve very difficult and sometimes silly problems -- how do you deal with dirt on the camera lens? How can you run silent? Is that a tuft of grass or an obstacle? It gets very complex. Unfortunately, robots are still pretty stupid when compared to simple biological systems (ants, for instance), and will be for a while.
As an added bonus, some of this tech will make it into the marketplace. Unfortunately not the missile launchers, though.
I was at a couple of anti-war protests in Boston. One made the news, but they misrepresented the number of people there. Otherwise, the press had completely ignored the protests. The press generally refers to protests as if it is two or three people waving incoherent signs.
I remember the anti-anti-war protestors, screaming obscenities at me, and calling me things like traitor, freak, pussy, and hippie. Some people are just confused.
I decommissioned an old Dec RAID-5 JBOD box, which used to house my websites, email, and database storage. I lost the special cable, so when it came time to read the old data from it, I had to take each drive out, connect it to a system, and dd each disk into a file. Boy was I pissed when I couldn't figure out how to get mdadm to read from a files instead of disks! So, I tried to set them up all together on a SCSI bus. When I didn't have enough cable, I went to two controllers, and I was able to sync-up, and tar the data.
Now the fun part. These were the old Seagate Baracuda drives. Big chunks of metal, like 10 or 11 platters, and 4.3 gigs apiece. I'm sure others have stories of older nastier drives, but these are horrible hot and loud little bricks. It gave me *great* pleasure to take them apart for their magnets. Each disk (of seven that I had) contained four of whatever kind of magnet, and they're very strong. Two shattered, and two had corners chipped from them. Otherwise that gave me enough magnets to play with for a while.
Don't put them on opposite sides of your finger webbing unless you're looking for a piercing.
Very true. Assembling eight of them into a circle requires a bit of practice, and it leaves your hands hurting for quite a while. Be careful with strong magnets like this. They are, however, great for the fridge -- if you get the magnetic sand from the shattered units off the unit. Otherwise, you'll scratch the fridge, or embed bits of magnetic splinters into your fingers.
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Jeez, with virus scanners, several types of automatic updates, and other gadgety things polluting the standard corporate desktop, it is a wonder that people can get any work done on their PCs anyway. Six Inches of Air.
IBM is a very large company. They make and do all kinds of things, and lots of them are patentable. I'll bet there are people who get a bit of commission if they make a certain number of patents. Also, they do some very wonderful things that deserve a patent. Wasn't there one last week?
Hay, at least it isn't Verizon. Everyone has been in their pockets, and we all know that if it were up to Verizon, there would be no WiFi, no WiMax, and we'd still be using unshielded untwisted copper pairs for our (AOL-based metered) Internet. In my opinion, someone with ties is fine, as long as it isn't Verizon. Anyone but them.
Six Inches of Air?
I like to drink coffee, and I also like energy drinks. I really liked the 5-hour energy, which has a bunch of B vitamins, and also enzymes -- a different approach to energy. I find this keeps me going all day, if I drink one sortof in the morning. Redbull makes me crash from the caffeine. I also can't drink more than three of them at once (Bleah!). I like the beverage called Cocaine, which had a bit of capsaicin. I don't remember what else was in it. They've since stopped selling that in stores around here. Also, love your sig =_)
I think the HDHomeRun does this, and over ethernet too. Also, you can hit the thing from whichever platform has network-based MPEG decoding, if I am not mistaken -- and two tuners too. MythTV friggin' rocks.
On February 17th, 2009, BROADCAST TV IS GOING DOWN. PERIOD. END OF STORY.
Actually, only full-power stations are going digital. Low-Power (LPTV) stations, shopping channels, churchee channels, and the odd Wierd Al styled UHF stations will still be broadcasting analog. The It's Alive Show FTW!
Otherwise, a good post!
There were a bunch of entries I tried to add to Wikipedia. I went to repost the links to one of my projects (WiFiMaps.com) in the wardriving section, only to be deleted within seconds by some spam nazi. I tried to add an article about my grandfather (one of Duke Ellington's road managers), only to be deleted. Spelling corrections, link adjustments, and other edits quietly deleted, and my account being flagged as spam -- I've had accounts longer than some of these admins. They freaking deleted the article on spam nazis multiple times!
I am unable to contribute to Wikipedia because of this. Great idea, great resource, but it is no longer the Encyclopedia that Anyone can edit. I maybe have time and energy to do spelling corrections, fix links -- stuff like that. I don't' have the time and energy to fight some admin for weeks to have a link go to a (more appropriate) article, or add something that should already be up there. I don't bother anymore.
Are they looking at this thing with their eyes, or with software? I realize there is some sort of processing in order to get an appropriate image out of the telescope. I also wonder how many users are pouring over the images they produce, if indeed they do publish them all. My SO does image analysis on cells, identifying where a chemical label is being transmitted (florescence and electron). She does this with her eyes, and there isn't any automation. It would seem that a similar and equally rudimentary shape-detection software should be able to pick things like this our of larger gobs of data. Compare this with an index of known object-locations. I can't imagine this would be so far fetched that they can't automate this kind of detection.
I for one welcome our Questioning Senator Overlords!
Excellent! I'm happy to see a senator doing something for the people. Unfortunately, I am not one of his constituents. I'll bet he has kids or grandkids that do lots of SMS messaging, and has noticed the increase in the bills. I wonder when a senator is going to get pissed off at Comcast.
Living atop the south hill in Pittsburgh, I pick up just about every station listed on TVFool.com, both analog and digital. I'm using a homebuilt antennas, HDHR, and MythTV (FTW!). In fact, I think I get only one single channel from (evil) Comcast Cable that I don't get from an antenna -- TBS. Reception totally depends on where you are, and your ability to pull in the signals. Next project is to build a Yagi to get the PBS stations from Ohio, and see if they have any UK Sci Fi.
SoSider here, and I pay $45 for Cable Internet at 10Mbps/300Kbps, and an additional $12 for basic cable. Basic Cable has just had 4 channels dropped from the analog lineup, but we still pay the same price. Cable Internet goes to $65/month if I drop the Basic Cable. If that cap is real, I'm cutting it pretty close at about 72Kbps sustained for the month. DSL is a freaking joke here in this city if it is under 1Mbps. That's not broadband, that's a poor excuse for the crappiest of Internet. Alternatives to Comcast Internet? None. FIOS isn't available, and I can't subscribe to the competing cable company which serves the nice folks across the freaking street! Did I mention that DSL is a bad joke? Maybe I should contact the Pittsburgh Wireless Community about this. Oh wait...
Here in Pittsburgh, Comcast dropped 4 channels from their analog lineup, and are charging customers the same price. I didn't care about two of them, but BET, G4, TruTV, and (believe it or not) The Style Network were all channels that had shows we watched. I talked to a Comcast drone over the phone about this, and he said that it was a business decision to allow for more HD channels. I realize that there is a difference between wireless carriers and cable TV companies, but the concept is the same -- we're being invited to pay more for less. Now, I get one single channel from Cable that I do not get over the air -- TBS. There aren't any competitors I can switch to, even though a separate cable company services the folks across the street. Friggin' sucks!
Probably not evolved there, but it might be a good habitat where something can thrive. I'd imagine that they would have to be pretty efficient to deal with an environment with a low energy state (as you point out). I imagine that a lifeform such as that may be useful here on earth.
Seconded. Looks like a wire-mesh nightmade form Naked Lunch, but works quite well if you build it right. There are some other variants that may be more tolerant to it not being precise. Treat it as a sculpture.
Are you on crack? Telerama is still all over
Sure, their hotspots are still all over, but their business shut down and went away, dumped their hosting and ISP customers. Aren't you on the WPLUG list?
blanketing the whole city is it COSTS TOO MUCH to do that with WiFi
By using DSL to provide the access at each site, then yes -- it is too expensive. I would think that it would be easier to use bridge/repeaters in convenient places -- but then again you get into saturation, and that ends up being expensive. This is also ignoring the fact that people don't want anything installed on their buildings; airora.com ran into that trouble in Boston (I was one of their customers).
If you want trully ubiquitous "free" wireless, YOU can pay for it.
In a similar way that Jon from shadyside wireless is doing -- I am paying for it. I am paying for equipment, batteries, and solar panels. I may not have a bunch of extra grand to throw at equipement, but I have been kinda quietly hacking things together. Then again, there's no one out there to connect to, but at the very least it will make an interesting blog post. It's also too bad that Goodwill no longer sells WiFi equipment.
*googelstalks you* Ahh. Maybe I can have Bryan walk over and bop you for your silliness.
As long as it is the Bryan that isn't my boss =_)
This isn't really new, there have been people doing this kind of thing for years. Check Seattle Wireless dot net for their experiences. I'm sure there are others.
I am one of those long-time WiFi zealots, and it is clear to me that people just don't want free ubiquitous wireless internet -- or they just don't care.
Here in Pittsburgh, there is occasional talk of some group trying to do this. There have been some people who have received funding, but they waste it, and their project evaporates. Between ten and twenty (or more) companies start off here, and either fade away, or move to some other city. telerama, hobnob are the two that stick out (for which I remember URLs to).
Largest public network here is run by ONE GUY who just went and built it himself, Shadyside WiFi.
Otherwise, there is chatter on some of the local lists, but by and large, nobody wants free city-wide wireless Internet. Just me.
I always tell the joke that engineers' sons become rock musicians, and musicians' sons become engineers. It's the whole rebel-against-the-folks thing. My grandfather was an engineer (and a blind electrician for a while -- no shit!). He told my dad, "Son, you can be anything you want in the whole world, except a musician." My father has been playing piano professionally for the last 40 years, and told me the same thing. While I grew up in recording studios and such, I found myself always being more interested in computers. I could probably have made more money in a bar-band than as a sysadmin. I like working with developers (and robots) more though.
America is a very large country. To roll-out fiber optics (to the curb!) would be very expensive for a nation that still has a very large number of solely dial-up users.
Hi. Here in Pennsylvania, we already paid Bell/Verizon multiple billion dollars to have fiber rolled out. That was 15 years ago. We're still waiting.
I don't know many details about these robots, even though I walk by one of the units described in the article every couple of days. Some of these machines are robots, and are able to operate autonomously with some simple instructions -- get from here to there and avoid obstacles, maybe a couple of other simple functions. Sometimes you can watch what the thing is doing, or update its instructions while it is already running a program. In some instances it makes sense to have an operator drive it like a video game remotely. This depends on the requirements for the unit.
There are some very admiral scientists working on these things. They are making stuff that has never been made before, and for a very specific purpose that is handed down by the government. In doing that, they solve very difficult and sometimes silly problems -- how do you deal with dirt on the camera lens? How can you run silent? Is that a tuft of grass or an obstacle? It gets very complex. Unfortunately, robots are still pretty stupid when compared to simple biological systems (ants, for instance), and will be for a while.
As an added bonus, some of this tech will make it into the marketplace. Unfortunately not the missile launchers, though.
I was at a couple of anti-war protests in Boston. One made the news, but they misrepresented the number of people there. Otherwise, the press had completely ignored the protests. The press generally refers to protests as if it is two or three people waving incoherent signs.
I remember the anti-anti-war protestors, screaming obscenities at me, and calling me things like traitor, freak, pussy, and hippie. Some people are just confused.
I decommissioned an old Dec RAID-5 JBOD box, which used to house my websites, email, and database storage. I lost the special cable, so when it came time to read the old data from it, I had to take each drive out, connect it to a system, and dd each disk into a file. Boy was I pissed when I couldn't figure out how to get mdadm to read from a files instead of disks! So, I tried to set them up all together on a SCSI bus. When I didn't have enough cable, I went to two controllers, and I was able to sync-up, and tar the data.
Now the fun part. These were the old Seagate Baracuda drives. Big chunks of metal, like 10 or 11 platters, and 4.3 gigs apiece. I'm sure others have stories of older nastier drives, but these are horrible hot and loud little bricks. It gave me *great* pleasure to take them apart for their magnets. Each disk (of seven that I had) contained four of whatever kind of magnet, and they're very strong. Two shattered, and two had corners chipped from them. Otherwise that gave me enough magnets to play with for a while.
Don't put them on opposite sides of your finger webbing unless you're looking for a piercing.
Very true. Assembling eight of them into a circle requires a bit of practice, and it leaves your hands hurting for quite a while. Be careful with strong magnets like this. They are, however, great for the fridge -- if you get the magnetic sand from the shattered units off the unit. Otherwise, you'll scratch the fridge, or embed bits of magnetic splinters into your fingers.
Fab!