This is just the American slant on mobile technology showing through again, I think most Europeans wouldn't share the view that Bluetooth is dead. Heck, Bluetooth useage is still growing (quickly) over here.
What I don't get is why the guy is even compaing it with 802.11b? Its not even aimed at the same niche. Bluetooth is so that my laptop, my PDA, my cellphone and my desktop or car onboard computer (and sat nav) can all toalk to each other. The entire point is that its tied to a small radius. I don't want my cellphone trying to use my bluetooth enabled hands free car kit if I'm sitting in my office...
I mean really! This is news? I figured this out just by watching the damn things in arcades by the time I was eight years old.
You could pick up some easy money by waiting until someone pumped a hell of alot of loose change into one of those things. When they get disheartened and wander off, you walk up to it, throw some small amount of money into it and pick up the pay out.
Doesn't anyone grasp basic number theory anymore? I mean, of course they're rigged, you just have to figure out how...
Hotel rooms should basically have a nice bed and nice bath. Personally, if I am going on vacation, I want to spend as much time OUT of the hotel room as possible...
As someone who sometimes has to spend months at a hotel when I'm abroad on business, I totally disagree. Business travel is very different to vacation travel, you're there for different reasons and you want different things. I'd kill for a hotel room with a decent entertainment system and broadband when I'm away on business.
A frugal scientist with twice as much funding may not be any more productive than a frugal scientist with his current budget.
Being a frugal British scientist working on a a tight budget I can tell you that while this may be true in some cases, just taking the stress of being so close to the wire away could mean that some people can get more science done. Heck I just blew the last three weeks writing grant proposals, very little science (or anything else, including sleep) got done during that time. For this I got a PhD?
...and yes, we do still have AMPS(analog), and that works too if all else fails.
The last TACS phone I owed was circa 1995, which was around the time when the UK was phasing analog out in favour of GSM
I can't even imagine going back to that sort of technology anymore, I mean, mobiles aren't just about voice communication anymore I probably use mine for data more than I do voice calls. I certainly don't know how I coped without SMS, heck just the server automatically text'ing me about it status and running jobs probably accounts for a dozen SMS a day.
But don't forget that even thoug landline phone is relatively expensive, mobile is even more expensive. Especially if using it across national borders, it is obscenely expensive.
Actually, no. I pay less to dial internationally on my mobile than I would pay BT (that's British Telecom BTW) to dial internationally from a landline. As a result I don't even have a landline in my house anymore.
Admittedly international roaming can still be expensive, but you don't get the option to internationally roam your house landline at all...
As for data, I'm just about to pick up broadband along with cable TV, they're really confused as to why I don't want a phone connection as well, but again, the mobile works out cheaper.
I know lots of people who aren't bothering to have a landline in their home anymore, whats the point? Why should I pay for a phone that I can't actually use for most of the day (because I'm not there) and people can't ring me on (because I'm not there). Whats the point in that?
Yes, GSM is more widely supported than CDMA, but note that the GSM folks are having a heck of a time providing 3G support, whereas the two big CDMA providers in the states (Verizon and Sprint) have both rolled out huge 3G networks.
What you're missing is that what the CDMA carriers are calling 3G actually isn't. In Europe we call it 2.5G, and all our networks have already rolled out phones that handle that sort of stuff, the fact that
the US carriers haven't just means that (as usual) they're behind the curve.
If you want a look at real 3G network, the first UK one just rolled out, see three.co.uk. The most obvious feature that doesn't turn up under 2.5G is real person to person video calling, quality seems to be fairly good as well.
I would go so far as to say that most code written is written to perform some task for the people employing the programmer, rather than for resale.
Enitrely agree, the number of truely generic tools is fairly limitied, the number of process specific tools is much larger.
I get paid to write software, these days I slap a GPL license onto everything I ship, but a great deal of this won't ever be seen by the public because its not generally useful and nobody would actually be interested. The stuff that is generally useful will eventually make its way into the wild, but its defaintely in the minority.
The USA now needs the world more than the world needs the USA...
Well its nice that sombebody over there is paying attention. Now, can you just go out and elect some reasonable politicians, ones that know where the Slovak Republic is for instance?
"The only thing I know about Slovakia is what I learned first-hand from your foreign minister, who came to Texas."
Then governor George W. Bush replying to a Slovak journalist. Bush met the leader of Slovenia, not Slovakia. Source: Knight Ridder News Service, June 22, 1999.
If you aspire to the position of "leader of the free world" you really should know it doesn't end at the Texas border.
Our Military is the best fighting force in the world...
Then why do you keep on shooting the Brits? Aren't we on your side? And before you say "Friendly fire happens", it seems to happen a hell of alot less to other people than to you guys. You do't see us shoot up your lot do you?
There are a alot of people pissed off over this issue on this side of the pond...
...but my first priority is to get the legacy folks on-board with something standards compliant, or at least less arcane, or get rid of them.
I don't believe you've ever actually worked for a really big organisation that has legacy systems, I work for a bunch of people that have just tried to do exactly what you recommend.
All new development is in Java, with all the apps talking to each other in XML via SOAP. But the legacy code is still there...
We have a few million lines of Fortran 77 and C sitting around, 20 years real time with somewhere between 10 and 50 staff (at peak) churning out code full time for the entire life of the project, so thats what, going to be around 500 man years of effort, more?
We've had to go out and write SOAP wrappers for it all so it can talk to the new stuff. In some cases we've had to write JNI wrappers so we can use some of the old stuff directly, its so critical we can't get rid of it.
The legacy stuff was originally written for the VAX, and has been ported to SunOS/Solaris, Digital UNIX/Tru64 and now Linux. Its fundamentally impossible to get rid of unless you chuck huge amounts of money and effort at the project and nobody is going to do that so we can write some software that can do exactly the same thing as the software we have now.
Legacy software, and people to support it, is going to be around for a long, long, time. Get used to it...
We accept this because providers give you lots of airtime for little cash.
Err, same here, I get 200 free minutes a month for (quick currency conversion) $15 a month. That suits me, you can get a couple of thousand minutes for $80 a month (or so).
Why do Europeans pay for cellular phone calls made on nights or weekends?
Depening on your tarrif, you don't have to, there are several tarrifs that offer free offpeak, or free weekend calls.
And why do they pay for calls to other phones on the same network?
Depending on the tarrif your on, you don't have to, there are several tarrifs that offer own network calls free.
And do they pay for each SMS message they send?
You don't, alot of networks offer free text messages, or bulk rate.
And do they pay for their first 500 minutes of peak time?
Never even hear of this being the case...
And do they pay for each kilobite of data they send?
Actually, no. Depending on your tarrif you don't have to...
Basically unless you're really dumb, you don't have to do any of these things, its a really competative market over here. Basically I pay a flat $15 a month and get all my calls, and text messages free, and unlike the States we get subsidised handsets, I pay about $50 for my handset (without a contract its a $500 handset).
Basically you guys get seriously screwed over by your mobile operators, sorry, but its a fact.
Still, I wonder if this "pad" comes with a warning not to leave credit cards, etc. near it?
If you'd taken the time to read the article, you'd have seen that it says that the pad "...will not even wipe credit cards if you accidentally put one on the pad".
Sitting here at work, I must say that the only thing I really wish I could get would be a live cable feed of some of the news conferences.
The BBC is carrying almost every conference live on BBC News 24, which they're streaming over the web. The White House spokes person has just finished and we've switched back to talking heads ontop of nightvision camera of fighting.
Unfortunately there its starting to get very heavily loaded and drop outs are increasing, so why am I posting it to Slashdot? I just unpacked a TV Capture card and threw it in a machine in the corner, I've got my own feed...
Al.
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As well as the BBC WorldService, BBC News 24 is broacasting a video feed live.
...and 80 members of the labor party voted against blair, so I do not think he is in that much danger unless this goes badly, and if it does, no leader will be safe, not even Bush.
I don't know where you got your numbers, but they're wrong. 139 Labour MPs rebelled against the government's line and supported the amendment, 15 Tory MPs also defied their leadership by voting against the government's policy. All 53 Liberal Democrat MPs voted against the government - in line with their leadership's position.
See the BBC story for a more realistic slant on whats going on here. A summary last nights Common's debate is also avialable, alnog with a breakdown of exactly how all the MPs voted.
Perhaps you didn't read the end of my post, where I point out that the majority of the populations in the countries in the "coallition of willing" are against the war.
I think the last Austrialian opinon poll I saw put something like 90% of the population against the war.
...Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan
In the UK 65 to 70% of the population are agianst the war. In Turkey, even with massive bribes the US couldn't get the Turkish Parliment to let them use the country to base troops.
Appart from the UK there really isn't anyone in the "coalition" with global reach, nobody that has the ability to make large medium term troop deployments on a global scale. Heck, some of the countries don't actually have a military to speak of...
Britain. The current opinion polls put 65% to 70% of the population against the war. Yesterday the government managed to get the approval of Parliment to send the troops in, but only after the biggest backbench revolt in living memory.
I don't know what CNN is telling you guys, but you're basically on your own, if the war doesn't go well (i.e. its over before teatime) the British government stands a fair chance of falling.
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This is just the American slant on mobile technology showing through again, I think most Europeans wouldn't share the view that Bluetooth is dead. Heck, Bluetooth useage is still growing (quickly) over here.
What I don't get is why the guy is even compaing it with 802.11b? Its not even aimed at the same niche. Bluetooth is so that my laptop, my PDA, my cellphone and my desktop or car onboard computer (and sat nav) can all toalk to each other. The entire point is that its tied to a small radius. I don't want my cellphone trying to use my bluetooth enabled hands free car kit if I'm sitting in my office...
Al.I mean really! This is news? I figured this out just by watching the damn things in arcades by the time I was eight years old.
You could pick up some easy money by waiting until someone pumped a hell of alot of loose change into one of those things. When they get disheartened and wander off, you walk up to it, throw some small amount of money into it and pick up the pay out.
Doesn't anyone grasp basic number theory anymore? I mean, of course they're rigged, you just have to figure out how...
Al.Hotel rooms should basically have a nice bed and nice bath. Personally, if I am going on vacation, I want to spend as much time OUT of the hotel room as possible...
As someone who sometimes has to spend months at a hotel when I'm abroad on business, I totally disagree. Business travel is very different to vacation travel, you're there for different reasons and you want different things. I'd kill for a hotel room with a decent entertainment system and broadband when I'm away on business.
Al.A frugal scientist with twice as much funding may not be any more productive than a frugal scientist with his current budget.
Being a frugal British scientist working on a a tight budget I can tell you that while this may be true in some cases, just taking the stress of being so close to the wire away could mean that some people can get more science done. Heck I just blew the last three weeks writing grant proposals, very little science (or anything else, including sleep) got done during that time. For this I got a PhD?
Al.I have no idea what Linux, in general, costs if you factored in time, bandiwth, etc but I would not be suprised to see it in the tens of millions.
Oh, much more than that! See this article for details...
Al.The last TACS phone I owed was circa 1995, which was around the time when the UK was phasing analog out in favour of GSM
I can't even imagine going back to that sort of technology anymore, I mean, mobiles aren't just about voice communication anymore I probably use mine for data more than I do voice calls. I certainly don't know how I coped without SMS, heck just the server automatically text'ing me about it status and running jobs probably accounts for a dozen SMS a day.
Al.The fact is, GSM is getting its ass kicked so badly by CDMA...
You have to be a Yank, nobody else on the planet could possibly believe that...
Hello? The entire rest of the planet uses GSM, there is hardly an eight year old in the UK that doesn't have a GSM phone for God's sake...
Al.But don't forget that even thoug landline phone is relatively expensive, mobile is even more expensive. Especially if using it across national borders, it is obscenely expensive.
Actually, no. I pay less to dial internationally on my mobile than I would pay BT (that's British Telecom BTW) to dial internationally from a landline. As a result I don't even have a landline in my house anymore.
Admittedly international roaming can still be expensive, but you don't get the option to internationally roam your house landline at all...
As for data, I'm just about to pick up broadband along with cable TV, they're really confused as to why I don't want a phone connection as well, but again, the mobile works out cheaper.
I know lots of people who aren't bothering to have a landline in their home anymore, whats the point? Why should I pay for a phone that I can't actually use for most of the day (because I'm not there) and people can't ring me on (because I'm not there). Whats the point in that?
Al.Yes, GSM is more widely supported than CDMA, but note that the GSM folks are having a heck of a time providing 3G support, whereas the two big CDMA providers in the states (Verizon and Sprint) have both rolled out huge 3G networks.
What you're missing is that what the CDMA carriers are calling 3G actually isn't. In Europe we call it 2.5G, and all our networks have already rolled out phones that handle that sort of stuff, the fact that the US carriers haven't just means that (as usual) they're behind the curve.
If you want a look at real 3G network, the first UK one just rolled out, see three.co.uk. The most obvious feature that doesn't turn up under 2.5G is real person to person video calling, quality seems to be fairly good as well.
Al.Is the "convenience" of not having a jar of pennies on your dresser really worth the $50-$100 a year it'd cost you?
Yes, the convience of not having to put up with pocket loads of useless copper coins would easily be worth that to me...
Al.I would go so far as to say that most code written is written to perform some task for the people employing the programmer, rather than for resale.
Enitrely agree, the number of truely generic tools is fairly limitied, the number of process specific tools is much larger.
I get paid to write software, these days I slap a GPL license onto everything I ship, but a great deal of this won't ever be seen by the public because its not generally useful and nobody would actually be interested. The stuff that is generally useful will eventually make its way into the wild, but its defaintely in the minority.
Al.Jury: Not guilty due to lack of evidence.
They're far more likely to call for a lynching, these days, for some crimes, the presumption of innocense isn't exactly to be taken as read...
Al.The USA now needs the world more than the world needs the USA...
Well its nice that sombebody over there is paying attention. Now, can you just go out and elect some reasonable politicians, ones that know where the Slovak Republic is for instance?
If you aspire to the position of "leader of the free world" you really should know it doesn't end at the Texas border.
Al.Our Military is the best fighting force in the world...
Then why do you keep on shooting the Brits? Aren't we on your side? And before you say "Friendly fire happens", it seems to happen a hell of alot less to other people than to you guys. You do't see us shoot up your lot do you?
There are a alot of people pissed off over this issue on this side of the pond...
Al.I don't believe you've ever actually worked for a really big organisation that has legacy systems, I work for a bunch of people that have just tried to do exactly what you recommend.
All new development is in Java, with all the apps talking to each other in XML via SOAP. But the legacy code is still there...
We have a few million lines of Fortran 77 and C sitting around, 20 years real time with somewhere between 10 and 50 staff (at peak) churning out code full time for the entire life of the project, so thats what, going to be around 500 man years of effort, more?
We've had to go out and write SOAP wrappers for it all so it can talk to the new stuff. In some cases we've had to write JNI wrappers so we can use some of the old stuff directly, its so critical we can't get rid of it.
The legacy stuff was originally written for the VAX, and has been ported to SunOS/Solaris, Digital UNIX/Tru64 and now Linux. Its fundamentally impossible to get rid of unless you chuck huge amounts of money and effort at the project and nobody is going to do that so we can write some software that can do exactly the same thing as the software we have now.
Legacy software, and people to support it, is going to be around for a long, long, time. Get used to it...
Al.We accept this because providers give you lots of airtime for little cash.
Err, same here, I get 200 free minutes a month for (quick currency conversion) $15 a month. That suits me, you can get a couple of thousand minutes for $80 a month (or so).
Why do Europeans pay for cellular phone calls made on nights or weekends?
Depening on your tarrif, you don't have to, there are several tarrifs that offer free offpeak, or free weekend calls.
And why do they pay for calls to other phones on the same network?
Depending on the tarrif your on, you don't have to, there are several tarrifs that offer own network calls free.
And do they pay for each SMS message they send?
You don't, alot of networks offer free text messages, or bulk rate.
And do they pay for their first 500 minutes of peak time?
Never even hear of this being the case...
And do they pay for each kilobite of data they send?
Actually, no. Depending on your tarrif you don't have to...
Basically unless you're really dumb, you don't have to do any of these things, its a really competative market over here. Basically I pay a flat $15 a month and get all my calls, and text messages free, and unlike the States we get subsidised handsets, I pay about $50 for my handset (without a contract its a $500 handset).
Basically you guys get seriously screwed over by your mobile operators, sorry, but its a fact.
Al.Still, I wonder if this "pad" comes with a warning not to leave credit cards, etc. near it?
If you'd taken the time to read the article, you'd have seen that it says that the pad "...will not even wipe credit cards if you accidentally put one on the pad".
Al.I thought bluetooth had went the way of 100base VG, betamax, bernoulli drives, .sea compression, BeOS, 8 track, and SACD.
You haven't been to Europe lately, have you?
Al.There's also a broadband BBC News 24 feed
Where did you find that?
Al.Sitting here at work, I must say that the only thing I really wish I could get would be a live cable feed of some of the news conferences.
The BBC is carrying almost every conference live on BBC News 24, which they're streaming over the web. The White House spokes person has just finished and we've switched back to talking heads ontop of nightvision camera of fighting.
Unfortunately there its starting to get very heavily loaded and drop outs are increasing, so why am I posting it to Slashdot? I just unpacked a TV Capture card and threw it in a machine in the corner, I've got my own feed...
Al.As well as the BBC WorldService, BBC News 24 is broacasting a video feed live.
Al.I don't know where you got your numbers, but they're wrong. 139 Labour MPs rebelled against the government's line and supported the amendment, 15 Tory MPs also defied their leadership by voting against the government's policy. All 53 Liberal Democrat MPs voted against the government - in line with their leadership's position.
See the BBC story for a more realistic slant on whats going on here. A summary last nights Common's debate is also avialable, alnog with a breakdown of exactly how all the MPs voted.
Al.Perhaps you didn't read the end of my post, where I point out that the majority of the populations in the countries in the "coallition of willing" are against the war.
I was adding some supporting statistics...
Al.Afghanistan, Albania, Australia...
I think the last Austrialian opinon poll I saw put something like 90% of the population against the war.
In the UK 65 to 70% of the population are agianst the war. In Turkey, even with massive bribes the US couldn't get the Turkish Parliment to let them use the country to base troops.
Appart from the UK there really isn't anyone in the "coalition" with global reach, nobody that has the ability to make large medium term troop deployments on a global scale. Heck, some of the countries don't actually have a military to speak of...
Al.Britain. The current opinion polls put 65% to 70% of the population against the war. Yesterday the government managed to get the approval of Parliment to send the troops in, but only after the biggest backbench revolt in living memory.
I don't know what CNN is telling you guys, but you're basically on your own, if the war doesn't go well (i.e. its over before teatime) the British government stands a fair chance of falling.
Al.