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Using Your Computer to Repel Pests
circletimessquare writes "A Thai guy wrote a program that uses your computer speaker to repel mosquitoes, cockroaches, and rats! Just when you thought you heard it all before (pun intended for no good reason). " Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can
repel all known lifeforms just by playing his massive collection of boy band
MP3s.
Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by playing his massive collection of boy band MP3s.
Good thing -1's aren't around anymore, cause they'd have a hayday with that comment, taco!!
Just a thought.
I hate cleaning up all those broken dishes every morning.
Table-ized A.I.
Ever heard of oversharing ?
...will repel CowboyNeal?
Millions of DEBUG and WINDOWS jokes to follow...
Mosquito Magnet is now obsolete?
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
If this thing can repel them, I wonder if they have something that could be used to attract them somewhere else.
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
The software program they talk about can be found on (an almost all Thai) web site here.
I couldn't tell if you were experimenting with poor-man's cryogenics or looking for the orange sherbet.
About a RAID array of say 14-15 15K RPM SCSI hard drives?
All I have to do is crank up some Antonio Carlos Jobim and my brother mysteriously disappears.
Now that's what I call a real pest repellent
for a handheld.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
Off! I'll just bring my laptop to the great outdoors... with a wireless net connection you could download different types of repellent too, maybe ones for bees and annoying campers who won't leave you alone.
"Some users of the mosquito-repelling program have reported headaches after long periods spent in front of a computer emitting the bug-repelling high-pitched whine."
No comment on whether these users got the same headaches just by sitting in front of the computer for hours at a time without the program running?
Why are speakers designed to emit sound at frequencies undectable by humans in the first place? I can't imagine that the designers of computer speakers had these types of applications in mind. Does the program work with any speakers, and do some speakers offer better high frequency performance than others?
-- Adam
I wonder what is going to happen when you run this thing on a MS Windows system.
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
Hrmm, the thing only works two meters from the "computer" which I assume means the speakers. Oh well. In the meantime, at least I won't get malaria (or west Nile Virus here in the states)
My favorite qoute from the article:
"Saranyou told the paper the latest version of the pest controller will not annoy dogs or risk causing headaches because the frequencies that annoy rats and cockroaches are undetectable by human or canine ears. "
*sigh* and here I thought they were talking about politicians.
hmmmm?
I have a great device that I use to repel rats. It's called a house.
You're a goddamn cocksucker, you know that?
Fuck, I've seen some obvious karma whoring, but you take the cake, the stripper inside, and the whole fucking table it's sitting on.
Cockroaches, Blood Suckers, and Rats!?!
Better not fire up that baby in congress!
Yeah, I know it's lame, but this is funnier.
tcd004
They go to your neighbor's place, prompting your neighbor to install repelling software too. Looks like a great opportunity for a commercial product.
The electronic mosquito repellents use ultrasonic sound, i.e. sound that is so high that it can't be heard by humans. Basically, they emit similar sounds as the natural enemies of mosquitos. I really wonder how well such sounds can be reproduced using regular computer speakers that can barely reproduce the frequencies we hear.
- FF
while true;do echo -e -n "\033[s\n\033[u\134_\033[B";done
naa. C0wb0yKn33l kan repel all lifeforms with his dirty GNU/hippie reek of gay and lardassness
If only I understood Thai, so I could set Anti-Mal to Anti-CowboyNeal mode.
We can do it in the polls, but you, his boss -- no fair! Man, if I were CowboyNeal, I'd be thinking of talking to the Labor Commissioner about workplace harassment.
Infuriate left and right
If I scared rats away then who would power my computer?
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
Forget Off! I'll just bring my laptop to the great outdoors...
While it repels mosquitoes, it remains untested regarding bears.
*tested in a controlled laboratory environment on a random sampling of M$ contract workers - YMMV
** M$ makes no warranty express or implied about the effects of the product on actual users of the software. Some users have reported headaches, extreme nausea and depression after using XP. Use only as direted. Unauthorized copies of XP may cause blindness or instant death - you have been warned.
MHO. YMMV. Any resemblance between this post and real persons, or reality in general, was accidental.
According to a colleague at Rutgers: .... Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that electronic mosquito repellers do not prevent host seeking mosquitoes from biting. In most cases, the claims made by distributors border on fraud.
Hand-held electronic devices that rely on high-frequency sound to repel mosquitoes have become surprisingly popular in recent years
While your downloading this software, if you buy a NYC landmark from me, I'll throw in a set of Mr. Chiu's immortality rings at no extra charge!
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
I download it ! It's only an Windows version. I wonder to know if Windows will work again without bug !
Hope they will put an Linux version soon !
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
Such a trick may only work for so long. Eventually bugs and pests will evolve a tolerance to it. Being that bugs reproduce pretty quickly, it may only take a few years before it is ineffective I would guess.
Then again, if there is nothing to eat there, and most bugs are just accidental interlopers, evolution may not do much.
IOW, if you are a slob (like most slashdotters), then Darwin will win.
Table-ized A.I.
makes me want to plug my PC speaker back in...
No, wait, I am indoors. No need for that.
But seriously, WTH would you need a cockroach repellant for? Chances are if you got roaches, you will just drive them deeper into your kitchen. But your computer will be roach free!
Damn, some inventions are pointless.
A small computer speaker is incapable of emitting the frequencies required to repel those animals. Humans can hear from 20hz to 20khz. The speaker in your box can only emit sounds well within that range -- far too low to bother dogs, let alone repel rodents and insects.
CNN has been had.
It makes this annoying, high pitched noise in certain video modes, when I'm trying to play MAME games. I know it makes the dog jump up and get the hell out of the living room.
Wanna bet this bugware is actually a virus. And /. is the host...
I can deal with bugs. I'm waiting for someone to come out with a program that will repell my boss!
---- "Physics is like sex: It has a practical use, but that's not why we do it." -- Richard Feyneman
I thought CmdrTaco was going to say:
"Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by standing there!
An optimist believes we live in the best world possible; a pessimist fears this is true.
Back in the BBS days, I remember "a friend of mine" downloading a program that was supposed to emit "mind-altering" tones that would simulate drug-use/hallucinations. Basically the program just showed random screensaver-esque and nifty/trippy color stuff on the screen while making your pc-speaker buzz odd tones.
Yeah, it was crap, but it just makes me wonder if this thing is crap too.
unf.
He can repel geeks from 200 miles with his blatent Heterosexuality.
Props to poopbot.
is portsentry: repels dozens of pests every day!
/etc/inetd.conf and entries in hosts.allow and hosts.deny, you can keep the pests away from your boxen with very little effort. Tail -f /var/log/messages and you can see the little buggers trying to pester you right before *SWAT* they're locked out!
Combine it with heavy editing of
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
Download it here: http://www.thaiware.com/software/util/UL00724.htm
Speakers don't generate an exact range of sounds, with perfect reproduction inside the range and dead silence outside. You'd have to add some kind of way expensive filter. What would be the use?
Infuriate left and right
idiot
I don't know about PCs in America, but the Indian Simputer definitely needs this feature!
All your favorite sites in one place!
This reminds me of third grade when I'd program the Commodore 64 in the back of the classroom to generate a constant 18khz tone designed to covertly give everyone in the back row a headache. At the time, I was convinced they all deserved much worse. :)
Some users of the mosquito-repelling program have reported headaches after long periods spent in front of a computer emitting the bug-repelling high-pitched whine.
Some users have reported headaches after long periods spent in front of a computer.
College education costs are on the rise, and I think the actual college education is degrading just as fast...
In my house, which was overrun by mice when they demolished a run-down building beside us. Dozens of mice, everywhere. The device produces little high frequency clicks that drives mice totally crazy. They just love it! All the mice descended on my kitchen, where I put the thing, and ate my cat's food. The cat just watched. Finally I had to poison them with old editions of MSDN, which they chew and swallow but cannot digest. They explode in little blue puffs.
Cockroaches and mosquitos are less common here in Belgium, where I'm writing from, but tomorrow I'm going to download Punyaratanabunbhu's (that's Puny for short) Anti-Mal and try it on the cat.
This has to be one of the weirdest uses for old PCs that I can imagine, following my neighbour, who gave an old laptop (no HD, no battery) to his kids as a toy. It really hurt to see them drop it and squeal with joy.
My blog
Why was this modded up?
-- Cheers!
Get your computer to play the BeeGees and you'll repel almost anything
If you are in a developed country, and you are constantly having problems with mosquitos, cockroaches, and rats around your workspace, simply MOVE YOUR FUCKING COMPUTER INDOORS!
"And like that
My first CS class in undergrad was Pascal. It had a function that let you play the speaker at a designated frequency for a period of time. I used to set it to bounce between two very high frequencies (say 12k-14k Hz) so you couldn't really hear it that well, then leave the room for a couple hours. My roommates knew something was up, but they never figured it out.
yep, those red ants.
Or more accurately:
"I just make asinine karma-whoring comments like this, and I'm friend-free."
If it was still at 2 when you looked, it wasn't modded up. The jackass used his +1 posting bonus to put it up there, since he thought it was some kind of great way to whore some karma.
Of course, it's possible some dipshit fell for it in the interim and *did* mod it up before someone rightfully slapped it down.
CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by playing his massive collection of boy band MP3s.
.
And of course, since file-sharing doesn't mean piracy, CowboyNeal owns the CDs, doesn't he..
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these things! Then you could stop those damned locusts!
Don't give them a reason to get near you in the first place! Take a bath every day--it's a great excuse to get away from your computer for a while (and I promise that a little soap won't hurt you). That, and why not take a minute to clean up all the soda cans and pizza boxes lying around your desk/room/office. Unless you work outside, live in a dorm, or some other run-down dwelling, I don't see why you would need to repel anything in the first place. If you are attracting rodents, maybe you need to get a little better with the personal hygiene.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Hee hee! This paints some nice mental images. A little heavy on the use of the brown end of the spectrum however...
You mean like THE WIPO TROLL ...? You fucking suck.
There already is one being sold, its a plug in unit. Might be where this came from... i.e. reverse engineering.
I've got an insect and pest repellent... It's called a sub-woofer.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I just play Ventolin off of Aphex Twin's I Care Because You Do at full volume.
It works pretty well. Although now when I turn off my computer, I can still hear it.
What is music when you despise all sound?
Moe: "Okay, everybody tuck your pants into your socks!"
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
I would imagine if this type of beg repellant really did work cities would have speakers everywhere. They don't because it doesn't.
I have an Alinco handheld ham radio (2m) that offers this feature. I cant imagine running the battery down for a dubious effect, when I can get backwoods Off(tm) (100% DEET) or that military cream, and really keep them off. Yes, it's nasty smelly and possibly cancerous, but Houston (like most of the country apparently) has West Nile in a BROAD spectrum of the mosquito population (we used to just have to avoid the culex mosquitos, small dusk-time ones that carried St. Louis Encephalitis.)
BTW, Cowboy neals boy band mp3s repel pests because likes repel, opposites attract (which is why Cdr. Taco likes them soo much...)
Presuming this is on an internal speaker, I'm gonna wax nostalgic.
:), and turn the speaker on or off depending on whether the 8-bit sample value was positive or negative. There was a more advanced technique that was quieter, but much smoother-sounding, that gave several levels of volume, instead of just on/off.
That little thing was cool.. anyone remember RealSound in Access Software games, where they'd play voice and music samples through the internal speaker?
I wrote a routine that did this for my own little shoot 'em up Xerix... you'd set the timer going at 8000 times a second (instead of the usual 18.2
Of course, there would always be a carrier frequency of 8000 hz, which was pretty annoying.
I miss those days!
repel mosquitoes, cockroaches, and rats
I am much more worried about repelling Mo$quitoes and RIAAts.
TodayTM BillyJoelTM GoogleTMd for StitchTMes due to WindowsTM while RollerbladeTMing with an AppleTM and a PopsicleTM
10 SOUND 255,255
20 GOTO 10
In my job as an IT consultant and Investment Banker/Artist, I have learned that 100% of people appealing to authority as anonymous cowards are lying about it.
I could have sworn this was a dupe post... i had read about this (i though here) months ago...
But my search revealed nothing... cept this story about a device which repels sharks...
dmarien
Dump a big CO2 source away from you, like a big brick of dry ice. (As Alton Brown would suggest) The mosquitos and other blood suckers will probably gravitate there because they have evolved to be attracted to CO2.
CO2 -> Living creature breathing -> Free food.
It's probably a lot better than some "ultrasonic" pest repellent.
here is a similar program that claims to help you stop smoking, drinking and cures headaches among other things. www.bwgen.com
A friend of mine once proposed building a mechanical box that duplicated, in hardware, the two-winged thrum of a dragonfly. He spends a LOT of time outside, wandering about in the woods and in marshes and has come to the conclusion that as soon as a dragonfly appears, the mosquitoes seem to vanish.
... TVs drive me up the wall).
;-)
Now, it's either that he only noticed the 'fly after it ate all the little turds, or they're hardwired to flee the noise of it's wings.
I'm wondering if that particular thrumming sound would be effective (since the high-pitched whine version would probably drive me nuts anyway: I can sense tones up to 21KHz or so
So, who's got a recording of dragonfly sounds they want to share(ware)?
.f00Dave
Some users of the mosquito-repelling program have reported headaches after long periods spent in front of a computer emitting the bug-repelling high-pitched whine.
Who would have ever guessed?
~ now you know
use gdb to get rid of bugs.
In Borland compilers, there was an example in the online help demonstrating proper usage of the sound() function... There's a brief description here. And yes, this was really in the help files :)
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
I guess because the software effectively repels bugs.
badum-tshh. Thanks! I'll be here all week, tip your waitresses.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Its gonna give me a head ache!
Does anyone know the frequency of sound this thing produces? I want to create an mp3 of it so I can make a more portable version..
(Ya.. I know they sell watches, etc.. that create the same noise.. but I'm cheap.. )
If you are having issues with pests in your home, using this (if it even works) is just attempting to cure the symptoms. The real solution is to wash the dishes, clean the house, mop the floors, and find out why and how these things are getting in.
Best prevention? Cleanliness!
BTW - Arguing that you will use this while camping will just make you look dumb.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Think about that for a minute. An MP3 of an inaudible sound.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
If this actually works, someone should write a version of it that runs through the soundcard. It would give a much better frequency response and have the ability to emit multiple tones simultaneously.
I played the sounds backward and all the pests came back.
Table-ized A.I.
All we need now is a way to repel sale and/or marketing people with speakers
The only thing that we learn from history is that nobody learns anything from history.
For a quick test, I stood up in the middle of the office, and made an opera-like squeal for as long as I could, until my voice went horse.
Eventually everybody in the nearby cubicles left.
The drawback, though, is that you have to eat lunch alone.
Table-ized A.I.
I assume that the common version of this works in Windoze, since that's the mass market fave. But what do Linux and other Unix fans do? Clearly, this is one debugger that needs an open source version!
Leesse... Gnu Debugger, new switches to be added:
repel mouse
repel mosquito
repel cowboy neal... no, he's okay.
"Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by playing his massive collection of boy band
MP3s."
I am now totally convince he is gay!
I am writing a program that ticks off bees. Basically what would happen is your sitting at your computer, you run my program in the background, and all of the suddent all the bees, wasps, and other flying stining creatures in your neighborhood start flying into your glass windows, till they eventually break, at which point...
As I see it, the next step for this software is to repel all co-workers and bosses who think they are smarter than you.
Maybe you can write a script that keeps these pests away when servers go down or when somebody approaches your desk.
At the very least they will be complaining from 2m (6 feet) or more. At that distance, you can hopefully just shut the door.
"Yeah...Peter...I'm gonna have to go ahead and ask you to go ahead and...:::::SCREECHING HIGH FREQUENCY SOUNDS:::::
Idiots repeat this BULLSHIT that has been debunked by vigorous scientific evidence. Number ONE, mosquitoes have no ears! Hard to believe, but true! Sound powerful enough to repel mosquitoes would be in the megawatt range and would repel Thai's too, despite the massive amounts of ganja they obviously smoke!
Numba 2, most insects have no ears as such, but can sense vibrations. Roached will scurry away when sonic pressure changes, but if it remains constany, they tune it out. Try citronella candles and then pyrethum based insecticides. Or move to Antartica, thy are big down there, but the season lasts a very short time..
That theory actually makes sense why would anyone want to market that?
...so why would you buy a repeller, and how do you know it doesn't work?
This type of technology has been advertised many times on infomercials. It just doesn't work, though. My wife bought one of those roach repellers that plugs into the wall and emitts sound and EM pulses. Guess what? No change. We didn't have roaches before and we still don't.
I would imagine if this type of beg repellant really did work cities would have speakers everywhere. They don't because it doesn't
I've never heard of anyone setting up a computer to repel rodents, but the idea of using sound waves as a mosquito repellant is actually fairly old. I'm from Minnesota, where the summertime masquitos get pretty bad; fortunately most, if not all, of the local radio stations will embed a high frequency sound into the radio transmission so that if you're outside listening to your favorite station, the bugs really aren't too bad.
The rats and cockroaches are definitely new to me though.
You have to be smarter than the machine you're working with.
The fan and hard drive noise alone from my box is enough to drop flies at ten feet.
YAHOO! WHEEEEE ! IT IS ABOUT FRIGGIN' TIME. OH MY THAT IS THE GREATES...
Oh.
rats.
I thought it said Katz.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Hey since this thing repels bugs, I think MS should license this technology and make it part of their OS, and we would get a bug-free system, wouldn't we?
Gives whole new meaning to "RAID array"
- Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.
Does anybody here know where else I can download this program from? The Thailand site says I do not have permission. D'oh!
Or this isn't ultrasonic: I can definitely hear Anti-MAL's sounds for all three pests. And the sounds aren't pretty: they're enough to repel me. BZZZZZZZZ....
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
For the troubled (ie lazy), you can see the page here (and download it from the mirror sites located at the bottom), bug proggie
i've used my computer to repel women for years...
Free Webmail
LMAO! Really - full bodied guffaw! Did no one else consider this?
Anything you say will be held against you.
Can anyone else hear that terrible noise?
I've just hooked my box up to my surround system and cranked up this pest control software. Not only does the high pitch screeching have the rodents running, but my annoying neighbors who bug me for tech support haven't came around all day! I'm loving this. Granted I have to stay locked in another room with earmuffs on, but I think its worth the trade-off. Good thing my landlord is deaf... /*SCSI-Wan*/
Can we get this guy to tweek his program to repell RIAA personel?
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
As to why I would buy it if we didn't have any roaches in the first place...ask my wife. She's always buying shit we don't need (and she gets angry when I try to buy stuff we do [like that 56in TV]).
Please note that in order to work properly, the system library files PLACEBO.DLL and GULLIBLE.DLL must be present in your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory, and C:\EXPLORE.EXE must be moved from the C:\WINDOWS directory into the Recycle Bin.
And if you act now, we'll throw in this free HANDS FREE CELL-PHONE ADAPTER!
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
From dictionary.com a pun is "play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words."
The "pun" here is presumably on the word "heard". However, it's two identical uses of the word. Maybe a bad joke, but not a pun.
The Math Maestro Tutoring Services in Seattle
- There already is one being sold, its a plug in unit. Might be where this came from... i.e. reverse engineering.
Alright, question here folks;Do these things really work??? I mean you can buy little handheld ultrasonic bug repellers down at the supermarket for $13 or $14 here in the States, I am wondering if the darn things work at all before I spend some money on them.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Great! Just set a Gigawatt transmitter to broadcast the stuff into space, and see which systems start accelerating away from us! Voila! Life!
Oh, wait, he said "known" lifeforms ...
Any sufficiently simple magic can be passed off as mere advanced technology.
In other news Korean's eat dogs!
The sound of horse humping could drive mosquitos away for all I care. Facts are Facts, with or without a degree.
Some users of the mosquito-repelling program have reported headaches after long
periods spent in front of a computer emitting the bug-repelling high-pitched whine.
Strange, and here I thought it was those long periods of playing Counter-Strike on my
computer!
rocco.
truly one of the most obnoxious songs around.
it worked for me too, i used it to get rid of a bunch of greeks at a house party once.
Everytime I start it up, my dog comes over and tries to hump my leg. I called tech support, and they told me to use condums.
Table-ized A.I.
Cowboy Kneel.. Get it?
How many of you keep the animals out of the home office; run AC, box fans and provide other cooling and environmental controls especially when you are running the games with the 3D cards; and besides that compute indoors?
I wouldn't want to take a laptop with me everywhere in order to repel insects; I'll just spend $3.50 on some OFF and smell pine fresh for a few hours to play outdoors.
I think with the interesting people, their lives can't possibly be wrapped up into a nice little package.
Anyone out there checked to see what frequency range their computer speakers and sound card can accurately reproduce? I'd assume most design specs were made around the human-audible ranges....
now the day he gets that thing to make a sound to repel the RIAA, can someone record an mp3 of it for me to download off of morpheus? i'll play it through my stereo at home and my car deck while i drive around, i promise
Ever see squirrels attack tomato plants?
I think his large collection of Boy-Band MP3's is to attract a suitable mate. NOT to scare them away ;)
(begin quote)
Scientific evidence shows that most insects, rodents and other animals hear or sense the same range of frequencies that humans do. If a sound or frequency doesn't bother us, it is doubtful that it will bother pests. In many cases, even sounds that bother humans may not bother pests! Further, since gerbils, hamsters, mice and rats are all closely related, anything that irritates unwanted mice and rats will seriously affect pet rodents.
Testing has shown that sounds emitted by ultrasonic and subsonic devices do not carry far, with about one-half of the energy gone in 15 feet and none remaining at 30 feet. Objects in the path of the sound block the signal create "shadows." Since insects and mice hide behind couches, chairs, refrigerators, etc., these shadows would render the device useless.
(end quote)
I used to work in pest control, these devices will work for a short period of time, but most pests will adapt to any set of sound waves you try to use. I watched one company install $800,000 worth of audio repelling devices, only to find mice living in the control box!
They only disgusting they eat is your mom's dried out snatch, with lots of fish sauce. mmmmm good
en tea fuckwad.
> And of course, since file-sharing doesn't mean piracy, .
> CowboyNeal owns the CDs, doesn't he..
Well, actually no... according to the RIAA, he only bought licenses to play the music on the CD's that he owns, right?
is there something like this for linux? it would be nice to take advantage of the pc speaker. especially since i dont really use it for much. i wonder if it would be possible to select which pests to annoy. i have pet rats, but would like to scare off any insects.
-- john
I created a "testuser", chmod a+rw /dev/dsp* and ran the thing. It seems like it's doing absolutely nothing. Though I'm curious was the experts can say about the strace
Makes you wonder what the Windows version does. Too bad. I could use a working solution :(
That's great. I think the next upgrade should repell my girlfriend when I'm looking to have a moment by myself. It's either that or eat more meat, onions and other good gas producing munchies. [burp]
Mk.
Being a large cockroach, I must inform potential users of this software that any attempts to run this program will be considered an act of Terrorism by myself and others of my species. We will band together and file a class action suit.
Science News reports (Week of July 13, 2002; Vol. 162, No. 2)
"Tomato compound repels mosquitos"
Insect Biotechnology of Durham, N.C., has licensed the tomato compound for new lines of repellents and recently completed tests of an ointment laced with the chemical, now known as IBI-246. Even 12 hours after being applied to a volunteer's arm, it proved 91 percent successful at deterring landings by mosquitoes, notes company president Alan E. Brandt. "More importantly," he told Science News, "in terms of bites, it was 100 percent repellent." In comparison, the company's tests of DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide), the active ingredient in many current mosquito repellents, showed that after 12 hours, it inhibited landings by only 78 percent. "
I tried this app. it didn't work very well at all, I still had mosquitos and pets crowding my workstation.
The worst part about it is the cord for my headphones that I wear when I'm sitting at my desk keeps getting in my way when I'm trying to swat them.
every good mosquito nerd knows that controlled randomised study have shown those to be inefective. At best you could imitate the female's buzz frequency and attract males.
Males don't bite.
At best it can be used to annoy cats/dogs.
Morpholino
Does it only work on mosquitos and roaches, or will it debug your software as well?
I didnt know insects had ears
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
"2001-12-18 22:13:05 Anti-mosquito computer program (articles,news) (rejected)"
Previous version didn't work on rats through. Maybe that's why...
--
Where the hell is the source code?
we're especially serious since those damn new yorkers infested this country with the west nile virus. thanks guys!
EOM
It is called a command line prompt.
SCO (noun.)- A Slimy Corporate Ogre. Often seeks free money.
Does it also repel pets? :-)
"wsdegb nhkio.l/;", to quote my cat walking over my keyboard to her nap on the, now hairy, printer paper...
No sig to see here. Move along.
Shhhh!!! Don't give those priests ideas!
--
Intelligence is definitely a recessive trait.
What does it mean if you load the program, hit play, then experience the sudden urge to run away?
- Jonathan
... confirms.
Just installed this wonderful bug-reppelling wonder and Windows left my computer at once, screaming!
It's bug-free, now...
Please speak in Simpsoneese to explain things on slashdot. It works better.
---
Lisa: "By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away."
Homer: "Oh, how does it work?"
Lisa: "It doesn't work."
Homer: "Uh-huh."
Lisa: "It's just a stupid rock."
Homer: "Uh-huh."
Lisa: "But I don't see any tigers around, do you?"
Homer: "Lisa, I want to buy your rock."
For a good time call www.sawkie.com
Yeah, it's cool a third-grader could do that, but I don't think you'd have to be an especially bright 3rd grader to pull it off. I don't know c64 basic, but I do know that in pascal and c++, it only takes a few lines to do this - I can't imagine it would be that much harder on the c64.
I'm the stranger...posting to
let me get this straight, it reverse engineers bugs and only works on windows.
Isn't this a violation of the DMCA?
This article at nature.com talks about insect hearing and sites several interesting examples.
"The moment "pride" is lost, "freedom" is also lost." - Ramza.
"free from the threat of malaria which is
widespread in Thailand."
No. In fact, malaria has been almost completely
erradicated from Thailand. (Of course, that
doesn't make mosquito bites any less itchy...)
- Kevin
That is from the 'about box'. Last time I checked, the human hearing range was 20Hz to 20000Hz...
Wien Klin Wochenschr 2000 May 19;112(10):448-50
A blinded, controlled trial of an ultrasound device as mosquito repellent.
Sylla el-H K, Lell B, Kremsner PG.
Laboratoire de Recherche, Hopital Albert Schweitzer, Lambarene, Gabon, Federal Republic of Germany.
Ultrasound emitting devices are used to repel mosquitoes. We tested the repelling properties of a commercially available ultrasound device in a domestic setting in Gabon. Devices emitting three different block frequencies ranging from 3 to 11 kHz were tested in a paired, cross-over blinded and placebo controlled trial during eighteen nights in nine pairs of houses. A total of 7485 mosquitoes (10% Anopheles, 62% Culex, 27% Mansonia and 1% Aedes) were caught, 23 per house per night. There was no significant difference in landing rate between the houses with ultrasound device and the houses with placebo for any species of mosquito. Thus the ultrasound device used was not effective against mosquitoes in this strictly controlled trial.
A review article:
Rev Cubana Med Trop 1998;50(2):89-92
[Electronic repellents against mosquitoes: the propaganda and the reality]
[Article in Spanish]
Coro F, Suarez S.
Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de La Habana, Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba.
A bibliographic review about the use of electroacoustic devices with a supposed repellent action on the females of different species of hematophagous mosquitoes is presented. 15 direct references and 2 indirect ones are given, in which it is concluded that these devices do not protect those who have them from the stings of mosquitoes. The names of 9 of the tested devices as well as of 16 of the main species of mosquitoes present in the field tests are mentioned. These tests have been carried out in very different ecological conditions from Alaska to Equatorial Africa. It is also stressed that the high intensity ultrasonic frequencies emitted by these devices produces a potentially harmful effect on man.
And another:
J Am Mosq Control Assoc 1985 Jun;1(2):199-202
Tests of ultrasonic emissions on mosquito attraction to hosts in a flight
chamber.
Foster WA, Lutes KI.
Department of Entomology, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210.
Five ultrasonic devices generating fundamental frequencies of 20-70 kHz were tested for their efficacy in repelling mosquitoes. Four species (Anopheles quadrimaculatus, Aedes aegypti, Ae. triseriatus and Haemagogus equinus), were used in a flight chamber in which females must fly upwind against the direction of the sound waves and around the ultrasonic devices to reach a trap downwind of a source of human breath and skin emanations. Repellency was rated by the number of mosquitoes entering the trap during a series of 5 min tests. For all species there was no significant difference between the numbers trapped when the devices were switched on or off, when all devices were tested simultaneously. Tests of individual devices against Ae. aegypti also failed to show a repellent effect.
Even a cursory search of the relevant medical literature shows that these devices and the program for your computer speaker are useless. I'm always amazed at how easily "31337" programming is taken for practical knowledge.
Since my one off post got harshly criticized (see under "high frequencies," above), I did /.'s homework for it. A quick search of pub med shows that repeated controlled studies of ultrasonic "repellant" devices have no effect on mosquitos.
Wien Klin Wochenschr 2000 May 19;112(10):448-50
A blinded, controlled trial of an ultrasound device as mosquito repellent.
Sylla el-H K, Lell B, Kremsner PG.
Laboratoire de Recherche, Hopital Albert Schweitzer, Lambarene, Gabon, Federal Republic of Germany.
Ultrasound emitting devices are used to repel mosquitoes. We tested the repelling properties of a commercially available ultrasound device in a domestic setting in Gabon. Devices emitting three different block frequencies ranging from 3 to 11 kHz were tested in a paired, cross-over blinded and placebo controlled trial during eighteen nights in nine pairs of houses. A total of 7485 mosquitoes (10% Anopheles, 62% Culex, 27% Mansonia and 1% Aedes) were caught, 23 per house per night. There was no significant difference in landing rate between the houses with ultrasound device and the houses with placebo for any species of mosquito. Thus the ultrasound device used was not effective against mosquitoes in this strictly controlled trial.
A review article:
Rev Cubana Med Trop 1998;50(2):89-92
[Electronic repellents against mosquitoes: the propaganda and the reality]
[Article in Spanish]
Coro F, Suarez S.
Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de La Habana, Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba.
A bibliographic review about the use of electroacoustic devices with a supposed repellent action on the females of different species of hematophagous mosquitoes is presented. 15 direct references and 2 indirect ones are given, in which it is concluded that these devices do not protect those who have them from the stings of mosquitoes. The names of 9 of the tested devices as well as of 16 of the main species of mosquitoes present in the field tests are mentioned. These tests have been carried out in very different ecological conditions from Alaska to Equatorial Africa. It is also stressed that the high intensity ultrasonic frequencies emitted by these devices produces a potentially harmful effect on man.
And another:
J Am Mosq Control Assoc 1985 Jun;1(2):199-202
Tests of ultrasonic emissions on mosquito attraction to hosts in a flight
chamber.
Foster WA, Lutes KI.
Department of Entomology, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210.
Five ultrasonic devices generating fundamental frequencies of 20-70 kHz were tested for their efficacy in repelling mosquitoes. Four species (Anopheles quadrimaculatus, Aedes aegypti, Ae. triseriatus and Haemagogus equinus), were used in a flight chamber in which females must fly upwind against the direction of the sound waves and around the ultrasonic devices to reach a trap downwind of a source of human breath and skin emanations. Repellency was rated by the number of mosquitoes entering the trap during a series of 5 min tests. For all species there was no significant difference between the numbers trapped when the devices were switched on or off, when all devices were tested simultaneously. Tests of individual devices against Ae. aegypti also failed to show a repellent effect.
Even a cursory search of the relevant medical literature shows that these devices and the program for your computer speaker are useless. I'm always amazed at how easily "31337" programming is taken for practical knowledge.
I have to wonder does this program to turn a computer into pest repellant work like this device shown on this web page:
5 46 3330&PID=1060337
http://www.youcansave.com/pestoffense.html?AID=
Mind you, the way Pest OFFense works looks to be different than what that program does to your computer. (shrug)
Whoops--the message header should say Pest OFFense. (blush)
I just tried this program Anti-Mal. I could hear the all 3 types of sounds the program emitted from my speakers. Its no where near faintly audible, its down-right annoying. It sounded like a million crickets in hyper mode, with a bit of a higher pitch.
You'd have to be def to not hear the sounds Anti-Mal puts out!
..but I don't see any reason to even check this program out since there's no source code. Ugh.
Even really "good" speakers cannot compensate for the limits of your soundcard.
The _highest_ frequency that a soundcard can produce is one-half of it's maximum sampling rate output. For must of us, that implies (44,100 * 1/2) = 22.05 kHz, which is not far outside the "average" upper limit of human hearing (20 kHz).
If you paid alot for your soundcard, you may be able to produce 24 kHz sounds (which, most likely, your speakers can't reproduce, your amplifier can't amplify, and you couldn't hear anyway).
I dont think there are any commercial speakers with a frequency response beyond 22kHz (yet), and most dont get past 20. Several companies are working on small piezoelectrics that will, at which point we will need better $oundcards and new $tereo $ystems.
The following article may be informative in this respect: Humans can't distinguish anything higher than 20 kHz, but...
-alec
Composer of "Music for 16 DogWhistles" (which uses a motif from Cage's 4'33")
(* you should try this on each other rather than some poor animals, anyone who finds this amusing is a waste of oxygen anyway. dont let mom catch you doing it she might spank you. *)
As much as I hate to admit it, when I was younger I sometimes found such things highly amuzing.
I think there is a warrior instinct that occures in puberty that makes one fascinated about such things.
Fortunately for the world, I don't like to watch such things anymore. I don't like roller coaster anymore either, for that matter. (Even when I was a teenager, I was mostly a bystander to such torture events.....except for letting the dog lick peanut-butter off of a 9V battery.)
Hmmmm. I wonder what Klingon teenagers do for fun.
Table-ized A.I.
Brainwave Generator uses a method known as binaural beats to coax the brain into different predominant brainwave patterns (it's also worth noting that this has been proven to work when used properly).
Due to the nature of binaural beats (it's a stereo effect that requires headphones), it's impossible that this program utilizes them to repel insects and such (assuming it even works).
Just download the anti mos program ,a href="http://download.thaiware.com/program4/antimo sz.zip">here, unzip it.
It includes a
win32 GUI program
win32 text mode program
linux program (i assume its text)
Hope this helps
ermm
here is the working link
your != you're
(pronounced mid-gee) and it had no effect at all, it sat looking at my screen as I fiddled with the frequency control, and didn't move a millimetre.
Perhaps British midges are made of sterner stuff than Indian mozzies?
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
I'm not kidding, this type of stuff really works for some things. For example, we used to see 5-7 spiders/day in our house, and after getting the ones from costco, we now see 2-3 per month! It is wonderful.
Daniel
CmdrTaco,
Again with the vapid comments posted as a follow up to an article. Not only does it display your over-inflated ego, it is extremely unprofessional. Frankly, I find your comments banal and boring. I had hoped that you would have more respect for your readership, but you don't. It is time to contact VA Software to complain about your lack of professionalism and disdain for your customer.
FYI: LNUX at $0.69 must be substantially lower than your strike price of the options you were given. What was it like when you used to be rich. . . on paper?
Wiggum:"Aw Cinnamon, don't make this harder then it already is!"
Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
Well, if the frequency gets too high it might scare some people away too ... but never forget, speakers or sounds don't kill people; people kill people :)
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Sounds like something they would sell in Spam... "as seen on cnn". Buy two and get some herbal viagra for free.
Yes, I was a very, very sick and demented child.
A better virus would be one that makes a mating call out through your speakers when it infects your computer...in no time would you attract horny little critters. Though one would have to find out mating calls that: a) us humans can't hear, b) require time-of-year stats(call play period), and c) are most receptive to certain species(read most horny)
BTW, Duck/bird hunters use whistles that make such calls to ease their hunting. Take this with a grain of salt 'cause I saw it on some TV show I can't remember(Simpsons?).
It's unlikely the frequency response of the crappy speakers attached to most computers will extend to ultrasonic frequencies. Result: you can toggle bits in your sound card as fast as you want, but you will get no output from your speaker above a few kilohertz.
1) Too bad the bugs will still come in through the Windows!
:)
2) So I guess this eliminates the need for debugging my code anymore?
Laugh, dammit, it's funny...
Throw a block of dry ice in the corner of your yard for your next cookout. Mosquitoes will get drunk in the CO2 smoke and leave you alone all night.
There is no scientific evidence that ultrasonic can/will repel pests.
We MIGHT be able to say in the least that some pests are temporarly annoyed, however they easily adjust.
pest control article mentioning ultrasonic
So are you agree or disagreeing with my previous comment?
You have to be smarter than the machine you're working with.