As a word of warning, the NCSU034A LEDs output over 300mW of UV light at 385nm! This is a LOT! What makes them especially dangerous is that the die is only a millimeter or two on a side, so the angular intensity of the light is extremely high. Do *NOT* turn these on in an environment where anyone can look directly at them. They are extremely dangerous to the eye, and you will have a *permanent* blind spot if you look directly at them. To make them safe, I used polyethylene plastic sandwiching a Luminit Holographic Light Shaping Diffuser (LSD... yeah, I know, they came up with the acronym first) an inch and a half away from the board to make the apparent source size over an inch in diameter. This decreases the angular intensity from the class 3b level to the class 1 level. I am not liable if you blind yourself by using these LEDs! Seriously, don't fuck around with these.
Funny story that. Every time I tell an MIT student that the UV LEDs will permanently blind them if they remove the cover, the response is the same. First, they say "Really?", and then they attempt to look into the endcap. True story. Explains a lot, I think.
In an npr story about this, it was mentioned that the FBI - the actual source of this FCC rule - really wants to be able to do this wiretapping remotely. So rather than needing to physically go to a site and install equipment and or software, collect data, then come back for it later, the FBI tech can just go [click][click] in his remote wiretapping console and now they're wiretapping. And if its not remote, you basically need to have your IT guy available 24/7 with keys to your building. That's one thing for a big university, its another world for your average small town library. They barely have enough money as it is!
Some observations:
The security hole this creates is very big. If the FBI can get in, how do you keep the crackers out? Not just at the point when you install the new telephone switch, but forever? Making it NOT be a security hole is going to end up being a major ongoing cost to everyone.
I see this being a problem with OSS. After all, if the terists can modify the code for their asterisk pbx, they'll be able to defeat or circumvent the wiretap. And then they'll be able to sneak their NOOKS INTO DC!!! OHNOES!! DIRTY DIRTY OSS!!!
I dont have a problem with legally done wiretapping - go right ahead and snoop on the criminals. I'll help. But this stuff ALWAYS ends up getting abused in one way or another. Whether institutionally or personally.
"We want a standard that's going to be around for 10 or 15 years," says one studio exec.
Ten or 15 years.... TEN OR FIFTEEN YEARS?!?! They really do smoke crack at those studios. Let me try to remember the various storage media I've had over the last 15 years...
1990: fifteen years ago, the removable media choices were 5.25" floppy at 1.2MB, or the just-starting-to-be-affordable 3.5" floppy clocking in at a whopping 1.44MB.
1995: CD-ROM drives with 650MB of storage were appearing. 600 times larger - two orders of magnitude larger than floppy disks.
2000: DVDs were becoming mainstream with ~9GB of space, another order larger.
2005: blu-ray is going mainstream with the PS3 and standard drives for PCs. With a current capacity of 50GB, its another order larger.
So in 15 years, we've had a 10,000 fold increase in storage capacity. I understand that blu-ray is designed to accomodate multiple layers in the future, but those are power of 2 increases, not power of 10. And really doesnt handle actual science/technology advances which would be incompatible by definition.
Does anybody actually think that removable storage tech will not advance another four orders of magnitude in the next 15 years? Or that future network tech won't swamp the 50GB capacity either? I mean, why would I carry that 1.44MB floppy around any more when I can copy that much data to and from my server over the net in about 3 seconds?
Having the same removable storage media not change much in 10 - 15 years from now sounds horribly myopic and stifling.
Sadly, Nigeria has had a direct link to a huge amount of bandwidth since 2001 that is pretty much completely unused, thanks to the rampant corruption in the area.
Correct, we don't have to worry about the min. temp in the winter - but instead it is the max. temp that is important.
The specs for the empeg say 0C to 55C operating from the hard drive. This is approx 32F to 130F - and I have personally seen the air temp. get to 125F here in Phoenix. Expect much higher temps in a car sitting in a sunny parking lot.
Of course, 55C is the max _operating_ temp, which means the empeg should be able to deal with higher temps while turned off. Just don't expect to jump in the car and turn it on.
...Exactly what I have been thinking since I first heard about it.
The pacemakers that I have seen are very sophisticated. Many have a coil antenna inside the case that can be used to communicate with a good old PC through a simple transceiver plugged into the serial port. Logged data about the heart, pacemaker battery status and such can be dumped, and new operating parameters can be sent back.
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Even better, I don't have to press 1 any more to answer a call! So annoying when using a headset and your phone is tucked away somewhere.
I read that as Genetic VMs and that sounded really cool. It even made interesting sense almost all the way through the OP.
I was sadly disappointed when I realized my error. Generic VMs? Like everybody else said, boring.
Well, it appears megaditto beat me, but that's only because I was off looking for references, I swear.
Ah yes, from the article:
In an npr story about this, it was mentioned that the FBI - the actual source of this FCC rule - really wants to be able to do this wiretapping remotely. So rather than needing to physically go to a site and install equipment and or software, collect data, then come back for it later, the FBI tech can just go [click][click] in his remote wiretapping console and now they're wiretapping. And if its not remote, you basically need to have your IT guy available 24/7 with keys to your building. That's one thing for a big university, its another world for your average small town library. They barely have enough money as it is!
Some observations:Ten or 15 years.... TEN OR FIFTEEN YEARS?!?! They really do smoke crack at those studios. Let me try to remember the various storage media I've had over the last 15 years...
1990: fifteen years ago, the removable media choices were 5.25" floppy at 1.2MB, or the just-starting-to-be-affordable 3.5" floppy clocking in at a whopping 1.44MB.
1995: CD-ROM drives with 650MB of storage were appearing. 600 times larger - two orders of magnitude larger than floppy disks.
2000: DVDs were becoming mainstream with ~9GB of space, another order larger.
2005: blu-ray is going mainstream with the PS3 and standard drives for PCs. With a current capacity of 50GB, its another order larger.
So in 15 years, we've had a 10,000 fold increase in storage capacity. I understand that blu-ray is designed to accomodate multiple layers in the future, but those are power of 2 increases, not power of 10. And really doesnt handle actual science/technology advances which would be incompatible by definition.
Does anybody actually think that removable storage tech will not advance another four orders of magnitude in the next 15 years? Or that future network tech won't swamp the 50GB capacity either? I mean, why would I carry that 1.44MB floppy around any more when I can copy that much data to and from my server over the net in about 3 seconds?
Having the same removable storage media not change much in 10 - 15 years from now sounds horribly myopic and stifling.
Check out this article from the Feb 2004 IEEE Spectrum.
Sadly, Nigeria has had a direct link to a huge amount of bandwidth since 2001 that is pretty much completely unused, thanks to the rampant corruption in the area.
And here is direct link to the pretty map of the optical cable ringing Africa.
An lcd
A remote control
Anything from M-Audio! - MIDI interface, keyboard, a (real) audio interface...
microcontroller --> endless possibilities....
flash drive, or a flash card reader
usb drive enclosure - harddrive, CD-R...
Correct, we don't have to worry about the min. temp in the winter - but instead it is the max. temp that is important.
The specs for the empeg say 0C to 55C operating from the hard drive. This is approx 32F to 130F - and I have personally seen the air temp. get to 125F here in Phoenix. Expect much higher temps in a car sitting in a sunny parking lot.
Of course, 55C is the max _operating_ temp, which means the empeg should be able to deal with higher temps while turned off. Just don't expect to jump in the car and turn it on.
...Exactly what I have been thinking since I first heard about it.
The pacemakers that I have seen are very sophisticated. Many have a coil antenna inside the case that can be used to communicate with a good old PC through a simple transceiver plugged into the serial port. Logged data about the heart, pacemaker battery status and such can be dumped, and new operating parameters can be sent back.