Posts by Andronichus

50 years ago, CP/M started the microcomputer revolution

Pretty good as a business OS

My first real programming job was on CP/M. Having spent a few years at uni on DEC machines I created a multi-user game on the uni's two CP/M micros using a shared floppy drive. Coordination was by locking a file as if it were a semaphore and the code would then act as leader or follower. Fun times, but on the strength of that landed a part time job creating a stock and invoicing system. The real issue was a non-technical sales manager that piled on creeping featurism so that every version we sold was different ... cue maintenance nightmare and me leaving to find a job in mainframes. Early micros were cantankerous physical machines but much less sanctimonious than the whole priesthood thing that was growing around the larger boxes. MP/M was floating around, but no-one could really see a use for it.

Backscatter brainwave could make IoT comms even more energy efficient

Could be useful

Before retirement I worked with IoT devices that harvested energy from things like movement, temperature potential, WiFi signal, wind and frankly anything that moved, burped, winked or exhibited energy levels above entropy. EnOcean, for example, manufactures devices used by hotels as passive detectors for window opening and closing to switch off the air conditioning. Stranded assets are no joke and changing batteries in the roof of a factory or ugly places takes too much effort to be worthwhile. Zooming all over with a LoRa antenna velcroed to the roof of my car also helped me appreciate just how far a small CR2032 could transmit but everything must be tiny: duty cycle, transmitted bits, deep sleep and forget about OTA updates.

The choice: Pay BT megabucks, or do something a bit illegal. OK, that’s no choice

Forget running CAT cable, just use a Litebeam M5. These directionally transmit using WiFi frequencies and work over long distances, 30 km+, so long as you can get LOS.

Vonage to pay $100m for making it nearly impossible to cancel internet phone services

Re: "in many instances, Vonage has continued to charge them without consent,"

VM does indeed do this, in a multitude of ways. Try to leave at the end of 10 years? Sure, just send us the modem back please (or we'll charge you £40). Okay, send where? Oh sure, we'll send a padded prepaid post bag to you. FIVE times they promised this and never delivered - I'd even send it back post paid myself. Sure enough the £40 charge came through as a direct debit and it is an inconvenience to fight it - so they nickel and dime each customer on termination to squeeze a little bit more. Personal anecdote perhaps? Well no, today I spoke with someone else who tried to terminate and they had exactly the same irritating story. Stems from their earlier days as NTL when they employed the same type of billing and "oh, you've contacted terminations but you never contacted billing to ask them to stop" ploy. Legal fraud, but I'm glad it is now recognised as a rort on a global scale.