The price is affordable for "carriers" (ie. telcos and thererfore peanuts for mlitary), and you can buy true 1GHz full duplex units off the shelf today.

There is a problem with 60GHz though - range. It's the O2 absorption frequency, so max is 1-2Km...

However there are other frequencies in that area of the spectrum which I know are being investigated/used...

For some local dialling codes. Eg. Bristol has 0117 911 xxxx - so from a landline in Bristol you just dial 911 xxxx ...

-G

I recently bought an old Apple II.. And tried out some of the 30+ year old 5.25" floppies I had in storage all these years (I've got 100's). Most of them still work!

I'm suspecting that the bit-density is so low that it's hard for them not to work, but I was still plesantly surprised.

Now all I need is an Apple II serial card so I can get some of the source code for stuff I write way back then off the floppies onto something else...

They're a bit late then. There are already several kits out there - both breadboard and protoboard with solder holes in them. Get with the times!

Try this: http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/slice-of-pi/

Or this: http://www.skpang.co.uk/catalog/raspberry-pi-cover-with-breadboard-area-red-p-1071.html

etc. I currently have the SKPang one for my Pi.

So you're the getaway driver sitting in the stolen Merc - your partners in crime are runing towards you. You hit the 'start' button... "Please wait while we install the latest software update. This process will take approximately 5 of your finest German minutes." Fantastic!

Heh... ZZ needs 2 keypresses, :x three (because it's :x RETURN) Similarly :wq is 4 keypresses.

Of-course someone might argue that needing the shift key is really another keypress, but they're probably emacs users... ;-)

ZZ

What about Arduino plus a propellor? http://www.xgamestation.com/view_product.php?id=51

Looks fun - wish there was more time to the day to play with these things...

Eliza, is that you?

Maps aren't critical at all, however I just want to carry one device - not a separate GPS, phone, etc. If Nokia released OVI maps with turn by turn directions for the N900 then I'd be really happy.

I too am an N900 user... However after seeing my wifes HTC Desire, I suspect my mext phone might be the Desire with the keyboard... (HTC Vision) I've been a Nokia communicator user from day 1, but I think Nokia has somewhat lost the plot now - I miss the maps on my old N90 (the 3.5 year license expired!) and there isn't anything bundled with the N900 and it looks like there never will be. My wife seems to get on OK with Google maps on hers.... But it'll be a year or more before I'm ready for a new phone, so who knows what'll be out there then... G

I'm sorry that your country can't cope with 30GB a month per user. That's a fairly standard offering where I am in the UK, and of-course, at least 8 hours of that will be in off-peak and unmetered time (depending on the ADSL package you have)

A Pair of Grandstream video phones will fit the bill (although they're not Wi-Fi - so run a cable), however can you afford the bandwidth? You're talking about 250Kb/sec each way more or less 24/7 ... That's close to 500MB a day, each way. OK if you have unmetered access, but I've really no idea what your internet conneactions are like... If they meter both ways, budget for one GB a day...

You'd need to do some port-forwarding in each router (UDP 5060 + the RTP ports) and 'dial' the other site by IP address - it's not hard on the GXV phones and it saves setting up proxys/sip servers/asterisk, etc. If you set each phone to auto-answer then it's not hard to re-establish the link if it fails for whatever reason.

Failing that, if you want to be PC/Laptop based - look for Ekiga...

I use a combination of GXV3000 video phones, Ekiga and my Nokia N900 to make/take video calls from my family and in-laws, although I use an Asterisk server to co-ordinate everything and we don't stream 24/7!

BT are already doing this - admittedly in Textual form on responses to twitter and to their BTcare email system.

Example of a bit of email they sent me:

Once again I am very sorry that you feel that I haven't been of service to you and that you feel really angry, upset and disappointed.

What I sent them: You haven't been of service to me and now I'm really angry, upset and dissapointed.

In response to their: Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

BTcare - what a joke.