Hi Geoff,
I've sent request for authorisation on ICQ.
But ... I am not sure if multicasting is the right way to provide services on CZFREE (but this is only my personal point of view). The reason is that you may fill up these low capacity links (~5 Mb/s) with subscribing only one larger stream (MPEG-2 on 3 Mb/s).
I am studying Informatics (Computer Systems, things like Operating systems, Compilers, Networks etc.) at Charles University, and things like Ronja are apparently off my occupation. What I have to do now is to start working on my diploma thesis which is what I should have already done a year ago (I have been also coauthoring Links, another GPL project, which is a web browser some people from here know and use).
Ronja's goal was to build a 10Mbps links that spans 260 meteres between me and my friend, and performs well. I am happy with the link, the 1km distance is just an unplanned byproduct. As I have not been bound by any Non Disclosure Agreement (TM), I published the plans on the web, as I know they are probably useful for other people.
Selling things is about psychology and marketing. My hobby is electronics and computers. I am not interested in psychology and marketing. If I want to earn money in the future, I will find a job I have been taught to do at the University. Ronja is not among them.
If anyone wants Ronja to be better (longer distance, easier to build/manufacture, cheaper, bigger, faster, Scooter,...) let him take the plans and do it himself. I think I have already helped him enough with the basic development. If he is not able to do the improvement himself and needs my assistence, his only chance is to pay me as much as I get in the job I am doing to keep my fridge full, so I can take the time and fill it with Ronja development.
There is no further goal in my mind associated with Ronja. If someone finds a bug, I'll try to fix it. Shall I urgently need to span a 2km distance, I'll design Ronja 10M Bithazatd laser TX. Shall I urgently need a 100Mbps connectivity to my home, I'll maybe design Ronja 100M Bithazard.
I have been doing things according to what I think is good, and other people's notion of good is apparently different of mine. There have been no coworkers, deadlines, or budget, noone could fire me for doing what I think is good. Which is why the project succeeded I think, no matter how zero money have been spent on it.
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Neposílejte prosím žádosti o uživatelskou podporu od Ronji na moje PM, ale posílejte je na Ronja mailing list.
well you read it - Clock has to finish school, nobody should expect him to work beyond the point that fullfilled his needs - to spend his valuable time with another development. I fully understand it.
If it is not Clock's goal to make optical communication available to uneducated nontechnical people by commercializing ronja, it's mine. Not for profit, but for the great feeling of helping other people wiring communities together without control, commercial greed, for freedom.
That feeling is great - but somehow it has to be commercialized in a way that people can buy something they can not construct themselves. Like WiFi, computer parts, etc. Crusader should be another computer part, just like a CPU or ethernet card.
To fulfill market's needs, I plan to develop differentiated models that fit best local or remote (longer distances) usage needs - i.e. models for connecting locations like city parts, and models for connecting local streets and houses (and price has to be adequate).
Hmm, sounds too commercially, but I have come to conclusion, that some commercial level is necessary. Commerce per se isn't bad, it's that greed that is behind it....
Well, if you ask what you can help, maybe some sort of help with import of IC's that aren't readily available on our market, maybe co-financing first packs of those IC's (one can cost about $15, some 10-20 pcs. would be a good beginning - has yet to come).
Maybe if you have some connections - with Analog devices, Agilent, Micro Linear, other firms, etc. - it may be helpful, we don't know what we will need. Currently, our effort is concentrated on a usable manufacturable cheap prototype, let's say ronja-2
Oh, and another one thing necessary - a narrowband optical filter around 650nm - say +-30nm. I have no clue where to ask this special thing - it has to be cheap, too. Perhaps not interference filter, those are expensive.
Things are slowly progressing, only time will tell....
30.09.2002 v 13:21
