[ale] Misc ramblings of a diseased mind

[Thompson Freeman]

I hadn't thought of motorcycles.

Hmmm. Yet another option.

On 07/21/2009 12:25:40 PM, Richard Bronosky wrote:
> I used to use 2 cell phones (free minutes within same
> network) as a
> baby monitor so that I could work in the garden while the
> baby naps.
> Then I realized that walkie talkies would be better. They
> now have
> Duplex and VOX walkie talkies. I think that motorcyclists
> use these
> for "interbike" communications also. Having to push the
> button on a
> half duplex system would be a deal breaker.
> 
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 11:51 AM,
> tom<tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> wrote:
> >
> > I'm back from a road trip to see grandchildren and
> children. Too much time
> > spent driving means too much time for the mind to wander
> into ideas and
> > questions. This being one of the more intellegent groups
> of people
> > around...
> >
> > Due to vehicle size, there were a couple of times when
> we needed to convoy
> > rather than ride the same bus. While cell phones have
> some use here,
> > answering the "Is anybody as hungry as I am?" type
> questions, lets face
> > the fact that they are expensive to use for much longer
> conversations
> > while traveling, increase the risk of accident for their
> management when
> > there is a single person in the car, and are not really
> a general
> > solution despite being in almost every pocket/pocketbook
> around. I have
> > seen a hacks book suggest setting up a two car
> communications system with
> > laptops and ad hoc settings on the wireless setups, but
> I don't think that
> > the setup would scale at all well to a three or four
> vehicle convoy of
> > family/friends/what have you. At least the hardware
> would be frequently
> > available.
> >
> > With a family reunion coming up in December, having a
> nice multi-vehicle
> > convoy voice-com system with moderate range, decient
> privacy settings,
> > and ease of use, would be an interesting item to have.
> Two approaches have
> > occured to me, but neither feels quite right.
> >
> > First one would be something setup with an Arduino type
> controller using
> > XBEE mesh networking type connections. Of course, I'm in
> over my head at
> > this point, and would probably need to hire somebody to
> design and
> > implement if I _needed_ it. Or turn it over to the
> general public (like
> > ALE) and see if anything turned up if I don't _need_.
> It's an idea but
> > poorly concieved at the moment.
> >
> > Second would be to do mesh networking with Linux and
> VOIP technology. Put
> > things on a thumb drive, tell people to bring lappies
> and possibly USB
> > style networking equipment, and go nuts. 'Course I don't
> know much of
> > anything about getting mesh networking going, and even
> less about things
> > like security and range so...
> >
> > Off the top of my head, I suspect I'd like to shoot for
> the ability to
> > have ranges of near a mile over the highway between any
> two vehicles,
> > automatic reconnection, voice level bandwidths with a
> little extra for
> > comfort or expansion, encrypted links for privacy since
> this isn't CB, and
> > the ability to automatically scale up to multiple (shoot
> for 20?)
> > vehicles.
> >
> > Anybody here find either idea amusing enough to make a
> useful comment?
> > A ticket for the Clue Train? Even a snide comment?
> >
> > As usual, thanks to all members of the list for the use
> of their
> > bandwidth. I do appreciate it.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >
> 
> 
> 
> --
> .!# RichardBronosky #!.
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 
>