If the devices carry a CE mark(which would be required to sell in the EU), they had EMC testing done on them.
The basic EMC standard for medical devices is EN 60601-1-2. For radiated interference, it requires testing from 80 to 2500 MHz - 3 V/m for non-lifesupporting equipment and 10 V/m for lifesupporting equipment. This is a 1 kHz AM modulated signal.
There are further requirements for implantable devices and some other life supporting equipment. EN 45502 has magnetic field requirements, and AAMI PC69 covers cell phone frequencies with a pulsed test.
There is at present no requirement to test at the specific frequencies that may be used for RFID and the like, and no requirement to use a modulation similar to what they employ.
IMHO there is only one solution, and it doesn't lie in either Obama or McCain. We need to cure this country's dangerous addicition to Executive Power.
If the checks and balances written into the US constitution were observed again, and the dictatorial power of the executive branch (gained more by precedent than legitimate legislation) civil liberties would not be an issue.
Other issues arise when you reduce presidential power. Congress doesn't seem much better. The best that can be said there is that the two parties get in each others' way enough to not cause quite as many catastrophes.
The other option is more power in the executive branch, not vested in the president, but in the adminstration and bureaucracy. Bureaucracy that can create binding rules that have the force of law are little better. Again, Congress and the courts are failing their 'checks and balances' duties to reign in these issues. This does not mean we should view less presidential power as a huge improvement.
As a side note though, I do think the executive branch has gained too much power, and should be trimmed. I don't see this happening though. I see no Cincinnatus to ever come to power in Washington.
But couldn't they have come up with a more laborious name for the product? I mean, iRex Iliad e-ink e-book reader is great and all, but couldn't they have called it the iRex iLiad aMazing iNcredible iRreplacable e-ink e-page e-printed e-book reader?
That sounds better than what I've got. I use WinAmp at home, and love it. I don't recall what version, but it hasn't bugged me about updating in a long time.
At work I was told WinAmp was a security risk, and had to get rid of it. Quicktime was the suggested alternate - which sucks. I ended up using Windows Media Player, which blows doneky nuts.
I would hesitate to call Icahn an investor. Here is is little more than a plunderer, attempting to force yahoo into a deal that gives him a short term financial gain. Unfortunately, that's the definition of investor on Wall Street.
What happened to long term investments? What happened to looking past next quarters' profits? Many people on Slashdot and other places rail against corporations, and yet ignore the root cause of these issues. Sure some corporations are doing nothing but grasping for every last dime. But many are also being pushed by their shareholders to ALWAYS increase profitability, dividends, and share price.
There was talk about Yahoo shareholders suing the board for blocking the merger. People that have no idea about the operation of the business, and with no other reason that profit, want to tell the board what to do. I will admit that Yahoo's board have financial incentives to not accept the merger. At the same time I think it is asinine that lawsuits are brought over strategic decisions.
You are dead wrong. Electronics can and will cause interference with each other. I read a recent report of a portable DVD player causing a 30 degree shift in the compass of a commercial airliner. Have they banned portable DVD players?
EMI and EMC is a complex field. Cell phones assuredly have the potential to interfere with sensitive electronics. They may not. That does not mean there is no danger, or that planes are immune to interference, despite extensive testing.
I'll share a story here. I was at a fast food place a few months ago eating lunch. An older guy was sitting a few tables away with his wife, and he was on a cell phone.
Since I had nothing to read and he talking at a normal volume, I started listening to what he was saying. I don't know if he was applying for a loan or what, but he laid out his whole financial details for the restaurant to hear.
He gave out his SSN, his wife's SSN, their address, car makes and models and approx. number of miles on them, salary for both himself and his wife, approx. bank account values, and on and on and on.
I just was dumbfounded. I could not believe someone would be that clueless or obtuse.
That is not strictly true. You can create EMP-like pulses in a lab setting. If you have the right antenna and a big enough amplifier you can fry most electronics. The difference is you are very limited in distance of effectiveness, and susceptible frequency range will change with different devices and orientations.
So in a strictly theoretical sense, yes you can kill electronics with RF. On the practicle side, it's like saying you can build a rail gun at home. Sure you can build a 5th grade science class level one that shoots marbles, but that's not what people mean when they say rail gun.
Not to be an ass but - Boo-fricking-hoo. Lots of people feel unappreciated in their jobs. I just hear IT whine about it way more(maybe because I read Slashdot). Most IT people seem to think the company would implode if they weren't around for one day. Maybe they get this impression from hordes of idiots bothering them all the time for computer help.
The reality is, IT is overhead. It may make my job, and every else's job, a hell of a lot easier, but it is still a major cost. Spending money on IT past a certain point is unlikely to bring another dime to a company. Once basic networking, servers, vpn, etc. are implemented, IT is just a cost.
How is IT different than a basic utility? Utilities for most business require some facilities management people, and cutting a check each month. IT requires trained personnel, and a much bigger check each month. Managers don't want to spend their time on what they see as something that should always work, like electric power.
I would disagree about your general education remark. I am an engineer who has been out of school only a few years and I am currently helping interview new employees for my company. One thing that I was asked during interviews, and that comes up during interviews with my company, is outside interests.
We are not looking for the best and brightest engineer. We're looking for the most technically savvy engineer that also can successfully interact with the rest of our team. Sure I don't see transcripts as much as resumes, but I still expect people to have abilities and interests outside of their coursework.
I would definitely be impressed if someone know Biot-Savart's Law off the top of their head, but I am more likely to hire them if they mention they like hockey, theatre, or something along those lines.
This is great. Now every time we get to hear the back story for some athlete, we also get to hear 10 repetitions of the announcers saying 'Check out their blog at....'. As if the human interest part wasn't annoying enough.
I should have been more clear in my original post. The article I read talked about that as well. Amount of exposure doesn't make a significant amount of difference. The issue is anonymity and acceptability.
In the '80s, where could you get child porn? Short of making it yourself, you had to find a physical source and meet someone face to face. You directly risked being caught in a sting. Look at the internet today. Not only can you find this material, but you can find borderline material like child beauty pageants. You spend 5 minutes online or hitting a P2P site, and you have what your sickest desires want.
Not only that, but familiarity also breeds acceptance. Similar to violence in the media. Now I'm not making the claim that violent media causes crime. I am merely pointing out that the amount of violent media available and acceptable has risen dramatically. Could you imagine the Saw movies being released 20 years ago? The sexualization of children has been increasing, and I believe it is causing a rise in these issues.
You are spot on with this comment. A few years ago I read an article about this same subject. The FBI said that in the '80s they thought they had virtually wiped out pedophilia and trafficking in child pornography. Since the rise of the internet, the number of arrests for these crimes has risen dramatically. The article included discussion about peripheral evidence at crime scenes as well as outright arrests of pedophiles.
Argue all you might, but there are downsides to the internet. Any technology can be misused, but we should not turn a blind eye towards these issues just because we love free access to information, music, movies, porn, and/..
There are a number of issues here. Power supplies and electronics are required to conform to certain standards for safety to be sold in Europe. In the US, there are almost no requirements for off the shelf equipment(barring FCC Part 15). There is UL marking(and other companies that provide the same testing) that covers issues like this.
There are a few problems with this. As stated above, the US doesn't have requirements for this. Also, many products that have the CE mark are in fact improperly certified due to fraud, mistakes in testing, or ignoring failures.
The third issue is manufacturers. Some manufacturers, especially in China, will substitute the cheapest part they can find while ignoring any issues this causes with other hardware. They only worry about it if there are complaints.
I think everyone missed the point of this, and Slashdot fell right into it. The more page hits Drew Curtis gets, the more money he makes. So he has now created a stupid practical joke that is guaranteed to get dozens, if not hundreds, of websites to mention fark.com over and over and over.
Then, he calmly dismisses it as a joke, while raking in profit.
The stupid thing about this is how a few months ago fark went from being fairly open about NSFW imagery, to banning anyone that links to or posts it. Apparently they can make more money by being family(or workplace) friendly.
This is most likely due to static electricity. Lots of static will build up, and most of these devices are probably not tested or not tested to very high levels.
I sure hope this happens. It would be much much much better than most of what's on Comedy Central - Drawn Together, Sarah Silverman, a thousand showings of Blue Collar Comedy Tour, etc.
And the story I read stated that according to a Chinese website listing chemical prices, there is a significant difference between the two. Someone along the ling of $2800 per metric ton for the 1,4-butanediol, and $9800 a metric ton for the 1,5-pentanediol.
Oh here we go - blatantly stolen from AP.
Both chemicals are manufactured in China and elsewhere, including by major multinational companies, and are also marketed over the Internet.
It's not clear why 1,4-butanediol was substituted. However, there is a significant difference in price between the two chemicals. The Chinese online trading platform ChemNet China lists the price of 1,4 butanediol at between about $1,350-$2,800 per metric ton, while the price for 1,5-pentanediol is about $9,700 per metric ton.
That may be true, but it is beside the point. FCC rules prohibit jamming devices. They regularly fine businesses that manufacture and sell said devices. Using one part of FCC rules in defense against another part doesn't work.
What would be a really interesting followup to this is to measure lead levels in the brain. I am no doctor - does lead exposure build up, or is it a 'get exposed to lead when you're a kid and it screws you up for life and also leaves no permanent traces' thing?
Essentially I would want to see whether lead levels in peoples' bodies is significantly reduced compared to a few decades ago. Admittedly it would involve exhuming thousands of corpses(not bloody likely), but it would be very interesting science.
I would like to hear from more foreign born students as to how they chose their career. It seems that in the US, the best and brightest are not told to go into the sciences or engineering. Students are told to do whatever they enjoy. Well most people seem to enjoy being lazy - so they go into the liberal arts.
I have a very good friend who is very smart - probably smarter than I am. He doesn't really enjoy math - which would be bad for most sciences. But even with poor math skills he would be a great engineer, and an even better doctor. Instead he ended up getting a degree in PoliSci, and works in human resources for a mid-sized company.
Hrmmm, makes me think of Tyler Durden's speech in Fight Club.
Slashdot Mirror
If the devices carry a CE mark(which would be required to sell in the EU), they had EMC testing done on them.
The basic EMC standard for medical devices is EN 60601-1-2. For radiated interference, it requires testing from 80 to 2500 MHz - 3 V/m for non-lifesupporting equipment and 10 V/m for lifesupporting equipment. This is a 1 kHz AM modulated signal.
There are further requirements for implantable devices and some other life supporting equipment. EN 45502 has magnetic field requirements, and AAMI PC69 covers cell phone frequencies with a pulsed test.
There is at present no requirement to test at the specific frequencies that may be used for RFID and the like, and no requirement to use a modulation similar to what they employ.
Other issues arise when you reduce presidential power. Congress doesn't seem much better. The best that can be said there is that the two parties get in each others' way enough to not cause quite as many catastrophes.
The other option is more power in the executive branch, not vested in the president, but in the adminstration and bureaucracy. Bureaucracy that can create binding rules that have the force of law are little better. Again, Congress and the courts are failing their 'checks and balances' duties to reign in these issues. This does not mean we should view less presidential power as a huge improvement.
As a side note though, I do think the executive branch has gained too much power, and should be trimmed. I don't see this happening though. I see no Cincinnatus to ever come to power in Washington.
But couldn't they have come up with a more laborious name for the product? I mean, iRex Iliad e-ink e-book reader is great and all, but couldn't they have called it the iRex iLiad aMazing iNcredible iRreplacable e-ink e-page e-printed e-book reader?
That sounds better than what I've got. I use WinAmp at home, and love it. I don't recall what version, but it hasn't bugged me about updating in a long time.
At work I was told WinAmp was a security risk, and had to get rid of it. Quicktime was the suggested alternate - which sucks. I ended up using Windows Media Player, which blows doneky nuts.
I would hesitate to call Icahn an investor. Here is is little more than a plunderer, attempting to force yahoo into a deal that gives him a short term financial gain. Unfortunately, that's the definition of investor on Wall Street.
What happened to long term investments? What happened to looking past next quarters' profits? Many people on Slashdot and other places rail against corporations, and yet ignore the root cause of these issues. Sure some corporations are doing nothing but grasping for every last dime. But many are also being pushed by their shareholders to ALWAYS increase profitability, dividends, and share price.
There was talk about Yahoo shareholders suing the board for blocking the merger. People that have no idea about the operation of the business, and with no other reason that profit, want to tell the board what to do. I will admit that Yahoo's board have financial incentives to not accept the merger. At the same time I think it is asinine that lawsuits are brought over strategic decisions.
You are dead wrong. Electronics can and will cause interference with each other. I read a recent report of a portable DVD player causing a 30 degree shift in the compass of a commercial airliner. Have they banned portable DVD players?
EMI and EMC is a complex field. Cell phones assuredly have the potential to interfere with sensitive electronics. They may not. That does not mean there is no danger, or that
planes are immune to interference, despite extensive testing.
I'll share a story here. I was at a fast food place a few months ago eating lunch. An older guy was sitting a few tables away with his wife, and he was on a cell phone.
Since I had nothing to read and he talking at a normal volume, I started listening to what he was saying. I don't know if he was applying for a loan or what, but he laid out his whole financial details for the restaurant to hear.
He gave out his SSN, his wife's SSN, their address, car makes and models and approx. number of miles on them, salary for both himself and his wife, approx. bank account values, and on and on and on.
I just was dumbfounded. I could not believe someone would be that clueless or obtuse.
That is not strictly true. You can create EMP-like pulses in a lab setting. If you have the right antenna and a big enough amplifier you can fry most electronics. The difference is you are very limited in distance of effectiveness, and susceptible frequency range will change with different devices and orientations.
So in a strictly theoretical sense, yes you can kill electronics with RF. On the practicle side, it's like saying you can build a rail gun at home. Sure you can build a 5th grade science class level one that shoots marbles, but that's not what people mean when they say rail gun.
Not to be an ass but - Boo-fricking-hoo. Lots of people feel unappreciated in their jobs. I just hear IT whine about it way more(maybe because I read Slashdot). Most IT people seem to think the company would implode if they weren't around for one day. Maybe they get this impression from hordes of idiots bothering them all the time for computer help.
The reality is, IT is overhead. It may make my job, and every else's job, a hell of a lot easier, but it is still a major cost. Spending money on IT past a certain point is unlikely to bring another dime to a company. Once basic networking, servers, vpn, etc. are implemented, IT is just a cost.
How is IT different than a basic utility? Utilities for most business require some facilities management people, and cutting a check each month. IT requires trained personnel, and a much bigger check each month. Managers don't want to spend their time on what they see as something that should always work, like electric power.
I would disagree about your general education remark. I am an engineer who has been out of school only a few years and I am currently helping interview new employees for my company. One thing that I was asked during interviews, and that comes up during interviews with my company, is outside interests.
We are not looking for the best and brightest engineer. We're looking for the most technically savvy engineer that also can successfully interact with the rest of our team. Sure I don't see transcripts as much as resumes, but I still expect people to have abilities and interests outside of their coursework.
I would definitely be impressed if someone know Biot-Savart's Law off the top of their head, but I am more likely to hire them if they mention they like hockey, theatre, or something along those lines.
This is great. Now every time we get to hear the back story for some athlete, we also get to hear 10 repetitions of the announcers saying 'Check out their blog at....'. As if the human interest part wasn't annoying enough.
I should have been more clear in my original post. The article I read talked about that as well. Amount of exposure doesn't make a significant amount of difference. The issue is anonymity and acceptability.
In the '80s, where could you get child porn? Short of making it yourself, you had to find a physical source and meet someone face to face. You directly risked being caught in a sting. Look at the internet today. Not only can you find this material, but you can find borderline material like child beauty pageants. You spend 5 minutes online or hitting a P2P site, and you have what your sickest desires want.
Not only that, but familiarity also breeds acceptance. Similar to violence in the media. Now I'm not making the claim that violent media causes crime. I am merely pointing out that the amount of violent media available and acceptable has risen dramatically. Could you imagine the Saw movies being released 20 years ago? The sexualization of children has been increasing, and I believe it is causing a rise in these issues.
You are spot on with this comment. A few years ago I read an article about this same subject. The FBI said that in the '80s they thought they had virtually wiped out pedophilia and trafficking in child pornography. Since the rise of the internet, the number of arrests for these crimes has risen dramatically. The article included discussion about peripheral evidence at crime scenes as well as outright arrests of pedophiles.
/..
Argue all you might, but there are downsides to the internet. Any technology can be misused, but we should not turn a blind eye towards these issues just because we love free access to information, music, movies, porn, and
There are a number of issues here. Power supplies and electronics are required to conform to certain standards for safety to be sold in Europe. In the US, there are almost no requirements for off the shelf equipment(barring FCC Part 15). There is UL marking(and other companies that provide the same testing) that covers issues like this.
There are a few problems with this. As stated above, the US doesn't have requirements for this. Also, many products that have the CE mark are in fact improperly certified due to fraud, mistakes in testing, or ignoring failures.
The third issue is manufacturers. Some manufacturers, especially in China, will substitute the cheapest part they can find while ignoring any issues this causes with other hardware. They only worry about it if there are complaints.
I think everyone missed the point of this, and Slashdot fell right into it. The more page hits Drew Curtis gets, the more money he makes. So he has now created a stupid practical joke that is guaranteed to get dozens, if not hundreds, of websites to mention fark.com over and over and over.
Then, he calmly dismisses it as a joke, while raking in profit.
The stupid thing about this is how a few months ago fark went from being fairly open about NSFW imagery, to banning anyone that links to or posts it. Apparently they can make more money by being family(or workplace) friendly.
There is an RFID setup for this now. It seems like old news for bar coding.
This is most likely due to static electricity. Lots of static will build up, and most of these devices are probably not tested or not tested to very high levels.
For non-PC items, check out http://www.microwaves101.com/content/microwavemortuary.cfm
It has mainly microwave devices, but it's nice to see some variety - like the snake.
I sure hope this happens. It would be much much much better than most of what's on Comedy Central - Drawn Together, Sarah Silverman, a thousand showings of Blue Collar Comedy Tour, etc.
And the story I read stated that according to a Chinese website listing chemical prices, there is a significant difference between the two. Someone along the ling of $2800 per metric ton for the 1,4-butanediol, and $9800 a metric ton for the 1,5-pentanediol.
Oh here we go - blatantly stolen from AP.
Both chemicals are manufactured in China and elsewhere, including by major multinational companies, and are also marketed over the Internet.
It's not clear why 1,4-butanediol was substituted. However, there is a significant difference in price between the two chemicals. The Chinese online trading platform ChemNet China lists the price of 1,4 butanediol at between about $1,350-$2,800 per metric ton, while the price for 1,5-pentanediol is about $9,700 per metric ton.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20071108/D8SPHKFO4.html
If we're not counting just flash games, check out:
www.abandonia.com
A collect of classic games that are now abandoware. Load up DOSBox and have some fun.
That may be true, but it is beside the point. FCC rules prohibit jamming devices. They regularly fine businesses that manufacture and sell said devices. Using one part of FCC rules in defense against another part doesn't work.
Links to details: http://www.conformity.com/cgi/se/exec/search.cgi?search=jammer&perform_search=Search&skin=
http://www.fcc.gov/eb/Public_Notices/DA-05-1776A1.html
http://www.conformity.com/newsman/publish/printer_156.shtml
The long and short of it is, jammers break the law. On a moralistic note, countering rude behavior with passive-aggressive rude behavior is imprudent.
What would be a really interesting followup to this is to measure lead levels in the brain. I am no doctor - does lead exposure build up, or is it a 'get exposed to lead when you're a kid and it screws you up for life and also leaves no permanent traces' thing? Essentially I would want to see whether lead levels in peoples' bodies is significantly reduced compared to a few decades ago. Admittedly it would involve exhuming thousands of corpses(not bloody likely), but it would be very interesting science.
Get them while you can: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/conformity/1007/index.php?startpage=10 The FCC doesn't like people breaking the law. Just don't bring jammers onto a plane please. It would be a bad idea.
I would like to hear from more foreign born students as to how they chose their career. It seems that in the US, the best and brightest are not told to go into the sciences or engineering. Students are told to do whatever they enjoy. Well most people seem to enjoy being lazy - so they go into the liberal arts. I have a very good friend who is very smart - probably smarter than I am. He doesn't really enjoy math - which would be bad for most sciences. But even with poor math skills he would be a great engineer, and an even better doctor. Instead he ended up getting a degree in PoliSci, and works in human resources for a mid-sized company. Hrmmm, makes me think of Tyler Durden's speech in Fight Club.