Which is what the original ISPs used to do. The provision of additional content/value came later.
That's kind of true. It just used to be that dail-in and receive content people were different people than the ISP. It was really a very brief period of time when the no-frills Mom-and-pop ISP really amounted to anything. Before that your ISP was your employer or it was AOL/Compuserv and now with the real ISPs going away we're left with your connection being through something like AOL/AT&T/MSN and so forth where you're paying for their packaged content plus a TCP/IP connection to the world at large. _____________
Does anyone know if RF wireless technology, such as 2.4 GHz that is used in cordless phones, can be adapted to provide such access, say if enough neighbors installed them so a P2P net reached to someplace with a wire connection?
Sure can. 802.11b (Apple Airport, Lucent WaveLAN, et. al.) is a 2.4 GHz system and has a data rate of about 11Mbps. It can be extended to a distance of a few miles if you use a higher-gain directional antenna. Here's a slashdot article that talks about some folks in Australia who did something like this. _____________
With a major cash cow out of the picture at least to some degree it undermines their ability to subsidize other programs like IE.
Dude, this is the new economy. What makes you think that you need to have people pay you for your products? Everything is free man. Mind share is the only thing that counts, getting people to use your stuff is even better than showing a profit. The only thing that you really need to sell is overpriced shares in the company. People are going to keep bidding up your stock price forever.
The cool thing about it is that it's a nice little machine that managed to get little without using a whole bunch of hardware that isn't compatable with Linux. Pretty much there really isn't anything all that great about it except that it's a small, sharp looking case that isn't locked into WINCE or something equally nasty. _____________
Dude, Can you clue me in on how you can embed knives into your signature. I've never seen one of these clever signatures, but it sounds like just about the coolest thing that could possibly be done with html. _____________
Interesting information that you've posted there. It does kind of make me wonder though why I can't make 1 generation of digital copies of DVD soundtracks. I'm not really sure why I'd want to do that, but I did notice the other day after pushing the wrong button on my stereo that attempting to record the sound from DVD movies on my MD recorder causes it to flash "No Copy" and not record anything. _____________
My eyes were never as bad when we used monochrome monitors and text only apps.
And my eyes were never as bad when I was 15 years younger either. What's your point?
Black on white displays...just another thing that we have Mr. Jobs to thank for. Yet another Apple innovation that looks looks cool and really doesn't serve much purpose [especially now that screens don't burn in so easily]. _____________
Unless you're running fiber to each user you probably aren't going to be able to exceed 100Mbps anyway. If I were you I'd just install 100BT switches and then you're problem is completely taken care of. _____________
The Bible was one of the first books to be touched by the epitome of then bleeding-edge technology: the movable type printing press.
How true. In addition to that I've noted that the Bible is usually one of the first titles avaliable for any new e-book format the other early titles are often foreign language dictionaries. I'm pretty sure that you've been able to but an electronic Bible at RadioShack for at least 15 years now. _____________
That little bit is thrown in there because being raped does not constitute committing adultry. I don't think that there's a double standard there, it just that it's more difficult and much less common for a woman to rape a man than vice versa. _____________
Damn straight that's a terrible argument. Quite frankly, I have no idea of what to do with the linux kernel source [besides compile it that is], but that doesn't mean that I don't want to be able to have it.
The better argument for releasing the binary-only DSP software is that this software doesn't actually run on the host computer so it could be described as part of the hardware. For those of you saying that you need to be able to modify the DSP code so that you can use a modem as a video card, get a grip. If you really want to do that kind of thing get a soldering iron and buy parts better suited to the job. _____________
I think that "no conventionally moving parts" means that they are using a Wankel rotary engine to move the parts rather than the conventional 4-stroke design. I must admit that it is a pretty clever hack to figure out how to use mechanical storage to get that kind of density and even more curious that they chose the rather oddball Wankel design over battery power which is usually used for small devices. _____________
I actually don't see anything wrong with the business plan. What's wrong with spending your time coming up with new ideas and then selling them to other corporations? When individuals do this we call them inventors. Why is it necessarily evil when a corporation hires a bunch of inventors to do the same thing?
Note that I'm not defending Rambus. They seem to actually be pretty sleazy and deceptive, but it doesn't seem that there is anything inherently wrong with patenting new ideas for RAM and asking those who produce RAM to pay your for the use of those ideas. _____________
Please tell me you didn't bought an extended warranty with it.
I've actually had some very good experiences with the Best Buy extended warranty. Granted, I wouldn't have purchased it for something as mundane as RAM, but I did get the extended warranty on my cell phone which I got at BB. Of course, with something like a cell phone I had a reasonable expectation that I would sooner or later drop/break the thing and the warranty on cell phones there covers battery memory. Sure enough it happened, after I'd had the thing for about 5 months I dropped it and busted off the antenna. I took it back to the service counter at the store and they took care of things right away. The only questions they asked were "Is grey alright? We're out of blue ones." and "Would you like a new battery as long as we're doing this?". I couldn't have been more impressed. All told it took less than 20 minutes for him to program my new phone and change my ESN with my phone company. _____________
When it comes to building a large list, consider warrenty cards. Many more people send those in, despite the fact that several major court cases have ruled that it is illegal to not honor a warrenty on the basis that the consumer has not mailed in a warrenty card. That's the reason that I never bother with them.
I've pretty much quit sending them in too. On occasion I will send one in IF AND ONLY IF it's a business reply mail card AND it's a company that I might like to get a catalog from in the future. Quite frankly, I'm not going to pay 34c to add myself to someone's marketing list. Furthermore, I'm going to go out of my way to avoid getting on the marketing list for products that I wouldn't be interested in owning more of. Mostly this category includes all small kitchen appliances that cost less than $30 (which always come with a warranty card). I don't want to get junk mail about great opportunities to buy these products, I just buy them when the previous one breaks. I will however, send in the cards for some of the electronic items that I purchase, that's because I'm interested in these items and do like to know what new products are avaliable and what features they have. _____________
I think that most people around here would absolutely insist that Open Source is by it's very nature not a POS and that if you really wanted Piece Of Shit software you'd have to go and talk to Microsoft.:) What an unfortunate overlap in TLAs.
To be more serious, I don't think that it would be all that difficult to create a custom QT interface that would access an SQL database which could be stored either at the cash register or somewhere and queried via the network. There are several companies that sell barcode scanners with a serial interface if you need that to help automate data entry. _____________
What exactly is the difference between "data" and "audio" CDRs?
The difference between data and audio CDRs is that data CDRs won't work in the stereo component CD burners. If you want to burn CDs using the cheaper "data" CDs you have to have access to a computer with a CD burner. Despite the levy that it enacted on these disks they are still quite cheap, or at least cheap enough for making a few mix disks once in a while. They would only start to seem kind of expensive if you were trying to support a major linux distro burning habit on them. _____________
Microwaves, X-rays, UV-rays, and cellular phones have already been linked to cancer.
Oh, quit hitting that dead horse. Microwaves have never been proven to cause cancer and probably never will. The point at which radiation seems to start becoming harmful to living things is in wavelengths smaller than a few hundred nanometers (UV light), X-Rays are even smaller than UV and can cause cancer. There is a world of difference between nanometer sized waves and the centimeter sized waves that come from microwave ovens, cell phones and 900 or 2400 MHz data devices like wireless internet and cordless phones.
The only effect that waves in this size can actually have on living things is to warm them slightly. If you're concerned about the warming effect that your.6W cellphone is going to have on your head you should be much more concerned about the heat given off by the battery and poweramp than about the radiation from the antenna. _____________
You're right. Most of us don't have any data on our machines that really needs to be protected from the off chance that someone might see it. But, this isn't why I want to keep crackers/Script Kiddyz out of my machine. I can't afford to have my machine used to for criminal activities, I have things on my machine that I would really miss if they were gone, I don't want to have to spend a whole evening reinstalling the operating system and making sure that all the holes are properly closed this time.
Just because I don't have classified data on my computer doesn't mean that I want to have it broken into and that I shouldn't take reasonable precautions to see that my system is safe. _____________
Konqueror is great. The only place where I have trouble with it is a nytimes.com for some reason it puts the text of the article in the wrong place.
One thing that I really like about Konqueror is that you can set the browser ID tags. Most of the time I leave them set to "None of your fucking business (Mozilla 5.0 compatable)" but if a site that I actually want to see gives me trouble I can switch over to being IE 5.5 pretty easily. _____________
Janitors also get keys to the building and to all the offices. That is not a sign of respect.
From my experience working as an assistant janitor while in college, I can say that janitors have an amazing amount of power and they should be given the upmost respect. The same can be said for security gaurds and anyone else with keys to every door in the building. They may not be the ones who sign your paychecks or get you your next promotion, but there is a lot to be said for being friends with the right people when you need help. _____________
Note: I didn't say that I thought that this arguement was a good one. All I said is that it's the one that the software companies would like for you to believe. _____________
Slashdot Mirror
That's kind of true. It just used to be that dail-in and receive content people were different people than the ISP. It was really a very brief period of time when the no-frills Mom-and-pop ISP really amounted to anything. Before that your ISP was your employer or it was AOL/Compuserv and now with the real ISPs going away we're left with your connection being through something like AOL/AT&T/MSN and so forth where you're paying for their packaged content plus a TCP/IP connection to the world at large.
_____________
Sure can. 802.11b (Apple Airport, Lucent WaveLAN, et. al.) is a 2.4 GHz system and has a data rate of about 11Mbps. It can be extended to a distance of a few miles if you use a higher-gain directional antenna. Here's a slashdot article that talks about some folks in Australia who did something like this.
_____________
Dude, this is the new economy. What makes you think that you need to have people pay you for your products? Everything is free man. Mind share is the only thing that counts, getting people to use your stuff is even better than showing a profit. The only thing that you really need to sell is overpriced shares in the company. People are going to keep bidding up your stock price forever.
Oh wait, that was last year. Sorry.
_____________
The cool thing about it is that it's a nice little machine that managed to get little without using a whole bunch of hardware that isn't compatable with Linux. Pretty much there really isn't anything all that great about it except that it's a small, sharp looking case that isn't locked into WINCE or something equally nasty.
_____________
Dude, Can you clue me in on how you can embed knives into your signature. I've never seen one of these clever signatures, but it sounds like just about the coolest thing that could possibly be done with html.
_____________
Interesting information that you've posted there. It does kind of make me wonder though why I can't make 1 generation of digital copies of DVD soundtracks. I'm not really sure why I'd want to do that, but I did notice the other day after pushing the wrong button on my stereo that attempting to record the sound from DVD movies on my MD recorder causes it to flash "No Copy" and not record anything.
_____________
And my eyes were never as bad when I was 15 years younger either. What's your point?
Black on white displays...just another thing that we have Mr. Jobs to thank for. Yet another Apple innovation that looks looks cool and really doesn't serve much purpose [especially now that screens don't burn in so easily].
_____________
Unless you're running fiber to each user you probably aren't going to be able to exceed 100Mbps anyway. If I were you I'd just install 100BT switches and then you're problem is completely taken care of.
_____________
How true. In addition to that I've noted that the Bible is usually one of the first titles avaliable for any new e-book format the other early titles are often foreign language dictionaries. I'm pretty sure that you've been able to but an electronic Bible at RadioShack for at least 15 years now.
_____________
That little bit is thrown in there because being raped does not constitute committing adultry. I don't think that there's a double standard there, it just that it's more difficult and much less common for a woman to rape a man than vice versa.
_____________
_____________
The better argument for releasing the binary-only DSP software is that this software doesn't actually run on the host computer so it could be described as part of the hardware. For those of you saying that you need to be able to modify the DSP code so that you can use a modem as a video card, get a grip. If you really want to do that kind of thing get a soldering iron and buy parts better suited to the job.
_____________
I think that "no conventionally moving parts" means that they are using a Wankel rotary engine to move the parts rather than the conventional 4-stroke design. I must admit that it is a pretty clever hack to figure out how to use mechanical storage to get that kind of density and even more curious that they chose the rather oddball Wankel design over battery power which is usually used for small devices.
_____________
Ok, you know that you're a geek when you can't type only 2 W's in a row. :)
_____________
I actually don't see anything wrong with the business plan. What's wrong with spending your time coming up with new ideas and then selling them to other corporations? When individuals do this we call them inventors. Why is it necessarily evil when a corporation hires a bunch of inventors to do the same thing?
Note that I'm not defending Rambus. They seem to actually be pretty sleazy and deceptive, but it doesn't seem that there is anything inherently wrong with patenting new ideas for RAM and asking those who produce RAM to pay your for the use of those ideas.
_____________
I've actually had some very good experiences with the Best Buy extended warranty. Granted, I wouldn't have purchased it for something as mundane as RAM, but I did get the extended warranty on my cell phone which I got at BB. Of course, with something like a cell phone I had a reasonable expectation that I would sooner or later drop/break the thing and the warranty on cell phones there covers battery memory. Sure enough it happened, after I'd had the thing for about 5 months I dropped it and busted off the antenna. I took it back to the service counter at the store and they took care of things right away. The only questions they asked were "Is grey alright? We're out of blue ones." and "Would you like a new battery as long as we're doing this?". I couldn't have been more impressed. All told it took less than 20 minutes for him to program my new phone and change my ESN with my phone company.
_____________
I've pretty much quit sending them in too. On occasion I will send one in IF AND ONLY IF it's a business reply mail card AND it's a company that I might like to get a catalog from in the future. Quite frankly, I'm not going to pay 34c to add myself to someone's marketing list. Furthermore, I'm going to go out of my way to avoid getting on the marketing list for products that I wouldn't be interested in owning more of. Mostly this category includes all small kitchen appliances that cost less than $30 (which always come with a warranty card). I don't want to get junk mail about great opportunities to buy these products, I just buy them when the previous one breaks. I will however, send in the cards for some of the electronic items that I purchase, that's because I'm interested in these items and do like to know what new products are avaliable and what features they have.
_____________
To be more serious, I don't think that it would be all that difficult to create a custom QT interface that would access an SQL database which could be stored either at the cash register or somewhere and queried via the network. There are several companies that sell barcode scanners with a serial interface if you need that to help automate data entry.
_____________
The difference between data and audio CDRs is that data CDRs won't work in the stereo component CD burners. If you want to burn CDs using the cheaper "data" CDs you have to have access to a computer with a CD burner. Despite the levy that it enacted on these disks they are still quite cheap, or at least cheap enough for making a few mix disks once in a while. They would only start to seem kind of expensive if you were trying to support a major linux distro burning habit on them.
_____________
Oh, quit hitting that dead horse. Microwaves have never been proven to cause cancer and probably never will. The point at which radiation seems to start becoming harmful to living things is in wavelengths smaller than a few hundred nanometers (UV light), X-Rays are even smaller than UV and can cause cancer. There is a world of difference between nanometer sized waves and the centimeter sized waves that come from microwave ovens, cell phones and 900 or 2400 MHz data devices like wireless internet and cordless phones.
The only effect that waves in this size can actually have on living things is to warm them slightly. If you're concerned about the warming effect that your .6W cellphone is going to have on your head you should be much more concerned about the heat given off by the battery and poweramp than about the radiation from the antenna.
_____________
Just because I don't have classified data on my computer doesn't mean that I want to have it broken into and that I shouldn't take reasonable precautions to see that my system is safe.
_____________
One thing that I really like about Konqueror is that you can set the browser ID tags. Most of the time I leave them set to "None of your fucking business (Mozilla 5.0 compatable)" but if a site that I actually want to see gives me trouble I can switch over to being IE 5.5 pretty easily.
_____________
Mmmm....Gum and nuts.
_____________
From my experience working as an assistant janitor while in college, I can say that janitors have an amazing amount of power and they should be given the upmost respect. The same can be said for security gaurds and anyone else with keys to every door in the building. They may not be the ones who sign your paychecks or get you your next promotion, but there is a lot to be said for being friends with the right people when you need help.
_____________
Note: I didn't say that I thought that this arguement was a good one. All I said is that it's the one that the software companies would like for you to believe.
_____________