Our city switched to a new P25 radio system this summer and opted NOT to go with encryption due to costs and other issues associated with it. Instead for things like burglaries they put the initial call out as "Unit# copy a call on your MDC" and send an instant message to the officer with the address. They either reply back "received" or "didn't receive" so usually it's a faster response than reading the address over the air. So the address goes through the cities citywide WIFI network (which is encrypted). The address info also appears on the MDC of other officers on the unit status screen so if one of them is close they can respond as well. Once an officer is on location if more officers are needed then the address goes over the air. For other calls that aren't a concern if someone knows where they are going, it goes out over the air still.
Back in 1996 we were using a developer kit from IBM on their VisualAge C compiler for OS/2 that let us write client side Javascript dynamically. It wasn't called Ajax back then but it's definitely prior art.
As a former alarm installer I can tell you that was foil, not paint. You don't see it anymore because it was hard to apply properly (more art than skill) and was prone to problems from things rubbing against it (blinds/drapes) or extreme sun cracking it. Motion detectors and glass break detectors spelled it's final demise.
I've had FIOS for a little shy of a year now. Was barely able to keep cable up due to bad neightborhood wiring that would go out every time it got above below 40 or above 80 degrees (often in Texas). DSL wasn't possible, too long of a run, was barely able to get 128k on DSL before going to Cable. My old 128k ISDN line was more reliable than either of them. FIOS has gone down absolutely 0 times and I've got 15 down, 2 up with four fixed IP's. They don't block ports, I run my own mail and web servers here. Normally they will switch your copper out and put the telco on fiber also, but I've currently got data only. They didn't touch my existing telco box.
The speed is nice, but the latency is the truely nice part of it, it's virtually non-existant.
I'm not a Verizon fan either, switched away from them for our telephone the moment we had other companies in the area.... but they've proven me a fan now. The one time I did need to call tech support (because I misplaced the IP address of one of their DNS servers), the first person that answered the phone not only knew what a DNS server was (At Comcast you have to go a few levels up for that) but they had it available right away and didn't have to IM fourth level support in another country to find out. It was literally a 30 second phone call.
As for installation, I'd already run Cat6 from my office to the location where they were going to put the ONT. They would run Cat5 if I hadn't though... I'm just a bit particular about the wiring in the attic so wanted to do it myself. The tech rolled up, took him about an hour to mount the ONT on the house, terminate the fiber, etc. Meanwhile he gave me the router and it was all connected and I had my machines configured with the IP addresses. By the time he knocked on the door to tell me it should be up, I was already checking email on it and disconnecting my Comcast modem.
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Our city switched to a new P25 radio system this summer and opted NOT to go with encryption due to costs and other issues associated with it. Instead for things like burglaries they put the initial call out as "Unit# copy a call on your MDC" and send an instant message to the officer with the address. They either reply back "received" or "didn't receive" so usually it's a faster response than reading the address over the air. So the address goes through the cities citywide WIFI network (which is encrypted). The address info also appears on the MDC of other officers on the unit status screen so if one of them is close they can respond as well. Once an officer is on location if more officers are needed then the address goes over the air. For other calls that aren't a concern if someone knows where they are going, it goes out over the air still.
Back in 1996 we were using a developer kit from IBM on their VisualAge C compiler for OS/2 that let us write client side Javascript dynamically. It wasn't called Ajax back then but it's definitely prior art.
As a former alarm installer I can tell you that was foil, not paint. You don't see it anymore because it was hard to apply properly (more art than skill) and was prone to problems from things rubbing against it (blinds/drapes) or extreme sun cracking it. Motion detectors and glass break detectors spelled it's final demise.
The speed is nice, but the latency is the truely nice part of it, it's virtually non-existant.
I'm not a Verizon fan either, switched away from them for our telephone the moment we had other companies in the area.... but they've proven me a fan now. The one time I did need to call tech support (because I misplaced the IP address of one of their DNS servers), the first person that answered the phone not only knew what a DNS server was (At Comcast you have to go a few levels up for that) but they had it available right away and didn't have to IM fourth level support in another country to find out. It was literally a 30 second phone call.
As for installation, I'd already run Cat6 from my office to the location where they were going to put the ONT. They would run Cat5 if I hadn't though... I'm just a bit particular about the wiring in the attic so wanted to do it myself. The tech rolled up, took him about an hour to mount the ONT on the house, terminate the fiber, etc. Meanwhile he gave me the router and it was all connected and I had my machines configured with the IP addresses. By the time he knocked on the door to tell me it should be up, I was already checking email on it and disconnecting my Comcast modem.
So those are real facts about FIOS, not FUD.