I don't know, I too have a Tilt and have noticed a significant drop in speed when in the closest 3G area to my house (600k avg to 200k).
I'm hopeful that AT&T will expand 3G to where I live in the next year, they have done a pretty good job of rolling it out in CO on time. And compared to the other services (Verizon, CMDA), get the best coverage in this area.
I think they may have oversold their bandwidth a touch.
I used to keep an AOL account cuz I lived in a college town and that's where all the CO-EDs would hang out. Actually ended up dating 3 of the women I met on there, and married one of them. All of them were crazy, so after the last one I dropped AOL for good.
As for military service, It would do most of the slashdot community some good.
But, it comes with some very serious strings attached. I abhor the idea that killing is a solution to any problem. A soldier (or airman, seaman, marine) is given a gun. A gun is a machine designed to kill. The idea is kill your killer before he kills you. This is a morally dubious proposition and incompatible with the Christian theology I grew up with.
As both a Christian and a Veteran of a combat arms unit in the Army, I might shed some light on this for you. The 6th commandment is often mistranslated into "You shall not kill" but a more accurate translation is "You shall not murder". Murder is the unlawful killing of a human person with malice aforethought, where as killing simply means to take a life.
I served with many soldiers who had seen direct combat in Desert Storm, and had taken lives (I consider it lucky that I was not deployed). Not one of them described the action as having malice. They knew why they were there, knew if they didn't "engage and destroy" the enemy, then not only would the mission fail, but they would lose their own lives.
There are times when taking a life may be the only resort, and it would not be considered murder. Active combat is one, self defense is another. I can't think of a position I would ever be in that would require me to commit murder, but there are many where I would kill.
Not trying to change your point of view here, just sharing my own. Your beliefs are yours for a reason, and while I don't agree with them, you have a right to hold them. We serve(d) to protect those who could not, or would not.
I'm glad I don't live there! Sure, there are some beautiful places, amusing taxi drivers and killer pizza. None of those would make up for the taxing that goes on there.
I do my part in my state to keep taxation to the lowest possible level, providing the funds for the state government to do it's job - and that's it. In CO, the state cannot pass a new tax without it being voted on by the residents. Maybe it's time for the people who live in NY to add such an amendment to their state constitution.
It scares me that a presidential candidate is coming from NY, and this sort of taxation might become the national norm and happen at a federal level.
I've been working with IQinvision's IQEye 511 camethe street price is somewhere around 600-700 dollars, depending on what you get with it (PoE injector, lens, etc). Now maybe I'm just a cheapskate, but I didn't drop that much on my whole video setup, much less per camera cost. I got a LOT of 6 or 7 used X10 cameras on Ebay for like $200, a used P4 computer to capture the video on for around $100 and maybe $50 on the wireless motion sensors. The down side to the X10 cams is that you can only watch one feed at a time. I also spent a good 50 hours writing the code for MisterHouse (http://misterhouse.sourceforge.net/) to switch the camera on a rotation cycle, trigger lights and handle the alarm events. The color cameras have a fair picture in daylight, the black and white ones do remarkably well in low light. It was enough of a system to keep my psyco ex from coming around the house when I wasn't home (or when I was) and that was all I needed it for.
Guess what I'm saying is that if you have the time, you can home brew a set up that works for a lot less than you'd pay for the higher end stuff. If I had it to over again, I would have gotten some wired cameras and a multi port video capture card and set it up with zoneminder. The X10 wireless cameras can be troublesome when placing the receiver.
I live in the UK, and I'm fed up of random slashdotters flaming republican this, democrat that, can you please explain what the actual difference is? I've found that I tend to agree with Lewis Black when he said "Democrats suck, Republicans blow" and "If there is one thing I have learned over the past 20 year is that our country runs pretty well without leadership".
I am sadly disappointed with the selection of candidates this election year. We have a criminal, a racists and a geriatric to chose from. All 3 are liberal in their view points, so I guess no matter who wins, the dems will be happy.
News alert: Billion dollar federal monitoring program defeated by ROT13 file name encryption. Feds calling "ROT13" the worst thing to happen to national security since 9-11.
It's unfortunate that none of this Billion bucks they want to spend catching people who swap illegal porn will actually help any of the children who were abused and in reality, won't stop it from happening to other children. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I'm pretty sure this isn't it.
I totally agree with you here. I have 3 children who use the computer(s) in my house, and I made it VERY clear that they have no reasonable right to expect privacy. I will read their email, read their IMs and view their screen with vnc whenever I feel the need to. I own the computer, I own the networking equipment and pay for the connection(s) to the internet. Just with their cells phones, I own them and can check txt messages, pictures, etc any time I wish. Anytime they feel that their privacy is being violated, I tell them they are free to hand back over the phones and are free to discontinue use of the computers. I have passwords to all their email accounts, both the ones I host on my domain and their yahoo and MSN accounts.
Now, don't get me wrong, i don't monitor every email all the time, nor do I sniff their network traffic all the time. I DO trust them online, they have earned my trust (to get a myspace account, my daughter had to write a 2 page paper on internet stalkers and how to avoid them). However, if I see a change in behavior they don't care to discuss with me, I have EVERY right and the responsibility to find out what's wrong in any way that I need to.
I work remote and it's been a life saver. I'm a quasi-single father and being able to work from home and take lunch to pick them up for the afternoon carpool (she does the morning car pool) is great. I'm home and here for them. The plus of this is as a contractor, I don't get vacation time, so when we travel, as long as I can get onto the net, I can travel. I can say that since we have such a tight team, those who commute the office several days a week have no issues with those who work remote. We chat via internal IM or via yahoo even when not on shift, just to be social (no, none of us have lives most of the time).
I too am noticing that it feels like I'm ALWAYS at work, but seems that I won't be doing it forever. To prove another in this thread, I learned that they are cutting all the US contractors from my team by Q3 of this year. It's still in the "somewhat confirmed rumor" so our teams have some time to react, I guess it will be a nice change of pace to "go to work" instead of "logging on".
I concede that you know far more of the details of this technology than I do, as you should if this stuff does indeed feed you and your family. I understand your points that the operators do not want an open market, they would much rather us keep a commitment for life, with no ability to change our plans and be locked into their hardware for life. Similar to how the RIAA would love to charge us for each time we play (or hear) a song.
In my experience, the operators have slowly been moving towards an open market and reducing their hold on their customers. I remember when calling networks were measured in miles, phone capacity was measured in the number of contacts you were able to get and the number of included minutes guaranteed a hefty bill each month and data plans were NEVER unlimited. So they have fallen, abet slowly, to market pressures and I believe when open handsets do hit the market, those same pressures will force them to relax their hold even further. I could be wrong, again, I'm not an expert in cell phone technology or in marketing.
PS - It's boxers, not panties that this geek wears:-)
Not sure I understand ya here. What stops an android platform phone from doing everything the iPhone does and more? With the exception of being part iPod and being locked (in theory) into iTunes for music and AT&T for a carrier? Seems like Android says "here is a phone and an SDK, do whatever the hell you want with it"
Funny, I have a sim card that works fine in my HTC Advantage on AT&T Networks, a phone that has never been sold by AT&T or ever will be. The phone was even smart enough to see that it was an AT&T SIM and set up the network for it so I didn't have to, and the phone comes from the company SIM unlocked. This was by no means a "cheap product" - it's a high end phone and retails for $850. I see Android phone manufactures as taking much the same route. I'm not seeing AT&T sim cards being smart enough to detect what kind of phone they are in and checking that against a list of "allowed phones". It's possible, but I'm not seeing it as likely. that would mean that consumers would be swapping out SIM cards every time they had a new phone that wasn't on the market when they got their last SIM.
I think the government to create legislation to prevent deals like AT&T and Apple made would be the worst thing we could do and would harm innovation. Apple would have been less likely to drop $180 million or whatever they spent on developing the phone had Uncle stepped in and said "No, you're not allowed to do with your product as you see fit. If you make it, it has to work with every phone company because we have to be fair to T-mobile and other GSM carries because can't give AT&T an advantage". No, the iPhone helped to push for open networks, because it's sexy, and people who don't want to change providers can't get it. This means that when Andriod or Open Moko come along and say - "Look, our phone is sexy too and you can use it on any GSM network. We even have models for non-gsm networks too!" customers will fall over themselves trying to get it, and when they want to switch networks, they get to keep their phone and don't have to have a 2 year contract to get the same functionality from a handset. So this will create competition between the carriers beyond just what sexy phone you can get (this is why I went with AT&T, new sexy phone, that and Verizon's billing practices pissed me off one too many times). Yes, AT&T is free to lock down it's network to ONLY provide services to handsets it authorizes. they paid for the cell towers, they pay for the upkeep and service that goes across them. They will also lose business when the newest and sexiest phones won't work with their network.
So to wrap it up - Free market good, legislation is bad, M'kay?
I put effort into repairing a lot of items, regardless of the cost. What true geek ever throws something away?
I usually try to fix it... either fix it or get frustrated and buy the upgrade I really wanted anyway and put the broken one in a box for "parts". Never know when a scrap of wire or micro switch might come in handy down the road. Or I let the kids play with it, never hurts to expand their minds - and I'd rather have them taking apart the broken PS2 controller than the working Xbox 360:-)
And where are these phones, exactly? I can imagine these would be rather popular with the/. populous *grin*
And back in the land of reality... I'm one of those people who wants a phone that does it all, it's the one device I take with me at all times, and honestly, I like being check email while waiting to pickup the kids from school, and being able to look up the nearest IHOP while on the road, and better yet, using the GPS to find where the hell I am. I've even been known to install MAME on it to play old NES games. Oh, and the quality of the phone calls I make now is oh so much better than the brick I had back in 2001. Better sound quality, better reception and fewer dropped calls.
Black and white lcd's can be accessed in full sun
What self respecting geek is going to be out in the SUN?
Errrr... I don't think that's the price EACH... rather for price for all of them.
Personally, I don't see it as a big deal. I already have a federal ID (passport) and have to show an ID when boarding a plane (state issued DL or passport or military ID). I also used to carry a federal (DOD) ID card. Never once have I thought that having to prove who I say I am as an invasion of my privacy or my rights.
Other than closing loopholes, I'm not sure why they require it to enter a federal park - are we afraid the terrorist will go after the deer and chipmunks?
Tearing up the landscape with tracked vehicles and tossing supersonic projectiles around is not very green.
True, but it's a little bit greener than say carpet bombing the whole area and when you're in a combat zone, you gotta get the other guy before he gets you.
Of course, a running, moving enemy tank is better for the environment than one that's on fire (not better for your troops tho).
M1 Abrams tanks have a turbine engine that is hooked directly into a generator which powers a 1500 hp (1119 kW) electric motor
Let me set this straight.
Unless the Army has completely refitted it's tanks, the above is only partly true. It does have a turbine engine and does produce 1500hp, but it's not an electric motor. Has a plain old drive train that goes into the rear sprockets. There are no massive batteries to store the charge (IIRC it has 8 12v batteries).
What makes these things so darn quiet (for a tank, you hear the treads clanking before the engine when it's moving) is that the exhaust is directed up at about a 45 degree angle so the majority of the sound doesn't echo off anything. Of course, that gives it a massive thermal signature, but at the time of it's design, soviet block tanks were not using thermal sites.
This is speaking from experience, I spent 4 years as an M1A1 tank crew member (19k) and prepped the engine(power pack)for removal more than once. There is no greater rush than firing the 120mm main gun at a target 2100m away and/or moving 68 tons of combat steel over any terrain.
Hope this helps, I don't see any "green tanks" in the future and they get horrible gas mileage - a full tank of 504.4 gallons gives you about 200 miles over flat terrain @ 35mph.
It is true that there is big trouble for sale of used goods IF these suits are successful, but that is a very big if. The point is, what the Supreme Court actually held in Leegin is not what these suits are claiming. They are trying to use a slogan that characterizes Leegin, namely the idea that companies may control the retail sale and distribution of their products, to justify further changes in existing law. This slogan, however, is NOT what the Supreme Court actually held and is not an established legal principle.
Thanks, that was really well put, after reading the first couple pages of the Leegin ruling, I came to the same conclution. It is unfortunate that what the law says isn't always what the lawyers and companies try to make it say, it's also unfortunate that what the law says isn't always how the police enforce it (not applied to this case).
I guess that's just a locked down feature in the iPhone... I can play any mp3 as a ring tone on my Cingular 8525. So... is it at&t/cingular or Apple that is preventing it from happening? *shrug*, I don't know and honestly don't care. When the next phone upgrade cycle happens (in a year or so) I'll sure put an OSS based phone at the top of the list, by that time, this model phone will either be dead or will have the coolest apps written for it:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Hack the Gibson!
I don't know, I too have a Tilt and have noticed a significant drop in speed when in the closest 3G area to my house (600k avg to 200k).
I'm hopeful that AT&T will expand 3G to where I live in the next year, they have done a pretty good job of rolling it out in CO on time. And compared to the other services (Verizon, CMDA), get the best coverage in this area.
I think they may have oversold their bandwidth a touch.
Screw the battlefield, I want a pair of these to check up on the hot hot twins who live down the street from me.
Seriously tho, 3 years is pretty good time for something to go from the "look what I can do" stage to being used by soldiers.
I used to keep an AOL account cuz I lived in a college town and that's where all the CO-EDs would hang out. Actually ended up dating 3 of the women I met on there, and married one of them. All of them were crazy, so after the last one I dropped AOL for good.
But, it comes with some very serious strings attached. I abhor the idea that killing is a solution to any problem. A soldier (or airman, seaman, marine) is given a gun. A gun is a machine designed to kill. The idea is kill your killer before he kills you. This is a morally dubious proposition and incompatible with the Christian theology I grew up with.
As both a Christian and a Veteran of a combat arms unit in the Army, I might shed some light on this for you. The 6th commandment is often mistranslated into "You shall not kill" but a more accurate translation is "You shall not murder". Murder is the unlawful killing of a human person with malice aforethought, where as killing simply means to take a life.I served with many soldiers who had seen direct combat in Desert Storm, and had taken lives (I consider it lucky that I was not deployed). Not one of them described the action as having malice. They knew why they were there, knew if they didn't "engage and destroy" the enemy, then not only would the mission fail, but they would lose their own lives.
There are times when taking a life may be the only resort, and it would not be considered murder. Active combat is one, self defense is another. I can't think of a position I would ever be in that would require me to commit murder, but there are many where I would kill.
Not trying to change your point of view here, just sharing my own. Your beliefs are yours for a reason, and while I don't agree with them, you have a right to hold them. We serve(d) to protect those who could not, or would not.
I'm glad I don't live there! Sure, there are some beautiful places, amusing taxi drivers and killer pizza. None of those would make up for the taxing that goes on there.
I do my part in my state to keep taxation to the lowest possible level, providing the funds for the state government to do it's job - and that's it. In CO, the state cannot pass a new tax without it being voted on by the residents. Maybe it's time for the people who live in NY to add such an amendment to their state constitution.
It scares me that a presidential candidate is coming from NY, and this sort of taxation might become the national norm and happen at a federal level.
Guess what I'm saying is that if you have the time, you can home brew a set up that works for a lot less than you'd pay for the higher end stuff. If I had it to over again, I would have gotten some wired cameras and a multi port video capture card and set it up with zoneminder. The X10 wireless cameras can be troublesome when placing the receiver.
My first thought wasn't one of 2001, rather the old IBM Self healing "magic pixiedust" ad" Can be found here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=3nbEeU2dRBg
I am sadly disappointed with the selection of candidates this election year. We have a criminal, a racists and a geriatric to chose from. All 3 are liberal in their view points, so I guess no matter who wins, the dems will be happy.
News alert: Billion dollar federal monitoring program defeated by ROT13 file name encryption. Feds calling "ROT13" the worst thing to happen to national security since 9-11.
It's unfortunate that none of this Billion bucks they want to spend catching people who swap illegal porn will actually help any of the children who were abused and in reality, won't stop it from happening to other children. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I'm pretty sure this isn't it.
I totally agree with you here. I have 3 children who use the computer(s) in my house, and I made it VERY clear that they have no reasonable right to expect privacy. I will read their email, read their IMs and view their screen with vnc whenever I feel the need to. I own the computer, I own the networking equipment and pay for the connection(s) to the internet. Just with their cells phones, I own them and can check txt messages, pictures, etc any time I wish. Anytime they feel that their privacy is being violated, I tell them they are free to hand back over the phones and are free to discontinue use of the computers. I have passwords to all their email accounts, both the ones I host on my domain and their yahoo and MSN accounts.
Now, don't get me wrong, i don't monitor every email all the time, nor do I sniff their network traffic all the time. I DO trust them online, they have earned my trust (to get a myspace account, my daughter had to write a 2 page paper on internet stalkers and how to avoid them). However, if I see a change in behavior they don't care to discuss with me, I have EVERY right and the responsibility to find out what's wrong in any way that I need to.
I work remote and it's been a life saver. I'm a quasi-single father and being able to work from home and take lunch to pick them up for the afternoon carpool (she does the morning car pool) is great. I'm home and here for them. The plus of this is as a contractor, I don't get vacation time, so when we travel, as long as I can get onto the net, I can travel. I can say that since we have such a tight team, those who commute the office several days a week have no issues with those who work remote. We chat via internal IM or via yahoo even when not on shift, just to be social (no, none of us have lives most of the time).
I too am noticing that it feels like I'm ALWAYS at work, but seems that I won't be doing it forever. To prove another in this thread, I learned that they are cutting all the US contractors from my team by Q3 of this year. It's still in the "somewhat confirmed rumor" so our teams have some time to react, I guess it will be a nice change of pace to "go to work" instead of "logging on".
I concede that you know far more of the details of this technology than I do, as you should if this stuff does indeed feed you and your family. I understand your points that the operators do not want an open market, they would much rather us keep a commitment for life, with no ability to change our plans and be locked into their hardware for life. Similar to how the RIAA would love to charge us for each time we play (or hear) a song.
:-)
In my experience, the operators have slowly been moving towards an open market and reducing their hold on their customers. I remember when calling networks were measured in miles, phone capacity was measured in the number of contacts you were able to get and the number of included minutes guaranteed a hefty bill each month and data plans were NEVER unlimited. So they have fallen, abet slowly, to market pressures and I believe when open handsets do hit the market, those same pressures will force them to relax their hold even further. I could be wrong, again, I'm not an expert in cell phone technology or in marketing.
PS - It's boxers, not panties that this geek wears
Not sure I understand ya here. What stops an android platform phone from doing everything the iPhone does and more? With the exception of being part iPod and being locked (in theory) into iTunes for music and AT&T for a carrier? Seems like Android says "here is a phone and an SDK, do whatever the hell you want with it"
Funny, I have a sim card that works fine in my HTC Advantage on AT&T Networks, a phone that has never been sold by AT&T or ever will be. The phone was even smart enough to see that it was an AT&T SIM and set up the network for it so I didn't have to, and the phone comes from the company SIM unlocked. This was by no means a "cheap product" - it's a high end phone and retails for $850. I see Android phone manufactures as taking much the same route. I'm not seeing AT&T sim cards being smart enough to detect what kind of phone they are in and checking that against a list of "allowed phones". It's possible, but I'm not seeing it as likely. that would mean that consumers would be swapping out SIM cards every time they had a new phone that wasn't on the market when they got their last SIM.
I think the government to create legislation to prevent deals like AT&T and Apple made would be the worst thing we could do and would harm innovation. Apple would have been less likely to drop $180 million or whatever they spent on developing the phone had Uncle stepped in and said "No, you're not allowed to do with your product as you see fit. If you make it, it has to work with every phone company because we have to be fair to T-mobile and other GSM carries because can't give AT&T an advantage". No, the iPhone helped to push for open networks, because it's sexy, and people who don't want to change providers can't get it. This means that when Andriod or Open Moko come along and say - "Look, our phone is sexy too and you can use it on any GSM network. We even have models for non-gsm networks too!" customers will fall over themselves trying to get it, and when they want to switch networks, they get to keep their phone and don't have to have a 2 year contract to get the same functionality from a handset. So this will create competition between the carriers beyond just what sexy phone you can get (this is why I went with AT&T, new sexy phone, that and Verizon's billing practices pissed me off one too many times). Yes, AT&T is free to lock down it's network to ONLY provide services to handsets it authorizes. they paid for the cell towers, they pay for the upkeep and service that goes across them. They will also lose business when the newest and sexiest phones won't work with their network.
So to wrap it up - Free market good, legislation is bad, M'kay?
I put effort into repairing a lot of items, regardless of the cost. What true geek ever throws something away?
:-)
I usually try to fix it... either fix it or get frustrated and buy the upgrade I really wanted anyway and put the broken one in a box for "parts". Never know when a scrap of wire or micro switch might come in handy down the road. Or I let the kids play with it, never hurts to expand their minds - and I'd rather have them taking apart the broken PS2 controller than the working Xbox 360
Too many people expect their phones to be a damn orgasm. I don't want that.
I do!
or a pack of dancing girls to fly out
/. populous *grin*
And where are these phones, exactly? I can imagine these would be rather popular with the
And back in the land of reality... I'm one of those people who wants a phone that does it all, it's the one device I take with me at all times, and honestly, I like being check email while waiting to pickup the kids from school, and being able to look up the nearest IHOP while on the road, and better yet, using the GPS to find where the hell I am. I've even been known to install MAME on it to play old NES games. Oh, and the quality of the phone calls I make now is oh so much better than the brick I had back in 2001. Better sound quality, better reception and fewer dropped calls.
Black and white lcd's can be accessed in full sun
What self respecting geek is going to be out in the SUN?
So do a lot of women for that matter :-)
Errrr... I don't think that's the price EACH... rather for price for all of them.
Personally, I don't see it as a big deal. I already have a federal ID (passport) and have to show an ID when boarding a plane (state issued DL or passport or military ID). I also used to carry a federal (DOD) ID card. Never once have I thought that having to prove who I say I am as an invasion of my privacy or my rights.
Other than closing loopholes, I'm not sure why they require it to enter a federal park - are we afraid the terrorist will go after the deer and chipmunks?
Tearing up the landscape with tracked vehicles and tossing supersonic projectiles around is not very green.
True, but it's a little bit greener than say carpet bombing the whole area and when you're in a combat zone, you gotta get the other guy before he gets you.
Of course, a running, moving enemy tank is better for the environment than one that's on fire (not better for your troops tho).
M1 Abrams tanks have a turbine engine that is hooked directly into a generator which powers a 1500 hp (1119 kW) electric motor
Let me set this straight.
Unless the Army has completely refitted it's tanks, the above is only partly true. It does have a turbine engine and does produce 1500hp, but it's not an electric motor. Has a plain old drive train that goes into the rear sprockets. There are no massive batteries to store the charge (IIRC it has 8 12v batteries).
What makes these things so darn quiet (for a tank, you hear the treads clanking before the engine when it's moving) is that the exhaust is directed up at about a 45 degree angle so the majority of the sound doesn't echo off anything. Of course, that gives it a massive thermal signature, but at the time of it's design, soviet block tanks were not using thermal sites.
This is speaking from experience, I spent 4 years as an M1A1 tank crew member (19k) and prepped the engine(power pack)for removal more than once. There is no greater rush than firing the 120mm main gun at a target 2100m away and/or moving 68 tons of combat steel over any terrain.
Hope this helps, I don't see any "green tanks" in the future and they get horrible gas mileage - a full tank of 504.4 gallons gives you about 200 miles over flat terrain @ 35mph.
It is true that there is big trouble for sale of used goods IF these suits are successful, but that is a very big if. The point is, what the Supreme Court actually held in Leegin is not what these suits are claiming. They are trying to use a slogan that characterizes Leegin, namely the idea that companies may control the retail sale and distribution of their products, to justify further changes in existing law. This slogan, however, is NOT what the Supreme Court actually held and is not an established legal principle.
Thanks, that was really well put, after reading the first couple pages of the Leegin ruling, I came to the same conclution. It is unfortunate that what the law says isn't always what the lawyers and companies try to make it say, it's also unfortunate that what the law says isn't always how the police enforce it (not applied to this case).
I guess that's just a locked down feature in the iPhone... I can play any mp3 as a ring tone on my Cingular 8525. So... is it at&t/cingular or Apple that is preventing it from happening? *shrug*, I don't know and honestly don't care. When the next phone upgrade cycle happens (in a year or so) I'll sure put an OSS based phone at the top of the list, by that time, this model phone will either be dead or will have the coolest apps written for it :-)