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Living Room / Re: Free and Fast ‘Roof2Roof’ Internet Available in Richmond, CA
« Last post by IainB on May 12, 2013, 06:55 PM »Yes. Me too. 
Wish I had access to this.
Wish I had access to this.
Recent Posts
This week, New Zealand Commerce Minister Craig Foss bowed to pressure from software patent opponents. The latest language states clearly that "a computer program is not an invention," and is not eligible for patent protection. The Labour Party called it "a humiliating back down."
The decision was hailed by InternetNZ, a non-profit organization that promotes an open Internet. "Patenting software would not only make the continued development of the Internet more difficult, it would reduce innovation and could well stymie interoperability of various software platforms," the group wrote on Thursday.
New Zealand's Institute of IT Professionals also praised the move. "If you look at the New Zealand market, you would be hard pressed to find many people that were thinking patents would be a good idea," the organization's chief executive Paul Matthews told the New Zealand Herald.
This is what I do now.Convoluted, but reliable, crossplatform, and full featured.
- I created an 'app' from the 'create new gdocs' link. It placed an icon on the desktop. I assigned a global shortcut to it. It takes 1-2 seconds to create a new note (a gdoc). Not as fast as simplenote or resophnotes, but it'll do
- Create a new gdocs when the inspiration comes, with the global shortcut
- Install syncdocs, so you have a local copy to every gdocs you create. Make sure that explorer index the syndocs folder. Then, when it's time to search, open an explorer window; the explorer search is damn fast, indexes the text, and the results are displayed with context; they are better than how onenote does it
requires only easy to find software (your file manager, gdocs).
Everything works on and offline. (create new .doc instead of gdocs when offline)
The gdocs editor is way better than any of the native .doc editors (or rtf, or odt)-urlwolf (May 12, 2013, 05:59 AM)
The United States Department of Defense has “claimed ownership” of CAD drawings of a plastic, printable pistol. In doing so, they apparently believe they can stop the files from existing. The result is obviously the complete opposite, which calls into strong question the judgment and ability of United States Government to set Internet policy at all.
When the public received the means of production through 3D printing, it was obvious that you could no longer regulate which objects were allowed to exist and which didn’t, just as you can no longer regulate distribution of information. Well, obvious to anybody but bureaucrats in governments who insist they cannot lose any control.
The think tank Defense Distributed has been developing 3D printer drawings for weapons parts for some time. First, they published drawings for vital parts for the AR-15 rifle (the civilian version of the military Armalite M-16) which could be printed by anybody in their homes, and then moved on to creating an all-plastic weapon which could be printed by anybody without dependence on other manufacturers, the “Liberator” in 17 parts.
This was not a matter of breaking the law of weapons regulations – this was a matter of the law having become unenforceable and obsolete through advancements in technology.
Late yesterday, the United States’ Department of Defense contacted Defense Distributed and told them that the United States government were seizing the drawings and claimed ownership of the files. This move was utterly ridiculous, as the drawings had already been published. The immediate effect was that Defense Distributed complied, and everybody else started seeding the files like wildfire. This is cause for concern – not the fact that the files exist, but that the US Government can be so completely boneheaded to think they can prevent information from existing by saying so.
The pistol drawings exist in the form of a magnet link which picks the file from whoever has them, with no central repository. The other files from Defense Distributed have also been censored by the United States government, which contain vital (printable) parts for an AR-15 and similar things, but these files are similarly available through a simple link. Predictably, their distribution has gone absolutely stratospheric.
We have long seen how the US Government is completely boneheaded and unfit to set and shape Internet policy, due to their simply not understanding of what the Internet is and how it works. This episode underscores that conclusion strongly.
Part of the reason the US doesn’t understand the Internet is because of the country’s vastly substandard infrastructure, since they have allowed cable companies and telcos to dictate what the Internet should look like (and the US is therefore far, far behind countries like Romania and Lithuania – countries that were considered near-developing countries 20 years ago, a timeframe that policymakers in Washington are apparently stuck in. We’ll be returning to that in a separate article.)
In any case, this episode shows that the US government is simply unfit to even have an opinion on shaping the future Internet.
I posted a comment about the FF add-on mentioned above - TagSpaces - here (in the context of Tag standards): On the lack of standardisation in "tagging".I believe it is a file manager that can tag every downloaded file, and replace EvernoteLooks rather intriguing. Shall give it a whirl, and see.
- all from within Firefox.-Curt (April 18, 2013, 03:08 PM)-IainB (April 19, 2013, 06:22 AM)
"The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from."
- Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, 2nd ed., p. 254.
Free and Fast ‘Roof2Roof’ Internet Available in Richmond, CA
Posted on May 8, 2013 by brewster
Image: Antenna on 2512 Florida Avenue, Richmond to offer free Internet for those with antennas on their roofs
As a free service to Richmond residents, the Internet Archive has installed a 70 foot tower on its physical archive building in Richmond California to offer free and fast Internet to those with roofs that can see the tower. Those wanting to use this community wireless service would need to buy and install a directional antenna on their roof to connect, but from then on their Internet access is free. In this way we call it a ‘free and fast roof2roof network’ since it will generally not reach people’s laptops inside houses. The signal will work at over 1 mile to a suitable antenna with line-of-site to our tower. Wifi receivers with directional antennas can cost as little as one hundred to two hundred dollars from vendors like ubiquiti.
Gayle McLaughlin, mayor of Richmond, when we told her about this, said: “We are dedicated to closing the digital divide in Richmond. Providing free access to the internet is a great benefit for our residents helping us create a better and more equitable city!”
Image: End-user window mountable antenna for connecting to Internet Archive's tower
We have achieved 80 megabits per second in both directions with this technology, so this should support many people’s normal Internet use. Typical commercial Internet access runs at 1/10 this speed, so the fastest residential Internet in Richmond will likely be this system. Currently average of 4 users are connect to our tower but we hope this will grow.
We hope that intrepid individuals will connect to this system in a way we have called “tier 3″. While we do not have the budget to provide tech support, we hope that entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, or non-profit organizations will help others get online.
Another step would be to expand the number of houses and buildings that could connect to this system by putting repeater antennas on high locations to expand the number of rooftops with line-of-site to this backbone. If you are an owner of a tall building or structure and are interested in participating, please let us know by writing to [email protected]. We would be interested in paying for the equipment and do the installation for a couple of well placed locations.
Location: Height 70′ above ground level, 2512 Florida Avenue, Richmond, CA. Some more details on the equipment. The network identifiers (SSIDs) include ‘archive.org’ in their names, and the 2.4GHz ones are open with no password or encryption. Thank you to Ralf Muehlen for setting up this system, and thank you to the City of Richmond for allowing an tower to be installed with no delay or hassle.
Onward to a Free and Fast Internet for All!
...I'm not sure if that works for others who have been invited to the party - or just for the author.You could set up a doc and invite some guinea-pigs to view/edit it and see.-tomos (May 07, 2013, 10:00 AM)
Russian reversal
Russian reversal or "In Soviet Russia" is a type of joke originated by Smirnoff, and is an example of antimetabole.[5] The general form of the "In Soviet Russia" joke is that the subject and object of a statement are reversed, and "In (Soviet) Russia," or something equivalent, is added, and the verb is often left unconjugated and articles are omitted, mimicking perceived Russian-accented speech. The original was:
In America, you can always find a party.
In Soviet Russia, Party always find you!
Other examples include:
In America, you break law.
In Soviet Russia, law breaks you!
In America, your work determines your marks.
In Soviet Russia, Marx determines your work!
In America, you assassinate presidents.
In Soviet Russia, presidents assassinate you!
In America, you watch Big Brother.
In Soviet Russia, Big Brother watches you!
Smirnoff's use of English allowed him to smooth over grammar differences in transitioning from the setup to the punchline. For example, he omits the articles "a" and "the" (which the Russian language doesn't have) in the first reversal joke above, to better preserve the congruence. Also, verbs are often left unconjugated, such as in the joke "In America, you listen to man on radio. In Soviet Russia, man on radio listen to you!"
In 1985, Smirnoff appeared on a Miller Lite commercial featuring Russian reversal jokes.[6]
In America, there's plenty of light beer and you always find a party. In Russia, Party will always find you.
See also: Transpositional pun
Um...have you tried playing a movie on either a DVD or Blu-Ray disk with your new PC yet?
That's one "experience" that's very different under Windows 8.-40hz (May 05, 2013, 09:18 PM)
