I watched the show. Oliver did two things: he played news videos and quoted from published documents. Then he made satirical comments about what was in those documents. He's funny as hell, but you could tell he knows the boundaries and he's very careful not to cross them.
Murray's a bit of a character, and Oliver pointed out some inconsistencies between what he said and what he did.
Good luck to Murray. He's a dick. And I hope he loses.
The right tools as in what? I'm an electrician and have done residential and commercial. In a house it doesn't take many tools to run a wire. And if there was no way to access the wall from in the attic that means there has to be atleast 2 holes cut in drywall to get down a wall. I don't like when people indiscriminately talk bad about tradesmen when chances are they don't know what the job takes.
My experience with installers has been that they do the absolute quickest job they can. They are paid by the job, not by the hour, I guess. A good tradesman is a joy to work with, but a contract installer? I'd rather do it myself.
Seriously, I seldom have any issues with Comcast. The service, which is all I care about, is up most of the time and at an acceptable speed.
The only trouble I've ever had with them, is when I try to change something. They have terrible customer service. Not surly, but inefficient. You can't rely on anything they say, or that they will do what they say they will do.
Example: They called one day, and told me the cable modem I had needed to be replaced. I originally got that modem from MediaOne, then AT&T bought them, then Comcast bought the business. So it had a MediaOne serial number. Comcast laughed when I told them this and said I needn't return it when I got the new modem. Guess what? Got the new modem, installed it, stashed the old one in a corner..because I KNEW they would ask for it. Sure enough, about 2 weeks later, I get a letter in the mail from Comcast, telling me they're going to charge me unless I return the modem. Which I did. by Certified Mail, return receipt...after recording the serial number and model. No more problems.
When they jacked the monthly modem rental up to $10 (it started at $5), I ordered my own off Amazon. Easy install, it came up with a web page that asked me for my Comcast username and password, and all has been good since (except I have to reset the damn thing every time they mess with their network). I returned their modem to one of their storefronts, and got a receipt. No problems.
So, I can't complain, except about the cost, and the constant threat of usage caps, which haven't been implemented in the Boston area yet. As soon as they try that, I'm switching to FIOS. Already have the fiber and terminal unit installed from when they yanked my copper POTS line.
So, their new tag line should be: "It's COMCASTic -- we're not the worst!"
Cell phones transmit on one band of frequencies, and receive on another. This allows them to transmit and receive simultaneously (so you can both listen and talk at the same time).
For cellphones to be able to talk to one another (without a cell involved), you'd need to either invert the Tx and Rx frequencies on one of the phones (possible, but there are other things which make this impractical -- duplexer for one) or transmit and receive on a single frequency (again, challenging but possible if the frequency is chosen carefully, and is not one used normally)
For the number of times this would be useful, it's probably not worth the effort, and easier to carry a pair of $50 FRS radios.
I vote bullshit on the article. sure we had radios. we didn't have the automation to handle traffic and connecting the calls and THOSE are largely what counts as a cellphone vs. a radio.
Strongly agree.
Any cellular system designed in 1940 would use relay logic, because there were no computers. Postwar? Very primitive ones, which took up entire rooms. Data transmission was by teletype, at 10 WPM. You'd fill the back of your car with gear to support any kind of intelligence in the mobile side, and changing to your assigned channel (a crucial part of the trunked or cellular system) would be by a relay, changing crystals.
Look at the carphones of the 50s. They had dials and channel buttons. The technology was too cumbersome and limited to implement a cellular system at the time. As soon as the technology matured (i.e.: microprocessors) the computing power became available for the mobile side.
The main reason why telcos don't want copper anymore is that their copper infrastructure is regulated.
I think the main reason they don't want copper, is that nobody is going to pay $60/mo for a landline phone any more. None of my coworkers have them, and I switched to a $20/mo VOIP provider. Additionally, there's not a lot you can do with copper, compared to fiber and coax. So there's not even a chance of repurposing the copper infrastructure.
So, no income from consumer phone lines, coupled with an infrastructure nobody wants, means no more copper.
I'll leave it to others to post the mathematical proof, but there is a limit to lossy compression and kilobyte output from gigabyte inputs isn't anywhere near the realm of possibility.
Why? Lossy compression is, at its core, the removal of redundant information, and its replacement with a smaller description of how to recreate what was removed. You can immediately see that your compression algorithm has to be able to efficiently (in fewer bits than what it took originally) describe what's been removed *so that it can be regenerated* (this is the tricky part).
Secondly, and very important, different inputs will have different amounts of redundant information. This affects their compressibilities. A totally random waveform can't be compressed, because every bit of information is important. So, saying that *any* film can be compressed to kilobytes is a red flag.
Another feature of the Ma Bell POTS architecture: along with being battery powered, all the high failure parts were in the CO, where they could be easily accessed and repaired.
The terminal equipment (phones) were very, very rugged, designed to outlive their owners and function without trouble for many years. Even the touch-tone keypads still work fine after 40 years of use.
I can understand why the telcos don't want the copper infrastructure. It's not profitable for them, people are dropping wireline phone service, and DSL/T1 can't compete with cable. But we are losing a superbly designed and extremely reliable system.
My first 2m transceiver was a Heath 2036A. As with all Heath designs, there was room for improvement.
- changed RF connector from a RCA jack (seriously, Heath?) to a BNC (no room for a UHF) - replaced the thumbwheel frequency switches with LED backlit ones, so I could see the frequency at night in the car - added a microphone connector
I think I still have it somewhere. Along with a Heath Frequency counter and GDO.
Through hole parts made building stuff yourself a lot easier.
Yes, that was what I liked about RS (before I started working in a place with a component stock) -- if you needed a 10k resistor, you could just run down and get one. And, hokey as they were, the Mims books were a fairly good intro to electronics (though nowhere near as good as Art of Electronics). I have yet to find a really good project based book that introduces you to electronics, starting with simple projects, and moving you up to more complex ones, while *explaining in sufficient detail* how they work.
Now, at work, I pretty much live by Digikey and ExpressPCB. Boy, I wish we'd had those two when I started hacking.
Under current federal law, telemarketers and others, like political groups, aren't allowed to launch robocall campaigns targeting cellphones unless they first obtain a consumer's written consent.
Really? Huh. Then why do I seem to be getting them?
Because they don't give a sh*t about what you want, or the regulations.
You see, if *you* were to violate the regs, the FCC would come after you and fine your ass. Because you're not important enough to the political process.
But if a Corporate Person (corporations are people, too), or a Political Action Committee, were to do something like that, well, that's competition and getting their message out, so it's far more important than some silly regulations.
And besides, they donate more money to more elected officials than you do.
I have had this happen a couple of times. It's annoying, but I will just disable voicemail and leave a message to text me. Still, not a big fan of this attempt to get around the regulations against robocalling cellphones. Not that anyone obeys them in the first place...
Call the local feminist-sensibilities protection and speech policing squad?
It's too bad we can't just tell people to stop being asshole douchebags. Because bad behavior is protected and celebrated everywhere -- except when a woman's feelings are in danger, and then only certain women in very specific situations. That's the culture. Congrats everyone.
Well, yes and no. It's culture any place but the workplace. In the workplace, it's called sexual harassment, and it's very much against the law. Especially when the boss does it. Those women should be getting a payout.
If you see Gender Studies on their resume, you know that's a resume for the trash bin.
Bullshit.
My daughter has a minor in Gender Studies and has gone on to get two Masters' -- one in Museum Studies and one in Library Science. She has excelled in both careers.
What you take as an undergrad has little to do with what you end up doing well at in the workplace.
If I had found myself working in a company full of "bros" like this, I would be looking for a way out.
But then, I'm over 50. Way over 50. The testosterone poisoning has abated. But I do have a daughter, and seeing women treated like that would probably cause me to drop a dime.
Not sure what "culmination" is supposed to mean here -- is it a term of art, or is it meant to indicate integration?
The inverse square law always applies. Directed beams spread, too. Path loss is an issue, unless you intend to place your phone near the transmitter. Oh, but wait -- then you could just plug it in, or place it on a (much more efficient) inductive charging pad.
And orientation of the receiving antenna is another factor. Unless you're perfectly aligned with the transmitter's polarization, you're going to see a reduction in power transfer efficiency.
The whole idea of wirelessly charging your phone in your pocket, while you go about your business, is a fantasy.
If it's Comcast, you can buy your own modem. (be sure to get a receipt when you return theirs -- one of their favorite tricks is to wait a couple months, then star billing you for their modem again, or claim it hasn't been returned and bill you for full replacement cost)
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I watched the show. Oliver did two things: he played news videos and quoted from published documents. Then he made satirical comments about what was in those documents. He's funny as hell, but you could tell he knows the boundaries and he's very careful not to cross them.
Murray's a bit of a character, and Oliver pointed out some inconsistencies between what he said and what he did.
Good luck to Murray. He's a dick. And I hope he loses.
Yeah, a Jetsons future :-)
Electricity too cheap to measure
Flying cars
Robot maids
The right tools as in what? I'm an electrician and have done residential and commercial. In a house it doesn't take many tools to run a wire. And if there was no way to access the wall from in the attic that means there has to be atleast 2 holes cut in drywall to get down a wall. I don't like when people indiscriminately talk bad about tradesmen when chances are they don't know what the job takes.
My experience with installers has been that they do the absolute quickest job they can. They are paid by the job, not by the hour, I guess.
A good tradesman is a joy to work with, but a contract installer? I'd rather do it myself.
Seriously, I seldom have any issues with Comcast. The service, which is all I care about, is up most of the time and at an acceptable speed.
The only trouble I've ever had with them, is when I try to change something. They have terrible customer service. Not surly, but inefficient. You can't rely on anything they say, or that they will do what they say they will do.
Example: They called one day, and told me the cable modem I had needed to be replaced. I originally got that modem from MediaOne, then AT&T bought them, then Comcast bought the business. So it had a MediaOne serial number. Comcast laughed when I told them this and said I needn't return it when I got the new modem. Guess what? Got the new modem, installed it, stashed the old one in a corner..because I KNEW they would ask for it. Sure enough, about 2 weeks later, I get a letter in the mail from Comcast, telling me they're going to charge me unless I return the modem. Which I did. by Certified Mail, return receipt...after recording the serial number and model. No more problems.
When they jacked the monthly modem rental up to $10 (it started at $5), I ordered my own off Amazon. Easy install, it came up with a web page that asked me for my Comcast username and password, and all has been good since (except I have to reset the damn thing every time they mess with their network). I returned their modem to one of their storefronts, and got a receipt. No problems.
So, I can't complain, except about the cost, and the constant threat of usage caps, which haven't been implemented in the Boston area yet. As soon as they try that, I'm switching to FIOS. Already have the fiber and terminal unit installed from when they yanked my copper POTS line.
So, their new tag line should be: "It's COMCASTic -- we're not the worst!"
In general it's not possible.
Cell phones transmit on one band of frequencies, and receive on another. This allows them to transmit and receive simultaneously (so you can both listen and talk at the same time).
For cellphones to be able to talk to one another (without a cell involved), you'd need to either invert the Tx and Rx frequencies on one of the phones (possible, but there are other things which make this impractical -- duplexer for one) or transmit and receive on a single frequency (again, challenging but possible if the frequency is chosen carefully, and is not one used normally)
For the number of times this would be useful, it's probably not worth the effort, and easier to carry a pair of $50 FRS radios.
It's called the "Eisenhower Interstate System" for a reason :-)
I vote bullshit on the article. sure we had radios. we didn't have the automation to handle traffic and connecting the calls and THOSE are largely what counts as a cellphone vs. a radio.
Strongly agree.
Any cellular system designed in 1940 would use relay logic, because there were no computers. Postwar? Very primitive ones, which took up entire rooms.
Data transmission was by teletype, at 10 WPM. You'd fill the back of your car with gear to support any kind of intelligence in the mobile side, and changing to your assigned channel (a crucial part of the trunked or cellular system) would be by a relay, changing crystals.
Look at the carphones of the 50s. They had dials and channel buttons. The technology was too cumbersome and limited to implement a cellular system at the time. As soon as the technology matured (i.e.: microprocessors) the computing power became available for the mobile side.
The main reason why telcos don't want copper anymore is that their copper infrastructure is regulated.
I think the main reason they don't want copper, is that nobody is going to pay $60/mo for a landline phone any more. None of my coworkers have them, and I switched to a $20/mo VOIP provider. Additionally, there's not a lot you can do with copper, compared to fiber and coax. So there's not even a chance of repurposing the copper infrastructure.
So, no income from consumer phone lines, coupled with an infrastructure nobody wants, means no more copper.
Total, unmitigated bullshit.
I'll leave it to others to post the mathematical proof, but there is a limit to lossy compression and kilobyte output from gigabyte inputs isn't anywhere near the realm of possibility.
Why? Lossy compression is, at its core, the removal of redundant information, and its replacement with a smaller description of how to recreate what was removed. You can immediately see that your compression algorithm has to be able to efficiently (in fewer bits than what it took originally) describe what's been removed *so that it can be regenerated* (this is the tricky part).
Secondly, and very important, different inputs will have different amounts of redundant information. This affects their compressibilities. A totally random waveform can't be compressed, because every bit of information is important. So, saying that *any* film can be compressed to kilobytes is a red flag.
I heard exactly the opposite: Win10 won't install on a coconut, because there's no secure boot, but Linux works fine!
[now, go oil your Teletype, or I will taunt you a second time]
Another feature of the Ma Bell POTS architecture: along with being battery powered, all the high failure parts were in the CO, where they could be easily accessed and repaired.
The terminal equipment (phones) were very, very rugged, designed to outlive their owners and function without trouble for many years. Even the touch-tone keypads still work fine after 40 years of use.
I can understand why the telcos don't want the copper infrastructure. It's not profitable for them, people are dropping wireline phone service, and DSL/T1 can't compete with cable. But we are losing a superbly designed and extremely reliable system.
My first 2m transceiver was a Heath 2036A. As with all Heath designs, there was room for improvement.
- changed RF connector from a RCA jack (seriously, Heath?) to a BNC (no room for a UHF)
- replaced the thumbwheel frequency switches with LED backlit ones, so I could see the frequency at night in the car
- added a microphone connector
I think I still have it somewhere. Along with a Heath Frequency counter and GDO.
Through hole parts made building stuff yourself a lot easier.
I was just funnin'...
Yes, that was what I liked about RS (before I started working in a place with a component stock) -- if you needed a 10k resistor, you could just run down and get one. And, hokey as they were, the Mims books were a fairly good intro to electronics (though nowhere near as good as Art of Electronics). I have yet to find a really good project based book that introduces you to electronics, starting with simple projects, and moving you up to more complex ones, while *explaining in sufficient detail* how they work.
Now, at work, I pretty much live by Digikey and ExpressPCB. Boy, I wish we'd had those two when I started hacking.
I would happily let Radio Shack close all its stores if it meant that we could get just one Fry's electronics store in my state (MN).
Dude: you've got Digikey! And Duluth. Quit being so greedy! :-)
(yeah, I know, it's all mail order)
Actually, I think surface mount kicked their butt. I spent a lot of money at Radio Shack in my youth.
Under current federal law, telemarketers and others, like political groups, aren't allowed to launch robocall campaigns targeting cellphones unless they first obtain a consumer's written consent.
Really? Huh. Then why do I seem to be getting them?
Because they don't give a sh*t about what you want, or the regulations.
You see, if *you* were to violate the regs, the FCC would come after you and fine your ass.
Because you're not important enough to the political process.
But if a Corporate Person (corporations are people, too), or a Political Action Committee,
were to do something like that, well, that's competition and getting their message out, so it's far more important
than some silly regulations.
And besides, they donate more money to more elected officials than you do.
How do they access your voicemail?
Do they place a phone call to do it?
I have had this happen a couple of times. It's annoying, but I will just disable voicemail and leave a message to text me.
Still, not a big fan of this attempt to get around the regulations against robocalling cellphones. Not that anyone obeys them in the first place...
As a non-American, I have no idea what "drop a dime" means
Make a phone call [to the appropriate authorities]. That kind of behavior by company managers is not only distasteful, it's illegal,
From when phone calls cost a $0.10 (around 1960)
Luckily, all this H-1B abuse will be a thing of the past, once Trump "drains the swamp".
If only he could get all those press alligators off his back...
#meetthenewboss
Call the local feminist-sensibilities protection and speech policing squad?
It's too bad we can't just tell people to stop being asshole douchebags. Because bad behavior is protected and celebrated everywhere -- except when a woman's feelings are in danger, and then only certain women in very specific situations. That's the culture. Congrats everyone.
Well, yes and no. It's culture any place but the workplace. In the workplace, it's called sexual harassment, and it's very much against the law. Especially when the boss does it. Those women should be getting a payout.
If you see Gender Studies on their resume, you know that's a resume for the trash bin.
Bullshit.
My daughter has a minor in Gender Studies and has gone on to get two Masters' -- one in Museum Studies and one in Library Science. She has excelled in both careers.
What you take as an undergrad has little to do with what you end up doing well at in the workplace.
If I had found myself working in a company full of "bros" like this, I would be looking for a way out.
But then, I'm over 50. Way over 50. The testosterone poisoning has abated. But I do have a daughter, and
seeing women treated like that would probably cause me to drop a dime.
@Agripa:
Not sure what "culmination" is supposed to mean here -- is it a term of art, or is it meant to indicate integration?
The inverse square law always applies. Directed beams spread, too.
Path loss is an issue, unless you intend to place your phone near the transmitter.
Oh, but wait -- then you could just plug it in, or place it on a (much more efficient) inductive charging pad.
And orientation of the receiving antenna is another factor. Unless you're perfectly aligned with the transmitter's polarization, you're going to see a reduction in power transfer efficiency.
The whole idea of wirelessly charging your phone in your pocket, while you go about your business, is a fantasy.
If it's Comcast, you can buy your own modem. (be sure to get a receipt when you return theirs -- one of their favorite tricks is to wait a couple months, then star billing you for their modem again, or claim it hasn't been returned and bill you for full replacement cost)
... gun that automatically selects between lethal and non-lethal modes based on the how threatening the target appears...
Yeah, it looks at skin tone.../s