Category Archives: Commentary

Opinions

3G is better than EDGE for me!

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Some idiot makes the claim that EDGE is just fine and you don't need 3G for web-browsing. The author claims that pure bandwidth doesn't matter, and that latency is more important to the user experience (which I totally agree with) but then goes on to state that 3G has worse latency than EDGE, which is completely bogus.

I can't imagine the author had ever used a (working) 3G network, because in my experiance (using a Motorola Razr V3xx on AT&T/Cingular), the 3G network has ping times of 200ms, while the EDGE network has 800ms ping times. This means that when you click on a link using EDGE it takes about a second for the page to start loading, but if you are using 3G the web pages respond much faster! 

Using my phone's WAP/HTML browser is MUCH more responsive on the 3G network than on the EDGE network. (I switch to edge in some subway stations). The same thing applies to Google Maps (J2ME on the phone) which is much more usable on 3G, so this applies for apps that do intelligent caching as well as web browsing.

Bottom line, if you can get 3G instead of EDGE, do so!

Unlocking my Cingular / AT&T phone

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AT&T Death Star

AT&T allows some customers to "unlock" their phones. This allows the use of a SIM card from a different provider (for example, VodaFone) while traveling. (It also allows you to use the phone with another GSM provider in the US after your AT&T contract is finished, which is one reason AT&T and other carriers lock the phones they subsidize.) 

I don't know exactly what makes a customer "eligible" to have a phone unlocked, but I suspect that you have to have made several payments on time and be in good standing. When I am under a new contract with a subsidized phone I typically wait a few months (in this case, about 6) before calling in to ask to have my phone unlocked. I've had T-Mobile unlock three phones (under 2 different contracts) for me in the past, but this was the first time I tried it with AT&T.  

I suspect that AT&T has an official policy of making it difficult to unlock your phone. Here is my experience:

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Tinfoiling an entire office

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Tinfoiled Office My adviser received a promotion to full professor, so my group tinfoiled his office. It took 12 of us six hours, and almost 3000 square feet of aluminum foil. We individually wrapped books, computer cables, ceiling tiles, etc. The effect is best seen via this Quicktime VR panorama. I really recommend you take a look at the Quicktime VR view of the office, it really captured the ambiance wonderfully. Also, when the sun goes down in the late afternoon, the office gets to be painfully bright.

We also installed a new Port-a-Potty door and a congratulating plaque. Continue reading →

Evaluating a CS Ph.D. Program: The hard questions you should be asking.

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I am finishing up a Ph.D. in Computer Science, and have been involved in student panels at PhD student recruiting many times. In a lot of cases, the incoming recruits are straight out of undergrad and don't even know the "right" questions to ask about a PhD program/school when evaluating where they want to go. To help people who are evaluating a CS PhD program I have developed a list of the questions that you should be asking. Many of the questions are not specific to CS, and can be useful to ask at any PhD program recruiting event. Continue reading →

Review: PaperbackSwap.com

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PaperBackSwap.com is a website for people who want to trade paperback (and other) books. It allows you to post the list of books you have available to send. When somebody sees a book they want, they send you a "credit" to mail it to them. You can then use the credit to order a different book from any other member. (You also get a few free credits when you sign up and post your first nine books.)

I've been using this service for two months and have been quite happy with the process. They make sending books very easy with ready-to-print address labels (that double as book mailers). They will soon be adding the ability to print postage directly on the address labels, which will make sending books even easier.

Google error message

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This is the first time I've ever seen an error message from any google service. I was browsing Google News and opened a news story in a seperate tab. Aparently, the google click-tracking (that forwards you to the news story) was having problems. As you'd expect from their homepage, the error message is very simple and to the point.

google Error Message