I work in an RF engineering environment, so the requirements are a little different.
We're pretty well stocked (Gender changers? There are at least two labs with ample stock of any kind of coaxial RF adapter you can think of...), but occasionally something is hard to find. (It's usually somewhere, but when the lab manager or whoever normally has the equipment is out of office - uhoh...)
For those emergencies, I have in my car (Note: I try to keep it away from work, so I don't actually bring anything in unless needed.) Full repair toolkit (Wrenches, socket set, etc.) - It's always in my car anyway since it's primarily for automotive repair. I've occasionally needed to grab the odd wrench size when someone has borrowed the driver we need. Precision screwdriver set w/small pliers, wirecutters, etc. - Haven't needed it at work, nice to know it's a short trip out to the car Dremel tool - I expected to need this, but never did need it. Heat gun - Actually, now back at home permanently. Needed to briefly work with LARGE chunks of heatshrink and Murphy hit - The guy who keeps track of our heat gun was out for the week.
I know the feeling though... One piece of test equipment I work with (Rohde & Schwarz FSIQ spectrum analyzer) is *alone* worth $115k new.
My dad's laptop (Inspiron 8000) was one of those "free upgrade" units.
ME sucked, he upgraded to XP. It's OK, but still very flaky. Sometimes the mouse cursor disappears on the login screen, making it very difficult to log in.
He never uses standby/suspend, so I don't know how well it works on his machine.
XP's wireless support is known to be a pain to work with if there are multiple networks available. It's damn near impossible to install Lucent/Agere Orinoco drivers over the built-in drivers, which means that if your Orinoco card needs a firmware upgrade, watch out. It's gonna be a LOT of fun. (The built-in XP drivers don't work with the firmware updater utility)
On my laptop, I DO use standby/suspend. Let's just say that going into standby mode on a Dell Inspiron 8200 under XP is not a good idea - The machine will not wake up properly. Reboot/scandisk time. Posts abound on the Dell support forums of people who had power management hosed by SP1 or (like myself) had it hosed out of the box.
W2K is rock-solid on my I8200, and unlike XP, can actually wake up from standby!
Note: I'm a big Linux fan. But sometimes you just have to run Windows for something.
Nuke XP and install Windows 2000. W2K is FAR more stable than XP, esp. on Dell laptops. (I just got an Inspiron 8200 - OMG it sucked under XP, runs great with W2K or Linux)
My family has two Athlon systems. Both are rock solid and work wonderfully.
I can't remember what the exact config is of my dad's Athlon, but mine is a 1.1 GHz Tbird in a Epox EP-8KHA motherboard. (VIA KT266). Despite running cheap-ass RAM it's quite stable. (I did have to back the memory timings off a little bit to accomodate aforementioned cheap RAM.)
Usually in a battery pack the cells are pretty well matched. But no match is perfect. The problem with this is that in such a case, one cell may hit 0 volts before the others. Once this happens, that cell is forced to continue "discharging" itself by the other cells in the pack. Problem is it can't discharge any more without being seriously damaged. This is what a cell reversal is - If a cell reversal happens, you've lost the pack.
It doesn't matter if it's been discharged slowly or not, a reversal is a reversal.
How is it that they won the race when they're just releasing handsets now whereas CDMA2000 capable handsets have been out and working well for over a year? When the handsets that have been released have been shown to have compatibility issues with another vendor's infrastructure equipment? (Read the article and also a related article in The Economist, linked to a few times in comments.)
Because of exactly what I said - No manufacturer has been able to get one to work properly. In trying to dispute what I said, you simply stated an effect of the problem.
Do not discharge packs of batteries below 1 volt/cell. (Nominal NiCd/NiMH voltage is 1.2V, so don't drop a 4.8V battery below 4V, for example)
Going beyond this will run a great risk of a cell reversal and your pack is DEAD.
Discharging individual cells to 0 is a different story. Don't do this often though, but it might help to do it occasionally.
NiMH batteries can be charged by NiCd chargers in certain cases. Specifically, slow chargers. Many such chargers are designed to safely continuously charge NiCd batteries even past full. (Almost all "smart" chargers apply a small trickle charge continouously after stopping. Slow NiCd/NiMH chargers supply this current at all times).
I believe a lot of phones fall into this category. In general, if it takes 14 hours to charge your NiCd, it'll be safe to use the same charger to charge a NiMH. (It'll take 20 or more hours though). Most cordless phones require 10+ hours of charging before initial usage.
Next-gen GSM, aka UMTS/W-CDMA has proven to be a nightmare for all carriers that have tried to work with it. The Europeans don't even have equipment that works at all yet, and DoCoMo rolled out UMTS a year ago and the problems that ensued turned their name into mud in Japan.
China's current endorsement of UMTS is lukewarm to say the least - They're seeing the problems in Europe/Japan and starting to think about CDMA2000 isntead.
I think Japan is a model of the future and why CDMA2000 will win out over W-CDMA (except for possible issues with European mandates to use problematic technology)
In Japan, DoCoMo rolled out W-CDMA and had to issue 2 major handset recalls and in general has had serious problems. Their name is mud thanks to W-CDMA. Their competitor, KDDI, has implemented CDMA2000 and has been extremely successful with it.
Yes, US-based carriers have taken a hit. But at least they haven't been forced to take government loans like MobilCom in Germany.
The flaw in your article is stating that the US providers are hutring a little, while ignoring the fact that European wireless providers are in *serious* financial trouble.
The spectrum writeoffs you say will never happen have already begun happening. European wireless providers are *hurting*. If you read the article, many of them have already been requesting that they be allowed to implement CDMA2000 instead of W-CDMA.
Or more specifically, W-CDMA. CDMA has won at the RF later.
That said, if you read his article, CDMA2000 (The "next generation" after IS-95 CDMA) is Here Now while UMTS equipment isn't here yet in a working form. W-CDMA has proven to be an embarassment for those providers that have rolled it out, and those that haven't are begging to use CDMA2000 instead of W-CDMA, and when the politicians say no, you see the multibillion dollar spectrum writeoffs you've been seeing right and left in Europe.
If UMTS is so much better than CDMA2000, then why have there been so many spectrum writeoffs in Europe, while you don't hear about Verizon or Sprint writing off massive amounts of spectrum?
FYI, 3G GSM (Note: GPRS is 2.5G not 3G) will be based on CDMA.
So CDMA has won. There may be multiple CDMA standards (Although it seems like things are converging for true 3G), but all of the next-gen standards will be CDMA in some form.
Yes, this camera may have passed 35mm film in quality.
But at this price range, you're already well into the price of medium-format film.
MF film can carry MUCH more data per frame than 35mm. While the resolution is the same, the area is far greater.
Heck, for that price, you can even get a basic used LF setup.
It's going to be a long time before this camera comes down enough in price to be the equivalent of a 35mm SLR with the same quality.
That said - I shoot entirely using digital cameras now. But I have much lower requirements than pro photographers. I'd be best described as "advanced consumer".
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I work in an RF engineering environment, so the requirements are a little different.
We're pretty well stocked (Gender changers? There are at least two labs with ample stock of any kind of coaxial RF adapter you can think of...), but occasionally something is hard to find. (It's usually somewhere, but when the lab manager or whoever normally has the equipment is out of office - uhoh...)
For those emergencies, I have in my car (Note: I try to keep it away from work, so I don't actually bring anything in unless needed.)
Full repair toolkit (Wrenches, socket set, etc.) - It's always in my car anyway since it's primarily for automotive repair. I've occasionally needed to grab the odd wrench size when someone has borrowed the driver we need.
Precision screwdriver set w/small pliers, wirecutters, etc. - Haven't needed it at work, nice to know it's a short trip out to the car
Dremel tool - I expected to need this, but never did need it.
Heat gun - Actually, now back at home permanently. Needed to briefly work with LARGE chunks of heatshrink and Murphy hit - The guy who keeps track of our heat gun was out for the week.
I know the feeling though... One piece of test equipment I work with (Rohde & Schwarz FSIQ spectrum analyzer) is *alone* worth $115k new.
My dad's laptop (Inspiron 8000) was one of those "free upgrade" units.
ME sucked, he upgraded to XP. It's OK, but still very flaky. Sometimes the mouse cursor disappears on the login screen, making it very difficult to log in.
He never uses standby/suspend, so I don't know how well it works on his machine.
XP's wireless support is known to be a pain to work with if there are multiple networks available. It's damn near impossible to install Lucent/Agere Orinoco drivers over the built-in drivers, which means that if your Orinoco card needs a firmware upgrade, watch out. It's gonna be a LOT of fun. (The built-in XP drivers don't work with the firmware updater utility)
On my laptop, I DO use standby/suspend. Let's just say that going into standby mode on a Dell Inspiron 8200 under XP is not a good idea - The machine will not wake up properly. Reboot/scandisk time. Posts abound on the Dell support forums of people who had power management hosed by SP1 or (like myself) had it hosed out of the box.
W2K is rock-solid on my I8200, and unlike XP, can actually wake up from standby!
Paying a royalty every time i s(h)it doesn't seem to pleasant to me.
It's pretty clear that in today's world, prior art doesn't matter.
Note: I'm a big Linux fan. But sometimes you just have to run Windows for something.
Nuke XP and install Windows 2000. W2K is FAR more stable than XP, esp. on Dell laptops. (I just got an Inspiron 8200 - OMG it sucked under XP, runs great with W2K or Linux)
Cheap, crappy PSUs abound in this industry.
My family has two Athlon systems. Both are rock solid and work wonderfully.
I can't remember what the exact config is of my dad's Athlon, but mine is a 1.1 GHz Tbird in a Epox EP-8KHA motherboard. (VIA KT266). Despite running cheap-ass RAM it's quite stable. (I did have to back the memory timings off a little bit to accomodate aforementioned cheap RAM.)
First the comments. "It has firewire... Oh, I was just kidding. Or was I kidding about the midget"
I saw the apparent Firewire port on the motherboard and got very confused.
His chipset comparison summary page shows no Firewire on any of the mobos except for the SiS one though.
So what's that port?
Be careful...
Usually in a battery pack the cells are pretty well matched. But no match is perfect. The problem with this is that in such a case, one cell may hit 0 volts before the others. Once this happens, that cell is forced to continue "discharging" itself by the other cells in the pack. Problem is it can't discharge any more without being seriously damaged. This is what a cell reversal is - If a cell reversal happens, you've lost the pack.
It doesn't matter if it's been discharged slowly or not, a reversal is a reversal.
How is it that they won the race when they're just releasing handsets now whereas CDMA2000 capable handsets have been out and working well for over a year? When the handsets that have been released have been shown to have compatibility issues with another vendor's infrastructure equipment? (Read the article and also a related article in The Economist, linked to a few times in comments.)
All of them. :)
Did anyone misread the comment about the source being in Estonia the way I did?
oops, we lost the source in the mud...
Because of exactly what I said - No manufacturer has been able to get one to work properly. In trying to dispute what I said, you simply stated an effect of the problem.
Do not discharge packs of batteries below 1 volt/cell. (Nominal NiCd/NiMH voltage is 1.2V, so don't drop a 4.8V battery below 4V, for example)
Going beyond this will run a great risk of a cell reversal and your pack is DEAD.
Discharging individual cells to 0 is a different story. Don't do this often though, but it might help to do it occasionally.
NiMH batteries can be charged by NiCd chargers in certain cases. Specifically, slow chargers. Many such chargers are designed to safely continuously charge NiCd batteries even past full. (Almost all "smart" chargers apply a small trickle charge continouously after stopping. Slow NiCd/NiMH chargers supply this current at all times).
I believe a lot of phones fall into this category. In general, if it takes 14 hours to charge your NiCd, it'll be safe to use the same charger to charge a NiMH. (It'll take 20 or more hours though). Most cordless phones require 10+ hours of charging before initial usage.
This is about 3G, not 2G/2.5G
Next-gen GSM, aka UMTS/W-CDMA has proven to be a nightmare for all carriers that have tried to work with it. The Europeans don't even have equipment that works at all yet, and DoCoMo rolled out UMTS a year ago and the problems that ensued turned their name into mud in Japan.
China's current endorsement of UMTS is lukewarm to say the least - They're seeing the problems in Europe/Japan and starting to think about CDMA2000 isntead.
Have been holding off on rolling out W-CDMA because no equipment manufacturers have been able to get it to work properly.
There must be SOMETHING wrong if they *can't get it to work* while CDMA2000 is here now and working extremely well.
NTT DoCoMo
They rolled it out
It flopped
DoCoMo's name is mud thanks to W-CDMA
Their competitor has 2.3m 3G subscribers, DoCoMo (which rolled out earlier) has 125,000 or so. (Or was it 135? Still, a fraction of KDDI's)
Only GSM providers offer prepaid accounts?
What about Verizon's FreeUP plans? Or Virgin Mobile?
Sprint doesn't seem to do prepaid, they do have a non-contract monthly service though.
Not sure about AT&T or Cingular
UMTS (the broken piece of crap you refer to) is W-CDMA, not TDMA.
It's still, as you say, horribly broken at the moment.
That the European providers were legally mandated to implement 3G.
In short, the European politicians said, "If you want to stay in business, you MUST buy this spectrum at the prices we dictate"
I think Japan is a model of the future and why CDMA2000 will win out over W-CDMA (except for possible issues with European mandates to use problematic technology)
In Japan, DoCoMo rolled out W-CDMA and had to issue 2 major handset recalls and in general has had serious problems. Their name is mud thanks to W-CDMA. Their competitor, KDDI, has implemented CDMA2000 and has been extremely successful with it.
Yes, US-based carriers have taken a hit. But at least they haven't been forced to take government loans like MobilCom in Germany.
The flaw in your article is stating that the US providers are hutring a little, while ignoring the fact that European wireless providers are in *serious* financial trouble.
Again, it would help you to read the article...
The spectrum writeoffs you say will never happen have already begun happening. European wireless providers are *hurting*. If you read the article, many of them have already been requesting that they be allowed to implement CDMA2000 instead of W-CDMA.
Or more specifically, W-CDMA. CDMA has won at the RF later.
That said, if you read his article, CDMA2000 (The "next generation" after IS-95 CDMA) is Here Now while UMTS equipment isn't here yet in a working form. W-CDMA has proven to be an embarassment for those providers that have rolled it out, and those that haven't are begging to use CDMA2000 instead of W-CDMA, and when the politicians say no, you see the multibillion dollar spectrum writeoffs you've been seeing right and left in Europe.
If UMTS is so much better than CDMA2000, then why have there been so many spectrum writeoffs in Europe, while you don't hear about Verizon or Sprint writing off massive amounts of spectrum?
UMTS uses CDMA at the RF layer
FYI, 3G GSM (Note: GPRS is 2.5G not 3G) will be based on CDMA.
So CDMA has won. There may be multiple CDMA standards (Although it seems like things are converging for true 3G), but all of the next-gen standards will be CDMA in some form.
Yes, this camera may have passed 35mm film in quality.
But at this price range, you're already well into the price of medium-format film.
MF film can carry MUCH more data per frame than 35mm. While the resolution is the same, the area is far greater.
Heck, for that price, you can even get a basic used LF setup.
It's going to be a long time before this camera comes down enough in price to be the equivalent of a 35mm SLR with the same quality.
That said - I shoot entirely using digital cameras now. But I have much lower requirements than pro photographers. I'd be best described as "advanced consumer".