Posts by One Van

Wireless-data LED lamps to replace lightbulbs - US profs

IrDA VFIR was spec'd at 50Mbps

>The data would be transmitted by the same LEDs which provided white-light illumination,

Speed of sending the data isn't the issue. The connection is half-duplex. When the connection goes from download to upload, does the light in the room turnoff and one on the laptop turn-on? Since shining two lights at each other at the same time doesn't work. IrDA has differing turnaround periods depending on packet size. Would large packets would introduce flicker..? Do i plug my computer into my desklamp to talk to the ceiling lamp?

IBM Worked on some IrLAN type products with IR Transceivers that had wider angle sending and detection of light. T30 may have been equipped with it?

You could possible add that type of system to LED Lamps these days. But again it would need to be in the IR band if you don't want to see flicker, i.e. the room light go out when you upload ;)

Check IrDA.org, I did and they have a 1Gb demo with Ir..

Microsoft discloses 14,000 pages of coding secrets

M$ just got some principle

"Microsoft Corp. today took another step toward fulfilling its interoperability principle of ensuring open connections to its high-volume products and driving greater interoperability, opportunity and choice across the IT community of developers, partners, customers and competitors."

Apparently M$ is "fulf-illing its principle" in producing such documentation. Then why did the EU slap them with a fine of nearly $500m. Did that help them find some 'principle'!

Let's bust up M$ for the benefit of the whole IT business, for innovation, and to be able to use something that works better more of the time.

A better way to build OS X preferences

The rant area is down the hall...

...on the left, and at the end of the very short plank.

All operating systems have undocumented features... we all hate writing documents that's why we have things like JavaDoc and Doxygen to help us think it's not like documentation, but more like coding. "Use the source, Luke" Now if we could just get access to the source :-D

Nice brief article... through didn't explain to me why? Though i am assuming this is we can build prefs that look more like Apple layout?

How much does El Reg cost the global economy?

Anonymous Coward...

... you seem to have racked up a larger than most cost to an employer, from the amount of posts I read with your comments. Do you get commission ;)

Halo 3 UK launch fails to fire

$1Billion and counting...

... is tidy sum to spend to create you own market share. M$ need to sell as many games as possible to break even, let alone make a profit.

I sold my XBOX 360 after realising that most of the games come out for my PC at $25 dollars eventually. You can even play Halo ;)

HD-DVD or Blu-ray?

re: My opinion

And, for my opinion, This is a game of fence sitting as a upscaling DVD player is good enough to be able to wait for definitive outcome.