Well in the last few years two out of the three major issues with wireless have been fixed. Plus now there's more widespread applications for wireless technology is amazing. Cause everything to communicate without drilling holes and running wires and it's all portable.
There is an additional factor - the continuing growth of laptops and palm-top devices. In the last several years laptops have become legitimate desktop/workstation substitutes for the vast majority of users. Sure, gamers, graphics artists, and a few others have continued to need the leading edge speed of a desktop, but most people are very well served by a modern laptop.
I run Oracle 8i, BEA WebLogics 7.0 (Web/J2EE sever), and the standard productivity apps (Office, Email, browser) very well on an IBM ThinkPad T22. A few years ago I wouldn't even think of running server software on a laptop. Laptops were underpowered machines where you copied only what you needed for a trip.
Powerful laptops have unchained people from their desks. Once mobile, however, people feel like they need the connectivity they had at their desk, hence WiFi.
A few days ago, I needed to do a 3 hour training course to fulfill legal requirements for work. the training was provided through an intranet site. The Northeast USA had had a very cold and rainy spring, and this was the first nice sunny day in a month. I sat in the sun with my laptop, and thanks to the magic of WiFi, broadband, and VPN, I did the coursework.
Linksys 802.11b WiFi broadband router slightly used from half.com - $40.00
Orinoco 802.11a/b silver pcmcia card - $40.00
Doing mindless work in the sunshine instead of a windowless office - priceless
[C]ommentary from media and intellectual property law firm Buys Inc, which says: âoe...for now the SCO letter looks like a campaign made more for the media than the courtroom.â
1. More and more truckers are using satelite based tracking and communication systems. (Mostly trucking companies, not individual owner/operators, I think). Theses systems tend to be laptop based.
2. Cheap and easy way to keep in touch with your loved ones and manage your life while on the road.
You're crazy. SideKick provides none of the AOL experience.
I activate SideKick by pressing the left and right shift keys simultaneously, but the hot keys are configurable. Then I can get a notepad, a phone dialer, a calculator, even and ascii code chart.
AOL doesn't work anything like that.
Re:Wake me when I can get affordable IP to my lapt
on
Is 3G Irrelevant?
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· Score: 1
I'm with you on this. My killer app would be a wireless mini-pc like the Toshiba Libretto series which would get at least ISDN style speeds - 150 kbs or so. Package that with a reasonable flat rate plan and I'd bite.
The problem is that a phone has a very limited user interface. It just isn't pleasant to use a phone for anything other than making and receiving phone calls. On the other hand, a (high end) PalmOS device, PocketPC, or mini laptop might hit a sweet spot of improved user experience with take almost anywhere convenience.
Although, if I could get a device which combined my Palm, phone, and LeatherMan tool into one unit, my wife would be happy that I didn't look like I had the "Bat Utility Belt" on.
Re:WiFi for this, WiFi for that...
on
Is 3G Irrelevant?
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· Score: 1
3G and WiFi do serve different usage models. The point is that customers don't seem to care about the mobility aspect of the 3G model.
WiFi is great for sitting in a park, coffee shop, or airport lounge and using data services, such as email and the web. It is cheap, easy, and reliable. No, it can't handle hand-offs between access points very well, and No, it can't be used from a car at 55 MPH (say, 100 kmph for you foreigners:) but most users aren't interested in spending the extra money to read their email on a tiny screen.
To put it another way, both technologies try to provide data services to people wirelessly. WiFi has satisifed that market sufficiently that 3G systems have a much tougher road economically.
I work for a MAJOR professional services business. Until recently, I helped maintain a core financial system that runs on a distributed system of Vax 4000 and 7000 machines, running OpenVMS version 5. For ten years now no-one has been willing to budget to upgrade, because the replacement system will be ready any day now. They are currently working on replacement system four, after abandoning three prior efforts.
Extra points for any/.er younger than 30 who can configure DECNET.
I see alot of comments like this whenever a WiFi discussion comes up. Some of them (not yours, konichiwan) are very critical of anyone who would use WiFi due to the security issues.
We all know that WiFi is not perfectly secure, but is it really that much of an issue in a home environment? 128bit WEP is crackable, but is it worth the effort? I would bet that 90+% of average home users don't have anything worth stealing. If people run ZoneAlarm or something of that sort, the only risk is someone using extra bandwidth. It isn't the end of the world.
I'm reminded of people who secure a $100 bicycle with a $200 lock.
I have a linksys 802.11b AP/router/4 port 10-100 switch/NAT/DHCP "thingy" (don't have the model number on hand). I've been wondering if, instead of using the antennas at the same location as the AP, I could move one or both to a different part of the house with an appropriate cable?
You are oversimplifying the issues of IP. IP need not be about controlling an idea. It is about controlling a product that someone expended time and/or wealth to produce. Original data - be it computer code or music or traditional written text - are very real products. Appropriate IP laws should promote the creation and dissemination of those products.
Imagine that you create an original computer program to pick stocks. You spend two years of your life developing the program, and then you decide to sell it as commercial software. If I were to buy one copy, then put it up on my website for download at half your price, I'd be guilty of stealing, just as if I broke into your house and took your TV. Would you be likely to spend another year creating more software?
Likewise, if you released your software under GPL, then I made some boilerplate modifications and sold your work as my own, would you be likely to develope new works? If you want to see this in action, read some of the comments on http://www.vcdeasy.org. A creator who chooses to share his work under GPL feels just as violated when that software is sold.
The problem that we are facing is that IP law is currently unbalanced. Copyrights are too long. Patents are granted for works that are too vague and general.
Eventually we need to face the fact that downloading MP3s from Napster was stealing. The record companies own that data, and have the right to choose what to do with it for the limited duration of the copyright. We don't have the right to redistribute it.
Don't get me wrong. I personally believe that the music industry has been shortsighted and heavy handed. I believe that Napster provided a way to listen to new and different music, and that enough people bought music they had originally heard through Napster to more than make up for those that chose not to buy because Napster provided a free alternative. (Not to mention the theory that anti-competitive practices amongst the major labels artificially inflate CD prices, and therefore stealling was just rebalancing the system) And I believe that we do have a right to make "convenience copies". But the fact of the matter is that we can't force them to do what is in their best interest.
In the end, we need IP laws that balance the interests of the owners and the general public. The trend toward stricter, longer duration, laws is detrimental, but so would be the elimination of IP laws altogether.
As a TiVo owner (Sony T60 DirecTiVo hacked with 2 80 Gig drives for about 140 hours high quality video capacity) I think that the real reason the community has stayed away from these hacks that might reduce TiVo revenue is that we earnestly want TiVo to succede.
Anyone who has a TiVo cannot fathom going back to life without it. And we are all perplexed that TiVo hasn't been wildly successful.
The TiVo people have created a good product and always try to treat their customers with respect. TiVo deserves the same respect from us.
If you only need phone service on site, you might get away with this...
First, hook up a wireless IP link. Plenty of people report modifying 802.11 equipment for 10+ mile point-to-point.
Next, buy a Vonage VoIP solution. (about $50 sign up and $25 monthly - requires about 90kbit symmetric - fully integrates with US phone system.)
I've use Vonage with my cable modem for a few months now and have been very happy.
You can probably get everything in place for less than US$1,000, assuming that you can get line of sight to someplace where you can put the far end that has also has broadband available.
BTW - satellite IP is spotty with VoIP due to the longer latency.
It depends on how they protected their IP. If they put a patent on the formulation, then they would have a case. On the other hand, if they tried to keep it secret, the "thieving" firm could claim that they independantly came up with the same formula
Re:So it wont work for CDMA
on
Reflections
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· Score: 1
Any ideas if CDMA can have an improvement? Since what we are getting to is the information theory maximum....
My reading is that information theory maximums are based on single transmitter/single receiver models. This model is a multiple transmitter/multiple receiver system where the signal is post-processed from a cacophony of noise into multiple discrete streams of data.
Just making a guess, a system of four transmitters and four recievers should be able to carry four times the data in the same band. The multi-path of the signals from any particular antenna will probably cause destructive interference on one receiving antenna, noise on two antenna, and constructive interference on one antenna.
The hard part is that it is impossible to predict which antenna has the constructive interference at any time. The data has to be assembled after the fact.
Re:Not Lucky, Forchini
on
Reflections
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· Score: 1
Oops, the names were mutlipathed in my head. Sorry.
We still haven't seen any unbiased studies on the effects of cellular phones on... the reproductive organs (where they keep them when they're not [talking]).
Not sure about you, but I keep my cellphone in a holster on my hip.
It balances out the HandEra PDA and the LeatherMan, not to mention the Bat Shark Repellent.
My understanding of the word is that the joint venture between Ford, GM, VW, Toyota etc. would be an oligopoly; Ford by themselves is just a competitor like everyone else.
An oligopoly is a condition such that there are a small number of substantial players in the market, so each player has a lot of influence over the market conditions. The auto industry is a classic example because there are only 6 to 8 big players world wide: Ford, GM, Daimler-Chrysler, VW, Honda, Toyota, maybe a few more. When they collude such that they dominate the market overwhelmingly, they become a monopoly.
Oligopolies are not illegal, but the Federal Trade Commission and other bodies in the EU do scrutinize mergers among oligolopial (is that a word?) entities to determine whether they would result in a monopoly.
Slashdot Mirror
There is an additional factor - the continuing growth of laptops and palm-top devices. In the last several years laptops have become legitimate desktop/workstation substitutes for the vast majority of users. Sure, gamers, graphics artists, and a few others have continued to need the leading edge speed of a desktop, but most people are very well served by a modern laptop.
I run Oracle 8i, BEA WebLogics 7.0 (Web/J2EE sever), and the standard productivity apps (Office, Email, browser) very well on an IBM ThinkPad T22. A few years ago I wouldn't even think of running server software on a laptop. Laptops were underpowered machines where you copied only what you needed for a trip.
Powerful laptops have unchained people from their desks. Once mobile, however, people feel like they need the connectivity they had at their desk, hence WiFi.
A few days ago, I needed to do a 3 hour training course to fulfill legal requirements for work. the training was provided through an intranet site. The Northeast USA had had a very cold and rainy spring, and this was the first nice sunny day in a month. I sat in the sun with my laptop, and thanks to the magic of WiFi, broadband, and VPN, I did the coursework.
Linksys 802.11b WiFi broadband router slightly used from half.com - $40.00
Orinoco 802.11a/b silver pcmcia card - $40.00
Doing mindless work in the sunshine instead of a windowless office - priceless
It is happening in more than just the US. Half the people in Europe are above the median weight as well.
Anyone with experience with both Plan9 and J2EE care to comment on similarities/differences?
ObSCOComment: System V represented many resources as files. This must be derivitative of SysV. Get the lawyers ready!
[C]ommentary from media and intellectual property law firm Buys Inc, which says: âoe...for now the SCO letter looks like a campaign made more for the media than the courtroom.â
There will probably be substantial grants involved in those regions of the country (USA) that can't mee the clean Air Act requirements.
Dubya even made this part of his envirnmental policy.
An interesting discussion about Truck-Stop Electrification in order to reduce the envrinmental impact of idling.
Actually, I'm not surprised.
1. More and more truckers are using satelite based tracking and communication systems. (Mostly trucking companies, not individual owner/operators, I think). Theses systems tend to be laptop based.
2. Cheap and easy way to keep in touch with your loved ones and manage your life while on the road.
You're crazy. SideKick provides none of the AOL experience.
I activate SideKick by pressing the left and right shift keys simultaneously, but the hot keys are configurable. Then I can get a notepad, a phone dialer, a calculator, even and ascii code chart.
AOL doesn't work anything like that.
I'm with you on this. My killer app would be a wireless mini-pc like the Toshiba Libretto series which would get at least ISDN style speeds - 150 kbs or so. Package that with a reasonable flat rate plan and I'd bite.
The problem is that a phone has a very limited user interface. It just isn't pleasant to use a phone for anything other than making and receiving phone calls. On the other hand, a (high end) PalmOS device, PocketPC, or mini laptop might hit a sweet spot of improved user experience with take almost anywhere convenience.
Although, if I could get a device which combined my Palm, phone, and LeatherMan tool into one unit, my wife would be happy that I didn't look like I had the "Bat Utility Belt" on.
3G and WiFi do serve different usage models. The point is that customers don't seem to care about the mobility aspect of the 3G model. WiFi is great for sitting in a park, coffee shop, or airport lounge and using data services, such as email and the web. It is cheap, easy, and reliable. No, it can't handle hand-offs between access points very well, and No, it can't be used from a car at 55 MPH (say, 100 kmph for you foreigners :) but most users aren't interested in spending the extra money to read their email on a tiny screen.
To put it another way, both technologies try to provide data services to people wirelessly. WiFi has satisifed that market sufficiently that 3G systems have a much tougher road economically.
I work for a MAJOR professional services business. Until recently, I helped maintain a core financial system that runs on a distributed system of Vax 4000 and 7000 machines, running OpenVMS version 5. For ten years now no-one has been willing to budget to upgrade, because the replacement system will be ready any day now. They are currently working on replacement system four, after abandoning three prior efforts.
/.er younger than 30 who can configure DECNET.
Extra points for any
I see alot of comments like this whenever a WiFi discussion comes up. Some of them (not yours, konichiwan) are very critical of anyone who would use WiFi due to the security issues.
We all know that WiFi is not perfectly secure, but is it really that much of an issue in a home environment? 128bit WEP is crackable, but is it worth the effort? I would bet that 90+% of average home users don't have anything worth stealing. If people run ZoneAlarm or something of that sort, the only risk is someone using extra bandwidth. It isn't the end of the world.
I'm reminded of people who secure a $100 bicycle with a $200 lock.
I have a linksys 802.11b AP/router/4 port 10-100 switch/NAT/DHCP "thingy" (don't have the model number on hand). I've been wondering if, instead of using the antennas at the same location as the AP, I could move one or both to a different part of the house with an appropriate cable?
Has anyone tried this?
So should I assume you don't want it embedded within Emacs.
You are oversimplifying the issues of IP. IP need not be about controlling an idea. It is about controlling a product that someone expended time and/or wealth to produce. Original data - be it computer code or music or traditional written text - are very real products. Appropriate IP laws should promote the creation and dissemination of those products.
Imagine that you create an original computer program to pick stocks. You spend two years of your life developing the program, and then you decide to sell it as commercial software. If I were to buy one copy, then put it up on my website for download at half your price, I'd be guilty of stealing, just as if I broke into your house and took your TV. Would you be likely to spend another year creating more software?
Likewise, if you released your software under GPL, then I made some boilerplate modifications and sold your work as my own, would you be likely to develope new works? If you want to see this in action, read some of the comments on http://www.vcdeasy.org. A creator who chooses to share his work under GPL feels just as violated when that software is sold.
The problem that we are facing is that IP law is currently unbalanced. Copyrights are too long. Patents are granted for works that are too vague and general.
Eventually we need to face the fact that downloading MP3s from Napster was stealing. The record companies own that data, and have the right to choose what to do with it for the limited duration of the copyright. We don't have the right to redistribute it.
Don't get me wrong. I personally believe that the music industry has been shortsighted and heavy handed. I believe that Napster provided a way to listen to new and different music, and that enough people bought music they had originally heard through Napster to more than make up for those that chose not to buy because Napster provided a free alternative. (Not to mention the theory that anti-competitive practices amongst the major labels artificially inflate CD prices, and therefore stealling was just rebalancing the system) And I believe that we do have a right to make "convenience copies". But the fact of the matter is that we can't force them to do what is in their best interest.
In the end, we need IP laws that balance the interests of the owners and the general public. The trend toward stricter, longer duration, laws is detrimental, but so would be the elimination of IP laws altogether.
As a TiVo owner (Sony T60 DirecTiVo hacked with 2 80 Gig drives for about 140 hours high quality video capacity) I think that the real reason the community has stayed away from these hacks that might reduce TiVo revenue is that we earnestly want TiVo to succede.
Anyone who has a TiVo cannot fathom going back to life without it. And we are all perplexed that TiVo hasn't been wildly successful.
The TiVo people have created a good product and always try to treat their customers with respect. TiVo deserves the same respect from us.
Once USENET seemed like the whole internet community. Now it seems that only a fraction of a percent of us have ever seen the message
No news (is good news!)
First, hook up a wireless IP link. Plenty of people report modifying 802.11 equipment for 10+ mile point-to-point.
Next, buy a Vonage VoIP solution. (about $50 sign up and $25 monthly - requires about 90kbit symmetric - fully integrates with US phone system.) I've use Vonage with my cable modem for a few months now and have been very happy.
You can probably get everything in place for less than US$1,000, assuming that you can get line of sight to someplace where you can put the far end that has also has broadband available.
BTW - satellite IP is spotty with VoIP due to the longer latency.
Surely someone must have a copy of the Swedish Chef translator around!
It depends on how they protected their IP. If they put a patent on the formulation, then they would have a case. On the other hand, if they tried to keep it secret, the "thieving" firm could claim that they independantly came up with the same formula
My reading is that information theory maximums are based on single transmitter/single receiver models. This model is a multiple transmitter/multiple receiver system where the signal is post-processed from a cacophony of noise into multiple discrete streams of data.
Just making a guess, a system of four transmitters and four recievers should be able to carry four times the data in the same band. The multi-path of the signals from any particular antenna will probably cause destructive interference on one receiving antenna, noise on two antenna, and constructive interference on one antenna.
The hard part is that it is impossible to predict which antenna has the constructive interference at any time. The data has to be assembled after the fact.
Oops, the names were mutlipathed in my head. Sorry.
Not sure about you, but I keep my cellphone in a holster on my hip.
It balances out the HandEra PDA and the LeatherMan, not to mention the Bat Shark Repellent.
An oligopoly is a condition such that there are a small number of substantial players in the market, so each player has a lot of influence over the market conditions. The auto industry is a classic example because there are only 6 to 8 big players world wide: Ford, GM, Daimler-Chrysler, VW, Honda, Toyota, maybe a few more. When they collude such that they dominate the market overwhelmingly, they become a monopoly.
Oligopolies are not illegal, but the Federal Trade Commission and other bodies in the EU do scrutinize mergers among oligolopial (is that a word?) entities to determine whether they would result in a monopoly.
Is it as bad as the people who refer to the Target Deprtment Store as tar-jshay in a fake French accent?