Iridium are the best duplex LEO network (better for low power applications than GEO) and the only serious competition to Inmarsat. Inmarsat would not have made nearly as much progress if they had no decent competition - GlobalStar are simplex and Orbcomm are as abysmally useless are always.
Recent events with the Greek deficit crisis have shown that Germany is once again getting restless. I would expect over the next few years to see Germany both attempt to transfer EU powers from Brussels to Berlin in the cause of "efficiency" and demand member states to turn over more and more sovereign powers to the EU. Britain will be targeted specifically - one of the first major demands will be to turn over independent nuclear deterrents, with France providing an example for the rest.
Says almost everyone installing a desktop OS. When I install a desktop Linux I damn well expect there to be some browser bundled to let me get started.
Cheap printer cartridges do not have a tendency to go up in flames or explode.
Cheap lithium batteries are usually manufactured with little or no heed given to safety standards. There may be a chemical imbalance in the cell or the cell wall may be too rigid to permit any expansion from gas produced as the battery discharges.
Exactly. Microsoft own the business market due to the Windows Mobile/Exchange/Outlook integration. Would be nice to have options, but my HTC Diamond does everything I want it to so I don't worry too much.
Also, what is up with not selling a satnav solution for a phone with GPS? Madness!
For years I upgraded the OS on my HTC Blue Angel. WM2003 -> WM5 -> WM6 -> WM6.1. When I upgraded from my still working perfectly Blue Angel to HTC Diamond, it was to get the built in GPS and the same power in a much smaller form factor.
The benefits seem to be getting to subsidize public projects in other countries and uncontrolled immigration. I'm all for us leaving the EU and resuming war with France.
A 28 point deficit in the driver's championship seems like much more of a problem. Not to mention Ferrari now having more pace. And they can expect sales to increase, giving them more cash for R&D!
Actually it does work pretty well most of the time, as long as you are taking frequent enough samples from GPS. Where you tend to get problems is when the unit has multipath (GPS reflection) and consequently reports a srupidly high speed, and even then you can smooth it out fairly easily.
You also have Orbcomm, Globalstar, Inmarsat, and a couple of others that I can't remember the names of right now. All of them need clear view of the sky to transmit though which mostly likely translates into an external antennae routed through the vehicle and under the dashboard/in the engine bay (because you want to run the tracker off the vehicle battery/alternator). For this you would need the full cooperation of vehicle manufacturers to make it any way reliable and I can't see that happening easily.
The UK government is underestimating the difficulty of the task by a long way. They don't even seem to have considered unit failure - how do you make someone go out of their way to have a tracker repair done when it offers them no benefit?
Linus has repeatedly stated that his code will not be converted to GPLv3. You are either grossly misinformed, or on someone's payroll. If so, they are not getting their money's worth.
I attended a conference on RFID for my company, and M&S were one of the speakers. The only purpose of the RFID tags are to tell them at a glance how many of each item is still in stock so that they can restock shelves more quickly. Even if they wanted to track individuals, they couldn't - the tags are category level rather than item level. In fact, the only people at the entire conference doing item level tracking was Microsoft in their hardware products.
Most vehicle trackers can do exactly what this does. I could produce a system to do this in about an hour, using a permanent covert-install tracker. Not to mention how ridiculously easy it is to block GPS.
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Iridium are the best duplex LEO network (better for low power applications than GEO) and the only serious competition to Inmarsat. Inmarsat would not have made nearly as much progress if they had no decent competition - GlobalStar are simplex and Orbcomm are as abysmally useless are always.
Recent events with the Greek deficit crisis have shown that Germany is once again getting restless. I would expect over the next few years to see Germany both attempt to transfer EU powers from Brussels to Berlin in the cause of "efficiency" and demand member states to turn over more and more sovereign powers to the EU. Britain will be targeted specifically - one of the first major demands will be to turn over independent nuclear deterrents, with France providing an example for the rest.
Yes... 40 years of experience will do that for you. You could say the same of many professions.
Says almost everyone installing a desktop OS. When I install a desktop Linux I damn well expect there to be some browser bundled to let me get started.
Cheap lithium batteries are usually manufactured with little or no heed given to safety standards. There may be a chemical imbalance in the cell or the cell wall may be too rigid to permit any expansion from gas produced as the battery discharges.
Also, what is up with not selling a satnav solution for a phone with GPS? Madness!
Well, a lot of us at Slashdot work for technology companies. In my experience, a ski mask and a gun would not be out of place on most executives.
For years I upgraded the OS on my HTC Blue Angel. WM2003 -> WM5 -> WM6 -> WM6.1. When I upgraded from my still working perfectly Blue Angel to HTC Diamond, it was to get the built in GPS and the same power in a much smaller form factor.
The benefits seem to be getting to subsidize public projects in other countries and uncontrolled immigration. I'm all for us leaving the EU and resuming war with France.
A 28 point deficit in the driver's championship seems like much more of a problem. Not to mention Ferrari now having more pace. And they can expect sales to increase, giving them more cash for R&D!
You are referring to the tachograph, and indeed most new tachograph systems now are digital.
My God that's weird. Interesting, but weird.
Bingo. Somebody mod this post up, as it is the only one with any correct information.
Using GPRS, you simply connect via TCP/IP to your server. The unit was clearly not a simple recorder as you can see the SIM card on the picture.
It's a beta. You get the thing working working properly on one OS/browser, then you squash compatibility errors.
As for the GSM/GPRS coverage, heh. I'd like to see someone getting a hybrid Iridium/GlobalStar/Inmarsat unit into THAT form factor!
Personally, I'd have headed straight for the Windows machine to try for the $10,000.
Microsoft. It's easy to create a program for Windows Mobile without Visual Studio, and stupidly easy with it.
There is a world of difference between server support and home support.
Actually it does work pretty well most of the time, as long as you are taking frequent enough samples from GPS. Where you tend to get problems is when the unit has multipath (GPS reflection) and consequently reports a srupidly high speed, and even then you can smooth it out fairly easily.
You also have Orbcomm, Globalstar, Inmarsat, and a couple of others that I can't remember the names of right now. All of them need clear view of the sky to transmit though which mostly likely translates into an external antennae routed through the vehicle and under the dashboard/in the engine bay (because you want to run the tracker off the vehicle battery/alternator). For this you would need the full cooperation of vehicle manufacturers to make it any way reliable and I can't see that happening easily. The UK government is underestimating the difficulty of the task by a long way. They don't even seem to have considered unit failure - how do you make someone go out of their way to have a tracker repair done when it offers them no benefit?
Linus has repeatedly stated that his code will not be converted to GPLv3. You are either grossly misinformed, or on someone's payroll. If so, they are not getting their money's worth.
Serial won't die any time soon, most embedded devices still use it due to the relative ease of using RS232 compared to USB.
I attended a conference on RFID for my company, and M&S were one of the speakers. The only purpose of the RFID tags are to tell them at a glance how many of each item is still in stock so that they can restock shelves more quickly. Even if they wanted to track individuals, they couldn't - the tags are category level rather than item level. In fact, the only people at the entire conference doing item level tracking was Microsoft in their hardware products.
Most vehicle trackers can do exactly what this does. I could produce a system to do this in about an hour, using a permanent covert-install tracker. Not to mention how ridiculously easy it is to block GPS.