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User: acrobg

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  1. Re:er... on Verizon iPhone Also Haunted By the Death Grip · · Score: 1

    Of course people didn't return their phones. Do you know how inconvenient it is to terminate a contract on a new phone, activate an old phone, and get back on with life? Not to mention the costs associated.

  2. So then on 2012 Mayan Calendar 'Doomsday' Date Might Be Wrong · · Score: 5, Funny

    The apocalypse that won't happen Dec. 21, 2012 is now expected to not happen on Feb. 19, 2013...got it.

  3. Re:As someone totally ignorant in this stuff on Ham Radio Still Growing In the iStuff Age · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's the well-known disaster communications argument. That is, when the phone lines and cell towers go out, you will still have a means of communication. Also, various ham emergency groups are used to pass information about disasters, assist hospitals, provide communication, etc. Ham radio is a way to talk with people around the world from all walks of life without the need for any infrastructure. For me, I often talk on ham radio while in the car driving to/from work on one of the local repeaters (the "magic mountain repeater" for those of you in the LA area). To me, it's a bit more engaging than listening to whatever idle morning show is on the radio. And people often give live traffic reports when commuting, etc. Honestly, it's a hobby that I find fun as something to do. If you're interested in radio in general, it's one of the few hobbies where experimenting in the RF spectrum is encouraged. HAMs found out that HF waves (shortwave) bounce off the atmosphere as opposed to being absorbed or allowed to pass through, for example. Also, you get to have a cool ID code to use online and offline (the state of CA charges a 1-time fee to make it a vanity plate, as opposed to the annual upkeep of most other vanity plates). --KI6WPV

  4. Resonance at other frequencies? on Using Aluminum Oxide Paint To Secure Wi-Fi · · Score: 1

    So I get that Aluminum Oxide paint is resonant at 2.4GHz. What about in the 900MHz band, or 1.2GHz band? What frequencies are not resonant in Aouminum Oxide paint?

  5. so who will on British Video Recordings Act 1984 Invalid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    be the first to sell pr0n to little kids without any age-rating?

  6. Re:I might be too old... on School System Considers Jamming Students' Phones · · Score: 1

    In college, I had a teacher whose policy was that if your phone went off in class, he would take it, put it on vibrate, and hide it somewhere on the campus right in the middle of class (oh, and you'd have to stay in the classroom while he did it). If after about a week you still hadn't found it, he'd tell you, acting like it was all one big huge joke. Granted, if oyu had a legitimate reason to keep your phone on (eg: waiting to hear about a family member's health, important vendor calling back for current projects, etc.), he'd let you have it on vibrate, but you had to tell him in advance, at which point you could then take the call outside the classroom.

  7. I don't know that NO support is needed... on CTO Says Support Should Never Be Necessary · · Score: 1

    But a well-designed product should need very little support. The problem is that there are so many variables these days in terms of both hardware and software combinations that it's near impossible to have a "perfect" solution.

  8. Re:scary thing on US Agency Blocked Cellphone / Driving Safety Study · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Out here in California, there is a law about not talking on the phone while driving without a handsfree device. The problem is that now people all the time are just using their phone as before, but spending three times the effort hiding their phone so the cop on the side of the road doesn't pull them over. So now, rather than them just talking on the phone, they're talking, trying to hide it, and driving with whatever level of brain power they have left.

  9. Whatever The Party says on Amazon Pulls Purchased E-Book Copies of 1984 and Animal Farm · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...must be the complete truth. Or else the thought police will come get you.

  10. Re:Waste Money on what has allready been done on US Sets Up Emergency Multi-Band Radio Project · · Score: 1

    HAMs are allowed to encrypt according to a protocol than can be decrpted by a readily available, published method. The exception to this is for satellite control signals, which can be encrypted however. And this is one reason why morse code (CW) is often used with emergency communications. Many amateurs involved in emergency communications know it, btu the general public passing by won't know what all the dots and dashes mean.

  11. Re:Now confirmed on Futurama Rumored To Return On Comedy Central · · Score: 1

    Variety confirms it as well: a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118004722.html?categoryid=10&cs=1"

  12. Re:Hi, Sony! on Microsoft Debuts Full-Body Controller-less Gaming At E3 · · Score: 1

    I remember playing with the PS2 eyetoy back in 2003 at SIGGRAPH in San Diego in the emerging technologies room. Not too sure why it didn't catch on too well; it was a lot of fun. Maybe Microsoft's version will fair better.

  13. Could they possibly... on Time Warner ToS Changes Could Mean Tiered Pricing, Throttling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Could they possibly be any more out of touch with their customer base?

  14. Re:Can somebody explain how it works? on A Widescreen Laser Projector In Your Pocket · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My guess would be that it projects as three scanning lasers: for red, green, and blue. Because they would be scanning across, the field of view as the beams of light move away from projector gets larger (hence larger projection at a larger distance). However, it also gets dimmer, meaning a 12" projection distance will havea brighter image than a 100" projection distance. Also, if you're projecting closer, it looks like it will have more definition to the image as well. Not that the pixel-count will change, but the amount of space each pixel takes up wil be larger, so if it's 100" away, but the image is viewed from 3' away from the screen, the image should look pixelated, as opposed to viewing it from a farther distance.

  15. Big Brother on In Istanbul, Cameras To Recognize 15,000 Faces/sec. · · Score: 1

    Gives new meaning to the phrase "Big Brother is watching you."

  16. Once Again... on Confusion Reigns As Analog TV Begins Shutdown · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you do not get your broadcasts over the air (ie you use cable, satellite, U-verse, Verizon, etc.), you are unaffected, period. If you have a television that has a decimal point or a hyphen on your remote in the numbers area (on the remote that came with the TV), you are fine. In this case, you may need to start entering stations in other ways, such as 11.1 as opposed to 11. The ONLY time you need to get a converter box is if you have an analog-only tuner in your television, as most 4:3 tube televisions have, AND you receive your television via antenna.

  17. Remember.... on DTV Coupon Program Out of Money · · Score: 3, Informative

    You only need a converter box if you get your television via over-the-air broadcast and don't have a digital tuner built in. If you get your television via cable (with a cable box or no), satellite, FiOS, U-Verse, etc., you don't need a dtv converter box. On Feb. 17, nothing will change for you. If you get OTA broadcasts, and you're unsure if your television needs a box, if you have the ability to type in a hyphen or decimal point in the channel number on your TV, you hava digital tuner. Fo example, in the Los Angeles area market, if you can type in 11.1 (11-1), you will get Fox in both digital and HD via OTA broadcast. Your best bet if your'e unsure, however, is to look up if your TV has a digital tuner online on the equipment manufacturer's website.

  18. Re:Everyone should know on Overzealous AirTran Boots 9 Passengers Off · · Score: 1

    The person I was travelling with was carrying a sandwich to eat, and it happened to be on top of the hairdryer.

  19. Re:Everyone should know on Overzealous AirTran Boots 9 Passengers Off · · Score: 1

    Indeed. When I was a child of 11 or so, I was talking inside Security in San Diego when going with my parents to drop my cousin off after a visit. I was talkin about how certain things couldget through security without being detected. bout 30 seconds later, a gate agent and security person were in front of me saying that talking about that kind of a thing inside security is inappropriate and shouldn't be done. Mind you this was in the 1990s, so it was a pre-9/11 era. I'd be terrified of what would happen had I had the same conversation today, and I'm older than 11 at this point. I've gotten into arguments with TSA at the checkpoint when carrying motion picture film onto airplanes. At LAX it's not so much an issue, as they deal with it all the time. But other places, I've even had a copy of their website stating that motion picture film never needs to be xrayed, and they still don't believe me (I give myself a solid hour extra to get through security if I'm carrying film compared to if I'm carrying my usual bag). And finally, don't carry a peanut butter sandwich packed with a hairdryer. Apparently it's something they look for

  20. Re:No, no on Inventor Builds Robot Wife · · Score: 1

    Does he want everyone going around thinking he's a robosexual? oops, too late

  21. iHome on Apple to Rule the Digital Home by 2013? · · Score: 1

    So how long until we see the inevitable iHome? we'll have the iPlasma with an AppleTV attached, iSpeaker system, iDVR, iMedia Center, iBluRay player, etc.

  22. Re:Menubar! how to make it not completely obnoxiou on Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update Brings Welcome Fixes · · Score: 1

    I meant the dock...my mistake.

  23. Menubar! how to make it not completely obnoxious on Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update Brings Welcome Fixes · · Score: 2, Informative

    granted I'd like the dock to look like it did in 10.4, but turning the glass effect off with the following 2 script lines: defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES killall Dock (to turn back on change YES to NO). It makes the dock be side-style while still on he bottom. If your'e lazy and have eitehr cocktail or onyx, you can do it in there with the force to side-style mode option.

  24. Phraseleator on Star Trek-like 'Phraselator' Helps Police · · Score: 1, Funny

    Hm, Sounds like the DARPA version of the babelfish. now if only it could be placed inside everyone's ear

  25. Many possibilities here for detention on Student Given Detention For Using Firefox [UPDATED] · · Score: 1

    The teacher could be an idiot for assigning detention over using the "wrong" browser in their eyes. But there are a few things that need to be clarified first: (1) what was the other browser option? It is fairly safe to assume it is IE6. (2) was firefox installed on the machine already? Many k-12 schools ahve specific access policies which forbid downloading and running of software on the machines. If Firefox was already installed on the machine, then (3) Why weren't the teachers aware of the programs available on the machiens to the students, and which ones were okay to use? An in any case, the school's surf-watch system is going to be equally effective in either browser. Unless, of course, the kid disabled it in the registry, downloaded firefox, and installed it. Oh well, whatever. Just goes to show how little people know these days.