The bit about customized rankings based on user profiling of some type.
Frequently when I want to refer someone to a topic of interest, I'll tell them to do a Google on (whatever) subject, and I like knowing they're seeing what I see.
If this is implemented, I hope there's a way to turn it off or assume a "joe user" standard profile for unbiased results actually based on rank popularity (the way it is now).
I DO like the 5x faster, but geez, the page load takes longer than the search already, who can complain?
It says Vendors may be liable. If the Editor actually RTFA'd, he might have noticed that SCO is actually planning on trying to hold END-USERS liable, not vendors. IBM is the only Linux vendor they have (tried to?) go after so far.
Man, I can't believe they cited the RIAA/MPAA P2P battle in their rhetoric.
However, that may be a clueful insight into how they intend to identify commercial Linux users. It's called passive OS fingerprinting.
The TCP and IP header structures produced by the various OS's out there in popular use almost without exception have certain "earmarks" or identifiable characteristics about them.
It's also fairly easy to determine whether or not that system is behind a firewall, and all from simply monitoring and examining the traffic of it's response to various types of TCP and IP service requests.
If you'd like to know more about this technique, do a Google search for "Passive OS Identification" and have a look.
Charging for individual services is somethings that IBM has done in the Mainframe camp for years. DEC also did it with VAX/VMS and VAX Unix. To effectively do this, you need a (near) monopoly so no one has anywhere else to turn for less onerous alternatives. It's very hard to pull that kind of nickle-and-dime-them-to-death crap-ola in the open source world.
More recently, most of the commercially-available Unices (AIX, SCO, among others) were also sold piecemeal by services and per-user licenses.
You had to purchase an N-User license to run N-1 serial (or virtual, later) terminals on a given system.
Oh, you want TCP/IP networking? That'll cost you. X-Windows? That piece (Open Desktop) used to cost more than the base Unix (Open Server) package it ran under (Kinda like Windoze on DOS).
Print Services? Costs extra. PC Interoperability (PC-NFS File Services)? Ka-Ching.
This is the big reason I have been able to convince most of my consulting clients to switch away from SCO x86 Unix (once the IBCS2 emulation got all the bugs out) and run *free* Linux instead, which has all the bells and whistles the others charge an arm and a leg for *for free*, and would run their custom SCO binaries compatibly.
Fortunately, in recent days, because of the fierce market competition Linux has provided, most of the commercial Unix vendors have "gotten real" in their pricing structure - most now offer the base package for free or low (media) cost, but still charge big $$ for "optional" packages such as network, X-Windows, or multi-users.
if Microsoft doesn't learn from history - it'll be their fault if that policy causes big end-user backlash.
My Lords, will the Minister explain how it is that an inedible tinned food that lasted for ever and was supplied to those on active service can become an unsolicited e-mail, bearing in mind that some of us wish to be protected from having an e-mail?
This is absolutely hilarious! Not only is he calling Spam (tm) the food product inedible, but he's completely confused about how it evolved into e-mail! Har!
'Tis true that Spam saved the troops in WWII, though.
Spam Doubles every 42 days?
on
Spam, Milord
·
· Score: 3, Funny
That is just too amazing a coincidence that that figure is also the answer to Life, The Universe, And Everything.
If you look into anything closely enough, you can find a relationship to that number.;
If lyrics are *part* of the song, by your definition, then you could just as well put up a library of samples for download by the same argument, they're just *part*s of the song, too.
Hmmm.
I think the $$ Vanilla Ice had to pay Queen settles that argument.
If the lyrics are part of a copyrighted song, there's no exception saying "well, maybe this part isn't..."
Something very similar happened when they "regulated" automatic firing weapons and most drugs (like opium, herion, marijuhana, etc.) back in the 1930's. They didn't make them illegal outright, they just put a regulation in place that required a "tax stamp" to legally obtain them. Then the gov't refused to issue any tax stamps. The things they "banned" weren't either banned or made illegal, they just made them unobtainable by normal people.
There are several video formats used in AVI files that store raw uncompressed video frames. AVI, like Quick Time, is a container format that can house audio and video streams using a variety of storage or compression formats (hence all the codec choices needed).
HuffYUV actually does compress the fames, but uses Huffman coding, or "Squeeze" (SQ or SQZ) compression as it used to be called, which is a lossless compression technology unlike the lossy MPEG formats widely used. The compression can be completely reversed yielding the exact original data, unlke MPEG.
When I capture using my Pinnacle AV/DV card, it uses an uncompressed frame format to store the incoming video called "Microsoft Video 1". That was the original Video for Windows AVI format, BTW.
It uses no compression to pack files to disk faster that way, and there are no compression artifacts as well. But, and this is a BIG but, it takes about 12 GB to store 1 hour of video on disk! I always edit and filter that, then store it in DVD-quality MPEG2 format (only 1.5 GB per hour - still huge). Then I wind up downconverting it to SVCD or VCD format to save to disk or DivX if I want to leave it online.
There is also a video compression format called DV (Digital Video) that Firewire camcorders use - that uses minimal (or lossless?, not sure, who can tell, anyway!) compression and has a somewhat higher bitrate than DVD format (8K/sec instead of 6K/sec).
Uh, yeah, with optical drives vs. tapes it does matter.
The one thing they don't tell you when you purchase a CD or DVD or any other player with a semiconductor Laser diode it it, is that the diode has a finite number of hours of operation at whatever current they are running it at. LED's and laser diodes eat themselves up, as the material they're made of chemically changes over time.
The device WILL die someday, after N hours of operation. Or at least, the optical output will degrade to the point where it's not putting out enough light to do the job anymore.
I know, I've gone through 2 lasers on my Sony D5 (original Discman) player and a Technics home player, I used them so much the players still sort of worked but the lasers had such low output on them they would skip and track poorly, etc.
I replaced and realigned the laser head myself in the Sony D5, so I am positive that was the only problem, and then proceeded to use the crap out of the new one, until it died 3-4 years later.
Anyway unless you are buying a DVD player to keep on the shelf unused for 20 years, you might just have a problem if the newer drives aren't backward compatible.
I agree about not using TOO old of a VCR, but you're confusing 2 issues - wear of tape against the head vs. tugging at the reels at the end of the wind.
The oldest drives used to keep the tape wrapped around the video head while FF'ing or REW'ing needlessly. That made for a lot of wear on the tape and head during fast winds.
The newer drives take a hint from the 4mm DAT drives; they route the tape so it just barely touches the video head (so it can be scanned as it goes by), but isn't wrapped around the head in the play position. This allows MUCH faster winding speeds, and MUCH less wear on the tape and heads.
The newer drives use variable velocity transports, as you also mentioned, and that prevents tugging at the reels when you hit the end of the tape. This is also a "good thing" (TM).
I think the big reasoning behind his suggestion of using an older deck was to find a deck with a good solid metal chassis, which will tend to keep it's alignment and tolerances better that a flimsy cheapo deck nowadays. But, try to find one that isn't so ancient that it has the old full-wrap style of threading while doing fast winds.
The Curie points for most metallic substances is greater than 500 degrees F. The tape and reels will MELT or deform long before that.
I've got a cool soldering iron (Weller TCP series) that regulates its tip temperature using the Curie point - it has a magnetic reed switch held closed by a small permanent magnet. When it heats up to temperature, it hits the Curie point and the magnet loses it's stuff, and the reed switch opens, then the iron cools off slightly until the magnet regains it's field. Repeat as necessary...
I have an even cooler one (Metcal MX500) that uses RF induction to pump the tip and when it gets to temperature the SWR goes up as the tip material reflects rather than absorbs the RF. Ultra-Neato.
I've got several Rockwell DGPS units here - thanks for reminding me, I'm gonna bring them to the Hamfest in Dayton and try to sell 'em.
Those use FM broadcast signals that are time-synchronized and phase-locked to the GPS signals, and I know surveyors use them. I think the accuracy goes down to a meter (or less?) but I'm not sure about millimeter accuracy.
Theoretically, you could resolve down to the 1/2 the wavelength of the FM carrier frequency if the time-locking was stable enough. Nyquist, ya know.
The only problem is that you have to be in a major metro area and within FM reception distance of a participating station that is sending the signals. Unfortunately there are almost none in my city, but there are some in a city 50-60 miles away. Reception is spotty at best.
I'm so sick of people trying to cram ads down my throat just because they feel they can get away with it.
Whether it's pop-up ads, spam, TV inset-credit ads, junk mail, telemarketing, ATM fees, TV channel logos, billboards, etc. The long and annoying list goes on and on and keeps growing.
More and more, I'm getting pissed off about the multitude of intrusions on my time and attention. If I cared about whether brand A was better than brand B, i'd look into it myself, otherwise it's just an annoyance to be so informed.
If anyone is particularly interested, or if the software is remarkable in some way, i.e. small, useful, or innovative, then people will find out who's responsible for authoring that piece of work if they care.
But if they don't, then they don't want to endure YET ANOTHER GOD-DAMNED AD.
If the software authors want credit for their work, that's fine, I don't begrudge them that. I'm a software author myself. In fact, I co-wrote one of the most popular ray-tracing programs out there, and my name is on the list of contributors.
The actual software never had my name in it, just in the docs, but people knew me, and had no problem finding out who I was and how to get a hold of me for questions and advice.
I still can list the software on my resume, if I feel that it's relevant to the position I'm seeking. When I do, most people recognise or have heard of it. The fame is still there waiting, bottled up until needed:)
Anyhow, without being overbearingly egotistical, I managed to get and enjoy my 15 minutes of fame without pissing anyone off and without cramming my name down everyone's throat.
Not directly, but if they plan to release it later on tape/DVD then extant copies might prevent people from going out later and buying it in the future, I guess...
1) Flash is portable. You might not have Quicktime on Linux or the right codec for AVI under Win32, but Flash is more cross-platform than most other formats, possibly excepting flip-books of jpegs:)
2) Harder to grab and "share". There are stream rippers out there, but joe average can't easily capture the stream and e-mail it to all his buddies, I'm guesssing. Using a 2-stage flash loader will also obfuscate the actual stream data filename and prevent people from directly downloading it. That's what Atomfilms and others do so you can view but not save content viewed there.
I'd love to see some new Blackadders as well, they can make that premise work in any time period.
That was correct, they had just gotten around to turning off the +- 15 meter fuzz a month or three before war broke out. I then heard the announcement that they were going to a +- 150 meter fuzz a week or two before the war started.
As for the limits, I don't think 747's cruise faster than 600 Mph. If so, then it's possible that those conditions are logically AND'ed, i.e. if faster AND higher then no dice...
As for your last flight, you might just have gotten an attendant that can't differentiate a GPS from a Walkman, or maybe again, due to wartime they're being extra-careful.
I have a very rare Dr. Who (old VHS tape) at home, I recently ripped to SVCD, one not too many fans seem to have heard of, called "The Curse of the Fatal Death". It's a hilarious Dr. Who spoof episode made by the actual producers and set designers of the old T.V. series for Comedy Relief.
It stars Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean, Blackadder) as The Doctor, and Jonathon Pryce (Brazil) as The Master. It also has guest cameos by Hugh Grant (Media Darling) and Joanna Lumley (Ab. Fab.), and, of course, The Daleks.
It runs about 20 minutes in 2 parts, and has "The Making Of..." footage, and 3 other older Dr. Who spoofisodes afterward.
This is REALLY funny stuff, if you like that sort of thing (Dry British humor and Dr. Who In-Jokes) and I'd highly recommend finding a copy. I would hope they've released it on DVD by now.
1) The US Government deliberately makes the GPS satellites report false positions on the civilian channels. During wartime (like now) the error is fudged +- 150 meters. During times of non-war, the fudge factor is set to +- 15 meters. The actual accuracy is +- 3 meters, which it always correctly reports on the military frequencies.
2) Civilian GPS units have a government-mandated firmware limit and will not indicate faster than (IIRC) 600 Mph nor over 1000 ft. to keep people from using them for exactly this purpose.
Of course, the real solution is to get your hands on a real military GPS unit...
Re:Ham radio swap meets are so over
on
Hamvention
·
· Score: 2, Informative
You are so right. With one exception. That's the Hamvention. Not to sound grandiose, but, what if you get almost the entire audience you are selling to on e-bay into the same place at one time all together to look at (and hopefully buy) your stuff?
The Hamvention is the grand-daddy of all Hamfests, which means people come from all around the US (World?) to attend. You then have the wide audience advantage you get with e-bay.
Also, there's nothing like being able to get your hands around what you are trying to buy, being able to test, prod, and sniff it, being able to ask questions before you buy a potential boat anchor. Also besides paying an admission, there's no "per auction" charges to display or sell items.
And finally, the other major function of Hamfests is to physically get together with your freinds and radio contacts, and go have a beer or dinner afterward. E-mail doesn't cut it for the social requirements.
What you have said is true for local small hamfests, unfortunately. You have a limited audience from a limited locale, and you keep seeing the same landfill each time you go there.
(Look for me at Dayton - I'll be there - Wearing my "Mad Scientist's Local 42 Union shirt").
I wanted to find out more about Mr. House, so I got a fresh cup from Mr. Coffee, and sat down at Mr. Computer. It wasn't working, so I checked Mr. Radar - it was jammed - yes, with Raspberry!
Only one person would have enough nerve to give me the Raspberry:
Slashdot Mirror
If brandonY actually RTF my post, I said the article _title_ was wrong, not the summary of the post.
The bit about customized rankings based on user profiling of some type.
Frequently when I want to refer someone to a topic of interest, I'll tell them to do a Google on (whatever) subject, and I like knowing they're seeing what I see.
If this is implemented, I hope there's a way to turn it off or assume a "joe user" standard profile for unbiased results actually based on rank popularity (the way it is now).
I DO like the 5x faster, but geez, the page load takes longer than the search already, who can complain?
It says Vendors may be liable. If the Editor actually RTFA'd, he might have noticed that SCO is actually planning on trying to hold END-USERS liable, not vendors. IBM is the only Linux vendor they have (tried to?) go after so far.
Man, I can't believe they cited the RIAA/MPAA P2P battle in their rhetoric.
However, that may be a clueful insight into how they intend to identify commercial Linux users. It's called passive OS fingerprinting.
The TCP and IP header structures produced by the various OS's out there in popular use almost without exception have certain "earmarks" or identifiable characteristics about them.
It's also fairly easy to determine whether or not that system is behind a firewall, and all from simply monitoring and examining the traffic of it's response to various types of TCP and IP service requests.
If you'd like to know more about this technique, do a Google search for "Passive OS Identification" and have a look.
What's old is new again!
Charging for individual services is somethings that IBM has done in the Mainframe camp for years. DEC also did it with VAX/VMS and VAX Unix. To effectively do this, you need a (near) monopoly so no one has anywhere else to turn for less onerous alternatives. It's very hard to pull that kind of nickle-and-dime-them-to-death crap-ola in the open source world.
More recently, most of the commercially-available Unices (AIX, SCO, among others) were also sold piecemeal by services and per-user licenses.
You had to purchase an N-User license to run N-1 serial (or virtual, later) terminals on a given system.
Oh, you want TCP/IP networking? That'll cost you. X-Windows? That piece (Open Desktop) used to cost more than the base Unix (Open Server) package it ran under (Kinda like Windoze on DOS).
Print Services? Costs extra. PC Interoperability (PC-NFS File Services)? Ka-Ching.
This is the big reason I have been able to convince most of my consulting clients to switch away from SCO x86 Unix (once the IBCS2 emulation got all the bugs out) and run *free* Linux instead, which has all the bells and whistles the others charge an arm and a leg for *for free*, and would run their custom SCO binaries compatibly.
Fortunately, in recent days, because of the fierce market competition Linux has provided, most of the commercial Unix vendors have "gotten real" in their pricing structure - most now offer the base package for free or low (media) cost, but still charge big $$ for "optional" packages such as network, X-Windows, or multi-users.
if Microsoft doesn't learn from history - it'll be their fault if that policy causes big end-user backlash.
To further confuse the issue, Firebird is a model (or line?) of communications test equipment (BER analyzers/impairment simulators, etc.)
;
Not to mention a made-to-be-wrecked car from GM.
Quoth Lord Renton:
My Lords, will the Minister explain how it is that an inedible tinned food that lasted for ever and was supplied to those on active service can become an unsolicited e-mail, bearing in mind that some of us wish to be protected from having an e-mail?
This is absolutely hilarious! Not only is he calling Spam (tm) the food product inedible, but he's completely confused about how it evolved into e-mail! Har!
'Tis true that Spam saved the troops in WWII, though.
That is just too amazing a coincidence that that figure is also the answer to Life, The Universe, And Everything.
;
If you look into anything closely enough, you can find a relationship to that number.
You might be safe if people hear you and don't enjoy it, though...
Like anything, it's only illegal if you get caught;
If lyrics are *part* of the song, by your definition, then you could just as well put up a library of samples for download by the same argument, they're just *part*s of the song, too.
Hmmm.
I think the $$ Vanilla Ice had to pay Queen settles that argument.
If the lyrics are part of a copyrighted song, there's no exception saying "well, maybe this part isn't..."
Something very similar happened when they "regulated" automatic firing weapons and most drugs (like opium, herion, marijuhana, etc.) back in the 1930's. They didn't make them illegal outright, they just put a regulation in place that required a "tax stamp" to legally obtain them. Then the gov't refused to issue any tax stamps. The things they "banned" weren't either banned or made illegal, they just made them unobtainable by normal people.
There are several video formats used in AVI files that store raw uncompressed video frames. AVI, like Quick Time, is a container format that can house audio and video streams using a variety of storage or compression formats (hence all the codec choices needed).
HuffYUV actually does compress the fames, but uses Huffman coding, or "Squeeze" (SQ or SQZ) compression as it used to be called, which is a lossless compression technology unlike the lossy MPEG formats widely used. The compression can be completely reversed yielding the exact original data, unlke MPEG.
When I capture using my Pinnacle AV/DV card, it uses an uncompressed frame format to store the incoming video called "Microsoft Video 1". That was the original Video for Windows AVI format, BTW.
It uses no compression to pack files to disk faster that way, and there are no compression artifacts as well. But, and this is a BIG but, it takes about 12 GB to store 1 hour of video on disk! I always edit and filter that, then store it in DVD-quality MPEG2 format (only 1.5 GB per hour - still huge). Then I wind up downconverting it to SVCD or VCD format to save to disk or DivX if I want to leave it online.
There is also a video compression format called DV (Digital Video) that Firewire camcorders use - that uses minimal (or lossless?, not sure, who can tell, anyway!) compression and has a somewhat higher bitrate than DVD format (8K/sec instead of 6K/sec).
Uh, yeah, with optical drives vs. tapes it does matter.
The one thing they don't tell you when you purchase a CD or DVD or any other player with a semiconductor Laser diode it it, is that the diode has a finite number of hours of operation at whatever current they are running it at. LED's and laser diodes eat themselves up, as the material they're made of chemically changes over time.
The device WILL die someday, after N hours of operation. Or at least, the optical output will degrade to the point where it's not putting out enough light to do the job anymore.
I know, I've gone through 2 lasers on my Sony D5 (original Discman) player and a Technics home player, I used them so much the players still sort of worked but the lasers had such low output on them they would skip and track poorly, etc.
I replaced and realigned the laser head myself in the Sony D5, so I am positive that was the only problem, and then proceeded to use the crap out of the new one, until it died 3-4 years later.
Anyway unless you are buying a DVD player to keep on the shelf unused for 20 years, you might just have a problem if the newer drives aren't backward compatible.
I agree about not using TOO old of a VCR, but you're confusing 2 issues - wear of tape against the head vs. tugging at the reels at the end of the wind.
The oldest drives used to keep the tape wrapped around the video head while FF'ing or REW'ing needlessly. That made for a lot of wear on the tape and head during fast winds.
The newer drives take a hint from the 4mm DAT drives; they route the tape so it just barely touches the video head (so it can be scanned as it goes by), but isn't wrapped around the head in the play position. This allows MUCH faster winding speeds, and MUCH less wear on the tape and heads.
The newer drives use variable velocity transports, as you also mentioned, and that prevents tugging at the reels when you hit the end of the tape. This is also a "good thing" (TM).
I think the big reasoning behind his suggestion of using an older deck was to find a deck with a good solid metal chassis, which will tend to keep it's alignment and tolerances better that a flimsy cheapo deck nowadays. But, try to find one that isn't so ancient that it has the old full-wrap style of threading while doing fast winds.
The Curie points for most metallic substances is greater than 500 degrees F. The tape and reels will MELT or deform long before that.
I've got a cool soldering iron (Weller TCP series) that regulates its tip temperature using the Curie point - it has a magnetic reed switch held closed by a small permanent magnet. When it heats up to temperature, it hits the Curie point and the magnet loses it's stuff, and the reed switch opens, then the iron cools off slightly until the magnet regains it's field. Repeat as necessary...
I have an even cooler one (Metcal MX500) that uses RF induction to pump the tip and when it gets to temperature the SWR goes up as the tip material reflects rather than absorbs the RF. Ultra-Neato.
I've got several Rockwell DGPS units here - thanks for reminding me, I'm gonna bring them to the Hamfest in Dayton and try to sell 'em.
Those use FM broadcast signals that are time-synchronized and phase-locked to the GPS signals, and I know surveyors use them. I think the accuracy goes down to a meter (or less?) but I'm not sure about millimeter accuracy.
Theoretically, you could resolve down to the 1/2 the wavelength of the FM carrier frequency if the time-locking was stable enough. Nyquist, ya know.
The only problem is that you have to be in a major metro area and within FM reception distance of a participating station that is sending the signals. Unfortunately there are almost none in my city, but there are some in a city 50-60 miles away. Reception is spotty at best.
I'm so sick of people trying to cram ads down my throat just because they feel they can get away with it.
:)
Whether it's pop-up ads, spam, TV inset-credit ads, junk mail, telemarketing, ATM fees, TV channel logos, billboards, etc. The long and annoying list goes on and on and keeps growing.
More and more, I'm getting pissed off about the multitude of intrusions on my time and attention. If I cared about whether brand A was better than brand B, i'd look into it myself, otherwise it's just an annoyance to be so informed.
If anyone is particularly interested, or if the software is remarkable in some way, i.e. small, useful, or innovative, then people will find out who's responsible for authoring that piece of work if they care.
But if they don't, then they don't want to endure YET ANOTHER GOD-DAMNED AD.
If the software authors want credit for their work, that's fine, I don't begrudge them that. I'm a software author myself. In fact, I co-wrote one of the most popular ray-tracing programs out there, and my name is on the list of contributors.
The actual software never had my name in it, just in the docs, but people knew me, and had no problem finding out who I was and how to get a hold of me for questions and advice.
I still can list the software on my resume, if I feel that it's relevant to the position I'm seeking. When I do, most people recognise or have heard of it. The fame is still there waiting, bottled up until needed
Anyhow, without being overbearingly egotistical, I managed to get and enjoy my 15 minutes of fame without pissing anyone off and without cramming my name down everyone's throat.
Not directly, but if they plan to release it later on tape/DVD then extant copies might prevent people from going out later and buying it in the future, I guess...
I'm guessing it's either because:
:)
1) Flash is portable. You might not have Quicktime on Linux or the right codec for AVI under Win32, but Flash is more cross-platform than most other formats, possibly excepting flip-books of jpegs
2) Harder to grab and "share". There are stream rippers out there, but joe average can't easily capture the stream and e-mail it to all his buddies, I'm guesssing. Using a 2-stage flash loader will also obfuscate the actual stream data filename and prevent people from directly downloading it. That's what Atomfilms and others do so you can view but not save content viewed there.
I'd love to see some new Blackadders as well, they can make that premise work in any time period.
That was correct, they had just gotten around to turning off the +- 15 meter fuzz a month or three before war broke out. I then heard the announcement that they were going to a +- 150 meter fuzz a week or two before the war started.
As for the limits, I don't think 747's cruise faster than 600 Mph. If so, then it's possible that those conditions are logically AND'ed, i.e. if faster AND higher then no dice...
As for your last flight, you might just have gotten an attendant that can't differentiate a GPS from a Walkman, or maybe again, due to wartime they're being extra-careful.
I have a very rare Dr. Who (old VHS tape) at home, I recently ripped to SVCD, one not too many fans seem to have heard of, called "The Curse of the Fatal Death". It's a hilarious Dr. Who spoof episode made by the actual producers and set designers of the old T.V. series for Comedy Relief.
It stars Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean, Blackadder) as The Doctor, and Jonathon Pryce (Brazil) as The Master. It also has guest cameos by Hugh Grant (Media Darling) and Joanna Lumley (Ab. Fab.), and, of course, The Daleks.
It runs about 20 minutes in 2 parts, and has "The Making Of..." footage, and 3 other older Dr. Who spoofisodes afterward.
This is REALLY funny stuff, if you like that sort of thing (Dry British humor and Dr. Who In-Jokes) and I'd highly recommend finding a copy. I would hope they've released it on DVD by now.
There's just 2 problems with using GPS guidance:
1) The US Government deliberately makes the GPS satellites report false positions on the civilian channels. During wartime (like now) the error is fudged +- 150 meters. During times of non-war, the fudge factor is set to +- 15 meters. The actual accuracy is +- 3 meters, which it always correctly reports on the military frequencies.
2) Civilian GPS units have a government-mandated firmware limit and will not indicate faster than (IIRC) 600 Mph nor over 1000 ft. to keep people from using them for exactly this purpose.
Of course, the real solution is to get your hands on a real military GPS unit...
You are so right. With one exception. That's the Hamvention. Not to sound grandiose, but, what if you get almost the entire audience you are selling to on e-bay into the same place at one time all together to look at (and hopefully buy) your stuff?
The Hamvention is the grand-daddy of all Hamfests, which means people come from all around the US (World?) to attend. You then have the wide audience advantage you get with e-bay.
Also, there's nothing like being able to get your hands around what you are trying to buy, being able to test, prod, and sniff it, being able to ask questions before you buy a potential boat anchor. Also besides paying an admission, there's no "per auction" charges to display or sell items.
And finally, the other major function of Hamfests is to physically get together with your freinds and radio contacts, and go have a beer or dinner afterward. E-mail doesn't cut it for the social requirements.
What you have said is true for local small hamfests, unfortunately. You have a limited audience from a limited locale, and you keep seeing the same landfill each time you go there.
(Look for me at Dayton - I'll be there - Wearing my "Mad Scientist's Local 42 Union shirt").
You're not too far off the mark. Two things Hams love to do is talk and eat. Most of them are "well fed" to say the least.
I wanted to find out more about Mr. House, so I got a fresh cup from Mr. Coffee, and sat down at Mr. Computer. It wasn't working, so I checked Mr. Radar - it was jammed - yes, with Raspberry!
Only one person would have enough nerve to give me the Raspberry:
Lonestar!
(With Apologies to Mel Brooks)