Supposedly they hire people to check and remove inconsitencies and contradictions to the storylines.
But let's be honest here. The only reason rules and laws exist in the Star Trek universe is so that they may be broken.
From the laws of physics or the prime directive, they have all fallen at one time or another. Heck, remember when warp 9 (which is faster than the speed of light by the way) was as fast as you could go??? See, they even break rules they make up, with 'slipstream' technology making it possible to go alot faster.
It's ok though. I've thought that the writing on Voyager has been good, and the stories interesting. Yes, it is soapish, but I'm not asking for perfection either. I think that the key to any quality product is consistency, and I feel like that's what I have received for my viewing. Much has to do with a matter of taste.
I have always been a trekkie, before it was fashionable to be one. (I wish I didn't throw away my enterprise squirt gun!!) If they were to take the series off, I would miss it.
their butt for all it matters. They know it and that's why they are putting the squeeze on. We need to start a countdown and plan a party, because the patent is public domain that day. This would be a good time to replace it with better technology though.
You can bet that they try to get an extension - maybe slashdot can alert readers when their thug lawyers go to congress - give them a taste of heavy handedness...
Same nonsense happens with drug companies "They haven't made enough billions" to let their drugs go to the generics when patents expire, so they ask for extensions left and right. Would be real interesting to keep track of it.
It's a real dig to get to the datasheet on these on their website, 'cuz I was curious about that myself. It's no wonder that it's buried deep though. At 14 watts (about 1.1 amp draw) for the pII 333 model you aint gonna be using AA pen cells for them. That's without your hardrive too. So you better start doing some excersises down at the gym 'cuz your gonna need that hardbody.
BTW, with all the heat you'll be generating the duck tape will turn into a sticky mess.
Originally the story centered around Fox Mulder, but Anderson has played the part so well that Mulder does seem to have turned into a 'minor' character. You're right - the utility of Mulder chasing his sister doesn't seem to be there anymore. Duchovny probably doesn't want to be typecast ala Nimoy==Spock, but I'm willing to bet it's too late now. Anytime we see him on the tube it's gonna be "there's Mulder"!
What really would be interesting and daring if the show crossed over from a Sci-Fi to straight Drama. That's something I would like to see - putting the same actors in different roles. Leave aliens out for a while.
Scully is an intelligent character, but yet doesn't overpower the weaker Fox Mulder character. Gillian plays it perfectly. So yeah, maybe it would be interesting to see what directions the series could go without Mulder, maybe a reason to watch again. Maybe some black helicopters could come and get Mulder.
The two country bumpkin actors (one of them is a country singer now) quit the show, and rather than giving the show an honorable demise hired a couple of ridiculous standins. They must have fired all the writers as well because the show became a car chase. One long and dreadful car chase. Then the original actors came back to continue the long car chase. I do not understand the economics of producing drivel like that, then again I don't understand soap operas and country music either.
But that has to be a textbook case on how to lobotomize a television series, taking an original and interesting idea and ripping all shreds of distinctiveness from it.
So yeah, I hope that they don't let it boil down to chasing ALF, then again that might be more interesting than watching them chase more sewer slime monsters...
Have they not covered every single supernatural phenomena there is and made up a few along the way??? What is left??? I can't think of anything. Some point are they not going to run out??? Have they not killed off every character on there and brought them back to life twice each??? How many different ways can a viewer be grossed out??? How many species of UFO are there??? I'm not a couch potato-er-ok i'm in denial- but have you noticed that most series that are popular have a lifespan of about five to seven years anyway? Is that anything like a seven year itch you find in other relationships? To be honest, I liked the characters Scully and Mulder. They have endearing traits. Professional but approachable, fictional but completely believable. G-Men-er-G-Persons you could really trust. Not since the days of Eliot Ness have we seen anything so good.
Ok, they run out of spooks to chase. Have them chase something else, but keep the characters Scully and Mulder going. Have them chase ordinary criminals in a exotic locale ala Hawaii Five-O. No, I'm not grasping at straws-it could work. After the extraordinary becomes ordinary then the ordinary is extraordinry. They could reinvent themselves - how 'bout "touched by an FBI" Hey, it could work.
They're just gonna kick there butt right out of the plane and then toss them a parachute.
Somebody has to catch fire for this. My guess some middle-management blokes. There are no decent coders around to fire or else this probably wouldn't have hapenned.
So will someebody explain to me why if I have GIF's all over my site, and I unkowingly use a program that is not a "licensed" gif maker, why I'm liable for something that the program creator may or may not have done??? Am I liable for someone elses defective product?? Is that fair? Isn't that over reaching?? Isn't there a law protecting consumers from such stuff??
They're gonna make an example of you're butt. By the time they're done with you, you'll wish you had converted to PNG. The long arm of UNYSIS is reaching out to grab your neck! Convert!! Convert I say!! Mosaic users be dammed! Better their worhtless hide for not upgrading than yours for resisting the UNYSIS_MAN
I was recalling what an attorny's comment at the time GATT was passed (1995), and he said (at that time) that it was unconstitutional to use a treaty to change the length of patents, as that power is soley in the hands of congress, not a foreign power (in so many words). I have not kept up on patent law hapennings since then (And I do know now there has been alot)
I do not think that my ignorance is excusable. Every citizen should be cognizant that the Constitution is a working document that gives us the rights we live by. Without this personal valuation, we let others trample us with so much useless heresy. And then there are those who find lots of room for complaint, but yet do nothing (including the simple act of voting) to change things.
I am glad that others pay attention. Pray that I may do the same!
holding Walt Disney and the contracts for all this in his left suit jacket pocket?? Maybe one of these days people will take the Amiga and the rumors seriously, instead of snickering to themselves how slow a 68040@50MHz is. Maybe the throngs of people will surround Disneyland in a giant show of Civil Disobedience demanding both their Amiga computer with Linux RTOS and Transmeta asyncrhonous CPU and that Pluto be given bi-pedal motion the same as Goofy. I mean, when is corporate America going to take the demands of the lowly consumer seriously????
The truth is out there, but don't hold your breath
That's not the only grind we should have. When GATT was signed, it automatically extended the life of patents from 17 years to 20 years, thus amending the constitution in unconstitutional ways. Why has this not been addressed by the supreme court???
That would make so-called 1989 software patents available in six instead of eight years.
Secondly, the history of personal computers goes back to 1976, while mainframe technology goes back to the forties. When are granted patents going to be invalidated for technology that was already publically available or published?? I do not think that there have been exhaustive searches for some of the things that have been patented.
Third, maybe there needs to be an open-source IP protection group, that can test the validity of granted 'algorythm' patents. Maybe some of these patents are SO specific that a slight 'adjustment' would put them out of their coverage range.
Fourth, maybe Linux needs the linux community to not use that which is patented, but invent (and publish!) new technologies that are then freely available. It would seem to me that adoption would happen readily if they were cheaper than licensing a given 'patent'. Is there such a thing s a GNU patent??
Also, if we could get every 'linux' user to stop using a given technology and boycott some companies unfriendly to open source, couldn't that have some effect? You can not let the fear of patents stop open source development.
The World Wide Web was created before the deluge of software patenting and after hypertext linking had been invented. The Government, as much as we like to complain about it, had a redundant network in place that could handle hypertext linking ARPANET. Most importantly, in 1990 Tim Berners-Lee was coding the World Wide Web on his NeXT machine at Cern while Ted Nelson was XEROXing literary machines 90.1.
If any of this had of hapenned out of step, Ted Nelson could have invented the web, patented his software, making his system the standard. Thusly turning your PC into an
INFERNAL GUMBALL MACHINE OF INFORMATION.
Think I'm out of bounds???? Students, please turn to page 5/13 of Literary Mchines 90.1:
ROYALTIES IN THE XANADU PUBLISHING METHOD
amongst are for those who do not have a copy;
BYTE ROYALTY; a royalty for every byte delivered.
LINK ROYALTY; a royalty for links to other documents.
if that wasn't enough, how about a
AUTHORS FUND; a royalty for everything delivered to the network. If publisher owns material, he gets rebated. Otherwise TAX would be appropriate description.
Let me put it visually for you. You know that little counter you get at KINKO's to make copies with?? Imagine that plugged into your PC. And imagine it spinning really fast.
You thought the RIAA is bad with MP3s?? Well how much music do you listen to as to compared to digging for info on the Web??
Don't get me wrong. I believe in giving every author, written, electronic, musically or otherwise not only their just due, but their asking price for the work they offer. I don't mind a bit going to a secure server and paying for content, no matter what it is.
What I do mind is automatic collection, another opportunity for an unjustified tax by a chrony politician, and exorbitant fees for material that I don't need or want to buy.
As I see it, I don't mind buying the beer, but clean water is everbody's right.
Thanks to the way history is we have the possibility of new revolutions in things seemingly unrelated as computer chips and medicine, or network redundancy and rainforest conservation, all due to the free flow of information.
Do not forget that the goal of Xanadu was and is to be an advanced fee collection system. Because history hapenned right, Xanadu almost seems to be a technological afterthought. It is a curiosity to be examined and avoided.
Donald Knuth has a standing offer to pay anyone $2.56 to anyone who is the first finder of bugs in TEX, or any of his other books and programs for that matter. Truly meticulous, truly brilliant, he is the first to champion high-quality software. He is a hero to any who want to produce quality work and quality result. I love the guy and I haven't even met him.
Compare that to marketing director whose willing to have a bug meal??? No comparison torwards the goal of good programming.
don't mind the smell of fresh semiconductor gone wrong. Some of you are recalling the smell as I write this now. This actually harkens back to the olden days of building your own tube radios to get the performance you knew you could have if you were persistant enough. Same thing.
Sure, semis don't spark as much, but that saves you the inconvenience of having to hide behind the couch when you switch things on. Even today if you were to put an electrolytic cap in wrong, that would pop like a firecracker.
Think of it as baptism by fire. Not for everyone, just those who want to push the envelope.
To become a amateur Radio operator the local club may charge a maximum of $6.49, adjusted by the FCC anually using the CPI, to cover out of pocket expenses. This is an optional fee however, and I believe some clubs give it for free. The license is good for 10 years, and renewal (no examination required) is free.
You can't broadcast music using an amateur radio license however. See above post.
At the 160 KHz band your MP3s or other high speed digital modes won't work. First, your a Nyquist bust because your stream is going to be at least 56K and the band is only 30K wide. It might be used for long distance low rate paging though. Also, BPSK (binary phase shift keying) is a possibility for low speed messaging. Second, if you tranmit anyway you're whacking out everybody's AM radio (from guaranteed harmonics). Contrary to what you might think, people still do listen to AM. Those seniors down at the center love their Paul Harvey at noon. See my post below for alternatives.
Another reason it won't work is just wait 'til your neighbor switches on their flourescent light dimmer. DOH!!!!! There goes the band!!!! What a bust for that MP3 stream!
There is a group of radio amateurs who call themselves "lowfers" who like to play with these frequencies. Do a web search on the term. Technically and historically interesting, their newsletter is called the 'lowdown'.
Other groups who look to these frequencies are spelunkers who want to phone home when they get stuck in a hole, and the navy to reach underwater subs with nuke aiming info.
FCC regultions specifically prohibit the use of amateur radio frequencies for the use of broadcasting. Or conducting business. Amateur radio is centered around public service and advancing the radio art.
If you think you will get away with it, there are hams who have made it a hobby tracking down illegal sources of RF emission.
However, the FCC does allow other non-amateur frequencies for the purposes you mention. The CFR (code of federal regulations) Title 47 part 15 tells you what is available. There are frequencies at 1.9GHz, 2.4GHz, 5.5GHz that you could possibly use for the aforementioned purposes. However, you will need (and want) to use spread spectrum modulation. Also, you are only allowed one watt of transmitted power. They do not want you interfering with other Government agencies already using these frequencies for other purposes. While Scully and Mulder will not come knocking on your door, their buddies will, wanting to know why you're interfering with their local radionavigation beacons. You will not believe how picky they can be.
You will see what I mean as you read over the rules and regs. If it is an electron and vibrates, there is a rule for it. Up to 300 GHz, which by my calculations is where you find heat, and of course the visible spectrum after that.
www.fcc.gov is the place to start if you want more details. I have to hand it to them, they have done good job at putting the CFR online. BTW, part 97 covers amateur radio operations so you can take a look at them too.
Besides the regulations, microwaves are technically challenging. While the challenge is interesting to many in the amateur radio community, historically there has not been alot of 'plug and go' solutions for microwaves. It was always a 'roll your own' kind of proposition. I thought it more plumbing with some of the fancy waveguides around. However, there is a lot of surplus stuff that is hitting the market now so that will change.
Distance wise, I think you will max out at 3 miles. with clever receiver and antenna design you could do 10 miles. Just hope it doesn't snow, as water is very asorbant to these particular frequencies. (also another reason for low power, what is your body made up of???).
My personal choice if I were you would be light communications. You can have all the bandwith you could want and be a pioneer at the same time. While coventional wisdom suggests that this would not be very reliable, recent product offerings by Lucent technologies suggest that there may be ways around them. It would be interesting to try, lots of room for experimentation, economical, and straightforward to do.
Ever since DOS 2.2 there has been consistent rumors of "backroom" pressure by microsoft on companies to configure their PCs a specific way with MS software or else! The thing about it is that there never seems to be any smoking gun.
The fact that it is the same type of rumor for so long over again with so many different companies by itself gives it validity.
If Dell says its for 'technical' reasons then their company consists of technical incompetents that need to fired.
What is difficult about leaving a hard drive blank?? Say they needed windows for some unlikely 'technical' reason, couldn't they reformat the hard drive before shipping????
You know, it really is difficult to catch those people who make crop circles in England. I think that it is the same people who make crop circles at night that work for the Microsoft foreign office by day.
It's one thing that the government makes us pay postage to deliver paper mail, as that is paying for a service rendered.
Likewise, when I use the telephone, I pay the phone company to be able to use the service of the telephone line. This is taxed by both the federal and state government.
When I by a pen, I pay a sales tax to purchase the pen. The paper that I write I paid sales tax on also.
Do I need to pay an additional tax because I happen to write on that paper with a pen??? Or do I pay an additional tax because I happen to sing on the phone instead of 'talk' on the phone.
The question is, do I have to pay a tax on something that I've already paid a tax on the first place, that being the phone line. Is double taxation fair?
What's the difference between me singing, using Spanish, or using audio packets??
Are we smart enough to see this as an insult to our sense of freedom??? Are we angry enough to value our vote??? Are we persistent enough as a group to take the trouble and time to elect people to represent us and our views to office???
Often I do not agree with him, but he fills an specific niche in an industry - he writes editorials about it. He licks his finger and pokes it in the wind and to see which way it blows (the wind, not his finger).
Like any editorial you are going to find points for arguement. Never expect him to really 'come around' because that's not his job. His job is to be critical and in doing so provoke thought. If what he is was going to say was standard fare, nobody would give a rat's--er--read.
Every once in a while there will be quality insight, such as his recent article on instant messaging, AOL vs. MS, was pretty interesting, especially about future possible applications, something I never considered before.
Like him you may not, but I bet you still give him a read.
I went to the guestbook and it looks like somebody had meta-tagged it to the official Jerry Springer fan site.
Maybe this is not such a bad idea. Maybe Jerry could get a linux sysadm on with a windows jockey and they could have at it. They could address the real issues at hand and and do some chair throwing.
Slashdot Mirror
Supposedly they hire people to check and remove inconsitencies and contradictions to the storylines.
But let's be honest here. The only reason rules and laws exist in the Star Trek universe is so that they may be broken.
From the laws of physics or the prime directive, they have all fallen at one time or another. Heck, remember when warp 9 (which is faster than the speed of light by the way) was as fast as you could go??? See, they even break rules they make up, with 'slipstream' technology making it possible to go alot faster.
It's ok though. I've thought that the writing on Voyager has been good, and the stories interesting. Yes, it is soapish, but I'm not asking for perfection either. I think that the key to any quality product is consistency, and I feel like that's what I have received for my viewing. Much has to do with a matter of taste.
I have always been a trekkie, before it was fashionable to be one. (I wish I didn't throw away my enterprise squirt gun!!) If they were to take the series off, I would miss it.
their butt for all it matters. They know it and that's why they are putting the squeeze on. We need to start a countdown and plan a party, because the patent is public domain that day. This would be a good time to replace it with better technology though.
You can bet that they try to get an extension - maybe slashdot can alert readers when their thug lawyers go to congress - give them a taste of heavy handedness...
Same nonsense happens with drug companies "They haven't made enough billions" to let their drugs go to the generics when patents expire, so they ask for extensions left and right. Would be real interesting to keep track of it.
It's a real dig to get to the datasheet on these on their website, 'cuz I was curious about that myself. It's no wonder that it's buried deep though. At 14 watts (about 1.1 amp draw) for the pII 333 model you aint gonna be using AA pen cells for them. That's without your hardrive too. So you better start doing some excersises down at the gym 'cuz your gonna need that hardbody.
BTW, with all the heat you'll be generating the duck tape will turn into a sticky mess.
Originally the story centered around Fox Mulder, but Anderson has played the part so well that Mulder does seem to have turned into a 'minor' character. You're right - the utility of Mulder chasing his sister doesn't seem to be there anymore. Duchovny probably doesn't want to be typecast ala Nimoy==Spock, but I'm willing to bet it's too late now. Anytime we see him on the tube it's gonna be "there's Mulder"!
What really would be interesting and daring if the show crossed over from a Sci-Fi to straight Drama. That's something I would like to see - putting the same actors in different roles. Leave aliens out for a while.
Scully is an intelligent character, but yet doesn't overpower the weaker Fox Mulder character. Gillian plays it perfectly. So yeah, maybe it would be interesting to see what directions the series could go without Mulder, maybe a reason to watch again. Maybe some black helicopters could come and get Mulder.
The two country bumpkin actors (one of them is a country singer now) quit the show, and rather than giving the show an honorable demise hired a couple of ridiculous standins. They must have fired all the writers as well because the show became a car chase. One long and dreadful car chase. Then the original actors came back to continue the long car chase. I do not understand the economics of producing drivel like that, then again I don't understand soap operas and country music either.
But that has to be a textbook case on how to lobotomize a television series, taking an original and interesting idea and ripping all shreds of distinctiveness from it.
So yeah, I hope that they don't let it boil down to chasing ALF, then again that might be more interesting than watching them chase more sewer slime monsters...
Have they not covered every single supernatural phenomena there is and made up a few along the way??? What is left??? I can't think of anything. Some point are they not going to run out??? Have they not killed off every character on there and brought them back to life twice each??? How many different ways can a viewer be grossed out??? How many species of UFO are there???
I'm not a couch potato-er-ok i'm in denial- but have you noticed that most series that are popular have a lifespan of about five to seven years anyway? Is that anything like a seven year itch you find in other relationships?
To be honest, I liked the characters Scully and Mulder. They have endearing traits. Professional but approachable, fictional but completely believable. G-Men-er-G-Persons you could really trust. Not since the days of Eliot Ness have we seen anything so good.
Ok, they run out of spooks to chase. Have them chase something else, but keep the characters Scully and Mulder going. Have them chase ordinary criminals in a exotic locale ala Hawaii Five-O. No, I'm not grasping at straws-it could work. After the extraordinary becomes ordinary then the ordinary is extraordinry. They could reinvent themselves - how 'bout "touched by an FBI" Hey, it could work.
They're just gonna kick there butt right out of the plane and then toss them a parachute.
Somebody has to catch fire for this. My guess some middle-management blokes. There are no decent coders around to fire or else this probably wouldn't have hapenned.
Then they immediately issued a press release saying that the security hole in hotmail had been fixed....
Actully, maybe they had the lines hardwired, so they had to use wirecutters.......
So will someebody explain to me why if I have GIF's all over my site, and I unkowingly use a program that is not a "licensed" gif maker, why I'm liable for something that the program creator may or may not have done??? Am I liable for someone elses defective product?? Is that fair? Isn't that over reaching?? Isn't there a law protecting consumers from such stuff??
They're gonna make an example of you're butt. By the time they're done with you, you'll wish you had converted to PNG. The long arm of UNYSIS is reaching out to grab your neck! Convert!! Convert I say!! Mosaic users be dammed! Better their worhtless hide for not upgrading than yours for resisting the UNYSIS_MAN
I was recalling what an attorny's comment at the time GATT was passed (1995), and he said (at that time) that it was unconstitutional to use a treaty to change the length of patents, as that power is soley in the hands of congress, not a foreign power (in so many words). I have not kept up on patent law hapennings since then (And I do know now there has been alot)
I do not think that my ignorance is excusable. Every citizen should be cognizant that the Constitution is a working document that gives us the rights we live by. Without this personal valuation, we let others trample us with so much useless heresy. And then there are those who find lots of room for complaint, but yet do nothing (including the simple act of voting) to change things.
I am glad that others pay attention. Pray that I may do the same!
holding Walt Disney and the contracts for all this in his left suit jacket pocket?? Maybe one of these days people will take the Amiga and the rumors seriously, instead of snickering to themselves how slow a 68040@50MHz is. Maybe the throngs of people will surround Disneyland in a giant show of Civil Disobedience demanding both their Amiga computer with Linux RTOS and Transmeta asyncrhonous CPU and that Pluto be given bi-pedal motion the same as Goofy. I mean, when is corporate America going to take the demands of the lowly consumer seriously????
The truth is out there, but don't hold your breath
That's not the only grind we should have. When GATT was signed, it automatically extended the life of patents from 17 years to 20 years, thus amending the constitution in unconstitutional ways. Why has this not been addressed by the supreme court???
That would make so-called 1989 software patents available in six instead of eight years.
Secondly, the history of personal computers goes back to 1976, while mainframe technology goes back to the forties. When are granted patents going to be invalidated for technology that was already publically available or published?? I do not think that there have been exhaustive searches for some of the things that have been patented.
Third, maybe there needs to be an open-source IP protection group, that can test the validity of granted 'algorythm' patents. Maybe some of these patents are SO specific that a slight 'adjustment' would put them out of their coverage range.
Fourth, maybe Linux needs the linux community to not use that which is patented, but invent (and publish!) new technologies that are then freely available. It would seem to me that adoption would happen readily if they were cheaper than licensing a given 'patent'. Is there such a thing s a GNU patent??
Also, if we could get every 'linux' user to stop using a given technology and boycott some companies unfriendly to open source, couldn't that have some effect? You can not let the fear of patents stop open source development.
The World Wide Web was created before the deluge of software patenting and after hypertext linking had been invented. The Government, as much as we like to complain about it, had a redundant network in place that could handle hypertext linking ARPANET. Most importantly, in 1990 Tim Berners-Lee was coding the World Wide Web on his NeXT machine at Cern while Ted Nelson was XEROXing literary machines 90.1.
If any of this had of hapenned out of step, Ted Nelson could have invented the web, patented his software, making his system the standard. Thusly turning your PC into an
INFERNAL GUMBALL MACHINE OF INFORMATION.
Think I'm out of bounds???? Students, please turn to page 5/13 of Literary Mchines 90.1:
ROYALTIES IN THE XANADU PUBLISHING METHOD
amongst are for those who do not have a copy;
BYTE ROYALTY;
a royalty for every byte delivered.
LINK ROYALTY;
a royalty for links to other documents.
if that wasn't enough, how about a
AUTHORS FUND;
a royalty for everything delivered to the network. If publisher owns material, he gets rebated. Otherwise TAX would be appropriate description.
Let me put it visually for you. You know that little counter you get at KINKO's to make copies with?? Imagine that plugged into your PC. And imagine it spinning really fast.
You thought the RIAA is bad with MP3s?? Well how much music do you listen to as to compared to digging for info on the Web??
Don't get me wrong. I believe in giving every author, written, electronic, musically or otherwise not only their just due, but their asking price for the work they offer. I don't mind a bit going to a secure server and paying for content, no matter what it is.
What I do mind is automatic collection, another opportunity for an unjustified tax by a chrony politician, and exorbitant fees for material that I don't need or want to buy.
As I see it, I don't mind buying the beer, but clean water is everbody's right.
Thanks to the way history is we have the possibility of new revolutions in things seemingly unrelated as computer chips and medicine, or network redundancy and rainforest conservation, all due to the free flow of information.
Do not forget that the goal of Xanadu was and is to be an advanced fee collection system. Because history hapenned right, Xanadu almost seems to be a technological afterthought. It is a curiosity to be examined and avoided.
Donald Knuth has a standing offer to pay anyone $2.56 to anyone who is the first finder of bugs in TEX, or any of his other books and programs for that matter. Truly meticulous, truly brilliant, he is the first to champion high-quality software. He is a hero to any who want to produce quality work and quality result. I love the guy and I haven't even met him.
Compare that to marketing director whose willing to have a bug meal??? No comparison torwards the goal of good programming.
don't mind the smell of fresh semiconductor gone wrong. Some of you are recalling the smell as I write this now. This actually harkens back to the olden days of building your own tube radios to get the performance you knew you could have if you were persistant enough. Same thing.
Sure, semis don't spark as much, but that saves you the inconvenience of having to hide behind the couch when you switch things on. Even today if you were to put an electrolytic cap in wrong, that would pop like a firecracker.
Think of it as baptism by fire. Not for everyone, just those who want to push the envelope.
To become a amateur Radio operator the local club may charge a maximum of $6.49, adjusted by the FCC anually using the CPI, to cover out of pocket expenses. This is an optional fee however, and I believe some clubs give it for free. The license is good for 10 years, and renewal (no examination required) is free.
You can't broadcast music using an amateur radio license however. See above post.
At the 160 KHz band your MP3s or other high speed digital modes won't work. First, your a Nyquist bust because your stream is going to be at least 56K and the band is only 30K wide. It might be used for long distance low rate paging though. Also, BPSK (binary phase shift keying) is a possibility for low speed messaging. Second, if you tranmit anyway you're whacking out everybody's AM radio (from guaranteed harmonics). Contrary to what you might think, people still do listen to AM. Those seniors down at the center love their Paul Harvey at noon. See my post below for alternatives.
Another reason it won't work is just wait 'til your neighbor switches on their flourescent light dimmer. DOH!!!!! There goes the band!!!! What a bust for that MP3 stream!
There is a group of radio amateurs who call themselves "lowfers" who like to play with these frequencies. Do a web search on the term. Technically and historically interesting, their newsletter is called the 'lowdown'.
Other groups who look to these frequencies are spelunkers who want to phone home when they get stuck in a hole, and the navy to reach underwater subs with nuke aiming info.
FCC regultions specifically prohibit the use of amateur radio frequencies for the use of broadcasting. Or conducting business. Amateur radio is centered around public service and advancing the radio art.
If you think you will get away with it, there are hams who have made it a hobby tracking down illegal sources of RF emission.
However, the FCC does allow other non-amateur frequencies for the purposes you mention. The CFR (code of federal regulations) Title 47 part 15 tells you what is available. There are frequencies at 1.9GHz, 2.4GHz, 5.5GHz that you could possibly use for the aforementioned purposes. However, you will need (and want) to use spread spectrum modulation. Also, you are only allowed one watt of transmitted power. They do not want you interfering with other Government agencies already using these frequencies for other purposes. While Scully and Mulder will not come knocking on your door, their buddies will, wanting to know why you're interfering with their local radionavigation beacons. You will not believe how picky they can be.
You will see what I mean as you read over the rules and regs. If it is an electron and vibrates, there is a rule for it. Up to 300 GHz, which by my calculations is where you find heat, and of course the visible spectrum after that.
www.fcc.gov is the place to start if you want more details. I have to hand it to them, they have done good job at putting the CFR online. BTW, part 97 covers amateur radio operations so you can take a look at them too.
Besides the regulations, microwaves are technically challenging. While the challenge is interesting to many in the amateur radio community, historically there has not been alot of 'plug and go' solutions for microwaves. It was always a 'roll your own' kind of proposition. I thought it more plumbing with some of the fancy waveguides around. However, there is a lot of surplus stuff that is hitting the market now so that will change.
Distance wise, I think you will max out at 3 miles. with clever receiver and antenna design you could do 10 miles. Just hope it doesn't snow, as water is very asorbant to these particular frequencies. (also another reason for low power, what is your body made up of???).
My personal choice if I were you would be light communications. You can have all the bandwith you could want and be a pioneer at the same time. While coventional wisdom suggests that this would not be very reliable, recent product offerings by Lucent technologies suggest that there may be ways around them. It would be interesting to try, lots of room for experimentation, economical, and straightforward to do.
Phill Kennedy NA7E
Ever since DOS 2.2 there has been consistent rumors of "backroom" pressure by microsoft on companies to configure their PCs a specific way with MS software or else! The thing about it is that there never seems to be any smoking gun.
The fact that it is the same type of rumor for so long over again with so many different companies by itself gives it validity.
If Dell says its for 'technical' reasons then their company consists of technical incompetents that need to fired.
What is difficult about leaving a hard drive blank?? Say they needed windows for some unlikely 'technical' reason, couldn't they reformat the hard drive before shipping????
You know, it really is difficult to catch those people who make crop circles in England. I think that it is the same people who make crop circles at night that work for the Microsoft foreign office by day.
with his great book 'literate programming'. Both fascinating and practical reading. I admire him.
It's one thing that the government makes us pay postage to deliver paper mail, as that is paying for a service rendered.
Likewise, when I use the telephone, I pay the phone company to be able to use the service of the telephone line. This is taxed by both the federal and state government.
When I by a pen, I pay a sales tax to purchase the pen. The paper that I write I paid sales tax on also.
Do I need to pay an additional tax because I happen to write on that paper with a pen??? Or do I pay an additional tax because I happen to sing on the phone instead of 'talk' on the phone.
The question is, do I have to pay a tax on something that I've already paid a tax on the first place, that being the phone line. Is double taxation fair?
What's the difference between me singing, using Spanish, or using audio packets??
Are we smart enough to see this as an insult to our sense of freedom??? Are we angry enough to value our vote??? Are we persistent enough as a group to take the trouble and time to elect people to represent us and our views to office???
Often I do not agree with him, but he fills an specific niche in an industry - he writes editorials about it. He licks his finger and pokes it in the wind and to see which way it blows (the wind, not his finger).
Like any editorial you are going to find points for arguement. Never expect him to really 'come around' because that's not his job. His job is to be critical and in doing so provoke thought. If what he is was going to say was standard fare, nobody would give a rat's--er--read.
Every once in a while there will be quality insight, such as his recent article on instant messaging, AOL vs. MS, was pretty interesting, especially about future possible applications, something I never considered before.
Like him you may not, but I bet you still give him a read.
I went to the guestbook and it looks like somebody had meta-tagged it to the official Jerry Springer fan site.
Maybe this is not such a bad idea. Maybe Jerry could get a linux sysadm on with a windows jockey and they could have at it. They could address the real issues at hand and and do some chair throwing.