Maybe it is a little bit of sour grapes, but does anyone really think the Segway is ever going to be used by the disabled and aged people of the world (or the mailman)? So far I've only heard of them being used by 1)polo players (woz invented it), and now this. I did see a few young yuppie types on a bike trail in Denver (side by side, taking up the whole trail), and judging by their bellies, they should have been moving their feet.
Every other country in the world has sane mobile phone pricing and services. Why not the US?
Well, I don't know about pricing for phones in other contries, but here in the US, you have to sign a contract to get service, or pay a much higher rate and deal with a very limited phone selection (and I think you still end up signing some sort of implied contract). Verizon is the only provider in my area that has any sort of coverage once you get over the mountain, so that's what I have to use. I really don't want to move to an area with more carriers, so this is the choice I make. Once they get you in the contract (which has a lot of fine print that is hard to read when the customer service rep is wearing a tight low-cut dress), they tend to get a little more restrictive.
From the Customer Agreement:
Your Wireless Phone Your wireless phone is any device you use to receive our wireless voice or data service. It must comply with Federal Communications Commission regulations and be compatible with our network and your calling plan. Whether you buy your wireless phone from us or someone else is entirely your choice. At times we may change your wireless phone's software or programming remotely and without notice. This could affect data you've stored on, or the way you've programmed, your wireless phone. Your wireless phone may also contain software that prevents it from being used with any other company's wireless service, even if it's no longer used to receive our service.
In the US, contract law trumps civil law. Besides, they'll just tell you to go somewhere else if you don't like it (they make $175 if you cancel the contract after the 15 day trial period).
I recently picked up a VX-9800 because I was looking for an all in one phone. I looked at the vcast services an thought they were nothing more than a marketing gimic to get press, but I tried it anyway (VZW always allows a 15 day trial period). Of course, they haven't upgraded the towers in my area, so it doesn't work. Still, I don't think I would bother with downloading music (or anything else) to it over their network. I have a 1 gig mini-SD card that will hold all my own content, already paid for.
Now if I can figure out a way to (easily) get.mp4 video on the thing from my cable box, I'll be all set.:)
I must have a time vortex in my apartment. I start reading the news and find this story http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4586940.stm and a Simpsons story on the same page. I have to warn everyone that the Y2K bug isn't as big a deal as we all think, and to make sure I pay closer attention to the French new year's celebration!
Anyone have one of these keyboards? I know it must look like Google will be on top forever and ever, but anyone who used to use Alta Vista knows better (and anyone who knows about Alta Vista is an old man now). This phone is not going to make much of a difference in the long run.
An easy to use programming language for high schoolers and hobbists, like oh, I don't know... maybe BASIC? Not VB, but just plain ol' BASIC. None of the OO stuff, none of the "on click/on mouseover" crap, just something that we can mess with. Like the program that used to come with DOS.
Just don't publish programs in magazines. That really was a painful and stupid way to distrubute software.
Yes, the hardware will get cheaper over time, but I seriously doubt the content will get cheaper. If anything, they'll pile more and more content on and claim that it is cheaper per show, even though you'll be paying through the nose for the "unlimited/free" content, and the good stuff will cost even more.
Face it, if there were a market for portable TVs, we'd all have them now, and the broadcasters would be complaining about not having portable HDTV decoder boxes available.
You and the parent poster are probably rich folks who do not have to commute by public transportation many hours a day
So, now the cell phone companies are taking a cue from the tobacco companies? Vcast costs an extra $20/month (that's $240/yr, plus tax). The phones that are vcast enabled are NOT the "free with activation" phones, either. If you're riding the bus because you can't afford any other transportation, why should you be spending an extra $20/month on cellular entertainment? Why not get a DVD player for less money as that and get DVDs from the library? Or, better yet, just read a book (borrowed from the very same library). That's what I do, and I wouldn't call myself poor, but I'm not swimming in extra cash, either. Why is it considered just fine for large corporations to prey on the ignorant poor in the world?
I think those companies that become the big fish are a mix of both. an old example:
AT&T (its called Bell Labs after the founder and inventor of the same name)
No, AT&T was a government-approved monopoly. Once they had a little competition, they fell apart (it just took 20 years because there was little to no difference between them and other companies). Watch for the same thing to happen to the reminiants of the baby bells.
Well, the sales types are generally looked down on by the production department (news, etc), but really, they make a ton of money and are generally promoted faster than everyone else. In television and radio, it is almost impossible to get to a management position (that has any clout) without a sales background. And the top sales guys generally are treated much better than the top DJs. Often times in small markets you'll see DJs selling, or getting sponsorships on thier own so they can make the rent, but the sales and managment types do much, much better.
You must be thinking of the top talent people in the business, with their million dollar saleries and fun filled lifestyles. For the most part, media people don't make much money, mostly because of the laws of supply and demand. And let's not forget agents and business managers for the talent. They can get upwards of 10% of all income from contracts, side deals, spokesman deals and more. And, they almost always have multiple clients.
Are you kidding? They can't even make an ergonomic mouse for people who are left handed. And it seems that people want mice with so many buttons that you can't move it without hitting something, at least that's all you see at Best Bye and Circuit Chitty anymore. Hopefully, they'll still keep the basic soap type wheelmouse for some time.
From what I hear, Intel is planning to introduce WiMAX any day now. One of the big changes is that it will use licensed spectrum in some modes. Hopefully mortal people will be able to purchase a license. If that's the case we'll be able to have some recourse if someone causes our carrier to noise ratio (C/N) to drop to an unacceptable level. 2.4GHz is mostly unlicensed space, so there's not much you can do about it.
20 years ago, 9600baud was "good enough for now". 15 years ago, 14.4kbps was "good enough for now"... 5 years ago, 1.4Mbps cable was "good enough for now (speaking from my own experience)...
Cable TV networks have traditionally followed a 5 year payback cycle, at which time the cable companies would begin a rebuild. The reason for this was because they didn't want to show a profit on the operation, lest they'd have to pay taxes. In the early '90s, the US congress decided they needed to regulate pricing on cable TV. This caused the cable companies to miss a rebuild cycle that would have pushed fiber closer to the home. Luckily, the Internet boom helped justify a rebuild, but the payback was all screwed up and in some ways led to the downfall of AT&T (yea, I know they're still around, but why?). There are many designs for 1GHz (RF bandwidth) cable systems that don't have any active copper components (amplifiers), and can allow a great amount of bandwidth to a home (and 90VAC for device powering). They place fiber close enough to the home that the next rebuild cycle may yet bring fiber to the home from the cable companies as well. Since Verizon is in Comcast's corporate backyard, I'm sure they are well aware of the capabilities of the FIOS network and hopefully will be working on something to compete.
I know the cost is more but maintenance is much lower and that is what kills you in the long run, going out and splicing a rodent chew. Fiber just doesn't have the same problems.
Actually the costs are the same/lower for infrastructure fiber in just about every way but one: You have to pay techs trained in splicing fiber more than the knuckle draggers who splice copper. Verizon most likely looked at their workforce and figured that since they were paying all their guys to know how to splice fiber, they might as well pay them to actually splice fiber. The big expense for them was fusion splicers, but they are getting cheaper all the time.
Since you have more glass in the ground, there's just as much of a chance of a cut than there is with copper, although there are fines in some states that make the costs much greater to the backhoe operator who doesn't pay attention to locates. And rodents like fiber optic cable just as much as copper!
Now, the article was talking about distrubution to the workstation. There, I could see a slight decrease in realibility, becuase of the "power user" getting the idea that he should be DOING SOMETHING to his PC all the time (breaking the connectors), or the secretary who pushes her case back against the cube wall, crushing the fibers and causing microbending. I really haven't seen a very sturdy connector for fiber, except maybe a TOSLINK, but they seem to suck, too.
do have the option of VOIP over my Verizon DSL, which I can't possibly see them taking away with FIOS.
I know that Verizon and Verizon Wireless are 2 different companies (VZ owns the majority stake in VZW, though), but any of the contracts and marketing materials on VZW's wireless data plans specifically prohibit you from using any VoIP services. I would think that we'll see this down the road from any of the carriers that offer voice services.
Quite the oposite from France... Here in Québec, The two major Telcos wich are Bell Canada and Telus and the two major Cablecos wich are Videotron and Cogéco are all offering VOIP as we speak.
Since they are offering the service, I guess they would be very stupid to block it... Talk. about shooting yourself in the foot.
They can block other company's VoIP packets, while running their own at a much higher priority than the normal web surfing type packets.
PDAs sales will continue to slump until it becomes as easy (or easier) to write on the !@#$! things as it is to jot down a number on a post-it note.
Another problem with the Pocket PCs I've used is that every time you push any of the hard buttons they turn on. Not exactly useful for the pocket, wouldn't you say? And, once you get the thing turned on, it usually took a few seconds to wake up, figure out that it had been off for a few seconds, and is no longer in the hotsync cradle. Makes it a little hard to turn it back off again. Still it is faster than my current work provided cell phone, which takes the better part of a minute to power off and about 15 seconds to power up.
At least that's what the marketing weenies tell us. Simply put, PDA's ain't chic. Once the iPod fad fades (in a little less than a year if you're the betting type), their sales will stabilize and then generally decline.
Sure. I doubt that Toshiba could get a U2 special edition Pocket PC out there. Coolness and music players go hand in hand, especially since there's been a template for it already -the Sony Walkman, introduced in the 80's. Sony had the best players for a long, long time, but generally relied on their name too much and the cheap knock off players took over. They eventually got better than the Sony units.
Most cell phones have adaquate contact managers. Note that I didn't say great, just functional enough for most of us to stumble through our days. Most email clients have good enough contact managers, at least for keeping track of email addresses. The big deal with most of the pocket pc type devices is that they can hotsync with Outlook. However, many people who want that functionality either can't get it from the IT folks, or have it on the crackberries (not to mention that most people can't figure out that they have their own address book, and don't have to wade through the global address list). I used my Pocket PC for several applications, mostly note taking (difficult to not possible), contact management (linked to outlook), and MP3 playback for a long while, but I finally gave up due to too much duplication, and a new job that didn't require as much contact management. I used it for mp3s for a while after that, but finally bought a dedicated player because the playback quality was so terrible. The sound had no low end at all (but it was in stereo, much to my amazement), and the interface (MS media player) was unuseable while driving, walking or anytime you couldn't use the stylus to hit the very small on screen buttons.
The other problem I found is that I would see an application I may want to use, but not want to pay the $25+ registration fee. This was usually for something that I thought would be neat, but not essential. The essential stuff was much more. I don't know if there was a MS tax on all software developed for the Pocket PC, or the programmers all think they deserve to be mulit millionares just because they wrote a widget application, but it was a big let down after seeing the great hardware (toshiba). Oh yea, web browsing sux too!
Imagine how useful this could be for concerts: the sound board now has one wire running to it---the power line. Likewise with your front, middle and back stacks, and your monitors.
Not quite 1 wire (2, power and CAT-5e) but here you go:
However, these are not really the same thing, since they don't run over TCP/IP. TCP/IP (more likely UDP) running to speakers and remote amps could be interesting due to the routing possibilities, but there doesn't seem to be much information (other than theres a patent pending), we'll never know if this is for real or not. A google search for streamnet seems to hit a bunch of press releases and not much else. the Netstreams site is a little light in details, which leads me to think there's not much it, other than it is yet another home automation system that's trying to become a univeral network. When the thing sends 96KHz/24bit AES audio over tcp/ip and requires GigEthernet, I'll get interested. MP3 audio? Nope. I'll wait.
After all, popping in a DVD, say, is so easy and works so well. By contrast, getting a digital home up and running promises several lost weekends of fiddling with manuals and settings, and hefty expenses in new gear.
Could someone explain to me why this continues to be put out there by the media? Last I checked, a wireless router at Best Buy and their counterparts was under $50 for the basic model, and USB-WiFi adaptors are not much, either (if your PC doesn't allready have a WiFi adaptor built in). XP searches for available networks, and pops up with a ballon when it finds one, just begging you to connect to it. The darn router comes with a poster that clearly shows how to hook everything up (1 power cable, 2 Ethernet cables, or one Ethernet cable if going totally wireless). Power cycle everything and you're online. I don't know of anyone who has trouble setting these things up. The fact is, they've never been tough to set up, unless you count setting up a NIC on Windows 95.
OK, here's how it all works: The Rand Corporation, in cooperation with the vampire zombies, are abducting our parents with the sole purpose of eliminating dinner. Google provides network support.
Don't like that one? OK how about this: Denver International Airport is part of a top secret government conspiracy (along with the Free Masons, Natzis, and illuminari), to provide a high density feed lot for the alien overlords to feast on the great unwashed in exchange for eternal life. It also is part of a giant underground tunnel system that interconnects large parts of the western US. Since Google knows about all this because of thier ability to search so well, they're hoping to cash(e) in by holding the above mentioned groups hostage. The only way they can make sure they can deliver the secret data is by building thier own network. Since it is such a big cover up, they need lots of smart people to work for them, to figure out how the whole thing fits together.
So you see, there's nothing to worry about. Google will
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe it is a little bit of sour grapes, but does anyone really think the Segway is ever going to be used by the disabled and aged people of the world (or the mailman)? So far I've only heard of them being used by 1)polo players (woz invented it), and now this. I did see a few young yuppie types on a bike trail in Denver (side by side, taking up the whole trail), and judging by their bellies, they should have been moving their feet.
Well, I don't know about pricing for phones in other contries, but here in the US, you have to sign a contract to get service, or pay a much higher rate and deal with a very limited phone selection (and I think you still end up signing some sort of implied contract). Verizon is the only provider in my area that has any sort of coverage once you get over the mountain, so that's what I have to use. I really don't want to move to an area with more carriers, so this is the choice I make. Once they get you in the contract (which has a lot of fine print that is hard to read when the customer service rep is wearing a tight low-cut dress), they tend to get a little more restrictive.
.mp4 video on the thing from my cable box, I'll be all set. :)
From the Customer Agreement:
Your Wireless Phone
Your wireless phone is any device you use to receive our wireless voice or data service. It must comply with Federal Communications Commission regulations and be compatible with our network and your calling plan. Whether you buy your wireless phone from us or someone else is entirely your choice. At times we may change your wireless phone's software or programming remotely and without notice. This could affect data you've stored on, or the way you've programmed, your wireless phone. Your wireless phone may also contain software that prevents it from being used with any other company's wireless service, even if it's no longer used to receive our service.
In the US, contract law trumps civil law. Besides, they'll just tell you to go somewhere else if you don't like it (they make $175 if you cancel the contract after the 15 day trial period).
I recently picked up a VX-9800 because I was looking for an all in one phone. I looked at the vcast services an thought they were nothing more than a marketing gimic to get press, but I tried it anyway (VZW always allows a 15 day trial period). Of course, they haven't upgraded the towers in my area, so it doesn't work. Still, I don't think I would bother with downloading music (or anything else) to it over their network. I have a 1 gig mini-SD card that will hold all my own content, already paid for.
Now if I can figure out a way to (easily) get
An easy to use programming language for high schoolers and hobbists, like oh, I don't know... maybe BASIC? Not VB, but just plain ol' BASIC. None of the OO stuff, none of the "on click/on mouseover" crap, just something that we can mess with. Like the program that used to come with DOS.
Just don't publish programs in magazines. That really was a painful and stupid way to distrubute software.
Yes, the hardware will get cheaper over time, but I seriously doubt the content will get cheaper. If anything, they'll pile more and more content on and claim that it is cheaper per show, even though you'll be paying through the nose for the "unlimited/free" content, and the good stuff will cost even more.
Face it, if there were a market for portable TVs, we'd all have them now, and the broadcasters would be complaining about not having portable HDTV decoder boxes available.
So, now the cell phone companies are taking a cue from the tobacco companies? Vcast costs an extra $20/month (that's $240/yr, plus tax). The phones that are vcast enabled are NOT the "free with activation" phones, either. If you're riding the bus because you can't afford any other transportation, why should you be spending an extra $20/month on cellular entertainment? Why not get a DVD player for less money as that and get DVDs from the library? Or, better yet, just read a book (borrowed from the very same library). That's what I do, and I wouldn't call myself poor, but I'm not swimming in extra cash, either. Why is it considered just fine for large corporations to prey on the ignorant poor in the world?
AT&T (its called Bell Labs after the founder and inventor of the same name)
No, AT&T was a government-approved monopoly. Once they had a little competition, they fell apart (it just took 20 years because there was little to no difference between them and other companies). Watch for the same thing to happen to the reminiants of the baby bells.
Well, the sales types are generally looked down on by the production department (news, etc), but really, they make a ton of money and are generally promoted faster than everyone else. In television and radio, it is almost impossible to get to a management position (that has any clout) without a sales background. And the top sales guys generally are treated much better than the top DJs. Often times in small markets you'll see DJs selling, or getting sponsorships on thier own so they can make the rent, but the sales and managment types do much, much better.
You must be thinking of the top talent people in the business, with their million dollar saleries and fun filled lifestyles. For the most part, media people don't make much money, mostly because of the laws of supply and demand. And let's not forget agents and business managers for the talent. They can get upwards of 10% of all income from contracts, side deals, spokesman deals and more. And, they almost always have multiple clients.
Are you kidding? They can't even make an ergonomic mouse for people who are left handed. And it seems that people want mice with so many buttons that you can't move it without hitting something, at least that's all you see at Best Bye and Circuit Chitty anymore. Hopefully, they'll still keep the basic soap type wheelmouse for some time.
From what I hear, Intel is planning to introduce WiMAX any day now. One of the big changes is that it will use licensed spectrum in some modes. Hopefully mortal people will be able to purchase a license. If that's the case we'll be able to have some recourse if someone causes our carrier to noise ratio (C/N) to drop to an unacceptable level. 2.4GHz is mostly unlicensed space, so there's not much you can do about it.
Cable TV networks have traditionally followed a 5 year payback cycle, at which time the cable companies would begin a rebuild. The reason for this was because they didn't want to show a profit on the operation, lest they'd have to pay taxes. In the early '90s, the US congress decided they needed to regulate pricing on cable TV. This caused the cable companies to miss a rebuild cycle that would have pushed fiber closer to the home. Luckily, the Internet boom helped justify a rebuild, but the payback was all screwed up and in some ways led to the downfall of AT&T (yea, I know they're still around, but why?). There are many designs for 1GHz (RF bandwidth) cable systems that don't have any active copper components (amplifiers), and can allow a great amount of bandwidth to a home (and 90VAC for device powering). They place fiber close enough to the home that the next rebuild cycle may yet bring fiber to the home from the cable companies as well. Since Verizon is in Comcast's corporate backyard, I'm sure they are well aware of the capabilities of the FIOS network and hopefully will be working on something to compete.
Actually the costs are the same/lower for infrastructure fiber in just about every way but one: You have to pay techs trained in splicing fiber more than the knuckle draggers who splice copper. Verizon most likely looked at their workforce and figured that since they were paying all their guys to know how to splice fiber, they might as well pay them to actually splice fiber. The big expense for them was fusion splicers, but they are getting cheaper all the time.
Since you have more glass in the ground, there's just as much of a chance of a cut than there is with copper, although there are fines in some states that make the costs much greater to the backhoe operator who doesn't pay attention to locates. And rodents like fiber optic cable just as much as copper!
Now, the article was talking about distrubution to the workstation. There, I could see a slight decrease in realibility, becuase of the "power user" getting the idea that he should be DOING SOMETHING to his PC all the time (breaking the connectors), or the secretary who pushes her case back against the cube wall, crushing the fibers and causing microbending. I really haven't seen a very sturdy connector for fiber, except maybe a TOSLINK, but they seem to suck, too.
I know that Verizon and Verizon Wireless are 2 different companies (VZ owns the majority stake in VZW, though), but any of the contracts and marketing materials on VZW's wireless data plans specifically prohibit you from using any VoIP services. I would think that we'll see this down the road from any of the carriers that offer voice services.
Except that if the router only has one path to your house, there's no way to route around damage. Hope you are dual homed...
I know people who do that with old TVs. (Jeff Foxworthy reference)
Since they are offering the service, I guess they would be very stupid to block it... Talk. about shooting yourself in the foot.
They can block other company's VoIP packets, while running their own at a much higher priority than the normal web surfing type packets.
Another problem with the Pocket PCs I've used is that every time you push any of the hard buttons they turn on. Not exactly useful for the pocket, wouldn't you say? And, once you get the thing turned on, it usually took a few seconds to wake up, figure out that it had been off for a few seconds, and is no longer in the hotsync cradle. Makes it a little hard to turn it back off again. Still it is faster than my current work provided cell phone, which takes the better part of a minute to power off and about 15 seconds to power up.
Sure. I doubt that Toshiba could get a U2 special edition Pocket PC out there. Coolness and music players go hand in hand, especially since there's been a template for it already -the Sony Walkman, introduced in the 80's. Sony had the best players for a long, long time, but generally relied on their name too much and the cheap knock off players took over. They eventually got better than the Sony units.
Most cell phones have adaquate contact managers. Note that I didn't say great, just functional enough for most of us to stumble through our days. Most email clients have good enough contact managers, at least for keeping track of email addresses. The big deal with most of the pocket pc type devices is that they can hotsync with Outlook. However, many people who want that functionality either can't get it from the IT folks, or have it on the crackberries (not to mention that most people can't figure out that they have their own address book, and don't have to wade through the global address list). I used my Pocket PC for several applications, mostly note taking (difficult to not possible), contact management (linked to outlook), and MP3 playback for a long while, but I finally gave up due to too much duplication, and a new job that didn't require as much contact management. I used it for mp3s for a while after that, but finally bought a dedicated player because the playback quality was so terrible. The sound had no low end at all (but it was in stereo, much to my amazement), and the interface (MS media player) was unuseable while driving, walking or anytime you couldn't use the stylus to hit the very small on screen buttons.
The other problem I found is that I would see an application I may want to use, but not want to pay the $25+ registration fee. This was usually for something that I thought would be neat, but not essential. The essential stuff was much more. I don't know if there was a MS tax on all software developed for the Pocket PC, or the programmers all think they deserve to be mulit millionares just because they wrote a widget application, but it was a big let down after seeing the great hardware (toshiba). Oh yea, web browsing sux too!
Not quite 1 wire (2, power and CAT-5e) but here you go:
http://www.aviom.com/dspSolutionsDigitalSnakesOve
http://audiorail.home.comcast.net/
And finally CobraNet:
http://www.peakaudio.com/CobraNet/FAQ.html
However, these are not really the same thing, since they don't run over TCP/IP. TCP/IP (more likely UDP) running to speakers and remote amps could be interesting due to the routing possibilities, but there doesn't seem to be much information (other than theres a patent pending), we'll never know if this is for real or not. A google search for streamnet seems to hit a bunch of press releases and not much else. the Netstreams site is a little light in details, which leads me to think there's not much it, other than it is yet another home automation system that's trying to become a univeral network. When the thing sends 96KHz/24bit AES audio over tcp/ip and requires GigEthernet, I'll get interested. MP3 audio? Nope. I'll wait.
I keep a shreader by the fireplace. Free firestarter.
I believe they are talking about networking DVD players, dumbass.
Could someone explain to me why this continues to be put out there by the media? Last I checked, a wireless router at Best Buy and their counterparts was under $50 for the basic model, and USB-WiFi adaptors are not much, either (if your PC doesn't allready have a WiFi adaptor built in). XP searches for available networks, and pops up with a ballon when it finds one, just begging you to connect to it. The darn router comes with a poster that clearly shows how to hook everything up (1 power cable, 2 Ethernet cables, or one Ethernet cable if going totally wireless). Power cycle everything and you're online. I don't know of anyone who has trouble setting these things up. The fact is, they've never been tough to set up, unless you count setting up a NIC on Windows 95.
Don't like that one? OK how about this: Denver International Airport is part of a top secret government conspiracy (along with the Free Masons, Natzis, and illuminari), to provide a high density feed lot for the alien overlords to feast on the great unwashed in exchange for eternal life. It also is part of a giant underground tunnel system that interconnects large parts of the western US. Since Google knows about all this because of thier ability to search so well, they're hoping to cash(e) in by holding the above mentioned groups hostage. The only way they can make sure they can deliver the secret data is by building thier own network. Since it is such a big cover up, they need lots of smart people to work for them, to figure out how the whole thing fits together.
So you see, there's nothing to worry about. Google will