The cable modem protocols have been standardized. The standard is called DOCSIS (Data Over Cable System Interface Specification). The Motorola product featured in the article has just been certified by CableLabs.
Sorry, Tim, but modulation in the context of communication engineering does not necessarily involve conversion into sound. Modulation refers to the process of converting points of the signal constellation into analog waveforms suitable for transmission over a channel. It just so happens that for analog modems, the signal is audible.
Believe me, there is plenty of modulation and demodulation taking place inside a cable modem!!!
I'm the engineer who wrote the HPNA driver for this box. The way it work is... the user is not expected to do anything to configure it. Configuration is done by the cable operator through SNMP.
This is quite a cool product, if I do say so myself. The NAT and DHCP can be turned off, if necessary, so that the cable company can sell stuff as an add-on if they so choose.
The advantage of this hub is that it does away with the necessity to string a coax cable from the cable modem (which usually sits near the TV in the living room) to the computer (which usually sits in the bedroom, upstairs etc.) Now, the cable guy can merely plug the cable modem into the nearest phone jack in the living room, plug the computers' HPNA card into the nearest phone jack and bingo! instant home network.
A lot of vendors have PCI HPNA cards. I believe linux drivers are being worked on as well.
Also, HPNA uses a different frequency range from G.Lite, so you could potentially have ADSL and HPNA signals on the same phone network.
BTW, we have also a USB version of this hub, and a wireless version is on the way! We are also planning to build many more cool features into this box that I cannot talk about right now.
I find it hard to believe that linux can be so slow. I have run linux on even slower boxes, for e.g., a 486DX100 with 48MB RAM. Even running X and KDE, the response was nowhere near as slow as that you claim to have experienced. Not that I am doubting your words, but I would seriously look to see if there is anything wrong with your hardware or configuration.
I personally have not found any difference between Linux and FreeBSD, at least as a desktop OS. They both respond with indistinguishable speeds. They are both very stable. I have not used either as a server, but have many friends who have, though not under extreme conditions.
That being the case, I think that FreeBSD's perceived superiority is a myth. I feel that, for all practical purposes, you can use whichever you prefer with no performance penalty whatsoever.
If anyone has any pointers to studies that stack up a recent linux kernel against a recent FreeBSD kernel and prove or disprove my belief, I would love to see them. Thanks very much.
And not written english. Pidgin English is just the ticket. After all, emphasis on grammar, spelling etc keep hundreds of talented people from contributing the software, and serve the only purpose of preserving the fat paychecks of obscurantist English fetishist programmers. Just you wait. Microsoft will soon come out with Visual English, which will allow one to write an entire database application with just one line of code. And all you linux nuts will get screwed. So there.
I second this. I have a 2 year old Lexmark Optra E postscript. Don't remember how much I paid for it, but it was more than $400. This is an excellent printer and if it can be had for less than $300, it is a bargain.
I understand that more than half of MS' programming staff hails from India, China, Korea etc. I can tell you that these people would much rather prefer to be in the US than in Canada for a variety of reasons. (no disrespect to Canada or Candadians). So if they move to Canada, MS would lose a large fraction of its staff, if not overnight, then definitely in short order. That is going to hurt them considerably.
I'm not a "winix kid" or any other pejorativethat you care to throw around. I've been using CDE since the time it used to be called HP VUE. CDE IS A TERRIBLE USER ENVIRONMENT. It is slow, buggy and counterintuitive. It is slower and does far less than KDE on Linux/x86, Sparc/Solaris and HPUX. I've yet to find someone who is fully comfortable in CDE. Most use it because they have to (many commercial apps misbehave in other winmgrs) or because they do not know how to start another window manager.
The same cannot be said of twm (BTW are you the Tom who wrote twm? I know that you are the Perl guy) or fvwm. These are both fast and stable user environments.
You are forgetting something: MS' co-op dollars. I have several friends who work for web-design companies. Without exception, they use Frontpage. Furthermore, they DELIBERATELY make web-pages that are degraded when Netscape is used. Why? Because they get money from MS when they do so. Unless this problem is addressed, I don't see how Mozilla can help a lot.
I was talking to a friend who works for one of the big Japanese electronic firms. He said that it has been possible to produce digital camcorders with durable disks (not tapes) for years now. The recording quality is supposedly not be as good as DVD, but it is still far superior to the quality of the VHS-C and Hi-8 tapes. Also, the disks are far more durable (supposedly, they can last for decades without degradation, like those shown in the movie "Rising Sun".)
However, they won't produce them because they don't want to piss off the big Hollywood studios. Also, they won't make digital camcorders with digital outputs; once you record stuff, it comes out as analog. All because the studios are scared that the camcorder will become a medium of distribution for pirated movies.
Consider what this means. If I videotape my daughter, there is no way that recording will be around when she is 50. And not because we don't have the technology to make it happen.
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Hi,
FYI, the Motorola product featured in the article
can do HPNA/USB/Ethernet bridging as well.
Hari.
The cable modem protocols have been
standardized. The standard is called
DOCSIS (Data Over Cable System Interface
Specification). The Motorola product featured
in the article has just been certified
by CableLabs.
Hari.
Sorry, Tim, but modulation in the context of
communication engineering does not necessarily
involve conversion into sound. Modulation
refers to the process of converting points
of the signal constellation into analog
waveforms suitable for transmission over
a channel. It just so happens that for analog
modems, the signal is audible.
Believe me, there is plenty of modulation and
demodulation taking place inside a cable
modem!!!
Hari.
I'm the engineer who wrote the HPNA
driver for this box. The way it work is... the
user is not expected to do anything to configure
it. Configuration is done by the cable operator
through SNMP.
This is quite a cool product, if I do say so myself.
The NAT and DHCP can be turned off, if necessary, so that the cable company can sell
stuff as an add-on if they so choose.
The advantage of this hub is that it does away
with the necessity to string a coax cable from
the cable modem (which usually sits near the TV
in the living room) to the computer (which usually
sits in the bedroom, upstairs etc.) Now, the cable
guy can merely plug the cable modem into the
nearest phone jack in the living room, plug
the computers' HPNA card into the nearest
phone jack and bingo! instant home network.
A lot of vendors have PCI HPNA cards. I believe
linux drivers are being worked on as well.
Also, HPNA uses a different frequency range
from G.Lite, so you could potentially have
ADSL and HPNA signals on the same phone
network.
BTW, we have also a USB version of this
hub, and a wireless version is on the way!
We are also planning to build many more
cool features into this box that I cannot
talk about right now.
Hari. (gopal.harikumar@motorola.com)
I find it hard to believe that linux can be so slow. I have run linux on even slower boxes, for e.g., a 486DX100 with 48MB RAM. Even running X and KDE, the response was nowhere near as slow as that you claim to have experienced. Not that I am doubting your words, but I would seriously look to see if there is anything wrong with your hardware or configuration.
I personally have not found any difference between Linux and FreeBSD, at least as a desktop OS. They both respond with indistinguishable speeds. They are both very stable. I have not used either as a server, but have many friends who have, though not under extreme conditions.
That being the case, I think that FreeBSD's perceived superiority is a myth. I feel that, for all practical purposes, you can use whichever you prefer with no performance penalty whatsoever.
If anyone has any pointers to studies that stack up a recent linux kernel against a recent FreeBSD kernel and prove or disprove my belief, I would love to see them. Thanks very much.
Hari.
And not written english. Pidgin English is just the ticket. After all, emphasis on grammar, spelling etc keep hundreds of talented people from contributing the software, and serve the only purpose of preserving the fat paychecks of obscurantist English fetishist programmers. Just you wait. Microsoft will soon come out with Visual English, which will allow one to write an entire database application with just one line of code. And all you linux nuts will get screwed. So there.
Hari.
I second this. I have a 2 year old Lexmark Optra E postscript. Don't remember how much I paid for it, but it was more than $400. This is an excellent printer and if it can be had for less than $300, it is a bargain.
Hari.
I understand that more than half of MS' programming staff hails from India, China, Korea etc. I can tell you that these people would much rather prefer to be in the US than in Canada for a variety of reasons. (no disrespect to Canada or Candadians). So if they move to Canada, MS would lose a large fraction of its staff, if not overnight, then definitely in short order. That is going to hurt them considerably.
Hari.
I'm not a "winix kid" or any other pejorativethat you care to throw around. I've been using CDE since the time it used to be called HP VUE. CDE IS A TERRIBLE USER ENVIRONMENT. It is slow, buggy and counterintuitive. It is slower and does far less than KDE on Linux/x86, Sparc/Solaris and HPUX. I've yet to find someone who is fully comfortable in CDE. Most use it because they have to (many commercial apps misbehave in other winmgrs) or because they do not know how to start another window manager.
The same cannot be said of twm (BTW are you the Tom who wrote twm? I know that you are the Perl guy) or fvwm. These are both fast and stable user environments.
Hari
You are forgetting something: MS' co-op dollars.
I have several friends who work for web-design
companies. Without exception, they use
Frontpage. Furthermore, they DELIBERATELY
make web-pages that are degraded when Netscape
is used. Why? Because they get money
from MS when they do so. Unless this problem
is addressed, I don't see how Mozilla can
help a lot.
I was talking to a friend who works for one of the big Japanese electronic firms. He said that it has been possible to produce digital camcorders with durable disks (not tapes) for years now. The recording quality is supposedly not be as good as DVD, but it is still far superior to the quality of the VHS-C and Hi-8 tapes. Also, the disks are far more durable (supposedly, they can last for decades without degradation, like those shown in the movie "Rising Sun".)
However, they won't produce them because they don't want to piss off the big Hollywood studios. Also, they won't make digital camcorders with digital outputs; once you record stuff, it comes out as analog. All because the studios are scared that the camcorder will become a medium of distribution for pirated movies.
Consider what this means. If I videotape my daughter, there is no way that recording will be around when she is 50. And not because we don't have the technology to make it happen.