h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Bluetooth, it's Applications and Problems - A748514
Author: THE FROG - U194177

A748514 - 'Bluetooth, it's Applications and Problems'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A748514

Doing a search on H2G2 yielded very few results regarding Bluetooth. Some were, in fact, incomplete!! I decided to dig post up my Bluetooth article here... I believe it's complete. If there's anything anyone would like to say, I would love to see your replies.

Thanks.

U194177 (The Frog)

Hi Frog!

I'm not at all familiar with the subject matter, howea couple of comments.

You need to define all the acronyms, eg WAN/LAN and PDA. I think most of the rest are defined.

The entry needs to be completely in the third person. You have some first person stuff in the midsection. If you want to include first person stuff, you could do it by putting it into blockquotes and introducing it as 'a researcher's opinion is: xxxx'.

Anyway, that's my 2p. No doubt more qualified people will have things to say.

One more thing, you won't be allowed to retain the final paragraph. You'll automatically be credited with writing the entry. Your name is shown on the top right hand side.

Hey thanks for your input. I'll um... ok I'll change it now. I had a slight misconception there... I'll fix it.

Hi Frog

You obviously have a detailed knowledge of this subject. And it's a very important subject that far more people ought to know about, because it's going to affect their future. And it's well written too. So congratulations!

But I think that as it stands your entry is more suitable for a specialised audience, and the readership here is more general and will include a lot of people such as myself who haven't been deeply into the technicalities. So my personal opinion is that it should be simplified.

The danger with long lists of technical definitions is that you run the risk of losing the general reader long before they get to read the important points you make towards the end. So you might like to consider putting the lists of specifications and definitions (if you think you need them) at the end of the entry, and using the main part of the entry to develop your 'story'.

I know it's hard to take whole chunks out of what you have written, especially when it's factually accurate and probably relevant to the experts. But I would have preferred to read a more general description of Bluetooth, what it is, what it can do for the ordinary person, and what the problems are, in a way that I can understand more easily.

It's a good entry, and obviously needed. And other people may well disagree with me anyway. So well done!

FWIW

Bels

Hi Belshazzar, Keeper of The Writing On The Wall and All Graffiti (gasp for air)

First off, thanks for going through that lengthy article! I do appreciate your comments, because this is my first entry here at H2G2. I was unaware of the audience level that you refer to. It seems that I'll need to generalize the entry on the whole.

I assume the only difficult part for you was the technical terms there?

I will go over my guide and see what I can do.

I'm glad you liked it.

--Frog.

'Bels' will do nicely

If you click on 'Contribute' at the top of the page that will lead you forth to lots of stuff on what to write and how to write it.

If you are going to do some more work on the entry, do post back here when you've done that, so people can take another look.



Bels

A comprehensive, but very technical article, so again, I'll emphasise that just because something is technical, it doesn't have to be complicated... Try to explain some of the concepts a little more simply. Life is simple, or rather anything can be explained to a child... even quantum mechanics! You just have to use the right words.

Also you haven't stated the VERY obvious and also "slightly" worrying point regarding the frequency of 2.4Ghz having the same resonance frequency as Water. (Hence why they use it for microwaves).
Along with this, an explaination of the Wattage difference may be reassuring...

There are 2 other guide entries that mention Bluetooth, one on European Cellular Networks A593327 (Edited) and one on a speach by Douglas Adams, which is hilarious... A559893. Which you might want to link to.

But other than that, well done Frog You beet me too it...

OK... I've added the links as mentioned by the Fish. I went over my article to see how I could "simplify" it. But I didn't see very many places where changes could have been made. Except for one section in the middle, describing the technicalities associated with it (the RFCOMM one) it seems OK.

If someone else found it a bit daunting, anyone, perhaps point out where I'm faltering?

thanks. I'm happy it's actually being read!! :p

OK... I've added the links as mentioned by the Fish. I went over my article to see how I could "simplify" it. But I didn't see very many places where changes could have been made. Except for one section in the middle, describing the technicalities associated with it (the RFCOMM one) it seems OK.

If someone else found it a bit daunting, anyone, perhaps point out where I'm faltering?

thanks. I'm happy it's actually being read!! :p

I'll take a quick look at this later and check out all hte technical stuff. One advantage of working for a mobile phone compnay. I at least know the subject matter here. Will get vback to you on thsi one.

Well I guess I'm the only dimwit here, so do feel free to give me up as a hopeless case. But to take just one example, consider this paragraph:

"Compared with other systems operating in the same frequency band, the Bluetooth radio typically hops faster and uses shorter packets. This makes the Bluetooth radio more robust than other systems. Short packages and fast hopping also limit the impact of domestic and professional microwave ovens. Use of Forward Error Correction (FEC) limits the impact of random noise on long-distance links. The encoding is optimized for an uncoordinated environment."

That last sentence floors me completely!

How about changing that para to something like:

"Bluetooth radio is more robust than other systems operating in the same frequency band, and has the ability to limit the impact of interference or 'noise' from equipment such as microwave ovens."

Anyway, that's the sort of thing I mean!

FWIW

Bels

Aah, indulging in satirical self-derogatory remarks eh? lol. I see exactly what you're saying! You're not a dimwit. Dubya bush is. hehe. OK I get what you're saying.

I'm going to revise this article. I hope there's no deadline for this? Can someone tell me if there's any sort of a deadline thing for this, because one of the sub eds might pick it up, right?

Aah, indulging in satirical self-derogatory remarks eh? lol. I see exactly what you're saying! You're not a dimwit. Dubya bush is. hehe. OK I get what you're saying.

I'm going to revise this article. I hope there's no deadline for this? Can someone tell me if there's any sort of a deadline thing for this, because one of the sub eds might pick it up, right?

Aah, indulging in satirical self-derogatory remarks eh? lol. I see exactly what you're saying! You're not a dimwit. Dubya bush is. hehe. OK I get what you're saying.

I'm going to revise this article. I hope there's no deadline for this? Can someone tell me if there's any sort of a deadline thing for this, because one of the sub eds might pick it up, right?

Jeez... I'm the king of triple postings. I just had one earlier today. And it was so not my fault!!!!

There's no deadline. It's Scouts who pick it up, then it gets handed over to a sub-Ed. But they won't do that if they know you're still working on it. Post back here when you've had a chance to revise it and we'll all have another read.

And seriously, sometimes I do feel like a complete idiot - but thanks for being so nice about it.

Bels

nice entry. a couple of problems which haven't been covered include power levels and contention.

The higher the transmitter power, the fewer devices you can have operating in the band. There is currently a lot of talk about the higher power version you mention having to have step-down technology to drop the power to a level that is just good enough to maintain a reliable link.

With lower transmitter power you get a reduction in the cell size, and thus a lot of the contention problem is solved.

another point is that a lot of bluetooth devices only work with other devices from the same manufacturer (and not alwys with them).

Still, I am sure that that is only a tempory problem.