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User: Muad'Dave

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  1. Re:Safety on MIT Stealth Startup Charges Up Wireless Power Competition · · Score: 1

    They may be, given the horrendous loss involved and the use of directional coupling. That 50 Watt limit is not absolute, it's more of a guideline for Amateur radio stations specifically, not all emitters. Your cell phone at < 4W is also closely regulated due to its proximity to human tissue. Please refer to the FCC RF exposure site for the full regs.

    RF exposure is a function of frequency, duty cycle, distance, transmitter power, and antenna gain. I have a tiny 10mW 10GHz transmitter that couples its power via WR-90 waveguide. If my math is correct, that's 3.1 mW/cm^2 at the mouth of the waveguide - WAY over the exposure limit of 1.0 mW/cm^2 at 10 GHz for uncontrolled access.

    Remember, sunburns are actually RF burns.

  2. Re:Safety on MIT Stealth Startup Charges Up Wireless Power Competition · · Score: 1

    Magnetic fields don't hurt you

    STATIC magnetic fields don't seem to hurt you. Time-varying magnetic fields most certainly can hurt you. In addition to ionizing radiation (x-rays, gamma rays) which can obviously hurt you, plain old radio waves can too:

    Radiation burns can also occur with high power radio transmitters at any frequency where the body absorbs radio frequency energy and converts it to heat.[1] The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considers 50 watts to be the lowest power above which radio stations must evaluate emission safety. Frequencies considered especially dangerous occur where the human body can become resonant, at 35 MHz, 70 MHz, 80-100 MHz, 400 MHz, and 1 GHz.[2] Exposure to microwaves of too high intensity can cause microwave burns.

  3. Late to the game on CanSat Helps Students Make & Launch Sub-Orbital 'Satellites' (Video) · · Score: 1

    Amateur radio folk have been launching private sats for a very long time, and championed the cubesat format. We foster university-sponsored sats all the time. Many of these are university-sponsored sats.

  4. Re:Please sir can I have more mass! on UK Pilots Want Lithium Battery Powered Devices In the Cabin · · Score: 1
  5. Re:Smaller than 1 electron? on New Molecular Transistor Can Control Single Electrons · · Score: 2

    Weyl Fermions are the next 'big thing' in electronics.

  6. Re: Who? on Neil Young Says His Music Is Too Good For Streaming Services · · Score: 1
  7. Re: Who? on Neil Young Says His Music Is Too Good For Streaming Services · · Score: 1, Funny

    +1 Too Funny! The Southern streaming services, that is.

  8. Re: Who? on Neil Young Says His Music Is Too Good For Streaming Services · · Score: 1

    I already commented so I can't give you "+1 Right on Target". What an awful singer!

  9. Pot, meet Kettle on Neil Young Says His Music Is Too Good For Streaming Services · · Score: 1

    It's about sound quality. I don't need my music to be devalued by the worst quality in the history of broadcasting or any other form of distribution.

    Neil Young complaining about sound quality??? Neil Young, one of the worst-sounding singers on the planet??? Please.

  10. Re:Might make sense on Macon-Bibb County Government Wants $5.7 Million Drone Fleet For Emergencies · · Score: 1

    I agree with your points - they're all well-reasoned.

    What I haven't seen mentioned is the case where the drone arrives first and it's video shows the dispatchers that the fire is much larger/more involved than first reported so the dispatcher can roll additional equipment to the scene while the original trucks are still en route. That would be a major plus for having the drones.

    Similarly, if the drone finds that the original report of a massive fire is more like a tiny shed on fire, they could cancel some of the equipment en route, freeing it up for other calls.

    Another case: A train derailment or tractor-trailer accident. Much of the cargo carried in tank cars is in some way hazardous, and it would be very handy if a drone could show the dispatcher what placard numbers* are involved so that they can coordinate cordoning off the area and possibly evacuating residents. It would also help in making sure you have the right firefighting chemicals around - lots of hazardous stuff requires foam to extinguish and reacts rather violently with good old H2O.

    *If you've never read the Emergency Response Guide, you should. Some of the nasty stuff that's hurtling down the highway next to you is very dangerous and/or toxic. It's eye-opening, to say the least.

  11. Re:Concorde 2.0 on Supersonic Jet Could Fly NYC To London In 3 Hours · · Score: 2

    The old L-1011 already went to 11!

  12. Re:Well, she was an interim. on Ellen Pao Leaves Reddit; Site Founder Steve Huffman Makes a Triumphant Return · · Score: 1

    Wait, the infamous bus incident happened in 1955.

    That's ok, no one remembers when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, either.

  13. Re:So will stacking us vertically on Simple Geometry = More Seats In an Airline · · Score: 1

    You and the Flying Purple People-Eater. Oh wait, he's one eyed, one horned. - NVM.

  14. Re:University of Northumbria on Double-Dynamo Model Predicts 60% Fall In Solar Output In The 2030s · · Score: 1

    That's Qwghlm. Did you mean Inner- or Outer Qwghlm?

  15. Re:Solar *activity* not *output* on Double-Dynamo Model Predicts 60% Fall In Solar Output In The 2030s · · Score: 1

    We'll all scurry to the low bands where night-time groundwave propagation will still work. If the solar output drops enough, we might be able to use the low bands during the day if the lowered solar output doesn't ionize that pesky D-Layer.

  16. Re:This isn't the first cable to be cut. on Undersea Cable Break Disrupts Life In Northern Mariana Islands · · Score: 1

    Good point - I'm used to flat Caribbean islands, not mountainous Pacific Islands.

  17. Re:July 1? on New Horizons Gets Closer to Pluto, But Mystery Spots Now Out of Sight · · Score: 1

    Their timeline has some serious NaN math errors - I hope they're not NASA errors: "New Horizons is taking 2 images of Kerberos with LORRI from NaN km away."

  18. Re:This isn't the first cable to be cut. on Undersea Cable Break Disrupts Life In Northern Mariana Islands · · Score: 1
  19. Re:This isn't the first cable to be cut. on Undersea Cable Break Disrupts Life In Northern Mariana Islands · · Score: 2

    It is about 100km from Guam itself hence why it could use a microwave backup.

    For a single hop 100km line-of-sight radio path that just skims the sea in the middle of the path, the antennas would have to be 150m tall on both ends (or some combination of appropriate heights). Those are mighty tall towers, which might explain the storm damage. If you want to clear 80% of the 1st Fresnel zone, you'd need an additional 33m at the middle of the path.

  20. Re:Moon First? on Interviews: Ask Shaun Moss About Mars and Colonizing Space · · Score: 1

    It's in Earth orbit, which means the moon gets about the same amount of solar radiation per unit area as the Earth...

    You're technically correct, which as we all know is the best sort of correct. :-)

    The issue isn't the amount of light per unit area, it's the 2 week periods of darkness that will likely kill off your plants. Plants don't really like to grow in two week on/two week off spurts.

  21. Re:Outside help on Software Devs Leaving Greece For Good, Finance Minister Resigns · · Score: 1

    And Ayn Rand's dead ears just perked up. Atlas Shrugged, anyone?

    Liberals: "1984" and "Atlas Shrugged" where warnings, NOT instruction manuals.

  22. Re:Outside help on Software Devs Leaving Greece For Good, Finance Minister Resigns · · Score: 1

    So the US just got a little more breathing room since the famous 47% is now only 43%?

  23. Re:About time too on Prototype Wave Energy Device Passes Grid-Connected Pilot Test · · Score: 1

    There is no one true energy source to rule them all. No dilithium crystals, no Mr Fusion.

    There's no Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulatoooor?

  24. Re:My wave energy device... on Prototype Wave Energy Device Passes Grid-Connected Pilot Test · · Score: 1

    ... that way they recover some wasted energy ...

    The electromagnetic field energy he was draining was not 'wasted' - it would've just oscillated back and forth as normal. Once he started coupling to it, it started pulling actual power, so he was stealing power that would've otherwise been transmitted down the line.

  25. Re:Your biggest screw up on "We Screwed Up," Says Reddit CEO In Formal Apology · · Score: 1

    Worked for IMDB

    And CDDB (now Gracenote) before it. I remember the fury and outcry when they took all of the volunteer-entered CD data and started charging for it.