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Beer Fridge Caught Interfering With Cellular Network
aesoteric writes "A man's backyard beer fridge in Australia has been busted interfering with the cellular network of major carrier Telstra. Engineers used an internally-developed software 'robot' to crawl log files from the network and sent a field team out to pinpoint the cause of the interference."
Incidentally, Australian beer fridges have the honor of being among the first commercially successful applications of refrigeration technology(the principles and some early prototypes were developed elsewhere; but Australia's not-exactly-robust ice-harvesting industry didn't imperil the cost effectiveness of the systems in the way that it did in places that actually have ice). Telstra should turn down whatever RF 'noise' the kids are listening too these days and let Grandpop play what he wants!
Irrelevant history aside, what kind of dodgy does a motor have to be to generate enough RF to degrade a cell system in the course of performing relatively modest compression duties for a small refrigerator?
You're joking, right? We export that crap so we don't have to drink it.
Want a good Australian beer, try something from Malt Shovel, Cascade or Mountain Goat.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Sorry, no-one in Australia drinks Fosters anymore. We're all boutique these days - except for Queenslanders, who only drink Fourex (XXXX) - and the reason it's called XXXX is because they can't spell 'beer'.
I know a little about radio networks, not a massive amount but enough to get by. The fridge must have been somehow sending out a noise signature which was in tune with the radio conditions of the network. That is what I don't understand, a properly designed radio cellular network should operate outside of the range of frequencies put off by a simple compressor motor that would be a in fridge. So now I have to wonder either the fridge was designed in a very strange manor, or the fridge malfunctioned in a very strange manor or the network was poorly designed. Does anyone have more details as to the exact details of what happened? I would be interested in seeing the hardened data from the logs, fridge and network. I call BS that the fridge was the issue until someone can produce hard log data showing this.
You want reliable network performance or ice cold beer? That's a tough question.
Or Little Creatures. Mmmmm.
Why can't we have more stories like this? Why does it always have to be something political or an advertisement for a product or the usual MS bashing stories? This title alone is more interesting than any "news" story I've seen on Slashdot in the last year.
Even better, a Riverside IPA. Aussie beer has come a really long way in the last few years.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
The linked article is far more about the internal 'robot' and very little about the beer fridge. While perhaps the intent of the /. post, I was far more interested in how the beer fridge could have caused such an issue. Thankfully, TFA has a link to another, far more interesting, FA:
It includes an image of said fridge, which looks like something from the 50s/60s (maybe? I don't know, I still have people yelling at me to get off their lawns.) More modern models probably have much better, efficient motors that don't cause this kind of issue.
No mention of the resolution, but I assume it involved unplugging the fridge. (I wouldn't be surprised if he paid more in electricity for that thing per year than just buying a new, medium-sized fridge.)
Engineers used an internally-developed software 'robot' to crawl log files from the network.
Seriously? I know it's actually stated that way in TFA, but are people that stupid that they can't simply say "program"? In all likelihood, it's probably a 10-line Perl script. (Said as Perl fan, myself.)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Slightly related, here are a few threads about radio-based baby monitors causing trouble in the ham bands:
http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?topic=76680.0
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?310670-Bad-Baby-Monitors-on-50-125-FM
http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php/23722-HAM-Radio-and-Eavesdropping!!!!-LONG-ONE!
The first and second one are about hams tracking down the problems. The second goes into great detail on how the user of the monitor was busted by the FCC. The third is from a user of a baby monitor going full-retard.
Now I understand why, after I have 20 or 30 beers, why I have such a hard time finding my way home.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
You're joking, right? We export that crap so we don't have to drink it.
Given that Fosters has something like a 45% share of the Australian market, some combination of this must be true: it still has fans, remains a guilty pleasure that isn't admitted to, or nobody can find enough export victims. At least it has some snappy advertising to help.
Frankly, I have no idea what can be done about vegemite. People have been warned.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
That's the name of the brewing company that makes cat piss such as Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught, Crown Lager etc.
Foster's Lager, the beer, was bought out by foreign investment a couple of decades ago and is no longer brewed here.
Foster's group has 45% share, not the beer called "Foster's", which is actually quite hard to find inside of Australia.
Given they're owned by SABMiller, you should really argue that "miller" is the bestselling beer in Australia if you're going to say that the owner == the brand (which is obviously incorrect).
Foster's commercials are not shown in Australia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foster's_Group#Beers_and_Breweries
Most important in that list are VB (probably the best selling beer in Australia), Cascade, Matilda Bay, and Carlton.
Vegemite is awesome, lightly spread of hot toasted light rye so that it's salty and chewy at the same time.
The mistake most foreigners make is slathering it on like peanut butter. It's a strong taste and you don't need much.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
The Fosters we get in the States is brewed by Oil Can Breweries, Fort Worth, TX, which I suspect is a front for recycling refinery waste.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
At least it wasn't the cellular network interfering with the beer fridge. Could have been a disaster.
Dos Equis is named for the blend... it contains the piss from two horses.....
(yes, I'm aware the Latin is spelled slightly differently...)
Isee. So if one is getting shitty service (what else) from their cell phone company and decides to improve the service on their own at their own cast, it's illegal. And you're stuck with the shitty service.
To play devil's advocate on this one, if doing so can actually further fuck the mobile phone network, then it being illegal isn't such a bad thing.
What I really want to know is what happened to the man's beer. Did Telstra buy him a new fridge or what?
The Fosters Group brewery (formerly CUB) in Queensland still brews it. However on my last trip there they said it's one of their smallest production runs of any product passing through the brewery. It's outdone by all other beers brewed there even by import licence like Guinness, and even Smirnoff Vodka beats it by production volume.
So it's only half as bad as XXXX?
"Fosters"? Puhleeze. From what I understand (and may well be wrong about), what you call "Fosters" is a product we call "Crown" (and it is still overpriced and not that great). The "Fosters" they offload on us poor convicts would be the fifth keg of the night at a frat party, at BEST. The last bar that honestly served "Fosters" in any seriousness was the one on the set of "Crocodile Dundee".
The others here know of what they speak. Blue Tongue, little creatures, cascade and many many others wipe their boots with Fosters.
Oh and VB is absolutely shit too and is only popular thanks to the assholes in their marketing department.
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know when your gonna get food poisoning.
We had beer fridges interfere with our work for 20 years and we don't even had internet.
...while they drink the abortion known is the American Budweiser.
You know why they call Budweiser "sex in a canoe"? Because it's fscking close to water.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
...This Baud's For You!
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
So it's the beer you drink to get the buzz. Not the beer you drink because you want to enjoy the taste. That makes sense as I've never known anyone to have just one Bud. It's always three or more.
I've always slathered Vegemite and Marmite like peanut butter and I like it that way. I've always been a little odd when it comes to foods with strong flavours, though.