> EM radius *can* be aimed, you know. Like, say, a flashlight. Or a > directional antenna.
A directional antenna of dimensions several times the wavelength of the lowest frequency component of the pulse. As EMP contains substantial energy at wavelengths of many meters your "flashlight" will have be the size of a house to produce anything resembling a beam.
> Automotive electronics are fairly tough, because of the noisy environment > they operate in.
And the importance of reliability and fail-safe operation.
> I would bet that in the typical case, the voltage pulse just confuses the > computer, and/or latches a few inputs, causing it to shut down.
No, causing the computer to "reboot" itself. The engine might miss a couple of times, but that's all. They'll have to do permanent damage to reliably stop cars.
> What happens when a person going 70mph suddenly loses control of their > vehicle?
The run into somebody and kill them. Just like they do when being chased at high speed.
> How accurate can that sort of gun be?
It cannot be accurate at all, but the cops will become convinced that it is laser-like.
> Over what sort of angle and distance is it will effective?
The field will be blob-shaped, with slightly more range forward than back. It will only wreck cars at a fairly short range but will destroy unshielded electronic equipment (cellphones, 'Pods, laptops...) at a much greater range.
> Is there a way to shield the car with a faraday cage to prevent this sort > of thing from happening? And if not, wouldn't this just mess up the police > cars?
A bit of filtering and shielding will suffice, and the cop cars will get it. So will the vehicles of some criminals.
Sure, but not intentionally. They'll also "test" it on parked vehicles, tv sets, computers, iPods, traffic light controllers, and anything else that happens to get into the "beam" as the cops treat it as a precise magic car-killer that affects only cars and only the ones they aim at.
Eventually there will be an "underground" business in installing filters and shielding. It will become illegal to possess ferrite beads without a license.
BTW nothing in the Copyright Act requires that the US Government publish or release anything: it just bars it from asserting its copyright (with exceptions as noted). That is why NASA holds back data: it's the only way they can give researchers publication priority (though in the USA copyright doesn't apply to pure data anyway).
And trademark is, of course, entirely seperate from and unrelated to copyright.
FOIA, with all its exceptions and loopholes, is about requiring release of material and is really orthogonal to copyright.
Works authored by the Postal Service are claimed not be works of the US Government (sounds fishy to me, but as far as I know this has not been contested in court). Works of government contractors are not works of the US government because contractors are not employees (much work assumed to be by NASA and/or DoD is actually the work of contractors). State and local governments are, of course, not part of the US Government. I know of no exemption for works of NASA or the military: such things may be classified, but that does not mean that they are protected by copyright. I was unaware of the (lamentable) DoC loophole.
Works of the US government are in the public domain.
I also suspect that you do not realize how much data government agencies in the US (both Federal and state) routinely publish. Most of it is stuff you would consider boring, but others find it very useful.
Considering that the aurochs is the ancestor of all domestic cattle, it just *might* be possible to come up with viable substitutes for the missing 1%.
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That's pretty objectionable alright. When you sell something it is supposed to go to the high bidder.
...The US Trade Commission is not a court.
What is a "stop sick"?
...but nothing will actually come of it. It isn't practical.
You're going to zap a car from behind with microwaves and fry the engine electronics. Sure. Might work on some rear-engine cars.
Zapping the cars that the criminals are trying to swerve around probably will stop them though. As they crash into the zapped and out-of-control cars.
> What about residences or businesses down range?
They had better have insurance.
> EM radius *can* be aimed, you know. Like, say, a flashlight. Or a
> directional antenna.
A directional antenna of dimensions several times the wavelength of the lowest frequency component of the pulse. As EMP contains substantial energy at wavelengths of many meters your "flashlight" will have be the size of a house to produce anything resembling a beam.
> Automotive electronics are fairly tough, because of the noisy environment
> they operate in.
And the importance of reliability and fail-safe operation.
> I would bet that in the typical case, the voltage pulse just confuses the
> computer, and/or latches a few inputs, causing it to shut down.
No, causing the computer to "reboot" itself. The engine might miss a couple of times, but that's all. They'll have to do permanent damage to reliably stop cars.
> Would build a faraday cage around the sensitive electronics
Shielding and filtering should suffice.
> I guess it's good for your ho-hum car-jacker though
Of course, the jacked car will suffer $5,000 damage...
> What happens when a person going 70mph suddenly loses control of their
> vehicle?
The run into somebody and kill them. Just like they do when being chased at high speed.
> How accurate can that sort of gun be?
It cannot be accurate at all, but the cops will become convinced that it is laser-like.
> Over what sort of angle and distance is it will effective?
The field will be blob-shaped, with slightly more range forward than back. It will only wreck cars at a fairly short range but will destroy unshielded electronic equipment (cellphones, 'Pods, laptops...) at a much greater range.
> Is there a way to shield the car with a faraday cage to prevent this sort
> of thing from happening? And if not, wouldn't this just mess up the police
> cars?
A bit of filtering and shielding will suffice, and the cop cars will get it. So will the vehicles of some criminals.
Sure, but not intentionally. They'll also "test" it on parked vehicles, tv sets, computers, iPods, traffic light controllers, and anything else that happens to get into the "beam" as the cops treat it as a precise magic car-killer that affects only cars and only the ones they aim at.
Eventually there will be an "underground" business in installing filters and shielding. It will become illegal to possess ferrite beads without a license.
> You mean like putting actual cheese in the cheesy poofs?
No. That would be a major modification.
He can certainly equal the performance of the average day-trader.
Quit trying to "read" the rebuses. You just have to memorize them.
> While I prefer more minimalist designs there is something appealing and
> immediately obvious about a rich, nicely rendered icon.
If you have enough resolution for a "rich, nicely rendered icon" you have enough resolution for a word.
It's called "written language". Instead we get these asinine rebuses.
> ...phosphorous and nitrogen -- essential algae nutrients that otherwise need
> to come from petroleum.
Phosphorus and nitrogen from petroleum. Uh huh. Right.
> I was under the impression that they distributed their works for free on USB
> sticks.
Only classified ones.
BTW nothing in the Copyright Act requires that the US Government publish or release anything: it just bars it from asserting its copyright (with exceptions as noted). That is why NASA holds back data: it's the only way they can give researchers publication priority (though in the USA copyright doesn't apply to pure data anyway).
And trademark is, of course, entirely seperate from and unrelated to copyright.
FOIA, with all its exceptions and loopholes, is about requiring release of material and is really orthogonal to copyright.
Works authored by the Postal Service are claimed not be works of the US Government (sounds fishy to me, but as far as I know this has not been contested in court). Works of government contractors are not works of the US government because contractors are not employees (much work assumed to be by NASA and/or DoD is actually the work of contractors). State and local governments are, of course, not part of the US Government. I know of no exemption for works of NASA or the military: such things may be classified, but that does not mean that they are protected by copyright. I was unaware of the (lamentable) DoC loophole.
Works of the US government are in the public domain.
I also suspect that you do not realize how much data government agencies in the US (both Federal and state) routinely publish. Most of it is stuff you would consider boring, but others find it very useful.
Considering that the aurochs is the ancestor of all domestic cattle, it just *might* be possible to come up with viable substitutes for the missing 1%.
Hmm. What would the ancestor of all domestic cattle taste like. Hmm.
> ...that nasty lithium stuff...
There is nothing particularly nasty about lithium.