Xirrus have been doing this for years - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xirrus or http://www.xirrus.com/

They put 8 (or more) access points into a single unit, each with a directional antenna covering a segment of the room or venue. I looked at their product at a trade show or conference once (don't remember which) but it was way overkill for the spaces we had at the time which were separated with heavy reinforced concrete walls and floors, so needed an access point for each area.

I haven't been following closely enough to know what the "crazy Nikon tech" is - anyone care to enlighten me? Google doesn't give relevant info...

IIRC it wasn't 1 bit in each byte/octet, but one from every 6th octet. This meant that or voice it was still 'almost' 64 kbps ... Let's see... 64 - (64 * 1/48) is 62.66... But because a modem can't synchronize, so it can't tell which bit is going to be robbed, it has to assume that but is always used, so you get 56 kbps.

Although this (bit robbing) was mostly a North American thing 56k was still the top speed modem I ever saw...

I've found much more detail here.

The question didn't say landline had to be a POTS landline. In that class I would include ISDN. And a big chunk of office VOIP systems go out to ISDN lines. Including the one I used today.

I might even consider some VOIP systems to be landlines in and of themselves. Perhaps if they are wired, somewhat location specific, provide power on the line, and maybe some other things I can't think of right now, but would make them indistinguishable from a POTS/ISDN line. What does the protocol matter anyway?

Actually second longest. 000 would have been longer. But 0 already was used for the operator.

Bah! Old days indeed. New Zealand still uses 111.

And it can't be dialed easily because NZ pulse dialing is backwards (10 pulses for 0, 9 pulses for 1 8 for 2, etc)

I think you meant www.eternal-september.org

Where I live 1080 is a poison they use to control invasive species.... What does it mean in your context?

Sorry, the DVD region code for NZ is 4. The UK and Europe is 2 (see wikipedia ). Fortunately enforcing the suppliers use of region locking on DVD players was ruled a breach of our competition legislation (which explicitly makes parallel importing legal) and our copyright act explicitly excludes region locking as a proctection measure See here So almost all DVD players are sold unlocked.

I think it's the consistant dock connector. Since the iPod G3 in 2003 the connector hasn't changed (though the charge voltage has). This means the car manufacturers have something to target....

The system in the UK also includes a ban on Product placement and other advertising in-show. I think they've eased up a bit now, but when I was a kid the cartoon "Top Cat" was retitled to "Boss Cat" because there was a local brand of cat food called "Top Cat". (Yes, they actually edited the title sequence, badly). The gang still called him TC though, which would have been confusing if I had actually thought about it.

Anyone know how to turn off the ones that pop up on slashdot? I can't moderate from my iPad since they came along - as they pop up when finger touches screen and steal the focus from the moderation drop down box.

I can't find any option in slashdot options, and there's no noscript for safari for iOS...

Most utilities, if you ring them with your own meter read after receiving an inaccurate estimate, will issue you with a new bill based on your read.

I had a lot of random estimates in my old house because it had one of those old dial meters in which every pointer turns in the opposite direction to the one before it - I gather some incorrect readings had been taken (before I owned the house) which created an incorrect usage pattern to base estimates on.

OTOH I guess you haven't lived in an earthquake zone. Brick and concrete houses tend to fall down without rediculous amounts of reinforcement. Wood flexes and springs back.

Having owned and lived in both 100 year old brick and 100 year old wooden houses, I would say the maintenance level required is fairly similar.