I have a lot of the loud bass guys driving through my neighborhood on a regular basis. Since I started recording my band with microphones, I did not appreciate the extra $300 in dynamics control equipment, I had to buy, to keep their noise out of the record (as much as possible). And, forbid that they blast those things through the neighborhood at night (often).
(a) Overloading their system with RF. Me and my dad--at the time--had a 600 watt RF amp for ham radio. I could hear him on my telephone when he was transmitting (and my stereo). I would bet that a signal well below the F3 parameter of their speaker boxes--usually ported--would ruin the drivers, if they got enough of it. Just add it to the signal...most radio receivers--and the speaker--will filter that, anyway.
(b) For the "extreme edition"...make sure you get all your computers 20 miles a way, along with everything else you care out (even pictures on the wall). I heard a story of someone shorting out a cyclotron magnet...or the power supply that went to it.
Rules are: You have to ramp them up slowly, and down slowly, in regards to the magnet input current. A fast change will create an expanding or collapsing field, which can store quite a bit more than a capacitor can; and is not limited to an electrical connection. The magnetic field can effect a lot of devices, just as a nearby lightning strike can.
In the case of the cyclotron magnet. The power supply shorted...All wiring, in the immediate area, was vaporized. This included the thick stuff thay used to hang the pictures on the walls.
In a bang everything melted, or fell to the floor.
Interesting to see how one of those would do, if configured for that very purpose.
On the original post...this works great if they are "listening" to the radio (bothering the neighborhood with the radio). But, if they use a CD player, jamming the frequencies just won't help, unless you pick option (b)...and please make sure you get your TV, computers, video games, wife's jewery, etc. out of the house, beforehand.
And, I can provide (c):
If you have a car of your own...get a few high SQL to input power treble drivers (and MONSTROUS ear protection). Put those in your car, with an oscillator you can tune from 3 to 18 kHZ. Find one of them? Pop on the protection, and give them 800 watts of something that will make you sick or give a headache at 1 watt or less.
Living by the sea, especially with the high humidity that comes with it...and the salt...can give your more than just a few zinc whiskers on the PC board.
Salt oxidation--depending on how long the windows are open--can really eat a PC in two years or less; never mind the quality of the MB.
Sea salt is hydrophilic. If it accumulates on something, episodes of high humidity will attract moisture from the air, and add the basis for typical corrosive effects. I have had containers with dry sea salt, which have pulled moisture out of the air on their own.
(Most acids need water...so does salt to release it's own ions, which can have a corrsive effect similar to an acid on metallic equipment...usually involving the non-metal in the salt. Sea salt has lots of chlorine, a very strong oxidizing agent.)
Manatee: posted 35. Average 35 (some were slow). Typical high: 38 Extreme: 42
I've been thinking--for years--if a circular scanning radar could be available on a car, you could get "collision imminent" warnings, from a very simple routine, along with seeing other active vehicles on the street. Using simple tuning, using your current speed to adjust the radar measurements, you could see active vehicles highlighted...and know when the guy is not going to stop at the red-light.
You could also see if you can change lanes...checking for a person in a blind spot, or one driving 40 mph faster than the flow of traffic in your lane.
I would find one of these more useful than a GPS...and had I the money, I would probably be developing a prototype.
I would feel alot safer with one of those in the car, especially on foggy mornings or any corner with limited sight distance, which most aggressive drivers actually speed up for. (And we have enough of them around here.)
Just this year, in response to the rather radical change in US human rights, I have registered to vote. (So has my remaining parent).
Hopefully, they will have worked those bugs and security exposures out of the E-Voting system.
And, I guess I have to post this not as the A/C, but as myself, so I won't be arrested.
But, if enough people get them out of office? Maybe this country can be turned around.
(Had to laugh at the poll of "why/. users registered to vote"...so many checked "hate in incumbant", and maybe--as an extension--all that came with him.)
One thing that cannot be overstated is the use of eye protection. And, whatever is selected for that application must handle IR as well as visible light. (Nearly all of the UV is absorbed by the plastic the lens is made out of, so it is not much of a factor.)
Using such a lens, to focus solar radiation, can produce power densities equivalent of a Class-IV laser; where the warnings typically read "avoid exposure to direct or scattered radiation". Even if focused to a spot size of 4cm^2--at an estimated 1kW--the power density would still fit 2.5W/mm^2. This is the same level as a 10W laser, with 2mm beam focus.
Granted that the focus is only at one point, it is easy to overlook when scattered radiation--from a "point" source--can be dangerous.
As the article states, use very heavy welding goggles, and maybe have some sunglasses on under those! It is also recommended to ensure that the goggles cover the infrared parts of the spectrum effectively.
Also note: laser safety goggles would be ineffective for this application, due to the fact that they typically use dichros, which typically are not very "wide-band". They reflect very specific wavelengths--very efficiently. But, since solar radiation is very wide-band, a lot of it will still get through.
You could build all sorts of interesting projects out of those 200 in 1 kits they sold in the old days. They had water detectors, alarms where a circuit was opened, etc. Even low power AM band radio transmitters. The educational value was quite substantial. I started with a 150 in 1 kit, at the age of 7, and it provided me with most of what I knew about digital electrics, at that age.
Since then, I took on the real thing as I started in the development world.
(I posted a NULL by hitting return to early, on an earlier post. Sorry for the trouble.)
Though most will criticize Radio-Shack for lower quality, I did get some educational value out of it.
Not just for mom, but quite a few of her acquaintances, as well. What have I found?
So many forms of spyware, that the machine would take about 15 minutes to boot up! (I was there to witness it.)
Time spent cleaning pop-up porn trash-ware (that's a new one for everybody) from about 3 PC's.
Doing the same at work--I work in Information Security.
Switching EMail accounts, and using aggressive filters to get rid of it all. In fact I know where the spam started on my second to last EMail account. "greetking.com"...Don't go there... guessed my address, with permutations of names, initials and whatever, then validated it for sales purposes, when I opened the E-card.
I've been thinking of writing anti-spam software, myself. I'm good analysis programming and have done well with it.
A Word of Warning: Most "free" software isn't free. You will pay for it with the sudden torrent of black market advertisements sent to your EMail account.
Lately? I hope everybody has:
A firewall.
AV protection, updated hourly
.
To verify--with the apparent sender--the fact that they did send the executable attachment. Always look for that file extension
Good luck with it...and CYA. It's rough out there, now.
Rumor has it that Adolf of WW-II infamy managed a lot of his damage with records stored in shoe-boxes.
It is scary even imagine what they could do with that. Do all the posts regarding privacy come to mind?
Once, I had an argument with a buddy of mine that spoke his mind--to much--over Email. I gave him a little grep script to show how email monitoring could select "suspicious material" for further analysis.
Now, all they have to do is tie it in to a profiling system, and there you go. Orwell's 1984^10 all over again:
Seems to me that I have seen these same things before:
Floppy drives pushed way past their limit, when they were only stable at 720K.
It was typical for me to format a new "good quality" floppy, and have it fail on read-error five minutes later. Never mind using these things to back up the 40MB drive I had at the time!
Modems pushed to 56K, when they were only good to 28K.
It is what made me switch to new technology, such as Road Runner, after dealing with the frustration of even moderate Internet use.
CPU technology is also the same:
The typical heat dissipation--now several tens of watts--still has that little tiny fan to pull the heat out of the fashionably small case. In the past, weren't high performance machines almost super-cooled?
It would seem to me that the customer base is the "guinea pig"--where "experimental" products are tried to test their engineering weakness-- while we have to pay these companies for the privilege of testing their products. It would seem that the roles are reversed here. The quality assurance aspect should be handled by the company before it impacts the customer.
I have found that both hardware and software are the same in this respect. And, we will have to "eat" Moore's Law, because the "testing" is never over. In conclusion, reliability will be an issue for quite some time to come. Though extensive testing would have it's disadvantage: If you were looking for that new product, you would have to wait a couple years beyond it's usual release date to enjoy the benefits.
I fully agree with the point of this article. Being a programmer, myself, I sometimes find little "hints" into the operation of commercial software. Some of the most disappointing were applications written in "C" that the programmer used a "Bubble Sort" or other proportional to N^2 algorithm for sorting records. Never mind that "qsort()" is included in the standard 'C' libraries! Let me not even talk about Windows, with its unspeakable API's and grotesque inefficiencies. Some of which is so bad that I could program applications in assembly language faster than I could develop them to run under Windows.
I am actually "getting out" of the IT industry, because I'm just plain frustrated. You can say that I can work with Linux or other alternative platforms, but the problem is the "accepted standards". Let's face it, most large companies have not gone to alternative operating systems for fear of "support"...never mind that these alternatives are far superior to the garbage turned out most commercial software firms.
Some of the very old 8-bit computers had usable (and powerful) word-processors, spreadsheets and even development environments. They ran at 1-7 MHz. Our 1.2 GHz computers are choking on today's software! What is the problem! That PC in your home would have passes as a super-computer not that many years back. Most of what we are dealing with today is:
Rush to market - We are the software developers Q/A department, and not only are we off their payroll, but we pay them for tech support (their problem).
Poor engineering practice - These would-be developers that are incompetent or rushed. It could be unfamiliarity with the language or development environment, also.
Software companies are excluded from liability - I think the only way around it would be to pass a law stating that "any software company producing a product for profit cannot disclaim their liability in the license agreement".
This last item would clean up a lot of the filth that clogs our hard drives. Can you imagine if Microsoft could be held responsible for the buffer overflows that worms like Code Red I and II take advantage of? Was it my imagination, or was this about the 50th one that was announced by various security organizations?
We need to get back to the basics, and re-evaluate both the operating system platforms and the software design. People may scream that they would have to buy all new software for a radically different OS...But doesn't Microsoft force us into this already? We had to buy all new when 95 came out. A lot of things start to break as you go from 95 to 98 to Me to 2000 Pro. It's time to trash it and start fresh. And get back to basic, functional applications.
It takes 3,500 volts of static electricity for a person to feel that little poke they get when they touch a grounded piece of metal. Static electricity storage on the human body is insignificant to us because capacitance of the human body in regards to it's surroundings. Capacitance falls off quickly with the distance between the two charged surfaces involved. The less capacitance, the less total energy--usually expressed in Watt * Seconds or Joules--is available. This energy is usually dissipated so quickly that has no noticeable thermal effect, nor can the current flow responsible for the shock sensation be felt.
Power supplies that can maintain a given electrical current--in milliamps or amps--can be felt at lower voltages, because they are always delivering current. That is why you can get a shock off from even a 30-volt power supply (AC or DC) and be able to feel it. Yes, a nine to twelve-volt battery can not only be felt on the tongue, but the fingers as well, if the current is delivered properly. If someone is sweating, they can feel the passage of current easier than with dry skin.
The guidelines for electrical safety usually call for a current as low as 150mA to be fatal, if sustained. Thirty to 50mA can be painful, and cause some shock related injury to those that are sensitive to it. And the higher the voltage, the better the power will be applied, even for current limited power supplies.
Although it is perceived that DC is not as dangerous as AC current, DC current can still present a hazard. A shock hazard is still possible with DC power, as well as thermal injury. Just because the power supply says DC doesn't mean it's safe to put your hands on.
Electronic devices can be much more sensitive. Most computer related IC's (integrated circuits) use CMOS technology. CMOS means "complementary metal-oxide substrate". The theory behind their operation is to minimize thermal dissipation of electrical energy in computer circuits. This is accomplished by using a metal-oxide buffer on the inputs to the chip, and internally. Logic level voltages can be applied with very little thermal dissipation to such circuits. And, this has become necessary as more and more components are added to each chip. If you think your computer runs hot now, it would require water cooling, and many times the power, if it were not implemented with CMOS technology.
And, it does have it's downsides. CMOS electronics can fail with as little as 18 volts of static electricity! The reason is that the breakdown voltage for the thin metal-oxide layer is this low. Once it shorts out, you damage the circuit.
Even though there may not be that much perceived power available. The voltage alone will form a channel through whatever medium exists. No matter how small it is, this conductive channel will break down the insulation, and cause a failure of the device. It is the same concept of not overloading the "working voltage" on an electrolytic capacitor.
It seems to me that since 1999 there has been a veritable rash of mergers. My own company is involved in one (the Bell Atlantic / GTE merger). It is good to see that the government is finally taking notice, and I hope it's not too late. I can find many reasons why huge conglomerates are not a good thing.
We as a consumer have to deal with poor customer service, and inferior quality. Have you ever tried to reach a customer service rep for any of the major telecommunications companies? You wander through a "phone maze" for 15 minutes before you might have a chance to talk with a real person. Usually, it is an automated system that gives you some basic information and hangs up. If you do happen to get a real person, they don't know how to help you. You will be given a new number to call and can start the process all over again. As far as a poor product goes, we all know about Microsoft and their buggy software.
Internally, it is hard for a very large company to even function. It can take years to bring a new and unique product to market. There are too many people that have to get their fingers in the pie, and no one can agree on how to proceed. A co-worker of mine once said to me "I worked here for 18 years, and never saw a project come to fruition". Their only option is to buy a smaller company and innovate that way. (Sound familiar?)
As more corporations merge, the worse the job market becomes. GTE lost a good percentage of headcount the last two years...over 15 percent to prepare for this merger. More staff reductions loom in the next few months.
Last, having a few large companies tends to approach a "single point of failure" in the economy. If--for some reason--one of these large companies fails, it can have a large impact on the economy. This would put more people out of work and continue in a vicious circle, because jobless people are not going to buy product.
I'm not one for the government to interfere with things. But, in this case, I think a little regulation is required.
It is sad to see this. I've been am ham since 1989. And, I find it alarming how the consumer electronics market pays so little regard for amatuer radio operators.
40-meters has a lot of commercial broadcast that makes 7.251 unusable toward evening. Also, "touch activated" lamps forced me to install a phased antenna noise canceller (MFJ makes one)
Part of the 220-MHz band had already been acquired, and an attempt was made to grab 440-MHz bands for the "land mobile service".
And now phones and other equipment using 902-Mhz and above.
I think it is somewhat dangerous to allow the consumer electronics market to gain inroads, even at low power. The complaints filed against hams are only likely to increase because we may overload the cheap receiver front-ends on phones, LANs, wireless video transmitters, etc. I fear that the complaint of a large sector of population, as well as the consumer electronics market, would result in them winning the battle to acquire our dwindling RF spectrum.
Another often overlooked culprit around this frequency band is the microwave oven. These run in the neighborhood of 2.45 GHz (give or take). Even a small leakage from the RF shielding can produce a detectable signal on or about this frequency.
Also, the the band from 2.3 GHz to 2.45 GHz is (and had been for quite sometime) used by amatuer radio operators. A higher powered ham tramsmitter could also be a source of interfere with this equipment. Technically, low-power consumer equipment should have been located on another band.
Poorly designed equipment can "mix" signals on different bands and hear interference on their operating frequency, also.
Re:Recovery Disk Experience
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Copyrant
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There is probably one more to blame: The hardware manufacturer, themselves. They insist an engineering their own proprietary hardware. Most big "name brands" are guilty of this, and for one reason: To force the consumer to buy their add-ons and equipment.
For example:
HP was using a non-standard memory socket for some of their "SIMMS". It was required to purchase their memory at sometimes over 4 times the cost. Where I work, the company agreed to pay $359 for a 4MB "SIMM type" memory card! I payed only $64 at the time.
While attempting to install Windows-NT on an HP, I discovered that the HAL.DLL provided by microsoft is not compatible with HP hardware. We had to copy certain files from the recovery CD in order to proceed with the NT installation.
Other issues with brand name computers? Their lack of scaleability. They come with, say, three card slots (one of them already taken up by a custom half sound card/half modem). Let's say you are a 3D gamer and want to add a 3D accelerator, a LAN card, and a good sound card. Bye bye modem. Sometimes you cannot even disable the built in sound/video adapter. Half of the time the cheap power supplies will fail under the load of the extra hardware. Or, the hardware will overheat because the cooling system on the tiny case is not sufficient to maintain a safe operating temperature. You want new features? Shell out another $900 for a new computer.
For even more "fun", try a recovery CD after upgrading your hard drive. Usually they will only allow you to recover to a drive that is exactly the same size as the one that came with the computer. Nor can you have the freedom partition your disk the way you want prior to installation.
Although I do not always agree with governments or organizations taking control over "mundane aspects", I feel that the need for standardization and improved quality in both hardware and software are in order:
Why does Microsoft Windows take "forever" to boot up? It has to check a huge database of possible devices that may have been added to your system while it was powered down. It is no longer just a "device probe" to the various ports common equipment is found on; it is a comprehensive check of mapped I/O memory, devices that may be on the parallel port, and responses to "poking" certain registers, etc.
If a committee or group were to decide on (a) an extendable hardware implementation that could last a good number of years, and (b) independent certification and quality review of source code; we would all benefit. Examples?
3D accelerators anyone? We have 3DFx Voodoo, PowerVR, and numerous other proprietary formats. The method of interface to the 3D hardware often varies: OpenGL. DirectX or other proprietary method.
Memory upgrades? Only a couple years back, you could head to the store and ask for an x mega byte SIMM module of a certain speed and parity support. We now have RDRAM, SDRAM (in 66, 100, and 133 MHz clock speeds with more in development) and some "legacy standards". Memory is not cheap, and upgrading a mainboard these days will often require replacement of the memory and processor, as well.
Today's software has it's own problems: Application developer's "take advantage" of increased CPU "horsepower" by using lax coding methods. The e-mail application I use it work (Banyan's Beyond Mail 3.n release) uses a bubble sort (or equivalent performance) algorhythm, and yet qsort() is part of the ANSI C specification! I've seen repetitive sequential searches done on databases exceeding 100K records. And let's not forget the quality assurance issues that plague us so. I.E., if it's barely scaleable and only annoyingly slow and buggy, it's OK to release to the public so they can alpha-test for us!
It's definitely time to move forward to a new and more rigid standard to protect both individuals and business. Will it be expensive in the transition? Yes. The current popular PC architecture will have to be replaced. After the initial investment, however, we should be able to rest easy. It would be good, once again, to have faith in commercial software. And, also to have security in knowing that the hardware industry will not leave us "in the dust" with a useless, proprietary technology that is taking up space in the attic or closet.
...that in today's day and age, laws are getting passed to protect individuals and now corporations from being offended. How can we be certain of anything unless we know both sides of the story.
An example: A manufacturer could turn out a trashy piece of software at a minimal cost. All we would see is "inexpensive solution for your business. Features x, y, and z.
Is it a good piece of software? One of it's undocumented features, due to poor design, could result in trashing you system completely. It could have an obtuse user interface that would make UNIX ed look like a $1200 office application suite. But you would never know this.
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I have a lot of the loud bass guys driving through my neighborhood on a regular basis. Since I started recording my band with microphones, I did not appreciate the extra $300 in dynamics control equipment, I had to buy, to keep their noise out of the record (as much as possible). And, forbid that they blast those things through the neighborhood at night (often).
(a) Overloading their system with RF. Me and my dad--at the time--had a 600 watt RF amp for ham radio. I could hear him on my telephone when he was transmitting (and my stereo). I would bet that a signal well below the F3 parameter of their speaker boxes--usually ported--would ruin the drivers, if they got enough of it. Just add it to the signal...most radio receivers--and the speaker--will filter that, anyway.
(b) For the "extreme edition"...make sure you get all your computers 20 miles a way, along with everything else you care out (even pictures on the wall). I heard a story of someone shorting out a cyclotron magnet...or the power supply that went to it.
Rules are: You have to ramp them up slowly, and down slowly, in regards to the magnet input current. A fast change will create an expanding or collapsing field, which can store quite a bit more than a capacitor can; and is not limited to an electrical connection. The magnetic field can effect a lot of devices, just as a nearby lightning strike can.
In the case of the cyclotron magnet. The power supply shorted...All wiring, in the immediate area, was vaporized. This included the thick stuff thay used to hang the pictures on the walls.
In a bang everything melted, or fell to the floor.
Interesting to see how one of those would do, if configured for that very purpose.
On the original post...this works great if they are "listening" to the radio (bothering the neighborhood with the radio). But, if they use a CD player, jamming the frequencies just won't help, unless you pick option (b)...and please make sure you get your TV, computers, video games, wife's jewery, etc. out of the house, beforehand.
And, I can provide (c):
If you have a car of your own...get a few high SQL to input power treble drivers (and MONSTROUS ear protection). Put those in your car, with an oscillator you can tune from 3 to 18 kHZ. Find one of them? Pop on the protection, and give them 800 watts of something that will make you sick or give a headache at 1 watt or less.
I know I speak against my own name, here. But:
Living by the sea, especially with the high humidity that comes with it...and the salt...can give your more than just a few zinc whiskers on the PC board.
Salt oxidation--depending on how long the windows are open--can really eat a PC in two years or less; never mind the quality of the MB.
Sea salt is hydrophilic. If it accumulates on something, episodes of high humidity will attract moisture from the air, and add the basis for typical corrosive effects. I have had containers with dry sea salt, which have pulled moisture out of the air on their own.
(Most acids need water...so does salt to release it's own ions, which can have a corrsive effect similar to an acid on metallic equipment...usually involving the non-metal in the salt. Sea salt has lots of chlorine, a very strong oxidizing agent.)
Especially with two modes of operation: Doppler (like the WSR-88D the National Weather Service has), and standard reflectivity.
Since I moved back from Manatee County (FL) to Pinellas (FL)--regretting it every moment--the traffic in our "residential street" has been insane.
Posted speed limit: 30 mph. Average: 45 Typical high: 56 Extereme: 80.
Manatee: posted 35. Average 35 (some were slow). Typical high: 38 Extreme: 42
I've been thinking--for years--if a circular scanning radar could be available on a car, you could get "collision imminent" warnings, from a very simple routine, along with seeing other active vehicles on the street. Using simple tuning, using your current speed to adjust the radar measurements, you could see active vehicles highlighted...and know when the guy is not going to stop at the red-light.
You could also see if you can change lanes...checking for a person in a blind spot, or one driving 40 mph faster than the flow of traffic in your lane.
I would find one of these more useful than a GPS...and had I the money, I would probably be developing a prototype.
I would feel alot safer with one of those in the car, especially on foggy mornings or any corner with limited sight distance, which most aggressive drivers actually speed up for. (And we have enough of them around here.)
Just this year, in response to the rather radical change in US human rights, I have registered to vote. (So has my remaining parent).
/. users registered to vote"...so many checked "hate in incumbant", and maybe--as an extension--all that came with him.)
Hopefully, they will have worked those bugs and security exposures out of the E-Voting system.
And, I guess I have to post this not as the A/C, but as myself, so I won't be arrested.
But, if enough people get them out of office? Maybe this country can be turned around.
(Had to laugh at the poll of "why
One thing that cannot be overstated is the use of eye protection. And, whatever is selected for that application must handle IR as well as visible light. (Nearly all of the UV is absorbed by the plastic the lens is made out of, so it is not much of a factor.)
Using such a lens, to focus solar radiation, can produce power densities equivalent of a Class-IV laser; where the warnings typically read "avoid exposure to direct or scattered radiation". Even if focused to a spot size of 4cm^2--at an estimated 1kW--the power density would still fit 2.5W/mm^2. This is the same level as a 10W laser, with 2mm beam focus.
Granted that the focus is only at one point, it is easy to overlook when scattered radiation--from a "point" source--can be dangerous.
As the article states, use very heavy welding goggles, and maybe have some sunglasses on under those! It is also recommended to ensure that the goggles cover the infrared parts of the spectrum effectively.
Also note: laser safety goggles would be ineffective for this application, due to the fact that they typically use dichros, which typically are not very "wide-band". They reflect very specific wavelengths--very efficiently. But, since solar radiation is very wide-band, a lot of it will still get through.
You could build all sorts of interesting projects out of those 200 in 1 kits they sold in the old days. They had water detectors, alarms where a circuit was opened, etc. Even low power AM band radio transmitters. The educational value was quite substantial. I started with a 150 in 1 kit, at the age of 7, and it provided me with most of what I knew about digital electrics, at that age.
Since then, I took on the real thing as I started in the development world.
(I posted a NULL by hitting return to early, on an earlier post. Sorry for the trouble.)
Though most will criticize Radio-Shack for lower quality, I did get some educational value out of it.
Not just for mom, but quite a few of her acquaintances, as well. What have I found?
I've been thinking of writing anti-spam software, myself. I'm good analysis programming and have done well with it.
A Word of Warning: Most "free" software isn't free. You will pay for it with the sudden torrent of black market advertisements sent to your EMail account.
Lately? I hope everybody has:
Good luck with it...and CYA. It's rough out there, now.
Rumor has it that Adolf of WW-II infamy managed a lot of his damage with records stored in shoe-boxes.
It is scary even imagine what they could do with that. Do all the posts regarding privacy come to mind?
Once, I had an argument with a buddy of mine that spoke his mind--to much--over Email. I gave him a little grep script to show how email monitoring could select "suspicious material" for further analysis.
Now, all they have to do is tie it in to a profiling system, and there you go. Orwell's 1984^10 all over again:
FROM ORDER BYSELECT TOP 100
Seems to me that I have seen these same things before:
It was typical for me to format a new "good quality" floppy, and have it fail on read-error five minutes later. Never mind using these things to back up the 40MB drive I had at the time!
It is what made me switch to new technology, such as Road Runner, after dealing with the frustration of even moderate Internet use.
The typical heat dissipation--now several tens of watts--still has that little tiny fan to pull the heat out of the fashionably small case. In the past, weren't high performance machines almost super-cooled?
It would seem to me that the customer base is the "guinea pig"--where "experimental" products are tried to test their engineering weakness-- while we have to pay these companies for the privilege of testing their products. It would seem that the roles are reversed here. The quality assurance aspect should be handled by the company before it impacts the customer.
I have found that both hardware and software are the same in this respect. And, we will have to "eat" Moore's Law, because the "testing" is never over. In conclusion, reliability will be an issue for quite some time to come. Though extensive testing would have it's disadvantage: If you were looking for that new product, you would have to wait a couple years beyond it's usual release date to enjoy the benefits.
I fully agree with the point of this article. Being a programmer, myself, I sometimes find little "hints" into the operation of commercial software. Some of the most disappointing were applications written in "C" that the programmer used a "Bubble Sort" or other proportional to N^2 algorithm for sorting records. Never mind that "qsort()" is included in the standard 'C' libraries! Let me not even talk about Windows, with its unspeakable API's and grotesque inefficiencies. Some of which is so bad that I could program applications in assembly language faster than I could develop them to run under Windows.
I am actually "getting out" of the IT industry, because I'm just plain frustrated. You can say that I can work with Linux or other alternative platforms, but the problem is the "accepted standards". Let's face it, most large companies have not gone to alternative operating systems for fear of "support"...never mind that these alternatives are far superior to the garbage turned out most commercial software firms.
Some of the very old 8-bit computers had usable (and powerful) word-processors, spreadsheets and even development environments. They ran at 1-7 MHz. Our 1.2 GHz computers are choking on today's software! What is the problem! That PC in your home would have passes as a super-computer not that many years back. Most of what we are dealing with today is:
This last item would clean up a lot of the filth that clogs our hard drives. Can you imagine if Microsoft could be held responsible for the buffer overflows that worms like Code Red I and II take advantage of? Was it my imagination, or was this about the 50th one that was announced by various security organizations?
We need to get back to the basics, and re-evaluate both the operating system platforms and the software design. People may scream that they would have to buy all new software for a radically different OS...But doesn't Microsoft force us into this already? We had to buy all new when 95 came out. A lot of things start to break as you go from 95 to 98 to Me to 2000 Pro. It's time to trash it and start fresh. And get back to basic, functional applications.
It takes 3,500 volts of static electricity for a person to feel that little poke they get when they touch a grounded piece of metal. Static electricity storage on the human body is insignificant to us because capacitance of the human body in regards to it's surroundings. Capacitance falls off quickly with the distance between the two charged surfaces involved. The less capacitance, the less total energy--usually expressed in Watt * Seconds or Joules--is available. This energy is usually dissipated so quickly that has no noticeable thermal effect, nor can the current flow responsible for the shock sensation be felt.
Power supplies that can maintain a given electrical current--in milliamps or amps--can be felt at lower voltages, because they are always delivering current. That is why you can get a shock off from even a 30-volt power supply (AC or DC) and be able to feel it. Yes, a nine to twelve-volt battery can not only be felt on the tongue, but the fingers as well, if the current is delivered properly. If someone is sweating, they can feel the passage of current easier than with dry skin.
The guidelines for electrical safety usually call for a current as low as 150mA to be fatal, if sustained. Thirty to 50mA can be painful, and cause some shock related injury to those that are sensitive to it. And the higher the voltage, the better the power will be applied, even for current limited power supplies.
Although it is perceived that DC is not as dangerous as AC current, DC current can still present a hazard. A shock hazard is still possible with DC power, as well as thermal injury. Just because the power supply says DC doesn't mean it's safe to put your hands on.
Electronic devices can be much more sensitive. Most computer related IC's (integrated circuits) use CMOS technology. CMOS means "complementary metal-oxide substrate". The theory behind their operation is to minimize thermal dissipation of electrical energy in computer circuits. This is accomplished by using a metal-oxide buffer on the inputs to the chip, and internally. Logic level voltages can be applied with very little thermal dissipation to such circuits. And, this has become necessary as more and more components are added to each chip. If you think your computer runs hot now, it would require water cooling, and many times the power, if it were not implemented with CMOS technology.
And, it does have it's downsides. CMOS electronics can fail with as little as 18 volts of static electricity! The reason is that the breakdown voltage for the thin metal-oxide layer is this low. Once it shorts out, you damage the circuit.
Even though there may not be that much perceived power available. The voltage alone will form a channel through whatever medium exists. No matter how small it is, this conductive channel will break down the insulation, and cause a failure of the device. It is the same concept of not overloading the "working voltage" on an electrolytic capacitor.
It seems to me that since 1999 there has been a veritable rash of mergers. My own company is involved in one (the Bell Atlantic / GTE merger). It is good to see that the government is finally taking notice, and I hope it's not too late. I can find many reasons why huge conglomerates are not a good thing.
We as a consumer have to deal with poor customer service, and inferior quality. Have you ever tried to reach a customer service rep for any of the major telecommunications companies? You wander through a "phone maze" for 15 minutes before you might have a chance to talk with a real person. Usually, it is an automated system that gives you some basic information and hangs up. If you do happen to get a real person, they don't know how to help you. You will be given a new number to call and can start the process all over again. As far as a poor product goes, we all know about Microsoft and their buggy software.
Internally, it is hard for a very large company to even function. It can take years to bring a new and unique product to market. There are too many people that have to get their fingers in the pie, and no one can agree on how to proceed. A co-worker of mine once said to me "I worked here for 18 years, and never saw a project come to fruition". Their only option is to buy a smaller company and innovate that way. (Sound familiar?)
As more corporations merge, the worse the job market becomes. GTE lost a good percentage of headcount the last two years...over 15 percent to prepare for this merger. More staff reductions loom in the next few months.
Last, having a few large companies tends to approach a "single point of failure" in the economy. If--for some reason--one of these large companies fails, it can have a large impact on the economy. This would put more people out of work and continue in a vicious circle, because jobless people are not going to buy product.
I'm not one for the government to interfere with things. But, in this case, I think a little regulation is required.
It is sad to see this. I've been am ham since 1989. And, I find it alarming how the consumer electronics market pays so little regard for amatuer radio operators.
I think it is somewhat dangerous to allow the consumer electronics market to gain inroads, even at low power. The complaints filed against hams are only likely to increase because we may overload the cheap receiver front-ends on phones, LANs, wireless video transmitters, etc. I fear that the complaint of a large sector of population, as well as the consumer electronics market, would result in them winning the battle to acquire our dwindling RF spectrum.
Definately something to think about.
73 de KU4ZK
Another often overlooked culprit around this frequency band is the microwave oven. These run in the neighborhood of 2.45 GHz (give or take). Even a small leakage from the RF shielding can produce a detectable signal on or about this frequency.
Also, the the band from 2.3 GHz to 2.45 GHz is (and had been for quite sometime) used by amatuer radio operators. A higher powered ham tramsmitter could also be a source of interfere with this equipment. Technically, low-power consumer equipment should have been located on another band.
Poorly designed equipment can "mix" signals on different bands and hear interference on their operating frequency, also.
There is probably one more to blame: The hardware manufacturer, themselves. They insist an engineering their own proprietary hardware. Most big "name brands" are guilty of this, and for one reason: To force the consumer to buy their add-ons and equipment.
For example:
Other issues with brand name computers? Their lack of scaleability. They come with, say, three card slots (one of them already taken up by a custom half sound card/half modem). Let's say you are a 3D gamer and want to add a 3D accelerator, a LAN card, and a good sound card. Bye bye modem. Sometimes you cannot even disable the built in sound/video adapter. Half of the time the cheap power supplies will fail under the load of the extra hardware. Or, the hardware will overheat because the cooling system on the tiny case is not sufficient to maintain a safe operating temperature. You want new features? Shell out another $900 for a new computer.
For even more "fun", try a recovery CD after upgrading your hard drive. Usually they will only allow you to recover to a drive that is exactly the same size as the one that came with the computer. Nor can you have the freedom partition your disk the way you want prior to installation.
Although I do not always agree with governments or organizations taking control over "mundane aspects", I feel that the need for standardization and improved quality in both hardware and software are in order:
Why does Microsoft Windows take "forever" to boot up? It has to check a huge database of possible devices that may have been added to your system while it was powered down. It is no longer just a "device probe" to the various ports common equipment is found on; it is a comprehensive check of mapped I/O memory, devices that may be on the parallel port, and responses to "poking" certain registers, etc.
If a committee or group were to decide on (a) an extendable hardware implementation that could last a good number of years, and (b) independent certification and quality review of source code; we would all benefit. Examples?
Today's software has it's own problems: Application developer's "take advantage" of increased CPU "horsepower" by using lax coding methods. The e-mail application I use it work (Banyan's Beyond Mail 3.n release) uses a bubble sort (or equivalent performance) algorhythm, and yet qsort() is part of the ANSI C specification! I've seen repetitive sequential searches done on databases exceeding 100K records. And let's not forget the quality assurance issues that plague us so. I.E., if it's barely scaleable and only annoyingly slow and buggy, it's OK to release to the public so they can alpha-test for us!
It's definitely time to move forward to a new and more rigid standard to protect both individuals and business. Will it be expensive in the transition? Yes. The current popular PC architecture will have to be replaced. After the initial investment, however, we should be able to rest easy. It would be good, once again, to have faith in commercial software. And, also to have security in knowing that the hardware industry will not leave us "in the dust" with a useless, proprietary technology that is taking up space in the attic or closet.
...that in today's day and age, laws are getting passed to protect individuals and now corporations from being offended. How can we be certain of anything unless we know both sides of the story.
An example: A manufacturer could turn out a trashy piece of software at a minimal cost. All we would see is "inexpensive solution for your business. Features x, y, and z.
Is it a good piece of software? One of it's undocumented features, due to poor design, could result in trashing you system completely. It could have an obtuse user interface that would make UNIX ed look like a $1200 office application suite. But you would never know this.