Technology

How Are 4G and 5G Different?

How Are 4G and 5G Different?

The primary focus and reason for needing an upgraded network is to support the growing number of devices that demand internet access, many of them requiring so much bandwidth in order to function normally that 4G simply doesn't cut it anymore.

A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality | MIT Technology Review

A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality | MIT Technology Review

Physicists have long suspected that quantum mechanics allows two observers to experience different, conflicting realities. Now they’ve performed the first experiment that proves it.

You can say science like this isn't important but truth be told, we don't know where it could lead. Without the theory of relatively we wouldn't have GPS and probably not technologies that rely on GPS timing like cell phones and atms. 

QAnon Struggles After Trump Election Defeat – The New York Times

QAnon Struggles After Trump Election Defeat – The New York Times

These are trying times for believers in QAnon, the baseless conspiracy theory that falsely claims the existence of a satanic pedophile cult run by top Democrats. For years, they had been assured that Mr. Trump would win re-election in a landslide and spend his second term vanquishing the deep state and bringing the cabal’s leaders to justice. Q, the pseudonymous message board user whose cryptic posts have fueled the movement for more than three years, told them to “trust the plan.”

Stereophonic sound – Wikipedia

Stereophonic sound – Wikipedia

Clement Ader demonstrated the first two-channel audio system in Paris in 1881, with a series of telephone transmitters connected from the stage of the Paris Opera to a suite of rooms at the Paris Electrical Exhibition, where listeners could hear a live transmission of performances through receivers for each ear.

Debating My Internet Options.

I am debating my Internet options πŸ’»πŸ—ƒπŸ“Ά πŸ”Œ

With winter upon us, the pandemic raging towards us, it seems unlikely I’ll be working downtown full-time any time soon again. From spring to autumn, working at the library and using my phone for internet has worked, okay but I’m starting to think I’m going to need a better solution come December into January. It’s just going to be too cold to work at the library sitting in my truck plus it gets dark out early.

I can try to continue to use my phone for Internet but I’m not sure how well that will work, as I might run up into data caps and the fact that it’s small screen and limited processing power doesn’t work that great on all websites. This might particularly be an issue when I have to watch videos or do Zoom sessions. For editing documents, I can always transfer documents to my laptop using a USB cable. Plus I kind of wish I could participate in various Zoom community events that I am currently missing and other events that have been moved exclusively online.

The obvious answer would be to get my apartment wired and set up either with Spectrum Cable Internet or FIOS Internet. The benefit of that service is its virtually unlimited, no data caps to worry about. It’s not cheap though, although it looks like I could get FIOS basic service for $40 month for a minimum of 12 months after paying the installation charge which is probably a couple hundred bucks and for a $300 router. The FIOS service is probably cheaper and more reliable than the cable service especially because I don’t own a television and have no interest in watching any of that commercial programming.

That said, I’ve been very resistant to having Internet at home, because I enjoy walking down to the park or the library after work. If you are going to sit for a few hours and surf the web, then it’s good to stretch your legs for a few minutes of walking first. Prior to the pandemic, I would walk to the library several times a week, even when it was cold and snowy. I’d bundle up to fight the wind chill. I don’t like having a lot of commerical advertising in my apartment, and I worry if I had Internet at home, I’d spend all this time watching stupid Youtube videos or playing on social media. Not that I don’t do that already with my phone.

I started researching Wi-Fi Hotspots and found that I could upgrade my phone plan in mid December to add 10 gigabytes of Hotspot data for $10 extra bucks a month or 20 gigabytes of data for $20 extra a month. I conformed that my phone has that capability to serve as a hot spot for my laptop, so that’s the route I’ll probably take. Looking through my logs on my computer if I am careful – and don’t do much video streaming – I should be good with certainly the 20 gig plan. As it’s month to month, once the pandemic is over and I’m back working downtown and the library is a open again, I can drop the Hotspot plan.

While I’m sure it’s nice to not have a data cap and the speed and reliability of a wired connection, it sure is a lot cheaper in the short run and flexible to use my phone as a hot spot. If I decide to winter camp I could even work remotely from a heated tent and my laptop. If I upgrade my phone plan to include the extra Hotspot service it will be unlimited cellphone data (up to 60 GB), which would mean that I can do Zooms and watch videos on my phone without having to worry about too much data.

Honestly, I don’t like subscription fees. But I think I have found a solution that will work well enough for remote work during these cold months. The pandemic will be around for a while longer – maybe months but not years. There are two almost approved vaccines and come next spring into summer it will be warm enough to work in the park or library and then I can reevaluate each month what data plan I need going forward. I’m hopeful that by spring I’ll be working back downtown full-time again and the library re-opened so I won’t need the hot spot add on package anymore.

Right now I have a little more than a month left on my current phone service so I probably won’t upgrade the package until December. But that’s only a little over a month and if I end up needing it before then I’ll loose a little bit of my previously purchased service but it’s not a big deal. Still cheaper than getting a permanent wired connection at home.

youtube-dl is back – The GitHub Blog

Standing up for developers: youtube-dl is back – The GitHub Blog

Today we reinstated youtube-dl, a popular project on GitHub, after we received additional information about the project that enabled us to reverse a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown.

At GitHub, our priority is supporting open source and the developer community. And so we share developers’ frustration with this takedownβ€”especially since this project has many legitimate purposes. Our actions were driven by processes required to comply with laws like the DMCA that put platforms like GitHub and developers in a difficult spot. And our reinstatement, based on new information that showed the project was not circumventing a technical protection measure (TPM), was inline with our values of putting developers first. We know developers want to understand what happened here, and want to know how GitHub will stand up for developers and refine our processes on these issues.

In this post, we provide answers to common questions about the DMCA and why GitHub handled this case the way we did, describe why circumvention claims deserve special treatment, and share how we’re updating our policies and fighting to improve the law.

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