Well now, that depends on both the wall and the light source. No one has said what wavelength of light is being used, at what power, and what frequency/modulation. While I'm sure his setup goes well beyond IRDA, using LEDs ("light") for data transmissions has been around for over 20 years. Both my cellphone and laptop have IR ports on them -- even used it for internet access once. (laptop doesn't have bluetooth and I don't have the 150$ (f*** you Ericson) USB cable for the phone.)
[Back in college, eons ago, "we" blinded remotes in other rooms through the cinder-block walls with a high output IR LED -- that we made insanely bright to the point of beginning to melt it.]
"phase change goo" It's supposed to form a molecular layer filling the microscopic gaps between the processor and heatsink and then solidify. That's why you're supposed to replace it entirely if you ever remove the heatsink. As long as it stays "bonded", you'll never need to touch it. The various pastes (including the highly acclaimed Artic Silver) eventually break down and need to be replaced. Even that expensive 3M thermal tape will breakdown after ~5 years. (it's mostly an oil soaked hunk of rubber.)
The expandable tree they use has always been hit-n-miss with Opera. It needs FAR too much memory, and opera's javascript engine (rightly) limits the amount of memory a script can waste. Even in FF, it's a heavy CPU eater.
The bellsouth/at&t version of the westel won't let you past the "enter username and password" screen until you fill it in and let it login at least once. In my case, I have a 6+ year old "A" model (2100?) westel. It barely has a web interface at all, so you can do anything to it without it even being connected. The 6100, while much better hardware, has some of the lamest web crap on it I've ever seen. Maybe I should find a verizon model and see if they did any better.
Back in the days before AT&T fucked everything up, if you failed authentication 5 times (maybe it was 3) the system would link you to a "recovery network" where you could create or reset your account details -- no matter what web page you headed to, that's the page you got. If that wasn't good enough, you can *gosh* pick up the phone and talk to an actual, native english speaking, HUMAN to get your password sorted out.
Simple. You aren't flooding anything. The application only needs to LISTEN to the radio traffic to get the few specific packets it needs. At which point it spends the rest of eternity trying the decode those packets using the GPU(s).
Yeah, that's still "typing in the key", even if it is CTRL-C, CTRL-V. This "method" fails for a great deal of wireless networked hardware... tivo, ps3, xbox, wii, iPhone, IP Phones,...
I didn't say anything about a CD or setting up the modem. The process of creating the username and password -- the two things you need in order to setup the modem -- *requires* going through their bullshit "web" interface -- which is nothing but an activex control that installs a bunch of unnecessary, impossible to remove, crap in the process -- that only needs to be a simple HTML form. Customer service won't do it for you -- I assume because Bellsouth/AT&T doesn't want that crap infesting their own computers -- and there's no other way around it. (apparently)
Yes, but it's an ActiveX control that requires Windows and IE. And in the process it will force a bunch of completely useless crap, bloatware all over your system without asking, and provide ZERO means to remove it.
I was thinking the same thing... gas vs. diesel. In the US, cars and pumps are specifically setup to prevent pumping gas into a diesel car -- the nozzle on the gas pump is larger than the restrictor plate on the diesel car. However, that's only on cars. Industrial equipment doesn't have those. I've watched what happens when an idiot puts gas in a diesel tractor... and the swarm of mechanics decending on it to cut it off before it explodes. Next to the gas pumps.
Putting gas in a diesel will destroy the engine -- in a very fantastic boom... it'll rev unlimited until the engine flys apart (or it burns all the fuel, but it won't last that long.) Putting diesel in a gas car will make a mess, but is unlikely to "destroy" anything -- it'll clog filters and injectors, and foul a bunch of sensors, but that's all fixable... replace the filters, and clean everything else. But, yes, both are expensive mistakes.
In fact, I suspect that if Verizon gave the specs for their device to [the] Linux community, there would be a driver and management software available within a couple of days.
It's a Westel 6100 DSL modem (or a 2wire these days?) There's no need for the Linux community to write their own modem firmware -- the westel provided vxworks based stuff works perfectly. It has an embeded web server, so there's nothing to build for "management software" -- any javascript capable web browser will do.
The Westell DSL modem (slash router) takes care of all that for you. You simply need to give it your username and password, which will be the first thing it asks you when you point a browser... any javascript capable browser... at it. (no matter where you go, until setup, it will redirect you to http://launchmodem/ -- which is it's own nightmare.)
They do work out-of-the-box. The problem is not the OS; it's entirely the user and their expectations. She puts the Verizon CD in the drive, but then cannot find the "D:" drive. Even if she did, it's Linux, it cannot run the windows software on the CD. She's told to bring up Internet Explorer, but there isn't an IE icon anywhere to be found. The average windows user, no matter how computer skilled, would be confused by an Ubuntu desktop, but they should be able to figure out what's what.
The real issue is why Dell didn't give her ("the customer") windows ("what the customer wants") when she called. If she called after receiving the laptop, then I can understand the complexity... she'd have to send the laptop back to be reimaged (or find a friend with a Dell XP cd.)
The thing is, your username and password don't exist until you run that crap to create it. Why there isn't a simple, pure HTML web page to set all this up is way beyond me.
It's getting rarer these days, but there are still a**holes that code things that will only work in IE. And there are some regular html/javascript setups that don't work too well in "other browsers" -- vmware server for one, dell's support site for two.
She doesn't know that she doesn't need to install any "Verizon High Speed Internet CD" in order for her Verizon DSL to function
You haven't setup a new DSL connection in the last few years have you? You MUST install their Windows(TM) only, machine fucking, bloatware bullshit to run the absurdly stupid IE only ActiveX control to do a single HTTP POST to create a username and password. Even Bellsouth's COMMERCIAL business users have to go through this complete fucking bullshit. I had nothing nice to say to the Live Chat Customer Support minion when this was forced down my throat. Based on my experience, be ready to completely wipe and reinstall the machine used for this crap. As a side note, Norton AV will not let you install their crap.
She doesn't know that OpenOffice.org can handle her needs for "Microsoft Word" just fine
Nice try, but no it doesn't. If you are writing papers that are printed and handed in, then yes, it will do. However in today's world, you don't hand in printed papers -- and we're talking about an online school, so she'll most certainly be expected to upload her.doc files.
She probably wouldn't know that Firefox can handle all of her browsing needs even where another OS is specified (under most circumstances)
Don't bet on it. All it takes is one ActiveX control and you're screwed. (Personally, I prefer Opera, but to each his own.)
No. The FCC is damned clear on the subject. NO RESTRICTIONS CAN BE MADE ON DISH PLACEMENT. Not one, single incident coming before the FCC has been allowed. (I've read dozens (over 30) of these cases.) Even the seemingly simple "put the dish on the back of your house" is not allowed, even if that's where you'd put the thing anyway. The HOA can *ASK* for you put the dish out of sight on the back of your house, but they cannot *require* it or take any action against you if you don't.
Apartments are a different matter. You cannot attach the dish to the building in any means that alters the structure (ie. with nails or bolts.) And it must be 100%, *completely*, within your exclusive use area. If the LNB hangs off your balcony, it's not within your EUA. If it's mounted on a pole in the bushes beside the building, it's not within your EUA. (I had mine bolted to a platform sitting on my balcony -- with pencil lines on the deck outlining where it belongs should anyone bump it, or blow it across the deck with a pressure washer.)
This all comes down to your "exclusive use area" and what you actually own. In an apartment (and in many areas condos as well), you don't own the roof and exterior walls, so bolting things down is prohibited. For townhouses and free standing homes, you can put the dish anywhere you want as long as it's on *your* property. For example, I could put my dish on a pole driven into the middle of my driveway. It would annoy the holy f*** out of the rest of the homeowners, but there's nothing they could do about it.
Fine. Find me a 25+ year old modem across which people ran zmodem. It's not at all surprising Hayes would patent it. They pretty much invented the modem.
Wait a minute. I HAVE a 25 year old modem... the one that started it all (for RS232 anyway)... a Hayes Smartmodem 300. I've used zmodem across it (don't recommend it; a rat dragging a floppy disk is faster.) And it doesn't f'ing hang up.
there was a combination for the zmodem that passed the hangup code to the modem
I've seen this myth repeated for, well, decades. The only way to get a modem immediately into command mode is by dropping DTR -- in some configurations, that'll hangup as well. The in-band method of "+++" requires a specific delay between each "+" and after the entire string -- that's why your chat scripts always had "+\p+\p+\p OK" in there. X/Y/Zmodem does not pause at all between characters, so it is 100% IMPOSSIBLE to get a modem to enter command mode and hangup simply by transfering a file. (or reading an email, or sitting in an IRC channel.)
(Not have an 8-bit clean path -- e.g. dialed into a terminal server -- and the stress of continuous character streams are far more likely sources of issues. If the transfer aborts and drops you back to the command line, 99% of the time the remaining stream of junk would end up logging you out.)
Slashdot Mirror
Echo cancelation. Yes, they can talk and listen at the same time.
RTS/CTS is to prevent multiple hosts from transmitting at the same time, thus stepping on each other.
Well now, that depends on both the wall and the light source. No one has said what wavelength of light is being used, at what power, and what frequency/modulation. While I'm sure his setup goes well beyond IRDA, using LEDs ("light") for data transmissions has been around for over 20 years. Both my cellphone and laptop have IR ports on them -- even used it for internet access once. (laptop doesn't have bluetooth and I don't have the 150$ (f*** you Ericson) USB cable for the phone.)
[Back in college, eons ago, "we" blinded remotes in other rooms through the cinder-block walls with a high output IR LED -- that we made insanely bright to the point of beginning to melt it.]
"phase change goo" It's supposed to form a molecular layer filling the microscopic gaps between the processor and heatsink and then solidify. That's why you're supposed to replace it entirely if you ever remove the heatsink. As long as it stays "bonded", you'll never need to touch it. The various pastes (including the highly acclaimed Artic Silver) eventually break down and need to be replaced. Even that expensive 3M thermal tape will breakdown after ~5 years. (it's mostly an oil soaked hunk of rubber.)
Something that isn't written in f'ing JAVA.
It's not renaming, it's rebranding. Or as I like to say to marketing minions... calling the same turd by a different name.
The expandable tree they use has always been hit-n-miss with Opera. It needs FAR too much memory, and opera's javascript engine (rightly) limits the amount of memory a script can waste. Even in FF, it's a heavy CPU eater.
The bellsouth/at&t version of the westel won't let you past the "enter username and password" screen until you fill it in and let it login at least once. In my case, I have a 6+ year old "A" model (2100?) westel. It barely has a web interface at all, so you can do anything to it without it even being connected. The 6100, while much better hardware, has some of the lamest web crap on it I've ever seen. Maybe I should find a verizon model and see if they did any better.
Back in the days before AT&T fucked everything up, if you failed authentication 5 times (maybe it was 3) the system would link you to a "recovery network" where you could create or reset your account details -- no matter what web page you headed to, that's the page you got. If that wasn't good enough, you can *gosh* pick up the phone and talk to an actual, native english speaking, HUMAN to get your password sorted out.
I wish that was true.
Toyota's site works perfectly for me with Opera -- if you want to call a huge flash app a web site.
Compatibility. No previous version had it, and they don't want to have to support it going forward. (plus, it's never really been necessary.)
Simple. You aren't flooding anything. The application only needs to LISTEN to the radio traffic to get the few specific packets it needs. At which point it spends the rest of eternity trying the decode those packets using the GPU(s).
Yeah, that's still "typing in the key", even if it is CTRL-C, CTRL-V. This "method" fails for a great deal of wireless networked hardware... tivo, ps3, xbox, wii, iPhone, IP Phones, ...
I didn't say anything about a CD or setting up the modem. The process of creating the username and password -- the two things you need in order to setup the modem -- *requires* going through their bullshit "web" interface -- which is nothing but an activex control that installs a bunch of unnecessary, impossible to remove, crap in the process -- that only needs to be a simple HTML form. Customer service won't do it for you -- I assume because Bellsouth/AT&T doesn't want that crap infesting their own computers -- and there's no other way around it. (apparently)
Yes, but it's an ActiveX control that requires Windows and IE. And in the process it will force a bunch of completely useless crap, bloatware all over your system without asking, and provide ZERO means to remove it.
I was thinking the same thing... gas vs. diesel. In the US, cars and pumps are specifically setup to prevent pumping gas into a diesel car -- the nozzle on the gas pump is larger than the restrictor plate on the diesel car. However, that's only on cars. Industrial equipment doesn't have those. I've watched what happens when an idiot puts gas in a diesel tractor... and the swarm of mechanics decending on it to cut it off before it explodes. Next to the gas pumps.
Putting gas in a diesel will destroy the engine -- in a very fantastic boom... it'll rev unlimited until the engine flys apart (or it burns all the fuel, but it won't last that long.) Putting diesel in a gas car will make a mess, but is unlikely to "destroy" anything -- it'll clog filters and injectors, and foul a bunch of sensors, but that's all fixable... replace the filters, and clean everything else. But, yes, both are expensive mistakes.
It's a Westel 6100 DSL modem (or a 2wire these days?) There's no need for the Linux community to write their own modem firmware -- the westel provided vxworks based stuff works perfectly. It has an embeded web server, so there's nothing to build for "management software" -- any javascript capable web browser will do.
The Westell DSL modem (slash router) takes care of all that for you. You simply need to give it your username and password, which will be the first thing it asks you when you point a browser... any javascript capable browser... at it. (no matter where you go, until setup, it will redirect you to http://launchmodem/ -- which is it's own nightmare.)
They do work out-of-the-box. The problem is not the OS; it's entirely the user and their expectations. She puts the Verizon CD in the drive, but then cannot find the "D:" drive. Even if she did, it's Linux, it cannot run the windows software on the CD. She's told to bring up Internet Explorer, but there isn't an IE icon anywhere to be found. The average windows user, no matter how computer skilled, would be confused by an Ubuntu desktop, but they should be able to figure out what's what.
The real issue is why Dell didn't give her ("the customer") windows ("what the customer wants") when she called. If she called after receiving the laptop, then I can understand the complexity... she'd have to send the laptop back to be reimaged (or find a friend with a Dell XP cd.)
The thing is, your username and password don't exist until you run that crap to create it. Why there isn't a simple, pure HTML web page to set all this up is way beyond me.
It's getting rarer these days, but there are still a**holes that code things that will only work in IE. And there are some regular html/javascript setups that don't work too well in "other browsers" -- vmware server for one, dell's support site for two.
You haven't setup a new DSL connection in the last few years have you? You MUST install their Windows(TM) only, machine fucking, bloatware bullshit to run the absurdly stupid IE only ActiveX control to do a single HTTP POST to create a username and password. Even Bellsouth's COMMERCIAL business users have to go through this complete fucking bullshit. I had nothing nice to say to the Live Chat Customer Support minion when this was forced down my throat. Based on my experience, be ready to completely wipe and reinstall the machine used for this crap. As a side note, Norton AV will not let you install their crap.
Nice try, but no it doesn't. If you are writing papers that are printed and handed in, then yes, it will do. However in today's world, you don't hand in printed papers -- and we're talking about an online school, so she'll most certainly be expected to upload her .doc files.
Don't bet on it. All it takes is one ActiveX control and you're screwed. (Personally, I prefer Opera, but to each his own.)
No. The FCC is damned clear on the subject. NO RESTRICTIONS CAN BE MADE ON DISH PLACEMENT. Not one, single incident coming before the FCC has been allowed. (I've read dozens (over 30) of these cases.) Even the seemingly simple "put the dish on the back of your house" is not allowed, even if that's where you'd put the thing anyway. The HOA can *ASK* for you put the dish out of sight on the back of your house, but they cannot *require* it or take any action against you if you don't.
Apartments are a different matter. You cannot attach the dish to the building in any means that alters the structure (ie. with nails or bolts.) And it must be 100%, *completely*, within your exclusive use area. If the LNB hangs off your balcony, it's not within your EUA. If it's mounted on a pole in the bushes beside the building, it's not within your EUA. (I had mine bolted to a platform sitting on my balcony -- with pencil lines on the deck outlining where it belongs should anyone bump it, or blow it across the deck with a pressure washer.)
This all comes down to your "exclusive use area" and what you actually own. In an apartment (and in many areas condos as well), you don't own the roof and exterior walls, so bolting things down is prohibited. For townhouses and free standing homes, you can put the dish anywhere you want as long as it's on *your* property. For example, I could put my dish on a pole driven into the middle of my driveway. It would annoy the holy f*** out of the rest of the homeowners, but there's nothing they could do about it.
Fine. Find me a 25+ year old modem across which people ran zmodem. It's not at all surprising Hayes would patent it. They pretty much invented the modem.
Wait a minute. I HAVE a 25 year old modem... the one that started it all (for RS232 anyway)... a Hayes Smartmodem 300. I've used zmodem across it (don't recommend it; a rat dragging a floppy disk is faster.) And it doesn't f'ing hang up.
I've seen this myth repeated for, well, decades. The only way to get a modem immediately into command mode is by dropping DTR -- in some configurations, that'll hangup as well. The in-band method of "+++" requires a specific delay between each "+" and after the entire string -- that's why your chat scripts always had "+\p+\p+\p OK" in there. X/Y/Zmodem does not pause at all between characters, so it is 100% IMPOSSIBLE to get a modem to enter command mode and hangup simply by transfering a file. (or reading an email, or sitting in an IRC channel.)
(Not have an 8-bit clean path -- e.g. dialed into a terminal server -- and the stress of continuous character streams are far more likely sources of issues. If the transfer aborts and drops you back to the command line, 99% of the time the remaining stream of junk would end up logging you out.)