Oops, hit submit too early... To finish my thoughts..
Zigbee (802.15.4) was designed for long battery life time and simple design. It achieves this long battery life goal with keep the receivers off most of the time. Depending upon configuration and the accuracy of you're timers, you're receiver might only be on a few milliseconds every couple of minutes. Not good for low latency or high bandwidth, but works wonders for making batteries last a year or more.
Bluetooth is about speed and QoS. Eats much more power than Zigbee, and only supports 7 devices in a Piconet. Zigbee is designed to support thousands of devices in a network.
Bluetooth and Zigbee are complementary technologies, not competitive. Even the IEEE says so (Bluetooth is on top of 802.15.1).
I don't really buy this. I've worked with 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz software controlled radio chipsets from both Chipcon and Rockwell. Nobody ever does any background check on me or anything. Nobody has ever made me sign something saying I won't program it to interfere with other equipment. Nobody has ever said they would need to audit any firmware/software I wrote for it. Nobody has ever even charged me for a dev kit. They throw a dev kit at me, and say "Have fun!"
Granted, these are the chipsets all by themselves, and not something a typical user could do anything with except fry with static.
And of course, my final products have to meet the specs in order to get FCC approval. But did you know that the firmware on the unit which the FCC tests doesn't have to be the same firmware shipped in production units! In fact, it's common practice to give the FCC testing labs special testing firmware. It doesn't even need to be fully functional. All it needs to do is the unit's "primary function." For instance, there are many handheld radio transmitters with keypads out there. Keypad scanning circuits tend to be really noisy, espcially on some microcontrollers. So you have special test firmware that starts transmitting when you press a key, and stops scanning the keyboard once you press that key. The FCC tester doesn't start measuring the emissions until the device it transmitting (it's "primary function"). Since the keypad has stopped scanning, it's no longer generating that noise and passes the test. Yes, the FCC tester is fully aware that they using "test-only" firmware!
Re:Question #4 from the SCO "Linux Q & A"....
on
United Linux Dead
·
· Score: 1
I actually got two United Linux related patches from a SCO employee for an open source project I (sortof) maintain. One patch was to make my project work better with UL, the other was a packaging.spec file to create a UL package of my project.
I actually got these patches sometime AFTER SCO got into the law suit business...
It seems to me that SCO is arguing that the GPL is invalid because it is unconstitutional and violates copyright law. To be specific, the US consitition and US copyright law. Even if they somehow got the GPL nullified, which I don't see happening, it seems like they would only be nullifying the GPL in the US.
If the GPL got nullified in the US, I could just go to another country, and now my GPL license if valid again. It's just like all the crypto companies (RSA) and OpenBSD being in / having offices in Canada and Australia. They can't export strong crypto code from the US, but they can from other countries. So the FSF and others could just setup foreign offices, people transfer their copyrights to them, and the GPL is back in full effect, from foreign countries. And if the copyright holder is outside the US, then they're already clear.
Seems reasonable... Either I missed something, or SCO hasn't thought about this contingency.
Depth and presence actually have real definitions in the world of recording and mixing. Presence is a boost in equalization around 10k (works well for vocals, most guitar amps also have a presence control). Depth (usually) refers to the size of the stereo sound stage, and depends upon the differences between the left and right channel. Some devices meant for headphone use will process the sound to try make it sound like it's coming from a forward sound stage, rather than in between your ears. I don't know if an iPod has any feature like this. Although hard to quantify, presence and depth can definitely be explained and observed.
Warmth, however, doesn't have a real hard definition, although people tend to agree when something sounds warm or cold.
However, these guys were probably just using words they overheard their musician friends using. For digital media, I've found that the playback hardware and cables make no difference I can hear. And except for the cheapest amps (which usually introduce a lot phase distortion, not harmonic distortion), the amp doesn't make a significant difference either. Everyone has gotten pretty good at making (cheap) circuits that don't disturb the audio signal too much. But the speakers can make a tremendous difference! These are still electromechanical devices that require good design, materials, and workmanship to sound good. These guys were probably really hearing their $300 dollar headphones instead of the iPod.
Those of us who use music equipment from the 80's need 3.5" floppys to transfer data to the and from the equipment. I have an Akai S-950 sampler that I backup the disks to my hard drive. I also transfer samples I got off the Internet or process on my computer to the S-950 with the floppy.
Granted, if my computer didn't have a floppy drive I could add one. But if it didn't have a floppy controller I'd be screwed. The software to transfer data to and from the Akai formatted disks ONLY works in DOS, so that rules out using USB drives.
I know they included it, but it doesn't work as nearly as well with Win98. The official Microsoft position is that the Fax API was deprecated in Win98 and is unsupported. My experience was it on some computers, but not all. The main problem is that some systems would send blank faxes. When I contact Microsoft tech support, they charged the company $100 to tell me, "Yeah, you probably want to quit using that." Additionally, it doesn't work with WinNT at all. A little later, somebody wanted to run the message server on NT4.0, so it was a good thing it had already been transitioned away from using the MS Fax API.
As for it being "spamware", I would be shocked if it was ever used for spam. First, companies using real CRM software (not ACT!) aren't likely to be spamming in the first place. CRM software is partly intended to help target marketing campaigns. The software I wrote interfaced with the query and report packages in the CRM system to generate the distribution list for a document. It would then mail merge the document to be sent, based on the queries and reports.
Here's a typical usage scenario: You're company makes widgets. You have recently introduced the "Green Widget Extender", for use with green widgets. You want to send a press release, but only to the clients using green widgets already. So you create the press release, complete with mail merge fields. You then enter a query for all clients using green widgets. The fax/email server then mail merges the press release, and sends it onto the receivers fax or email box. The receiver gets a document:
Ms. Purchases Everything
Head of Purchasing
SomeCompany
Dear Ms. Everything:
Increase the productivity of your green widgets with the new green widget extender!...
Furthermore, the software had a field in the database specifying the preferred delivery method for a contact: fax, email, or snail mail. If the preferred method was fax or email, the message server would distribute it electronically. But if the preference was snail mail, then the message server would mail merge the document, and spool it for printing along a mailing label so it could be snail mailed. So the contact only received faxes or emails if that's what they preferred. Assuming of course that the correct information was in the database!
Finally, an inexpensive install of the software, including the base packages, message server, and all the configuration, was usually over $50,000 usd. Most of the clients who purchased the message server had installs that cost in excess of $200,000 usd. People that have this kind of money to blow on CRM software aren't wasting their time spamming people.
I was working at a CRM company whose name I won't mention because they actually do make a very good product. I was in charge of making a "global fax/email server". This is CRM talk for a program that sends bulk email and faxes. I had the emailing part working fine, but the faxing didn't work yet. It had been working, but it was using the Microsoft Fax API, which got removed after Win95. So all it could do was email. And the client, who had paid $15,000 for the software already, wanted to see it work.
So we rigged the program so that when it should have faxed, it instead secretly emailed the document along with the destination fax number to a fixed email address -- the email address of the guy we had sitting in the next room. So when the client wanted to fax something themselves to see it work, it really got emailed to our guy, who then faxed it manually. The client went away happy, thinking the program was fully functional. I got the fax functionality working using Symantec WinFax the next week, so no major harm was done. But I got a great story out of it.
Much of the framework seems to be in place for a world such as you described in your excellent short story "Maneki Neko". PDAs with wireless Internet connectivity, data mining AIs (although I hope none of them go rogue anytime soon), the acceptance of gift economy in the form of the Free Software/Open Source movement.
Do you think that people would allow their lives to be ruled by AIs speaking to them through their PDAs? Is it inevitable? Is it a Good Thing or a Bad Thing, or does it matter?
I actually had a problem with handwriting the first day after I got my PalmPilot and learned how to use Grafitti writing, but it by the next day I was next to normal.
I imagine this is something you have to be predisposed to. I have to disagree with the articles opinion that a change in handwriting affects your personality. I think a change in handwriting does reflect a change in personality, but I don't think changing your handwriting can change your personality. That seems to be more than a slight fallacy.
Overall, I wouldn't worry about this.
-- Geoffrey "Sometimes an appropriate response to reality is to go insane." - pkd
Slashdot Mirror
Oops, hit submit too early... To finish my thoughts..
Zigbee (802.15.4) was designed for long battery life time and simple design. It achieves this long battery life goal with keep the receivers off most of the time. Depending upon configuration and the accuracy of you're timers, you're receiver might only be on a few milliseconds every couple of minutes. Not good for low latency or high bandwidth, but works wonders for making batteries last a year or more.
Bluetooth is about speed and QoS. Eats much more power than Zigbee, and only supports 7 devices in a Piconet. Zigbee is designed to support thousands of devices in a network.
Bluetooth and Zigbee are complementary technologies, not competitive. Even the IEEE says so (Bluetooth is on top of 802.15.1).
(An early 802.15.4 adopter)
802.15.4 (the protocol Zigbee is based on) does not have enough bandwidth or the QoS to perform voice communications the way Bluetooth does.
I don't really buy this. I've worked with 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz software controlled radio chipsets from both Chipcon and Rockwell. Nobody ever does any background check on me or anything. Nobody has ever made me sign something saying I won't program it to interfere with other equipment. Nobody has ever said they would need to audit any firmware/software I wrote for it. Nobody has ever even charged me for a dev kit. They throw a dev kit at me, and say "Have fun!"
Granted, these are the chipsets all by themselves, and not something a typical user could do anything with except fry with static.
And of course, my final products have to meet the specs in order to get FCC approval. But did you know that the firmware on the unit which the FCC tests doesn't have to be the same firmware shipped in production units! In fact, it's common practice to give the FCC testing labs special testing firmware. It doesn't even need to be fully functional. All it needs to do is the unit's "primary function." For instance, there are many handheld radio transmitters with keypads out there. Keypad scanning circuits tend to be really noisy, espcially on some microcontrollers. So you have special test firmware that starts transmitting when you press a key, and stops scanning the keyboard once you press that key. The FCC tester doesn't start measuring the emissions until the device it transmitting (it's "primary function"). Since the keypad has stopped scanning, it's no longer generating that noise and passes the test. Yes, the FCC tester is fully aware that they using "test-only" firmware!
I actually got two United Linux related patches from a SCO employee for an open source project I (sortof) maintain. One patch was to make my project work better with UL, the other was a packaging .spec file to create a UL package of my project.
I actually got these patches sometime AFTER SCO got into the law suit business...
It seems to me that SCO is arguing that the GPL is invalid because it is unconstitutional and violates copyright law. To be specific, the US consitition and US copyright law. Even if they somehow got the GPL nullified, which I don't see happening, it seems like they would only be nullifying the GPL in the US.
If the GPL got nullified in the US, I could just go to another country, and now my GPL license if valid again. It's just like all the crypto companies (RSA) and OpenBSD being in / having offices in Canada and Australia. They can't export strong crypto code from the US, but they can from other countries. So the FSF and others could just setup foreign offices, people transfer their copyrights to them, and the GPL is back in full effect, from foreign countries. And if the copyright holder is outside the US, then they're already clear.
Seems reasonable... Either I missed something, or SCO hasn't thought about this contingency.
Depth and presence actually have real definitions in the world of recording and mixing. Presence is a boost in equalization around 10k (works well for vocals, most guitar amps also have a presence control). Depth (usually) refers to the size of the stereo sound stage, and depends upon the differences between the left and right channel. Some devices meant for headphone use will process the sound to try make it sound like it's coming from a forward sound stage, rather than in between your ears. I don't know if an iPod has any feature like this. Although hard to quantify, presence and depth can definitely be explained and observed.
Warmth, however, doesn't have a real hard definition, although people tend to agree when something sounds warm or cold.
However, these guys were probably just using words they overheard their musician friends using. For digital media, I've found that the playback hardware and cables make no difference I can hear. And except for the cheapest amps (which usually introduce a lot phase distortion, not harmonic distortion), the amp doesn't make a significant difference either. Everyone has gotten pretty good at making (cheap) circuits that don't disturb the audio signal too much. But the speakers can make a tremendous difference! These are still electromechanical devices that require good design, materials, and workmanship to sound good. These guys were probably really hearing their $300 dollar headphones instead of the iPod.
Diamonds are forever, now you can be, too!
---
Geoffrey
Project AKO - http://ako.sf.net
Those of us who use music equipment from the 80's need 3.5" floppys to transfer data to the and from the equipment. I have an Akai S-950 sampler that I backup the disks to my hard drive. I also transfer samples I got off the Internet or process on my computer to the S-950 with the floppy.
Granted, if my computer didn't have a floppy drive I could add one. But if it didn't have a floppy controller I'd be screwed. The software to transfer data to and from the Akai formatted disks ONLY works in DOS, so that rules out using USB drives.
---
Geoffrey
Project AKO - http://ako.sf.net
As for it being "spamware", I would be shocked if it was ever used for spam. First, companies using real CRM software (not ACT!) aren't likely to be spamming in the first place. CRM software is partly intended to help target marketing campaigns. The software I wrote interfaced with the query and report packages in the CRM system to generate the distribution list for a document. It would then mail merge the document to be sent, based on the queries and reports.
Here's a typical usage scenario: You're company makes widgets. You have recently introduced the "Green Widget Extender", for use with green widgets. You want to send a press release, but only to the clients using green widgets already. So you create the press release, complete with mail merge fields. You then enter a query for all clients using green widgets. The fax/email server then mail merges the press release, and sends it onto the receivers fax or email box. The receiver gets a document:
Ms. Purchases Everything ...
Head of Purchasing
SomeCompany
Dear Ms. Everything:
Increase the productivity of your green widgets with the new green widget extender!
Furthermore, the software had a field in the database specifying the preferred delivery method for a contact: fax, email, or snail mail. If the preferred method was fax or email, the message server would distribute it electronically. But if the preference was snail mail, then the message server would mail merge the document, and spool it for printing along a mailing label so it could be snail mailed. So the contact only received faxes or emails if that's what they preferred. Assuming of course that the correct information was in the database!
Finally, an inexpensive install of the software, including the base packages, message server, and all the configuration, was usually over $50,000 usd. Most of the clients who purchased the message server had installs that cost in excess of $200,000 usd. People that have this kind of money to blow on CRM software aren't wasting their time spamming people.
---
Geoffrey Wossum
Project AKO - http://ako.sf.net
So we rigged the program so that when it should have faxed, it instead secretly emailed the document along with the destination fax number to a fixed email address -- the email address of the guy we had sitting in the next room. So when the client wanted to fax something themselves to see it work, it really got emailed to our guy, who then faxed it manually. The client went away happy, thinking the program was fully functional. I got the fax functionality working using Symantec WinFax the next week, so no major harm was done. But I got a great story out of it.
---
Geoffrey Wossum
Project AKO - http://ako.sf.net
Do you think that people would allow their lives to be ruled by AIs speaking to them through their PDAs? Is it inevitable? Is it a Good Thing or a Bad Thing, or does it matter?
---
Geoffrey Wossum
Project AKO
I actually had a problem with handwriting the first day after I got my PalmPilot and learned how to use Grafitti writing, but it by the next day I was next to normal.
I imagine this is something you have to be predisposed to. I have to disagree with the articles opinion that a change in handwriting affects your personality. I think a change in handwriting does reflect a change in personality, but I don't think changing your handwriting can change your personality. That seems to be more than a slight fallacy.
Overall, I wouldn't worry about this.
-- Geoffrey
"Sometimes an appropriate response to reality is to go insane." - pkd