Picks and Pans

A friend warned me when I said I was going to work on a USB controller. He
said it was a huge spec and it would take me months to figure it all out.

I didn't believe him. I went off to write a host controller for the PowerPC
8xx chip. Six month passed. Turns out he was right. Still, it was fun
to learn the entire spec from top to bottom.

Who ever claimed that USB was going to make anyone's life easier was a liar.
There are days when I am amazed it works at all. While I like many things
about it it seems way too complex for the job it need to do. Maybe I'm
just too simplistic.

It's been interesting to track the Linux USB project for the last
year. They have been slowly adding devices while struggling with
controller driver issues and (mostly) software interface issues. The
first generation of USB stack was simple and worked for keyboards and
mice but didn't help more complex devices. This was scrapped for the
2.3.x/2.4.x kernels. The new API is better but has some
synchronization holes in it which are both poorly specified and poorly
understood. But, as with most things linux it will get sorted out and
the problems will get solved.

Most of the linux code is pretty good. The UHCI and OHCI drivers are,
well, while working they still have some bugs and problems.

Posted by Brad at 12:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Here's my list:

• That new concept Porsche (it's only about $250k but my wife says no)
  
• A TIVO which connects to ethernet and will download movies from the
  internet.
  
• An 802.11b network in my house for $200
  
• A 1.5mb DSL link to my office for $60/month
  

Posted by Brad at 12:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Just musing about DSL. There was an article in the globe today
(12/17) about DSL. I'm finally getting a bigger picture here.

I've had a lot of cognitive dissonance about DSL lately. On one hand
everyone is saying CLECs are in the toilet and on the other hand I keep
hearing about people connecting using DSL.

I think I finally figured it out (for me anyway).

Here's my impressions of the current DSL market

• - the clec market has, in fact, gone into the toilet. too bad.

• - many manufacturer's have been selling exclusively into the clec market.

• - manufacturer's who have been selling to big phone companies are doing ok.

• - Most of the CLECs seem to have been deploying SDSL boxes connected
  to RedBack DSLAMs.

• - The 'phone companies' are catching all the customers falling out of
  the dying clec's tree... There seems to be only room (economics wise)
  for 1-2 dslams in most CO's...
  

Apparent distilation:

• - DSL as delivered by clecs isn't going to be the goldmine we thought it was. It turned out to be too expensive and too hard to differentiate.

• - ADSL will be continue to be delivered in volume buy the traditional phone
  companies. will revive the gasping customers of the failed clecs.

• - It would be interesting to talk to a sales person from Redback and find
  out who they sold to last year and who they will sell to next year.
  

Posted by Brad at 12:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I feel like I'm the only person on the planet left without a DVD player.
I just can't figure out what to do. What I really want is a DVD player
which will output some form of HDTV format. Then, I could see a clear
upgrade path and I'd eventually have a player which output video in
a format I actually want to view.

I really want an integrated DVD player with a decoder and an amp.
Other wise you end up with a huge tv/video/stereo monstrosity which no
one can operate. A friend of mine had an existing TV, VCR and Stereo.
He made the mistake of adding a Satellite TV and a DVD player in short
order. He tried to wire them all together and found that his wife could
no longer watch tv.

It's no wonder. Just getting everything powered up is a feat, let
along getting everything in the right 'mode' to pass the audio and
video through the right processors and out of and into the right boxes
is nearly impossible. You end up with 4 remotes and no hope of ever
just pushing one button.

He ended up disconnecting the satellite and DVD and putting them on
another tv. Not exactly high tech.

One simple solution (which I plan to use) is to connect the DVD player
to "input 2" on the TV. That way everything works as it does today.
(and, btw, the fact that the VCR trumpts everything because it's last
in line is a huge blessing which I never plan to remove until the VCR
goes away).

What these devices all need is a common communication bus which they
all live on. That way the TIVO, by far the smarted and easiest to use
device I own could force them all to obey and 'do the right thing'.
(I think it's no coincidence that the TIVO runs linux, btw.)

Back to my anxiety, I want to bye the Sony DVPS360. But I also want 5
channels of sound. But I don't want one of those monster sound
processors with 400 buttons which my 2.5 year old will surely
touch/change/break. (you should have seen what he did to the on/off
switch of this old laptop).

Sony does make a box with an integrated decoder and amp. It's probably
no more than boom-box audio quality, but it is simple (it only has an
volume control on the outside)...

Posted by Brad at 12:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)