That was originally the whole reason why I bought Whoop Ass, so I could use the pun. But, ThinkGeek only sold them by the 24-pack, so I was stuck with them, and ended up giving them away to anyone dumb enough to take them.
Netstumbler + 802.11b = Internet access in most every location.
I know a rep from a computer company who just came from Boston down to our office in Connecticut to advertise some of his latest line. He always has his Netstumbler w/GPS running on the road, and when someone calls him, he just looks at NetStumbler to see where the nearest access point he has previously passed is, and heads there... the just pulls over, hops on their network, and uses his VPN connection to do the rest. He said the farthest he usually has to travel on the MassPike to find a hotspot is 10 minutes away. Not much along the 395 corridor yet, though.
Granted, these are corporate networks that aren't using WEP, and ethically he SHOULDN'T be getting on their networks.
Now if something like an ISP or maybe a company like this one in New Zealand were offering similar service for mobile users like him, or if the cell companies would quit advertising 3G and actually IMPLEMENT it for mobile users to use with laptops in this area and at a reasonable price (say, all the Internet you can browse for $49.95/month), then there wouldn't be any ethical issues.
... is an ISP who doesn't secure MY home computers so people can log on for a low monthly fee and just hack in on a whim.
This isn't some person's private network... This is an experiment in making a large-scale wireless network to cover a city-scale area or beyond. Think of it as something similar to Ricochet. And if you use it, it's up to you to secure your machine... if you leave it unsecure, sure, someone will hack in.
I'm wondering how they limit down access to this network, so only paying subscribers can get on. Will it be PPPoE? Or maybe MAC address-based authentication (only specified MAC addresses are allowed to get onto these access points). How do they do this on a large scale with >1000 users? Most access points only handle a couple hundred MAC address for that type of access.
Sounds like a great idea though. Imagine eventually this 802.11b network spanning an entire continent, with little to no roaming or coverage gaps. It should be good for at least 5 years, until the average Internet feed for a home user becomes >11 Mbps, then they'll be needing to replace the infrastructure (or be smart now and just make the whole infrastructure combination 802.11a and b access point, to handle the 55 Mbps 802.11a gives).
Cubicle walls will take down the cluttered look and let you partition into groups, but you'll still have the problem with sound. 'twould be a good idea though if you are renting a large room or couple large rooms and the rent agreement doesn't let you actually make mods to the actual structure, like making actual walls.
If you are gonna put up actual walls and make rooms though, make sure you do it right and put some decent soundproofing in...
I agree with the drinks thing, although to get a little out of drinks you can charge something like $2.50 for all you can drink, normal prices otherwise. Just make sure you have plenty of spare keyboards and mice on hand (speaking of mice, go optical, not ball or track... less gunk build-up, and the stuff that does build up, easier to clean off)
Does the Zaurus have a built-in web browser for use over said wi-fi network? VNC has a built-in Java Applet web server (I believe default port is 5800).
Sure, it's got only 256 color, and the response time is less than that of normal VNC, but he WAS asking for a Java applet.
I stand corrected. It looks very similar to the Spanish spelling.
Just goes to show what problems lie in determining one language from another, especially when there is no spell check available or context to determine what language is being spoken.
Actually, there's some good wind-up stuff available now. A couple years back, I bought a wind-up AM/FM radio, which also has DC and solar capability. The solar doesn't work too well... if you're even the slightest bit in the shade, it kicks out, and even in the sun, it has problems. However, I wind it for about 45 seconds, and at a decent level of volume, it stays on for 15 minutes... If I turn the volume down so just I listen to it, it's more like 35 minutes.
Same company advertises a wind-up flashlight... haven't got around to buying it yet, I might someday, but how do I find it in the dark?
Of course you had Kazaa users traffic bombarding your machine. The way Kazaa works is it queues up a transfer, and retries it every so often (just like almost all other P2P programs these days). After X number of retries (probably 10 minutes), it assumes you are not available, and removes you from the list. So, you'd have all this queued traffic attempting to connect to a non-existant node (your machine) using the Kazaa port.
This would be made even worse if you had any uploads/downloads being worked on when you closed Kazaa. The machines you were uploading to would suddenly not see you there, and attempt to reconnect, similar to the queue machines mentioned above.
You also have to take into account the Kazaa indexing capabilities, and remember that anytime someone wants a file, they do a search of random nodes on the network. (FastTrack was, and still is, originally based off a customized variation of Gnutella protocol.) You would still have machines attempting to search your node for shared files, until it filtered through the machines closest to you in the Kazaa network infrastructure that you were offline and should be removed from the tree.
Also, were you functioning as a SuperNode? (If you chose any type of connection other than 56K modem when setting up Kazaa, it automatically enables SuperNode.) SuperNode acts as a index reflector for slower nodes (namely 56K modems). They look toward the SuperNode nearest them to perform searches on their behalf and to hold their index lists on their behalf. This is done to try to cut back the problems Gnutella had with 56K users cutting back network efficiency. These 56K users (of which there could have been quite a few) were probably lost because their SuperNode wasn't responding on first try, so they were probably trying to reconnect... and other machines out there were trying to hit your SuperNode to get the index list for those 56K machines.
Yes, you'd continue to get Kazaa traffic for a little bit of time after you shut it down. That's the nature of the program. However, the problem you suggest, about rotating IP's, would not be an issue unless your ISP had their DHCP server set to expire leases at 15 minute intervals and not allow renewal on the same IP address. Even so, the traffic would die down as soon as the changes filtered through the Kazaa network tree that your node no longer existed. This would not take DAYS, as you suggested.
I wouldn't use AVI, because of all the codec confusion (to Divx or not to Divx). Hell, I even have trouble playing a Divx file made 18 months ago, and the only step I can find to fix it is to install the 3.11 codecs. In this case, I'd reccomend MPEG. MPEG has lasted as a standard for a while now, and should last as a standard for a while to come. Also, as a note: Make it as high-res as you can. Remember: You can always shrink quality, but you can't expand them.
Now as for archiving, I'd say make two copies: One on CD for a lockbox at a bank, and one on CD for a lockbox at home. (Or, if you want, one for a lockbox at home, one for the CD-binder at home.) DVD-R/RAM formats are still up for grabs, I'd give it another 6 months until I'd consider DVD-R media. The reason I say 2 copies: one for safe-keeping, and one to use for when you want to actually use it or transfer it to another type of media in a year or two.
Actually, that's older than the Ben Affleck movie... I originally got it from a gag picture that's been circulating forever... wish I could find a copy of it now...
Actually, the window problem might be easily solved... Instead of actually cutting a huge hole in the side of your craft and possibly compromising aerodynamics for passenger comfort, cut a small hole, put a mini camera or multiple cameras outside, and pipe the resultant image to an LCD panel mounted on the corresponding walls of the cabin.
Better yet, if you want to make it really freaky, make the entire cabin an Imax-like event, with the entire cabin (and floor) one big LCD display showing all the outside. Freak out all the passengers!
Plunk down some money for a table and take a Saturday to set up at a computer fair. They're a great way to advertise your company.
Plus, make sure to take a lot of stock with you to sell. A lot of people going are impulse buyers, and will buy what looks like a good price without looking at the table 3 down from you. Also, when it gets later in the afternoon, a lot of the good tables will be sold out of a particular product, but if you still have some, you'll make a lot of buyers happy.
One of the mom and pop shops that's near me has, for the past 5 years, gotten it's biggest business building white-box computers for a local college and a local pharmeceutical (name starts with Pf). The pharmeceutical buys about 500 a year, the college another 300.
Both the college and pharmeceutical have their own IT depts to maintain the computers, so all the shop has to do after the intial sell is offer 3 year warranty on parts (if a part goes bad, we'll deliver you a new part that afternoon.) They just RMA that part, and are all set. Granted, they lose a little on the 1 year parts like keyboards, but the ones they sell are bulk $5 keyboards, so not much loss there compared to the profit they gain from the sale each year.
Use the alternative markets: E-bay and Pricewatch.
A music instruments shop in town was barely staying afloat, and had a few things that hadn't moved in over 6 months. They started listing product on E-bay, and now they're actually keeping new things on display in the store all the time (because they're always turning over their stock.) They have both the walk-in convenience of a local store, and are getting a market somewhere they couldn't physically get to before.
Also, Pricewatch isn't all bad. If you've got product, put up a website and submit your prices to Pricewatch... you may actually get some business that you didn't have before. I've seen at times on Pricewatch that one company that has horribly high prices on video cards may have a day or two when they're near the top on hard drives, or other things.
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit; there's no point in making a damn fool of yourself"
Yup... you just made a damn fool of yourself. Final Fantasy 10 (which I own and completed a few months ago) does NOT require the hard drive kit or any added peripherals (except maybe having a rumble controller and PS2 Save card), and definitely does not require any monthly costs. The game cost me about $55 when it was released, not $150.
And besides, the hard drives that they will be selling will go inside the PS2, not external. If you look at the back, there's a removable panel which reveals an empty bay just the right size for a hard drive.
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Wasn't Rare the ones who made BattleToads as well?
That was originally the whole reason why I bought Whoop Ass, so I could use the pun. But, ThinkGeek only sold them by the 24-pack, so I was stuck with them, and ended up giving them away to anyone dumb enough to take them.
Netstumbler + 802.11b = Internet access in most every location.
I know a rep from a computer company who just came from Boston down to our office in Connecticut to advertise some of his latest line. He always has his Netstumbler w/GPS running on the road, and when someone calls him, he just looks at NetStumbler to see where the nearest access point he has previously passed is, and heads there... the just pulls over, hops on their network, and uses his VPN connection to do the rest. He said the farthest he usually has to travel on the MassPike to find a hotspot is 10 minutes away. Not much along the 395 corridor yet, though.
Granted, these are corporate networks that aren't using WEP, and ethically he SHOULDN'T be getting on their networks.
Now if something like an ISP or maybe a company like this one in New Zealand were offering similar service for mobile users like him, or if the cell companies would quit advertising 3G and actually IMPLEMENT it for mobile users to use with laptops in this area and at a reasonable price (say, all the Internet you can browse for $49.95/month), then there wouldn't be any ethical issues.
... is an ISP who doesn't secure MY home computers so people can log on for a low monthly fee and just hack in on a whim.
This isn't some person's private network... This is an experiment in making a large-scale wireless network to cover a city-scale area or beyond. Think of it as something similar to Ricochet. And if you use it, it's up to you to secure your machine... if you leave it unsecure, sure, someone will hack in.
I'm wondering how they limit down access to this network, so only paying subscribers can get on. Will it be PPPoE? Or maybe MAC address-based authentication (only specified MAC addresses are allowed to get onto these access points). How do they do this on a large scale with >1000 users? Most access points only handle a couple hundred MAC address for that type of access.
Sounds like a great idea though. Imagine eventually this 802.11b network spanning an entire continent, with little to no roaming or coverage gaps. It should be good for at least 5 years, until the average Internet feed for a home user becomes >11 Mbps, then they'll be needing to replace the infrastructure (or be smart now and just make the whole infrastructure combination 802.11a and b access point, to handle the 55 Mbps 802.11a gives).
And Whoop Ass is another one of those...
although myself, I find Whoop Ass to smell like a bottle of multivitamins, and taste just as bad. Gotta love the label design and text, though.
Cubicle walls will take down the cluttered look and let you partition into groups, but you'll still have the problem with sound. 'twould be a good idea though if you are renting a large room or couple large rooms and the rent agreement doesn't let you actually make mods to the actual structure, like making actual walls.
If you are gonna put up actual walls and make rooms though, make sure you do it right and put some decent soundproofing in...
I agree with the drinks thing, although to get a little out of drinks you can charge something like $2.50 for all you can drink, normal prices otherwise. Just make sure you have plenty of spare keyboards and mice on hand (speaking of mice, go optical, not ball or track... less gunk build-up, and the stuff that does build up, easier to clean off)
Does the Zaurus have a built-in web browser for use over said wi-fi network? VNC has a built-in Java Applet web server (I believe default port is 5800).
Sure, it's got only 256 color, and the response time is less than that of normal VNC, but he WAS asking for a Java applet.
I stand corrected. It looks very similar to the Spanish spelling.
Just goes to show what problems lie in determining one language from another, especially when there is no spell check available or context to determine what language is being spoken.
IE and Konqueror don't bother to check the issuer of this intermediate certificate, making SSL in both browsers something of a joke.
Now, in L33T SP34K:
1E 4ND KoNKw3R0r d0n'T BO+her tO cHeCK Th3 1$Su3r 0f +h15 iNTERmEdi@+E cEr+1PHiC4+3, M4K1nG 55l iN BO+h BR0w5ERS 5OMe+hIN9 0F @ JoK3.
Anyone up for Swedish Chef'ing this?
If you're gonna try to post a translation of something, at least get the spelling right, or else it screws the WHOLE meaning up.
Come stai? = Do you eat stai?
Como estas? = How are you doing?
I'm not even going to think what stai is, or why someone would eat it.
Sorry to be an interlingual grammar Nazi.
It also looks like you're talking about the IBM PS/2, which does not have a built-in USB port.
Actually, there's some good wind-up stuff available now. A couple years back, I bought a wind-up AM/FM radio, which also has DC and solar capability. The solar doesn't work too well... if you're even the slightest bit in the shade, it kicks out, and even in the sun, it has problems. However, I wind it for about 45 seconds, and at a decent level of volume, it stays on for 15 minutes... If I turn the volume down so just I listen to it, it's more like 35 minutes.
Same company advertises a wind-up flashlight... haven't got around to buying it yet, I might someday, but how do I find it in the dark?
Of course you had Kazaa users traffic bombarding your machine. The way Kazaa works is it queues up a transfer, and retries it every so often (just like almost all other P2P programs these days). After X number of retries (probably 10 minutes), it assumes you are not available, and removes you from the list. So, you'd have all this queued traffic attempting to connect to a non-existant node (your machine) using the Kazaa port.
This would be made even worse if you had any uploads/downloads being worked on when you closed Kazaa. The machines you were uploading to would suddenly not see you there, and attempt to reconnect, similar to the queue machines mentioned above.
You also have to take into account the Kazaa indexing capabilities, and remember that anytime someone wants a file, they do a search of random nodes on the network. (FastTrack was, and still is, originally based off a customized variation of Gnutella protocol.) You would still have machines attempting to search your node for shared files, until it filtered through the machines closest to you in the Kazaa network infrastructure that you were offline and should be removed from the tree.
Also, were you functioning as a SuperNode? (If you chose any type of connection other than 56K modem when setting up Kazaa, it automatically enables SuperNode.) SuperNode acts as a index reflector for slower nodes (namely 56K modems). They look toward the SuperNode nearest them to perform searches on their behalf and to hold their index lists on their behalf. This is done to try to cut back the problems Gnutella had with 56K users cutting back network efficiency.
These 56K users (of which there could have been quite a few) were probably lost because their SuperNode wasn't responding on first try, so they were probably trying to reconnect... and other machines out there were trying to hit your SuperNode to get the index list for those 56K machines.
Yes, you'd continue to get Kazaa traffic for a little bit of time after you shut it down. That's the nature of the program. However, the problem you suggest, about rotating IP's, would not be an issue unless your ISP had their DHCP server set to expire leases at 15 minute intervals and not allow renewal on the same IP address. Even so, the traffic would die down as soon as the changes filtered through the Kazaa network tree that your node no longer existed. This would not take DAYS, as you suggested.
Oh, wait... already been tried. Well, so much for that idea.
Anyone tested these?
Also, can anyone corroborate that these fish won't gnaw at my Cat5?
I wouldn't use AVI, because of all the codec confusion (to Divx or not to Divx). Hell, I even have trouble playing a Divx file made 18 months ago, and the only step I can find to fix it is to install the 3.11 codecs. In this case, I'd reccomend MPEG. MPEG has lasted as a standard for a while now, and should last as a standard for a while to come. Also, as a note: Make it as high-res as you can. Remember: You can always shrink quality, but you can't expand them.
Now as for archiving, I'd say make two copies: One on CD for a lockbox at a bank, and one on CD for a lockbox at home. (Or, if you want, one for a lockbox at home, one for the CD-binder at home.) DVD-R/RAM formats are still up for grabs, I'd give it another 6 months until I'd consider DVD-R media. The reason I say 2 copies: one for safe-keeping, and one to use for when you want to actually use it or transfer it to another type of media in a year or two.
Actually, that's older than the Ben Affleck movie... I originally got it from a gag picture that's been circulating forever... wish I could find a copy of it now...
No, it's Apes! Damn you dirty Apes! Damn you all to hell!
Actually, the window problem might be easily solved... Instead of actually cutting a huge hole in the side of your craft and possibly compromising aerodynamics for passenger comfort, cut a small hole, put a mini camera or multiple cameras outside, and pipe the resultant image to an LCD panel mounted on the corresponding walls of the cabin.
Better yet, if you want to make it really freaky, make the entire cabin an Imax-like event, with the entire cabin (and floor) one big LCD display showing all the outside. Freak out all the passengers!
Plunk down some money for a table and take a Saturday to set up at a computer fair. They're a great way to advertise your company.
Plus, make sure to take a lot of stock with you to sell. A lot of people going are impulse buyers, and will buy what looks like a good price without looking at the table 3 down from you. Also, when it gets later in the afternoon, a lot of the good tables will be sold out of a particular product, but if you still have some, you'll make a lot of buyers happy.
One of the mom and pop shops that's near me has, for the past 5 years, gotten it's biggest business building white-box computers for a local college and a local pharmeceutical (name starts with Pf). The pharmeceutical buys about 500 a year, the college another 300.
Both the college and pharmeceutical have their own IT depts to maintain the computers, so all the shop has to do after the intial sell is offer 3 year warranty on parts (if a part goes bad, we'll deliver you a new part that afternoon.) They just RMA that part, and are all set. Granted, they lose a little on the 1 year parts like keyboards, but the ones they sell are bulk $5 keyboards, so not much loss there compared to the profit they gain from the sale each year.
Use the alternative markets: E-bay and Pricewatch.
A music instruments shop in town was barely staying afloat, and had a few things that hadn't moved in over 6 months. They started listing product on E-bay, and now they're actually keeping new things on display in the store all the time (because they're always turning over their stock.) They have both the walk-in convenience of a local store, and are getting a market somewhere they couldn't physically get to before.
Also, Pricewatch isn't all bad. If you've got product, put up a website and submit your prices to Pricewatch... you may actually get some business that you didn't have before. I've seen at times on Pricewatch that one company that has horribly high prices on video cards may have a day or two when they're near the top on hard drives, or other things.
'nuff said
Your sig says it all:
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit; there's no point in making a damn fool of yourself"
Yup... you just made a damn fool of yourself. Final Fantasy 10 (which I own and completed a few months ago) does NOT require the hard drive kit or any added peripherals (except maybe having a rumble controller and PS2 Save card), and definitely does not require any monthly costs. The game cost me about $55 when it was released, not $150.
And besides, the hard drives that they will be selling will go inside the PS2, not external. If you look at the back, there's a removable panel which reveals an empty bay just the right size for a hard drive.
But life does exist on other plants!!!
(Ducks)