You're assuming that only medically useful data would be used to deny people access to health care. As I commented here, my entire family was rejected for coverage because my child once had a VCUG test. That illustrates the problem pretty well, IMO: not medically useful, used to discriminate.
A heart rate monitor, or a person measuring the pulse with his finger and a watch after a 2-step test, measure a figure that is of potential interest to a party which wishes to use information to filter to whom medical coverage will be offered. The difference between electronic and manual is that electronic records are made automatically, in a medium that is extremely easy to transmit.
Well, he didn't have an existing illness. But you have just explained, pretty well, why insurance companies should not be allowed to be involved in individual medical coverage. Because it's not in their interest to cover sick people! I hope all of the folks who are against the public option get for-profit fire departments in their towns.
Well, I think we'd be doing a lot better on health care reform right now if we hadn't first had to inject cash into financial companies that then paid it to underperforming staff as bonuses, and if we hadn't had to support auto manufacturers that kept making big inefficient and unreliable cars despite nearly thirty years of perception of their lagging foreign concerns, and if we hadn't entered some stupid wars.
That said, I'm for the public option. I am having a lot of trouble reconciling the responsibility of a private medical coverage firm to its stockholders vs. its responsibility to the public. We don't have very many for-profit fire departments in the United States any longer, although that was once the norm. Wonder why?
I think it's reasonable that if asked, the school issue you a written assurance that records collected in the context of athletic education be kept private, and destroyed according to a stated schedule.
I am pretty far from clear that the record in question would qualify as either an educational record or a treatment record under FERPA. Thus, a written assurance from the school district would be a good thing to have.
Have you ever been rejected for family medical coverage because your child had a urinary infection once, and a test to make sure it wasn't serious? I have.
By the way, I'm sorry that most of the folks who have posted so far are unsympathetic and unthinking creeps. It's your job to watch out for your child, and such thinking is hardly paranoid.
Although this could be dismissed as paranoia, there are some serious concerns here. Do you have a legal right to privacy concerning your child's medical record, captured in a non-medical context, in a public school? Does HIPAA or any other law currently on the books presently address this? Do you have a right to be informed regarding the disposition of such data before it's collected?
You had a good reason to consult the principal, if you don't get assurances in writing I wouldn't suggest that you allow the device to be used on your child.
Unfortunately, it's not just a software fix. What they probably fixed is that multiple towers will not respond. But the signal still reaches all of the receivers on all of the towers in range. This will hurt the ability to reuse the frequency on all of those towers.
About the best thing that towers can do with a radio at altitude is to prevent it from transmitting at all.
Even when crusigin at 30,000 feet, you are just 5 or 6-ish miles away.
But the horizon is 212 miles away in every direction, plus up to 20 miles to account for the height of the tower. And you have line-of-sight, in a system with the high fade-margin necessary to work with ground obstacles. For a ham to go as far as that on similar frequencies and power, given line-of-sight, is commonplace.
I haven't seen reports of tests, but I'd imagine such things exist.
If the carrier's system is smart they can do some things to reduce the impact, like not giving your phone a frequency to use or putting all of the problem phones on one channel. But there is more than one carrier. I think they also have their antennas configured to not look up, but that doesn't help if their tower is on the horizon - it's looking straight out.
Well, this phone was from Boost Mobile, a pay-as-you-go service. I have Net10, and they have not objected to my taking phones out of service early. Indeed, the way their service works, if you don't like your phone at all, buying a new one at monthly renewal time works out best.
Net10 disables the USB data functionality on all of their phones. So, using the more expensive Boost would be necessary.
Another thing they can do is use a part-15 or Amateur transmitter. Now that there is no Morse Code requirement, passing the lowest level of ham test is something you can do with a few hours study. And then you can have live TV from the balloon, and you can command it to cut down the balloon when you wish.
You can inform the FAA to issue a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) and you can get your flight permitted, all of the ham groups know how to do this. You can get a fine for not informing the FAA if your payload is over a certain weight.
The terminal velocity of falling objects varies according to the weight of the object and the air resistance. A foam cooler and some ropes and torn balloon falling from altitude don't go very fast. Note that their descent took 40 minutes, and it was probably faster in thin air than thick.
There was an interesting mythbusters on falling bullets. They couldn't get much force out of them.
It was in line-of-sight to the tower. Most of the signal loss is from obstacles on the ground. When you have line-of-sight, you can go very far.
That's why use of cell phones at altitude is illegal. They illuminate thousands of cell cites all of the way to the horizon, and probably lock users out of a frequency on every one of those sites. It's sort of a denial-of-service attack.
This was in the range of a high-school teacher before. Indeed, there have been many high-school launches. Using donated parts doesn't really cut it. The camera has to be one of a few specific models that can run an Open Source download. The phone can't be just any one, unfortunately.
By the way, use of the phone at altitude violates FCC regulations and does a denial-of-service attack on cell sites because sites all of the way to the horizon are receiving that frequency.
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You're assuming that only medically useful data would be used to deny people access to health care. As I commented here, my entire family was rejected for coverage because my child once had a VCUG test. That illustrates the problem pretty well, IMO: not medically useful, used to discriminate.
People don't die from being pushed too hard in gym class. They die from other reasons. The heart rate monitor is not a safety device.
A heart rate monitor, or a person measuring the pulse with his finger and a watch after a 2-step test, measure a figure that is of potential interest to a party which wishes to use information to filter to whom medical coverage will be offered. The difference between electronic and manual is that electronic records are made automatically, in a medium that is extremely easy to transmit.
Well, he didn't have an existing illness. But you have just explained, pretty well, why insurance companies should not be allowed to be involved in individual medical coverage. Because it's not in their interest to cover sick people! I hope all of the folks who are against the public option get for-profit fire departments in their towns.
That said, I'm for the public option. I am having a lot of trouble reconciling the responsibility of a private medical coverage firm to its stockholders vs. its responsibility to the public. We don't have very many for-profit fire departments in the United States any longer, although that was once the norm. Wonder why?
I think it's reasonable that if asked, the school issue you a written assurance that records collected in the context of athletic education be kept private, and destroyed according to a stated schedule.
I am pretty far from clear that the record in question would qualify as either an educational record or a treatment record under FERPA. Thus, a written assurance from the school district would be a good thing to have.
Have you ever been rejected for family medical coverage because your child had a urinary infection once, and a test to make sure it wasn't serious? I have.
By the way, I'm sorry that most of the folks who have posted so far are unsympathetic and unthinking creeps. It's your job to watch out for your child, and such thinking is hardly paranoid.
You had a good reason to consult the principal, if you don't get assurances in writing I wouldn't suggest that you allow the device to be used on your child.
About the best thing that towers can do with a radio at altitude is to prevent it from transmitting at all.
But the horizon is 212 miles away in every direction, plus up to 20 miles to account for the height of the tower. And you have line-of-sight, in a system with the high fade-margin necessary to work with ground obstacles. For a ham to go as far as that on similar frequencies and power, given line-of-sight, is commonplace.
I haven't seen reports of tests, but I'd imagine such things exist.
If the carrier's system is smart they can do some things to reduce the impact, like not giving your phone a frequency to use or putting all of the problem phones on one channel. But there is more than one carrier. I think they also have their antennas configured to not look up, but that doesn't help if their tower is on the horizon - it's looking straight out.
If I could tag comments, this would get "livinginalternatereality".
Let me guess. Your preferred news service is FOX, right?
Net10 disables the USB data functionality on all of their phones. So, using the more expensive Boost would be necessary.
If you can afford to, here, otherwise you can get post-dated ones on ebay.
I've heard the airport broadcast, which passenger planes are required to copy, making note of a weather balloon.
GPS at full height and wind profile at the various altitudes you'll traverse gives you a good idea where it will come down.
Check out Stratofox. That's the serious tracking group.
I will be in Norway, so I'm missing DCC. Thanks for the list. David Rowe has made progress on the new Codec initiative I was promoting. See this.
Another thing they can do is use a part-15 or Amateur transmitter. Now that there is no Morse Code requirement, passing the lowest level of ham test is something you can do with a few hours study. And then you can have live TV from the balloon, and you can command it to cut down the balloon when you wish.
The terminal velocity of falling objects varies according to the weight of the object and the air resistance. A foam cooler and some ropes and torn balloon falling from altitude don't go very fast. Note that their descent took 40 minutes, and it was probably faster in thin air than thick.
There was an interesting mythbusters on falling bullets. They couldn't get much force out of them.
That's why use of cell phones at altitude is illegal. They illuminate thousands of cell cites all of the way to the horizon, and probably lock users out of a frequency on every one of those sites. It's sort of a denial-of-service attack.
By the way, use of the phone at altitude violates FCC regulations and does a denial-of-service attack on cell sites because sites all of the way to the horizon are receiving that frequency.