Power line carrier data communication has always had problems. National Semiconductor used to sell a device that functioned as a data trasceiver that used signals in the 50khz to 300khz range over the AC lines. The marketing idea was that communcation could be made between electronic devices without the expense of retrofitting buildings with additional wiring. There was even a prototype system set up in a grocery store that was fitted with HVAC equipment controlled via a central computer over the AC lines. The biggest problem was that the signals were attenuated by the distribution transformer between lines on different phases. So an expensive bridge repeater had to be installed. You could plug a unit into an outlet and the signal would not appear at another nearby outlet as the AC line went all the way back to the distribution tranformer and then back into the store to an outlet that might only be a few feet away. I don't know if X-11 ever had any sort of bridge like that, but considering that houses have 2 phases I doubt that reliable communication could ever be made between every AC outlet in a house.
I was surprised after I bought the ridiculously expensive XP-Pro. I found an O'Reilly book "Windows XP Hacks" and another book "Windows XP Secrets" and found that I could change all sorts of things.
I hope Vista will be like this, except that I would rather not have to pay an extra $200 to just to get the extra functionality. I hear that they are actually bring back the "DOS like" command line in a more useful form.
I can wait for Vista. I don't use XP much, running FreeBSD for anything truly important, but its nice to at least get Windows running the way you like.
IThe worst source of noise in the AM, FM, VHF, and UHF spectrum comes from the poorly designed and shielded switching power supplies that are now almost universally used. I use the HF spectrum for communication, and my power supply for my laptop wipes it out. It even interferes with my TV. I know its the supply as I am an electrical engineer who has done some design work for these types of power supplies. Plus, as soon as I turn off the supply, the interference goes away. Unfortunately, it is very hard to filter and shield power supply noise without creating a very bulkiy power supply. It is not quite as bad for entertainment components as there is more space for the needed circuitry. But laptop power supplies can only be so big before they are unwieldy.
The large cylindrical objects that are part of computer power supply cables are attempts at filtering the noise, but they really only work for very high frequencies. Plus, ethernet cables and the AC line cord also contribute to the problem.
Another potential huge source of noise is the BPL internet access networks that radiate RF energy like a huge antenna because the power lines on the poles act like huge antennas.
I think it is only going to get worse. All of these devices have to meet FCC requirements for emitted radiation, but they really can't go too far without drastically increasing the cost of power supplies. I guess for now, there really isn't a good solution to the whole problem.
I remember one thing that Jung said was that extremely creative people were very close to their subconcious. That is the well from which much brain activity springs forth into consciousness. Thus if you are very bright, your subconcious is even brighter. Less creative people (but realize they DO have the potential to be creative) are usually those running on autopilot and their consciousness is just too busy to be taking clues from the subconscious.
I wish I could provide specific references to Jung's work, but the stuff is incredibly dense. I have many of his works. Perhaps someone else more familiar with the material can provide the specific references.
After a solar flare, if the interplanetary magnetic field points south it often causes geomagnetic storms which knock out radio communication. Relatively low lattitude auroras are also caused by the phenomenon.
If you haven't been on the internet in a long time it is something you should be aware of. I thought I was a sophisticated XP user. I have ZoneAlarm, never click on anything in emails, and only install software from reputable companies. But I recently found a keylogger on my system. I forget what it was called, but it captures AOL logins. Fortunately, long ago I stopped using Windows for any online-banking, ecommerce, or anything else that has a password. For those I use FreeBSD with a good ipfilter ruleset.
"Much of this is spent on wasteful peripherals we could do without, such as fancy 3D graphics cards or optical mice..." Optical mice? What are you smoking? I doubt that my mouse uses 50-100W of power. That would be a "laser" mouse.
I am not making this up. My old doctor would not install Mozilla on his computer as he is a fundamentalist Chrisian. I told him about FreeBSD's mascot and he was not impressed. Neither was he thrilled about applications that run as daemons.
I can really relate to the problems that the author faced. I faced some of the same misery at Berkeley 20 years ago. For example, I had a professor who discovered the proton. He was a Nobel Lauriate. He could not teach worth a damn. However, compared to the essay, I did reasonably well, or was reasonably lucky, in somehow getting decent professors. However, again, this was 20 years ago. Nowadays its even worse, as you have to pay an enormous amount of money to even stay in a decent college. For example, Berkeley, now being an out of stater, would cost me $40K/yr, I kid you not. With that amount of money I could go to Princeton. I really feel for the student of today. All of the deck is stacked against you.
I mean- all manufacturing has gone to China and other quasi-third world countries. Its debatable whether a pure service industry in the US can be forever sustained without massive improvements in education i.e. NEW IDEAS and CREATIVITY. So who in China would really give a damn what your address or DL number is? Or cracking into Dominos Pizza to see what people order? The credit agencies already send out data to just about anyone. Get real, China doesn't care about us in that way. Its somebody else.
Since the US DARPA was the start of the internet, and the concept of HTTP was born here, and everything else (excepting the Linus Kernel, haha), we have rights to keep it here. Despite our sometimes goofy federal government, I'd rather the FB I running the root DNS servers, as opposed to France or some other degenerate EU country.
Gentoo Sources. Then I can do an eval. I will try to post results to main Gentoo list, so everyone can see it there. I assume that because this doesn't even have a changlog, that only minor changes have been made, although I may be dead wrong. Please correct me if this and true and I will sit back and wait, wait, wait
The article expains how lousy amateur radio propagation in the HF bands can occur when www.spaceweather.com or WWV says that something unpredicted is happening and they are caught off guard. Its rather amazing. Thats why its important to sign up for their telephone call and email alert service. Rob N3FT
I use Gentoo Linux. Recently I crashed my system, the result of being on the bleeding edge of technology. The Live CD is my only hope of rescuing the system, so that I don't have to start from scratch and re-format the Linux partitions. Then I would loose everything and it would take another mounth to build the mountain from the molehill.
Generally, the generation of the film means the death of an icon. I hope this is finally not the case with the Simpsons based on the empirical evidence that the writers have not yet run out of ideas.
Beavis and Butthead, and perhaps even South Park, by the time their movies had aired, it was clearly evident that the writers didn't know what to do next.
Please do not kill the Simpsons! They are my only refuge on TV, to get away from reality TV, death, and violence, wars, etc.
If you are an electronics, ham radio geek/nerd (haha, just joking) it appears that the typical junk box has enough stuff in it to repeat this experiment at home, especially if like me, you are interested in high voltage, Tesla coils, etc like me!
Wow technology is getting so exciting 100 years later than Tesla!!
If you are a high voltage, Tesla coil like, electronics geek/nerd and ham radio operator (haha just joking) it appears that we might have enough stuff in our typical junkboxes to accomplish the same experiment. Technology rules!!
I reached 30 words per minute in high school. I am now 43 and still an active ham radio operator. I no longer write anything but the call sign, signal report, QTH, and the name of who I am talking to. It works in my brain just like a second language. The proof: I cannot send morse code and talk at the same time. It is impossible. Obviously the same language part of the brain works with morse code and English speaking. Perhaps my experiences will shed some light on why morse code operators are so damn fast.
Slashdot Mirror
Power line carrier data communication has always had problems. National Semiconductor
used to sell a device that functioned as a data trasceiver that used signals in the
50khz to 300khz range over the AC lines. The marketing idea was that communcation could be made between electronic devices without the expense of retrofitting buildings with additional wiring. There was even a prototype system set up in a grocery store that was fitted with HVAC equipment controlled via a central computer over the AC lines. The biggest problem was that the signals were attenuated by the distribution transformer between lines on different phases. So an expensive bridge repeater had to be installed. You could plug a unit into an outlet and the signal would not appear at another nearby
outlet as the AC line went all the way back to the distribution tranformer and then back into the store to an outlet that might only be a few feet away. I don't know if X-11
ever had any sort of bridge like that, but considering that houses have 2 phases I doubt that reliable communication could ever be made between every AC outlet in a house.
I was surprised after I bought the ridiculously expensive XP-Pro. I found an O'Reilly book "Windows XP Hacks" and
another book "Windows XP Secrets" and found that I could change all sorts of things.
I hope Vista will be like this, except that I would rather not have to pay an extra $200 to just to get the extra
functionality. I hear that they are actually bring back the "DOS like" command line in a more useful form.
I can wait for Vista. I don't use XP much, running FreeBSD for anything truly important, but its nice to at least
get Windows running the way you like.
OpenBSD has announced it will sidestep the patent on praying by starting work on its own "OpenPrayer" firewall.
IThe worst source of noise in the AM, FM, VHF, and UHF spectrum comes from the poorly designed and shielded switching power supplies that are now almost universally used. I use the HF spectrum for communication, and my power supply for my laptop wipes it out. It even interferes with my TV. I know its the supply as I am an electrical engineer who has done some design work for these types of power supplies. Plus, as soon as I turn off the supply, the interference goes away. Unfortunately, it is very hard to filter and shield power supply noise without creating a very bulkiy power supply. It is not quite as bad for entertainment components as there is more space for the needed circuitry. But laptop power supplies can only be so big before they are unwieldy.
The large cylindrical objects that are part of computer power supply cables are attempts at filtering the noise, but they really only work for very high frequencies. Plus, ethernet cables and the AC line cord also contribute to the problem.
Another potential huge source of noise is the BPL internet access networks that radiate RF energy like a huge antenna because the power lines on the poles act like huge antennas.
I think it is only going to get worse. All of these devices have to meet FCC requirements for emitted radiation, but they really can't go too far without drastically increasing the cost of power supplies. I guess for now, there really isn't a good solution to the whole problem.
I think it is called the brain. Although it might work a little bit differently that what they are doing.
I remember one thing that Jung said was that extremely creative people were very close to their subconcious. That is the well from which much brain activity springs forth into consciousness. Thus if you are very bright, your subconcious is even brighter. Less creative people (but realize they DO have the potential to be creative) are usually those running on autopilot and their consciousness is just too busy to be taking clues from the subconscious.
I wish I could provide specific references to Jung's work, but the stuff is incredibly dense. I have many of his works. Perhaps someone else more familiar with the material can provide the specific references.
Hey man- there's some bad RAM going around out there. Be careful.
In related news the makers of Viagra were saying that their studies posted on the internet were "standing up" really well.
After a solar flare, if the interplanetary magnetic field points south it often causes geomagnetic storms which knock out radio communication. Relatively low lattitude auroras are also caused by the phenomenon.
If you haven't been on the internet in a long time it is something you should be aware of. I thought I was a sophisticated XP user. I have ZoneAlarm, never click on anything in emails, and only install software from reputable companies. But I recently found a keylogger on my system. I forget what it was called, but it captures AOL logins. Fortunately, long ago I stopped using Windows for any online-banking, ecommerce, or anything else that has a password. For those I use FreeBSD with a good ipfilter ruleset.
I
"Much of this is spent on wasteful peripherals we could do without, such as fancy 3D graphics cards or optical mice..." Optical mice? What are you smoking? I doubt that my mouse uses 50-100W of power. That would be a "laser" mouse.
God made the universe in 6 days + (1*6)/((52/2)*7) seconds.
I am not making this up. My old doctor would not install Mozilla on his computer as he is a fundamentalist Chrisian. I told him about FreeBSD's mascot and he was not impressed. Neither was he thrilled about applications that run as daemons.
You can't enter into a contract which violates the law. Thus a "contract killing" is not a valid contract.
I can really relate to the problems that the author faced. I faced some of the same misery at Berkeley 20 years ago. For example, I had a professor who discovered the proton. He was a Nobel Lauriate. He could not teach worth a damn. However, compared to the essay, I did reasonably well, or was reasonably lucky, in somehow getting decent professors. However, again, this was 20 years ago. Nowadays its even worse, as you have to pay an enormous amount of money to even stay in a decent college. For example, Berkeley, now being an out of stater, would cost me $40K/yr, I kid you not. With that amount of money I could go to Princeton. I really feel for the student of today. All of the deck is stacked against you.
I mean- all manufacturing has gone to China and other quasi-third world countries. Its debatable whether a pure service industry in the US can be forever sustained without massive improvements in education i.e. NEW IDEAS and CREATIVITY. So who in China would really give a damn what your address or DL number is? Or cracking into Dominos Pizza to see what people order? The credit agencies already send out data to just about anyone. Get real, China doesn't care about us in that way. Its somebody else.
Since the US DARPA was the start of the internet, and the concept of HTTP was born here, and everything else (excepting the Linus Kernel, haha), we have rights to keep it here. Despite our sometimes goofy federal government, I'd rather the FB I running the root DNS servers, as opposed to France or some other degenerate EU country.
Linus, why don't you stop by sometime. I wrote you a letter. You sometimes work only 3 miles from where I live. I know, I read source code.
We can get on the ham radio. I have all Ten-Tec. Orion and Titan 3, plus some amazing wire antennas, the product of hours spent on EZNEC.
Sincerely
Rob
Gentoo Sources. Then I can do an eval. I will try to post results to main Gentoo list, so everyone can see it there. I assume that because this doesn't even have a changlog, that only minor changes have been made, although I may be dead wrong. Please correct me if this and true and I will sit back and wait, wait, wait
Sincerfely, Rob
The article expains how lousy amateur radio propagation in the HF bands can occur when www.spaceweather.com or WWV says that something unpredicted is happening and they are caught off guard. Its rather amazing. Thats why its important to sign up for their telephone call and email alert service. Rob N3FT
I use Gentoo Linux. Recently I crashed my system, the result of being on the bleeding edge of technology. The Live CD is my only hope of rescuing the system, so that I don't have to start from scratch and re-format the Linux partitions. Then I would loose everything and it would take another mounth to build the mountain from the molehill.
May Long-Live-Live-CD's!!! Rob
Generally, the generation of the film means the death of an icon. I hope this is finally not the case with the Simpsons based on the empirical evidence that the writers have not yet run out of ideas.
Beavis and Butthead, and perhaps even South Park, by the time their movies had aired, it was clearly evident that the writers didn't know what to do next.
Please do not kill the Simpsons! They are my only refuge on TV, to get away from reality TV, death, and violence, wars, etc.
Sincerely, Rob.
If you are an electronics, ham radio geek/nerd (haha, just joking) it appears that the typical junk box has enough stuff in it to repeat this experiment at home, especially if like me, you are interested in high voltage, Tesla coils, etc like me!
Wow technology is getting so exciting 100 years later than Tesla!!
Sincerely, Rob N3FT
If you are a high voltage, Tesla coil like, electronics geek/nerd and ham radio operator (haha just joking) it appears that we might have enough stuff in our typical junkboxes to accomplish the same experiment. Technology rules!!
Sincerely, Rob N3FT
I reached 30 words per minute in high school. I am now 43 and still an active ham radio operator. I no longer write anything but the call sign, signal report, QTH, and the name of who I am talking to. It works in my brain just like a second language. The proof: I cannot send morse code and talk at the same time. It is impossible. Obviously the same language part of the brain works with morse code and English speaking. Perhaps my experiences will shed some light on why morse code operators are so damn fast.
Thanks, Rob