Basically, it's a tool to stimulate bidding. In a typical auction, the seller is obligated (by contract or at least good faith) to sell the item to the highest bidder. A reserve allows the seller to hedge her/his bets by defining a window between the minimum bid and the reserve in which a they're not required to sell, but do have the option. Often the reserve is not disclosed since bidders might be turned away by sticker shock.
I work as an applications engineer for a startup chip maker that sees many of its products end up in consumer electronics gear. My company exhibits at CES every year, and I've been involved in the preparations for the event for the last three years. I could talk about the tens of thousands of dollars that we spend, or the thousands of man-hours spent preparing for the show, but that's not particularly interesting or relevant here...many companies spend far more. No, where this cuts to the bone is that I could be (and have been) that guy up there on the stage. I could be (and have been) the guy who pulled all-nighters getting the demo ready for the show. For many companies, image *does* matter, and never more so than when you're a startup trying to articulate to your customers why exactly they should care about your stuff. CES is critically important for this purpose. I'm glad that these guys got some chuckles out of their stunt, but in the end it was an incredibly immature thing to do and bannination from the show is far too lenient a punishment in my opinion.
If you want to digitize a 1GHz input, you're going to need to sample it at least 2GHz
Nope, not quite. If you want to digitize a signal with a bandwidth of 1 GHz, you'd need to sample it at at least 2 GHz. You can sample a signal with a 1 GHz center frequency at significantly less than 2 GHz as long as the signal is sufficiently band-limited (to prevent aliasing) and the bandwidth of the data converter and front-end are greater than 1 GHz. It's not uncommon to find affordable ADCs with sample rates around 100 MHz and bandwidths in excess of 500 MHz.
Wonder what happens to it if you spill a drink on the surface.
If it's using FTIR, nothing. There are no surface requirements other than that the surface be transparent to the wavelength used (near-IR) and that the surface have a refractive index sufficiently different from air to support TIR, which is the case with many readily-available transparent materials (acrylic...poor choice, glass, etc.) You could make the top hermetically sealed if you like.
I always enjoyed cars with "child-safe rear windows" which don't roll all the way down. In many cases, this is because the rear wheel well cuts into the door, reducing the space available for the window.
Damn straight. Everyone who's anyone knows that the one true source of cool is The Fonz. Apple couldn't hope to compete. Can Apple walk into a room, whack the jukebox, and make it play music? Hell no...they had to come up with the iPod as a workaround.
And how is this different from Oregon where all elections are run by main-in ballot? Could I not just hand my ballot to my boss to fill out, then have him watch me as I seal and sign the envelope? I don't see your point.
"And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword. But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee."
Savage indeed. Don't they know they should keep the women and children for themselves? That's what civilized religions do.
Some of your points are good, but: Millionaires don't borrow money?! Come on. Millionaires leverage debt to great advantage, especially those who are small business owners (a goodly number, as you know from reading "The Millionaire Next Door"). Make any argument you want against borrowing, but not that one.
The trick is knowing the difference between smart debt and dumb debt, and that starts with asking the question. At least the submitter is doing that, and that in my mind puts him/her ahead of 90% of the populace who blindly rack up credit card debt, oblivious to their financial future.
I bought one of these...neat toy. The hardware is nothing special, it appears to be a Cypress WUSB reference design manufactured by Unigen. The firmware may have been modded a bit...if for no other reason than to change the USB strings (or not, I can't remember how it enumerates.) At any rate, I'm going to bet that they just look at RSSI across the band and report it back in a meaningful way. Clever use of the technology.
As many other readers point out, a spectrum analyzer it's not. I really don't think that's the intended purpose. It gives you an indication of band occupancy over time, and that's about it. For many uses that's just fine. If I'm trying to get some ISM-band device to form a link and it won't, the WiSpy gives a good first-order indication of band conditions. If WiSpy comes back clean, I move on to other diagnostic steps, generally involving test gear that costs (easily) 100 times what the WiSpy did. If it saves you some time, great. In my opinion, it's cheap insurance.
Blah, blah, "arrive at Mt. Hood Ave. MAX station. End by walking (takes about 31 minutes)"
Thanks, but I'll take the train all the way to the airport rather than carry my luggage for 1/2 hour. I want my free back! This is a seriously cool feature and will definitely be a boon to folks like my wife who take public transit every day.
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Unintentionally misspelling "kitschy" and "hippie" doesn't do much for one's credibility when forming top-ten lists of unprofessional behavior.
That whoosh over your head isn't due to the vehicle speed.
Basically, it's a tool to stimulate bidding. In a typical auction, the seller is obligated (by contract or at least good faith) to sell the item to the highest bidder. A reserve allows the seller to hedge her/his bets by defining a window between the minimum bid and the reserve in which a they're not required to sell, but do have the option. Often the reserve is not disclosed since bidders might be turned away by sticker shock.
I work as an applications engineer for a startup chip maker that sees many of its products end up in consumer electronics gear. My company exhibits at CES every year, and I've been involved in the preparations for the event for the last three years. I could talk about the tens of thousands of dollars that we spend, or the thousands of man-hours spent preparing for the show, but that's not particularly interesting or relevant here...many companies spend far more. No, where this cuts to the bone is that I could be (and have been) that guy up there on the stage. I could be (and have been) the guy who pulled all-nighters getting the demo ready for the show. For many companies, image *does* matter, and never more so than when you're a startup trying to articulate to your customers why exactly they should care about your stuff. CES is critically important for this purpose. I'm glad that these guys got some chuckles out of their stunt, but in the end it was an incredibly immature thing to do and bannination from the show is far too lenient a punishment in my opinion.
Woah, you're right, I'd completely forgotten about that! Gents, I think we've found our smoking gun.
He has a proclivity for poisoning pigeons...maybe he's branched out to squirrels.
If you want to digitize a 1GHz input, you're going to need to sample it at least 2GHz
Nope, not quite. If you want to digitize a signal with a bandwidth of 1 GHz, you'd need to sample it at at least 2 GHz. You can sample a signal with a 1 GHz center frequency at significantly less than 2 GHz as long as the signal is sufficiently band-limited (to prevent aliasing) and the bandwidth of the data converter and front-end are greater than 1 GHz. It's not uncommon to find affordable ADCs with sample rates around 100 MHz and bandwidths in excess of 500 MHz.
Fiat's been making PZEVs for a long time. They emit no emissions whatsoever when they're being towed to the shop.
...was unavailable for comment.
Wonder what happens to it if you spill a drink on the surface.
If it's using FTIR, nothing. There are no surface requirements other than that the surface be transparent to the wavelength used (near-IR) and that the surface have a refractive index sufficiently different from air to support TIR, which is the case with many readily-available transparent materials (acrylic...poor choice, glass, etc.) You could make the top hermetically sealed if you like.
So does that mean that Steve Ballmer has to move?
I always enjoyed cars with "child-safe rear windows" which don't roll all the way down. In many cases, this is because the rear wheel well cuts into the door, reducing the space available for the window.
Damn straight. Everyone who's anyone knows that the one true source of cool is The Fonz. Apple couldn't hope to compete. Can Apple walk into a room, whack the jukebox, and make it play music? Hell no...they had to come up with the iPod as a workaround.
Copernicus Rove?
He's the lesser-known twin.
I should point out that the Portland area uses a mail-in ballot system. Not sure if the whole state does.
And how is this different from Oregon where all elections are run by main-in ballot? Could I not just hand my ballot to my boss to fill out, then have him watch me as I seal and sign the envelope? I don't see your point.
Good God, I hope it's better than that brown-ray technology they've been pushing for years.
Good thing they run the tests during the day...to give those Brits a fighting chance.
"And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword. But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee."
Savage indeed. Don't they know they should keep the women and children for themselves? That's what civilized religions do.
Some of your points are good, but:
Millionaires don't borrow money?!
Come on. Millionaires leverage debt to great advantage, especially those who are small business owners (a goodly number, as you know from reading "The Millionaire Next Door"). Make any argument you want against borrowing, but not that one.
The trick is knowing the difference between smart debt and dumb debt, and that starts with asking the question. At least the submitter is doing that, and that in my mind puts him/her ahead of 90% of the populace who blindly rack up credit card debt, oblivious to their financial future.
They heard that Microsoft's hardware was full of race conditions and thought that was a good thing.
I bought one of these...neat toy. The hardware is nothing special, it appears to be a Cypress WUSB reference design manufactured by Unigen. The firmware may have been modded a bit...if for no other reason than to change the USB strings (or not, I can't remember how it enumerates.) At any rate, I'm going to bet that they just look at RSSI across the band and report it back in a meaningful way. Clever use of the technology.
As many other readers point out, a spectrum analyzer it's not. I really don't think that's the intended purpose. It gives you an indication of band occupancy over time, and that's about it. For many uses that's just fine. If I'm trying to get some ISM-band device to form a link and it won't, the WiSpy gives a good first-order indication of band conditions. If WiSpy comes back clean, I move on to other diagnostic steps, generally involving test gear that costs (easily) 100 times what the WiSpy did. If it saves you some time, great. In my opinion, it's cheap insurance.
I mean, with a name like Kluttz, chainsaw juggling, hand grenade handling, and brain surgery may not be for you.
"[my house in Hillsboro] to PDX" result:
Blah, blah, "arrive at Mt. Hood Ave. MAX station. End by walking (takes about 31 minutes)"
Thanks, but I'll take the train all the way to the airport rather than carry my luggage for 1/2 hour. I want my free back! This is a seriously cool feature and will definitely be a boon to folks like my wife who take public transit every day.
Oops...sorry, wrong website.