>The word 'pager' was used by the poster and NOT by the scientists being quoted in regard to the behavior of the endochrine system.
Okay, I'll give you that one. However, a study from 1982 is still outdated, but I do take back what I said about the doctor, but I don't consider it all my own fault.:-)
> Firstly, you seem willing to admit that there may in fact be an effect on rodents but that because rodents are smaller than people and that, "The dose makes the poison," people should ignore the implications of such studies entirely, and further, possibly even scorn those who do take interest.
I'm not trying to practice head-in-the-sand thinking here, just trying to avoid the paranoia that always permeates discussions like this. I could, for example, prove to you that Nutrasweet is deadly to humans (it turns into formaldehyde at certain temperatures, such as the ones in people's guts) but only rats can eat enough Nutrasweet through regular food to kill themselves with it. The dose makes the poison, and I am willing to notice the effect on rats, but before I am willing to validate that it applies to humans there needs to be far more study on what the "deadly" dosage to humans acually is, and if there's even a remote chance that a human using a cellphone can experience it.
>The dose which makes the poison, is in fact identical for all brain sizes since the effect is not caused by mechanical heating or similar effects of EM radiation where absorbtion rates count, but rather by individual cellular reactions which occur regardless of how many cells happen to be exposed.
Okay, query me this: In that case will I still be harmed the same when I hold the phone a foot from my ear? I sorta doubt it, because of the law of inverse squares that applies to EM waves, and _that's_ my beef with studies on rats.
>Yes, 16 htz seems low, but it's all our human ears are capable of working with.
Sorry to break it to you, but the average human ear cannot hear much at all below 25 Hz. Not to mention all landline telephones are designed to cut off at 300 Hz, _and_ considering cellphones make more compromises in audio quality than regular phones (try hooking up a modem to your cell to prove this) they'll cut off at a higher frequency, not a lower one.
>1. Distance from the source makes a big difference; i.e., a cellphone next to your head transmitting modulated ELF signal on a microwave carrier frequency is going to have significantly more effect than a distant powerline transmitting ELF signal on an ELF carrier.
I'm sorry, but I just disagree with this notion that cell phones emit ELF... I think I'd really need to see evidence of this, sorry mate. Maybe we'll just have to agree to disagree here.
>2. Believe it or not, 60htz powerlines are part of the same problem, and they do have an effect, albeit, a somewhat muted one as compared to cellphones.
Well, I have seen all sorts of half-baked studies, but I've never checked for anything conclusive. Either way, though, like I said, I just don't think this is relevant to cell phones.
>Perhaps I should post the data for that experiment in a more easily digestible form. It's really quite fascinating stuff, for those who don't like to cling to safe denial structures.
Now that would be nice. I'd like to see a decent study on the effect of power line frequencies on the brain -- the best I've seen were the usual "there's a 5% higher rate of cancer in this area near the power distribution center" studies that really don't prove anything conclusively.:-)
>Please. I have no idea who you are, but I'm willing to bet you're capable of far less ignorant/arrogant comments.
True. It's my bad for assuming what the original poster said was the truth -- I should have researched a little more before I wrote any insults down like that.
Its just old-school pagers, jeez, if they're emitting anything then you'd have the FCC knocking at your door.
> If one of those goes away, what do you think will happen to hard drive prices?
They'd go down because Fujitsu, Samsung, and Seagate would be able to lower their costs with the increased sales revenue they would see.
There's a far wider world of hard drives out there than WD and Maxtor. In fact, any of the other manufacturers rate better in my books, and I was quite angry when Maxtor bought out my favourite drive maker, Quantum (I believe they still honor the Quantum warranties, though). But you can't win them all...:-)
>So the tobacco test done on mice weren't valid because they didn't have human sized lungs?
It is not invalid, per se, but to be validated a test must be run on humans.
However, as I've said earlier, we have basic knowledge of how certain substances react in mice and people, and therefore can draw reasonably safe extrapolations based on that. That being said, I'm not sure I'd be willing to believe a tobacco study based only on results from rats is 100% going to affect humans in an identical manner. According to studies on rats people should die of cancer with any exposure to fiberglass, for example.
This is why proportion must be set, and this is why studies must be done with either humans (not forcing them to do anything they wouldn't want to do normally, obviously) or something a little closer to us in genetic lineage.
But, tests on rats *do* start us on a path to study what the effects of certain things *could* be on people, but to simply study something on rats and assume the affects on humans will be identical in type and proportion is irresponsible at best.
Further studies are necessary, especially in the field of EMF. They must be carried out by competent people though, not people like the doctor that thinks pagers are serious source of EMF.
And again, EMF is a very new field, unlike the studies of various poisons. A simple chemical analysis of cigarettes would have shown that even 50 years ago they could be unsafe. No such evidence exists for radio waves apart from the bands known to be dangerous to life, which (in general) cellphones avoid.
I mean, we don't just feed some rats a new drug, notice no serious side effect, and immedately prescribe it to the entire population, do we?
>Well now Mister Radio Engineer...perhaps you missed out on the local oscillator parts of your Degree.
No, but I don't have a Masters in Radio Engineering (is there such a thing?) and I know what an oscillator is and does.
>Pagers have to have some form of LO to be able to receive transmissions, then they EMIT, just like Transmit, a Electrically generated tone, series of tones or physical vibrations.
No, a properly designed pager needs emit no signal -- classic paging systems are ONE WAY. *Especially* in 1982, when the article was written.
> I suspect that you are a DOUCHE BAG of the first magnitude
Hmm, well I'd rather be up someone's cunt than someone's ass, such as yourself.
Now, let me give you a basic lesson from grade 6 science that you so obviously missed.
When the amount of radio interference emitted by an object is so very small that it is, infact, negligible compared the the radiation receieved on planet earth by the sun, it is safe to ignore it.
A pager, properly made, emits no more radiation than you would receive by taking a walk in the park. Period. End of discussion.
Now go back to grade school and learn what you missed. Like some manners.
Not in 1982 I didn't. You didn't click his semi-link and check for yourself, did you? Fell for it hook, line and sinker.
>Because, you know, scientists the world over use rats and mice in their experiments because all those scientists just aren't as smart as you are.
Seems to me its true. 1982 and two way pagers? It proves that you really *can* reply to (at that time dead-tree) spam and get get a doctorate for $179.95.
I have no problem with them using rats for proper experiementation, such as drug research where the effect of the drugs on such a smaller body has been researched and can be calculated out.
I *DO* have a problem with someone studying a completely unknown phenomenon with something that isn't even *close* to human and suggesting the effects on humans will not only be similar, but of the same proportion. Don't these doctors know the old nurse's adage "The dose makes the poison"?
>That just screams, "I FEAR THESE IDEAS AND WILL USE ANY EXCUSE TO DENY THEM."
You just scream "I BELIEVE EVERY SINGLE THING I SEE WRITTEN ON SLASHDOT", don't you?
>Cell phones modulate their microwave carrier frequencies into the 16 to 96 htz range
WHAT? That is the single most stupid thing I've ever heard. You don't even have the slightest clue about anything, do you?
Do you even know that a "htz" is? I don't, because its Hz or cycles and anyone trying to give out information that cellphones modulate at anywhere NEAR power line frequencies (50 or 60 hz, depending on where you live) sounds like a moron to me.
If you really think that those frequencies are bad for you, quit worrying about the wimpy ass 0.7 watts your cellphone emits and take a look at the huge antenna that is the line cord going to your computer. And yeah, for fun, hook yourself up to an oscilloscope and notice that a cellphone does exactly ZERO to the 50/60 Hz frequecy your body is picking up from the power lines.
I can prove it to you someday. I, unlike these pathetic doctors, actually own an oscilloscope.
>So YES, there is relevance in those studies.
No there isn't and you've just proven it.
>admit the possiblity that the media has been lying to them,
No. Idiots like you have been lying to us.
>and do some real thinking and research rather than fight like mad to support the very forces which are making fools out of them.
Holy shit. Do you think that everything is a conspiracy? I mean, I even have a bit of trouble when I try to bring up the possible Freon conspiracy, but if/when someone clearly points out I'm totally wrong I don't try to say that they're being lied to by the media.
{1}, {2}, and {3} do not involve human-brain sized subjects and I therefore cast them out of hand. There is no way to measure the effect of radio waves affecting the brain with creatures that have brains far less than 1/10th our size with any hope of correlating it to humans. Remember the law of squares and how it applies to radio waves, anyone?
Wake me up when they get some primates involved in these studies.
{4} Again, I cast out of hand anyone who talks about EM efects of a pager. Pagers do not transmit, and any doctor credible to that title would have either asked someone in the field, or would have noticed the lack of radiation of the device PRIOR to testing. Truly, this person does NOT deserve a PhD title if this is the type of irresponsible trash they pump out. They should be disbarred for publishing such a study immediately before they actually do hurt someone.
{5} Measures the effects of portable phones. At the time of that study (1974) they ran in the 49 Mhz band, or maybe even lower, in the kids walkie-talkie band. This is 20x lower than many newer analog portable phones and cellphones, and nearly 50x less than that of very new 2.4 Ghz phones.
Not to even get into the studies that mentioned "the frequencies of computer monitors" as if they had even the slightest relevance to cellphones. 15 kilo-cycles is the same as 900 MEGA-cycles or 2.4 GIGA-cycles?
Give me a break.
None of these studies has relevant evidence to what you are discussing, sorry.:-/
It always seemed to me overweight people could take a hint easier than idiot runners. Ben Johnson comes to mind as proof that serious runners appear to lack the mental capacity to know when enough is enough, and you prove it by offering to help get a fat person on your medical taxes/insurance faster.
Dumbass.
Piss off my slashdot, we want more intelligence and you're just sponging from it.
Oh, and the short slang form for somthing is either SUM'IT or SUMMIT (depending on wether you want to avoid the obvious homonym or not), not SUMPTIN. Unless you ment sumptious.
And drop the double question mark and extra space. For emphasis use the commonly accepted fasion of a question mark followed by an exclamation point, such as this:
People like you SICKEN me. I have to put up with higher emergency fees on my taxes because they're scraping another runner off the road. Then I have to put up with my insurance going up on my car because they scraped another idiot runner off the front of it. And then there's the manslaughter charges! But Judge, he ran a red light! Doesn't matter when he's not in a steel cage, it seems. Another couple of weeks in the chain gang picking up trash I guess. Or worse yet, you run so bloody much and don't end up in front of a car that I have to pay for your foot, knee and ankle therapy for the rest of your life when one of the three gives out (and at 70 miles at week it WILL). It's people like you who run all over the place all the time and waste my money that piss me off.
I hope your knees, feet, and ankles explode in a decade. You deserve it, and at least then you won't be able to to any more damage to my tax money in the system.
Running is for getting away from something dangerous in a hurry (or getting to something really good in a hurry), walking is for simply moving you places. Use the right exercise for the job and keep us safe.
Now, will you stop being such a high and mighty fuck, or do you need more reasons why running is seriously damaging your body?
Walk 0.5 miles twice per day then. *Brisk* walk, not slow.
That might not be as effective as running, but if you manage your diet, it should do fine.
I bet in time you'll find that 0.5 miles isn't enough, you'll want more, and you'll be able to to more. Either that or you've got a serious medical condition, in which case talk to your doctor and ask him if this plan is safe.
I remember reading the somethingawful review on that game and it hit EVERY sympathetic nerve in my body. It felt like I was taking care of a hyper 2 year old with ADD than a slow moving blob of white goop.
I rented it for 3 days and realised that there appeared to be no way to finish the game (it really never gave you any hints -- worse than a lot of text adveture games). I almost wanted my money back. I should have known it was a bad rent at the video store -- the box seemed to be in really good condition.
I think the only game that sucked worse for difficulty and lack of fun in general, IMHO, was Asylum for the C64. But then again, at least the premise for that game was less lame, so maybe it was a tossup.
Then again, I wasn't much of pitfall fan, either.:)
Yeah, if you read my comment above, I was wrong... Such is life.
But I think 15kv is a little high for power on the residential poles. At that voltage one would think the phone cable would experience a lot of arcing during the rain...:-)
I know the 25kv huge "standing man" (beats me what their real name is) style towers arc down the ceramic insulators during heavy rain (makes for some good fun watching it).
>Since when does every house in the US have its own transformer?
Make me break out that heavy purple book, won't you.:)
The Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible (3rd Ed) (pp. 491) says...
"The National Electric Code requires that the neutral lead and the ground lead be bonded together at the service entrance"
"European wiring practice is more likely to result in common mode surges because the bonding of neutral and ground is made only at the transformer"
So yeah, I was pretty confused about that point. Thanks for making me bust that open again -- I could have looked even more silly.:-/
However, this does mean that people in Europe still have to depend on their neighbours being intelligent and not (somehow) inducing a lot of voltage into the neutral line, whereas in North America the ground point is in your home, meaning (Zap! the safety bird to the rescue... does he still exist?) only you can prevent common mode surges.
Well, I can tell you my grandmother's house still had that (in the UK, of course), and it set on fire once (old story from mom).
Now, she got her wiring upgraded a few years ago, and I think they replaced that firestarter. I'm guessing they stopped installing those old-style fuse-wire panels when they switched from the old style round-pin 10 Amp plugs to the newer 13 Amp rectangular pin plugs, which I think was about 20 or 30 years ago. But it still isn't hard to get ahold of bare fuse-wire if you need it.
Most UK houses have a pretty sane wiring system. Just light switches are confusing (they're all upside down). I can half understand putting the switch on the outside of a bathroom when it's holding back 240v.
I do like that a lot of stuff there still doesn't come with moulded plugs. It makes it handy for projects later on if the appliance breaks down.
One other thing I like there, that I miss here -- most all outlets have On/Off switches. But I couldn't handle not being able to plug 7 things into a power strip without it being the size of a small desk.:-)
>Most peoples bathroom light switch on with a ceiling mounted corded switch (there are exceptions).
I've seen that... bugged the hell out of me (we banished these from the basement, which is often the only place you'll find 'em in NA) and confused me (why won't it turn on? Oh, the switch is off. No it isn't. Maybe the pull cord is broken. Nope.) I just never did find a bathroom (in a house, that is) in the UK that had the switch on the inside. Maybe I need to look harder (but you do appear strange doing that on vacation, no?).:-)
With the switch on the inside, people outside can't drive you nuts without finding the breaker box.
> FWIW, yes the lower voltage in the U.S. does reduce the risk of electrocution but increases the risk of electrical fire as more current has to be pulled to produce the same power output. That is why for majpor appliances, you guys have to tap 220V.
Agreed, but when a product is well designed, this is less of a problem. Not to mention the 20% higher frequency in NA helps keep transformers/motors more efficient and cooler.
And our 220V plugs are way bigger than UK ones... Heh.
>Oh, and as for individual transformers, sure, if you really want to have junk on poles and visible wires everywhere, fine.
Well, where I am they put sort-of ugly big metal green transformer boxes on every third or fourth house. I'm pretty sure the electrical code requires separate transformer taps inside those boxes for each house, still, though.
But yeah, the pole pigs don't look so hot, and they have a tendancy to explode due to old age and getting soaked during wicked storms. But having overhead power lines means power poles and therefore far cheaper wiring upgrades when it comes fiber-to-the-house time.
My bets are they've (smartly) designed their equipment so that if some idiot plugs the phone jack into the network jack it doesn't blow up their equipment. The balun will either impedance match or change the voltage on your side... Probably from a higher voltage (say -50V, which would make their system relatevely immune to most phone induced damage) to a lower voltage (I think +/- 12V for ethernet... not sure though).
Actually, it seems _really_ hard to get decent ethenet voltage info -- maybe its time to whip out the multimeter.
>They could have done the signaling in-band without much added complexety by adding a few extra bits per serial word.
And then it would cease to be RS-232 compatible, and it would be called a PC-Serial-Port and there would be no modems for the PC that didn't come with expensive and stupid adapter dongles like my C64's SuperGrafix Jr.
Strange. I always thought British plugs were friggin' unsafe.
I mean, when you are unplugging something, you're thinking about it. You're being careful. I've never heard of anyone in North America shocking themselves by removing a plug.
But guess what can happen when you're not thinking about it? The appliance can short circuit and smoke/catch fire. North American plugs make fixing this easy -- just pull on the cord (no, you don't do this normally, but if the thing is FUBARed, who cares if you pull the wire out of the plug). No more power makes it safer, and hopefully it'll stop burning.
Now Brtish Plugs are such a PITA, you have to find where the thing plugs in, grip by the plastic, and pull, HARD. Not cool if the appliance is melting your place down...
Oh... and one more think I can't understand about UK power. They let you guys have a whole bunch of houses on a single transformer. ACH! Dangerous to your and/or your equipment depending on how stupid your neighbours are...
I like having my own personal transformer. And I like being able to turn my bathroom lights on/off _inside_ the bathroom.:-)
I'm just disappointed they didn't integrate the keyboard. Guess I won't be buying it, since after owning a blackberry 950 and going into a "typing" competition with a veteran Palm user I doubled their speed.
Gnutella certainly has a business capable model. That model, unfortunately, would require DRM.
Simply have all the files DRM encrypted and let them be shared around. You can play them based on wether your computer/player is authorized or not. If it is, it plays. If it isn't, it'll either go into barker mode, or it'll ask you to buy the song.
Of course, all the slashdot hating brainless CEOs think its okay to steal money from the workers because they can.
Or do you want to stop trying to redefine stealing to be something so watered down it means "having more than the next guy without his permission and without any personal loss to anyone". Because if that's what you want it to mean, than any company is stealing from its workers by paying them less than their work is worth (if they were to pay the full value, at _best_ the company would break even).
>my guess is that when something copy protected replaces mp3 that gnutella could become a viable bussiness model, the company would just sell or rent you an unlocking key.
Well, thanks for echoing what I just said. Why did you take the non-opportunity to insult the community you deal with and at the same time completely negate what you said earlier?
Oh, and BTW:.wma currently has the problem "locked up", so to speak. It takes more effort than your average non-slashdotter would put in to break it.
>FYI, the resale value of a 1990 Toyota Tercel versus a 1990 Escort is the same.
The Toyota is _still_ worth 10% more, even though it is a complete POS at that point (and Tercels are pretty crappy anyways [coming from someone who once drove one], if you want a cheap Toyota, you buy the tried and tested Corolla [driving one now] Just don't forget to get the improved sound system).
Anyways, you can look it up in the BlueBook for yourself.
Slashdot Mirror
>The word 'pager' was used by the poster and NOT by the scientists being quoted in regard to the behavior of the endochrine system.
:-)
:-)
Okay, I'll give you that one. However, a study from 1982 is still outdated, but I do take back what I said about the doctor, but I don't consider it all my own fault.
> Firstly, you seem willing to admit that there may in fact be an effect on rodents but that because rodents are smaller than people and that, "The dose makes the poison," people should ignore the implications of such studies entirely, and further, possibly even scorn those who do take interest.
I'm not trying to practice head-in-the-sand thinking here, just trying to avoid the paranoia that always permeates discussions like this. I could, for example, prove to you that Nutrasweet is deadly to humans (it turns into formaldehyde at certain temperatures, such as the ones in people's guts) but only rats can eat enough Nutrasweet through regular food to kill themselves with it. The dose makes the poison, and I am willing to notice the effect on rats, but before I am willing to validate that it applies to humans there needs to be far more study on what the "deadly" dosage to humans acually is, and if there's even a remote chance that a human using a cellphone can experience it.
>The dose which makes the poison, is in fact identical for all brain sizes since the effect is not caused by mechanical heating or similar effects of EM radiation where absorbtion rates count, but rather by individual cellular reactions which occur regardless of how many cells happen to be exposed.
Okay, query me this: In that case will I still be harmed the same when I hold the phone a foot from my ear? I sorta doubt it, because of the law of inverse squares that applies to EM waves, and _that's_ my beef with studies on rats.
>Yes, 16 htz seems low, but it's all our human ears are capable of working with.
Sorry to break it to you, but the average human ear cannot hear much at all below 25 Hz. Not to mention all landline telephones are designed to cut off at 300 Hz, _and_ considering cellphones make more compromises in audio quality than regular phones (try hooking up a modem to your cell to prove this) they'll cut off at a higher frequency, not a lower one.
>1. Distance from the source makes a big difference; i.e., a cellphone next to your head transmitting modulated ELF signal on a microwave carrier frequency is going to have significantly more effect than a distant powerline transmitting ELF signal on an ELF carrier.
I'm sorry, but I just disagree with this notion that cell phones emit ELF... I think I'd really need to see evidence of this, sorry mate. Maybe we'll just have to agree to disagree here.
>2. Believe it or not, 60htz powerlines are part of the same problem, and they do have an effect, albeit, a somewhat muted one as compared to cellphones.
Well, I have seen all sorts of half-baked studies, but I've never checked for anything conclusive. Either way, though, like I said, I just don't think this is relevant to cell phones.
>Perhaps I should post the data for that experiment in a more easily digestible form. It's really quite fascinating stuff, for those who don't like to cling to safe denial structures.
Now that would be nice. I'd like to see a decent study on the effect of power line frequencies on the brain -- the best I've seen were the usual "there's a 5% higher rate of cancer in this area near the power distribution center" studies that really don't prove anything conclusively.
>Please. I have no idea who you are, but I'm willing to bet you're capable of far less ignorant/arrogant comments.
True. It's my bad for assuming what the original poster said was the truth -- I should have researched a little more before I wrote any insults down like that.
Its just old-school pagers, jeez, if they're emitting anything then you'd have the FCC knocking at your door.
> If one of those goes away, what do you think will happen to hard drive prices?
:-)
They'd go down because Fujitsu, Samsung, and Seagate would be able to lower their costs with the increased sales revenue they would see.
There's a far wider world of hard drives out there than WD and Maxtor. In fact, any of the other manufacturers rate better in my books, and I was quite angry when Maxtor bought out my favourite drive maker, Quantum (I believe they still honor the Quantum warranties, though). But you can't win them all...
Its not even 58k colours for real. That's simluated from the hardware limited 12-bit (4k) colour depth. (Or at least that's what TechTV sez).
Palm users were really ripped off, IMHO.
>So the tobacco test done on mice weren't valid because they didn't have human sized lungs?
It is not invalid, per se, but to be validated a test must be run on humans.
However, as I've said earlier, we have basic knowledge of how certain substances react in mice and people, and therefore can draw reasonably safe extrapolations based on that. That being said, I'm not sure I'd be willing to believe a tobacco study based only on results from rats is 100% going to affect humans in an identical manner. According to studies on rats people should die of cancer with any exposure to fiberglass, for example.
This is why proportion must be set, and this is why studies must be done with either humans (not forcing them to do anything they wouldn't want to do normally, obviously) or something a little closer to us in genetic lineage.
But, tests on rats *do* start us on a path to study what the effects of certain things *could* be on people, but to simply study something on rats and assume the affects on humans will be identical in type and proportion is irresponsible at best.
Further studies are necessary, especially in the field of EMF. They must be carried out by competent people though, not people like the doctor that thinks pagers are serious source of EMF.
And again, EMF is a very new field, unlike the studies of various poisons. A simple chemical analysis of cigarettes would have shown that even 50 years ago they could be unsafe. No such evidence exists for radio waves apart from the bands known to be dangerous to life, which (in general) cellphones avoid.
I mean, we don't just feed some rats a new drug, notice no serious side effect, and immedately prescribe it to the entire population, do we?
>Well now Mister Radio Engineer...perhaps you missed out on the local oscillator parts of your Degree.
No, but I don't have a Masters in Radio Engineering (is there such a thing?) and I know what an oscillator is and does.
>Pagers have to have some form of LO to be able to receive transmissions, then they EMIT, just like Transmit, a Electrically generated tone, series of tones or physical vibrations.
No, a properly designed pager needs emit no signal -- classic paging systems are ONE WAY. *Especially* in 1982, when the article was written.
> I suspect that you are a DOUCHE BAG of the first magnitude
Hmm, well I'd rather be up someone's cunt than someone's ass, such as yourself.
Now, let me give you a basic lesson from grade 6 science that you so obviously missed.
When the amount of radio interference emitted by an object is so very small that it is, infact, negligible compared the the radiation receieved on planet earth by the sun, it is safe to ignore it.
A pager, properly made, emits no more radiation than you would receive by taking a walk in the park. Period. End of discussion.
Now go back to grade school and learn what you missed. Like some manners.
End of line.
>Have you never heard of a TWO-WAY pager?
Not in 1982 I didn't. You didn't click his semi-link and check for yourself, did you? Fell for it hook, line and sinker.
>Because, you know, scientists the world over use rats and mice in their experiments because all those scientists just aren't as smart as you are.
Seems to me its true. 1982 and two way pagers? It proves that you really *can* reply to (at that time dead-tree) spam and get get a doctorate for $179.95.
I have no problem with them using rats for proper experiementation, such as drug research where the effect of the drugs on such a smaller body has been researched and can be calculated out.
I *DO* have a problem with someone studying a completely unknown phenomenon with something that isn't even *close* to human and suggesting the effects on humans will not only be similar, but of the same proportion. Don't these doctors know the old nurse's adage "The dose makes the poison"?
>That just screams, "I FEAR THESE IDEAS AND WILL USE ANY EXCUSE TO DENY THEM."
You just scream "I BELIEVE EVERY SINGLE THING I SEE WRITTEN ON SLASHDOT", don't you?
>Cell phones modulate their microwave carrier frequencies into the 16 to 96 htz range
WHAT? That is the single most stupid thing I've ever heard. You don't even have the slightest clue about anything, do you?
Do you even know that a "htz" is? I don't, because its Hz or cycles and anyone trying to give out information that cellphones modulate at anywhere NEAR power line frequencies (50 or 60 hz, depending on where you live) sounds like a moron to me.
If you really think that those frequencies are bad for you, quit worrying about the wimpy ass 0.7 watts your cellphone emits and take a look at the huge antenna that is the line cord going to your computer. And yeah, for fun, hook yourself up to an oscilloscope and notice that a cellphone does exactly ZERO to the 50/60 Hz frequecy your body is picking up from the power lines.
I can prove it to you someday. I, unlike these pathetic doctors, actually own an oscilloscope.
>So YES, there is relevance in those studies.
No there isn't and you've just proven it.
>admit the possiblity that the media has been lying to them,
No. Idiots like you have been lying to us.
>and do some real thinking and research rather than fight like mad to support the very forces which are making fools out of them.
Holy shit. Do you think that everything is a conspiracy? I mean, I even have a bit of trouble when I try to bring up the possible Freon conspiracy, but if/when someone clearly points out I'm totally wrong I don't try to say that they're being lied to by the media.
Woah. You sorta freak me out there, sorry to say.
{1}, {2}, and {3} do not involve human-brain sized subjects and I therefore cast them out of hand. There is no way to measure the effect of radio waves affecting the brain with creatures that have brains far less than 1/10th our size with any hope of correlating it to humans. Remember the law of squares and how it applies to radio waves, anyone?
:-/
Wake me up when they get some primates involved in these studies.
{4} Again, I cast out of hand anyone who talks about EM efects of a pager. Pagers do not transmit, and any doctor credible to that title would have either asked someone in the field, or would have noticed the lack of radiation of the device PRIOR to testing. Truly, this person does NOT deserve a PhD title if this is the type of irresponsible trash they pump out. They should be disbarred for publishing such a study immediately before they actually do hurt someone.
{5} Measures the effects of portable phones. At the time of that study (1974) they ran in the 49 Mhz band, or maybe even lower, in the kids walkie-talkie band. This is 20x lower than many newer analog portable phones and cellphones, and nearly 50x less than that of very new 2.4 Ghz phones.
Not to even get into the studies that mentioned "the frequencies of computer monitors" as if they had even the slightest relevance to cellphones. 15 kilo-cycles is the same as 900 MEGA-cycles or 2.4 GIGA-cycles?
Give me a break.
None of these studies has relevant evidence to what you are discussing, sorry.
Try your luck next time, though.
Hit a bone, did I? (Pun very much intended)
It always seemed to me overweight people could take a hint easier than idiot runners. Ben Johnson comes to mind as proof that serious runners appear to lack the mental capacity to know when enough is enough, and you prove it by offering to help get a fat person on your medical taxes/insurance faster.
Dumbass.
Piss off my slashdot, we want more intelligence and you're just sponging from it.
Oh, and the short slang form for somthing is either SUM'IT or SUMMIT (depending on wether you want to avoid the obvious homonym or not), not SUMPTIN. Unless you ment sumptious.
And drop the double question mark and extra space. For emphasis use the commonly accepted fasion of a question mark followed by an exclamation point, such as this:
Are you an IDIOT?!
People like you SICKEN me. I have to put up with higher emergency fees on my taxes because they're scraping another runner off the road. Then I have to put up with my insurance going up on my car because they scraped another idiot runner off the front of it. And then there's the manslaughter charges! But Judge, he ran a red light! Doesn't matter when he's not in a steel cage, it seems. Another couple of weeks in the chain gang picking up trash I guess. Or worse yet, you run so bloody much and don't end up in front of a car that I have to pay for your foot, knee and ankle therapy for the rest of your life when one of the three gives out (and at 70 miles at week it WILL). It's people like you who run all over the place all the time and waste my money that piss me off.
I hope your knees, feet, and ankles explode in a decade. You deserve it, and at least then you won't be able to to any more damage to my tax money in the system.
Running is for getting away from something dangerous in a hurry (or getting to something really good in a hurry), walking is for simply moving you places. Use the right exercise for the job and keep us safe.
Now, will you stop being such a high and mighty fuck, or do you need more reasons why running is seriously damaging your body?
>i can barely walk 1 mile (if i can at all)..
Walk 0.5 miles twice per day then. *Brisk* walk, not slow.
That might not be as effective as running, but if you manage your diet, it should do fine.
I bet in time you'll find that 0.5 miles isn't enough, you'll want more, and you'll be able to to more. Either that or you've got a serious medical condition, in which case talk to your doctor and ask him if this plan is safe.
And yeah, I need to follow that advice too.
>Well, until you're caught and they imprison you for life, but until then you live it up baby.
Two words:
"Exit Plan".
Why don't they make a movie with that title? It's about time!
>David Crane's A Boy and His Blob
:)
God that game sucked.
I remember reading the somethingawful review on that game and it hit EVERY sympathetic nerve in my body. It felt like I was taking care of a hyper 2 year old with ADD than a slow moving blob of white goop.
I rented it for 3 days and realised that there appeared to be no way to finish the game (it really never gave you any hints -- worse than a lot of text adveture games). I almost wanted my money back. I should have known it was a bad rent at the video store -- the box seemed to be in really good condition.
I think the only game that sucked worse for difficulty and lack of fun in general, IMHO, was Asylum for the C64. But then again, at least the premise for that game was less lame, so maybe it was a tossup.
Then again, I wasn't much of pitfall fan, either.
Yeah, if you read my comment above, I was wrong... Such is life.
:-)
But I think 15kv is a little high for power on the residential poles. At that voltage one would think the phone cable would experience a lot of arcing during the rain...
I know the 25kv huge "standing man" (beats me what their real name is) style towers arc down the ceramic insulators during heavy rain (makes for some good fun watching it).
>Since when does every house in the US have its own transformer?
:)
:-/
Make me break out that heavy purple book, won't you.
The Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible (3rd Ed) (pp. 491) says...
"The National Electric Code requires that the neutral lead and the ground lead be bonded together at the service entrance"
"European wiring practice is more likely to result in common mode surges because the bonding of neutral and ground is made only at the transformer"
So yeah, I was pretty confused about that point. Thanks for making me bust that open again -- I could have looked even more silly.
However, this does mean that people in Europe still have to depend on their neighbours being intelligent and not (somehow) inducing a lot of voltage into the neutral line, whereas in North America the ground point is in your home, meaning (Zap! the safety bird to the rescue... does he still exist?) only you can prevent common mode surges.
Well, I can tell you my grandmother's house still had that (in the UK, of course), and it set on fire once (old story from mom).
:-)
Now, she got her wiring upgraded a few years ago, and I think they replaced that firestarter. I'm guessing they stopped installing those old-style fuse-wire panels when they switched from the old style round-pin 10 Amp plugs to the newer 13 Amp rectangular pin plugs, which I think was about 20 or 30 years ago. But it still isn't hard to get ahold of bare fuse-wire if you need it.
Most UK houses have a pretty sane wiring system. Just light switches are confusing (they're all upside down). I can half understand putting the switch on the outside of a bathroom when it's holding back 240v.
I do like that a lot of stuff there still doesn't come with moulded plugs. It makes it handy for projects later on if the appliance breaks down.
One other thing I like there, that I miss here -- most all outlets have On/Off switches. But I couldn't handle not being able to plug 7 things into a power strip without it being the size of a small desk.
>Most peoples bathroom light switch on with a ceiling mounted corded switch (there are exceptions).
:-)
I've seen that... bugged the hell out of me (we banished these from the basement, which is often the only place you'll find 'em in NA) and confused me (why won't it turn on? Oh, the switch is off. No it isn't. Maybe the pull cord is broken. Nope.) I just never did find a bathroom (in a house, that is) in the UK that had the switch on the inside. Maybe I need to look harder (but you do appear strange doing that on vacation, no?).
With the switch on the inside, people outside can't drive you nuts without finding the breaker box.
> FWIW, yes the lower voltage in the U.S. does reduce the risk of electrocution but increases the risk of electrical fire as more current has to be pulled to produce the same power output. That is why for majpor appliances, you guys have to tap 220V.
Agreed, but when a product is well designed, this is less of a problem. Not to mention the 20% higher frequency in NA helps keep transformers/motors more efficient and cooler.
And our 220V plugs are way bigger than UK ones... Heh.
>Oh, and as for individual transformers, sure, if you really want to have junk on poles and visible wires everywhere, fine.
Well, where I am they put sort-of ugly big metal green transformer boxes on every third or fourth house. I'm pretty sure the electrical code requires separate transformer taps inside those boxes for each house, still, though.
But yeah, the pole pigs don't look so hot, and they have a tendancy to explode due to old age and getting soaked during wicked storms. But having overhead power lines means power poles and therefore far cheaper wiring upgrades when it comes fiber-to-the-house time.
A balun is usually a transformer.
My bets are they've (smartly) designed their equipment so that if some idiot plugs the phone jack into the network jack it doesn't blow up their equipment. The balun will either impedance match or change the voltage on your side... Probably from a higher voltage (say -50V, which would make their system relatevely immune to most phone induced damage) to a lower voltage (I think +/- 12V for ethernet... not sure though).
Actually, it seems _really_ hard to get decent ethenet voltage info -- maybe its time to whip out the multimeter.
>They could have done the signaling in-band without much added complexety by adding a few extra bits per serial word.
And then it would cease to be RS-232 compatible, and it would be called a PC-Serial-Port and there would be no modems for the PC that didn't come with expensive and stupid adapter dongles like my C64's SuperGrafix Jr.
No thank you.
Strange. I always thought British plugs were friggin' unsafe.
:-)
I mean, when you are unplugging something, you're thinking about it. You're being careful. I've never heard of anyone in North America shocking themselves by removing a plug.
But guess what can happen when you're not thinking about it? The appliance can short circuit and smoke/catch fire. North American plugs make fixing this easy -- just pull on the cord (no, you don't do this normally, but if the thing is FUBARed, who cares if you pull the wire out of the plug). No more power makes it safer, and hopefully it'll stop burning.
Now Brtish Plugs are such a PITA, you have to find where the thing plugs in, grip by the plastic, and pull, HARD. Not cool if the appliance is melting your place down...
Oh... and one more think I can't understand about UK power. They let you guys have a whole bunch of houses on a single transformer. ACH! Dangerous to your and/or your equipment depending on how stupid your neighbours are...
I like having my own personal transformer. And I like being able to turn my bathroom lights on/off _inside_ the bathroom.
>Just install microsoft messenger and be happy.
I tried and a big WINE debug box came up.
Maybe you could help me get it running?
I don't own a license to Microsoft Windows, nor do I want to pay $150 for an IM client, so unfortunately I won't be able to install it that way.
Any ideas?
Looks damn fine to me.
I'm just disappointed they didn't integrate the keyboard. Guess I won't be buying it, since after owning a blackberry 950 and going into a "typing" competition with a veteran Palm user I doubled their speed.
Oh well.
>Gnutella does not have a bussiness capable model
.wma currently has the problem "locked up", so to speak. It takes more effort than your average non-slashdotter would put in to break it.
Gnutella certainly has a business capable model. That model, unfortunately, would require DRM.
Simply have all the files DRM encrypted and let them be shared around. You can play them based on wether your computer/player is authorized or not. If it is, it plays. If it isn't, it'll either go into barker mode, or it'll ask you to buy the song.
Of course, all the slashdot hating brainless CEOs think its okay to steal money from the workers because they can.
Or do you want to stop trying to redefine stealing to be something so watered down it means "having more than the next guy without his permission and without any personal loss to anyone". Because if that's what you want it to mean, than any company is stealing from its workers by paying them less than their work is worth (if they were to pay the full value, at _best_ the company would break even).
>my guess is that when something copy protected replaces mp3 that gnutella could become a viable bussiness model, the company would just sell or rent you an unlocking key.
Well, thanks for echoing what I just said. Why did you take the non-opportunity to insult the community you deal with and at the same time completely negate what you said earlier?
Oh, and BTW:
Goatse.cx is A-OK by Chinese authorities, but google isn't?
Wow... now that's what I call a strange can of worms.
>FYI, the resale value of a 1990 Toyota Tercel versus a 1990 Escort is the same.
The Toyota is _still_ worth 10% more, even though it is a complete POS at that point (and Tercels are pretty crappy anyways [coming from someone who once drove one], if you want a cheap Toyota, you buy the tried and tested Corolla [driving one now] Just don't forget to get the improved sound system).
Anyways, you can look it up in the Blue Book for yourself.
>Microsoft put Apple out of business?
When Microsoft bought Apple's compliance by forcing them to do anything M$ wants as long as Apple wants M$ Word and Internet Explorer.
I wouldn't say they've been put out of business. I would say that some of their ethics have been bought out, though.