Hand-wringing About American Culture – Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge? – New York Times
Monthly Archives: February 2008
I feel protected… NOT!
The ‘Protect America Act’ (clearly a use of the term ‘protect’ with which I was unfamiliar) is due to expire soon. The Senate is considering it’s replacement and today the Senate failed to pass an amendment that would have removed the immunity granted to the telcos for all manner of illegal activities under the guise of ‘protecting our freedoms’.
Just be sure I have this right… the Government asks the telcos to perform illegal wiretaps while waving the ‘it’s your patriotic duty to comply’ flag. The telcos succumb to the ‘pressure’, roll over and illegally dump the contents of the ‘tubes in the Government’s lap.
The public (the folks they’re trying to ‘protect’, right) get wind of it and start raising a stink. The Government responds by retroactively granting immunity to the telcos so the ‘public’ can’t sue them and get the details of just what was going on.
Do you feel protected? Well, do you punk? I feel hoodwinked!
Alas poor bag-phone, I knew you well
Yes, boys and girls, my first cell phone came in a lunchbox (does anyone under 40 even know what THAT means?) sized nylon ‘case’. It required an external power source (cigarette lighter plug) and an external antenna.
I have fond memories of dropped calls whenever I crossed a state line (pre-roaming) and per-minute charges approaching today’s gas prices.
Back in the fabulous 80’s AMPS was the technology in use for all cell phone networks in the US. Technology has marched on and AMPS has fallen into the same category as floppy disks and carbon paper. The two carriers with remaining AMPS coverage are scheduled to de-activate their networks next week.
The vast majority of folks won’t notice; we’ve since moved on to GSM and/or UMTS networks. However, there are still a goodly number of devices using this technology, namely alarm systems, older GM OnStar systems and ‘remote monitoring’.
If you’re alarm system has a cellular back-up option, or you have an old GM a bit of investigation would be prudent. GM has an info page up here.
Can you hear me now? Analog cellular networks shutting down next week
Wireless disruption | Santa Rosa Press Democrat // News for California’s North Bay and Redwood Empire
Alas poor bag-phone, I knew you well
Yes, boys and girls, my first cell phone came in a lunchbox (does anyone under 40 even know what THAT means?) sized nylon ‘case’. It required an external power source (cigarette lighter plug) and an external antenna.
I have fond memories of dropped calls whenever I crossed a state line (pre-roaming) and per-minute charges approaching today’s gas prices.
Back in the fabulous 80’s AMPS was the technology in use for all cell phone networks in the US. Technology has marched on and AMPS has fallen into the same category as floppy disks and carbon paper. The two carriers with remaining AMPS coverage are scheduled to de-activate their networks next week.
The vast majority of folks won’t notice; we’ve since moved on to GSM and/or UMTS networks. However, there are still a goodly number of devices using this technology, namely alarm systems, older GM OnStar systems and ‘remote monitoring’.
If you’re alarm system has a cellular back-up option, or you have an old GM a bit of investigation would be prudent. GM has an info page up here.
Can you hear me now? Analog cellular networks shutting down next week
Will post for beta invite…
So I’m not above posting a link to a cool new application just to get an invite. I’m dirty… I’m a dirty, dirty engineer. Call me what you want but everyone deserves some link love!
This thing actually look pretty cool. It is an extension for <shudder> Outlook that adds some interesting features. I have some trepidations though based on something I read on an email from them…
… We have received a lot of requests for the beta and are expanding our capacity to handle the load. …
That may be paraphrasing a bit, but that was the gist of it. Assuming that they are not talking about supporting download traffic (Yes, that is a bit of a leap but downloads are pretty easy to support) that tells me that some part of this solution is hosted. Why would an email plugin need to be hosted? Hmm… are they passing email (or meta-email) back to some central server for analysis? Now I REALLY wanna have a look (and a network sniff) of what this thing does!
I’ll jump to the front of the invite queue of just TWO of you out there sign up for the beta. Come on… you can do it! Do it for me!
