I just got this service. It is as fast as advertised, but gives my Powerbook kernel panics w/ the Novatel v620 card they gave me. It is very strange, the kernel panics happen after browsing the web fine for several minutes. Apple does not yet have v620 drivers, so I downloaded a patch from evdoinfo that was supposed to make it work. That didn't work, but then I found 2 more drivers elsewhere that I installed. Both work, but cause kernel panics. I hope 10.4.2 has support for the v620.
I have Vonage. I got the service because I lost my cellphone one day and needed to stay in contact. When you order the service, they send you an adapter to use w/ your regular analog phone. Since I needed to use it right away, I downloaded the softphone (it is an extra $10/month, which I found very dissapointing). Anyway the quality was horrible. First I tried to use it w/ my built-in mic & speakers, and I had to repeat everything 3 times. Then I tried it with a headset and it was only slightly better. A few days later the adapter arrived in the mail and I set it up and plugged in my phone. The quality was infinitely better, just about as good as any cell or landline. So that's my experience with Vonage - the softphone sucks, but w/ the mta it works fine.
To me, the business side of things seams clear: Linux is winning for thin clients, Windows will continue dominating for information workers (because of Office), and the server arena is going to be a battle field for the foreseeable future.
The real challenge is the consumer side of things. What if Comcast or AOL decide to give away free desktops (or charge ~$5/month) with their ISP services, ala cell phones and cable boxes. I think this would be a very attractive model for consumers (not requiring upfront capital investment), and it is only a matter of time until major ISPs are pressured to do this.
Take the example of two of my family members: I had to help both my mom and brother get PCs recently. I went to Best Buy and got HPs for both, as I had to make a purchasing decision, get the computer, and set them up the same day (thus eliminating the possibility of Dells). They both make a good amount of money, but still didn't like dishing out $1k+, when they had just done the same 3 years earlier. Granted giving the hardware away with the service wouldn't be for everyone - I'm not giving up my G5 iMac - but for my brother or my mom, it would be ideal.
So the question is why would Comcast or AOL choose Windows over a locked-down version of Linux? It seems Windows, at $30 for bulk licenses, would be too great a part of the cost structure for Comcast to go with it. All consumers want or need now is a browser, PIM app, music/photo management, basic Works type functionality, and malware management. If they gave away a Linux distribution with those things preconfigured and didn't let the user do anything else, I think it would satisfy a vast majority of users and be quickly adopted.
So the biggest threat as I see it is not Linux in the hands of Red Hat, Novell, or commie hackers (sic), but Comcast Linux or AOLinux. Is the age of Windows on home users desktops going to become a thing of the past, or are there new innovations or price structures in store that will keep everyone wanting and paying more for Windows?
Its interesting to hear their plan - that it will cost $70m to cover 105 miles of Taipei and they will charge for user access. Here in Philadelphia a plan was announced to cover our 135 square miles for $10m in up-front costs and $1m per year in on-going costs w/ no access fees. I've decried the plan here (in Philadelphia) as ridiculous since the day it was announced. If I had to guess, I would say the private industry in Taipei that is setting up this network is being much more realistic than our soundbite-seeking John Street led government here.
Does anyone know of a company that hosts an implementation of & has easy to use set-up tools for MediaWiki? Something similiar to SocialText's service, but allowing the posting of more than just text. Thanks for any info
Who on Earth came up w/ the numbers? $10m for deployment? $1.5m for annual maintenance? These figures are so ridiculously low (especially for on-going costs) it is laughable. Do they think everyone's device is going to work on the 1st try? With no assistance from tech support? I'm so flustered I can't write clearly. The 'committee' doesn't even have any technology people on it. WPCS is like the nation's leading large-scale WiFi installation company, and right outside the city, but is anyone from there on the committee? No. As a private real estate developer, I looked into deploying a wireless lan to cover part of University City (West Philly - where Penn is) about a year ago. There were a number of reasons we didn't do it. Tech support and security are incredibly complex (expensive), and the technology is still evolving too fast to attract private investment. Does anyone who has experience with this sort of large-scale network think $1.5m for ongoing costs will be enough? If they charge $15/month, would this even cover the cost of tech support & security (and yes there needs to be security - we don't want Philly to become the origin of all spam do we)? Remember, the idea is that it is covering 135 miles, 90% of which is, to say it nicely, technologically un-adept people. If they charge for it, I think that will eliminate the whole point of it anyway.
Just like the subject says... nuclear power is the way forward. It's clean, there's a near limitless supply of fuel, and most importantly it's efficient (i.e. cheap). The technology, like everything else, has come a long way in the last 20 years, and I think we can eliminate risks from contamination,etc. The storage and distribtution of hydrogen will never become a reality. Nuclear power to the home, & an AC plug on your car. The infrastructure is already mostly in place. Batteries have come a long way too, since they were the limiting factor in the EV1. This is the only realistic way forward.
MP3 and MPEG both require licensing for the provider. Every maker of mp3 players and mp3 ripping software has to pay for various patents. Its coordinated by MPEG LA.
mpegla.com
from the article
"Everyone wants permanet -- the providers want to provide it, the customers want to use it, and every few years, someone announces that they are going to build some version of it"
this is wrong. providers do not want this at all. if there is 1 permanet, then there is only one supplier and nobody makes money. people provide networks for money, not goodwill. we've all got to feed ourselves. capitalism should be taught in elemantary school.
also has the writer ever actually been on a plane? you are not allowed to use a cell phone while sitting on the plane at the gate or on the runway, no matter how long you're there.
As someone may have already pointed out, My TiBook already has TWO (2) implementations of this.
1) There's a white light on the cover that pulses (beathes kindof) when the computer is sleeping.
2) The powercharger glows green when charged and orange when charging.
Both of these fit the description of "dynamic ornamental appearance" as apple describes them I believe. This patent is from february and could just be covering existing products. But I still think a glowing imac would be cool and could be likely.
Like everyone else has said, it sounds like they hired you as an employee, as contractors usually are paid for the completion of work, not by the hour or salary.
At any rate, any company over a certain size (I think it's over 50 employees here in PA) MUST pay overtime of one and a half times salary (1.5x) for all hours over 40 in a week.
The company is probably trying to get around this by calling it's employees "contractors" (my company used to do the same). You already have a contract so don't be afraid to be pushy about it. Don't let yourself get screwed.
Slashdot Mirror
I just got this service. It is as fast as advertised, but gives my Powerbook kernel panics w/ the Novatel v620 card they gave me. It is very strange, the kernel panics happen after browsing the web fine for several minutes. Apple does not yet have v620 drivers, so I downloaded a patch from evdoinfo that was supposed to make it work. That didn't work, but then I found 2 more drivers elsewhere that I installed. Both work, but cause kernel panics. I hope 10.4.2 has support for the v620.
I have Vonage. I got the service because I lost my cellphone one day and needed to stay in contact.
When you order the service, they send you an adapter to use w/ your regular analog phone. Since I needed to use it right away, I downloaded the softphone (it is an extra $10/month, which I found very dissapointing). Anyway the quality was horrible. First I tried to use it w/ my built-in mic & speakers, and I had to repeat everything 3 times. Then I tried it with a headset and it was only slightly better.
A few days later the adapter arrived in the mail and I set it up and plugged in my phone. The quality was infinitely better, just about as good as any cell or landline. So that's my experience with Vonage - the softphone sucks, but w/ the mta it works fine.
To me, the business side of things seams clear: Linux is winning for thin clients, Windows will continue dominating for information workers (because of Office), and the server arena is going to be a battle field for the foreseeable future.
The real challenge is the consumer side of things. What if Comcast or AOL decide to give away free desktops (or charge ~$5/month) with their ISP services, ala cell phones and cable boxes. I think this would be a very attractive model for consumers (not requiring upfront capital investment), and it is only a matter of time until major ISPs are pressured to do this.
Take the example of two of my family members: I had to help both my mom and brother get PCs recently. I went to Best Buy and got HPs for both, as I had to make a purchasing decision, get the computer, and set them up the same day (thus eliminating the possibility of Dells). They both make a good amount of money, but still didn't like dishing out $1k+, when they had just done the same 3 years earlier. Granted giving the hardware away with the service wouldn't be for everyone - I'm not giving up my G5 iMac - but for my brother or my mom, it would be ideal.
So the question is why would Comcast or AOL choose Windows over a locked-down version of Linux? It seems Windows, at $30 for bulk licenses, would be too great a part of the cost structure for Comcast to go with it. All consumers want or need now is a browser, PIM app, music/photo management, basic Works type functionality, and malware management. If they gave away a Linux distribution with those things preconfigured and didn't let the user do anything else, I think it would satisfy a vast majority of users and be quickly adopted.
So the biggest threat as I see it is not Linux in the hands of Red Hat, Novell, or commie hackers (sic), but Comcast Linux or AOLinux. Is the age of Windows on home users desktops going to become a thing of the past, or are there new innovations or price structures in store that will keep everyone wanting and paying more for Windows?
The ironing is delicious
Its interesting to hear their plan - that it will cost $70m to cover 105 miles of Taipei and they will charge for user access. Here in Philadelphia a plan was announced to cover our 135 square miles for $10m in up-front costs and $1m per year in on-going costs w/ no access fees. I've decried the plan here (in Philadelphia) as ridiculous since the day it was announced. If I had to guess, I would say the private industry in Taipei that is setting up this network is being much more realistic than our soundbite-seeking John Street led government here.
Does anyone know of a company that hosts an implementation of & has easy to use set-up tools for MediaWiki? Something similiar to SocialText's service, but allowing the posting of more than just text. Thanks for any info
Who on Earth came up w/ the numbers? $10m for deployment? $1.5m for annual maintenance? These figures are so ridiculously low (especially for on-going costs) it is laughable. Do they think everyone's device is going to work on the 1st try? With no assistance from tech support? I'm so flustered I can't write clearly. The 'committee' doesn't even have any technology people on it. WPCS is like the nation's leading large-scale WiFi installation company, and right outside the city, but is anyone from there on the committee? No. As a private real estate developer, I looked into deploying a wireless lan to cover part of University City (West Philly - where Penn is) about a year ago. There were a number of reasons we didn't do it. Tech support and security are incredibly complex (expensive), and the technology is still evolving too fast to attract private investment.
Does anyone who has experience with this sort of large-scale network think $1.5m for ongoing costs will be enough? If they charge $15/month, would this even cover the cost of tech support & security (and yes there needs to be security - we don't want Philly to become the origin of all spam do we)? Remember, the idea is that it is covering 135 miles, 90% of which is, to say it nicely, technologically un-adept people. If they charge for it, I think that will eliminate the whole point of it anyway.
Just like the subject says... nuclear power is the way forward. It's clean, there's a near limitless supply of fuel, and most importantly it's efficient (i.e. cheap). The technology, like everything else, has come a long way in the last 20 years, and I think we can eliminate risks from contamination,etc. The storage and distribtution of hydrogen will never become a reality. Nuclear power to the home, & an AC plug on your car. The infrastructure is already mostly in place. Batteries have come a long way too, since they were the limiting factor in the EV1. This is the only realistic way forward.
MP3 and MPEG both require licensing for the provider. Every maker of mp3 players and mp3 ripping software has to pay for various patents. Its coordinated by MPEG LA. mpegla.com
from the article "Everyone wants permanet -- the providers want to provide it, the customers want to use it, and every few years, someone announces that they are going to build some version of it" this is wrong. providers do not want this at all. if there is 1 permanet, then there is only one supplier and nobody makes money. people provide networks for money, not goodwill. we've all got to feed ourselves. capitalism should be taught in elemantary school. also has the writer ever actually been on a plane? you are not allowed to use a cell phone while sitting on the plane at the gate or on the runway, no matter how long you're there.
As someone may have already pointed out, My TiBook already has TWO (2) implementations of this. 1) There's a white light on the cover that pulses (beathes kindof) when the computer is sleeping. 2) The powercharger glows green when charged and orange when charging. Both of these fit the description of "dynamic ornamental appearance" as apple describes them I believe. This patent is from february and could just be covering existing products. But I still think a glowing imac would be cool and could be likely.
Like everyone else has said, it sounds like they hired you as an employee, as contractors usually are paid for the completion of work, not by the hour or salary. At any rate, any company over a certain size (I think it's over 50 employees here in PA) MUST pay overtime of one and a half times salary (1.5x) for all hours over 40 in a week. The company is probably trying to get around this by calling it's employees "contractors" (my company used to do the same). You already have a contract so don't be afraid to be pushy about it. Don't let yourself get screwed.