Cyberdyne's Journal: Cellphone Schadenfreude

The cellphone industry seems even more enthusiastic about bizarre acronyms than most technology areas, but this guy knows his way around them better than many. A good explanation of the nature of TDMA, GSM (actually an alternative layer on top of TDMA, as he explains) and CDMA, as well as the two competing CDMA derivatives, WCDMA (also known as UMTS or "3g") and CDMA2000, although he does focus more on the lower levels of the technology and how GSM's weaknesses are causing major headaches for the networks using it, rather than the security flaws in the higher levels...

Yah but old

[Com2Kid]

Old stuff, not really up to date, 3 years is a long time in technology.

Still good article, I reread it yesterday, I had read it before a few years ago.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Yah but old

[Com2Kid]

He does seem to be one of the few insiders talking about stuff.

Err, maybe we should get together and send him an e-mail asking for an update? :-D

Re:Yah but old

[Cyberdyne]

Old stuff, not really up to date, 3 years is a long time in technology. Still good article, I reread it yesterday, I had read it before a few years ago.

I find it more interesting to read predictions after the predicted developments have (or haven't) happened. In this case, he seems to have been pretty accurate; the sad thing being, the Euro-Empire is still insisting on forcing UMTS out there no matter what. On the other hand, one detail he missed is that upgrading to CDMA2000 would be just as difficult a

OT: Acronyms

[bettiwettiwoo]

Why is it that everything nowadays becomes an acronym? When did we stop inventing words ... and why?

Re:OT: Acronyms

[Timex]

I'll answer your question with a joke:

You know why Golf is named "golf"?

Because all the other four-letter words were taken.

Cars & Games

[bettiwettiwoo]

You know, as I read your comment I thought of cars. German cars. Which normally aren't four-lettered words at all. Volkswagen has, oh I don't know, menny, menny letters. On the other hand, Renault is a four-letter word: it's a well-known fact that the French people can't spell properly.

As for the game of golf, although I have never been foolish -- or brave enough --- to try it myself, it appears that only a four-letter words would be strong enough to describe it. But it supposedly builds character. Writes P

Re:Cars & Games

[tomhudson]

Why its called golf - reverse the letters and its what you do to your ball - you flog it.

Men should be arrested for flogging their balls in public.

Re:Cars & Games

[(H)elix1]

On the other hand, Renault is a four-letter word: it's a well-known fact that the French people can't spell properly.

Ah, need to clean the monitor after that one...

Re:OT: Acronyms

[daniil]

The tiny obnoxious liberal* in me [lpetr.org] says it's proof that the Imperialist English language is, in fact, dying, and the cultural hegemony of the US with it -- conveniently neglecting the fact that it's proof of the imminent death of the English language only because i say it is (one doesn't really follow from the other).

We have not stopped inventing new words. Not even English words. "Blog" and "blogger" are quite novel, for instance. We may have stopped inventing proper names for all the new things invented;

Name and Number

[bettiwettiwoo]

OMG, you mean my original post was an overstatement?!? 'I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!'

Once upon a time we used to be able to come up with words -- or, if you prefer, proper names -- for objects such as Common Haunch and Ass Inviting Receptacles without pretending that they, in and of themselves, involved descriptions of the object(s) in question. I think we just chickened out. I blame JFK. Or FDR. Tiny, obnoxious liberals might prefer to blame LBJ or GWB; dyslexics SUE (So