whats the deal with ultra wideband, not to be confused with the average white band?
Well, according to Robert Cringely it is going to change the world. If big business doesn't squash it first. And apparently they are not suceeding too well in the conspiracy because the FCC just approved UWB for limited (and limited range) use.
In a nutshell the deal is that instead of breaking up the spectrum into frequencies, and then allocating different slices of frequencies to different applications (the only charts I can find are in .pdf - here's a nice one - 100k) UWB uses all frequencies at once. It can do this because the power used is extrememly small, and the pulses are of extremely short duration. To the older wireless communication systems, UWB just looks like "noise." If it actually works in a large scale deployment then it solves almost all our problems. It will create almost limitless bandwidth, and it will do away with the necessity of the huge FCC oversight because there won't be any frequencies to give away, sell, or otherwise manage.
Of course, if you remember from the late nineties, companies paid huge amounts of money (billions) to buy slices of the spectrum. UWB would make all these investments worth nothing. It's not clear what this would do to our economy. So there is lots of lobbying against this idea from people like Sprint. Not only did they spend big on the spectrum, but they also invested big in equipment. All that would have to be scrapped.
So there are a variety of scare stories about how UWB will not work out. The main claim is that it will screw up the GPS system and that will screw up our air traffic control system, and planes will start "dropping out of the sky." It's not at all clear this is the case. But it's hard to understand who is telling the truth becasue there is so much money involved.
UWB definitely works on a limited scale (I mean, it works provided not everybody is using it.) The US military has used it for years. One side effect is that UWB communications are almost impossible to tap (or so they say.) So expect a second round of scare mongering around the idea of "terrorists" and "child pornographers" and "drug smugglers" if this hasn't already started.
Anyway, the FCC approved use over short distances. I think the idea would be to use it for Personal Area Networks (PANs) which would be things like your mp3 player and cell phone in your pocket wirelessly communicating with your headphones. This is like what Bluetooth is supposed to be. I guess this is to get things going, but at the same time to appease all the telco's who made these big plays in the other kind of equipment. The real test will come when they open it up for longer distance communications. If I remember correctly, a commercial deployment would have about the same range as PCS - meaning, they'd have to put towers everywhere (or use the PCS towers) but it's doable.
I'm very excited about this which probably means it won't work, or it will get killed legislatively. But we'll see.
thanks. now what do you know about in-n-out burger?
Strangely, this is the restaurant that chef Scott used as his model for aKa (for the food, not the atmosphere.) I guess it's a pretty mid-west thing, as I had never heard of it. He assures me that it is the ultimate in sweet tasty-ness. The hanger slider is his slightly upscale rendition of his childhood favorite in-n-out burger.
I'm not making this up.
its a west coast thing. only in ca nv az. privately owned, no franchises. its says they cut the fries fresh at the store and make the shakes with real ice cream. looking for that krusty-brand non-dairy gelatinous frozen beverage reference but heres a list of simpsons urban legends.
when you're driving to the airport in la, you go down sepulveda, there's an in-and-out-burger in sight of the planes, give yourself about 10 minutes, do drivethrough, eat it in your car. WOW.
McShake? You hardly know what you're gettin'!
Oh wait. I just looked at 'locations' on the page and it says only in California, Nevada, and Arizona. So that can't be the one. I could swear that was the name though (Scott is from St. Louis, and Douglas - from Illinois - confirmed his own childhood love.) I'll have to ask about this.
maybe it was steak 'n shake.
Yes, I think that's it. One of the gimmicks is that when they bring the shake to you the waitress turns it upside down for a brief moment, and then back over before placing it down in front of you. This guarantees the "thickness" of the shake since otherwise it would spill all over the table. Genius!
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- dave 2-21-2002 4:00 pm
Well, according to Robert Cringely it is going to change the world. If big business doesn't squash it first. And apparently they are not suceeding too well in the conspiracy because the FCC just approved UWB for limited (and limited range) use.
In a nutshell the deal is that instead of breaking up the spectrum into frequencies, and then allocating different slices of frequencies to different applications (the only charts I can find are in .pdf - here's a nice one - 100k) UWB uses all frequencies at once. It can do this because the power used is extrememly small, and the pulses are of extremely short duration. To the older wireless communication systems, UWB just looks like "noise." If it actually works in a large scale deployment then it solves almost all our problems. It will create almost limitless bandwidth, and it will do away with the necessity of the huge FCC oversight because there won't be any frequencies to give away, sell, or otherwise manage.
Of course, if you remember from the late nineties, companies paid huge amounts of money (billions) to buy slices of the spectrum. UWB would make all these investments worth nothing. It's not clear what this would do to our economy. So there is lots of lobbying against this idea from people like Sprint. Not only did they spend big on the spectrum, but they also invested big in equipment. All that would have to be scrapped.
So there are a variety of scare stories about how UWB will not work out. The main claim is that it will screw up the GPS system and that will screw up our air traffic control system, and planes will start "dropping out of the sky." It's not at all clear this is the case. But it's hard to understand who is telling the truth becasue there is so much money involved.
UWB definitely works on a limited scale (I mean, it works provided not everybody is using it.) The US military has used it for years. One side effect is that UWB communications are almost impossible to tap (or so they say.) So expect a second round of scare mongering around the idea of "terrorists" and "child pornographers" and "drug smugglers" if this hasn't already started.
Anyway, the FCC approved use over short distances. I think the idea would be to use it for Personal Area Networks (PANs) which would be things like your mp3 player and cell phone in your pocket wirelessly communicating with your headphones. This is like what Bluetooth is supposed to be. I guess this is to get things going, but at the same time to appease all the telco's who made these big plays in the other kind of equipment. The real test will come when they open it up for longer distance communications. If I remember correctly, a commercial deployment would have about the same range as PCS - meaning, they'd have to put towers everywhere (or use the PCS towers) but it's doable.
I'm very excited about this which probably means it won't work, or it will get killed legislatively. But we'll see.
- jim 2-21-2002 4:28 pm [add a comment]
thanks. now what do you know about in-n-out burger?
- dave 2-21-2002 7:46 pm [add a comment]
Strangely, this is the restaurant that chef Scott used as his model for aKa (for the food, not the atmosphere.) I guess it's a pretty mid-west thing, as I had never heard of it. He assures me that it is the ultimate in sweet tasty-ness. The hanger slider is his slightly upscale rendition of his childhood favorite in-n-out burger.
I'm not making this up.
- jim 2-21-2002 8:00 pm [add a comment]
its a west coast thing. only in ca nv az. privately owned, no franchises. its says they cut the fries fresh at the store and make the shakes with real ice cream. looking for that krusty-brand non-dairy gelatinous frozen beverage reference but heres a list of simpsons urban legends.
- dave 2-21-2002 8:19 pm [add a comment]
when you're driving to the airport in la, you go down sepulveda, there's an in-and-out-burger in sight of the planes, give yourself about 10 minutes, do drivethrough, eat it in your car. WOW.
- big jimmy 2-22-2002 11:26 pm [add a comment]
McShake? You hardly know what you're gettin'!
- jim 2-21-2002 8:23 pm [add a comment]
Oh wait. I just looked at 'locations' on the page and it says only in California, Nevada, and Arizona. So that can't be the one. I could swear that was the name though (Scott is from St. Louis, and Douglas - from Illinois - confirmed his own childhood love.) I'll have to ask about this.
- jim 2-21-2002 8:04 pm [add a comment]
maybe it was steak 'n shake.
- dave 2-21-2002 8:27 pm [add a comment]
Yes, I think that's it. One of the gimmicks is that when they bring the shake to you the waitress turns it upside down for a brief moment, and then back over before placing it down in front of you. This guarantees the "thickness" of the shake since otherwise it would spill all over the table. Genius!
- jim 2-21-2002 8:32 pm [add a comment]