I saw this video from the DefenseTech website. Oh how I love military technology. Looking at this plane’s control surfaces move is like watching a scene from a movie like Terminator.
VoIP and 911
After reading a story about a Calgary toddler who died as a result of a botched 911 emergency call, I think all VoIP users should be aware of this.
In the article, it states that:
Comwave said the Lucks registered the phone in Mississauga but moved to Calgary, and the 9-1-1 service defaulted to their old address after their call become disconnected.
With VoIP, emergency 9-1-1 calls are answered by the provider’s call centre, which in turn connects the call to the local emergency service call centre.
The part that is in bold is crucial. With the old wired phone system, you could trace a call as you knew exactly which switches needed to connect to get the call through. WIth a VoIP system, the IP packets travel the fastest possible route to the end user. The IP address of the end user is not at all tied down to any location or physical address and can be four blocks of any number from 0 .. 255 of the form aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd
So when you relocate, the IP packets should easily and seamlessly find it’s way to your registered MAC address on your VoIP line, disregarding physical location. However, do yourself a favour and let the phone provider know of your relocation for emergencies such as these! The down side to the ease of relocation on your part, is the near impossibility of locating you in an emergency.
Windows vs Linux EEE PC
I came across this article about the EEE PC which is essentially a simplified notebook which is cheaper, and “Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play”. That is where the three E’s came from.
In this recent article on ZDNet, the features of the Windows based EEE are listed and compared with that of the Linux based EEE.
Two versions of the XP Home based Eee will be sold – the Eee PC Surf XP which has 4GB of NAND flash storage and 512MB RAM and is priced at $408, and the Eee PC 4G XP which incorporates a 4GB SD card, a better battery and a built-in 3-megapixel camera for $473. Compare this to the Xandros-based Eee PC which comes with 2GB of of flash storage and is priced at $261.
The article then goes on to mention that the Windows EEE PC is predicted to outsell it’s Linux counterpart by 3 to 2.
True, the Linux version is half the price, and a big part of the selling point of the Linux version is it’s low resource requirements as well as zero cost. However price is not the only draw. Essentially I use mostly open source software and what I will run on the Windows version, if I purchase the EEE PC, will be the exact same suite of software that I will run on the Linux version.
What will draw me to the Windows version is the features. With more storage, a nice camera and other better features than the Linux based version, I would definitely go for the features if I can afford it.
While I am equally comfortable in a Linux and Windows environment, I will also admit that familiarity will be an issue to most users.
In order for Linux to succeed, perhaps having those same features that are offered in the Windows product line, in a fully Linux offering, could be a big step up for the penguin.
Open source … your cellphone?
Tagged commentary, innovation, technology
Posted in in the news
by Dan Ho
Back in the world of technology, where my reading has been lagging of late (hey, I have to keep up with current events in the social world as a journalist), I discovered that even your hardware can be opensourced. Unfortunately, while software can be easily copied and downloaded as open source with no charge, open source hardware still requires a material charge although intellectual costs are removed.
Still, having open sourced hardware has it’s advantages as you are freely able to modify the product as you wish, giving rise to quicker innovation and more creative products. One such product is the Nokia 1973 based OpenMoko phone.
The line “If you can’t open it, you don’t own it.” on the OpenMoko site does speak volumes about capitalism today. While it is true, we buy products and have exclusive use of it, the material physical product is the only thing we own. Everything else is still patented and owned by the company.
Why jeopardize your sales by repeatedly issuing better and thus competing products when you can bask in the sun for a while, reaping the benefits of your recent intellectual endevours? This thought definitely puts a damper on creativity and slows down innovation. Afterall, a more innovative product is essentially competition to your existing product.
While companies do need some kind of revenue to inject back into the research and development process, most of the revenue stream syphons off into the rich CEO who might not know anything about the technology who is currently bathing in the pool in his $3 million dollar mansion, having recently bought out a small but innovative firm and put their competitive product high up on the shelf somewhere.
I hope to see the OpenMoko phone hit the mainstream market, in addition to other open source hardware. We can evolve ourselves with that technology at a much faster rate.
Also noteworthy is Google’s Android operating system. Based upon the open source Linux kernel, this cell phone operating system has a chance to revolutionize the phone industry.
From the popular mechanics site:
Now if we only had some great open source free energy battery power.