And with proliferating access and declining price, the user's physical location has become less important than ever before.
I beg to differ on this point. Since we can change our location -- Wi-Fi allows us to unchain ourselves from our desks -- location can now be used to provide a richer computing experience, as in applications like Placelab, and Plazes.
DO your research FIRST, and just buy a PVR-250 or PVR-350. Friend of mine didn't listen to me, and went and bought himself a cheap $29 tuner card for $180 -- and no MPEG.
I have an old non-mpeg tuner card, and it works great with MythTV. Dedicate a box to the task. Get a nice TV-Out card that you can live with. Get the remote control, or a longer-range wireless keyboard.
MythTV blows my mind everytime I use it: KnoppMyth
Makes me wonder what I could be doing if I could have afforded a proper edumication (or any edumication at all).
There are those of us who are not amused by what this country calls "Edumcation." Personally, the many schools I went to would not let me take computer classes, in favor of the remedial math and history classes assigned to me. Like most geeky people reading this, I would go home and program after school.
Thing I wish I could have understood much earlier on: When people told me no, I should have done it anyway.
Yah, and the part that sucks is when -- like fruit cake -- you get bits stuck in your teeth, and you can't get the pieces out!
Seriously. At my ultra corporate contract gig, someone had decorated his cube with a quite elaborate setup, including the music -- his laptop kicks out the SAME FOUR SONGS ALL DAY LONG, while he goes off to cookie meetings and such. It's DRIVING ME INSANE!
And then I sing Frank Sinatra's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to myself on the way to my car...
I haven't seen preferential treatment to H1-B workers, but I know what it's like to hit unanswered job posting after unanswered job posting. Mostly, this is due to the construction-contractor-turned-network-admin population boom, rather than H1-Bs.
I'd rather the H1-Bs and other foreigners take up residence and become citizens here in America -- fight the jesus-freak population.
This is true, and most business Wi-Fi installations are made difficult to get into. For most users of Wi-Fi, home, work, a friend's house, or a public spot -- those are going to be the places to go, when they're made easy to find, and conducive to social computing.
Of course, I have quite a bit to say about wardriving in general!
Having been a consultant over the last 6 years, and an employee before that, I say that there are systematic problems in the corporations with their decision making, and mandates.
When it is policy to mutilate a system, and cause it not to function properly, of course the IT staff aren't able to perform their function! Enter the consultants, who recommend the same things that employees complain about in daily life, and voila -- the consultants look like heroes.
I've been on both sides, and it makes me want to no have anything to do with corporations -- except that they pay.
For those of us who are consultants and looking for our next contract, I have setup Recruiter-Rater in order to find and rate technical recruiters. Read some, post some.
I am actually psyched about TV on my Nokia. Unfortunately, how can I get my content distributed for cell phone use? Since I live in pittsburgh, I'll make the call tomorrow. Why don't we have video conferecing using our camera phones yet?
Really, a reliable cell phone is key, but if manufacturers are going to include bells and whistles, it makes sense to engineer them properly -- Nokia's 3650 rotary-dial keypad is a really bad idea, but I'm stuck with it if I want bluetooth, IR, and MMC card slot.
NO, you can't buy those phones here in Pittsburgh yet. Only CDMA and analog cell phones!
Seriously, hooray for Pittsburgh (I live here too), but there's almost no reason for it -- people here are so happy with dialup, if they even bother with the Internet anyway.
I work on a popular WiFi/GIS site, and it is difficult to get free data of any time related relevance. TIGER is not very accurate.
How soon is it that there are free repositories of updated spatial data, and when does that cross the privacy line? How do we make sure others don't cross that line?
From our end, we've made sure not to associate APs listed in our maps from being associated wtih street adresses, and we hide MAC addresses from being displayed. We're making an effort to protect people's privacy while also having a useful application.
You could also wardrive, and populate databases like WiFiMaps.com, a site used for collecting locations of hotspots. This enables anyone to find out where these hotspots are, look at coverage, pricing, etc -- all on a graphical map!
Full-on. In Philadelphia, you can buy an old WWII-era battleship for $20k. I figure, these, or old oil tankers lashed together and anchored to the sea floor would make for a great non-US country, where commerce can flow unhindered, vacations can be taken, and people (like me) can live without fear of fucked-up governments suddenly labeling us as terrorists for no reason.
Hell, I'd even like to make scrapple from kelp or something. Vote with your tools, skills, and wits.
I was thinking of suggesting that geeks protest -- shut down those networks, power stations, communications relays, water pipes, and other utilities. This brings everything to a halt.
Reading Frank Herbert's Dune, we need to have it all shut down before the problems are realized, the festering scab is ripped off, before the fresh new clean skin can be revealed.
As we'll see over the next Four More Years, things will get to a point where the system will fail, and correct itself. This requires action on the parts, to keep together towards the right goals, and not any particular jesus or Almighty (Dollar).
This is why we have firewalls -- to ignore packets not of interest.
I am absolutely sure that a large percentage of full-on ghettos would benefit greatly from having Internet access. It should just be there, like the water, and the sky. The Internet is something that lots of us helped build, one byte at a time, one wire at a time, and now -- one radio wave at a time. I'd like to meet some of those kids some day -- after they learn some friggin' respect =_)
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From the article:
And with proliferating access and declining price, the user's physical location has become less important than ever before.
I beg to differ on this point. Since we can change our location -- Wi-Fi allows us to unchain ourselves from our desks -- location can now be used to provide a richer computing experience, as in applications like Placelab, and Plazes.
Chalk another site up on the list to wardrive.
DO your research FIRST, and just buy a PVR-250 or PVR-350. Friend of mine didn't listen to me, and went and bought himself a cheap $29 tuner card for $180 -- and no MPEG.
I have an old non-mpeg tuner card, and it works great with MythTV. Dedicate a box to the task. Get a nice TV-Out card that you can live with. Get the remote control, or a longer-range wireless keyboard.
MythTV blows my mind everytime I use it: KnoppMyth
Hm, I probably could use another email address...
Blah blah blah WARDRIVING blah blah blah. Wonder what is going to be under the tree this year again, boys and girls? Wi-Fi devices for you and for me!
Makes me wonder what I could be doing if I could have afforded a proper edumication (or any edumication at all).
There are those of us who are not amused by what this country calls "Edumcation." Personally, the many schools I went to would not let me take computer classes, in favor of the remedial math and history classes assigned to me. Like most geeky people reading this, I would go home and program after school.
Thing I wish I could have understood much earlier on: When people told me no, I should have done it anyway.
Yah, and the part that sucks is when -- like fruit cake -- you get bits stuck in your teeth, and you can't get the pieces out!
Seriously. At my ultra corporate contract gig, someone had decorated his cube with a quite elaborate setup, including the music -- his laptop kicks out the SAME FOUR SONGS ALL DAY LONG, while he goes off to cookie meetings and such. It's DRIVING ME INSANE!
And then I sing Frank Sinatra's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to myself on the way to my car...
I haven't seen preferential treatment to H1-B workers, but I know what it's like to hit unanswered job posting after unanswered job posting. Mostly, this is due to the construction-contractor-turned-network-admin population boom, rather than H1-Bs.
I'd rather the H1-Bs and other foreigners take up residence and become citizens here in America -- fight the jesus-freak population.
This is true, and most business Wi-Fi installations are made difficult to get into. For most users of Wi-Fi, home, work, a friend's house, or a public spot -- those are going to be the places to go, when they're made easy to find, and conducive to social computing.
Of course, I have quite a bit to say about wardriving in general!
I don't quite have much to say on this topic, unfortunately. I didn't read the article either.
Sounds like a call to action to me -- Hay virus writers, please write an exploit for these search toolbars!
Having been a consultant over the last 6 years, and an employee before that, I say that there are systematic problems in the corporations with their decision making, and mandates.
When it is policy to mutilate a system, and cause it not to function properly, of course the IT staff aren't able to perform their function! Enter the consultants, who recommend the same things that employees complain about in daily life, and voila -- the consultants look like heroes.
I've been on both sides, and it makes me want to no have anything to do with corporations -- except that they pay.
For those of us who are consultants and looking for our next contract, I have setup Recruiter-Rater in order to find and rate technical recruiters. Read some, post some.
I am actually psyched about TV on my Nokia. Unfortunately, how can I get my content distributed for cell phone use? Since I live in pittsburgh, I'll make the call tomorrow. Why don't we have video conferecing using our camera phones yet?
Really, a reliable cell phone is key, but if manufacturers are going to include bells and whistles, it makes sense to engineer them properly -- Nokia's 3650 rotary-dial keypad is a really bad idea, but I'm stuck with it if I want bluetooth, IR, and MMC card slot.
NO, you can't buy those phones here in Pittsburgh yet. Only CDMA and analog cell phones!
Seriously, hooray for Pittsburgh (I live here too), but there's almost no reason for it -- people here are so happy with dialup, if they even bother with the Internet anyway.
Of course, this means more fodder for us wardrivers -- more antennas mean more UINs to map!
Heh. I wonder just how many different bands there are, and how many wardrivers scanning them...?
Will they offer more unlicensed bands, or is this the other half of the deal?
Highly true, and good point.
I work on a popular WiFi/GIS site, and it is difficult to get free data of any time related relevance. TIGER is not very accurate.
How soon is it that there are free repositories of updated spatial data, and when does that cross the privacy line? How do we make sure others don't cross that line?
From our end, we've made sure not to associate APs listed in our maps from being associated wtih street adresses, and we hide MAC addresses from being displayed. We're making an effort to protect people's privacy while also having a useful application.
I did an interview with the FBI about wireless security, and they also agree that wardriving is not illegal.
It is a pain in the ass to stop, get out your laptop, open it, and scan for networks. But, there is a better way, in the form of WiFiMaps.com.
You could also wardrive, and populate databases like WiFiMaps.com, a site used for collecting locations of hotspots. This enables anyone to find out where these hotspots are, look at coverage, pricing, etc -- all on a graphical map!
You could also use our AvantGo channel for WiFiMaps.com -- even on your PDA, or your cell phone. Slightly more portable than opening up your laptop.
Full-on. In Philadelphia, you can buy an old WWII-era battleship for $20k. I figure, these, or old oil tankers lashed together and anchored to the sea floor would make for a great non-US country, where commerce can flow unhindered, vacations can be taken, and people (like me) can live without fear of fucked-up governments suddenly labeling us as terrorists for no reason.
Hell, I'd even like to make scrapple from kelp or something. Vote with your tools, skills, and wits.
I was thinking of suggesting that geeks protest -- shut down those networks, power stations, communications relays, water pipes, and other utilities. This brings everything to a halt.
Reading Frank Herbert's Dune, we need to have it all shut down before the problems are realized, the festering scab is ripped off, before the fresh new clean skin can be revealed.
As we'll see over the next Four More Years, things will get to a point where the system will fail, and correct itself. This requires action on the parts, to keep together towards the right goals, and not any particular jesus or Almighty (Dollar).
This is why we have firewalls -- to ignore packets not of interest.
I am absolutely sure that a large percentage of full-on ghettos would benefit greatly from having Internet access. It should just be there, like the water, and the sky. The Internet is something that lots of us helped build, one byte at a time, one wire at a time, and now -- one radio wave at a time. I'd like to meet some of those kids some day -- after they learn some friggin' respect =_)
Ooh, poor verizon employees. If there's one thing we need, is a BIGGER Verizon -- Dialup for Everyone!